The following letter was received by the new firm of Bowers and Brayton
in June, 1819.
“Raynham
Messrs Brayton and Bowers
Sir
You may recollect that about a month since, I passed through
Swanzey and happened to see you where you was erecting a new Store.
You told me that in about a month you should like to purchase some
straw braid. I have about 2000 yds. on hand, of a good quality, and
can take in a considerable quantity more. If you wish to make a
trade with me, be so good as to write me your terms. I had a word
or two with a milliner nearly opposite you about some braid (name
unknown). If you should not like to trade, be so good as to give
him this information.
Yours respectfully
Nehemiah Jones.”
From the letter, we see that Israel and his new partner were building a
new store for themselves. Mason kept the old one. (The builder, Gilbert
Chace, was paid $160.00 for the building. The cost of the hardware was
$8.13). The lumber was bought in Freetown, also the shingles.
Apparently Israel had been planning to engage in merchandizing straw
bonnets. Nehemiah Jones of Raynham was a wholesale dealer in straw
braid. This is possibly the same local straw that was made into paper.
On July 21, 1819, Jones wrote again.
“Messrs Bowers and Brayton
Sir
Yours of the 13th is received. Respecting the straw braid, I would
observe that I must have a part cash if I should trade with you.
Cotton goods at fair prices will answer for part pay. I am now
making some bonnets for a man that will pay half cash and half
goods at wholesale. I am in want of some shirtings, checks, and
plaids--perhaps you can furnish me with them and with yarn also. I
have the straw braid on hand and wish you to write me immediately
whether you can agree on the price of the straw braid, for it would
not be worth while for me to be at the trouble of coming to Swanzey
unless there is a prospect of our trading.
Yours respectfully
Nehemiah Jones.”
Israel decided to buy a large quantity of braid and place it out in the
farmhouses of the villages, where the farm women would sew the braid
and shape it into bonnets and then bring back the finished bonnets to
Israel and get paid for their work--so much a bonnet--as they were paid
for their weaving--so much a yard.
Israel also planned to keep a little straw braid in the store, for
customers who might like to make their own bonnets.
The plan went through. Israel found girls who wanted to sew the braid.
On July 28, 1819, Jones wrote to Israel again:
“Yours of the 23rd inst. on hand. In answer to which I would
observe (as I wrote to you before) that I should like to trade with
you providing I can have a part cash. I have been selling my best
goods for straw braid and unless I can have about one half cash for
the braid, I may as well get my bonnets made here. The cotton goods
which you mentioned are such as I am in want of if we can agree as
to the cash and the price of the straw and the goods. You wished me
to inform you when I would call on you. I think it likely that the
last of this week or Monday next will be agreeable to me. I shall
bring a few thousand yards of braid with me.
Yours respectfully
Nehemiah Jones.”
They did finally agree about terms. (But there were many more letters.)
On August 19, Ardelia Targee took home 422 yards of straw braid to
make into bonnets. And she also took 10 knots of cotton thread to sew
the straw together. She was to be paid three shillings apiece if the
bonnets were well made. On September 22, she returned some bonnets. But
on September 17th she had taken another lot of braid, 813 yards, with
twelve knots of thread. So it went. Polly Hathaway on Sept. 10, took
1120 yards of the braid. On December 23, 1357 yards more.
September 13, 1819, Patience Luther was added to the list. She took
1066 yards of straw. She was followed by Permelia Allen, Sarah Anthony,
Nancy Francis, Betsy Cushing, Clarinda Trafton, Eliza Davis, Almiry
Shorey, Nancy Walker, and Hannah Hood. These names all appear in the
first Bonnet Book which Israel kept as he kept the Yarn Books. Other
names were added in 1820 and later. The industry flourished, though
it met with difficulties. No man made these bonnets. And no older
women. It was a young woman’s job. Though J. A. Carver “pressed” the
bonnets--a man’s job and a hard one.
We know so little about these young bonnet makers--so little even about
their work--that it may not be amiss to tell you what the records have
preserved about one of the bonnet makers, Sybel Alleyn, who took some
straw in 1820 but died before she could get the bonnets finished. As
Wheaton Luther was her executor, his papers were kept in the store,
and found their way into the barrel where they did not belong. Luther
was appointed administrator by the Probate Court in Taunton, and his
appointment is in the barrel. It has a great weeping willow at the
head of the sheet. Wheaton was expected to charge up his expenses as
administrator, to the estate, and he did so. “my time, horse, and
expenses at Probate Court, Dighton, $2.00.”
Sybel Alleyn had been quite ill, and Dr. Ebenezer Winslow charged $3.50
for the thirteen visits he had made during that illness. This includes
medicines. A cord of wood had been bought for Sybel, from Lloyd Slade,
for $5.00. She owed for several purchases from Israel, at the store.
There was a bill from David Brown who had rented her a horse and chaise
to go to Pawtucket--$3.67. And another horse and carriage to take
her to Rehoboth and back, 14 miles--$1.19. And after her death there
were more expenses, Abraham Shove made her coffin--$9.00. Ezra Bliss
dug her grave, $1.00. The spirits at her funeral cost $2.84. But this
came out of the estate expenses. Wheaton Luther bought the spirits at
Israel’s store, for it was there he was clerking. And it was there that
he received a letter from the poor girl’s heirs. Charles Y. Allen,
who signed himself “Your friend and loving servant”, wrote that his
wife and one daughter were very sick with fever, and that he could not
get help to nurse them without paying for it. He needed, he wrote,
“pecuniary aid”. He wanted the estate money at once. “For it is an hour
of peculiar trial.”
Obviously the bonnet makers were not poverty stricken people. But I
know little about them as I have said. One thing I do know. They shared
a distaste for regimentation. They wanted to make bonnets the way they
wanted to make bonnets. Israel had trouble.
When a few bonnets were finished and pressed, Israel had the carpenter
knock together some boxes in which to pack them. These boxes were
loaded onto a Somerset ship to be taken by Captain Gray to New York
where he was to sell them if he could. They were a new venture for
Israel and he really did not know where to find a market. The bonnets
were not selling in Scrabbletown; and they did not sell in New York, he
found.
So in the Fall of 1819, Israel decided to expand his market and take
his bonnets to the milliners of Albany.
_Israel in Albany_
In the late Fall of 1819, leaving Bowers to run the trading at home,
Israel took passage on the sloop “Henry”, about to sail for Albany, via
New York. The “Henry” had been built in the shipyard at Egypt, and it
was commanded by Captain Brown, a Somerset man. Israel paid $9.00 for
board and passage.
Besides his boxes of bonnets, and some calico, Israel took along for
trading purposes, corn, rye, iron ware, cheeses, and some barrels of
Taunton River Shad. As this was the fall of the year, the fish must
have been salted or pickled. The bill for carting the shad to the boat
was 17 cents. Reaching Albany, Israel wrote to his partner:
“after looking and inquiring among the milliners, I find that Bonnets
is dull. Capt. James Sherman thinks there is no doubt that I can sell
braid and bonnets in Troy (New York) where I shall go in a few days.”
The rest of the letter was eaten by mice. But we know he did go to
Troy. Upon returning to Albany he wrote:
“Albany. November, 27, 1819
Mr Wm. Bowers
Sir. I have to inform you that I have done my best to effect a
sale of my Straw Hats, but have sold only eight and sold them for
--. When I first arrived here, I went to see all the milliners and
they gave me grate incouragement of buying the Hats, and one in
particular bought six, and a lot of straw. It was evening and she
would not take them until morning. I went in the morning. She would
not pay me the money, but would in goods. So I did not sell them.
As I wrote you in my first letter, there is a great many straw hats
sold in this place and are supplied from New York. I have seen the
bills of a grate many hats that was bought in New York about the
same quality of mine from 12 to 17 shillings. But they will not
give me so much as they will in New York.