I've been doing some research lately on early York County furniture makers and found that there were many more of these skilled craftspeople than I realized. It does make sense--everyone needed furniture and few were wealthy enough to have it "imported" from Baltimore or Philadelphia.
The existing tax lists from 1800-1850 abound with cabinet makers, chair makers, joiners and turners. There are hundreds of carpenters listed, most of which may have been house carpenters, but some probably also made some furniture. Some, like George Dowdel, who invented a bedbug-proof bedstead didn't get picked up in the existing tax lists as a furniture maker or carpenter at all.
Dowdel/Doudel did make more than just bedsteads, as evidenced by his sale bill, listed in the January 24, 1832 Gazette. He was selling everything, including his carpenter and cabinetmakers. A George Doudel from Pennsylvania arrived in Ohio about this time, so he may have preparing to move west, as many were doing during this period.
The sale bill, transcribed below, also gives us a glimpse of daily life in York in the 1830s.
