Samuel Griffin the Craftsman

Prominent on the list of items in Samuel Griffin’s will are his carpenter and joiners tools along with his loom. To live on the American frontier required that a man became a jack-of-all-trades. He had to have the skills to manage a farm. Those skills ranged from the large-scale crops to the vegetable garden. There is a whole set of skills involved in food preservation. He had to be skilled at animal husbandry; horses, oxen, cows, sheep, pigs. A home, barns and outbuilding all demanded that he be an adequate carpenter and handy man. While the large majority of colonial men made their living as farmers the size of Samuel’s farm seems to indicate that farming was not his primary occupation thus the prominence of his tools in his list of assets. Listed in the deed records for his property in Killingworth was a wood working shop. The presence of such a shop seems to indicate that Samuel devoted a portion of his time to working as a carpenter. Such a shop also implies that it contained the tools of the wood working trade. We get a hint of his skills from the history written for Essex, Vermont. In 1802 a number of citizens met to establish an ecclesiastical society. The group met in the home of Sam Griffin. The history of Essex describes a community effort at managing a sawmill. So by 1802 we find the carpenter Samuel Griffin with access to a ready supply of lumber and with the tools and necessary skill set constructing a home large enough to host a meeting of probably a representative body of the heads of all the households in Essex. Samuel’s will lists both carpenters’ tools and joiners tools two different sets of tools. Carpenters tools included large saws, hammers, squares, plum bobs etc. Joiner’s tools are a separate category of tools intended for more precise applications. There are carpenters then there are finish carpenters. Finish carpenters make cabinets, furniture, window and doorframes, molding and ornamentation. The hallmark of a “joiner” was their ability to craft a mortice-tenon joint. Take a look at the legs of any wooden chair or a wooden drawer where the pieces are fit together one piece inserted into another then imagine the skill it take to do that by hand. The house in Killingworth is lined by carefully worked two-inch bead board. The list of joiner’s tools includes wood planes both large and small, chisels, gouges, squares, gauges, a brace and bit, and delicate saws. The shop of a joiner has a purpose built table with build in clamps that enable a craftsman to hold and manage the material he is working on. Such was probably the world for Samuel Griffin. In the wintertime he apparently turned to his loom. The clothes you wore were produced on your loom although indications are that not every household had its own loom. Weaving took a good deal of skill. Present day weavers are considered to be artisans. Cloth was also a source of income. From the history of Killingworth we draw this description “They first sowed the flax, and when ripe pulled it by hand, rotted it, broke, dressed, hatchelled, spun, and wove it before a (linen) shirt could be had. The sheep must grow, the wool be sheared, picked, carded, spun, woven, and the cloth cut and made up before a coat could be had.” Most colonial looms were a four-post design they were a large piece of furniture. Ownership of a loom represented a real asset. click to enlarge.