I think I’ve found out where that charlatan Whitemarsh got his mulberry stock, all the shoots to sell to those rubes in Talbot County. And I’m a little embarrassed, to tell you the truth.
Last night, after the Spy ran that piece, I forwarded it on to a few friends and relatives because I thought it was pretty entertaining, if I must say so myself. A few hours later I got an email from Uncle Bud in Tucson who is the Watson family historian. Subject line was: “You may have more silk in your blood than you know.”
This was the attachment, I kid you not:
So I’m thinking Captain John Miller (also known as “Racoon Miller”, see below) may have discovered just how tough it is to be a worm wrangler to five million little critters, and so forth. Who knows where he got the right species of mulberry (Eliza?), but I’m thinking—sorta hoping, now that he’s my role model—that he had the good sense to pawn this whole caper off to some guy in Pennsylvania, where they are known to be not too smart. (I do know there is not a thriving silk industry in East Tennessee.) Please note that Racoon (sic) Miller’s wife, allegedly from NC, was the daughter of Lewis Whitner, a German immigrant who in 1747 immigrated to–wait for it–PENNSYLVANIA. I’m thinking Racoon must have had a brother-in-law.
Anyway, Bud sent me some additional information about this gentleman, my 5th Great-Grandfather he says. Born in Newberry County, South Carolina 1747. He served in the Revolution under Captain Joseph Martin, and moved to Raccoon Valley, Maynard County, in East Tennessee in 1777. By 1796 he owned 1600 acres in Clinch River Valley, and regrettably some enslaved people too. He died in 1829, not long before bro-in-law Whitemarsh (?) started his nursery, I suspect. (It is also recorded that in 1787 “Coones Miller” signed the “Petition of the Inhabitants of the Western Country,” no doubt seeking redress of some grievance, just as we do occasionally down here in this day, in Talbot County.) One of Coones’ sons was named Pleasant, which is also Uncle Bud’s Christian name, and my Grandfather’s too.
Between Racoon Miller and Billy Longmire*–a highwayman who in 1725 was sentenced to hang for stealing a fellow’s hat on the Lincoln Road in London, but indentured to Virginia instead–is it any wonder I wound up in the real estate business?
NOTE: Special Half Price Holiday Sale on mulberry shoots, Columbus Day weekend! Order soon while quantities last!
*(Google “William Longmire, Violent Theft – highway robbery, 13th October 1725”
Dan Watson is the former chair of Bipartisan Coalition For New Council Leadership and has lived in Talbot County for the last twenty-five years.
Mary Margaret Revell Goodwin says
While this story is totally true in Talbot, the State Legislature wanted poor Centreville in the late 1830 ‘s to become THE Silk Capital in the State. The insisted that a corporation be formed, and so it was, with paper stock. They wanted mulberry trees sent in and planted on EVERY property in town. Fortunately many, many did not plat them at all, others planted quite a few. As of this missive I have over 100 crowding out everything on my property! Every year I have cut them, but sadly this year I had no time. Penalty? Oh, yes, they are literally threatening to take over my house! They even grow in the basement with light from one window in the basement door. They are WORSE than bamboo, not at all attractive. I don’t know about the value of the wood but am hoping it might be in order to help what will be a massive lumbering project in the middle of Centreville. Their roots are sort of like bamboo, creep all over the place and little trees slip up instantly. It takes only 2 months to make a 40 foot tree!
Low and behold, not only did silk worms like the leaves, NOTHING likes them but me! Even my dogs find them a great digestive! The dream of being the Silk Capital of Maryland was gone in about 18 months, but oh, my how the trees brought here make the point about invasive species. Clearly they LOVE the soil and even more so, these trees love gardeners who do not have time to whack away at them on a weekly basis for a full, rainy summer! Would anyone like some big trees or the logs?