Manufacturer of Shoddy Goods
a shoddy picker
How would you feel if your ancestor was described as a 'manufacturer of shoddy goods'?
I came across this discription in a local history book:
"Around 1858 the [manufacturing] privilege at Branch Village [Smithfield, Rhode Island] was purchased by the Blackstone Manufacturing Company, who manufactured shoddy goods and leased the scythe works for several years."The History of North Smithfield by Walter Nebiker (Somersworth, NH: New England History Press, 1976), page 92.
If that company was owned by your ancestor, could you defend him? Well yes, if you were familiar with the original definition of "shoddy." According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, it means "a reclaimed wool from materials that are not felted," and "a fabric often of inferior quality manufactured wholly or partly from reclaimed wool."
During the U.S. Civil War the term came to describe the inferior uniforms and blankets supplied to the Union Army. And in October of 1863 the New York Herald complained that "The world has seen its iron age, its golden age, and its brazen age. This is the age of shoddy." Quoted in an article about Col. George L Beal at The Maine State Archives. It was downhill from there, so to speak, for the word "shoddy" until it arrived at the current meaning of poor quality and second-rate.
But if your ancestor lived in the mid-1800's and manufactured "shoddy goods" you can be proud of him. After all 100% of his product came from recycled material. How many people can say that?
For an explanation of the process of making shoddy wool, which was first developed in Britain, see the article "What is Shoddy?" at HistoryHouse.co.uk.
Credits
The image of a shoddy picker comes from the Collection of Maggie Land Blanck.