Tag: antiques
Flax braking and scutching: Pioneer methods for making linen
Antiques expert and journalist Paul Locher explores the pioneer-era process of flax braking and scutching. Discover how early Americans used wooden brakes, scutching knives, and community bees to transform harvested flax straw into fine linen and coarse tow.
Do you know what this mystery plow is? We need your...
Frank from Huntsburg, Ohio, sent us this weird-looking plow to identify. Can you help us?
Mystery solved: The story of the joggling bench
In a recent Hazard a Guess column, readers identify Mystery Item No. 1308 as a joggling board. Discover the 1803 South Carolina origin story behind this porch staple, why it became known as a courting bench, and how it was originally designed to help ease rheumatism.
The grueling history of growing flax in early America
From Gov. George Yeardley’s Virginia colony to German settlers in Pennsylvania and Ohio, flax was essential for making pioneer linen. Despite its grueling, backbreaking labor, growing flax became a vital crop for early American survival.
How flax became the forgotten cash crop of 19th-century Ohio
Long before modern synthetic fibers, flax was arguably the most vital crop across 19th-century Ohio. Learn about the history of this ancient plant, how settlers harvested it to make durable linen and linseed oil, and why its agricultural legacy is worth remembering today.
Finale: Civil War letters home
A chance discovery of Civil War letters in a local library uncovers the poignant story of Jeromesville's Boyd brothers. Through their own words, a local writer traces the brothers' service, the tragedy of wartime disease, and the lasting legacy marked on a hilltop cemetery monument.
Pressing clothes was an onerous chore for pioneer women
Before electric appliances, pressing clothes was a backbreaking pioneer chore. Columnist Paul Locher explores the history of early laundry technology, from heavy cast-iron sad irons and interchangeable slug irons to specialized tabletop gophering irons used for fluting ruffles.
Do you know what this mystery item from Kelleys Island is?
Give us your best guess for this new mystery item that sits outside a cottage on Kelleys Island in Lake Erie.
The many lives of Fort Laurens
Fort Laurens, Ohio’s only Revolutionary War fort, reveals soldiers’ hardships and new excavations as crews work to rebuild part of the stockade by 2028.
How the 1833 washboard patent changed early American laundry
The patenting of the washboard in 1833 inspired tinsmiths, potters, and wood turners across Ohio to craft early laundry devices. Explore the history of handmade washboards, possers, and the weekly frontier tradition of "Blue Monday."
