Above: wide view of left side of
loom, showing the free-standing rocker beater.
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Right: wide view from front of loom.
Boonesborough was one of the
early pioneer settlements established by Daniel Boone. In 1775 the fort
and settlement consisted of 26 log cabins and four blockhouses, but by
1780 it had grown too big for Boone and he relocated further north.
The
donor of this loom bought it at an auction house in Carlisle
KY. No background information is available on the loom itself,
but it is
interesting to note that the present-day Blue Lick State Park stands on
the site of the salt-works operation run by Daniel Boone and his
sons. Salt was an essential commodity on the
frontier and the Boones were area suppliers. Another interesting detail
is this – that on private land not far from the Carlisle auction house
where this loom was
purchased – stands the final log cabin built and
occupied by the
Boone family during their sojourn in Kentucky. Not long after
Kentucky achieved statehood (1792), Daniel Boone became disenchanted
with the new state government - which refused to accept his
pre-statehood land treaties and ended up stripping him of his Kentucky
land holdings. In 1799, the Boone family left the state, crossed
the Mississippi
River, and settled in Missouri.
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