Sophia Woodhouse

Sophia Woodhouse of Wethersfield, Connecticut was born in 1799, the youngest of John and Sarah Buck Woodhouse's fourteen children. She married Gurdon Welles (1799-1847), and they had a daughter, Mary Sophia, in 1821. That same year, Sophia Woodhouse received a U.S. government patent for her speargrass processing technique for bonnet making. Sophia had begun making bonnets as a girl, and she apparently had a workshop in her home. Sophia Woodhouse won prizes for her leghorn bonnets in both the United States and England.