In the 19th century Indiana’s forests teemed with wild animals. Farmers raised hogs and cattle and horses. These animals provided food, labor, and one more commodity – leather. People needed shoes, of course, but also other leather clothing and saddles, harnesses, bridles and straps.
Leather is transformed from animal skins in a process called tanning. A large tannery in southern Indiana in the second half of the 19th century was the Sargent Tannery in Martin County, Indiana.
Established in 1847 by David Borland, it was sold to Elisha Sargent in 1857. It became a family business with a brother, sons and nephews working together in the long, hard job of turning a raw hide into leather. The Sargents enlarged the tannery to 48 vats making it one of the largest in Indiana.
Often referred to as an ‘odiferous’ occupation, tanneries were often at the edge of town and since they required a lot of water, they were close to streams. Martin County folk took to calling the stream by the Sargent business the Tanyard Creek and complained about its odor.
The first step in the tanning process was to soak hides in clear water to soften them. Then the hides would be placed on a breaking beam and any remaining flesh would be scraped off.
Then the hides would be placed in limewater and then again placed on the breaking beam to scrape off the hair. One more soaking, this time in ‘rotten’ water made by adding chicken manure. This would ‘bate’ or soften the hides. After a few weeks in the bate vats, the hides were scraped with a sandstone or soapstone tool.
To add color the hides were placed in ‘handler’ vats. Ground bark from chestnut or oak trees was made into a ‘bark ooze’ and the hides would be soaked for six weeks to two months. Then they would be placed in a storage tank with more bark ooze for six more months.
The next step involved pasting the hides with fish oil or tallow for a week. Then the tanner would use a ‘whitening’ knife to shave the leather to a uniform thickness.
So after a year, the raw hides with the help of chicken manure, limewater, tree bark and lots of water have become leather, ready for whatever use the Sargent’s customers desired.
The Sargent tan-yard operated until 1889 when the old-fashioned methods and tools gave way to more modern methods.
Connection: Elisha Sargent was the father-in-law Elizabeth Sims, my husband’s 1st cousin 3x removed.
familyconnectionsblog - 