The Friends and Mount Pleasant's Economy

The Friends played a prominent role in the economic growth of Mount Pleasant right from its very beginning around 1800. The village rapidly became a thriving business and industrial center in eastern Ohio, serving an area of more than one hundred square miles. After the War of 1812 the community developed quickly as small businesses and manufacturing establishments appeared.

The Quakers were especially diligent and thrifty and something of the envy of other settlers in the area, for they always seemed to be able to amass a certain amount of wealth. W. H. Hunter commented that "while their neighbors continued poor, the Quakers grew in wealth, and thus in their quiet, unostentatious way exerted a potent influence in the development of the county." For example, the members of the Updegraff and Stanton families became prominent not only in the Society of Friends but also in the affairs of the state of Ohio and the nation. Edwin M. Stanton, a descendant of Quakers, served as President Abraham Lincoln's very able Secretary of War during the Civil War.

In 1816, when the Ohio General Assembly authorized six new banks, each with a capitalization of $100,000, one of these was located in Mount Pleasant. With the establishment of flour and paper mills, tanneries, saddleries, salt, woolen, and nail manufacturies, hopes grew for the development of a thriving metropolis. However, these dreams were shattered by the business panic of 1819 which hit the entire nation and which was especially severe in the "New West." For a time the paramount task was simply surviving the panic and the depression which followed.

Gradually, however, conditions improved so that by 1830 the Mount Pleasant area served as an extensive wheat market and as the center for a thriving stock growing industry. Hogs, cattle, and sheep were raised. One of the first and largest pork-packing establishments in the state, owned by John Hogg, a Presbyterian, was located in Mount Pleasant. With a readily accessible market for their livestock, the Friends became known for a product of superior quality. An expression often used in the region when speaking about something above average was, "as good as Quaker cattle." Wool buyers from Philadelphia and New York did business in Mount Pleasant.

In its busy days Mount Pleasant hummed with the activity of blacksmiths, cabinetmakers, printers, tanners, shoemakers, hatters, weavers, spinners, and tailors. One unusual business which flourished in the village in the early 1840's was a silk weaving factory, which was noted for producing the first silk velvet and figured silk cloth in the United States. With William Watkins of Steubenville developing silkworms in the region, John W. Gill and Thomas White planted twenty-five acres of mulberry trees which, upon attaining one year's growth, were used for the cultivation of the silkworms. The Gill Silk Factory produced a variety of goods-dress silks, hat plush, ribbons, satins, cravats, hosiery, and gloves. It was a going concern for five years, employing fifty men year round. A vest was made for Henry Clay, who arranged for the United States government to order a large silk national flag which was taken to China by Caleb Cushing. Since Cushing's was the first United States diplomatic mission to China, this flag was the first American flag to be raised in China as part of an official mission.

However, Ohio's climate was not conducive to the development of a silk industry and Gill's business was short-lived. Moreover, Mount Pleasant failed to become a flourishing metropolis when it could not compete with neighboring cities, like Steubenville and Wheeling, which were more advantageously located for transportation services.