John Ryle (manufacturer) - The Silk Industry Starts in Paterson

The Silk Industry Starts in Paterson

During his first year in America, Mr. Ryle made the acquaintance of Mr. George W. Murray who at that time contemplated starting in the silk manufacturing business.

Mr. Christopher Colt, of Hartford, Connecticut, had a small plant of silk machinery and had made an unsuccessful attempt at manufacturing in what became known as the Old Gun Mill in Paterson, and there Mr. Murray and Mr. Ryle came. In 1840, Murray bought the plant and placed it in charge of John Ryle, who in three years later was admitted to partnership, the business then being carried under the name of Murray & Ryle. In 1846, Ryle with the assistance of his two brothers who remained in Macclesfield, bought out Mr. Murray's interest and continued the business alone. The following year he bought the building in which his machinery stood, and continued to increase his facilities. In 1850, having thoroughly established his business here and being desirous of increasing his knowledge of manufacturing methods elsewhere, he went to Europe and visited the principal manufactories of France, Italy and Switzerland. A fair specimen of Ryle's establishment was the manufacture of a large flag which waved over the Crystal Palace during the exhibition known as the "World's Fair" in New York in 1855. About that time, he bought the romantic valley and heights surrounding the Passaic Falls, and the following year expended large sums of money in enhancing their already magnificent beauty; at that time Paterson had no public park, and as Mr. Ryle throughout his whole life was a man of acts rather than words, he made his purchase a grand park and threw it open to the people of Paterson.

The city of Paterson at this time had no water service, and John Ryle after furnishing its citizens with a public park, conceived the idea of providing them with a good water service also, and to this end, after procuring the necessary legislative authority, through a charter granted to the Passaic Water Company, built the reservoir now known as the lower reservoir in the Falls Park grounds and proceeded to lay the necessary mains through the principal streets of the city. The water for the reservoir which supplied these mains was taken from the Passaic River, behind the Old Gun Mill, and pumped to the reservoir by the means of an old plunger pump.

In 1855, Mr. Ryle formed a partnership with his nephew, William Ryle, of England. After about two years, the latter withdrew, and John Ryle continued his business alone for a number of years. About 1866, the firm of John Ryle & Co., was formed - John C. Ryle, son of his brother Reuben in England, being a partner, and a large and successful business was carried on by them in the Murray Mill until 1869.