John Ryle (manufacturer) - The Murray Mill Fire

The Murray Mill Fire

On 10 May 1869, the Murray Mill together with a large and costly lot of silk and a complete plant of improved machinery was burned up in a few hours. The property destroyed at this fire was estimated to have been worth $600,000.00 and there was not a dollar of insurance upon it.

John Ryle's capital was so much impaired by this fire that he found it impossible to resume without financial aid. His friends came to his assistance and the Ryle Silk Company was organized and rebuilt the mill.

The new Murray Mill was completed in 1870, and Ryle theorized that a one story mill lighted from the top would possess superior advantages in the way of light. This theory proved correct, and the Murray Mill was admitted to be the best lighted mill in Paterson, and, as the light is taken from the north exclusively, the operatives are not inconvenienced by the direct rays of the sun.

It was told that the day after the fire as John Ryle was looking at the ruins, the late George Jackson walked up to him and said: "Well, John, you've got a hard blow. I guess you'll need some help" and putting his hand in his pocket, Jackson pulled out a huge roll of bills, and thrusting them in John Ryle's hand said, "That will help a little, and you can pay me back when you are able." When Ryle took the money to the bank and counted it, the sum was found to be $30,000.00. In after years, when George Jackson got into trouble, Ryle left no stone unturned to get him out of the difficulty.

The Ryle Silk Manufacturing Company began manufacturing operations in 1870, but in a few years John Ryle had become by purchase the sole owner of the stock.

In 1877, he organized the Pioneer Silk Company, the stock of which represented his business and was held by himself and the members of his family and since then the business continued under the same name.

In the spring of 1885, Ryle opened negotiations with some capitalists of Allentown, Pennsylvania, who built a mill upon favorable terms, to which the throwing department of the Pioneer Silk Company was removed. Weaving was also added to the Allentown plant.

Also, in 1885, Ryle received a medal for the silk flag he wove for the Exhibition Building in New York.

Ryle was also a pioneer in the efforts to secure protection to American industry and his face and form were familiar in the halls of Congress in the earlier years before that principle became as well fixed and understood as it is now.

It was claimed that while others reaped golden harvests from the field in which he labored, John Ryle paved the way for their successes, and more than other man is entitled to the credit of having been the pioneer in the silk industry in America.