Tim Stowell wrote: >I got to thinking of those whose occupations were other than farmer >and wondered how many of those occupations no longer exist or are >true speciality occupations today. Almost all of them are recognizable >even to us in the 21st century but there was at least one that I'm >not sure what it was the person did: ashery. Was this a what we call >a chimney sweep? An ashery ws a place that took wood ashes, from burning the forest or even fireplaces and stoves and, through a relatively simple process made potassium phosphate which was used for various things such as fertilizer, lye, soap making, gun powder, etc. The wood ashes were collected in tubs or troughs and water drained through the ashes. The leachate was then boiled in large pots and the dry powder was what is known as potash. General ashes from field and woods clearings (a mix of trees, with dirt and roots thrown in) produced general potash, but more refined wood ash, from hardwoods and usually generated in home fires or stoves and boilers produced a more desirable product called pearlash. Potash was one of the staple cash crops for the earliest settlers, who had to clear the virgin forests before they could plant wheat, corn and other crops. Samuel Forman's store ledgers (first store in Cazenovia 1793-1822) are full of accounts payed by ashes, orders for potash kettles, and related tools. For several decades as the state was being opened to settlers one of the primary exports to New York City on the rivers, the Western Inland Lock Navigation Canal and even the early Erie Canal, were potash and pearlash which were used in numerous applications by the city folk and then sent around the world. Nearly every farmer in the 1790s to 1820s relied heavily on wood ash for cash or to pay credit. Eventually larger central potasheries were opened. Asheries were not very common in the second half of the century as the local forests were cleared (nearly 90% in most areas). Also, phosphates were being mined in foreign countries and shipped to the US, and other parts of the country were supplying the wood ashes for their own local industries. In looking at the historic maps I found that there were still a few asheries in the region as late as 1859, with Lamphier's Ashery in New Woodstock, one in Fenner and one in Nelson. The 1855 Chenango Co. map also shows that there was one in Lincklaen at that time. By 1875 not a single one shows on any of the maps for my research area. The story of asheries in Central New York is fascinating as it drove a large part of the early economy. A good treatment of it is in Allen Taylor's "William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic." (1995, Alfred E. Knopf. New York, NY). Several good dissertations that I have read over the years are good sources but I can;t think of them off my head just now. Dan W.