USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Chester > History of old Chester [N. H.] from 1719 to 1869 > Part 33
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The next process in the manufacture was combing. The flax comb was made by inserting teeth made of nail rods, say six inches long, and pointed, into a board or plank, which would be secured firmly to a chair, or something else. My grandmother's, yet in good condition, has twelve teeth, about half an inch apart, and seven decp, the teetli in each row standing opposite the spaces of the preceding row. The flax was drawn continually through this comb, until the "tow" or short and imperfect fibres of the flax were all drawn out. The flax was then ready to put upon the " distaff." The Irish, or linen wheel, was about twenty
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inches in diameter, hung on an iron crank, and was opera- ted by the foot on a treadle. The wheel had two grooves in its circumference, one to receive a band to drive the fliers and the other to drive the spool with a quicker motion to " take up" the yarn. The distaff was a sapling about an inch thick, with four or five branches, which were tied together at the top. The flax was put on this and the thread drawn from it. Two " double skeins " was a day's work.
1/1/4
COMBING FLAX AND SPINNING LINEN.
The linen manufacture was quite a business with the Scotch Irish of Londonderry and Chester, making fine linen cloth and thread, and bleaching it and sending it to
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the towns to market. The beach of Massabesic was a fa- vorite place for bleaching. Linen constituted a very impor- tant part, with cotton, of household fabrics and barter, - shirts, sheets, table linen, summer dresses, handkerchiefs, meal bags, &c.
There was a process to facilitate bleaching, called " buck- ing." It was to put the cloth or yarn into a tub, cover it with a cloth, and fill the tub with ashes, which were leached, the lye passing through the cloth. The process was re- peated at pleasure.
After bleaching the cloth, came the final operation of " beetling," which was performed by folding the cloth and laying it on a flat, smooth stone. The beetle was of maple, or some hard wood, perhaps two feet long and five inches in diameter, two thirds the length turned down to. a suita- ble size for a handle. The cloth was beaten with this, and the folds continually changed, until the whole web was ren- dered sufficiently pliable and soft. I have seen the opera- tion performed by laying the cloth on the stone hearth, and using the pestle.
The smaller girls would take the " swingling-tow " and beat out the shives, and spin and double and twist it, and sell to the merchant for wrapping-twine. The older ones, to make their purchases at the store, would make all-tow, tow-and-linen, or cotton-and-linen cloth, to barter with the store-keeper. My sisters tell me that when one was about nine and the other thirteen, in 1810, the elder one spun the warp and the younger one the filling, and made a web of tow cloth, and bought them dresses ; and that they now have pieces of those dresses.
Also the shoe-thread was of linen, and all shoes were then sewed. Pegging the soles is a modern invention. The people wanted ropes for bed cords, and other purposes, which were frequently, if not universally, of home manu- facture. The flax or tow was spun and warped in three strands, of the required length. A machine was made by taking three pieces of hard-wood board about a foot square, and making round tenons or bearings on the opposite cor- ners, forming cranks, one end of which was inserted in a
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stationary standard with hooks, to which to attach the three strands of the rope. A shorter and movable piece of board with corresponding holes was put on to the other tenons, by moving which gave a crank motion, and twisted the strands. A simple crank at the other end twisted the rope. A small block, with three grooves for the strands, aided in "laying the rope even."
In the culture of flax there was a weed very prolific in small seed, called " wild flax." This increased so fast that it was necessary once in two or three years to clean the seed. This was done by having a cylinder of tin or sheet-iron, perforated so as to let the wild seed pass and retain the flax seed. This screen was suspended on bearings, the seed put in and the machine turned by crank until the seed was cleaned. The two last named machines, I think, might have been seen about the premises of the late Jacob Chase, a few years since, probably made and owned by his grand- father. Tow was carded and spun on a large wheel like cotton or wool.
Cotton has been a constituent part of clothing as far back as I have any knowledge. It was of course carded and spun by hand until the starting of factories, when cot- ton warp was made and sold at the stores, and the wear- ing done by hand. Cotton was also sold at the stores. The weaver's reed or " slaie," was made of sticks of cane, whittled with a knife, and the twine wound by hand. Peter Aiken and James and Alexander Shirley were famous in Chester for making them. Their looms were heavy, clumsy things. The web was sprung by the feet, the shuttle was thrown and the " lathe" swung to beat in the filling with the hands, so that with every throw of the shuttle and beat of the " lathe," the hands had to be changed from one to the other. Five or six yards was a day's work of weaving. The yarn was reeled in threads of two yards each, forty of which made a " knot, " and seven knots a " skein," and fourteen knots a " double skein." The warp, for warping was wound on " spools," and the filling on " quills " made of elder. The spooling and quilling gave employment to boys and girls.
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HISTORY OF CHESTER.
Another branch of household manufacture was yarn cov- erlets for bed covers, in which a good deal of taste and mechanical ingenuity were displayed in the colors and fig- ures. Among those eminent for weaving this article in a great variety of figures was the wife of John Locke, and after her death his daughter Polly, now the wife of Jolin Currier of Sandown.
The tanners had no chemical process or hot liquor. To grind the bark they used a circular stone, generally a worn ont mill-stone. They fitted a central post or shaft with wooden bearings, with a horizontal shaft or axletree, one end working with a wooden bearing in the post, the other end fitting and passing through the eye of the stone far enough to attach a horse. A circular platform of wood was built nearly twenty feet in diameter. As the horse made his circuit, the stone rolled over, crushing the bark. A hand was always in attendance to continually rake the coarse bark out under the stone, and shove the fine to the centre.
The first bark-mill was invented and patented in 1808, by Paul Pillsbury (an uncle of Parker Pillsbury of aboli- tion notoriety), who was born at West Newbury, and lived at Byefield. Instead of the cylinder and cone being cast whole, as in modern mills, they were cast in segments, and fitted to wood. He sold his patent for two thousand dol- lars, but never got his pay. The first bark-mills introduced into Chester were at a later day, probably about 1812, and were cast whole, the cone being fitted to a perpendicular wooden shaft, and standing in the centre of the platform, and the horse attached to a sweep and traveling in the old track. The farmers were their own butchers, and carried the hides to the tanners, who tanned either by the piece or upon shares. Upper leather would tan in the course of the summer, and it would be a winter business to curry it. It was all shaved down with the currying-knife, there being no splitting-machines before 1810 or 1815. The sole leather took a year or more to tan. There is the name of Lemuel Clifford of Chester, tanner, in a deed as early as
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1734, but whether he actually tanned here is uncertain. Ichabod Robie, a grantec, was a tanner at Hampton Falls, and taught his sons the art. He settled his son John on home lot No. 35, about 1733, who had a yard where Robin- son's yard lately was, and he taught his sons the art. Sam- nel Robie settled on his father's lot, 116, and had a yard where the Blake yard lately was, and taught his son Ed- ward the art, who once carried on the business in Candia at the brook north of Parker's Corner. Tanner Martin set up the business in Chester Woods about 1780, and James Wason at the Long Meadows about 1785, and Capt. Ezekiel Blake came to Chester in 1792 and did quite a business at the Samuel Robie yard.
There was no such thing as sale-shoe work then. The people carried their stock to the shoemakers, or sometimes shoemakers itinerated from house to house with their " kit." I recollect about fifty-five to sixty years ago, Mr. Stocker, a very small man, father of Aaron Wilcomb's wife, used to go through our neighborhood. It is said of Samuel Mur- ray that he would make shoes for Dea. John Hills, and that the Deacon would pay him in labor on the farm ; that Mr. Murray would work with the Deacon day-times and make shoes to pay him nights.
At that time the utmost economy had to be practiced. All of the young people and some of the old ones went barefoot during the summer, and the maidens when going to meeting would either go barefoot until nearly there or wear thick shoes and carry the " morocco" ones in their hands to save the wear. Long within my recollection, the maidens going across to the Long Meadows to meeting , carried their shoes in their hands until across the brook. The father and mother, if not the grandfather and grand- mother, had the horse with the saddle and pillion, and the younger ones walked, sometimes from three to six miles.
The heel pegs were made with a knife. Sometime, prob- ably from 1812 to 1815, Mr. Pillsbury, the inventor of the bark-mill, fixed a tool to plow grooves across a block of maple, and then cross-plow it, which pointed the pegs, and
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then they were split with a knife and mallet. Mr. Pills- bury soon got up improved machinery and did a large business at making pegs, and then pegged shoes were in- troduced. (See Shoe and Leather Reporter, July 16, 1868.)
Boots were not in common use. They had "leggings " or "buskins," knit to reach from the knee to the shoe, with the bottom widened so as to cover the shoe, and leather strings to tic them down. I wore them myself when a lad, and I have heard my grandfather say that he never had a pair of boots nor an outside coat before he was twenty-one years old. Boots made by crimping in the ankles were not in use before 1805 or '6, and they were known for many years as "Suwarrow boots," from the name of the Russian General Suwarrow. Before that the fronts were in two parts. The foot had a tongue which went up two or three inches into the leg. They were gen- erally worn with white tops and small clothes or "breeches" which came down just below the knee. Brecches were generally worn till about that time, and some old men wore them as long as they lived.
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PLOWS.
The plows had the wrought-iron shares, the beam being very long with wooden mould-board, plated with old hoes and other scraps of iron. What are now bent for handles were then straight, and were called " thorough-shots," as was also the stud at the forward part of the irons, which
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projected far enough above the beam to attach the handles to it. The handles were long pieces of wood attached to the forward " thorough-shots," and also to those behind, with wooden pins, and extending back two feet or more behind, making a very long plow. Franklin Crombie, Esq., says that he measured one that formerly belonged to Mat- thew Templeton, which was nearly fourteen feet long. After a while the crooked handles were introduced, though within the present century. They then went into the woods and found a tree with as good a turn as they could, and split out their handles. When the turnpikes were built, in 1805, the Dutch plow was introduced. It was a triangular piece of iron, so made as to form a wing and point, and the forward part of the mould with a wooden land-side, plated and attached to the wood by a bolt. The plow was very short. Many of them were afterwards made by Abraham Sargent, Jr., and Daniel Wilson. as late as 1830. The first cast-iron plows, so far as I know, were the Hitchcock pattern. Probably the first brought into Chester was by Hawley Marshall of Brentwood, 1830-1833.
Iron or steel shovels were not much, if any. used here, previous to building the turnpikes in 1805. They used to take a large red-oak tree and split out the shapes and make wooden shovels and have the edge shod with iron. which were called " shod shovels." July 9, 1775, the committee of safety ordered James Proctor paid nine pounds for " sixty Shod Shovels by him delivered." In Stephen Chase's diary Feb. 24, 1797, is an entry " Sawed great oak log,- making shovels." Mr. John Brickett of Haverhill was, as late as about 1810, famous for making shod-shovels.
The manure-forks were of iron, very heavy, with long handles like a pitch-fork handle.
Hoes were made by common blacksmiths, of iron and laid with steel, and were frequently new-steeled.
The scythe-snaths were either straight or with a natural bend, and home-made. Probably there were none man- ufactured by being steamed and bent previous to 1810.
The rakes were also of home manufacture, and much
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heavier than the modern ones. The first that my father had of a different kind was a Shaker rake in 1808.
The pitch-forks were iron and very heavy and clumsy at that, steel ones not being used much before 1830. My grandfather's, made about 1762, are yet in good condition.
WAGONS.
When wagons were first introduced into Chester is not known. The first that I have seen any mention of a wagon is August, 1797. Lient. Josiah Underhill charges Joseph Hall with " binding of wagon wheels," and in October of the same year, credits Mr. Hall for his " wagon to Haver- hill, 3s. 6d." It appears from Lieut. Underhill's accounts, that soon after that time he had a wagon built himself, and often let it to others. Simon M. Sanborn says that the first ox-wagon in that part of the town was owned by his grandfather, John Hoit, he thinks, not more than sixty-five years ago. Capt. Noah Weeks, born 1790, says that the first ox-wagon on the street was procured by Mr. Sweetser to draw his store-goods on ; and that he had taken eight barrels of cider on a cart with bags of apples on the top, and driven the team to Newburyport. It is related of one Moses Williams of Sandown, that he procured an ox-wagon to move a family from Danvers, and that he lay awake the night before starting, planning how he should turn his wagon when he arrived there.
The mode of drawing boards on one pair of wheels was to have " drafts,"-a spire about twenty feet long spread very wide, pinned on the top of the axletree and extending back four or five feet, so that the boards were to bear on the drafts before and behind and not tip on the axletree. On such a vehicle large quantities of boards were drawn to Haverhill and Sweat's Ferry. It has been done within my own recollection by my father.
The earliest light, one-horse wagons were about the year 1810. Deacon Walter Morse says that he had the first one in Chester, about 1811. They were rather rough and
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heavy, the body on the axletrees, without thorough-braces or springs. The first gig-wagon in the Long Meadows was owned by Deacon James Wason, I think, about 1812. John Ordway, Esq., says the first he ever saw or heard of was made by Samuel Smith, of Hampstead, about 1809 or 1810. Before this, a few of the wealthiest had a heavy, clumsy, square-top chaise. In 1805 there were about twenty persons taxed in Chester for a chaise. The tire of wheels was formerly cut in pieces the length of the felloes, and nailed on. The whole or hoop-tire came into use with the gig-wagon. The first on ox cart wheels was about 1820. Short boxes were used,-for cart wheels, about three inches long, and for light wheels about two inches. The pipe boxes and iron axletrees, I think, were not used previous to 1820. The boxes were then made with a chamber, so as not to bear in the middle. They were not made without a chamber before 1830.
Most of the traveling was done on horseback. and fre- quently double,- the man before, and the woman on the pillion behind. Much transportation, especially of small and light articles, such as bottles, jugs, sugar and butter- boxes, was done in saddle-bags. Most of the going to mill was also on horseback. Sometimes larger and heavier articles were transported long distances. When Wells Chase built his house in 1771, he brought windows ready glazed on horseback from Newbury. When he built a pair of cart-wheels in 1780, he and another man went to Deer- field for the iron on horseback. I find on his account-book a charge, " By myself and horse to Deerfield, 4£ 16s., Old Tenor, to E. Fitts ; " also for a day "tiring the wheels."
This iron was made in Deerfield by Daniel Ladd, on the Lamprey river, about a mile above Robinson's mills, South Deerfield. The ore was the bog ore, and was dug near the base of Saddleback mountain, and near Northwood line, and transported to the furnace. The quality was indiffer- ent, containing sulphur, or some other foreign substance, which made it difficult to weld ; but it answered a purpose, the supply from the mother country being cut off by the war.
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It is related of Deacon Jonathan Hall, that when he visited his daughter, the wife of Deacon Joseph Dear- born, at Rumney, he carried her a bag of meal on horse- back. When Jonathan, the son of Deacon Jonathan Hall, moved to Rumney with his wife and child, they went on horseback with two horses, and carried their bed and cook- ing utensils, and a child. She sometime- probably after- wards - carried a linen-wheel before her on horseback to Rumney.
SNOW-SHOES.
Snow-shoes were much used in traveling on foot on deep snows, and, presenting so large a surface, prevented slump- ing. The following description and the annexed cut are made from a pair of snow-shoes which my grandfather bought about one hundred and five years ago, which are now in good condition :
The snow-shoe consisted of a piece of tough, hard wood, generally about seven- eighths of an inch thick, bent at the front part in a semicirele abont sixteen inches in diameter, and the hinder part elon- gated, so that the ends came together side by side, and were riveted and loaded with a small piece of lead, so that when walk- ing that end would trail on the snow. The extreme length was three feet. Near each end, and tenoned into the bow, were flat pieces of hard wood, to which, and to the bow, was fastened a strong netting of leather or green-hide. The foot was fast- ened near the toe by means of a leather strap and strings, while the heel was left free. A man used to them would travel with great case, some said casier than on bare ground without.
In 1703 Captain Tyng raised a company of volunteers at Dunstable, and marched to Winnipiseogee against the Indian enemy on snow-shoes, for which the survivors had
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a grant of land from the General Court of Massachusetts in 1736, lying on the east side of Merrimack river, three miles wide, extending from Litchfield to Suncook, which was called "Tyngstown." Once within my recollection my father took a bushel of corn on his shoulder and traveled on snow-shoes to Blanchard's mill, a distance of two miles and a half. I have, many times since I have kept house, traveled across to the Long Meadow meeting-house to meeting on snow-shoes. I have heard my grandmother tell of being caught out in a snow-storm at a childbirth, or other occasion, and walking home on snow-shoes.
BLACKSMITHS.
The blacksmiths did all kinds of work. They not only did the jobbing, such as shoeing, forging chains, plow-irons, &c., but made the axes and hoes, shod the shovels and made scythes. Slitting-mills were not common, and they took the Russia and Swede's bars and split them with a chisel, and drew the iron to its proper size and shape.
Swings for shoeing oxen, I think were not used much, if any, before 1810, and not uniformly used until a much later date. A bed of straw was prepared; the ox was thrown down and turned upon his back; a man sat and held his head; the fore and hind legs were drawn and lashed together, so that they crossed cach other between the knee and ankle, and were shod in that position. Lieut. Josialı Underhill used to prepare the shoes and nails, and go up to Deacon Kelly's and in his stable shoe all the oxen from there to Martin's and White Hall. I find on Lieut. Underhill's ledger, 1798, charges for " a scythe, 6s .; laying a broad-axe, 9s. ; laying a hoc, 2s. 6 ; two new hoes, 9s .; shoeing a shovel, 3s. ; laying an axe, 3s. ; a crooked shave, 3s. ; new axe, 8s. ; breasting a mill-saw, 1s. 4. [The saw was of iron, and when worn so as to be hollow on the breast, was heated, and the back struck on the anvil and so straighted.] Cutting new teeth on a mill-saw, 3s."
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SCYTHES.
Although Lieut. Josiah Underhill, and perhaps other blacksmiths, made scythes, a large portion of those used in Chester must have been brought from abroad ; and al- though not particularly relating to the history of Chester, some facts may be worth preserving, and illustrate the his- tory of the times.
Maj. Benjamin Osgood made seythes by hand at Methuen about fifty or sixty years ago. He was a very powerful man to work, and of great endurance ; and he once told me that he had worked from four o'clock in the morning till ciglit at night, with two sledgemen, who took turns in blowing and striking. They took Russia bars and split them up with a chisel, and also the steel, and they would make eight scythes in a day, so that four scythes would be a a very large day's work to make. The carliest scythes that I recollect were stamped with the name of " Waters."
Sutton, now Millbury, Mass., was a great place for mak- ing scythes, and I have the following facts from Mr. Na- thaniel Waters, an aged man, through his grandson. He says that the first scythes made in this country were made at Salem, Mass., about the year 1700, entirely by hand. Quite early a man by the name of Putnam commenced making scythes by hand on Putnam Hill, in Sutton. There was an act of Parliament cited in the history of Me- Murphy's mill, in this work, forbidding the use of tilt- hammers. Putnam, to evade the law, as he supposed, ran one by horse-power many years. About 1770 Deacon Asa Waters erected a shop in Sutton, and ran tilt-hammers in violation of the law, and several other shops were built in that region about 1795. The " Waters " scythes and "Sut- ton " scythes, much used in Chester from fifty to sixty-five, or more, years ago, came from there.
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COOPERS.
Coopers' work was of course done by hand and with coarse tools. The earliest howel for crozing the staves for the head, which I ever saw, was a small adz with the edge curved and a short handle, somewhat resembling in shape a shoe-hammer. When I was a lad they had one at Dea. Morse's with which we used to crack nuts. This gave way before my day to a crooked shave or drawing-knife, with an iron shank for the right hand in the barrel, and a han- dle for the left outside. About 1815 the stock howel, a kind of heel-plane with a curved iron, was introduced. At that time and later, a large business was done at fish bar- rels, also on beef barrels ; and of course staves and hoop- poles were quite an article of traffic, as they were before that time. It appears by Lieut. Underhill's ledger, men- tioned under the head of " Blacksmith," that he took them in pay for his work and hired them drawn to Haverhill and Newbury.
For a season, making " shooks " was quite a business. They were red-oak hogsheads for molasses, set up, trussed, pared and howeled, and taken down and bundled and sent to the West Indies. But so many unskillful men and cheats went into it that they ran it under. Corresponding with this was making hoops to go with these shooks. Making staves and heading was once quite a business, as was also cutting hoop-poles. Wood land was owned by non- residents, and the old hoop-pole men were not over-particular about their lines. One of them had a novice at the business helping him one day, who inquired if they had not got to his line ; he replied, " My line always goes till sunset, sir." Rum, beef and fish barrels, also molasses hogsheads, were made in Chester, and large quantities of stock carried to Haverhill, Newbury and other places and sold.
There were no pail- and tub-factories, - all was done by hand. When we consider the enormous quantities of such articles turned out at these establishments now, we are led 28
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to wonder what is done with them on the one hand, and how our ancestors got along on the other. Their work was from the best materials and was heavy and substantial, and was carefully used. My grandmother was married in 1760, and soon went on to a farm, and procured a cheese- tub and milk-pail which were in use long after my recollec- tion, I think till her death in 1814, - at least fifty years.
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