Pack.Peddlers.Breckinridge.HISTORY-OtherFrom: KyArchives 
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Subject: Pack.Peddlers.Breckinridge.HISTORY-Other


Pack Peddlers  
Breckinridge County KyArchives History Other 
Book Title: A Glimpse Of The Past 
With the exception of Santa Claus, the pack peddlers were the most welcome 
visitors in all rural communities.  These foot salesmen were usually Irish, 
German or Jewish immigrants who came to America in search of freedom, 
opportunity and wealth.  They had a fair education, a little cash and a 
determination to succeed.  With these qualifications, they started a one man- 
merchandising venture that was a success from the beginning.  With their needed 
wares and pleasant conversations, they were accepted without suspicion even if 
their English was broken by a little foreign accent. 
Being able to obtain domestic and foreign merchandise and assemble it in their 
homes or warehouses in a town or city near their planned routes, they started 
on a one-man business venture.  They loaded their packs with one hundred pounds 
of lightweight and hard to get items, such as dress materials, lace, thread, 
needles, scissors, combs, talcum-powder, suspenders, handkerchiefs, tin 
cookware and hundreds of smaller items not obtainable in rural areas.  They 
showed their wares in a salesman-like manner unsurpassed in this modern age.  
Their ability to show the right merchandise and describe it in a pleasant 
manner resulted in a sale to every family on whom they called.  They usually 
spent the night at the last home on which they called and paid well for their 
nights lodging with merchandise needed most by their host.  Cash was scarce in 
most homes, but the salesmen exchanged their hard to get items for family 
surpluses that could be resold to merchants and other outlets. 
These men were honest and so were the ones that followed, when wagons and 
carriages became available to take the load off their shoulders and add 
hundreds of pounds to their payloads. 
The welcome pack peddler trudged the roads and foot paths to the homes of rural 
Kentuckians from the time it became a state until the first of the twentieth 
century, where the carriage salesman took over and continued, another twenty 
years.  Progress finally put them out of business, but not until they had 
established a merchandising trend.  The pattern is still in use today although 
not in its original manner but with modern conveniences.  Merchandising has 
become America's top industry.  The family names of some pioneer salesman are 
on the office doors of some of the present day merchandising marts.  
Descendants who followed in the footsteps of a family trandition have kept them 
alive.  Not only did their names remain in the industrial world, but also, in 
the memories of many people. 
These new and sparsely settled Kentucky communities had little access to the 
outside world; consequently, they offered the pack peddler an opportunity to 
show his wares and prosper from the sale of merchandise to people who had no 
other source from which to fulfill their needs.  Their being from a foreign 
country, where a dense population forced conservation of land for growing of 
garden and field crops to feed man and beast made them recognize our wasteful 
habits.  An Irish peddler one said, "Several families from my country could 
grow enough foodstuff from the fence rows and uncultivated corners and nooks of 
an average Kentucky farm to supply their yearly needs.".  He was horrified at 
the needless waste so prevalent among Kentucky farmers.  His recognition of an 
alarming danger went unnoticed by those responsible until recent years, when 
the slogan, "waste makes want", became a reality too late to be easily overcome 
and revealed his business ability. 
Some peddlers did more than just sell merchandise.  They were also "Mr. Fix 
Its", carrying tools to sharpen knives and axe blades to perfection.  Others 
bottomed chairs.  During the winter, he would strip pieces of bark from hickory 
trees and let them season to just the right degree.  Then he would drape them 
over his shoulder and start his journey. 
There was no cutthroat competition among peddlers as there is among many 
merchants today.  Peddlers were the best of friends, each with his specialty, 
or his own particular route. 
With better roads, the invention of automobilies making it easier for residents 
to make trips into town, the peddler had soon gone the way, which the Model T 
has gone. 
Stories of the peddler, told around the fireplace on wintry nights are 
virtually all that remains. 
Submitted by: Dana Brown 
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00005.html#0001067 



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