Mr Gray arrived here last evening and he tells me that he has the
same box of hats that we sent by him to N. York. I shall take them
with me to New York, and sell them or leave them with a commission
merchant to sell.
I have sold 17 barrels of shad at $10.00 per barrel. I have bought
about 500 pounds of butter, and some other small notions--we expect
to leave this place in three or four days and expect to be to home
in the course of 12 or 15 days, wind and weather permitting.
Israel Brayton.”
By the time Israel got back from Albany, the ice was in the river and
no cargoes went out from the villages until the spring. On January 18,
it was noted that ice extended from the south end of Prudence Island to
the Narragansett Shore entirely across the bay.
_William Bowers in Newport_
The enterprising firm of Bowers and Brayton had not been discouraged.
Israel merely thought that he was not adapted to the part of travelling
salesman. As indeed he wasn’t. William Bowers took over. Late in March
in 1820, Bowers engaged passage on the sloop “Henry” and took on board
rather a large cargo of bonnets as well as other trading staples from
the store. The “Henry” put in at Newport, down the Bay. Bowers wrote to
Brayton from Newport.
“April 15, 1820.
Mr Israel Brayton
Dear Sir: I have ranged this market through, respecting Straw
Bonnets. Have only sold twenty for $2.25 each, on three months
credit. I find bonnets dull here, and people afraid to buy for fear
they will not sell this Spring. Those bonnets I have sold, not
only sold, but have notes for them. You can be assured that I have
disposed of as many as what I thought, whether we get the pay or
not; I think it altogether possible that I shall sell four more for
the same price before we leave. We shall set sail this afternoon if
wind and weather will permit.
I find one great objection to our bonnets, that is the crown. Most
of them are too small. Likewise the brim is too narrow. Therefore
you must have them made larger in every way without fail. I find
that it will be of no use for us to carry on the business unless we
attend to it closely. The largest of our bonnets will answer but
the larger part of them is too small. I have lost the sale of some
on that account or at least cannot get so much for them. Where I
carried the bonnets, they would try them on their children’s heads,
and finding them too small, would throw them aside and pick for all
the largest sizes; which, if the larger ones are picked out, it
will render it difficult to sell so many small ones, or at least
we shall not get more than a third price for them. This will not
answer for us, for we have to give as much for making small ones
as large ones. Be very particular about taking in good braid. I
would not take any unless good. I think we had better curtail the
business a little at present for we have a great many bonnets on
hand. And I am afraid we shall find it hard work to sell what we
have on hand, for we have a great many bad patterns.
If we curtail the business, we shall be able to attend to it
better. We should make about 300 a year; have very new braid; and
have the bonnets made very well. Likewise we should realize in
the end more profit than if we made a 1000. Therefore if we make
bonnets well and finish them off well, and can recommend them, I
presume we can find a market for a few. Therefore it stands us in
hand to have such bonnets made that we can recommend. If I should
carry some of our bonnets to some people they would laugh at us,
and what is the reason? Because they are badly manufactured. Let us
say we will have good bonnets made and no others. Then we shall be
able to get three dollars each and make a profit.
I think we shall be able to sell about 40 bonnets in this place
about the 10th of May. The patterns that sell best is the ones
that turn up behind. I trust you will now make such ones. Tell
Mrs. Bowers now that I am well and hoping she is the same. Give my
respects to your wife, Hannah, and all enquiring friends.
You told me that Captain Brown lives well. O, my God, that I was
not so particular. I have great objections to dirty people. I am
scarcely able to eat a mouthful without thinking how it is cooked.
Be so good as to let my wife read this letter.
Your obediant and
Humble Servant
William Bowers.”
In Newport, Bowers sold 6 bonnets to Margaret Landers; 6 bonnets to
Elizabeth Champlin; and 6 bonnets to Elizabeth Townsend. These were the
milliners of the town.
_William Bowers in Albany_
On reaching Albany, William Bowers wrote another long letter to Israel.
“April 18th, 1820
Mr Israel Brayton
Sir:
I regret to inform you that the debt you contracted with Mrs. Ring
is entirely lost. She has sold all the Bonnets you left with her
to sell on commission. I think she is a notorious Character for
she had five bonnets unsold and she would not give them up. I have
made out to get in ribbons of her about eight dollars worth. I have
settled with her and have taken her note for the Balance which I
am fearful we shall never obtain. The pay for the balance due us
is $110.00 so I suppose we shall be able to get part of our pay
in--tape and buckram, and if you think it is best to take it in
that, wright her word and direct your letter to New York, and if
you think it not worth while to wright but leave it altogether to
my judgment, let that be it. If you wright, I should like to know
your opinion whether I shall lay out what money I have or bring it
home.
I assure you goods is very low of all kinds and still falling every
day. Accordingly you will be very careful how you buy for I assure
you goods will fall on our hands if you buy many. The sales of our
bonnets in New York was very bad. I sold only 2 and was in hopes
business was better up the River and concluded to try it. Since our
arrival to Albany I have sold only 9 for $2.00 each, cash. I think
I shall be able to sell a few more tomorrow. We shall go to Troy.
Then I shall be able to sell a few more. If I should not be able
to sell out--if you wright, wright word whether it will be best to
bring them home or leave them with Talbot to sell on commission.
I would sell all our bonnets before this time, if I would sell on
credit. But I am afraid of another Ring Scrape.
Inform Mrs. Bowers of my wrighting and tell her I long to get home
for I never was so homesick before. But I presume it is all oweing
to having such a likely woman for a wife, but at least it would
give me grate satisfaction to set in the corner and chat a while
with her. I have not enjoyed one single moment since I left home.
How is the little boy? I presume he is well and if so, take good
care to keep him so.
The manner of living aboard of a vessell is so different from what
I have been used to living, it takes my appetite all away. I long
to get home to fill up with something that I can relish. Give my
respects to all enquiring friends and tell them I am well but want
to get home. Hoping that these lines will find Mrs. Bowers well and
all enquiring friends; as to the straw business, I think we had
better curtail in a small manner and dont take any braid only that
which is very nice. I have lost the sale of a grate many on account
of poor braid and badly put together. The business must be carried
on with care and attention. I shall be home about the first of May
if nothing happens. It is very late in the evening therefore I must
quit writing.
Yours respectfully
William Bowers”
“I have almost forgot about your shad. I found them in New York at
a place where they would never be sold and I concluded you would
be glad to sell them and have taken them with me but have not sold
them yet. Shad is worth almost $2.00. Be so good as to let Mrs.
Bowers have this letter. Take good care of the Pig.
W. Bowers”
“What bonnets you have made, must be made to turn up behind, all of
them, for the others will not sell. The fashion is now for bonnets
to have their turn up behind and round corners in place of square
corners where the ribbon comes down to tie under the chin.”
_William Bowers in Savannah_
In the Fall of 1820, when the bonnets had rather piled up on Israel,
and there was a good deal of cloth on hand, the partners decided to
make another venture. William Bowers took passage on the same sloop
“Henry” of Somerset, and sailed down to Savannah, Georgia, where
he opened a “stand” or small store and spent the winter trying to
sell the bonnets and the shad and the cotton cloth he had brought
South. The sloop “Henry” did not intend to return to Somerset before
Spring. You could not sail small sloops through the icy waters of
the North Atlantic and up the ice bound channel of the Taunton River
in mid-winter, not safely. The newspapers of the period are full of
accounts of shipwrecks--especially off Block Island. And some of the
too adventurous little ships just disappeared. Bowers expected to find
other winter bound ships and ship captains from Somerset in harbours
along the southern coast. And he did.
Captain David Pierce was in Charleston. He had written to Israel as
follows:
“Sir,
I take this opportunity to inform you that I am enjoying good
health at present and all the rest of our Yankey friends, and am in
hopes that you and your friends are enjoying the same blessing.
Captain Gibbs is here, well and hearty. Give my compliments to
my parents and to the proprietors of the Stone Cutters’ Bank and
likewise the new bank set up since I left there, by the females. I
expect it will go by the name of the Weavers’ Bank. I am in hopes
they will be able to hire me seven cents when I return.
Give my compliments to all that take the trouble to enquire after
me. Tell Ruth Wilcox that I am afraid her old beau, Anthony Marion,
is lost, for he took charge of the schooner “Jane” and came out
over Georgetown Bar the first of January, to come out and come in
here, the same day; and that night we had a heavy gale of wind
and he has not been heard of since.--The weather is very cool
and windy. Rains two days out of three. Times is very dull here.
Produce very low. I wish you would answer this letter the first
opportunity. You must excuse me for writing in this manner for
sailors cant write like Merchants.
Yours
David Pierce.”
In Fayetteville, Captain Benjamin Gibbs was resting after an illness.
His health had nearly returned and he expected to go back to Somerset
in the Spring. Captain Joseph Gibbs had died down there. It was
thought, however, safe for the rest of the northerners to remain
through the winter as no return of the sickness was expected until
August or September. Capt. McDonald was intending to stick it out.
Of course Bowers must have written to Brayton as soon as he arrived,
but the first the barrel knows of his arrival is through a letter he
sent to Hezekiah Anthony. Hezekiah wrote to Israel:
“I have received a letter from William Bowers (in Savannah) who
requested me to say to you that if you was going to send him any
more brown shirtings he wished you to send them immediately. If
they were of good quality and full 3/4 wide he would give you 12
cents a yard or he would sell them on commission for you together
with the bonnets if you send some that was new and of good pattern
and good quality, he had no doubt but what they will do well.
As there is a vessel to sail in a few days, what you conclude to
send, you had better have them here in the course of a week from
this time. The shirtings, if you send any, he says you must see
that they hold out in length.
Your friend
H. Anthony”
“N.B. Your goods I have just sent by water to be landed at the
Ferry”.
Bowers’ letter to Brayton, finally arrived.
“Savannah, Feb. 24, 1821
Mr Israel Brayton
Dear Sir
I received the case of bonnets shipt by Capt. Hezekiah Anthony some
time since, and since I have received them I have sold 10--of the
High Crowns. The low crowned ones will not suit this market. But I
think it more than probable I shall be able to get rid of what you
have sent. Therefore if you will send me 2 cases more, immediately,
I think I can sell them to a pretty good advantage. The ten I have
sold will average about $2.75 and if you conclude to send anymore
you must have them very nice. Different patterns and some to turn
up behind.
Perhaps you will be able to get the proceeds in about three months,
as if nothing happens I think you will see a person that way about
my size. But if you think you can do any better with the bonnets
than to entrust them to my care, it stands you in hand to do it.
If you have any cotton goods on hand that you wish to send on
commission, I shall be happy to receive them and do the best I can
for you. But if the shirtings will bring 14 cents in Boston, you
had better send them there. As Mr. Anthony wrote me sometime since,
you observed that your shirting would bring 14 cents in Boston and
if so it is more than you will realize if you send them here after
deducting the expenses. But I have my doubts whether they are worth
14 cents in Boston, and did at the time I received the letter.
Old Friend, Mr. Brayton, if you will allow me the expression, what
shall I say to you about the City of Savannah and the Trade. In the
first place, the City is a low sunken Hole and all the cookery is
carried on by Black People and they are a dirty and nasty sett to
speak plain upon the subject. The victuals very often go against
my stomach as I am pretty particular about my victuals you know. I
shall come home “thin as a hatchet” as the old saying is. In the
next place, Trade is pretty good, if you can get hold of the right
end of it, and have a good stand.
In the next place, the expenses--shop rent is $140.00 per year.
Taxes is enourmous and to meet the expenses you must do pretty good
business or you had better go to David Jones’ Locker. As to Trade,
week days and Sundays is all alike. We sell and keep open Sundays
as well as week days. Business was never known so dull in this City
before. I suppose it is owing to the fire last season and, what was
worse than that, the sickness thinned off a great many, but there
is a grate deal of building going on at the present and I presume
business will be better another season. Mr. Brayton, many has been
the tears I have shed since I have been in this city, on acct. of
sickness. My nearest neighbor was taken away but a few days since
and I assure you it is very sickley and who knows but it will be my
turn next. But I hope to see my dear family once more before that
solemn day appears. I have got to be quite contented and when I
shall return it will be very uncertain. I conduce that I shall save
myself this season.
Yours with the utmost esteem.
William Bowers.
Please to send word to my wife that I am well and I have wrote to
her this day and have sent it to Mr. Anthony and she will receive
it soon after you receive this, and send word to my mother and
family that I am well and all my friends and likewise I wish to see
them soon.”
On the outside of this letter these words appear:
“John Cotton arrived with a load of cows here after I sealed this
letter.”
Another letter found in the barrel might be inserted here. It is rather
more businesslike.
“Darien (Georgia) March 19th, 1821.
Mr Israel Brayton
Sir, I must confess I have been negligent in not writing you but
for the most part have been very much confined in business. Your
notes were due before this. I have sent word to William Bowers
in Savannah to make arrangements with you for me to pay him in
Savannah what I am owing you.--
We have made a small shipment of rice and sundries, and expect to
ship a lot of cotton in a few weeks. No doubt but you have heard of
my entering business with my brother since I arrived here, which I
did not expect when I left home.
You will be so good as to write me an answer by return mail.
You will direct your letter to Allen Smith, Postmaster, Darien,
Georgia. As he has been appointed postmaster of this city.
Give my respects to all enquiring friends. Your factory goods sold
well--but bonnets.--In haste I remain your friend etc.
Daniel Smith”
Captain Pierce, whose letter to Israel has just been quoted, wrote to
Wheaton Luther from Charleston on April 18, 1821.
“It is with pleasure that this day I have an opportunity of reading
a letter from your honour.--it is very healthy here but times is
bad--and dull--I am now aloading with cotton and a little rice and
shall have a deck load of yankeys and if nothing happens I shall
sail for New York the 25th of this month and then I will come on
and see what you are about--our lumber is all sold, all our yankey
friends are well; give my respects to my parents and all my girls
and tell them I am coming.
David Pierce”
David was apparently not interested in straw bonnets. But his sister
made them for Israel.
In 1828, Israel received a letter written in Troy, (Fall River), by
John S. Cotton. He is the man who took a deck load of cows to Savannah
from Somerset in 1821. He writes:
“I have received some money for a judgment against the man who sold
your bonnets--viz--from N. Carolina. N.B. This is all the money I
have yet received from N. Carolina.”
The bonnet story, complicated and peculiar, goes on and on.
How long Nehemiah Jones traded in Straw Braid, how long the farm women
made bonnets, I do not know. The Bonnet trade continued to be a minor
but specific part of Israel’s trading, as long as he did any trading at
all.
When a child, back in the nineteenth century, I remember there was
a milliner in Somerset who sold bonnets made of braided straw of a
natural straw color. I went with my mother when she bought one--trimmed
with the most lovely deep brown velvet ribbon--spotted with white.