I was roaming around Coal Glen (virtually) over the weekend when I chanced upon this item in The Chariton Democrat's Feb. 21, 1889, dispatch from Pleasant Township: "Hoop timber is suffering in this part of the country. There are five hoop shavers now at work --- John and Ed Perry, Ed Kitch, Wm. Woolridge and J.W. Foster. They are busy all the time and cut 2,500 hoops every day, or at the rate of that."
That was my introduction to the art and mystery of hoop shaving --- one of the ways our pioneer ancestors had of raising a little extra cash providing they owned a woodlot or had access to someone else's timber.
Here are a few other hoop shaving reports from the later years of the 19th century:
"Mr. Beaver, of Missouri is shaving hoops at the residence of John W. Foster, Mr. Ed Perry at John W. Smith's, Mr. John Perry, at Joseph Fluke's, Mr. Lew Foster at Al Garrett's. So you see the hoop poll business must be a paying one." (Belinda news, Chariton Democrat, 5 January 1888)
"The Berry Bros. are shaving hoops on the old Lyman Whitcomb place." (Bethel news, Chariton Patriot 4 December 1889)
"Lucas is becoming noted for hoop poles. Chase and Starks have been furnishing employment for seven to eight men shaving hoops, and now Reid and Aumick are opening up a shop and design using from eight to ten men. These shops are a local enterprise that will bless our laboring men and their families these dull winter days." (Chariton Herald, 16 January 1890)
"John Perry, who has been shaving hoops in the north part of the township, has gone to Olmitz to follow his trade." (Cedar Township news, Chariton Democrat, 13 Feb 1890)
"Mr. Weller, from Monroe County, is shaving hoops at Olmitz." (Olmitz news, Chariton Patriot, 8 October 1890)
"Billy Collison and Sherman Whitcomb are shaving hoops and boarding at I.F. Etters." (Cedar Township news, Democrat, 11 October 1895)
"George Mosbarger is doing a rushing business shaving hoops at Oakley and is paying the highest market price for hoop poles." (Liberty Township news, Chariton Herald, 2 Feb 1899)
A little research revealed the fact that those "shavers" actually were fashioning the wooden strips from which hoops would be formed later to bind barrels and kegs.
It was a common practice during the winter in wooded areas for enterprising men to cut poles and then, with a drawknife, shave strips off the poles an inch or so wide and about six or seven feet long. These strips would be just the outer part of the poles so the hoops would always have the bark as part of the hoop.
The shaved strips then were sold and shipped in bulk to barrel manufacturers, and many of Iowa's larger cities had at least one large cooperage, especially along the Mississippi river. To make the strips pliable enough to form into hoops without breaking they were soaked in vats of water at the factory, then formed, hardened and used to bind staves into barrels or casks.
Most of the surviving barrels or casks from that era that we see occasionally are bound in hoops of metal --- more durable over the long haul than wood but also more expensive --- and remember that a barrel was the 19th century equivalent of a cardboard box.
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