The interest in pearling extended far from the place of the original find; and in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and even as far away as Texas, search was made in the streams. In the Colorado and its tributaries, about 20,000 were found in a short while. Most of these were small and unattractive, but a considerable number were reported “as large as pepper-corns” and a few “the size of a small rifle ball,” the number decreasing with the increase in size. A correspondent in the “Neue Zeit” wrote:

Sometimes they are round, sometimes cylindrical, elliptical, hemispherical, or of an altogether irregular shape. The finest have a milk-white, silvery sheen; many, however, are reddish yellow, bluish brown, or quite black; the last naturally have no value whatever. As to their value, there is considerable uncertainty, and it can easily be understood that those who have a great number of them in their possession greatly overestimate them. So far they are found principally in the Llano and the San Saba.[[321]]

After the resources in northern New Jersey were depleted and the excitement had died out, little was heard of pearling in this country until 1878, when many were found in Little Miami River in southwestern Ohio. The fishing was carried on at low water, and principally by boys, who would wade out in the water and feel for the mollusks with their feet, and then bob under and pick them up with their hands. The senior author spent a day in this fishery with a party of six boys with some success. During 1878 about $25,000 worth of pearls were collected in the vicinity of Waynesville on that stream. Mr. Israel H. Harris, a banker of Waynesville, then began collecting these pearls; and by purchasing during several years nearly every interesting specimen found in the vicinity, he made his collection one of the largest and best known in the country. When sold in 1888, it contained several thousand pearls, mostly of small size, averaging in weight little more than one grain each. A large portion of this collection was exhibited in the American section of the Paris Exposition of 1889, and was awarded a gold medal. Included in this exhibit was a series of ornaments in which the gems were arranged according to color, so that in one the pearls were green, in another purplish brown, in another pink, in another waxy white, and in one a cream-white. It also contained a button-shaped pearl weighing thirty-eight grains and several pink ones almost translucent. A pink pearl of eight grains was admired by all who saw it; by reflected light this had the color and translucency of a drop of molten silver. Many of the pink pearls found in the Little Miami and its tributaries were of the most beautiful rose-petal pink; pearls of this peculiar color have never been found in any other waters.

From Ohio the industry gradually extended westward and southward, and new fields were developed, pearls to the value of about $10,000 annually coming on the market from such widely separated States as Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, Texas, Washington, etc. However, little general interest was taken in fresh-water pearls, and few choice ones were found until the magnificent resources of the upper Mississippi Valley were discovered. Owing to the ease with which the mollusks may be collected by wading, it was in the relatively shallow tributaries that the fishery first developed, rather than in the deep channels of the main stream and of the large affluents.

The first region in the Mississippi Valley to attract attention was southwestern Wisconsin. Early in the summer of 1889, many beautiful pearls were found in Pecatonica River, a tributary of Rock River, which in turn empties into the Mississippi. Within three months, $10,000 worth of gems were sent from this region to New York City alone, including one worth $500, which was a very considerable sum for a fresh-water pearl at that time. The interest quickly spread to neighboring waters, and within a short time pearls were found also in Sugar River, in Apple River, in Rock River, in Wisconsin River, and in the Mississippi in the vicinity of Prairie du Chien. The fact that little experience and no capital was required for the business drew large numbers of persons to the newly-found Klondike; and the finds were so numerous and of such high quality that about $300,000 worth of pearls were collected before the end of 1891, greatly exceeding all records for fresh waters.

The Wisconsin pearls are remarkable for their beauty, luster, and diversified coloring, and some lovely shades of pink, purple, and especially metallic green have been found. Several of them have weighed in excess of fifty grains each, and some individual values ran well into four figures. One shipment made from Sugar River to London in September, 1890, contained ninety-three pearls, weighing from four to twenty-eight grains each, for which £11,700 was received in payment. In the limits of one county in the following year, pearls to the value of nearly $100,000 were secured.

BROOCHES AND RINGS OF FRESH-WATER PEARLS FROM WISCONSIN AND TENNESSEE
Paris Exposition, 1900

Shortly following the outbreak of pearling in Wisconsin came the development of interest in certain parts of Tennessee. For many years pearls had been secured from the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers and their tributaries, especially Caney Fork, Duck, Calf Killer, and Elk rivers, the headquarters of the fishery and the local markets being Carthage, Smithville, Columbia, and Arlington. The search had been conducted in a moderate way by pleasure parties in the summer, and by farmers after the crops had been laid aside.

In 1901 pearling excitement developed in the mountain regions of eastern Tennessee, especially in Clinch River. These newly-discovered resources proved so valuable that the local interest became very great. Vivid and picturesque accounts published in the local papers reported hundreds of persons as camping at various points along the streams, some in tents and some in rough shanties, and others going from shoal to shoal in newly-built house-boats. They were described as easygoing, pleasure-loving people, the men, women, and children working hard all day, subsisting largely on fish caught in the same stream, and dancing at night to the music of a banjo around the camp-fires. The center of the new industry was Clinton, the county seat of Anderson County, whither the successful hunters betook themselves each Saturday, the preferred time for selling the catch.