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| Gotta make it |
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| Jacket in Ct Historical society...style I'm going for |
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| Pile of stuff from Burnley and Trowbridge...going to be Jacket and waistcoat or more fabric on the pile |
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| Add this with the Hunting Shirt thesis and your in Bizzness |
Has
anyone else been making figure 4 deadfall traps with laundry baskets to try and
trap their daughters cat this week? Just me? Of course that has led me to reread Mesuch
Browning and start conspiring with the
Bertalino to build a bear trap just to see if I can (and not try to trap a bear
btw that would be insane. Trap a big game animal with a possible radio collar,
thats like robbing a bank with your name tag on) but it’d be fun and a great
way to start a substantial lean to.
SO
since this is what would have been the weekend of Martin’s station I figured I’d
toss out some martin’s type info. I’ve been skimming and scanning thru a lot of
Backcountry clothing lately in an effort to try and find some new sewing
projects and get a better idea of just how “back country” folks looked. Often
to idea we want is off early folks doing and making everything on their own. A
lot of times I hear arguments along the lines of “ I’m a hunter so I wouldn’t
wear (insert garment here)” or “My grand father wore clothes made from old feed
sacks” Which would be great if your grandfather was Simon Kenton but since this
was more likely 20th century info it really doesn’t apply.
So
looking through some probabte inventories of folks who lived in 18th
century Kentucky gives you a great idea of just what folks owned. The following
lists are from the Filson Historical society Quarterly of probabte inventories
as well as some random stuff I found some others I found online
Aprile 18th 1781. We Peter Demaria George Pomre [Pomeroy]
& Arthur Parks, being apointed by the Court of Jefferson County Virginia,
being duly Sworn, do apraisc the goods, chattels, & estate of John
Westervell lately slain,
To a pair of shoes
To a handcrehief & Buckskin
To a roundbore gun
To an old Saddle
To an old shirt & Jacket
To old buttons
To a small bag with bullets
a Coat
To a great Coat
a blanket
To Powder Horn
6 pair stockings
To old Trowsers, & britches
Louisville Oet'r 15th 1781. IN obedience to an order of
Jefferson Court to us directed we the Subscribed have inventoried &
appraised the estate of James Brown deceased, and is as followeth
To 3 yds blue broad
cloth
4• yds flannel
To 3 yd white linnen
4 doz brass buttons
To pocket Compass
1 Brass Kettle
To Small Pocket Knife
1 Knapsack
To pair old blue Overalls & flannel bag £ 30
, 1 pocket book
To pair Silver Sleeve buttons (old)
2 blankets
To Pair old long breeches
Louisville Oct 15th 1781
estate of Joseph Erwin deceasd & is as followeth-
To a Coat & waistcoat £ 250. an old blew Do 1 Do £ 50. £
300 To Pocket book 6 £--Part of an old shirt £ 3 ......... 9 To old blanket 6/.
2 Bushels Salt £ 180• ............. 480.6 £ 789/6
Abraham Vanmetre deceasd December 4 1781
A Riffle gun, with mountaing 100/. 1 Riffle Do without box
& some mountain £ 5
1 Steel trap 25
Feb 8 1783
Hugh MeCloughin
1 striped Cotton Coat £ 1.10
1 p thread stockings 16/
1 Linnen handkerchief
10/
1 p shoes & old
stockings 6/
. 1 p leggins 3/
1 Jacket & shirt
6/
August 20th 1783
estate of Robert Johnston -
(killed at blue Licks)
1 Virginia Cotton Coat a 17/6
1 striped Vest Ditto 12/
1 Pair Breeches Ditto 12/
1 pr Ditto 1/3 2
1 Pr spectacles 1/6
1 pr scissars 1/3
1. Razor & Case 1/3
1 awl6d 1. Handvice
5/
1 gun Screw 6d ...............
1 pr Bullett Moulds
2/
1 gun wiper Screw 1/3 .......................
1 Charger 6d.
1 snuff box 6d.
Flint soap &
needles 2/
1 scalping Knive, 3/
1 cutteau 6d.
1 pr garters 6d
1 pt Bottle 9d
1 pr saddle Bags 15/
1 pr spurs 18/
. 1 shaving Box 4/6
Ok so
the next argument I know someone is thinking is this “I’ve seen refrences to
the militia wearing leather hunting shirts and Bearskin caps? What about the
guys with cresswell etc”
And I hear you it’s a memory from a person who saw these
guys. But then what about Robert Johnson? He was killed at Blue licks and he
very clearly wasn’t dressed like that. Does the first quote negate the second reference?
To my mind the simple answer is no. Both are period references to clothes that
help flesh out just what people dressed like. You need to keep adding info to
your mental idea of how people dressed.
In my opinion you can’t keep yourself locked into the idea that a single
quote from Charles Woodmason defines your entire outlook on the 18th
century backcountry. Woodmason is awesome but until you combine him with
archeology and period records you’re only getting a partial picture of an
area/time. The same could be said of this info you need to add other information
to it to round it out.
This is
akin to taking the description of the dress of Cresap’s men in Boston to
justify John Adams wearing a breechclout. Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? Well you have a quote from the area of guys
wearing “indian dress” And Adams was in the area so he must have dressed liked
that? See two plus two equals weird. By ignoring all but one specific instance
we can get a pretty Odd view of history. It would have made for a memorable
scene in the HBO miniseries but I’m glad they opted out of it I don’t think
anyone wants to see Paul Giamantti shirtless in a breechclout and covered in
paint. Now if that was Nicholas cage it’d have been epically weird and awesome.
You can
also see in often used narratives like Doddridge that you can have both “we
wove all our cloth” and the mention of the types of clothes found in the
probate inventories of the time. He will state on one page that ““our
clothing was all of domestic manufacture…” and mention home weaving but
on another occasion states that “The shirt and Jacket were of the common
fashion”. SO we can see from Doddridge the standard working class
clothes of the time could be made from home woven Linsey Woolsey/linen/hemp. If
homespun cloth is sewn into a jacket it won’t burst into flames despite what
some folks would you believe.
You can
see if you followed a few of these lists you could put together a pretty basic
kit to hit the woods with. So I’ve decided to start a “Kentucky Kit” after
reading all these inventories using the Robert Johnson list as a jumping off
point. I broke into my fabric stash and pulled out some killer Linsey Woolsey I’ve
been hoarding I bought from Burnley and Trowbridge years ago. I ordered some of
their Virginia cloth to line it and have decided to use some horn buttons on
it. I’ve also picked up some linen stripe material from B&T since the inventories show a striped vest and well I
really need a new waistcoat. My favorite jackets are getting pretty worn and
funky. I’m tired of looking like a suspicious person (I have a traders license
dangit!)
Please don’t
take this as a “wear a jacket not a hunting shirt” stance, Hunting shirts are
super common in the period info. I’m seeing from the few examples I’ve been
going through (and into the 19th century probates) the Kentucky
stuff matches a trend I’ve seen in central/western Pennsylvanian that
You don’t really see hunting shirts listed. We know they wore them, they sound
common from letters/observations/etc but they don’t make it into their stuff
listed when they die. Even looking at the prices of shirts listed doesn’t always
point towards a price difference enough that may point towards a hunting shirt
(adding the extra cloth etc). Again this is part of adding the probate stuff to
the other info to flesh it all out.
On A
side note I was able to pick up a new book on shirt construction “The 18th
century Shirt c. 1750s-1780s: A manual for the 18th Century Shirt Maker”
by Larkin & Smith. This book is a must for anyone thinking of trying hand
sewing a shirt (and give ya the basics for making a hunting shirt) A lot of
tips and tricks to take the mystery out of making a shirt. If you can thread a
needle you can sew a shirt. My friend Alan Krause gave me some great advice
when I started making nonnative gear “If you learn how to sew a shirt and
trousers, you can make any clothes you’d need to wear”
The book and other
great stuff at “The Sign of the golden scissors” https://atthesignofthegoldenscissors.com/
Another great resource is the Pitt University Digital
collection. A LOT of great books to read all the classis from Doddridge to the
Jesse Hughes stuff.
Burnley and Trowbridge great source for Virginia cloth and
all kinds of great fabric, workshops , tutorials etc. Mamma & Pappa Cloth
knows their stuff
So now
back to sewing, or setting laundry basket traps We’ll see where my attention
span takes me.
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