EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. Ill 



other a kind called linsey-woolsey, made of linen warp and woolen woof. 

 I The manufacture of that day was of the most simple description. The 

 wool, being washed, was combed as nearly straight as possible by two 

 cards, with leather backs -and wire teeth, held in the hands of the 

 worker. The wool was detached from the cards in a long soft roll, 

 which was then made into yarn upon the simple spinning-wheel of those 

 days, known now, unfortunately, merely as a curiosity to ornament an 

 antiquarian corner in the home. A large light wheel, kept constantly 

 in motion by the hands of the woman worker and afterwards by her 

 foot by means of a treadle, caused a single spindle to revolve with great 

 velocity, giving to the yarn its twist, the hands of the operator regulat- 

 ing the supply of wool and consequent size of the yarn. The cloth was 

 taken from the hand loom and the weaver to the fuller and the fulling- 

 mill, of which nearly every community had one, who was the only one 

 in the industry carrying on his business publicly and for a number of 

 customers. The fuller was also a dyer, whose colors were not always 

 fast and would run. " Bright colors were liked by gentlemen for coats 

 in that age, bright blue, scarlet, claret color, etc. But, while a great 

 deal of cloth was made of those hues, it always behooved the owner of 

 the coat to keep out of the rain."* 



An early instance of factory-made cloth is noted in the following an- 

 nouncement, made in the Essex (Salem, Mass.) Gazette of May 1, 1770: 



Last Thursday, the premium of four guineas on the best piece of Broad Cloth 

 bro't to Edes & Gills' Printing office, in Boston, for sale, of twelve yards long and 

 seven-quarters wide, was adjudged to Mr. Toby, Cambridge & Co., of Lynn, who, 

 from the first of June, 1769, to the first of May, 1770, have made upwards of five hun- 

 dred yards of Broad Cloth, and upwards of three thousand yards of Narrow Cloth, 

 from the first of April, 1769, to the first of April, 1770. 



It is barely possible that the Harvard graduating class purchased 

 their black cloth of the above firm, whose factory was so near them. 

 Of the extent of manufactures in the colonies, previous to the Eevolu- 

 tion, we have no reliable statistics. It had not then become the busi- 

 ness, nor was it considered worth the trouble, to go from house to house 

 and through the log huts and cottages of the poor to count their yarns 

 and their stockings, and " to mark the humble, yet great efforts, which 

 were silently, but securely, working the independence of a future 

 mighty nation." Before the revolutionary disputes commenced the peo- 

 ple had begun to feel that they would be compelled to render them- 

 selves less dependent upon Great Britain, and companies were formed 

 for the encouragement of domestic manufactures, particularly manu- 

 factures of woolen goods. The first business of the Pennsylvania as- 

 sembly, in the session of 1774, was the passing of resolutions to prevent 

 butchers from killing sheep, recommending frugality and attention to 

 domestic manufactures, and announcing their determination as indivicl^ 

 uals to have no dealings with those who, in consequence of the scarcity 



* Industrial History of the United States, Albert S. Bolles. 



