A great demand for wood ashes existed during the first half of the 19th century and the Town of Hallowell was ready to meet it. A settler could either collect and sell the plain wood ash, or he could blanch it in a large vat and boil it down to produce pot-ash (potash).

If that residue was baked in an oven, the carbon in the residue would cook off, leaving a product called pearl-ash. Both pot-ash and pearl-ash were worth more than any other product a farmer could produce, and large quantities were shipped from Hallowell.