This article was written by Suzanne Sickler Ohl, an early member of the Tyrone Area Historical Society.  It was first published in November 1992.

            Even after clothing became available in town and country stores, women made it in the home.  Home dressmakers were common.  They would stay in the home for several days or a week and make the clothes for the family for the season.  They also made bed linens, towels, and scarves from the muslim or linen fabrics bought by the bolt.

            Folk art included weaving, knitting, tatting, crocheting, and quilt making.  Girls were taught to make alphabet or quotation samplers.  While learning their letters they were being taught sewing and embroidery.  Most women kept the darning egg in their big aprons or near the rocking chair.  With it was a bag of stockings needing repairs.  Lucky the children and men whose women were good darners.  The less fortunate often had big blisters on their feet from the poorly darned socks.

            Quilting bees would become social events when neighbors gathered to help sew the finished quilt top.  Many families preserve the old quilts because of their beauty, workmanship, and memories.  “Crazy quilts,” a favorite for using scraps of fabric, usually have a story to tell since they often were made from scraps used for clothing made for special events, such as the owner’s wedding dress.

            The Tyrone Hospital Auxiliary contributes to Tyrone’s Heritage by sponsoring the quilt show each year.  It serves as a vehicle for exhibiting both old and new quilts.  Many admiring visitors are attracted to this event.  A local resident, Eileen Lehner, has taken a new approach by utilizing her engineering and mathematical skills to create unusual quilts which are displayed nationally.

            In 1864 the Butterick Pattern Company was opened in New York City.  By 1880 women were able to buy cut paper patterns so they did not need to make their own or to copy an illustration from a fashion magazine.  In 1882 a Tyrone dressmaker advertised “a new system of cutting by actual measurements.”  This was the beginning of better fitting clothing.

            The Civil War helped to increase the demand for men’s wear with the standardized suit being the result.  Thus before 1882 men were able to have tailor-made or factory-made clothing.  With the greater quantity of clothes, especially underwear, better sanitation habits were possible.  Here in Tyrone men could choose clothing either from the tailors or the stores.  Many early businesses were listed as “custom tailors,” “gent’s furnishings,” “boots and shoes,” and “hats and caps.”

            There were a few women’s shops that sold millinery, elaborate hoop skirt costumes and party gowns of silk and velvet trimmed with lace.  However, most women continued to have everyday clothing made at home.  Cobbler and shoe stores, for all ages and both sexes, had an active business.  The Tyrone Bald Eagle Tannery (later North Star), which started in 1871, shipped shoe sole leather to stores as far away as Boston.

            Caring for clothing was a big job, requiring separate days for washing and ironing.  No wonder such businesses as the Chinese Laundry (starting about 1886), the Tyrone Steam Laundry (about 1893), and Albert Freeman’s Cleaners and Dyers (about 1924) were so successful for those who could afford these services and lived in town to take advantage of them.

            Much of the family’s sewing, washing, ironing, and cleaning was done at home using the tools available at the time.  These tools now are favorite collectibles.  Until homes had running water, the water was carried in from the wells or the pump, heated on the stoves, and then carried back outdoors when the jobs were done.  Often in summer the laundry was done outdoors over large fires.

            Before electricity, irons were heated in the coal stove or fireplace, clothing was made by hand, and home cleaning was done by tools powered by arm muscle.  It was hard work but people took pride in their accomplishments.

            For many families sheep were raised on the farm and used for clothing and food.  The wool was cleaned, carded (combed), and spun into yarn.  The only commercial color available for dyeing was indigo.  Usually plants were used to create various shades and tints.  A common wool color was gray, obtained by spinning together white wool, black wool, and wool dyed in indigo.  Today many people are experimenting with these natural dyes.  The yarn then was woven, knitted, or crocheted into fabrics or clothing.

            Cotton fabric was purchased in stores or from peddlers.  In the 1830s prints became an important branch of the cotton manufacturing industry thus enabling people to have variety in their apparel.  Some towns, such as Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, had spinning and weaving machines to produce silk fabric for those who could afford it.

            Many farm families used the grain, sugar, and flour sacks to make clothing and household linens.  Today an enterprising concern in Ohio is weaving flour sacks to use in clothing manufacture.  Those early flour sack clothes would be worth a high price today.

            Another device found at most home entrances was the boot scraper used to keep people from tracking dirt into the house.  This later was replaced by the doormat.  A bootjack also had its place near the outside door.  Its main purpose was to help in removing high, tight boots, fashionable in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.  Ladies as well as men used these.  The bootjack also aided in taking off dirty boots or shoes.

            One of the most important domestic labor saving devices in the 19^th century was the sewing machine.  Elias Howe invented the lock stitch machine and received his patent in September 1848.  The first Singer sewing machine in 1851 made the lock stitch and was operated by a foot treadle.  By 1882 Tyrone had its own Singer Sewing Maching Store on West Juniata (now 10^th) Street.  Many of us learned to sew on those treadle machines.  They often are found in homes today used as tables.

            Care of the family clothing and household linens was a constant chore – Monday being the traditional day for such activities.  Most washing was done in a wooden tub with a wash board for scrubbing.  Clothing was boiled in a kettle over a wood or coal fire, scrubbed with homemade soap, rinsed, and hung outdoors to dry.  Then came the clothes wringer which clamped to the wash tubs.  Quite a change from our washer and dryer of today.  People often said that they could “smell the sun” in the clean clothes.  Today as we are trying to put that fresh smell back into the laundry soap.  And many people are hanging clothes outdoors to conserve energy.

            In addition to the back-breaking chore of washing, clothes had to be ironed.  Before electricity, heavy cast hand irons, called sad irons, had to be heated in the fire.  Several irons were used, one being kept in the fire while the other was ironing.  An improvement was the portable handle for the iron plate.  This helped to decrease the risk of burns from the solid iron handle.  Then came the charcoal-filled irons but they did not become as popular.  Many of those early irons served a dual purpose either as a doorstop or bookends.

            A clever trick often used was to smooth the clean wet handkerchiefs over the sides of the bathtub or on an enamel table to dry – without a wrinkle.  Many ironing boards, having no legs, rested on two tables when used.  In 1910 Tyrone had an ironing board manufacturing company on South Logan Avenue.  Small girls were given toy irons and ironing boards so they could “iron like Mother.”  At that age it was fun.

            In early times butchering had its by-products.  Mutton or sheep fat went into tallow for making candles and pork fat became lard.  The beef fat and refuse fat – good for nothing else – was made into soap.  Soap making was a seasonal task, often in spring and in fall.  Easiest to make was the soft liquid soap which was stored in a barrel.  Hard soap took more lye and longer boiling.  It was yellowish in color and was cut into bars while soft.  That soap might have been hard on the hands bit it really did clean.  People often used that soap or the dark yellow Fels Naptha to wash their skin after being outdoors near poison ivy or oak.

            Several interesting things were used by women.  The fingers of gloves were kept supple, form fitting, and wrinkle free after washing by using a “glove stretcher.”  The ladies adorned their beautiful hair with combs, a small one being placed at the side of the head and the large size placed in the back or hair bun.

            Another use for a lady’s beautiful tresses was to have strands of hair made into a watch chain.  A newly engaged bachelor would keep his suit jacket open so his sweetheart’s “hair watch chain” could be seen.