USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Chelmsford > History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts > Part 47
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There are several ancient elms about the house, which must be nearly if not quite the same age, and I suppose Colonel Simeon planted them.
My grandfather Noah was fond of having his grandchildren about him, so it was here that, after my father moved to his own house, I stayed a great deal in summers, and often in winters, during my early teens. It seemed to me the pleasantest of all possible places. I liked it better than going to school.
Sixty-odd years ago life on a New England farm was very different from that of today, as were also the characters and qualities of the households. The farms, then, had usually de- scended through several generations of pure English stock, as you will have noticed by the names of the gentlemen and gentlewomen which I have mentioned in the opening of this story. In examin- ing the first town records of Chelmsford, I did not find a solitary name other than English.
Furthermore, the "hired men," so called, were young Ameri- cans, who came down from New Hampshire and Vermont to work during the summer months. Their pay was fourteen to sixteen dollars a month, with board and lodging. They were generally young fellows of excellent character, with plenty of self-respect. They did not shirk their duties, but worked long hours, especially in haying and harvesting time.
Much of my time was passed in their company, in riding the horse while they held the plow between the rows of potatoes and corn, and in the hay-field, and in turning the grindstone when they sharpened their scythes, a kind of labor which made me tired.
Nearly all the food consumed by the household and animals was raised on the farm, and various industries, requiring no little knowledge and skill, were carried on to supply the domestic wants.
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Purchases of food were limited to such articles as tea, coffee, sugar, spirits, spices, etc. The products of the farm were hay, wheat, rye, oats, corn, buckwheat, potatoes, beans, the small vegetables, fruits and poultry.
The pigs grew into hogs, were fattened on corn, killed and salted, the hams and bacon smoked, the lard tried out, the beef corned, cheeses, butter, soap and candles made, fruits were pre- served, and rose water made from the rose leaves, which I had to pick.
The grain crops were reaped with the sickle, till a "cradle," so called, was substituted,-an efficient tool which required a stalwart man to swing, but it did great execution. Now it is as obsolete as the sickle. The grass was mowed with the scythe. The corn was husked by hand in the barn, sometimes in the evening by the dim light of two or three lanterns, followed by a simple supper. The ears were stored in bins and shelled by hand over the blade of a spade.
The grain was threshed on the barn floor with flails. When required for grinding into meal it was winnowed, wind and weather being favorable, by spreading a sheet on the grass and pouring on it the grain from a peck measure held by a man at arm's length above his head, the wind blowing the dust and chaff away, just as the Phoenicians did and as the Egyptians do today. A wonderful hand winnowing machine was bought, which the neighbors came to see and admire, and the ancient picturesque way ceased. The grain was then bagged and taken to a little rickety grist mill, run by water from a brook some two miles the other side of the village, and ground into excellent meal, the miller taking his legal toll in payment for grinding. This was a full afternoon's job and I considered it "larks." The rude machinery seemed to me a wonderful creation of genius.
There was a cider mill on the farm, worked by a horse, who went round in a circle, grinding our apples and those of the neighbors. During the autumn apple season the mill was busy all day and often well into the evening. I drove the horse, sitting on his back or in a chair fastened on the rig behind him. In the evening I was tied into the chair to prevent me from falling off if I went to sleep, which I generally did, but the horse did not know it, and would keep moving if I were there; or if he did stop, I woke up and started him along. About forty barrels of cider was the year's product of the farm; some was bottled, the bottles kept in sand in the cellar, and when opened the cider sparkled like this champagne which you have been drinking; some was kept in wood for common use, and some turned into vinegar for making pickles. This was the beginning of my manufacturing experience.
With all these varied products of the farm, the table was generously provided with the best of food. The kitchen fireplace was so large that I used to go into it, and, looking up the chimney, see the stars at night. [The stars might have been thus seen in day-
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light as well as at night.] The meats were roasted in a tin kitchen in front of the fire, and the vegetables boiled in iron pots and kettles hung by chains on S-shaped hooks from a long iron crane.
On the side of this fireplace there was a big brick oven, where on Saturdays a fire of fagots was kept burning till the bricks were thoroughly heated, when it was swept clean of ashes, and the bakings for the next week's consumption, pots of beans, Indian pudding, brown and white bread, pies, etc., put in, and the door shut tight. The bread and pies were taken out in the afternoon, but the beans and pudding remained inside till Sunday, when they were served hot. There was little or no cooking on Sunday, for my grandfather, though in his early manhood he had been Captain of Cavalry in the Seventh Regiment, Second Brigade, Third Division of the Militia of the Commonwealth, was then senior deacon of the church.
Among the old-fashioned, blue-and-white china in common use were two large tureens, decorated with views of our beautiful State House on Beacon Hill, Boston, showing cows grazing on the Common in the foreground. Sometimes the entire menu, soup, meats and vegetables, were served in one or both of these generous tureens, followed, perhaps, by a pudding for dessert; and it was as good a dinner as you are having today, though not quite so elaborate.
Wool was sheared from the few sheep kept, carded by hand- cards and spun in the house on the same old wheel now upstairs here. I recall distinctly the pleasant hum and buzz of this wheel in winter. The yarn was dyed a dark indigo blue, but not, I think, at the farm, and then sent to a little water mill at West Chelmsford, where it was woven with a strong cotton warp into an excellent fabric, called "farmer's frocking," from which was made the long warm frocks which the men wore in their winter work.
A seamstress, named Lucy Shed, whom we children called "Bumble Bee," for her stoutness, cut and sewed these and other garments for the household, she living in the house while so occupied. I had a small blue frock, which gave me more real satisfaction than any clothes I have ever had since. The stockings, mittens, gloves and neck comforters for the family were knit from this yarn, in the house.
There was also a small wheel for spinning flax.
There were always several hives of bees in the garden, which supplied ample store of honey, and this, I suppose, took the place of the white loaf sugar for some purposes. The West India soft brown sugar in common use was not attractive in appearance, and had a rummy flavor.
When the bees swarmed it became a matter of much anxiety to secure them in a new hive. Sometimes the swarm, led by a revolutionary member, would try to secede, and rising in a body some fifteen feet in the air, would fly off with much humming, which would be heard at a considerable distance, in a bee line
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for the woods, or some isolated trees. When this happened, we ran along in front of them, beating tin cans and throwing up sand, trying to turn them back or make them swarm again where they could be secured. I do not remember that we ever succeeded in doing so. When, as usual, the bees swarmed on a bush or on a rail, placed for the purpose near their old home, a skillful person could generally re-hive them without much risk. But occasionally the bees would become unruly and then angry, when those of us who were watching the progress of events would scatter to a safe distance.
In the autumn a pair of steers or oxen, that had worked during the summer, were fatted and sent to Brighton to be sold.
In the spring the young cattle and calves were branded. A responsible drover came along, collected such stock from the neighboring farms, and drove them, often quite a herd, over the highway to Vermont, to graze during the summer on the rich hill pastures. They were driven down again in the autumn to be raised or fatted for market, much as is practised in Switzerland nowadays. Our stock went to Stoddard. [N. H.]
The direct highway from Boston to Concord, New Hampshire, called the Mammoth road, passed through the farm in front of the house. It was traversed by large wagons covered by white canvas, and drawn by teams of four or six horses. Going north these were filled with store-goods, bringing back farm produce in return. They usually passed our farm on Fridays. Sometimes there were several in a convoy, and in dry weather they raised great clouds of dust, from the poorly built road, which could be seen long before the teams came in sight, and after they had disappeared.
On the tail-board of these wagons there was usually a hogs- head of New England rum, taken on from the Medford distillery as they came through that town. In those days rum was the only spirit in common use; it was cheap and potent, and an injury to the farming community. Perhaps the large quantities of salted meats consumed stimulated the craving for a "toddy" more cheering than the domestic hard cider.
No coal was then used in the country. The wood for fuel was cut in the wood-lot some two miles up the Westford road, and hauled down on ox sleds, making a big pile in the dooryard; also a few logs to be sawed into boards for repairing the premises. I greatly prized these winter excursions into the snowy forest as a kind of arctic expedition.
Some kinds of birds were much more numerous then than now, especially the common pigeon. Vast flocks of these game birds flew to the north in the spring, returning south in the autumn. "Pigeon stands," so called, were prepared in a wood or near its edge, away from any house, some twenty feet square, the brush cleared away, and grain scattered on the ground, which would attract the birds in large quantities. A net was so arranged on
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poles on one side of the stand that pulling a string when the birds were busy feeding, it would suddenly cover the space and imprison the game; and great numbers were caught in this simple way.
Partridge in the woods and quail in the thickets along the stone walls were more common than nowadays. In the pasture behind the barns, where were many old hollow apple trees suitable for nests, turtle-doves,-a very beautiful bird,-wood-pigeons and woodpeckers abounded, and in the meadows beyond larks and bobolinks were plentiful. The hanging nests of the golden oriole were always pending from the great elms about the house. Chim- ney swallows built in the big kitchen chimney, the nests occa- sionally tumbling down on to the hearth, and the eaves of the barns were plastered inside and out with the clay nests of the swifts.
At the time of a craze for raising silkworms from the leaves of the plant Morus Multicaulis, which industry promised a sure fortune, was bought a supply of plants and silkworm eggs. The plants were set out in the garden where raspberries and thimble- berries had formerly flourished. Benches were fitted up in the granary for the worms, which were duly hatched. Though the plants grew rapidly the worms did better still. More and more leaves were needed daily, while the plants supplied less and less. In this emergency, to avert a fatal disaster and the loss of a fortune, resource was had to a group of old mulberry trees on top of Robin's hill, two miles in front of the house, but four miles by road. Thither I was sent in a wagon day after day to pick the leaves. The squirrels were fond of the sweet mulberries, which were plentiful, and they became so used to seeing me up in the trees and beneath them, that they treated me in the most friendly way. By feeding the worms with these leaves they were saved alive until in due time they turned into beautiful yellow cocoons. These, when first baked to kill the chrysalis inside, were immersed in hot water, and the raw silk was reeled off and made into hanks for the market. I never heard what the financial result was, but as the experiment was not repeated, I think it turned out a failure. For myself I was not sorry, as I had had enough of leaf picking.
After the death of my grandmother the housekeeper was Hannah Wilson, a Vermont young woman, with a bright com- plexion and red hair. She was very efficient and a good cook. One day in a paroxysm of house-cleaning she lighted upon a box of old papers in the garret and emptied them into the pig-yard, the general receptacle for rubbish. Happily my Uncle Philip discovered what she had done just in time to jump into the yard, disperse the pigs, who were already destroying the papers, and rescue many of them; but some were ruined. Among those saved were civil and military commissions and semi-public documents, official and private correspondence, bundles of deeds nearly two hundred years old, and various valuable papers of dates before, during and after the Revolution, which are now arranged and preserved among the Family Records in my keeping.
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Among the commissions, for example, is one from "William Shirley, Esq., Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over His Majesty's Province in Massachusetts Bay in New England &c," appointing "Simeon Spaulding, Gentlemen, to be cornet of the first troop of horse," dated March 18, 1755. There is also one dated "In the 28th year of His Majesty King George the Second, Annoq. Domini 1755," and signed "W. Shirley." Another com- mission, twenty years later,-1775,-appointing Simeon "to be one of our Justices to keep our peace," was signed by "Samuel Adams, Secy.," whose statue now stands in Adams Square, Boston.
But shortly there was no peace to keep, for another com- mission, dated February 12, 1776, appointed Simeon "one of the Field officers of the Seventh Regiment in the sixteenth year of the Reign of George the Third &c." Two days later another commission appointed Simeon Colonel of the regiment. This last document is interesting as showing the printed heading, "George the Third, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith &c.," crossed out, and having this title written above, "The Government and People of the Massachusetts Bay in New England," and at the bottom the date, "In the 15th year of his Majesty's Reign," crossed out, and the words, "In the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five," substituted. You will notice that these Rebels were using the King's stationery without his knowledge or consent, which was certainly wrong.
These commissions are a good inheritance, and rank with those issued by Abraham Lincoln to my brothers John, Edward and Henry.
The other important route from the sea to the back country was by the then famous Middlesex canal, which was opened for traffic just a century ago. It began at Middlesex Village, on the bank of the Merrimack river, some three miles from the farm, and ended at a basin in Haymarket square, Boston,-a distance of twenty-seven miles. The craft were long, narrow, flat- bottomed scows, called "canal-boats." They were towed by horses and moved about three miles an hour, bringing down such bulky things as lumber, cord-wood, bricks, hay, etc., and carrying back store-goods. By means of several sets of locks on the river, this navigation reached Concord, New Hampshire, sixty-five miles from Boston. The canal cost half a million dollars, a large sum in those days. Besides these freight boats, there were "packet-boats," for passengers. I have been told that, some time in my first year, my mother made this voyage, taking me with her, when she went to visit Madame Dalton at her house, No. 82 Mt. Vernon street, Boston. If this is true-and I have no reason to doubt it-I probably enjoy the distinction of being the only living person who first arrived in Boston by a canal-boat. But I do not claim any great merit on this account.
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When the Boston and Lowell railroad was opened, nearly seventy years ago, the value of the canal was destroyed. After- wards the Boston and Maine railroad built its station on the site of the canal basin in Haymarket square.
Later still this station was moved back to Causeway street, where it is now, and ten years ago the Boston Transit Commission took this same site for a subway station. I mention these incidents as unique illustrations of the radical changes in the methods of transportation occurring at this spot during seventy years, as well as illustrating the progress which science has made; namely, the canal-boat, towed by horses; the trains of cars hauled by steam-engines and the electric car, with its source of power miles away, transmitted by an insignificant-looking copper wire.
You young folks will doubtless live to see even greater changes, such as, for example, flying machines, to which I do not doubt you will contribute your full share.
And I trust you will take your revenges on somebody by telling your stories, as a recompense for what you have so politely endured in listening to mine.
MILITIA.
The Militia trained in the spring of the year and in the fall was the Annual Muster, which was sometimes in Chelmsford and sometimes in neighboring towns. In Chelmsford the muster field was in the meadows at the centre of the Town, near where the Gun Club's house now stands. It was on one of these occasions, eighty-four years ago, when the men were all at the muster, that the buildings at the old Spaulding home were burned, with Joseph Spaulding's hat, which showed the effects of Putnam's sword at Bunker Hill. Muster days were great occasions. There were also muster fields at North Chelmsford and Middlesex Village. There is a rifle range at North Chelmsford.
LOCAL TRADITIONS.
Many local traditions tell of the things which amused the people of the long ago. Once when the Town chose a represen- tative to the General Court, some one moved that a committee of three be appointed to take him to Boston and show him the way to the State House. On another occasion some one who had a poor opinion of the deputy elected, moved that he should be instructed not to tell what town he came from. When Carlisle was set off from Chelmsford, one man on the border declared he would not be a citizen of the former place, and so the line was run to exclude his farm.
The doctrinal discussions which prevailed a century ago furnished some amusing incidents. The minister, who was of the "liberal" type, was driving along the road one day, when he
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noticed a farmer (who had observed his approach) stoutly be- laboring a dead hedgehog, or some such animal, with a club. "What are you doing?" inquired the Minister. "I am trying to prove to you that there is such a thing as punishment after death."
After the Adams Library had been established, the Unitarian Minister was called to visit an old man who lived in the past and remembered his youthful reading, and who wished to give quite a sum of money to buy books for the library. He wanted the Minister to go with him to Lowell and make the purchase there. The Minister told him it would be better to give the money to the Trustees and let the purchasing committee make the selection. "Well," said the old man, "I hope they won't buy any of them hell and damnation books they used to have around here."
Some strange characters in this vicinity relieved no doubt the even monotony of country life; the man who vowed never to trim hair or beard and who kept his vow; the mentally-kinked man who always walked backwards and never forwards; the man who wore the light brown coat which belonged apparently to his great-great-grandfather, made of the best English cloth, which would never wear out, cut in the fashion of more than a century ago, with tight waist, long shirts and big flat brass buttons.
SOCIAL LIFE.
There always was a genuine, hearty, social life in Chelmsford. The early recreations were corn huskings, trainings of the militia, ordinations, house raisings, sleighing parties, and dancing, which the minister winked at, because he could not stop it. Practical jokes were a common amusement. A man, after spending an evening at the tavern, might, with difficulty, get into his chaise in the dark, and find his horse apparently backing when told to go forward, some wicked boys having hitched him into the thills with his head where his tail ought to be.
On a cold winter night the boys stuffed the schoolhouse chimney with hay, and poured water down upon it, which froze solid, so that it was impossible to have a fire the next morning.
The first thing a new schoolmaster had to do was to show himself master of the biggest boys, which, sometimes, required a knock-down blow, resulting in universal respect for the school- master. In such a tussle, one poor man had his long hair rubbed full of burrs.
Parson Bridge, when courting his second wife, the Widow Abbott, in taking a short cut to her house, "the Ark," had to cross a plank over the brook. One evening it broke, and let him into the water, the boys having sawed it nearly in two in the middle.
The corn huskings and sewing bees, which were ways of combining useful occupation with pleasure, were common. Dancing schools and parties were conducted in a polite and genteel manner.
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The following announcement of a dancing school will be of interest.
Chelmsford January 15th, 1816
A school will be opened at the Hall of Ezra Blodgets. this evening at 6 oClock by Mr Robbins. to Instruct in the polite accomplishment of Dancing. Terms three dollars fifty cents per quarter last six weeks half price.
Ladies-Clarisa Howard, Lucretia Varnum, Hannah Adams, Sally Colburn, Sally Sherborm, Irena Bowers, Louisa Butterfield, Edna Varnum, Sarah Wood, Abagail Spalding.
Gentlemen-Charles Howard, John Spalding, Parker Varnum, Jr., Saml. Penst [prob. Priest], John F Adams, John Hunt, Henry Blodget, James Hayl, Anthony Hilben, John Hirsck, Thomas A Adams, Benjamin Adams, James Coburn, Ebn. Adams, Capt Adams, Capt J Bowers, Samuel Wood, John Butterfield, Major N. Howard, Parker Varnum, Jeremiah Varnum, [G.] Blodgett, George Hunting, Varnum Spalding, James Varnum, Charles Melvin, Ezra Blodgett, Benja Pierce, Alex Wright, - Chase, William Adams, Lewis Sticklemire, Otis Howard, William Spaulding, Charles Blood, Aron P. Richerson
The following ticket and invitations are samples of those formerly used here:
Social Ball
Admit Mr. S. Parker, Jr. N. Spalding
At Pawtucket Hall in Chelmsford on Wednesday evening, Jan. 22, 1817. *Dancing to commence at 5 o'clock
P. Bradley -
J. Bowers.
Managers
C. Howard.
Concord, Mass. Printed by Joseph T. Peters.
Dr. Peleg Bradley of Dracut, a noted physician, owned a Hall in Dracut where a Thanksgiving ball was given Dec. 5, 1817.
And here is an invitation to a fashionable ball:
Sleigh Ride and Ball.
The Company of. and Lady is solicited to attend a sleigh ride and ball, at W. Reed's, Chelmsford, on Tuesday, 3rd of January, 1832, at 9 o'clock, A. M.
Jepthah Parker,
Charles Johnson, Managers.
Solomon Parkhurst,
16 Dancing to commence at 5 o'clock, P. M.
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HISTORY OF CHELMSFORD
Social Ball
Sir :- Your company with a Lady, is respectfully solicited to attend a Ball at JOSEPH REED'S HALL in CHELMSFORD, on Wednesday Evening, December 21, 1842.
Kittredge.
Charles Sweetser,
Piper. - Musicians.
Chandler,
Wm. M. Spalding,
Franklin M. Hills, } Managers.
Dancing to commence at 6 o'clock, P. M.
EAST CHELMSFORD LITERARY SOCIETY.
Various organizations have helped to further the intellectual life of the Town. In East Chelmsford, for instance, in December, 1875, a literary society was formed. S. L. Blood, Henry Martin and R. Wilson Dix were the originators, the latter being secretary. It was enjoyed by the whole neighborhood, and by people from a distance. The "East Chelmsford Advance" received contributions from the members, and was read at the weekly meetings, which continued for four or five years.
As a rule, such village organizations are not long-lived, when proximity to the city affords a varied round of entertainments, theatres and lectures.
THE CHELMSFORD LITERARY UNION.
The first meeting was held at the home of Mr. Bates, Central Hotel, on September 30, 1887. The Rev. Mr. Chase and Mrs. C. E. A. Bartlett were the prime movers in the organization, and held the offices of president and secretary. Taine's History of English Literature occupied their attention for the first season. The fortnightly meetings were held alternately in the Unitarian and Baptist vestries and then in private parlors. The early members were: Rev. J. A. Chase, Mrs. C. E. A. Bartlett, A. H. Davis, Alfred B. Paasche, A. Heady Park, Sarah L. Putnam, Ada F. L. Chase, Susie M. Emerson, Addie E. Emerson, Olive C. Hunt, Hannah C. Hunt, Anna Eliza Hunt, Nellie S. Ward, Mrs. Emma L. Bussell, Mr. and Mrs. Henry S. Perham, Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Warren, C. H. Bates, Mrs. A. P. Perham, Mrs. J. W. Perham, Abbie F. Crosby, Dr. Amasa Howard, John Byfield, Helen F. Morton, Laura L. Butterfield, Rev. N. C. Saunders, Amy Marshall, Dr. Chamberlain, George A. Parkhurst, E. F. De Normandie, Hortense Parkhurst, Marietta Parkhurst, Malvina Hodgman, Martha E. Dadmun, Susie McFarlin, J. A. Bartlett, Mr. Polley, Miss Worthen. Others were added from time to time. A number of ministers and school teachers have been prominent in the work of the union.
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