Tanneries of Brown County
~ by Julia Pearson
The first record of leather tanning in the United States was in 1791 from the Secretary of the Treasury. In his report on manufacturers he says:“ Tanneries are not only carried on as a regular business in numerous parts of the country, but they constitute, in some places, a valuable item of incidental family manufacture.” He further stated that the government encouraged it by prohibiting both the import of leather and the export of the bark. The alleged price of bark was from $ 3 to $ 4.50 per cord.
Tanneries in the United States used the skin and hides of animals slaughtered in the whole country, plus imported half a million more from Central and South America, and the British East Indies. Hides processed in the tanneries came from animals slaughtered for meat. Tanneries were started near locations where bark was accessible for the manufacturing processes of leather.
The skins or hides would undergo several stages in the traditional tanning process. The skins were first preserved using salt. They were then dehaired, degreased, desalted and soaked in water over a period of six hours to two days. Historically this process was considered a noxious or“ odoriferous trade” and was relegated to the
James Parmelee. photo courtesy of Brown County History Center
outskirts of town. Tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name. The final step was drying.
The finished leather was made into many household and farm goods including shoes, boots, belts, jackets, bags and cases, trunks, book bindings, as well as harnesses, saddles, and upholstery.
Ad from an old newspaper. courtesy of Brown County History Center
Leftover leather scraps would historically be turned into glue. Tanners would place them in a vat of water and let them deteriorate over a period of months. The resulting mixture would then be placed over a fire to boil off the water to produce glue.
Brown County had its own profitable tanneries in the mid-1800s. The US Census for 1840 reports that both sole and upper leather were produced here. The businesses were the result of possibly $ 6,000 in investment and employed six men. An 1849 edition of the Indiana Gazetteer reported that eight different tanneries had collective annual revenues of $ 50,000 and provided gainful employment for twenty-five men.
Southeast of Nashville, a tannery opened by Benjamin Huntington remained in operation till the Civil War. In 1851 Timothy D. Calvin started a tanning enterprise, which was later purchased by Shotwell & Larkin, followed by Dow Head. In 1857, Daniel Marsh operated an establishment known as the“ Harness and Leather Store” and advertised his constant inventory of harness and leather for cheap sale. They paid in cash the highest market value for tan bark and hides from local sources at their Tan-Yard in Nashville.
58 Our Brown County • March / April 2019