William Kimzey Osborne (1838-1917), pictured in hat

Winter weather has many reaching for hats and gloves, which might make one wonder about headwear of past Transylvanians. James Neill’s hattery, said to have been one social meeting place for the men who formed the county in the 1860s, supplied some of these fur hats to early county residents. While no known Neill hats survive, photographs of Transylvanian men in the late 1800s may very well show them sporting a Neill hat.

James (Jimmie) Neill was born June 22, 1795, in Iredell County. In 1820, he bought 250 acres that bordered Benjamin Allison’s land from his brother, George Neill. After this, he married Sarah S. Clayton, the daughter of Lambert and Sarah Davidson Clayton. The couple had four children: George Clayton Neill, John Lambert Neill, Samuel Rufus Neill, and Margaret Mary Eliza Neill. They built a two-story home on Boyleston Road. The home’s rock chimney had 1834 carved into it, and descendants were living in it by 1941 according to a local newspaper from the time. Unfortunately, the house burned in 1953.

Robert “Doog” Siniard, 1912, shown with a number of furs

Neill opened a shop thought to be near what is now the Pisgah Forest entrance. Mary Daniels Galyon noted that this “was a time when the area was new, relatively wild, and long before the advent of large hat factories.” Neill’s hattery offered a gathering space, not just to buy headwear but also for locals to meet. It’s said that many met near a watering trough under a large willow tree on the property to talk about happenings around town.

The store’s primary use, however, was as a place to acquire hats. According to one 1941 Transylvania Times article, “hats of all kinds were made from the pelts of local wild animals. The white fur from a [beaver’s] stomach was commonly used in the making of high white hats, which were popular with lawyers, politicians, gamblers, horse fanciers, and patent medicine barkers. Preachers and teachers affected glossy black hats called beavers; sometimes called bee-gums by the irreverent.” A later article in 1959 noted that beaver hats weren’t as common in Western North Carolina, and while beaver hats were valued, local hats were more likely “produced from the fur of bears and other animals of this vicinity by a few craftsmen.”

Jeremiah Osborne (1802-1890), pictured in hat

As far as library staff can tell, none of these Neill hats survive, though research noted that these were often passed through generations, especially if they were hats of high quality. Beaver and other fur hats were popular across the country at the time and often drove demand for furs, so hunters went to lengths to provide hat manufacturers with quality pelts. One 1868 “Treatise on Hat-Making” found on the Library of Congress website notes steps including preparing the furs, stiffening and waterproofing materials, and use of a blowing machine “which consists of a long, close, narrow, wooden box, divided into a number of apartments.”  A large fan and series of mechanisms on the machine were used to separate the coarse from the fine furs. By the 1860s, machinery was used in larger cities for hat-making, but smaller communities like Brevard would have depended largely on local craftsmen like Jimmie Neill.

James Neill died July 12, 1853 and is buried in the Davidson River Cemetery. While his craftsmanship does not appear to have survived the last century and a half, Jimmie Neill’s contribution and development of local business in early Brevard has.

Photos and information for this column are provided by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library. This article was written by Local History Associate Erin Weber Boss. Sources available upon request.

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