The Untold Story: Nature's Burnt Offering to 19Th Century Settlers
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Document generated on 09/28/2021 11:21 p.m. Histoire Québec Ash to Cash – The Untold Story Nature’s Burnt Offering to 19th Century Settlers Georges Létourneau and Jay Sames Volume 18, Number 3, 2013 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/68966ac See table of contents Publisher(s) Les Éditions Histoire Québec La Fédération Histoire Québec ISSN 1201-4710 (print) 1923-2101 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Létourneau, G. & Sames, J. (2013). Ash to Cash – The Untold Story: Nature’s Burnt Offering to 19th Century Settlers. Histoire Québec, 18(3), 25–30. Tous droits réservés © Les Éditions Histoire Québec, 2013 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ H-Q Vol 18, no 3_Layout 1 2013-02-26 17:32 Page 25 HISTOIRE QUÉBEC VOLUME 18 NUMÉRO 3 2013 Ash to Cash – The Untold Story Nature’s Burnt Offering to 19 th Century Settlers By Georges Létourneau and Jay Sames Georges Létourneau is Vice President of Heritage Sutton, the historical society of Sutton, Québec. ( www.heritage - sutton.ca ). A previous version of this article appeared in the society’s publication, History Sketchbooks , No. 15, November 2011. Jay Sames is a member of Heritage Sutton and the Copy Editor / Proofreader for the English side of Cahiers d’histoire / History Sketchbooks. Though having spent much of his life as a chemical engineer, Jay has a lifelong interest in both language and history, as well as a law degree. A voracious and multifarious reader, Jay especially loves fine literature; he is a writer (locally for Le Tour in Sutton and History Sketchbooks ), a hiker and a backpacker. For Le Tour , he has written from Belarus, India, Malaysia and the UK. “Life must be lived forward, but knew that. They actively cut clean wool in preparation for it can only be understood back - down trees, and burned the weaving. The first definite and ward.” trunks, branches and stumps to tangible proofs of soap-making Søren Kierkegaard produce potash, which sold at are found on a clay tablet from good profit. The demand for Mesopotamia, dated 2200 BCE, The arc of history can often be potash, and the price paid for it, where an actual soap recipe is seen only at great temporal became quite high when that given. In Rome, Pliny the Elder remove. Only then is the impor - demand later included indus - described soap-making from tance of certain practices trial operations. goat tallow and ashes. Even the revealed. Likewise, some under - ruins of Pompeii include a soap takings are so prevalent and Potash was, during the pioneer factory, complete with finished quotidian that their mention era, extracted from hard wood bars. In Mexico, as early as three seems almost unnecessary. ashes, and rather easily pro - thousands years ago, ashes were Thus, it seems, was nascent duced. You leached one volume used when boiling maze to potash production. Everyone of ashes with two volumes of make hominy. saved ash from the woodstove; water, and boiled the water it’s how you made soap. Doing until you had a black cake of Nearer to us, in Nouvelle-France, so was as unremarkable as feed - salts. These black salts could be the production of potash was ing the horses or collecting the sold as such, or baked into pearl promoted by Intendant Talon. eggs. Like eggs, you could sell ash (so called because of its In 1669, he gave to Nicolas excess ash. Perhaps the sheer white color) by heating the black normalcy of ash collection is salts to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit why it has been given scant and boiling them to remove all attention in the histories of impurities. Pearl ash was only Lower Canada. But whether left made by asheries who had more unmentioned due to ignorance expensive kettles that could or to misunderstanding, the sale withstand the necessary heat. of potash contributed signifi - To yield more potash, some cantly to the prosperity of the used boiling water at the begin - Eastern Townships in the first ning of the leaching, and others half of the 19 th century. leached the same ashes twice. Pioneers cut down trees and burned the “[A] man’s profits are never A Very Ancient Craft trunks and branches to ash from which greater than at the time of clea - they produced potash. Prices were so good ring his lands”, wrote Judge The use of ashes goes back thou - in the first half of the 19 th century that William Cooper, founder of sands of years. It is recorded some farmers did little else. Cooperstown, New York [1] . The that the Babylonians were mak - (Photo not from Sutton.) pioneers of Eastern Townships ing soap as early as 2800 BCE to 25 H-Q Vol 18, no 3_Layout 1 2013-02-26 17:32 Page 26 HISTOIRE QUÉBEC VOLUME 18 NUMÉRO 3 2013 There were no large forests in Catherine M. Day noted that England, and what remained asheries were usually an appen - was protected, or used only to dage of a store. build ships, houses and furni - ture. (Heating was done using The Export Demand coal, not wood.) Aware of this, the Commerce Board continual - In Europe, the Napoleonic Wars ly asked Governors of colonies (1799-1815) caused an increase Farmers kept some potash for their own to promote the production of in the North American potash use. Most families made their own soap in potash, but the Governors trade. Between 1806 and 1808, their back yards, which they used around always found excuses not to do the Continental Embargo pro - the house. (Photo not from Sutton.) so. The first few who tried went claimed by France and its allies bankrupted because of lack of against England, the embargo Follin the exclusive right to pro - competence, and it was soon by England against France, and duce potash from ashes collec - judged too risky. the embargo of the United States ted from the inhabitants of Qué - against England, brought inter - bec. In 1671, Talon built a Beginnings of Production in national commerce to a stand - potashery in Québec that stop - Lower Canada still. England had to rely enti rely ped production only a few years on its colonies for potash, and after his departure. Finally, after the American War Canada was the only reliable of Independence, in northern supplier. By 1809, the price of The Growing Needs of English New York and Vermont where potash was so high that farmers Industries by 1780 thousands of farmers became more interested in burn - had settled, merchants started to ing wood to make potash than The production of potash resu - buy ashes and make potash. in doing anything else. Consi - med with the arrival of the Potash brought high prices, and derable quantities of potash British. English industries nee - the large quantity of cheap were made in the Eastern Town - ded potash to process tons of ashes meant huge profits. Many ships. Reverend Charles Stewart wool from Australia and tons of were motivated to go into reported in 1815 that some far - cotton from America. The Bri - potash production. At the same mers, in fact, did nothing else. tish Empire was expanding too, time, Americans, loyalists and This continued for many years. creating an ever more numerous others moved to Lower Canada clientele for British products. Pro - bringing with them not only the The first export to England was cessing wool and cotton means skills for making potash, but the made in 1765, but it remained a washing, bleaching and dying, motivation of great profit. The low-key activity until 1800. Then, and potash is essential in all Eastern Townships, which at the in the first half of the 19 th cen - three operations. England was time extended from the Riche - tury, production escalated. In producing cheap glassware in lieu River to Lac Mégantic, 1832, Joseph Bouchette, gene ral large quantities for its colonies, became home to the majority of surveyor of Lower Canada, as well as expensive lead crystal the American immigrants, and published his Topographical Dic - for export. Making glass takes potash-making spread quickly tionary of the Province of Lower potash. In 1750, John Mitchell, a through all of southern Québec, Canada . In it he records 211 pota - Cambridge professor, in a pres - anywhere hardwood grew in sheries and 157 pearl asheries. entation to the Philosophical large quantities. About the same time, fiscal year Transactions of the Royal 1835-36, potash exports from Society, concluded: “No nation Most merchants accepted black Lower Canada rose to 6003 tons. [2] can do without potash, an essen - salt and ashes in exchange for tial ingredient in soap, dye, goods; there was profit in To appreciate what it takes to bleach and glass, and England is reselling ashes and producing produce 6003 tons of potash, a nation that does not know black salt. In her History of first note that this is over 12 mil - how to make it right.’’ the Eastern Townships , 1869, lion pounds. It takes 10 pounds 26 H-Q Vol 18, no 3_Layout 1 2013-02-26 17:32 Page 27 HISTOIRE QUÉBEC VOLUME 18 NUMÉRO 3 2013 of ashes to produce one pound Lower Canada had been, by far, Blanchard write that black salts of potash, and 12 pounds of wood the most important producer of were an absolutely necessary must be burned to yield just one potash, and by 1850 it was export product.