Below are a few political cartoons showing the dress and tools of 18th century "Taylors" the men who worked at Fort Pitt may have dressed like these fellows.
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| Stroud Legging blanks and Breechclouts I've begun making. If interested in getting a set drop me an email |
Been awhile since I’ve been here. Well I blame children and
water in a computer full of posts, or I could blame the fact I spent a crazy
amount of time in the woods and reading. I have to admit I’m more than a little
disillusioned with the idea of sharing information. The waterheads have been in
full agro mode at me again and the odd part is I haven’t really surfaced on a public forum for a very
long time. After a weekend at the School
of the long hunter and a day at Fort Pitt talking with likeminded folks I feel
refreshed and ready to jump back in with both feet. Or it could be the fact I
cant trap anything so the boredom is driving me to this.
Say trading post to most folks and the images
of natives, hunters and clerks spring to mind. A place of mixing cultures and
ideas….Yadda yadda, add in paragraph about cultural immersion here…this idea
glosses over the many jobs that were involved in the fur trade at places such
as Fort Pitt. Coopers, blacksmiths, packhorse men, Bateau men and other skilled working class trades all
moved to these locations to take an active and needed part in the trade. One major trade however has been overlooked
in my opinion and it’s that of the tailor. Yes the table monkey, the stitch
Jockey….
Let’s face it the basic idea many have
is that long hunters dressed a certain way, natives another and traders yet
another. Well the odd thing is that “trade goods” cost the same for
hunters,Traders, natives and slaves. So when Morgan dressed his slaves in
blanket coats, leggings and clouts the price of those items was the same a
hunter would have paid for them. I gotta say it again loudly THERE WAS NO
LONGHUNTER SECTION OF THE TRADING POST. Add
to this the sheer volume of cloth that was part of fur trade, the shrewd eye of
the native cliental, the fact you have a lot of working ppl/soldiers and it
doesn’t take long to realize someone needed to clothe these guys when their
clothes wore out.
BWM had a few tailors to sew for
the Fort Pitt store and also had sent some folks down river to Dechartes to sew
for that post as well. It seems as these
men would work for the company directly:
Nov 12 1767
Tho. Mckee to Peter Rowleter for
making Breeches and Spatterdashes “/12/6
May 1767
John Callinder BaTT (The bateau)
Sherlock to sundry account
3 French Matchcoats 3/”/”
1 ½ yards stroud 24/ 4 skeins
thread 1/5/0
2 check shirts 30/ 1 pr shoes
2/0/0
1 cutteau knife 2/6 thread &
needles 1/6 “/4/0
To Peter McKaghney the Taylor
“/7/6
(This is interesting because most
of the men listed serving on the Bateau Sherlock were listed as purchasing
different amount of cloth/thread and paying money to the Taylor. Checked
shirts, Scarves, Russia duck (for trousers?) and blanket coats. It gives us an
interesting look into how the boatmen at fort pitt may have looked….and it’s
not much different than---the same type of men working on the coast.)
Pennsylvania trader and Kentucky
superman explorer John Finley paid the tailors of BWM for the following:
Feb 21 1766
Making 2 pr trowsers “5”
Mending 1 pr breeches “4”6
Lacing 2 hatts
Making a suit of cloths
Making 1 pr Breeches “7”6
Making 2 pr DRAWERS “10”
Making 2 Short coats 1”10”
I was particularly pumped to see
the use of “drawers” at the fort. This garment was a type of 18th
cent underclothes that helps keep someone warm. Ok let me spell it out for
you….not a blanket shirt worn over 4 linen shirts. The basic European cold
weather garments for men made their way to the frontier. Hmmm I wonder if he
had drawers in his pack when he made it to Kentucky? Or did Long hunter etiquette of the time
require him to check those at the headman’s house at Shawnee town?
What you see here
is the basic clothes used and worn by a working class person of the 1760’s. No
notation that this was what he wore in town, no addendum about how much of a
dandy he was. Working class clothes worn by a guy who worked in the
backcountry. Here is another example of a working class man buying
cloth/notions and paying taylors for work. No specific garment is mentioned but
it does give you an idea of the colors and cloth you would see on a guy
building a house at Fort Pitt in the 1760’s. Let’s all see if Matt Stein buys
any of this stuff this weekend at Fort Frederick Market fair:
May 1767
Henry Butler…..House Carpenter
1 pair shoes 10/ 1 ½ yard Russia Duck 6/3
1 ½ yard strouds, 2 yards flannels
Thread buttons & hair , ½ yard Buckrams
1 ½ yards , 2 sticks Hair
1 skein Silk
¾ yards claret colored cloth, ¼ yard linen
1 stick hair, 1 pair thread stockings
1 pair leggings
To Peter Mckaughney the Taylor 1/2/6
To Peter Rowletter Taylor 7/6
So again we see
items like mohair, buckrams etc being sold to make clothes. Not some shoddy
thrown together garments made out of nettles and deer hide. The items being
worn by working class folks reflect the common dress of the time. We also see
premade leggings being purchased by a guy who does woodwork. So when your
looking at cloth at the market fairs over the next few weeks please keep in
mind that just because you didn’t live in Philadelphia doesn’t mean you cant
own a claret colored…something.
Well It’s that
time of year again when the Turkey’s start to fill our minds. So here is an 18th
century Hunting accident to remind us that we need to know what we’re shooting
at:
One
John Cahie, of the Irish Station killed a Mr. McCutcheon of miller’s Station…..McCutcheon
had pursued some turkeys over to the neighborhood of irish station, Where Cahie
was engaged in the same buissness and seeing the back of his head above a log,
mistook it for a turkey’s back and put 6 shot in it. (from the Draper
manuscripts: Dale Payne’s Frontier memories III)
Well I’m off to dye
more stroud cloth, Sew leggings for Fort Pitt and Weave like a mad man. Also
thanx to prompting from Steve Davis….Ithere will soon be a lot more to this
blog (insert evil laugh here)
