USA > Connecticut > Colonial Days And Ways: As Gathered from Family Papers > Part 15
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18
" Our Mince Pies were good although we had to use dried Cherries as I told you, & the meat was shoulder of Venisson, instead of Beef. The Pumpkin Pies, Apple Tarts & big Indian Pud- dings lacked for nothing save Appetite by the time we had got round to them.
" Of course we had no Wine. Uncle Simeon has still a cask or two, but it must all be saved for the sick, & indeed, for those who are well, good Cider is a sufficient Substitute. There was no Plumb Pudding, but a boiled Suet Pudding, stirred thick with dried Plumbs & Cherries, was called by the old Name & answered the purpose.
295
All the other spice had been used in the Mince Pies, so for this Pudding we used a jar of West India preserved Ginger which chanced to be left of the last shipment which Uncle Simeon had from there, we chopped the Ginger small and stirred it through with the Plumbs & Cherries. It was extraordinary good. The Day was bitter cold & when we got home from Meeting, which Father did not keep over long by reason of the cold, we were glad eno' of the fire in Uncle's Dining Hall, but by the time the dinner was one half over those of us who were on the fire side of one Table was forced to get up & carry our plates with us around to the far side of the other Table, while those who had sat there were as glad to bring their plates around to the fire side to get warm. All but the Old Ladies who had a screen put behind their chairs."
Here it may be allowed to break in upon Juli- ana's narrative to explain that the hall in which this dinner was laid, now long used as a kitchen, is a room about thirty feet long from north to south and twenty-two feet wide. A glazed door and a window open upon piazzas from each end. On the western side a broadly hospitable door opens into the staircase hall of the main building, while in the dining-room itself another flight of stairs ascended from the same side to the wing's chambers. On the eastern side is the im-
296
mense chimney, where once yawned a fireplace that " would comfortably hold a full sled load of eight foot logs." With such a fire it is no wonder that the guests seated near it were glad to exchange places with the others, who - probably half freez- ing - were on the other side of the room. When I was about seven or eight years old the heavy ceiling beams, darkened with age and smoke, were hidden away from view by a plaster ceiling. I pleaded in vain for the "pretty brown beams " to be left in sight, but my grandmother was inflexible, and no doubt, in the interest of comfort for her servants, she was quite right to close the drafty fireplace and lower the lofty ceiling. Nevertheless it was a pity, and I have never ceased to regret it.
" Uncle Simeon," proceeds Juliana, "was in his best mood, and you know how good that is ! He kept both Tables in a roar of laughter with his droll stories of the days when he was studying medicine in Edinborough, & afterwards he & Father & Uncle Paul joined in singing Hymns & Ballads. You know how fine their voices go together. Then we all sang a Hymn & after- wards my dear Father led us in prayer, remember- ing all Absent Friends before the Throne of Grace, & much I wished that my dear Betsey was here as one of us, as she has been of yore.
" We did not rise from the Table until it was quite dark, & then when the dishes had been
297
cleared away we all got round the fire as close as we could, & cracked nuts, & sang songs & told stories. At least some told & others listened. You know nobody can exceed the two Grandmothers at telling tales of all the things they have seen themselves, & repeating those of the early years in New England, & even some in the Old Eng- land, which they had heard in their youth from their Elders. My Father says it is a goodly cus- tom to hand down all worthy deeds & traditions from Father to Son, as the Israelites were com- manded to do about the Passover & as the In- dians here have always done, because the Word that is spoken is remembered longer than the one that is written. . . Brother Jack, who did not reach here until late on Wednesday though he had left College very early on Monday Morning & rode with all due diligence considering the snow, brought an orange to each of the Grand-Mothers, but, Alas! they were frozen in his saddle bags. We soaked the frost out in cold water, but I guess they was n't as good as they should have been."
CHAPTER XIX A SNOW-SHOE JOURNEY
CHAPTER XIX.
A SNOW-SHOE JOURNEY.
8
A Blizzard in 1779. Litchfield's Busy Days. Judge Tapping Reeve and Family.
From Litchfield to Wood- bury on Snow-shoes. Parson Benedict.
B ROTHER JACK " has left among his papers a relation, written in 1844, for the benefit of his grand- children, in which he refers to the same Thanksgiving day of which Juliana wrote, but dwells more particularly upon the return journey to New Haven, on which his father accompanied him. He writes :
" After the day of praise and feasting came two days of visiting pleasantly among our neighbors, all of whom made themselves very agreeable to me as one who had come from a far country. On Sunday there were two services, which, I suppose would now be called very long, though my Father would never allow himself to preach as long ser- mons as were then customary, unless carried away by his feelings, which sometimes happened when the news from the posts of danger was recent and exciting. There was no hesitation about preach- ing political sermons in those days. Ministers would have deemed themselves to have entirely failed of their duty, had they not expressed their
301
302
views in regard to what was right and wrong on pub- lic questions as well as on any other. My Father had served one campaign as Chaplain to Colonel Hinman's regiment of Connecticut troops and re- turned invalided ; but perhaps he served his Coun- try best by staying at his post. He worked hard both in his own harvest fields and in those of his parishoners to raise grain for the armies; he cared for the families of those who were at the front, and he helped to keep the fires of patriot- ism glowing by his exhortations from the pulpit.
" Although early in the season the sleighing had already been good for a fortnight, and the snow was again falling when we set out very early on Monday morning, my Father and I, in our big box sleigh, well wrapped in robes of long wooled sheep-skins, and drawn by two old farm horses, not the best because the best had gone to the army. Fine as the sleighing was in the immediate neighborhood of Sharon, we found the roads badly drifted long before we reached what is now Ells- worth. At that point, only about five miles from home, we had to leave our sleigh in the care of one of my Father's parishoners, while we pursued our journey on horseback. In those days no one trav- elled in any sort of a vehicle without taking along saddles for use in emergency. It was dark before we reached Litchfield and the snow-laden wind was piercingly cold.
"Judge Tapping Reeve, though much younger
3ยบ3
than my Father, was one of the latter's choice friends, and it was at his home that by previous arrangement we were to pass the night. Judge Reeve was both a good and a great man as well as one of the most eloquent speakers who ever adorned the Bar of his own or any other State. Five years later than this I was one of the earliest students in his law-school, started in 1784, and since become so famous. From it have been graduated upwards of one hundred lawyers, among them being some of our most distinguished statesmen.
" It was on this delightful evening, when we were all sitting round the roaring fire in the broad fire-place of Mrs. Reeve's pleasant sitting room, and while we were listening to the elevating con- versation between Judge Reeve and my Father, that I made up my mind that the Law should be my profession. Before this time I had hesitated, but now I felt sure that an honest man could do as much good in this profession as in any other. My Father and the Judge fully coincided in senti- ment, especially in wishing to supercede by a bet- ter that portion of the old English Common Law which takes away all property rights from married women. Both of them had shown their faith by their works. Both my Mother and Mrs. Reeve had inherited small fortunes and had been allowed by their husbands to retain the control of their own property ; a thing almost unheard of at that time in
304
cases where no ante-nuptial settlements had been made. The views of both men as I heard them stated at this time were afterwards clearly set forth by Judge Reeve in his celebrated pamphlet on ' The Domestic Relations.' This was the first voice ever publicly raised in our country, and per- haps in any other, in behalf of the property rights of married women, and attracted much attention both favourable and unfavourable. Judge Reeve stood almost alone on this point among the law- yers of his day ; but in his school he made many disciples.
" Mrs. Reeve also took a part in this discussion and fully vindicated her right to do so by the intellectual ability she manifested as might be expected from a person of her lineage. Judge Reeve was always noted as a model husband and it was no wonder with such a wife as his. Mrs. Reeve was sister to Colonel Aaron Burr, and pos- sessed all the latter's great intellectual powers and wonderful personal attractions without one of his faults. She was nearly always in delicate health which forced her to lead a very secluded life, but she had every qualification to have placed her among those women who have been most noted for goodness, grace, beauty and wit.
" I seem to myself to see her now as she ap- peared that night. She was still but a young matron and in the full flush of a beauty that was less of feature than of expression. I thought then
305
and I think now, that Mrs. Reeve was one of those women to whom it is an honour to any man to bow in deference. She had inherited the faculty of close logic which distinguished her Grandfather, the great Dr. Jonathan Edwards, and the persua- sive grace of her Father, the Rev. Dr. Burr, of Princeton. She was small and slight, with a daz- zling complexion, clear cut features and deep gray eyes that under any intellectual excitement be- came brilliant. Her smile was irresistible. At least it so seemed to me on that first interview when I was but fourteen years of age. After- wards, during the years that I studied in Judge Reeve's office and had my home in his household, the impression became fixed, and I believe it was the same with every succeeding student who had the privilege of being admitted into that family circle.
" During the night the storm increased in vio- lence and in the morning it was impossible to see many feet from the door on account of the whirling masses of a snow so hard, dry and powdery that it cut into the face like fine iron filings. To pro- ceed on our journey was clearly impossible. Nei- ther man nor beast could long have endured the intense cold and the friction of the icy snow, even if it had been possible for any one to keep the di- rection in the blinding storm. In traversing the short distance from the house to the barn to attend to the wants of our animals, over a path hardly
20
306
more than twenty yards long and partly sheltered by the wood-shed, we were almost blinded and bewildered.
" All that day and far into the night of Tuesday we piled logs upon the kitchen fire, for in that room alone was it possible to maintain a comforta- ble degree of warmth. Fortunately there was space enough for us all to sit without disturbing the labours of the servants in preparing our meals. As no one could be allowed to remain idle in such times of pressing need, my Father and I helped to mould bullets for the soldiers' muskets, while gen- tle Mrs. Reeve sat busily knitting on yarn stock- ings for their feet. The wind blew so fiercely down through all the other chimneys in the house that it was impossible to light the fires in them. It is under such circumstances that characters are displayed without disguise, and Judge and Mrs. Reeve then seemed, what I afterwards proved them to be, genial, courteous and kind: making light of every difficulty, and by their hearty warmth of welcome and their sparkling wit mak- ing that day and evening among the happiest rec- ollections of a lifetime which has held as many joys and as few sorrows as may fall to the lot of mortals.
"On Wednesday the sun rose bright and clear over a dazzling desert of snow. The lower win- dows of most of the houses were hidden beneath great piles of drift. In some cases even the second
307
story windows were hidden, or only visible through openings in the drift like the hooded bastions of some icy fort. Looking from the garret windows of Judge Reeve's house as far as the eye could reach we could see no trace of road or path. Fences and shrubs were obliterated. Trees, some looking like mountains of snow and some like naked and broken skeletons, arose here and there. And in the village only rising wreaths of smoke told that life existed in the half buried houses. The Meeting House spire was on one side decked by the icy snow with fantastic semblances of marble statuary over which the new long, black lightning rod (the first one I had ever seen) had been twisted by the wind until it looked like a Chinese char- acter. The Meeting House, where on Sunday the Rev. Judah Champion thundered his rousing ap- peals to the patriotism of his congregation; the great house for the reception of military stores on North Street, and the Army Work-Shop, where blacksmiths, gunsmiths and the makers of saddles and harness were constantly working for the troops, were the only buildings which were large enough to serve as land-marks to any but the natives of the place under this bewildering confusion of snow. The military guard which was always stationed to protect these valuable buildings, on this day omit- ted their customary drills to take their places in the ' Shovel Brigade' which was organized to dig out the beleagured inhabitants. One might sup-
308
pose that we were in Lapland or Iceland, so strange and frozen did everything look; so vast seemed the desert of snow which even on a level was found to be several feet in depth and was everywhere covered with a frozen crust.
"' Now we shall have the pleasure of keeping you for a week at least,' said Judge Reeve, heartily clasping my Father's hand.
"' Yes,' said dear Mrs. Reeve, giving me a kindly look, 'yes, my dear boy, you will not get back to your classes this week.'
" I was both enchanted and miserable. To stay in this beautiful home would be most delightful. To lose the time from my classes would be almost unendurable. My Father settled the matter by asking quietly if our host could not get us each a pair of snow shoes.
"At first our hosts treated this request as a pleas- antry, but when they perceived that my Father was quite in earnest their dismay was amusing. The general habit of using snow shoes, which at a very early period had been adopted from the In- dians, had already nearly disappeared, but down to a comparatively recent period there had been a few persons who continued to use them in places where there were no interruptions from fences. My Father, a slight but sinewy and most athletic man, had spent two or three years of his early life as teacher in a school which had been recently established for the instruction of Indians in Stock-
309
bridge, Massachusetts, and there he had joined in all the athletic sports of the natives, gaining a great influence among them by his prowess in running, leaping and wrestling. (It has nothing to do with our present purpose, but my descendants may like to know that the marks reached by my Father, when a student at Yale, for running and standing leaps, were kept as the highest attained by any student on the college Campus. No one else had been able to reach the same until I did so in my Senior year.)
" It was among the Indians that my Father had learned to use the snow shoes with great skill and as much grace as the unwieldy things would permit, but I could never see him or any one else on them without an inclination to laugh which was sometimes stronger than my filial reverence. But, as my Father had a strong vein of humour, he always rather joined in my mirth than rebuked me for it. Fore-seeing that there might be some occasion on which this somewhat unusual accomplishment might prove of service, my Father had taught me also to become moder- ately expert in the use of snow shoes.
"Fortunately Judge Reeve had stored away in his garret, more as a curiosity than for any use that he expected to be made of them, two pairs of snow shoes of the finest Indian manufacture, so that we had not to spend any time in searching for them, and by nine o'clock on Wednesday morn-
310
ing we climbed out of an upper story window upon the hard crust of frozen snow and started off with no other burden than the light, but cumbersome snow shoes attached to our feet, and a small roll like a knapsack, fastened to each of our backs.
" I was a boy of unusual strength for my years, and my Father, although a Parson, was remarkable for his vigor, but I can assure you that we were both of us thankful when at nightfall we reached the little town of Bethlehem and the hospitable abode of my Father's very dear friend, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Bellamy. Although the distance is a little more than ten miles as the crow flies, it had seemed a long journey and I had never been so tired before.
"On Thursday the roads continuing impassable we could not abandon our snow shoes, though they made our ankles ache so that we could hardly stand upon them. The air was of a clear, still cold that would have been severe if we had not been exercising ourselves so greatly. Even as it was our dread-naughts [these were caped coats of exceedingly thick homespun cloth, belted around the waist and descending well below the knees] were none too warm.
" Our second day's journey on the snow shoes was much like the first, and of about the same length, bringing us to Woodbury and the house of the Rev. Noah Benedict where we were enter- tained with warm hospitality. Mr. Benedict was
311
a peace making man in his congregation, and his gentle spirit long influenced the manners and the actions of the people of his flock. But in public matters he was as war-like as any of us. Wood- bury, like Litchfield, was a place for the collection and storage of the supplies for the patriot armies. Here we found the streets, running each way from the Meeting House, piled high on either side for a hundred yards or more with barrels and hogs- heads of pork, beef, lard and flour, besides great quantities of bales of blankets, tents and clothing for the troops. All these now made miniature mountains under the snow. Almost all the able bodied male inhabitants more than seventeen years of age were enrolled in the armies, and the work pertaining to the stores was carried on by the women and children under the direction of a few old men. Many shoes were made in this place for the troops. Parson Benedict had himself been taught to make them that he might assist in the work. On this evening the women of the family were paring apples to dry for the army use and as my Father and I could not assist Mr. Benedict and the men servants in shoemaking we took our part in the apple paring. And a very merry and de- lightful evening we all had together, for to work with a good will is a sure road to happiness, let our circumstances be as untoward as they may.
" Friday morning found the temperature greatly modified, and, by the time we had accomplished
312
the first five or six miles of our journey toward New Haven we found ourselves in an evil case, for the snow was beginning to get wet and soft and held down the four foot length of snow shoe so that at every step it became harder to lift our feet. Glad enough were we when at last we reached an inn where the accommodations were poor enough, but where we could at least get a lit- tle refreshment for ourselves and were able to leave the snow shoes to await some later opportunity to be returned to Judge Reeve, and to hire horses to ride upon to New Haven. From this point the snow was not nearly so deep and we had but little trouble in making, by eight in the evening, the eighteen miles to the house of the Rev. Dr. Daggett, the venerable ex-President of Yale College ; which house was almost a second home to us.
" Tired as I had been the day before, I found myself still more so to-night; but my Father would not allow me to complain, saying that I should never make a soldier who could serve his country, as our soldiers were now doing, if I gave out so easily. Never-the-less, I observed that my Father was himself very lame for the next few days and by no means in haste to depart for home again as he would otherwise have been. I have never regretted the experience,- since no harm save a few days of stiff joints and sore bones came of it,- but I think that my Mother's re-
313
mark when she heard of it showed much com- mon sense :-
"' A week or two more or less would not have spoiled our Johnny's prospects, and lung fevers might have destroyed both your lives. I say, leave Indian ways to Indian folk.'
"' Never-the-less,' answered my Father, with a merry twinkle in the eye, 'never-the-less, my dear, I observe that when you have anything to do you brook no delays and you shirk no labour. Your wisdom seems rather to be for others than for yourself.'
" My Mother shook her head slightly and walked away, turning to say over her shoulder,- ' And would you have the Great-granddaughter of Captain John Gallup any more timorsome than her husband ?'"
CHAPTER XX
A NEW YORK EVENING FROLIC
0
O
0
O
O
CHAPTER XX.
A NEW YORK EVENING FROLIC.
8
Mr. David Codwise Tells of an Evening at the Rhinelander Homestead. Candles and Candle- dipping. The Supper. The " Fire Dance." The Parting Cup.
O
O
0
O
O
ON 1796 Mr. David Codwise, my great-uncle by his marriage with 0 0 I my paternal grandmother's sister, Martha Livingston, was a boy of sixteen and a student in Columbia College. When he gave me the following story of an evening's frolic he was about eighty-two, in an "anecdotage" which rendered him very in- teresting to at least one of his frequent listeners. He was a lifelong resident of his native city, and knew the history of every important build- ing and person in it, but among all his narra- tives few interested me more than that of the " candle-dip frolic."
Among the masses of old papers in my posses- sion I find no trace of the use of lamps for burn- ing any sort of oil previous to 1760. This, of course, does not prove that they did not exist, but only that probably candles were the chief illuminat- ing power. In bills of household supplies I find always a certain quantity of wax candles, but the imported article at four English shillings the pound (in 1762) must obviously have been kept for fes-
317
318
tive occasions only. It is probable that the wax from the combs of both the wild and the domestic bees was used for home-made mold candles, as in New England was also the wax from the green and fragrant bayberries ; but the main dependence must have been the tallow dips, and even these could not have been very freely used by any but the well-to-do. Tallow candles were not super- seded by wax even in the Grand Opera House of Paris until during the Regency, 1715-23.
Candle-dipping was one of the employments of every winter, and sometimes became an enjoyment also. The special candle-dipping of which my uncle told was at the home of a certain Miss Rhinelander, for whom he ever retained a tender memory.
The scene was an immense kitchen. Between the heavy ceiling beams, darkened and polished by the years of kindly smoke, hung bunches of dried herbs and of ears of corn for popping. A large portion of one side of the room was taken up by a fireplace so big that there was space for a seat at each end after piles of logs four or five feet in length had begun to send their blaze up the wide chimney throat. These seats were stone slabs set in the side walls of the fireplace, and - as seats - were only used by persons who came in literally dripping with rain or melting snow. Usually the slabs were employed as resting-places for things to be kept hot without burning. Ad-
319
joining the fireplace was the great brick oven. Over the blaze swung long-armed cranes support- ing immense brass kettles, their outsides already blackening with smoke, although only a few hours earlier they had been scoured to a dazzling bright- ness. The floor, " as white as a wooden trencher," was sprinkled with shining sand. Mr. Codwise did not remember that there was any light be- yond that supplied by the blazing logs. The whitewashed walls were decorated with evergreen boughs.
Down the center, the longest way of the room, were two long ladders lying side by side, sup- ported at either end upon blocks of wood about " chair-seat high." Under each ladder, at intervals of a foot or so apart, stood a row of big three- footed iron pots and of footless brass kettles like those over the fire. On the floor, between the pots and the kettles, were placed dripping-pans and other vessels, both to protect the floor from grease and to prevent waste of tallow. On either side of each recumbent ladder was a row of chairs, placed as closely together as possible. Before the merrymakers were seated - John by Molly and Peter by Sally-big and jolly black Castor and Pollux had lifted from the fire the brass kettles full of melted tallow, and deftly poured their con- tents to the depth of two or three inches more than a long candle's length upon the water with which the similar vessels on the floor were already half filled.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.