Silk and Garment Manufacturing
The textile industry was very big in Nanticoke as well as all of Luzerne County from the early to mid 1900s. There were silk mills, silk throwing companies and garment manufacturing. The mills took advantage of the cheap labor of women and children who took jobs to support the earnings of their coal-miner fathers and husbands.
See the Unions page for information about textile unions.
Duplan Silk mill
The Duplan Silk Corporation constructed a large silk mill on Washington Street in 1919 (closed in 1951). It employed over 1300 people, mostly women, the daughters and wives of coal miners who needed to supplement the family's income. The Duplan Silk Corporation also had mills in Kingston, Wilkes-Barre, Dorranceton and Hazleton, which at the time was the largest silk mill in the world.
McGregor Sportswear moved into old Duplan Factory in 1953. It would employ # women until 1974. After its closing, the building would be used as a roller rink and bowling alley before falling, abandoned, into disrepair. Other garment factories in Nanticoke at this time included Holly Dress Company (late 50's to late 60's) and Mara Manufacturing (Mid 50's to 1969). Leslie Fay also operated a shop in the Hanover Section of Nanticoke.
Nanticoke Silk Throwing Co.
The Nanticoke Silk Throwing Company was established in 1905 and was in business until 1940. It was located on Washington Street near S. Chestnut Street. Most towns in the Wyoming Valley also had their own silk mills, however the finer silk was spun at plants in Paterson, New Jersey, which was the largest silk manufacturing area (520 mills) and also the more unionized. By 1920, the Luzerne County area woud have the third largest concentration of silk mills in the country with 44 mills.
Liberty Silk Throwing Co.
Factories in Nanticoke:
- Nanticoke Silk Throwing Company
- Duplan Silk Mill (Washington Street)
- Liberty Silk Mill
- Cease Silk Company
- Nino Silk Company
- Garanty Silk Corporation Manufacturing Company
- A.L. Storms & Company
- Black Diamond Knitting Mills (Church Street)
- Beaver Knitting Mills
- Nanticoke Hosiery Company
- Pennant Knitting Mills
- Thomas West
- Mara Sewing Company
- Holly Dress Company
- Plymouth Dress Company
Resources for further study
Stepenoff, Bonnie. Their Fathers' Daughters: Silk Mill Workers in Northeastern Pennsylvania, 1880-1960. Selinsgrove [PA]: Susquehanna University Press, 1999.
Department of Anthropology of the University of Maryland. "Other Dimensions of Patchtown Life, Part 4: The Textile Industry," Lattimer Archaeology Project. https://lattimerarchaeology.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/other-dimensions-of-patchtown-life-part-4-the-textile-industry (accessed April 28, 2018).
Golin, Steve. The Fragile Bridge: Paterson Silk Strike, 1913. Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Pr, 1988.
Hall, Elizabeth A. If Looms Could Speak: The Story of Pennsylvania's Silk Industry. Harrisburg, Pa, 2006.
Nanticoke Women Oral History Project, 1977-1978. Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, PA.
Gordon, Robert B. and Patrick M. Malone. "Coal, Canals, Railways, and Industrial Cities: Silk Mills in Eastern Pennsylvania," The Texture of Industry: An Archaeological View of the Industrialization of North America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Munley, Kathleen, David Kozemchak, and Kathleen Kapes. Crusader for Women's Rights: Miss Elizabeth Lynett. Nanticoke, PA: Luzerne County Community College. Media Dept, 2000.
Salmond, John A. 2002. The General Textile Strike of 1934 : From Maine to Alabama. Columbia, Mo: University of Missouri Press, 2002.
Wolensky, Kenneth C, Nicole H. Wolensky, and Robert P. Wolensky. Fighting for the Union Label: The Women's Garment Industry and the Ilgwu in Pennsylvania. University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002.
Bethers, Ray. These Fifty Years: The Duplan Corporation, 1898-1948. New York: Duplan Corporation, 1948. Available at the Luzerne County Historical Society.