USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Chelmsford > History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts > Part 44
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In the middle thirties (1835) New England farming was beginning to be at its best. Most farmers had money laid by, and
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THE LIFE OF LONG AGO
if one wanted to borrow, he went, not to the Bank, but to his neighbor. The Town occasionally borrowed of private indi- viduals.
Sending knees and other timbers for building small vessels at Salem and Boston was quite an industry. North Billerica was one shipping point for things that went by the Canal.
WINE AND BEER.
These items will show the attitude in regard to wine and beer.
In 1644, "The Court, apprehending yt it is not fit to deprive ye Indians of any lawfull comfort wch God aloweth to all men by ye use of wine, do ordr, yt it shalbe lawfull for all such as are or shalbe alowed licence to retaile wines to sell also to ye Indians so much as may be fit for their needfull use or refreshing."
Four years later, all but one man in Boston were prohibited from selling wine to the Indians.
In 1654, two persons in each of six counties were named as authorized to sell to Indians, one in Concord & one in Reading for Middlesex.
Benjamin Tompson, in his poem on King Philip's War, entitled "New England's Crisis," 1676, has these lines among others in Indian dialect, in which Philip compares the punishment meted to Indians and English.
"We drink, we so big whipt; but English they Go sneep [sleep], no move, or else a little pay."
For getting drunk, the Indian received a severe whipping. The white man slept it off, or paid a light fine.
1649. Every victualler or ordinary taverner was ordered by the General Court to be provided with good and wholesome beer, for the entertainment of strangers, to save the expense of buying wine; and if a taverner were found without such beer, he should forfeit forty shillings for the first offence, and for the second, he should forfeit his license.
No laborer should be inforced to take wine in pay for his labor "whereby-ye good creature of God [is] notoriously abused."
No laborer should be allowed to sell wine or make payment of any debt therewith.
Wherever the minister went, he felt obliged to drink the glass offered him, and Parson Bridge found it best not to make too many calls in an afternoon.
1647. The General Court sent 18 gallons of wine "as a small testimony of ye Court's respect, to yt reverend assembly of elders at Cambridge"
FOOD.
As for food, there was plenty of fish, sometimes bear-meat, venison, or other wild game or fowl. The common domestic animals were bred from stock sent from England in the earliest
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HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
days of the colonies. Among the poorer families, turnips often took the place of potatoes, and for coffee they had a drink made of barley, rye or brown bread crusts. Coffee came into use among those who could afford it, not long before the year 1800. It was first used in England about 1690, as stated by Evelyn. Tea was little used. Home brewed beer was a common drink, and when orchards were grown, cider was used in great quantities. Wine and spirituous liquors were imported and used freely on all occasions. Two barrels of cider were provided for the use of the council at the ordination of Mr. Packard in 1793.
Zachary Reed was, perhaps, the greatest apple grower in Chelmsford, having about one hundred and fifty acres for an orchard. Fruits were first grown here from seed and plants brought from the old country.
Bread was generally made by mixing two parts of Indian meal with one part of rye flour. "Rye and Indian" was the staple for two hundred years. Morning and evening, the people partook of hasty pudding-boiled Indian meal-with milk or molasses, or porridge made of beans or peas, and salt pork or beef.
The will of Willard Parker, in 1804, provides that his wife shall have, among other things, "six barrels of Cyder yearly and every year, and six bushels of good rye, twelve bushels of good Indian corn yearly and every year." Note the proportions of rye and Indian corn.
FISH.
The earliest writers who mention the Merrimack, speak of the abundant supply of fish which it afforded. Among their volumes may be mentioned, "A Description of the Plantations of New England as they were Anno Christi 1633," and "A True and Faithful Account of the Four Chiefest Plantations of the English in America. London, 1670." "There are many sturgeons, but the most are caught at Cape Cod, and in the River of Meramack, whence they are brought to England. They are twelve, fourteen, and some eighteen feet long."
Among other New England fish are mentioned-
"The scale-fenc'd sturgeon, wry mouth'd Hollibut; The flouncing Salmon, codfish, Greedigut;
The stately Bass, old Neptune's fleeting Post, That tides it out and in from sea to coast; Consorting Herrings, and the bony Shad.
Big-bellied Alewives, macrils richly clad"-&c
"Merrimack lies eight miles beyond Agowomen [Ipswich] (which is 9 miles North from Salem) where is a River Navigable for twenty miles, and all along the side of it fresh marshes, in some places three miles broad. In the River is Sturgion, Salmon, Bass, and divers other Kind of fish."
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In 1681, mention is made of a fishing ware (weir) at the upper end of Newfield on the Merrimack. Prior to 1668, John Webb had one on the river, possibly at that place. In 1661, the Town granted him "20 acres without any town privilege saveing the Keeping a beast or two." He had other grants. A highway was laid out "to begin at Meremake river where Mr John Weebe made his ware."
The inhabitants valued their riparian rights highly, and guarded them well.
The "fishing island," in the Merrimack, at the bend of the river, was much used. See Map No. 5.
In Vol. 117, p. 210, of the Archives, and in Acts and Resolves, Vol. XV, p. 625, are the records of proceedings relating to the grant of the use of a fishing island in the Merrimack to Wm. Blodget, Robt. Reding, Jona. Parkhurst, Simeon Blodget, Stephen Spaulding, John Richardson, -- Foster, John Butterfield and Peter Spaulding, during the pleasure of the Court. The grant was made, January 11, 1757. Sixty-one Chelmsford men certify their approval. The island was in size, about half an acre.
7:12:1681 by a voate it is granted to the proprieters of the New feild to erectt a fishing worke on Merimake River at the vper end of the Newfeild and that they shall have liberty of a highway bettwine the Newfeld and Samell frenches land downe to the fore said fishing place in the river allwais conditiones that Any inhabitant of Chelmsford shall att Any time up on his paying his proportion of exspenses about the erecting the worke have his share Acordingly in the fishing trad.
In 1730, three men were appointed to "lett oute the fishing places and to take care of them," and again, "To take care of the fish and see that they have free passage according to law."
With hook and line, it was easy to take a good string of fish in half an hour. A school of shad and alewives came up to the fordway on Acton street, near Heart pond, one season, perhaps seventy-five years ago, and could not get across, but filled the brook solid. A man came along on his way home, with an empty ox cart, which he filled by scooping up the fish with his hands. This was told the writer by an old man of undoubted veracity.
Perch and pickerel were plenty in Heart pond.
The fish caught in the rivers formed a staple supply of food, many more being taken than could be eaten. The farmers were accustomed to use them as a fertilizer, one or two fish being placed in each hill of corn. The inhabitants of the Town had the right to take what fish they could.
Within the memory of some living, citizens would back up their carts on the river bank, and take home a load. Two men in boats, with a seine between them, would take a cartload at one haul. "At certain seasons of the year," says Miles, "the mouth of the Concord appeared to be almost literally full of fish. There are those now living [1845], who have seen one thousand shad taken at one haul, from a basin of water since filled up, and now
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HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
the site of the large Mill of the Middlesex Company. Down as late as 1820, there were caught, mostly at this spot, and at the foot of Pawtucket falls, twenty-five hundred barrels of salmon, shad and alewives, besides many other fish of less value." [See Allen, page 41.]
The mill operatives in the early days protested to the boarding- house keepers that they could not endure to eat salmon more than three days in the week.
Gilman says: "Before the progress of the waters of the Merrimack to the sea had been checked and restrained by dams they bore in their bosom a bountiful source of supply for the sustenance of not only the Indians, but also the first English settlers. Within the memory of the oldest inhabitant now living, (1880), the Merrimack teemed with salmon, shad, alewives and eels. Occasionally a sturgeon was seen leaping, in sportive activity, high in the air." This is what one of the oldest inhabit- ants now living (Captain Silas Tyler) says: "The best haul of fish I ever knew was eleven hundred shad and eight or ten thousand alewives. This was in the Concord river, just below the Middlesex mills. Formerly, there was what was called an island on the Belvidere side of the bridge, near the mouth of the Concord. Occasionally, the water from Concord river found a course down by the Owen house and the old yellow Tavern house. There were four fishing places, two above and two below Concord river bridge. Joe Tyler, my uncle, owned those above, and Josiah Fletcher, those below the bridge. * *
* The law allowed us to fish two days each week in the Concord, and three in the Merrimack. * * People would come 15 or 20 miles on fishing days to procure these fish. Shad were worth five dollars per hundred, salmon ten cents per pound."
CATTLE.
Swine were allowed to go at large until 1793, when they were to be shut up during September and October.
Hog-reeves were chosen "to oversee swine and keep them in order." In 1824, twenty hog-reeves were chosen.
1670, March 20, all swine within the boundes of this town from 12 wekes ould and upward shall be sofitiently ringed from ye 10 day of April to ye 10 day of October on penalty of 12d a swine and in case any swine shall do any damage in any inclosier then the owneres therof shall pay for ye first trespase dobell damages &c
1674. On account of trespass Ensign Will Fletcher em- pounded eight swine of Abraham Parker four times the same year. We read a chuckle between the lines of the record. Poor Abraham would be the butt of the Town for a twelvemonth.
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THE LIFE OF LONG AGO
In 1677 "the Selectmen ordered that all fences within the limits of this Town shall be made up and repaired according to law to be sufficient against great Cattell," or, as the phrase is, "horse high, bull strong and pig tight."
Three swine taken "damage fesant."
Aprised by us whose names are underwritten three swine taken up by Magor Thomas hinchman the charges aloved for kapinge said swine beinge deducted in oure aprihenshong fule valeu amounts to = 01 = 02 = 06 in monie.
14 November '92.
Samevel foster Steven Pears
In 1737, rams were ordered to be kept enclosed from August 20 to November 1.
From 1730 to 1795 Deer-reeves were chosen, to prevent the destruction of deer.
In 1693, the Town chose "men to loke after horses to se thay be acted with acordinge to lawe." For some time the practice varied from year to year, as to allowing animals to go at large. In 1824, swine were restrained, but horses and cattle were allowed to go at large.
Fence viewers looked after the fences.
Field drivers were elected by the Town to perform the duties of a hayward-to prevent wandering cattle from doing damage or becoming a prey to wolves, and to impound strays. Their fees were commonly called pound-shot. This office has sometimes been bestowed good-naturedly upon the newest benedicts.
SHEEP.
At an early day the General Court expressed themselves thus: "For as much as wollen cloth is so useful a comodity without which wee can not so comfortably subsist in these pts by reason of could winters * * * & whereas through ye want of woollen cloaths & stuffs, many pore people have suffered much could and hardship to ye impairing of some of yr healths * and such who have been able to prvide for yir children cloathing of cotton cloth (not being able to get other) have, by yt meanes, had some of their children much scorched with fire, yea, divers burnt to death * * this court * doth hereby desire all ye townes in generall & evry one in prtickler" * * to preserve & increase "such sheope as they have already as also to prcure more with all convenient speede"
In 1675, the Gen. Court prohibited any person from exporting "any sheeps wooll out of this jurisdiction by sea to any foreigne parts"; likewise "Racoone ffurs" because "this Court is informed of the usefullness of racoone furrs for making a good sort of hatts for the supply of the country."
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HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
SHEIPE ORDER.
Sheipe 25 the 12 moth 1681 to prevent damages by sheipe in order inclosiers ordered that no sheepe shall goe upon the common of this towne with out a Kepper up on penallty of paying twelve pence a sheepe every time thay ar taken with in any in closier the fence beeing sofitient Acording to towne [order].
In 1662, sheep were rated at 10s. per head.
In 1673, five pounds per score.
1688 At a legall towne metinge of the in habitans of Chellms- ford the towne did jointe agree to grante a parsile of land for to kepe a dri heard of chattels and shep which land lyse ajoining upon Mr Johnathan Tyngs farm it was then agreed that it should extend in breadth from the abovsaid tings land to the brocke comonly caled Deep broke & so the same breadth that it is at the above sad plase to extend throu out tile it comse to the south and north line betwene groton and vs.
1697 Capt. Bowers, Ephraim Hildreth and Samuel Foster are chosen a committee "to draw up artickels in order to the keping of a flock of shep in a publick way upon Robins Hill."
Sheep were of great value to the early settlers. They were kept, as the phrase is, for the good of back, belly and purse.
1683. This Court, considering that catle are rated to the country at a greater value then they will yeild from man to man, doeth therefore order, that henceforth all neat catle shall be rated to the country, viz: oxen at four yeare old & above at three pounds a peece, all cowes & steeres at three yeares old & aboue at forty shillings a peece & all of two yeare old at thirty shillings a peec, and yeare olds at fiueteen shillings a peece, & swyne at a yeare old at tenn shillings a peece.
Prior to that date, an ox above four years old was valued at six pounds, a cow of the same age, at five pounds, a sheep above a year old, thirty shillings, a swine above a year old, at twenty shillings. Men who worked at arts or trades were rated proportionable to other men for estates.
The valuation of horses being far below what they were worth, in 1653, the Gen. Court ordered that horses of four years old or upwards should be valued in the country rate at sixteen pounds; three years old, ten pounds; two years old, at seven pounds; of one year old, at three pounds, ten shillings.
SALT AND SUGAR.
In 1624, a salt maker was sent from England to teach the art at Plymouth. The project failed.
In 1649, John Winthrop, son of the Governor, undertook to manufacture salt out of "meer salt water," he to receive for good white salt, at Boston and other places, wheat, or other corn of equal value, bushel for bushel.
425
THE LIFE OF LONG AGO
Sea water furnished more or less salt for the people for many years. Cape Cod was the locality considered most favorable. In 1808, there were, at Barnstable, half a million square feet of vats.
The Indians taught the settlers to make sugar from the maple. Most farmers had their sugar orchards, "and 'sugaring- off' was as much a part of the agricultural year as plowing or hay-making."
SOLDIERS' DIET.
While the people at home were eating fish and rye-and- Indian, the soldiers of 1756 were given these rations:
Computation of one day's allowance per man.
1 1b Bread £0:1:5
1 " Pork
0:2:0
1 Jill Rum
0:0:6
3 pint of pease or beans 0:0:5
per. day 0:4:4
half a pound sugar per week
0:1:6
2 ounces ginger
0:0:5
1 Flour
0:1:2
1 pint Indian meal
0:0:4
4 ounces of Butter
0:1:0
1 pint of Molasses
0:1:7
0:6:0 is per day 10}
Old Tenor
0:5:21
per day
0: 4:4
7
1:10:4
0: 6:0
O T per week 1:16:4 [Massachusetts Archives, Vol. 75, p. 312.]
POVERTY.
The scanty crops which the first settlers were able to raise on their clearings barely kept them from starving. Wild beasts and savage Indians harassed them, they suffered from the rigors of the climate and from the lack of many things which we deem almost essential to existence. For many years, corn and rye formed the chief support of life, and some families had little of these. Many lacked fruit and vegetables. During the long
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HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
winters not further back then one hundred years ago, some families were obliged to sustain themselves chiefly on turnips, potatoes and salt. Occasionally, they had fish or game. Yet they were not shiftless, and, when the opportunity came, they improved it. An instance, which, at one time, might almost be called typical, is that of a family in which there were fourteen children living not far from the centre of the town, about a century ago, all in rags, some of whom, on cold winter nights, slept on straw in the potato bin in the cellar, and who had been constantly assisted by their more favored neighbors, who at last found work in one of the early mills in East Chelmsford. In later years, three of these boys became overseers, and the others did well in mill work. After the application of water power to the weaving of cloth, there were rapid and marvelous changes in the condition of many families.
BEARS.
The little black bears, sly as foxes, which lived about the swamps, were continually lurking near the homes of the early settlers, and, coming in the night, did much damage to the crops, and caused considerable annoyance in other ways. They cared as little for the sting of a bullet as for the sting of a bee, and were hard to kill. Mr. C. W. Byam tells of an incident which, one day, enlivened the home of his mother's great uncle, Col. Wright, who was, at the time, on the frontier, looking after the general interests of the settlers. His wife and two little children were left to carry on the farm at Chestnut hill. They were in the woods, gathering sticks for fuel to keep them warm and cook their food. The children, having strayed away from their mother, found a couple of balls of fur, and came running back, crying, "Mother, Mother, See!" The furry balls were two young cubs, whose eyes were not yet open.
Mrs. Wright took the children in her arms and ran homeward for dear life, and barred the door, expecting every moment to be torn to pieces by the mother bear; but, fortunately, the she-bear had been shot, and could do them no harm.
Ephraim Brown, in Vol. 4, Cont. Old Res. Hist. Assn., gives an interesting account of the killing of a bear by Mary Chandler Heald, a Chelmsford girl, who married and went to live in that part of Carlisle which was then within the limits of Concord. It was in 1693. Her husband, with other men, had started out early in the morning with their hounds, to kill a savage and destructive bear, which had made great depredations in their fields and 'flocks, and which, by its fleetness and cunning, had escaped their dogs and traps. Mary, at her door, heard the distant baying of the hounds, and strong voices of the men on the hills, and knew that the chase was leading towards her home. "To the right," "To the left," "Close up the centre," she heard
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them shout. "She shut the doors and windows, seized her long rifle, picked the flint, left her infant, Timothy, in the cradle asleep, and sallied forth into the deep shades of that swampy forest to meet the monster in the very spot which she believed it would pass. Soon the waving bushes, the rustling leaves, the heavy man-like tread, and the loud breathing, told that the monster was rushing directly upon her, and, now full in sight, was charging upon her very footsteps. With the rifle at her eye, her finger on the trigger, she received his oncoming without flinching, and, when the beast rose with open mouth and a terrific growl, doubly enraged at the sight of this new enemy, striking with its huge arms right and left to clear its way, she pulled the trigger. The echo of her rifle, mingled with the roar of the beast, rolled over the region and told every hunter that a grand day's work was done. Expecting to meet some other and unknown hunter and the captured game, the hunters rushed forward, and, amazed, saw the dying beast leaping vainly to regain its feet, with a bullet through its heart, roaring fearfully, and this woman, rifle in hand, looking calmly on, surveying the work of her hands, and giving welcome to the hounds and hunters gathering around. She had shot a huge and ferocious bear. The hunters, in amaze- ment and admiration, gave cheer upon cheer, not only because the dreadful beast was dead, but because it was killed in the forest by a woman, all alone."
The dead beast was worth thirty or forty dollars in our present money.
Mr. William Pierce, aged 85, tells (1901) that Debora Stevens, born at the old Stevens place, near Frances hill, was frightened in childhood by a bear coming into the house. Her nerves were affected so that ever after her head was shaky. She married Oliver Pierce.
The following may or may not be history. It is an old manuscript among the Fiske papers, and will, at least, illustrate the fiction, if not the fact, of early times.
CURIOUS STORY.
"The following anecdote of an honest farmer, who was one of the first settlers, will serve to show the fanatical spirit, which then prevailed, so contrary to that liberal toleration now prevalent, and which so happily unites every denomination of Christians in the bonds of charity and love-but to my story.
"The farmer in question was a plain, pious man, regular in the discharge of his duty, both to God and his neighbour; but, unluckily, he happened to live near one with whom he was not inclined to cultivate either civil or friendly terms; the troublesome personage was no other than a monstrous, overgrown he-bear that descended from the mountains, trod down and destroyed the
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HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
cornfields, and carried off whatever he laid his paws upon. The plundered sufferer watched for him in vain, the ferocious and cun- ning animal ever finding methods to elude his utmost vigilance; and at last the bear had learned his cue so thoroughly as to commit his depredations only on the Lord's day, when he knew from experience the coast was clear. Wearied out with these oft- repeated trespasses, the good man resolved to stay on the next Sunday in the fields, where, with his gun, he would conceal him- self. The bear came, as usual-he fired, and shot him dead. The explosion threw the whole congregation (for it was about the hour of the people's assembling to worship) into consternation. The cause was inquired into; and, as soon as the Pastor, Deacon and Elders became acquainted with it, they called a special meeting of the church, and cited their offending brother before them, to shew cause, if any he had, why he should not be excommunicated out of Christ's Church, for this daring and unequaled impiety. In vain did he urge from the Scriptures themselves, that it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath day; he pleaded before Judges determined to condemn him; and the righteous parson, elders, and church viva voce agreed to drive him out from amongst them as polluted and accursed. Accordingly he was enjoined, (as is customary on such occasions) on the next Sunday to attend his excommunication in the church. He did attend, but not entirely satisfied with the sentence and too much of a soldier to be scandal- ised in so publick a manner for an action which he conceived to be a good one, he resolved to have recourse to stratagem: he therefore went as he was summoned, with his gun loaded with a brace of balls, his sword and cartridge-box by his side and his knapsack on his back with six days provisions in it. Service was about half over when he entered the sanctuary in marshal array. He marched leisurely into a corner and took his position. As soon as the benediction was ended, the holy parson began his excom- munication, but scarce had he pronounced the words, "Offending Brother," when the honest veteran cocked and levelled his weapon of destruction, at the same time crying out with a louder voice, "Proceed if you dare, proceed and you are a dead man." At this unexpected attack the astonished clergyman shrunk behind his desk, and his opponent with great deliberation recovered his arms. Some minutes elapsed before the parson had courage to peep from his ecclesistical battery, when finding that the old hero had come to a rest he tremblingly reached the order to the eldest deacon, desiring him to read it. The deacon with stammer- ing accents, and eyes staring with affright began as he was com- manded; but no sooner had he done so than the devoted victim again levelled his piece, and more vehemently than before exclaimed, "Desist and march-I will not live with shame ;- desist and march, or you are all dead men!" Little need had he to repeat his threats; the man of God leaped from his desk, and escaped, the deacon, elders and congregation followed in equal trepidation; the greatest confusion prevailed, the old women
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