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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77038 ***
+
+
+
+                       _TRADING IN SCRABBLETOWN_
+
+                                  BY
+                             ALICE BRAYTON
+
+
+
+
+                               _PREFACE_
+
+
+_The material used in this publication was found in a barrel of papers
+presented to the Fall River Historical Society by John Summerfield
+Brayton, in the summer of 1948. There were over 4000 papers in the
+barrel; well preserved, though some had been nibbled by mice. And none
+of those 4000 papers had ever appeared in print--never appeared at all,
+I understand, since the barrel head was nailed down a hundred years
+ago._
+
+_The papers were concerned with trading in Scrabbletown, an old suburb
+of Swansea, Massachusetts, just about, I should say, ten miles from the
+farmhouse on the Taunton where the barrel was found._
+
+_Trading a dull subject? By no means; according to the barrel the
+traders of Scrabbletown led a most exciting life, packed with adventure
+steadied by responsibility, completely insecure, very satisfactory to
+those who succeeded or even survived--and you had a run for your money
+if you didn’t. I am trying to present this manysided life as revealed
+by the papers in the barrel. You may find me incredible. I read all the
+papers, the 4000; please believe that, anyway._
+
+_The latest paper was written in 1832, which is more than a world
+away, and the earliest was a lottery ticket of 1814; not to be thought
+of as wicked, for I judge from other papers that nearly everybody in
+Scrabbletown took chances. Lottery tickets to the “Rhode Island State
+Lottery” were sold over the counter. “A fool and his money are soon
+parted” was a copybook saying of theirs, however, and although there
+were quite a few legal papers in the barrel I found no trace of any
+law attempting to protect fools. Indeed, even the practice of actually
+jailing persons who had bought more than they could pay for, prevailed
+through the whole barrel period, and I read some sad letters from some
+very foolish men who owed money to the traders of Scrabbletown._
+
+_The barrel letters were easily deciphered; though some of the spelling
+was queer, it was always comprehensible. Going over the papers it
+seemed to me that the whole population had somehow learned to read and
+write pretty well; in the barrel there was only one paper signed with
+a mark. And that was the mark of Prince Potter, a freed slave, father
+of Quanny Potter who sold seven sheep in 1824. Possibly he had been
+crippled by arthritis; perhaps when young he too could have written his
+name. You will not find me jumping to conclusions._
+
+_Except for that one lottery ticket, there was no paper of 1814 in
+the barrel and there was nothing dated 1815 but an account book bound
+in stiff marbled covers. It was backed by real leather; to last, you
+know. No one at that time bought anything not likely to wear well. The
+book came from the shop of John Brewer, a bookbinder and bookseller
+of Providence. On the fly leaf is written in an excellent, really
+distinguished hand_,
+
+                   “_The property of Israel Brayton
+                      March 21, 1815. Swanzey._”
+
+_It was the discovery of this book that gave me my first clue to the
+ownership of the barrel papers. There is no doubt that the barrel
+and the papers were the property of an Israel Brayton who traded in
+Scrabbletown in 1815-1832, and in 1832 shut up shop, crammed all of his
+own papers and any others around the shop, into the barrel, nailed down
+the barrel head, took the barrel over to the attic of the farm house in
+Somerset where it has just been discovered, and thought no more about
+it for the next hundred years._
+
+_Who was this Israel Brayton? The barrel relates him to the entire
+countryside. He knew everybody, apparently, was well known to
+everybody. But he was a quiet man, I think, cautious, self-contained.
+Notoriety, publicity, arrogance, even modest pride, were deadly sins in
+his New England eyes. And so, what he told to no one, no one repeated,
+and finally no one knew._
+
+_His descendants of today had never heard of Scrabbletown before the
+finding of the barrel, had never known that Grandfather Brayton had
+ever been in trade._
+
+_Least said, soonest mended, he thought; and it is true--but I
+must tell you something of the Trader as well as the Trade of
+Scrabbletown--just a little--I hope he will not mind--it was all a long
+time ago._
+
+
+
+
+                       _Trading in Scrabbletown_
+
+
+                   CONCERNING ISRAEL BRAYTON, TRADER
+
+
+Israel Brayton’s father was John Brayton, son of Israel Brayton,
+grandson of Preserved Brayton; all of Somerset. Letters from John
+Brayton to his son Israel were in the barrel. So we know.
+
+Israel, you notice, was named for his grandfather. Other members of
+his family were three older sisters; Mary, Sarah, and Nancy. Their
+letters also were in the barrel--nice little letters to brother Israel.
+And nice little bills, too, from brother Israel. He had an elder
+brother who died young, at sea; and the barrel holds letters from
+another brother--he wrote from Warren. We gather that at one time he
+was Captain of a ship that did some trading along the coast--Captain
+Stephen. Israel had, also, five younger brothers and sisters. They are
+not in the barrel but he had them.
+
+At the time of Israel’s birth, in 1792, this rapidly increasing family
+was living in an old farmhouse, built in 1715, on the crest of its own
+one hundred and seventy-five acre farm in Somerset on the West Shore of
+the Taunton River near the river’s mouth. They had a fine view of Mount
+Hope Bay from their southern windows. There was a well-filled family
+graveyard in the back orchard, a little red schoolhouse up the road “on
+William Read’s land,” built partly with Brayton money, a stone wharf
+for Brayton boats down by the river.
+
+When Israel was four years old, his father built a larger farmhouse,
+nearer the river bank, and in this new house the little Braytons of
+Israel’s generation grew up. Their elders were talking about the Late
+War. They meant the War of the Revolution. Having suffered severely
+from the effects of that victory on their business, they were trying to
+make good. Some of their most prosperous and competent neighbors had
+been loyal to the Crown. They were simply not there any more. And they
+were missed. Others, it was suspected, had been loyal in secret, as has
+been lately proved. It had done them no good. They were ruined with the
+rest. And all about on the farms were the crippled and the pensioned
+men.
+
+Conditions were getting better, slowly; a few new houses had been
+built, a few new ships had been launched. Nobody around here between
+the Revolution and the War of 1812 seems to have been expecting such
+utter disaster as another war. But even before the actual declaration
+of war, in 1812, their world to their consternation went to pieces.
+Again Somerset ships were taken by British ships. Somerset, Swansea,
+Trojan, and Scrabbletown men--sailors before the mast--were pressed.
+The ship yards of Somerset, Dighton, Berkeley, Assonet, Warren,
+Bristol, Providence, Lee’s River, everywhere--closed down, and commerce
+ceased to be. Israel’s people had lived on their farms but they had
+lived by their shipyards and their shipping.
+
+When the War of 1812 was officially declared on June 18th, Israel was
+20 years old. His father was on the draft board of the town. Of course
+Israel went off with the other Somerset men to fight the Britishers.
+They went, I think, as far as New Bedford.
+
+Israel incurred a disability, if the barrel is to be trusted. He was
+discharged from the Army. There is a good deal in the barrel about
+this disability. Israel in after days thought he should be excused
+from military drill. When the local Militia would not excuse him, he
+just stayed away. There is a note in the barrel acknowledging the
+payment of his fine for so doing. In order to get out of drill, which
+was time-consuming at least, for the Militia rarely met in Israel’s
+village, Israel eventually had to have affadavits from two local
+doctors as to his disability. His sister had married Dr. Winslow, Dr.
+Lloyd Brayton was his cousin. The authorities were skeptical. Dr.
+Winslow’s second letter did the trick. The first was not accepted.
+
+ “Samuel Read
+ Lieut, Commander.    Sir:
+
+  Mr. Israel Brayton belonging to your Company has and is now
+  troubled with a lameness and weakness in his back and legs, which
+  may be termed of a rheumatic tendency, and in my opinion ought to
+  excuse him from military duty.
+
+                           Yours in respect
+                             John Winslow”
+
+In August, 1813, as soon as he was free of the Army, Israel married.
+His bride was a neighbor’s girl, Keziah Anthony, daughter of David
+Anthony and his wife Submit Wheeler. The Anthony farm lay east of
+Lee’s River, not an hour’s walk across the fields from the Brayton
+Farm on the Taunton. Keziah was Israel’s third cousin, and kinship
+was of much account. You knew what you were getting. The marriage was
+most practical. Israel, just come of age, not physically strong, had
+to start out on his own. He needed help. And both the Anthony and the
+Wheeler connections, as was expected, proved useful. There are hundreds
+of communications in the barrel from Hezekiah Anthony of Providence and
+David Anthony of Troy, both brothers of Israel’s wife, both prosperous
+merchants in their day. There is a helpful letter from Nathaniel
+Wheeler, her uncle.
+
+But nobody could be very useful in 1813. With all the shipping stopped
+and the shipyards closed, there was no berth for Israel in any
+countinghouse, no need for him as supercargo--a man with a lame back
+isn’t much good on a farm.
+
+Israel took his bride up state to Foxboro, where he taught in the
+District School. In Foxboro or thereabouts--boundary lines were
+changing fast--their first child was born, little Mary, who, herself,
+at the age of eighteen was teaching school in Fall River. You know
+perhaps that later in life she gave the B.M.C. Durfee High School to
+the City of Fall River in memory of her son.
+
+The family was always interested in education and Israel served on the
+School Committee of Swansea for years and preserved in the barrel a
+number of letters from various people who wanted jobs.
+
+In 1815, after the President had ratified the Treaty of Ghent on
+February 17th, and the War was surely over, Israel and Kezia and little
+Mary left Foxboro for their own part of the world, where, in the small
+village of Scrabbletown near Swansea, Israel began his career as a
+Trader. And went to Providence and bought that first account book of
+which I have told you.
+
+
+
+
+      TRADING WITH THE SWANSEA UNION COTTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY
+
+
+Back in 1804, ten years before this story begins, Dexter Wheeler, an
+uncle of Israel Brayton’s wife, had bought the Martin Farm in Swansea;
+43 acres with water power and a grist mill. In 1806, he sold half his
+farm to his brother, Nathaniel, the village blacksmith. The brothers
+intended to build and operate a Cotton Yarn Factory. This was years
+before the power loom had been used successfully anywhere in the
+country, twenty six years before mule spinning was even attempted.
+
+Factory construction went on slowly. Dexter Wheeler quit, though his
+brother Nathaniel Wheeler continued to be interested for some years
+longer. Ownership of the yarn mill became involved. Then the War of
+1812 stopped the shipping north of cotton--overland transportation
+was of course impossible. And you can’t run a cotton factory without
+cotton, you know. And you can’t raise a cotton crop in New England--in
+case you don’t know!
+
+There was reorganization at the close of the War. The third oldest
+paper in the barrel is a certificate of stock in this “Swansea Union
+Cotton Manufacturing Company” as it finally came to be called. The
+stock had been issued to Wheaton Luther, February 21, 1816, when
+he was clerking for Israel in Scrabbletown and must have been left
+carelessly around the store. (This Wheaton Luther was a Somerset man,
+his board bill in Swansea where he stayed with David Brown was also in
+the barrel, paid up to August 1, 1816.) Wheaton gave $145.00 for his
+mill stock. It was not a whole share of stock, only a quarter share,
+and he did not pay for it all at once, but in 39 installments. This is
+testimony to Wheaton’s industry. (Though the lottery ticket was his.)
+And to his small wages. And to the difficulty men had in getting any
+capital at all to finance a yarn mill.
+
+By the close of 1815, the factory was spinning some cotton. The
+spinners had been carefully selected, for the factory machinery was
+supposed to be rather a secret, certainly experimental, the process
+not too easy to get the hang of. At first the spinners were eager to
+take home the yarn and weave it on their own looms. Their families
+and friends wanted the work. But this was haphazard and unbusinesslike
+and would never do. There must be a distributing center for the yarn,
+a center to which the finished work could be returned, inspected, paid
+for.
+
+Uncle Nathaniel Wheeler wrote up to his niece Kezia. He was still
+running his blacksmith shop in Swansea and knew what was going on. He
+saw what looked like a good job for Israel--the factory needed some one
+to run a Company Store.
+
+Why a Store? Because the weavers would not want to be paid in cash,
+he knew very well they wouldn’t. They would want to be paid in
+goods--which they could get immediately. They certainly would not want
+to save what they might earn, for the farms were short of everything
+and needed replacements at once. With no shipping, not only cotton
+but many staples had not come up from the South; no English or West
+Indian Goods had been in the market for a long time, no whale ships had
+brought oil for the lamps of Swansea, no ships of any kind had brought
+any lamps.
+
+After sounding out the Swansea Union Cotton Manufacturing Company,
+Israel and Kezia and Mary came down at once, as I have told you, and
+Israel found housing in Swansea for his family and began to look about
+for a partner. He was a cautious man, was Israel.
+
+John Mason, well thought of in Swansea where he was Postmaster, was not
+averse to investing in the project. The two men formed what they called
+a “Co-Partnership”. They bought a small shop whose owner had failed.
+They bought the shop and its meagre contents at auction. And what they
+bought and what they paid for it is listed in the barrel.
+
+They filled the almost empty shelves with, well, with everything.
+I have read the inventories. They were then ready to trade with
+the Swansea Union Cotton Manufacturing Company; and with the whole
+countryside.
+
+And they did. And Israel continued to do so until he went out of
+business altogether in 1832. Seventeen years. A few years later the
+Swansea Union Cotton Manufacturing Company’s factory burned down;
+bankrupt, I have heard. Of that the barrel knows nothing. It was a very
+successful little yarn factory while it lasted.
+
+Brayton and Mason had engaged Wheaton Luther as clerk. (Yes. He was a
+cousin of Kezia’s.). For they did not intend to spend much time in the
+shop themselves. Mason had his post-office. Israel had to get around.
+All their ventures were complicated and were going to need personal
+attention. Wheaton Luther proved to be efficient, though he certainly
+conducted many affairs of his own on the side. And Mrs. Brayton
+(Kezia), after the birth of her second child, little William Bowers, in
+August, 1816, helped in the store when needed.
+
+“Mr Brayton----please to send me the handkerchief that your wife laid
+aside----and charge it----
+
+                           Sarah Ann Luther”
+
+As soon as little Mary could reach up to the counter, she too helped
+out, after school hours. She was a very handsome girl, and graceful.
+Her father hired a dancing teacher to give her dancing lessons. The
+bill is in the Barrel. Also I found a bill showing that she began her
+regular schooling at the age of three.
+
+Israel spent the rest of the year of 1815 riding about the country-side
+making connections with the weavers needed to weave the spun yarn of
+the factory. He knew all the farms and the villages, of course. He had
+grown up among them. He got the names of quite a lot of reliable men
+and women who would be willing to weave for the Swansea Union Cotton
+Manufacturing Company through the agency of Brayton and Mason. They
+began to come in for yarn. Israel started the Weave Books found in the
+barrel.
+
+We know from these books the prices paid each man and woman, and the
+pattern each had to follow.
+
+As the amount of yarn spun in the factory increased, the number
+of weavers had to be increased. The better weavers--any very good
+weaver had always been celebrated through the villages--were the
+first employed by Israel--also the weavers nearest to Scrabbletown.
+Weaving, I think, was an Art, when Israel went to find his weavers;
+and started to make up his weave books. Possibly it did not remain
+an art for long. The demand for weavers was soon so great that the
+factory could not--did not--reject badly woven cloth. The price paid
+for the weaving was the same for good or bad. Each weaver knew that
+a critical appraisal of the quality of his finished work was placed
+against his name, but the factory, though it grumbled, took the good,
+bad, indifferent. Every weaver got his pay, didn’t he--why worry?
+Occasionally a man wove so badly that he could not be kept on the
+list--but only occasionally.
+
+And the factory was not spinning the yarn evenly--not as well as the
+better home spinners had spun it. Down in the weave book went the
+comment of the weaver who was asked to weave bad (“tender”) yarn. “The
+yarn was very rotten in spooling” wrote Sarah Ann Luther. But it was
+rarely returned unwoven. Possibly the weavers hated to waste their time
+weaving bad yarn--their own spinning had been pretty good. But they
+wove what Israel gave them. Of course they did--eventually. And it made
+usable cloth, mostly.
+
+Finally, few bothered to weave too well, I suppose. Soon they all got
+used to the second rate. Along the village streets you would have heard
+the looms clicking. New prosperity could have been seen about the farms.
+
+Men wove this factory yarn more often than women. Retired
+sea-captains--seafaring men without ships at the moment--sat down
+at the loom, especially in the winter months. And still the demand
+for weavers grew. The yarn was taken by weavers living in Assonet,
+Barrington, Dighton, Rehoboth, Tiverton, Warren, Freetown and Troy
+(old names for Fall River) as well as by those living in Swansea and
+Somerset and the farms round about. And it was all distributed by
+Brayton and Mason who checked it most carefully. There was a system by
+which yarn was sent to the homes of the weavers by baggage waggon, the
+woven cloth returned the same way. But many weavers did not live on the
+baggage waggon route and there were horses on every farm. Farmers would
+ride in to Scrabbletown, have a drink, get the yarn their households
+needed; and bring back to Israel the woven cloth in their own good
+time. I must repeat that they could have been paid in cash had they
+so desired. But few did so desire. For they could select goods right
+off the shelves--there was no better store in Swansea than the little
+Company Store run by Brayton and Mason.
+
+The farmers would sometimes bring in fresh eggs, a pail of berries,
+some bear steaks or venison--Israel was always glad to get anything
+in the way of trade. There is record of a crop of Swansea currants so
+disposed of, to a man down from Dighton. He was going to make currant
+wine. A village shoemaker would make a few extra shoes for the shop; in
+trade for a gilt mirror and some imported rum.
+
+For of course Brayton and Mason carried rum both imported and
+domestic--some weavers favored one, some another. They even stocked
+Port Wine, straight from Spain to Somerset. Silk from China could be
+had, too, and French Wall Paper; British goods, surprisingly, were very
+popular the moment the British were defeated.
+
+When the weavers had brought in their cloth, and it had been inspected,
+Israel often picked out some particularly good piece to keep in stock.
+He arranged this with the factory. Households busy weaving for the
+factory sometimes needed a little cotton cloth for household use which
+they no longer had the time to spin and weave; especially bed-ticking.
+
+Israel kept more and more of this homewoven cloth for trading. He had
+to send his cart up to Boston where he bought his main supplies of
+drygoods, china and glass ware, and it seemed foolish to send it empty.
+He began to load up with cloth and goosefeathers, etc. And trade was
+soon pretty brisk. A Company Store in Raynham took all he could spare;
+he stopped off in Raynham on the way up. There was in Boston as at home
+an especially good demand for bed-ticking. The trade in more fancy
+weaves was not always satisfactory.
+
+With the yarn issued to the weavers, went, as I have said,
+“directions”. Each weaver was told by the factory what colors to use,
+what design to make. Yarn of each color, just enough, went with each
+bundle.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+There were found in the barrel, a few pieces of the woven cloth. They
+show the red and the orange yarn, the two shades of blue, and the
+general look of this home-and-factory product. More white yarn was
+given out than colored--undyed, a “natural” white. The bits of cloth
+are most pleasing.
+
+Weavers who were accustomed to weave their own devised patterns, as
+many were, naturally found these directions irksome. But it was take it
+or leave it, and they took it, and brought back their finished work to
+the Company Store, getting in exchange, women’s kid boots, teapots of
+lustre ware, good China Tea. It probably seemed worth it. Of course,
+Brayton and Mason kept Store Books as well as Weave Books--it is easy
+to trace by name and date the goods that the weavers selected.
+
+The Swansea Union Cotton Manufacturing Company gave their spinners
+credit at Brayton and Mason’s store. There are hundreds of little
+notes in the barrel signed by the Factory Manager, Benjamin Anthony,
+asking that the bearer be given credit for certain specified articles,
+the same to be charged to the Company. It meant more book keeping for
+Israel, but what could he do about it. Yes, there are hundreds of such
+notes, and nobody knows how many more were destroyed. More personal
+notes run as follows:
+
+“You must not trust Elisha Sweet”. This was in 1820.
+
+“Please to let Otis Handy have cloth nuff for jacket and trowsers and
+charge the same to me
+
+                           Abraham Gardner”
+
+“Please to let the bearer have eight shillings worth out of your store
+and charge the same to me
+
+          Abraham Gardner” (notice, they wrote of shillings).
+
+“It is particularly requested as a favor that if Jeremiah Brown
+should send any of his children or family for spirits that you should
+refuse him, and confer a favour upon his family who on account of his
+excessive drinking are much distressed
+
+                 Swanzey. October 13, 1828. A friend.”
+
+“Please to let the bearer have one dollar and 59 cents on my weaving
+Account.
+
+                          Isaac Threeshere.”
+
+“Please to let the bearer have a pint of lamp oil for the eggs which
+Gardner Slade left.
+
+                             Mary Earle.”
+
+Not only the weavers and the spinners but even some of the relatives
+were being obliged. And that did complicate things.
+
+“Betsy P. Slade wants you to send her a yard of Italian Crape.
+
+                            Phoebe Slade.”
+
+“Please let the boy have seven pounds of fish and charge to me.
+
+                            Charles Slade.”
+
+All this credit was none too good. But that was the way the village
+wanted it. It kept them in debt. Had they wished to leave! But they
+did not want to leave. They were very well pleased with Scrabbletown
+and Swansea. Just read the letters in the barrel. People were moving
+in, not moving out.
+
+
+                     _Stocking the Company Store_
+
+To stock their stores, the partners had had to buy an immense variety
+of things. Long and varied invoices are in the barrel. I have seen in
+the homes of the descendants of the men and women who wove for Brayton
+and Mason, the china they took in trade for the cloth they carried back
+to the Company Store. I have seen the furniture, the wall hangings, the
+linen, that Brayton and Mason sold to the countryside. There is nothing
+better.
+
+The trade, with Boston especially, grew rapidly. Israel picked up what
+he could, where he could, but most of his drygoods were brought over
+the road from Boston. Philip Bowers was soon renting his waggon to
+take Israel’s venture in woven cloth to Boston, weekly; (before Israel
+bought a waggon of his own;) bringing back all he could carry; and very
+bulky many of the articles were. Once he brought down a trunk. But that
+was a special order. By the way, nothing from Boston was sent down on
+approval or in speculation.
+
+Israel had some merchandize brought down by the regular baggage waggon.
+Perhaps the need for a waggon of his own was more obvious then than
+now. It will help to understand his situation if we read a Boston
+newspaper of 1819:
+
+“Taken from behind the Baggage Waggon, between Boston and Milton Hills,
+on Monday afternoon, by cutting the rope with which it was fastened,
+a basket containing knives, forks, a few snuffers and trays, pocket
+knives, slates, Naples soap, brass lamps and candlesticks--reward ten
+dollars.” In the same issue: “Just received from London, drygoods.
+Gentlemen can occasionally be furnished with Garments readymade.”
+And--“Lane and Honeywell have received--from Bremen--scales,
+lookingglasses, Bristol teapots.” Israel’s customers expected him to
+stock whatever was advertised, of course, and get it down to Swansea
+somehow.
+
+
+                     _The Boston Wholesale Houses_
+
+Many Boston wholesale houses did business with Israel Brayton. Appleton
+and Paige sold him book muslin, Brittania handkerchiefs, red flannel,
+lilac Calico, pink and white robes, Tartan Plaid, Caroline Plaid,
+swansdown, and many other things. Fowle and Lincoln sold him India
+Goods, mostly Indian Shawls.
+
+Grant’s Paper Hanging Warehouse at 6 Union Street (near the Old Market)
+sold him both imported and domestic wall paper; many rolls of striped
+paper and some with borders.
+
+James W. Paige and Co. sold him scarlet chintz prints--among other
+things. Norcross and Mellon, later Otis Norcross and Co., sold him
+blue edged plates, tifflers and muffins. Lustre tea sets. State House
+Plates. Imported glass ware. Fancy mugs. Toy images. Oval tea pots and
+sugar bowls. Nappies. Threaded creams. Square sallads. And so forth.
+
+Thomas Tarbell of 66 State Street, under the Massachusetts Bank;
+Rich silks. Thomas Thurber; Italian silks, Russian sheetings, flag
+handkerchiefs. Tuckerman, Rogers and Cushing; Blue broadcloths, towels,
+tablecloths, Madras handkerchiefs, white silk.
+
+Hubbard and Greenough at 69 State Street, sold him Russian sheetings
+and hooks and eyes. Richard and Seaver of 5 Liberty Square sold him
+Tartan Plaid, woolen stockings, doeskin mittens, Canton silk, spool
+cotton, tape, silk gloves, Mecklin lace; and J. and E. Phillips sold
+him Canton crape and sarsanet.
+
+Thomas A. Davis sold him brass candlesticks and shell canes, while
+Lowell, Adams and Co. sold him brass andirons and supporters.
+
+Charles Davenport sold him nothing but Malaga raisens, and Rufus
+Farnham furnished him with nothing but gold beads.
+
+But Lane and Honeywell at 17 Dock Square sold him all sorts of
+hardware, particularly snuff boxes.
+
+Lane and Read sold him knives and forks, German Jews Harps, gilt
+buttons, black tin tea pots, and Maynard and Noyes’ ink powder.
+
+P. Hale sold him velvet bindings, Valentia shawls, Thread, and
+Merrimack sheetings, along with other commodities.
+
+There were other Boston merchants who carried his accounts, of course.
+One day, Israel bought from Jeremiah Fitch, of 5 Market Street, Boston,
+some “Power Loom Cotton Cloth”. This was in 1820. Of course he did not
+know that the power loom cotton cloth would soon be shutting down the
+looms in the farmhouses. He did not know that the farms and villages
+were at the peak of their buying power, their desire and their ability
+to buy really beautiful things.
+
+This trading in what we call “luxury articles”, was hazardous. But all
+trading was a venture, as Israel well knew. He could not always pay
+his bills promptly. There are letters from the Boston firms demanding
+settlement, really demanding it. There are also letters showing that
+Israel began at once to try to collect money due him. He was not always
+successful. There must have been anxious moments in the back room of
+the shop in Scrabbletown, fairly often. There was no security that the
+firm might not fail, the factory did not stand behind it. Israel had to
+borrow money from the bank occasionally--and would have borrowed more
+often if the bank had been more willing to lend. It is also true that
+Israel was caught out in passing counterfeit money rather surprisingly
+often. He apparently took it without a thought and sent it up to the
+Boston Merchants who were more thoughtful. The letters from the Boston
+Firms about counterfeit money are unpleasant, but Israel kept them and
+put them in the barrel.
+
+I think Israel’s solvency amazing, considering all the irons he had in
+the fire. And he was only a farm boy, with no experience in trading.
+Unless you count horse trading, of which the whole family had done
+plenty. Israel and his partners kept books and corresponded with dozens
+of different firms--there is no sign of confusion anywhere.
+
+
+                    _The New York Wholesale Houses_
+
+Connections with New York Firms were few, but Israel did have
+commission merchants in New York, to whom he sent, care of some
+Somerset skipper, such goods as he thought would sell in New York.
+There were also a few New York importations. G. B. Miller sent Israel
+American Segars and Smoaking Tobacco. So did Thomas Agnew. Samuel Gray
+shipped them on. Samuel Waring and Co. sent him some drygoods in 1820,
+among which were “cotton flag handkerchiefs” and “imitation shawls”.
+
+
+                  _Whale Oil, Nails, and Pitchforks_
+
+Whale oil he bought at wholesale from the Rodmans of New Bedford.
+Nails, and he sold a good many, were bought from the Fall River Iron
+Works. Israel bought a lot of pitchforks from Amasa Goodyear of New
+Haven; two-tined and three-tined pitchforks.
+
+
+                          _The Leather Trade_
+
+His leather goods he did not buy outright, but got them on consignment
+from John Peckham Jr. of Bristol. Peckham wrote Israel the following
+letter in 1824:
+
+  “Sir. Wishing to keep a quantity of saddling in Swansea for sale,
+  such as harness and saddles, trunks, bridles, etc. and knowing
+  you, I thought I would write you word to see if you would take a
+  quantity of the above articles to sell for me on commission; if you
+  would be kind enough to take an assortment of the above articles to
+  sell please to write me word and at what commission
+
+                              Yours etc.
+                           Jno. Peckham Jr.”
+
+Israel took them. Larned Wilmarth ran a sort of baggage waggon from
+Bristol up to Dighton and points beyond, and was willing to bring up
+Peckham’s goods as wanted. Peckham and Israel traded with each other
+with mutual satisfaction until Feb. 6, 1832, when, with the payment of
+$16.00 in full, the account was closed out. For Israel was shutting up
+shop.
+
+There are a number of letters in the barrel which throw light on the
+saddlers’ trade.
+
+--“The harness, I calculated for the hearse harness, if they should
+want it. I therefore put all black buckles.”
+
+Mr. Peckham did not believe in a fixed price. “I want you to get the
+price these things are marked, but if you cannot, you must take less. I
+had rather you should take less than have a man go away and not buy on
+account of price.” He was not one to be put upon, either. In 1826, he
+wrote to Israel:
+
+  “Sir
+
+  This bill I took of you appears to be counterfeit. I did not
+  undertake to spend it before today and I carried it to the bank to
+  change and the cashier says it is a counterfeit bill. If you will
+  change it and send it back by Mr. Wilmarth you will oblige your
+  humble servant
+
+                           John Peckham Jr.”
+
+In 1828, Mr. Peckham wrote again:
+
+ “When I was at your store a few days since, your son (it must have been
+ William Bowers Brayton, he was just twelve years old) said there was a
+ man talking of wanting a saddle. Therefore I thought I would send the
+ one I have on hand. The price is nine dollars. If you please, you may
+ put on a pair of stirrups that you have on hand, and you can arrange
+ them on your book accordingly.”
+
+He also wrote: “no doubt you thought the cheeses to be what you
+recommended them to be, but they are not.”
+
+There was quite a bit of trade with the shoemakers; local men. Enoch
+Babbitt who lived in Berkeley was in the habit of sending down a few
+shoes every once in a while. In 1830, he brought Israel 9 pairs of
+boots to sell on commission of ten per cent. But in 1831 he wrote
+he was so busy he could not make any more shoes for Israel. He had
+sent down 12 pairs three months earlier. Anthony Morse who lived in
+Scrabbletown was employed by Israel to mend shoes brought into the
+stores of Scrabbletown and Egypt. A certain Mr. Chace of Swansea made
+shoes to order. “If Mr. Chace has no shoes that is raised higher in the
+instep than common, he must make a pair or else I dont want any.” It
+was not unusual to order a pair of morocco walking shoes. But calfskin
+shoes made by John S. Russel were more in demand. The calves were born
+on the farm.
+
+
+                         _The Cracker Barrel_
+
+In Israel’s day, the cracker barrel was not a figure of speech. Israel
+kept a barrel of crackers in his store. In 1824, Edward Wilcox sold
+to Israel 200 crackers for one dollar. The bill is in the barrel. The
+next year he charged only a dollar for 220 crackers. Daniel Saunders’
+crackers were 210 for $1.00. The amounts billed are small but the
+bills were frequent. The largest single shipment to Israel was 600
+crackers, bought May 20, 1825. This was wholesale. One cracker cost the
+customer one cent, bought right out of the barrel. I am forgetting the
+time Israel bought a whole barrel of crackers at once, from Stephen
+Wrightington, for three dollars. The barrel held 720 crackers, so
+Wrightington said.
+
+And Horatio Smith sold crackers to Israel. So did Alvin K. Luther.
+This cracker business was a big one. For of course the ships wanted
+crackers. I found no “ship biscuit” listed on any bill. The ships
+bought crackers.
+
+Some of these bakers of crackers made gingerbread as well. Israel
+usually kept a few pans of gingerbread in stock. They cost him ten
+cents a pan.
+
+
+                          _Hearts and Kisses_
+
+Israel ran a confectionary department, of course. Isaac Lum of Somerset
+supplied peppermints, hearts, and kisses. Hiram Buffinton was the
+Swansea confectioner. He charged 20 cents a pound for his sweets,
+wholesale. And he sold oranges to Israel, wholesale. Though very few
+oranges were billed to Israel. It was hard to get them up from the
+South, unspoiled, in a sailing vessel.
+
+
+                _Combs and Codfish and Palm Leaf Hats_
+
+The list of Israel’s purchases is very long, but I hate to omit the
+traders in combs Daniel Briggs, Asa Holman, Thomas Coggshell, and Abiel
+Fuller. Did they manufacture combs? They were Swansea and Somerset men.
+
+James Sherman sold Israel what pork he carried; and many barrels of
+flour. Though Hezekiah Anthony had most of Israel’s flour trade. (See
+about him later.)
+
+Henry Cleaveland, a farmer in Swansea, sold Israel 12266 feet of board
+at one time. He had a woodlot--and somebody handy with the axe.
+
+Simeon Talbot of Dighton sold Israel hats, felt hats, not straw. Asa
+Kilby of Somerset kept him supplied with dried codfish. Nathan P.
+Johnson sold him all the palm leaf hats and palm leaf brooms he could
+use. And more. They did not sell rapidly. The palm leaf hats brought up
+from the South by Isaac White did better.
+
+Windsor soap was a good article to carry, for the turnover was rapid.
+Abner Beard of Somerset and Henry Sanderson both supplied Israel with
+Windsor Soap. Powder, more used then than now (not face powder) was
+supplied by Charles Pettibone. Elijah Corbett had many bills for scythe
+sneads. And William G. Chace once sold him 2000 cigars.
+
+
+                            _Garden Seeds_
+
+The little trays of garden seeds which stand on many country counters
+today, were on Israel’s counter, of course. In 1828 Israel wrote: “I
+have a good assortment of garden seeds from the Shakers, for sale.”
+
+In 1830, Jeremiah Williams of Warren wrote to Israel: “I have sent you
+one box or bundle of garden seed; containing 109 papers for which I
+shall make you a deduction of 20 per cent when sold on account.” He
+wrote a little later: “The time for making a return on garden seeds
+has arrived. Your balance would be gladly received as soon as is
+convenient.” Jeremiah Williams had sent seed to Israel from Warren from
+the opening of Israel’s first store. The kind of seed he sent never
+varied.
+
+  “Warren, April, 1829.
+  Mr. Brayton. Dear Sir,
+
+  When you were in Warren, you were speaking to me about onion seed
+  from Concord. It has just arrived and should you now want it, I can
+  supply you with a good article at----
+
+                         Yours most respected
+                           Jeremiah Williams
+                           by James Gardner”
+
+The only named seeds carried by Israel were:
+
+ Concord Onion Seed
+ Rob Roy Beans
+ China Dwarf Beans
+ Early Red Eyed Beans
+ Dwarf Prolific Peas
+ Early June Peas
+ Beet Seed
+ Clover Seed
+
+
+                       _Trading with Providence_
+
+Trading with Providence was mostly confined to trading with Hezekiah
+Anthony, Israel’s brother-in-law. Hezekiah and his wife, Sally Bowers,
+had moved up to Providence from Bowers’ Shores in Somerset in 1818.
+On June 15th of that year he opened a wholesale Grocery Store in
+Whitman’s Block at 11 Weybossett Street, Providence, which he conducted
+successfully for 48 years.
+
+One branch of his trade was extremely successful. He imported rum
+from St. Croix which was put through the Customs at a small port in
+Connecticut. The Custom declarations are in the barrel, receipted.
+Israel sold a great deal of this St. Croix rum. Israel also sold a
+great deal of flour imported from Albany by Hezekiah. This was “Canal”
+flour. And Israel sold “Philadelphia” flour, imported by Hezekiah
+from Philadelphia of course. Flour was billed to Israel by Hezekiah
+in every invoice. Sugar was billed almost as often. Israel really did
+sell a great deal of coffee and tea, purchased wholesale from Hezekiah.
+But some of the China Tea sold by Israel came direct from Canton to
+Somerset.
+
+Snuff was in great demand. Israel bought it from Hezekiah. The invoices
+tell of bladders of snuff sent down from Providence. Snuff boxes had
+been purchased rather often from the Boston Merchants. I seem to
+remember that there were snuff mills at one time in the South County,
+but the barrel tells nothing of the origin of Hezekiah’s snuff.
+
+Segars were purchased from Hezekiah in large quantities, American
+Segars were the cheapest. Molasses, salt, ginger, nutmegs, cloves,
+allspice, and raisens, were supplied frequently. Occasionally some
+window glass was shipped down, some shaving soap, wrapping paper, corn
+brooms, salt cod, starch, and of course, shot. There was a gun on every
+farm.
+
+Gin was bought by everybody; “Jenck’s Gin”, “Haskell’s Gin”, and the
+gin of “Fox Point”, and Hezekiah sent down a great deal. There was some
+demand for cognac brandy, which he supplied, and for many a barrel of
+“sweet wine”.
+
+Hezekiah carried on a correspondence with Israel through the years by
+means of notes appended to the invoices.
+
+“Mr. Anthony’s son died this morning”. This was written by a clerk, of
+course. Mr. Anthony had six sons, all of whom died in childhood, I am
+told.
+
+“If father is severely ill, I will come down by stage” was written in
+Mr. Anthony’s own hand.
+
+“Perry got in from Spain this morning and is still in quarantine. I do
+not know how long it will be before he can get down.”
+
+“Perry is expecting to sail for the East Indies about October 15.”
+There were a good many notes about Perry.
+
+“Times is hard”, at the bottom of an invoice of flour.
+
+“Late news from Europe has checked all speculation, particularly in
+cotton goods.” What news was that?
+
+This close friendship between Hezekiah Anthony and Israel Brayton
+existed through Israel’s life, and he named one of his sons Hezekiah
+Anthony Brayton. The business relations between the two men were also
+satisfactory. And well it was so, for business came first and was no
+more secure than mutual confidence could make it.
+
+
+
+
+          TRADING WITH THE LYMAN COTTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY
+
+In 1818, when the Swansea Union Cotton Manufacturing Company was
+running smoothly and the weavers of the Swansea Company’s yarn were
+well organized, Israel Brayton and John Mason took on a new connection.
+
+The Lyman Cotton Manufacturing Company, operating a Yarn Mill in
+the village of Lyman near Providence, began to send its yarn to be
+distributed by Brayton and Mason from their Store in Scrabbletown.
+In one of the Brayton and Mason ledgers I noticed that in a single
+year, 1818, home weavers wove 5242-1/2 yards of cotton cloth from the
+Lyman Cotton Manufacturing Company’s yarn--distributed, inspected, and
+returned by Brayton and Mason.
+
+It was all piece work. The weavers took what yarn they wanted, wove it
+as fast as they wanted their pay for the weaving. Some people kept a
+comparatively small amount all winter--the roads, of course, were bad.
+Some kept the same amount around three weeks or less.
+
+These weavers were not, I hope you understand, weaving for sustenance.
+There was food enough for all, all over the place. Surplus farm
+products for the asking, clams for the digging, rivers running
+with shad and herring, trout in every stream, all free, no license
+necessary. All the fruit a man could eat--if a man were willing to go
+berrying or climb a cherry tree. There was shelter of sorts in the
+old farmhouses and outbuildings. No man temporarily out of luck was
+ever turned away. Woolen clothing, woven and made on the farm, never
+wore out. The weavers were not weaving to keep alive, certainly not.
+They were weaving to get hold of some spending money. To spend on
+dancing lessons, perhaps, or a trotting horse--black silk dress of
+fine quality--a real lace collar--a locket--possibly some pretty shoes
+and stockings. Nearly everybody went barefoot in the summer season,
+winter footwear in the country had been rough stuff--made to wear
+well--stockings were knitted at home by hand. On Israel’s shelves were
+silk stockings--really--and bronze slippers, oh, yes.
+
+Life in Scrabbletown cannot be understood unless you know why every man
+worked and worked hard--at his own pace and when he wanted to--while
+enjoying a standard of real comfort and independance such as never was
+known on the globe before. This I truly believe. Nor, in the essentials
+of comfort, since.
+
+The men and women who wove the Lyman Factory yarn were the same people
+who wove the Swansea Factory Yarn--that appears clearly in the Yarn
+Books. Coming for yarn, a weaver was given what yarn was on hand.
+What else appears clearly, in a note from Wheaton Luther to Israel,
+even as early as August, 1819, is that the weavers were exceedingly
+independent. “Weavers won’t weave 4/4 for 1 cent per yard more.” So
+they didn’t.
+
+Though wages by 1821 were a minor matter. What really mattered by then
+is apparent in the letter which follows:
+
+  “Sir
+
+  I do not know what to tell people when they come to the store. All
+  last week I told them they could have yarn on Tuesday. I then told
+  them they could have it on Wednesday. They came in and there was no
+  yarn. And I know no other way at present than to tell them I shall
+  never have any more and then if I disappoint them it will not be to
+  their prejudice.
+
+  I have promised goods in the same way and now I have an opportunity
+  to sell a silk gown for cash but I must lose it because it did not
+  come in at the time I promised. I am very sure that there will be
+  no necessity of keeping the store unless I can make promise of
+  goods and of yarn etc.
+
+                           Wheaton Luther.”
+
+The weave books of the Lyman Company are well kept and Israel
+maintained excellent relations with both the weavers and the Lyman
+Company until he shut up shop.
+
+The Lyman yarn was shipped to Israel in Egypt, I suppose. For by 1818
+Brayton and Mason had opened a Branch Store in Egypt, a suburb of
+Somerset, and was using it as another distributing center for yarn. It
+was far more convenient than Scrabbletown, being close to Slade’s Ferry
+Landing. And close to the shipyards of Somerset and Troy and Egypt.
+Ships were again on the stocks. That meant more trade for Israel.
+
+Many letters are in the barrel giving itemized accounts of the
+transactions between the stores of Egypt and Scrabbletown. Goods were
+always being sent back and forth. But always, as you have seen in
+Wheaton Luther’s letter, the store in Egypt could never get enough.
+
+Israel had to buy a waggon of his own, to send the goods demanded.
+Nobody could wait for the Troy baggage waggon which crossed the Ferry
+when the weather permitted, and ambled over from Somerset to Swansea
+and parts beyond. After careful correspondence, Israel ordered a waggon
+to be made in Rutland by a certain Mr. Bigelow. It was ordered in the
+spring and delivered in September. It was a major transaction. There
+had to be boxes to fit the waggon, of course; and extra boxes. Philip
+Bowers whose waggon in the early days was hired by Israel, complained
+that new and better boxes must be furnished to carry Israel’s goods--if
+he was to take them. He used to complain to Wheaton Luther.
+
+You will notice that Wheaton Luther, the Scrabbletown clerk, after
+being transferred to the Egypt store, took full charge of its running.
+And wrote many letters to Israel, more than I have space to quote.
+Wheaton was an extraordinary man, really. You ought to read all his
+letters. And the three letters from his sister-in-law, also found in
+the barrel. They were written in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1818
+and 1819.
+
+Wheaton’s brother, who seems to have been a bad lot, deserted his wife
+and daughters, Elizabeth and Catherine, some years before this story
+opens, and nobody had been able to find him. His deserted wife wrote to
+her brother-in-law, Wheaton, to tell him that a Somerset man had seen
+her husband in the “Spanish Settlements” and that he was in bad shape.
+“An object of pity to behold.” It was not thought he could live long.
+He had, I infer--only infer--been enslaved by the Spaniards. Wheaton’s
+sister wrote: “I fear he is now numbered with the pale nations
+underground”. Yes, she really did.
+
+As to news; Mrs. Luther wrote that Giles Luther and his son, “a very
+fine young man”, had called on her in Charleston--dropped in from
+Somerset--and “thair has been several shaks of an Earthquake in this
+place that are very alarming”. In a later letter: “Death has taken away
+thousands from Charleston this past summer. It was truly disturbing.
+Scarcely a family escaped without one or more taken away.--I have put
+Catherine and Eliza both to school.”
+
+It is apparent that little Egypt had connections in 1819 with the
+outside world--vivid connections.
+
+Some years later, Wheaton Luther resigned to go into business for
+himself--he belonged to a restless family. John D. Cartwright took
+his place. Later still, Cartwright resigned, also to set up his own
+business, and John Wood signed the letters of the Egypt Store. Under
+all the clerks the business continued to grow. And would have grown
+even more rapidly thought all the clerks, if only Israel would send
+them more goods to sell, more yarn for the hungry looms of Somerset and
+Troy.
+
+After two years of prosperous and expanding trade, the firm of Brayton
+and Mason had been dissolved. John Mason opened a store of his own
+with the U.S. Post Office in one corner as was usual. Israel had
+taken a new partner, his cousin, William Bowers, and continued his
+business as though nothing had happened. According to the barrel all
+was amicable. There are papers showing that Brayton later bought some
+small things from Mason and that Mason bought some small things from
+Brayton--nothing much. Possibly Mason had held Brayton back a little.
+For now with his new partner, he expanded rapidly. Though still with
+caution.
+
+In that spring of 1819, Israel knew, and we can know, exactly where
+he stood. He knew down to the last India Shawl just what was on the
+shelves of the little stores, for an inventory was necessary when the
+partnership was dissolved. The barrel held also a list of the people
+who owed the firm money. In fact, there were three lists, each very
+short. The amounts are tiny. I will not give here the names of the
+customers who were expected to settle their accounts shortly, they
+were the ordinary charge customers. But I am giving the two other
+lists--they are really interesting. For Israel guessed right. They
+never did pay up. One man went to jail. Their accounts, however, were
+very very small.
+
+Doubtful that these persons will pay what they owe.
+
+ Caleb Butterworth      Somerset
+ Francis Chace
+ Hezekiah Chace
+ Mason Chace
+ Slade Chace
+ Phoebe Chace           Swansea
+ Stephen Earle
+ John Eddy              Somerset
+ Rebecca Luther
+ Nathan Read
+
+Certain that these persons will not pay what they owe.
+
+ Slade Chace            Somerset
+ Frederick Downing      Freetown
+ Diadema Hathaway
+ Knowles Negus
+ Benjamin Purinton      Swansea
+ Oliver Read            Troy
+ Joseph Slade
+ Stephen Slade
+
+
+
+
+TRADING WITH THE SWANSEA PAPER MANUFACTURING COMPANY
+
+
+In 1819, the new firm of Brayton and Bowers signed an agreement with
+the Swansea Paper Manufacturing Company to sell its product. There is
+so little known outside the barrel of this paper company that when I
+found this contract in the barrel, I was surprised. I consulted the
+standard “History of Swansea”.
+
+“Straw paper was manufactured in Swansea in 1840 by William Mitchell”.
+That is all the History has to say. But the barrel holds 50 papers, in
+addition to this contract of 1819; individual transactions of Brayton
+and Bowers with the Swansea Paper Manufacturing Company continuing into
+the year 1832. The agent was always William Mitchell. He signed every
+document.
+
+Paper was really made out of straw in Swansea and was sold by Brayton
+and Bowers to many different firms and individuals. That much is clear.
+The paper on which the correspondence of the firm was written, ought to
+have been of the firm’s own manufacture. But was it?
+
+The paper may not have been very good. Israel got some returned. Where
+did the Swansea Paper Company get its straw? How did it make its paper?
+The barrel does not know.
+
+The employees of the Paper Company, like the employees of the Yarn
+Factories, were allowed to charge things in Israel’s Scrabbletown
+Store. And some of the notes asking for credit for employees and signed
+by William Mitchell, are in the barrel, so we know who some of the
+paper makers were.
+
+And that seems to be all that we do know about the paper business in
+Swansea. It seems to be more than anyone else knows.
+
+
+
+
+         TRADING WITH THE GEORGIA COTTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY
+
+
+The new firm of Brayton and Bowers received that spring of 1819 the
+following letter from Kezia’s uncle, Nehemiah Wheeler.
+
+  “Respected Friend
+  Israel Brayton
+
+  I recollect that sometime past thou expressed a wish to git yarn
+  from the South to weave. (I thought he meant south of the Mason and
+  Dixon line, but he didn’t. He meant South of Providence). I would
+  now observe that I expect to go out thair soon and will probably
+  start next week and any business That I can doe for my friends I am
+  willing to use my indevors to preform.
+
+  I shall likely be at thy farther Anthony’s next first day, if
+  healthy, and weather permits.
+
+                     In haste I remain thy friend
+                            Nath. Wheeler.”
+
+Israel and probably Kezia went to the Anthony Farm that Sunday, and
+Israel told his wife’s uncle that he would like to git some more yarn
+to weave.
+
+Nathaniel Wheeler brought the Georgia Cotton Manufacturing Company and
+Brayton and Bowers together, and very soon in Israel’s office another
+ledger was being opened to show Israel’s transactions with the Georgia
+Company. This Georgia Yarn Mill, it had 1000 spindles, was built on
+a fall of 18 feet of water in the Woonasquatucket River, in that
+well-watered land south of Providence where grist mills and fulling
+mills and saw mills and snuff mills had utilized the little streams
+from the earliest days of the Colony. The Village which sprang up along
+the river bank, was named for the Mill, of course, and both were called
+Georgia because the cotton which came up from the South to be spun in
+the mill, was grown in Georgia.
+
+In 1822, about two years after Israel had opened his first weave book
+in account with the Georgia Cotton Manufacturing Company, the mill shut
+down. The stream ran dry. The mill had been run by water power, of
+course.
+
+When the rains came, and they were long in coming, the mill got going
+again, but Brayton and Bowers seem to have made other plans by that
+time.
+
+The office of the factory had been in Providence, and the business with
+Israel had been transacted by Samuel Nightingale, as Agent. On Jan. 1,
+1821, Nightingale dunned Israel for a “small quantity of yarn” unpaid
+for. The office clerk who usually signed the office letters, was named
+James Shaw, but the dun was sent out personally by Nightingale, himself.
+
+The yarn of the Georgia Factory was woven by the same people who wove
+the yarn from the other factories doing business with Brayton and
+Bowers, as the yarn books show. But not by all of the same people. For
+the amount of Georgia yarn to be spun at any one time was not large. In
+the Georgia Weave books we find mostly the names of the old settlers of
+Fall River.
+
+The ruins of the stone mill still stand beside the stream in
+Georgiaville.
+
+
+
+
+                           TRADING WITH TROY
+
+
+In 1820, the Fall River Manufactury, built a little earlier, on a bank
+of the Quequechan River in Troy, was incorporated. David Anthony,
+Israel’s brother-in-law; Dexter Wheeler, his wife’s uncle; and Abraham
+Bowen, were behind its building, and, under the circumstances, Israel
+got yarn for his farmhouse weavers, as soon as it was spun in any
+quantity by this Fall River Yarn Mill. Making the connection still
+closer, it was David Anthony who took charge of the running of the
+mill--call him Agent or treasurer. In the year of this incorporation
+of the company, 1820, Anthony sent over to Israel’s Egypt store, a
+consignment of cotton yarn, woven at once by the weavers of Somerset
+into 253-1/2 yards of plaid cloth.
+
+At another time, David Anthony as Agent, sold Israel, outright, some
+blue and white warp, for $77.00. And the weavers of Swansea wove it
+into bedticking which Israel kept for his own trading purposes.
+
+Toward the end of his trading career, Israel bought from the Fall River
+Manufactury some cloth not only spun but actually woven in the mill. He
+bought 52 yards of checks at $.15 a yard. The downfall of Israel’s big
+yarn business was at hand, for this cloth, woven as well as spun in the
+factory, was not too bad--not too bad.
+
+The weave books that Israel must have kept to record his trading with
+the yarn mill of Troy, were not in the barrel. So all the information
+we have on the matter is contained in a few letters and bills which
+passed between Mr. Brayton and Mr. Anthony, as they were careful to
+call each other on paper. Except, of course, the names of the Troy
+weavers who wove the yarn for other factories, and appear in other yarn
+books. And we have found in this way that a very great number of Fall
+River-Troy people did home weaving for Israel. The Fall River-Troy
+nomenclature is confusing, for all during the barrel period, that part
+of the present City of Fall River which lies along the banks of the
+lower Quequechan River, was legally called Troy. Though it had been
+called Fall River before 1804 and was called so again after 1834. In
+all the weave books “Troy” is used, always. But some of the oldest and
+more sophisticated concerns had letter heads with “Troy. Fall River”.
+
+That part of the present city of Fall River which lies around Brightman
+Street, was in the barrel days called Freetown. And in the Weave Books
+are many persons listed as living in Freetown. Their names can be found
+on the tombstones in the old North Burying Ground. You will find 12
+members of the Brightman family in the Weave Books. And 20 members of
+the Read family who lived at the foot of French’s Hill.
+
+I am somewhat clumsily explaining to the present generation that most
+of the old families of Fall River had one or more members who took yarn
+from Israel Brayton and wove it up into cotton cloth right in their own
+homes on their own looms. And that this yarn they wove was spun in the
+factories of Fall River as well as in a number of small factories on
+the west side of the Taunton River. I am printing at the end of this
+book a list of the people who are known to have done this weaving, and
+it is surprisingly long, for the village was small. But I think, even
+so, it is not a complete list.
+
+Israel had other connections with Troy, of course. He bought nails from
+the Iron Works as soon as the Iron Works made nails. He sold nails to
+the ships that were building in Somerset and Egypt. Ships had to have
+kegs of nails on board, of course, and Israel took to outfitting ships,
+getting requests for odd things, such as “a few yards of white flannel
+suitable for lining pea-jackets”. And “Tarpolin hats.”
+
+The ship “Rosette” of Troy bought her stores from Israel in Egypt. The
+ship “Rambler” of Troy landed 240 pounds of yarn one day in Egypt, for
+Israel. The sloop “Reindeer” bought her stores from Israel. But the
+Troy ships were a bit high and mighty. Troy was beginning to grow.
+Hezekiah Anthony wrote from Providence to Israel in 1827:
+
+  “To Israel Brayton. Sir:
+
+  I could not get the Fall River Packet (the new Steamer “Handcock”
+  this may have been) to take your goods today as the amount was so
+  small. I expect the Somerset Sloop here tomorrow. I presume she
+  will take the goods and land them on Slade’s Ferry Wharf.”
+
+I presume she did.
+
+David Anthony, who was actually manager of both the Iron Works and the
+Fall River Factory, took the trouble to write the same little notes
+to Israel that the other Factory managers had written. Not many were
+preserved.
+
+  “Fall River Factory and Iron Works        Nov. 18, 1820
+  Mr. Israel Brayton
+
+  Please to let Mrs. Handy have $2.50 in goods out of your store, it
+  being for 2 weeks board for Severin Handy and charge the same to me.
+
+                            David Anthony.”
+
+  “Mr. Israel Brayton, Sir:
+
+  Mr. Anthony wishes me to say that he has reserved for you $500.00
+  worth of stock in his bank and wants you should inform him whether
+  you are depending on it. Please to say by return stage.
+
+                            M. C. Durfee.”
+
+This was in 1825, when the first bank in Fall River was organized.
+The Fall River Bank and the Fall River Factory were one. As Hezekiah
+Anthony, David Anthony’s brother, had written to Israel in 1820: “I
+consider bank stock as good if not the best property you can at present
+have”, I think Israel took up the offer. Israel’s connections with
+Fall River banks were close. But he used the Warren Bank, established
+earlier, more often.
+
+One odd result of Israel’s trading with everybody for everything,
+was that he was paid in many sorts of money. (When paid in money at
+all.) He used to wait until he got a bagful, and then he would send
+the bag to a local bank or even up to Boston and get the quoted rate
+of exchange. Silver dollars were not wanted by any wholesale house or
+bank. Though they were worth a dollar, that was conceded. But crowns,
+doubloons, francs, and guineas were Israel’s coin, taken in over the
+counter in Swansea and Egypt. Nothing parochial about Israel.
+
+Various little business firms were just starting up in Troy during
+the barrel period. Israel traded with Lovell and Durfee--a certain
+John Brayton was their clerk--they sold Israel yellow snuff. In 1824,
+Cromwell Bliss of Troy sold Israel 1000 cigars.
+
+And Israel sold some of the Swansea Paper to the Troy Merchants.
+Seventeen quires were returned because it was not of the first quality.
+“It is not the quality that you recommend it to be.”
+
+
+
+
+                    THE TRADER IN HIS HOURS OF EASE
+
+
+The trader of the barrel period did not, consciously, travel or work
+in his garden for pleasure or recreation. Those pursuits were means
+of livelihood. When he was through for the day, if he ever did get
+through, he was glad to go home and sit a spell. He was tired.
+
+He did not serve on committees whose purpose was to ameliorate the
+condition of the poor. Each man was, then, expected by public opinion
+to support himself, his wife, his children, his wife’s parents, his own
+parents, and all the unmarried women and widows who could claim kinship
+even to the third or fourth cousinly degree. If they were in need. As
+each man was expected to do this, it really left nobody to be supported
+by community effort. It also left the definition of need to the man who
+was paying the bills, which meant that the aid was adequate--public
+opinion saw to that--but not extravagant.
+
+There was after this business of earning a living for so many people,
+very little leisure in the life of any man. I have searched the barrel
+to see just how Israel Brayton spent the little leisure that was his.
+
+
+                     _The Poor They had with Them_
+
+There were two persons in the village who were without kith or kin.
+Nor were they related to each other. They were poor and they were old
+and sick. Israel used a little of his spare time in visiting these
+people--an unpaid job--and he got nurses and doctors for them when
+such were needed. He got the best doctors and nurses in town, the only
+doctors and nurses, apparently. These poor old people were dependent
+upon their neighbors for at least partial support. Israel used to
+receive during store hours over the counter notes such as this:
+
+  “Swansa. August 29, 1827.
+  Mr. Brayton
+
+  Sir: Please to let Diadema Boiston have fifty cents in goods this
+  week, and as much more next week; and charge it to the Town and you
+  will oblige your friend
+
+                             John Earle.”
+
+
+(Diadema Boiston was probably one of the Acadians allotted to Swansea
+some years earlier.)
+
+This was business for Israel; pretty small business you think; but
+honestly conducted a very safe and sane way of administering “Poor
+Relief”. Occasionally Diadema Boiston did some housework, for which she
+was properly paid. It was Israel’s housework.
+
+
+                         _To Aid the Veterans_
+
+Israel saw that the crippled veterans of the last two wars got their
+government pensions, he saw that the doctors made examinations and sent
+in reports.
+
+“We, the subscribers, practising physicians of the Town of Swanzey,
+County of Bristol, State of Mass., do hereby certify that after a
+careful examination in the case of Henry Lawton who is now on the
+pension roll of the State of Mass., we are of the opinion that his
+disability does still continue. Occasioned by canister shot passing
+through his left hip also by a musket ball through his right thigh, and
+further that the degree of disability under which he labours at present
+is one third, being not less than the original degree of disability for
+which he was placed on the roll”.
+
+The authorities sent the following letters:
+
+  “Mr. I. Brayton.
+  Dear Sir:
+
+  We are under the necessity of returning the power of attourney you
+  favored us with. Under a new regulation from the War Dept. all old
+  forms are laid aside and new substituted. We now enclose you those
+  blanks by which you will see how they are now to be made.”
+
+Four days later, he received another letter: “We are sorry to find that
+we sent you the wrong blanks--a new form is now indispensible.”
+
+The barrel has held through the years a Surgeon’s Certificate never
+filled out.
+
+
+                        _The School Committee_
+
+Israel’s special service to the community was as a member of the School
+Board. He conducted the correspondence with the school teachers. There
+was no clerk, no paid assistance. Israel wrote the letters for the
+veterans and for the school committee with his own hand.
+
+Israel attended the many meetings of the school committee, and took
+time to get a very accurate picture of the schooling he and his
+neighbors were providing for their children. Teachers did not stay
+long in Swansea or Somerset, but I fancy they did not stay long in any
+country town. For they were mostly men and women who were teaching
+to get a little money to start in on something else. All the letters
+in the barrel show that they could write a good hand and express
+themselves coherently. A sample letter will be enough. Though Israel
+had to read them all.
+
+“The subscriber makes a tender of his services to the inhabitants of
+the second school district in Swansea as a teacher for the term of
+three months to commence on Monday the 3rd inst. And he assures those
+who may think proper to intrust their children to his care, that if the
+most strenous exertions on his part can prevent it, their confidences
+shall not be misplaced. Hoping by assiduous application and unremitting
+attention to ensure the patronage and meet the approbation of his
+employers--
+
+                            Jos D. Nichols”
+
+“In consideration of which, we, the subscribers, agree to furnish wood
+for the school, board the said Nichols in our respective families,
+and pay him the sum of fourteen dollars per month which shall be
+apportioned according to the number of scholars set against each of our
+names respectively.
+
+ Israel Brayton--3
+ Gardner Anthony--1-1/2
+ Betsey Bowers--1-1/2
+ John Mason--3”
+
+Captain Charles Pratt taught for a much longer period than was usual.
+
+“We have obtained satisfactory evidence of the good moral character
+of Captain Charles Pratt, also of his literary qualifications and
+capacity for the Government of an English School.” That was how the
+committee appointed to look into a teacher’s application felt about
+qualifications. Israel was on the committee.
+
+I must not leave out the lady teacher, the barrel has record of only
+one. Her name was Miss Sophia Stebbins.
+
+“Whereas it is contemplated that Miss Sophia Stebbins will commence
+a school, in this district, to be continued for 4 or 5 months, at
+the rate of one dollar 33 cents per week, and that for the use of
+the school house she pay 50 cents per month, to be appropriated to
+the keeping of the same in repair; we the subscribers agree to pay
+our proportion of the expenses of such school, and to furnish our
+proportion of boarding for the instructress, according to the number of
+scholars set against our respective names.
+
+ Israel Brayton--3
+ Perry Bowers--1-1/2
+ John Mason--2-1/2
+ John Winslow--1-1/2
+ Stephen Brayton--1
+ Lloyd Slade--1-1/2”
+
+                               etc etc.
+
+Israel really did good work on the School Board in his leisure time and
+it is only to be expected that in his business hours he sold School
+Books over the counter.
+
+ The books were: Alden’s Spelling Book
+                   ”     Reader
+                 Morse’s Geography
+                 Murray’s Grammar
+
+He carried slate pencils and slates and exercise books. And Song Books.
+
+
+                          _Church Activities_
+
+Israel was--not unduly--interested in the church in which he and his
+family owned pews.
+
+The Church choir was not a paid choir nor was it a good one. Some
+people thought it should be trained. Israel headed a committee to get a
+good singing teacher down from Taunton. Mr. Sproat, a Taunton lawyer,
+was consulted. He seems to have been a personal friend of Israel’s. And
+some of his letters are in the barrel. Arrangements were made. Letters
+passed.
+
+  “April 2. Taunton
+
+  Travelling is so bad--the date of the meeting must be postponed.”
+
+“Mr. Sproat was married Sunday Evening”. (A hint of the marriage
+customs of the time.)
+
+It was understood that the Singing School was to be kept “in Swanzey
+Village the ensuing winter, by Mr. Jonathan G. Colburn, for the benefit
+of the Baptist and Methodist Societies in the Towns of Swansea and
+Somerset.”
+
+They got the singing school and Israel sold a good many song books.
+But he found getting the subscribers to pay for the school, difficult.
+The village men argued that since they really had no musical ability,
+they should not have to pay for instruction they could not “themselves
+use”. But the committee argued “the burden of expense should not fall
+altogether on the shoulders of those who are favored with voices to
+sing.”
+
+The barrel holds another letter showing Israel’s relation to the church
+which he attended and served in many ways. Hezekiah Anthony wrote him
+from Providence:
+
+  “December 23, 1824.
+  Mr. Israel Brayton. Sir:
+
+  I am requested to inform the People with you that Lorenzo Dow
+  intends to spend next Sabbath at the Methodist Meeting House in
+  Somerset. He expects to be at Warren on Saturday night. On Sunday
+  morning to go to Somerset to preach, as I suppose, all day. Please
+  to give notice accordingly.
+
+                              Your friend
+                             H. Anthony.”
+
+Lorenzo Dow was the fashionable evangelist of his day. There is a
+“Life” of Lorenzo Dow, mostly a printing of Dow’s diary. Strangely
+enough, the dates on which Dow is supposed to have been preaching
+in Swansea and Somerset, are left blank. I think it quite true that
+the men of Somerset and Swansea, though men of their time, were not
+an excitable lot, and would not have provided Lorenzo with any very
+spectacular results. He had just come back from Ireland, where he
+had preached the gospel as he understood it, up and down the country,
+without losing his life, and the diary thinks that a triumph.
+
+I rather think that Israel and the other men trading around
+Scrabbletown, went to hear Lorenzo Dow hold forth--and yawned.
+
+After the visit of Lorenzo Dow, Israel stocked his shop with Bibles.
+
+
+                        _Israel and Literature_
+
+Always at all times Israel kept a stock of Almanacks on hand.
+The fascination of Almanacks for those village men is to me
+incomprehensible. But it was genuine. They read Almanacks in their
+leisure time. (Bibles, of course, but to those men the Bible was
+not literature). Israel always carried “The Farmer’s Almanack”, and
+“The Rhode Island Almanack”. He ordered at the first of the year,
+but he reordered as the year progressed. He also took subscriptions
+to popular magazines. The most popular was the “Zion’s Herald”. My
+grandmother who came from that part of the world, used to subscribe to
+the “Zion’s Herald”. I remember it quite well. There was some demand
+for the “Manufacturer’s and Farmer’s Journal” and the “Telescope”.
+The “Rhode Island American” and the “Providence American”, with a few
+subscriptions to weekly newspapers, were sold over Israel’s counter.
+Papers were late, and people complained and sometimes cancelled their
+subscriptions. As Edward Anthony of Taunton wrote: “This paper did not
+go on Wednesday on account of the travelling. (This was February 27,
+1829). Most of the Mails have been carried on horseback, and it is
+quite uncertain about your getting the paper today. I am glad that you
+have obtained those subscribers and I hope you will get more. Money is
+scarce, snow in abundance, and but little news.”
+
+The leisure time of these Scrabbletown traders was not spent in reading
+books; is this quite clear? Israel did not stock books, because there
+was no demand for books. He knew perfectly well what people wanted.
+The Newport paper was advertising “The Solitary, or the Mysterious Man
+of the Mountain. Translated from the French of Viscount d’Arlincourt
+by an American Lady”. Also “Helen de Tourneau. a Novel by Madam de
+Souza. 87-1/2 cents.” Israel did not even carry the paper which carried
+the advertisement. He did not carry “Roche Blanche: or the Hunters of
+the Pyrenees”. Which was a Romance, written by M. A. M. Porter. It was
+popular but not in Scrabbletown, Israel thought. He had opened his
+first trading station the year Scott’s “Guy Mannering” was published
+in England. But he did not stock Walter Scott, either. Probably
+never heard of him. That was the year Jane Austin’s “Emma” was put
+on the market. Byron belongs to the early years of Israel’s trading.
+The “Poems” of John Keats were just out. Shelly and Wordsworth were
+becoming known to the English world of letters. Not to the world of
+Scrabbletown, I think.
+
+Scrabbletown and Israel were quite right. Their countryside was a place
+of such beauty that all their lives were lived against a background of
+harmonious color, lovely line, and wide reaches of quietude and peace.
+The fields were full of sheep and oxen which were so much a part of
+their still pastoral lives. The little white sails were hurrying up and
+down the lovely rivers of their land. The bearded sailors, sitting in
+the sun, told them tales of all the faraway places, the bearded sailors
+being their own sons and brothers who were emphatically glad to get
+home. There was little need to look in the pages of any book, they all
+felt, when the shad bush was in flower and the shad were running free.
+Better go fishing.
+
+And they did. And in the Fall, when they had any spare time, they went
+hunting for bears, over in the great forest.
+
+Did they pine for Romance, History, Biography, Poetry? I have not
+heard that they did. They were even a little fed up with Romance. And
+Heroism. The older men had seen Jemima Wilkinson dressed like an angel
+riding through the village on a white horse--her golden hair flying in
+the wind. It was a hotheaded young cousin of theirs who had paid for
+the horse, and followed Jemima to his undoing.
+
+Toussaint L’Overture had been a slave of theirs, they knew all about
+the darkly glorious Rebellion in Hayti--a lot of the village boys had
+been down there on their own ships. They knew Jerathmael Bowers, too;
+he was one of their own. He was the Bowers who married out of the
+village a beauty and a belle, and built her a wonderful fine house in
+Somerset, and hired Coply to paint her portrait--all dressed up she
+was--life size, with a pink rose in her bosum. And when it came to
+heroes, which they never did like to come to, being of New England,
+who could touch Washington? They had all seen Washington, many knew
+him. Some of them knew Lafayette. The crippled and the pensioned men,
+sitting out on the back porches, could still tell--and they probably
+tried to.
+
+Sir Walter Scott would, I am sure, have seemed a little tame to these
+men had Israel succeeded in selling him over the counter. Better by
+far, if restless, get on your father’s little boat and sail off to the
+Sandwich Islands for a change. So they thought and so they did. And
+they always came back as soon as possible and went clamming.
+
+
+                         _Israel and Politics_
+
+Politics, as a means of livelihood or as the occupation of a
+gentleman with some leisure, was unheard of. The barrel holds a few
+communications from far off representatives in Taunton or Boston who
+wanted Israel to get out the vote occasionally. New Bedford, according
+to the barrel, wanted a new jail. Israel did not want New Bedford to
+have a new jail. That seems to have been the only time he got roused.
+He wrote that he could not get the village to take much of a stand,
+because they had sort of planned to go off hunting that week end.
+
+Is this all in the barrel? Indeed it is, and more. But do not forget
+that Israel sold school books and that the turnover was rapid.
+
+
+
+
+                       TRADING IN STRAW BONNETS
+
+
+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.
+
+  I have been to Troy, but cannot sell any.
+
+  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.
+
+I have it still. It ties under the chin.
+
+
+
+
+                        TRADING WITH THE ORIENT
+
+
+One day William Bowers decided to take the goods of Brayton and
+Bowers still farther afield. He did not enjoy travelling. He did not
+like strange countries. But trade was a little dull at home. He and
+Israel decided to take the risk and get together a cargo which would
+neither make nor break them, and might build up their regular business
+considerably.
+
+The Columbian Sentinel of Jan. 2, 1819, which Israel carried in his
+store, had printed the following advertisement:
+
+“The subscriber, being about to embark for Canton, China, via
+Gibralter, where he will reside for a considerable time, offers his
+services to the public for the transaction of the usual business of the
+place.”
+
+References were given. But Brayton and Bowers did not need references.
+They knew all about Philip Ammidon, the subscriber. He was a village
+boy. And when William Bowers decided to go to Canton, the fact that
+Ammidon had been living in Canton for some time, may have been of some
+influence.
+
+I do not know just when Bowers left Somerset for Canton. It was perhaps
+in 1825; it took a long time to sail from Somerset to Canton. The
+following letter from Bowers arrived in Scrabbletown:
+
+  “Canton. March 25, 1826
+  Mr I. Brayton
+  My dear Sir.
+
+  From the many good wishes which have been manifested toward me as
+  well as my family from you, I feel myself under many obligations
+  to you and can, while in my hours of meditation, think of you and
+  your respectful family, and do feel myself well assured that this
+  short epistle will be cordially received from your well-wisher and
+  fellow-traveller in life; although I have nothing very interesting
+  to communicate at the present moment but presume it will serve to
+  pass a dull moment to peruse it.
+
+  I left Lima, Nov. 11, and bent my course to the West and on the
+  19th of December arrived at the Sandwich Islands where I disposed
+  of some merchandise and, after repacking, set sail on the 25th
+  following, and bent my course towards Manilla, the Capital of all
+  the Spanish Settlements in the East.
+
+  When I arrived on the 16th of February was somewhat disappointed in
+  my expectations in getting a cargo. However, loaded my ship, and
+  set sail on the 1st day of March and arrived at this place on the
+  12th inst. and have been much diverted on looking at the multitude
+  of people and the manner of living, such as if I should undertake
+  to give you description would require a small volume; therefore we
+  will let it suffice in saying they are so thick they are obliged
+  to live upon the water in floating boats or houses ... the most of
+  wearing apparel is cheap, such as crape, silk, satin, nankin, etc.
+  Teas are rather high. Such as suit the American market. But very
+  large quantities will be in the U. States soon after this comes
+  to hand.... When I shall be with you the Lord only knows for I
+  am certain I do not--you may show this to my wife if she behaves
+  pretty well, and be cautious how you trust her with good account
+  at your store, for unless I have better luck than what I have had,
+  I am shure you will get disappointed in having a settlement on my
+  return, or rather, get your money.
+
+  Remember me to her, however bad she may appear to be, as well as to
+  your wife and honoured parents, and hope the Good Lord will permit
+  us all to meet again. Tell her to be cautious of those Brawling
+  Characters (he must mean the Gypsies of Hot and Cold Lane) that get
+  adrift in that neighborhood about this time of year or a little
+  before, for I wish I could have them on my passage down the Pacific
+  when the wind blows from the North ... nothing more at present
+
+                          So I bid you adieu
+                       and to bed go and remain
+                      Your well wisher and friend
+                              W. Bowers.”
+
+In September, 1828, Bowers and Brayton were selling Canton Crape over
+the counter in Somerset. And China Tea.
+
+
+
+
+                           TRADING WITH THE
+                 BRISTOL COTTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY
+                                AND THE
+                   MOUNT HOPE MANUFACTURING COMPANY
+
+
+Brayton and Bowers had branched out still farther in that busy year
+of 1819. They started to trade with the Bristol Cotton Manufacturing
+Company. This Company had a small yarn mill in Wellington--the village
+is now called North Dighton. Most of the stock belonged to James deWolf
+of Bristol.
+
+In December, 1820, Israel returned a consignment of yarn to the
+Factory, which had been woven into “stripes” and “plaids”. His weavers
+were given more of this Bristol yarn in January and this they also
+wove. And more. But the factory was not doing well. The following
+letter seems to me interesting.
+
+  “Wellington. 12 of 11th month. 1821
+  Friend Israel Brayton
+
+  I was so much ingaged that I could not wright by Stephen that
+  I wish thee to come up here next second day which is the 15th
+  instant, as that is our co-meeting and I want to see thee about the
+  weaving. We are now collecting over 100 lbs a day and if we can
+  dry the yarn we can make out over 30 webs per week and I want them
+  wove as fast as we make them, and I wish thou would not fail to
+  come here next Second Day as early as possible and take a load and
+  have some talk on our factory business as I never nowe what plans
+  Williams and some others have afoot.
+
+  Please to attend and oblige thy friend
+
+                          Nathaniel Wheeler.”
+
+Shortly afterwards: “Please to come up and take a load of pieces the
+day after tomorrow. Come thyself and I will be at home. I have some
+important business with Thee. Fail not to attend and oblige
+
+                              Thy Friend
+                          Nathaniel Wheeler.”
+
+The important business about which they were so annoyingly secret was
+the merger of the Bristol Cotton Manufacturing Company and the newly
+formed and struggling Mount Hope Manufacturing Company.
+
+The barrel has several weave books of these companies and Israel did a
+big business with them. Although the following letter would not lead
+you to think so.
+
+  “Wellington. 9 of the 2 Mo. 1821
+
+  Friend Israel Brayton
+
+  I have this day sent back 2 pieces and have kept several that I
+  ought to of sent back; but I am willing to due all that can be
+  thought is in Reason. I cannot take any more so bad as I have
+  received. In overhauling all the cloth we have received from thee,
+  I find it to come far short for goodness to what we git wove at the
+  Dighton Manufact. Co., and I must now be plain, and shall put some
+  to another and see if we cannot git some better cloth. (The Dighton
+  Manufacturing Company must have started weaving in 1821) I shall be
+  still willing to continue our contract but must have good cloth. I
+  have sent an order on James deWolf for one hundred dollars and I
+  have not much on hand.
+
+                          In haste thy friend
+                             Nath. Wheeler
+              For the Mount Hope Manufacturing Company.”
+
+In the next letter received by Israel, C. R. Vickery turns up as clerk.
+
+  “Respected Friend
+
+  Israel Brayton. We are very much in want of plaids and we wish thee
+  to get all thou canst and fetch it up to us tomorrow. So we can
+  send it to Boston the day after. Call at E. A. Hathaway’s and get
+  what he has on hand. By doing as above requested thou wilt confer
+  an additional favor on the Mount Hope Manufacturing Company.”
+
+You see, although the weavers wove badly at times, it was as I said
+earlier, impossible to be too strict. This is one of the few proofs
+that any factory sent back any. (Though they all complained.) For they
+all needed all they could get--at once.
+
+The Mount Hope Management did as the other yarn factories did, it wrote
+little notes to Israel, authorizing credit.
+
+  “Mr. Israel Brayton. Sir. Please to let Misses Kingsley have what
+  cloth she wants and send a bill of it and send back the other order
+  and we’ll give you one for the full amount.
+
+            B. Anthony”      “For the Mount Hope Company.”
+
+Still--this letter came--
+
+  “We have not any yarn for webbs now and dont think it is probable
+  that we shall have any very soon.
+
+                                 Yours
+                   for Mount Hope Manufacturing Co.
+                          per Perry Anthony.”
+
+That did look bad. But hear this one.
+
+  “Respected friend, Israel Brayton
+
+  We have not any webs for thee today, we shall have some by Fifth
+  Day but not so many as we shall have by Seventh Day, when I think
+  thou canst have a tolerable load.
+
+                         For Mount Hope Comp.
+                          William Marvel 2nd”
+
+There are 264 papers in the barrel showing the costs of this yarn, etc.
+and there are several weave books. The weavers are the same weavers who
+wove the yarn for the other yarn mills.
+
+
+
+
+         TRADING WITH THE WARWICK COTTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY
+
+
+In 1820, the partners added another venture. They made connections
+with the Warwick Cotton Manufacturing Company. This was a yarn mill,
+situated of course in Warwick, and equally of course managed by a man
+named Greene.
+
+The Warwick yarn was handled as the other yarn had been handled. There
+was a written contract. And lucky for Brayton and Bowers that there
+was. For in 1821, the partners cut their losses and stopped trading
+with the Warwick Cotton Mill. They received a letter from the Manager.
+
+“I am somewhat disappointed in your discontinuing the bargain so soon”
+wrote Mr. Greene to Mr. Brayton. “However, you had the priveledge of
+quitting when you thought proper.”
+
+An unusually large part of the Warwick yarn went into the homes of the
+weavers of Troy. This can be seen in the Warwick Yarn Book.
+
+From Pawtucket, in October, 1821, Brayton and Bowers received a letter
+offering more yarn to weave. The letter was signed by J. H. Gridley. I
+do not know what Corporation Mr. Gridley represented.
+
+----“Wish you to write by the first mail, as we have written to others
+who no doubt will do it for us----but we should prefer your having it.
+We shall have a great deal of yarn to put out for a year--”
+
+I insert this bit of apparent futility that you may see that Israel was
+“approached” by even more business concerns than he could trade with.
+He certainly branched out. But not, I think, into Pawtucket. There is
+nothing more about Mr. Gridley in the barrel.
+
+
+
+
+            TRADING WITH THE DIGHTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY
+
+
+In 1822 the Dighton Manufacturing Company got its first charter. Israel
+Brayton was one of the stockholders; though it was a long time before
+he paid for his shares and I am not sure that he ever did. Perhaps the
+shares were tangled up with his agreement to serve as an outlet for the
+yarn.
+
+James deWolf was a director, owning 36 shares. Frequently he went up
+to Wellington from Bristol to attend the directors’ meetings. Twice
+at least he called on Israel in Scrabbletown, on the way up. He never
+found Israel at home; at least, he couldn’t find him, and left notes,
+which got into the barrel. He was not pleased with Israel.
+
+The stockholders’ meetings were at first held in the new home of
+Nathaniel Wheeler; Kezia’s uncle, you remember. He had sold out his
+blacksmith’s business and built a fine brick house in Wellington. It is
+still standing in the village, I am told. In 1827, he wrote as follows
+to Israel:
+
+  “Respected friend       “Dighton 5 mo. 21st, 1827”
+  Israel Brayton
+
+  I have for a long time calculated to call and make thee a visit,
+  both on friendship and business, but things have turned out such
+  that I have not been to call. I am now finding myself in want of
+  600 to 1000 barrels of menhaden fish for manure, and I want the
+  principal part of them after haying. Should there be some time dull
+  weather, I can take them any time after the middle of next month.
+
+  Now if thou can agree with one or two or more of the fishermen to
+  deliver me the above quantity of good menhayden fish at the Landing
+  where Peleg Gardner has formerly landed for me, and make me fair
+  measure, I will take them, after the middle of next month at any
+  time, and the above quantity, and pay thee cash when all are
+  delivered; and the reason of my taking this course is that I have
+  here-to-some made a bargain for 500 bbls. and perhaps got 150, or
+  in that proportion, and I have thought that you will be more likely
+  to obtain the quantity. I shall expect to pay twenty five cents
+  per bbl., if you cannot git them for less; and I will pay any bill
+  thou may present for thy trouble. Please write me by return of male
+  the prospect. As I shall leave home the day after tomorrow for the
+  State of Main to be absent 2 weeks. If thou cannot inform so soon
+  as a week or ten days, do so that I may know on my return home, and
+  oblige
+
+                            Nath. Wheeler.”
+
+We do not know too much about this Wellington-Dighton Factory. There
+are 70 notes in the barrel showing phases of the industry. But I could
+use more concrete information.
+
+For one thing, the company sold stoves. Could they have been running a
+Company Store? Mr. Allerton, who bought one, was a clerk in the factory
+office and he took it to Newport and gave it to his mother-in-law who
+found it satisfactory. But stoves?
+
+Also, how soon did they start weaving, in this Dighton Manufacturing
+Company’s Mill? The following letter seems significant.
+
+  “Dighton, July 25, 1828.
+  Mr Israel Brayton
+
+  Sir. As you offered, when last here, to endeavor to procure us
+  three good weavers by the name of Lewin, and as we are now and
+  probably shall continue to be plagued for help of that description,
+  you will benefit the company very much by engaging them on the best
+  of terms you can--please let me know if you are likely to succeed
+  or not in getting those above mentioned--should you not with them,
+  perhaps you may with others.
+
+                           very respectfully
+                            Your obt. Ser.
+                           Wm. M. Allerton”
+
+And that is positively all I am going to tell you about the factories
+that traded with Israel Brayton and his partners.
+
+
+
+
+                   THE TRADER GOES BACK TO THE FARM
+
+
+When Israel Brayton’s father, John the farmer, died in 1829, the life
+of Israel, the Trader, went on as before. Captain Stephen Brayton,
+Israel’s brother, returned to the farm and took over. He had been
+engaged in a few ventures of his own, as we know from letters found in
+the barrel.
+
+The widow, Israel’s mother, petitioned the court to appoint Israel
+administrator. In June, 1829, he made an account of his administration.
+And that was all.
+
+Stephen found in the house of his inheritance his mother; an aunt; a
+sister, Content, the old maid of the family; (all households had them).
+These women were absolutely dependent upon him as they had been upon
+his father, and he thought it right that this should be so.
+
+To him had descended not only the use of the house but the use of all
+its furnishings. And these furnishings were astonishingly good. It was
+the age of mahogany and fine cabinet makers. John Brayton, according
+to the inventory found in the barrel, had owned a mahogany desk, a
+mahogany card table, a mahogany round table, a pair of mahogany dining
+tables, 8 mahogany arm chairs, a mahogany light stand, and a chest.
+
+From an earlier age of even better cabinet makers, there was a cherry
+Pembroke table, a maple table, a high chest of drawers, 8 dining
+chairs, a tall clock, 7 bedsteads, 8 leatherbottomed chairs, 12 flag
+bottomed chairs, a pair of ordinary looking glasses, a gilt framed
+looking glass, a floor carpet--who has better? There was a brass
+fireset, 8 feather beds and 24 pillows, coffee and tea sets, 12
+tablecloths--and of course a “weaver loom” and “2 spinning wheeles”.
+
+On the farm were 2 yoke of oxen, 13 steers, 2 horses, 31 sheep, 21
+lambs, 4 swine, and 14 pigs--2 ox carts, 1 horse sleigh and bells, 1
+horse wagon and harness, 1 cider mill and press. Under Stephen all
+remained on the farm, and life went on as before. That some of these
+articles were bought through Israel’s Scrabbletown Store, we know.
+
+Stephen died suddenly in 1832. According to the custom of the country,
+Israel, the trader of Scrabbletown, closed down his trading posts, and
+went back to the Farm of his fathers as his brother Stephen had done.
+He took over the responsibility of running the farm and the family.
+
+He was still a young man, just turned 40. His eldest child, Mary, was
+18. There was Elizabeth and Nancy and John Summerfield, and David, and
+Israel Perry and William Bowers--all born in Scrabbletown--now moving
+down to the Homestead Farm by the Taunton River. And there were more
+children coming--Hezekiah, Sarah, Submit.
+
+It was a young household, ambitious, with a fine house and money to
+spend. Israel’s mother was an old lady, of course, well content to sit
+in the chimney corner. But there was Aunt Content, Israel’s sister,
+Stephen’s widow and his children, and probably some others needing
+shelter at the moment; Mary Morrison, for instance.
+
+The house was perhaps a little crowded--it must have been. Mary, the
+oldest of the children, seems to have thought so. She left. We hear of
+her teaching school in the village of Troy, now called Fall River, as I
+noted earlier.
+
+Kezia, Israel’s wife, was mistress of the house and of all that was
+therein. Which included all that she and her husband had brought from
+Scrabbletown. There was indeed plenty.
+
+Kezia was not, however, a good housekeeper. No, she was not. For in
+all her housecleaning she never cleaned out the barrel that Israel had
+brought over from his Scrabbletown store and put up in the attic.
+
+To her negligence, we owe our chance to see at first hand how the
+traders of Scrabbletown lived in those days now all forgotten.
+
+
+
+
+       _Weavers who lived on the East Bank of the Taunton River_
+                (_on territory now called Fall River_)
+
+ Baker, Jonathan
+ Barker, Hicks
+ Barnaby, Lucy
+ Bennett, Anna
+          Bradford
+          Grace
+          Hannah
+          Ruby
+          Ruth
+          Sweet
+ Black, Mary
+ Bliffins, Amelia
+           Olive
+           Pamela
+           Royal
+           Valentine
+ Boomer, Crocker
+         Hannah
+         Sally
+         Nathaniel
+ Borden, Amos
+         Stephen
+ Bragg, Samuel
+ Briggs, Josephine
+         Welthy
+ Burroughs, Isaac
+            Olive
+ Butts, David
+        Sarah
+ Brightman, Benjamin
+            Edward
+            Gardner
+            George
+            Henry
+            James
+            Lois
+            Lydia
+            Lucy
+            Mary
+            Nathan
+            Pardon
+ Challoner, Thomas
+ Chace, Benjamin
+        Hannah
+        Harriet
+        Hezekiah
+        John
+        Moses
+        Palmer
+        Stephen
+ Clark, Henry
+        Mary Ann
+ Cleaveland, Abigail
+             Bertha
+             Henry
+             Olive
+ Cobb, Abiah
+       Ann Maria
+       Joseph
+ Corey, William
+ Cummings, Jail
+ Davis, Howard
+        Joseph
+        Nancy
+        Pa----
+ Downing, Frederick
+          Joshua
+ Durfee, Thomas
+ Eaton, Apollos
+ Elsbree, Aaron
+          Nathaniel
+          Omer
+ Ely, Joseph
+ Evans, Caleb
+        David
+        Josephus
+        Leonard
+        Thomas
+ Freelove, Stephen
+ Gifford, Benjamin
+          Royal
+ Goodwin, Nicholas
+ Gregory, Thomas
+ Harris, Abigail
+         Julian
+         Polly
+ Harrison, Elisa
+ Hathaway, Abigail
+           Diadema
+           Enoch
+           George
+           Gideon
+           John
+           Lydia
+           Malbone
+           Michael
+           Olive
+           Peleg
+           Rosamund
+           Russell
+           Ruth
+           Silas
+ Hawkins, Lydia
+ Horton, Benjamin
+ Hunt, Benjamin
+ Lawton, Francis
+ Marble, Elizabeth
+         Rebeccas
+         Ruth
+ Miller, Ebenezer
+         Phoebe
+         Robert
+         Sophia
+ Negus, Benjamin
+        Knowles
+        Sally
+ Nichols, Hannah
+ Pierce, Cynthia
+         Job
+ Raymond, Benjamin
+ Read, Abigail
+       Betsy
+       Brayton
+       Catherine
+       George
+       Hannah
+       Joseph
+       Lucy
+       Martha
+       Mary Ann
+       Nancy
+       Nathan
+       Rosamund
+       Ruby
+       Ruth
+       Sally
+       Stephen
+       Susan
+       William (Captain)
+ Ripley, Bradford
+ Rogers, Lucy
+ Sampson, Ebenezer
+ Simmons, Nathan
+          Tryphena
+ Smith, Judas
+ Snell, Abiah
+        Amos
+        Baylis
+        Rebecca
+        Susan
+ Sowle, William
+ Strange, William
+ Terry, Job
+ Tew, Sally
+ Thurston, Amey B.
+           Jonathan
+ Tubbs, Rebecca
+ Wardwell, Joshua
+ Whitwell, Olive
+ Winslow, Frederick
+          Isaac
+          John
+          Luther
+ Young, John
+
+
+
+
+           _Weavers living on the farms and in the villages
+                      west of the Taunton River_
+
+ Adams, Nathaniel of Swansea. (Wove badly)
+ Allen, Permelia
+ Allyn, Sybel
+ Anthony, Ann Maria
+          Gardner
+          John
+          Mary Brayton
+          Sarah
+ Baker, Joseph
+        Nancy
+ Barton, Nancy
+ Bliffin, Mary, daughter of Royal
+ Bliss, Hannah of Wellington
+        Lucinda of Rehoboth
+        Lucy
+        Lydia
+ Bosworth, Amos
+           Gardner
+           Hope
+ Bourne, Anna of Somerset
+         Betsy
+         Francis
+         Jonathan
+         Stephen
+ Bowers, Gertrude
+         Sarah of Dighton
+ Bowen, Betsy of Warren
+        Hannah
+        James
+        Jonathan
+        Jabez
+        Lydia
+        Martha
+ Brayton, Daniel of Swansea
+ Brown, Esther of Somerset
+        John of Swansea
+        Joseph
+        Lydia
+        Sarah
+        Sharlot
+ Buffinton, Betsy
+            Benjamin
+            Elisha
+            Eunice
+            Mason
+ Bullock, Levi
+ Bush, John W.
+ Burr, Betsy of Rehoboth
+ Butterworth, Caleb of Swansea
+              Lydia
+              Sarah
+ Canedy, William B.
+ Carey, David of Barrington
+ Cartwell, Lydia of Swansea
+ Cartwright, Margaret of Somerset
+ Chace (Chase), Abner
+                Bethany
+                Deborah
+                      of Swansea
+                Edward
+                     of Somerset
+                Hope
+                Lurana of Swansea
+                Lydia
+                Luther
+                Martha
+                Nabby
+                Nehemiah
+                Mary of Somerset
+                Phebe
+                Rebecca
+                Reuben
+                     of Swansea
+                Sarah of Somerset
+                Samuel
+                Stephen
+                Wanton
+ Kingsley, Anthony of Swansea
+           Barton
+           James
+ Ladew, Curtis of Barrington
+ Lee, Israel of Dighton
+ Lewin, Nathaniel of Swansea
+        Sarah
+ Luther, Ann B. of Somerset
+         Eliza
+         Eunice
+         James
+         Nancy of Warren
+         Patience of Somerset
+         Rebecca
+         Samuel
+         Susannah
+         Susan
+         Theophile
+         Upham
+ Macomber, Nancy of Swansea
+           Noah
+ Mark, Lucy
+ Martin, Abraham
+         Elizabeth
+         Sally
+ Marvel, Elizabeth
+         Joseph
+         Lorna
+         Patience
+         Rebecca
+         Ruth
+ Mason, Mary
+ Miller, Lydia of Warren
+ Morrison, Clarissa of Swansea
+           Mary
+ Munroe, Bosworth
+         Thomas
+ Norton, Eliphalet of Rehoboth
+ Palmer, David of Swansea
+         Jonathan
+ Pettis, Martha
+         Patty
+ Perry, David (negro)
+ Phillips, Samuel
+ Pike, Phoebe
+       Ruth
+ Pierce, Lewis
+         Lydia of Rehoboth
+         Sarah of Swansea
+ Pitts, Alice
+ Potter, Anna
+ Purinton, Benjamin
+           Eunice
+ Read, Otis of Dighton
+ Rice, Elizabeth of Swansea
+ Richards, Patty of Dighton
+ Rhounds, Betsy of Rehoboth
+          Joshua
+          Susannah
+ Robinson, Patience (a widow)
+                       of Swansea
+ Sherman, Atherton
+          Loisa
+          Robert
+ Shorey, Almiry
+ Shove, Abraham
+        Lydia
+        Nathaniel
+ Sisson, Isaac
+         Isaih
+         Susannah
+ Slade, Alexander of Somerset
+        Almira
+        Betsy P. of Swansea
+        Elisha of Somerset
+        Eliza
+        Henry (Capt.) of Swansea
+        Mial of Dighton
+        Martin of Swansea
+        Mary (negro) of Warren
+        Phoebe of Somerset
+        Polly of Swansea
+        Prudence of Somerset
+        Stephen of Swansea
+        Waity, (d. Charles)
+        William of Somerset
+ Snell, Sally of Dighton
+ Swazey, Polly of Somerset
+ Talbot, Josiah C. of Swansea
+ Targee, Ardelia
+ Thrasher, Isaac
+ Thompson, James of Somerset
+ Trafton, Clarinda of Swansea
+          Elias
+ Valentine, Betsy
+ Vennaman, Rebecca
+ Walker, Nancy
+ Waterman, Asa of Dighton
+ Weaver, Nathaniel of Somerset
+ Wheeler, Sally of Swansea
+ White, Betsy
+ Wilbur, James of Somerset
+         John
+ Wilcox, Job of Swansea
+ Williams, John (negro)
+                      of Warren
+ Wilson, Hezekiah of Swansea
+         Rachel
+ Winslow, Bethia
+          Betsey
+          Ebenezer
+          George
+          Rebecca
+          Seth
+ Whitmarsh, Clarissa of Dighton
+            Fanny
+ Wood, Hannah of Swansea
+       Israel
+       George of Dighton
+       John
+       Otis of Swansea
+ Wright, Abigail of Dighton
+
+
+
+
+                                _INDEX_
+         (_not necessarily including the weavers just listed_)
+
+
+ Albany, New York. Letters from Albany, 44-45, 47, 48.
+
+ Allerton, William, Clerk in Dighton Manufacturing Company, 60.
+
+ Alleyn, Sybel, Bonnet maker. Settlement of her Estate, 43.
+
+ Almanacks, 38.
+
+ Anthony, chiefly Hezekiah, 7, 14, 20-23, 28-35, 37, 42, 50, 57, 66.
+
+ Assonet, Massachusetts, 6, 11.
+
+
+ Banks, 17, 19, 32, 49.
+
+ Barrington, Rhode Island, 11, 66.
+
+ Barter System, Widely used, 11, 13-15, 41-42, 47.
+
+ Beard, Abner. Sold Soap in Swansea, 21.
+
+ Berkeley, Massachusetts, 6, 19.
+
+ Bliss Family, 32, 43, 66.
+
+ B. M. C. Durfee High School in Fall River, 7.
+
+ Bonnets and Bonnet Makers, 40-53.
+
+ Boston Wholesale Merchants, 13, 15-17.
+
+ Bowen Family, 30, 66.
+
+ Bowers Family, chiefly William, 15, 22, 25, 35-36, 39, 45-55, 66.
+
+ Brayton and Bowers, Traders, 19-22, 26-29, 40, 53-55, 60.
+
+ Brayton Family, chiefly Israel. References on nearly all pages.
+
+ Brayton and Mason. Traders, 9-15, 21-27.
+
+ Briggs Family, 20, 63.
+
+ Brightman Family, 31, 63.
+
+ Bristol Cotton Manufacturing Company, 55-58.
+
+ Bristol, Rhode Island, 6, 18, 56.
+
+ Brown Family, 8, 14, 43, 66.
+
+ Buffinton Family, 20, 66.
+
+ Butterworth Family, 27, 66.
+
+
+ Canton, China, 22.
+   Letter written in Canton by William Bowers, 54-55.
+
+ Cartwright Family, 26, 66.
+
+ Carver, J. A. Bonnet presser, 42.
+
+ Chace (Chase) Family, 19, 21, 27, 41, 63, 66-67.
+
+ Charlestown, Carolina. Letters written in Charlestown, 26, 49, 53.
+
+ China. Listed in the invoices, 16.
+
+ Church Activities. Church Choirs, 36-38.
+
+ Cleaveland Family, 20, 63.
+
+ Coggshell Family, 20.
+
+ Colburn, Jonathan C., Singing Teacher from Taunton, 37.
+
+ Commission Sales, 50-51.
+
+ Company Store, 9, 11, 13-15, 19-24.
+
+ Corbett Family, 21.
+
+ Cotton, John, Trader, 52.
+
+ Cotton Spinning, 8, 10, 11, 23, 31, 61.
+
+ Cotton Shipped up from the South, 8, 29, 52-53.
+
+ Cotton Yarn Factories, 8-14, 23-32, 55-60.
+
+ Counterfeit Money, In general use, 17, 19.
+
+ Cows, Exported, 52.
+
+ Crackers and the Cracker Barrel, 19, 20.
+
+ Credit, 14, 17, 28, 32, 48, 57.
+
+ Currency in use, 14, 32.
+
+
+ Dancing Lessons, 10.
+
+ Darien, Georgia. Letter written in Darien in 1821, 52.
+
+ Debts and Debtors, 3, 21, 27, 29.
+
+ deWolf, James, 56-57, 59.
+
+ Dighton Manufacturing Company, 11, 57, 59-60.
+
+ Dighton, Massachusetts, 6, 13, 20, 59-60.
+
+ Disabled Veterans, 6, 34.
+
+ Dow, Lorenzo, Evangelist, 37-38.
+
+ Downing Family, 27, 64.
+
+ Dry Goods, Imported and Domestic, 13, 15-16, 50.
+
+ Durfee, M. C., Clerk for “Mr. Anthony’s Bank” in Troy, 32.
+
+
+ Earle Family, 14, 27, 34.
+
+ Earthquake in Charlestown, described by eyewitness, 26.
+
+ East Indies. Perry expected to sail for the East Indies, October 15,
+      23.
+
+ Eddy Family, 27.
+
+ Egypt, Massachusetts, 25-26, etc.
+
+
+ Fall River Factory and Iron Works, 18, 30-32.
+
+ Fall River, Massachusetts, 7, 29-33. See Troy and Freetown.
+
+ Fashion, 48, 50-51.
+
+ Fayetteville, North Carolina, 50.
+
+ Foxboro, Massachusetts, 7.
+
+ Freetown, Massachusetts, 11, 31.
+
+ Fuller Family, 20.
+
+ Funerals, 18, 43.
+
+
+ Garden Seeds, 21.
+
+ Gardner Family, 14, 21, 59.
+
+ Georgetown Bar, 49.
+
+ Georgia Cotton Manufacturing Company, 28-29.
+
+ Georgia, State of, 29.
+
+ Gibbs, Captain Benjamin and Captain Joseph, 49, 50.
+
+ Gingerbread in the Company Store, 20.
+
+ Glass, Imported, 16.
+
+ Goodyear, Amasa, of New Haven, 18.
+
+ Goosefeathers exported to Boston from Scrabbletown, 13.
+
+ Gray, Samuel, Ship Captain, 43.
+
+ Gypsies of Hot and Cold Lane, 55.
+
+
+ Handy Family, 14, 32.
+
+ Hathaway Family, 27, 42, 57, 64.
+
+ Hats, Felt, Palm leaf, Straw, 20-21, 40. See Bonnets.
+
+ Holman Family, 20.
+
+
+ Idioms and local traditions, 39-40, 51.
+
+ Inventory of Property, 1829, 61.
+
+
+ Johnson, Nathan P., sold Palm leaf hats, 21.
+
+ Jones, Nehemiah, of Raynham. Trader in Straw Braid, 41.
+
+
+ Kilby, Asa, of Somerset. Dealer in dried codfish, 20.
+
+ Kingsley Family, 57, 67.
+
+
+ Labor Difficulties, 24.
+
+ Lawton, Henry, War Veteran, 34.
+
+ Leather Goods sold on commission, 18.
+
+ Lewin Family, Good Weavers, 60, 67.
+
+ Lima, Peru. William Bowers was there in 1826, 54.
+
+ Literacy, 3-4, 38, 50.
+
+ Literature in Scrabbletown, 38-40.
+
+ Lotteries, 3, 8.
+
+ Lovell and Durfee, Fall River Business Firm, 32.
+
+ Lum, Isaac, Confectioner in Somerset, 20.
+
+ Luther Family, Chiefly Wheaton, 8, 10-11, 20, 24-27, 42, 67.
+
+ Lyman Cotton Manufacturing Company, 23-25, 43.
+
+
+ Mail Carriers, 38.
+
+ Manilla. Visited by William Bowers in 1824, 54.
+
+ Marion, Anthony, Captain of Schooner “Jane.” Lost at sea, 49.
+
+ Marvel Family, 58, 67.
+
+ Mason Family, Chiefly John Mason of Brayton and Mason, 9, 35-37, 67.
+
+ Menhaden Fish. Used for fertilizer, 59-60.
+
+ Militia, Local, 6.
+
+ Mills. See Yarn Mills and Paper Mills.
+
+ Mill Stock, 8.
+
+ Mitchell, William, Manager of Swansea Paper Manufacturing Co, 27-28.
+
+ Morrison Family, 62, 67.
+
+ Mount Hope Manufacturing Company, 55-58.
+
+ Music, 16, 36-37.
+
+
+ Nails, made in Troy, sold in Scrabbletown and Egypt, 18, 31.
+
+ Negus Family, 27, 64.
+
+ New Bedford, Massachusetts, 6, 18, 40.
+
+ New Haven, 18.
+
+ Newport, Rhode Island. Letter written in Newport, 1820, 45.
+
+ Newspapers, 38-39, 54.
+
+ New York, N. Y. William Bowers in New York, 47.
+
+ New York Commission Houses, 17, 43-45.
+
+ Nichols, Joseph D., School Teacher in Swansea, 35.
+
+
+ Paper Mill in Swansea, 27-28.
+
+ Pawtucket, Rhode Island, 43, 58.
+
+ Peckham, John, Bristol Manufacturer of Leather Goods, 18-19.
+
+ Pensions for Disabled Veterans, 5, 34.
+
+ Pettibone, Charles, sold powder and shot, 21.
+
+ Physicians, 34, 43.
+
+ Pierce, Captain David. Letters to friends in Egypt, Mass, 49-50, 53.
+
+ Pitchforks made in New Haven, 18.
+
+ Politics, 40.
+
+ Poor Relief, 33-34.
+
+ Potter Family, 4, 67.
+
+ Power Loom Cotton Cloth, 17.
+
+ Pratt, Captain Charles, School Teacher, 35.
+
+ Providence, Rhode Island, 4, 6-7, 22, 29.
+
+ Purinton Family, 27, 67-68.
+
+
+ Raynham, Massachusetts, 13, 40-41.
+
+ Read Family, 5-6, 27, 31, 64-65, 68.
+
+ Rehoboth, Massachusetts, 11, 43.
+
+
+ Sandwich Islands. William Bowers was there in 1826, 54.
+
+ Saunders, Daniel, baker of crackers, 20.
+
+ Sanderson Family, 21.
+
+ Savannah, Georgia, 49-53.
+
+ Schools and School Houses, 5, 7, 10, 26, 35-36.
+
+ School Books, 36.
+
+ School Committee, 7, 35, 36.
+
+ School Teachers and their letters, 7, 35, 36, 62.
+
+ Shad. Taunton River Shad exported, 44-45, 48.
+
+ Sherman Family, 20, 44, 68.
+
+ Ships, By name: Sloop “Henry” of Somerset, 44-49.
+   Sloop “Reindeer” of Troy, Sloop “Rambler” of Troy, “Rosette” of
+      Troy, 31.
+   Schooner “Jane”, 49.
+
+ Shipboard Life, 46-48.
+
+ Shipyards and Shipping, 6-9, 23, 25, 31.
+
+ Shoemakers, 13, 19.
+
+ Shove Family, 43, 68.
+
+ Singing School, 36-37.
+
+ Slade Family, 14, 27, 36, 43, 68.
+
+ Slade’s Ferry Landing, 25, 31.
+
+ Smith, Allan and Daniel, Darien, Georgia, 52.
+   Horatio, 20.
+   Judas, 65.
+
+ Someset, Massachusetts, 5-6, 8, 11, 13, 20-22, 25, 30, 31, 35, 53,
+      66-68.
+
+ Spain, 13, 23.
+
+ Spanish Settlements, 26, 54.
+
+ Sproat, Mr. of Taunton. His marriage, 36, 37.
+
+ Stebbins, Sophia, School Teacher, 36.
+
+ Stock Certificates, 8, 59.
+
+ Store of Brayton and Bowers, Built and Stocked, 40-41, 51.
+
+ Store Books, 14.
+
+ Straw for paper, 27-28, 44.
+   For Bonnets, 40-44, 48.
+
+ Swansea, Massachusetts, 3-4, 7-11, 14, 20, 27, 30, 34-37, 40.
+
+ Swansea Paper Manufacturing Company, 27-28, 32-33.
+
+ Swansea Union Cotton Manufacturing Company, 8-10, 14, 24.
+
+ Sweet Family, 14.
+
+
+ Talbot, Simeon, Hatter in Dighton, 20.
+
+ Taunton, 38, 43.
+
+ Taunton River, 3, 5, 49.
+
+ Threeshere, Isaac, 14, 68.
+
+ Tobacco. Segars, 21-22, 32.
+
+ Transportation by land and sea, 15, 17, 25, 31, 37-38, 43-45, 50, 53.
+
+ Troy, Massachusetts, alias Fall River, 7, 11, 25, 30-33, 53, 58,
+      62-65.
+
+ Troy, New York, 44-45, 48.
+
+
+ Vickery Family, 57.
+
+
+ Walker Family, 42, 68.
+
+ War Department Regulations, 34.
+
+ War of 1812, 6, 8.
+
+ War of the Revolution, 5.
+
+ Warren, Rhode Island, 5-6, 11, 21, 32, 37.
+
+ Warwick Manufacturing Company, 58.
+
+ Water Power for the Yarn Mills, A Necessity, 8, 29.
+
+ Weave Books, 10, 14, 23-25, 29-31, 56, 58.
+
+ Weavers’ Instructions and Tickets, 10, 12-13, 23.
+
+ Weaving in the factory and the home, 9-14, 23-25, 29-31, 56-57,
+      60-61.
+
+ Wellington, alias North Dighton, 55, 57, 59.
+
+ Whale Ships and Whale Oil, 9, 18.
+
+ Wheeler Family, 7-9, 28-30, 56-59, 68.
+
+ White Family, 21, 68.
+
+ Wholesale Merchants. See Boston, New York, New Haven, Providence.
+
+ Wilcox, Edward and Ruth, of Someset, 19, 49.
+
+ Wilkinson, Jemima, 40.
+
+ Wilmarth, Larned, and his baggage waggon, 18-19.
+
+ Williams, Jeremiah, Merchant in Warren, 21.
+
+ Winslow Family, 6, 36, 65-68.
+
+ Wood Family, 26, 68.
+
+ Wrightington, Stephen, Baker, 20.
+
+
+ Yankeys, 49, 53.
+
+ Yarn Mills, 8-14, 23-32, 55-60.
+
+                              PRINTED BY
+                         WARD PRINTING COMPANY
+                          (HENRY C WILKINSON)
+                                NEWPORT
+                             RHODE ISLAND
+
+
+
+
+                          =Transcriber’s Notes=
+
+ Perceived typographical errors have been silently corrected.
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77038 ***
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+      Trading in Scrabbletown | Project Gutenberg
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+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77038 ***</div>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp90" id="i000" style="max-width: 445.875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i000..jpg" alt="Ariel view of Scrabbletown">
+  <figcaption class="caption"></figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pgs 1-3]</span></p>
+
+
+<h1><i>TRADING IN SCRABBLETOWN</i></h1>
+
+
+<p class="center">
+BY<br>
+<br>
+ALICE BRAYTON<br>
+</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE"><i>PREFACE</i></h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><i>The material used in this publication was found in a barrel of
+papers presented to the Fall River Historical Society by John
+Summerfield Brayton, in the summer of 1948. There were over 4000
+papers in the barrel; well preserved, though some had been nibbled by
+mice. And none of those 4000 papers had ever appeared in print—never
+appeared at all, I understand, since the barrel head was nailed down a
+hundred years ago.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>The papers were concerned with trading in Scrabbletown, an old
+suburb of Swansea, Massachusetts, just about, I should say, ten miles
+from the farmhouse on the Taunton where the barrel was found.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Trading a dull subject? By no means; according to the barrel the
+traders of Scrabbletown led a most exciting life, packed with adventure
+steadied by responsibility, completely insecure, very satisfactory to those
+who succeeded or even survived—and you had a run for your money
+if you didn’t. I am trying to present this manysided life as revealed by
+the papers in the barrel. You may find me incredible. I read all the
+papers, the 4000; please believe that, anyway.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>The latest paper was written in 1832, which is more than a world
+away, and the earliest was a lottery ticket of 1814; not to be thought of
+as wicked, for I judge from other papers that nearly everybody in
+Scrabbletown took chances. Lottery tickets to the “Rhode Island State
+Lottery” were sold over the counter. “A fool and his money are soon
+parted” was a copybook saying of theirs, however, and although there
+were quite a few legal papers in the barrel I found no trace of any
+law attempting to protect fools. Indeed, even the practice of actually
+jailing persons who had bought more than they could pay for, prevailed
+through the whole barrel period, and I read some sad letters from some
+very foolish men who owed money to the traders of Scrabbletown.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>The barrel letters were easily deciphered; though some of the spelling
+was queer, it was always comprehensible. Going over the papers
+it seemed to me that the whole population had somehow learned to read
+and write pretty well; in the barrel there was only one paper signed with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span>
+a mark. And that was the mark of Prince Potter, a freed slave, father
+of Quanny Potter who sold seven sheep in 1824. Possibly he had been
+crippled by arthritis; perhaps when young he too could have written his
+name. You will not find me jumping to conclusions.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Except for that one lottery ticket, there was no paper of 1814 in
+the barrel and there was nothing dated 1815 but an account book bound
+in stiff marbled covers. It was backed by real leather; to last, you know.
+No one at that time bought anything not likely to wear well. The book
+came from the shop of John Brewer, a bookbinder and bookseller of
+Providence. On the fly leaf is written in an excellent, really distinguished
+hand</i>,</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+“<i>The property of Israel Brayton<br>
+March 21, 1815. Swanzey.</i>”<br>
+</p>
+
+
+<p><i>It was the discovery of this book that gave me my first clue to the ownership
+of the barrel papers. There is no doubt that the barrel and the
+papers were the property of an Israel Brayton who traded in Scrabbletown
+in 1815-1832, and in 1832 shut up shop, crammed all of his own
+papers and any others around the shop, into the barrel, nailed down the
+barrel head, took the barrel over to the attic of the farm house in Somerset
+where it has just been discovered, and thought no more about it for
+the next hundred years.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Who was this Israel Brayton? The barrel relates him to the entire
+countryside. He knew everybody, apparently, was well known to everybody.
+But he was a quiet man, I think, cautious, self-contained. Notoriety,
+publicity, arrogance, even modest pride, were deadly sins in his
+New England eyes. And so, what he told to no one, no one repeated,
+and finally no one knew.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>His descendants of today had never heard of Scrabbletown before
+the finding of the barrel, had never known that Grandfather Brayton
+had ever been in trade.</i></p>
+
+<p><i>Least said, soonest mended, he thought; and it is true—but I must
+tell you something of the Trader as well as the Trade of Scrabbletown—just
+a little—I hope he will not mind—it was all a long time ago.</i></p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="Trading_in_Scrabbletown"><i>Trading in Scrabbletown</i><br><br>
+
+
+
+CONCERNING ISRAEL BRAYTON, TRADER</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Israel Brayton’s father was John Brayton, son of Israel Brayton,
+grandson of Preserved Brayton; all of Somerset. Letters from John
+Brayton to his son Israel were in the barrel. So we know.</p>
+
+<p>Israel, you notice, was named for his grandfather. Other members
+of his family were three older sisters; Mary, Sarah, and Nancy. Their
+letters also were in the barrel—nice little letters to brother Israel. And
+nice little bills, too, from brother Israel. He had an elder brother who
+died young, at sea; and the barrel holds letters from another brother—he
+wrote from Warren. We gather that at one time he was Captain of
+a ship that did some trading along the coast—Captain Stephen. Israel
+had, also, five younger brothers and sisters. They are not in the barrel
+but he had them.</p>
+
+<p>At the time of Israel’s birth, in 1792, this rapidly increasing family
+was living in an old farmhouse, built in 1715, on the crest of its own
+one hundred and seventy-five acre farm in Somerset on the West Shore
+of the Taunton River near the river’s mouth. They had a fine view of
+Mount Hope Bay from their southern windows. There was a well-filled
+family graveyard in the back orchard, a little red schoolhouse up the
+road “on William Read’s land,” built partly with Brayton money, a
+stone wharf for Brayton boats down by the river.</p>
+
+<p>When Israel was four years old, his father built a larger farmhouse,
+nearer the river bank, and in this new house the little Braytons of
+Israel’s generation grew up. Their elders were talking about the Late
+War. They meant the War of the Revolution. Having suffered severely
+from the effects of that victory on their business, they were trying to
+make good. Some of their most prosperous and competent neighbors
+had been loyal to the Crown. They were simply not there any more.
+And they were missed. Others, it was suspected, had been loyal in secret,
+as has been lately proved. It had done them no good. They were ruined
+with the rest. And all about on the farms were the crippled and the
+pensioned men.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span></p>
+
+<p>Conditions were getting better, slowly; a few new houses had been
+built, a few new ships had been launched. Nobody around here between
+the Revolution and the War of 1812 seems to have been expecting
+such utter disaster as another war. But even before the actual declaration
+of war, in 1812, their world to their consternation went to pieces.
+Again Somerset ships were taken by British ships. Somerset, Swansea,
+Trojan, and Scrabbletown men—sailors before the mast—were pressed.
+The ship yards of Somerset, Dighton, Berkeley, Assonet, Warren, Bristol,
+Providence, Lee’s River, everywhere—closed down, and commerce
+ceased to be. Israel’s people had lived on their farms but they had lived
+by their shipyards and their shipping.</p>
+
+<p>When the War of 1812 was officially declared on June 18th, Israel
+was 20 years old. His father was on the draft board of the town. Of
+course Israel went off with the other Somerset men to fight the Britishers.
+They went, I think, as far as New Bedford.</p>
+
+<p>Israel incurred a disability, if the barrel is to be trusted. He was discharged
+from the Army. There is a good deal in the barrel about this
+disability. Israel in after days thought he should be excused from military
+drill. When the local Militia would not excuse him, he just stayed
+away. There is a note in the barrel acknowledging the payment of his
+fine for so doing. In order to get out of drill, which was time-consuming
+at least, for the Militia rarely met in Israel’s village, Israel eventually
+had to have affadavits from two local doctors as to his disability. His
+sister had married Dr. Winslow, Dr. Lloyd Brayton was his cousin. The
+authorities were skeptical. Dr. Winslow’s second letter did the trick.
+The first was not accepted.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Samuel Read<br>
+Lieut, Commander.      Sir:<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Israel Brayton belonging to your Company has and is now troubled
+with a lameness and weakness in his back and legs, which may be termed
+of a rheumatic tendency, and in my opinion ought to excuse him from
+military duty.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Yours in respect<br>
+John Winslow”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span></p>
+
+<p>In August, 1813, as soon as he was free of the Army, Israel married.
+His bride was a neighbor’s girl, Keziah Anthony, daughter of David
+Anthony and his wife Submit Wheeler. The Anthony farm lay east of
+Lee’s River, not an hour’s walk across the fields from the Brayton Farm
+on the Taunton. Keziah was Israel’s third cousin, and kinship was of
+much account. You knew what you were getting. The marriage was
+most practical. Israel, just come of age, not physically strong, had to
+start out on his own. He needed help. And both the Anthony and the
+Wheeler connections, as was expected, proved useful. There are hundreds
+of communications in the barrel from Hezekiah Anthony of Providence
+and David Anthony of Troy, both brothers of Israel’s wife, both
+prosperous merchants in their day. There is a helpful letter from Nathaniel
+Wheeler, her uncle.</p>
+
+<p>But nobody could be very useful in 1813. With all the shipping
+stopped and the shipyards closed, there was no berth for Israel in any
+countinghouse, no need for him as supercargo—a man with a lame back
+isn’t much good on a farm.</p>
+
+<p>Israel took his bride up state to Foxboro, where he taught in the
+District School. In Foxboro or thereabouts—boundary lines were
+changing fast—their first child was born, little Mary, who, herself, at
+the age of eighteen was teaching school in Fall River. You know perhaps
+that later in life she gave the B.M.C. Durfee High School to the
+City of Fall River in memory of her son.</p>
+
+<p>The family was always interested in education and Israel served on
+the School Committee of Swansea for years and preserved in the barrel
+a number of letters from various people who wanted jobs.</p>
+
+<p>In 1815, after the President had ratified the Treaty of Ghent on
+February 17th, and the War was surely over, Israel and Kezia and little
+Mary left Foxboro for their own part of the world, where, in the small
+village of Scrabbletown near Swansea, Israel began his career as a
+Trader. And went to Providence and bought that first account book
+of which I have told you.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="TRADING_WITH_THE_SWANSEA_UNION_COTTON_MANUFACTURING_COMPANY">TRADING WITH THE SWANSEA UNION COTTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Back in 1804, ten years before this story begins, Dexter Wheeler, an
+uncle of Israel Brayton’s wife, had bought the Martin Farm in Swansea;
+43 acres with water power and a grist mill. In 1806, he sold half his
+farm to his brother, Nathaniel, the village blacksmith. The brothers
+intended to build and operate a Cotton Yarn Factory. This was years
+before the power loom had been used successfully anywhere in the country,
+twenty six years before mule spinning was even attempted.</p>
+
+<p>Factory construction went on slowly. Dexter Wheeler quit, though
+his brother Nathaniel Wheeler continued to be interested for some years
+longer. Ownership of the yarn mill became involved. Then the War
+of 1812 stopped the shipping north of cotton—overland transportation
+was of course impossible. And you can’t run a cotton factory without
+cotton, you know. And you can’t raise a cotton crop in New England—in
+case you don’t know!</p>
+
+<p>There was reorganization at the close of the War. The third oldest
+paper in the barrel is a certificate of stock in this “Swansea Union Cotton
+Manufacturing Company” as it finally came to be called. The stock
+had been issued to Wheaton Luther, February 21, 1816, when he was
+clerking for Israel in Scrabbletown and must have been left carelessly
+around the store. (This Wheaton Luther was a Somerset man, his
+board bill in Swansea where he stayed with David Brown was also in
+the barrel, paid up to August 1, 1816.) Wheaton gave $145.00 for his
+mill stock. It was not a whole share of stock, only a quarter share, and
+he did not pay for it all at once, but in 39 installments. This is testimony
+to Wheaton’s industry. (Though the lottery ticket was his.) And to
+his small wages. And to the difficulty men had in getting any capital
+at all to finance a yarn mill.</p>
+
+<p>By the close of 1815, the factory was spinning some cotton. The
+spinners had been carefully selected, for the factory machinery was supposed
+to be rather a secret, certainly experimental, the process not too
+easy to get the hang of. At first the spinners were eager to take home<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span>
+the yarn and weave it on their own looms. Their families and friends
+wanted the work. But this was haphazard and unbusinesslike and would
+never do. There must be a distributing center for the yarn, a center to
+which the finished work could be returned, inspected, paid for.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle Nathaniel Wheeler wrote up to his niece Kezia. He was still
+running his blacksmith shop in Swansea and knew what was going on.
+He saw what looked like a good job for Israel—the factory needed some
+one to run a Company Store.</p>
+
+<p>Why a Store? Because the weavers would not want to be paid in cash,
+he knew very well they wouldn’t. They would want to be paid in
+goods—which they could get immediately. They certainly would not
+want to save what they might earn, for the farms were short of everything
+and needed replacements at once. With no shipping, not only
+cotton but many staples had not come up from the South; no English
+or West Indian Goods had been in the market for a long time, no whale
+ships had brought oil for the lamps of Swansea, no ships of any kind
+had brought any lamps.</p>
+
+<p>After sounding out the Swansea Union Cotton Manufacturing Company,
+Israel and Kezia and Mary came down at once, as I have told you,
+and Israel found housing in Swansea for his family and began to look
+about for a partner. He was a cautious man, was Israel.</p>
+
+<p>John Mason, well thought of in Swansea where he was Postmaster,
+was not averse to investing in the project. The two men formed what
+they called a “Co-Partnership”. They bought a small shop whose owner
+had failed. They bought the shop and its meagre contents at auction.
+And what they bought and what they paid for it is listed in the barrel.</p>
+
+<p>They filled the almost empty shelves with, well, with everything. I
+have read the inventories. They were then ready to trade with the
+Swansea Union Cotton Manufacturing Company; and with the whole
+countryside.</p>
+
+<p>And they did. And Israel continued to do so until he went out of
+business altogether in 1832. Seventeen years. A few years later the
+Swansea Union Cotton Manufacturing Company’s factory burned down;
+bankrupt, I have heard. Of that the barrel knows nothing. It was a very
+successful little yarn factory while it lasted.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span></p>
+
+<p>Brayton and Mason had engaged Wheaton Luther as clerk. (Yes.
+He was a cousin of Kezia’s.). For they did not intend to spend much time
+in the shop themselves. Mason had his post-office. Israel had to get
+around. All their ventures were complicated and were going to need
+personal attention. Wheaton Luther proved to be efficient, though he
+certainly conducted many affairs of his own on the side. And Mrs.
+Brayton (Kezia), after the birth of her second child, little William
+Bowers, in August, 1816, helped in the store when needed.</p>
+
+<p>“Mr Brayton——please to send me the handkerchief that your wife
+laid aside——and charge it——</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Sarah Ann Luther”<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>As soon as little Mary could reach up to the counter, she too helped
+out, after school hours. She was a
+very handsome girl, and graceful.
+Her father hired a dancing teacher to give her dancing lessons. The bill
+is in the Barrel. Also I found a bill showing that she began her regular
+schooling at the age of three.</p>
+
+<p>Israel spent the rest of the year of 1815 riding about the country-side
+making connections with the weavers needed to weave the spun yarn
+of the factory. He knew all the farms and the villages, of course. He
+had grown up among them. He got the names of quite a lot of reliable
+men and women who would be willing to weave for the Swansea Union
+Cotton Manufacturing Company through the agency of Brayton and
+Mason. They began to come in for yarn. Israel started the Weave Books
+found in the barrel.</p>
+
+<p>We know from these books the prices paid each man and woman, and
+the pattern each had to follow.</p>
+
+<p>As the amount of yarn spun in the factory increased, the number of
+weavers had to be increased. The better weavers—any very good weaver
+had always been celebrated through the villages—were the first employed
+by Israel—also the weavers nearest to Scrabbletown. Weaving,
+I think, was an Art, when Israel went to find his weavers; and started
+to make up his weave books. Possibly it did not remain an art for long.
+The demand for weavers was soon so great that the factory could not—did
+not—reject badly woven cloth. The price paid for the weaving was
+the same for good or bad. Each weaver knew that a critical appraisal of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pgs 11-12]</span>
+the quality of his finished work was placed against his name, but the
+factory, though it grumbled, took the good, bad, indifferent. Every
+weaver got his pay, didn’t he—why worry? Occasionally a man wove
+so badly that he could not be kept on the list—but only occasionally.</p>
+
+<p>And the factory was not spinning the yarn evenly—not as well as
+the better home spinners had spun it. Down in the weave book went
+the comment of the weaver who was asked to weave bad (“tender”)
+yarn. “The yarn was very rotten in spooling” wrote Sarah Ann Luther.
+But it was rarely returned unwoven. Possibly the weavers hated to waste
+their time weaving bad yarn—their own spinning had been pretty good.
+But they wove what Israel gave them. Of course they did—eventually.
+And it made usable cloth, mostly.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, few bothered to weave too well, I suppose. Soon they all
+got used to the second rate. Along the village streets you would have
+heard the looms clicking. New prosperity could have been seen about
+the farms.</p>
+
+<p>Men wove this factory yarn more often than women. Retired sea-captains—seafaring
+men without ships at the moment—sat down at the
+loom, especially in the winter months. And still the demand for weavers
+grew. The yarn was taken by weavers living in Assonet, Barrington,
+Dighton, Rehoboth, Tiverton, Warren, Freetown and Troy (old names
+for Fall River) as well as by those living in Swansea and Somerset and
+the farms round about. And it was all distributed by Brayton and Mason
+who checked it most carefully. There was a system by which yarn was
+sent to the homes of the weavers by baggage waggon, the woven cloth
+returned the same way. But many weavers did not live on the baggage
+waggon route and there were horses on every farm. Farmers would ride
+in to Scrabbletown, have a drink, get the yarn their households needed;
+and bring back to Israel the woven cloth in their own good time. I must
+repeat that they could have been paid in cash had they so desired. But
+few did so desire. For they could select goods right off the shelves—there
+was no better store in Swansea than the little Company Store run by
+Brayton and Mason.</p>
+
+<p>The farmers would sometimes bring in fresh eggs, a pail of berries,
+some bear steaks or venison—Israel was always glad to get anything in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span>
+the way of trade. There is record of a crop of Swansea currants so disposed
+of, to a man down from Dighton. He was going to make currant
+wine. A village shoemaker would make a few extra shoes for the shop;
+in trade for a gilt mirror and some imported rum.</p>
+
+<p>For of course Brayton and Mason carried rum both imported and
+domestic—some weavers favored one, some another. They even stocked
+Port Wine, straight from Spain to Somerset. Silk from China could be
+had, too, and French Wall Paper; British goods, surprisingly, were very
+popular the moment the British were defeated.</p>
+
+<p>When the weavers had brought in their cloth, and it had been inspected,
+Israel often picked out some particularly good piece to keep
+in stock. He arranged this with the factory. Households busy weaving
+for the factory sometimes needed a little cotton cloth for household use
+which they no longer had the time to spin and weave; especially bed-ticking.</p>
+
+<p>Israel kept more and more of this homewoven cloth for trading. He
+had to send his cart up to Boston where he bought his main supplies
+of drygoods, china and glass ware, and it seemed foolish to send it empty.
+He began to load up with cloth and goosefeathers, etc. And trade was
+soon pretty brisk. A Company Store in Raynham took all he could
+spare; he stopped off in Raynham on the way up. There was in Boston
+as at home an especially good demand for bed-ticking. The trade in
+more fancy weaves was not always satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>With the yarn issued to the weavers, went, as I have said, “directions”.
+Each weaver was told by the factory what colors to use, what design to
+make. Yarn of each color, just enough, went with each bundle.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp40" id="i012" style="max-width: 137.25em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/i012.jpg" alt="Weaving directions sheet">
+  <figcaption class="caption"></figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>There were found in the barrel, a few pieces of the woven cloth. They
+show the red and the orange yarn, the two shades of blue, and the
+general look of this home-and-factory product. More white yarn was
+given out than colored—undyed, a “natural” white. The bits of cloth
+are most pleasing.</p>
+
+<p>Weavers who were accustomed to weave their own devised patterns,
+as many were, naturally found these directions irksome. But it was
+take it or leave it, and they took it, and brought back their finished work
+to the Company Store, getting in exchange, women’s kid boots, teapots<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span>
+of lustre ware, good China Tea. It probably seemed worth it. Of
+course, Brayton and Mason kept Store Books as well as Weave Books—it
+is easy to trace by name and date the goods that the weavers selected.</p>
+
+<p>The Swansea Union Cotton Manufacturing Company gave their
+spinners credit at Brayton and Mason’s store. There are hundreds of little
+notes in the barrel signed by the Factory Manager, Benjamin Anthony,
+asking that the bearer be given credit for certain specified articles, the
+same to be charged to the Company. It meant more book keeping for
+Israel, but what could he do about it. Yes, there are hundreds of such
+notes, and nobody knows how many more were destroyed. More personal
+notes run as follows:</p>
+
+<p>“You must not trust Elisha Sweet”. This was in 1820.</p>
+
+<p>“Please to let Otis Handy have cloth nuff for jacket and trowsers and
+charge the same to me</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Abraham Gardner”<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>“Please to let the bearer have eight shillings worth out of your store
+and charge the same to me</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Abraham Gardner” (notice, they wrote of shillings).<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>“It is particularly requested as a favor that if Jeremiah Brown should
+send any of his children or family for spirits that you should refuse him,
+and confer a favour upon his family who on account of his excessive
+drinking are much distressed</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Swanzey. October 13, 1828. A friend.”<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>“Please to let the bearer have one dollar and 59 cents on my weaving
+Account.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Isaac Threeshere.”<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>“Please to let the bearer have a pint of lamp oil for the eggs which
+Gardner Slade left.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Mary Earle.”<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>Not only the weavers and the spinners but even some of the relatives
+were being obliged. And that did complicate things.</p>
+
+<p>“Betsy P. Slade wants you to send her a yard of Italian Crape.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Phoebe Slade.”<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>“Please let the boy have seven pounds of fish and charge to me.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Charles Slade.”<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>All this credit was none too good. But that was the way the village
+wanted it. It kept them in debt. Had they wished to leave! But they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span>
+did not want to leave. They were very well pleased with Scrabbletown
+and Swansea. Just read the letters in the barrel. People were moving
+in, not moving out.</p>
+
+
+<h3><i>Stocking the Company Store</i></h3>
+
+<p>To stock their stores, the partners had had to buy an immense variety
+of things. Long and varied invoices are in the barrel. I have seen in the
+homes of the descendants of the men and women who wove for Brayton
+and Mason, the china they took in trade for the cloth they carried back
+to the Company Store. I have seen the furniture, the wall hangings,
+the linen, that Brayton and Mason sold to the countryside. There is
+nothing better.</p>
+
+<p>The trade, with Boston especially, grew rapidly. Israel picked up
+what he could, where he could, but most of his drygoods were brought
+over the road from Boston. Philip Bowers was soon renting his waggon
+to take Israel’s venture in woven cloth to Boston, weekly; (before
+Israel bought a waggon of his own;) bringing back all he could carry;
+and very bulky many of the articles were. Once he brought down a
+trunk. But that was a special order. By the way, nothing from Boston
+was sent down on approval or in speculation.</p>
+
+<p>Israel had some merchandize brought down by the regular baggage
+waggon. Perhaps the need for a waggon of his own was more obvious
+then than now. It will help to understand his situation if we read a
+Boston newspaper of 1819:</p>
+
+<p>“Taken from behind the Baggage Waggon, between Boston and
+Milton Hills, on Monday afternoon, by cutting the rope with which it
+was fastened, a basket containing knives, forks, a few snuffers and trays,
+pocket knives, slates, Naples soap, brass lamps and candlesticks—reward
+ten dollars.” In the same issue: “Just received from London, drygoods.
+Gentlemen can occasionally be furnished with Garments readymade.”
+And—“Lane and Honeywell have received—from Bremen—scales,
+lookingglasses, Bristol teapots.” Israel’s customers expected him to stock
+whatever was advertised, of course, and get it down to Swansea somehow.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span></p>
+
+
+<h3><i>The Boston Wholesale Houses</i></h3>
+
+<p>Many Boston wholesale houses did business with Israel Brayton. Appleton
+and Paige sold him book muslin, Brittania handkerchiefs, red
+flannel, lilac Calico, pink and white robes, Tartan Plaid, Caroline Plaid,
+swansdown, and many other things. Fowle and Lincoln sold him India
+Goods, mostly Indian Shawls.</p>
+
+<p>Grant’s Paper Hanging Warehouse at 6 Union Street (near the Old
+Market) sold him both imported and domestic wall paper; many rolls
+of striped paper and some with borders.</p>
+
+<p>James W. Paige and Co. sold him scarlet chintz prints—among other
+things. Norcross and Mellon, later Otis Norcross and Co., sold him blue
+edged plates, tifflers and muffins. Lustre tea sets. State House Plates.
+Imported glass ware. Fancy mugs. Toy images. Oval tea pots and
+sugar bowls. Nappies. Threaded creams. Square sallads. And so forth.</p>
+
+<p>Thomas Tarbell of 66 State Street, under the Massachusetts Bank;
+Rich silks. Thomas Thurber; Italian silks, Russian sheetings, flag handkerchiefs.
+Tuckerman, Rogers and Cushing; Blue broadcloths, towels,
+tablecloths, Madras handkerchiefs, white silk.</p>
+
+<p>Hubbard and Greenough at 69 State Street, sold him Russian sheetings
+and hooks and eyes. Richard and Seaver of 5 Liberty Square sold
+him Tartan Plaid, woolen stockings, doeskin mittens, Canton silk, spool
+cotton, tape, silk gloves, Mecklin lace; and J. and E. Phillips sold him
+Canton crape and sarsanet.</p>
+
+<p>Thomas A. Davis sold him brass candlesticks and shell canes, while
+Lowell, Adams and Co. sold him brass andirons and supporters.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Davenport sold him nothing but Malaga raisens, and Rufus
+Farnham furnished him with nothing but gold beads.</p>
+
+<p>But Lane and Honeywell at 17 Dock Square sold him all sorts of
+hardware, particularly snuff boxes.</p>
+
+<p>Lane and Read sold him knives and forks, German Jews Harps, gilt
+buttons, black tin tea pots, and Maynard and Noyes’ ink powder.</p>
+
+<p>P. Hale sold him velvet bindings, Valentia shawls, Thread, and
+Merrimack sheetings, along with other commodities.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span></p>
+
+<p>There were other Boston merchants who carried his accounts, of
+course. One day, Israel bought from Jeremiah Fitch, of 5 Market Street,
+Boston, some “Power Loom Cotton Cloth”. This was in 1820. Of
+course he did not know that the power loom cotton cloth would soon
+be shutting down the looms in the farmhouses. He did not know that
+the farms and villages were at the peak of their buying power, their
+desire and their ability to buy really beautiful things.</p>
+
+<p>This trading in what we call “luxury articles”, was hazardous. But all
+trading was a venture, as Israel well knew. He could not always pay his
+bills promptly. There are letters from the Boston firms demanding
+settlement, really demanding it. There are also letters showing that Israel
+began at once to try to collect money due him. He was not always
+successful. There must have been anxious moments in the back room
+of the shop in Scrabbletown, fairly often. There was no security that
+the firm might not fail, the factory did not stand behind it. Israel had
+to borrow money from the bank occasionally—and would have borrowed
+more often if the bank had been more willing to lend. It is also
+true that Israel was caught out in passing counterfeit money rather surprisingly
+often. He apparently took it without a thought and sent it up
+to the Boston Merchants who were more thoughtful. The letters from
+the Boston Firms about counterfeit money are unpleasant, but Israel
+kept them and put them in the barrel.</p>
+
+<p>I think Israel’s solvency amazing, considering all the irons he had in
+the fire. And he was only a farm boy, with no experience in trading.
+Unless you count horse trading, of which the whole family had done
+plenty. Israel and his partners kept books and corresponded with dozens
+of different firms—there is no sign of confusion anywhere.</p>
+
+
+<h3><i>The New York Wholesale Houses</i></h3>
+
+<p>Connections with New York Firms were few, but Israel did have commission
+merchants in New York, to whom he sent, care of some Somerset
+skipper, such goods as he thought would sell in New York. There
+were also a few New York importations. G. B. Miller sent Israel
+American Segars and Smoaking Tobacco. So did Thomas Agnew. Samuel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span>
+Gray shipped them on. Samuel Waring and Co. sent him some drygoods
+in 1820, among which were “cotton flag handkerchiefs” and
+“imitation shawls”.</p>
+
+
+<h3><i>Whale Oil, Nails, and Pitchforks</i></h3>
+
+<p>Whale oil he bought at wholesale from the Rodmans of New Bedford.
+Nails, and he sold a good many, were bought from the Fall River Iron
+Works. Israel bought a lot of pitchforks from Amasa Goodyear of New
+Haven; two-tined and three-tined pitchforks.</p>
+
+
+<h3><i>The Leather Trade</i></h3>
+
+<p>His leather goods he did not buy outright, but got them on consignment
+from John Peckham Jr. of Bristol. Peckham wrote Israel the following
+letter in 1824:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“Sir. Wishing to keep a quantity of saddling in Swansea for sale,
+such as harness and saddles, trunks, bridles, etc. and knowing you, I
+thought I would write you word to see if you would take a quantity of
+the above articles to sell for me on commission; if you would be kind
+enough to take an assortment of the above articles to sell please to
+write me word and at what commission</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Yours etc.
+<br>
+Jno. Peckham Jr.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Israel took them. Larned Wilmarth ran a sort of baggage waggon from
+Bristol up to Dighton and points beyond, and was willing to bring up
+Peckham’s goods as wanted. Peckham and Israel traded with each other
+with mutual satisfaction until Feb. 6, 1832, when, with the payment
+of $16.00 in full, the account was closed out. For Israel was shutting
+up shop.</p>
+
+<p>There are a number of letters in the barrel which throw light on the
+saddlers’ trade.</p>
+
+<p>—“The harness, I calculated for the hearse harness, if they should
+want it. I therefore put all black buckles.”</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Peckham did not believe in a fixed price. “I want you to get the
+price these things are marked, but if you cannot, you must take less. I
+had rather you should take less than have a man go away and not buy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span>
+on account of price.” He was not one to be put upon, either. In 1826,
+he wrote to Israel:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Sir<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>This bill I took of you appears to be counterfeit. I did not undertake
+to spend it before today and I carried it to the bank to change and the
+cashier says it is a counterfeit bill. If you will change it and send it back
+by Mr. Wilmarth you will oblige your humble servant</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+John Peckham Jr.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In 1828, Mr. Peckham wrote again:</p>
+
+<p>“When I was at your store a few days since, your son (it must have
+been William Bowers Brayton, he was just twelve years old) said there
+was a man talking of wanting a saddle. Therefore I thought I would
+send the one I have on hand. The price is nine dollars. If you please,
+you may put on a pair of stirrups that you have on hand, and you can
+arrange them on your book accordingly.”</p>
+
+<p>He also wrote: “no doubt you thought the cheeses to be what you
+recommended them to be, but they are not.”</p>
+
+<p>There was quite a bit of trade with the shoemakers; local men. Enoch
+Babbitt who lived in Berkeley was in the habit of sending down a few
+shoes every once in a while. In 1830, he brought Israel 9 pairs of
+boots to sell on commission of ten per cent. But in 1831 he wrote he
+was so busy he could not make any more shoes for Israel. He had sent
+down 12 pairs three months earlier. Anthony Morse who lived in
+Scrabbletown was employed by Israel to mend shoes brought into the
+stores of Scrabbletown and Egypt. A certain Mr. Chace of Swansea made
+shoes to order. “If Mr. Chace has no shoes that is raised higher in the
+instep than common, he must make a pair or else I dont want any.” It
+was not unusual to order a pair of morocco walking shoes. But calfskin
+shoes made by John S. Russel were more in demand. The calves were
+born on the farm.</p>
+
+
+<h3><i>The Cracker Barrel</i></h3>
+
+<p>In Israel’s day, the cracker barrel was not a figure of speech. Israel kept
+a barrel of crackers in his store. In 1824, Edward Wilcox sold to Israel
+200 crackers for one dollar. The bill is in the barrel. The next year he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span>
+charged only a dollar for 220 crackers. Daniel Saunders’ crackers were
+210 for $1.00. The amounts billed are small but the bills were frequent.
+The largest single shipment to Israel was 600 crackers, bought May 20,
+1825. This was wholesale. One cracker cost the customer one cent,
+bought right out of the barrel. I am forgetting the time Israel bought a
+whole barrel of crackers at once, from Stephen Wrightington, for three
+dollars. The barrel held 720 crackers, so Wrightington said.</p>
+
+<p>And Horatio Smith sold crackers to Israel. So did Alvin K. Luther.
+This cracker business was a big one. For of course the ships wanted
+crackers. I found no “ship biscuit” listed on any bill. The ships bought
+crackers.</p>
+
+<p>Some of these bakers of crackers made gingerbread as well. Israel
+usually kept a few pans of gingerbread in stock. They cost him ten cents
+a pan.</p>
+
+
+<h3><i>Hearts and Kisses</i></h3>
+
+<p>Israel ran a confectionary department, of course. Isaac Lum of Somerset
+supplied peppermints, hearts, and kisses. Hiram Buffinton was the
+Swansea confectioner. He charged 20 cents a pound for his sweets,
+wholesale. And he sold oranges to Israel, wholesale. Though very few
+oranges were billed to Israel. It was hard to get them up from the South,
+unspoiled, in a sailing vessel.</p>
+
+
+<h3><i>Combs and Codfish and Palm Leaf Hats</i></h3>
+
+<p>The list of Israel’s purchases is very long, but I hate to omit the traders
+in combs Daniel Briggs, Asa Holman, Thomas Coggshell, and Abiel
+Fuller. Did they manufacture combs? They were Swansea and Somerset
+men.</p>
+
+<p>James Sherman sold Israel what pork he carried; and many barrels
+of flour. Though Hezekiah Anthony had most of Israel’s flour trade.
+(See about him later.)</p>
+
+<p>Henry Cleaveland, a farmer in Swansea, sold Israel 12266 feet of
+board at one time. He had a woodlot—and somebody handy with the axe.</p>
+
+<p>Simeon Talbot of Dighton sold Israel hats, felt hats, not straw. Asa
+Kilby of Somerset kept him supplied with dried codfish. Nathan P.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span>
+Johnson sold him all the palm leaf hats and palm leaf brooms he could
+use. And more. They did not sell rapidly. The palm leaf hats brought
+up from the South by Isaac White did better.</p>
+
+<p>Windsor soap was a good article to carry, for the turnover was rapid.
+Abner Beard of Somerset and Henry Sanderson both supplied Israel
+with Windsor Soap. Powder, more used then than now (not face
+powder) was supplied by Charles Pettibone. Elijah Corbett had many
+bills for scythe sneads. And William G. Chace once sold him 2000 cigars.</p>
+
+
+<h3><i>Garden Seeds</i></h3>
+
+<p>The little trays of garden seeds which stand on many country counters
+today, were on Israel’s counter, of course. In 1828 Israel wrote: “I have
+a good assortment of garden seeds from the Shakers, for sale.”</p>
+
+<p>In 1830, Jeremiah Williams of Warren wrote to Israel: “I have
+sent you one box or bundle of garden seed; containing 109 papers for
+which I shall make you a deduction of 20 per cent when sold on account.”
+He wrote a little later: “The time for making a return on
+garden seeds has arrived. Your balance would be gladly received as
+soon as is convenient.” Jeremiah Williams had sent seed to Israel from
+Warren from the opening of Israel’s first store. The kind of seed he
+sent never varied.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Warren, April, 1829.<br>
+Mr. Brayton. Dear Sir,<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>When you were in Warren, you were speaking to me
+about onion seed from Concord. It has just arrived and should you
+now want it, I can supply you with a good article at——</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Yours most respected<br>
+Jeremiah Williams<br>
+by James Gardner”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The only named seeds carried by Israel were:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+Concord Onion Seed<br>
+Rob Roy Beans<br>
+China Dwarf Beans<br>
+Early Red Eyed Beans<br>
+Dwarf Prolific Peas<br>
+Early June Peas<br>
+Beet Seed<br>
+Clover Seed<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span></p>
+
+
+<h3><i>Trading with Providence</i></h3>
+
+<p>Trading with Providence was mostly confined to trading with Hezekiah
+Anthony, Israel’s brother-in-law. Hezekiah and his wife, Sally Bowers,
+had moved up to Providence from Bowers’ Shores in Somerset in 1818.
+On June 15th of that year he opened a wholesale Grocery Store in
+Whitman’s Block at 11 Weybossett Street, Providence, which he conducted
+successfully for 48 years.</p>
+
+<p>One branch of his trade was extremely successful. He imported rum
+from St. Croix which was put through the Customs at a small port in
+Connecticut. The Custom declarations are in the barrel, receipted. Israel
+sold a great deal of this St. Croix rum. Israel also sold a great deal
+of flour imported from Albany by Hezekiah. This was “Canal” flour.
+And Israel sold “Philadelphia” flour, imported by Hezekiah from Philadelphia
+of course. Flour was billed to Israel by Hezekiah in every invoice.
+Sugar was billed almost as often. Israel really did sell a great
+deal of coffee and tea, purchased wholesale from Hezekiah. But some
+of the China Tea sold by Israel came direct from Canton to Somerset.</p>
+
+<p>Snuff was in great demand. Israel bought it from Hezekiah. The
+invoices tell of bladders of snuff sent down from Providence. Snuff
+boxes had been purchased rather often from the Boston Merchants. I
+seem to remember that there were snuff mills at one time in the South
+County, but the barrel tells nothing of the origin of Hezekiah’s snuff.</p>
+
+<p>Segars were purchased from Hezekiah in large quantities, American
+Segars were the cheapest. Molasses, salt, ginger, nutmegs, cloves, allspice,
+and raisens, were supplied frequently. Occasionally some window
+glass was shipped down, some shaving soap, wrapping paper, corn
+brooms, salt cod, starch, and of course, shot. There was a gun on every
+farm.</p>
+
+<p>Gin was bought by everybody; “Jenck’s Gin”, “Haskell’s Gin”, and
+the gin of “Fox Point”, and Hezekiah sent down a great deal. There
+was some demand for cognac brandy, which he supplied, and for many
+a barrel of “sweet wine”.</p>
+
+<p>Hezekiah carried on a correspondence with Israel through the years
+by means of notes appended to the invoices.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span></p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Anthony’s son died this morning”. This was written by a clerk,
+of course. Mr. Anthony had six sons, all of whom died in childhood,
+I am told.</p>
+
+<p>“If father is severely ill, I will come down by stage” was written in
+Mr. Anthony’s own hand.</p>
+
+<p>“Perry got in from Spain this morning and is still in quarantine.
+I do not know how long it will be before he can get down.”</p>
+
+<p>“Perry is expecting to sail for the East Indies about October 15.”
+There were a good many notes about Perry.</p>
+
+<p>“Times is hard”, at the bottom of an invoice of flour.</p>
+
+<p>“Late news from Europe has checked all speculation, particularly in
+cotton goods.” What news was that?</p>
+
+<p>This close friendship between Hezekiah Anthony and Israel Brayton
+existed through Israel’s life, and he named one of his sons Hezekiah
+Anthony Brayton. The business relations between the two men were
+also satisfactory. And well it was so, for business came first and was
+no more secure than mutual confidence could make it.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="TRADING_WITH_THE_LYMAN_COTTON_MANUFACTURING_COMPANY">TRADING WITH THE LYMAN COTTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY</h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>In 1818, when the Swansea Union Cotton Manufacturing Company was
+running smoothly and the weavers of the Swansea Company’s yarn were
+well organized, Israel Brayton and John Mason took on a new connection.</p>
+
+<p>The Lyman Cotton Manufacturing Company, operating a Yarn Mill
+in the village of Lyman near Providence, began to send its yarn to be
+distributed by Brayton and Mason from their Store in Scrabbletown.
+In one of the Brayton and Mason ledgers I noticed that in a single year,
+1818, home weavers wove 5242-1/2 yards of cotton cloth from the Lyman
+Cotton Manufacturing Company’s yarn—distributed, inspected,
+and returned by Brayton and Mason.</p>
+
+<p>It was all piece work. The weavers took what yarn they wanted,
+wove it as fast as they wanted their pay for the weaving. Some people
+kept a comparatively small amount all winter—the roads, of course,
+were bad. Some kept the same amount around three weeks or less.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span></p>
+
+<p>These weavers were not, I hope you understand, weaving for sustenance.
+There was food enough for all, all over the place. Surplus
+farm products for the asking, clams for the digging, rivers running
+with shad and herring, trout in every stream, all free, no license necessary.
+All the fruit a man could eat—if a man were willing to go berrying
+or climb a cherry tree. There was shelter of sorts in the old farmhouses
+and outbuildings. No man temporarily out of luck was ever
+turned away. Woolen clothing, woven and made on the farm, never
+wore out. The weavers were not weaving to keep alive, certainly not.
+They were weaving to get hold of some spending money. To spend on
+dancing lessons, perhaps, or a trotting horse—black silk dress of fine
+quality—a real lace collar—a locket—possibly some pretty shoes and
+stockings. Nearly everybody went barefoot in the summer season,
+winter footwear in the country had been rough stuff—made to wear
+well—stockings were knitted at home by hand. On Israel’s shelves
+were silk stockings—really—and bronze slippers, oh, yes.</p>
+
+<p>Life in Scrabbletown cannot be understood unless you know why
+every man worked and worked hard—at his own pace and when he
+wanted to—while enjoying a standard of real comfort and independance
+such as never was known on the globe before. This I truly believe.
+Nor, in the essentials of comfort, since.</p>
+
+<p>The men and women who wove the Lyman Factory yarn were the
+same people who wove the Swansea Factory Yarn—that appears clearly
+in the Yarn Books. Coming for yarn, a weaver was given what yarn
+was on hand. What else appears clearly, in a note from Wheaton
+Luther to Israel, even as early as August, 1819, is that the weavers were
+exceedingly independent. “Weavers won’t weave 4/4 for 1 cent per
+yard more.” So they didn’t.</p>
+
+<p>Though wages by 1821 were a minor matter. What really mattered
+by then is apparent in the letter which follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Sir<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>I do not know what to tell people when they come to the store.
+All last week I told them they could have yarn on Tuesday. I then
+told them they could have it on Wednesday. They came in and there
+was no yarn. And I know no other way at present than to tell them<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span>
+I shall never have any more and then if I disappoint them it will not
+be to their prejudice.</p>
+
+<p>I have promised goods in the same way and now I have an opportunity
+to sell a silk gown for cash but I must lose it because it did not
+come in at the time I promised. I am very sure that there will be no
+necessity of keeping the store unless I can make promise of goods and
+of yarn etc.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Wheaton Luther.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The weave books of the Lyman Company are well kept and Israel maintained
+excellent relations with both the weavers and the Lyman Company
+until he shut up shop.</p>
+
+<p>The Lyman yarn was shipped to Israel in Egypt, I suppose. For by
+1818 Brayton and Mason had opened a Branch Store in Egypt, a suburb
+of Somerset, and was using it as another distributing center for yarn.
+It was far more convenient than Scrabbletown, being close to Slade’s
+Ferry Landing. And close to the shipyards of Somerset and Troy and
+Egypt. Ships were again on the stocks. That meant more trade for Israel.</p>
+
+<p>Many letters are in the barrel giving itemized accounts of the transactions
+between the stores of Egypt and Scrabbletown. Goods were
+always being sent back and forth. But always, as you have seen in
+Wheaton Luther’s letter, the store in Egypt could never get enough.</p>
+
+<p>Israel had to buy a waggon of his own, to send the goods demanded.
+Nobody could wait for the Troy baggage waggon which crossed the
+Ferry when the weather permitted, and ambled over from Somerset to
+Swansea and parts beyond. After careful correspondence, Israel ordered
+a waggon to be made in Rutland by a certain Mr. Bigelow. It was
+ordered in the spring and delivered in September. It was a major transaction.
+There had to be boxes to fit the waggon, of course; and extra
+boxes. Philip Bowers whose waggon in the early days was hired by
+Israel, complained that new and better boxes must be furnished to carry
+Israel’s goods—if he was to take them. He used to complain to Wheaton
+Luther.</p>
+
+<p>You will notice that Wheaton Luther, the Scrabbletown clerk, after
+being transferred to the Egypt store, took full charge of its running.
+And wrote many letters to Israel, more than I have space to quote.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span>
+Wheaton was an extraordinary man, really. You ought to read all his
+letters. And the three letters from his sister-in-law, also found in the
+barrel. They were written in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1818 and
+1819.</p>
+
+<p>Wheaton’s brother, who seems to have been a bad lot, deserted his
+wife and daughters, Elizabeth and Catherine, some years before this story
+opens, and nobody had been able to find him. His deserted wife wrote to
+her brother-in-law, Wheaton, to tell him that a Somerset man had seen
+her husband in the “Spanish Settlements” and that he was in bad shape.
+“An object of pity to behold.” It was not thought he could live long.
+He had, I infer—only infer—been enslaved by the Spaniards. Wheaton’s
+sister wrote: “I fear he is now numbered with the pale nations underground”.
+Yes, she really did.</p>
+
+<p>As to news; Mrs. Luther wrote that Giles Luther and his son, “a very
+fine young man”, had called on her in Charleston—dropped in from
+Somerset—and “thair has been several shaks of an Earthquake in this
+place that are very alarming”. In a later letter: “Death has taken away
+thousands from Charleston this past summer. It was truly disturbing.
+Scarcely a family escaped without one or more taken away.—I have put
+Catherine and Eliza both to school.”</p>
+
+<p>It is apparent that little Egypt had connections in 1819 with the outside
+world—vivid connections.</p>
+
+<p>Some years later, Wheaton Luther resigned to go into business for
+himself—he belonged to a restless family. John D. Cartwright took
+his place. Later still, Cartwright resigned, also to set up his own business,
+and John Wood signed the letters of the Egypt Store. Under all the
+clerks the business continued to grow. And would have grown even
+more rapidly thought all the clerks, if only Israel would send them more
+goods to sell, more yarn for the hungry looms of Somerset and Troy.</p>
+
+<p>After two years of prosperous and expanding trade, the firm of
+Brayton and Mason had been dissolved. John Mason opened a store of
+his own with the U.S. Post Office in one corner as was usual. Israel had
+taken a new partner, his cousin, William Bowers, and continued his
+business as though nothing had happened. According to the barrel all
+was amicable. There are papers showing that Brayton later bought<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span>
+some small things from Mason and that Mason bought some small things
+from Brayton—nothing much. Possibly Mason had held Brayton back a
+little. For now with his new partner, he expanded rapidly. Though still
+with caution.</p>
+
+<p>In that spring of 1819, Israel knew, and we can know, exactly where
+he stood. He knew down to the last India Shawl just what was on the
+shelves of the little stores, for an inventory was necessary when the
+partnership was dissolved. The barrel held also a list of the people who
+owed the firm money. In fact, there were three lists, each very short. The
+amounts are tiny. I will not give here the names of the customers who
+were expected to settle their accounts shortly, they were the ordinary
+charge customers. But I am giving the two other lists—they are really
+interesting. For Israel guessed right. They never did pay up. One man
+went to jail. Their accounts, however, were very very small.</p>
+
+<p>Doubtful that these persons will
+pay what they owe.</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>
+Caleb Butterworth      Somerset<br>
+Francis Chace<br>
+Hezekiah Chace<br>
+Mason Chace<br>
+Slade Chace<br>
+Phoebe Chace           Swansea<br>
+Stephen Earle<br>
+John Eddy              Somerset<br>
+Rebecca Luther<br>
+Nathan Read<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Certain that these persons will not
+pay what they owe.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+Slade Chace            Somerset<br>
+Frederick Downing      Freetown<br>
+Diadema Hathaway<br>
+Knowles Negus<br>
+Benjamin Purinton      Swansea<br>
+Oliver Read            Troy<br>
+Joseph Slade<br>
+Stephen Slade<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="TRADING_WITH_THE_SWANSEA_PAPER_MANUFACTURING_COMPANY">TRADING WITH THE SWANSEA PAPER MANUFACTURING COMPANY</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>In 1819, the new firm of Brayton and Bowers signed an agreement with
+the Swansea Paper Manufacturing Company to sell its product. There
+is so little known outside the barrel of this paper company that when I
+found this contract in the barrel, I was surprised. I consulted the
+standard “History of Swansea”.</p>
+
+<p>“Straw paper was manufactured in Swansea in 1840 by William<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span>
+Mitchell”. That is all the History has to say. But the barrel holds 50
+papers, in addition to this contract of 1819; individual transactions of
+Brayton and Bowers with the Swansea Paper Manufacturing Company
+continuing into the year 1832. The agent was always William Mitchell.
+He signed every document.</p>
+
+<p>Paper was really made out of straw in Swansea and was sold by
+Brayton and Bowers to many different firms and individuals. That much
+is clear. The paper on which the correspondence of the firm was written,
+ought to have been of the firm’s own manufacture. But was it?</p>
+
+<p>The paper may not have been very good. Israel got some returned.
+Where did the Swansea Paper Company get its straw? How did it make
+its paper? The barrel does not know.</p>
+
+<p>The employees of the Paper Company, like the employees of the Yarn
+Factories, were allowed to charge things in Israel’s Scrabbletown Store.
+And some of the notes asking for credit for employees and signed by
+William Mitchell, are in the barrel, so we know who some of the paper
+makers were.</p>
+
+<p>And that seems to be all that we do know about the paper business
+in Swansea. It seems to be more than anyone else knows.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="TRADING_WITH_THE_GEORGIA_COTTON_MANUFACTURING_COMPANY">TRADING WITH THE GEORGIA COTTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The new firm of Brayton and Bowers received that spring of 1819 the
+following letter from Kezia’s uncle, Nehemiah Wheeler.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Respected Friend<br>
+Israel Brayton<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>I recollect that sometime past thou expressed a wish to git yarn
+from the South to weave. (I thought he meant south of the Mason and
+Dixon line, but he didn’t. He meant South of Providence). I would
+now observe that I expect to go out thair soon and will probably start
+next week and any business That I can doe for my friends I am willing
+to use my indevors to preform.</p>
+
+<p>I shall likely be at thy farther Anthony’s next first day, if healthy, and
+weather permits.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+In haste I remain thy friend<br>
+Nath. Wheeler.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span></p>
+
+<p>Israel and probably Kezia went to the Anthony Farm that Sunday,
+and Israel told his wife’s uncle that he would like to git some more
+yarn to weave.</p>
+
+<p>Nathaniel Wheeler brought the Georgia Cotton Manufacturing Company
+and Brayton and Bowers together, and very soon in Israel’s office
+another ledger was being opened to show Israel’s transactions with the
+Georgia Company. This Georgia Yarn Mill, it had 1000 spindles, was
+built on a fall of 18 feet of water in the Woonasquatucket River, in that
+well-watered land south of Providence where grist mills and fulling
+mills and saw mills and snuff mills had utilized the little streams from
+the earliest days of the Colony. The Village which sprang up along the
+river bank, was named for the Mill, of course, and both were called
+Georgia because the cotton which came up from the South to be spun
+in the mill, was grown in Georgia.</p>
+
+<p>In 1822, about two years after Israel had opened his first weave book
+in account with the Georgia Cotton Manufacturing Company, the mill
+shut down. The stream ran dry. The mill had been run by water power,
+of course.</p>
+
+<p>When the rains came, and they were long in coming, the mill got
+going again, but Brayton and Bowers seem to have made other plans by
+that time.</p>
+
+<p>The office of the factory had been in Providence, and the business with
+Israel had been transacted by Samuel Nightingale, as Agent. On Jan. 1,
+1821, Nightingale dunned Israel for a “small quantity of yarn” unpaid
+for. The office clerk who usually signed the office letters, was named
+James Shaw, but the dun was sent out personally by Nightingale, himself.</p>
+
+<p>The yarn of the Georgia Factory was woven by the same people who
+wove the yarn from the other factories doing business with Brayton and
+Bowers, as the yarn books show. But not by all of the same people. For
+the amount of Georgia yarn to be spun at any one time was not large.
+In the Georgia Weave books we find mostly the names of the old
+settlers of Fall River.</p>
+
+<p>The ruins of the stone mill still stand beside the stream in Georgiaville.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="TRADING_WITH_TROY">TRADING WITH TROY</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>In 1820, the Fall River Manufactury, built a little earlier, on a bank
+of the Quequechan River in Troy, was incorporated. David Anthony,
+Israel’s brother-in-law; Dexter Wheeler, his wife’s uncle; and Abraham
+Bowen, were behind its building, and, under the circumstances, Israel
+got yarn for his farmhouse weavers, as soon as it was spun in any
+quantity by this Fall River Yarn Mill. Making the connection still
+closer, it was David Anthony who took charge of the running of the
+mill—call him Agent or treasurer. In the year of this incorporation of
+the company, 1820, Anthony sent over to Israel’s Egypt store, a consignment
+of cotton yarn, woven at once by the weavers of Somerset into
+253-1/2 yards of plaid cloth.</p>
+
+<p>At another time, David Anthony as Agent, sold Israel, outright, some
+blue and white warp, for $77.00. And the weavers of Swansea wove it
+into bedticking which Israel kept for his own trading purposes.</p>
+
+<p>Toward the end of his trading career, Israel bought from the Fall
+River Manufactury some cloth not only spun but actually woven in the
+mill. He bought 52 yards of checks at $.15 a yard. The downfall of
+Israel’s big yarn business was at hand, for this cloth, woven as well as
+spun in the factory, was not too bad—not too bad.</p>
+
+<p>The weave books that Israel must have kept to record his trading
+with the yarn mill of Troy, were not in the barrel. So all the information
+we have on the matter is contained in a few letters and bills which passed
+between Mr. Brayton and Mr. Anthony, as they were careful to call each
+other on paper. Except, of course, the names of the Troy weavers who
+wove the yarn for other factories, and appear in other yarn books. And
+we have found in this way that a very great number of Fall River-Troy
+people did home weaving for Israel. The Fall River-Troy nomenclature
+is confusing, for all during the barrel period, that part of the present
+City of Fall River which lies along the banks of the lower Quequechan
+River, was legally called Troy. Though it had been called Fall River
+before 1804 and was called so again after 1834. In all the weave books
+“Troy” is used, always. But some of the oldest and more sophisticated
+concerns had letter heads with “Troy. Fall River”.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span></p>
+
+<p>That part of the present city of Fall River which lies around Brightman
+Street, was in the barrel days called Freetown. And in the Weave
+Books are many persons listed as living in Freetown. Their names can
+be found on the tombstones in the old North Burying Ground. You
+will find 12 members of the Brightman family in the Weave Books.
+And 20 members of the Read family who lived at the foot of French’s
+Hill.</p>
+
+<p>I am somewhat clumsily explaining to the present generation that
+most of the old families of Fall River had one or more members who
+took yarn from Israel Brayton and wove it up into cotton cloth right
+in their own homes on their own looms. And that this yarn they wove
+was spun in the factories of Fall River as well as in a number of small
+factories on the west side of the Taunton River. I am printing at the
+end of this book a list of the people who are known to have done this
+weaving, and it is surprisingly long, for the village was small. But I
+think, even so, it is not a complete list.</p>
+
+<p>Israel had other connections with Troy, of course. He bought nails
+from the Iron Works as soon as the Iron Works made nails. He sold
+nails to the ships that were building in Somerset and Egypt. Ships had
+to have kegs of nails on board, of course, and Israel took to outfitting
+ships, getting requests for odd things, such as “a few yards of white
+flannel suitable for lining pea-jackets”. And “Tarpolin hats.”</p>
+
+<p>The ship “Rosette” of Troy bought her stores from Israel in Egypt.
+The ship “Rambler” of Troy landed 240 pounds of yarn one day in
+Egypt, for Israel. The sloop “Reindeer” bought her stores from Israel.
+But the Troy ships were a bit high and mighty. Troy was beginning to
+grow. Hezekiah Anthony wrote from Providence to Israel in 1827:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“To Israel Brayton. Sir:<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>I could not get the Fall River Packet (the new Steamer “Handcock”
+this may have been) to take your goods today as the amount was
+so small. I expect the Somerset Sloop here tomorrow. I presume she
+will take the goods and land them on Slade’s Ferry Wharf.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>I presume she did.</p>
+
+<p>David Anthony, who was actually manager of both the Iron Works
+and the Fall River Factory, took the trouble to write the same little notes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span>
+to Israel that the other Factory managers had written. Not many were
+preserved.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Fall River Factory and Iron Works        Nov. 18, 1820<br>
+Mr. Israel Brayton<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>Please to let Mrs. Handy have $2.50 in goods out of your
+store, it being for 2 weeks board for Severin Handy and charge the same
+to me.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+David Anthony.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Mr. Israel Brayton, Sir:<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Anthony wishes me to say that he has reserved for you
+$500.00 worth of stock in his bank and wants you should inform him
+whether you are depending on it. Please to say by return stage.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+M. C. Durfee.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This was in 1825, when the first bank in Fall River was organized.
+The Fall River Bank and the Fall River Factory were one. As Hezekiah
+Anthony, David Anthony’s brother, had written to Israel in 1820: “I
+consider bank stock as good if not the best property you can at present
+have”, I think Israel took up the offer. Israel’s connections with Fall
+River banks were close. But he used the Warren Bank, established
+earlier, more often.</p>
+
+<p>One odd result of Israel’s trading with everybody for everything, was
+that he was paid in many sorts of money. (When paid in money at all.)
+He used to wait until he got a bagful, and then he would send the bag
+to a local bank or even up to Boston and get the quoted rate of exchange.
+Silver dollars were not wanted by any wholesale house or bank. Though
+they were worth a dollar, that was conceded. But crowns, doubloons,
+francs, and guineas were Israel’s coin, taken in over the counter in Swansea
+and Egypt. Nothing parochial about Israel.</p>
+
+<p>Various little business firms were just starting up in Troy during the
+barrel period. Israel traded with Lovell and Durfee—a certain John
+Brayton was their clerk—they sold Israel yellow snuff. In 1824, Cromwell
+Bliss of Troy sold Israel 1000 cigars.</p>
+
+<p>And Israel sold some of the Swansea Paper to the Troy Merchants.
+Seventeen quires were returned because it was not of the first quality.
+“It is not the quality that you recommend it to be.”</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_TRADER_IN_HIS_HOURS_OF_EASE">THE TRADER IN HIS HOURS OF EASE</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The trader of the barrel period did not, consciously, travel or work in
+his garden for pleasure or recreation. Those pursuits were means of
+livelihood. When he was through for the day, if he ever did get through,
+he was glad to go home and sit a spell. He was tired.</p>
+
+<p>He did not serve on committees whose purpose was to ameliorate the
+condition of the poor. Each man was, then, expected by public opinion
+to support himself, his wife, his children, his wife’s parents, his own
+parents, and all the unmarried women and widows who could claim
+kinship even to the third or fourth cousinly degree. If they were in need.
+As each man was expected to do this, it really left nobody to be supported
+by community effort. It also left the definition of need to the man who
+was paying the bills, which meant that the aid was adequate—public
+opinion saw to that—but not extravagant.</p>
+
+<p>There was after this business of earning a living for so many people,
+very little leisure in the life of any man. I have searched the barrel to
+see just how Israel Brayton spent the little leisure that was his.</p>
+
+
+<h3><i>The Poor They had with Them</i></h3>
+
+<p>There were two persons in the village who were without kith or kin.
+Nor were they related to each other. They were poor and they were old
+and sick. Israel used a little of his spare time in visiting these people—an
+unpaid job—and he got nurses and doctors for them when such were
+needed. He got the best doctors and nurses in town, the only doctors
+and nurses, apparently. These poor old people were dependent upon
+their neighbors for at least partial support. Israel used to receive during
+store hours over the counter notes such as this:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Swansa. August 29, 1827.<br>
+Mr. Brayton<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>Sir: Please to let Diadema Boiston have fifty cents in goods<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span>
+this week, and as much more next week; and charge it to the Town and
+you will oblige your friend</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+John Earle.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>(Diadema Boiston was probably one of the Acadians allotted to Swansea
+some years earlier.)</p>
+
+<p>This was business for Israel; pretty small business you think; but
+honestly conducted a very safe and sane way of administering “Poor
+Relief”. Occasionally Diadema Boiston did some housework, for which
+she was properly paid. It was Israel’s housework.</p>
+
+
+<h3><i>To Aid the Veterans</i></h3>
+
+<p>Israel saw that the crippled veterans of the last two wars got their government
+pensions, he saw that the doctors made examinations and sent
+in reports.</p>
+
+<p>“We, the subscribers, practising physicians of the Town of Swanzey,
+County of Bristol, State of Mass., do hereby certify that after a careful
+examination in the case of Henry Lawton who is now on the pension roll
+of the State of Mass., we are of the opinion that his disability does still
+continue. Occasioned by canister shot passing through his left hip also
+by a musket ball through his right thigh, and further that the degree
+of disability under which he labours at present is one third, being not
+less than the original degree of disability for which he was placed on
+the roll”.</p>
+
+<p>The authorities sent the following letters:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Mr. I. Brayton.<br>
+Dear Sir:<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>We are under the necessity of returning the power of attourney
+you favored us with. Under a new regulation from the War Dept. all
+old forms are laid aside and new substituted. We now enclose you
+those blanks by which you will see how they are now to be made.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Four days later, he received another letter: “We are sorry to find
+that we sent you the wrong blanks—a new form is now indispensible.”</p>
+
+<p>The barrel has held through the years a Surgeon’s Certificate never
+filled out.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span></p>
+
+
+<h3><i>The School Committee</i></h3>
+
+<p>Israel’s special service to the community was as a member of the School
+Board. He conducted the correspondence with the school teachers.
+There was no clerk, no paid assistance. Israel wrote the letters for the
+veterans and for the school committee with his own hand.</p>
+
+<p>Israel attended the many meetings of the school committee, and took
+time to get a very accurate picture of the schooling he and his neighbors
+were providing for their children. Teachers did not stay long in Swansea
+or Somerset, but I fancy they did not stay long in any country town. For
+they were mostly men and women who were teaching to get a little
+money to start in on something else. All the letters in the barrel show
+that they could write a good hand and express themselves coherently.
+A sample letter will be enough. Though Israel had to read them all.</p>
+
+<p>“The subscriber makes a tender of his services to the inhabitants of
+the second school district in Swansea as a teacher for the term of three
+months to commence on Monday the 3rd inst. And he assures those
+who may think proper to intrust their children to his care, that if the
+most strenous exertions on his part can prevent it, their confidences shall
+not be misplaced. Hoping by assiduous application and unremitting
+attention to ensure the patronage and meet the approbation of his
+employers—</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Jos D. Nichols”<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>“In consideration of which, we, the subscribers, agree to furnish wood
+for the school, board the said Nichols in our respective families, and pay
+him the sum of fourteen dollars per month which shall be apportioned
+according to the number of scholars set against each of our names
+respectively.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+Israel Brayton—3<br>
+Gardner Anthony—1-1/2<br>
+Betsey Bowers—1-1/2<br>
+John Mason—3”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Captain Charles Pratt taught for a much longer period than was usual.</p>
+
+<p>“We have obtained satisfactory evidence of the good moral character
+of Captain Charles Pratt, also of his literary qualifications and capacity
+for the Government of an English School.”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span>
+That was how the committee appointed to look into a teacher’s application
+felt about qualifications. Israel was on the committee.</p>
+
+<p>I must not leave out the lady teacher, the barrel has record of only
+one. Her name was Miss Sophia Stebbins.</p>
+
+<p>“Whereas it is contemplated that Miss Sophia Stebbins will commence
+a school, in this district, to be continued for 4 or 5 months, at the rate
+of one dollar 33 cents per week, and that for the use of the school house
+she pay 50 cents per month, to be appropriated to the keeping of the
+same in repair; we the subscribers agree to pay our proportion of the
+expenses of such school, and to furnish our proportion of boarding for
+the instructress, according to the number of scholars set against our
+respective names.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+Israel Brayton—3<br>
+Perry Bowers—1-1/2<br>
+John Mason—2-1/2<br>
+John Winslow—1-1/2<br>
+Stephen Brayton—1<br>
+Lloyd Slade—1-1/2”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+etc etc.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>Israel really did good work on the School Board in his leisure time and
+it is only to be expected that in his business hours he sold School Books
+over the counter.</p>
+
+
+<p>
+The books were: Alden’s Spelling Book<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 9em;">”&nbsp; &nbsp;  Reader</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Morse’s Geography</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Murray’s Grammar</span><br>
+</p>
+
+
+<p>He carried slate pencils and slates and exercise books. And Song Books.</p>
+
+
+<h3><i>Church Activities</i></h3>
+
+<p>Israel was—not unduly—interested in the church in which he and his
+family owned pews.</p>
+
+<p>The Church choir was not a paid choir nor was it a good one. Some
+people thought it should be trained. Israel headed a committee to get a
+good singing teacher down from Taunton. Mr. Sproat, a Taunton<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span>
+lawyer, was consulted. He seems to have been a personal friend of
+Israel’s. And some of his letters are in the barrel. Arrangements were
+made. Letters passed.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“April 2. Taunton<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>Travelling is so bad—the date of the meeting must be postponed.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>“Mr. Sproat was married Sunday Evening”. (A hint of the marriage
+customs of the time.)</p>
+
+<p>It was understood that the Singing School was to be kept “in Swanzey
+Village the ensuing winter, by Mr. Jonathan G. Colburn, for the benefit
+of the Baptist and Methodist Societies in the Towns of Swansea and
+Somerset.”</p>
+
+<p>They got the singing school and Israel sold a good many song books.
+But he found getting the subscribers to pay for the school, difficult. The
+village men argued that since they really had no musical ability, they
+should not have to pay for instruction they could not “themselves use”.
+But the committee argued “the burden of expense should not fall
+altogether on the shoulders of those who are favored with voices to sing.”</p>
+
+<p>The barrel holds another letter showing Israel’s relation to the church
+which he attended and served in many ways. Hezekiah Anthony wrote
+him from Providence:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“December 23, 1824.<br>
+Mr. Israel Brayton. Sir:<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>I am requested to inform the People with you that Lorenzo Dow
+intends to spend next Sabbath at the Methodist Meeting House in
+Somerset. He expects to be at Warren on Saturday night. On Sunday
+morning to go to Somerset to preach, as I suppose, all day. Please to
+give notice accordingly.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Your friend<br>
+H. Anthony.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Lorenzo Dow was the fashionable evangelist of his day. There is a “Life”
+of Lorenzo Dow, mostly a printing of Dow’s diary. Strangely enough,
+the dates on which Dow is supposed to have been preaching in Swansea
+and Somerset, are left blank. I think it quite true that the men of
+Somerset and Swansea, though men of their time, were not an excitable
+lot, and would not have provided Lorenzo with any very spectacular<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span>
+results. He had just come back from Ireland, where he had preached
+the gospel as he understood it, up and down the country, without losing
+his life, and the diary thinks that a triumph.</p>
+
+<p>I rather think that Israel and the other men trading around Scrabbletown,
+went to hear Lorenzo Dow hold forth—and yawned.</p>
+
+<p>After the visit of Lorenzo Dow, Israel stocked his shop with Bibles.</p>
+
+
+<h3><i>Israel and Literature</i></h3>
+
+<p>Always at all times Israel kept a stock of Almanacks on hand. The
+fascination of Almanacks for those village men is to me incomprehensible.
+But it was genuine. They read Almanacks in their leisure time.
+(Bibles, of course, but to those men the Bible was not literature). Israel
+always carried “The Farmer’s Almanack”, and “The Rhode Island
+Almanack”. He ordered at the first of the year, but he reordered as the
+year progressed. He also took subscriptions to popular magazines. The
+most popular was the “Zion’s Herald”. My grandmother who came
+from that part of the world, used to subscribe to the “Zion’s Herald”.
+I remember it quite well. There was some demand for the “Manufacturer’s
+and Farmer’s Journal” and the “Telescope”. The “Rhode
+Island American” and the “Providence American”, with a few subscriptions
+to weekly newspapers, were sold over Israel’s counter. Papers
+were late, and people complained and sometimes cancelled their subscriptions.
+As Edward Anthony of Taunton wrote: “This paper did
+not go on Wednesday on account of the travelling. (This was February
+27, 1829). Most of the Mails have been carried on horseback, and it is
+quite uncertain about your getting the paper today. I am glad that you
+have obtained those subscribers and I hope you will get more. Money
+is scarce, snow in abundance, and but little news.”</p>
+
+<p>The leisure time of these Scrabbletown traders was not spent in
+reading books; is this quite clear? Israel did not stock books, because
+there was no demand for books. He knew perfectly well what people
+wanted. The Newport paper was advertising “The Solitary, or the
+Mysterious Man of the Mountain. Translated from the French of
+Viscount d’Arlincourt by an American Lady”. Also “Helen de Tourneau.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span>
+a Novel by Madam de Souza. 87-1/2 cents.” Israel did not even carry the
+paper which carried the advertisement. He did not carry “Roche Blanche:
+or the Hunters of the Pyrenees”. Which was a Romance, written by
+M. A. M. Porter. It was popular but not in Scrabbletown, Israel thought.
+He had opened his first trading station the year Scott’s “Guy Mannering”
+was published in England. But he did not stock Walter Scott, either.
+Probably never heard of him. That was the year Jane Austin’s “Emma”
+was put on the market. Byron belongs to the early years of Israel’s
+trading. The “Poems” of John Keats were just out. Shelly and Wordsworth
+were becoming known to the English world of letters. Not to
+the world of Scrabbletown, I think.</p>
+
+<p>Scrabbletown and Israel were quite right. Their countryside was a
+place of such beauty that all their lives were lived against a background
+of harmonious color, lovely line, and wide reaches of quietude and peace.
+The fields were full of sheep and oxen which were so much a part of
+their still pastoral lives. The little white sails were hurrying up and
+down the lovely rivers of their land. The bearded sailors, sitting in the
+sun, told them tales of all the faraway places, the bearded sailors being
+their own sons and brothers who were emphatically glad to get home.
+There was little need to look in the pages of any book, they all felt,
+when the shad bush was in flower and the shad were running free.
+Better go fishing.</p>
+
+<p>And they did. And in the Fall, when they had any spare time, they
+went hunting for bears, over in the great forest.</p>
+
+<p>Did they pine for Romance, History, Biography, Poetry? I have not
+heard that they did. They were even a little fed up with Romance. And
+Heroism. The older men had seen Jemima Wilkinson dressed like an
+angel riding through the village on a white horse—her golden hair
+flying in the wind. It was a hotheaded young cousin of theirs who had
+paid for the horse, and followed Jemima to his undoing.</p>
+
+<p>Toussaint L’Overture had been a slave of theirs, they knew all about
+the darkly glorious Rebellion in Hayti—a lot of the village boys had
+been down there on their own ships. They knew Jerathmael Bowers,
+too; he was one of their own. He was the Bowers who married out of
+the village a beauty and a belle, and built her a wonderful fine house<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span>
+in Somerset, and hired Coply to paint her portrait—all dressed up she
+was—life size, with a pink rose in her bosum. And when it came to
+heroes, which they never did like to come to, being of New England,
+who could touch Washington? They had all seen Washington, many
+knew him. Some of them knew Lafayette. The crippled and the
+pensioned men, sitting out on the back porches, could still tell—and
+they probably tried to.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Walter Scott would, I am sure, have seemed a little tame to these
+men had Israel succeeded in selling him over the counter. Better by far,
+if restless, get on your father’s little boat and sail off to the Sandwich
+Islands for a change. So they thought and so they did. And they always
+came back as soon as possible and went clamming.</p>
+
+
+<h3><i>Israel and Politics</i></h3>
+
+<p>Politics, as a means of livelihood or as the occupation of a gentleman
+with some leisure, was unheard of. The barrel holds a few communications
+from far off representatives in Taunton or Boston who wanted
+Israel to get out the vote occasionally. New Bedford, according to the
+barrel, wanted a new jail. Israel did not want New Bedford to have a
+new jail. That seems to have been the only time he got roused. He
+wrote that he could not get the village to take much of a stand, because
+they had sort of planned to go off hunting that week end.</p>
+
+<p>Is this all in the barrel? Indeed it is, and more. But do not forget
+that Israel sold school books and that the turnover was rapid.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="TRADING_IN_STRAW_BONNETS">TRADING IN STRAW BONNETS</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The following letter was received by the new firm of Bowers and
+Brayton in June, 1819.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Raynham<br>
+Messrs Brayton and Bowers<br>
+Sir<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span>
+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.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Yours respectfully<br>
+Nehemiah Jones.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>On July 21, 1819, Jones wrote again.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Messrs Bowers and Brayton<br>
+Sir<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Yours respectfully<br>
+Nehemiah Jones.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span></p>
+
+<p>Israel also planned to keep a little straw braid in the store, for customers
+who might like to make their own bonnets.</p>
+
+<p>The plan went through. Israel found girls who wanted to sew the
+braid. On July 28, 1819, Jones wrote to Israel again:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“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.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Yours respectfully<br>
+Nehemiah Jones.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span>
+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.”</p>
+
+<p>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.”</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span>
+bonnets were not selling in Scrabbletown; and they did not sell in New
+York, he found.</p>
+
+<p>So in the Fall of 1819, Israel decided to expand his market and take
+his bonnets to the milliners of Albany.</p>
+
+
+<h3><i>Israel in Albany</i></h3>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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:</p>
+
+<p>“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:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Albany. November, 27, 1819<br>
+Mr Wm. Bowers<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span></p>
+
+<p>I have been to Troy, but cannot sell any.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Israel Brayton.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+
+<h3><i>William Bowers in Newport</i></h3>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“April 15, 1820.<br>
+Mr Israel Brayton<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span></p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span>
+able to eat a mouthful without thinking how it is cooked. Be so good
+as to let my wife read this letter.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Your obediant and<br>
+Humble Servant<br>
+William Bowers.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+
+<h3><i>William Bowers in Albany</i></h3>
+
+<p>On reaching Albany, William Bowers wrote another long letter to Israel.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“April 18th, 1820<br>
+Mr Israel Brayton<br>
+Sir:<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span>
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Yours respectfully<br>
+William Bowers”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“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.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+W. Bowers”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“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.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span></p>
+
+
+<h3><i>William Bowers in Savannah</i></h3>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>Captain David Pierce was in Charleston. He had written to Israel
+as follows:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Sir,<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span>
+you would answer this letter the first opportunity. You must excuse me
+for writing in this manner for sailors cant write like Merchants.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Yours<br>
+David Pierce.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Your friend<br>
+H. Anthony”<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>“N.B. Your goods I have just sent by water to be landed at the Ferry”.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Bowers’ letter to Brayton, finally arrived.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Savannah, Feb. 24, 1821<br>
+Mr Israel Brayton<br>
+Dear Sir<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span>
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span>
+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.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Yours with the utmost esteem.<br>
+William Bowers.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>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.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the outside of this letter these words appear:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“John Cotton arrived with a load of cows here after I sealed this
+letter.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Another letter found in the barrel might be inserted here. It is
+rather more businesslike.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Darien (Georgia) March 19th, 1821.<br>
+Mr Israel Brayton<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>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.—</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>Give my respects to all enquiring friends. Your factory goods sold
+well—but bonnets.—In haste I remain your friend etc.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Daniel Smith”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span></p>
+
+<p>Captain Pierce, whose letter to Israel has just been quoted, wrote to
+Wheaton Luther from Charleston on April 18, 1821.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“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.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+David Pierce”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>David was apparently not interested in straw bonnets. But his sister
+made them for Israel.</p>
+
+<p>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:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“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.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The bonnet story, complicated and peculiar, goes on and on.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>I have it still. It ties under the chin.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="TRADING_WITH_THE_ORIENT">TRADING WITH THE ORIENT</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>One day William Bowers decided to take the goods of Brayton and
+Bowers still farther afield. He did not enjoy travelling. He did not
+like strange countries. But trade was a little dull at home. He and Israel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span>
+decided to take the risk and get together a cargo which would neither
+make nor break them, and might build up their regular business
+considerably.</p>
+
+<p>The Columbian Sentinel of Jan. 2, 1819, which Israel carried in his
+store, had printed the following advertisement:</p>
+
+<p>“The subscriber, being about to embark for Canton, China, via Gibralter,
+where he will reside for a considerable time, offers his services to
+the public for the transaction of the usual business of the place.”</p>
+
+<p>References were given. But Brayton and Bowers did not need references.
+They knew all about Philip Ammidon, the subscriber. He was
+a village boy. And when William Bowers decided to go to Canton, the
+fact that Ammidon had been living in Canton for some time, may have
+been of some influence.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know just when Bowers left Somerset for Canton. It was
+perhaps in 1825; it took a long time to sail from Somerset to Canton.
+The following letter from Bowers arrived in Scrabbletown:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Canton. March 25, 1826<br>
+Mr I. Brayton<br>
+My dear Sir.<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>From the many good wishes which have been manifested toward
+me as well as my family from you, I feel myself under many obligations
+to you and can, while in my hours of meditation, think of you and
+your respectful family, and do feel myself well assured that this short
+epistle will be cordially received from your well-wisher and fellow-traveller
+in life; although I have nothing very interesting to communicate
+at the present moment but presume it will serve to pass a dull
+moment to peruse it.</p>
+
+<p>I left Lima, Nov. 11, and bent my course to the West and on the
+19th of December arrived at the Sandwich Islands where I disposed
+of some merchandise and, after repacking, set sail on the 25th following,
+and bent my course towards Manilla, the Capital of all the Spanish
+Settlements in the East.</p>
+
+<p>When I arrived on the 16th of February was somewhat disappointed
+in my expectations in getting a cargo. However, loaded my ship, and
+set sail on the 1st day of March and arrived at this place on the 12th<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span>
+inst. and have been much diverted on looking at the multitude of people
+and the manner of living, such as if I should undertake to give you description
+would require a small volume; therefore we will let it suffice
+in saying they are so thick they are obliged to live upon the water in
+floating boats or houses ... the most of wearing apparel is cheap, such
+as crape, silk, satin, nankin, etc. Teas are rather high. Such as suit the
+American market. But very large quantities will be in the U. States
+soon after this comes to hand.... When I shall be with you the Lord
+only knows for I am certain I do not—you may show this to my wife
+if she behaves pretty well, and be cautious how you trust her with good
+account at your store, for unless I have better luck than what I have
+had, I am shure you will get disappointed in having a settlement on
+my return, or rather, get your money.</p>
+
+<p>Remember me to her, however bad she may appear to be, as well as
+to your wife and honoured parents, and hope the Good Lord will permit
+us all to meet again. Tell her to be cautious of those Brawling
+Characters (he must mean the Gypsies of Hot and Cold Lane) that get
+adrift in that neighborhood about this time of year or a little before,
+for I wish I could have them on my passage down the Pacific when the
+wind blows from the North ... nothing more at present</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+So I bid you adieu<br>
+and to bed go and remain<br>
+Your well wisher and friend<br>
+W. Bowers.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In September, 1828, Bowers and Brayton were selling Canton Crape
+over the counter in Somerset. And China Tea.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="TRADING_WITH_THE_BRISTOL_COTTON_MANUFACTURING_COMPANY_AND_THE_MOUNT_HOPE_MANUFACTURING_COMPANY">TRADING WITH THE BRISTOL COTTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY AND THE MOUNT HOPE MANUFACTURING COMPANY</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Brayton and Bowers had branched out still farther in that busy year of
+1819. They started to trade with the Bristol Cotton Manufacturing
+Company. This Company had a small yarn mill in Wellington—the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span>
+village is now called North Dighton. Most of the stock belonged to
+James deWolf of Bristol.</p>
+
+<p>In December, 1820, Israel returned a consignment of yarn to the
+Factory, which had been woven into “stripes” and “plaids”. His weavers
+were given more of this Bristol yarn in January and this they also wove.
+And more. But the factory was not doing well. The following letter
+seems to me interesting.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Wellington. 12 of 11th month. 1821<br>
+Friend Israel Brayton<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>I was so much ingaged that I could not wright by Stephen that
+I wish thee to come up here next second day which is the 15th instant,
+as that is our co-meeting and I want to see thee about the weaving. We
+are now collecting over 100 lbs a day and if we can dry the yarn we
+can make out over 30 webs per week and I want them wove as fast as
+we make them, and I wish thou would not fail to come here next Second
+Day as early as possible and take a load and have some talk on our
+factory business as I never nowe what plans Williams and some others
+have afoot.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Please to attend and oblige thy friend<br>
+Nathaniel Wheeler.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Shortly afterwards: “Please to come up and take a load of pieces the
+day after tomorrow. Come thyself and I will be at home. I have some
+important business with Thee. Fail not to attend and oblige</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Thy Friend<br>
+Nathaniel Wheeler.”<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>The important business about which they were so annoyingly secret
+was the merger of the Bristol Cotton Manufacturing Company and the
+newly formed and struggling Mount Hope Manufacturing Company.</p>
+
+<p>The barrel has several weave books of these companies and Israel
+did a big business with them. Although the following letter would not
+lead you to think so.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Wellington. 9 of the 2 Mo. 1821<br>
+Friend Israel Brayton<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>I have this day sent back 2 pieces and have kept several that
+I ought to of sent back; but I am willing to due all that can be thought<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span>
+is in Reason. I cannot take any more so bad as I have received. In
+overhauling all the cloth we have received from thee, I find it to come
+far short for goodness to what we git wove at the Dighton Manufact.
+Co., and I must now be plain, and shall put some to another and see if
+we cannot git some better cloth. (The Dighton Manufacturing Company
+must have started weaving in 1821) I shall be still willing to
+continue our contract but must have good cloth. I have sent an order
+on James deWolf for one hundred dollars and I have not much on hand.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+In haste thy friend<br>
+Nath. Wheeler<br>
+For the Mount Hope Manufacturing Company.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the next letter received by Israel, C. R. Vickery turns up as clerk.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Respected Friend<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>Israel Brayton. We are very much in want of plaids and we wish
+thee to get all thou canst and fetch it up to us tomorrow. So we can
+send it to Boston the day after. Call at E. A. Hathaway’s and get what
+he has on hand. By doing as above requested thou wilt confer an additional
+favor on the Mount Hope Manufacturing Company.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>You see, although the weavers wove badly at times, it was as I said
+earlier, impossible to be too strict. This is one of the few proofs that
+any factory sent back any. (Though they all complained.) For they
+all needed all they could get—at once.</p>
+
+<p>The Mount Hope Management did as the other yarn factories did, it
+wrote little notes to Israel, authorizing credit.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“Mr. Israel Brayton. Sir. Please to let Misses Kingsley have what
+cloth she wants and send a bill of it and send back the other order and
+we’ll give you one for the full amount.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+B. Anthony”      “For the Mount Hope Company.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Still—this letter came—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“We have not any yarn for webbs now and dont think it is probable
+that we shall have any very soon.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Yours<br>
+for Mount Hope Manufacturing Co.<br>
+per Perry Anthony.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span></p>
+
+<p>That did look bad. But hear this one.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Respected friend, Israel Brayton<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>We have not any webs for thee today, we shall have some by
+Fifth Day but not so many as we shall have by Seventh Day, when I
+think thou canst have a tolerable load.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+For Mount Hope Comp.<br>
+William Marvel 2nd”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>There are 264 papers in the barrel showing the costs of this yarn, etc.
+and there are several weave books. The weavers are the same weavers
+who wove the yarn for the other yarn mills.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="TRADING_WITH_THE_WARWICK_COTTON_MANUFACTURING_COMPANY">TRADING WITH THE WARWICK COTTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>In 1820, the partners added another venture. They made connections
+with the Warwick Cotton Manufacturing Company. This was a yarn
+mill, situated of course in Warwick, and equally of course managed
+by a man named Greene.</p>
+
+<p>The Warwick yarn was handled as the other yarn had been handled.
+There was a written contract. And lucky for Brayton and Bowers that
+there was. For in 1821, the partners cut their losses and stopped trading
+with the Warwick Cotton Mill. They received a letter from the
+Manager.</p>
+
+<p>“I am somewhat disappointed in your discontinuing the bargain so
+soon” wrote Mr. Greene to Mr. Brayton. “However, you had the
+priveledge of quitting when you thought proper.”</p>
+
+<p>An unusually large part of the Warwick yarn went into the homes
+of the weavers of Troy. This can be seen in the Warwick Yarn Book.</p>
+
+<p>From Pawtucket, in October, 1821, Brayton and Bowers received a
+letter offering more yarn to weave. The letter was signed by J. H.
+Gridley. I do not know what Corporation Mr. Gridley represented.</p>
+
+<p>——“Wish you to write by the first mail, as we have written to
+others who no doubt will do it for us——but we should prefer your
+having it. We shall have a great deal of yarn to put out for a year—”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span></p>
+
+<p>I insert this bit of apparent futility that you may see that Israel was
+“approached” by even more business concerns than he could trade with.
+He certainly branched out. But not, I think, into Pawtucket. There is
+nothing more about Mr. Gridley in the barrel.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="TRADING_WITH_THE_DIGHTON_MANUFACTURING_COMPANY">TRADING WITH THE DIGHTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>In 1822 the Dighton Manufacturing Company got its first charter.
+Israel Brayton was one of the stockholders; though it was a long time
+before he paid for his shares and I am not sure that he ever did. Perhaps
+the shares were tangled up with his agreement to serve as an outlet
+for the yarn.</p>
+
+<p>James deWolf was a director, owning 36 shares. Frequently he went
+up to Wellington from Bristol to attend the directors’ meetings. Twice
+at least he called on Israel in Scrabbletown, on the way up. He never
+found Israel at home; at least, he couldn’t find him, and left notes,
+which got into the barrel. He was not pleased with Israel.</p>
+
+<p>The stockholders’ meetings were at first held in the new home of
+Nathaniel Wheeler; Kezia’s uncle, you remember. He had sold out
+his blacksmith’s business and built a fine brick house in Wellington.
+It is still standing in the village, I am told. In 1827, he wrote as
+follows to Israel:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Respected friend       “Dighton 5 mo. 21st, 1827”<br>
+Israel Brayton<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>I have for a long time calculated to call and make thee a
+visit, both on friendship and business, but things have turned out such
+that I have not been to call. I am now finding myself in want of 600
+to 1000 barrels of menhaden fish for manure, and I want the principal
+part of them after haying. Should there be some time dull weather,
+I can take them any time after the middle of next month.</p>
+
+<p>Now if thou can agree with one or two or more of the fishermen
+to deliver me the above quantity of good menhayden fish at the Landing
+where Peleg Gardner has formerly landed for me, and make me fair
+measure, I will take them, after the middle of next month at any time,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span>
+and the above quantity, and pay thee cash when all are delivered; and
+the reason of my taking this course is that I have here-to-some made
+a bargain for 500 bbls. and perhaps got 150, or in that proportion,
+and I have thought that you will be more likely to obtain the quantity.
+I shall expect to pay twenty five cents per bbl., if you cannot git them
+for less; and I will pay any bill thou may present for thy trouble. Please
+write me by return of male the prospect. As I shall leave home the
+day after tomorrow for the State of Main to be absent 2 weeks. If
+thou cannot inform so soon as a week or ten days, do so that I may
+know on my return home, and oblige</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Nath. Wheeler.”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We do not know too much about this Wellington-Dighton Factory.
+There are 70 notes in the barrel showing phases of the industry. But I
+could use more concrete information.</p>
+
+<p>For one thing, the company sold stoves. Could they have been running
+a Company Store? Mr. Allerton, who bought one, was a clerk in
+the factory office and he took it to Newport and gave it to his mother-in-law
+who found it satisfactory. But stoves?</p>
+
+<p>Also, how soon did they start weaving, in this Dighton Manufacturing
+Company’s Mill? The following letter seems significant.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+“Dighton, July 25, 1828.<br>
+Mr Israel Brayton<br>
+</p>
+
+<p>Sir. As you offered, when last here, to endeavor to procure us
+three good weavers by the name of Lewin, and as we are now and
+probably shall continue to be plagued for help of that description, you
+will benefit the company very much by engaging them on the best of
+terms you can—please let me know if you are likely to succeed or not
+in getting those above mentioned—should you not with them, perhaps
+you may with others.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+very respectfully<br>
+Your obt. Ser.<br>
+Wm. M. Allerton”<br>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>And that is positively all I am going to tell you about the factories that
+traded with Israel Brayton and his partners.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_TRADER_GOES_BACK_TO_THE_FARM">THE TRADER GOES BACK TO THE FARM</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>When Israel Brayton’s father, John the farmer, died in 1829, the life
+of Israel, the Trader, went on as before. Captain Stephen Brayton,
+Israel’s brother, returned to the farm and took over. He had been engaged
+in a few ventures of his own, as we know from letters found in
+the barrel.</p>
+
+<p>The widow, Israel’s mother, petitioned the court to appoint Israel
+administrator. In June, 1829, he made an account of his administration.
+And that was all.</p>
+
+<p>Stephen found in the house of his inheritance his mother; an aunt;
+a sister, Content, the old maid of the family; (all households had them).
+These women were absolutely dependent upon him as they had been
+upon his father, and he thought it right that this should be so.</p>
+
+<p>To him had descended not only the use of the house but the use of
+all its furnishings. And these furnishings were astonishingly good. It
+was the age of mahogany and fine cabinet makers. John Brayton, according
+to the inventory found in the barrel, had owned a mahogany
+desk, a mahogany card table, a mahogany round table, a pair of mahogany
+dining tables, 8 mahogany arm chairs, a mahogany light stand,
+and a chest.</p>
+
+<p>From an earlier age of even better cabinet makers, there was a cherry
+Pembroke table, a maple table, a high chest of drawers, 8 dining chairs,
+a tall clock, 7 bedsteads, 8 leatherbottomed chairs, 12 flag bottomed
+chairs, a pair of ordinary looking glasses, a gilt framed looking glass,
+a floor carpet—who has better? There was a brass fireset, 8 feather
+beds and 24 pillows, coffee and tea sets, 12 tablecloths—and of course
+a “weaver loom” and “2 spinning wheeles”.</p>
+
+<p>On the farm were 2 yoke of oxen, 13 steers, 2 horses, 31 sheep, 21
+lambs, 4 swine, and 14 pigs—2 ox carts, 1 horse sleigh and bells, 1 horse
+wagon and harness, 1 cider mill and press. Under Stephen all remained
+on the farm, and life went on as before. That some of these articles
+were bought through Israel’s Scrabbletown Store, we know.</p>
+
+<p>Stephen died suddenly in 1832. According to the custom of the
+country, Israel, the trader of Scrabbletown, closed down his trading<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span>
+posts, and went back to the Farm of his fathers as his brother Stephen
+had done. He took over the responsibility of running the farm and
+the family.</p>
+
+<p>He was still a young man, just turned 40. His eldest child, Mary,
+was 18. There was Elizabeth and Nancy and John Summerfield, and
+David, and Israel Perry and William Bowers—all born in Scrabbletown—now
+moving down to the Homestead Farm by the Taunton
+River. And there were more children coming—Hezekiah, Sarah, Submit.</p>
+
+<p>It was a young household, ambitious, with a fine house and money
+to spend. Israel’s mother was an old lady, of course, well content to sit
+in the chimney corner. But there was Aunt Content, Israel’s sister,
+Stephen’s widow and his children, and probably some others needing
+shelter at the moment; Mary Morrison, for instance.</p>
+
+<p>The house was perhaps a little crowded—it must have been. Mary,
+the oldest of the children, seems to have thought so. She left. We hear
+of her teaching school in the village of Troy, now called Fall River, as
+I noted earlier.</p>
+
+<p>Kezia, Israel’s wife, was mistress of the house and of all that was
+therein. Which included all that she and her husband had brought from
+Scrabbletown. There was indeed plenty.</p>
+
+<p>Kezia was not, however, a good housekeeper. No, she was not. For
+in all her housecleaning she never cleaned out the barrel that Israel
+had brought over from his Scrabbletown store and put up in the attic.</p>
+
+<p>To her negligence, we owe our chance to see at first hand how the
+traders of Scrabbletown lived in those days now all forgotten.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="Weavers_who_lived_on_the_East_Bank_of_the_Taunton_River"><i>Weavers who lived on the East Bank of the Taunton River</i></h2>
+</div>
+
+<h3>(<i>on territory now called Fall River</i>)</h3>
+
+<p>
+Baker, Jonathan<br>
+Barker, Hicks<br>
+Barnaby, Lucy<br>
+Bennett, Anna<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Bradford</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Grace</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Hannah</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Ruby</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Ruth</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Sweet</span><br>
+Black, Mary<br>
+Bliffins, Amelia<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Olive</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Pamela</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Royal</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Valentine</span><br>
+Boomer, Crocker<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Hannah</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Sally</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Nathaniel</span><br>
+Borden, Amos<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Stephen</span><br>
+Bragg, Samuel<br>
+Briggs, Josephine<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Welthy</span><br>
+Burroughs, Isaac<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Olive</span><br>
+Butts, David<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Sarah</span><br>
+Brightman, Benjamin<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Edward</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Gardner</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">George</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Henry</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">James</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Lois</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Lydia</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Lucy</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Mary</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Nathan</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Pardon</span><br>
+Challoner, Thomas<br>
+Chace, Benjamin<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Hannah</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Harriet</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Hezekiah</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">John</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Moses</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Palmer</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Stephen</span><br>
+Clark, Henry<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Mary Ann</span><br>
+Cleaveland, Abigail<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Bertha</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Henry</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Olive</span><br>
+Cobb, Abiah<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Ann Maria</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Joseph</span><br>
+Corey, William<br>
+Cummings, Jail<br>
+Davis, Howard<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Joseph</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Nancy</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Pa——</span><br>
+Downing, Frederick<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Joshua</span><br>
+Durfee, Thomas<br>
+Eaton, Apollos<br>
+Elsbree, Aaron<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Nathaniel</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Omer</span><br>
+Ely, Joseph<br>
+Evans, Caleb<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">David</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Josephus</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Leonard</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Thomas</span><br>
+Freelove, Stephen<br>
+Gifford, Benjamin<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Royal</span><br>
+Goodwin, Nicholas<br>
+Gregory, Thomas<br>
+Harris, Abigail<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Julian</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Polly</span><br>
+Harrison, Elisa<br>
+Hathaway, Abigail<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Diadema</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Enoch</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">George</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Gideon</span><br>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span><span style="margin-left: 5em;">John</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Lydia</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Malbone</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Michael</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Olive</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Peleg</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Rosamund</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Russell</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Ruth</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Silas</span><br>
+Hawkins, Lydia<br>
+Horton, Benjamin<br>
+Hunt, Benjamin<br>
+Lawton, Francis<br>
+Marble, Elizabeth<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Rebeccas</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Ruth</span><br>
+Miller, Ebenezer<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Phoebe</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Robert</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Sophia</span><br>
+Negus, Benjamin<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Knowles</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Sally</span><br>
+Nichols, Hannah<br>
+Pierce, Cynthia<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Job</span><br>
+Raymond, Benjamin<br>
+Read, Abigail<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Betsy</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Brayton</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Catherine</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">George</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Hannah</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Joseph</span><br>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Lucy</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Martha</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Mary Ann</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Nancy</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Nathan</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Rosamund</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Ruby</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Ruth</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Sally</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Stephen</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Susan</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">William (Captain)</span><br>
+Ripley, Bradford<br>
+Rogers, Lucy<br>
+Sampson, Ebenezer<br>
+Simmons, Nathan<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Tryphena</span><br>
+Smith, Judas<br>
+Snell, Abiah<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Amos</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Baylis</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Rebecca</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Susan</span><br>
+Sowle, William<br>
+Strange, William<br>
+Terry, Job<br>
+Tew, Sally<br>
+Thurston, Amey B.<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Jonathan</span><br>
+Tubbs, Rebecca<br>
+Wardwell, Joshua<br>
+Whitwell, Olive<br>
+Winslow, Frederick<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Isaac</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">John</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Luther</span><br>
+Young, John<br>
+</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="Weavers_living_on_the_farms_and_in_the_villages_west_of_the_Taunton_River"><i>Weavers living on the farms and in the villages west of the Taunton River</i></h2>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+Adams, Nathaniel of Swansea. (Wove badly)<br>
+Allen, Permelia<br>
+Allyn, Sybel<br>
+Anthony, Ann Maria<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Gardner</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">John</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Mary Brayton</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Sarah</span><br>
+Baker, Joseph<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Nancy</span><br>
+Barton, Nancy<br>
+Bliffin, Mary, daughter of Royal<br>
+Bliss, Hannah of Wellington<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Lucinda of Rehoboth</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Lucy</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Lydia</span><br>
+Bosworth, Amos<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Gardner</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Hope</span><br>
+Bourne, Anna of Somerset<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Betsy</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Francis</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Jonathan</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Stephen</span><br>
+Bowers, Gertrude<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Sarah of Dighton</span><br>
+Bowen, Betsy of Warren<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Hannah</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">James</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Jonathan</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Jabez</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Lydia</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Martha</span><br>
+Brayton, Daniel of Swansea<br>
+Brown, Esther of Somerset<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">John of Swansea</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Joseph</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Lydia</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Sarah</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Sharlot</span><br>
+Buffinton, Betsy<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Benjamin</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Elisha</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Eunice</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Mason</span><br>
+Bullock, Levi<br>
+Bush, John W.<br>
+Burr, Betsy of Rehoboth<br>
+Butterworth, Caleb of Swansea<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">Lydia</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 6.5em;">Sarah</span><br>
+Canedy, William B.<br>
+Carey, David of Barrington<br>
+Cartwell, Lydia of Swansea<br>
+Cartwright, Margaret of Somerset<br>
+Chace (Chase), Abner<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">Bethany</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">Deborah</span><br>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span><span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">of Swansea</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">Edward</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 10em;">of Somerset</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">Hope</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">Lurana of Swansea</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">Lydia</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">Luther</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">Martha</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">Nabby</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">Nehemiah</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">Mary of Somerset</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">Phebe</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">Rebecca</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">Reuben</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 10em;">of Swansea</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">Sarah of Somerset</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">Samuel</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">Stephen</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">Wanton</span><br>
+Kingsley, Anthony of Swansea<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Barton</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">James</span><br>
+Ladew, Curtis of Barrington<br>
+Lee, Israel of Dighton<br>
+Lewin, Nathaniel of Swansea<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Sarah</span><br>
+Luther, Ann B. of Somerset<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Eliza</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Eunice</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">James</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Nancy of Warren</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Patience of Somerset</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Rebecca</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Samuel</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Susannah</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Susan</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Theophile</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Upham</span><br>
+Macomber, Nancy of Swansea<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Noah</span><br>
+Mark, Lucy<br>
+Martin, Abraham<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Elizabeth</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Sally</span><br>
+Marvel, Elizabeth<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Joseph</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Lorna</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Patience</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Rebecca</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Ruth</span><br>
+Mason, Mary<br>
+Miller, Lydia of Warren<br>
+Morrison, Clarissa of Swansea<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Mary</span><br>
+Munroe, Bosworth<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Thomas</span><br>
+Norton, Eliphalet of Rehoboth<br>
+Palmer, David of Swansea<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Jonathan</span><br>
+Pettis, Martha<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Patty</span><br>
+Perry, David (negro)<br>
+Phillips, Samuel<br>
+Pike, Phoebe<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Ruth</span><br>
+Pierce, Lewis<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Lydia of Rehoboth</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Sarah of Swansea</span><br>
+Pitts, Alice<br>
+Potter, Anna<br>
+Purinton, Benjamin<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Eunice</span><br>
+Read, Otis of Dighton<br>
+Rice, Elizabeth of Swansea<br>
+Richards, Patty of Dighton<br>
+Rhounds, Betsy of Rehoboth<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Joshua</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Susannah</span><br>
+Robinson, Patience (a widow)<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 11em;">of Swansea</span><br>
+Sherman, Atherton<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Loisa</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Robert</span><br>
+Shorey, Almiry<br>
+Shove, Abraham<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Lydia</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Nathaniel</span><br>
+Sisson, Isaac<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Isaih</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Susannah</span><br>
+Slade, Alexander of Somerset<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Almira</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Betsy P. of Swansea</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Elisha of Somerset</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Eliza</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Henry (Capt.) of Swansea</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Mial of Dighton</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Martin of Swansea</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Mary (negro) of Warren</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Phoebe of Somerset</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Polly of Swansea</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Prudence of Somerset</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Stephen of Swansea</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">Waity, (d. Charles)</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3.5em;">William of Somerset</span><br>
+Snell, Sally of Dighton<br>
+Swazey, Polly of Somerset<br>
+Talbot, Josiah C. of Swansea<br>
+Targee, Ardelia<br>
+Thrasher, Isaac<br>
+Thompson, James of Somerset<br>
+Trafton, Clarinda of Swansea<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Elias</span><br>
+Valentine, Betsy<br>
+Vennaman, Rebecca<br>
+Walker, Nancy<br>
+Waterman, Asa of Dighton<br>
+Weaver, Nathaniel of Somerset<br>
+Wheeler, Sally of Swansea<br>
+White, Betsy<br>
+Wilbur, James of Somerset<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">John</span><br>
+Wilcox, Job of Swansea<br>
+Williams, John (negro)<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">of Warren</span><br>
+Wilson, Hezekiah of Swansea<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Rachel</span><br>
+Winslow, Bethia<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Betsey</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Ebenezer</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">George</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Rebecca</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Seth</span><br>
+Whitmarsh, Clarissa of Dighton<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Fanny</span><br>
+Wood, Hannah of Swansea<br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Israel</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">George of Dighton</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">John</span><br>
+<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Otis of Swansea</span><br>
+Wright, Abigail of Dighton<br>
+</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="INDEX"><i>INDEX</i></h2>
+</div>
+
+<h3>(<i>not necessarily including the weavers just listed</i>)</h3>
+
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li class="ifrst">Albany, New York. Letters from Albany, <a href="#Page_44">44-45</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Allerton, William, Clerk in Dighton Manufacturing Company, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Alleyn, Sybel, Bonnet maker. Settlement of her Estate, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Almanacks, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Anthony, chiefly Hezekiah, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20-23</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28-35</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Assonet, Massachusetts, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Banks, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Barrington, Rhode Island, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Barter System, Widely used, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13-15</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41-42</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Beard, Abner. Sold Soap in Swansea, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Berkeley, Massachusetts, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bliss Family, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">B. M. C. Durfee High School in Fall River, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bonnets and Bonnet Makers, <a href="#Page_40">40-53</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Boston Wholesale Merchants, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15-17</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bowen Family, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bowers Family, chiefly William, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35-36</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_45">45-55</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Brayton and Bowers, Traders, <a href="#Page_19">19-22</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26-29</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53-55</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Brayton Family, chiefly Israel. References on nearly all pages.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Brayton and Mason. Traders, <a href="#Page_9">9-15</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21-27</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Briggs Family, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Brightman Family, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bristol Cotton Manufacturing Company, <a href="#Page_55">55-58</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Bristol, Rhode Island, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Brown Family, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Buffinton Family, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Butterworth Family, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Canton, China, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li>
+<li class="isub1">Letter written in Canton by William Bowers, <a href="#Page_54">54-55</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cartwright Family, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Carver, J. A. Bonnet presser, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Chace (Chase) Family, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_66">66-67</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Charlestown, Carolina. Letters written in Charlestown, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">China. Listed in the invoices, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span>Church Activities. Church Choirs, <a href="#Page_36">36-38</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cleaveland Family, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Coggshell Family, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Colburn, Jonathan C., Singing Teacher from Taunton, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Commission Sales, <a href="#Page_50">50-51</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Company Store, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13-15</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19-24</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Corbett Family, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cotton, John, Trader, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cotton Spinning, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cotton Shipped up from the South, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52-53</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cotton Yarn Factories, <a href="#Page_8">8-14</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23-32</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55-60</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Counterfeit Money, In general use, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Cows, Exported, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Crackers and the Cracker Barrel, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Credit, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Currency in use, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Dancing Lessons, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Darien, Georgia. Letter written in Darien in 1821, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Debts and Debtors, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">deWolf, James, <a href="#Page_56">56-57</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Dighton Manufacturing Company, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59-60</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Dighton, Massachusetts, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59-60</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Disabled Veterans, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Dow, Lorenzo, Evangelist, <a href="#Page_37">37-38</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Downing Family, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Dry Goods, Imported and Domestic, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15-16</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Durfee, M. C., Clerk for “Mr. Anthony’s Bank” in Troy, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Earle Family, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Earthquake in Charlestown, described by eyewitness, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">East Indies. Perry expected to sail for the East Indies, October 15, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Eddy Family, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Egypt, Massachusetts, <a href="#Page_25">25-26</a>, etc.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Fall River Factory and Iron Works, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30-32</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fall River, Massachusetts, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29-33</a>. See Troy and Freetown.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fashion, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50-51</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Fayetteville, North Carolina, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Foxboro, Massachusetts, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Freetown, Massachusetts, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span>Fuller Family, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Funerals, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Garden Seeds, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gardner Family, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Georgetown Bar, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Georgia Cotton Manufacturing Company, <a href="#Page_28">28-29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Georgia, State of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gibbs, Captain Benjamin and Captain Joseph, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gingerbread in the Company Store, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Glass, Imported, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Goodyear, Amasa, of New Haven, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Goosefeathers exported to Boston from Scrabbletown, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gray, Samuel, Ship Captain, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Gypsies of Hot and Cold Lane, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Handy Family, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Hathaway Family, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Hats, Felt, Palm leaf, Straw, <a href="#Page_20">20-21</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>. See Bonnets.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Holman Family, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Idioms and local traditions, <a href="#Page_39">39-40</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Inventory of Property, 1829, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Johnson, Nathan P., sold Palm leaf hats, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Jones, Nehemiah, of Raynham. Trader in Straw Braid, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Kilby, Asa, of Somerset. Dealer in dried codfish, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Kingsley Family, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Labor Difficulties, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lawton, Henry, War Veteran, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Leather Goods sold on commission, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lewin Family, Good Weavers, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lima, Peru. William Bowers was there in 1826, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Literacy, <a href="#Page_3">3-4</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Literature in Scrabbletown, <a href="#Page_38">38-40</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lotteries, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lovell and Durfee, Fall River Business Firm, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lum, Isaac, Confectioner in Somerset, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Luther Family, Chiefly Wheaton, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10-11</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24-27</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Lyman Cotton Manufacturing Company, <a href="#Page_23">23-25</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Mail Carriers, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Manilla. Visited by William Bowers in 1824, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span>Marion, Anthony, Captain of Schooner “Jane.” Lost at sea, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Marvel Family, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mason Family, Chiefly John Mason of Brayton and Mason, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35-37</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Menhaden Fish. Used for fertilizer, <a href="#Page_59">59-60</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Militia, Local, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mills. See Yarn Mills and Paper Mills.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mill Stock, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mitchell, William, Manager of Swansea Paper Manufacturing Co, <a href="#Page_27">27-28</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Morrison Family, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Mount Hope Manufacturing Company, <a href="#Page_55">55-58</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Music, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36-37</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Nails, made in Troy, sold in Scrabbletown and Egypt, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Negus Family, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">New Bedford, Massachusetts, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">New Haven, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Newport, Rhode Island. Letter written in Newport, 1820, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Newspapers, <a href="#Page_38">38-39</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">New York, N. Y. William Bowers in New York, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">New York Commission Houses, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43-45</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Nichols, Joseph D., School Teacher in Swansea, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Paper Mill in Swansea, <a href="#Page_27">27-28</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pawtucket, Rhode Island, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Peckham, John, Bristol Manufacturer of Leather Goods, <a href="#Page_18">18-19</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pensions for Disabled Veterans, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pettibone, Charles, sold powder and shot, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Physicians, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pierce, Captain David. Letters to friends in Egypt, Mass, <a href="#Page_49">49-50</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pitchforks made in New Haven, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Politics, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Poor Relief, <a href="#Page_33">33-34</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Potter Family, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Power Loom Cotton Cloth, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Pratt, Captain Charles, School Teacher, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Providence, Rhode Island, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6-7</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Purinton Family, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67-68</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Raynham, Massachusetts, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40-41</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Read Family, <a href="#Page_5">5-6</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64-65</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Rehoboth, Massachusetts, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span>Sandwich Islands. William Bowers was there in 1826, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Saunders, Daniel, baker of crackers, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sanderson Family, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Savannah, Georgia, <a href="#Page_49">49-53</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Schools and School Houses, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35-36</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">School Books, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">School Committee, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">School Teachers and their letters, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Shad. Taunton River Shad exported, <a href="#Page_44">44-45</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sherman Family, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Ships, By name: Sloop “Henry” of Somerset, <a href="#Page_44">44-49</a>.</li>
+<li class="isub1">Sloop “Reindeer” of Troy, Sloop “Rambler” of Troy, “Rosette” of Troy, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li>
+<li class="isub1">Schooner “Jane”, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Shipboard Life, <a href="#Page_46">46-48</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Shipyards and Shipping, <a href="#Page_6">6-9</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Shoemakers, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Shove Family, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Singing School, <a href="#Page_36">36-37</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Slade Family, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Slade’s Ferry Landing, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Smith, Allan and Daniel, Darien, Georgia, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
+<li class="isub1">Horatio, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+<li class="isub1">Judas, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Someset, Massachusetts, <a href="#Page_5">5-6</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20-22</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66-68</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Spain, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Spanish Settlements, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sproat, Mr. of Taunton. His marriage, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Stebbins, Sophia, School Teacher, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Stock Certificates, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Store of Brayton and Bowers, Built and Stocked, <a href="#Page_40">40-41</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Store Books, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Straw for paper, <a href="#Page_27">27-28</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li>
+<li class="isub1">For Bonnets, <a href="#Page_40">40-44</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Swansea, Massachusetts, <a href="#Page_3">3-4</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7-11</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_34">34-37</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Swansea Paper Manufacturing Company, <a href="#Page_27">27-28</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32-33</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Swansea Union Cotton Manufacturing Company, <a href="#Page_8">8-10</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Sweet Family, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Talbot, Simeon, Hatter in Dighton, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Taunton, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Taunton River, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Threeshere, Isaac, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span>Tobacco. Segars, <a href="#Page_21">21-22</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Transportation by land and sea, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37-38</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_43">43-45</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Troy, Massachusetts, alias Fall River, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30-33</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62-65</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Troy, New York, <a href="#Page_44">44-45</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Vickery Family, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Walker Family, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">War Department Regulations, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">War of 1812, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">War of the Revolution, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Warren, Rhode Island, <a href="#Page_5">5-6</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Warwick Manufacturing Company, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Water Power for the Yarn Mills, A Necessity, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Weave Books, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23-25</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29-31</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Weavers’ Instructions and Tickets, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_13">12-13</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Weaving in the factory and the home, <a href="#Page_9">9-14</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23-25</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29-31</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56-57</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_60">60-61</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Wellington, alias North Dighton, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Whale Ships and Whale Oil, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Wheeler Family, <a href="#Page_7">7-9</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28-30</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56-59</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">White Family, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Wholesale Merchants. See Boston, New York, New Haven, Providence.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Wilcox, Edward and Ruth, of Someset, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Wilkinson, Jemima, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Wilmarth, Larned, and his baggage waggon, <a href="#Page_18">18-19</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Williams, Jeremiah, Merchant in Warren, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Winslow Family, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65-68</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Wood Family, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Wrightington, Stephen, Baker, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+
+
+<li class="ifrst">Yankeys, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li>
+
+<li class="indx">Yarn Mills, <a href="#Page_8">8-14</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23-32</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55-60</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span></p>
+<br><br>
+
+
+<p class="center">
+PRINTED BY<br>
+WARD PRINTING COMPANY<br>
+(HENRY C WILKINSON)<br>
+NEWPORT<br>
+RHODE ISLAND<br>
+</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<div class="transnote">
+<p class="center"><b>Transcriber’s Notes</b></p>
+<p>Perceived typographical errors have been silently corrected.</p>
+
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77038 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
+
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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #77038
+(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77038)