Turner Sisters
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FORK OR A FIRE SHOVEL

Since Fireplaces were the only means of heating and cooking, there was a good business done in peddling shovels, forks, pokers and so forth. In the early days these implements were generally made of iron. Later other metals were used. FIRE IRONS.

As a rule these peddlers were old women. They wore full-skirted dresses with tight fitting waists and white cotton kerchiefs around the neck, and the customary white apron. A wide brimmed hat was worn over a wimple, as shown. The wimple of white linen covered the forehead, neck, chin and sides of the face. Medieval women when out of doors always wore it. These women had a very simple cry, which never seemed to vary:  "Buy a Fork or a Fire Shovel."  ADT131    SOLD

 


DISPENSER OF MINTWATER
In the early 1830’s there was a man in New York who peddled Mint Water. This was a concoction made from mint leaves and rum---similar to a mint julep. He, armed with a jug and a measure, walked the streets of New York selling mint-water by the pint or quart. Used in moderation, mint-water was considered beneficial. If used too freely it was said to excite an “unholy love” for ardent spirits. In England fresh mint was sold by the “Herb-wife”, and her cry of “Come buy my mint, my fine green mint!” echoed through the London streets. Or sometimes the cry was: “Buy Rue! Buy Sage! Buy Mint! Buy Rue! Buy Sage! Buy Mint! A farthing a bunch”
ADT137    SOLD


Johnnie Apple seed is so well known as hardly to need any description. He was born in Springfield, Mass. in 1775. When he was about 25 years old the desire to wander to the new country of the West grew upon him. He was not an especially attractive man in either face or dress. He wore scarcely any clothes – sometimes just an old sack with holes for his legs and arms. In winter and summer he went bare-foot. On his head in lieu of a hat, he wore a tin saucepan in which he cooked his food when mealtime came.

He traveled by boat, by foot and sometimes on horseback. His sacks of apple-seeds were collected from cider mills in New York and Pennsylvania.  He carried with him a rifle, a hatchet, a rake, a hoe, and a coil of rope, fishing tackle, a bag of meal, a lump of salt, a small sum of money and his Bible. He preached both to settlers and Indians.
In 1838 it was estimated that the seed he had planted had grown into fruit-bearing trees over an area of 100,000 square miles. He spent 46 years traveling over the country-well beloved by all.  
 Item ADT143    
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Another unique solicitor of foods was the seller of meat for Cats’ and Dogs’. He walked the streets daily and supplied his regular customers with bones, meat, tripe, hearts and liver for their pets. He was extremely popular and had only to enter a neighborhood in order to be immediately surrounded by the cats and dogs of the street without waiting for his cry of “Cats’ and Dogs’ Meat.” 
Item ADT 144    
SOLD

“Any Molasses Cornballs Today?”
Since candy was not widely made and sold in America until after the middle of the nineteenth century, molasses cornballs were very popular with families of moderate means.
The corn was often grown on their own land. In the evenings the family would gather around the hearth and pop the corn. When popped, the corn was stirred into molasses syrup and shaped into balls. These molasses cornballs were not only a favorite with the children but with the grown-ups as well.
Cornballs were peddled in the streets wherever there were crowds. A circus, a fair or a political rally always offered a good field. At affairs of this nature there was a ready market for the cornballs and sales were always brisk.
Candy was expensive and not too common, since the bulk of it was imported chiefly from France. After the Civil War, the candy business in the United States increased sharply. Stick candy, rock candy, gumdrops and marshmallows and even bonbons and chocolate drops were being manufactured and sold in this country. This candy was sold in bulk. Twenty, thirty and forty pound boxes were sold to the grocer. He would box them or sell them in bags in any quantity desired. It wasn’t until the late nineteenth century that candy could be bought in most stores. By that time penny candy, and the more sophisticated chocolate creams and bonbons were easily obtainable, even in the country stores as well as in the stores in the city. 
Item ADT145    
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“Ink Vendor”,
Another peddler of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was the Ink Vendor. He carries a small key of ink on his back, a funnel and measure fastened to his belt and he holds a handful of gaily colored quill pens. His cry was “Fine Writing ink”.  
Item ADT151       SOLD

Earthenware Vendor”, A much older and more experienced woman was the Vendor of Pottery and Earthenware. She often drove in from the out-lying countryside, her cart or donkey laden with baskets of dishes, jugs, pitchers and teapots. She would unload her wares and set them up on rudely constructed stands on the village green, in the market place or at one at the fairs. Her cry was:--“’Any Earthenware, buy a jug or teapot?
 
Item ADT153     SOLD

Medicine Peddler” The Peddlers of herbs and medicines flourished in America all through the nineteenth century.
 Item ADT 154 SOLD
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     “Tapioca for Sale”  A young sailor on shore leave during a period of convalescence was living in a small unpretentious boarding house in Boston, Ms. This was in 1894.
      One day he was served a dish of tapioca pudding for dessert. He found it most unappetizing. It contained lumps of uncooked tapioca. He complained to the boarding-house keeper, a Mrs. Stavers; He was met with a belligerent reply that no doubt he could make a better pudding.  He accepted the challenge and suggested that she grind the tapioca up in her coffee grinder.
     The lady followed his suggestion. She was instantly rewarded with so much praise from her boarders because of the resulting smooth, creamy pudding, that she ground more tapioca than she needed for her own use, and packed it in paper bags.
      The young enterprising sailor went from house to house selling it to the neighbors and later to other people living in the adjoining towns.

     At first it was known as Mrs. Stavers’ Improved Dessert or Tapioca Superlative. It soon became very widely known and extremely popular. It was only a short time before the rights to her process were bought out by a John Whitman, who organized the John Whitman Grocery Co. and sold the product to retail stores under the name of “Minute Tapioca”. After nearly eighty years, Minute Tapioca is still used and still popular
                                      Item ADT156    
  SOLD

 

 

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