Hooked Rugs of the Midwest by Mary Collins Barile

Author:Mary Collins Barile
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

PUNCHING THROUGH THE MIDWEST

Two weeks ago, we went into a poor woman’s home, and there sat her daughter making the loveliest rugs on a machine out of old yarn. The flowers and birds grew under the deft needle as it slipped in and out of the framed pattern before her, and in one day, that girl would accomplish more than she would in a week with a rug-hook, tugging unwillingly through the burlap. That afternoon, we sent a postal note of a dollar and a half to the man who invented and sells it, E. Ross & Co., Toledo, Ohio.

—Aunt Chatty Brooks, 1887

Aunt Chatty Brooks was actually Rosella Rice, an Ohio journalist who wrote for Arthur’s Home Magazine in the late nineteenth century. Rice’s comments went on to explain that the “old hose” were unraveled, washed and dyed and “we are having a jolly time” rug making. Rice was describing a technique that continues to be conflated and confused with rug hooking: the punch needle. When rug makers used a hook, they had to guide the fabric strands from the underside of the rug to the hook and then regulate the height of the strand as they looped it through the backing. One rule of thumb, so to speak, was that the loop should be as tall as the width of strand. Once the loops were made, they were trimmed to give the effect of separate strands. In the late nineteenth century, this was challenged by the introduction of the punch needle, a tufting, or “turfing,” tool. Among the earliest manufacturers of the punch needle was E. Ross of Toledo, Ohio, who patented the “Novelty Rug Machine” on December 27, 1881. The company’s ads said the tool “makes rugs, tidies, hoods, mittens, etc. with ease and rapidity. Price only one dollar, single machine with full directions sent by mail on receipt of the price. Agents wanted. Apply for circulars to E. Ross & Co., Patentees and Sole Manufacturers, Wauseon, Ohio, also Dealers in Rug Patterns.” Not long after, women in Nebraska could order their own punch needle, as shown by this ad in the McCook Tribune on October 15, 1885:

Any lady can make handsome rugs in four hours out of rags, yarn or any cloth by using The Pearl Rug Maker on any sewing machine or by hand. A wonderful invention. It sells at sight. Price only $1. No hooks, clamps, frames or patterns. Easy, simple, fascinating. Agents wanted. Great inducements. Apply for territory. New plan. No money required. Jno. G. Hoitt & Col, 218 State St., Chicago.

The “rug machine” was fairly easy to use—it allowed for quicker work and did not require the pulling motion needed in rug hooking. The Ross “embroidery machine,” as it was called in the patent application, consisted of wooden sliders that held a needle, as well as a spool or bobbin to hold the material. The rug punch primarily used long strands of yarn or thinly cut fabric lengths, not short individual fabric strips.

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