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RALPH NARDONE Times Leader Correspondent

WEST PITTSTON -- When coal was king in Northeastern Pennsylvania, silk was queen.

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Bob and Nancy Eble of Harding look over an album of photos of old silk mills in West Pittston. Albums were passed around during a speech by Martha Capwell Fox at the First Presbyterian Church on Sunday.

Fred Adams / Times Leader Photo

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Samples of silk products produced in the area were on display.

Fred Adams / Times Leader Photo

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The silk industry from the 1890s to the mid-1930s employed thousands of local women, according to Martha Capwell Fox, an industry researcher.

Fox spoke at the First Presbyterian Church in West Pittston on Sunday afternoon in a program titled “Silk Weaver for the World.” She described the history of local silk mills and their eventual demise.

Fox, of Catasaqua, Lehigh County, has a special tie to the industry, being a daughter of a silk mill owner.

She showed photos circa 1890s to 1970s of women working in local silk mills. During its height, there were more than 25 local mills, some big enough to house 1,500 employees. The industry was “huge” and now barely a trace remains, she said.

Several of those in attendance remembered their parents working in the mills. One man talked about the mill located in West Pittston on Philadelphia Avenue. It employed Polish and Lithuanian girls, he said. A woman told nostalgic stories of her mother who liked working in local silk mills.

During the contentious anthracite strikes in 1902, the silk mills kept food on the tables of local families, Fox said. That kept the coal barons from “starving the miners out.”

In the 1890s the mills employed girls age 10 to 18 at 10 cents per hour, she said. At the time it was good money, she added, because most mills added pay based on production.

Most girls wanted to develop a good relationship with the repairmen because the women could lose money if their machines were broken. Many romances started in the mills, she added.

Processing raw silk was a very intricate process that made young girls the best candidates for the job, she said. Around 1910, Pennsylvania started to enact labor laws to regulate the age of the workers and the amount of time they would have to work, she said.

However, the girls really liked the jobs, Fox said. Many returned to work after getting married and raising their children. Some worked into their 70s and 80s, she added. The local silk industry was very good to its employees compared to others of the time, she said.

In the 1920s the industry went through a surge in which mills were changing ownership frequently, Fox said. Silk was the bubble of the 1920s.

At that time there were seven mills in Pittston and two in West Pittston employing immigrant families, she said. They’ve all completely disappeared leaving a spotty paper trail, Fox said.

Today, there are only a few silk producers in India and Southeast Asia. She predicts silk will go back to being a fabric available only to the very wealthy as its supply dwindles.

But in its heyday, silk was so important it was transported in and out of Northeastern Pennsylvania in armored trucks.

Fox was invited to speak about by the West Pittston Historical Society.