Trading in Scrabbletown

By Alice Brayton

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Title: Trading in Scrabbletown

Author: Alice Brayton

Release date: October 12, 2025 [eBook #77038]

Language: English

Original publication: Newport, RI: Ward Printing Company, 1952

Credits: Steve Mattern and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRADING IN SCRABBLETOWN ***



                       _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.







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