1. Unless otherwise noted all newspapers, deeds, probate inventories, and federal censuses cited are on microfilm in the Research Library of Old Sturbridge Village (hereafter cited OSV). John Warner Barber, Massachusetts Historical Collections (Worcester, Mass.: Dorr, Howland & Co., 1839), p. 550.
2. Jack Larkin, "From 'Country Mediocrity' to 'Rural Improvement': Transforming the Slovenly Countryside in Central Massachusetts, 1775-1840," in Everyday Life in the Early Republic, edited by Catherine E. Hutchins (Charlottesville, Va.: University of Virginia Press for the Winterthur Museum, 1992).
3. American Husbandry, 2 vols. (London: printed for J. Bew, 1775), 1:50, as quoted in Andrew H. Baker and Holly V. Izard, "New England Farmers and the Marketplace, 1780-1865: A Case Study," Agricultural History 65, no. 3 (summer 1991): 91-92.
4. See Baker and Izard, "New England Farmers and the Marketplace"; Robert A. Gross, "Culture and Cultivation: Agriculture and Society in Thoreau's Concord," Journal of American History 69, no. 1 (June 1982): 42-61; and Jack Larkin, "Massachusetts Enters the Marketplace 1790-1860," in A Guide to the History of Massachusetts, edited by Martin Kaufman, John W. Kaufman, and Joseph Carvalho III (New York: Greenwood Press, 1988), pp. 69-82.
5. "Population Tables—Worcester County," in The Gazetteer of Massachusetts (Boston: John Hayward, 1846), pp. 322-30. Larkin, "Massachusetts Enters the Marketplace," p. 70.
6. See Blanche Evan Hazard, The Organization of the Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts Before 1875 (New York: A. M. Kelly, 1969); Jack Larkin, "The Merriams of Brookfield: Printing in the Economy and Culture of Rural Massachusetts in the Early Nineteenth Century," Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 96 (April 1986): part 1, pp. 39-74; Mark Sipson, "An Introduction to Leather Processing and Shoemaking," unpublished paper, ca. 1979, OSV; and Caroline Sloat, "A Great Help to Many Families: Straw Braiding in Massachusetts Before 1825," in House and Home, edited by Peter Benes (Dublin, N.H.: Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, 1988), pp. 89-100. Gregory Nobles, "Rural Manufacture and Urban Markets: A Case Study of Broom-making in Nineteenth Century Massachusetts" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Cincinnati, 1983), as cited in Larkin, "The Merriams of Brookfield."
7. These figures, provided by Jack Larkin, are based on an analysis of probate inventories undertaken by OSV (see Probate Inventories for the towns of Brimfield, Palmer, Chester, Sturbridge, Shrewsbury, and Barre, Massachusetts, 1790-1850, and Probate Inventory Sample of Worcester County Farmers, Mechanics, and Merchants 1790-1850, transcripts and analyses at the Department of Research, Collections, and Library [hereafter cited DRCL], OSV). For a more detailed discussion of this data, see Larkin, "Transforming the Slovenly Countryside."
8. For assistance and advise regarding this introductory text, the author thanks Jack Larkin, Myron Stachiw, Frank White, and Karen Blanchfield.
9. Shop joiner Nathaniel Wyman married in Lancaster in 1742, and shop joiner Stephen Jewit married in Oxford in 1757 (Oxford Vital Records [Worcester, Mass.: Franklin P. Rice, 1907], p. 187). Information on occupations is taken from Worcester County deeds 1790-1799 and 1825-1830 (compiled by David Proulx), data base in DRCL, OSV. The estates of Asa Stearns (Hardwick, 1795, 26:247) and David Hosley (Lancaster, 1802, 32:475) included agricultural equipment, livestock, and woodworking tools. The inventories of other woodworkers, including Joseph Carpenter (Uxbridge, 1813, 257:297), John Hills (Leominster, 1784, 20:376), and Joshua Wetherel (Dudley, 1802, 31:43), listed farming tools but not woodworking tools; however, all these men identified themselves as furniture makers in deeds. Jeremiah Reed (New Braintree, 1803, 31:520) and Nathaniel Wyman (Lancaster, 1801, 30:503) had woodworking tools but no farm-related implements listed in their probate inventories. The aforementioned David Hosely was a wheelwright and housewright as well as a furniture maker (32:475), whereas Ezra Kendall (Sterling, 1828, 67:272) owned cooper's, wheelwright's, blacksmith's, and shop joiner's tools. The author thanks Holly Izard and Frank White for assisting with sample studies of earlier deeds.
10. Although the Walker house was destroyed and the Shumway woodwork has been moved, a related interior is in situ in nearby Woodstock, Connecticut, which was once part of Worcester County. A chamber of the Chandler house (ca. 1770-1780) in South Woodstock has the facade of a high case of drawers complete with cabriole legs on a plastered wall.
11. A high case of drawers and dressing table were acquired by Nina Fletcher Little from a Chandler descendant in the mid-1950s (Nina Fletcher Little, Little by Little [New York: E. P. Dutton, 1984], pp. 200-1). At the same time, Mrs. Little arranged for OSV to acquire a four-drawer chest and set of chairs with original Irish stitch embroidered seats. The furniture belonged to the Hon. John Chandler (1720-1800), judge of probate and Loyalist, whose estate was confiscated in 1779 when he ßed to England. His heirs retained or recovered various pieces, which remained in Petersham and South Lancaster until 1956. The Chandler family pieces from the Little Collection were sold at The Bertram K. Little and Nina Fletcher Little Collection, Part 1 (Sale 6526), Sotheby's, New York, January 1994, lots 428-31.
12. The armchair (OSV 5.2.113) was purchased from the estate of a local family. The side chair (private collection) was purchased from a picker who reportedly got it at an old farm in Charlton.
13. The author thanks Holly Izard who is transcribing and analyzing all itemized probate inventories of Sturbridge residents from 1740 to 1850.
14. Between 1790 and 1799, craftsmen used the terms "shop joiner," "winsor chair maker," and "cabinetmaker" to identify themselves.
15. Of the thirty-nine men who listed themselves as cabinetmakers in deeds during the 1790s, thirty-five were not born in the town where they bought land. Most were recently married or married within a few years of their arrival in town, suggesting an inßux of mature, young craftsmen. Only seven of the thirty-five can be definitively traced to other locations prior to their 1790s deeds. Nathan Bangs moved from Leverett to Barre; David Wight Sr. moved from Medway to Sturbridge; brothers Isaac and Jacob Fisher moved from the Wrentham area to the Lancaster area; Elijah Stone Jr. moved from Framingham to Rutland and Barre; and brothers Jonathan and John Tower moved from Sudbury to Rutland. The earlier Worcester County-born cabinetmakers include: Isaac Johnson (1742-1779); Elisha Harrington (1760-1817) of Brookfield; Sewall Hall (b. 1767) and Justus Warner (b. 1768) of New Braintree; and Amasa Holden (b. 1773) of Shrewsbury. In addition, Oliver Wight (b. 1765) of Sturbridge (born in Medway but moved to Sturbridge at age nine) and Nathaniel Wyman (b. 1746 ) of Lancaster identified themselves as shop joiners and presumably trained with their fathers who were also shop joiners.
16. This clock is illustrated in Skinner's Americana Catalogue, Bolton, Massachusetts, January 16, 1993, lot 132. Elisha Harrington was born in Brookfield in 1760 and married in that town in 1785. By 1792 (the birthdate of his second child), he was a resident of Spencer. He described himself as a cabinetmaker in both Brookfield and Spencer deeds, but by 1807 he referred to himself as a "gentleman." His probate inventory includes a work bench, seven planes, one draw shave, an old saw, and fifty feet of maple boards. The significance of the "No 64" that appears on the handwritten label is not clear.
17. Both cases are cherry and cherry veneer rather than mahogany, and the cross-banding on the 1807 chest appears to be ash—an unlikely inlay wood for eastern Massachusetts. The later chest has mahogany banding and what is probably purchased stringing. Atypical construction details include glue blocks on the drawer bottoms, exaggerated bracing of the French feet, and crudely inlet inlay. A neoclassical sofa by Spooner has an elegantly curved back but lacks the stay-rail needed to hold the upholstery.
18. The Brigham desk is at OSV. The author is aware of two card tables with Fairbanks signatures. One, dated 1816, is in a private collection; the other is at OSV along with the three bureaus mentioned. Brimfield, Massachusetts, dealers Susan and Richard Raymond report having seen related chests in area houses.
19. In 1971, the contents of the Emerson Bixby house were given to OSV by descendants. The house was subsequently donated and has been moved to the museum. Since the 1870s (following the death of Emerson and Laura Bixby), the house had been used only during summer holidays. The furnishings were all either original to the structure or had been purchased at local estate sales. Houghton recorded, "to a rocking chair $2.23, to 1 work table $2.00, to a common bedstead $1.75, to 1 3 feet table $2.00" (Luke Houghton Account Book, September 1828-March 1837, Barre Historical Society, Barre, Massachusetts).
20. Newspapers studied include those published in Worcester, Barre, Southbridge, Fitchburg, and Athol, Massachusetts, between 1775 and 1850. These papers are primarily in the collections of the American Antiquarian Society with random issues at OSV. Editions of the Worcester city directories in the collections of OSV and the Worcester Historical Museum were also consulted.
21. See data base of Worcester County furniture makers, DRCL, OSV. According to the United States Census of Manufactures, 1820 (Washington, D.C.: United States Census Office, 1820), twenty-three men in Sterling produced approximately 70,000 chairs. In 1832 the towns of Ashburnham, Sterling, Templeton, Gardner, Hubbardston, Princeton, Rutland, and Spencer produced at least 363,500 chairs (Louis McLane, Documents Relative to the Manufactures in the United States [1832; reprinted, New York: Augustus Kelly, 1969], pp. 474-577. The Branches of Industry for Worcester County (Boston: Dutton and Wentworth), pp. 42-73, asserted that the same towns manufactured 525,200 in 1837. The figure for 1850 excludes Rutland and Spencer and is drawn from the Census of Manufactures.
22. For more on the speculative manufacture and distribution of chairs, see Benno M. Forman, American Seating Furniture, 1630-1730 (New York: W.W. Norton, 1988); Edward S. Cooke Jr., Fiddlebacks and Crooked-backs: Elijah Booth and Other Joiners in Newtown and Woodbury 1750-1820 (Waterbury, Conn.: Mattatuck Historical Society, 1982); Philip Zea, "Furniture," in The Great River, Art & Society of the Connecticut Valley 1635-1820, edited by Gerald W. R. Ward and William N. Hosley Jr. (Hartford, Conn.: Wadsworth Atheneum, 1985); Benno M. Foreman, "The Crown & York Chairs of Coastal Connecticut and the Work of the Durands of Milford," Antiques 105, no. 5 (May 1974): 1147-54; Patricia Kane, Three Hundred Years of American Seating Furniture (New York: Graphic Society, 1976); Robert Trent, Hearts and Crowns: Folk Chairs of the Connecticut: Elijah Booth and Other Joiners in Newton and Woodbury, 1720-1840 (New Haven, Conn.: New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1977).
23. OSV has done extensive research on chair production in Sterling during the 1820s and 1830s, utilizing various sources including the account books of chairmakers Joel Pratt Jr. and Elbridge Gerry Reed (both in private collections), Sterling tax records (Sterling Historical Society), and the deeds and inventories of approximately a hundred chairmakers. The author thanks the staff of the South Gardner Historical Society, notably Warren Sinclair and Windsor Robinson, for their assistance in locating and using primary documents in private collections.
24. The definitions and prices are extrapolated from references in the Elbridge Gerry Reed accounts and the Daybook of Lansford Wood of Worcester 1832-1844 (both in the American Antiquarian Society) and Isaac Wright of Hartford 1834-1837 (Connecticut Historical Society).
25. Isaac Wright accounts cited in William N. Hosley Jr., "Wright Robbins & Winship and the Industrialization of the Furniture Industry in Hartford, Connecticut," Connecticut Antiquarian 35, no. 2 (December 1983): 12-19. Broadside for J. Pratt Jr. & Son, Hartford, location unknown.
26. Worcester Magazine and Historical Journal (1827); Index of Early Southern Artists and Artisans, Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Winston-Salem, N.C.; Thomas Holmes Papers 1813-1818, Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts; Karen Blanchfield, Transporting for Trade: Tracking Worcester County Furniture from Shop to Sale, 1790 to 1850, unpublished paper, 1991, done for Boston University, copy on file at OSV. Norman R. Bennett and George E. Brooks Jr, eds., New England Merchants in Africa: A History Through Documents 1802-1865 (Boston: Boston University Press, 1965). Patriot (Barre, Mass.), September 20, 1844.
27. E. Page Talbott, "Check List of Boston Cabinetmakers, 1810-1835," Antiques 141, no. 5 (May 1992): 845-50. Boston City Directories, 1820, 1825, 1831, 1832.
28. Collections files of the Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence, R.I. See Brian Cullity, Plain and Fancy, New England Painted Furniture (Sandwich, Mass.: Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, 1987), fig. 30.
29. The Jacob Felton Daybook, 1836-1838 is in the OSV collections. Initial analysis was undertaken by Sandra Christoforidis. Kenneth Joel Zogry provided additional information about Anthony VanDorn.
30. Reed Day Book. Henry Rice to Henry W. Miller, February 4, 1828, manuscript collection, Worcester Historical Museum.
31. Edward Hazen, Panorama of Professions and Trades (Philadelphia: Uriah Hunt, 1836), p. 227.
32. William D. Herrick, History of Gardner (Gardner, Mass.: The Committee, 1878), pp. 168-69; Esther G. Moore, History of Gardner, Massachusetts, 1785-1867 (Gardner, Mass.: Hatton Publishing, Inc., 1967), pp. 222-28; Vital Records of Gardner, Massachusetts (Worcester: Franklin P. Rice, 1970); Talbott, "Check List of Boston Cabinetmakers," p. 850.
33. Charles S. Parsons, "Wilder Chairs," unpublished paper, February 1973, photocopy in DRCL, OSV. Jane C. Giffen, "New Hampshire Cabinetmakers and Allied Craftsmen, 1790-1850," Antiques 94, no. 1 (July 1968): 78-87; Plain and Elegant, Rich and Common: Documented New Hampshire Furniture, 1750-1850 (Concord, N.H.: New Hampshire Historical Society, 1979), pp. 116-17. The Wetherbee chair is in the New Hampshire Historical Society. The current location of the Pratt chair is unknown.
34. Data from the 1850 United States Population Census, quoted in Edwin Churchill to Donna K. Baron, January 8, 1993.
35. Edwin A. Churchill, Simple Forms and Vivid Colors: Maine Painted Furniture 1800-1850 (Portland, Maine: Maine State Museum, 1983), pp. 86, 94, 96. An effort is underway to compare lists of furniture makers in both areas.
36. Ashburnham, Massachusetts Vital Records (Worcester: Franklin P. Rice, 1904); Gazette (Fitchburg, Mass.), November 6, 1832, and January 29, 1833; Earle G. Shettleworth Jr. and William D. Barry, "Walter Corey's Furniture Manufactory in Portland, Maine," Antiques 121, no. 5 (May 1982): 1199-1207; Churchill, Simple Forms & Vivid Colors, p. 88.
37. The Rice/Roper/Greenwood story was pieced together with the assistance of Karen Blanchfield, Ruth Hoffman of the Sterling, Massachusetts, Historical Society, and Betty Smith of the Susquehanna Historical Society who provided pages of genealogical information and local history. Correspondence and notes on file at OSV.
38. Jane Sikes Hageman and Edward M. Hageman, Ohio Furniture Makers 1790 to 1860, vol. 2 (Cincinnati, Ohio: by the authors, 1989), p. 15. United States Census of Manufactures, 1820; Sterling Massachusetts Vital Records. Hageman and Hageman, Ohio Furniture Makers, 2:149-50. |