Participants

Below is the story of the early 1800s importation of Spanish Merino to Vermont and the men who are credited for it. The tale of William Jarvis is well documented and has endured largely due to a biography written by his daughter, Mary Jarvis Cutts. Less documented, are the names of the thousands of shepherds, farmers, crafters, and laborers that have been and continue to be essential to the story of sheep in Vermont.

In order to paint a more comprehensive contemporary narrative, I reached out to Vermont farmers, fiber artists, and sheep lovers and asked if they’d be willing to sit down with me for an hour and share their stories, reflections, and perspectives around sheep. I had met a couple of my participants at the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival and was put in contact with others through community connections. I was delighted by the enthusiastic responses I received and amazed by the generosity of time and knowledge with which I was met. Though I was a stranger to most, my project participants invited me into their homes and trusted me to convey their stories. Please enjoy getting to know these fabulous people through their bios and voices featured on this site. For more information and to get in contact with participants, their websites are linked on their profiles.

Solving some technical difficulties with Rebecca Gould and Cynthia Smith alongside our captive audience. Photo by Catharine Wright.

Merino sheep are believed to have originated from either the Romans around the Black Sea (Merino meaning “from, or by the sea”) or the Moors of North Africa (Merino coming from the tribe Beni-Merines)1. Regardless of where they came from, we know they were brought into Spain in the second half of the 12th century. The Spanish raised Merinos for centuries and their fleece became known for its fineness across Europe. Often referred to as “golden,” Merino wool was necessary for manufacturing fine-wooled goods, for which there was high demand2. Until the 19th century, Spain fiercely guarded their sheep genetics, and anyone caught exporting Merinos could expect to work the rest of their life in a mine or face the death penalty3. In 1808, when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Spain, Spain was believed to have around six million Merinos, divided between the “tranhumantes” (traveling) and “estantes” (stationary) flocks4. During the Napoleonic Wars, The French armies seized the estates and flocks of Spanish nobles who did not side with Napoleon, creating an opportunity for other countries to get their hands on the valuable sheep5. Both the Spanish and French were short of funds for the war and began exporting Merinos for much needed cash. French officers reportedly drove 200,000 Merinos into France, while thousands of others were shipped to England and elsewhere in Europe6. This political disturbance also created the window of opportunity for the United States to get its own flocks of the fine-wooled breed. 

Portrait of William Jarvis from the biography written by his daughter

William Jarvis, an American Consul at Lisbon, is often credited as the man who discovered Spain’s secret and brought Merinos to America. During the Napoleonic Wars, Jarvis obtained an estimated total of 3,630 sheep from Spain, had them driven to Portugal, and shipped across the Atlantic7. He was careful to ship them in small batches, ensuring they had ample room, air, feed, and water, thus he lost very few sheep in the voyages8. Jarvis believed that “the introduction of this fine wooled breed into the United States would greatly increase her prosperity” and he dreamed of spreading Merinos throughout the states9. He sent his sheep to ports all along the Eastern Seaboard, and even sent some to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison10. Jarvis sold more than three thousand Merinos and used the profit to purchase a two-thousand-acre farm in Weathersfield, Vermont, where he retired with four hundred Merinos of his own11. He cleared the property of tree stumps, fenced it in, and hired twenty workers to tend his flock. Jarvis believed that Vermont was “an ideal location for his Merinos…because of its treeless hills” and he sold his breeding stock to farmers across the state12.

While Jarvis’s importation of thousands of Merinos is well documented, he was not alone in this endeavor, and he was not the first to do so. It is believed that the first Merinos were brought into the United States by William Foster of Boston in 179313. Foster sent two ewes and a ram to Andrew Cragie in Cambridge, Massachusetts, but unfortunately Cragie was unaware of their worth and slaughtered them for mutton14. In 1801, E I du Pont of Delaware brought back a Merino ram, Don Pedro, from France, who had their own Merino flock by this time. Don Pedro became famous as the first full-blooded Merino breeding ram in the United States, however, it is difficult to verify that he was actually pure Merino15. Soon after, in 1802, a “Mr. Humphreys” shipped twenty-one Merino rams and seventy ewes from Spain to America14. Jarvis was not the only one who benefitted from Spain’s loosened grasp on their Merinos during the Napoleonic Wars, and an estimated 17,197 Merinos arrived at northern ports from 1810 to 1811 and this doesn’t even include those shipped south of New York16

Sources:

  1. Belanus, Betty Jane. They Lit Their Cigars with Five Dollar Bills : The History of the Merino Sheep Industry in Addison County. National Endowment for the Humanities, 1977, pp. 6.
  2. Woods, Rebecca J. H. “Green Mountain Merinos: From New England to New South Wales in the Nineteenth Century.‎” Vermont History, vol. 85, no. 1, 2017, pp. 4.
  3. Cutts, Mary Pepperell Sparhawk Jarvis. The Life and Times of Hon. William Jarvis: Of Weathersfield, Vermont. Hurd and Houghton, 1869, pp. 272.
  4. Cutts, pp. 270
  5. Balivet, Robert. “The Vermont Sheep Industry: 1811-1880.” Vermont History, vol. xxxiii, no. 1, Jan. 1965, pp. 243.
  6. Woods, pp. 5
  7. Cutts, pp. 287
  8. Bushnell, Mark. “How a U.S. Diplomat Introduced the Sheep Craze to Vermont.” VTDigger, 31 Jan. 2021. 
  9. Cutts, pp. 274
  10. Bushnell
  11. Norton, Louis Arthur. “Of a Snuffbox, a Ship, and Sheep: A Tale of William Jarvis.” Vermont History, vol. 82, no. 1, 2014, pp. 8.
  12. Balivet, pp. 243-244
  13. Pursell, Carroll W. “E. I. Du Pont, Don Pedro, and the Introduction of Merino Sheep into the United States, 1801: A Document.” Agricultural History, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 86.
  14. Belanus, pp. 5
  15. Pursell, pp. 87
  16. Vermont Merino Sheep Breeders’ Association. Spanish Merino Sheep, Their Importation from Spain, Introduction into Vermont and Improvement since Introduced. The Vermont Sheep Breeders Association, 1879, pp. 31.