“Our citizens have become so dependent upon the growing of wool that this article may be said to be the staple of the state.” Charles Paine, Vermont Governor, October 14, 1842
From 1820 to 1870 the raising of
sheep represented a major activity for Vermont and New Hampshire farmers. During long stretches of that 50-year period
the number of sheep far outnumbered citizens. The sheep-raising boom
significantly impacted the local economy and ecology. Even after the bloom
faded, the raising of sheep remained significant for many local farmers. This
column examines that sheep raising period.
Prior to 1810, most farmers kept a few sheep
around the homestead. The wool was homespun into cloth for blankets and
garments and the meat eaten by the farmer’s family. Writing in 1794 about raising the animals in
Vermont, Samuel Williams said, “the richness of the pastures, in new
settlements, gives an extraordinary sweetness to the meat, and richness to the
fleece.”
Most farmers suffered annual
losses to wolves and bear. The sheep in Newbury’s meadows, Frederic Wells wrote
in his town history, “had to be gathered at night into secure yards near the
dwelling, to keep them out of the reach of rapacious but cowardly
animals.”
Owners developed techniques to
identify their animals when communal pasturing was practiced or in case animals
strayed. This included unique ear cuts and punctures or smears of paint. In some towns, these brands were registered
with the town clerk. Most communities had a town pound in which straying sheep
were held until retrieved by their owner.
The establishing of local textile
mills marked the decline of homespun production. The earliest ones were carding
mills that readied wool for spinning and fulling mills that processed woven
cloth.
In 1799 Richard Gookin of
Haverhill began to manufacture wool carding machines, using techniques
illegally exported from Britain. His machines
were used widely by mills throughout New England.
By 1822 there were
cloth-finishing mills in many local communities including Post Mills, Bradford
Center, Haverhill and Wells River, most using power from local streams and
rivers.
Subsistence sheep herding came to
an end after 1809 with the introduction of Spanish Merinos by William Jarvis
for his farm in Weatherfield, Vermont. These prime animals had fine, heavy fleeces.
They were the first introduction of European purebred varieties and led to the
great sheep boom in Vermont and New Hampshire.
This introduction came at a time
when wheat as a cash crop in Vermont was declining due to Western competition
and when larger woolen mills throughout New England created a demand for
additional wool.
A number of factors made northern
New England a prime location for what rapidly became sheep mania, a boom that
took over local farms. One of the first was national events. A series of
embargoes after 1808 and the war of 1812 raised the price of wool as imports
were blocked. This was followed by a series of tariffs that further raised the
price of imported wool, making locally produced wool more competitive.
Looking back, the 1890 Vermont Agricultural Report summed up
other reasons: “the Vermont soil, Vermont climate, and the Yankee skills”
created ideal places for the sheep industry to thrive. There were hill and
river meadows ideal for grazing; brooks and small rivers for the washing of animals;
stones to build hundreds of miles of fencing and compounds; new barns and sheds
to provide shelter from cool weather; and hard working farm families to make
this all possible.
The extent of the boom in sheep
can be seen in the number of animals. In 1812 there were 11,227 sheep in
Vermont. In 1840, at the height of the boom and with wool bringing high prices,
there were 1,681,000 sheep in Vermont and 617,390 in New Hampshire.
Census figures reflect this
growth in the local area. In the census of 1837, Orford had 8,053 head of
sheep, Piermont- 4,195, Bradford- 4,249, Thetford- 7,258, Corinth- 6,272,
Haverhill- 6,915, Vershire-4,558, and Newbury- 6,608. While large, these flocks were dwarfed by
those in Shoreham, VT, located at the epicenter of the boom, with 41,000 head
in 1840.
The 1840 census reported there were 156,053 sheep in
Orange County, 100,886 in Caledonia and 174,664 in Grafton. That year Topsham
had 6,111 in its flocks and Bradford’s had increased to 9,388, more than double
the figure three years earlier. In many communities, sheep led to the exclusion
of other agricultural staples.
Lyme was one of the largest sheep
raising towns in the area. In Lyme there were 9,867 sheep in 1836, 12,557 in
1848 and 13,176 in 1855. Sheep-raising
held on longer in Lyme than in most towns and the number of sheep never fell
below 6,000 until 1886. Evidence of this could still be seen in the 1930’s with
high stone walls and enclosures around Holt’s Ledge and Smarts Mountain
Spanish merinos were not the only
breed being raised. French merinos were
also imported along with English breeds including Southdowners, Oxfordshires
and Cotswolds. Some strains were mutton
stock.
This significant increase in herding had a major impact on
farm ownership and society. In 1892 Vermont historian Rowland Robinson
describing the annual Spring shearing ritual in these rosy terms:
“Shearing-time was the great festival of the year. The shearers, many of whom
were of the flock-owner’s well to do neighbors, were treated more as guests
than as laborers, and the best the house could afford was set before them. The great barn’s empty bays and scaffolds
resounded with the busy click of incessant shearers, the jokes, songs, and
laughter of the merry shearers, the bleating of the ewes and lambs and the
twitter of disturbed sparrows.”
As
pasture land became more valuable, deforested landscapes became common. With
the demand for sheep runs, poorer farmers were encouraged to sell out to their
more prosperous neighbors. This caused many to seek new land in the West. In
1834, several publications carried a letter from the Green Mountaineer warning:
“Beware of the ‘western fever’ and above all sell not your farms to your rich
neighbors for sheep pastures.”
The
boom also had an impact on towns and cities in the two states. Lebanon and
Manchester in New Hampshire and Winooski and Bridgewater in Vermont are
examples of communities that had large industries based on textile
manufacturing. In 1879 Albert Carter of Thetford operated the Thetford Wool
Mill, later moving it to Lebanon.
The
mania began to wane in the mid-1840s. Despite opposition from farmers, the
tariff on wool was lowered in 1841 and eliminated in 1846. Even as Governor
Paine spoke of the importance of sheep-rising in his 1842 address, he warned of
the dangers of overreliance.
Eastern sheep farmers suffered from
competition from herds in the west where sheep could be raised in larger flocks
and at lower costs. Sheep-raising was also introduced into Australia and South
Africa in the 1830s and later into New Zealand and Argentina, resulting in
increased competition for world wool markets. These factors indicated just how
little control producers had over markets.
Despite the reduction in the
number of sheep being raised in Vermont and New Hampshire, the amount of wool
produced did not go down. Improved breeding led to a significant increase in
the amount of wool per animal.
This success was defined in a
1922 report published in The National Wool Grower: “Vermonters took that
fine-boned smooth, thin fleeced sheep from Spain and in three-quarters of a
century transformed him into the oiliest, wrinkliest, heaviest-fleeced animal ever
known.”
By 1850 many farmers found they
could make more money breeding prized sheep than raising wool. Owners of prized rams could demand high
prices for making them available for breeding and could sell an animal for up
to $10,000. Sheep from Vermont were sold to establish and enhance flocks in Western
states and abroad.
During the Civil War there was a
brief increase in the demand for wool.
This was the result of the decrease in availability of Southern cotton
and increase in the demand for wool for military uniforms. In some localities the number of sheep was
increased to meet this demand, despite warnings to beware of “fine wool on the
brain.”
In Newbury during that period,
“sheep raising was very profitable and at one time wool brought one dollar a
pound. Everyone rushed into the wool
business.” As the war ended there was an
equally rapid decline and, in some cases, animals were slaughtered for one
dollar apiece.
Despite the fact that the
sheep-raising boom was over, sheep continued to be important. Family farms
continued to have flocks, large and small, through the end of the century.
In March 1878 the Burlington Weekly Free Press
reported “Orrin Rice of Springfield, has six cosset sheep that have brought the
present season, 13 lambs, 11 of them alive and kicking. There were five pair of twins and one set of
triplets.” Orrin Rice was my great-great
grandfather.
Northern New England farmers had
to compete with herders elsewhere. In 1876, the Bradford Opinion reported that in the Boston market “Sheep are
selling at about the old figure. With full supply from the West the flocks from
the North have to correspond, which is hardy satisfactory.” That week lambs were selling for 7 cents per
pound.
The United Opinion of May 1887 reported that the herd of West
Newbury’s W.C. and D Carleton took “the lead for heavy fleece, five of them
shearing 120 pounds of wool.” Live
animals, wool and meat were exported from the area to markets in the Northeast
by drovers such as George Baldwin of Bradford and George Fessenden of Wells
River.
Throughout the entire period, local
agricultural fairs such as the Orange County Agricultural Society Fair allowed
farmers to exhibit prized animals. The Vermont Phoenix of September 28, 1893
reported that the show of sheep was the largest and best ever made in [Windham]
county. The article gave special praise
to H. W. Keyes of North Haverhill: “Until we saw these animals we were not
aware that any sheep had been bred so near perfection.”
The Orange County Gazetteer of 1888 listed 60 farmers in Thetford
keeping 4,590 sheep in a variety of breeds. Newbury had 29 farmers with 3,877
sheep. Sheep raising held on in some towns such as Lyme and Piermont even as it
declined in other areas of the two states. This decline was hastened by the
further reduction of the tariff on foreign wool.
One of the problems faced by
sheep farmers was damage to the flocks by dogs. This “plague” created a “sad
havoc” on herds up and down the valley.
A newspaper report in December 1877 reported that dogs killed more than
twenty sheep in the herd of Mrs. H. Keyes of Newbury. Problems with dogs caused
the Smith farm of South Newbury to give up their flock. Towns offered public
reimbursement for damage, but it was never enough.
In 1889 C. G. Nott’s queried
“What shall the New England Farmer do? He cannot compete in wool with the
unhoused flocks of Texas and California, of New Zealand and Australia.” For many farmers the answer to the question
was to switch to dairy cattle.
Some Vermont and New Hampshire
herders continued to raise sheep, although in diminishing numbers. Agricultural
census figures show the decline in number of Vermont farms and the number of
sheep kept: 1920: 3,051-62,756; 1945: 793-15,459 and 1964: 388-7941. New
Hampshire had small numbers of farms and animals during the same period and
experienced similar declines with only 355 farms and 5,602 animals reported in
1964.
Currently, the Vermont Sheep and
Goat Association reports that a number of farms keep sheep in this area. Flocks range from 6 to 650 animals and
produce wool, yarn, lambskins, meat and livestock.
While these farms have a wide
diversity of breeds and have farmers dedicated to their care, they represent
just a mere shadow of the herds that blanketed local hills during the boom of
sheep mania.