Grondvester van de Rittenhouse Papermill in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Wilhelm Rittinghausen, born in 1644, learned the papermaking trade in Mulheim, Germany, while working at his uncles Adolf and Mathias Vorster's mill. Wilhelm ande his uncle Mathias later went to Holland, where they were employed in a Gelderland mill near Arnhem. In 1688, Mr. Rittinghausen, by now a Dutch citizen, emigrated to British North America and changed his name to William Rittenhouse. In 1690, he established a paper mill on the Monoshone Creek near Germantown, which is now Philadelphia. Joining him in the venture were three partners, Robert Turner, Thomas Tresse, and a printer named William Bradford.
Mr. Rittenhouse's knowledge and skill played a major role in this courageous undertaking. His ability to organize financial backers as partners and a printer-partner as a contractual customer for the products led to an expedient and successful enterprise. Previous to this operation, all paper was imported from Europe and taxed accordingly. The new mill provided a local source of printing, writing, and wrapping paper, as well as pasteboard. Mr. Rittenhouse could well be called America's father of recycling, since all of the mill's fiber for hand papermaking was obtained from discarded rags and cotton.
In 1706, Mr. Rittenhouse bought out the other partners and became sole proprietor of Rittenhouse Paper Mill. He, and later his son, Claus, trained and developed a versatile work force to produce good products. This eventually led to starting up additional mills in Pennsylvania. Mr. Rittenhouse proved that papermaking in America could be a viable, economically sound business. Thus began the saga a vital and dynamic industry that fulfilled a significant role in America's growth.
Mr. Rittenhouse died in 1708 and left the paper mill to his son, Claus. The business prospered at the site, and was operated by six generations of family descendants. For twenty years, Rittenhouse Paper Mill was the only paper mill in the Colonies. In 1710, William Dewees, who was married to Claus Rittenhouse's sister, built a mill nearby in Chestnut Hill, having learned the trade at Rittenhouse Paper Mill. In 1729, the Willcox Ivey Mill was built in Chester County.
Forty years after the founding of Rittenhouse Paper Mill, the number of printers and paper mills grew exponentially. The Rittenhouse family monopoly in paper was over, but Mr. Rittenhouse's descendants continued making paper on the Monoshone Creek until the 19th Century Industrial Revolution, when the development of the Fourdrinier, with its endless web and cylinder papermaking, changed the industry forever. The story begins with William Rittenhouse , born Wilhelm Rittinghausen in
1644 in the village of Broich near the town of Mulheim on the Ruhr River, in
the northwest corner of Germany only a few miles from the border with Holland.
His father's name was Claus and his mother was Maria Hagerhoff. His father's
sister Ermgard had married the papermaker Mathias Vorster whose older brother
Adolf had leased a paper mill in Broich just before Wilhelm was born. Wilhelm
probably learned the trade from Adolf Vorster at an early age. About 1660
Mathias, as was customary with younger sons, struck off on his own; he and
Ermgard went to work in Eerbeck in the province of Gelderland, Holland , and
their teenage nephew Wilhelm went with them. In 1665 Wilhelm married Geertruid
Pieters of Eerbeck; their son Claus was born the next year. By 1672 both Uncle
and nephew had moved to the mill at Rozendaal near Arnhem. In 1678 Mathais
became the head of the large mill there and sent Wilhelm to Amsterdam to be
the mill's agent in that publishing center. When Wilhelm applied for
citizenship in amsterdam he filed papers stating his place of birth, mother's
name, and profession. These documents were found in the 19th century, but the
rest of the story was unearthed only a few years ago by a Dutch paper
historian Henk Voorn in the church and town records of several Dutch
papermaking villages. Voorn has ended a century of speculation about the
origins of the Rittenhouse family which at one point went so far as to imagine
them part of the royal house of Hapsburg. We do not know what caused Wilhelm
to emigrate to Philadelphia after a decade in Amsterdam. In Amsterdam his was
converted to the Mennonite faith, and he may have met William Penn there in
the 1670s of 1680s.(he was to become a leader of the Mennonites in
Pennsylvania.)
Laatst gewijzigd:
18 november 2020
link:
https://ngv-stambomen.nl/gdp/index.php/pers/get/5-21561
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