Radio Script #1160

Little Talks on Common Things
April 9, 1978

Almost unknown today is one vocation that played a large part in the development of our country – the occupation of peddler. Because he became most common in the northeast during colonial times, he was everywhere called the Yankee Peddler. During the long years of our nation’s growth, the rural population far exceeded the urban, many homes were isolated, neighbors were far apart, and the visits of the itinerant peddler were welcome events.

The peddler had not entirely disappeared at the beginning of the century when I was a boy in the early grades of school. At that time, automobiles were a rare sight on Maine roads – just a few coughing Reos and Maxwells and an occasional Stanley Steamer. It was, of course, the automobile, especially the Ford Model T, making it possible for country people to get easily into town for shopping, that spelled the end of the Yankee Peddler, but in 1910 he was still around.

The peddlers I best remember were specialty sellers. One was a distinguished looking man with a Van Dyke beard, ,who peddled his own medical concoction, Knight’s Opedildoc, which he declared to be a remedy for many ills. Some of the town bibbers liked to get hold of it – they said it was better than rum and molasses, if you were careful not to shake the bottle before partaking. What they meant was, don’t let shaking disturb the alcohol rising to the top. Another peddler was Bennett Strout, who personally mixed the extracts that he sold: vanilla, lemon, almond, peppermint, wintergreen, and all the others. Knight had an ornate wagon with pictures painted on the sides, while Strout’s outfit was a small box-like wagon something like today’s panel truck. Both peddlers drove allover Cumberland County’s rural areas with their wares.

Far more common were the rag peddlers. There were seldom the same men coming twice to the same area, and so were not so well known personally as were Knight and Strout, but they were just as welcome. In the villages people became used to their chant: “any rags, any bones, any bottles today?” They seldom paid money for the rags they picked up at homes. For those rags they exchanged tinware, and occasionally pins and needles. Hung all along the sides of their carts were pans, dippers, ladles, baking sheets, and pails.

In the summer we eagerly awaited the arrival of the Indian woman with her baskets for sale.

As a boy I never saw much of the Grand Union tea and coffee peddler. because I lived in a village with many local merchants, and a Grand Union man knew he would fare better out in the farm area.

The first Yankee peddlers had neither carts nor horses. They travelled on foot with heavy loads on their backs. When they first began their rounds, carts would have been useless, because the few beaten trails would not accommodate them. As soon as a peddler could afford it, he often did buy a horse and made his rounds on horseback with his wares packed in saddle bags. Then when the trails were cleared of boulders and widened to accommodate wheeled vehicles, the peddlers got carts. What an occasion it must have been for the family of an early settler when the peddler stopped at their cabin. Perhaps it had been a month since wife and children had seen a strange face. What a thrill it was for them to hear from the peddler’s lips news of the outside world, then examine the wonderful items in the peddler’s pack. When the saddle bags changed to carts, many small items were displayed on turned-downsides of the vehicle, and of course both the number and variety of articles were greatly increased.

The first peddlers dispensed general merchandise of small size, being able to take on larger items in greater quantity in the carts. Not until well into the 19th century did the specialty peddler appear – the essence and spice men, the medicine men, and many others.

What did the early peddler sell?. For one thing, all kinds of tinware, most of it made in Berlin, Connecticut. There were wash basins, dishpans, plates and platters, cups, coffee pots, tea kettles, and many other common household objects. The peddler had special status if his stock included Dutch Ovens and candle sconces to be attached to the wall. Of course he had numerous sizes of pails, dippers. and cups, and canisters for sugar, salt, pepper and spices. Because tinware was destructible and had to be often replaced, the peddler was sure of repeat business.

Probably the single most indispensable item in the peddler’s pack was the needle. That was an absolute necessity if the family was to have clothes, and for pioneer families most clothes were made on the farm. From the farmer’s sheep the wool was sheared, carded, spun, and woven right on the place. Closely allied to the needle was the pin. Not until the second third of the 19th century did any American factory make pins; they were made of brass wire in England and were much more expensive than they are in our own inflation times. At first the peddler carried them in a big box and sold them by the dozen, counting them out by hand. Then they came in small boxes containing a gross, 144 pins. After 1800 they were stuck into rolls of paper, and that is the way they were in my own boyhood. As for metal needles, long before the discovery of the process to turn iron into steel, they were made in Hamburg, Germany as early as the 11th century, nine hundred years ago. By the end of the 13th century, they were being made in England, and until well into the 19th century all needles used in America came from the mother country.

I can personally testify to the importance of needles in recent times. I was well acquainted with a Norwegian lady in Cleveland, Ohio, whose family was in Oslo during the German occupation in World War II. Though it was difficult to get letters out of Norway, a few did reach her. In every letter her relatives begged her to send them their most needed article – needles.

The peddlers carried what pioneers certainly considered to be a few luxury items, among them buckles. In colonial days shoes – not the rough country boots – were fastened by buckles, not laces, and a status symbol was the silver buckle. Brass buckles designated a lower social status. It was said to have been a man named Pratt in Randolph, Massachusetts, who developed the shoestring or shoelace. He conceived the idea of cutting leather into long, thin strips for tying shoes. Old shoestring Pratt is said to have made a fortune, as peddlers made his shoestrings popular allover the land.

Many cutting implements were in the peddlers’ pack. For centuries something that eventually became the pocket knife had been a necessity. We do not know who invented the folding knife, but by 1800 every peddler had some in his pack.

While most household wooden ware was homemade, the peddler soon had some for sale – chopping bowls, butter molds, and other wooden dishes were in demand. When his cart was big enough to carry the small churns, he was really in business.

The peddler sold many musical instruments. First was the jew’s harp. It was small and could be carried in quantity. Soon the peddler sold fiddles – he never called them violins – and in quality they were by no means Amatis or Stradivari – their price rarely exceeded two dollars.

More space in the carts enabled the peddler to carry clocks, and he could also have heavy pottery; especially the big jugs for vinegar, molasses, and water, and the giant crocks for pickles.

Today it seems strange to be told that the peddler, sold eyeglasses. Now, when lenses are carefully ground by a specialist’s prescription, we cannot easily understand how a person needing glasses could get a satisfactory pair from the itinerant peddler. The old spectacles – no one called them glasses – were made in five magnifications numbered 1 to 5. the peddler let the customer try one size after another until he got the size that gave him the best vision. Of course, that paid no attention to different need for the two eyes, but apparently it did help, for the peddler sold lots of spectacles.

Not all the itinerant merchants dispersed goods. Some of them sold services. In colonial times very important was the travelling shoemaker, much more important than his friend the travelling tailor. Because most clothes were made at home, the first itinerant tailor did nothing but cut garments from the household supply of cloth, and left the sewing to the housewives. But a shoemaker had a full job. Though he sometimes used leather secured right on the farm, he also carried a supply with him. If a family was large, he often stayed a whole week,making shoes for the entire household.

Also important was the tinker. Pewter was very- soft, easily dented and cut. Tinware needed constant repair. Attention to pewter and tinware was the job of the tinker, and he seldom called at a home that did not need his services.

Equally welcome were the grinders, who kept sharp the many cutting tools used in the home. He could do fast and easily what it took long, tedious hours to accomplish with the simple whetstone.

And how happy the man of the house was to see the travelling gunsmith. It was he who gave currency to the phrase, “lock, stock and barrel.” He could keep in repair all three – the lock that held trigger and hammer ,the wooden stock, and the long cylinder barrel.

When the peddlers became specialists, medicine men led all the rest. They included both honest men and cheats. Some peddled all sorts of nostrums guaranteed to cure every ill that attacked human flesh. In their wake came the spice and essence men, the rag peddler, and the Grand Union tea men. The peddler did more than keep the rural people supplied with manufactured goods. He was largely responsible for the development of roads. It is hard for us to comprehend that between Boston and the New York line across the Berkshires there might be at the same time as many as a hundred peddlers on the trail. Their very numbers speeded the need for roads. It was also the peddler who created the country store. Tired of the tedious travel in all kinds of weather, many a peddler decided to settle down and start a store. Just as the first peddlers carried general merchandise, so did the first country stores – selling everything from ammonia and arnica to wooden ware, wicks and yeast.

And with that salute to the old-time Yankee Peddler, we say goodbye until next week.

Year: 1978