Curved Wooden Barrel Template Set

People

Date

Places

Material/Medium

wood

Specifications

Eight curved barrel stave templates. Each is numbered in pencil.

Description

Templates were often used in house building for repetitive, uniform measurements; barrel templates were used for the staves of different size casks. Early American skilled carpenters were commonly called on for all types of woodworking. Perhaps, with the addition of a local wagon builder’s skills for making hoops or metal bands, William Sowers crafted shipping barrels for some of Floyd County’s many millers.

As a house carpenter, William Sowers would have been familiar with making templates for repetitive, uniform measurements.  But it’s possible that the set of barrel templates originated with one of Floyd County’s early 19th c. coopers listed in the 1880 US Census: Samuel Walker (born 1807) – Alum Ridge, Anderson Kingrea (born 1829) – Little River, Daniel Epperly (born 1810) – Floyd , or Hector Williams (1816-1897) – a cooper on South Locust St., Jacksonville (Town of Floyd).

Keywords

Bio Sketch

In 1913-1914, master carpenter William Taylor Sowers (1847-1930) was the contractor and carpenter for the construction of the Nannie Harman Howard house, an impressive Georgian Revival home on East Main Street in Floyd.  Mr. Sowers’ tool chest, complete with wood planes and other carpentry tools was donated to the Gallery by his granddaughter, Rose Sumner.