USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Concord > The history of Concord, Massachusetts > Part 21
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The fireplaces might be from six to eight feet in width, in some instances even more. In this case the black log required the strength of two men to lift it into its place.
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Between this and the forelog was heaped brush wood and chips and cleft pine, all to be enveloped in a grand pyra- mid of flame which went aroaring up the chimney as if mad, while into every corner and cranny of the great unfinished apartment the light danced and cheerily crept, and the warmth melted the frost on the small window panes and drove back the cold from under the door.
Before such a scene the settler sat with his family, and the neighbors came and sat with them, and in the flames they thought they saw horsemen and in the ashes heard men walking as in snow.
When at the hour of retiring the flames faded and the spent fuel had become reduced to a bed of coals the house- holder covered them carefully with hot ashes to be used the next morning to start a new fire.
If for any reason during the night the coals went out, some were borrowed, if a neighbor was near, but if not, they resorted to the flint, steel and tinder. box, or to the use of a gun.
The settler's fireside has often been pictured in both prose and poetry, but perhaps by none more fitly than by Whittier in his poem called "Snow Bound", where in the following words he sets forth the cheer and snugness of the open fire in a winter's storm:
We piled with care our nightly stack Of wood against the chimney back, - The oaken log, green, high, and thick, And on its top the stout back-stick The knotted forestick laid apart, And tilled between with curious art
The ragged brush; then, hovering near,
We watched the first red blaze appear, Heard the sharp crackle, caught the gleam On whitewashed wall and sagging beam, Until the old rude furnished room Burst, flower-like into rosy bloom.
As it was near the sun setting when supper was over, Goodman Hosmer did not get through with his chores till
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early evening, and since we were quite weary with our Sat- urday night's escapade among the ghosts we talked but little and retired early. Before going to bed, however, we were informed that there was to be a neighborhood log-rolling over at Goodman Humphrey Barrett's the next day and as our host was going with his hired man he would like to have us accompany him. "Besides," said he, "Goodman Barrett sent a special invitation to you Saturday night and would have spoken to you about it at the meeting house had it not been Sunday."
A log-rolling in a new country was attractive. We had heard of such but never expected to be present. It was therefore with bright anticipations that we retired and awaited the morrow.
Before the "shell" sounded for breakfast, for Goodwife Hosmer blew a conch shell in some mysterious yet appar- ently easy manner at the kitchen door, we sat down at the raised window that overlooked the river course to consider the relative position of the Hosmer homestead to the cen- tral village.
The outlook was a pleasing one and showed the taste and sagacity of Goodman Hosmer in his selection of the locality for a home.
In a northerly direction at a distance of a half mile more or less was Annusnac, forest crowned and symmetrical, standing like a sentinel beside the plain. To the westerly and southerly was the winding Assabet with its occasional clumps of yellow willows, while upon its channel as seen through a near clearing was just passing the canoe of Nip- anum of Nashoba.
A flock of wild ducks were flying from river to river, and along with a couple of cows on the meadow was a small deer, all feeding together as if belonging to one family.
It was a scene worth lingering upon, and so loth were we to leave it that we were a few minutes late at the breakfast table, with no better excuse than that we had been enrap- tured by what we had seen.
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As the annals of the Hosmer family have been con- spicuously connected with Concord and its members are many and widely scattered, let us leave our story and notice a few outline facts of their history as these have been pre- served by record and substantial tradition.
The first progenitors of the Hosmer family in America were Thomas and James, who were brothers.
Thomas Hosmer was at Cambridge as early as 1632, and went to Connecticut about 1635.
James Hosmer with his wife Ann and two children left England in April 1635, and went to Concord in the fol- lowing September. No record of the death of his wife is known to be extant, but it is known that his second wife was buried March 11, 1641, and that his third wife, Alice, died March 3, 1664 - 5.
He had seven children, - Marie and Ann who were born in England ; James, Mary, Stephen, Hannah and Mary.
James, the eldest son, married Sarah White who was a sister of the Rev. Joseph Rowlinson, minister of the church in Lancaster, Mass., and who was captured by the Indians in King Philip's war and ransomed at a place near Wachusett mountain in what is now Princeton. James was killed at the Sudbury Fight, April 21, 1675 - 6.
Stephen, his youngest son, married Abigail Wood in 1667. He had six children, among whom were James and Thomas. Thomas married in 1631, Prudence, a grand- daughter of the first Abigail Wood Hosmer ; and a son by this marriage was Hon. Joseph Hosmer, a noted patriot who was born December 25, 1735 and died Jan. 31, 1821, aged 85.
An early house lot of the first James Hosmer, tradition informs us, was at the Central village on or near the resi- dence of the late Hon. Samuel Hoar on the present Main street, near the Public Library. His next house lot was situated between the Assabet and the south branch of the Musketaquid rivers.
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It is stated that faint traces of the cellar hole are still vis- ible and deeds of a portion of the original farm are still in possession of one of James Hosmer's descendants.
South west of the paternal estate was the home of James Hosmer, Jr., who was killed by the Indians at Sudbury.
His house was near the present bridge of the Fitchburg Railroad a little to the eastward of the depot at Concord Junction. Formerly, a little stream near by afforded suffi- cient water power for a small flax mill which the Hosmers owned and operated.
James Hosmer, Sr., added to his original land grant till his domain extended nearly to the "Nine Acres," and included various detached and outlying parcels of land. His grave is unknown ; but probably is among many of his contemporaries in the Hill Burying Ground.
The site of the ancient homestead is now grass grown ; only an earth dent remaining to identify it; and the sur- roundings are silent save as sounds come to it from afar or as Nature breaks into the stillness with song of bird or chirp of insect. But the associations to those who are con- versant with them are eloquently suggestive, and remind one of distant years when the elder James Hosmer drove his cattle to pasture and perhaps plodded on from this early morning-task to raise the gate of his little flax mill, thereby to furnish the prepared material for the fine linen of the town's folk.
It took but a short time after breakfast for the men to yoke up the oxen and start for the log-rolling. We met several other teams on the way, for everybody in the north quarter appeared to be going there, and there were some from as far south as Mr. Flint's. They were a lively com- pany, and the great jargon of "Gee off, Buck !" and "Hish-haw, Star !" reminded us of hurried military orders and the long line of staid oxen, of an army mule train.
At length we reached the place and entered the enclosure, which was a large opening in the forest, where Goodman Barrett the year before had cut his fire wood and was
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now clearing to sow to rye. He had left on the ground the untrimmed branches as they had been cut from the logs and the cord wood, and these having become thoroughly dry during the warm season were now to be burned, thereby affording fertility to the soil and a clean surface to sow his rye upon. The men went to work lustily for there was much to be done. There were knotty trunks to be piled together ; furrows to be ploughed around the field to pre- vent the fire from spreading ; "windfalls" to be pulled apart and a few logs to be removed.
While this work was going on Goodman Barrett came to us with the request that we go home with him when the rolling was over. His genial countenance was a sufficient assurance that his home would be a hospitable one, and we cordially assented, whereupon we sat down upon a log and conversed about the early forests. The facts brought out were in full accord with the records, the substance of which is as follows : the settlers did not waste their timber trees, but passed laws for their protection ; they even ordered, sometimes, that the trees by the wayside should not be cut down, but spared as shade for the cattle; people were restricted also from taking only a certain number of trees from the common land. A reason for this restriction may have been the scarcity of some kinds of trees, as the pine and oak, upon which they much relied for building pur- poses. The settler used no scantling stuff in his house frames ; his work was massive and designed to stand and the great beams were hewn out of the "clear" tree trunks. Probably the annual fires of the Indians set to clear the woods of underbrush had done much mischief to the tim- ber lands and the common use of wood for fuel had greatly diminished the number of timber trees.
The subject of forestry naturally led us to inquire about the climate, and from what we learned we concluded there had been less change in it than many suppose. True we speak of the heavy snows when we were children, but we forget that a child has short limbs and that a comparatively
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shallow depth would appear great to us then. There are some records that give light on this subject. In one of the towns adjacent to Concord the town ordered that the fences should be put in proper condition early in March, and var- ious things were to be done at a date which might indicate no great change in the temperature of the season.
While busy in conversation about the climate, Good- man Barrett was called away by one of the neighbors, say- ing as he left us that he might be gone an hour or more. We were not however to be left for so long a time alone, for he soon returned with the two sons of a poor widow, who, he afterwards told us, had applied to him for work, their mother being partially dependent upon what they could earn as farm hands. After setting them to work at the easy task of gathering into heaps the lighter brushwood, Goodman Barrett again seated himself on the log and we resumed our chat. Our conversation was on the subject of town charities, -this being suggested by the circumstance just alluded to.
We soon concluded that the town of Concord took care of its poor and on this point let us leave our story to pre- sent the following records. In 1645, William Halsted bequeathed "unto the poore of Concord fyve pound to be layed out in a Cow which I would have So ordered by the Deacons & my executors that it may be a continual help to such as are in need. God giving a blessing thereto."
In 1654, when a second land division was made, it was enacted "that all poore men of the Towne that have not commones to the number of foure shall be allowed so many as amounts to foure with what they all ready shall have till they are able to purchase for themselves and we mean those poore men that at the present are householders."
In the will of Robert Meriam who died in 1682, was the following clause, "I give to the poor of the Town of Concord four pounds in corn."
Peter Wright, weaver who died Jan. 15, 1718, devised
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property to the town which was the origin of a fund for what were called the "Silent Poor."
About noon the work ceased and all gathered in a corner of the clearing to eat their lunch, which had been supple- mented by a pail of new milk and a firkin of "sack posset" which Goodman Barrett had provided.
It was a merry company in that clearing by the roadside, and when the noon hour was over and the work was resumed it was with many a cheery haloo and lively call.
By mid-afternoon the task was completed and the field was ready to be burned over.
The log-rolling had brought together the dismantled tree trunks, and the dry branches which had been thrown upon them made the piles inflammable.
In rapid succession they were set on fire till all were ablaze and a great volume of smoke and cinders and sparks showed how efficient was the element of fire for clearing the fields for planting.
Before sunsetting the fires burned low, and the smould- ering, grey ash heaps indicated the kind of fertilizer the settlers used in raising their winter rye and "guinny" wheat.
FRANK B. SANBORN.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Invitation to visit the "Blood Farms" - Homestead of a "Borderer" or "Outdweller - Pastoral Vis- itation with Parson Bulkeley and Deacon Griffin - Religious Exercise at the house of Goodman Thomas Dakin - Use of Ardent Spirit - Possible Mistakes about Ministerial Drinking Habits - Social Stand- ing of the Clergy - Safeguards against abusing Clergymen - Installation Dinners - Relation of Pastor to his Parish- The Dakin Family - Legend of Hidden Treasure.
W E met James Blood from the so called "Blood Farms", who with his men had come all the way from his home by the town's northern border to assist in this land clearing.
We had met him the Sunday before at the meeting house and promised to visit him sometime. As he was urgent that we accompany him home after the "log-rolling" we acceded after obtaining the kind but reluctant consent of Goodman Barrett who had expected us to go home with him.
The sun was near setting when we started, and long before we reached our destination the darkness had so deepened that it was difficult to keep the narrow pathway. But little was said during the journey for the men had enough to do to manage the cattle, one yoke of which was but half broken, and all impatient to get to their stalls sprang forward by jerks so that we progressed with much unsteadiness. At length we saw in the distance a light and conjectured, because homesteads were scarce in that locality, that we were nearing our destination ; which conjecture was
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confirmed by the hurrying team and by the announcement of James Blood that we were almost there.
A hired man met us as we approached the dwelling ; the rattle of the wheels had brought the "women folks" to the door, and we were soon within, partaking of a settler's sub- stantial supper. Of course there were the usual excuses about the menu, for human nature was then the same as now, and the same pride was manifested by the house- keepers as to their culinary skill; but we made a practical demonstration that the supper was all we could wish; and soon, the meal time ended and the table cleared, we were seated by the ample hearth-side for an evening chat.
We learned very much that evening concerning the life of "borderers", as the Blood settlers were called, because a part of their lands at least were supposed to only border on those of Concord township.
Among the conclusions arrived at from our conversation was that much hardship was experienced on account of their isolated condition and especially their distance from the central village of the township. It was a difficult journey to meeting ; there were no near neighbors from whom to borrow if anything was needed ; and whatever of accident or incident occurred there might be none to share in the joy or the grief. In short, to be a "borderer" was almost like colonizing a new country alone.
The main drawback to these "outdwellers," as they were sometimes called, was the anomalous attitude that they sus- tained in not being considered citizens of the town of Con- cord, while at the same time they were expected to pay "rates".
We did not ascertain whether it was the design of James Blood when he settled in this remote district to eventually make it a distinct municipality or only to occupy a land grant, but we concluded it was the latter.
After a long and interesting conversation we retired, and early next morning arose to look over the farm. It was indeed a new country and we thought of the possibilities
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of peril which might menace the family should hostilities at any time break out with the Indians or should fire burn their dwelling in the winter season.
After an early breakfast we started for the village with one of the hired men who was going to mill.
We went on horseback and behind the saddle was a couple of grain sacks thrown across the animal in a way to make them balance. One of the sacks contained corn and the other rye, and, we were informed, their bread was made of equal parts of each.
An hour's ride brought us to Concord town and as we approached the minister's house he rode out of his yard accompanied by Deacon Griffin.
After passing the morning salutation, Parson Bulkeley informed us that he was just starting off for a day of pas- toral visitation taking the Deacon as one of the committee which had been appointed at the last town meeting to as- certain and report concerning the moral and spiritual condi- tion of the children and youth. The announcement was coupled with an invitation to go with them, the invitation perhaps being suggested by some queries we had put some- time previous relative to the minister's pastoral work. As all was fish that came to our net we were not slow in accepting and we were soon on our way to Cornet Wood's just beyond the south branch of the river to procure if pos- sible one of his horses, he having, as the parson informed us, a good saddle horse which would not be in use that day since the owner was picking his cranberries.
It was a fortunate circumstance that we were to obtain a horse at Cornet Wood's, for the Parson and Deacon were to begin their calls at Thomas Dakin's, which was further on.
It took but a short time to get the horse ready and we were soon off and away through the woods.
We found that the Dakin place was in a lonely locality as much so as any we had visited. Not a house was in sight and woods were on every side; for since he had set-
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tled there late, there had been no time to enlarge the clear- ing. It was a most cordial welcome that we received from the Dakin family ; for not only were visitors infrequent there but everything relating to ecclesiastic matters was most acceptable. It was not long after we entered before Parson Bulkeley began his prefunctory work, for Goodman Dakin, seeing us coming up the lane, had called in the boys and the hired man and a couple of wood choppers who were temporarily working for him. All were soon seated and silence reigned as if at the meeting house ; and more- over all seemed to enter into the exercise with a relish. Questions were asked to test the children's knowledge of scripture and the personal experience of the elders was inquired into ; and after Deacon Griffin had ascertained what measures were being made use of for the spiritual nur- ture of the young, all kneeled while Parson Bulkeley implored a blessing upon all present. As we were about to go, Goodman Dakin with an importunity which we were reluctant to ignore entreated us to remain till night, offer- ing to return with us at evening to Cornet Wood's ; so ear- nest was the request that we felt constrained to comply ; and especially so since Parson Bulkeley had informed us that he usually held the same exercises at each house, mak- ing everything professional on these occasions.
Before the Parson and Deacon took their leave, and after those who had been called in were excused, Goodwife Dakin brought in a glass decanter and a couple of beakers, requesting the visitors to help themselves, which they did, although with a dignity and decorum which showed no inordinate desire for the drink and indicated that they par- took as much out of courtesy and deference to custom, as for any craving within themselves.
This attitude of the minister so impressed us that we afterwards inquired concerning it and also about some other things pertaining to the ecclesiastics of the period, and from the answers given and from old records together with the
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revelation of the sparks at several fireplaces, we came to the conclusion that the colonial clergy and perhaps the clergy of a later date likewise had not always been rightly repre- sented concerning the drink habit, but that isolated cases have been held up as the rule. In fact from all that we have gathered we have concluded that the profession, neither by preaching nor practice, encouraged intemperance, and that it never was true that pastoral visits as a rule were characterised by excessive dram drinking. The pulpit was perhaps as outspoken then as now against drunkenness, if not more so.
It was a subject for discipline, and church discipline in those days meant something. A person who was set aside in his church membership came as near both civil and ecclesiastical ostracism as one could and not be an outcast.
The average character of the colonial preacher forbids the belief in such stories as picture him staggering from house to house on his round of pastoral visits, sipping to excess wherever he stopped and going home half intoxi- cated.
That they drank is not denied, but they considered that they drank moderately, and strove to teach others that it was a disgrace and a sin to drink to excess. This was like- wise the position of a large part of the laity.
Moreover distilled liquors were expensive and to waste money upon any luxury was sinful.
From necessity the early colonist was economical almost to penuriousness. He had nothing to throw away. Gen- erally speaking he may have used spirit on the principle of value received. He would drink only so much as he believed would enable him to hoe more corn or cut more wood or get in more hay ; but to pay much money for the mere fun of getting fuddled, the more thrifty would not.
Later, when the country became more settled, luxury through wealth began to prevail, and distilled drinks being less expensive, the drinking customs changed. But even then the clergy were, we believe, by their character, their
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example and their teaching the same stalwart guard to beat back the encroachment of an evil appetite.
And now that we are on the subject of ministerial stand- ing, we would state, that as a class they were greatly respected and revered. Their social position was on a level with that of the magistrate and the wealthy. Books being few they were referred to as to a living encyclopedia and it might be said of the New England minister as of the schoolmaster in Goldsmith's Deserted Village,
"And still they gazed and still the wonder grew
ยท That one small head could carry all he knew."
So great was the respect for ministers and churchly ordi- nances that strict laws were made to enforce it.
A person who unduly criticised his minister was subject to public censure, if not to trial and the penalty of a fine.
In one town, a man was publicly whipped for speaking derisively of the Bible and its ordinances as the clergyman taught them.
A woman was once ordered to stand before the public with a cleft stick upon her tongue, because she showed a lack of respect for the Elder. It is related that one Philip Ratcliffe in 1631, was publicly whipped and ban- ished for speaking against the churches.
Absenting one's self from church was a fault punishable in public.
But, notwithstanding all this, ministers were subject to great censure from their people at large, when it was thought the case justified it. One was bitterly rebuked for having saved eight hundred dollars by selling produce from his farm.
Another was reproved for wearing stockings, "footed up with another color." He was also rebuked for jumping over a fence, instead of going though the gate when calling upon a parishioner. One was mildly reproved for wearing too worldly a wig.
The installation of a minister was a great event, some-
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times attended by a dinner at the tavern. This consisted of all kinds of New England fare with a liberal supply of liquors. Liquors were sometimes mixed on the meeting house steps, and portable bars were sometimes located near the house of worship. The installation dinner was some- times extravagant, as one given at the house of Rev. Dr. Sewall in 1761, when it is said that so great was the pre- paration for it that the price of provisions in Boston raised "a part for several days."
It was said of it, "There were six tables that held one with another eighteen persons each. Upon each table a good rich plum pudding, a dish of boiled pork and fowls and a corned leg of pork with sauce proper for it, a leg of bacon, a la mode beef, a leg of mutton with caper sauce, a roast loin of veal, a roast turkey, a venison pastel, besides cake, cheese, tarts and butter."
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