Professions and Businesses: Brookeville's Working Class

From the beginning, Brookeville was a town designed to promote commerce and industry. By 1814, the town that hosted President Madison was busy and served as a commercial center for the surrounding rural farm communities. The industrious Quakers in the town established many businesses and manufactories, but just as noticeable in the town were the many working class men and women who supported their families through menial labor. 

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Businesses

Brookeville's Post Office

Caleb Bentley was Brookeville's first post master. He was appointed to the position in 1802 when Brookeville was assigned its first post office. Bentley served almost continuously until 1818, when Thomas L. Reese took over the position.^[1] Bentley ran the post office out of the west wing of his house, where he also kept a store.^[2] Though he was already very wealthy, Bentley received a small salary of about $54 annually for gathering the town's mail.^[3] Brookeville eventually became a stop on the federal post road which traveled from Washington, D.C. to Taneytown in Carroll County. This road, which was to be maintained in good condition by the federal government, allowed for easy and direct travel between Brookeville and the nation's capital.^[4]

Brookeville's Post Office was located in the west wing of Caleb Bentley's house.

Stores in Brookeville

Brookeville was booming by the summer of 1814. To accommodate the town's growing population, at least two stores peddled a variety of goods to the people living in Brookeville. Caleb Bentley ran one of these stores out of his house, most likely in the same wing where he carried out the duties of town postmaster.^[5] Bentley also owned another store on the corner of Market Street and High Street.^[6] As early as 1812, Brice John Gassaway and his son George Gassaway were probably renting and managing the corner store for Bentley, before eventually buying it in 1816.^[7]

These small general stores sold everyday household wares, including curious products like Paul's Patent Columbia Oil, a patent medicine which claimed to cure many ailments from whooping cough to consumption.^[8] Over time, new storeowners established businesses in Brookeville. Among them were prominent Quaker resident Thomas L. Reese who continued running the store and post office out of Bentley's home around 1818, and Thomas McCormick who may have been running a store on the grounds of his estate, Longwood.^[9]

Brookeville's stores in 1814 were located in the west wing of Caleb Bentley's house and on Lot 47 in town.

       The Town Physician 

Dr. Henry Howard, a native of Frederick County, Maryland, began practicing medicine in Brookeville in 1813 after relocating from Baltimore. Dr. Howard attended to any illness in Brookeville, but later became a well-known specialist in obstetrics, women's, and children's health.^[10] Even though Dr. Howard was not Quaker, he became an involved member of the Brookeville community. In 1816, he purchased Lot 18 and the house that stood upon it.^[11] Two years later in 1818, Dr. Howard and a business partner bought the Brookeville Tannery from Thomas Moore.^[12] Dr. Howard lived and worked in Brookeville until sometime in the 1830s, when he left to teach medical students at the Universities of Maryland and Virginia.^[13]

Henry Howard likely ran his office from a building on Lot 11, Lot 12, and Lot 13.

       Brookeville Tannery

By 1813, Thomas Moore had established a tannery on Brookeville's west end.^[14] The tannery produced finished leather parts which were used to make shoes. In 1818, the town's doctor, Henry Howard, and William Woodward purchased the tannery from Moore. Under their ownership the business specialized in making leather for shoe uppers and soles.^[15] The tannery provided employment for at least six local men and boys, who likely lived around Brookeville.^[16]

The Brookeville Tannery was located on the west end of the town.

       The Town Blacksmith

Greenbury Murphy was Brookeville's first blacksmith, a skilled craftsman who made and repaired steel and iron objects. Murphy built his home and blacksmith's shop on Lot 17 in town.^[17] After Murphy moved out of state in 1810, a man named John McCauley began doing blacksmith work in the town. Like his predecessor, McCauley also lived and worked on Lot 17.^[18] Unfortunately, McCauley eventually encountered financial difficulties and the county sheriff seized the house and shop on Lot 17 to pay off McCauley's outstanding debts.^[19] Though he lost his home and workshop in Brookeville, McCauley did not relocate too far away: during the 1840s, two of his sons established their own blacksmith business in Brookeville.^[20]

Brookeville's blacksmith shop was located on Lot 17.

       The Brookeville Hatter

Bernard Gilpin, a Quaker who lived on his estate only five miles outside of Brookeville, produced "rough hard, stiff, flat-topped, broad-brimmed, felt hats" made of beaver, muskrat, raccoon, fox, rabbit, and lamb's wool. Gilpin began his operations in 1815. At one point, Gilpin's business employed ten men, one woman, and five boys. The hat makers "stood at slanting tables surrounding a tank of hot water into which they dipped the wool and fur, then kneaded them on the table to felt them, the water draining back into the tank as they worked." Gilpin's hats were sold throughout Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, and Gilpin would reportedly string his hats around his waist and "peddle" his merchandise from a horse.^[21]

The Hattery was located a few miles east of Brookeville at Gilpin's estate, Mt. Airy.

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    Mills and Factories

       Thomas's Grist Mill

Sometime between 1791 and 1794, Brookeville's founder, Richard Thomas Jr., established a grist mill on what would become the east end of the town.^[22] Thomas described his business as a "merchant mill," meaning that the mill ground local farmers' wheat, rye, corn, and buckwheat into flour for their home use, rather than for profit at market.^[23] Thomas employed a miller who he paid "liberal wages" to operate the mill. Thomas also provided a house and garden across the street for the miller and his family to reside.^[24] The mill continued to operate for almost a century after Thomas's death and the ruined foundation of the mill building is visible in Brookeville today.

Thomas's grist mill was located on the west end of the town. The miller's house sat immediately across the street on Lot 37.

       Newlin's Mill Complex

At Brookeville's west end sat another mill. Established around 1804 by David Newlin, this mill complex produced lumber, plaster, linseed oil, and castor oil. Physicians of the time described Newlin's castor oil as being "of a superior quality to that which is generally imported."^[25] Newlin lost control of his mill in 1828 when he stumbled on difficult financial times and the property was auctioned off to pay his debts.^[26] Caleb Bentley purchased the mill at auction in 1828, but Newlin's son Artemas regained control of his father's milling operations in Brookeville.^[27]

Newlin's mill complex was located on the east end of town.

       Brookeville Woolen Mill

The Brookeville Woolen Manufactory was a fulling mill that stood just a mile east of town. The factory cleaned and finished homespun woolen cloth to prepare it to be sewn into clothing. David Newlin owned and operated the mill, which he began building as early as 1812.^[28] In 1820, the factory processed a substantial 15,000 pounds of wool to produce cloth "from the common up to the full blood marina."^[29] While some of this woolen fabric was likely sold at market, much of the fabric produced at the mill was "for the use of the neighboring customers" who paid for the service in grain and other crops.^[30] At one time, Newlin's mill employed ten men, five boys, and two girls, all likely from families in and around Brookeville.^[31]

Unfortunately, Newlin began operating his mill after the end of War of 1812 when American textiles could not compete with cheaper British fabric. Insufficient demand in Brookeville for the substantial amount of wool produced at the mill and the higher costs of transporting woolen fabric twenty or more miles to market combined to weaken Newlin's business, which failed shortly after it was begun. Newlin was forced to sell the mill to Caleb Bentley to repay his debts in 1821.^[32] The mill operated for a short time even after Newlin sold it, and the old mill buildings are still intact today.^[33]

The Brookeville Woolen Mill sat about a mile east of the town of Brookeville.

       Triadelphia Manufacturing Company

The Triadelphia cotton factory, located about four miles northeast of the town of Brookeville, mechanically spun raw cotton into yarn. The factory was founded in 1809 by three Quaker brothers-in-law from Brookeville, Isaac Briggs, Thomas Moore, and Caleb Bentley. Between 1810 and 1815, a busy town containing houses, a farm, and small businesses grew around the factory. The mill's employees came primarily from local families. One male superintendent oversaw the operations and was paid roughly $12 a week, while a handful of young girls aged between twelve and sixteen were paid around $2 each week to work the spinning machines.^[34] Isaac Briggs was the company's first superintendent and his son-in-law Joseph E. Bentley oversaw the company's operations later. Unfortunately, Triadelphia's small production output, higher prices, and distance from major markets prevented the factory from competing with other cotton yarn manufacturers. In addition, Triadelphia only sold its product in small Quaker towns including Brookeville, New Market, and Waterford, Virginia.^[35] By 1816, Triadelphia was no longer profitable. Though the factory continued to produce cotton products into the late nineteenth century, it never achieved success and closed after the flood of 1889. The town was eventually covered by the present-day Triadelphia Reservoir.

The Triadelphia mill complex and town was about four miles northeast of Brookeville, on the modern Montgomery and Howard County border.

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    Skilled Craftsmen

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    Laborers

Many of Brookeville's poorer residents made a living doing menial labor on a day-to-day basis for their wealthier neighbors.^[49] Common tasks for these laborers included clearing fields, digging ditches, running errands around town, and carrying goods to and from Brookeville. Often, free African Americans and slaves found work as laborers in the town. Because these laborers were not wealthy, their lives often remain a mystery. 

Some of the town's laborers who were in Brookeville in 1814 included:

•    Shadrach Nugent, who helped build the Triadelphia cotton mills by quarrying stone for the factory buildings.^[50] He became a well-known
      leader among other free African Americans in the Maryland and Washington, D.C. area.

•    Jack Boston, a farm hand who made money by clearing farm lands and hauling crops from Brookeville to their final destinations.^[51] Boston
      was one of many free African Americans in the Maryland and Washington, D.C. area.

•    Punch Cooler, a free black man who was the head of his own household. He also performed helpful tasks like clearing meadows, for which
      he earned $4 an acre.^[52]

•    Dick Contee, a man who Gerard Brooke employed to "grub up the fields" belonging to Brooke in order to prepare them for farming.^[53]

•    Rezin Sedgwick, a free black man who was also employed by Gerard Brooke for undetermined tasks.^[54] Brooke paid Sedgwick not in
      money, but in goods. Like many other laborers, Sedgwick also rented a farm from Gerard Brooke.^[55]

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Megan O'Hern, 2014

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