John Batterson Stetson wasn’t looking to create an icon of the American West. All he wanted to do was keep the top of his head comfortable and shield his face from the elements. But in doing so, he created the classic cowboy hat or Western hat.
Born in 1830 in Orange, New Jersey, one of hatmaker Stephen Stetson’s 12 children, John was afflicted with tuberculosis in his youth. To help cure him, his doctor gave John the same advice that New York newspaperman Horace Greeley popularized during the 1850s: “Go West, young man!” Stetson hoped that fresh air and wide open spaces would do him good while he sought his fortune in the goldfields of Colorado, joining the rush of some 100,000 prospectors who headed to the state in 1859.
Stetson did, indeed, find his fortune there, but not in the form of precious metal.
The Original Stetson Hat: Shaped By the Western Climate
The rugged Western weather didn’t always agree with Stetson. So, drawing on knowledge passed down from his father, he produced a large piece of beaver fur felt, repeatedly boiling and kneading, cooling and drying the natural fibers until they formed a thick, soft, waterproof material. From this, he shaped a hat.
He fashioned a six-inch-high crown, knowing that the airspace it held would insulate the top of his head, keeping it warm in winter and cool in summer. Then, he cut an extra-generous brim extending seven inches all around, more than enough to keep the rain from his face the sun from his eyes or the nape of his neck.
The hat had another utilitarian benefit. Its capacious crown and watertight felt made it an excellent impromptu bucket that could carry as much as a gallon of water from creek or spring to campsite. Some folks colorfully speculate that this capacity, coupled with typical Western exaggeration, explains how the hat came to be described as “ten-gallon.” (Others argue more accurately, but with less romance, that the term "ten gallon hat" comes from the Spanish galón, for an ornamental braid, referring to elaborate woven bands that Mexican vaqueros wore on their hats.)
Compared to the demure hats of the East Coast and Europe, this was a bold, brash hat as larger-than-life as the West itself. Stetson’s hat drew stares and admiration. So he began to make and sell a few. The day that a prosperous Mexican vaquero offered him a $5 gold piece for the hat right off his head, Stetson knew he had a winner.
The Start of the Stetson Hat Company
He headed back East in 1865, just as the Civil War ended and the golden age of the American cowboy, cattle drives, the open range, and the Wild West had begun. With a hundred-dollar bankroll, he rented a small studio in Philadelphia, bought hatmaker’s tools and fur, and began making hats based on the Colorado prototype he named “The Boss of the Plains.”
Business prospered. Within two decades, Stetson had the world’s biggest hat factory, based on 12 acres in Philadelphia’s northeastern suburbs, employing almost 4,000 people. In 1906, annual production numbered almost two million hats.
Stetson ran his business with a spirit of neighborliness that seemed born of the prairies. In an era when fires swept through crowded, rickety garment factories, killing impoverished workers, he installed automatic overhead sprinklers and fire extinguishers in his all-brick buildings. His employees earned above-scale wages and achievement bonuses. He added a library and social halls and brought in live entertainment. A Stetson building association offered workers home loans at below-market rates. The once-sickly man even built an employees’ dispensary and hospital, completely underwriting those who could not afford the $1 per quarter charges.
The Stetson Hat Brand Today
Stetson’s son, G. Henry, took over the company after his father’s death in 1906. The John B. Stetson Company continued in business in Philadelphia until 1970, and the original plant finally closed in 1971.
But the Stetson brand, hats, and legacy of quality live on. Hatco of Garland, Texas, makers of Resistol and Charlie 1 Horse hats, acquired the rights to the Stetson hat brand in perpetuity. They continue making Stetson felt Western hats at a dedicated factory in St. Joseph, Missouri, following the authentic Stetson formulas, making their own hat bodies from animal fur they select and buy, exercising strict quality control, and bringing their hats to market with a sales force dedicated exclusively to the brand.
And the Stetson Western hat, from the classic Boss of the Plains variety to modern high-fashion models, continues to sell to the tune of millions of hats a year, with many good reasons why it endures for many as the best cowboy hat. No wonder the name Stetson remains, for many people, synonymous with the Western hat.
Author Paul Linus
Born in 1830 in Orange, New Jersey, one of hatmaker Stephen Stetson’s 12 children, John was afflicted with tuberculosis in his youth. To help cure him, his doctor gave John the same advice that New York newspaperman Horace Greeley popularized during the 1850s: “Go West, young man!” Stetson hoped that fresh air and wide open spaces would do him good while he sought his fortune in the goldfields of Colorado, joining the rush of some 100,000 prospectors who headed to the state in 1859.
Stetson did, indeed, find his fortune there, but not in the form of precious metal.
The Original Stetson Hat: Shaped By the Western Climate
The rugged Western weather didn’t always agree with Stetson. So, drawing on knowledge passed down from his father, he produced a large piece of beaver fur felt, repeatedly boiling and kneading, cooling and drying the natural fibers until they formed a thick, soft, waterproof material. From this, he shaped a hat.
He fashioned a six-inch-high crown, knowing that the airspace it held would insulate the top of his head, keeping it warm in winter and cool in summer. Then, he cut an extra-generous brim extending seven inches all around, more than enough to keep the rain from his face the sun from his eyes or the nape of his neck.
The hat had another utilitarian benefit. Its capacious crown and watertight felt made it an excellent impromptu bucket that could carry as much as a gallon of water from creek or spring to campsite. Some folks colorfully speculate that this capacity, coupled with typical Western exaggeration, explains how the hat came to be described as “ten-gallon.” (Others argue more accurately, but with less romance, that the term "ten gallon hat" comes from the Spanish galón, for an ornamental braid, referring to elaborate woven bands that Mexican vaqueros wore on their hats.)
Compared to the demure hats of the East Coast and Europe, this was a bold, brash hat as larger-than-life as the West itself. Stetson’s hat drew stares and admiration. So he began to make and sell a few. The day that a prosperous Mexican vaquero offered him a $5 gold piece for the hat right off his head, Stetson knew he had a winner.
The Start of the Stetson Hat Company
He headed back East in 1865, just as the Civil War ended and the golden age of the American cowboy, cattle drives, the open range, and the Wild West had begun. With a hundred-dollar bankroll, he rented a small studio in Philadelphia, bought hatmaker’s tools and fur, and began making hats based on the Colorado prototype he named “The Boss of the Plains.”
Business prospered. Within two decades, Stetson had the world’s biggest hat factory, based on 12 acres in Philadelphia’s northeastern suburbs, employing almost 4,000 people. In 1906, annual production numbered almost two million hats.
Stetson ran his business with a spirit of neighborliness that seemed born of the prairies. In an era when fires swept through crowded, rickety garment factories, killing impoverished workers, he installed automatic overhead sprinklers and fire extinguishers in his all-brick buildings. His employees earned above-scale wages and achievement bonuses. He added a library and social halls and brought in live entertainment. A Stetson building association offered workers home loans at below-market rates. The once-sickly man even built an employees’ dispensary and hospital, completely underwriting those who could not afford the $1 per quarter charges.
The Stetson Hat Brand Today
Stetson’s son, G. Henry, took over the company after his father’s death in 1906. The John B. Stetson Company continued in business in Philadelphia until 1970, and the original plant finally closed in 1971.
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But the Stetson brand, hats, and legacy of quality live on. Hatco of Garland, Texas, makers of Resistol and Charlie 1 Horse hats, acquired the rights to the Stetson hat brand in perpetuity. They continue making Stetson felt Western hats at a dedicated factory in St. Joseph, Missouri, following the authentic Stetson formulas, making their own hat bodies from animal fur they select and buy, exercising strict quality control, and bringing their hats to market with a sales force dedicated exclusively to the brand.
And the Stetson Western hat, from the classic Boss of the Plains variety to modern high-fashion models, continues to sell to the tune of millions of hats a year, with many good reasons why it endures for many as the best cowboy hat. No wonder the name Stetson remains, for many people, synonymous with the Western hat.
Author Paul Linus
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