Saturday
June 29, 2024 
Doylestown and Newtown townships were two communities hit hard by that curious and widespread fever known as the silkworm craze, which prevailed for more than a decade in the first part of the 19th century. Generally, the craze extended from 1830 to 1844.
Get-rich-quick schemers speculated that a new breed of fast-growing mulberry trees from China produced leaves that silkworms devoured to make cocoons. From those, silk thread was made.
From Maine to Georgia, mulberry trees became a hot commodity, driving up prices from $5 per tree to $500.
A cocoonery was built in Doylestown in 1840 near the Borough Dam on a hill sloping southward, then known as Mulberry Hill. The establishment was owned and operated by John H. Anderson, a storekeeper in town. Inside, silkworms (morus multicaulus) were raised and kept, to be fed the leaves of mulberry trees grown on a plantation nearby.
Silkworms become embryonic pupae inside their cocoons, transform into moths and destroy the cocoons to escape. For those with cocooneries, it was crucial to kill the pupae before they could destroy the cocoons. Handlers then boiled the cocoons to retrieve the silk, pressed the fibers and spun them into the prized thread.
A newspaper ad proclaimed:
SILK WORMS – We have a few hundred eggs of the silk worm, which will be given to persons disposed to make experiments in this delightful branch of industry. The time is now nearly at hand when they will commence hatching. Application had therefore better be made early.
Newtown Township was also deeply enmeshed in silkworm culture with a large, two-story cocoonery on the present George School property.
But the silk fever subsided as suddenly as it appeared. News accounts blamed China, with its cheap, plentiful labor that could produce silk at bargain prices. To make matters worse, a blight devastated the expensive mulberry trees. The homegrown silk market collapsed and thousands of culturists lost small fortunes on their investments.
Sources: Place Names in Bucks County Pennsylvania, George MacReynolds, Bucks County Historical Society, 1942; and Silkworms Spin a Piece of Bucks County Lore, Carl LaVo, Phillyburbs.com, Aug. 3, 2015
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