Dery Silk Mill, Catasauqua, Lehigh County

I ended up doing this week's blog post a few days later than usual, on account of some bad weather in my area. My internet was extremely unreliable. I appreciate the patience shown by my Facebook followers, and now I'm taking you back to my hometown of Catasauqua for a look at another famous industrialist.

As I mentioned when talking about David Thomas, I grew up in the tiny borough which is proud to be known as the birthplace of the industrial revolution. The first thirtymumble years of my life were spent on Race Street, the town's main drag, which is also home to the Dery Silk Mill - a cornerstone of the company which was once the largest single private producer of silk in the entire world. 

The sign is located in the parking lot,
on the eastern side of the mill

Desidirius George Dery (more commonly called George in his day) was a native of what was then known as Austria-Hungary, a descendant of Hungarian landed gentry. Born in the community of Baja in 1867, he received degrees in silk making from the Vienna Textile Academy and St. Mary's Academy, also in Vienna. He was also a veteran of the Austrian Army, completing his service in 1886 with the rank of lieutenant. In 1887 he moved to Paterson, New Jersey, considered the silk capital of the United States, where he quickly advanced to the position of superintendent of a silk mill.

In 1897, ground was broken for the new silk mill in Catasauqua. Dery, by then married and the father of a young daughter, relocated his family to the borough. His silk mill was very successful from its beginnings, and within three years it had more than 400 employees. James Lambert, the pastor at St. Paul's Lutheran Church, wrote of the place, "The plant of D. G. Dery possesses not only excellent light, the best of sanitary and ventilation arrangements, but also modern improvements, looking to the health and safety of employees. The building is three hundred feet by fifty feet in dimensions, three stories high, with auxiliary buildings attached - the whole equipped with the most modern machinery."

Dery was an interesting person, by all accounts. He was an amateur astronomer whose writings on the subject appeared in a number of scientific journals of the day, and his book Under the Big Dipper is still available to Kindle readers, although hard copies are more difficult to obtain. By 1914 he owned sixteen silk factories in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. He served as a trustee of Muhlenberg College and was a member of several organizations, including the Silk Association of America, the American Society of Hungarian Engineers and Architects, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He had his own growing collection of art as well, which even the New York Times admired.

Part of Dery's mansion at 520 Fifth Street

The "king of silk" is best remembered in Catasauqua today not for his mill so much as for his palace. He bought a home on Fifth Street, in what's today known as the Mansion District, and turned it into the largest one of them all. As our local news channel put it in their profile of the man, "From the trainloads of columns of Colorado limestone to the spacious indoor swimming pool, the art gallery of European paintings, sculpture, and antiques, and the private rooftop observatory where Dery indulged his hobby of astronomy, it was like nothing the Lehigh Valley had ever witnessed." Throughout my childhood, the Dery house was something to be admired; the property takes up most of a block, with trees and gates and an elegant curved driveway on the north side which I always imagined brought carriages of wealthy guests right up to a door in bad weather. I don't remember anybody ever living there.

In 1917, the United States entered World War I. Dery supported the cause by buying an extensive quantity of war bonds, which is a big part of how Catasauqua became the "Million Dollar Town" - the first community in the country to raise a million dollars in war bonds. By 1919, he was wildly successful, with 42 silk mills on the east coast and more than 10,000 employees. He was considered something of a Renaissance man, and threw lavish parties; it was even rumored that when Queen Marie of Romania toured the United States in 1926, she was a guest at one of his fetes. (If she was, they managed to keep it very well hidden. There's no official record of this ever happening - it just adds to his memory as a colorful resident of the borough.)

What happened next, therefore, came as a shock. I never knew any of this until I was researching this blog post, and it certainly shocked me, so I can only imagine how it must have seemed to people when it actually took place.

Dery decided the following year that he wanted to corner the silk market not just in the United States, but globally. Exactly what prompted him to make this decision remains unknown; even his family didn't know. His daughter Helen married Dr. Carl Strauch, a professor of English at nearby Lehigh University, and while the late Dr. Strauch was able to provide biographers with some insight into his father-in-law's business, he couldn't confirm Dery's logic in this matter. In any case, garnering that global market was going to take a lot more money even than Dery had, so he had to take out a number of loans.

All might have been well, but Dery hadn't counted on one very particular rival - Japan. His plans posed a threat to the Japanese government's own international silk trade, and they broke his corner on the market. Some chaos ensued in the form of Dery's creditors wanting their money, and him issuing bonds in order to raise it for them. This worked for a time, but in 1922, the scandalous discovery was made that Dery's assets - the basis for the bonds - were fraudulent. The accountants were tricked into counting the same stock repeatedly, and thus led to believe that there was more than really existed. Dery's company was taken to federal court and the creditors took control of things.

Although Dery insisted he was innocent in the matter, and knew nothing of the fraud, he wasn't believed; his creditors insisted that he be removed from any role in running the company, and he was. By 1923 he owned just four silk mills, and though they sustained him for the rest of the decade, the stock market crash and a worker's strike in 1934 was the end of Dery's reign as the king of silk. His beautiful home full of treasures was lost to him; the art collection was sold to the creditors, and though he still owned the house, he couldn't maintain it. He moved into a smaller house across the street. He remained, as 69 News puts it, a local character for the next several years, walking his dachshund around town and speaking at social clubs. A bad heart sent him to stay in Bethlehem with daughter Helen and Dr. Strauch, and he passed away in March of 1942.

As of 2017, Dery's palace was in the hands of a developer who planned to turn it into a bed and breakfast. Extensive remodeling of the interior is needed and, as far as I can tell just from peering through the garden gate, seems to be in progress. Meanwhile, the silk mill is today known as the Dery Silk Apartments, home to 36 loft-style dwellings with hardwood floors and modern amenities... and a historical marker reminding the residents of what once was.

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Sources and Further Reading:

Lambert, Rev. James F., and Henry J. Reinhard. A History of Catasauqua in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Searle & Dressler Company, Inc., 1914

69 News. Dery of Catasauqua: The Rise and Fall of the Silk King.

Various authors. One Thousand American Men of Mark of To-Day: Twentieth Century Edition de Luxe. American Men of Mark, Chicago, IL, 1916.

Whelan, Frank. "Rich or Poor, Dery Was Gentleman of Old School." The Morning Call, September 29, 1985.

Dery Silk Mill at the Historical Marker Database

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Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.