USA > Connecticut > The history of Connecticut, from the first settlement of the colony to the adoption of the present constitution, vol. I > Part 36
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The rooms of the early habitations were seldom more than seven feet in height, so that the sturdy emigrants, and their sons, who had rather added to the stature of their fathers than substracted from it by athletic and wholesome exercise, in wood and field and camp, during the period of life when the bones are enlarging, and the muscles are assuming a hardened and fibrous texture, could hardly stand upright upon the kitchen floor without brushing the fur of their bear-skin caps against the timbers overhead.
The most indestructible part of the whole edifice was the huge stone tower that occupied the centre, rising out of the ridge, and called a chimney. Its foundations were about twelve feet square. The fire-places, as they were very pro- perly termed, especially the ones most in use, were of such dimensions that the wood could be brought from the forest, taken from the cart, and heaped upon the ponderous andirons in great quantities. In the coldest weather, a large log of maple, oak, or walnut, was placed at the back of the fire- place, and other smaller ones laid upon it. The andirons were brought in front of this formidable battery, that was made still more durable by a log about eight inches in diame- ter, called a fore-stick. The smaller wood was then care-
* See Lambert, 201.
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
fully put on with pine knots, birch bark, or other dry fuel, in the middle. The quantity of wood consumed in a single day in the more severe winter weather, was enormous ; and the ventilation caused by the keen currents of air that found a free entrance through the crevices of the building, would be terrific to a housewife of modern days. The fire was by no means small even in summer, and after the toils of the day, the family would gather around it even while the doors were wide open, and the cry of the frog from the marsh, and the whippöwill from the home-meadow, stole upon their seclu- sion with associations cheerful or sad as suited the tempera- ments and moods of the various members composing the circle .*
Conversation was sometimes startled and chilled into sud- den silence, in the early and more superstitious days, by the gleam of a meteor seen through the diamond-shaped window panes or open door, as it lit up the little patch of sky that lay clear and open behind the branches of the trees. If, when the free laugh was ringing from the heart of the boys and girls at some grotesque account of adventures, old or new, a malicious screech-owl, seizing the loved opportunity when the face of the moon was veiled by a cloud, chanced to mingle his mocking merriment with theirs, what wonder if a shivering sigh bore quick witness how well they remem- bered that the devil was as fond as ever of his old pastimes in solitudes and desert places ? I much doubt if King James I., had he been living in such extreme retirement, would not have found his teeth chattering and his hair bristling at a like signal from the father of lies. Even Sir Walter Raleigh would have knocked the ashes out of his pipe and mused ; and my Lord Coke, would have forgotten for a moment, how necessary it was to his own proper development to ruin Sir Francis Bacon. In a much later age, Dr. Johnson himself might have found his hand arrested in the act of conveying to his mouth the thirteenth cup of tea, and might have been strangled in the midst of a sentence in which the oat-meal
* Lambert, 202.
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BREAKFAST AND DINNER.
cakes of Scotland, or the unfortunate Chesterfield, formed the theme of vituperation. Possibly the reader's nervous equilibrium might be shaken at a much less provocation, even in the midst of a hearty fit of laughter at the bigotry and superstition of the puritans.
There were a few houses in the colony of a more aristo- cratic type than the one that I have selected to represent the dwellings of the early inhabitants. Among these, I can only stop to name Governor Eaton's of New Haven, built in the form of a capital E, with its numerous windows, its stack of chimneys with their twenty-one fire-places ; and that of his friend, Mr. Davenport, scarcely less imposing .*
The meals of the early planters were such as befitted Eng- lishmen who were remote from all commercial relations, in a new country, where nature, with few exceptions, reduces all her sons to the common necessity of providing for their own sustenance. They ate and drank what she provided for them, and thanked God that it was so bountiful and so nourishing.
The breakfast of the farmers often consisted mainly of a soup made of salt meat and beans, and seasoned with savory herbs. This dish was called " bean porridge," and has long been the fruitful subject of verse. Tea and coffee they had none during the seventeenth century. Their drink was chiefly beer and cider, after their orchards were sufficiently grown to afford them such a luxury.t
The dinner was a much more substantial meal. A large Indian pudding, with an appropriate sauce, often constituted the first course ; and after that, boiled beef and pork ; and then wild game, with potatoes; and then succeeded turnips and other vegetables native to the climate. They had succatosh in the season of it; and in the fall, samp. Pumpkins were cooked by them into various dishes. Dinner was served at noon.
* The residence of Governor Eaton stood upon the north corner of Elm and Orange streets ; that of Mr. Davenport was on the west side of Elm street, near State street, New Haven. The latter was built in the form of a cross.
t As early as 1654, laws were passed regulating the sale of " strong beer and cider."
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At supper-afterwards called tea-they also ate very sub- stantial food. It was almost always cold, with an occasional variation of cakes made of corn-meal, rye, or buckwheat. These cakes, however, were oftener prepared for breakfast.
Their table furniture was plain. Pewter was the more ordinary metal in use, but silver was often seen glittering upon the same table with the baser metal. Silver tankards and beakers were to be found in the houses of nearly all the wealthy planters of good family .*
The tables of the clergymen and magistrates, not except- ing the governor, were furnished with similar fare to that above described, with various shades of difference in the ar- rangement ; and the mode of serving it up, indicated more or less refinement. In after times, the tables of genteel fami- lies had more ambitious furniture and better viands, and never was food more wholesome and never did it better do its office of nourishing and strengthening the body, than dur- ing the period of New England history that preceded the revolution.
They had no wheeled carriages or wagons until the mid- dle of the eighteenth century, and very few until the revolu- tionary war was closed .; The bridegroom who went to a neighboring town to be united with a partner whom he hoped to find through life a "help meet for him," whether he was gentleman or yeoman, rode on horseback, and carried her home on a pillion behind him.
The first inhabitants of Connecticut, as we have seen, were for the most part a very industrious, honest, and religious
* From an examination of the early inventories, I infer that most of the arti- cles used for culinary and domestic use were made of pewter-such as spoons, platters, pitchers, cups, plates, pans, bottles, &c. The silver articles named in these inventories, are flaggons, beakers, tankards, spoons, cups, knee buckles, and shoe buckles. Tin and crockery are seldom spoken of. The Rev. J. B. Felt, of Boston, in his excellent work, " The Customs of New England," gives a descrip- tion and history of hundreds of articles of household use, and of many other things tending to illustrate pioneer-life in New England.
t The first pleasure carriage (a chair) ever brought into Litchfield, was owned by Mr. Matthews, the English Mayor of New York, who was confined in that town as a prisoner of war in 1776.
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EXTREMES.
people. They have been accused of narrow-mindedness and bigotry. To a certain extent this must be allowed to be true. Their bigotry was of the peculiar kind that often springs up suddenly in minds naturally enthusiastic and self- sacrificing. When they rebel against customs and practices so long established, they are often considered by those who are wedded to them to be a part of the moral and social con- stitution of man. Reformers always show their horror of the evils, real or imaginary, from which they have emanci- pated themselves, by going to another extreme so radical and marked as to constitute a boundary-line that may be readily seen. Indeed, such extremes are sooner or later the very badges and colors distinguishing the party that wears them. If the cavaliers wear long hair, the Cromwellians must of course be shorn. As soon as the cavaliers have discov- ered the bald heads of their opponents, they begin to ap- ply unguents to their long locks and use all the stimu- lants that will be likely to give them, as nearly as possible, the appearance of so many Absaloms. When once it was known that many of the clergy had resolved not to conform to some part of the church ritual which they thought excep- tionable, Queen Elizabeth proceeded to take measures at once to make still more stringent requisitions. Such is man's moral organization that he must correct extremes by other extremes. A similar law appears to prevail in the physical creation.
The bigotry of puritanism differed from the established bigotries of England not so much in degree as in kind. Both the great parties that divided that country were, so far as I can discover, equally intolerant, but their intolerance aimed at different things. The adherents of one abhorred a con- venticle as if it had been a pestilence; those of the other, fled from the sight of the surplice as if it had been a mask of leprosy. One party, in seeking to discard the forms that it regarded as the relics of idolatry, came at last to shudder at the sight of the Cross, and in mockery quartered troops of soldiers in sacred chapels and fed the horses of the dragoons
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HISTORY OF CONNECTICUT.
from the altars of venerable churches; the other, with a holy horror, sacrificed human victims to appease its wrath. The narrow-mindedness of the one party, drove it to spurn the elegancies of classical learning, and to turn away from Shakspeare with loathing; while that of the other, looked askance at the grandest epic in the whole treasury of letters, because it had been bequeathed to the world by a puritan.
The puritans abhorred profanity and debauchery, and hence, associating the vices of the cavaliers with the dresses that they wore, they assumed a new costume as unlike the old as their imaginations could devise ; the cavaliers, in self- vindication, and to show how defiant they were of the puri- tans, placed their chapeaus upon their heads with a still more jaunty air, and curtailed their already short cloaks still the more.
Whoever sees anything to worship in any or all of these evidences of human imperfection, is at liberty to choose from the temple of prejudice the idol that he deems most worthy of his adoration. For my part, I can see nothing to admire in them, but much to shun. In doing so, I condemn not the cavaliers for clinging to the past, nor the puritans for break- ing away from its thraldom ; but rather the bad passions of our common nature that have so long resisted the influences of reason and the benign charities of the christian faith. They are to be treasured up as lessons.
The inhabitants of Connecticut, from the enjoyment of a larger liberty than could exist in Massachusetts under the administration of a more aristocratic and strictly provincial government, were thus taught to bestow upon those who dif- fered from them a greater measure of liberality. Still they were not free from the taint of superstition. They had left England with a main design to enjoy their own religious tenets. With this view they had bought their wild lands ; with this view they established a peculiar form of govern- ment. They looked with extreme jealousy upon the en- croaching power of popery, and many of them regarded episcopacy as only a modified form of catholicism. As they
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FAST AND THANKSGIVING.
had been at such pains to enjoy their own opinions, they knew no other rule than the characteristic one of that age, exclusiveness, or, if that would not avail, coercion. They resolved to keep out all religious sects from their limits, or, if they ventured to cross their border, to compel them to con- form. They determined, too, that if it were possible the very festivals as well as modes of worship that were associa- ted in their minds with oppression and arbitrary power, should be suppressed, and that other public days should be substituted.
The public days of the people of Connecticut were two, viz., Fast, and Thanksgiving.
The Fast was appointed at irregular intervals, usually on account of some special or threatened calamity which was designated by the General Court, or by the governor at the time of the appointment, care being always taken not to have it on Good Friday. On fast day, no food was cooked in the houses of the inhabitants, nor did the more exemplary church members eat any regular meals until after the sun went down. They had public worship on that occasion as they did on Sunday, and spent the time in self-examination, humiliation, and prayer. The sins of the people were made the burden of the minister's discourse, and most earnestly did he pray that he and his flock might be delivered from temptation .*
But the grand festival of the people, and the one in which they took the liveliest interest, was Thanksgiving.t For many years it was appointed only on occasions of special in- terest ; but subsequently the legislature fixed upon Novem- ber of each year, after the crops had all been gathered in, and during that shadowy and hushed season, the twilight of the year, when the veil of the Indian summer
* In Jan. 1644, it was ordered that there should be a day of fasting and humiliation observed throughout the plantations every month. A similar order was issued in August, 1676. The regular annual fast was not appointed until after the revolution.
t The first Thanksgiving Day ever appointed in Connecticut, was on the 18th of September, 1639.
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heightened by partly concealing the beauty of the south- western hills. It is difficult to conceive at this remote day, when the fruits of their labors alone remain, while the hard- ships that they endured are forgotten, what happy associa- tions clustered around this festival. After the first forty years had passed by, and it had begun to assume the character of an established institution, the hearts of the old and the young throb- bed with anticipation as it drew near. The preparations for the dinner were very substantial and bountiful. It was usually celebrated at the old homestead and in the house of the patri- arch of the family. It was held on Thursday, and generally late in the month. Thanksgiving week taxed the energies of the whole family. The stalled ox and the fatted calf were killed. The plumpest chickens and turkeys and geese were selected from the barn-yard, the yellowest pumpkins from the barn, and the finest potatoes and turnips from the cellar. The children of the pioneers, who were scattered throughout the colony, now turned their thoughts and faces homeward. The son who had left his father's roof in early manhood, and who longed once more to see the apple-trees that he had planted, and to receive the paternal blessing, now commenced his journey, with his wife and a whole swarm of sun-browned boys and ruddy girls. The brothers and sisters all met and all brought their children. Sometimes there were so many that the house would scarcely hold them ; but the dear old grand- mother, whose memory could hardly keep the constantly lengthening record of their births, and whose eye, dim with tears and age, could never see which child to love the best, wel- comed each with a trembling hand and an overflowing heart.
The early part of the day was spent by the male members of the family in attendance upon public worship, where the old emigrant, with the white frost of his eightieth winter in his hair, sat more erect than he was wont, and could not, with all his humility, refrain from dividing his attention be- tween the discourse and the long row of boys, who, in spite of the strictness of puritan discipline, waited impatienly for the " Amen," that was to set them at liberty.
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THANKSGIVING.
On their return from the meeting-house, dinner awaited them. It may be presumed that there was not a single dys- peptic in the whole group, and that they did good justice to the viands.
After their repast, the family gathered around the blazing hickory fire, the children adding to its volume the shells of the walnuts and butternuts that threw into it, without disturbing the conversation of their parents, who recounted each in his turn the incidents that they had given variety to the year. Indian wars; the depredations of the Dutch ; the plot of that wretch, Peter Stuyvesant, to exterminate the whole English population ; the wolf and bear hunts ; the mar- velous stories of rattlesnakes ; and, I must admit, sometimes still more marvelous manifestations from the spiritual world ; apparitions, ghosts, visitations from the devil ; the execution of Goodwife Knapp, and the scorn with which she looked upon her accusers, were fruitful themes to while away the evening. Games, too, helped to divert the attention of the children from subjects likely to disturb their sleep.
As the evening deepened, and the little ones began to nod upon their benches in the chimney corner, the old family bible was brought, and, after a portion of it had been read, the voice of the grandsire, tremulous with emotion rather than with age, was heard returning thanks to Almighty God for his infinite mercy in times past, in preserving the lives and health of the circle gathered around him, and supplicating him to keep them from temptation, and to multiply their de- scendants as the stars of the sky and the sands of the sea.
Such was Thanksgiving, a time-honored, venerable cus- tom, that has gradually extended itself into the most distant part of our great republic. The occasion of it, only remem- bered now by the antiquarian, its more forbidding features worn away as the years have left behind them in their flight the noxious shades of superstition, its genial warmth, its hal- lowed domestic and historical associations, still survive in the bosom of him who can trace his descent from the fathers of Connecticut, whether his foot presses her soil, or whether on
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the borders of the great lakes and rivers of the west, in the vast forest, or in the billowy grass of the prairies, he joins with the voices of nature in returning thanks to the author of his being.
Though Thanksgiving was the only general festival, the reader is not to conclude that there were no other occasions of festivity and rejoicing among the people of Connecticut. Among the more primitive and rural portions of the popula- tion, there were husking, apple-pearing, and quilting parties ; the social, neighborly gatherings around the great winter- fires ; and the sleigh-rides, balls, and weddings, which were not confined to any particular class or locality.
I shall not attempt to describe a wedding-party among our ancestors. Indeed, the ceremony and its accompanying con- gratulations and rejoicings on the part of attendants and friends, were as varied then as now. True, the era of bride- stealing* has gone by ; and the rustic serenade of horns and kettles is becoming an obsolete entertainment. Yet, amidst all the artificial forms and polite blandishments which modern taste and refinement have thrown around this most interest- ing ceremony, it were well to ask if there has been a corres- ponding advance in the motives and purposes that influence the union of heart and hand in bonds indissoluble ? Formerly, at least, it was understood by both parties that the wife was to be "a help meet for her husband." On this point the min- ister who joined them was wont to be very emphatic.t
I have intimated that balls were among the amusements of the past in this colony. This, it is to be presumed, was or- dinarily confined to the young people; and did not always meet with the hearty concurrence of the elder and more sedate portion of the community. The expenses attending such gatherings, were made to conform to the condition and circumstances of the people as they then were, and certain-
* A Poem, by Mrs. Emma Willard, entitled, " Bride-Stealing, a Tale of New England's Middle Ages," is preserved in Everest's "Poets of Connecticut." It gives a poetical account of one among many instances of " stealing the bride" that occurred in the early days of the colony.
+ Bushnell's Discourse.
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FUNERAL CUSTOMS.
ly would not be thought extravagant in these days .* It was long the custom in Connecticut, for the young men and wo- men of a parish to celebrate the occasion of the settlement of a new minister by a ball on the evening following the day of his ordination or installation. This was termed the " or- dination ball," and was sometimes conducted with such pro- priety and decorum that church-members and even the new pastor would honor the ball with their presence. They ulti- mately came to be regarded as a scandal, and were at last suppressed by public sentiment.
The customs at funerals in different parts of New England were for many years somewhat peculiar, and were long since modified or abandoned. The distribution of gloves, rings, and scarfs at funerals prevailed to such an extent, that in 1721, the Legislature of Massachusetts passed a law against the usage. Town authorities complied with the fashion so far, that they distributed these articles at the burial of their paupers, and the expense was charged over to the town. At the funeral of the wife of Governor Belcher of Massachusetts, in 1736, more than one thousand pairs of gloves were distributed among the attendants. t In the form of an association recom- mended by the Continental Congress, in 1774, the articles of mourning for both sexes are specified; with the pledge that they " will discountenance the giving of gloves and scarfs at funer- als." In Connecticut, or rather in certain parts of the colony, these and other practices, now obsolete, were long continued.
It has doubtless often puzzled those who are curious in such matters to shape to their imaginations what fashioned clothes their early ancestors wore, and how they looked in them. This is not an easy task, and yet something can be
* Morris, in his " Statistical Account" of Litchfield, speaks of a dance in that town in 1748, where a violin was used for the first time in the place, and adds- " The whole expense of the amusement, although the young people generally at- tended, did not exceed one dollar, out of which the fiddler was paid." Yet the parents and old people declared they should be "ruined by the extravagances of the youth."
+ "Customs of New England."
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said upon costume that may not be uninstructive to the general reader.
I have said that some of the emigrants brought with them from England silver-plate and articles of household furniture that betokened their rank in England. The same remark will apply to wearing apparel. Yet, except on public days, even the best planters must have dressed with great simpli- city during the first twenty or thirty years after the colony began to be settled. I have also stated that labor was the common lot, and that even gentlemen did not shrink from it. As soon as they could, they raised their own sheep. In this way a staple material was provided for the winter clothing of males and females. The wool sheared by the hands of the planters, his sons, and servants, was, by his wife, daughters, and female domestics, spun and woven into cloth, and then cut into garments by the skillful matron for the members of her household. Flax, too, and hemp were cultivated with much care, and supplied them with materials that they were obliged to shape into garments that would serve them for the warmer months of the year.
I do not mean to assert that our fathers were indifferent in matters of dress and personal appearance. The gentry indulged in silks, velvets, and beavers, and there are still pre- served many specimens of their taste in the shape of rich lace ruffles, elegant embroidery, silk and velvet caps, and costly ornaments of gold and silver.
Small-clothes were worn by our forefathers from the ear- liest times, and were made of sheep and deer skin, as well as of cloth .* Until within the last sixty years, boys were dressed in these stiff habiliments as soon as the attire of their childhood had been laid aside. These small-clothes under- went various modifications of fashion. They were usually fitted very closely to the person, and those men were thought to be very fortunate whose forms were such that they could wear small-clothes above the hips without appurtenances and stockings above the calf of the leg without garters.
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