Chairmaking
thrived in small shops in rural Central New Jersey in the middle of the 19th century. In the
Allentown area, several workshops commonly produced low back rush seat type chairs
and rockers with stenciled decorations from the 1840’s to the 1890’s. One of the most
productive shops, operating from 1858 to 1895, making as many as 1000 chairs a year at
its peak, was the Clayton Shop. Established in 1860 by John A. Clayton over Isaac
Rogers blacksmith shop (near the site on which the local bank was later built), it was then
relocated to a shop at 9 Pearl Street.
James H. Clayton, born in 1852, worked in his
father’s shop as a boy and became a partner at age 20. The Clayton shop chairs were
mainly a decorated 3 slat rush seat variety. Local maple, oak and poplar were used, and
eventually precut parts were purchased from the sawmill of Sy Buzby of Crosswicks.
Initially the bent wood was steamed in copper vats at the hat making establishment by
George Myers. Rush was harvested from South River. The chairs were prime coated in
Venetian red or Rosepink, usually followed by a black second coat. Stencils were then
used, including designs with boats, swans, lighthouses, ropes, spirals and lyres. Straight
chairs sold for $1 each and up to $9 for a set of 6 of the shop’s finest chairs.
Zebulon
Clayton Byard was born in 1810 in Manalapan, NJ, at the home of his grandfather,
Zebulon Clayton. He was the son of an English portrait artist who traveled, seeking
customers. While visiting the home of Zebulon Clayton, he met and married one of his
daughters. At age 4, after the death of his father, Zebulon went to live with an aunt in
Philadelphia. He learned chairmaking there at a shop on Vine Street, but he also
developed a lively interest in boxing, much to his aunt’s dismay.
At age 16 his aunt
bought a farm on Allentown-Robbinsville Road, in an attempt to divert Zebulon from a
boxing career. Zebulon was described as a powerful man, capable, resourceful, but lazy.
He only sold locally to fill orders when he needed funds. Zebulon’s chairs were made of
local maple and hickory, and turned on a foot-treadle lathe at the shop. In addition to the
decorated 3 slat rush seat variety, he produced a distinctively different style where the rush
seat was bound on all sides by a wide wood band with a curved block of wood in the
front.
Zebulon Byard’s shop was the only place in the area that produced an all wood seat
chair, learned from his training in Philadelphia, which he called his “Kitchen Windsors.”
They sold for $1.50 each. He also made all wood settees. Charles Byard, Zebulon’s son,
was born in Allentown in 1844. He learned chairmaking in his father’s shop, but operated
a separate business after his marriage in 1866 in shared space. Charles then left Allentown
and made chairs in Manalapan, but returned a few years later after his father’s death.
Charles produced chairs similar to his fathers. Some of his stencil designs included birds,
roosters, ducks, lions and deer. Charles was tall and powerful, hard working and hard
living. He learned boxing from his father and caused much controversy with his last
scheduled match to Patsy May of Camden, July 4, 1866, in Hightstown, NJ. The stakes
were $50 for each contestant, and local authorities forbid it. It was held anyway behind a
barn. Charles won. Anthony W. Kennedy, choir leader, singing school conductor and
house painter, also had a chairmaking business on Church Street near the site where the Grange Hall was later built. He made chairs for 10 to 15 years.
Kennedy worked for a
short time at the Byard shop. The Kennedy shop employed John A. Clayton for a short
period before opening his shop in Allentown, NJ. Kennedy made only decorated, slat
back, rush seat chairs of fair quality. James Buckalew worked at the Kennedy shop and
later opened his own chair shop at 50 Church Street for a few years, making 100-200 rush
seat chairs per year. William Gulick worked at the Clayton shop, at James Buckalew’s
shop, and later opened his own shop on Church Street with his brother Horatio.
William Killey was an apprentice in the Clayton Shop from 1865-68.
His
descendants have preserved some of his sturdy rush seat chairs. They are decorated with
a fruit basket design on the wide top slats. Many other chair shops opened in the area
including Jesse Van Hise and William Rose of Rue’s Corner, Prospertown; Dutch born
Michael Maps and his descendants of Leonard and his son Peter of Englishtown; and
Joseph D. Herbert of Tennent. SOURCE: Central New Jersey Chairmaking of the
Nineteenth Century by William H. MacDonald