Why I Became a Cooper

By

Darold Francis

In November of 1998, while driving home from work about 5:00 o’clock in the evening, I had an extraordinary experience.  I was in my car headed home.  I can’t remember what I was thinking about when it happened, but in an instant I had what I consider to be a very spiritual experience (like a personal revelation), which I will never forget.  It seemed as if everything to my mind became crystal clear.  My great, great, grandfather made it known to me that I should learn the art of Coopering. At the time of this experience I knew only that a Cooper was a barrel and bucket maker. (see "The Making of a Cooper").

There was an abundance of bright light and a feeling of complete acceptance and love.  I felt as if I belonged there and I so desired to be there. Yet this entire experience lasted only a few seconds.  I tried to hold on to the feeling and light.  But despite all I could mentally and spiritually muster, the experience left me.

My great, great, grandfather, John Francis was a Cooper in Wednesbury, England.  He was converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1856, and embraced the new religion fully.  He and his family were the center of the church activities in their little community.  They endured many persecutions, and when counseled to immigrate to Zion in the West, obeyed by sending their oldest children as the money was available.  Finally John and his wife, Rose Hanna, and their youngest children followed them to this valley where the family was reunited in1869.

I arrived home with an excitement I hadn’t felt in a long time and recounted the experience to my wife Pam.  We both felt strongly that I should pursue the directions given to me by my great, great, grandfather to learn or become a cooper.  As we talked some interesting thoughts and concerns came to our thought process.  Why?  Could I make a living being a cooper?  What would I do with this knowledge?  How would I gain the knowledge and skills required to be a cooper?  Why at this time in my life?  Well, as life would have it and in the busy world I was involved with and the direction of my life, I did nothing further to pursue becoming a cooper that year.

In November of 1999 within a week of my prior experience and in almost the exact same location on the road coming home from work I had the same extraordinary spiritual experience.  The same message was again impressed upon my mind that I should become a cooper.  I again desired to maintain the feeling of light, love and knowledge.  My mind again was very clear and it was as if I could see and know everything.  This amazing experience, unfortunately, lasted only a few seconds.  I again reiterated the same events to my wife Pam.  I was more impressed to learn about coopering and yet another year went by and nothing was done about it.

In the fall of November 2000, about the same time of the first two experiences and almost the exact same location on the road, I was driving home from work.   I had the third similar remarkable spiritual experience.  The same message was again imprinted upon my mind.  I should become a cooper and learn all I could about it.  To be enveloped in that special feeling was again phenomenal.  I again related the experience to Pam.  I told her that if this happened three time in the same manner over three years I had better do something about it this time or I would loose some very special blessings or maybe even be reproofed.

At this time my faith began to be unwavering in my efforts to learn about Coopering.  I immediately went to the Internet and started a search for places where I could learn the art of Coopering.  I called many places in Utah and across the country searching for a school or teacher or a cooper who might be willing to teach me something about Coopering. 

The Internet back in November of 2000 had very little information about Coopering or barrel making.  Fortunately today there are numerous sites about Coopering.  I finally read a message from a man who was looking for the same information that I was.  In February of 2001 this man e-mailed me some information on a school he had found that taught Coopering. 

I immediately contacted the school, and a week later I received their catalog.  Sure enough there was a class on Coopering.  It was taught only once a year and was scheduled from May 27 to June 2, 2001.  I at once sent in the fees and registered for the class.  I scheduled the air transportation and made arrangements for a car.  Our trip was planned and my commitment to follow that prompting was confirmed. 

The John C. Campbell Folk School, located in Brasstown, North Carolina, was a two and a half hour drive directly north from the Atlanta airport. The folk school, founded in 1925 teaches all the skills and everyday crafts used throughout the Appalachian area by the immigrants who came mostly from England, Scotland, and Scandinavia.  It seeks to emphasize two kinds of development: inner growth as creative, thoughtful individuals, and social development as tolerant, caring members of a community.

This particular class was to learn Coopering skills by crafting a one-handed bucket call a “piggen” from cedar wood.  I did as much preparation as I could by reading books about the craft, but there was no way to prepare for the challenges we were to meet in the class.  Our instructor, Keith Bowman was a Mennonite, and knew a lot about working with wood, and each day was exciting as I learned the skills of the Coopering trade. 

The exactness and precision necessary to making the bucket, though difficult, came readily.  When the time came to ‘stand up’ the staves into the beginning bucket shape, my bucket went together exactly the first time.  I took extra care to get each joint as perfect as I could before ‘standing it up’.  The two other men in that class had to rework and retry the standing up process before their work was satisfactory.  Keith recognized the extraordinary skill my work displayed, and commented on how my great, great grandfather, indeed, had passed on his skills to me, and my work was proof of that fact.        

During that week Pam signed up for a class on Broom Making.  The class explored the traditions of tying functional and decorative brooms in the Appalachian style of the 18^th century.  They covered handle selection and preparation, processing and grading of raw broomcorn, weaving the stalks onto the handled, and stitching the brush down into either a flat or shape.  She learned to make the sweeping broom, cobweb, whisk, hearth, turkey wing and various brushes.

We both thoroughly enjoyed our seven days of training.  When we arrived home Pam taught me how to make brooms and together we have been making brooms to this day.  We have enjoyed a newspaper article written in the Salt Lake Newspapers.  We have been on the radio and been invited to many cultural events demonstrating our talents.  In 2006 we were featured on the cover of Best Years magazine and won the Best of Show at the Utah State Fair.

On November 4, 5, 6, of  2004 I attended the Tillers International Coopering class.  This was an advanced class taught by Chuck Andrews and Dave Trotter.  Chuck is a veteran cooper, Dave learned his coopering while working at living history sites, and is currently employed by Slate Run Farm in Ohio.  I learned advanced coopering skills.  I also took a Coopering Tools class and some basic blacksmithing skills to create the essential Coopering Tools I did not have. Coopering tools are hard to come by now days, and very expensive because of their antique value. 

Now that I had all my own coopering tools I was able to make anything that I could find a design for.  I have become especially proficient in White Coopering.  This phase of the Coopering trade includes the making of watertight vessels such as buckets, butter churns, tankards, washbasins, casks, canteens, artillery buckets, and more.

I attended an advanced Broom making class taught by Marlow Gates in 2005. In October of 2008 I attended another class at Tillers International.  The Class was to learn how to make a Barrel taught by Chuck Andrews.   I had never before made a barrel.  I had attempted to start making some staves.  I did not have the knowledge or experience to make the complete barrel.  The barrel is a very complicated container to make.  This class was designed to teach with hands on practice how to shape, bend and assemble staves into a traditional barrel.  I can now say I have the knowledge and some experience to make a barrel.  It sits proudly in my home.

We have met many wonderful people in our travels and our demonstrations, and we continue our newfound friendships, and we have been able to share the lost art of coopering.  I still feel that there is a deeper reason for becoming a Cooper.  I wonder sometimes what that might be?

The Making of a Cooper

If you were asked to name the greatest invention of all time you would probably say the wheel, or the steam engine, or the internal combustion engine, or perhaps one of a number of other inventions that might warrant this distinction.  Few if any would consider the humble barrel. Yet, for thousands of years most commodities were moved, shipped or kept in barrels.  Why?  Because barrels were exceptionally strong, with hoops binding the joints into the form of a double arch; because they were in themselves wheels, a means of movement at a time when power was dependent upon the muscles of man or beast; and because certain goods actually benefited from being in a barrel. Without the barrel most goods would have remained right where they were made, or not have been made at all.  Few inventions have stimulated such enormous, widespread demand over so many centuries.

Barrels run in Darold’s family.  His great, great, grandfather, John Francis, was born in Bristol, Gloucester, England, October 9, 1813.  He was a Cooper by trade as was his father before him and was very proficient.  He made all kinds of wooden tubs, barrels, buckets and other articles in his little shop in Wednesbury, where he later lived.  John married Rose Hannah Tittley in 1841, Rose was a midwife.  Pamela Francis, Darold’s wife is also a midwife.  John was baptized January 1856.  My great grandfather, Samuel Francis, one of nine children was born March 13, 1848.  The family immigrated to America in stages due to financial conditions.  Samuel and his sister Elizabeth were sent in 1866.  John and Rose Hanna arrived in America on September 6, 1869.  I suspect Samuel knew about and probably helped his father in his coopering activities when he again tacked up his shingle as a Cooper in 1872 in American Fork, Utah.  My grandfather Samuel John Francis had knowledge of coopering but few skills.  I don’t ever remember him talking about it.  My father Dean Wilson Francis was skilled with his hands but knew little of coopering.  I, on the other hand, have become a skilled White Cooper.

There are three types of coopering, and each form required a different amount of skill than the next.  They were:

Dry coopering centered around building casks and buckets that did not need to hold liquid.  This form of coopering required the least amount of skill and the lowest quality of wood. 

Wet coopering centered around building casks that were watertight.  Wet coopering requires the highest-quality wood and the greatest amount of skill.

White coopering centers around the wooden bucket and similar items.  It gets its name from the fact that these items were used to transport and store milk, sugar, and flour.  It was considered the intermediate form of coopering because it required enough skill to make an item watertight, but did not generally require one to know how to bend the staves, as is required in wet coopering.  It was the oldest form of cooperage and does not require premium quality wood as does wet coopering.

Coopering is the art of joining individual pieces of wood together to form a watertight container.  The simplest bucket requires a special set of tools.  It also requires a different mindset than other woodworkers.  Experienced coopers do most of their measuring with their eyes.  They learn to judge the size and fit of parts without the aid of tapes and squares.  It is challenging and can be frustrating for beginners.  The angles are complex.

A cooper begins with the Froe, and Wedge and then a hewing axe to rough out the staves.  He then moves to the shave horse to refine the shape and angles.  Using a cooper’s jointer he shaves the edges of the staves to the proper angle.  After fitting is complete he cuts the groove for the bottom of the bucket or barrel with a Croze and finishes the assembly with wooden or steel bands (hoops). 

Of all wood crafts it is one of the most intricate, calling for a skill of instinctive measurement rarely required of other crafts. Crafting a bucket, a butter churn, or a barrel is more difficult and specialized,  which is why these vessels belonged to a special trade and were not made by carvers and carpenters.  Each vessel must be strong enough to take the pounding of the dash in a churn or the pressure of fermenting liquids; it must last a lifetime in spite of rough handling and retain its shape and functional value. There is a lot known about coopering today, however, there are but a handful that now practice its art.

 Pioneer Broom Shoppe Awards

 2004 - Best of Show

            Utah County Fair

            Crafts Division

            Thanksgiving Point, Utah

 2004 - Best of Show

            Utah County Fair

            Creative Arts Division

            Thanksgiving Point, Utah

 2005 - Best of Show

             Utah State Fair

             Creative Arts Division