In the nineteenth century there were few articles of clothing that could not be made from wool. Outer wear, underwear and rain wear all had some wool representatives. Obviously, different uses called for different kinds of wool. Coarse or medium wool was fine for heavy coats, winter trousers, and socks; but when lightness was called for, nothing beat the fineness of merino.
Merino are the royalty of wool sheep. With a fiber count of about forty thousand per square inch of skin, no wool can be spun as fine and light. In the period of 1810-1816 this wonderful reputation was perhaps over recognized as the value of both animal and wool soared during what agricultural historians have called the "merino craze."
Hopewell managers had not only a furnace to run, but a considerable amount of furnace property to farm as well. Company records indicate that this farming operation was run just as efficiently as the furnace was. Did Hopewell participate in the merino craze?
"Sundries D[ebit] to Furnace. . .Bernard Hart 1 Marino Ram 3.00 (per hundred lbs of weight?) 6.05"
In other words, Hopewell sold a merino ram. This little tid-bit gives us a few clues to the history of merinos at Hopewell Furnace.
First, just over six dollars does not appear to be a princely sum for the king of sheep. During the "merino craze" of 1810-1816 a ram could sell for hundreds of dollars. But booms lead to busts and by the end of the craze those same rams sold for about the same amount as Hopewell's did.
Second, was this ram part of a Hopewell merino flock? This may have been possible in the early nineteenth century, but we know that in 1838 only twenty full blooded merinos existed in all of Berks County. In other words, we have more merinos in our barn than were in the entire county in that year.
Third, it appears that this ram weighed over two hundred pounds. Given what we know of sheep growth rates and longevity, the animal probably was born during the "merino craze." We probably will never know exactly what kind of sheep operation was going on at Hopewell, but what we know of period history, the good practices of Hopewell's managers, and company records might bring us closer to the truth.
A common practice at that time was to use merinos to "improve" sheep flocks. The rams would breed coarse wool ewes in the hopes that the good wool of their father would be on the resulting lambs.
Such is probably the case here at Hopewell. The ram that Mr. Hart bought probably spent the "Merino Craze" years at Hopewell making the furnace sheep a more desirable product and was then sold to Hart at a deep discount for the same purpose. Sheep at Hopewell were probably not purebred, but a hybrid animal with good wool and meat.
And wool and meat were produced with great regularity here. Historians speculate that in 1817 store records indicate the company store selling plenty of mutton but buying no sheep prove that these sales were of home grown animals. Plenty of carding, spinning and weaving around this time period indicate that Hopewell's sheep were valued for more than chops and roasts.
We presently keep a flock of American Delaine merinos, a smoother skinned animal with improved "carcass value," two improvements to match modern markets. In 1996 these merinos were crossed with a border Leicester ram. These sheep represent a deep heritage of agriculture in America and at Hopewell Furnace.
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