USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > South Yarmouth > Old Quaker Village, South Yarmouth, Massachusetts > Part 4
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"So far back, however, as the memory of the writer reaches, Elisha Jenkins was the proprietor and sole occupant. A man of more than ordinary intellectual power, a deep thinker, possessed of a wonderful memory, a reader of good books, a lover of history, intensely patriotic, fond of young people, instructive in conversa- tion, the writer will always feel indebted to him for the pleasure of many an hour spent in his company. All through the Civil war, when news of more than ordinary interest was expected, the arrival of the evening mail would almost invariably find an at- tractive audience assembled at his shop, listening with breathless interest as some one read aloud the latest news from the seat of war.
"I can see now the rack of lasts at one end of the room, with a wooden bench in front of it; cases of boots (long-legged ones) standing here and there; the cobbler's bench of the proprietor in the southwest corner, with its depressed seat and its square com- partments for wooden pegs, iron nails, shoemaker's wax, bundles of bristles, and its usual assortment of awls, hammers, etc., while the drawer beneath contained pieces of leather and supplies of sundry sorts.
"The Thanksgiving proclamation of Governor George N. Briggs with 'God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' in bold type at the bottom, hung on the south wall for years and seemed to become one of the fixtures of the place. The wooden post in the centre of the room, close by the wood burning stove, was used when a customer came in and ordered a new pair of boots or shoes to be made expressly for him. With his heel against the post,
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the length of the foot was marked on the floor with a knife. Close by was the tub of water in which the pieces of leather were soaked to make them pliable. The north room contained a stock of boots, shoes and rubbers, mostly arranged upon shelves on two of the side walls. Congress boots were unknown to the earlier times, and as a boy, the writer can remember with what pleasure he went there each autumn to be fitted to a pair of long- legged boots, having square patches of red morocco at the top in front, and with a stout strap on either side of each. No costlier pair since has ever quite equalled in splendor those specimens of long ago. Such were some of the attractions for a boy; the features which in later years made deepest impressions upon the memory were the conversations with the genial proprietor."
Ebenezer Hallett's house and tannery stood on the spot where now stands the house of Reuben K. Farris. It was a low, double house, and back of it was a tannery. Later on, Leonard Under- wood, a Friend, purchased it and the tannery was discontinued. He was a carpenter and lived there but a few years, moving to Fall River. When the house was torn down Allen Farris built the large double house still standing.
There was nothing in the way of buildings until we came to "Mill lane." The Isaiah Homer house had not at that time been moved from Yarmouth, but there were two houses on the northeasterly side of the lane. One of these was occupied by Samuel Eaton Kel- ley, and was afterwards moved to the corner of Main street, and is now the home of Captain Alonzo Kelley; the other is still standing and was occupied by James Covill and others.
Isaiah Homer moved from Yarmouth and was one of our most respected of citizens. He had a little shoe shop in one corner of his yard on Main street and there he worked for years. He was a man who, even in his old age, showed remarkable powers of physical endurance and I have often watched him with admiration as he walked off as smartly and lightly as would a much younger man; there was no sign of physical decrepitude. He was born on the North side in an old house that was undoubtedly the first church built in Yarmouth, that is, the framework was the same if nothing else; it is known now as the "Hannah Crowell house" and is one of the historical relies on the north side of the town. The family possesses many old relies of the Homer family, but none of them more curious than a bill of sale of a negro, dated Feb. 20, 1776. In it F. W. Homer acknowledges receiving from his father, Benjamin Homer, forty pounds for two-thirds of a negro named
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"Forten." According to the late Charles F. Swift, "Forten" lived to see his race declared free.
On the opposite side of Mill lane, on the corner, lived Josiah Baker, James Lewis, "Uncle Levi" and others. Of these and their families I have nothing to say.
The old grist mill that stood at the head of the lane was run in Mr. Wood's early days by Reuben Farris and in my early days by Samuel Farris, his son, and by Romegio Lewis. It was orig- inally on the north side of the Cape and was moved to its present location in 1782. The people of South Yarmouth made a great mis- take when they allowed it to be sold and taken from the village. It is now in West Yarmouth on the land of the late Mr. Abell and attracts much attention from visitors from all parts of the country. A similar mill stands in the lower village.
Coming to the house now occupied by Ernest P. Baker, Mr. Wood said, "In my day old Cato, a negro, had a small house on that lot, in which he lived with his daughter. His wife was a full- blooded Indian, and at one time they had a wigwam on the land which was the garden of David K. Akin, and next to the house of Elisha Jenkins." Alden, in his "Memorabilia of Yarmouth," speaks of old Cato as living in a wigwam there in 1797, and he also says that in 1779 there was a small cluster of wigwams about a mile from the mouth of Bass river. According to Mr. Wing, Cato was living in 1831.
Daniel Weaver's house (now Mrs. Matilda Smith's), was then standing. He was a weaver by name and by trade, and wove car- pets, probably the once favorite rag carpet. I thought it was he, but have since been corrected, who invented a perpetual motion machine, which he exhibited to a select company in the academy. The company assembled, the machine was produced, but somehow it refused to work; the exhibition was a failure and the machine went the way of thousands of similar inventions.
I do not know how old the Heman Crowell house is, which when Mr. Wing was a boy was occupied by Minerva Crowell, who had three children; Laban Baker owned the other half of the house.
The Frank Homer house was occupied by John Cannon and by Venny Crowell, grandfather of the late Mrs. Henry Taylor. It is related that it was here that his son, Venny Crowell, mnet his wife. She was passing through the village and stopped to get a glass of water; the son saw her, and afterwards married her. Both father and son were tall, spare men of rugged frames and great endurance. Once upon a time, at a revival meeting, one of the
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women exhorters and singers asked Uncle Venny if he did not like music? He was honest, and replied that he liked singing but he hated to hear it murdered!
In the present house of Mrs. Albert White, although now much changed of course, lived Dr. Apollos Pratt, an eccentric old coun- try practitioner. The stories told of the old man are without number, many of them very amusing. He had two daughters; one became the wife of Captain Seleck H. Matthews, and the other the wife of Freeman Matthews. The doctor was given to telling won- derful yarns; among others, he told of a patient of his who had been given up as incurable, but he disemboweled him, killed a sheep and substituted the intestines, and the man got well. On being asked how it seemed to affect the man afterwards, he said, in no way particularly, except that "he had a h-1 of a hanker- ing for grass!"
One evening while talking with one of his familiars, they agreed to see who could tell the biggest lie. The other man said he could see the man in the moon. "Well," said the doctor, as he gazed earnestly at the sky, "I can see him wink;" which certainly required the better eyesight.
Mr. Wood said he had frequently seen the old man sitting in a rocking chair by the window, the floor being worn in ridges where he had rocked back and forth, year after year. He died in 1860, aged 83 years.
On a short street in the vicinity of the present Standish hall was a little house belonging to Ormond Easton, which was later moved to the river opposite the magnesia factory, and was known as the "Noah Morgan house."
There was no house from Dr. Pratt's to that of Barnabas Sears, the space being filled with salt works. The Isaiah Crocker house was not built then nor was that of David Sears.
The Barnabas Sears house, according to Mr. Wing, originally
stood in a field near James pond and was built by Ebenezer
Baker. It was moved to its present location in 1733 by John Kelley, senior. This is the second oldest house in the village; its curved rafters, low eves and ancient appearance make it an object of great interest to visitors. Barnabas Sears had five sons: Seth, who died while a young man, John, Stephen, Barnabas and David, all of whom lived near the old homestead, and for years his daughter, Elizabeth Stetson, lived in the house. Aunt Lizzie, as she was called, was the last of the Quaker preachers of the South Yarmouth meeting, and to hear her prayers brought me as near the throne of God as I ever expect to be in this world. Her words were earnest and simple, but her very earnestness, and her
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firm belief that her words were heard by the Father, impressed me greatly. She was a large woman, and tall, almost masculine in many ways, and when she was a girl it is said that she was equal to any man in riding a horse or managing one. Of her the following story is told:
When she was a young woman, she was riding through the woods one day when she came upon a minister leading his horse from the blacksmith's. "Why don't thee ride thy horse in- stead of leading him?" she asked. "Because," said the minister, "he won't allow me to put the bridle over his head, and he bites and kicks so I am afraid of him." "Give it to me," she said, with a look of contempt at his ignorance, and jumping from her horse she whipped off her apron and flinging it over the horse's head deftly adjusted the bridle. "There, friend, a little brains used in- telligently may be useful in other ways than in writing sermons," she said. "True," replied the minister, "but unfortunately, I do not wear aprons."
Although the houses of the sons of Barnabas Sears were not in existence seventy-five years ago, they were men who were looked up to in the community. Barnabas, Jr., and John K. were carpen- ters and builders, and at one time they had a steam sawmill back of their house near the woods, called the "Pawkunnawkut mill." Stephen was for many years a teacher, and served the town as selectman and as school committee. David, "Uncle David" as most of us called him, was one of the most genial souls among us and needs no words of introduction to those for whom these pages are written.
The next house from Barnabas Sears, senior, was that now oc- cupied by Charles I. Gill, who purchased it from the estate of Reuben J. Baker. Mr Baker, familiarly known as "Blind Reuben" because of his loss of eyesight when a boy, was the son of Captain Reuben Baker, whose wife, Louisa, afterwards married William Gray. In many respects he was a remarkable man, for in spite of his blindness he carried on a successful grocery business for years.
Next to this house was that of Captain Freeman Baker. Mr. Wing says that opposite this house, in the middle of the main road, was a house belonging to the Widow Marchant, the travelled roadway passing on either side.
The Baptist church was then standing, but it bore no resem- blance to the church of today. It stood with its eaves to the street and had no belfry or steeple. It bore no evidence of paint
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without and was very plain within, as plain as the Friends meet- ing house. Aunt Lizzie Stetson named it "The Lord's barn." Mr. Wing has this to say of it:
"At times there was no regular service there, but the young people of the village nearby could count with a certainty upon the annual temperance meeting as long as Barnabas Sears, senior, was living, for his interest in the temperance cause was deep and abiding, as indeed it was in the religious society of which he was a devoted member. Either side of each aisle was a row of old- fashioned pews with high backs. The pulpit was a long, box-like affair, some two and a half or three feet above the floor level, with steps leading up to it on its righthand corner. A door at the head of the steps kept out those not eligible to that enclosure, and a seat along the front of the pulpit was known as the "dea- con's seat." The pews at the lefthand side of the pulpit faced the front of the building, while those in the opposite corner faced the pulpit. A lot of lighted tallow candles placed in different paris of the room did their best to overcome the natural darkness of the place, and when with blackened wicks hanging to one side they seemed ready to give up the task, the ever-watchful Father Sears, even then an old man, would go around with a candle snuffer and carefully remove the charred portions of the wicks and so brighten up the place until his services in that line were again needed.
"Father Sears was a thoughtful, earnest man, highly respected by both old and young, and although his quaint language would provoke a smile, it was not a token of disrespect, but often of pleasure, caused by the reviving of features that all realized were rapidly passing away. On one occasion, when some of the smaller portion of the audience became somewhat restless and began to leave the room, Mr. Sears stopped the exercises and in his usually dignified manner said, "All those who want for to go out will go out, and all those who want for to stay in will stay in." I think there was no more passing out until the close of the meeting, and the quaint language and impressive manner remain in my memory as a pleasing feature of the occasion.
"The Baptist church in South Yarmouth was organized in 1824. The structure itself dates back to the year 1826, when it was built at a cost of $600, the whole amount being paid by Rev. Simeon Crowell and Captain Freeman Baker, the former being the first pastor there."
In 1860 extensive alterations were made in it, and in 1891 it was again remodeled and put in its present shape. Mr Wood spoke of
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the church as "Uncle Sim's church," and says that he attended Sunday school there and that Lurania Lewis was his teacher.
He also attended Sunday school at the old Methodist meeting house which stood farther up the road towards West Yarmouth. and of which the only present reminder is the cemetery. This church, which Mr. Wood calls "Uncle Siley's church," was built by Silas Baker, senior, who came from Harwich. He died in 1811, aged 78 years. In a measure, Uncle Siley ran the church to suit himself during his life, as, having built it, he thought he had the right to do. The Rev. Mr. Winchester was the preacher and Elisha Parker was Mr. Wood's Sunday school teacher. The worshippers who came from any distance brought their luncheons and made it an all-day duty. On one occasion Mr. Wood had his lunch stolen from the pew, which awful crime he remembered all his life, for he had to go hungry. The choir was in the long gallery at the back of the church, and a big bass viol was the accompaniment for the singers.
There were two little schoolhouses a little way below or beyond the church; one of them near the residence of Jerry Eldridge, the other I cannot place, but they were not more than a hundred yards apart.
Returning up Main street on the opposite side, Mr. Wood said there were no houses until we get to that of Mrs. Cyrus White, formerly occupied by her father, Captain Barnabas Eldridge, who died in 1846, aged 46 years, and then a long strip of field land until we came to the little old house that was always known as "the old maids'." The occupants of the house were known as "the three old maids" although two of them had been married. Robert Homer married one of them after a courtship of forty years, and it is said that he remarked that he wished he had courted forty years longer. These old ladies had very amusing ways and were the victims of many practical jokes at the hands of ungodly boys. On one occasion they were routed out of bed in the middle of the night by some young men who asked if they had seen a red and white cow pass that way. They had not, and the young men were advised to go over to "Brother Freeman's and ask him." The young men retired, the door was shut and the old ladies presum- ably had returned to their beds, when again came lond rappings at the door; another procession from the bedrooms, and there stood the same young men, who said that they thought they would come back and tell them that "Brother Freeman" had not seen the cow! I have thought it a great pity that those old ladies could not
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have sought comfort in a few swear words. When the last of this trio died, the contents of the house were sold at auction and among other things an old bureau, in the lining of which the purchaser found a $100 check which proved to be good and was collected.
The present building of Mrs. Sturgess Crowell was then standing, occupied by Captain Elisha Baker, as was the house occupied by Elisha T. Baker. Of the latter, Mr. Wood said that he remembered that Solomon Crowell had a little dry goods store in one of the front rooms; later it became the property of Mrs. Baker's father, Captain Frederick White.
Then we come to the old house known as "Major Dimmick's," formerly owned by Major D. Baker, "Major" being his name and not his title as one might infer. Old Uncle Amos Baker lived there, but what relation he was to Major I do not know.
The house of Peter Goodnow was not standing, but his father had a house by the river exactly upon the spot where is now the summer residence of his grandson, Freeman C. Goodnow.
The Hatsel Crosby house was built with the front door on the side, the carpenter, Job Otis of New Bedford, who drew the plans, having the idea that Main street ran north and south ordered the front door on the south side, supposing that it really would be facing Main street and upon the front side of the house. It was built by Uncle Russell Davis, who lived there with his wife Phoebe. He
was a brother of James Davis, and a Quaker preacher. Hatsel Crosby came from Brewster and went into the salt making business. He married several times and had a large family of children, none of whom, however, live in South Yarmouth. He died in 1896, aged 89 years.
From this point to the house of Selim Baker the section was given up to salt works, and all of the houses on this side of the street are comparatively new. Selim Baker's house was built some years before the salt works were taken down. He was a carpenter by trade, a man prominent in church affairs and much respected. His daughter, Mrs. Osborne White, lives in the house, which has been greatly changed.
The Academy came next; it sat well back from the street. It had a belfry and a bell-the only school building in South Yar- mouth that ever did -- and was quite an imposing looking structure. It was built in 1814 and owned by the citizens of the place, and was used as a private school, the idea of its promoters being to furnish better educational facilities for their children than could be found at the district school. That its reputation during ils
.
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short career was high was shown by the fact that a large number of pupils came from away. It ceased to exist as a school when the present public schoolhouse was opened in 1855, and was con- verted into a dwelling house in 1862, after having been moved close to the street, by the father of the present Zenas P. Howes. Mr. Alonzo Tripp was the first teacher, and Mr. Adams the last.
The house forinerly belonging to Mrs. Elisha Parker and now to the heirs of Benjamin Homer, was built by William P. Davis, but he did not live in it many years for he accepted a position in the Yarmouth National bank and was cashier of that institution from 1875 to 1895. He also was town treasurer for over fifty years. Elisha Parker, who bought the house of him, was then living in the lower village. He was at one time in the shoe business, and later during the Civil war was very successful in the wool business.
The next house was that of Aunt Mima Wood, which stood near the spot where now stands the house formerly occupied by Dr. E. M. Parker. She was the widow of Tilson Wood, and her son David used to wheel her to Friends meeting in a wheelbarrow; she died in 1841. Frank Wood built the present house. He was a stone mason, and did the stone work on the abutments of the Bass river bridge, and split the stone for the foundations of his own house from boulders on Town Hills. He died in 1853, aged 56.
We now come to the place from which we started, the corner of Main and Bridge street. The house on the corner was built in 1831 by Abiel Akin for his son Joseph, who was a brother of David K., and like him interested in salt making. Joseph Akin had three children, Catherine, Frederick and Charles, the last of whom only is living. Catherine Akin was a remarkable woman in many respects and especially in the ambition she possessed and in the power of will that enabled her to fit herself for a position in the world which she occupied. When hardly more than a girl she began to teach in the little district school in Georgetown, studying niglits to keep ahead of her classes. Later she was the principal of a boarding school which became famous as "Miss Akin's school" in Stamford, Conn. Throughout her life her friends remained loyal to her and her pupils loved her and became her friends. She was always very fond of her native village, and it is in the old Quaker cemetery, within sight of the river she loved, and where the ever murmuring pines sing a requiem, that she sleeps.
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QUAINT STORIES.
One old Quaker forbade his son to go upon the ice, but in coming from school they passed the pond, and his companion, venturing upon the ice, fell through and would have been drowned but for the aid of the boy who had been forbidden to go. He did not dare to tell his father about it for fear of the con- sequences, but the old gentleman heard of it, and while commending his son for saving his companion's life he thrashed him soundly for disobedience.
The old Quakers were averse to worldly music; to them it was one of the snares of the evil one. It is related that one of them beat his son soundly for playing upon a jews-harp, and when some of the apprentices in a neighboring shoe shop got possession of a fife and drum he closed all the windows and doors to keep out the sinful sounds.
Another good old Quaker lady was so worked up over the singing of hymns at the Methodist church, which she could hear from her house, that she declared she "had rather hear it thun- der."
Two young men who did not possess as much of the Quaker sanctity as they should, considering their bringing up, but who did possess a deal of worldly desires, shut themselves up in an old salthouse and while one played on an old flute the other danced a breakdown. Then they came forth, feeling that for once they had been like other fellows and thoroughly wicked!
The late Catherine Akin used to delight in telling the follow- ing story, and although it loses much of the real humor it possessed when told by herself, for she was an inimitable story teller, it will give one an idea of the strictness of those early Friends.
It seems that Miss Akin had a piano in her father's house, an innovation looked upon with a great deal of disfavor by the old Quakers, and while they did not openly make objections, it was known that they thoroughly disapproved of it. Miss Akin's mother had a gathering of the Friends to tea, and on that occasion it was thought best to close the piano, so that even the sight of it might not cause offense; its cover was put on and books and other things
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arranged so that it would not be too noticeable. In the evening someone, probably more worldly minded, asked Miss Akin to play something, which she of course declined, evidently having been coached by her parents, and her father said that perhaps the others would not approve of it. "Well," said Aunt Ruth, after a pause, "thee might play something if thee played it very slow." What she played, whether it was a quick-step in the time of "Old Hundred" or the "Dead March" from "Saul" I do not know, but it evidently gave satisfaction. Someone told Miss Akin that they saw Uncle Silas and Aunt Ruth, at another time, standing by the win- dow while she was playing, but what they thought of it she never knew.
As in all country villages, occasionally there has been one whose mind has given away, and years ago there was a man who went insane upon religion. One of the pleasures of the boys in the country is the ringing of the bells the night before the Fourth of July, being unable to restrain their patriotic feelings longer than the last stroke of the bell at midnight. One night they had stolen into the Methodist church, made their way up the dark stairs and begun to ring the bell, when in walked the aforesaid "crazy man" carrying a long butcher's knife with which he threatened the boys. He told them to kneel down while he prayed, and said that if they attempted to leave he would cut their ears off. And there he kept them for hours, kneeling in fear and trembling, while he prayed for them, knife in hand, glancing about from time to time to see that the boys were properly devout and attentive. It was the most quiet "night before the Fourth" that had been known for several years, for the boys were in no mood to continue the bell ringing when the last "amen" was said and they were released.
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