Breckinridge County KyArchives History .....Hats 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Dana Brown http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00005.html#0001067 September 17, 2006, 3:35 pm

Book Title: A Glimpse Of The Past

Now days it is rare to find a perfect old hat.  Once, they were worn for a 
lifetime, then willed to the next generation.  Few inherited pieces of our past 
have seen as much of daily life in the young country as those mobcaps, beavers, 
turbans, and Panama's that can still be found.

The Indians traded beaver pelts to the settlers at Plymouth and the first ship 
returned to England from the colony carried two hogsheads of beaver pelts for 
hat making.

Beaver hats, called castors from the French word for beaver, began to 
accumulate lore.  They were said to have curative powers to restore hearing and 
memory.  The best pelts of all, the fur traders said were skins taken in the 
winter.  The best fur to be found was called "Indian coat bever" or "old coat 
beaver".

Unless the beaver has been worn and is greasy and dirty, it will not felt 
properly.  The coats which the Indians made of beaver skin and which they hav 
worn for a long time around their bodies until the skins have become foul with 
perspiration and grease were afterwards used by the hatters and made the best 
hats.

The "old coat beaver" sold for a dollar a pound at an auction in New York in 
1812.

Raccoon skins were also used for hats.  They were next in quality to those of 
the beaver.  The raccoon tail was worn around the neck and the bone in its male 
parts was used for pipe cleaners.

Martha Washington wore the large mobcap in many of her familiar portraits.  
These were English fashins known there as the Queen's Night Cap.  Women have 
worn hats since they first arrived in America.

There were bonnets, a term that first appeared in America around 1725.  By the 
middle of that century, there were advertisements in American papers for Quebec 
bonnets; Russian bonnets, French bonnets and something called Kitty Fisher 
bonnet.  The Poke bonnets appeared just after 1800; the style was called as 
ugly as a coalscuttle, but it remained popular.

There was sunbonnets furnished with broad and deeply hanging curtains, shading 
and covering the throat and part of the shoulders, a very sensible costume for 
hot weather.  The sunbonnets remain in use today in parts of the country, where 
their practicality had endeared them to women for more than a century.

Straw hats were made of whole straws, called pipes, which were split into 
narrower portions called splints, then treated variously and plaited or braided 
to make various designs in straw.  Straw plaiting was an important cottage 
industry in rural America.

The straw hats were known by many names connected with their origin: Bankoks, 
Javas, Curcoss, Manilas and Bakers, and were made of hemp, sisal, pandan, 
peanut, raffia and Chinese rice straw.  Patterns were distinguished by their 
names; one was "plum pudding".

The finest of all was the Leghorns and Panama's.  Panama's became especially 
popular with the forty-niners, who bought them on their way to California.  The 
Panama was huge and had a large brim.  The finest weave possible, truly a 
wonderful chapeau.

While the origins of some names for hats are obvious, some are not.  There was, 
for example, the "Wide-awake", a soft felt hat with a broad brim and low crown, 
so named because it had no nap.  The boater is obviously for boating, but the 
bowler was not designed for bowling; it was so named for the English hatter 
William Bowler, who designed it to protect rider's heads from accident.  The 
Earl of Derby was the first to wear his bowler hat to the races at Epson 
Downs.  The hat became known in America as the derby.  The collapsible high 
silk opera hat, made to fit under a theater seat, was named for its French 
inventor, M. Gigus.

Somehow, the stovepipe hat that we associate with Abraham Lincoln escaped being 
known as the Heatherington.  A London harberdasher, John Heatherington, caused 
a riot when he first wore the tall hat in the street.  It is said that he was 
charged with breach of peace for appearing on a public highway wearing an 
object "calculated to frighten timid people".  The result of his 
appearance:  "Women fainted, children screamed, dogs barked and a small boy had 
his arm broken".

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