Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary, Part 8

Author: Ridlon, Gideon Tibbetts, 1841- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Portland, Me., The author
Number of Pages: 1424

USA > Maine > Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary > Part 8
USA > New Hampshire > Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary > Part 8

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The wistful, mouth-watering company was now invited to "gather round the board," and it was done without a tear. Table manners had not, thank the Lord, according to the popular code, been formulated at the period we are writing about. But what was wanting in ceremonial polish and mock polite- ness was more than made good by a right royal welcome and something fit to eat. "Help yourselves," meant something then, and hungry folks knew the definition.

The bannock, like the Irishman's good resolutions, was made to be broken, and soon lay separated in squares from which the savory incense was rising. Now's your time, my friend; it will never be quite as good again, so tumble it into your bowl. How the milk seemed to jump for joy as it claimed its own, as piece after piece of the golden bannock, crusty and crispy. fell into the creamy liquid, where it sank for a moment only to rise again. ready for your capering spoon! And yet, how elusive were these pieces when one began to eat! They would dive, like so many yellow ducks, beneath the sur- face of the white pond and hide under each other to tantalize the appetite and prolong the delicious feast. When once upon the tongue, how one's thoughts went down into their mouth to be entertained there with the delight- ful flavor, and lingered about the enamored palate until the last delicious morsel had disappeared!

" Meagre repast," says the fastidious reader. "Princely feast!" exclaims the man who knows the ecstatic pleasure experienced while engaged with such a luxury. Why, my nostrils inflate and tingle now, as I remember the inde- scribable sweetness of the milk-moistened bannock that nourished me in my boyhood home. Nothing more wholesome, brain-making. or bone-hardening was ever served to a family of growing children, and having acquired a taste for it, the delicious flavor cannot be forgotten. Nothing comparable to the old-fashioned bannock can be produced by any modern method or appliance used for cooking. Somehow there was an affinity between this kind of bread and the open fire: there was a combination of conditions and circumstances that renders it now impossible to reproduce such food. There must be the new, well-ripened corn, containing the peculiar nutritious ingredients pro- duced by virgin soil; there must be the cunning art of mixing and baking: there must be the bank of glowing coals, the rich, cool milk favored with

OLD TIMES ON THE SACO.

honeysuckle, and the crazy, vehement appetite known only to those who lived in the open air and in well-ventilated houses. Our relish has been perverted and led astray by the fancy viands of a later day, and we may never again experience the pleasure of eating bannock and milk with the same intensity realized when, as hungry boys and girls, it was served to us by the hand of the best cook the world has ever known -our mother.

Another article of food prepared by our early housewives was called the Indian pudding. The art of making them, that is, one worthy of the name, has passed away with the generation that knew how to produce them. In every family they were a standard food that appeared as regularly as the "pudding-time " morning. These were baked in a deep earthen dish without cover and could only be brought to the highest degree of excellence by being subjected to a moderate degree of heat for at least eighteen hours in a closed brick oven. How they were prepared before going there, the Lord only knows -- if, indeed, He is concerned about puddings-for no living woman, given all the ingredients and the oven, can produce anything approaching the wonder- fully delicious article pulled out with the great fire-shovel, on a Sunday morn- ing, by some old mother, say fifty years ago. Some say they can do it, but the "proof of a pudding " is in eating it; they cannot duplicate the old-style Indian pudding. These puddings had backbone; when turned out upon the big plate in the middle of the table they stood alone and kept their form till cut in slices for your eating. Ah! but how they did shine! They were permeated with a jelly-like substance that was as nectar to the palate. The whole mass would tremble and vibrate like a springy meadow, but never sank. When your slice was laid in your plate, and a lump of golden, June-made but- ter was dropped upon it, how nicely it was dissolved and distributed through the light, open-hearted pudding! Indeed, it looked too good to eat; the sight of it was fascinating, bewitching. Sometimes it was walloped in cream, which greatly enhanced the flavor. On special occasions, like a wedding-feast, a ministerial visit, or quarterly-meeting time, the good woman would drop in a handful of plums to tickle the palates of her company. Compared with the pale, sloppy, degenerate imitation baked in a range, and falsely called an Indian pudding, the genuine, old-time article was kingly, almost good enough for "angels' food." But we may exhaust hyperbole and strain superlatives to the bursting point in vainly trying to elucidate the marvelous beauty and exquisite deliciousness of an old-fashioned, mother-made Indian pudding; it cannot be done.

" Must-go-down" was the name applied to one of the old-fashioned dishes. "And what'n the name o' common sense was musgodown?" asks Aunt Pru- dence. Hard to describe. We may as well attempt to explain colors to a blind man, or the sound of a trumpet to one devoid of hearing, as to write with any claim to accuracy about the flavors of food never tasted by the reader.

OLD TIMES ON THE SACO.

We have enjoyed the honor of sitting at the farmer's table graced with a plate of "must-go-down," and know whereof we write. The food was made of the crusts from loaves of "rye-and-injun" bread, boiled until dissolved into grains like hominy, sweetened with molasses, and served up with cream.

The methods and appliances for cooking were simple, and the food of our ancestors was correspondingly plain. This was well. There was the " minute- pudding," boiled in a bag; to eat the latter was said to be the proof of this kind. Then, there was a kind of fried pancakes quite unlike a modern doughnut or slapjack : they were dropped from a spoon into boiling lard, and came out nicely browned, but as ragged as a Texas rat. These puffy, round-bodied cakes were very good eating.

Bean soup, meat broth, dandelion greens, and "biled dinners" were fashionable in the early homes. Various kinds of food were considered to be, not only wholesome, but medicinal and curative. The old folks said they partook of such, not because they relished them very much, but from a sense of duty: because they ought to do so for the body's sake. Their religion had to do with the physical as well as the spiritual; it was a good sort.

Bear steak, venison, and various kinds of fish, with which the ponds and streams then abounded, constituted a substantial share of the early settler's table supply. The Saco river was so full of salmon When the first clearings were made on its banks, that they were caught with trap, spear, and hook in such quantities that barrels of them were cured and kept for winter use.

Every variety of wild berry grew in great abundance on the newly cleared land, and served not only an important, but also a most delightful and whole- some, part in the pioneer family's daily provision for the table.

With such nutritious and delicious food as we have mentioned. supple- mented by a considerable list of other kinds, served in a variety of ingenious forms, we may be assured that the family of the Saco valley farmer, whose acreage was sufficient for the number of his household, fared pretty well. of course there were times before much land was in crop, or when frost or drought cut down the harvest, that the early settlers were pinched for food ; but these were the rare exceptions, not the rule. We have found neither record nor tra- dition of famine or starvation in the settlements of which we now write : for the unfastidious there was always a fair supply of food.

While writing of the food and cooking of the pioneers it may be proper to mention some old-time neighborly customs that prevailed in those days. The inhabitants of a community were much more dependent upon each other at this early time than now, hence, were reciprocal and generous. If a family had some table luxury, a quantity was reserved and carried to their neighbors to give them a "taste of the dinner." This custom was universally practised when the author was a child, and he was many times sent out to some family a half-mile from home with a saucer neatly folded in a napkin, and con-

...

FINE OLD DISHES.

CLOCK REEL AND PINNIE.

OLD TIMES ON THE SACO.

taining a small quantity of some rare delicacy, with instructions like these : "Say to Aunt Sally that Aunt Molly has sent her a taste of her dinner." Such was always considered to be a high compliment, and was sure to be reciprocated before the season ended ; but never with the same article of food.

If one of a neighborhood had killed the favorite porker, or "beef-critter," the boys were dispatched with a generous piece of the meat to the outlying families. Later, when said neighbors had laid in their store of meat, pieces were reserved for those who lived adjoining. When one had been a-fishing and came home with a liberal "string" of trout or pickerel he always-unless a man with a mustard-seed soul-divided with his neighbors. This was a very pleasant way to live. Would that such customs prevailed to-day! How refreshing it would prove for such as never go a-fishing !

DOMESTIC EMPLOYMENT.

Wool-Dressing .- The sheep of the Saco valley farmers were mercifully allowed to wear their warm fleece until the chilling spring storms were over and the mild weather necessitated shearing and lamb-marking. During those days there were professional sheep-shearers who went round the settlements with their shears, and neatly clipped the fleece. Some held the docile sheep upon the barn floor; others laid them on a raised platform, which was a more com- fortable arrangement for both shearer and sheep.

Every man who owned a flock had a registered "ear-mark "; these, in the early town records, are often mixed in with the births of children. When the sheep had been shorn, the lambs' tails were "docked," and their ears split or "cropped," with a sharp knife; a somewhat cruel practice, considered to be necessary when the several flocks ran together on the plains and were some- times scattered by wild animals or dogs before they came to the barns in the late fall.

The wool was usually washed in the fleece after shearing, and spread upon the grass to dry. The methods employed for dressing domestic wool by hand were simple and practical. It was first carefully "picked" with the fingers ; then carded with hand cards into long, fluffy rolls which were handled deli- cately and carefully laid away in bundles. These were principally white, but nearly every farmer, according to the adage, had one black sheep in his flock. This black, or brown, wool was sometimes mixed with white in carding to produce gray ; at other times the two colors were spun separately and woven together in the web.

In the homes of the early settlers on the Saco, the wool was spun on the Quaker wheel, which, by reason of the difference between its diameter and that of the spool on the spindle, was capable of great speed. When all was in readiness, a turn was given to the wheel and the end of the roll, held between

OLD TIMES ON THE SACO.

the thumb and finger of the left hand, was attached to the spiral point of the swiftly-revolving spindle ; then the spinner stepped quickly backward to " draw ont " her thread, which, when sufficiently twisted, was wound against a shoulder or guard that answered for a spool or bobbin. This operation was repeated. When a roll had nearly run out, another was deftly spliced to the remaining end, and so the work went on, the wheel, meanwhile, humming like a giant bumble-bee. These nimble old spinners could boast of their six skeins spun in a day, besides doing the housework. What do you think o' that ?

As soon as the spindle had been filled, the yarn was wound off upon a hand reel. How clearly fancy draws a picture of this pleasant scene! Some stately old dame, capped and beruffled, whose morning housework had been finished, comes armed with a bundle of rolls wrapped in a soft woolen cloth which she places upon the beam of her wheel near the open fire to warm; to "start the ile," she says, so they will "run " without snapping.

See her tune her instrument. Sometimes these obdurate old engines, like old men who were troubled with rheumatism, were affected by the weather. and wouldn't, or couldn't. go. They had been stowed away in a chamber, or unused room down-stairs, had taken cold, were stiff in their joints, and required warming and lubricating. They would "cast-band," as their trainers said. She puts on the harness and gives the old critter a smart turn. Whew! What's to pay now? The old lady walks about her machine and examines every part : squints along the band and "surmises " that its "head" isn't straight. She gives its neck a twist, thumps its head with the heel of her hand to settle it in place, and goes back to try her wheel-pin again. Snap! and away goes the band. Too loose. She goes back and gives the tail of the critter a twist : that is, turns up the screw and tightens the wheel-band. Once more she gives the wheel a turn. Buz-z-z-2. All right now ; she is gittin' condescendin'. The roll is now put upon the humming spindle, and the tireless wheel begins its day's work; the almost equally enduring spinner her sprightly march across the kitchen Hoor.

To spin six skeins of yarn on the Quaker wheel required a journey of more than twenty miles a dar. This was not all: she must stop occasionally to reel the yarn off and tie the skein in "knots." Moreover, as elsewhere intimated, these women had house and dairy work to attend to: their cooking and a score of small chores. She repeats the performance day after day, sings to the music of her wheel, and never complains.

The music of the spinning-wheel may not have been considered as artistic as that of the modern piano - and yet it required about as much skill and facility of fingers to manipulate it -- but it was popular, to say the least, and was the accompaniment to something useful. The movement of the performer was a thousand times more graceful, and a million times less excruciating, than that of the professional pianist of to-day, who thinks her auditors are

OLD FASHIONED HOME SCENE

OLD TIMES ON THE SACO.

delighted with her music when they are ready to explode with amusement while witnessing her agonizing contortions of face and form. At any rate, give us the musical, mellow drone of the old Quaker wheel in preference to the head-straining, nerve-breaking jargon of the beginner on the modern machine. We feel relieved.

When a number of skeins had been taken from the wheel, they were put upon the revolving "swifts," two threads laid together, returned to the spindle, and by turning the wheel backward they were "doubled and twisted." From the spindle the yarn was wound upon a ball, and was then ready for the "warping-bars " or "knitting-work."

If the yarn was to be used single, the skein was held upon the extended hands of a man, while the mother or daughter wound the yarn therefrom upon a ball. If the two were young and marketable, he purposely allowed the travelling yarn to become entangled, and while the patient winder was employ- ing both hands to dissolve the perplexing snarl, he would steal a random kiss from her velvet cheek, which was the appropriate reward for his condescending services. This was recognized as an interesting factor of yarn winding in "ye olden time." Those utilitarian old Puritans always did manage to mingle pleasure with toil ; this obviated friction and added a never-wearying charm to existence. To this, all readers should respond, Amen.

At stated seasons of each year the great, hard-wood frame of the hand loom was set up in the kitchen of the early settler's home. This was a bulky, lumbering affair, but very useful in its "day and generation." I seem to hear again the rattle of the ratchet and latch when the beam was wound up, and the compound echo of the lathe and shuttle when sprung by the busy weaver. It was laborious exercise. The average quality of "full-cloth," woven in the farmers' homes, contained about thirty "picks" to the inch, and the weaver would be required to spring her treadles, swing the lathe, and shoot her shuttle three thousand, two hundred and forty times in a day to weave her three yards.

Much taste and skill were displayed by the good weavers in the figured and plaided fabrics produced in the hand loom. When several colors were used in weaving plaid shawls, or counterpanes, additional harnesses were put in and the manipulation of the treadles and handling of shuttles became more complicated. Some of the small-checked dress goods, bright-colored shawls, and cloaking woven by the old experts resembled the fabrics produced in Scottish hand looms.

When the web of gray full cloth was taken from the beam, the time of garment-making for the male persuasion was at hand. The "linsey-woolsey " was for "wimmin's wear." Some of the most beautiful table-linen and tow- elling, wrought with raised figures and now preserved, evinces the marvelous skill of some of the early weavers.

OLD TIMES ON THE S.ACO.

Under this head we call attention to the great variety of warm, substantial hosiery manufactured by hand, at home, from domestic wool; indeed, all the stockings, footings, gloves, and mittens for the large family were thus provided, every moment of time being employed, when not otherwise engaged, with the knitting-work ; and one pair of such homespun, home-knitted stockings would outwear about a dozen pairs of the best sale kinds. "Double," "hooked." and "pegged " mittens would last for a decade.

Flax-Dressing. Every planter in the colonial settlements had his flax- yard, and a season was set apart to dress the harvest. The flax bloomed in June, and in speaking of any transaction which occurred about this season, the pioneers spoke of it as " flax-bloom time." A fiekl of flax in the "blow." as they used to call it, was a beautiful sight. When the crop had been pulled it was spread upon the grass-ground to rot ; and as soon as the bark, or husk, became sufficiently tender from exposure to the weather, it was carried to the barn and the work of "flax-breaking " commenced.

The flax-break was a singular and very radical wooden machine, difficult to describe with the pen. It was constructed of the best quality of hard wood with the working parts elevated about two and a half feet from the floor and supported on four sturdy legs. The bed and break proper consisted of a series of slats so hinged together that the interstices of the lower tier received those above, that were connected with the break-head, when they came down upon the flax. This heavy head-block, to which the handle was attached, gave the necessary momentum when in operation. The workman stood at one side. holding the flax in his left hand crosswise upon the bed slats; the break-head was raised with the right hand and brought down smartly upon the straw until the hull was fully crushed. Woe betide the careless man who, by being absent- minded, allowed his fingers to get between the bed and upper tier of slats; his hand would have fared about as well between a shark's jaws.

The secondary process was called "swingling." The fax-swingle was formed much like a double-edged knife; it was made of hard-grained wood. with a short handle at one end. This instrument was about eighteen inches long and four inches in width. When used, the crushed flax was laid hori- zontally upon an elevated plank having a convex surface, and by a swinging. dipping stroke of the wooden blade the shives were disengaged and fell off.

The third instrument employed in dressing fax was called the fax-comb or "hatchel." Its base was a square block of some solid wood filled with a thickly-set cluster of pointed, upright spines. This was fastened upon a bench and whisps of flax pulled through it until the coarser parts, called tou, we're combed out. The real "lint." as the Scotch call it, when thus refined. was ready for the " distaff" and hands of the linen spinner. The "swingle- tow " was spun on the Quaker wheel from rolls carded by hand.

An inexperienced observer would be surprised to see how small a quan-

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FLAX-SPINNING AND CARDING.

OLD TIMES ON THIE SACO.

tity of the fine fibre was obtained from a large mass of the raw material ; more astonished to see the quantity of thread yielded by such small wisp when treated with the wheel.

The linen wheel was introduced into New England in 1718, by the Scotch- Irish emigrants, who were skilled in all the arts of dressing flax, and in weaving linen fabrics on the hand loom. During the colonial period, the spinning of fax was considered to be so useful, that in Boston spinning schools were established to which the most aristocratic families sent their daughters. The art was so popular, and when acquired regarded as such an accomplishment, that these young ladies, reared in homes of wealth, applied themselves as assid- uously to become proficient as do our modern women to become expert in touching the keys of the piano and organ. At this time, the present of a well- made "little wheel," on a wedding-day, was highly appreciated; and the new instrument was exhibited with great manifestations of delight to the assembled spectators.

The "little wheel" was a lowly affair compared with the Quaker-made in- strument, and did not require as great speed. It was driven by a treadle. The spindle was supplied with "flyers" in which were small wire hooks, and by drawing the thread through a series of these, the requisite size and twist were secured. In passing from the distaff to the spindle, the deft manipulation of the spinner's fingers regulated the quantity of fibre necessary for the size of the thread, and nicely reduced all entanglements. From the spindle, the thread was reeled as was the woolen yarn from the Quaker wheel. These linen spin- ners not only spun for the loom, but manufactured their own sewing thread. and fishing lines and nets for those who followed the craft.

The outfit for married life consisted largely of the abundance of linen the young lady had neatly bleached and folded away for her table and toilet ; if this had been spun and woven by her own hands, to her the more honor was due.

At the time of which we write, the most rigid economy was practised ; nothing that could in any way be made to serve a useful end was allowed to waste. Time for spinning the swingle-tow was somehow found amid the multi- tude of household duties which daily demanded attention. The coarse yarn produced from this was woven into a cotton warp and made into rough cloth used for workmen's frocks and shirts ; these last mentioned were a radical sur- face irritant, and he who wore one had no use for a flesh-brush. The old folk used to relate how, when a certain young man was enduring the torments of his first tow shirt, he dreamed of all the anguish supposed to be peculiar to the regions of despair; but when this had been exchanged for a garment of softer texture, his slumbers were soothed with transporting visions of the heavenly world. Wonderful transition; remarkable cause for the same !

Primitive Garments .- Materials for clothing the pioneer family were

OLD TIMES ON THE SACO.

of the most durable quality. Men wore leather breeches made of the best of calf-skin and tanned sheep-skin; on state occasions such made from soft yellow buck-skin. I have conversed with men of reliability who said their fathers made for them, when lads, coats from undressed sheep-skins to wear when clearing new land, and these were not laid aside for good until they had reached the size and stature supposed to mark man's estate. Homespun cloth was of the best material, substantial and warin; garments made from such would wear until the wearer, and everybody besides, was weary of them. Scores of young men went to college in a "full-cloth " suit and were not ashamed. Ministers of the gospel wore such in the pulpit and were respected for so doing ; they seldom saw anything finer in their congregations, and what was suitable for their parishioners was good enough for the preacher. Why not? As a matter of course, "men of the cloth " must have their garments black ; but those in the pews - more likely sitting on a rough plank - wore "sheep's-gray." The materials for home wear were sometimes dyed in the wool, sometimes the yarn was colored, but latterly the cloth was woven white and dyed in the piece.

But how were the garments cut out and made up? Well, it came to pass in those days that in every community there was an elderly maiden who claimed to be a tailoress: that wa's, she said, her " trade." She was usually a thin, straight-spined, spectacled, and dignified person, fully conscious of the importance of her position and the indispensability of her art. By making "'lowances," and using numerous " gussets " and "gores," she could formulate a coat, waistcoat, or pair of pantaloons, from the smallest pattern of any woman living, or man either. She had made the science a subject of profound study, and, like Dorcas of old, had spent her best days "making coats and garments." She was confident in the excellence and practicability of her designs, and modeled everything with which she had to do according to the strictest principles of economy, utility, and comfort ; so she claimed, and it is doubtful if any improvements have been discovered since her peaceful domin- ion ended. This functionary was an itinerant ; a sort of nomadic character who went from house to house with her shears, tape-measure, and needle-and- thread case to assist in clothing the men folk when the web of cloth was finished. How prim she was, to be sure! Several rank hair moles on her cheek gave her a somewhat masculine aspect. Her features were sharp and her expression mingled with dignity and wisdom ; neck. small, very long. and bejeweled with a string of gold beads; in her ears were "drops." Hler fashions were invested with many virtues, not the least of which was this, they were never known to change.

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Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary, Part 8

Author: Ridlon, Gideon Tibbetts, 1841- [from old catalog] Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Portland, Me., The author Number of Pages: 1424

Author: Ridlon, Gideon Tibbetts, 1841- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Portland, Me., The author
Number of Pages: 1424