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By 1845, there was no more hemlock within a ten-mile radius. He opened a tannery in the Catskills in 1825 that became the world’s largest at the time, and he founded the town of Prattsville to accommodate his workers. The most well-known tanner was Zadock Pratt. Jonathan Palen launched the local tanning industry in 1817, followed in 1822 by William Edwards, who expanded into large-scale production and new technologies. Oak-tanned leather was popular for shoe uppers, while leather made from hemlock - with its less appealing orange hue - was predominantly used for soles. The hides were then rinsed with water from local lakes and rivers, which also powered the mills that were essential for grinding hemlock bark into a powder to make tannin. Raw animal hides imported from South America and around the world would soak for up to six months to produce treated leather. Tannin, a strong curing solution, was created by mixing crushed hemlock bark with water. Here, hoop shavers making barrels for the cement industry pose for a photograph in the late 1800s. Glasco Turnpike was created to transport materials to and from the Hudson River, and the hamlet along the river became known as Glasco.īarrels were integral to many industries to store and transport products, including beer, molasses, and grain. The local supply was depleted, and sand had to be imported from New Jersey and Philadelphia, along with other chemicals. Another necessary ingredient was sand, readily available nearby. The area’s thousands of acres of trees would supply fuel for glass furnaces for half a century. Other glass factories popped up in Shady and Stoney Clove in a secluded part of the upper Sawkill Valley just past Woodstock. Many merchants faced bankruptcy, but factories making textiles, metal objects, glass, and similar products prospered. Previously, most glass used in the United States came from England, but in 1807 Congress passed the Embargo Act, which cut off trade with Europe. Glassmaking began in Ulster County in 1809 when the Woodstock Glass Manufacturing Society (later Company) was formed, known to all as Glasco. Workers in 1917 scrape hides by hand to remove fleshings and fine hair, one of many backbreaking steps in tanning.