USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Lee > Lee : the centennial celebration and centennial history of the town of Lee, Mass. > Part 16
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The women found their hands and hours fully occupied in providing within doors for the varied wants of the household, while the men were kept busily at work in the labors of the field.
There was no better school for the training of the young to diligence and enterprise, than was furnished by
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the varying experience of New England farm-life. Each day had its regular work, but that work was so varied as to demand, almost moment by moment, the exercise of sound judgment in deciding what was to be done, and how it was best to do it. There must be planning and contrivance to make the most of the limited resources of the household. With this constant need of fore- thought, it is not at all surprising that the farmers of the town were so generally fore-handed and thrifty. The farmers' wives had no time to spend in bemoaning their nervousness and taking drugs for various weaknesses ; yet neither were they so overburdened with work, as to be only drudges, rather than companions and counselors for husbands and children.
The common method of traveling was on horseback. There were side-saddles for the women, but most fre- quently they rode on a pillion behind the husband, or brother, or beau chevalier. Children would sometimes be taken by the father to school on horseback, two riding behind him, two in front, and one held in his lap. Dr. Hyde's chaise was the first one owned in town. 'Squire Yale's made its appearance about the same time. 'Squire Whiton had for his family, a four-wheeled covered car- riage with thorough-braces. Dr. Sergeant rode in a gig ; Dr. Bartlett on a buck-board.
A stranger coming to Lee at the commencement of the present century, would have seen little to lead him to anticipate the closely packed, intensely busy community of the present day. There was not even a sufficiently large cluster of houses around the meeting-house to indi- cate the center of a thriving farming community. Not a house of any kind was then on the west side of Main street, and on the east side only the one-story house, long known as the Barna Adams place, now owned by Elizur Smith, on what is now the corner of Franklin street.
RESIDENCE OF DEWITT S. SMITH.
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'Squire Jenkins, who had first lived on the hill east of John B. Freeman's present residence, moved into the vil- lage, and lived, where DeWitt S. Smith now lives, in a one- story house. Cornelius Bassett, a mason by trade, occu- pied a one-story house on the corner of Main and West Park streets, and the cellar walls now form a substantial foundation for the beautiful residence of Wellington Smith. Indeed, the timbers of the first story of the present mansion are the same that were in the house of Mr. Bassett. Cornelius T. Fessenden, the merchant, occu- pied a small house on the corner east of the Park, which now constitutes the rear of the house standing on this corner. Nathaniel Bassett, the blacksmith of this part of the town, lived where Mr. E. A. Moore, who married his granddaughter, now lives, and Maj. Nathan Dillingham, the hotel-keeper and business man, occupied the old " Red Lion," as his tavern was called, from its being painted red and having the figure of a lion for its sign.
Dillingham and Fessenden kept store in the building which is now the residence of William Bartlett. The store was the place to hear the news. Either there, or at the " Red Lion " tavern, the men gathered to talk over village politics, or tell tales of former experiences, or re- hearse the traditionary lore of family or community. They amused themselves often in playing upon each other rough, practical jokes. The newspaper did not then bring to every man's door the knowledge of all events of interest, near and far, within each ·preceding twenty-four hours. No persons made it their business to furnish entertainment for other people. Yet fun they had, rather boisterous and rude, it must be confessed. Diversions of some kind are a necessity of human nature. Amid all the austerities and rigidities of those days, hal- lowed to us by veneration for the right principles of con- duct and character maintained by our New England
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ancestry, relaxations were sought in modes which now would be considered low-toned.
Every occasion for social enjoyment was eagerly im- proved. Going to meeting was desirable for its opportu- nity for social intercourse, as well as for the exercises of public devotion to which the sanctuary was consecrated. The town meeting was an opportunity for development of powers of thought, expression, and leadership. It was a principal element in the formation of the New England type of character, thoughtful, independent, sensitive to public opinion, yet conscious of individual responsibility in the maintenance of correct and honorable public senti- ment. A large class, of course, neither appreciated nor desired mental and moral qualities and powers, so much as they did the manifestation of physical strength, and indulgence in hilarious merriment.
One Winter evening, Messrs. Porter and Goodspeed had been boasting in Dillingham's store of the merits of their horses. The clerk, Nat. Backus, slily fastened a coil of rope to the hitching post and to the sleigh ; then urged them to show the speed of the old mare which stood waiting for them at the door. He backed the sleigh up to the post, handed them the reins, and at the word " Go," off they started. The old horse sprang for- ward, went about two rods, and then stopped with a sud- den jerk that sent the men out of the sleigh over the dasher. A second trial resulted in a similar spill, when suspecting the trick, Goodspeed jumped out, cut off the rope at the post, threw it into the sleigh, and without a. word of inquiry or reprimand drove off, undoubtedly thinking he had the best of the joke.
Major Dillingham was the village poet, and some of his humorous versification is still handed down in the older families, as reminiscenes of old-time ways. Mr. Daniel Foote, having lost an umbrella, put up a notice of
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his loss in the post-office, but in such a crabbed style of hand-writing, that Major Dillingham was tempted to per- petrate a piece of friendly criticism :
" Daniel read the writing on the wall and gave the interpretation, But never a Daniel since the fall could read such a notification."
The Sabbath was a day of abstinence as complete as it could be made, from all ordinary household work. Reck- oning it as beginning, according to the old Jewish cus- tom, from sunset Saturday, it was the custom to have all work cease about an hour previous. Clothes were to be mended, and clean ones laid out in readiness for the Sabbath ; even shaving was all done Saturday that there might be no unnecessary infringement on holy time. The Bible was brought out, and all noise sternly prohib- ited. The Sabbath day dinner of baked beans, and baked Indian pudding, was kept hot in the oven, waiting the return of the family from church. Family prayers were duly observed on the Sabbath day, if they had small time alloted them on week-days. The sermon-text, heads, applications,-was rehearsed, more attention being paid to what was said than, as now, to the manner of saying it.
The vices and faults of the olden time were such as be- long to a ruder, a less artificial state of society, than our present social surroundings. There was general friendli-
ness of feeling; kindly interest in one another. If a neighbor wanted the loan of a horse to go to meeting or to mill, to attend a funeral or to make a visit, such a fa- vor was freely proffered. In case of family troubles, the neighbors would come in to talk over the affair, and to tender their advice as well as sympathy and help. Quar- rels there were in neighborhoods and churches, often over very trivial matters, and kept up with persistent infatua- tion. But the average sentiment of the community was sturdily and steadily on the side of right and justice.
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Poverty was not so much of a bar, as it is now, to posi- tion and welcome in general society. Tricks to defraud creditors, or to inveigle the unwary, were not so common as in these days of mad, reckless haste to be rich. There was no such opportunity as now, for the embezzlement of trust funds, and the gigantic stealing of railroads, by the very magnitude and audacity of the operation to dazzle the public into forgetfulness of the crime. Industry, honesty, energy, and economy, were regarded as the main reliance for the accumulation of wealth. There were distinctions and grades in society, and for a time, as in the old practice of " seating the meeting-house," and " dignifying the seats," an attempt to estimate and fix by some arbitrary standard, each person's social worth and rank. But such an attempt was contrary to the anima- ting spirit of our social and political institutions, and it was abandoned as irritating and impracticable. The min- ister, as the one trained thinker of the community, made upon the people the impress of a higher life than earthly, a deeper life than the life of appearance, a power in right- eousness to direct and govern the life, just as the church edifice, differing from and towering above the ordinary buildings, was a constant, silent witness for God and for the reality of His higher law. "The divine sovereignty " was a favorite topic in the religious talk of those days, as prominent as the modern scientist's disquisitions on the uniformity of the laws of nature. Dr. Shepard used to say of Dr. Hyde that "he was a born minister." Never was he unmindful of his high calling to a spiritual leader- ship. Duty was inculcated in the daily conduct of life, as earnestly and persistently as was the fundamental doc- trine of the Gospel that for the attainment of life's great end there must be personal consecration to Christ as the only and all-sufficient Divine Redeemer. No one, young or old, could be absent from church, and expect that Dr.
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Hyde would overlook it. "I did not see you in your place last Sabbath. Were you sick ?" would be an in- quiry sure to be made before another Sabbath came round. No event of marked importance could transpire in the family history, that the faithful pastor did not make an occasion for pertinent religious exhortation. Yet it was all done in such a spirit of kindly considera- tion and of personal interest, that no offence could be taken.
Strong drink was the cause of most of the thriftlessness of those days, as it is of the pauperism and crime of the present. All classes drank. Stimulants were supposed to be undeniably necessary. Farmers could not believe that their work would be better done, or done at all, without some "white-face," New England rum, or some " black-strap," rum sweetened with molasses. Toddy and flip were common beverages. Everybody drank, and only when manners and morals grew steadily worse, did any one recognize in the prevailing drinking usages of society, the source and head of the direful evils with which society was cursed. When Dr. Field came over from Stockbridge to attend some extra meeting in the East Lee school-house, he stopped at some house near by, to take something warm. Those that attended meet- ing, thought the preacher's eyes were brighter, and his tongue more glib, because of the extra good liquor that had been furnished him. At every meeting of the neigh- boring ministers at Dr. Hyde's, pipes and tobacco, glasses and the wine bottle were to be provided for the com- pany. When John B. Perry, a son of the minister in Richmond, kept store in Lee, one of Dr. Hyde's sons was sent to get the bottle filled. "Seems to me," said the storekeeper, " those ministers drink a great deal." " Yes, they do ; " was the reply, " there's one old codger by the name of Perry, that's a regular old soaker." It was
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through the ministry and the pulpit, however, that the people were convinced of the evils of intemperance, and incited to take measures to put a stop to it. After the truth began to be recognized, old social customs were abandoned, yet not before many had gone down to the drunkard's grave, and irreparable injury had been done to children and to children's children.
SOCIAL LIFE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CENTURY.
BY REV. E. W. BENTLEY, D. D.
THE interior life of Lee was moulded by two forces ; first, the char- acter and circumstances of its founders and early settlers ; and sec- ondly, by the Puritan idea of the supremacy of the church over the State. The early inhabitants of the town, for the most part, stood on a social and financial equality. None were very rich and few were very poor. And in education and general intelligence none towered much above the general level. The great majority of them were trained to industrious habits, and expected to get on in the world by honest and earnest hard work. Labor was in high repute among them, for by means of it alone could they conquer success in the strife for wealth and honor. Hence a man's industry was a large factor in computing the problem of his social position. And industry again was rated by the morality and intelligence which made it effective. Starting thus, and going forward side by side, those early neighbors kept well abreast of one another, and no great social distinctions grew up among them. If some succeeded better than others, there were yet few who failed alto- gether. They were at first mainly farmers, who coaxed and wrested their living from the grudging hands of their mother earth. In a neighborly way they helped one another, the man of many acres using the surplus labor of the smaller farmers, and they in turn, eking out their deficient harvests from the superabundance of the larger. And thus there grew up between them a sense of mutual dependence and a community of good feeling which kept down ambitious strifes and petty alienations. As for jealousies between crafts and tradesmen, there were too few of them, and one was too much beholden to another to admit of any great competition. The professional men who came among them were accepted for what they proved to be worth; and they fortunately had the good sense to put on no airs. Conceding to the law that all labor is equally honorable, they arrogated nothing of superiority for head-work over hand-work. Hence the farmer and
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lawyer were on social good terms, and the doctor and the blacksmith . greeted one another with mutual respect.
Nor did this state of things change essentially as the "Center " grew, and the two phases of society, village life and farm, or country life stood side by side. The extremes of style and fashion never took deep root in the village; and in the essentials of culture and refine- ment the farmers' families never allowed themselves to fall far below the standard in the village. Hence there was never any " great gulf fixed " between the " country " and the "town." Social intercourse between them was constant. In all matters of public concern, they usually managed to see eye to eye. The farmer's jealousy of the vil- lager, and the villager's impatience with the farmer, influences which have marred the development of more than one New England town, never attained to any formidable strength in Lee. There was always some compromise at hand to bridge over any differences of judgment between them. The entire population of the town were therefore held well together, and no local feuds or divisions existed among them. They had no men of great wealth to wield the money-power over them. They had no aristocratic "first families " who prided themselves on their " blue blood " and the long life of their genealogical tree. They had no famous names which overshadowed all other names, and super- seded all other cards of introduction to places of honor and influence. On the contrary, they measured each other by a rule of positive worth, and leadership fell, as a general thing, to the most deserving.
The social life of Lee, as I knew it forty years ago, was exceedingly simple, and very little restricted by forms and ceremonies. Any man of known good character and an average common sense, found little difficulty in working his way into any circle. The larger and more formal "parties "-" receptions " were then unknown-or were not of frequent occurrence; since in the estimates of the more staid and sober, they savored of "worldly vanity." The givers of them were credited with a desire either to imitate "an ungodly world," or else to outshine their neighbors, which was an offense quite as intol- erable. Yet when such a thing did occur, there was usually no lack of guests, the uncharitable ones being especially anxious to confirm their suspicions by occular proof. But upon the more informal gath- erings, no such restriction was laid. The young people met and mingled with great freedom. On these occasions the chief means of warding off stiffness and stupidity were the old-fashioned games of " Copenhagen," " button, button," " forfeits," and the like. Dancing was ruled out by public opinion, and they who were bold enough to engage in it, seldom cared to boast of their courage. Cards, and all
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games of chance were strictly banned, being looked upon as the devil's own tools, and no respectable hands cared to touch them. In the country neighborhoods the nine o'clock bell was the usual signal for dispersion. For lovers, Sabbath evening was the day of the week for which all other days were made. Sunday began at the going down of the sun on Saturday, a custom which left the swain free to worship at the shrine of Cupid, unhampered by any fear of breaking the fourth commandment. And besides this, was he not, having "been to meet- ing " during the day, ready dressed for the service ? As a result of this use of Sunday nights, there commonly appeared, sooner or later, beside the church door a brilliantly illuminated poster reading some- how thus : "O yes ! O yes! Mr. Blank of this town and Miss So- and-so of this (or some other) town intend marriage. Attest, Ransom Hinman, Town Clerk." Never again will there shine forth such splendid "Publishments " as issued from the hand of that prince of penmen, Ransom Hinman. I recall a lady friend of those days, who said she was induced to name an earlier day than she had at first des- ignated, by a sly suggestion of her "intended," that Mr. Hinman's term of office was about to expire and he might not be re-elected.
Among neighboring women, afternoon visits were much in vogue. They took their sewing or knitting with them and began their session as early as half-past two, or three o'clock ; continuing it till "chore- time." The subjects discussed at these sittings took a wide range, from "New Measures " to "Navarino bonnets," and from the last Sunday's sermon to the virtues of "opedildoc " in cases of croup. The sup- pers-they had no "teas "-on these occasions, were models of house- wifely skill and ingenuity, the hostess seeming to take it for granted that she was on trial before a jury of her peers. Sometimes the pur- pose of the visit was a "quilting," to which the older girls were also invited and stayed into the evening, when the boys were expected to come in and " assist " in their peculiar fashion. These not being full- dress occasions, calico gowns predominated with short waists and great puffed-out sleeves from the shoulders to the elbows. To these were added a "vandyke," and white lace caps with a border broad or nar- row, according to the wearer's taste. The cloaks of these days hung straight from head to foot and were of a Scotch plaid pattern, with all the colors of the rainbow, and some that were not, crossing each other at right angles. The bonnets were of the " coal-scuttle " variety- although then no mortal could tell what a coal scuttle was like,-in- terspersed with the green "calash," which opened and shut like a modern carriage top. "Mitts," a sort of cross between a mitten and a glove, covered the hand and about an inch of each finger. Fashion,
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no less imperious then than now, was still less fickle. Her moods- or modes-could then be predicted for the next six months with toler- able exactness.
The women of that day were notable workers. Modern Bridget- ism had not tried their patience and unstrung their nerves ; they were not tormented by sewing-machines and patent wringers ; nor " worried - to death " by dress-maker's blunders, and twelve-buttoned gloves. And hence they found time and strength to spin their daily " run," to weave the Winter's need of homespun, and then to do much, if not all, the cutting and making of it into the Winter's family-wear. How they found time for social intercourse, for self-culture, and for charita- ble work, must ever remain a mystery to the modern advocates of female suffrage. It suits the orators of to-day to praise the " Fathers of New England," but whatever they were their mothers made them. Blowing aside a good deal of froth and foam it is possible to get at a deep residuum of substantial fact in what has been written and de- claimed about New England influence and the soundness and worth of „New England principles ; but I venture to say that for what is char- acteristically good and distinctively influential in the "down East " nature and work ; the world is indebted quite as much to New England mothers as to New England fathers.
The moral and religious life of Lee was shaped in a great measure by the other force which I have named. The old Puritan idea of a Commonwealth was a confederation of independent sovereignties. It made the town-an autonomy in itself-the basis of the State. In this system a town was a territory some six miles square, more or less, with a " meeting-house " in the geographical center of it ; no matter if that center came upon the top of the highest rock in the township. And that meeting-house was the nucleus around which all interests ill the town crystallized ; and the center whence radiated all the influen- ces that determined the town character and life. In it, or in close proximity to it, all public business of the town was transacted ; and to it all residents of the township were expected to go up as regularly as the Sabbaths returned. And in Lee this pre-eminence of religious over secular concerns, was early established and long maintained. There may have been in it, or about it, a lingering relic of the old " Half-way covenant " notion, that a man must be conformed to the church in morals at least, if he would be qualified for preferment in the State, but certainly there was nothing of that in the theology that was preached. That was Calvinistic through and through. For nearly fifty years there was no competing creed in town; at least any that took on organic form. Whatever of dissent, disbelief, or unbe-
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lief there was did not collect its forces and challenge public recogni- tion. Hence the Congregational Church, under the continuous and systematic leadership of Dr. Hyde, went on with its work unmolested, and gave unquestioned law to public sentiment. Fortunately, Dr. Hyde was an honest man. He believed what he preached, and preached what he believed. He taught the faith that was in him, and taught it in such a way that his people knew it was in him. Accord- ingly they took in all that he gave them, doctrine, metaphysics, exe- gesis and all. Dr. Hyde trained up a townfull of theologians. Men, women and children discussed original sin and fore-ordination. And with honest Dr. Hyde, faith without works was dead; theory that did not lead on to practice was a mere tinkling cymbal. Lee people in those days were not literary ; they did not multiply books and papers; and therefore, Dr. Hyde's teachings were not overlaid and smothered by imported facts and notions. They had, or took, time during the week to examine and store away right side up, the lessons of the Sabbath, and as a general rule they put religion and morality in alternate lay- ers. All practical subjects took on a moral, if not a religious, aspect. The question of expediency seldom went before, but usually followed after that of right and wrong. It was so in politics, in all matters of moral reform, and usually so in all business transactions. Certainly all violations of this practice were followed by a severe penalty. The man who did not go to meeting lost caste ; a dishonest man was de- spised ; a profane man or a hard drinker, was converted into an "awful example " and used " to point a moral or adorn a tale." In politics Lee was largely of one mind. All good children were born whigs, and it took a deal of other kinds of goodness to compensate for the sin of being a democrat. There may have been in those days political corruption in town affairs, but if so, it must have had a growth like that of plants in the dark. A man stained in character was rarely named for office; and if he was, he usually needed more votes than he got, to elect him. To indicate publicly any anxiety for an office always lessened one's chances ; and to electioneer for one's self insured his defeat. The principle assumed and applied was that if the town wanted a man's services the town would elect him ; and hence upon his nomination the candidate usually went home and kept silence. If he did not want the office he had but to hint to his neigh- bors that he would like to have them vote for him ; and he was pretty sure not to be burdened with it.
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