358 Percy Wells Bidwell 



wool, cotton, and thread, coarse fustians, jeans, and muslins, checked 

 and striped cotton and linen goods, bed ticks, coverlets and counter- 

 panes, tow linens, coarse shirtings, sheetings, towelling and table 

 linen, and various mixtures of woolen and cotton, and of cotton and 

 flax, are made in the household way, and, in many instances, to an 

 extent not only sufficient for the supply of the families in which they 

 are made, but for sale, and even, in some cases, for exportation.^ 

 It is computed in some districts that two- thirds, three-fourths, and 

 even four-fifths, of all the clothing of the inhabitants, are made 

 by themselves."^ Twenty years later Gallatin wrote: "But by 

 far the greater part of the goods made of those materials (cotton, 

 flax, and wool) are manufactured in private families, mostly for their 

 own use, and partly for sale. They consist principally of coarse 

 cloth, flannel, cotton stuffs and stripes of every description, linen, 

 and mixtures of wool with flax or cotton. The information re- 

 ceived from every State and from more than sixty different places, 

 concurs in establishing the fact of an extraordinary increase, during 

 the last two years, and in rendering it probable that about two- 

 thirds of the clothing, including hosiery, and of the house and table 

 linen, worn and used by the inhabitants of the United States, who 

 do not reside in cities, is the product of family manufactures. "^ 



More significant than these statements, however, because apply- 

 ing specifically to New England, are those to be found in the gazet- 

 teers of the time. Pease and Niles say of Connecticut: "The domes- 

 tic manufactures in this State are extensive and important, and 

 consist of woolen, linen, and cotton; but the former is by far the 

 most important. With the exception of the cities, almost every 

 family manufactures the substantial woolen fabrics, for their own 

 consumption."^ Of the same state Morse says: **The farmers in 



iln Gallatin's Report on Manufactures (1810), the textile manufactures of 

 families in New Hampshire are estimated to average from 100 to 600 yards in a 

 year. Of their sale we read: "Considerable quantities of coarse flaxen cloth, 

 worth from 15 to 20 cents a yard, thus manufactured in families, are sold to traders 

 in the country villages or in towns, and sent for a market to the Southern States, 

 on which a profit is made by the trader." In American State Papers, Finance, II. 

 435. We find occasional references to the purchase of homespun cloth by the 

 country stores in the advertisements of such newspapers as the Windham (Conn.) 

 Herald. There is not sufficient evidence of this sort, however, to lead to the 

 conclusion that this manufacture of cloth for export by farmers' families was 

 uniformly found in inland towns. 



2 Report on Manufactures, 1791. In American State Papers, Finance, I. 132. 



3 Report on Manufactures, 1810. In American State Papers, Finance, II. 427. 

 * Gazetteer, p. 17. 



