Brigham William Tufts
Baltimore Hats, Past and Present
PATRIARCHS OF THE TRADE
No. 7
GLEANING more closely in the historic field of the early part of the century, others are found whose enterprise contributed largely to this important industry of Baltimore, and whose successful prosecution of the hat business maintained the credit and position won by their predecessors.
In the year 1814 Runyon Harris erected a large hat factory on Fish, now Saratoga street. This building was about one hundred and twenty-five feet in length and two and a half stories high.
The business of this establishment was carried on under the style of "The Baltimore Hat Manufacturing Co." While evidence cannot be given, it may be inferred that Mr. Harris must, before this date, have been engaged elsewhere in the city in the manufacture of hats, as others entering into business about this time are known to have been apprenticed to Mr. Harris.
In 1817 Aaron Clap & Co. commenced the retail hat business at 146 Market street, on the north side, five doors east of St. Paul street, and probably identical with the present 104 East Baltimore street, recently occupied by John Murphy & Co., Publishers.
Messrs. Clap & Co. having secured a good location by purchasing the factory of Runyon Harris, engaged extensively in the manufacturing business, which was continued by their several successors down to the year 1864, when results of the civil war (so disastrous to Maryland's manufacturing industries) caused its temporary abandonment, but the enterprise established by Messrs. Aaron Clap & Co. has, by an unbroken series of firms, continued to the present time, being now represented by Brigham, Hopkins & Co.
In 1817 Henry Lamson kept a first-class retail hat store at No. 5 South Calvert street, the locality now the southwest corner of Carroll Hall building. In 1822 the firm of Aaron Clap & Co. and Henry Lamson consolidated, making the firm Lamson & Clap, and continuing the retail business at No. 5 South Calvert street, in connection with manufactory. Mr. Lamson in 1827 went to the West Indies in search of health, and died on the island of St. Thomas. He was a gentleman of much social refinement, and was held in high esteem as a citizen.
In the year 1827 the firm of Lamson & Clap was dissolved by the death of Mr. Lamson, and Mr. Wm. P. Cole was admitted, the firm becoming Clap, Cole & Co. After the death of Mr. Clap, which occurred in 1834, his widow's interest was retained and the firm was changed to Cole, Clap & Co.; following this, Mrs. Clap retired and Mr. Hugh J. Morrison became a member of the firm, which was made Cole & Morrison. In 1842 Thaddeus and William G. Craft became interested, the firm becoming Cole, Craft & Co., still continuing business at No. 5 South Calvert street (the same place established by Lamson & Clap). About the year 1850 the firm removed to No. 218 West Baltimore street, now 10 East Baltimore street and occupied by Likes, Berwanger & Co., clothiers. In 1853 Mr. Cole associated with him his son, William R., the firm being Wm. P. Cole & Son. In 1857 the firm moved to No. 274 West Baltimore street, present number 46, where they remained until the year 1867, removing then to occupy the building which they had erected at No. 30 Sharp street, now 24 Hopkins Place.
In 1861 Mr. Wm. T. Brigham was admitted to the firm, it then becoming Wm. R. Cole & Co. In 1870 the firm name was again changed to Cole, Brigham & Co., which was dissolved in 1877 by the withdrawal of Mr. Brigham, in which year Mr. Brigham associated with Robert D. Hopkins as the firm of Brigham & Hopkins, locating at No. 128 West Fayette street (present number 211), which firm of Brigham & Hopkins continued until 1887, when it was changed to Brigham, Hopkins & Co. by the admission of Isaac H. Francis.
In 1884 Brigham & Hopkins erected the large and handsome building at the corner of German and Paca streets, which the present firm continue to occupy as a factory and salesroom.
In 1810 Andrew Ruff is found at No. 72 Camden street, likely to have been his place of residence. Whether he was then engaged in business is not known, but in 1817 he had a factory on Davis street between Lexington and Saratoga streets, the site now occupied by the stables of the Adams Express Company. About the year 1822 he established a retail store at 158 Baltimore street. In 1842 the firm was Andrew Ruff & Co., at 194 Baltimore street. At one time Mr. Ruff was foreman in the manufacturing establishment of Clap & Cole.
Henry Jenkins, in 1822, was a hat manufacturer at 28 Green street, Old Town, and from 1824 to 1830 Messrs. H. & W. S. Jenkins kept a hat store on the northeast corner of Baltimore and Calvert streets, where afterwards was erected the banking-house of Josiah Lee & Co., now occupied by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company as a ticket office.
Joseph Branson was a hatter in the year 1827 at 182 Market street. He was a son of William Branson, who was engaged in the same business from 1796 to 1817. Joseph Branson ranked as the fashionable hatter of that time. He was a man of considerable military distinction in the State. He raised and commanded the famous Marion Rifles, a superb military organization of the city, to which was accorded the honor of receiving General Lafayette upon his visit to Baltimore in 1824.
Mr. Branson is said to have been the first to introduce a thorough system of military tactics in Baltimore. He served several terms in the City Council, and was an active, enterprising citizen. In the year 1831 he went out of business and took the position of inspector in the custom house.
Mr. Charles Grimes was a well-known hatter who commenced business at 42 Baltimore street about 1823. In 1831 he removed to No. 29 North Gay, near High street. He evidently had a love for his first choice, as in 1833 he is found again at 42 Baltimore street. Mr. Grimes retired from business as early as the year 1839. He was extremely fond of the Maryland sport of duck shooting, in which he was associated with many of Baltimore's sporting gentlemen. In 1853 he removed to Philadelphia, enjoying a life of comfort and ease. He was an exemplary man in all the relations of life, and died in the year 1868 at the advanced age of 73.
In 1810 John Petticord was learning his trade with Jacob Rogers, being then fourteen years of age. His honesty and faithfulness were appreciated by his employer, and in 1814 he occupied the position of foreman in Mr. Rogers' factory. After continuing in that capacity for some time he commenced the manufacture of hats on his own account, continuing it until the feebleness of age compelled him to abandon it.
Thomas Sappington was a hat manufacturer who, in the year 1831, was located at No. 120 Baltimore street, which at that time was at or near the present number, 116 East Baltimore street. He had his factory on North street near Saratoga. It is known that he was in business for a number of years, but what year he commenced and when he abandoned business cannot be ascertained.
Victor Sarata was a Frenchman who located in Baltimore as early as 1838. He opened a retail store at 259 Baltimore street, and was the first one to introduce the silk hat in this city.
Wm. H. Keevil was a hatter doing a retail business in 1842 at 66-1/2 Baltimore street. He was evidently of the "buncombe" style, and conducted his business in a sensational manner, advertising extensively and brazenly, as will be seen from the following quotation from an advertisement of his printed in 1842:
"Who talks of importing hats from England while Keevil is in the field? Pshaw! 'Tis sheer folly. For while he continues to sell his beautiful hats at his present reduced prices, any such speculation as importing hats from Europe will be 'no go' or 'non-effect.' The hatters, therefore, on the other side of the Atlantic had better keep their hats at home, as it would be quite as profitable for them to send 'wooden nutmegs' and 'sawdust hams' to New England, or coals to Newcastle, as hats to Baltimore to compete with the well-known Keevil."
His business existence could not have been of long continuance, as in 1850 his name is not found in the City Directory.
At the close of the first half of this century there were several who afterwards attained prominence both in business and a public capacity, among whom were Joshua Vansant, Samuel Hindes, Charles Towson, George K. Quail, James L. McPhail, P.E. Riley, John Boston, Ephraim Price, Robert Q. Taylor, Lewis Raymo and others, the last two mentioned being the only ones now living.
JACOB ROGERS
No. 8
TO one man more than any other belongs the credit of establishing upon an extensive scale the hat business, which in the early part of the present century was so prominently identified with the growth and prosperity of Baltimore; that person was Jacob Rogers, whose business career in his native city extended over a period of more than fifty years, fortified by a reputation that brought the universal respect of his fellow-citizens, and leaving a worthy example for those succeeding him.
Jacob Rogers was born in the year 1766. As in those days boys were apprenticed at an early age, it may be supposed that when he was fifteen years old he was in the employ of David Shields, with whom it is known he served his term of apprenticeship at hat-making. In 1796 Mr. Rogers is found the proprietor of a retail hat store at the corner of South and Second streets. He was an enterprising man, and succeeded in building up a business of large proportions. He died in 1842, possessed of a fortune amounting to three hundred thousand dollars, a large accumulation for those days. In 1805 he built an extensive factory on Second street, near Tripolet's alley – now Post-Office avenue – and adjoining the old Lutheran Church, the spire of which then contained the Town Clock; these old landmarks are now all removed and the location occupied by the stately edifice of the Corn and Flour Exchange. The number of hands employed by Mr. Rogers at his factory and "front shop" was about one hundred, including apprentices. His "plank" shop comprised five batteries, aggregating thirty men; in the finishing shop he employed about twenty-five, and he had usually bound to him as many as fifteen apprentices. This would appear to be a large force for a hat-manufacturing concern of that early period, but it must be remembered that the manual labor bestowed upon one hat then was more than that on some thousands in the present day of labor-saving machinery.
That Mr. Rogers was a strict disciplinarian and an excellent business man is proven by the perfect control he exercised over the large number in his employ, whom he ruled with a firm hand yet with a wise judgment, and while rebuking any disobedience of orders, was feared, respected and loved for his strict sense of honor, justice and propriety.
He boarded under his own roof nearly all his apprentices to the trade; a few were privileged to lodge at home, while their board was supplied by their master, as one of the stipulations of their indenture; so Jacob Rogers' immediate family, which was not a small one, was greatly enlarged by the addition of fifteen to twenty wild, untamed "prentice" boys. What would have been the domestic condition of such a family without the ruling influence of a stern master only those can imagine who know the kind of material of which the journeyman hatter of those days was composed. He was a veritable tramp.
As a rule with Mr. Rogers, chastisement immediately followed misconduct; with him the present was the opportune time for punishment, and whether in the home, the shop, or on the street, any of the shop-boys were found doing wrong, correction was given in the then customary way – by flogging.
Mr. Rogers was a conscientious member of the Methodist Church, and maintained a high character for honesty and probity, and recognized as a fair man in all his dealings.
A good story is told to show how, though driving a keen bargain, he was careful not to misrepresent. In his store one day he was divulging to a friend some of the secrets of his business, showing how successfully a prime beaver-napped hat could be made with the slightest sprinkling of the valuable beaver fur, a trick just then discovered. Soon after a purchaser appeared inquiring for a beaver-napped hat. Mr. Rogers expatiated upon the marvelous beauty of the "tile," and his customer put the question: "Mr. Rogers, is this a genuine beaver hat?" "My dear sir," said Mr. Rogers, "I pledge my word that the best part of the material in that hat is pure beaver." The hat was bought and paid for and the customer departed, well satisfied with his purchase. At once Mr. Rogers was catechised by his friend, who had earnestly watched the trade, remarking: "Why, Mr. Rogers, did you not tell me that there was but a trifling amount of beaver in that hat you just sold, and you, a church member, so misrepresent to a customer?" "My friend," replied Mr. Rogers, "I made no misrepresentation, I told my customer the honest fact, that the best part of the material of which the hat was made was pure beaver, and so it was."
The journeyman hatter of Mr. Rogers' time was a character, migratory in his ways, his general habit being to work for a short time – a season or less in one place – then, from desire of change or lack of employment, to seek for pastures new. As railroad travel was not then thought of, and stage-coach conveyance a luxury at most times beyond the pecuniary means of the itinerant hatter, the journey was usually made on foot.
Application for work could not be made to the proprietor, but must necessarily go through the medium of an employee. Frequently an applicant in straitened circumstances who failed to be "shopped," appealed to his more fortunate fellow-workmen to relieve his destitute condition, who always made a ready and hearty response by providing for his immediate wants and starting him again on his pilgrimage with a light heart and a wish for good luck. This constant wandering habit frequently brought the hatter of those days to a condition of abject dependence, and supplied a large proportion of that vagrant class now denominated "tramps." It was often the boast of these hatter "tramps" that in the period of a year or two they would make the tour of the entire country from Portland, Maine, to Baltimore in the South, and Pittsburg, then "far west," "shopping" awhile in some town or village and then marching on in search of another chance.
In the "season" when labor was in demand good workmen did not apply in vain, but most hat factories were subject to dull times between seasons, necessitating a reduction in the number of hands. This general plan was productive of irregularity in the habits of the workman, allowing him to have no settled place of habitation. Baltimore, however, was an exception to the general rule, her factories providing constant employment for her workmen, thus encouraging a deeper interest in their vocation.
It is said that in business Mr. Rogers never knew what dull times were; he kept his hat factory in active operation all the year round. This prosperous condition of things had the tendency to make the Baltimore hatter somewhat of a permanent settler, thereby identifying him more closely with the interests and the growth of his own city, and causing him to become personally concerned in its success and prosperity; an experience quite different from that of his fellow-workmen elsewhere, who were constantly changing their habitation. Thus the Baltimore hatter was reared under conditions favorable to his improvement by serving his apprentice days under the influence of a conscientious master. The effect of this early training was manifest in his character as a good citizen ever after, often securing for him in the place of his birth positions of trust, and many of Baltimore's best citizens, and some of her noblest men, received their early training in the model hat-shops of their own city.
With the growing trade of the city, the business of hat-making kept steady pace. The prosperity of the South, and the constant development of the West, provided Baltimore with a wide outlet for her products. Through the business channels of this young and enterprising city flowed a large proportion of the products of the mills and factories of New England, assisting materially the business activity of the place, and it is quite likely that the interests of Baltimore and New England at that time being so connected is an explanation why so many New England people migrated to Baltimore in those days of her prosperity.
With characteristic energy and enterprise, Mr. Rogers extended his business, pushing forward into new fields as the settlement of the country advanced. Besides a large trade with the entire South, the wagon-trains, which were the expresses of those days, distributed his goods throughout the States of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, thus securing to him at that time the most extensive business in hat manufacture conducted by any one firm in the United States.
Fortune favored Mr. Rogers, and during his whole business career there was no interruption in the progress of this industry in Baltimore. Not until his death, or after the middle of the century, was there any noticeable decline.
The eventful business career and commendable private life of Mr. Rogers ended on the 10th of April, 1842, he falling suddenly in the old Light-street Methodist Church while attending divine service. The Baltimore Sun of April 11, 1842, mentioned his death as follows:
"The illness of Jacob Rogers, Esq., occurred in Light-street Church; he fell in a faint from which he died an hour after at his residence, No. 9 South street. He was well known and respected as one of the most worthy, industrious, and valuable of our citizens of Baltimore."
OLD METHODS
No. 9
JUST as the first half of the present century was expiring, an invention was made that at once revolutionized the whole system of hat-making. A machine was patented in the United States by H. A. Wells, in the year 1846, which successfully accomplished the work of making or forming a hat in a very short space of time, which heretofore had required the slow, tedious and skillful labor of the hands, thus so equally dividing the century that the first half may be practically considered as following the old method, and the latter half as using the new method.
So remarkable was this invention that its introduction quickly produced a change in the character of hats by greatly reducing their cost of manufacture, together with a change in the manner of conducting the hat business. To show up the old method of hat-making that existed prior to the use of the Wells machine is the purpose of this chapter, the greater part of the information here given having been gained from an article in "Sears' Guide to Knowledge," published in 1844.
Let us enter a Baltimore hat "shop" of fifty years ago and watch the making of a single hat. Fur and wool constitute the main ingredients of which hats have always been made, because possessing those qualities necessary for the process of "felting," the finer and better class of hats being made of the furs of such animals as the beaver, bear, marten, minx, hare and rabbit. The skins of these animals after being stripped from the body are called "pelts"; when the inner side has undergone a process of tanning the skins obtain the name of "furs" in a restricted sense, and the term is still more restricted when applied to the hairy coating cut from the skin.
The furs to which the old-time hatter gave preference were the beaver, the muskrat, the nutria, the hare and the rabbit, of which the first was by far the most valuable. These animals all have two kinds of hair on their skins, the innermost of which is short and fine as down, the outermost, thick, long and more sparing, the former being of much use, the latter of no value to the hatter. After receiving the "skins" or "pelts," which are greasy and dirty, they are first cleaned with soap and water, then carried to the "pulling-room," where women are employed in pulling out the coarse outer hairs from the skins, which is done by means of a knife acting against the thumb, the fingers and thumb being guarded by a short leather shield. The skins are then taken and the fur cut or "cropped" from them, which is done by men dexterously using a sharp knife, formed with a round blade, such as is used now-a-days in the kitchen as a "chopping knife." By keeping this knife constantly moving across the skin the fur is taken off or separated without injury to the skin, which is to be tanned for leather or consigned to the glue factory. The cutting of furs, however, had become before 1844 a business in some measure conducted by itself, and a machine had been invented to separate the fur from the skin, which, though it might be considered now a simple affair, was at that time looked upon as a wonder.
We have said the women in the "pulling-room" cut, tear, or pull out the long, coarse hairs from the pelts, and that these hairs are useless to the hatter. But it is impossible completely to separate the coarse from the fine fur by these means, and therefore the fur, when cropped from the pelt, is conveyed to the "blowing-room," finally to effect the separation. The action of the blowing machine is exceedingly beautiful, and may perhaps be understood without a minute detail of its mechanism. A quantity of beaver or any other fur is introduced at one end near a compartment in which a vane or fly is revolving with a velocity of nearly two thousand rotations in a minute. We all know, even from a simple example of a lady's fan, that a body in motion gives rise to a wind or draught, and when the motion is so rapid as is here indicated, the current becomes very powerful. This current of air propels the fur along a hollow trunk to the other end of the machine, and in so doing produces an effect which is as remarkable as valuable. All the coarse and comparatively valueless fur is deposited on a cloth stretched along the trunk, while the more delicate filaments are blown into a receptacle at the other end. Nothing but a very ingenious arrangement of mechanism could produce a separation so complete as is here effected; but the principle of action is not hard to understand. If there were no atmosphere, or if an inclosed place were exhausted of air, a guinea and a feather, however unequal in weight, would fall to the ground with equal velocity, but in ordinary circumstances the guinea would obviously fall more quickly than the feather, because the resistance of the air bears a much larger ratio to the weight of the feather than that of the guinea. As the resistance of air to a moving body acts more forcibly on a light than a heavy substance, so likewise does air when in motion and acting as a moving force. When particles of sand or gravel are driven by the wind, the lightest particles go the greatest distance. So it is with the two kinds of fur in the "blowing machine," those fibers which are finest and lightest are driven to the remote end of the machine.
The "body," or "foundation," of a good beaver hat is generally made of eight parts rabbit's fur, three parts Saxony wool, and one part of llama, vicunia, or "red" wool. A sufficient quantity of these for one hat (about two and a half ounces) is weighed out and placed in the hands of the "bower." On entering the "bowing-room" a peculiar twanging noise indicates to the visitor that a stretched cord is in rapid vibration, and the management of this cord by the workman is seen to be one of the many operations in hatting wherein success depends exclusively on skillful manipulation. A bench extends along the front of the room beneath a range of windows, and each "bower" has a little compartment appropriated to himself. The bow is an ashen staff from five to seven feet in length, having a strong cord of catgut stretched over bridges at the two ends. The bow is suspended in the middle by a string from the ceiling, whereby it hangs nearly on a level with the work-bench, and the workman thus proceeds: The wool and coarse fur, first separately and afterwards together, are laid on the bench, and the bower, grasping the staff of the bow with his left hand and plucking the cord with his right hand by means of a small piece of wood, causes the cord to vibrate rapidly against the fur and wool. By repeating this process for a certain time, all the original clots or assemblages of filaments are perfectly opened and dilated, and the fibers, flying upwards when struck, are, by the dexterity of the workman, made to fall in nearly equal thickness on the bench, presenting a very light and soft layer of material. Simple as this operation appears to a stranger, years of practice are required for the attainment of proficiency in it.
The bowed materials for one hat are divided into two portions, each of which is separately pressed with a light wicker frame; the light mass of fluffy fur, after being pressed with the frame, is covered with a wet cloth, over which is placed a piece of oil-cloth or leather called a "hardening skin," until, by the pressure of the hands backwards and forwards all over the skin, the fibers are brought closer together, the points of contact multiplied, the serrations made to link together, and a slightly coherent fabric formed. These two halves, or "batts," are then formed into a hollow cap by a singular contrivance. One of the "batts," nearly triangular in shape, and measuring about half a yard in each direction, being laid flat, a triangular piece of paper, smaller in size than the batt, is laid upon it, and the edges of the batt, being folded over the paper, meet at the upper surface, and thus form a complete envelope to the paper. The two meeting edges are soon made to combine by gentle pressure and friction, and another "batt" is laid on the other in a similar way, but having the meeting edges on the opposite side of the paper. The double layer, with the enclosed paper, are then folded up in a damp cloth and worked by hand; the workman pressing and bending, rolling and unrolling, until the fibers of the inner layer are incorporated with those of the outer. It is evident that were there not a piece of paper interposed, the whole of the fibers would be worked together into a mass by the opposite sides felting together, but the paper maintains a vacancy within, and when withdrawn at the edge which is to form the opening of the cap, it leaves the felted material in such a form as to constitute, when stretched open, a hollow cone.
The "battery" is a large kettle or boiler open at the top, having a fire beneath it, and eight planks ascending obliquely from the margin, so as to form a sort of octagonal work-bench, five or six feet in diameter, at which eight men may work; the planks are made of lead near the kettle, and of mahogany at the outer part, and at each plank a workman operates on a conical cap until the process of felting or "planking" is completed. The "battery" contains hot water slightly acidulated with sulphuric acid. The cap is dipped into the hot liquor, laid on one of the planks, and subjected to a long felting process; it is rolled and unrolled, twisted, pressed, and rubbed with a piece of leather or wood tied to the workman's hand, and rolled with a rolling-pin. From time to time the cap is examined, to ascertain whether the thickness is sufficient in every part, and if any defective places appear, they are wet with a brush dipped in the hot liquor, and a few additional fibers are worked in. Considerable skill is required in order to preserve such an additional thickness of material at one part as shall suffice for the brim of the hat. When this felting process has been continued about two hours, it is found that the heat, moisture, pressure and friction have reduced the cap to one-half its former dimensions, the thickness being increased in a proportionate degree, assuming a conical shape.
The "cap" is then taken to the "water-proofing" or "stiffening" room, where the odor of gum, resins and spirits gives some intimation of the materials employed. Gum-lac, gum-sandrach, gum-mastic, resin, frankincense, copal, caoutchouc, spirits of wine and spirits of turpentine, are the ingredients (all of a very inflammable nature) of which the water-proofing is made. This is laid on the cap by means of a brush, and the workman exercises his skill in regulating the quantity at different parts, since the strength of the future brim and crown depends much on this process.