WORK AT BISHOP HILL

Colonist at Bishop Hill worked from sun up to sun down. Here are two of the jobs there.

Broommaking at Bishop Hill

A man by the name Davenport brought broommaking to Bishop Hill. He taught them how to grow and harvest broomcorn and make brooms. Probably some of the equipment was made by the Shakers in Kentucky, they also made brooms.

In 1858, the colony of Bishop Hill harvested well over 2,000 acres of broomcorn and made brooms that would be worth as much as $37,000 today. They sold the brooms for $50.00 a ton. The largest single broom sales they recorded was in 1857, for 1,200 dozen brooms to the city of St. Louis, or 14,475 brooms. This job of broommaking was important to the economy of the colony. Bishop Hill was known for it's broom corn.

Brickmaking in Bishop Hill

 Back in the 1800's brick making was a very important job in Bishop Hill. There was a lot of bricks from clay found outside of town near the river. They used bricks for making all but two of the colony's buildings.  The bricks in the building are still there today, some buildimga are sprinkled with both old and new bricks. This was because some of the older bricks where knocked out and replaced with new ones. The older ones were softer, and irregular or not as uniformly shaped. New bricks are made by a machine and are made of harder clay. 

Swedes in Illinois

 

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Illinois Ancestors

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