Museum Corner June 2020

A Step Back in Time

By Becky Buher, Guest Columnist

Welcome back! The museum plans to reopen on June 16, and one of the new displays will help us discover the rigor of creating clothing or making linens for a household in the 1800s.

Thanks go to Jay Fiddler, who donated Daniel Pafford’s walking spinning wheel to the museum. Pafford’s name and the Malott and Reed store name are imprinted on it.

The Malott and Reed store was located on the east side of the Bedford Public Square in the 1850s and 1860s. The brick building in which the store was located still exists. The cornice at the roofline appears to be early cast metal. Of course, the storefront and the interior have changed drastically over the 170 years, and in 2020 holds two businesses—McIntyre & Smith Attorneys at Law and Wildflower Antiques and Primitives.

The Pafford spinning wheel—Daniel Pafford, married Hannah McBride in 1835 in Lawrence County. The spinning wheel could have been used by Hannah in the 1850s. It is also possible that since his name is on the spinning wheel, he might have been the carpenter or joiner who created it. Did he buy the spinning wheel, or did he build it—it is a mystery.

Daniel was born in 1813 in North Carolina, lived in Lawrence County, but moved to Monroe County between 1865 and 1867. By then, he was married to Sarah Midas Roy(al). He died there in 1893 and is buried at Burch Cemetery near Kirksville.

The 1910 census includes another Daniel Pafford, a well-respected farmer living with his family on a farm between Springville and Avoca. This Daniel was then 37, wife Minnie, 32, daughters, Eugenia, Doris, Mary F. and Maud range in age from thirteen to six. So, he could not be the original owner of the spinning wheel. I can only assume he is a descendant but have yet to verify the family connection to the two Daniels.

Also in the display is a small spinning wheel, which was brought to Bedford by a woman when she immigrated to America from Bavaria. 

The making of clothing was then a very long process—for wool, it would have taken a year from sheep to shirt.

In the exhibit, you will find a pair of wool carding tools dated 1815 that were used in the home of Marquis Knight. That home was east of Otis Park and later known as the Standish farm. Another set from the 1870s has wool remaining between the carding surfaces. Wool used before spinning was called wool rolls or wool fingers, and Mary Flinn Payne’s wool fingers are from 1889.

Mary Malins Rosenbaum Sawyer’s hand woven wool blanket is from the 1870s and is a good example of the year-long process. She raised the sheep, carded and spun the yarn to create a useful wool blanket.

For linen, the year-long process began in the spring planting the flax seed, growing it in summer, harvesting the flax, retting it in water, drying it, and preparing the fibers.

The exhibit includes several artifacts that help us to understand the linen-making process. Among them is a skein of homespun flaxon grown and prepared by Levi Simpson’s family in about 1884.

There is an 1830 flax sample that Leatherwood pioneer farmer, Jesse Johnson, raised and prepared.

You will find a linen scutching tool used to break the exterior fiber of the dried flax plant, and a wooden flax comb called a heckle. In 1825, both items belonged to John Newland. At first glance, one might think them tools of torture, but they were valued tools used to create linen fabric for the household.

To spin flax fibers, the spinning wheel must have a distaff to hold fibers. After it is spun, flax is usually woven into fabric. A wooden weaving shuttle is included.

Samples are shown of the final linen product, one simple linen hand towel made from flax was grown on the Wiley Farm. There is also an example of an outstanding linen towel woven by Betsey and Hannah Campbell, who in the 1880s lived on the west edge of Bedford in a log cabin (now P Street).

Aren’t we glad that times have changed enough that we no longer need a year to provide textiles and clothing for our homes and families.