The Tinker, the Rag Man, the Cloth Man and the Ice Man

These wandering characters were beloved for what they provided in Bucks County…827

Places like Home Depot and Lowe’s give us comfort; we can tinker with home repairs with confidence. I know. I’ve tinkered many times. I’ve rewired electrical circuits (with only occasional shocks). I’ve learned the proper way to put a new roof on the house. And I’ve dappled in rug laying, replacing windows and plumbing.

Plumbing issues can be difficult. Fred, my local hardware store owner, made that clear early on. “You’ll be back!” Walt would wager as I headed out the door with tools that I thought I’d need. It typically requires three visits to the hardware store to fix a problem. “Surveys prove it,” Walt smiled on my return visit. “First you buy what you think you need. Then you’re back here upgrading what you thought you needed. Your third visit is to buy something you didn’t think you’d need but you certainly do to finish.” As my wife Mary Anne can attest, I fall into the 3-trip category in maintaining a happy home.
I thought of all this in studying the early history of Milford Township in the northwest corner of Upper Bucks County. I marvel at how Milfordites got by without a Home Depot, Lowe’s or Ace Hardware. For them, it just required a little patience. Before long, you’d hear a tinker’s bell getting louder. The handyman’s approach gave a certain charm to the world of our ancestors.

“Our tinker came around carrying a grindstone on his back,” according to a family memoir from the early 20th century passed along by Larry Lederer. “The sound of his bell, a familiar sound, would catch our ear as he approached the house. He’d sharpen scissors and knives, or fix umbrellas or anything you’d give him, and all for a few cents. And then he’d wander away and the bell sound would become more faint as he moved from house to house.”

In the 13th century, tinkers generally were Irish and Scottish Highland travelers. The homeless drifters made a living as metal- workers, offering to fix pots and pans using molten solder to patch holes. That tradition expanded to colonial America. Tinkers came around frequently in Milford. They roamed all the woodland byways on a regular basis. They were important to rural folks for what they could fix or said they could fix. You’d have to know the right tinker of course. Some could be bunglers.

The “Rag Man” was another fixture of Milford. No town in that era was complete without one. They typically collected rag clothing and bones, gathered and tucked into a burlap bag or loaded aboard a horse-drawn cart for sale to factories. Rag men were known as bone-grubbers and rag-gatherers in 19th century England. They typically carried bags over their shoulders that turned greasy from the bones. They also used hooks to snag anything of value in ash, dirt and garbage thrown from houses.

In Milford, Rag Man was equipped with a cart. Recalled Lederer, “In the early days you could hear the wagon wheels creaking and noise of the leather harness and the chains in tune with the squeaking of the traces as the horse-drawn wagon methodically moved up and down streets. Our rag man was unique because he sang. He came down the dirt road, with a high-pitched whistle. And he sang ‘Rag Man – any rags or bones.’ He’d buy rags or bones by the pound and his concerts could be heard about once a month.”

Another Milford wayfarer was Cloth Man. He would arrive from Philadelphia in a wagon drawn by a white horse. If you need- ed stockings, shoes, dresses, sewing items, elastic and sundries, the Cloth Man was at your service. He’d stay overnight in the livery stable of the Colonial Inn in Trumbauersville.
Perhaps the most indispensable individual was Ice Man. Every household had an “ice box” to protect perishable food before refrigerators arrived in the 1940s. “Needless to say, the Ice Man and his ice wagon were a pleasant sight to the waiting house- holder whose last remaining piece of ice was rapidly dripping away,” according to Milford author Roger Baldwin. “Food might spoil if he was late. To the school child, emptying out the pan below the ice box was an annoying chore. But to the same young- ster following the ice wagon on a hot, sultry day, snitching a piece of ice was as good as today’s giant ice cream sundae!” 
Sources include “Wandering Through Milford Township” by Roger Baldwin published by Milford Township (1984).

Carl LaVO, household tinker, can be reached at carllavo0@gmail.com