Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/784

774 F. P. Goodivin taring Company was establishing at Springfield and was advertis- ing in Liberty Hal! that their carding machines, fulling mills, and cotton factory were in complete operation. They charged six and one-fourth cents per pound for carding common wool, and twelve and one-half cents per pound for carding merino wool. Customers were informed that one pound of plain hog's lard must accompany every eight pounds of wool.' These examples serve only as fair illustrations of the small manufacturing plants that existed in the various communities of the Miami Country and other parts of the West, and proved to be valuable assistants to the household industries that were carried on in every farm-house. The wool raised on the farm was taken to the carding machine and made into rolls about two feet long and one-half inch in diameter. These rolls were then taken home and spun into yarn, and the yarn was knit into stockings or woven into cloth. In the latter case, the product of the loom was taken to the fulling mill for finishing. Where possible, these mills were run by water-power, though others were operated by horse or ox-power ; and even as late as the beginning of the last cjuarter of the nine- teenth century, such a machine run by horse-power was carding wool for the farmers in the neighborhood of a village in Clermont County. In consideration of the fact that the country was so new and so distinctively agricultural, the census of 1820 reveals a remarkably large proportion of persons engaged in manufacturing in the ]Iiami Country. Persons following gainful occupations were divided into three classes ; those occupied with agriculture, commerce, and manu- factures. So we find that, in Butler County, twenty-five per cent. of the population so listed were engaged in manufacturing ; in Warren County, twenty-one per cent. ; in Hamilton and Clermont counties, twenty per cent, each ; in Darke County, fifteen per cent. ; in Greene and Champaign counties, fourteen per cent. ; in Preble County, eleven per cent. We are probably safe in assuming that at that date the Miami Country outside of Cincinnati was almost entirely agricultural ; therefore it would appear, that persons who were in any way engaged in household or shop industries were counted as being engaged in manufacturing ; but even then, the percentage of those engaged in manufacturing appears' to have been large. However, it may be taken as an indication of an effort on the part of the western people to supply themselves with manufac- tured goods without paying the high prices asked for the imported article. Further investigation probably would show that nearly