Silk Mill

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Lonaconing Silk Mill

The silk mill in Lonaconing, Allegany County, was in operation from 1907-1957. Construction of the Klotz Throwing Mill Company was begun in 1905. Initially, silk was imported from Japan and China and the factory produced silk thread and, during World War II, rayon. In the 1920s the payroll included over 300 people, but in later years fewer than 200 worked there, and by the 1950s antiquated machines in a small mill made competition with larger facilities difficult. In 1957 the mill closed. Burt Rowan, an employee in the 1940s, stated “it (the mill) kept the bread and butter on a lot of people’s tables because of the coal mine strikes and other problems, and it really helped the economy.”

In 1997, four students from Allegany High School in Cumberland - Anne Failing, Erin Degyansky, Chris Jewell and Amber Sallerson - worked with their Student Service Learning coordinators, Dan Whetzel and Mike Lewis to research the history of the Silk Mill in Lonaconing. The students interviewed former employees, studied archival and on-site records for primary sources, researched the history of the area through library material and reports from a textile industry specialist, transcribed oral histories and published the book.

The Silk Mill still stands in Lonaconing, as it did 50 years ago. It was added to the Endangered Maryland list in 2007, but remains in the main as the students saw in the 1990s.

Current references:
Endangered Maryland, Preservation Maryland
“Time Capsule”, by Jeff Alderton, Cumberland Times-News, March 28, 2007

Thanks to Dan Whetzel of the Allegany County Board of Education for permission to add this piece of Allegany County history to Whilbr.

Other publications by the Allegany High School, Oral History Project include Reflections of the Silver Screen - A History of Allegany County Movie Theatres, Surviving the Great Depression - Allegany County during the 1930's , Allegany County Veterans of World War II, Work and Wait - The Home Front Years 1941-1945, Prime Time: A History of Allegany County During the 1950's, Welcome Home! A History of the Vietnam War and Echoes of an Era

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