Legacy Library: Exhibit Lesson/Activity Ideas: Pioneer Life (2024)

Pioneer Clothing

For pioneers, the production of clothing was a basic necessity. With limited access to trading posts or stores, pioneer families produced much of their everyday clothing. Even in larger cities, ready to wear, or “store bought” clothing did not exist until the early 20^th century. All clothing was made to order by a tailor, seamstress, or the women of the family. If a frontier family had access to fabric at a trading post, the women still had to cut out and hand sew it into wearable garments. On average, a man’s shirt required 3 yards of cloth, while a woman’s simple dress needed at least 4 yards of cloth.

Many families had access to the tools necessary to take their own clothing from raw material to thread to fabric to finished product. The vast majority of their clothing was made from linen, wool, or a combination of both, called linsey-woolsey.

“For more than twenty years, nearly all the cloth worn in the families of farmers, and many in town, for every day dresses, was made in the houses of the wearers, by their wives and daughters. Necessity, as well as economy, led to this domestic manufacture. Foreign cloth was too dear for common use, and only worn for nice dresses.”- Samuel Hildreth, “Pioneer History”

Painting by George Henry Boughton

Cotton was still extremely expensive (and thus uncommon) for several reasons. It was not widely grown in America until the 1820s, so the vast majority of cotton was imported from India- the term “calico” comes from Calcutta, the largest city in India. Also, the cotton gin (the machine that removed seeds from the cotton boll) was not invented until 1792, so the processing of cotton was labor intensive and time consuming, driving up costs. It was only after the development of the cotton gin that it became the dominant agricultural crop of the South. In the late 18^th century cotton was sold for $0.40-0.50 per pound, and the average family made only $60 a year, so it was considered a luxury item.

“For the first few years cotton was raised in small quantities and manufactured into stockings, or cloth, with hemp or flax…After a few years, the early frosts of autumn destroyed much of it before the floss was formed, and taught them that this was not the proper climate for cotton.”- Samuel Hildreth, “Pioneer History”

Linen

The most common fabric found in the United States in the 18^th century was linen. Grown from the flax plant, it is typically planted in May and harvested in July (wool, on the other hand, required at least a year to grow on the sheep before it could be shorn). On average, each person required ¼ of an acre of flax for ayear’s worth of clothing. Linen required Photo by WolfgangSauber a longand labor intensive process to be transformed from plant to spinable fibers. First, the flax was uprooted and left to dry in the field. While drying, it was repeatedly rippled, or dragged through large wooden combs to remove the seeds, which were pressed into flaxseed oil or saved for planting the following year.

Next, the flax stalks were left in water to rot for several weeks to soften the hard outer shell of the stalks to make their removal easier. Then, they were taken indoors to dry again. The woody outer shell of the stalks were removed using a flax brake (an example of this is fig. 11 in the illustration on the left). The brake was a large wooden device with board placed in an alternating pattern on the top and bottom. When closed, it broke the stalks, separating the outer shell from the fibrous center.

The flax was now swingled, or hit with a large wooden knife until all of the chaff and debris was removed. This also softened the fibers and removed natural resins that made it resistant to dyes. Finally, the fibers were pulled through hetchels (shown below), a series of combs running from wide to narrow to remove any remaining impurities.

The flax fibers were spun into thread using a spinning wheel. The thread’s quality was dependent on the spinner’s skill. A skilled spinner could spin two skeins of linen a day.

“In the spring of 1790, Captain Dana sowed a piece of flax, pulled it early in June, while it was in blossom, water rotted it in a swamp near the river, had it dressed out and spun in the from Denis Diderot's Encyclopedia (1762). family,and wove into substantial cloth by his son William.”- Samuel Hildreth, “Pioneer History”

For more information about the production of linen, see Colonial Williamsburg's blog post here:

https://www.history.org/foundation/journal/winter15/hemp.cfm

Deerskin

Durable clothing made from buckskin or leather was also in use on the frontier, and was most often used to make trousers or pants. Transforming deer skin to leather was a fairly straight forward process. After the deer was skinned, all of the fat and meat was scraped off of the hide. Next, the hair was scraped off. To tan the leather, the hide was placed in a bucket, along with a cloth pouch containing a paste made from dried deer brains, and rubbed with the brain paste. It was then stretched on a special board made for tanning hides until it was dry, then returned to the bucket and rubbed with the brain paste and stretched again until it was soft. To waterproof the hide, it was smoked over rotten wood.

“Many families who had been brought up on the frontiers, depended entirely on the skins of animals killed in the chase, for clothing… Before the introduction of sheep, buckskin pantaloons were in general use by all the farmers’ boys.”- Samuel Hildreth, “Pioneer History”

“Sheep had not yet been introduced into the country, and all their home spun garments were made from flax and hemp, or the skins of the deer, which, when nicely dressed, afforded warm and comfortable jackets and pantaloons for the men and boys.”

Wool

After the sheep were shorn, the wool was washed and dried. Small children were enlisted to pick out any grass, burrs, and other foreign material from the fibers. Older children carded the wool using wool cards, or paddles with small wire teeth until the wool fibers combined into a long, sausage shaped roll. The women then spun these rolls into thread on their spinning wheel.

“Sheep were not introduced until after the war (The Ohio Indian Wars, 1790-1795), in the year 1797, or ’98; the first came from Pennsylvania.”- Samuel Hildreth, “Pioneer History

The combination of linen and wool into one piece of fabric was called linsey-woolsey. Linsey-wolsey was commonly found on the frontier because it was durable and because it required less of both linen and wool than either fabric.

Weaving

Thread was woven into fabric using a large wooden loom. It was first warped, or stretched the length of the loom in dozens of rows to establish the length and width of the fabric. More thread, called the weft, was then woven through the warp thread to create its width.

Image from WikimediaCommons

Dye

Both linen and wool were colored using a variety of plant based dyes. Black walnut hulls created brown fabric, golden rod was used for yellows and light greens, and indigo purchased at trading posts created blue fabrics.

Men’s Clothing

The staple garment of a pioneer man’s wardrobe was a linen shirt. They ranged from coarse homespun for everyday to finer, Irish linen for special occasions. These shirts were usually long and loose-fitting, able to be tucked into breeches or trousers (underwear was not common for men or women at this time). Knee length breeches were fashionable, but saved for important occasions. They buttoned in the front and laced up in the back to allow for freedom of movement for work or riding horses. Leather, homespun linen or wool trousers were common. Many frontier men adopted leather leggings from the Native American tribes to cover their legs below the knees.

Men also wore button up vests and coats, especially during the winter. Hunting shirts were also common for everyday wear. They were a long open front linen shirt with a shoulder cape with fringe. The hunting shirt was worn by overlapping the sides and secured by a belt.

Homemade moccasins and leather shoes were worn with linen or wool stockings, which came up to the knee. Hats ranged from homemade wide-brimmed straw hats in the summer to knit or fur hats in the winter.

Women’s Clothing

Women typically wore more layers than men. The first layer was a linen shift or chemise. Similar to a nightgown, the chemise was elbow length, loose-fitting, and fell to the woman’s knees. The neck usually featured a drawstring and was worn during both daytime and nighttime. Neither women nor men had pajamas as we understand them. They simply wore their shirts or chemise to sleep in. The chemise protected the outer garments from sweat and body oil, and was made to be hard wearing and durable.

Next came the bodice or stays. 18^th century stays for the working class typically laced up in the front and back so the wearer could put them on without help. Unlike women in the later Victorian era whose corsets were tightened to give them tiny waists and an hourglass figure, stays of the middle and working class women of the 1780s and 1790s were used primarily for back support.

Depending on the time of year, women wore at least one petticoat, or skirt. Petticoats had long strings to tie at the waist and were calf to ankle length. Linen petticoats were worn during warmer weather, and linsey-wolsey, wool, or quilted wool petticoats were layered during colder months.

Over the chemise and stays, women wore a short gown. The short gown was a jacket made of the same material that was usually elbow length and fastened in the front by metal pins. On average, a women during the 1780s married in her early 20s and was pregnant on average every 2-3 years, or at least 6-7 times (often more!) This meant that her body was constantly changing, so buttons that had to match specific buttonholes were not practical. Every piece of women’s clothing was adjustable, and fastened either by ties or straight pins. All women wore aprons and caps of varying colors and patterns. White was usually reserved for Sundays. Like the men, shoes were either moccasins or leather with hard soles.

Children

Children typically wore simple shifts or shirts cut from their parents’ old clothing until they reached the age of 8 or 10. Afterwards, they dressed in the same manner as their parents.

Questions for students

What kinds of clothing were worn by pioneer men? By women? By children?

What materials were used in making their clothing?

Do you think the pioneers valued nice clothing as much as we do? Do you think pioneer men, women, and children were concerned about their appearance as we are?

What article of clothing from the pioneer era would you like to wear? What article of clothing do you think would be hard to get used to wearing?