USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Peterborough > History of the town of Peterborough, Hillsborough county, New Hampshire > Part 6
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It has always been an enigma to us how these early settlers became so intelligent and well-informed. There were no books in these early homes, always excepting the Bible, and now and then a stray volume of theological and speculative discus- sion, such as the "Marrow of Modern Divinity," or the "Self- Justiciary Convicted and Condemned." The Bible was thor- oughly read without note or comment, and made the rule of their lives, as hardly ever since; and the effects of its teach- ing was apparent in the lives of all our ancestors. It did more to make these men what they were than any other cir- cumstance in their lives.
Without this influence upon them, isolated as they were in the midst of the dense forests, and without much association, they would have been little better than barbarians. Under these influences, with their active perceptive powers, and ar- dent desire for information, they were the ready recipients of a vast deal of oral instruction from the best-informed among themselves. Their common-sense was predominant above everything. They became intelligent, they hardly knew how. At the beginning of the Revolution they found themselves able to grapple with all the abstract principles of government, and to see their situation at a glance. It is said that New Hampshire presented less disloyal men, or tories, in the Revolution than any other State in the Union. An ignorant and stupid race would have said: "Let well enough alone; they were well off; the hard times had not reached them "; but these men looked farther on to the full demonstration of
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HOME LIFE.
the principles avowed by their rulers, and gave up their wealth, their comfort, and their lives, even, to the support of their liberties.
The diet of the early settlers must have consisted princi- pally of the products of the soil, together with the wild game of the forests and the fish of the streams. To the latter, always present when other things might fail, we are accus- tomed to attribute a great deal of their support. The woods were full of game, and fresh fish in any quantity could be ob- tained, with very little trouble, near their homes. The rest of their food must have been coarse. Indian meal, beans, salted beef and pork, milk, butter, and cheese, with such veg- etables as they could raise, must have constituted their main living. We do not suppose, before the Revolution, that there was much indulgence in such luxuries as sugar, molasses, tea and coffee, spices, etc., and we are not informed that the sugar from the maple was much used. Flour, too, was not much indulged in. These articles named above, so indispensable now, could not then be easily obtained, if, indeed, they had any means for this purpose. Corn and rye bread made the great staple of general consumption for all classes.
But such food as they had was sufficient for all purposes of nourishment and strength in the elements of tissue-making ; and their mode of living was one of their least deprivations in the new settlement. They had an abundance of such food as samp broth and bean porridge, coarse bread, milk, Indian puddings, and vegetables; so that only upon the women de- volved the task of the preparation of an acceptable diet from so few materials.
The early settlers manufactured all their clothing at home. It consisted of fulled cloth for men's wear, and flannel striped with blue for frock and trousers. The women wore flannels dyed at home in such colors as they desired, with very little of the ornament found on the English or French goods of modern times. A calico dress, for a long time, was an ex- pensive luxury that few indulged in, It has seemed to us, from all the facts we have been able to obtain on this subject, that the early settlers were not sufficiently warmly clad to
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HISTORY OF PETERBOROUGH.
meet all the rigors of the climate that attended the first set- tlement in the primeval forests. We think of them as hardier men, and having more stamina than ourselves, so that they did not need all the warmth now required ; as men who did not suffer in winter from cold, even when clad in what would hardly make summer clothing for us. Nevertheless, the query comes up, whether there was as much longevity among them as we have been accustomed to think, and whether these hardy lives were not abridged from a scanty wardrobe, and a bold disdain of the cold, as though they could vanquish the elements by their will. To this we should add that their dwellings lacked all the comforts and conveniences of modern life. They were open, cold, and uncomfortable, and it required much hardihood to endure the exposure to which all were subjected in abodes so imperfectly constructed. We can hardly imagine how they could live in such houses, and carry on so much work besides the regular household duties ; but . they had made up their minds to receive everything in the best spirit, in hopes of better and more prosperous times to come, and thereby they made of their hovels, of their wretched cabins, and half-built houses, homes consecrated to religion, and to all the social and moral virtues. We suppose the training of the children was in rather the patriarchial mode,- the father's will being the rule and end of all domestic power. The children were brought up to early and continued labor, without much relaxation.
In the early settlement, all the people attended public worship regularly. When they lived three or four miles from the meeting-house, in bad weather or in the winter, the great sacrifice it must have been to them in comfort and health, cannot be easily estimated by those who are accustomed to our comfortable and convenient houses, and warm winter clothing. Most of them had to walk to church. There were few horses, no carriages among them, and then with insuffi- cient clothing for such an exposure as sitting in a cold meet- ing-house for two services, each from one and one-half to two hours in length, they must have come home, not simply un- refreshed, but chilled and fatigued by the hard service of the
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day. It seems, for once, as if the common-sense of the people had forsaken them, in making their places of worship so re- pulsive, and so detrimental to health as well as comfort. It was little better than cruelty to inflict such duties upon these men ; yet public opinion compelled all to comply with this custom ; and we suppose it might have been one of the duties of the tithingman to see to it if any one persisted in staying at home.
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CHAPTER VII.
HOME MANUFACTURES.
Home Manufactures. - Flax preceded Wool. - Wolves Common .- Proc- ess of Preparing Wool. - Articles Manufactured. - No Machinery but Home-made, Cheap, and Rude. - Was a Business. - Prices. - Flax Culture a Great Business. - Flax Crop Profitable. - Process of Preparing Flax. - Great Skill. - All Families Engaged in Manu- facture. - Decline after Revolution. - All now Passed Away.
FOR many years after the first settlement of the town, per- haps almost to the beginning of the present century, all the clothing of both sexes was manufactured by the women at home. The flax manufacture probably preceded the woollen, as the town was so exposed to wolves at that time that it was not safe nor profitable to keep sheep. It is related in the manuscript sketches of Samuel Smith that in 1783 they destroyed fifty sheep in one night, belonging to Capt. Thomas Morison and his son, Samuel Morison. Much wool no doubt was raised, notwithstanding these obstacles; they could not, at this time, have imported or paid for such a necessary article. This manufacture was then entirely accomplished by hand. The fleeces of wool were torn to pieces, and all the dirt carefully picked out. Then it was greased and prepared for the cards by placing boards on the wool, and on these heavy weights, and then pulling the wool from under the edges of the boards, in small parcels at a time. Wool-break- ing was made a recreation. Invitations would be given to the women, for the distance of two or three miles to assemble with their cards, and assist in breaking the wool for carding.
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HOME MANUFACTURES.
It was a good task for fifteen or twenty young women to break as many fleeces in an afternoon; and it required a great deal of physical power to accomplish it. Such a recreation was succeeded by the assembling of the young men in the evening, and ended with the usual amusements and games of the day.
The wool manufacture was a very important item in the ancient household. It was all done by hand, there being at that time no labor-saving machines. The wool prepared as above represented was first carded and made into rolls, and then spun on the large wheel, to which a wheel-head, greatly increasing the speed of the spindle, was added about 1800.
It was then woven into the kind of cloth needed-for all the family were dressed in homespun, - thick cloth for men's wear, often not fulled; and flannel for women's garments, which when used for dresses was dyed at home, of such colors as they desired. In addition, large quantities of wool were used for making blankets, stockings, and leggings. The first clothier in town was William Powers, from Ireland, who com- menced his business on the brook, near Mr. J. Milton Mears', in 1777. At first it is probable that he only colored and dressed cloth, but afterwards put in machinery for carding wool.
All the implements needed in these manufactures were made among settlers themselves, -the little foot-wheels for spinning linen ; the large wheels, so called formerly, and the wheel-head subsequently invented; all necessary reels, quill- winders, spools, warping-bars, reeds, harnesses, and looms. They were almost independent of the rest of the world. Where their cards were procured, we do not know. Every home was furnished with a complete set of all these instru- ments and machines for manufacture. They were exceed- ingly cheap as well as rude, requiring little or no use of any iron appliances beyond the bare spindle. So great be- came the demand for these articles that a number of per- sons carried on the wheel-making business, so that the wheels were peddled through the country. The foot-wheels were usually sold at $2.00; the great wheel at $1.00, or with brass
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boxes and iron axle, at $2.00. The patent head came into use about 1800, and was first sold at $2.50; but the price was afterwards reduced to 50 cents ; the quill-wheel $1.00, and the clock-reel sold for $1.00 each.
The flax culture was a great business with our fathers. Every farmer had his plat of ground for flax, which was the most profitable of all his crops. The seed would often pay for the cultivation, which was generally sold in town, and manufactured into linseed oil.
The flax, when grown to maturity, was often pulled by the women; and, after the seed had been thrashed out, it was spread out on the grass to rot; and when rotted sufficiently, was bound up in bundles, and in this form was dressed; that is, the flax and tow were swingled out from it. . Scarcely any crop, while growing, was so beautiful as the flax. From one- half to two bushels of seed were sown on an acre, and the crop amounted to about two hundred pounds. The flax was usually manufactured by the families that raised it. Great skill was required in the work, which we suppose they brought with them from Ireland. Equally with the inhabi- tants of Londonderry, they produced manufactures which always commanded the highest price in the market. And all this was accomplished in the various households, and with such machinery as they could cheaply supply themselves with at home. It is confidently asserted that the sales of linen thread, cloth, diaper, etc., amounted to more than all the other products of the town, and was the most efficient cause of its early prosperity. Hardly a family could be found that did not, more or less, engage in this manufacture, enough cer- tainly for its own consumption .* "It was by manufacturing linen in its various forms, and butter (but principally the for- mer), that the wife of Maj. Robert Wilson raised funds for the education of her son, Hon. James Wilson, both at the academy and college. She set herself (says her grandson, Gen. James Wilson) to manufacturing linen and butter, and everything else the farm would produce. These things she
* Letter Gen. James Wilson, Peterborough Transcript, Jan. 27, 1872.
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would put upon a pack-horse, and taking another saddle-horse herself, she would start off leading the pack animal by the bridle, and thus she would make the journey to Boston and sell her marketing twice in the year, take the money to her son at Andover or Cambridge to pay his way,-for board, tuition, books, clothing, pocket-money, etc. Remember that Peterborough is over sixty miles from Boston; and that in 1783, and some years subsequent thereto, there were no open wrought roads for travellers to follow, only a line of marked trees, for much of the way, to guide the wayfaring man or woman."
Very much is due to the industry, skill, and economy of the women for the prosperity of this town, and for the education of so many of her sons abroad. The thirty-first chapter of the Book of Proverbs may be aptly applied to the mothers of Peterborough.
The linen manufacture was continued till the cotton mills were started in town, about 1810, when farmers began to raise less flax, and in a few years it entirely ceased. So the present generation, and almost its predecessors, never saw any flax growing in the fields.
All these things are entirely passed away. The great wheel with its wonderful new head, the wheel-pin, the little wheel and distaff, the quills and quill-wheel, the clock-reel, swifts and hatchel, coarse and fine cards for tow and cotton, spools and warping-bars, reeds and harness, looms and all their appendages, -all, all have long since gone to the attic or to destruction in all our households. The exhilarating buzz of the little spinning-wheels, the peculiar whirring of the large wheels, and the constant click of the loom are heard no more.
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CHAPTER VIII.
AMUSEMENTS AND SOCIAL HABITS.
Difficulties of the Subject. - The Use of Spirit. - Its Dangers not known. - Its Excess an Abuse. - Wrestling an Amusement. - Quoits. - Social Gatherings. - Mode of Recreation. - Spirits used Freely. - Conversation Useful and Instructive. - Various kinds of Recreations. - Raisings, Huskings, Log-rollings, Quiltings, Apple- parings, and Parties to Destroy Wild Game. - Trainings and Mus- ters. - Election Days. - Horse Racing and the Horse Jockeys. - Bowling Alleys.
THERE is much difficulty in fully ascertaining the facts in relation to the amusements of the early settlers. It is prob- able that in times of so much hardship, during the fierce French wars, and the constant fear of Indian depredations, there was very little of any kind of recreation among the people. Their first object was to live, and their bodily powers were already sufficiently taxed to forbid any kind of amuse- ments that required much active exertion. The social ele- ment was always rife among them, -they were all brothers and sisters, and had one common interest in the general wel- fare of society. We often look with surprise, nurtured by this element more than any other, upon the habits of drinking rum, so common with all in those days. It seems never to have entered their minds that there was either crime, or folly, or uselessness in this habit. Liquor was found in all their houses, not for any domestic use externally, or simply for essences or camphor, but for a beverage. It was dispensed to all, both old and young, as the greatest token of hospitality
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that could be given. They never seemed aware that there was any danger from its use, -that it had any deleterious effects upon the body, or worked infinite mischief to mind and soul. It was the first thing in all the assemblages of men. At log-rollings, huskings, raisings, etc., it constituted an im- portant appendage in all their visiting.
It was essential at all births, and, for a long time, at all funerals, so that our ingress into the world no less than our egress from it was accomplished by its aid. It was used equally by all classes; it was free in all the houses to its inmates and to strangers, and we can only wonder that they did not all of them become drunkards. No one then had come to see the evils of this habit; the drinking was thought all right, while they only condemned the abuse of it. Now and then a poor drunkard was made; he was pitied, but his case afforded no warning to the rest, and occasionally some of the best of society would be overcome by its influence, but it occasioned no alarm. They could not work without it, and they believed that they could not live without it. So it passed as one of the essentials of life. It seems strange to us that they were so slow to see the evils the habit brought upon them, for they often suffered from drunken broils, and were often spectators of quarrels and fighting produced by drink, - and yet they could not see the necessity of abandon- ing its use. Even when respectable and good men were carried away by their excesses, and lost their good character in the community, they yet failed to see the folly and mischief of such an extravagant use of spirits.
At all the public gatherings at an early period, the most prominent amusement was wrestling, and there was always a champion in these games in every community. It is said that when James Wilson entered Harvard College, 1785, that wrestling was then the most popular of college games; that he took the badge for this feat in his freshman year, and retained it during the whole period of his college life. There is good authority for this statement. Sixty years afterward, upon the introduction of his son (Gen. James Wilson) to the late Hon. John Q. Adams, he said, when ascertaining his
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parentage, "Your father was the best wrestler in college." It is to be inferred that Mr. Wilson was trained to these sports by the general resort to them in his native town. How long the custom prevailed we are unable to say. There has been but little of it since the present century came in. The sport, which so tested the strength and muscles of the contestants, was not altogether without danger, for it did occur occasion- ally that an individual became seriously injured for life.
The more innocent game of quoits was often engaged in. But men who had so much use for their muscles and activities at home, could not, we think, make these sports very frequent. In their social gatherings we do not know how the adults amused themselves; they had no cards or games, yet their meetings were pleasant and agreeable to them, - many think that there was much dancing among the older inhabitants at their social gatherings; the younger classes would resort to button, hunt the slipper, blind man's buff, and also to dancing.
It may be said, if it is any excuse for our fathers, that at these parties there was no serving of tea and coffee as now, so that ardent spirits were made the substitute. The people were eminently social, and many of them excellent talkers, so
they could have an agreeable time without any artificial means. In this manner, probably, most of their social parties were conducted. In those times men's ears were open to hear the best informed talk, and these conversations were full of wit, sarcasm, and solid information. It was then almost the only mode of acquiring information of the passing events of the day. There were few newspapers or periodicals that came to their homes, and books were quite as scarce; it was only a few who could keep themselves posted up to the . passing events. There must have been an interest in these conversations far beyond anything now existing, when every man is supposed to be capable of reading for himself with such increased facilities of information, and judging on all these matters which were then communicated orally. .
There were other modes of recreation that were useful and remunerative. Huskings were often made, in which the peo- ple came together, and husked out all their neighbor's corn in
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one evening ; and after free libations of liquor, a good supper, and a social chat, they returned home.
Raisings were another occasion of assemblage and enjoy- ment. Buildings were then made of such massive timber that it required a large force to erect a building, which was done solely by muscular power, all appliances of the modern invention of pulleys used now for this purpose being entirely ignored. On these occasions liquor was always free to all who came to work or to look on. These raisings were usu- ally important events in every neighborhood, and all the people near came to witness and enjoy them. Log-rolling was another mode of useful recreation. When a man had felled a considerable space of ground, covered as it was with its prim- itive growth of large timber, it was impossible for him, with- out aid, to get the logs together so as to burn them. He made a log-rolling, invited all his neighbors, who came, and with good will and strong muscles brought the logs together, and the work ended with a good supper and a social good time.
Quiltings were another mode that called the people to_ gether, the women doing the quilting in the afternoon, and the men assembling in the evening for a social entertainment.
Apple-parings often called them together, when with a knife, for no apple-parers had yet appeared, the knurly and natural fruit of the orchard was pared for the apple-sauce of the winter. No grafted fruit was then known; and how very few native good apples then existed is only now known to the older inhabitants. The orchards were very productive, but the fruit was very poor. Another kind of recreation must be mentioned, but with very little approbation, for it was both cruel and destructive, - I mean that of parties pairing and pitting themselves against each other, to see which would destroy the most of the wild game of the forests, a scale of counting having beforehand been agreed upon. By this cruel and thoughtless destruction of wild animals for no useful pur- pose, our woods were often cleared of most of their game. This feat of useless and destructive policy against wild game has come down to our times. Within a few years a great
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HISTORY OF PETERBOROUGH.
company was organized, and ranged through all the woods within twenty miles of Keene, to destroy all the wild animals that then existed, for mere sport !- to see which party could destroy the most !
We must not omit to mention the great place which the military trainings occupied in the public mind. These train- ings were always attended by the people, and a deep interest manifested in keeping up this organization. Musters were afterwards very popular, and were frequented by large num- bers and with much interest.
Also the election day, the first Wednesday in June, since the adoption of the present constitution of New Hampshire, has been kept as a holiday, and till within a few years very generally observed.
Late in the last century, and in the beginning of the pres- ent one, horse-racing was one of the sports of the time, and the general place of resort was the Evan's flat, on the road south of Albert Frost's. This, no doubt, originated with the horse-jockeys, a class of idle, gossipping, drinking fellows who, for a considerable time molested the community. They each owned one horse or more, and an old watch, and thus equipped they started out on their business. They would assemble at one of the stores in town, and here would banter, put their miserable steeds on trial occasionally, trade watches, - in the meanwhile, each in succession, unless other means were devised to obtain toddy, calling for the drink, till they were all pretty essentially intoxicated. We have a distinct recollection of John Taggart * (Pistol John, so-called), and his brother Abner, Theodore Broad, Jerry Carlton, and others not remembered. A more worthless set of vagabonds never infested society ; nobody ever knew one thing that they were good for.
Still later the bowling-alley was much resorted to, and became such a source of dissipation, the games all being made for strong drink, that the Legislature of the State was obliged to interdict its use.
* At the Temple muster, in 1807, he was wounded in the neck by the wad of the pistol of some one near him, and his carotid artery injured. It so eroded in a few days that it burst while Dr. Twitchell was present. He took it up and tied it, and saved the man's life, though he had never heard that it had been done before.
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CHAPTER IX.
ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS.
First Meeting-houses. - Rev. John Morrison. - His Scandalous Ministry according to a Petition from Inhabitants of Town to be Released from his Support. - Dismission. - Settlement Rev. David Annan. - His Ministry. - Complaint of Elder Moore. - Dismission. - Calls to Rev. Abram Moore and to Rev. Zephaniah S. Moore, D.D. - Ordination of Rev. Elijah Dunbar. - His Ministry. - Causes of Dismission. - The Different Ministers in Congregational Unitarian Society. - Presbyterian Society. - Formation of New Society. - Methodist and Baptist Societies. - Catholic Church.
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