USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Keene > History of the town of Keene, from 1732, when the township was granted by Massachusetts, to 1874, when it became a city > Part 29
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Farmers' daughters went out to serve as "help" to their more wealthy neighbors, or in case of sickness, or where there were no daughters in the family. And the women's work was not only spinning, weaving, making butter and cheese, and general housework, but they milked the cows-sometimes while the men watched with loaded gun to protect them from the lurking savage-fed the hogs and the poultry, and gathered the vegetables for the table; and they were fortunate if they had wood prepared for their kitchen fires. During the Revolutionary war, the women took almost the whole care of the farm and stock, and performed the labors of the field. The cooking was done by the open fire, with the aid of the brick oven,
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supplemented in the later years with the bake-kettle. When that was lacking, the cake was often baked on the hot stones of the hearth, and potatoes were roasted in the hot ashes. Meat was roasted by being hung before the fire and kept constantly turning. Stoves did not come into general use until near the middle of the 19th century.
The farmer had almost nothing to buy. Nearly every- thing needed in the family was raised on the farm. Almost the only article of food purchased was salt fish, brought from the seaboard. His crops from his fresh, unworn soil were abundant and the surplus sold for good prices. Pota- toes often yielded 400 bushels to the acre-even as late as 1840. After some years of industry and frugality many farmers attained comparative affluence.
During the later years of the 18th and the earlier ones of the 19th century, when snow covered the ground in winter all the roads to Boston would be lively with the teams of the farmers, carrying their produce to market. Some would go with a pair, some with a single horse, and some with oxen, loaded with pork, butter, cheese, poultry and other produce. The larger crops of rye, corn, oats and barley and wool were usually disposed of at home, and cattle and sheep were driven to market. Each farmer would carry his own provender and a large box of luncheon from home; and the tavern-keepers recognized the custom and provided such other entertainment as was needed. The return freight would be salt, molasses, a few gallons of the indispensable rum, a little salt fish, a little tobacco, a few spices, a little tea, and a few yards of dress goods and ribbons for the wife and daughters; and the arrival home of the thrifty farmer brought joy to the whole house- hold.
Many of those primitive homes, though bare of orna- ment and meagre in outfit, were lovely and picturesque. As cold weather came on the roaring fire of the huge logs on the hearth shed a glow of light and heat through the ample kitchen. That fire was never allowed to go out. A log or large brand was buried in the embers each night, for a bed of coals the next morning. If by any chance the fire was lost, coals had to be brought from the neighbors,
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perhaps over long distances, or rekindled with the tinder- box-but that was now getting out of date, and was seldom in condition for use. Fire was sometimes kindled by flashing powder in a flint-lock gun. Hunters often started fires in that way.
The kitchen was also the sleeping apartment of the farmer and his wife, the bed standing in one corner, with the wheel, or sometimes, in cold weather, the loom,1 in the opposite corner. At the fireside stood the old "settle," and in an aperture in the chimney left for the purpose, or on a convenient shelf, were the pipes and tobacco, and the farmer and his wife would sit down at a leisure hour and enjoy a comfortable smoke together; and the excellent tobacco of those days gave a delightful perfume to the whole house. Very few young women used tobacco, but many fell into the habit in their later years. On the side opposite the fire stood the "dresser," bright with its polished pewter and possibly a few pieces of china or earthen ware, the plates and platters-some of wood- set up on edge, like a small army making the most of its numbers in the face of a more powerful enemy. When boards were laid for floors they were often kept in immaculate whiteness by scouring, or covered with clean, white sand, over which the birch broom would be drawn in various ways to make graceful and artistic designs. The broom was made by cutting a yellow birch sapling about three inches in diameter, four to five feet long, taking off the bark of about a foot of the upper end, then peeling that end into thin, narrow strips for the brush, and using the other end, shaved down, for the handle. Along the walls of the cabin hung crook-neck squashes and festoons of red peppers and apples on strings, the latter "quartered and cored," while on poles overhead were rings cut from the yellow pumpkin, all drying for winter use. The almanac, dividing with the Bible the honor of furnishing the litera- ture of the family, and relied upon almost superstitiously for prognostications of weather, hung by the oven door. A sun-dial on a southern window-sill, or guesses by the
1 " The loom of the same pattern as that shown in Giotto's frescoes in 1885. was used here in New England-had been for seven centuries without change," (Home Life in Colonial Days, page 213.)
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position of the sun by day and the moon and stars by night, supplied the place of a clock, and were sufficient for all practical purposes. Evening gatherings were appointed "at early candle lighting."
In those times, church and state were united. The church was sustained by the whole community under the management of the political machinery of the state and town, a tax for its support being laid on each property holder. One of the conditions of a grant of a township by Massachusetts, as in the case of this town, was that a suitable meetinghouse should be built and a "learned and orthodox minister settled in such town within five years." And the charter of Keene from Gov. Benning Wentworth of New Hampshire required that there should be set apart "One Sixty forth Parte of the Said Tract for the first Set- tled Minister of the Gospel in Sd Town" and "One Sixty forth Parte of the said Tract for A Glebe for the Church of England, as by Law Established." One sixty-fourth part was 3941/2 acres. The first meetinghouse in every case was a plain building, like a barn, without finish, and the men sat on one side and the women on the other. There were no means of warming it in winter, yet every one was required to "go to meeting," though thinly clad and poorly shod, and remain through two long services, each sermon at least an hour long-dwelling chiefly on arguments upon abstract theology, the terrors of an angry God, and the horrors of eternal punishment-with one short and one very long prayer to each service.
One of the loveliest of her sex has told her experience in those days. Her father lived three miles from the meeting- house and had nine children. On Sunday morning in win- ter, he would yoke his oxen to the sled, on which he would have a few boards, put on a chair for "mother," take blankets and bed-coverings in which the children cuddled down on the boards, drive three miles to meeting, stay through both services and an hour's intermission, and then drive home through the snow to a cold house, some- times a furious storm coming on, in the meantime. She said her feet were cold ever afterwards. Women sometimes carried heated stones for their hands and feet, and later,
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foot-stoves were used, filled at the start with hot coals and replenished for the ride home at the house of a friend near the meetinghouse. It was thought essential that a child should be baptised soon after birth, and babies were some- times taken to those cold houses for baptism before they were a week old.
"A very large proportion of the persons who usually attended church, or meeting, as it is called, came from Ash Swamp and the hills in the West part of the town, at con- siderable distances. It was not convenient for these per- sons to return during the intermission, and it was the practice of those persons living in the vicinity of the meet- ing-house to throw open their doors for the accommoda- tion of such, during the cold weather, when it was incon- venient to remain in the meeting-house. This weekly com- munication of the inhabitants of the village with those residing at a distance, if it did not tend to their religious improvement, was well calculated to cultivate the social virtues, to make the members of the parish better acquainted with each other, and to give additional inter- est to the usual exercises of the Sabbath."
(Annals, page 103.)
In summer all walked to meeting, or, if a horse was owned, the man would take his wife on a pillion behind him, and the children walked, barefooted, the older girls carrying their stockings and shoes and putting them on just before they arrived. The minister was regarded as a superior and sanctified being, and many a child, innocently judging from the remarks of its elders, believed him to be God himself. At the close of the services, the congregation would rise and stand while he passed out through the main aisle.
When the second and larger meetinghouse was built, though still severely plain and devoid of warmth and ornament, the wealthy and prominent citizens were allowed to select places and build their pews somewhat according to rank, and those exhibitions of grades and relative superiority caused many heartburnings and jealousies. Be- hind the meetinghouse, stood a long row of sheds, where scores of horses were sheltered and the less devout men gathered at noon for their weekly chat.
"Deacons' seats" were built at the base of the high pulpit, facing the congregation; those for negroes, boys
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without parents and irresponsible persons at the rear, in a corner, or in the gallery. Several slaves were owned in Keene during the first years of its settlement and they were allowed seats apart. The tithingmen, chosen by the town from among its first citizens, and sworn to the per- formance of their duties, with long staves, sometimes with crooks like a shepherd's, took position overlooking the whole congregation, or walked the aisles, to preserve order and keep the overworked, drowsy ones awake. It was also a part of their duty to see that the laws requiring all to attend meeting were enforced.
The singing was performed by the reading of a line of a hymn by the minister or the leader-who gave the key note with his pitch pipe-and the choir, from its repertoire of half a dozen tunes, or the congregation, singing it after him; then taking the next line in the same way. This method was abolished in Keene in 1780, by vote of the town.
Sunday began at sunset on Saturday night and ended at sunset Sunday night, and that custom continued till about 1820 to 1830. The observance of the Sabbath was very strict. "A luckless maid-servant of Plymouth, who in the early days smiled in church, was threatened with banishment as a vagabond." Innholders were subject to fine for allowing "any person to drink to drunkenness or excess in his or her house on Lord's-day." "About 1750 the owner of the first chaise that appeared in Norwich, Conn., was fined for riding in it to church;" and in the other colonies, in the middle of that century, travelling on Sunday was punished by fines. But all must go to meet- ing, whatever the distance or the weather.
The sanctity of the Sabbath was so pervasive that even the dogs and the horses knew when the day came. The faithful and intelligent dog never failed to go with the family on other days, but no well-brought-up Puritan canine attempted to do so when the members started off on Sunday morning, dressed for "meeting." It is a tradi- tion among the descendants of Lieut. James Wright, one of the early settlers, who lived where his grandson, George K. Wright, now does, (1900), that he always rode his
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horse to meeting on Sunday; that one Sunday morning he sent some one to bring the horse from the pasture, but he could not be found; that thereupon the lieutenant walked to meeting; and that when he arrived he found the faithful animal standing quietly in his master's shed. The family of Mr. Timothy Colony attended the church at West Keene. "One Sunday morning the horse, ready harnessed, stood at the door, the family was a little behind time, and at the ringing of the bell the animal started, and trotted to the church door, leaving the family to walk." (J. D. Colony.)
During the Indian wars every man went to meeting armed, as he did to work in the fields, including the min- ister himself. A sentinel was placed at the door, and sometimes pickets at a distance.
Puritan morals frowned on amusements generally. Dancing, card-playing and theatre-going were considered abominations. Almost the only public and secular inter- course the people had was that intervening between the solemn services of the sanctuary, when they caught a few moments for gossip. But they were inclined to sociability, and gradually the taut lines of discipline were broken, and dancing and other amusements came in, with a greater tendency to looseness as a reaction from the unnatural tension. Kitchen junkets became frequent.
Wrestling was the favorite amusement of the men and boys, and professionals went from one town to another for matches on public days. After the Revolution, "court days" were very attractive for public gatherings. The raising of a house or other large building was always a time for unbounded hilarity; and accidents sometimes happened in consequence. At the raising of a meeting- house it was the custom for the town to provide a barrel of rum and plenty of food, men skilled in the business were hired from "down country," and the frolic lasted two days or more. When the large old meetinghouse in Packersfield was raised, the town sent a committee to Col. Bellows, at Walpole, for a barrel of rum, and it was hauled across the country on a horse-barrow. It was a common thing at such times for excellent citizens to be assisted to their
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homes by the soberer ones, and no disgrace attached to them in consequence. Ardent spirits were considered indis- pensable to proper hospitality and enjoyment, and in brac- ing the system against exposure and hardship. Every family kept and used them. Callers were invariably treated with them, and there was special generosity of that kind when the minister called. The ordination of ministers, the dedication of meetinghouses, and even funerals, were made occasions of feasting, and great freedom in those indul- gences. At one funeral of a notable person, "a strong sling of rum, sugar and water was prepared in a large tub, from which all present were invited to help themselves." When the temperance movement had abolished the custom, one good old patriarch said, with much bitterness, "Tem- perance has done for funerals." Very early the custom pre- vailed of furnishing all the guests at funerals with gloves. Later it was confined to the bearers.1 There were no hearses, and the bearers, eight to sixteen, alternating by fours, carried the bier-often a rudely constructed one- on their shoulders.
The desire for social intercourse often led women to take a foot-wheel on a horse, sometimes with a baby besides, and go to a neighbor's to spend the day, industri- ously improving the time with hand, foot and tongue.
Youthful marriages and large families prevailed, and girls often became wives at the age of sixteen or seventeen. Bachelors were frowned upon, "old maid" was a term of ridicule and reproach, and few of either sex remained single. The banns were "published" for three weeks pre- vious to the wedding by posting at the meetinghouse door, or by being "cried" in open meeting, three Sundays in succession. Weddings corresponded to the style of living, otherwise they were not materially different from those of the present day; but "fixing" to be married was an entirely different affair. Soon after the engagement the young woman bought her wheels and began to spin and weave her linen and flannels. Then came the quiltings-
1 When that custom ceased, it is related that at a funeral where negroes were employed as bearers, as they often were when there were slaves, one of them who had not been provided with gloves as he expected, turned to his neighbor and inquired, "Sambo, you got glove ?" "No." , "Cæsar, you got glove ?" "No." "Well den, fring 'e down, let 'e go hisself."
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jolly frolics at which the women and girls did the work in the afternoon and the young men came in the evening for the dancing, where that was permitted, games, and to "beau" their sweethearts home. In going to parties at a distance the young man took his best girl on the horse behind him, but she was expected to provide her own pil- lion. Each daughter was furnished with at least one fine feather bed, the feathers picked from the live geese on the farm.
Huskings were delightful festivities, closing with a dance and a supper of mince and pumpkin pies, "nut-cakes" (doughnuts), cheese, apples and cider, and even these were sometimes preceded by roast turkey. A red ear husked by a young man entitled him to go the rounds with kisses, and one husked by a girl gave her the right to kiss the lad of her choice-or, if her courage failed her, be kissed by every lad present.
As the thrifty young orchard came to bearing, cider was the common drink, taking the place of beer in Ger- many and wine in France. Its market value was about fifty cents a barrel. Farmers put ten, twenty and even fifty barrels in the cellar for the year's supply of their large families. "One village of forty families in Massachu- setts made 3,000 barrels in 1721." Charles Francis Adams tells us that "to the end of John Adams's life a large tankard of hard cider was his morning draught before breakfast."
To show how some families lived, the statement has been made that, in 1755, when Col. Benjamin Bellows, of Walpole, repelled the attack of the Indians, he had thirty men in his employ; and that many years afterwards his family was so large that he killed an ox or a cow every week and put down twenty barrels of pork and 400 bar- rels of cider for his year's supply, and other things in pro- portion. He ran boats to Hartford and Windsor, Conn., and brought up iron for his blacksmith and supplies for himself and the country around.
The first schools were very primitive affairs. Little could be learned in them in consequence of the lack of text-books and competent teachers, and the "three Rs"
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constituted the entire curriculum. Before schoolhouses were built, the schools were taught in unoccupied log-houses, barns or other buildings. The first school in Keene of which we have any record was in 1764, and the town voted six pounds sterling for its support.
As the settlements grew the children increased rapidly in numbers, the schools were large and competent teachers came to the front. In winter the teachers were men and the schools were effective and practical, so far as they went. Having but few branches of study to engage their attention, and but short time for those, the pupils applied themselves closely, and many excellent readers, arithme- ticians and chirographers received all their instruction in those schools of only a few weeks in the year. A hand- some handwriting was an accomplishment and was acquired by many. The reading books were the Testa- ment, New England primer, and, in some places, the psalter. Dilworth's spelling-book was published in Eng- land in 1740, and was used here about 1770, and Knee- land's spelling-book about 1800; but there were no text- books on arithmetic, the teacher "setting sums" for the pupils to work out. Noah Webster's spelling book and Morse's geography appeared soon after the Revolution; and a little later, Pike's arithmetic, by Nicholas Pike of Somersworth, N. H., followed by the "Scholar's Arith- metic," by Dr. Daniel Adams of Leominster, Mass., after- wards of Keene, where he published his "Adams' New Arithmetic."
The style of dress for men was quaint and elaborate; that for women changeable, but much less so than at the present time. Till as late as about 1800, men wore "cocked hats"-the broad brim turned up to the crown in three places ;- shirts with ruffles at the bosom and wrists, long waistcoats covering the hips, often very handsomely em- broidered; coats made large and long, usually of blue, with deep facings of buff, and metal buttons; "short- clothes" with knee-buckles and long hose and low shoes with large buckles covering the instep; and one handsome coat was sometimes handed down from father to son with the farm and the stock. In full dress, gentlemen wore
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swords, and their hose were of white or black silk. Mili- tary officers wore boots with white tops and spurs, even at balls. The same kind of boot was also worn at times by civilians. The warm underclothing of the present day was unknown, and women wore low, thin shoes, even in winter; and consumption carried off a larger proportion of victims than now. Rubber boots and shoes were unknown, and so were dry feet, except in dry weather or within doors. Umbrellas appeared in Boston in 1768, but did not come into general use until the last of that century.
The code of criminal law was strict and severe. In very early times not only murder, but treason, arson, rape, adultery, burglary, robbery and grand larceny were punished with death. Imprisonment for debt, even when contracted for food in cases of sickness and distress, was common, and that law continued in force in this state until within a few years. Whipping, branding, the pillory and the stocks were common methods of punishment. Men still living remember to have seen the old stocks used here in Keene, stored in the horsesheds in rear of the old meeting- house. For what would now be considered trivial offences, men were thrown into jail; but the limits of the "jail yard" were often prescribed, except for criminals, some- times extending a certain number of rods, sometimes including the whole village or town. In very early times, scolds were punished by ducking, with an apparatus con- trived for the purpose, or by wearing split sticks on their tongues. But there was comparatively little crime among pioneers. After the danger from savages had passed, doors and windows were seldom fastened, day or night. The roads were safe, and women and girls could travel alone through the woods, without danger of being molested.
Tramps were scarcely known. The only paupers were the demented, and the care of those was let out to the lowest bidder. In some towns this odious practice was aggravated by the custom of furnishing liquor at such "vendues," at the expense of the town, to incite the bid- ders to run the price down to the lowest possible point, thus leaving the poor in the hands of those least suited to have the care of them. By a law passed in 1719, any
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person residing in a town three months without being warned to depart by the selectmen or constable became an "inhabitant" of that town, which made the town liable for his support in case he was at any time unable to sup- port himself. Under that law it was the custom of the towns to warn nearly every new comer to depart, and many who afterwards became prominent citizens were thus warned. If they neglected, or refused, to heed the warn- ing, the law provided that they might be taken by the selectmen, or constable, and delivered to a proper officer of some other town, and that officer might pass them on to another, until they reached the place of their legal resi- dence. At the annual meeting in Keene, in 1781, the town "voted to Israel Houghton Thirty pounds Like money (old Continental currency) for his services carrying patte Towzer out of Town;" and many such votes are recorded in the old town books. That law continued in force for more than one hundred years.
The usual method of travelling was on horseback, the minister and doctor making their visits in that way, the latter carrying his instruments and medicines in capacious saddlebags. When Keene was first settled, the price of a physician's visit was sixpence (eight cents), and only eight- pence at the time of the Revolution.
Dentistry was unknown till the beginning of the nine- teenth century. If a tooth offended, the sufferer went to the nearest physician, or to the minister, the barber, the blacksmith, or other ingenious person, who wrenched it out with a "turnkey."
Making salts for pot and pearl ashes was an impor- tant industry. Potash-kettles were brought from Boston, and the lye of hard wood ashes was boiled down till it "grained," like sugar. This product sold readily for cash or its equivalent in goods. Roasting the salts in an oven produced potash, and another similar purifying process made pearlash. There were several manufactories of pot and pearl ashes in town, towards the close of the eigh- teenth century.
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