Bio from http://www.thehermitage.org/rosencrantz_extra.html -
Joseph Ripka was born in 1788 in Silesia. He was trained as a weaver. In order to avoid conscription into the army, Ripka went to Vienna, Switzerland, Spain and then in 1816 to Philadelphia. He began there as an independent weaver, but soon rented space, acquired looms and hired workers. The 1820 census listed his capitalization at $3,500 with a 13 person workforce.
Ripka succeeded well in the 1820s. He married 31 year old Kate Geiger of Germantown around 1823. They would have 5 sons and 4 daughters. In 1828 he rented mill space in the Manayunk section of western Philadelphia. By 1831 Ripka had built his own waterpowered Mill No. 1 there. He also had a plant in northeast Philadelphia. These properties and their machinery were worth at least $100,000. By 1834 he had 300 workers at Manayunk alone. Ripka diversified his textile production, sold nationwide but particularly in the South, and became known as a "grinder" in relation to his growing number of workers, a large percentage of whom were women and children. He reduced wages at every opportunity and required 13 hour work days. There were a number of strikes in the 1830s. In 1835 he erected Mill No. 2 at Manayunk with 600 power looms. It was soon afterwards that John Rosencrantz married Caroline Ripka and was given charge of one of the Ripka mills.
The 1840s through the mid-1850s were the peak years for the Ripka works. It was one of the largest textile companies in the nation with at times more than 1,000 workers in various locations around Philadelphia. There continued to be labor unrest, strikes and in 1848 the partial burning of one of the mills. Shortly afterwards, in 1849-50, with the mill repaired, the Mayayunk plants used over a million pounds of raw cotton. They produced a single staple, more than 3 million yards of "Pantiloon stuffs." In 1850 the Ripka Works were capitalized at $490,000. Joseph Ripka himself was listed as having $200,000 in real property, 3 servants and a coachman. In 1852 he moved into a new mansion. During the 1850s with his sons coming of age, he placed them and other family members in charge of his various mills. The increasing dependence on a single product line and with a growing percentage of the sales in the southern states, the Ripka Works would face difficult times in the 1857 business downturn and again with the onset of the Civil War. (Philip Scranton, Proprietary Capitalism: The Textile Manufacture at Philadelphia, 1800-1885, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983)
Joseph Ripka was born in 1788 in Silesia. He was trained as a weaver. In order to avoid conscription into the army, Ripka went to Vienna, Switzerland, Spain and then in 1816 to Philadelphia. He began there as an independent weaver, but soon rented space, acquired looms and hired workers. The 1820 census listed his capitalization at $3,500 with a 13 person workforce.
Ripka succeeded well in the 1820s. He married 31 year old Kate Geiger of Germantown around 1823. They would have 5 sons and 4 daughters. In 1828 he rented mill space in the Manayunk section of western Philadelphia. By 1831 Ripka had built his own waterpowered Mill No. 1 there. He also had a plant in northeast Philadelphia. These properties and their machinery were worth at least $100,000. By 1834 he had 300 workers at Manayunk alone. Ripka diversified his textile production, sold nationwide but particularly in the South, and became known as a "grinder" in relation to his growing number of workers, a large percentage of whom were women and children. He reduced wages at every opportunity and required 13 hour work days. There were a number of strikes in the 1830s. In 1835 he erected Mill No. 2 at Manayunk with 600 power looms. It was soon afterwards that John Rosencrantz married Caroline Ripka and was given charge of one of the Ripka mills.
The 1840s through the mid-1850s were the peak years for the Ripka works. It was one of the largest textile companies in the nation with at times more than 1,000 workers in various locations around Philadelphia. There continued to be labor unrest, strikes and in 1848 the partial burning of one of the mills. Shortly afterwards, in 1849-50, with the mill repaired, the Mayayunk plants used over a million pounds of raw cotton. They produced a single staple, more than 3 million yards of "Pantiloon stuffs." In 1850 the Ripka Works were capitalized at $490,000. Joseph Ripka himself was listed as having $200,000 in real property, 3 servants and a coachman. In 1852 he moved into a new mansion. During the 1850s with his sons coming of age, he placed them and other family members in charge of his various mills. The increasing dependence on a single product line and with a growing percentage of the sales in the southern states, the Ripka Works would face difficult times in the 1857 business downturn and again with the onset of the Civil War. (Philip Scranton, Proprietary Capitalism: The Textile Manufacture at Philadelphia, 1800-1885, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983)
Bio from http://www.thehermitage.org/rosencrantz_extra.html -
Joseph Ripka was born in 1788 in Silesia. He was trained as a weaver. In order to avoid conscription into the army, Ripka went to Vienna, Switzerland, Spain and then in 1816 to Philadelphia. He began there as an independent weaver, but soon rented space, acquired looms and hired workers. The 1820 census listed his capitalization at $3,500 with a 13 person workforce.
Ripka succeeded well in the 1820s. He married 31 year old Kate Geiger of Germantown around 1823. They would have 5 sons and 4 daughters. In 1828 he rented mill space in the Manayunk section of western Philadelphia. By 1831 Ripka had built his own waterpowered Mill No. 1 there. He also had a plant in northeast Philadelphia. These properties and their machinery were worth at least $100,000. By 1834 he had 300 workers at Manayunk alone. Ripka diversified his textile production, sold nationwide but particularly in the South, and became known as a "grinder" in relation to his growing number of workers, a large percentage of whom were women and children. He reduced wages at every opportunity and required 13 hour work days. There were a number of strikes in the 1830s. In 1835 he erected Mill No. 2 at Manayunk with 600 power looms. It was soon afterwards that John Rosencrantz married Caroline Ripka and was given charge of one of the Ripka mills.
The 1840s through the mid-1850s were the peak years for the Ripka works. It was one of the largest textile companies in the nation with at times more than 1,000 workers in various locations around Philadelphia. There continued to be labor unrest, strikes and in 1848 the partial burning of one of the mills. Shortly afterwards, in 1849-50, with the mill repaired, the Mayayunk plants used over a million pounds of raw cotton. They produced a single staple, more than 3 million yards of "Pantiloon stuffs." In 1850 the Ripka Works were capitalized at $490,000. Joseph Ripka himself was listed as having $200,000 in real property, 3 servants and a coachman. In 1852 he moved into a new mansion. During the 1850s with his sons coming of age, he placed them and other family members in charge of his various mills. The increasing dependence on a single product line and with a growing percentage of the sales in the southern states, the Ripka Works would face difficult times in the 1857 business downturn and again with the onset of the Civil War. (Philip Scranton, Proprietary Capitalism: The Textile Manufacture at Philadelphia, 1800-1885, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983)
Joseph Ripka was born in 1788 in Silesia. He was trained as a weaver. In order to avoid conscription into the army, Ripka went to Vienna, Switzerland, Spain and then in 1816 to Philadelphia. He began there as an independent weaver, but soon rented space, acquired looms and hired workers. The 1820 census listed his capitalization at $3,500 with a 13 person workforce.
Ripka succeeded well in the 1820s. He married 31 year old Kate Geiger of Germantown around 1823. They would have 5 sons and 4 daughters. In 1828 he rented mill space in the Manayunk section of western Philadelphia. By 1831 Ripka had built his own waterpowered Mill No. 1 there. He also had a plant in northeast Philadelphia. These properties and their machinery were worth at least $100,000. By 1834 he had 300 workers at Manayunk alone. Ripka diversified his textile production, sold nationwide but particularly in the South, and became known as a "grinder" in relation to his growing number of workers, a large percentage of whom were women and children. He reduced wages at every opportunity and required 13 hour work days. There were a number of strikes in the 1830s. In 1835 he erected Mill No. 2 at Manayunk with 600 power looms. It was soon afterwards that John Rosencrantz married Caroline Ripka and was given charge of one of the Ripka mills.
The 1840s through the mid-1850s were the peak years for the Ripka works. It was one of the largest textile companies in the nation with at times more than 1,000 workers in various locations around Philadelphia. There continued to be labor unrest, strikes and in 1848 the partial burning of one of the mills. Shortly afterwards, in 1849-50, with the mill repaired, the Mayayunk plants used over a million pounds of raw cotton. They produced a single staple, more than 3 million yards of "Pantiloon stuffs." In 1850 the Ripka Works were capitalized at $490,000. Joseph Ripka himself was listed as having $200,000 in real property, 3 servants and a coachman. In 1852 he moved into a new mansion. During the 1850s with his sons coming of age, he placed them and other family members in charge of his various mills. The increasing dependence on a single product line and with a growing percentage of the sales in the southern states, the Ripka Works would face difficult times in the 1857 business downturn and again with the onset of the Civil War. (Philip Scranton, Proprietary Capitalism: The Textile Manufacture at Philadelphia, 1800-1885, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983)
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