Owner: Henry Lawrence, James Riddle, Leander Riddle, William M. Field
Industry type: Textile mill
Location: Kentmere
Active dates: 1838-1873
Summary: James Riddle may have owned a cotton spinning mill on Chester Creek in Pennsylvania in the 1830s. Along with Henry Lawrence, he purchased Gilpin's Mills from John Newman for $34,000 on June 23, 1845; Lawrence left the company soon after. Riddle built a five-story weaving mill in 1850, running 12,000 spindles to produce approximately 70,000 yards of fancy ticking per week.James Riddle died in 1872 and his son, Leander Riddle, and son-in-law, William M. Field, continued to run the firm.
Leander Riddle died in 1880 and William Field retired in 1887 due to poor health. The property was later rented to C.J. Milne & Co. and then sold to Joseph Bancroft & Sons Co. in 1895.
Citations: Boatman, Roy. The Brandywine Cotton Industry, 1795-1865. Hagley Research Report, 1957.
Conrad, Henry Clay. History of the State of Delaware, Vol. 2. Lancaster, Penn.: Wickersham Company, 1908.
Scharf, John Thomas. History of Delaware 1609-1888, Vol. 2. Philadelphia: L. J. Richards & Co., 1888, 760.
Online sources / images: Fire insurance map, Hexamer General Survey, Vol. 2, 1868. Free Library of Philadelphia.
Pomeroy and Beers, Atlas of the State of Delaware, 1868. Hagley Digital Archives.