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Mifflin Township – Morroco Tannery, 1875

The Morocco Tannery was located on the road from Berrysburg, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania to Elizabethville, Dauphin County. It is shown (red dot above) on a cut from the Mifflin Township map found in the Dauphin County Atlas of 1875.

A brief history of the tannery was printed in the Historical Book of Berrysburg and Mifflin Township, published for the Sesquicentennial in 1969:

In 1876, after failing in the store business (presently the Dallas Miller residence [1969]), Mr. George Lark built and started operating a Tannery in Mifflin Township about a half mile south of Berrysburg on the farm now [1969] owned and occupied by Mr. Allen Shade.  The Tannery was quite an establishment and sometimes gave employment to 15 men.  Mr. Lark was a specialist in making Morocco leather — this was the only kind of leather manufactured in his plant.  He manufactured this kind of leather from goat skins which he secured from distant markets such as Philadelphia.  He used the bark from Sumac trees to make the liquor needed to do the tanning.  Mr. Lark also secured the Sumac from Philadelphia.  It was shipped here in bags.  This tanning process gave good results and Mr. Lark prospered, having built up an enviable trade.  One day, however, a stranger paid Mr. lark a visit and persuaded him to use another tanning process which would tan quicker.  Mr. Lark changed processes and to his grief found that he had ruined many skins and those that he did send away after he had changed tanning processes ruined his trade so much that he failed financially.  A Philadelphian, Mr. D. J. Keen, bought the property and induced Mr. Charles Dillman, a former employee of Mr. Lark, to manage the tannery.  Under Mr. Dillman’s management many sheepskins were tanned for the farmers of Lykens Valley.  After operating the tannery for a year, Mr. Dillman also went to Philadelphia.  The tannery was then torn down and nothing remains except the name which is now associated with the hill — The Tannery Hill which was near the tannery.

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Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.

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