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040 _aUtSlPG
041 7 _aen
_2iso639-1
050 4 _aF001
100 1 _aBrayton, Alice,
_d1878-1972
245 1 0 _aTrading in Scrabbletown
264 1 _aSalt Lake City, UT :
_bProject Gutenberg,
_c2025
300 _a1 online resource :
_bmultiple file formats
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
500 _aRelease date is 2025-10-12
508 _aSteve Mattern and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
520 _a"Trading in Scrabbletown" by Alice Brayton is a historical account written in the mid-20th century. Drawing on a cache of early 19th-century shop papers, it reconstructs the trading world of Scrabbletown (Swansea, Massachusetts) through the life and work of trader Israel Brayton. The focus is on how his company store linked local farms, weavers, and small factories to regional markets, with recurring figures like his wife Keziah, partners John Mason and William Bowers, and clerk Wheaton Luther. The opening of the book explains the discovery of a barrel of never-published papers and uses them to identify Brayton and his network, then sketches his family background, brief wartime service, and marriage before following his return in 1815 to open a company store tied to the Swansea Union Cotton Manufacturing Company. It shows how he organized home weavers, paid largely in goods, and stocked an astonishing range of supplies sourced from Boston, Providence, and beyond, while juggling credit, counterfeit notes, and shortages. The narrative then follows his expansion to an Egypt (Somerset) branch, additional yarn from the Lyman and Georgia mills, and dealings with the Fall River (Troy) factory, alongside glimpses of community life—poor relief, school governance, church singing, and period reading tastes. A sizable section traces a straw-bonnet venture: placing braid with local young women, pressing and boxing bonnets, and testing markets via trips to Newport, Albany, and New York. It closes with William Bowers in Savannah trying to sell bonnets and textiles on commission, reporting frank market feedback on fashion, sizing, and quality. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
534 _pOriginally published:
_cNewport, RI: Ward Printing Company, 1952
653 _aBrayton, Israel, 1792-1866
653 _aBrayton family
653 _aMerchants -- Massachusetts -- Scrabbletown -- Biography
653 _aScrabbletown (Mass.) -- Commerce -- History
653 _aScrabbletown (Mass.) -- Biography
856 4 0 _uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77038
999 _c117762
_d117762