Artisan to Abolitionist Part 1

During my ancestry research I found my 3 times Great Grandparents James Gale and Charlotte Heslop. James was born in 1797 in Lancaster, England and Charlotte was born in 1811 in Burnley, England. James came to America in 1818 and Charlotte came with her parents when she was a little girl. James and Charlotte married in 1829 in Pottsville, PA and moved to Johnstown, PA in 1832.

I am going to start with James Gale Heslop. Because of the time period when James and Charlotte lived, there was so much more information on the men than on the women. James learned the trade of blending and making colors/pigment for painting and staining wallpaper. He was under an apprenticeship in England as a boy/teen and became a gifted artisan at not only blending and making colors, but in his skill of using those colors to stain wallpaper. He made colors for oils, calico prints, and dyes. 

James' skills were so rare that the British government would not let these specific artisans emigrate to America without an impossible to obtain special passport. Even though he was a master of his craft in England he was not compensated well and knew he could make more income in America. His Father, my 4 times Great Grandfather, knew a Captain of a vessel that was sailing to America and the two of them secretly and illegally shipped James as a cabin boy at the age of 21. When they docked at the port in Baltimore the Captain had to find a way to get James off the vessel. He sent James to shore to get him a twist of tobacco and gave him a small sum of money to purchase it. As James was starting to depart, the Captain grabbed his hand, said goodbye, and said quietly in his ear, that he never expected to see him again. James Gale Heslop was now free in America in 1818.

He found work easily in Baltimore and after some time moved to Philadelphia and worked for a manufacturer of wallpaper named Howell Brothers. In 1825 he moved to Pottsville, PA then married Charlotte in 1830, and then in 1832 the couple moved to Johnstown, PA. From 1832 until 1841 James worked for the transportation companies that operated in the region. He was a skillful letterer using his finely mixed colors to paint the names on canal boats, and company names on railroad cars. With the money he made from the transportation companies James opened his own establishment in Johnstown in 1841, at the corner of Vine and Market, staining wallpapers. James used a block of carved wood and with the vegetable or earth colors he applied the stain to strips of wallpaper.

A carved wood stamp from the 1800s.

The back of the stamp.

You can go to the Ron Hazelton link of the Farmers Museum in Cooperstown and see how wallpaper was made in the 1800's. They are using paint for their exhibits so you have to imagine the process that James had to go through first of using  ink, plants, clay, minerals or other earth based items to make his stain colors. You will have to copy and paste the link below into your web browser. It is worth watching.

https://www.ronhazelton.com/projects/how_to_make_wallpaper_by_hand

 It was a crude method compared to how our current wallpaper is made, but he was a man ahead of his time. When the cylinder press was invented and available to him, James had a hand in construction and manipulation of the cylinder press and turned out to not only being a master in making colors and staining, he was also somewhat of a mechanical engineer too. He not only installed the machinery for his former employers at Howell Brothers in Philly, but also for a company in Pittsburgh called James Howard and Company. James Gale Heslop had built quite a reputation in the state of Pennsylvania. In the late 1840's James stopped staining and opened a store on Main Street and became a seller of colors and wallpaper. He retired in 1853.

Not a clear picture, but this is wallpaper from around the 1830s.

During his retirement, before the Civil War, James and Charlotte in their golden years became Abolitionists and a part of the Underground Railroad. Talk about a career change!

To be continued..........

An Armoire Update

 Many years ago we bought our current bedroom furniture. The set included the bed, dresser, nightstands and an armoire that holds a TV. We used all the pieces in our bedroom in two homes in Indiana and one home in Virginia. We used the armoire in our dining room at our previous Texas home for table linens, place mats, seasonal table decorations and chargers. Now, our new home does not have the wall space for the armoire in either the bedroom or the dining room, so I decided to update it and use it in our guestroom.

The beginning of the armoire transformation.

The TV section of the armoire has not been used for a TV in years. I purchased baskets for that section and used them in our old dining room for table decorations. I also covered, with fun fabric, the wood cut out that was for the back opening access for the electronics and held it in place with Velcro.

Baskets replaced the electronics.

Fabric covered wood to cover the hole in the back.

I used Country Grey, (looks tan) Annie Sloan Chalk Paint to paint the armoire. I painted on two coats with a round chalk paint brush. When the paint was dry I finished it with the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Wax. As I have said before about this wax, you need to use it outside, or in a very well ventilated room. This wax really smells awful.

Two coats done!

I had some left over knobs from our bathroom cabinets and they were just the right touch for this armoire.

The last change to this armoire was something my sister did to her refurbished armoire at her FL home. *Florida has more Armoires per capita than any other state, in my opinion.*😉  My sister put mirrors in the doors, so you can use them as dressing mirrors. My armoire had trim pieces inside the doors that were perfect to set mirrors in. I just measured the space and ordered two cut mirrors from a glass store. You can pick a thickness for the mirrors and that was important to make sure my glass fit level to the trim pieces and that I got the right size mirror clamps. When we installed the mirrors we had to do a little sanding to the trim pieces of the door to make sure we had a tight fit. I didn't even have to touch the paint up because the mirrors covered the sanded spots.

The newly installed mirrors.

The room has a little bird theme going on and so we had to apply a few bird decals for fun. Now the armoire fits the rooms decor and it is functional for our guests.

The updated armoire in its new home

Special Twin Headboards

 Our first child was born in 1984. When we bought her crib back then, we picked a style and color that we thought we could use for all our future babies. A gender neutral crib that worked for all, and it did. This crib is now about 37 years old and I have kept it all these years. Now, my intent at the beginning was to keep it for my grandkids, but safety standards as they are, this crib was way too old and just not safe anymore.  

We built a new home last year and the crib moved with us. The crib would now be re-purposed in our new home as headboards for our guestroom. Instead of the old Queen bed from past homes, I decided to put two twin beds in the guestroom since our grandkids would be using them the most.

The end of our old crib.

I bought a can of Chateau Grey (a sage color) of Annie Sloan chalk paint at a local antique store. This paint is so easy to use, covers without primer and it does not peel. I used the end pieces, head and foot panels of the baby bed, and took all the hardware off before painting. I purchased a large round chalk paint brush from Amazon and it was absolutely the best brush for the job. I painted two coats, and when it was dry the next day, I put Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Wax on the painted headboards. This wax really smells awful and I suggest you do it outside if possible.  When it drys, it protects and leaves the paint with a satin finish.

The crib end painted.

The next step was trying to find the best way to mount the headboards to the wall. We bought some heavy duty metal hangers and put them on the top of both sides of the headboards. We put some heavy anchors and  screws in the wall and hung the headboards onto the screws. 

The heavy hanger I used.

To decorate the headboards I used the pillow shams that came with the quilts I purchased for the beds. I put a pillow in the sham and using sage ribbon that was leftover from my daughters wedding 9 years ago, I attached the ribbon to the shams top corners and tied them to the headboard.

Pillow hung with wedding ribbon.

Now we have two beautiful headboards that are a reminder of our kids as babies, our Daughter's wedding and they can be passed down as a family heirloom.

The finished product