Copied from Beneath Ben Lomond’s Peak: A History of Weber County, 1824-1900, pg 327-328

DYES

In the manufacturing of clothing, dyes were of vital importance. During the pioneer period, however, they were not to be found wrapped up in neat packages at the stores. They had to be found in plants that grew in Utah. If grey cloth was wanted, black and white wool were mixed together at the time of making the thread. But if a plaid or striped cloth was desired, it was necessary to dye the thread into proper colors.

Dyes were made from roots, bark, weeds, peelings of vegetables, and leaves of trees. Mary A. Bingham Geertsen recalled: “My grandmother did a great deal of weaving and I was always interested in the plants from which she obtained her dyes, which, by the way, never faded. From the madder root she produced red; when copperas was added to the red, she obtained London brown. Peach and box elder leaves treated with alum gave a bright yellow. From the indigo root came the blue and a mixture of those two magically produced a lovely green.”

Onion skins or rabbit brush produced yellow, and the cochineal bug, bright red. If black was desired, logwood was used, with copperas or vitriol to set the color. Dock root, redwood, hazel wood, tan bark, sagebrush, and magenta were also used for dyes. Maria Young Dougall, daughter of Brigham Young, remarked, “We picked weeds during the summer, and used the juices to dye our winter’s clothing. A little yellow weed would dye a yellow color, peach leaves would dye the clothing green.”

Minerva Shaw states that dyes were made from the bark of trees — “the peach, willow, kinnikinnick, and sumac. The bark was boiled vigorously until it was well-dissolved so it would be readily stirred and mashed. The liquid was then run through a sieve-like receptacle to clear it of all coarse substances, and was then treated with copperas, alum and blue vitriol to fully harden and set it. No home was considered complete without the old-fashioned blue dye tub.”

To quote Mary A. Jost: “Cloth was made from wool that was carded, spun and dyed at home with tree bark, onion peelings, rabbit brush, and indigo dyes. Years later a Mr Clark brought dyes which supplanted the home produce.”