Memories of Hannah Davis by Mary J. Fox, Jaffrey, Sept. 4, 1920

Typed by Sally Larsen August 10, 2009 from an earlier typed version (on manual typewriter in blue ink)

I am asked to relate what I know about Hannah Davis and her nailed bandboxes.  My mother used to say that she invented this kind of bandbox and it was regarded as specially strong and serviceable.  You can judge of that by the specimens shown here today.  In my mother’s girlhood, when people travelled by stage-coach, one’s clothes could be packed in the small leather trunk which sometimes had the hair left on it.  Sometimes it was plain leather, studded with brass-headed nails put in patterns.  This was used on top of the coach, but the precious best-bonnet, no small affair in those days, was carried in the band-box, with other crushable articles, in the inside of the coach and could be held in one’s lap if the coach was crowded – so something strong and light in weight was appreciated.

I know nothing of the early life of Hannah Davis.  The Jaffrey History says she was born 1784.  In my childhood, she lived in the house on the East Jaffrey road opposite the Towne’s, then a plain one story house painted white, with a white sign board over the door saying in large black letters:

HANNAH DAVIS

NAILED BANDBOXES.

I suppose she had lived there always, and she must have many years.  She plied her trade there in my mother’s childhood in the 1820s, and was still doing so in mine.  As I remember her she was an old woman, large and strong looking, walking with a limp and wearing a shoe with a very thick sole on one foot.  This was on account of her having had a broken hip, and her not having patience to bear a weight on her heel while it was recovering which was necessary to prevent the limb becoming shorter than the other.

Close-up of interior label from Hanna Davis bandbox, an innovative marketing technique utilized by the savvy 19th-century bandbox maker. Today, the label serves to authenticate the box's origin.

The material for her boxes was obtained by splitting spruce or pine logs into very thin boards, so thin that they were flexible.  She had a machine for doing this.  I used to hear them called “scabboards”, but it must have been a local term, as I cannot find it in the dictionary.  It was her custom to look about in the woods till she found a suitable tree, large and straight and free from knots.  Then she sought the owner and negotiated for it.  It was usually given her, I think, then she had some one cut it for her and draw it out of the woods.  I remember her coming to my father when I was a child and talking a long time about a tree she wanted, that the owner, for some reason, did not want to part with.  She wanted my father to help her about it in some way.  I do not know whether he could.  When she had nailed these “scabboards” to the boards which form the bottom of the box and the top of the cover, she papered them on the outside with room paper.  People saved for her what they had left after papering a room, so you may see on these boxes specimens of the paper that used to adorn many of the houses in Jaffrey.  For the inside, she used newspaper.

My grandfather was the town doctor and had evidently received pay for his visits to her in bandboxes, judging from the quantity in our attic, and it was one of my amusements on rainy days to go there and read what it said on the inside of the bandboxes and they are still interesting.  One bandbox has an old paper on it which has an item saying Queen Victoria was 18 in May (that would be 1837) and goes on to describe her appearance saying she had fine eyes and dressed her hair very plainly.  Another has a newspaper in it bearing the date 1803.  This speaks of Thomas Payne, who had just written something, and says that John Quincy Adams had just paid some one a visit, and sharply criticized him for so doing.  And a Drug Store in Keene advertised that “nice, clean ashes would be taken in exchange for goods”.  The box was not made then as it has another paper on it bearing the date 1923.  Still another box has Byron’s poem, “She Walks in Beauty”, and one by Mrs. Hemans.  She made boxes of all sizes from those 6 or 8 inches across to the large ones used for travelling, but always the same oblong shape.  I think every house in town had several, and she used to drive about the county with loads of them, but not when I remember her.  The little ones were used for work boxes, and the children and young girls kept their treasures in them.  Those somewhat larger the ladies carried their caps in when they paid afternoon visits.  Every woman then wore a cap as soon as she was married, and these became larger and more elaborate as she advanced in years, so they were removed when the bonnet was put on that they might not be crushed.  If it was summer she could wear her green calash made to protect the cap and shade the face at the same time.

Hannah had another industry in my mother’s early days; the making of sulphur matches.  These were splinters of wood, the ends of which were dipped in sulphur, and they lighted easily in the fire.  The invention of friction matches spoiled the demand for those, and the railroad came and trunks were made larger and people travelled no more with bandboxes and she grew old and feeble.  She never grew rich from her trade, and in her last years received much of her support from the charity of her neighbors.

I met at the Museum in Rindge the other day an old school-mate of mine who said she remembered when a small child going with her father and mother to call on Hannah Davis, and that her father gave Hannah some money when they came away.  She lived in her little house till she died in 1863.

There was another woman in Jaffrey who had an industry of her own.  Her name was Lucretia Warner, and she made curtains out of bulrushes.  These were dried and woven together with thread, much like the piazza curtains we have now.  They were of a pleasing brown color and darkened the window very effectually while allowing plenty of air to come in.

 Signed:  Mary J. Fox, Jaffrey

 Typed:  Sept. 4, 1920

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