USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Shirley > Shirley uplands and intervales; annals of a border town of Middlesex, with some genealogical sketches > Part 2
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"6 bushels of rye
6 bushels of indian Corn
I bbl. white flour
200 lbs. Shoat pork
100 lbs. beef
¿ quintal of Cod-fish
60 lbs of butter
60 lbs. of cheese
2 lbs. of Sou Chong tea
2 lbs. of chocolate
I lb. of Coffee
5 " loaf Sugar
30 " brown sugar.
10 gals. New England Rum
Ī West Indian Rum
6 " Molasses
2 bushels of Salt
를 of white beans
15 potatoes
¿ of all the cider and enough wood for the fire."
This yearly menu hardly suggests variety, but it was at least sweet and substantial.
While the men worked in the fields and tended the cattle, the women had their many duties, too. Their
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SHIRLEY
energies were demanded for so many things that a house- keeper in those days need be an expert along many lines. Men in those days ate simple things, and simple cooking, like very plain clothes, must be so much the better intrinsically. The food that is simple must be well seasoned or well cooked to tempt, while a com- plicated dish disguises its poor cooking by its high sea- soning, as a badly cut dress may be made to look well by its many furbelows. Baking in a brick oven was an art. The oven was filled with wood, lighted and burned out, making the bricks of the right degree of heat. Then the oven must be cleaned. At the farthest end were put the beans, followed by the brown bread, Indian pudding, white bread, pies, and cake. These were al- lowed to stay, and were taken out in the reverse order from that in which I have named them. All other cook- ing must be done over the coals of a great wood fire, or in a tin kitchen placed on the hearth. As late as the days of your town clerk's mother, Mrs. Ann Longley Hazen, a large turkey was roasted in the tin oven before the fire with the drip pan beneath. We may imagine that the table service in a country farmhouse was not complicated. It was etiquette to eat with the knife, as forks had not come into use. Pewter and old blue iron ware abounded; copper, also, was much used, and must have added color to the kitchen. After the inner man was satisfied, the wife must still clothe her husband, her- self, and her children. Cloth could, of course, be bought, but as a rule was far too expensive for anything but a farmer's very best. Homespun was the general wear, and to make homespun the wool had to be taken from their own sheep oftentimes to make their clothes, and
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THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY FARMER
all the process after the shearing and washing fell to the woman's share. I believe that there were itinerant tailoresses later on, but of course only the well-to-do could afford such luxuries. The flax, too, had to be spun and woven. Many houses throughout the country still show the old loom room, where the loom stood for generations. Many parts of old looms can still be found, reeds, shuttles, needles, and heddles.
Stockings had to be knit and many endless tasks per- formed to keep the family warm and dry. Often the man of the family did part of the cobbling of his children's shoes and his own.
Candles must be made for light, and candle dipping was a hard and dirty task. It took skill to make them round and even. Later molds came in fashion and made the task easier and less dirty. Soap had to be made for the family use. These were tasks in addition to the ordi- nary sweeping, cooking, and housework which every house demands. Floors were scrubbed with soap and sand until they were white-and they were kept so by the thrifty housekeeper.
Nearly every town had a man whose occupation must have been picturesque-the hatter-who made those enormous beaver hats which looked almost like fur, that men wore years ago. It took him a long time to make a hat, and when it was done the owner wore it propor- tionately long.
And when all the work was done, they gathered around the great fireplace, in the candlelight. The light, even until kerosene came to be used, was very poor, and in those days one read with the paper or book in one hand and the candle in the other, so that it might be moved
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back and forth before the print. The picture that one has is the coziest in the world, but contemporaries tell us that the reality was often far from the ideal. The great chimneys, with their huge fires, created a draught which brought the outer cold into the room, and fires really warmed but a small area. Yet here, around this kitchen fire, centred all the life of the home, all its com- fort and its homeliness.
Life was not all a grind to these good people, for they had their social gatherings, and varied ones, too. First and foremost stood the church with its services, the social centre of the town. But when we remember that country towns were nearly isolated from the outer world; that the only travel was by the slow method of stage- coach or private carriage, and was seldom indulged in; it seems natural that the people should have turned to the church, where all were welcome-in fact, where all must go, or be labored with by the minister and deacons. So it came to pass that this was the one thing in which all were interested, in which all had a share. When we remember, too, how large a part religion played in the minds and hearts of our ancestors, it is inevitable that the church should stand as the most important and the unifying factor of their lives.
On Sundays nearly every one went to meeting and stayed all day. No one cooked on Sunday, and all the food for that day was cold. The women were expected to go to church all day, as well as the men, so that the Saturday baking, which tradition still holds many a modern household to regard, was then a matter of ur- gent need as well as a matter of conscience. The man who had relatives living near the church, or who lived
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THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY FARMER
near by, was indeed lucky, because a warm fire at noon might then be his. Otherwise the dinner was carried and eaten in the church in winter, or outside in summer. How many of us would submit to the discomfort of sit- ting all day in an unheated building, regaling ourselves at noon with cold food, with the thermometer many times in the neighborhood of zero? Yet duty led them and personal comfort did not enter into their consider- ation. We may hope that the dish of gossip, taken with their dinner, compensated for much which might otherwise have been unbearable. Perhaps this human companionship softened the denunciations and threats of the two sermons.
The church, aside from its spiritual teachings, furnished a place in which all the town met once a week. It was more or less political in a broader sense, for there matters of national politics, state politics, and even those of local importance were discussed by the minister. As he was the best educated man, his opinion and its expression very often formed that of the majority of the other men in town.
In the church, also, were held the town meetings, with their serious and sometimes humorous debates, which furnished a means of growth and expression to others. It was this training which enabled the colonies to withstand the mother country. Men had learned to think in a logical way, and to express their thoughts. They were keen to find the weak places in an argument and to search out sophistries. When England attempted to cheat their sense of justice, she found a community made up of citizens, not of peasants.
Our great-grandfathers were not without their social
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gatherings, though these seem to be strangely limited to the winter time. The men, of course, had muster, and the women too, for one went to drill, and the other to look on. There were also gatherings which Parker speaks of as "artillerys" or a "little artillery." Just what they did at these he does not explain, but Henry Haskell was one who indulged quite often in thus entertaining his neighbors. When the new church was done the townspeople celebrated the next day by having an artillery at the old meeting-house. They had also something which they called a "shooting" which almost always took place at "Landlord Sawtell's."
The women had their quiltings as every one knows, and these being purely feminine in character did not include the men. The greatest social event was a "set down." Perhaps Parker and imagination can supply the picture. "Nov" ye 18 Capt Ivory & Capt Sawtell and fourteen more of us killed in all about 75 squarrels & Patteridges then we had a set down at Mr Ivory's." The "set down" that included a turkey on the bill of fare was worthy, in Parker's mind, of very large letters in his diary, and a feminine italicizing of the words. There are also records of a "Rassell" or two; and one day "Abel Chase Drunked a Quart of Molasses at Once," which must have afforded them great amusement and pleasure.
Yearly, after the Revolution, the celebration of July fourth became more and more elaborate. They called it "Independance," and on one occasion when he went to Boston on the fifth, Parker says, "I saw independance all about, Too." Parker and his friends, not content with the celebration at home, rode round to the surround-
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THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY FARMER
ing towns to see the others. In 1801 he writes, "I went to Harvard & round Great Independance Groton Thad Bailey hurt." He also went to hangings when they were near enough, or even to whippings; and he records how he saw a whole roasted ox drawn through the streets of Boston by fourteen horses, to celebrate French independence.
Another domestic amusement was a house or barn raising. To this about every one in the town went, the men to do the actual raising, the women and girls to prepare and serve the feast which followed. Their hospitality was generally lavish. To one who has never partaken of the delights which can be baked in a brick oven, the tales of those so blessed seem more or less like those of the Arabian Nights. A halo, formed of the reminiscences of gay good times and the appetite of youth, is put around these pleasures of a bygone day, making them shine with a preternatural light. And at these raisings, beside the baking and the roast meats, was there not cider and Medford rum to make glad the heart of man?
Funerals and weddings were also legitimate social times, the former to afford the luxury of woe, the latter of unalloyed joy. Two pictures of funerals have come down to us through tradition. In 1816, Mrs. Francis Dwight died, and the mourners were startled at her funeral to have the minister, probably Mr. Tolman, read with great impressiveness from Watts's hymn
"Behold the aged sinner goes Laden with grief and heavy woes Down to the region of the dead With endless curses on her head."
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SHIRLEY
Mr. Tolman was not well liked by his people, and this incident helps us to understand.
It was the custom then and later for the body to be actually borne by the bearers. In 1842, Moses Jenner- son died. He lived in the house on the corner of Parker Road and the Turnpike, and the way was long for those who carried him, as he was a very heavy man. So the men on the right-hand side changed sides with those on the left quite often, and each time they changed they had a drink. The carrying part became shorter and shorter and the bearers more and more incapacitated until the coffin swayed as it went.
Then there were the kitchen dances in the winter, and each man took his turn at entertaining, and showed with pride the good things that his wife could make. The good times, as we look back upon them, seem so simple and wholesome, they were entered into with such a spirit of enthusiasm and expectancy, that it makes one wish that one could now have so whole- hearted a good time from so little. It seems almost as if the hard work and drudgery of daily life gave a fine zest to their amusements.
Later on the lyceum came to try the sinews of men in debate, came to prove the literary ability of their wives and daughters. They debated on everything under the sun-huge philosophical subjects jostled trivialities; questions of morals, religion, and politics followed discussions of farming and cattle raising. The records of our lyceum, called the Shirley Institute, lie before me. The members began their work by this debate, "Resolved, that a scolding wife is a greater evil than a smoking house." They decided in the
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THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY FARMER
affirmative, and then passed to this, "Resolved, that the old man in the story in Webster's spelling book was justified in throwing stones at the boy." They next discussed the morality of giving prizes in the schools. Excitement often waxed high, and personalities were dealt in, but the end of the evening brought calm. It was devoted to the literary efforts of the women of the lyceum. These consisted of recitations, readings, and original essays.
So our fathers on the farm varied their hard work with fun in much smaller quantities than we enjoy today. But in those days the actual struggle was less; a man toiled for his daily bread itself with no competi- tors but the soil, the weather, and his own tempera- ment. Now a man works at his specialty to outdo his competitors, to get his goods to the market quicker and in better condition, to sell that he may buy, not to. grow and tend that he may eat and be warm.
Through all their life there is a note of contentment, and I think that deep in the heart of most modern farmers that same note could be struck. For after all is said, the actual ownership of a large piece of mother earth is a continual source of peace; and the freedom from the oversight and commands of others, to be at no man's beck and call, lends a dignity to the farmer, and enhances his self-respect, until he feels himself and is the equal of any in the land.
A rhyme on an old English pitcher shows that this feeling has been through many, many years the under- lying one of the Anglo-Saxon farmers:
Let the mighty and great
Roll in splendor and state,
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I envy them not, I declare it. I eat my own lamb, My own chicken and ham, I shear my own sheep and wear it.
I have lawns, I have bowers, I have fruits, I have flowers, The lark is my morning charmer; So you jolly dogs now, Here's God bless the plow- Long life and content to the farmer.
III THE BUSINESS OF FARM LIFE
THE modern farmer, in choosing a home, has to con- sider not only his land, but his market. Almost every crop now grown in New England, except hay and fruit, must be raised upon a farm near a railroad, in a town not too far from a great centre. The earlier pursuits of a farmer in New England dealt, of necessity, in less per- ishable commodities, since transportation was very slow. Therefore wool, linen, hops, wheat, oats, rye, and kin- dred products were those grown by the farmer who de- sired more than to be merely comfortable at home. Hop growing in Shirley was very common in the late eight- eenth and early nineteenth centuries, and was the source of most of the ready money that came into the town. James Parker wrote again and again of his hop crop, and his son, James, carried on the same business. Per- haps a quotation from the oft-quoted dairy of the elder James shows conditions better than words of mine. "September 30, 1802, hops in great demand at six cents pr pound; thousands bought and sold this day; hops the greatest Trafack." Well might he be excited for he had just built his own hop-house and kiln which stands to this day. He tells us all about it:
June 15. Lock helped me. I begun on my hop-house to fraim. 6 worked fraiming.
August 21. At work on my hop-house and Kilns.
23. I raised my hop-house. I had Lock & others. A fine
Le Muelche
SQUIRE JAMES PARKER'S HOP KILN AND CIDER MILL
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THE BUSINESS OF FARM LIFE
hot day as ever. Boltons Tim & Ned helped me chop coal wood.
24. Boltons sot my pitt. I worked on my hop-house. Boltons went off.
27. Tim Bolton set my Colpitt on fire.
30. I worked on my hop-house. Aaron Lyon helped me shingle, & Jo Robbins 12 day.
September 2. I worked on my hop-house & others. Bol- tons Ned & I each drawed my coal.
6. In ye afternoon Was training. The Musick at dinner at my house.
IO. I had 12 in the hop works.
13. I tending hop-kiln, and 14 hands picking. I had Ned & T. Bolton to cut stalks. I sold them a yoke of 3ª cattle.
15. I finished picking hops, sent off all my hands except Janney & her 2 girls.
16. I sent Janey & 2 Girls home by John; in ye afternoon to my Smith farm to Pick hops.
17. To. Smith farm with 5 hands to pick hops. Jonas Adams picked some.
18. I bought 100 hills of Moses Ritter. Wint with 7 hands and picked them. Mills and Joel Kallcy; it was train- ing day.
A few years later Wallis Little advertised his farm for sale, and the chief inducement that he held out to the purchaser was the fact that it was unusually good land for growing hops, and that the woods on the place would yield hop-poles for years to come, even though the crop that he had been in the habit of raising were doubled.
Hop curing was a lovely and odorous process. The kiln was built like a barn with the sides and floors laid with wide cracks between. The foundation was of heaps of loose rock almost entirely filling the cellar. An opening like a bulk-head was left at one side, leading into a pit in the rocks, under the centre of the building. The hops were packed closely into the barn on cloths
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spread upon the floors, and then the pit was filled with glowing charcoal. This gentle even heat cured the hops. James Parker's crop of hops must have been a large one if his contract for charcoal is any measure of its size.
For value recd we the subscribers Jointly and severally prom- ise to pay and deliver James Parker or Order, One Hundred Bushels of pine coal, and seventy three Bushels of Good oak coal, delivered in my house in Shirley by the middle of Sep- tember next.
Witness our hands DAVID SARNDERSON JESSE HILDRETH
Shirley, May ye 17, 1803 SAMUEL HAYES
This contract was fulfilled to the day, for September 15, 1803, has this entry in the diary, "I had 75 bushel of cole from Hildreth. Jam finished drying all his hops all off. He paid the Negros & I sent them home."
Parker's hop-barn is the only one now standing in town, and it is not entirely as it was, since the cracks have been filled to allow it to be used as a corn barn.
In early days much of a farmer's business was carried on by a system of barter. In consequence many very interesting agreements can be found among the papers of a hundred years ago. Sheep, cows and pigs were let out by those who had many, to those who had much pasture land or wished to increase their stock. Cows were most frequently mentioned in leases, and many leases like the following can be found:
We the Subscribers Recd of James Parker, Two Cows for the term of One year, which Cows we promise Jointly and sever- ally to return to said Parker, at the exparation of one year, safe and sound and in good flesh; each of said Cows to be New
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THE BUSINESS OF FARM LIFE
milks when returned to said Parkers acceptance, but the said Parker shall have a write to take said cows at any time or in any place where they may be found, when called for as witness our hand
TIMOTHY BOLTON EDWARD BOLTON
Shirley May ye 25, 1802 LYDIA B. PARKER
LEONARD M. PARKER.
Parker in this case gains in that he does not have to support the cows, and the Boltons thereby got two calves.
In the case of pigs, their desirability as food pro- cluded so long an agreement as that with cows, and the leases are, in consequence, more varied in their terms:
I, the subscriber, have this day taken and received of James Parker, one shote for the term of one year, for which I prom- ise to pay said Parker six score of pork, or divide the said shote equily, on the first day of December next, the subscriber is to keep and fat the shote well.
Shirley December 29, 1819 JACOB MITCHELL
JACO MITCHELL
This is interesting from the fact that Mitchell witnessed his own signature. When a sow was to be leased the terms were much more complicated:
I, John Walker, have this day received and taken one sow of James Parker, to keep for one year from this day, if said sow brings any piggs within the year, they are to be equally divided between said J Parker and John Walker, when they are eight weeks old, them to be taken from the sow, after that said Walker is to keep the said sow antill she is well fatted; after that said Parker & Said Walker will equally Divide, & each one to take half; we each agree to this
JOHN WALKER JAMES PARKER
Shirley December 22, 1818 4
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The sheep leases are nearly all before the beginning of the nineteenth century. After that time sheep grow- ing seems to have been abandoned in Shirley except for an occasional lonely one here and there:
Recd of James Parker five Ewe sheep for One year, for which I promise to return for the Use of said sheep, five pounds of good clean wool yearly; and when said Parker calls for said sheep, I, the subscriber, promise to return five more to said Parker's acceptance.
Shirley Novr ye 16, 1795 At LOVEY PARKER
JONATHAN PEIRCE
Very often the paper is further complicated from the fact that the lessee is a tenant of the owner of the animals. John Walker, who was a persistent renter of James Par- ker's cows, sheep and pigs, lived for a time in one of Parker's houses, and so the terms of the lease take that fact also into consideration:
I, the subscriber, have this day taken into my possession from James Parker two Stears & one heiffer, each two years old for to keep at his barn whare I now live, on his own hay, from this day untill the tenth of May Next; then to return them to said Parker safe and in good flesh; the subscriber to use them to help git his winter wood, with another pair that Thomas Hammond lets go on the same Condition; N. B. if the subscriber fails of haveing fodder enough to keep them through untill that time, said Parker & said hammond will take them away. Each and all agree to this
Shirley November 27, 1817
JOHN WALKER
The terms of John Walker's tenancy in the house are typical of the agreements of the time in Shirley :
This may Certifye that we, the subscribers, have agreed to the following under written, that I, James Parker, Thomas Hammond, & John Walker, hath agreed for John Walker to
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THE BUSINESS OF FARM LIFE
live on our frost farm for the term of one year; and to plough, plant, and Sow any kind of grain, corn, potatoes, Rye, wheat oats, barley, Buckwheat, & also to have a good garden; also to set out one acre of hop ruts, and to poul, how, and tend them well to pick, drie, & bag them well and no devision untill we are all agred in the devision there of; said Walker to mow, rake, cart the hay and put it into the barn before any division is made. Said Walker is to plough, sow, and harrow in eight or ten acres of winter rye in good season; he to find half the seed, and the other party the other half, and at the close of the season as they become ripe, to divide; said Walker to keep one cow through the Sommer; said Walker to have fire wood that is down if enough, but not to cut one stick down said Walker to pay half the rates. Parker & Hammond the other half, and to leave all things in good repair, as they are now, except the usual ware. And each and all agree to this JOHN WALKER THOMAS HAMMOND JAMES PARKER
Shirley April 6, 1818
This may Certifye that James Parker hath agreed with William Flud for him said Flud to live in said James Parkers house, where Jotham Wright now lives, from the first day of April next, untill the first day of April following, which will be one year; there to leave said House in the same repair that it is at this time; said Flud is to have the Improvement of the Garden in the South End of said House for the same time; said Flud promises to pay said James Parker, or order, twelve dollars for the Use of said house and garden, and to pay him Quarterly. N. B. Said James Parker is to plough Two Acres of land and Harrow the same, for which said Flud promises to furrow out two ways, and plant with corn and potatoes, and plough it three times, and how the same three times; and at Harvest time they are to divide the whole, each one to har- vest there own half, they are to find the seed equally betwen them, witness our hand
Shirley March ye 15, 1806 Attest LYDIA B. PARKER EDWARD BOLTON
On back:
Parker & Flood
agreement
April 1, 1806
WILLIAM FLOOD JAMES PARKER
Flood & Parker's
agreement for house
Poor Flood fel back
I806
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SHIRLEY
The most common forms of agreement, aside from the leases of animals, are those that have to do with labor. These agreements range from mowing hay, like the following, to a legal apprenticeship lasting over a long term of years.
This may certifye that Moses Parkins hath agreed with James Parker for to mow six acres of Grass handsomly & manlike, for which said Parker is to pay said Parkins three Dollars, we each agree to this
MOSES PERKINS JAMES PARKER
Shirley July 19, 1814
These documents may seem somewhat dry and unin- teresting, but they cast a light on the labor problem of the time. The actual cash which was paid seems to us very meagre now, but the comforts which were prom- ised to Leonard Sweirs in the next paper make the agree- ment seem very homelike:
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