Dress


Deep Brown colored cotton dress with small red, olive and beige overall leaf print. Bodice is moving down but still considerably above the waist and belted with a 2.5 wide self fabric belt that fastens with hooks and eyes. Bodice opens down the front with hooks and eyes that have been replaced with modern ones. Bodice is lined in a crudely woven heavy cotton. Rounded neckline and finished with a self fabric binding. Finely piped self fabric back shoulder seam and fiddle back. Fuller skirt is gathered into the waistline. 4 panels of 27” fabric making a circumference at the hem of 108 inches. Shoulder is just slightly widened and large leg o’mutton Gigot sleeves that taper below the elbow to the wrist. Extra long sleeve ties four inches above the end of the sleeve at the wrist. Possibly a maternity dress worn by Joanna Smith, great great aunt of donor, Wife of Eleazor Smith Jr.

Elizabeth Adams Noyes – born 1918. Her mother’s family was named Smith from Canterbury CT, in the Town of Windham, where they owned a homestead and ran the Smith Mills on the Little River. They had a Saw Mill, and Shingle Mill, Picker Sticks (?), a blacksmith, Woolen Mill. (Also a Cotton Mill?). Garments donated from Edith Joanna Smith Adams, Bettye’s mom, and found in the attic of the Canterbury home. Thought to have been worn by Joanna Smith married to Eleazer Smith, Jr in 1832. Eleazer Smith married Elipha Park and settled in Cantebury, Connecticut running a carding mill and weaving rag carpets from the early 1800s. They started with a grain mill and ultimately turned it into a carding mill that brushed the cotton fibers into aligned groups to be turned into yarn.* The couple had nine children, including Eleazor Smith, Jr, (who married Joanna in 1832) and Oriella, born in 1798, who took over the business upon their father’s death in 1843. Elipha was left the carding mill, the draw loom and thread winder. She had taught her daughter Oriella Smith to weave and make rag rugs by hand and Oriella was a large part of the business as a weaver and rag carpet maker since 1829. From 1843 on Oriella ran the business herself. She could read and write, so she did the book keeping and kept careful records for the profitable business. As of 1844, the household consisted of Oriella, Elipha her mother and Elizabeth Smith her sister. After their father died, Oriella owned one-fourth of the house and 10 acres of land, but after mother died in 1854, Oriella and Elizabeth owned the whole house and 34 acres of land in Cantebury, Connecticut. Oriella’s niece Eliza Baker was also a member of the household and helped with weaving and braiding rag rugs. The rugs were much in demand and a one could be made in one long 10-hour day, so it was a profitable occupation. They had substantial orders for yardage of plain cotton cloth and cotton flannel for as much as 22 yards, 29 yards and 31 yards at a time. They also made coats and did mending, washing and ironing. Elizabeth Smith died in 1859 and her brother Eleazer died in 1862, but Oriella continued on with the business until her death in 1878 at age 80. Upon her death the mill was taken over by Matthew Lester Smith, her nephew and Imogen her daughter in law. The Smiths were such an institution in that area of Cantebury that it is still called “Smith Corners.” The extant photo is of Oriella in 1870 at 72 years old. She is the great, great Aunt of the donor Elizabeth Adams Noyes of Mystic, Connecticut.


Provenance:
Noyes, Elizabeth Adams, Mystic, CT

Construction Label:
Handmade



2014C 1832.8