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Home , Bedgown, Broadcloth, Caraco, Flannel, Frieze (textile), Informal wear

Fall 1987 Early Cincinnati Hunting and : Clothing Early Cincinnati

Carolyn R. Shine play function is the more important of the two. Shakespeare, that fount of familiar quotations and universal truths, gave Polonius these words of advice for Laertes: Among the prime movers that have shaped Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not expressed infancy; history, clothing should be counted as one of the most potent, rich not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man.1 although its significance to the endless ebb and flow of armed conflict tends to be obscured by the frivolities of Laertes was about to depart for the French . The trade, for example, had roughly the same capital where, then as now, clothing was a conspicuous economic and political significance for the Late Middle indicator of social standing. It was also of enormous econo- Ages that the oil trade has today; and, closer to home, it was mic significance, giving employment to farmers, shepherds, the fur trade that opened up North America and helped weavers, spinsters, embroiderers, makers, , crack 's centuries long isolation. And think of the Silk makers, hosiers, hatters, merchants, sailors, and a host of others. Road. Across the Atlantic and nearly two hundred If, in general, not quite so valuable per pound years later, apparel still proclaimed the man. Although post- as gold, clothing like gold serves as a billboard on which to Revolution America was nominally a classless society, the display the image of self the individual wants to present to social identifier principle still manifested itself in the quality the world. In addition, it has an important utility function: it and type of clothing worn. The cut of , , , protects the human body, particularly in cold climates and in etc. might conform to patterns common to Western armed combat. In many social contexts, however, the dis- and the European population of America, but the boss wore

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Carolyn R. Shine, retired Major Heart's drawing of Fort Curator of and Tex- Washington, done in 1791, a tiles, Cincinnati Art Museum, few months before he was is a member of The Cincinnati killed, is a reminder of the stark Historical Society and a native conditions prevailing in early Cincinnatian. Cincinnati. Queen City Heritage

superfine cloth ( quality English ) style, as are Mr. and Mrs. William Woods painted by Charles while his employees might be able to afford only linsey Peale Polk in 1793. woolsey (wool weft on the warp and home spun at Mr. Bailey, a printer and publisher, wears a that). One might assume, however, that familiar patterns of close-fitting coat with a high folding (earlier, the coat were forcibly altered at the frontier where pioneers would have had no collar), high-buttoned , and came to grips with the problems of surviving in the wilderness. probably matching knee breeches, of sober gray, very likely Before the Revolution, population pressures of imported English wool broadcloth. The lawn or mull of had pushed the frontier as far west as the trans-Appalachian his neckcloth was also likely to have been imported: the counties of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. In 1787 finest linen and lawn came from the Netherlands Congress opened to settlement the Territory of the United and the finest or mull (or mul mul) from States Northwest of the River Ohio, and in 1788 pioneers . Mrs. Bailey wears a close-fitting with tight from around Boston founded Marietta, Ohio while a second three-quarter and low neckline. Her skirt would have group, mostly from New , settled in the Miami Pur- been a long, full bell-shape. The material was very likely chase, some three hundred miles downstream between the imported silk, mixed siik and wooi, or giazed wooi. Her Great and Little Miami rivers. For the pioneers from New hair is dressed close to her head and covered with a , Jersey the fashion center was, of course, Philadelphia, and which, like the that the low neckline, was what was being worn in Philadelphia can be seen in the presumably imported lawn or mull. Mr. and Mrs. Woods are portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Francis Bailey by Charles Wilson dressed much the same with minor variations in detail, and it Peak. Mrs. Bailey, in fact, was one of the migrants to Cincin- can be seen that Mrs. Woods' dress is an open coat-dress over nati, though not until 1818 after Mr. Bailey's death.2 Peale an underskirt. The sobriety of the ladies' coiffures probably painted the Baileys around 1791, but they illustrate what reflects their social position as married ladies of the conser- was worn by the prosperous middle class for several years vative, industrious, fairly prosperous middle class. It was not each side of that date. A Mr. and Mrs. James Latimer of particularly a Quaker mode —the Baileys were Swedenborgians. Delaware, painted by Peale in 1788, are dressed in the same Nor was it purely local—the Woodses lived in Baltimore.

Mr. and Mrs. Bailey of Phila- delphia wore a restrained ver- sion of fashionable dress that prevailed in the east when the first pioneers set out for the Miami Purchase. (Picture courtesy Cincinnati Art Museum) Clothing Early Cincinnati

The appearance of this style of dress in numerous portraits of queue in back and powdered. A comment of Horace Walpole's the period indicates that it was a prevailing mode, but it was on the Misses Berry in 1788 would fit the Baileys and the not high fashion. High fashion called for a fichu puffed up to Woodses perfectly: "They dress within the bounds of fash- the chin.3 and for a piled-up coiffure like an ice cream soda in ion," "but without the excrescences and balconies with which the 1770's to 178o's and a frizzed-out cloud in the 178o's to modern hoydens overwhelm and barricade their persons."6 1790's. The Reverend Manassah Cutler described Mrs. Hen- The clothes seen on the Baileys and Woodses, ry Knox in 17 8 7 as "very gross... her hair in front is craped at if not the highest fashion, were nonetheless best clothes, least a foot high much in the form of a churn bottom clothes in which to sit for one's portrait, and not very upward and topped off with a wire skeleton in the same form suitable for conquering the wilderness. For those who left covered with black which hangs in streamers down civilized parts in 1788 to settle in the Miami Purchase, the her back. Her hair behind is in a large braid, turned up and protective function of clothing presumably assumed more confined with a monstrous large crooked comb."4 There are importance than the social identifier function because they many portraits of the time that show these extravagant faced a challenge involving hard manual labor, a climate coiffures. That there was this range of styles is confirmed by ranging from steaming hot to bitter cold, hostile Indians, John May of Boston, one of the Marietta pioneers, who, and inadequate shelter. They had to take everything they riding through Philadelphia in 1788, noted in his diary: needed with them because replacements or additions could "Some of the ladies appear sensible and dress neat, and some be obtained only very slowly and expensively from the east; appear by their garb to be fools. I have seen a headdress in and all of their necessities—clothes, axes, food, everything— this city at least three feet across."5 had to compete for the limited space in a wagon or in the Mr. Bailey and Mr. Woods wore their hair saddlebags of pack animals. There is evidence, however, that falling naturally to below the ears and unpowdered whereas even these arduous circumstances did not cause them to lose a portrait of Thomas Jefferson painted by Mather Brown sight of keeping up appearances. circa 1786 during his appointment in France shows the high As to what, specifically, the pioneers wore for fashion for men, with the hair rolled over the ears, tied in a their initial plunge into the wilderness, evidence for the

Mr. and Mrs. Woods of Balti- more dressed like the Baileys of Philadelphia, and pioneers from New Jersey too would have dressed as much as possible like Philadelphia. (Picture courtesy Cincinnati Art Museum) 26 Queen City Heritage years 1788 to 1793 comes mainly from the reminiscences of duced and therefore inexpensive. If the women wove it pioneers—written down after the event. Although fashion themselves during the first year or so at the frontier, howev- plates were circulating out of Paris and London by the er, they must have brought the with them; linen and 1780's,7 these certainly did not depict heavy-duty clothing, wool don't grow on trees. It took the pioneers nearly a year and very few examples of utilitarian clothing of that period to clear the trees sufficiently for pasture crops, their agricul- survive. That kind of clothing tended to be used up completely, tural activities being hampered by early frosts and by the descending through various stages of altering and patching hostility of the Indians which also restricted their hunting until it was finally trampled underfoot in a rag rug. for game. Even food was desperately short, they were One of the earliest of the Old Pioneer back- threatened with scurvy from over dependence on meat, and ward glances appeared in Cincinnati's first city Directory in when planting became possible they had to import seed 1819 in a prefatory summary of the town's history (said to be from Kentucky which was a few years ahead of them in based on information from participants in the events of the settlement.12 early years): "The men wore hunting shirts of linen and The most comprehensive and most pictur- linsey woolsey, and round these a in which were inserted esque description of the woodsman's dress came from the a scalping knife and tomahawk. Their moccasins, leggins Reverend Joseph Doddridge, looking back from 18 24 to his and pantaloons were made of deerskin. The women wore family's pioneering experiences at the western extremity of linsey woolsey manufactured by themselves."8 Pennsylvania in the 1770's and 1780's. The hunting figured in most of the mem- On the frontiers and particularly amongst those oirs. It had probably evolved from a man's loose-fitting coat who were much in the habit of hunting and going on scouts and called a , in its early phase as country working-man's campaigns, the dress of the men was partly indian and partly that garb; but by this time, in America, the success of Daniel of civilized nations. The hunting shirt was universally worn. This Morgan's frontier Riflemen, who marched to the Revolu- was a kind of loose frock, reaching halfway down the thighs, with tionary War in hunting shirt, , and moccasins, had large sleeves, open before, and so wide as to lap over afoot or more given their woodsman dress considerable cachet. Their hunt- when belted. The was large, and sometimes handsomely fringed ing shirts were deep ash-colored, according to Judge Hen- with a ravelled piece of cloth of a different color from that of the ry's journal of the March to Quebec; biographies of Morgan hunting shirt itself The bosom of this dress served as a to hold say they were brown or dry leaf color.9 An engraving, the a chunk of bread, cakes orjirk, tow for wiping the barrel of the rifle, frontispiece of Graham's biography of Morgan, illustrated or any other necessary of the hunter or warrior. The belt which tied the point that he was famous for wearing woodsman's dress behind, answered several purposes, besides that of holding the dress and that, vice versa, the woodsman's dress was famous because together. In cold weather, the mittens, and sometimes the bullet bag of being worn by this dashing fighter. The engraving, how- occupied the front part- of it. to the right side was suspended the ever, was copied from an 18 21 painting by Trumbull, based tomahawk, and on the left the scalping knife in its leathern on a 1792 miniature by Trumbull, which he copied from a sheath—The hunting shirt was generally made of linsey, sometimes portrait by Charles Willson Peale showing Morgan in uni- of coarse linen, and a few of dressed deer skins. These last were very form, not hunting shirt, so it is questionable whether it is a cold and uncomfortable in wet weather. The shirt and were of reliable illustration of the woodsman's dress.10 the common fashion. A pair of drawers or breeches and leggins, One gets the impression from the memoirs were the dress of the thighs, and legs, a pair ofmocassons answered that the hunting shirt came to occupy much the same niche for the feet much better than . These were made of dressed deer in the frontiersman's that blue occupy in skin. They were mostly made of a single piece with agathering ours. Patrick Henry was said by Thomas Jefferson to love to along the top of the foot, and another from the bottom of the heel, get into his hunting shirt, gather a group of overseers, and without gathers as high as the ankle joint or a little higher. Flaps go hunting in the piny woods and sit around the camp fire were left on each side to reach some distance up the legs. These were cracking jokes.11 nicely adapted to the ankles, and lower part of the leg by of Linsey woolsey, originally an English woolen deer skin, so that no dust, gravel, or snow could get within the material, woven in the Lindsey area south of York, and later mocassons. cheapened by being woven with linen instead of wool warp, The mocassons in ordinary use cost but a few hours' was plentiful on both sides of the Atlantic. On a farm that labor to make. ...In cold weather the mocassons were well stuffed raised both flax and sheep it could be wholly home pro- with deers hair, or dry leaves, so as to keep the feet comfortably Fall 1987 Clothing Early Cincinnati 27

A wool worn by Lydia made up in the early 1800's. Richardson Mendenhall, a (Picture courtesy Cincinnati Quaker of Redstone, Pennsyl- Art Museum) vania, has the kerchief, fitted bodice, and full skirt of the late 1700's, but other details suggest that it was actually 28 Queen City Heritage warm; but in wet weather it was usually said that wearing them was aA decent way of going barefooted..." owing to the spongy texture of the leather of which they were made. Owing to this defective covering of the feet,... the greater number of our hunters and warriors were afflicted with rheumatism in their limbs. In the latter years of the indian war our young men became more enamoured of the indian dress throughout, with the exception of the . The drawers were laid aside and the leggins made longer, so as to reach the upper part of the thigh. The indian breech clout was adopted. This was apiece of linen or cloth, nearly a yard long, and eight or nine inches broad. This passed under the belt before and behind leaving the ends for flaps hanging before and behind over the belt. These flaps were sometimes ornamented 1 I with some coarse kind of work. To the same belts which secured the breech clout, strings which supported the long leggins were attached. When this belt as was often the case passed over the hunting shirt the upper part of the thighs and part of the hips were naked.... I have seen them go into places of public worship in this dress. Their appearance however did not add much to the devotions of the young ladies.13 After this description of the frontier toughs from whom Morgan's Riflemen were recruited, Doddridge's description of women's dress came as something of an anti- galls.15 Curiously enough, Doddridge did not mention climax: which most women wore and which were even fashionable. The linsey and which were the Embroidered and other fine materials were advertised spe- universal dress of our women in early times, would make a very cifically for aprons in nearly every issue of the Massachusetts singular figure in our days [i 824]. A small home made hand- Centinelfrom 1788 to 1793. kerchief, in point of elegance, would illy supply that profusion of Doddridge associated the woodsman's dress ruffles with which the necks of our ladies are now ornamented. chiefly with "hunting and going on scouts and campaigns" They went barefooted in warm weather, and in and so did early Cincinnatians like Jacob Fowler who stated cold, their feet were covered with mocassons, coarse shoes, orshoepacks,that in 1791 he had dressed deer skins for moccasins for which would make but a sorry figure beside the elegant morroccoGeneral St. Clair's troops at Fort Hamilton north of often embossed with bullion which at present ornament theCincinnati.16 A few years later, however, Anthony Wayne, feet of their daughters and grand daughters [They were] con- nagging the War for supplies, complained that two tented if they could... cover their heads with a sun made pairs of moccasins were worth less than one pair of common of six or seven hundred linen. shoes.17 Benjamin Van Cleve, in his memoirs, said he accom- Petticoat in this context did not mean under- panied a military expedition down the Ohio River in 1794 as wear, it was simply what a skirt was called at that time. The contractor for supplies, "... my gun in one hand & toma- bed gown was originally a hip-length, loose overblouse hawk in the other, a knife eighteen inches long hanging worn in the bedchamber, but like many other garments, it pendant at my side dressed in a hunting frock breech cloth & had crept out gradually into more general use, particularly leggins. .. ."18 And the Reverend Oliver M. , whose among countrywomen and working women.14 It was infor- family settled at Columbia (now vanished under the east end mal, comfortable, and unfashionable, but had a vague func- of Cincinnati) described a company of volunteers from Colum- tional kinship with a woman's jacket or bia, "well mounted, and armed with rifles, knives and some which could be worn for informal occasions in fashionable even with tomahawks, and dressed in hunting shirts."19 circles. Shoepacks were probably similar to moccasins; moroc- On the other hand, Spencer said that when, in co was goat or similar hide tanned with sumac leaves or oak 1792 at the age of eleven, he was captured by Indians

The dress that more than any wore this dress in the other is associated with the Revolutionary War. frontier was the woodsman's garb of hunting shirt, leggings, and moccasins made famous by the frontier Rifle companies led by Daniel Morgan who Fall 1987 Clothing Early Cincinnati 29 between Cincinnati and Columbia, he was wearing a plain wild materials were substituted for scarce cultivated materi- summer roundabout (short jacket)19 and pantaloons with als. There is a tradition that nettle and were spun covered , and a blue silk vest with two rows of plated into passable substitutes for linen, and wool as well as meat sugar-loaf buttons which his Indian captor ripped off and could be obtained from .22 Thomas Rogers, writing tied around his own legs. When sold back to his family the of his family's homestead near Lexington, Kentucky, describes following year he was re-outfitted in a roundabout and his father's coming in from the hunt in the 1780's with a pantaloons from the wardrobe of an ensign at Detroit (prob- buffalo skin, and his mother's shearing it for the wool, "and I ably the smallest soldier in the garrison) and a pair of stock- think I wore stockings made from the wool." Equally impor- ings and slippers from one of the women there.20 tant was do-it-yourself. Rogers continued, "It was very com- Since costume and terms are very unre- mon at this time for farmers to tan their own leather for liable, shifting meaning every few years, it is not clear wheth- shoes and dress deer skins for clothing. Buckskin er those slippers were forerunners of the coming change in were a common dress at this time.23 My father generally women's shoes form fairly high heels to flat-soled shoes like tanned his heavy hides such as buffalo and beef hide when he ballet slippers or whether they were house slippers some- killed one. He was a shoemaker also and generally worked what like ordinary shoes but without buckles, or possibly till bedtime on his bench. As soon as my sisters were big without backs like mules. After 1800 there are a number of enough he had a provided for them." Wood to con- references to Thomas Jefferson's wearing slippers to receive struct the loom was plentiful, of course; what was in short guests in the White House, so house slippers is perhaps the supply was the yarn to weave into material, until local hus- safest guess.21 bandry had advanced far enough to produce sufficient wool Whatever they were, they were available, and and flax to be spun into the needed yarn. This was hand availability counted heavily at the frontier. Sometimes local spun, of course, but machines had been invented

The illustration of Oliver Spencer's capture in 1792 shows him wearing the jacket and vest he described in Indian Captivity, but his flared are probably more in the style of 1835 when his narrative was published. Queen City Heritage

In 1793 Lieutenant Isaac Younghusband at Fort Wash- ington bought four pairs of silk stockings from the Cincinnati merchants Smith & Findlay. Fall 1987 Clothing Early Cincinnati 3 1 some twenty years earlier, and factories to machine-spin yarn available. One wove or bought yard goods and made it up or were in operation in the east by the 1790's, reaching Cincin- had it made up by a or seamstress, every stitch by hand nati at least by 1808.24 of course; sewing machines were not available until the Deer skin and linsey woolsey were not 18 5 o's. Army items, however, and "slops" for sail- exclusively pioneer garb. In the eighteenth century, buck- ors, were ready-made earlier than "citizen" (civilian) clothes. skin, the suede-finish hide of deer (or sheep or goat if handi- Army regulations of April 30, 1790, specified that each er) which had previously been worn only by laborers, was soldier be issued annually a or , coat, vest, over- adopted by the English upper classes for hunting breeches alls, shirts, four pairs of shoes, two pairs of , , and became fashionable for sporting wear and even for just stock and clasp, and a pair of buckles. This contradicts the .25 Incidentally, Matthias Denman, one of the hunting shirt-leggings-moccasins picture painted by the old proprietors of the Miami Purchase, is said to have been pioneers, but as Anthony Wayne never ceased reminding apprenticed in his youth to a maker of buckskin breeches.26 the War Office, there was a gap between the issue of Direc- Buckskin was supple, warm, and tough, except, as Reverend tives at the War Office and the issue of actual garments at the Doddridge noted, when wet; and there was plenty of it frontier that frequently had to be filledwit h locally supplied running around the woods on the hoof. Though pantaloons moccasins and other items.32 It is likely, however, that it was were beginning to supplant knee breeches in men's apparel, chiefly the militia and volunteer units that fitted themselves in 1815 William Stake in Cincinnati was still advertising that out in woodsman's dress emulating those brilliantly success- he made buckskin breeches, gloves, and overalls.27 Panta- ful guerilla fighters, the rifle companies from the frontier loons were breeches extended down to mid-calf and close counties of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. fitting, for wear with ; they were later extended to Regardless of deficiencies of supply, there cer- ankle length, with a strap under the foot—but still called tainly was demand for the type of clothing ordinarily worn pantaloons.29 in the east, whether military or citizen. Robert Whelan, Linsey woolsey was commonplace , of writing in 1789 from Redstone Old Fort (Brownsville), course, plentiful, inexpensive, and not very fashionable. On Pennsylvania, on his way to North Bend, advised his friends the other hand, when the pioneers started west, there was a back in New Jersey: "The best Articles they can Bring to wide variety of other fabrics for sale in New Jersey, most of Trade with are Nails, men and Women's Shoes, Axes.... Shoes them imported from or the Continent, or even sell here from twelve to fifteen Shillings, Nail from 2od to from as far away as India: , from the finest Indian 21. Axes from fifteen to twenty... [up to] three pounds. .. ,"33 muslin to ; , from superfine broadcloth to John May's journals of his trips from Boston forrest cloth, and cassimere or ; from to Marietta in 1788 and 1789 mentioned boots, a delicate lawn to , and duck; plus mixtures of underwaistcoat, "briches"—no hunting shirt, no moccasins.34 cotton and wool, linen and wool, and cotton and linen.30 He also wore on cold days a mysterious garment that appears Many of the sturdier fabrics on the market served the pio- in manuscript to be either sloaper or slooper.35 Dictionaries neers as well as linsey woolsey. These all still were hand- of the period so far consulted have yielded nothing like this woven, but a distinction was seen between domestic weav- word; it may be a Bostonianism or, worse, family slang.36 ing and professional and also between English-woven Mr. May also took along goods to sell: shoes, tow cloth and American-woven. (woven from broken fibers of flaxo r hemp), , a broad- Silk and silk/wool fabrics were also imported, cloth , and a "Bever" hat.37 The hat was possibly a round and there is always the possibility that silk dress clothes were hat since the was beginning to give way to the carried along by the pioneers in anticipation of some day . The best were made of beaver fur sheared beating the wilderness into an outpost of civilization. In very close and smoothed to a silky surface. Second best were fact, silk stockings can be documented in Cincinnati as early roram hats of wool with fur felted in to imitate the beavers. as 1793: they figured on a bill from the merchants Smith & The broadcloth suit might possibly herald the coming of Findlay, and also in a theft from a Thomas Goudy (whether a ready-made clothing, but it is more likely that it was simply man's or a woman's stockings is not specified).31 The Goudy second-hand. theft, moreover, included a man's silk dress clothes. The 1819 Cincinnati Directory asserted (source If the foregoing is more about material than unspecified) that as early as 1790 there was at least one tailor garments, it is because material, not clothing, was what was in Cincinnati and a shoemaker (neither identified) along Queen City Heritage with two blacksmiths, two carpenters, and a mason. The shilling sixpence in the accounts for a Boston household.42 shoemaker may have done his own tanning (very likely, if it An invoice of March 6,1791, included among was David Everett Wade they had in mind), but that materi- other items, Indian calico, striped , two purple calico, als for the tailor to work on were already reaching the cotton and linen , horn combs, beaver , blue frontier is documented in the journal of William Stanley strouding, brown cloth, superfine cloth, large cotton , who clerked for a store in Cincinnati, kept by John Bartle ten and a half dozen coat buttons, , cotton and then Solomon Strong, from 1790 until 1792 when he hose, olive sattinett, and printed linen.43 These were the went into partnership with Daniel and John Stites Gano.38 makings for men's and women's clothing and probably cur- Stanley made many arduous trips to procure goods in the tains and chair covers. east for the goods hungry frontier. The goods were pur- Supplying goods to the frontier was one of chased mostly in Philadelphia and carried over the moun- the principal roads to riches in the newly opened territories tains in carts which took about twenty-three days on average.39 in spite of the difficulties of transport (it took about as long At Redstone on the Monongahela, the goods were loaded to bring goods across the Allegheny Mountains as across the on boats for the rest of the trip to Cincinnati or Columbia Atlantic Ocean). The merchants, however, could not just which might take anything from a few days to a few weeks take the money and run; money—that is currency—was very depending on the state of the river. Their business was scarce, particularly at the frontier. Merchants had to take peripatetic: they sold in Cincinnati and Columbia and at their pay in local products and cart them back across the "Bairdstown," Lexington, and Frankfort, Kentucky, and points mountains to eastern markets or float them down to New south, and later at Greenville, Ohio, when General Wayne's Orleans to turn them into money—and New Orleans was troops were there. Some merchants had stores in several still in the hands of the Spanish who sometimes closed the settlements, often in a room in a tavern. Others sold directly port. Furs were the principal currency in this barter econ- from the boats in which they brought their goods.40 omy, along with hides and gingseng, followed by wheat, Along with knives, augers, plated saddle bosses, corn, whiskey, tobacco, country linen, etc. as cultivation buck shot, etc., the merchants of the day carried clothing progressed.44 As late as November 15, 1814, a subscription items and the makings. In the Torrence papers at The Cin- to the newspaper, Liberty Hall, could be paid for with wheat; cinnati Historical Society is an invoice headed, "An account and Stephen M'Farland, hatter, advertised in Liberty Hall of of Goods sent to Beards town Novemb. 2d 1790," that may August 20, 1819, that he would take wheat, country linen, relate to Stanley. It listed among other items, fourteen and a and whiskey in payment for hats. half yards of Drap Cloth No. 189 at thirteen shillings two- The Territory's first newspaper Centinel of the Northwestern Territory, commenced publication in Cincin- nati in November 1793, just five years after the first settlers arrived. In 1796 it was succeeded by Freeman'sJournal, and that in turn by Western Spy and Hamilton Gazette which ran from June 1799 until 1822 with an interruption between August 1808 and September 18 io.4S Starting in December 1804, Cincinnati had a second newspaper, Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Mercury, which outlasted the Spy.46 So from 1793 on, through advertisements in these newspapers, there is a lot more evidence for what was actually available for cloth- ing Cincinnatians. Most of the ads were for material not garments, but the kind of material implies the kind of cloth- ing to some extent. For example, it is unlikely that superfine pence a yard, "Nitting pins" at twopence each, narrow black cloth would be wasted on a hunting shirt. It was expensive ribbon at ninepence, seven pairs of spectacles at two shillings and would be reserved for proper tailor-mades. threepence each, two at one pound sixpence It was in the Centinel of November 23, 1793, each, a gross of narrow binding and "6 Hatts No. 5" at four that Thomas Goudy reported the list of items stolen from shillings tenpence each.41 For comparison, a woman's pay his house: "One waistcoat and breeches, black silk; one buf for a day's cleaning or washing in 1790 is recorded at one casimer waistcoat, one [1] back florentine do. [ditto] one

One of the flatboats used to float people, goods, and stock down the Ohio River to the new settlements was sketched by Victor Collot, a Frenchman who visited the frontier in 1796-1797. •wtMNIilllK

purple and white striped do. one pair yellow breeches, ribbed ing, thread, coat and vest buttons, tools, looking , worsted; one pair paist kneebuckles, with small range of ribbons, gold cord, , and hats. Forrest cloth and halfthicks purple stones set inside the white do; nine ruffled shirts; one were woolens for men's clothing at the inexpensive end of marked with W.F. the rest marked T.G. 5 neck cloths 2 pair the price scale; strouding was a napped woolen from the silk stockings, 2 pair silk and cotton striped do. one pair valley in England often used for linings. The printed cotton do. 2 pair of shoes, one red cotton handkerchief with calico most likely went into bed and and white spots...." It is difficult to picture Mr. Goudy, in Cin- and perhaps curtains. cinnati, in 1793, in a log cabin chinked with mud, wearing A gilt from James Aspy of London was formal attire of black waistcoat, black silk breeches with reported lost in July 1794, and a year later another gold jeweled knee buckles, silk stockings, ruffled shirt, and proba- watch was lost by John Gano. A thief was described as bly a superfine cloth or coat—but perhaps he wore wearing checked linen overalls. A green coat was these only for balls. That may read like a lame attempt at reported stolen.48 The surtout was a man's fashionable fitted humor, but according to the Reverend Oliver M. Spencer, , roughly mid-calf length, with one or more broad, the officers at Fort Washington gave a to celebrate falling collars, then called . Green appears from the ads Washington's in 1791, and a ball to celebrate the to have been one of the popular colors for and Fourth of July in 1792. What's more, Dr. Allison gave a along with brown, gray, snuff, tobacco, and blue. They were ball in 1795.47 It was, in fact, on his way home often lined with red, green, or dark blue English woolen after the 1792 July Fourth bash, that Spencer was captured or strouding. by the Indians. The Centinel of October 11 supplied firm evi- In Centinels for 1794 and 1795 ads appeared dence for a resident shoemaker: "John Finnyhon & Co. for a surprising variety of goods and services that would not Have lately set up their and Shoe making Business...;" be out of place in Philadelphia. Samuel Freeman, for instance, December 6, the loss of John Robertson's gold enameled offered a typical miscellany: rose , forrest cloth, mourning breast pin was reported. The most surprising ad printed cottons, blue strouding, brown halfthicks, gray coat- was the one in the April 26 issue for Peter Walsh who was, of

In 1796 many pioneers were still living in cabins like the one sketched by Victor Collot, but their clothes were essentially similar to what they had worn back east. 34 Queen City Heritage all things, a Hairdresser and Perfumer. The very same issue ILL be fold at public Au&ioiTon Tuef- reported that the Indians were stealing horses out of the W day the 24th inft. at the houfe of iV!r. stables in Columbia. Samuel Freeman, (for cafh ou\y) the follow* It was, however, only a few months later that ing articles, viz : the turning point came. The Battle of Fallen Timbers ended Rofe Blankets, No. : and No- 2 organized Indian resistance in Ohio and transformed the Indian duto, No. 1 Ohio settlements from high-risk, combat zones into merely Forreft Cloth provincial or backwoods villages. This is reflected in the Prirt-d Cottons newspapers in the kinds of goods and services offered and in Barrowthrees their ever-increasing quantity and variety. Blue .Strouding, N0.T04 Brown Hal ft hicks Prices of materials varied considerably. A Smith Gray Coating & Findlay statement for 1793-179510 Jonis Simmons listed Silk & Twift linen at two shillings sixpence a yard and also at three and Coloured Thread nine a yard, black velvet at ten shillings a yard, calico at seven Coat Buttons and six, and coarse cloth (wool) at eight shillings a yard. Veft ditto Simmons also bought a dictionary for five shillings, two Croflcut Files pairs of silk mitts (a rather urban touch) for fifteen shillings, ITandf-iw ditto and two pairs of shoes at eleven shillings threepence a pair.49 Looking Gtaftes These may have been ready-made shoes since Smith & Findlay Bibbons and Gold Cord were merchants, not shoemakers. In October 1795, Daniel Table Spoons Mayo, another merchant, advertised wines, groceries, cot- Tea ditto ton, boots and bootees (short boots for men, not babies), Shot & lead and men's and women's shoes—and these must surely have Sattin and 50 Hats been ready-made shoes. In later papers, many other mer- chants advertised supplies of men's, women's, and children's shoes, sometimes in quantities of thousands.51 It is odd that BOOKS shoes, which one would expect to need to be made to Carrs Sermons 2 Vol. measure more than any other item of dress, were among the Paradife Loft Modern Chivalry, by II. FT. Brackenrulge i v6\ first to be marketed ready-made. As early as the mid- The Sexatoror Parliamentory Chronicle seventeenth century they had been made in England by the 52 Senacas Morals thousands for Cromwell's army. In 17 8 8 Brissot de Warville Rollins Belles Letters reported that the industrious inhabitants of Lynn, Massa- 53 Prince of Ahiffinia chusetts, turned out 100,000 pairs of women's shoes a year. The Idler, by Cr. Johnflon As for other ready-made garments, from the Cincinnati, June ro, T794. first issue of the Centinel in 179 3 through the Spy of Decem- N.B. Thefalc coniinences at 16 o'clock ber 1816, there are only three ads for ready-made garments A M. aside from things like shawls, gloves, and hats: in Centinel of February 13, 1796, John Prince had breeches and overalls coats, pantaloons, vests and , cotton and linen shirts, for auction; in the Spy, October 8, 1799, Richard Jones & trousers, vests and jackets, and Russia duck shirts, trousers, Co. advertised "linen shirts and trowser made up;" and in vests and jackets. This sounded like Army surplus, but in the the Spy, July 1, 1801, M. Nimmo offered ready-made - Spy of November 7, 1817, there was an ad for "Superfine coats. This does not exactly constitute a trend. In view of the London made Coats and Surtouts of assorted colors and the scarcity of everything at the frontier, particularly money, it is latest ," and a month later Jacob Gourgas advertised surprising that ads for ready-mades did not really appear in "Superior Gentlemen's ready made clothing of the most the Cincinnati papers until 1817 although Congress was fashionable cut."55 The most superior ready-mades, howev- debating an import duty on ready-made clothing at least as er, were still considered inferior to tailor-mades. In 1817 at early as 1789.54 In the Spy of January 1, 1817, appeared a least ten tailors advertised in Cincinnati papers (Cincinnati notice of an auction of public property consisting of wool population as of 1815: 6,49 8 ).56

Samuel Freeman's ad in the Centinel illustrates the varie- ties of merchandise that were being carted over the Appa- lachians to the new settlements by 1794. Fall 1987 Clothing Early Cincinnati 35

In the late 1790's, long trails of white muslin sweeping the ground and high waistlines were fashionable. (Picture courtesy Cincinnati Art Museum) Queen City Heritage Oddly enough, there are no ads for tailors or dressmakers prior to 1800 except for Amos Thursbey who took an ad in the Centinel of July 5,1794, but only to say that he had left the army and was setting up shop in North Bend. Perhaps they had all the work they could handle without advertising; someone must have been making up the super- fine cloth, the satins, and the goods "from the latest vessels from Europe."57 In any case, the impression conveyed by the newspaper ads is that Cincinnati was becoming urbanized at a remarkable speed— as apparently was intended from the very beginning, judging by the careful surveying of the original town plat. The extent to which the setting had already changed from that of the hungry, frightening days of 1789 is illustrated by G. Turner's household goods, adver- tised for sale in the Centinel of January 14, 1795, which included books, furniture, chinaware, , a "superb Secretaire of Zebrawood richly ornamented with gilt brass," and a number of walnut window and door frames and turned pillars. Frame houses were turning up in for rent or sale notices, and those with pillars suggested that Cincinnati builders were aware of the Classical Revival. As for the chinaware, Josiah Wedgewood's enormously popular Queens Ware was advertised in the Centinel as early as December 6, 1794.58 In this context, Thomas Goudy's silk waistcoat and breeches would no longer seem so incongruous. His every- day wear would be not unlike that of Francis Bailey and William Woods, perhaps with pantaloons and boots instead of breeches, stockings, and shoes. For agricultural pursuits, hunting, or volunteer military service, he might wear hunt- ing shirt and leggings, possibly made of local materials. Materials for more tailored clothes were clearly also availa- ble, judging by the newspaper ads and surviving invoices, which also listed printed cottons, linens, chintz, ribbons, etc. for the ladies. As of April 16, 1796, John Forguson was offering India which were then high fashion. Mrs. Bailey's and Mrs. Woods' gowns were by 1796 going out of style, the desirable image having changed to a light colored gown with flowing skirt, wide , and the kerchief puffed up in front almost to the chin. William Freeman across the river in Newport, broke out in excruciating doggerel in Freeman's Journal, March 4, 1797, to plug such items of fashionable attire as cotton shawls, lawn, lace, silk, gloves, and fans. The Western Spy, beginning publication in 1799, actually began printing fashion notes. On December 24, 1799, it reprinted an article on fashion from the Providence Journal:"... I have had to undergo a fashionable transforma-

Between Samuel Freeman's ad in 1794 and John M'Cullough's in 1801, the quantity and variety of merchandise reach- ing Cincinnati had increased considerably. Fall 1987 Clothing Early Cincinnati 37

Fitted full-length with (Picture courtesy Cincinnati long sleeves and waist-length Art Museum). spencer jackets began to replace shawls and cloaks in fashionable wardrobes around 1800 and continued to be fashionable into the 1820's. 38 Queen City Heritage tion.... I was always accustomed to wear large shoes on Red broad cloth cloaks trimmed with white fur were all the account of a plentiful assortment of corns upon my feet— rage in December 1799 and so were black velvet great now, sir, I am cased in a pair so small and so sharp pointed coats.64 Fitted coats for the ladies, instead of capes or cloaks, that I walk like a parrot upon a mahogany table.... My hair, were the coming thing, and a "lady's striped great coat" was which was long, is now cut so short that my chin and skull reported lost in the Spy of October 31, 1801. The word form a very indifferent contrast.... In this situation I was , formerly signifying a man's heavy coat, often furred,65 invited to a public ball. The ladies, you must understand, was being transferred to ladies' fitted coats, often of much wear long trails of muslin sweeping the ground, very con- lighter material and cut like the fashionable dress of the day venient to be trod upon in the public assemblies... .The with high waist, narrow skirt, and long sleeves. A short heads of our ladies here are... fortified with a formidable jacket called a spencer was also beginning to appear in rampart of curls and powder. ..." Hair powder could be fashion notes for ladies.66 bought in Cincinnati from William and Michael Jones, but In 181 o Dr. Daniel Drake wrote, "The dress powdered hair was beginning to go out, and women's hair of pur inhabitants is similar to that of other inhabitants of was being dressed close to the head and often topped with a the middle states. The females injure their health by dressing large and plumes, sometimes with a wig.59 As the too thin and both sexes by not accommodating the quantity gentleman from Providence remarked, men's hair was also of clothing to the changes of the weather."67 He could have being cropped shorter, but Thomas Jefferson and others of said this ten years earlier. Cincinnati rounding the corner his generation were still powdering their hair ten years later, into the nineteenth century was swiftly coming to resemble and General Gano of Cincinnati wore a queue in defiance of fashion long enough to be photographed with it.60 It should come as no surprise to find R. Haughton advertising in the Spy of November 19, 1799, that he will give dancing lessons in the minuet-cotillion, T WARTIN, French and English sets, country dances, the city cotillion as taught in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and Scotch Gentlemen s Hair Drejfer, reels. He returned for a second session the following year.61 TUST arrived from the city of Balti- The Spy of September 24, 1799, reported that wj more, refpeclfully informs the citi- long waists were gaining ground in England and advised the zens of Cincinnati and its vicinity, that "American " not to endanger health and beauty with he hat opened a HAIR DRESSER'S whalebone prisons. These were evidently intended SHOP, in the eaft end of Mr. Samuel to redistribute the female figure to fit the newest classical- Stitt's houfe, on Front ftreet, firft doer revival fashions with very high waistlines, tubular , and below the BANK, where he will attend very delicate fabrics. Where the ultimate in fabric for a to drefs gentlemen, in the-moft fafhions- formal gown had formerly been a still, heavy, glossy, often ble mode, from Monday,until 11 o'clock figured silk, fashion now dictated the fine, transparent mus- on Saturday evening—Thofe who wiih lins imported mostly from India, and almost every Cincin- to appear dreffed on Sumday, will plesfe nati merchant advertised these muslins. Also fashionable were silk crapes, as soft and fluid as the muslins, and they call on Saturday evening when he will appeared presently in the ads as did tamboured muslins fo arrange the hair th?t by merely (muslins with chain-stitch embroidery), and painted mus- combing it out it will look as well as if lins. Lockets and ear drops were available from Richard drefTed that morning, He has alfo a Jones, and John M'Cullough had ladies' feathers, beads, variety of perfumes, and a general «f- , lockets, breast pins, and ribbons. Francis Menessier fortment of the elegant fancy goodi presently offered gold and silver , jewelry, fans, lace, for the LADIES—which he will fell , embroidered gloves, and gentlemen's low for GASH. 62 . Cincinnati, May 13th, 18O6. (6w) A letter of March 25,1805, from Eliza Symmes to Jane Short mentioned a trimmed with ermine.63

John Martin, advertising in the goods and groceries and Milk Spy in 1806 was not Cincin- of Roses to remove "frickles." nati's first hairdresser; even at the frontier appearances mattered. To make ends meet, however, he also offered dry Fall 1987 Clothing Early Cincinnati . R. Adams, her friends and the public, that (h£ ha? been bro'r up to the TAYLORING MAKING butinef»r and will take k in that line, and fewing of any cta- , which (hall be done in the neat- '•t|riTranner and (hurteft notice- She refides it^fr. A. Siippfon's, corner of Markot and Sycamore ft reefs. Cin, Aug. 9, 1809. N. B. She ailb m ik«s Fringes, and covers ella's. 46

the thriving communities the inhabitants had known back of the steamboat, and Cincinnatians immediately began east, even if everything west of the Alleghenies was consid- organizing to investigate this invention of such dramatic ered "backwoods."68 Buildings were increasingly of frame potential for a town in their particular geographical position.75 and brick, there were several inns, many merchants, and News of another invention called "The Devil Among the several cabinet makers.69 The Mill Creek and Little Miami Taylors" was reported in the Spy of June 1, 1807; this was the were clattering with mills, Francis Menessier ran a coffee birth notice of the sewing machine which, owing to techni- house where one could read the latest papers or take French cal problems and to the hostility of those who earned their lessons, and teachers were also available for English, reading, living by the needle, did not reach the market until forty-five writing, arithmetic, geography, Latin, and Greek, even for years later. For entertainment, Cincinnati enjoyed theatrical singing and dancing.70 A subscription library was organized.71 performances as early as 18 o 1, including She Stoops to Conquer John Martin opened another hair dresser's shop.72 Cincin- the week of December 5. Griffin Yeatman's tavern was host natians learned of inoculation with smallpox—and voted to an exhibit of wax figures of national heroes in April 1805, against it.73 In 1801 a Philadelphia shoemaker made the and to a live elephant in February 1809.76 All these events startling discovery that we have left and right feet. For some are relevant to what early Cincinnatians wore, even the two hundred years shoes had been made straight, ignoring elephant, because people dress to their setting and to the the asymmetrical curves of the foot, but now W. Young occasion. advertised that he would make shoes fitted to the anatomical For those in need of clothing appropriate to 74 shape of the foot. This news, however, seems to have been these events, ads in Spy and Liberty Hall attest to the availabil- slow in reaching Cincinnati. Not so, news of the invention ity of tailors, hatters, shoemakers, dyer and textile printers,

One of the few respectable in Liberty Hall, August 9, 1809, occupations open to women was one of some thirty similar who had to support them- ads between 1800 and 1820. selves was seamstressing and millinery, sometimes combined with washing. Mrs. Adam's ad Queen City Heritage

Elizabeth Houghton's dress of beginning of the trend toward 1814 on the left and Jane lower waistlines and wider Hunt's dress of 1820 on the skirts. (Picture courtesy right exhibited the early nine- Cincinnati Art Museum) teenth century fashion for narrow skirts and high waist- lines, but Jane's shows the Fall 1987 Clothing Early Cincinnati 4' and dressmakers who grandly billed themselves as - more fitted and formal, and eventually , the makers in spite of the unlikelihood of any Cincinnati female couturieres or seamstresses moved with it.77 By the end of the of that day having need for a hooped mantua suitable for eighteenth century seamstresses were making all types of presentation at the English court. On the other hand, the women's clothing, but tailors still made tailored garments tailors like John Mansfield were advertising their services as like riding habits and pelisses. The tailored habit with long also ladies' habit-makers. Until the late seventeenth century, jacket cut like a man's frock, frequently worn with a waist- particularly in France, it was the male tailors who made the coat as well, was correct wear for informal occasions when a high fashion women's , with the female marchande des bedgown or short gown and petticoat would be dowdy.78 modes restricted to adding decorative , flowers,ribbons , For more dressy occasions the dress would be like the one etc. Women were permitted to make a loose called a advertised in Liberty Hall November 3, 1807, as stolen: mantua, however, and with the easing of restrictions by "... made of cambrick muslin, scalloped round the bottom Louis XIV and as the mantua moved into fashion and became part, about ten or eleven small tucks, short sleeves...." It

REMOVAL.

Samuel M'Quilkin, BOOT & SHOE-MAKER, j ESPECTFULLY informs the public in X\ general* that he has rettioved from h*s former (land in Main-ftreer, to COLUMBIA STREET, oppofite Mr. Harman Lonp's card- ing machine, and nearly oppofite (he alley leading from the centre of the Market-houfe, where he purpofes carrying on the above bufinefs in the mod extenfive manner. He has, and will continue to have on hand, a quantity of neatly finiihed work j and hopes, trotn his performance in this line, to procure Samuel M'Quilkin's ad in the Spy shows some of the stylish a general patronage. shoe and boot shapes. Many of the boots had fanciful names Cincinnati, April, I8II# 34 like Suwarrows, Firebuckets, and Napoleon Greaves. 42 Queen City Heritage should be noted that the word cambric, once signifying crape without the least stiffening in it.. .there was scarcely linen (from Cambrai in the Netherlands), is here coupled any waist to it and no sleeves; her bosom, part of her waist with muslin which once signified cotton—except that some- and arms were uncovered and the rest of her form visible."80 times it was applied to fine linen.79 Such inconsistency is all The shocking exposure of the new fashion added spice to too typical of textile terminology. In this case, the stolen letters of the time and peppered the newspapers with satiri- dress was most likely of cotton since cotton was very fash- cal comment and indignant letters to the editor.61 These ionable at that time, and the development of mechanical were as nothing, however, to the blast from General Ogle means of ginning out the seeds, spinning, and finally weav- who, in i 812, introduced into the Pennsylvania legislature ing made it more plentiful. The stolen dress probably also a measure forbidding females from appearing in public places had a low-cut neckline worn without a concealing kerchief "with naked elbows and shoulders, and other parts of the to the horror of the more conservative. Margaret Bayard body clad in such thin and transparent attire, as incom-

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Smith recorded in 1804 that the American wife of a foreign- patible with decency...." Notorious bawds were to be exempt er (probably Betsey Patterson Bonapart) "made quite a noise" from his bill. It failed to pass.82 in Washington by appearing at a formal affair "... almost A girl of marriageable age in less exalted socie- naked. ... Her dress was the thinnest sarcenet and white ty than diplomatic circles would not have been permitted

Elizabeth Houghton's shoes from a Boston shoe store in 1814 were flat-soled shoes like ballet slippers that were then the height of fashion. (Picture courtesy Cincinnati Art Museum) Fall 1987 Clothing Early Cincinnati such liberties as inflamed General Ogle. Her dresses, howev- er, would have conformed to the fashion for short waist, low neck, tiny cap sleeves, tubular skirt, and gauzy materials. An example of this fashion is the one that was worn by Elizabeth RICHARD GAINES, Houghton of Vermont in 1814 when she married Charles (FROM PHILADELPHIA) Phelps (the first Charles Phelps Taft was their grandson). It is HAVING removed t* irrelevant that the dress was made in Vermont, not in Cin- Cincinnati, has opened a., cinnati, or that the wearer did not set foot in Cincinnati until CHEAP SHOE STORl^attha£ years later; that dress was what was fashionable in 1814, and sign of the GOLDEN BOOT^J a Cincinnati would have had very similar dresses in her on the Hill, a little below ' trousseau. Although fashion periodicals do not seem to the Engine house, Main- appear in Cincinnati booksellers' ads, it is likely that at least street, where he will con- some of the ladies in the mantua-making business in Cincin- stantly keep on hand a large,' nati invested in Galerie des modes or The Ladies'Magazine. Elizabeth Houghton's dress was of the very assortment of all kinds df fashionable thin tamboured muslin, but it is. unthinkable BOOTS 4- SHOES, that she would have been permitted to dampen her muslin wholesale and retail, on th« petticoat to make it cling revealingly to her figure as ladies in lowest terms; consisting of impolite society were said to do. Even so, Dr. Drake consid- Ladies' Kid, white and colored, ered that this mode of dressing posed a threat to health, and Ladies' Morocco, of all kinds 3f color*, he was not alone. An article headed "Savings No. 3" in the Ladies' calf skin, fyc. fyc. Spy of August 17, 1811, made the same point, and a rather Gentlemen's pumps Sf dress shoes. grim article, entitled "Burning to Death," advised women Men's fine and coarse shoes, , whose muslins caught fire, in those days of open fires and Boys' Girls' $p Children's shoes. candles, to fling themselves on the floor to put out the Ladies' shoes, of all fashionably flames.83 kind? and colors, arid Gentlemen's fashionabl* A very luxurious new fashion was the Kashmir or plain work made in the neatest manner. . Kashmir shawls were the nineteenth century equiva- ALSO—-AN ASSORTMENT OF DRY GOOD*, lent of mink coats. They were high fashion from the last for tale—Low for Cash, . > years of the eighteenth century until the 1870's, keeping up Cincinnati, July 31, 1811. 4 with fashion's constant demand for novelty by gradually changing shape and design from a stole with plain field and decorated borders, to a square, sometimes as much as seven by seven feet, patterned all over. They were great luxuries: in were often made of Morocco leather.85 the Spy of February 27, 1819, the going price was quoted as Another new fashion was for the ladies to $1,100 which was expensive indeed for those days when a carry called "indispensibles," "reticules," or man's fashionable surtout cost about $ 3 2.84 The shawls were "ridiculous."86 When skirts had been full, a was usual- woven in Kashmir and India of the fleece of Tibetan goats, ly concealed under the folds, but the narrowing of skirts and finer than any available in Europe except silk, which the use of sheer materials wiped out the pocket—hence the made them almost impossible to imitate, though European "indispensible," which could also be made very decorative weaving centers tried. , Scotland, was one of many and reflective of the whims of fashion. weaving towns that tried to tap this lucrative market. The men still had , now chiefly in their Among other fashionable and expensive imports coattails, and they all seemed to carry red Morocco pocket were Leghorn straw hats and bonnets from Italy which books which they were forever losing. Between 1805 and could cost as much as $25, but milliners and hatters in New 1820, Cincinnati papers reported the loss of between forty England were also making use of domestic straws, for men as and fifty of them. According to an article in the Spy of well as women. Hats were also made of beaver, silk, cane, February 1, 1812, Morocco leather was first imported from wicker, wood splints, even cardboard, and children's England in 179 3 (but an ad for Morocco leather appeared in

Richard Gaines' ad in Liberty Hall, July 31, 1811, indicates that conservative customers could still have their shoes made with heels, regardless of fashion. 44 Queen City Heritage the Massachusetts Centinel of June 18, 1788) and began to be produced in the about 1796 or 1797. In Liberty Hall of June 8, 1813, W. Blumpee and E. Clift announced the opening of a Morocco factory on Front Street in Cincinnati and called for sheep and deer skins and sumac leaves with which to tan them. Morocco evidently took particularly well. In the week of April 28, 1807, Ezekiel Hall advertised in both the Spy and Liberty Hall ladies' red, blue, green, purple, yellow, and black Morocco and kid shoes. Elizabeth Houghton's white kid shoes from Thomas Wiley's Variety Store, 15 Marlboro Street, Boston, were decorated with spangles and green silk embroidered sprigs. Spangled slippers were advertised by Jesse Camp in Cincinnati in the Spy of May 7, 1808. Although flat soles were the new fashion in ladies' shoes in the early nineteenth century, Jefferson's daugh- ter Martha sent one of her shoes to her father in the White House in 1807, asking him to have a new pair made for her with the back quarter cut a little higher for better fit, but with heels lower, and J. Wilson was advertising shoes with heels in the Washington National Intelligencer of February 4, 1807.87 Shoes with heels were still being advertised by Richard Gaines (just moved from Philadelphia to Cincinnati) in Lib- erty Hall of July 31, 1811, and by Andrew Coyle in the National Intelligencer of March 3, 1812. It is hard to realize in this age of mass manu- facture how local the supply system once was. Flax and sheep grown on local farms could be carded and spun by the farmer's wife or taken to the steam mill on Front Street (where hot baths and showers were also available) or to one of the water mills on Mill Creek and Little Miami, or to a horse-power mill.88 The 1810 census reported thirty-four and 230 spinning wheels in Cincinnati alone, and over ten times as many in the rest of Hamilton County.89 By 1815 Newman, & Williams were advertising broad and narrow cloths and cassinets manufactured at their facto- ry on the Little Miami.90 Whether their looms as well as their yarn-spinning machines were water powered or were still completely hand operated is not specified (nor was it specified that Williams would ginger up his cash flow eight months later by robbing the mails).91 Hezekiah Healy, how- spite of ill feeling caused by the war, English goods were still ever, was exhibiting at Joel Williams' tavern a patent loom wanted, and English taste was still here. In April 1815, for weaving by water, steam, or "any rotatory power."92 The Heir at Law, the play which served as mainspring of the The war with Britain between 1812 and 181 5 plot of Jane Austin's novel Mansfield Park, was performed in stimulated the growth of American textile production, though Cincinnati.94 it was no secret that British goods continued to be smuggled Imported or local, however, materials were in from Canada or captured by American privateers.93 In made up locally: between 1800 and 1820, Spy, Liberty Hall,

Early Cincinnati shoemakers who were not above a little price-fixing, published a list of agreed-on prices in the Spy September 26, 1812. Fall 1987 Clothing Early Cincinnati 45 and the Cincinnati Directory yield the names of some seventy- also of this city, on May 12, 1820, was not so very different six tailors and eighty-four seamstresses and milliners, and from Elizabeth Houghton's 1814 dress, but the waistline is also 105 shoemakers, eighteen hatters, twenty-four silversmith- beginning to descend, and the skirt is wider at the hem.97 It goldsmith-jewelers, several makers of horn combs, and even was decorated with very modish broderie anglaise or eyelet a dentist who made false teeth.95 embroidery and measured up very creditably against the At the same time, better communications with report in the Spy of August 17, 1820, that "French fashions the east, thanks to improved roads through Pennsylvania are at present all the rage in London. The cone is the favorite and Maryland, and to the launching of the steamboat, were form for female dress, tight at the waist with a prodigious increasing the supply of imported goods and reducing the sweep downwards." time lag between fashion in Philadelphia and in Cincinnati. The gentleman of the day also now presented To be sure, fashion did not change quite so fast then as it an unmistakably nineteenth century appearance with his does now except in the most extravagant stratum of society, cylindrical top hat, his tailored surtout with its pronounced but it did change. March 18, 1806, the Spy printed an waist, gathered sleeves and high collar, and his knee-high anecdote about a man who had bought his wife a new hat boots with light tops. He probably also wore a pair of and was rushing to get it home before it went out of fashion.96 light-colored pantaloons, a high neckcloth and ruffled shirt, A dress from the trousseau of Jane Hunt of incipient mutton-chop whiskers, and a highly artificial upstand- Cincinnati (daughter of Jesse Hunt, merchant and president ing quiff of hair. According to Liberty Hall, August 24,1819, of the city council) who married Nathaniel Green Pendleton, the real dandy also sported a striped waistcoat and even

ROBERT GILLASPIE, Taylor & Ladies Habit Maker, Informs his friends and the public in gfeneraL, that still carries on the business at his old stand 6ii Columbia street, where work will be done on the shortest notice and at his former prices. HE WANTS IMMEDIATOT, ,."... FOUR OK FIVE JOURXKYMEN TAYLO&S, To whom the following prices will be given, viz." For making a coat - - -'$3 13 1-2 ' do. pantaloons - - - 1 25 do. vest - - /"•- * 1 12 1*2 anil all other work in the same proportion. : Cincinnati, Octobei 23,1813,- 64 Sw

Between John Mansfield's 1808 ad for a complete suit for $4.00 and Robert Gillaspey's ad in the Spy of October 23, 1813, the price of bespoke tailoring had evidently gone up. 46 Queen City Heritage corsets to nip in his waist and a twelve-inch watch chain 9. The March to Quebec, Journals of the Members of Arnold's Expedition com- dangling a key and five seals. piled and annotated by Kenneth Roberts during the writing of Arundel (New York, 1938), p. 301; James Graham, The Life of General Daniel For dressy occasions, the ladies now wore Morgan. ... (New York, 1856), p. 63; Don Higginbotham, Daniel Morgan, their hair in a loose knot of curls on the top of the head, Revolutionary Rifleman (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1961), p. 19. secured with a large carved tortoise shell comb. These combs 10. Helen A. Cooper, John Trumbull: The Hand and Spirit of a Painter (New Haven, Connecticut, 1892), Nos. 30,73; Charles Coleman Sellers, Portraits were advertised in the Spy by Keys & Eaton on May 30, and Miniatures by Charles Willson Peale (Philadelphia, 19 5 2), p. 145, No. 568, 1818, and by A.F. Ferguson on December 18, 1819, which assuming that this was Trumbull's model. was a memorable year. Gas street lights were inaugurated in 11. Henry Stephen Randall, The Life of Thomas Jefferson (New York, 1858), January, house numbers in April, and in June Thomas Foulkes Vol. 1, p. 40. 12. John May, Journals, p. 1 34; "Dr. Daniel Drake's Memoir of the Miami installed a fountain of soda and seltzer in his apothecary Country, 1779-1 794," ed. Beverly W. Bond, Jr., The Quarterly Publication of 98 store at No. 8 5 Main-street. the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, Cincinnati, Vol. 18(1923), No. This was also the period that saw the building 2-3, pp. 62-6 3 (hereafter Quarterly Cincinnati Historical Society); Luke Foster to Thomas Clark, May 23, 1819, ibid., pp. 103-104. of some of the most elegant houses ever built in Cincinnati, 13. Reverend Joseph Doddridge, Notes on the Settlement and Indian Wars of like Martin Baum's mansion now the Taft Museum, the the Western Parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania. ... (Wellsburg, Virginia, 1824), Kilgour house, and Gorham Worth's suburban villa in Mt. pp. 11 3-116. 14. Francois Alexandre de Garsault, "L'Art du Tailleur," Description des arts et Auburn—all exhibiting the most refined taste for the Classi- metiers (Paris, 1769), Vol. 3 1, pi. 15, pp. 51-52; see also Claudia Kidwell, cal Revival. If Cincinnatians dressed with as much taste as "Short Gowns," Dress, Vol. 4(1978), pp. 3 0-6 5. they built, and the newspaper ads suggest that they did 15. Webster'sThirdInternational Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged (those that had the money for it), they must have presented a (Springfield, Massachusetts, 1966) defines shoepacks as similar to mocca- sins, worn in the Revolutionary period; Nathan Bailey, Dictionarium very proper urban appearance, and one that was strictly Britannicum. ... (London, 1730) defined Morocco or Marroquin as the skin up-to-date. of goat or similar animal, dressed with sumac or galls and colored red, Not that everyone was completely up-to-date yellow, blue, etc. 16. Charles Cist, Sketches and Statistics of Cincinnati in 18 5 9, p. 78. of course. There were still those conservatives like Thomas 17. Anthony Wayne, A Name in Arms, ed. Richard C. Knopf (Pittsburgh, Jefferson wearing powdered hair or Daniel Gano with his i960), p. 309. queue. And the hunting shirt was still around. As late as 18. "Memoirs of Benjamin Van Cleve," ed. Beverly W. Bond, Jr., Quarterly Cincinnati Historical Society, Vol. 17(1922), No. 1 -2, p. 61. 1812 it was part of the uniform of the First Regiment of 19. Reverend O.M. Spencer, Indian Captivity. ... (New York, 18 3 5), p. 15. Ohio Militia." When the Cincinnati Directory was compiled 20. C. Willetts and Phyllis Cunnington, Handbook of Fashion in the Eighteenth in 1819, the hunting shirt was well established as part of the Century (Boston, 1972), p. 34. 21. Spencer, Indian Captivity, pp. 85, 128. Pioneer Legend. The dress of the pioneer women was evi- 22. Sir Augustus John Foster, Bart., Jejfersonian America. ... (San Marino, dently nothing particularly remarkable, but the men's hunt- California, 1954), p. 1 o; Virginia Moore, TheMadisons (New York, 1979), ing shirt, leggings, and moccasins were remembered fondly p. 160; Lynn W Turner, William Plumer of New Hampshire 175 9-1850 as the very symbol of the heroic times. (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1962), p. 94. 23. James McBride, Pioneer Biography. ... (Cincinnati, 1869), Vol. 1, p. 202; Clement L. Matzolff, ed., "Reminiscences of a Pioneer," Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society Publications, Vol. 19, p. 194. 24. Noah Webster, A Compendium of the English Language. ... (Hartford and 1. Hamlet, I, iii, 6 5. New Haven, Connecticut, 1806), defines overalls as "a kind of long close 2. See William E. and Ophia D. Smith, A Buckeye Titan (Cincinnati, 1953) trowsers." and Ophia D. Smith, "The Family of Levi James and its Alliances," Bulletin 25. Liberty Hall (Cincinnati), April 30, 1808. of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, Cincinnati, Vol. 8 (1950), 26. Walpole, Letters, Vol. 4, p. 276, letter of June 23, 1759 to George No. 3, p. 171 (hereafter Bulletin Cincinnati Historical Society). Montague; Vol. 8, p. 14, letter of February 22, 1771 to Horace Mann. 3. Horace Walpole, Letters, ed. Mrs. Paget Toynbee (, 1904), Vol. 27. C. Harrison Dwight, "Matthias Denman: Soldier and Pioneer,"Bulletin 1 3, p. 380, letter of May 4, 1786. Cincinnati Historical Society, Vol. 7 (1949), No. 4, p. 218. 4. Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, L.L.D. by his 28. Western Spy (Cincinnati), October 27, 1815. Grandchildren William Parker Cutler and Julia Perkins Cutler (Cincinnati, 29. William Perry, A General Dictionary of the English Language. ... (London, 1888), Vol. 1,p. 23i,July7, 1787. 1793), defined pantaloons as "a garment consisting of breeches and stock- 5. The Western Journals of John May 1788-1789, ed. Dwight L. Smith ings in one piece;" Milia Davenport, The Book of Costume (New York, 1965), (Cincinnati, i96i),p. 29, diary entry of April 24,1788 (hereafter John May, p.653- Journals). 30. For the variety of materials, see M. Montgomery, in 6. Walpole, Letters, Vol. 14, p. 89, letter of October n, 1788. America 1650-1870 (New York, 1984). 7. For some early fashion periodicals see Vyvyan Holland, Hand Coloured 3 1. Smith & Findlay bill to Isaac Younghusbands, August 1793-June 1794. Fashion Plates 17 70-18 99 (London, 1955). Correspondence and other papers of the Torrence family, Box 33, No. 6, 8. Cincinnati Directory... By a Citizen (Cincinnati, i8i9),p. 22. MSS Collection, The Cincinnati Historical Society (hereafter Torrence Fall 1987 Clothing Early Cincinnati 47 papers); Centinel of the North Western Territory, November 23, 1793 (hereaf- ter Centinel). 32. Knopf", Anthony Wayne, pp. 57, 65, 155, 212, 235, 247, 309. 3 3. Lee Shepard, "News from North Bend. Some Early Letters," Bulletin {/:;.'.„) Cincinnati Historical Society, Vol. 1 5, No. 4 (October 1957), p. 318. 34. John Nlzy, Journals, pp. 89, 103, 105, 164. 3 5. John May, manuscript Journal entry from Tuesday, May 19, 1789, MSS Collection, The Cincinnati Historical Society. 36. I am indebted to Jane Durrell at the Cincinnati Art Museum for the suggestion that this might be private, family slang. 37. John May, MS accounts, entry for May 8, 1789, MSS Collection, The Cincinnati Historical Society; Journals, pp. 154, 155. 38. "Diary of Major William Stanley, 1790-1810," Quarterly Cincinnati Historical Society, Vol. 14 (1919), 2-3, p. 19; Beverly W. Bond, Jr., cites a statement by John Bartle (in the Draper Collection, Wisconsin State His- torical society) that Henry Reed already had a store in Cincinnati when Bartle arrived in 1790, ibid., Vol. 18 (1923), No. 2—3, p. 115. VIVE L'EMPEREUR!

42. John May, Orderly Book, entry for January 19, 1790, MSS Collection, The Cincinnati Historical Society. 43. Torrence papers, Box 33, No. 4. 44. John May, Journals, pp. 131, 148, 150; Centinel, November 16, 1793, John Armstrong, ad. Imperial Proclamation, 45. The Cincinnati newspaper, Western Spy and Hamilton Gazette changed title to Western Spy and Miami Gazette, August 28,1805, and to Western Spy, September 1, 181 o (hereafter Spy). 46. Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Mercury changed title to Liberty Hall, April 39. Stanley, Diary, p. 22. 13,1809, and to Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette, December 11, 181 5 40. John May,Journals, p. 109; Western Spy, June 18,1800, ad for Mahoney's (hereafter Liberty Hall). boat store; Robert Sutcliff, Travels in Some Parts of North America in the Tears 47. Spencer, Indian Captivity, pp. 29, 35; Centinel, December 26, 1795. 1804, 1805 and 1806 (York, 1811), p. 74. 48. Centinel, July 19, 1794;November 14, 1795; August 2, 1794;October 41. Cloth at that time almost always meant wool, in contrast to other textile 4, 1794- terms that frequently changed meaning. 49. Torrence papers, Box 3 3, No. 7.

The flamboyant ad for the Costume Parisien No. 1389 barber Jeremy Tibbets in the from Journal des Dames et des Spy of January 8, 1820, Modes, 1814, an early fashion illustrated the very latest periodical. (Picture courtesy fashions for men. Cincinnati Art Museum) 48 Queen City Heritage

5 o. Centinel, October 24, 1795, May ad; Spy, August 3,1811, "Savings No. December 20, 1794, Stuart Richey; Freeman's Journal, December 17, 1796, 3- James White; Spy, September 24, 1800, Lemuel M'Donald; October 29, R. 51. Spy, March 11, September 29, 181 5; August 1, 1817; February 7,1818, Haughton; October 31, 1801, Matthew G. Wallace, Levi M'Lean. etc. 71. Spy. February 1 3, March 6, 1802. 5 2. Antonia Fraser, Cromwell The Lord Protector (New York, 19 74), p. 244. 72. Ibid., May 1 3, October 21, 1806. 5 3. J.P. Brissot de Warville, New Travels in the United States of America... . 7 3. Ibid., March 12,1800. (Bowling Green, Ohio, 1919), p. 265. 74. Aurora, June 12, 1801 and thereafter. See August 5 and October 6, 54. The Journal of William Maclay Senator from Pennsylvania 1789-91 (New 1801 for diagram and women's lefts and rights. York, 1927), p. 61, entry of June 1, 1789; see also Cornelius William 7 5. Spy, March 11, 1 801. Stafford, The Philadelphia Directory for 17 97, p. 29. 76. Ibid., April 24, 1805;Liberty Hall, May 14, 1805; February 2, 1809. 5 5. Spy, December 12, 1817. 77. Garsault, Arts et metiers, Vol. 1, p. 48. 5 6. Ibid., February 2, 1816. 7 8. Cunnington, Handbook of Fashion in the Eighteenth Century, pp. 3 04- 305. 57. Centinel, July 25, 1795, A. & J. Hunt ad. 79. Margaret Swain, "The Linen Supply of a Scottish Household 1777-1810," 58. Queen's Ware was a line of dishes, vases, etc. of fine pottery with a Textile History, Vol. 1 3 (1982), p. 81. creamy glaze imitating porcelain, on the market since the 1760's. 80. Margaret Bayard Smith, The First Forty Tears of Washington Society, ed. 59. Spy, June 10, 1799, Jones ad; Aurora/General Advertiser (Philadelphia), Gaillard Hunt (New York, 196 5), p. 46. May 5, 1801, "London Fashions" (hereafter Aurora) The Family Letters of 81 .New Letters ofAbigail Adams, p. 241, letter of March 18, i8oo;Morison, Thomas Jefferson, ed. M. Betts and J.A. Bear (Columbia, Missouri, 1966), Otis, p. 136, letter of January 18, 1800; National Intelligencer, April 17, pp. 238, 280, letters of October 29, 1802 and October 26, 1805, to 1801; Spy, September 11, 1805. Jefferson to his daughter Martha. 82. Liberty Hall, March 25, 1812. 60. Family Letters of Thomas Jefferson, p. 392, letter of May ^ 1809; Cincinnati 83. Spy, March 28, 1811. Past and Present. ...(Cincinnati, 1872), p. 12. 84. Ibid., August 21, 1819. 61. Spy, October 29, 1800. 85. Ibid., May 18, 1803, Newburyport; June 6, 1812, Samuel Kidd; May 62. Ibid., March 25, i8oi,JamesForgusonad;July 29,1801, Francis Andre 28, 1814, Kershaw & Alley; April 13,1820, M. & A. Haughton; February ad; October 8, 1799, Jones ad; September 30, 1801, M'Cullough ad; April 24 $25 Hat, September 1, 1821, "Fault Finder;" Aurora, May 5, 1801, 20, 1803, Francis Menessier ad. "London Fashions" and No. 6 5 South Third Street; National Intelligencer, 63. Reeder family papers, folder, 9, MSS Collection, The Cincinnati His- May 14, 181 o, Gallatin's report. torical Society. 86. Spy, April 23,1814, Lambert; May 28, 1814, New Shoe Store. 64. New Letters of Abigail Adams i788-i8oi,ed. Stewart Mitchel (Boston, 8 7. Family Letters of Thomas Jefferson, p. 31. 1947), p. 218, letter of December 4,1799; Samuel Eliot Morrison, Harrison 88. Steam Mill, Spy, April 3, 181 3; May 7, December 3, 1814; May 17, Gray Otis 1765-1848. ...(Boston, 1969), p. 140, letter to his wife, winter 1816. 1798-1799. 89. Ibid., December 22, 1810. 65. A. Boyer, Dictionnaire Franpois-Anglois et Anglois Francois, en Abrege90. Ibid., June 9, 1815. (Paris, 1797), defines a pelisse as a furred cloak or coat, and Thomas 91. Ibid., February 16, 1816. Jefferson, in letters of December 27, 1798, and November 4, 181 5 uses the 92. Ibid., September 29, 181 5. term this way. 9 3. Liberty Hall, April 27, 181 3; February 2, 181 5; Spy, February 4, 181 5; 66. Aurora, May 5, 1801, "London Fashions." November 19, 1814, "Rich Prize;" see also Morison, Otis, pp. 326—327, 67. Dr. Daniel Drake, "Notices of Cincinnati in 181 o," Quarterly Cincinnati 338, 341, 346. Historical Society, Vol. 3 (1908), No. 2, p. 31. 94. Spy, April 28, 181 5. 68. See Liberty Hall, August 21, 1815, "Curtius;" September 4, J. Cleves 95. Ibid., March 12, 1808. Short. 96. Ibid., March 18, 1806; reprinted verbatim in Spy of August 10, 1820. 69. Centinel, September 19, 1795, Campbell & Williams; Spy, July 9,1800, 97. Cincinnati Directory, i8i9,p. 123; Spy, May 18, 1820. Lyon & McGuinnis. 98. Spy, January 2, May 1, June 19, 1819. 70. Spy, September 24, 1799, July 30, 1800, Francis Mennessiers; Centinel, 99. Liberty Hall, October 6, 1812.