The Jabonería is the primary processing plant or soap factory that transformed tallow, lye, and water into soap for trade. This was just one of several rancho-developed products that was an integral part of the rancho economy in Alta California. The manufacture of soap produced a strong aroma that required the jabonería or soap house to be placed at a distance from the living quarters. At the Dana Adobe the Jabonería was located approximately 100 feet east of the house and west of the prevailing winds, which flow predominantly to the north-northwest. The soap house was constructed as an open sided shed approximately 20 by 20 feet, depending on the number of soap vats it contained. At the Dana, we have at least one reference to more than one vat, although to date only one has been found. The soap house at the Dana Adobe is now gone but the vat it covered remains. It consists of an 11.5-foot wide cone or funnel constructed into the upper slope of the Nipomo drainage. It lies approximately 100 feet east of the adobe and about 200 yards south of what has been described as the matanza site in the flood plain of Nipomo Creek. It is not what you would necessarily call a neat construction of shaped stone, laid in regular courses, but rather it was constructed of irregularly shaped mortared sandstone forming walls that slope down and inward forming a conical shape. The bottom of the funnel rests on a 3.5-foot wide by two feet deep iron kettle that has been set into the bottom of the pit. The interior walls of the vat have been coated with a type of pozolana or hydraulic cement made from a mix of lime mortar and ground up roof tiles. The previously prepared tallow was poured into the jabonería to within eight or ten inches of the top and stirred over an open fire with a paddle approximately seven feet long. When the tallow was hot enough to boil, a weak solution of lye was added to the tallow that caused it to form a milky white emulsion. This mixture was continuously stirred as it boiled until it became quite transparent and, upon tasting, it was determined that all the lye had been taken up by the tallow. At this point additional lye was added and the stirring continued. This went on until the liquid had a distinct alkaline taste, indicating all the alkali had been absorbed by the tallow. This mixture continued to boil for about a half-hour more, at which point salt or brine was stirred in. It was then left to settle, allowing the strongly alkaline mixture of soap to separate and float to the top while the lye and salt dropped to the bottom. At this point, the separated soap was skimmed from the vat. The remaining lye and salt was removed from the vat and the newly made soap returned for additional boiling. This was then poured into wood frames and formed into bars for use or trade to the local ranchos or ship captains. This type of soap was a dark yellow brown in color and contained many impurities. It was usually used for household cleaning and laundry. If a purer soap was desired, it was returned to the vat and boiled several times with a weak solution of lye water which allowed the impurities to settle out of the soap. Figures for the cost of soap shipped from San Blas to the Presidios in the latter quarter of the eighteenth century show that the large bars of soap sold for about $0.24 Pesos per bar or approximately $3.33 in current U. S. Dollars. One of the questions I have had since beginning this excavation was how Eastern markets in the United States could absorb the high volume of hides and tallow entering their ports from California. Research into this question has found interesting parallels in the development of the early New England colonies and California and their role in the development of the boot and shoe industry along the Atlantic Seaboard. This has provided excellent interpretive material for the manufacture of shoes and boots by the Danas at Rancho Nipoma, and promises to provide valuable information for the development of an interpretive display of this industry. Most histories of the State describe how hides and tallow were shipped out to other ports but yield little information regarding their final disposition. A few have indicated they went into the leather trades of the Atlantic Seaboard. This all seemed a bit vague and unsatisfactory to me. After all, where did a market develop that could absorb such a large volume of hides at a reasonably good profit for the Rancheros? This logically led to questions regarding the leather and shoe trade in New England. After the Mexican Revolution and incorporation of California as a part of Mexico, trade along the California Coast became dominated by American shipping, mostly out of the New England States, most notably Boston. William Dana being one of these. At this period, Massachusetts was rapidly becoming one of the largest producers of shoes in North America. The beginning stages of this industry are reflected in similar developments in California although a few decades later in time. The Home Stage of Shoe Manufacture (ca. 1620 to 1760) At times, itinerant cobblers traveled from community to community, making boots for the farm families they visited. This has been referred to as the Home Stage of manufacture. Having more skills and experience, these itinerant cobblers usually made a better quality of shoe or boot than that of the once a year production at home. In the New England States during the middle of the 18th century, communities began to grow and increase their economic base, making it possible for the itinerant cobblers to establish their own shops either at home or in a community center. Here the local cobbler produced work as requested for a specific job (referred to as be spoke work) using either his own or the customers leather. This had the advantage of making his work available to inspection by fellow cobblers and worked to improve the product overall. Prices for work became regulated by popular opinion. Such a shop may have had one or more journeyman and apprentice shoemakers. These small Colonial communities began to develop from single to multiple farm families into precincts of their parent towns. As prosperity developed and surplus materials and time permitted, shoemakers began to manufacture additional stock for sale in local shops and neighboring towns. Thus, the shoemakers began to produce work for other than direct customers at a cheaper rate than their custom shoes. This development from the Handicraft Stage to the Domestic Stage occurred quite gradually, transforming journeyman and apprentices working in a shop, to domestic workers employed by a shoe merchant. This period is distinguished by the change from shoemaker making and selling his own wares, to employees making shoes for sale by a capitalist-entrepreneur who takes the risks of supplying tools and materials for a product for sale to a larger market. Shoemakers in their shops employed their family members as well as their journeyman and apprentices in the manufacture of shoes for sale to entrepreneurs. This eventually led to specialization in the processes of shoe manufacture and the development of the Central Shop System. This system organized shoe manufacture by portioning out specialized aspects of construction to less skilled workers for "fitting," this work was then returned to the Central Shop for completion of the shoe. The high demand for footwear and readily available capital of the 1830’s shifted the importance of quality in the manufacturing process to that of time in the production of shoes. During the Rancho period of Dana’s Nipoma land grant, the United States was recovering from the panic of 1837. Members of the New England shoe industry that had survived this depression had to operate under an era of intense competition to produce a very high quality of workmanship. For the shoe industry in Boston this period was characterized by ready capital, an expanding industry, and increasing profits, with newly developing shoe centers that found a ready market for the volume of hides shipped from California. The Dana Adobe site offers an opportunity to interpret life of a California Rancho, which for many years was the center of agriculture and industry for a hundred-mile stretch along El Camino Real. Of specific interest is the interpretation of the manufacture and sales of products, which Dana supplied to the Missions, and neighboring ranchos including soap, shoes, blankets, clothing, saddles, and agricultural implements. This site provides a valuable perspective of the post secularization era of the Missions. The Development of Shoe ManufacturingIn 1810 Marc Brunel filed a patent on a machine to manufacture nine sizes of boots and shoes for Napoleon’s army. The machines were operated by 24 disabled soldiers. This manufacturing machine worked so well that at the request of the government he expanded his operation. The English Foreign Secretary, Lord Castlereagh, persuaded him to expand production in order to fill the army's total requirements. It was the defeat of Napoleon and the peace of 1815 that lost him a substantial amount on his War Office contracts. The cancellation of contracts resulted in incarceration at the Kings' Bench Prison for debt. After the wars Brunel’s machine was set aside and the industrialization of shoe making was to wait another forty years for American inventors to develop shoe-manufacturing equipment.
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