USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Bristol > History of the town of Bristol, Grafton County, New Hampshire, Volume I > Part 12
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The homes of the first settlers were of the rudest kind, affording none of the luxuries and scarcely any of the comforts even of those days. A rude hut of hemlock bark was frequently their abode for months, while a more permanent home was being constructed. The last mentioned was invariably a log cabin, usually sixteen feet square and of two rooms, but frequently smaller and of but one room. The walls were of logs, hewn or unhewn, with the cracks filled with mud. The roof was a rude frame covered with hemlock bark or split shingles, the floor usually the bare carth. A few panes of glass, brought from the settlements down the river, and the open door afforded the usual light, while in some of the poorer cabins, sheepskin was used in place of glass. I A large fireplace at one end or side was connected with a chimney, usually made of stones, on the out- side. Wood was plenty, and huge fires lighted up the interior and furnished heat in cold weather. Besides this, the "tallow dip," or the pine knot, was the only artificial light. Cooking was done over the open fireplace, or over a fire outdoors, 2 and only the rudest cooking utensils were used. As time passed on, and the settlers had some time to devote to the comforts of life, timber was cut and drawn to the saw-mill, one, two, or ten miles distant, as the case might be, and sawed into boards or lumber. Then, the comforts of a board floor and other improvements were enjoyed.
' Mrs. Hannah Simonds says she can remember when her father's log cabin and several others had sheepskin windows.
2 On a large rock by the roadside in the Borough may still be seen the marks of the fire where Ebenezer Carlton's family did their cooking for years after they settled there.
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It was some years before a frame house was constructed in New Chester. Cutting Favor was perhaps the first to take this advanced step. He was possessed of more means than most of the early settlers, and he erected a saw-mill, just north of his house, on the stream that attracted his attention when he first visited this region. Here he sawed his lumber. After building a one-story house for himself, he erected a two-story house for each of his sons as they settled in life. The first was built about 1780 on Murray hill, now occupied by the heirs of the Rev. Dr. Murdock as a summer home; another in Grafton for his son Jacob; one in Hill village for his son Isaac, and still another, about 1800, on the New Hampton side of the river for his son Moses. All are still standing. The last mentioned is an old weather-beaten, two-story structure on the east bank of the Pemigewasset, and can be readily seen from the train when just north of Smith's river.
In 1783, there were three hundred and sixty-three inhabi- tants in New Chester and but twenty-six framed houses in this territory, thus showing that the majority of the people still lived in log houses. There is not probably, a framed house still standing in Bristol that was erected as early as 1783. A few still remain that were built as early as 1800, or before, among them being the farmhouse of the late Aaron Sleeper, built in 1797; the Green house and the Fisk house, in Central square, both built soon after 1790; two stories of the Emerson block, built in 1797; the small house on Summer street now owned by William G. Kelley, built in 1799 ; the house owned by Fred H. Briggs, and the Boardman house adjoining, on High street, built by the Cheneys soon after 1790; the "tannery house" at the junction of Lake and Willow streets, built in 1800, by John Sleeper, and the J. M. R. Emmons farmhouse, built about 1785, or soon after. This is probably the oldest house in town.
The first frame houses were usually of one story, though the large two-story square house was frequently seen. The kitchen was the largest room in the house and was usually the work room, living room, play room, and visiting room combined. A door usually opened into this room from the outside. The kitchen contained an immense fireplace often seven feet long by three deep. On a winter day a vast amount of wood was consunied. There was a back-log, three or four feet long and from ten to fifteen inches in diameter, and in front were the fire dogs on which was the forestick with small wood on top. This made a great fire that heated every part of the room except in the coldest weather. Then the entire family were obliged to huddle about the fire to keep warm. Over the fireplace hung the flint-lock musket, and into the beams overhead were driven iron hooks which supported long poles on which clotlies were
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sometimes hung to dry, and which in the fall and winter were full of long strings of peppers, of apple, or pumpkin to dry. Those who could afford it had a dresser in which were kept the pewter plates, platters, and teapot, while in other homes the wooden bowls and plates were kept on a rude shelf when not in use. The steel, flint, and tow were requisites in every home till the introduction of matches, about 1833. At first, rude benches were the only seats in many homes, but these early gave way to the hand-made chairs, so thoroughly constructed that some still exist that did service one hundred years ago. The round table, that could be made into an arm chair for the head of the family, was a very common piece of furniture. Many of the household utensils were hard-made. Dried gourds were made into cups, dippers, and sugar bowls; pails, buckets, and tubs were made by self-taught coopers ; while the spoons for the table were of pewter or lead, cast in molds that did service for the entire com- munity. The kitchen frequently contained a bed for the hus- band and wife, while the children were generally given a place to sleep under the roof above.
All the food was the product of the farm, the woods, or the waters of the vicinity. Farmers raised their own wheat, corn, and rye, and not a bushel was ever imported. Bean porridge, hasty pudding, Indian pudding, hominy, bread and milk, corn bread, and wheat bread were the staple articles of food the year round. Pork was the usual meat, varied occasionally by poul- try or mutton. Fresh beef during the summer months was almost unknown, while the potato was as yet little used. In the early winter a steer or cow was sometimes killed to be frozen for use during the winter or salted for the coming year. Then, too, were killed the hogs, mostly for market, some for winter use, and some for the pork barrel, while sausage making, dipping or running candles, were a prominent part of the labor of the house- hold for some time after the slaughtering season began. Butter, cheese, and cider-apple sauce were daily articles the year round. The food of the table was sometimes varied by the fruit of the chase or with fine fish from the streams or lakes of the vicinity.
With the advent of frame houses came conveniences and comforts not known before. The chimneys, made of brick and laid in clay, were of immense proportions so as to afford a large fireplace in two or more rooms and a brick oven. This oven was sometimes five feet square, and was connected with the chimney by a flue. In these ovens, usually once a week, a fire was kept till the bricks were hot, and then most of the baking for a week was done, including the never-failing pot of beans and pork. Potatoes were baked there or on the hot coals. The
I Mrs. R. S. Hastings has a pair of spoon moulds once owned by her grandfather, Ebenezer Carleton, that did service in the Borough.
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Dutch oven had a career of many years. This oven was an iron pot, with a rim around the cover projecting up an inch or more. In this pot the dough was put, the oven was placed on the live coals, and other coals were placed on the cover. This made a good substitute for the modern oven. The tin baker was a more modern invention. With its cover on, all parts of the bread, the beef, the chicken, or the turkey to be cooked were covered, except that next to the fire, as it stood on the hearth. It was so arranged that the contents could be frequently turned to the fire, thus ensuring an even heat. The "lug-pole" held the pots and kettles over the fire when cooking was done outdoors; it was also used to some extent in the cabins. It needed constant watching, lest the fire should so burn or weaken it that the con- tents of the kettles would be dumped into the fire. This early gave way, in the cabins, to the iron crane in the fireplace, hung in such a manner that it could be swung out into the room, and pots and kettles, by means of pothooks, could be kept as near the fire as desired. With these, the frying-pan, the spit, and other facilities, the thrifty housewife could do the cooking as satisfactorily as can be done to-day with the better facilities at hand.
Those who boasted of a carpet, made of rags and woven on the family loom, for the "spare room," were very few indeed. The unpainted floor was usually as white as scrubbing could make it, and was covered with white sand from the bank of the river or shore of the lake. The tin peddler, with his shining tins and Shaker brooms, had not yet made his appearance, and when the good housewife needed a new broom, it was made of fir, spruce, or hemlock boughs tied to a handle cut in the woods for that purpose.
But few pictures adorned the walls. Silhouettes or profile likenesses were sometimes found, but even these were scarce. In most families, the Bible was read daily, and the children were religiously instructed in the catechism. Many, even non- church-members, were scrupulously exact in having their chil- dren baptized in infancy, and a record of the ceremony made in the family Bible. The children were carefully instructed in their behavior at home and abroad, and paid due respect to age and position. When the minister or the village squire passed, the children ceased their labor or their play; the girls made a courtesy, and the boys, cap in hand, made a bow. Leavitt's Almanac was a yearly visitor to the homes, and was frequently consulted in regard to the weather; but the weekly newspaper was rare in the homes of any neighborhood.
When the "spare room" did not contain a fireplace, the bed was warmed in cold weather with the warming-pan. This was a round pan usually made of brass with a cover and long han- dle. When filled with live coals, and passed between the flax
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or woolen sheets, it changed the temperature of the bed mate- rially. The foot-stove was a tin box in which live coals were carried to church or placed in the sleigh to keep the feet warm. The usual mode of travel was on horseback. The saddle was frequently made with the pillion to carry double. It was not till about 1800 that the two-wheeled chaise with its thorough- braces of leather made its appearance in New Chester. Cutting Favor is said to have been the first person in town to own this vehicle.
The shoemaker and the tailor in their work traveled from house to house and made the shoes for the family or the clothes for the men and boys to last a year.
Fast-day was strictly observed as a day of fasting and prayer. All work was suspended and the people generally attended divine service. Thanksgiving was a day preeminently for family reunions and good cheer, with often a shooting match or a turkey shoot for a diversion. The turkey was set up, so many rods distant, to be shot at, at a stated price per shot, and if blood were drawn, the person firing became the owner of the bird. Squirrel hunts took place each fall, when sides were chosen, and every owner of a gun took to the woods on a given day. Each bird or animal killed counted so many points. Later all participants and their ladies enjoyed a supper, which the losing contestants paid for.
Women and girls, as well as men and boys, frequently went barefooted when about their work in the summer-time, and it was a common practice for children, and no uncommon thing for men, to go barefooted to church.I
The clothes the people wore, as well as the food they ate, were the products of the farm. The hand cards, the spin- ning-wheel, and the hand loom were important adjuncts in all families that could afford them. The wool from the sheep or the flax from the garden was carded into rolls by the use of the hand cards, then spun on the wheel and woven into cloth on the loom. The hand cards early gave way to the power carding machine which made the wool into rolls, which were in turn, at the homes, made into yarn for the loom or knitting. Sheep's grey, made by mixing white and black wool, was the well-nigh universal material used in making men's clothes. There was but little difference, if any, between a summer and a winter suit. Clothes made of wool or flax, though of lighter weight, were also as generally worn by the women. The handicraft of women's work was frequently seen in coloring, either before or after weaving. To be proficient in the making of yarn and cloth, was one of the highest accomplishments of the period.
I At the Borough, the choir when singing stood in the open space between the door and the seats of the schoolroom, and Samuel Tirrell, one of the singers, was usually barefooted.
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Many fine specimens of table-cloths and bedspreads still exist which were made by the expert workers of those days, which are the delight and wonder of the present generation.
Sugar making came in the early spring, when the warm days and cold nights made the sap of the sugar-maple flow. This was gathered from the buckets at the trees and carried to the sugar-camp in the woods by means of a wooden yoke over the shoulders, from each end of which was suspended a pail. At the camp, the sap was boiled in huge kettles over an open fire, and, when reduced to syrup, it was carried to the kitchen, where it was still further boiled. It was then sometimes stirred dry for table use, but usually made into cakes or poured into tubs to cool, for the market or for use during the year. In many families not a pound of sugar was purchased at the stores during the entire year, the product of the sugar-orchard being the only kind used.
Later in the spring came soap-making, when the waste grease was tried out and boiled with the lye from the ash barrel, and a sufficient amount of soft soap was made to last a year.
This was the age of the wall builders. After the forests had been cleared away, then commenced the clearing of the land of the loose stone. This was continued till after the land was laid down to grass, and thus on the old farms are found miles of stone wall, much of it four feet wide and three high, monuments to the indefatigable labors of the farmers of fifty and one hundred years ago.
Diversions were few. Public gatherings were confined al- most entirely to religious meetings, which may be one rea- son why the people were seemingly more religiously inclined than now. The monotony of home life was also broken by quilting parties, when the women of the neighborhood gathered at the different homes in turn, and made quilts, spun yarns, wove cloth, gathered and discussed the news. In the fall, there were the husking-bees, at which the young, and sometimes the old, of both sexes, gathered to husk the corn. At these huskings in the barn, the only light provided was the tallow dip in the tin lantern with its perforated sides, which gave only a faint light. Later in the season came the paring-bees, when the apples were pared, quartered, and strung to dry. After the work was done at these gatherings, a hearty meal was served in the kitchen, usually of baked beans, pumpkin pies, and other pastry, tea and coffee. Then came the social hour, sometimes with dancing, but usually devoted entirely to playing games, all games liaving fines, and all fines being paid with a kiss. Then there was, occasionally, the spelling school at the district schoolhouse, when the contest was to see who would stand up the longest, each being obliged to be seated on failing to spell a word correctly. Sometimes sides were chosen, or tlie
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contest was between different districts. The singing-school was a common diversion in which many joined. The singing- master was not a professor from the schools, but one living near- by who was a good singer for those days, had a knowledge of the rudiments of music, and sufficient confidence in himself to teach others all he knew.
Raisings were occasions of much interest. The frame of a building was first put together and then raised, a side at a time; and as all buildings were made of heavy timbers, many strong hands were needed to place them in position. There was no lack of willing hands on such occasions, for intoxicating liquors were freely furnished and, after the work was done, wrestling, lifting stiff-heels, and other contests were engaged in. It is said that when Moses Sleeper raised his first barn, his rum gave out before the work was done, and the crowd, to show its appreciation of the situation, carried the ridge-pole to the bank of the river and there left it. Later, when he raised the frame of his house, he provided a barrel of rum, removed the head, and told the crowd to see if there was not enough to last until the job was finished.
Every member of the community was expected to respond in turn for the care of the sick. No undertakers in those days lightened the burdens of the afflicted. Neighbors performed all these duties when death invaded the home. The dead were robed in the invariable white shroud, and two persons sat guard over the remains each night till the funeral. The custom of furnishing intoxicating liquors at funerals was almost universal before the dawn of the nineteenth century, and for some years later, the quantity and quality of the liquor being governed by the means or liberality of the providing party. A pine coffin, sometimes unpainted, contained the remains of the deceased, and was borne by four men to the grave on the farm or to the near-by graveyard. A long sermon was usually preached by the officiating clergyman, in which the doctrine of eternal pun- ishment was frequently blended in no uncertain words. In the middle of the nineteenth century, the custom of treating at funerals had entirely disappeared, but the minister still took a text and preached a sermon. In Bristol village, the funerals were generally in one of the churches, and those who preferred the sanctity of the home were considered exclusive. On the occurrence of death in town, the people were informed of the fact by the tolling of the bell. At regular intervals for ten, twenty, or thirty minutes, according to the prominence of the deceased, the bell was struck; then came a pause, and the bell struck the age; another pause, and the bell sounded once for a man or twice for a woman. The remains were carried on a wooden bier to the church and to the grave by four men, the friends following on foot. The coffin or casket was covered
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with a pall, and the bell was tolled from the time the procession left the church till it returned to the home. For the service of tolling the bell the town paid a fee of twenty-five cents.
In the early years of the nineteenth century, lawyers thrived on a great many small cases rather than on a few important ones as now. Suits were frequently brought for as small a sum as one dollar. No real estate and not an article of personal proper- ty was exempt from attachment till 1807, when, in exempting one bedstead, bed and bedding, the clothes necessary for imme- diate use, a few books, one cow, and one swine, the first step was taken towards the present liberality. To fail in business meant more than the loss of one's property. It frequently resulted in imprisonment in the county jail. Ezekiel Webster, during the first years of the nineteenth century, made a visit to Bristol each month and remained several days on each visit, as counsel in these petty cases.
Every farmer was supposed to make at least one trip to Boston or some other market each year to dispose of the surplus products of the farm. In winter there might be seen almost every day long lines of one-horse pods and pungs and two-horse sleighs winding their slow and tedious course to Boston. Almost invariably these loads were ornamented with one or more dressed frozen hogs on top, uncovered, their legs extended up- ward as though appealing for help. The body of the load con- sisted of the surplus products of the farm - poultry, butter, cheese, beans, peas, grain, dried apples on strings, woolen mit- tens and stockings, woolen yarn and sometimes wool and linen cloth, made by the thrifty women ; frequently there were sheep's pelts, furs, the skins of bears, foxes, and deer, and sometimes mutton and venison. Frequently a dozen neighbors started at the same time and kept company on the road. Nearly all car- ried with them their food - bread, doughnuts, cheese, cooked sausages, and frozen bean porridge. They trudged along on foot, in conversation with one another, or rode standing on the circular step at the back of their pods, or sometimes on top of their loads. When night came they paid ten cents for the privilege of warming their porridge by the tavern fire and sleep- ing on the barroom floor. The incidental expenses of the trip were largely for toddy, so necessary for every man in those days. Farmers on the road were not termed teamsters. This was an honor reserved for those who made a business of being on the road summer and winter with their four or six horses or oxen, drawing heavy loads of manufactured goods or farm produce to market and returning with rum and other necessary supplies for the country stores. Josiah Fellows for many years drove four yoke of oxen between Bristol and Boston for Moses Lewis, the round trip occupying two weeks ; and Stephen Nel- son drove a six-horse freight wagon on the same business.
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EARLY CONDITIONS AND CUSTOMS
A very common sight in the fall of the year was large droves of cattle that fairly choked the turnpike as they traveled along to market. Western beef in eastern markets was then unknown, and every farm on every hill and in every valley teemed with large herds of cattle. The raising of neat stock, now almost unknown, was then a source of large income to the farmer, and the toll gathered by the gatekeeper for the travel of these cattle over the turnpike, materially increased the receipts of the May- hew Turnpike corporation. These droves of cattle, when night overtook them on the road, were turned into some field to graze. Jeremiah Prescott made a business of shacking these droves of cattle in the fields now owned by Mrs. S. S. Southard, and his receipts from this source during one season were frequently three hundred dollars.
The custom of binding out boys and even girls during their minority was very common. The compensation was the learn- ing of a trade, or simply their support till of age. Such were called "indented" boys or girls. They were bound by legal papers so that the masters had a legal claim on them during the time specified. As was to be expected, some found kind masters and good homes, while others were abused and overworked. The papers in those days frequently contained advertisements for runaway boys and girls, and sometimes a trifling reward was offered to show the contempt of the masters for the runaways. We present here a contract in such a case as spoken of, and then follow two advertisements clipped from the papers of that day.
This indentor witneseth that Levi Bean, son of Obediah Bean of Pop- lin in the county of Rockingham State of New Hampshire cooper by and with consent of his Said Father hath put himself apprentice to Samuel Smith of Bridgewater in the County of Grafton and State of New Hamp- shire Husbandman with the said Samuel Smith after the manner of an apprentice to Serve from the Day of the Date Hereafter mentioned for and During the Term of four years nine months and twenty-nine days which term the Said apprentice is to serve his Said master faithfully in his Service keep Lawful Company everywhere, and obey. He shall do no damage to his Said Master he shall not waste his Said Masters Goods nor lend them unlawfully to any he Shall not commit Fornication or con- tract matrimony within Said term without making his Said master's damage thereby Good at Cards Dice or any other unlawful games he Shall not play he Shall not abjoin himself by day or by night from his Said master's servis without his leave nor haunt ale houses taverns or play houses but in all things behave himself as a faithful apprentice ought to Do towards his Said master and towards his Said mistress Dur- ing Said term.
And the Said Samuel Smith for himself his heirs doth hereby Cove- nant and promise to find and provide unto Said apprentice Good and wholesome meats and drink and apperril washing Lodging and other necessaries both in sickness and health fitting for an apprentice During Said term he will give or cause to be given to Said Apprentice all the winter schooling in my district at the Expiration of Said term to give unto the Said apprentice Eighty dollars and one good new Sute of apperril for all parts of his body and all his old apperril. In testamony
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