Chapter II: Part 2

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”