USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Pittsfield > The history of Pittsfield (Berkshire County), Massachusetts, from the year 1800 to the year 1876 > Part 6
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1 Such is the tradition ; but, if Dr. Field's statement is correct, the first store must have been built by Danforth and Larned jointly.
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Traffic was carried on for the most part by barter. Coin was scarce, Continental money had become entirely discredited, and there were few banks. What articles for barter were furnished by Pittsfield and its vicinity, we learn from the advertisements in the Chronicle and the Gazette. In October, 1788, Colonel Danforth wanted a hundred pounds of lamb's wool-merinoes had not yet come in for the finer products of the loom-and a number of good shipping-horses. In the same month, " having received a complete assortment of goods from New York," he offered to sell them at a low rate for cash, wheat, flax-seed, pork, beeswax, iron or ashes ; at the same time announcing his revolt against the credit system, then almost universal, in the following paragraph : " And, as said Danforth is determined not to sell his goods on credit, those gentlemen who make him ready pay, may expect to have his goods very cheap." He made a special offer of salt in exchange for flax-seed. In December, he advertised payment in rum, brandy, loaf and brown sugars, coffee, chocolate, tea, tobacco, red-wood, alum, wool-cards, brimstone, German steel, salt and dry goods, for ten thousand bushels of good ashes, for which he would give the highest prices. He also made a particular call for pork and beeswax on the same terms.
Simon Larned published similar advertisements, offering Euro- pean goods, West India goods " and cotton" of the best quality, in exchange for the best house-ashes at eight cents a bushel. He also offered nails for wheat.
These, advertisements indicate the nature of the early barter traffic of Pittsfield; and, not to multiply quotations, we add only one, which shows Colonel Danforth in the character of a broker in public securities, for which his former position as pay-master in the army, had in some degree qualified him :
PUBLIC SECURITIES .- CASH, and the highest price given for Final Settlement Notes-Loan-office certificates of this and other States -Indents and Massachusetts State notes, at the store of Joshua Dan- forth in Pittsfield. Cash is also given at the above store for wheat, rye, corn and shipping-furs."
This advertisement appeared in February, 1790, when the national credit was rapidly appreciating under the influence of the lately-adopted federal constitution, while the disposition which was to be made of the different classes of public debt was
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by no means determined ; so that, all over the country, an active speculation in state and national securities, sprung up.
Passing onward to the years 1798-9, when light is thrown upon business through the columns of the Berkshire Gazette, we . find that great changes had taken place during that brief interval. Col. Simon Larned had been succeeded in his store on East street by Perez Graves who, after conducting business for awhile alone, admitted as a partner his salesman, John Burgoyne Root, one of the sons whom that stout old loyalist, Ezekiel Root, had burdened with the names of His Britannic Majesty's commanders in Amer- ica. Mr. Root was a very accomplished gentleman, a prominent citizen, and a leading democrat. In business he was interested in manufactures and agriculture, as well as commerce.
Joshua Danforth retained his old store. With the building of the meeting-house and town hall, the center of business was passing westward to Park square, where Jonathan Allen & Co., John Stoddard and J. D. & S. D. Colt all had stores of some pre- tension on the sites mentioned in our description of the village in 1800. Dr. Timothy Childs had built his medicine-shop on North street.
Both coin and bank-bills were still scarce, and trade was gen- erally carried on by barter. In order to facilitate this, a system of mutual credit arose, the parties settling accounts at brief and stated periods, if they were wise, although this rule was far too loosely followed, which proved an excellent thing for the lawyers. Moving appeals for settlement, supplemented by threats of an attorney, were among the most common advertisements in the newspapers ; and frequent failures showed the effect of the credit system upon the dealer.
A more perfect classification and organization of trade, indi- cated an advance towards the character of a market-town. Stores, with a general assortment of goods for country-trade continued to predominate, but in some, dry goods, and in others, groceries, were advertised as specialties.
Thus much for the Center. Rev. Robert Green still continued his store on Elm street, but with reduced proportions ; and Horace Allen supplied the people of the West Part from his "general assortment."
CHAPTER IV. DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL LIFE-MANNERS AND MORALS.
[1790-1810.]
The interior of houses-Dress-Household labor-Tea-parties-Social gaie- ties .- Spinning-bees for the minister's wife-Hunting-match and club suppers-Dancing-parties ; their pleasures and their dangers-Freedom of manners-Influence of the wars and foreign intercourse on morals and manners-Customs in connection with dancing-parties-Bundling-Use and abuse of ardent spirits-Ilabits of Col. Oliver Root-Liquor-selling- Varieties of wines and liquors in vogue-Early efforts for temperance reform-Dr. Rush's essay upon the effects of alcohol-He favors wine, beer and punch- Gambling - Lotteries - Imprisonment for debt - Unequal laws-Reforms of the nineteenth century.
D OMESTIC life in Pittsfield, as in all New England, except the richer commercial and maritime towns, was simple, unpretending and economical. Even the more stately residences were in most respects plainly furnished. A richly-carved mahog- any side-board, perhaps, with sofa and chairs to match, a massive dining-table, and card-tables of quaint pattern ; a fine, large old mirror, a tall Dutch or English clock, its works of brass and its dial showing some curious device, either for astronomical information or simply for ornament. Some pieces of plate, not of the most artistic design, but of standard silver; a set of genuine china-ware, orna- mentally deformed in the true oriental fashion; and the never- forgotten punch-bowl of silver, china or glass, surrounded by a bold and glittering array of cut-glass decanters and goblets. These sufficed for parlor-furniture. Paneled wainscoting, and cornices of ornamental joiner-work, relieved the monotony of the walls, which were also hung with imported paper, usually of a brilliant, if not gaudy, design. Generally there were suspended from them the portraits of, at least, the master and mistress of the house, in some cases the work of very eminent artists, but more often of some ordinary traveling painter. The huge old
7
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fireplaces were inclosed in wooden mantels, frequently of an exceedingly handsome character, and their furniture, if not mostly of brass, was neatly decorated with that metal. There were sperm or wax candles in silver, or at least silver-plated candle- sticks, for grand occasions ; but tallow-candles, in brass or iron, served for ordinary use. In the chambers, the high, four-posted bedstead with its stately canopy of some showy material-a noc- turnal enclosure condemned as murderous by modern sanitary science-was matched by window-curtains which hung in ample folds of a similar fabric.
Thus much of luxury, mansions of the more pretentious class had attained. But there were many modern improvements yet lacking. The only carpets were those home-made of rags; a household product which had been very recently introduced by Mrs. Van Schaack, and was not yet generally adopted. The first loom-woven carpet was brought into town by the wife of Dr. Tim- othy Childs, and covered a space about nine feet square, in the parlor of the house. The first carpet covering a whole floor was laid in the parlor of John Chandler Williams, and was a plain- figured brown and green ingrain. Within a few years it cov- ered the floor of the choir of St. Stephen's church. For the most part, floors in all classes of houses were merely sprinkled with white sand. Painted floors were an innovation of somewhat later date, and were denounced by old ladies of conservative habits as dangerous, from the liability to slip upon them. The introduc- tion of stone, instead of wooden, door-steps was resisted on the same ground.
From those in the first grade of houses, furniture and finish gradually diminished in quality, and as to some articles, in their essential character, as means or taste diminished. The sofa became "a settle," or a sort of wooden settee; the side-board became of a less costly material and construction ; the mirror grew smaller; a wooden clock of Pittsfield or Lanesboro manufacture -and very excellent "makes" these were-took the place of the imported article. The chairs were of marvelous strength and comfortable shape, as many of them, remaining to this day, bear witness ; but like the most of those, indeed, in the more costly houses, the material was no longer mahogany, and the carving was missing. Pewter took the place of silver ; plain crockery of china, and glassware grew less in quantity and of inferior cutting.
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Paper-hangings rarely concealed the plaster-walls, upon which hung, instead of the oil-portrait, or the wax-miniature, the profile "snipped out " by artists who went from house to house, and often produced a more recognizable likeness than their more ambitious brethren of the brush were able to achieve. The joiner- work became less elaborate; but the carpenter was still chiefly relied upon for ornamental effects, and he concentrated his efforts around the fireplace, whose furniture showed less and less of brass, and more and more of the work of the village blacksmith. The chambers were less stately in their adornments, and some of even the middle class slept less grandly, but it is to be hoped more healthfully, in bedsteads absolutely uncanopied. Tallow-eandles were the only light, and it was well if, upon special occasions, they were molded and not dipped; and the candle-sticks were of brass rather than iron.
In dress there was somewhat more of distinction between elasses, than in furniture. The gentlemen of the wealthy and professional orders, wore the ordinary costume of the same elasses in the eities, at least upon dress occasions. The ladies of the like position in society, had their silk robes, although not changed with every wind of fashion, and not used for daily wear. The home-made fabrics of wool were finished in very respectable style, and were generally worn by men. The use of ealico by the women had, since the revolutionary war, become almost universal ; but home-made linens were also much worn, a pattern of blue cheek being the most common. The dress of both men and women was intended to conform, as nearly as possible, to the fashion of the day. This fashion, under the influence of the French revolution in taste, which accompanied that in gov- ernment, was rapidly changing, especially in the dress of men. Small clothes, knee-breeches, coeked hats and queues, were giving way to the more simple and convenient modern styles; and, as many elung to the style of garments to which they had been accustomed, a dress assembly of the earlier years of the nine- teenth century, presented a variegated appearance. About the same time, the congregation in church must have been brilliant with the searlet eloaks which were fashionable for both sexes.
In the household, economy and industry were almost universal. "There were few appliances and inventions to relieve the labor of the housewife. The work of cooking, washing, sewing, and the
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like, was done by main strength. The cook must lift the huge iron pot, which hung on the crane out-swung before the blazing fire ; and deposit and withdraw the baking in the deep, brick oven, with the long, wrought-iron shovel. The laundress per- formed her task by pounding the soiled clothes in a barrel of water with a heavy pestle-even the fluted washing-board, having not yet been invented. Water was to be drawn from the cistern or well, by the most unaided process; the long well-sweep being the best mechanical assistance to be had. There were the unpainted floors to be scrubbed, and an excessively-broad surface of wainscoting and other joiner-work to be kept clean. And when all this was done, came the spinning, the weaving, the brewing, the candle and soap making, and other toils now unknown to the housewife. And, even yet further-for almost every dwelling was, to a certain extent, a farm-house-there were the duties which, as the students of health tell us, still overburthen and prematurely wear out the farmer's wife. With all this, and the large families of children, which were almost the rule, it is no wonder that the percentage of mortality among women was large, and that those who sustained themselves were accounted marvels of capability.
Many families had colored servants, mostly fugitive slaves from New York or Connecticut, or blacks who, having purchased their freedom, had emigrated from those States. Some of these attached themselves faithfully to kind employers with whom they remained for years ; others were hired as their services were required. Other than these, servants there were none. Most households, however, included in their number "hired help; " American girls or men who lived with the family on terms nearly or quite of equality, and frequently intermarried with its younger members. Of course, in proportion to their faithfulness, they relieved the mistress of the house from the arduous labors which we have just enumerated; and her deftness in the manufacture of woolen cloths, bed and table linen, helped many a busy hand- maiden in her conquest of the heir of the farm.
The tables of all moderately well-to-do people were plentifully, temptingly, and not inelegantly, spread. There was much hospi- tality, and visiting friends were always welcome to most firesides. But the entertainment whose discontinuance the ladies have most occasion to regret, was the tea-party which brought them together with no male element to check the flow of soul. Nothing could
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be more charming than one of these assemblies, especially if it happened of a summer evening before sunset, the open windows rendering it practically a garden-feast among the apple-blossoms or lilac-blows ; or at least amid the odors of new-mown hay.
The social life of Pittsfield, from the era when the community began to recover from the pecuniary difficulties which followed the revolution, until after the war of 1812, was more genial, merry and unconstrained, than at any period before or since. If there lingered, among a few families, who had been tories or very conservative whigs, some traces of the old provincial aristocracy, inducing them to maintain the peculiarly-painful position of the ancien regime of a country-village-an already quaint and not very obtrusive ornament to it-they affected very little the gen- eral aspect of society, which went on its pleasant ways, with or without them, as it might chance.
Social gatherings were frequent, and characterized by much innocent gaiety. Public balls, and not quite so public "assem- blies," private dancing-parties, tea-parties, hunting-frolics, corn- huskings, ministers' "bees," followed each other in rapid suc- cession, and not without frequent intermingling of resultant weddings. Still another class of festivities, less generally remembered, were the evening-suppers, at which the choicest of substantial country-luxuries -from the goose and turkey, down to the pumpkin-pie and the nut-cake, not forgetting apples, chestnuts and cider-were served in turn at the houses of circles of friends, who formed a kind of informal club; the most flourishing of which was the Woronokers, composed of immigrants from Westfield, and their descendants-a right hearty and jovial set of men, noted for stalwart frames, vigorous and manly intellects, integrity of character, and devotion to the democratic party.
Of the ladies "bees" for the benefit of the minister, we can give an idea in no better manner than by copying accounts of two of them, from the columns of the Chronicle. The first, from the issue of July 3, 1788, is as follows :
Thursday last, forty-five young ladies of this town, met at the house of Rev. Mr. Allen, and presented his consort with fifty-five runs of yarn spun in the best manner, as a sample of their industry, generosity and amity. The afternoon was spent in cheerfulness, perfect good humour and conviviality. So brilliant an appearance of youthful bloom, polite-
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ness and decency of behaviour, on such an occasion, could not fail of inspiring the mind with ardent expectations of their answering the description of Solomon's virtuous wife, Proverbs, 31st chapter : " She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands. She layeth her hand to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple. Her husband is known in the gates where he sitteth among the elders of the land. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness."
A few months after this, the married ladies took their turn at the spinning-wheel, and the Chronicle thus tells the story :
Thursday the 9th inst., (Oct.) four and twenty married ladies of this town, assembled at the house of Rev. Mr. Allen, and among vari- ous other instances of respect and liberality, presented his consort with twenty-six runs of woolen yarn, the fruit of their industry. Such like repeated instances of amity and benevolence, not only entitle them to the blessings of the liberal soul that deviseth liberal things, which shall be made fat, and of him who watereth, of being watered himself by a richer abundance of the divine blessing; but cannot fail of producing the most beneficial influence on the other sex by softening the ferocity of the human mind, by promoting industry and diligence in their occu- pations in life, and by becoming productive of friendship and all the social virtues.
Hunting-matches, in those days of abundant game, furnished the occasion, and the most substantial viands, for many a merry evening's feast. The Chronicle tells of one, for instance, where a party of young men, although reduced in numbers by stormy weather, after a day's hunting, met, one October evening, in 1788, at Captain Cadwell's tavern, and "produced upwards of seventy gray squirrels and partridges, of which they made an elegant sup- per, and spent a festive evening in the greatest harmony, and jocund festivity." Constant allusions are made to similar feasts.
No event, from an ecclesiastical council to a military training, was suffered to pass without the accompaniment of festal enter- tainment, or at least very generous and convivial hospitality.
There was something very pleasant in this keen and general enjoyment of every variety of social life, and it is no wonder, that those living now, in extreme old age, look back upon it with delighted memories, and love to recount the festal scenes of their early youth. But this excess of social pleasures had its dark, as well as its bright, side. There were-not necessarily, in the kind
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of amusements then popular, and considered innocent, but cer- tainly in the circumstances under which they were indulged, and in the degree to which they were carried-temptations to which the virtue, even of the best, too often yielded. More than half a century before the settlement of Pittsfield, a marked decline- perhaps a re-action-from the severity of the Puritan life, had come to be lamented by good men. The Reforming Synod, assembled at Boston in 1679, in " a solemn testimony," addressed to the general court, presented a long list of grievous sins which even then prevailed, closing with intemperance, "including the . heathenish and idolatrous practice of health-drinking, and hein- ous breaches of the seventh commandment." "The people," said Cotton Mather, "began notoriously to forget their errand into the wilderness."1
Forty-eight years afterwards, things do not seem to have improved; for when, in 1727, Jonathan Edwards became pastor of the First Church in Northampton, " that great and good man," says a writer in the Congregational Quarterly, "found that par- ish fully sharing in the degeneracy of the times. Vice prevailed, especially among the young. Intemperance and tavern haunting abounded. There was utter insensibility to the claims of relig- ion. There was indecent behavior in the sanctuary. There was licentiousness among the youth. 'It was their manner,' says the watchful pastor, 'very frequently to get together in conven- tions of both sexes for mirth and jollity ; they would often spend the greater part of the night without any regard to order in the families they belonged to.' Saturday night being regarded as part of the Sabbath, Sunday night was the gayest of the week."2
In receiving this statement, we must make great allowance for the author's stern censorship of social pleasures which many equally good men deem innocent; and which few now denounce as grossly sinful. His "conventions of both sexes " may have been merely dancing-parties continued late into the night: not an unusual occurrence at any era. Some portion of every com- munity are obnoxious to his worst censures, and it can hardly be believed that even a large minority of the people of Northamp- ton were guilty of the more serious faults named. At the worst, we must only believe that a certain looseness of discipline and
1 Congregational Quarterly, April, 1869.
2 Congregational Quarterly, Vol. XI, p. 72.
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freedom of manners, led to too frequent instances of vicious con- duct. And, with this qualification, the description of manners and morals may be transferred to the state of things in Pittsfield in the twenty-five or thirty years following the revolution, and, with somewhat more of qualification, for several years later.
President Edwards, soon after his ordination, set himself to stem the growing tide of irreligion and consequent immorality ; and, it is said, gave its first effective check by a pointed discourse against "Sabbath-evening dissipation and mirth-making." This work he perfected and established, by a series of discourses upon justification by faith, "convincing his people of their need of dis- tinct, substantial, ascertainable change of heart;" and resulting in a very remarkable revival of religion. "Three hundred," wc are told, " were notably renewed in a population of two hundred families." " A thorough reformation of morals followed." For fifty years there had not been so little disorder and vice.1
We can readily credit the efficiency which this religious agency is stated to have had in changing the manners and reforming the morals of Northampton ; for a similar revival in 1822 effected a similar revolution in the general tone of society in Pittsfield; exercising an influence upon it which is very powerfully felt even yet.
But, although much of President Edwards' work at North- ampton was doubtless enduring, even his grand abilities were insufficient to cope with the social tendencies of the age, and the more liberal theology with which his predecessor, Rev. Solomon Stoddard, had indoctrinated the Northampton church. And about the time that emigrants from that section succeeded in first making a permanent settlement at Pittsfield, the most emi- nent of American theologians was driven from his country-pulpit, on acount of "his opposition to the prominent doctrines of his predecessor, and certain disciplinary measures to which he had resorted," and "to which his church was unaccustomed."2
Something of the liberalism, both in doctrine and in discipline,
1This revival, which took place during the pastorate of Rev. Dr. Humphrey, who was aided by the distinguished revival preacher Rev. Asahel Nettleton, is described in the chapter of this work devoted to that period. One of its chief results was a stricter discipline in the church, whose membership was enlarged so as to include a large portion of those who gave tone to society.
2 Holland's Western Massachusetts, Vol. 1, page 246.
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which was so potent in the Connecticut valley, seems to have characterized many of the more influential first-settlers of Pitts- field ; causing the difficulty in selecting the first minister, and perhaps preventing the union of some in the initial organization of the church. But from that organization onward, there is no hint of any heresy broached in the pulpit, or permitted in the church. The covenant and the articles of faith were as strict as the strongest Calvinist could demand. "The Scripture truth of the new birth was never lost sight of" by the preacher. "The . half-way covenant " was never adopted by the church. Discipline was strictly enforced in the case of open and acknowledged sins, such as gross intemperance, breaches of the seventh command- ment, unchristian quarreling and fighting, and family disturb- ances. But moderate daily drinking, no one considered to be an evil, dancing was not proscribed, and there were much more dangerous practices which were not even mentioned.
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