USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > Lancaster > History of Lancaster, New Hampshire > Part 38
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Mills and Sawmills .- Frank Smith & Co., grist-mill and sawmill ; James O. Stevens, grist-mill; Ethan A. Crawford, grist-mill; J. M. Whipple, sawmill.
Factories .- Thompson Manufacturing Company; Richardson & Porter, furniture manufactory; Frank Smith & Co., doors, sash, and blinds; P. J. Noyes Manufacturing Co., medicines; Hosmer & Ryan, steel sleds; Harry Jones, belt hooks; Isreals River Creamery, manufacturers of butter.
Marble and Granite Works .- A. G. Wilson & Co., marble works ; Diamond Granite Works, V. V. Whitney, proprietor.
Insurance Agents .- Geo. M. Stevens & Son; Nourse & Kent.
Printing Offices and Newspapers .- The Coos County Demo- crat, J. D. Bridge, editor and proprietor: The Lancaster Gazette, Amos F. Rowell, editor and proprietor.
Hotels .- The Lancaster House, L. B. Whipp, proprietor; the Williams House, J. M. Hopkins, proprietor.
Boarding Houses .- The Village Boarding House, Mrs. J. H. Heaney, proprietor; the Stewart House, Mrs. Call, proprietor ; Green's Cottage, Frank Green, proprietor.
Painters .- A. B. Meacham, sign, ornamental, and carriage painter; Fred Dooley, carriage and house painter ; F. E. Congdon,
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house painter and paper hanger; E. R. Stewart, house painter and paper hanger; George Gould, house painter and paper hanger.
Carriage Makers .- George S. Norris; S. W. Van Ness; Frank Peabody.
Contractors and Builders .- John H. Smith; Simons & Connor ; E. W. Wyman.
Bricklayers and Plasterers .- H. C. Forbush, Robert Dexter ; Charles Couture; Barney McGinley.
Stone Masons .- W. C. Putnam; Peter Small; John and David Parks.
Wool Carding .- N. W. Hartford.
Dressmakers .- Mrs. Bishop; Mrs. A. D. Warren; Miss Mc- Killips.
Photographers .- D. E. Rowell; A. J. Rosebrook.
Art Teachers .- Mrs. I. W. Quimby, teacher of oil and water color painting ; Miss Belle Whipple, teacher of art embroidery.
Draymen .- Thomas Sullivan; Charles L. Sedgell; C. H. Inger- son; W. C. Sherwood; George Cummings.
Hackmen .- Thomas Howard; Michael Conroy; Patrick Hurley.
CHAPTER IV.
THE DOMESTIC LIFE OF LANCASTER IN EARLY TIMES.
BY HON. JAMES W. WEEKS.
Few persons who have not actually passed through it, can have any idea of the changes which have taken place in the domestic life of the town within the last sixty years.
The town of Lancaster has never been behind other towns and cities in New England in the matter of adopting new ideas whether they be for good or for ill. In some of the old and westerly towns. of Massachusetts the old, colonial type of domestic life prevailed not fifty years ago, while the newer ideas had taken strong hold here in Lancaster. The domestic life in Lancaster remained almost without change for the first seventy years of its settlement. There were the same industries; the large families, nearly independent of the outside world; the abundance of all the necessaries of life; the absence of foreign business; the same absence and almost igno- rance of wealth. The town was a sort of little republic, almost independent, and with all the elements of prosperity within its own limits. The tanner tanned the hides and sent finished leather to Boston; the hatter sheared the lambs and made the hats for the people, and sent felts (shapes for hats) to market; the clothier carded the wool and dressed the cloth woven by the women in their
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homes; the blacksmith not only shod the horses and oxen, but made all manner of things composed of wrought iron except scythes and shovels; the shoemaker had a place in every family sometime during the year when he made the shoes. Every farmer had a flock of sheep, and he also raised flax. Both the wool and flax were worked up in the homes of the people by hand methods. A. N. Brackett, Esq., said, in an address before the Agricultural society in 1822, that "At least two thirds of all the cloth used in Lancaster was of home manufacture." Large amounts of both woolen and linen cloths were exchanged at the stores for such goods as could not be manufactured in the homes of the people .*
If the pioneers of Lancaster clung to their log cabins after the building of sawmills it was only for a brief period, for they had the choicest of timber in great abundance .; Not only in Lancaster, but throughout the Connecticut River valley, the house was but one story, but of ample proportions on the ground plan. At least one fourth was occupied by the kitchen, out of which opened a buttery and stairway. Overhead the beams were bare, from which hung numerous hooks. Upon these rested three or four poles, called clothes-poles, and all manner of things found a place upon them. Usually the kitchen was a large room of perhaps fifteen by twenty- four feet, with a door opening directly out into the weather. There was an immense fireplace of seven or eight feet wide and three feet deep. To this fireplace a hardwood log was brought, sometimes drawn on a hand sled. This log was between three and four feet long, and often twenty inches in diameter. The coals of the previ- ous day's backlog, as it was called, were drawn forward, and this new backlog rolled into place against the brick or stone back of the fireplace. A long-handled shovel and a pair of tongs were called into use by the operation of replenishing the fire in this man- ner. On the backlog another log, as large as would lay there, was . placed. This one was called the back-stick. The fire dogs were then set up against these, and another large stick called the fore- stick laid upon them, and the brands and coals were filled in along with small wood when the fire was fixed. From that burning mass a glow of heat reached every corner of the room. A crane suffi- ciently strong to hold a five-pail kettle full of water was hung to the left jamb. On this was a trammel, with hooks which could be taken up or let down as occasion demanded, and also another hook on which pots and kettles were hung in cooking. A capacious brick oven was built on one side of the fireplace. This oven was
* I have before me the ledger of Gen. John Wilson, who kept a store at the north end of Main street for the years 1799 and 1800, in which I find many credits to his customers who ran accounts for "flax, and woolen yarns, linen and woolen cloths."-ED.
+ The selectmen took a census of the town in 1783, and report eight frame houses and five barns and other buildings. Three of those buildings remain standing to-day .- ED.
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heated once a week when the family baking was done. These com- prised the outfit for heating and baking and cooking in the old-time kitchen.
There were a dozen strong-framed kitchen chairs, with seats woven of elm bark or of basket stuff of some kind; a long, move- able, pine table, capable of seating ten or a dozen persons, while turned down against the wall was a smaller table, supported by a brace when in use, upon which the bread was kneaded. The fam- ily, without distinction, except the small children who had bread and milk morning and night, took their meals at the long table in the kitchen. At the midday meal (dinner), all the children who were large enough to sit at the table ate their meals with their parents.
A word about the cooking utensils: There was the large " dinner pot," in which pieces of beef or pork, with the berry or suet pudding, was boiled. The bean or pea porridge was made in this same pot. There was a broad, flat-bottomed kettle in use for frying doughnuts and baking pancakes, and in which potatoes were also boiled. Then there was another one known as the dish kettle. Next in importance was the gridiron ; and long-handled frying-pan in which to fry meats or griddle cakes. The " Dutch oven " held its place for a long time, but was finally superseded by the tin baker. This oven was a broad, flat-bottomed kettle, with long legs and an iron lid or cover with a rim turned up about an inch and a half high around it. This lid had a ring in the middle by which it was handled with tongs. In using this oven a bed of coals was drawn forward and the oven set in them. The bread or biscuit were placed in the oven, the lid was placed in position, and then a few shovels- ful of burning coals were placed on top of it. It baked in a man- ner not surpassed by any modern ovens. Potatoes were roasted, not baked, in the ashes, and the "Christmas goose " was roasted by suspending it before the fire on the kitchen hearth, being often. basted from the dripping-pan by means of a long-handled spoon.
In the old kitchens, when not in use for work-rooms, or for din- ing purposes, the boys would gather in the evening to play their tricks and pranks, many of which often " tended wonderfully " to develop their youthful muscles. If the games were not conducted on scientific principles they surely were not effeminate. Occasion- ally some boy more studious than the majority were, would throw himself upon his face and study his lessons in his school work, or read some book in which he was interested, by the light of blazing pine knots on the hearth. Those knots and pitchy pieces of wood were called " lightwood." That sort of light was far superior to the tallow candle of later times, or even the oil lamp that succeeded the tallow candle and preceded the use of kerosene oil.
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Adjoining the kitchen was the sanctum of the mistress of the house into which the noisy boys were seldom allowed to enter; this was the nursery where generally slumbered an infant in an old-fashioned cradle. There would be found also the younger children. If the family did not have a girl of ten or twelve years of age to look after the infants, one was secured from some neighbor who had a surplus of such help. There in her sanctum the mistress of the house did her work, which consisted in making and mending clothes, often making over old garments until they "were just as good as new." Here she was preceptress of her own children, teaching them by conversational methods accompanied by a disci- pline that was as firm as it was tender. This room contained a fire- place, not so large as that of the kitchen, but ample for the comfort of the inmates. There was also a bed, turned up against the wall, a lot of strong wooden chairs disposed about the room, with a table in the centre upon which laid the sewing and other handiwork of the matrons of those days. There stood a lightstand upon which laid the family Bible and a few other books. The elder daughters of the family, when not engaged elsewhere, were to be found here with their mother assisting her with the work of the famlly. There the clock, that imposing device for measuring the flight of time, was to be found, and often was its face scanned by the tireless matron who had to plan her labors so as to bring out many occu- pations on schedule time.
In the more pretentious houses there was another apartment similar to this room called the "square room," without carpet. But there came a time when carpets of home manufacture began to appear, accompanied by some elegant furniture.
There was generally a small bedroom with a spare bed, out of the way of the noise of the kitchen, with a fireplace in it. This room was used only on rare occasions for company, or in case of sickness. The children of the family occupied the second floor as their sleeping apartment. The beds, except of the very poorest people, were of feathers. There were no mattresses those days. Beds were either feathers or straw. Every farmer, and nearly everybody was a farmer, even the minister, doctor, merchant, and mechanics, all cultivated some land, and therefore had their flocks of geese. Two or three times in a season the geese were picked ; the fine feathers went for making beds, and the quills were saved up and brought a good price for making pens. Metallic pens had not then appeared, and whoever could write had to use the quill pen. There was then both a jackknife and a "penknife." Every writer had to learn the art of making and repairing pens with his small- bladed knife. These " goose-picking times" were times of excite- ment, and the boys were all on hand to catch the birds. The girls
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would don their oldest clothes and tie a handkerchief over their heads to protect their hair from the flying feathers and down. An old stocking was run over the heads of the geese to prevent from biting, and the work of taking all the available feathers pro- ceeded.
Every family made its own butter, cheese, soap, and candles. The dipping of candles took place in the fall after the "butchering" season when the tallow was rendered, and candle-dipping was a day hardly less to be remembered than the picking of the geese. In the process of candle-making the little children took great delight. With glee they watched the dipping of the dozen or more wicks hung upon rods into the molten tallow in a great kettle, and sus- pended from slats placed upon the backs of chairs, to cool from repeated dippings until they were of the required size. Candles were later run in tin molds when but few were required. Candle wicking was an important article of trade at the stores. Sometimes in case of necessity tow was substituted for the cotton wick, but with poor results.
The making of sausages was another notable day's work, looked forward to with interest. All hands were busily engaged cutting the meat with knives. The manufacture of soap was a notable event of the year, and took place in the early spring. The scraps of fatty meats, waste grease, bones, and the like were saved up from the winter's stock of meats and boiled out for " soap grease." Then, too, the accumulation of ashes from the winter fires was large. Leaches were set up and the lye run off. The great kettles were filled with lye and condensed by boiling, after which the requisite amount of grease was added for soft or hard soap, as they wished. This was an important industry in every home, and called for a considerable degree of skill to always get good soap.
Every family, especially every farmer, killed and packed his own meat for the season. A fatted cow or ox along with several hogs were slaughtered. A portion was hung up to freeze, while the larger part was salted down for the later season of the year. Pork was summer meat. Very little fresh meat was eaten in summer except game and fish. In the warmer season when a calf, lamb, or sheep was killed, portions of the carcass were distributed among the neighbors to be paid in the same kind and quantity a few days or weeks later when they should slaughter an animal. A well-stocked poultry yard was an important source of food sup- ply. The forests and streams were full of game and fish, and much of it was taken; but there were no "sportsmen" to destroy it as in later times, when game and fish were wantonly exterminated for the mere pleasure of killing with improved devices of destruction.
In the fall an ample supply of all the then-known vegetables filled
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THE DOMESTIC LIFE OF LANCASTER.
the cellars of the Lancaster farmers of early years. Apples of good quality were abundant for winter use; and eight or ten barrels of cider were not considered an over-stock for the winter drinks of family and visitors. All the women drank cider, and most of the men took something stronger without feeling that they were violat- ing any law, human or divine. Even the minister, when he called, was asked to "take a little Jamaica" which he never thought of refusing. (The ledger of J. Wilson shows that good Parson Willard even bought his own brandy by gallons and quarts .- ED.) The ladies at quiltings and other social times would take a little toddy ; and it was a common practice to give it to the babies, to relieve them of their peculiar ills.
Among the articles of household furnishings essential to the com- fort of our great-grandparents was the warming-pan. This was a brass or copper pan, twelve or fifteen inches in diameter and quite shallow with a cover perforated. It had a wooden handle three or four feet long. It was filled with glowing coals from the kitchen fire and when slid around between the sheets, gave them a thorough warming so that they were entirely comfortable to get into. The people aimed to use flannel blankets in cold weather, but often such were not available, when they had to resort to linen which though they might have been bleached until white as snow still possessed all the chill of the snow. Linen, being a good non-conductor of heat, made a pleasant garment for the hot season of the year, but a very cold one for winter use. Cotton either as clothing or sheeting was then unknown. Ludicrous mistakes were sometimes made in using the warming-pan. Not in Lancaster, but very near it, lived an old gentleman of note who was grievously afflicted with rheuma- tism. Being a captain and a sort of privileged character, he could swear most vehemently, possessing anything but a sweet temper. His devoted wife was not remarkable for shrewdness or wit, but was a most excellent nurse. She was told that the fumes of burning sugar dropped upon the warming-pan were a good remedy for rheu- matism. She dropped it on the lid of the pan one evening and warmed the bed. The sugar melted and spread out like wax. She turned to the old gentleman and said, "Jump right in, Captain, it is piping hot now." 'The captain crawled in, but he jumped out much quicker than he got into bed. The storm that raged for a time in that house is difficult to describe, and we leave it to the reader's imagination to depict the scene. It is said, however, that the captain got better of his rheumatism.
When families were large, the chambers were usually roughly divided into rooms. We have been speaking of Lancaster as it was prior to 1825. There were a few houses of more than one story, some of which were " air castles" (the fronts roughly finished and
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the family living in one corner). Most houses, however, were well finished and commodious. There were always some exceptions. There have always been rough people in Lancaster, who lived roughly; but in the main people lived as comfortably here as in other communities of like age and opportunities. We have hinted at the industries of the time in speaking of the manufactures of wool and flax. One would think that the girls and women of "ye olden time" had little leisure, for they not only spun the wool and flax and wove the cloth, but helped with milking, and always took the entire care of the milk, making butter and cheese. With all those tasks it does not appear that there existed that awful pressure, both physical and mental, that has been depleting our country of its native-born population. Our ancestors had few books, but they read what they had with a degree of thoroughness that is uncommon among the reading masses of to-day. The boys read history and biography, perhaps because they could not get literature like the New York Ledger, stories of adventure in the Wild West, and the like of which boys read to-day. The girls read "The Children of the Abbey" and "Scottish Chiefs," and the like.
Girls had what they called "stints," as the spinning of a certain number of skeins of yarn, or the weaving of a certain number of yards of cloth in a day. Any smart girl could finish her "stint" in a half day. It did not cost more to spin, weave, and make up a " pressed cloth " dress then than it does now to trim and make a worsted dress.
All underclothing was of home manufacture. In boy's clothing there was a great economy secured in its character; the wool or flax when worked into cloth was of unbroken fiber, hence the strength of the fabric was equal to that of leather.
Specimens of fancy needle work that have come down to us from our grandmothers, together with the letters they wrote, reveal a cul- tivated taste that equals that of to-day; and in every respect they. were the equals of those who grace any place in life. They fully adorned their station. The boys, when occasion required it, worked with their fathers and at the same kinds of work. There were no idle boys; and the boy who could not shoot well at long range or catch trout, was in poor repute among either boys or men. One of the fixtures of the house in those times was the long gun hung on hooks in the kitchen with the powderhorn and bullet pouch hanging under it. It kept its place for a long time after there was any use for it. It was a formidable instrument of destruc- tion. The barrel was about four feet long, and it carried nearly an ounce ball which crushed or paralyzed whatever it struck. If this style of gun was charged with double B shot for ducks or geese it swept a space a yard and a half wide at a distance that would
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astonish a sportsman of to-day. Such a gun in the hands of Buck- nam, Blake, or Stanley was good for a moose at one hundred and fifty yards; and at a much later period there were those who were sure of a deer at the same distance. Those old hunters usually charged their gun with two bullets or a double charge of shot, with the requisite amount of powder, and when they discharged it a tre- mendous report rang through the neighborhood.
With respect to the amusements of boys, we have said the old kitchen was practically given up to them in the evening. There they played their games and tricks, and practised jokes on one an- other. One of their tricks was to place a pin in the rail (batton) of the kitchen door about ten inches from the floor. Then a boy laid down on his face and stomach, his feet near the pin, and tried to throw himself, first onto his head, then rise upon his hands and walk backward upon his hands and try to take the pin out of the door with his teeth. Some boys could perform the feat, but many of them would utterly fail. Another trick was making a circle with chalk about six feet from the floor and a foot in diameter on the wall. A boy would go back to the other end of the room, take a candle in his hand, fill a plate with water, take it by the rim with his teeth, walk the length of the room without spilling any of the water, and touch the center of the circle with the plate. On one occasion a number of quiet and sober boys were gathered in Captain Stephenson's kitchen trying this last-named trick. In the company was one of the neighborhood " old fellows " who had an exceedingly sharp-tongued, sour wife (this was before the days of saloons and he had to consort with the boys in the kitchen). So he sought social excitement among the boys. His presence was not welcome. So the boys got him to try their trick as a means of driving him out. They were using a pewter plate, and had brought a wad of tow as inflamable as powder, and folded it over the rim of the plate under pretext of avoiding marking the plate with their teeth. They fitted him out and sent him toward the circle. As he took the plate in his teeth portions of the tow were arranged so as to fall down upon his breast. With the candle in his hand, the plate filled to the rim with water, his eyes upon the circle, he took up his line of march, and proceeded bravely as he had a good set of teeth. It seemed to have become necessary to hold the candle very close in order to see that he did not spill any of the water. When he got about half way across the room, by some apparent accident the candle flame touched the tow and set it on fire. It flashed as quick as lightning. All hands fell to and assisted in putting out the fire which was not accomplished until his face, hands, hair, whiskers, and eyebrows were badly scorched. Man was made upright but "boys have sought out many inventions."
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In regard to the dress of those days I may say, that the com- mon dress of the women was simple and durable, almost entirely manufactured by their own hands. Flannels formed the larger por- tion of their dress goods, and were colored to suit the taste of the wearer. Their dresses were made in a manner that no woman of to-day need be ashamed to wear. Silks were more common than to-day, but they were worn only on rare or state occasions. A sort of calico, called chintz, served for an afternoon dress. The bon- nets or hats assumed all the variety of shapes of the present day. The choicest of furs were in general use by the women of that time. Our grandmothers did not consider themselves properly dressed for cold weather, without the sable muff that would let the arm into it up to the elbows, and protect the whole upper portion of the body when held up before their faces.
Mrs. Major Weeks's muff and cape probably contained as many as eighty prime sable skins. These skins were often dressed and made up by those who wore them. The feet of both women and children were protected by good, strong calf-skin shoes, or boots made by the local shoemaker. A pair of thin morocco slippers were held in high esteem when our mothers wished to show off their feet to ad- vantage. In winter all wore good, heavy knit socks outside their shoes.
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