The Cooper
Making Barrles to Move Produce
— Wabash & Erie Canal Park Village —
Cooper Shop: An Ancient Craft
The Cooper trade is an old one which came to America in the 1600s and was a leader in developing and introducing machines to replace the handmade methods. Before modern plastics and cardboard materials were perfected, barrels were used to store all manner of goods and they were easy to move. If you could not lift them you could roll them. Barrels are still used for fine wine and spirits.
Delphi's great lime belt produced finished products placed in barrels on canal boats. In 1857, Harley & Hubbard erected a kiln on land acquired from Dr. Grimes who had built a hotel which failed becoming known as "Grimes' Folly.” Here was started a barrel making cooperage to ship quality lime used for plaster, whitening and mortar. A second important use for barrels in Delphi was for packing and shipping salt pork back East. Delphi was one of the largest pork packing towns in the Midwest.
"White" coopers make "whiteware" such as buckets, tubs, tankards, piggins, pitchers, etc used in dairies, local kitchens and barns. These were made out of white or light colored woods. Unlike the darker woods, they were easy for the user to see if it was clean and ready to use.
"Wet" coopers make "tight" barrels and casks to hold liquids such as vinegar wine or cider which required
hardwoods such as white oak with strength enough to endure rough handling."Dry Tight" coopers formed casks to hold dry product like sugar, flour, salt, lime. Gunpowder often used softer hardwoods such as maple, elm, basswood, linden and chestnut.
"Slack" coopers produced casks out of sawn woods about 1/4" to 3/8” thick, bent while green. They were not watertight. They were used to transport heavy goods such as bolts, nails and other hardware. Indiana had several slack barrel factories making nail kegs hardware.
In Delphi, James Lunney began manufacturing slack and tight barrels on Main Street by 1879. A mill adjacent to the cooperage with the machinery for the trade employed up to 15 men and manufactured up to 35,000 barrels per year. Slack barrels mainly were sold locally and tight ones shipped to Chicago.
Canal-era business card of Daniel McCain. McCain later became general manager of The Delphi Lime Company in 1871 which was a collaboration of several independent operators. Together they produced and marketed as much as 500,000 bushels of burned lime annually.
How a Cooper Makes a Barrel
After shaped staves running from
the top to the bottom of the barrel
are formed with tapered ends, the
wide middle of the staves create the
barrel's center bulge. Metal hoops
are placed around a barrel to bend-
in the staves
Barrels, Casks and Kegs Popular Sizes
A keg or a cask can be a container of any size
and U.S. sizes can differ from those of the United
Kingdom. Bever is the smallest of barrel designs
and holds one or two gallons often used for salt-
mackerel in brine. Kegs came in various sizes used
to contain linseed oil and sometimes reinforced
with iron hoops. Depending on the product a slack
keg was ideal for durables such as nails. Firkin
normally one-quarter of a barrel in size was a
tight cask used for consumables such as butter or
lard. Standard-sized U.S. barrels hold 31 gallons,
a half gallon less than a traditional wine barrel.
Puncheons at 85 to 100 gallons and Butts at 108 to
110 gallons were the largest casks. The majority of
casks produced were Hogsheads at 54 gallons.
Erected by Tippecanoe Arts Federation.
Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic
Location. 40° 35.517′ N, 86° 40.817′ W. Marker is in Delphi, Indiana, in Carroll County. Marker can be reached from the intersection of West North Washington Street and North Charles Street, on the right when traveling east. The marker is on the Grounds of the Wabash & Erie Canal Conference & Interpretive Center. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 12252 West North Washington Street, Delphi IN 46923, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Education Along The Canal (here, next to this marker); Broom Maker (here, next to this marker); The Broom Making Process (here, next to this marker); The Paper Maker's Shop (a few steps from this marker); Cabin Homestead 1830s (a few steps from this marker); Fouts Kitchen And Medical Plants Garden (a few steps from this marker); Loom House Weaver (within shouting distance of this marker); Blacksmithing (within shouting distance of this marker). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Delphi.
Credits. This page was last revised on December 25, 2020. It was originally submitted on December 25, 2020, by Craig Doda of Napoleon, Ohio. This page has been viewed 128 times since then and 15 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on December 25, 2020, by Craig Doda of Napoleon, Ohio. • Devry Becker Jones was the editor who published this page.