Simon the Tanner’s house by the seaside in Joppa
As a tanneur, or tanner; his home needed to be near a body of salt water and an abundant water supply. As much as our environmental sensibilities are deeply offended, it was important to find a place where the hides could be continually washed and cleansed after each tanning step. It was also important that the facility be out of town, preferably downstream and away from the typical residential neighborhoods. The odors that were emitted from the process were ghastly and could be smelled from a city block away.
The perfect location was directly on the Merrimack River and yet was close enough to a fresh-water source and away from most habitation. It was adjacent to a non-residential area and the Gerrish Shipyard at the bottom of Bromfield Street at 241-243 Water Street in the heart of the Joppa Neighborhood. The home was constructed in 1680 and away from other human habitation.
Simon’s brief fame came from the New Lights during the Great Awakening. They sought a meeting place where the Puritans would not seek them out (nor care too!) Thus, just as in Acts chapter Ten, the fledgling congregation that later become the Old South Presbyterian Church met in 1740-1742 at Simon the Tanner’s house by the seaside! Later, a wood-cabin style chapel was erected on the King’s Highway (High Street) in Storey Garden (between Federal and Lime Street)
Tanning in the Seventeenth Century
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A tanneur, or tanner, prepared the skins of animals with tan or tannin (tree bark powder),
This important task was vital for colonial life. Tanning hides was an important industry, as the tough, strong leather material was indispensable for use in harnesses, saddles and shoes.
Unfortunately, whether a pouch, a horse bridle, a sword scabbard or a book cover, a leather article was created from the skin of a slaughtered beast in a laborious and often unpleasant process.
In addition, making leather required an abundant water supply, preferably near a salt water source.
Before the development of feed crops which would allow the majority of a herd to be keep over the winter, most livestock was slaughtered in the fall, when grazing and foraging materials were becoming scarce. In a community of any size, a complex involving slaughtering pens, tanneries, horn works and finally soap and glue making facilities would arise, always placed near a source of running water, preferably near a salt water source and invariably downstream of the village or town proper. At such sites were usually located pits where waste products (useful as compost in the spring) could be collected.
After slaughtering, the hides were washed in the river or stream to remove blood, loose flesh and other soiling, then kept soaking in water until ready to process further. Cattle, swine, sheep and goats provided most of the hide commonly worked.
The most important part of the tanning process involved vats containing a variety of equally noxious solutions. These large containers (on the average about 12 feet square) were sunk slightly, with an earthen wall to help retain the water supplied by diverting part of a stream or river.
Salt is a vital ingredient in the process of curing hides for the production of leather.
Preparing hides begins by curing them with salt. Curing is employed to inhibit
putrefaction of the protein substance (collagen) because of the chance of bacterial
activity due to the time lag that might occur from procuring to processing the hide. Salt
removes the excess water from the hides and skins where water activity is greatest
because of difference in osmotic pressure. Thus the moisture content of hides and skins
get greatly reduced.
Salt products commonly used in the tanning process:
Hi-Grade Granulated Salt
Hi-Grade Granulated Salts are food grade, granular, white crystalline, sodium chloride
manufactured under stringent process control procedures by vacuum evaporation of raw,
untreated brine. Hi-Grade Salt is additive free and is available in several packaging sizes
and configurations.
Granulated Salt
Granulated Salt is a food grade, granular, white crystalline, sodium chloride
manufactured under stringent process control procedures by vacuum evaporation of raw,
untreated brine. Granulated Salt contains Yellow Prussiate of Soda as an
anti-caking agent.
Industrial Mill Salt
This material is a fine screened, white crystalline sodium chloride produced by the solar
evaporation of brine. The salt crystals are refined by washing with clean saturated brine
to remove surface impurities, drained of excess moisture, dried, and screened to size.
This material contains no anti-caking or free-flowing additives or conditioners.
Kiln Dried Medium Salt
This material is an intermediate screened, sodium chloride salt crystallized by solar
evaporation. The crystallized salt is washed to remove surface impurities, drained of
excess moisture, dried, and screened to size.This material contains no anti-caking or
free-flowing additives or conditioners.
Fine Salt
This material is a fine-screened, sodium chloride salt, specially sized for blending in
animal rations or for free choice feeding to livestock. This salt is suitable for all animal
diets, but should not be used for direct human food applications. Available with or
without Yellow Prussiate of Soda as an anti-caking agent.
Once thoroughly soaked in a salt-solution, the next vat would contain a lime solution (obtained from limestone or shells), into which the hides were placed and left to soak, hair side down. Chemical action caused some of the hair to fall off. The skins were then removed and the bleached fat and hair-lime residue was scraped off, the latter later sold for plastering. The hides, scraped free of the bulk of the hair, were returned to the liming vats, which by now contained large quantities of decaying organic matter full of bacteria which aided the process of hair and connective tissue removal. In a procedure which took about two months, the skins were alternately soaked for a few days and removed from the vats, folded and left out for a few days more. By the end of this process, the remaining hair could be easily removed without harming the hide.
The skins then entered a similar soaking and resting period, involving vats of lime in weak solution. This process would take over six months.
In the next phase of leather production, the hides were combined with oak, beech or willow bark, which would provide the tannic acid necessary in preserving and coloring the hide. Other acidic additives to this dressing included sour milk, cider pressings and ferment of rye, recipes varying according to the materials at hand, the weather and the ultimate finish desired. Bark was spread in the bottom of the tanning pit, then hides and bark alternately stacked until the pit is full. A foot of tanbark covered the pit, and the whole well trampled down and kept moistened for three months.
Unpacking the pit was a risky business, because the hides were very soft and vulnerable to tearing.
To stop the action of the acetic solution, alkaline dressings were then applied. Ingredients included soft soap, boiled meal and dog, pig or fowl dung.
The final step in leather preparation was performed by the currier, a specialist who worked the leather with oils and greases, using a variety of tools to prepare the leather for its intended use.
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The following are some of the tools used by the Tanner
During colonial tanning, each tan yard from New England to the southern states had the basic type of equipment – beaming sheds, tan vats, bark mills, and tools such as the tanner’s hook, fleshing knife, dehairing knife, spud for removing tanbark, skiver for splitting hides and skins, and the beam.
There were many tanners in the Newbury’s. But by the mid-19th century, the process progressed from a family business to now big business.
Near the end of World War II, the Saftel-Kaplan Leather Company moved into vacant industrial space in what was originally an 1845 cotton mill at Federal and Liberty Streets. A small group of tanneries banded together and existed in the complex and by the 1970’s had generated ill-will with the residential homes nearby. Things began to come to a pitch when Amdur Leather Company of Woburn sold the property to Berwick, Main-based Prime Tanning Company, one of the largest leather manufacturers in the nation. After many complaints, the company chose to close the Newburyport plant in 1983 and consolidated its operations back in Maine.
At that time, a partnership purchased the complex: David Hall, Gordon Hall is father and Michael Moskow to form Hall & Moskow. It was initially sought to turn it into housing but in the meantime, businesses were allowed to start up. The firm charged low rents and soon the building was rapidly filling up with small companies and entrepreneurs. At the time, rates began to rise sharply downtown and many a business relocated to the Tannery.
Today, it is a thriving shopping center, arts center and community center hosting a farmer’s market and many local services not available downtown.
References
Diderot, Denis. A Diderot Pictorial Encyclopedia of Trades and Industry.
Lost Country Life, by Dorothy Hartley
Lee Pelham Cotton, Park Ranger, Colonial NHP, Spring 1996
Cargill Salt in the Tanning Process, www.cargillsalt.com, 2019