Historical Information on Webb Horton

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The tanbark industry developed after “The War of 1812.” Not until then did the United States enjoy free commerce with the world. From Brazil, Argentine, and later Texas, came shiploads of hides to be converted into leather. Factories for the tanning of leather sprang up wherever there was bark to feed them. Roads suitable for heavy loads were pushed up every timbered valley, peelers went into the bark woods about May 1, peeling the hemlock as long as it would peel, then stacking the bark in cord piles to dry and to be drawn to the tanneries the following winter. Each piece of bark was four feet long and from 12 to 16 inches wide.”11 It is worthwhile to note how important the establishing of the leather business was to the United States.

First of all, Alf Evers explained that “in the early years of American settlement, leather was far more generally used than it is today.”12 As American’s population grew, so did the demand for leather. Then, the Mexican War and the Civil War came, during which the need escalated. Slowly, in their early generations, the Hortons became engaged in the production of leather, as they settled into what was at the time the American frontier.

William and Elizabeth raised seven children. Two daughters married into the Radeker family—a connection that continued with the Hortons. Isaac was William and Elizabeth’s six child; he was then in the Horton’s 7th American generation. Isaac married Prudence Knapp, daughter of Enoch and Esther (Wright) Knapp on January 1, 1807. Isaac too carried on in much the same way as his ancestors. “He was commissioned quartermaster in … the Delaware County Militia.” He served as “Constable,” “Commissioner,” and “Overseer of Highways and Schools,” and acted briefly as “Assessor.” He owned land. He was a member of the Baptist Church of Colchester.

Still, when his ninth child Webb was only a few months old, in the spring of 1826, Isaac followed his own father’s inclination to move his entire family—this time to Liberty Falls (now Ferndale) in Sullivan County, backtracking slightly eastward. There, with the help of his older sons, “he erected the first frame house and the first grist mill. Later, he built a tannery….” 13 The Hortons were not the first tanners in the area. There were Gildersleeves, Crarys, Garritts, Smiths, and Grants—all of whom would stay connected with the Hortons through business and marriages. Cusator noted: From 1830 to 1850 the wealth of Sullivan County advanced rapidly. This county was considered the most important sole‐leather manufacturing district in the world. Without the Delaware and Hudson Canal and the New York and Erie Railroad, this development could not have been accomplished, says Quinlan…. There is an old saying “The Civil War was won on the boots tanned in Sullivan County.”14 While other New York counties made similar boasts, there is little doubt from the industry that followed that early in the 19th century, the Isaac Horton family of tanners had connected with a group of remarkably skilled tanners who were accomplished in the sole leather business. Cusator noted, “From

11. Ibid.

12. Evers, 333.

13. Cusator, 2.

14. Ibid.