USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Lyndeborough > The history of the town of Lyndeborough, New Hampshire, Vol. II > Part 2
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Garden vegetables, as we know them now, they did not have, and if the truth be told they did not try to have even the few and inferior kinds then known. Fifty years ago a man who spent much time trying to have a vegetable garden was consid- ered a "putterer ; " and if he should have any leanings toward flowers, his sanity was called in question. Pumpkins, squash, beets, carrots and turnips, with the inevitable bed of sage, made up the utmost of their efforts in the garden line in the long ago.
Cook stoves were slow in coming into use in Lyndeborough, as, indeed, they were in other towns. The women were used to cooking by the open fire and looked askance at the new in- vention. Chase Hadley bought one of the first to be brought into town, and it was set up in the kitchen by the side of the old fire-place. It was two or three years before his wife could be persuaded to use it at all, and she cooked by the open fire and baked in the brick oven more or less as long as she kept house. It was the common thing to set up stoves beside the open fire-place and run both.
Previous to the coming of the cook-stove, there was a con- trivance introduced, called a "tin baker," which was thought by the housewives to be a fine thing. My grandfather owned one, but I never saw it in operation. It was made to set up before the fire, and was generally used when there was a " hurry call " for a meal. Probably they have not been used since 1850. But the old brick oven ! Never were such pies and cakes and puddings since, as were turned out of that warm cavern! Ap- petite had nothing whatever to do with the excellency of the viands. They were better, far better, than any baked in a
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modern range. Baked beans, brown bread, and Indian pudding comprised the "menu " for Sunday in every family. These could be prepared the Saturday before, and consigned to the brick oven to come out piping hot when wanted. Thus the sin of cooking on the Sabbath was avoided.
It was not until 1835 that friction matches were used in Lyndeborough. They had been invented in England a few years before, but were so costly in those days when money was scarce, that they were not freely used. Therefore, for the first century in the history of the town, the flint and steel and tinder box method was the only one by which to produce fire. But this was a very troublesome way. Skill was required to strike the spark, catch it in the tinder and blow it into flame. There was a flint and steel in most families, but their main reliance was in care that the fire should not go out. It was carefully covered every night. The glowing coals were raked together and covered deep with ashes, and in the morning this heap of ashes would be opened, dry wood laid thereon, and soon a good fire was burning. But sometimes in spite of all care it would go out, and then some one would go to the neighbors to borrow fire. One old lady who lived on the mountain has told the writer of going to John Ordway's, who lived where Charles J. Cummings lives now, to get fire. Once both families happened to be destitute of the necessity on the same morning, and she had to go over to Robert Badger's, where Harry Richardson now lives, to get coals.
Those of us who grumble at getting up cold mornings and starting the fire with matches and good kindling, might reflect upon going a mile or more through the snow and bringing home coals in a kettle before we could have a fire, and be content.
The wood was burned green, and the practice of storing a year's supply of dry wood was unthought of. The wood was piled in the yard, and the day's supply prepared as needed, and it was prepared with an axe too; wood-saws and saw-horses were not much used then. Digging it out of the snow in winter or sweating in wielding the axe in summer, it was all the same. My grandfather built the first woodshed north of the mountain in the year 1820. Possibly this was the first in town.
It was a good many years after the first settlement of the town that tea and coffee became common beverages. Substi- tutes were used to some extent. Some thought the young and
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THE "OLDEN TIME"
tender leaves of the raspberry bush, dried and steeped, made a fairly good tea, and bread crusts were browned and made to take the place of coffee, but it must be said that New England rum was plenty from the start.
It is not the province of the historian to moralize on this sub- ject but to record facts, and one fact was that the drinking of liquor was the custom of the time, and was not thought wrong or harmful. Everyone from the minister down to his poorest parishioner kept a supply on hand and drank it himself and offered it in hospitality to his guests. It was provided at funerals, as witness at the funeral of the Rev. Sewall Good- ridge the rum and sugar " for the singers " cost $2.25. It was abundant at weddings; and at log-pilings, huskings and rais- ings it was freely used. It was considered the height of dis- courtesy not to offer "spirit " to the minister when he made a pastoral visit. Rum could be bought in the early days for twenty-five cents per gallon. One man who formerly lived in town used to pass the house of a temperance woman, on his regular trips to get his jug filled. She hailed him one day and this colloquy ensued :
"Going after more rum, I suppose ? "
" Yes, ma'am."
" I wish rum cost ten dollars a gallon ! "
" Its wuth it ma'am, its wuth it ! "
There were many taverns in town where it was sold and these were duly licensed by the town. They were considered emi- nently respectable and citizens of standing would call for a glass or mug of "flip." The weighty affairs of town policy would be discussed and settled over a steaming joram of punch at Capt. William Barron's hostelry. The stores all kept liquor for sale, and to treat their customers. At the musters and train- ings in addition to the "Spirit of '76" there was generally a barrel or two of rum. It may be said also that the liquors were pure in those days and the heads were strong, and the consequences of drunkenness were not as grave as might be supposed.
This condition of affairs continued until the temperance re- form movement in the decade from 1830 to 1840. Dr. Israel Herrick was one of the leaders of that movement in Lynde- borough. He says of himself: "I went into this movement with my whole soul, without regard to my reputation or pecu-
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niary loss, and I thank God he so directed me and gave me strength to do it."
With the help of others he carried forward the crusade against dram drinking until the practice was pretty generally abandoned. But years before this was brought about, the apple orchards planted by the settlers had begun to bear, and they bore cider apples. Out of a large orchard, but two or three trees, perhaps, would bear fruit fit for eating; so the " cider apples " were made into cider and rum was supple- mented by this beverage. Almost every one stored many barrels of it in his cellar. One family put forty barrels of apple juice in the cellar in the fall. It was all gone in April, and the men were in the market trying to swap labor for cider.
There were cider mills on the following farms :
Ephraim Putnam's, where Frank Pettengill now lives ; David Putnam 2d's, near where Edwin H. Putnam lives ; Gideon Cram's, where Luther Cram lives ; Uriah Cram's, now called the Putnam place ; one on the Ellingwood place; one at Eben Bachelder's ; one at Jacob Wellman's, where George Carson lives; one at Timothy Richardson's, where F. A. Richardson lives ; one at Andrew Fuller's, where Moses C. Fuller lives ; one at Solomon Cram's, where Willard Rose lives; one at Ben- jamin Jones', where Mr. Wilson lives ; one at the Deacon Good- rich place, North Lyndeborough ; one at the Stephenson place ; one at the farm where H. H. Joslin lives, and doubtless some others in the " olden time." There is not an old-fashioned cider mill in town now. All have been destroyed. They would be something of a curiosity to the boy or girl of to-day.
Sections of a hard wood log about two feet long and nearly the same in diameter were prepared. Holes were mortised in one of them, and tenons or projections to match the holes were set into the other. These rollers were set upright in a strong frame and made to revolve one against the other by a long sweep fastened to one of them. This sweep was quite a stick of timber, and was crooked in order that one end might come near enough to the floor so a horse could be hitched to it. A hopper led the apples against the rollers, or "nuts," as they were called. A boy was generally perched on the frame to scrape the pomace from the rollers (scraping the nuts, it was called), the horse travelled round and round in a circle, and with much creaking and noise the fruit was crushed, the juice and pomace falling into a vat below.
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THE "OLDEN TIME"
The pomace was placed in the press with big wooden scoop shovels, the layers separated with straw ; pressure was applied with wooden screws, some of them six or eight inches in diame- ter. These were turned by levers, and thus slowly, very slowly, cider was made in the " olden time." But if all traditions are true, it was not " slowly, very slowly " imbibed.
Now, it is said that the cider made in those days was better than that made today, for the " pressing " was allowed to stand over night in the vat, and acquired a heavier " body " and bet- ter color and flavor. Cider and apples were the standard re- freshment offered to evening visitors for a good many years, and by that same token, to day-time callers as well. Some of the old " cider mugs" shown in antique collections held a generous measure, and the " boy " whose duty it was to draw cider made many journeys to the cellar.
When not in use the old cider mill was a favorite play-ground for the children. Its cumbrous machinery, its pleasant, musty, fruity smell, its opportunities for hiding, had a fascination for boys and girls. Many a middle-aged man raised in the country has a glad memory of the old cider mill on the farm.
In recent years comparatively little cider is made in Lynde- borough. Andy Holt made it for a number of years at the old Stephenson mill, which he purchased, but none is made there now. Edwin H. Putnam has the only mill in town now where it is made to any extent. He has facilities for making " cider jelly," and does quite a business at that. His is a " grater" mill, and the juice and pomace are carried directly to a hydraulic press. A load of apples may be carried to this mill, and the cider made "while you wait."
Sometimes the cider press was used in pressing hops. There were many hop-yards in Lyndeborough up to about 1860. Dea. William Jones had one on the hill north of his house, and on the opposite side of the road from this was the hop-yard of Samuel Jones. Thus that hill came to be known as Hop-Yard hill. Sherebiah Manning had a hop-house and press on the Benj. Jones place, and there were other farms where hops were raised. The opening of the fertile lands of the West killed the industry in this section.
The question is sometimes asked now-a-days : Do people en- joy themselves in these days as well as they did in the "olden times " ? One old lady of whom the writer asked the question replied : " Well, I don't know. Folks had a proper good time
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when I was a girl-better than they do now, I guess. They did not seem to have so much to worry about." It must not be supposed that the people who built up the town of Lynde- borough did not have their pleasures, in spite of the privations and hardships of pioneer life ; but it is a curious fact that about all of the early amusements were somehow connected with work. Something must be accomplished. Laziness was a sin, and to be called shiftless was a deep disgrace, while many grave faults were condoned or overlooked in a person if only he were "smart to work."
So they had log-pilings, huskings, raisings and chopping- bees. The women, their quiltings, paring-bees and spinning- bees ; and in each and all was the element of work.
Before the practice of shocking corn, now so general, came in vogue, the farmers used to "cut the stalks" just above the ear. These were cured for fodder, and the remainder of the corn plant was allowed to ripen in the field. Late in the fall this was cut up and carried to the barn, and an immense pile made, the length of the barn floor. Rough-and-ready seats were placed along one side, stacks of doughnuts and pies were made, invitations were sent around, and everything was ready for a "husking."
Almost every one came, young and old of both sexes, bring- ing lanterns, which were hung on pitchforks placed in the hay- mows, to help illuminate. Hoarded ears of red corn were sur- reptitiously placed in the pile. Then there were busy hands and busy tongues, shouts of laughter as red-ear forfeits were paid, now and then a wrestling match, until the pile of corn dwindled away, and the carriers of baskets to the chamber found their occupation gone. Then to the house and big kitchen, where there was a bountiful supper of baked beans, brown bread, doughnuts and pies (probably not a dyspeptic there), coffee and cider, and perhaps just a little rum for the aged. And that was a Lyndeborough "husking " of the long ago.
Since the custom of shocking corn or cutting and binding in shocks in the field obtained, there have been very few huskings in town.
The old-fashioned barn was not quite like those of the pres- ent day, and most of those built in the early days were much smaller. The "big door " was in the side, and the barn floor ran from side to side, with the " tie up " and scaffold at one
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, THE "OLDEN TIME"
end and a big " bay " in the other. One entire side of the barn was pinned together and raised, and as the timbers were large and green, it took about all the help in the neighborhood to raise it into place.
No matter how busy the season, or what work was on hand, all the men and boys dropped everything to attend a "raising," and women, too, for that matter, as much help was required to feed such a crowd of hungry men. The boss carpenter was the man of the hour and the work was performed under his direc- tion. Reliable men were stationed with iron bars to guide the tenons into the mortises in the sill; as many men as could get a hold grasped the "band," as it was called, and raised it as far as they could; another contingent stood ready with pike poles to push it still farther up, and thus steadily it was raised until the tenons slipped into the mortises and it was pinned and secure.
There was some excitement in raising the heavy mass of timbers and now and then a wavering as one side or the other was raised faster, but there are no traditions of any serious accident happening on such occasions in town.
In modern barns where the barn-floor runs from end to end, the "bands" are smaller. In the old barns the timber was generally hewn, and the boring for mortises and pins was done by the old pod augur. They were put together, however, in such workmanlike manner that it has always been a hard matter to tear them down.
These raisings were the occasion of many feats of daring by men on the frame, and for many a wrestling match. After the roof was on and everything done, refreshments, both solid and liquid, were in order and in the very early days they did not wait until all was finished before serving liquids.
The first barn raised in Lyndeborough without rum was that of Dea. William Jones. It was in the beginning of the " tem- perance reform " movement and the deacon resolved to be the pioneer in raising a barn without the use of liquor. The frame being in readiness, word was sent round giving notice of the day of the raising, and the neighbors turned out in full num- bers, as usual, to give their assistance, but were somewhat amazed and disconcerted when it was whispered that this was a temperance affair, and that no rum or other liquors were to be supplied. Not much was said however, and they manned the first band, and, raising it a few feet, began to shout, "Bring on
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your rum ! bring on your rum !" No rum being forthcoming they lowered the timbers to their former place and sat down to rest. After a short time they again raised the band a little way, some of the men bearing down to counteract the efforts of some who were willing to lift it to its place, and again the demand was made for rum. The deacon then told them that that barn was going up without rum or not at all, and they deliberately returned to their homes. The deacon then hitched up his horse and scoured his own and the neighboring towns until he had secured a full complement of temperance help, and in a day or two the barn was raised.
Rev. Mr. Claggett was the originator of that form of enter- tainment called the " sociable." This was a gathering at the different homes to spend the afternoon and evening. Notice was generally given from the pulpit and all attended. The young people pre-empted one or two rooms to themselves where games were played and the older ones had the parlor or best room where the news of the day was discussed, and where they compared notes of the crops and of the live stock. During the Cival War these sociables were merged into Soldiers' Aid socie- ties and the young men held the yarn and the girls wound it into balls, and the women knit stockings or made "comfort bags " to send to the "boys in blue " at the front.
For many decades the annual donation party to the minister was a social event in the life of the town. Its ostensible pur- pose was to help out the meagre salary of the pastor, though many "outside the fold " were wont to hint that it impover- ished him, for the visitors ate up more than they carried. But it was a popular idea and almost everyone attended, bringing as a gift almost anything from a link of sausage to a load of wood. Whatever the Rev. Mr. Claggett's real opinion of a donation party was, he never gave any sign other than of un- alloyed pleasure in meeting his people on these occasions. He had a gracious and cheerful greeting for everybody. No one escaped his notice, from the aged grandsire to the smallest tot present.
The party was held at the parsonage generally in the winter season. Many came in the afternoon and remained to tea, and in the evening the house was filled to overflowing. Supper was served to all, whether they came early or late. The pastor's wife took special pains to see that the young people had a good time, and entered into the spirit of fun in the games with the
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liveliest of them. The old-fashioned donation party is a thing of the past, the last one in this parish being given to the Rev. Mr. Sawin in 1878.
But the most popular recreation among the fathers was the singing-school. There were singing-schools in Lyndeborough as early as 1820, and they did not begin to decline in favor until comparatively recent years. People loved to sing in the old days, and were willing to strive to learn how. And then the merry sleigh-rides to and from the school in winter evenings ! Some young men would load the horse-sled or pung with a bevy of young lady acquaintances, and generally manage to adroitly spill the lot into a snow bank once or twice before they reached their homes again. Many a courtship began with an invitation to go to singing-school.
Almost every one went either to sing or to listen, and Lynde- borough became celebrated in all the towns about for its num- ber of good singers. And the town furnished some good teachers, too, Ira Houston, Daniel Woodward, Jr., and Eli Clark Curtis among the number. The earliest singing-school of which the writer can get any tradition was held in the hall of the old Jonas Kidder house, where R. C. Mason now lives. They were held in the hall in the old store-house at the Centre for a number of years. (The seats running around the sides of this hall were in place when the house was burned, in 1870). It is needless to say that the pupils graduated from these schools into the church choir. The decadence of the singing-school in Lyndeborough commenced about 1860.
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
OLD DEEDS.
We give below epitomes of a number of old deeds. Some of these are based on records transferred a few years ago from Exeter to the office of the secretary of state at Concord. Others are from records at the county registrar's office in Nashua ; and still others are from the original documents, kindly lent the compiler by their present owners.
OFFICE OF SECRETARY OF STATE.
No. I. (1743, January 5.) Samuel Leman Jr. to Benjamin Gould of Chelmsford, Mass., (Bond) on Second Division Lot No. 68, drawn by Benjamin Gould on Right of Isaac Williams, heir of his uncle, Jonathan Williams. Consideration, 5.6. O. T. bills.
No. 2. (1743, January 15.) John Cram bought of Joseph Blaney, Esq., of Salem, Mass., Second Division Lot No. 41 for 206. (Recorded Vol. VI. 105. )
No. 3. (1744, January 30.) Samuel Leman, Jr., sold to Melchizedeck Boffee 90 acres of Second Division Lot No. 68.
No. 4. (1745, December 31.) Samuel Leman, Jr., to David Stratton, about 40 acres of Second Division Lot No. 68. Consideration 256.
No. 5. (1753, February 23, Vol. 88, p. 403.) John Cram deeded to Ephraim Putnam Sixty acres of Second Division Lot No. 41, bounded as follows : "South by line of Lot No. 30; West by line of No. 40, coming within 16 rods of its northern corner; then runs 80 rod East; and then runs South 16 rod, and from thence East to the N. W. corner of the barn, and from thence to the corner of the Southwest Flanker of the Fort, and thence south to a Pople Tree and so a straight line to the South line of said lot."
(Fort.) This gives clear evidence of the existence of the Fort, com- manded for a time by John Cram, and later by Ephraim Putnam, his son-in-law, who married his daughter Sarah.
No. 6. ( 1757, June 17, Vol. 73, P. 416.) Adam Carson of New Boston to William McNeal, Jr., his heirs &c., a part of Lot No. 48, beginning at the N. W. corner of said land " runs S. two degrees E. by land of William Carson, 120 rod, then E. 4 degrees N. 40 rod, then N. 2 degrees W. 120 rod or poles to a black birch marked, then W. 4 degrees S. to the bounds first mentioned, containing about 60 acres, for 2506. in O. T. bills."
No. 7. (1759, February I, Vol. 66, p. 328.) Jonathan Cram, Jr., to Jolin Rand, 130 acres, being Lot No. 57, Second Division, for 60{ sterl- ing ; bounded Eastwardly on Lot 127, Westwardly on Lot 58, North- wardly on Lot No. 70, Southerly on 56.
No. 8. (1759, July 27, Vol. 62, p. 466.) Carson (Adamı?) to Jacob Wellman, a lot of land bounded as follows : Beginning at the N. E.
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corner of Home Lot No. 48, thence 40 rod S. to an upland black birch, then W. to a stake and stones standing 20 rod from the W. side of said lot ; then N. about 1634 rod, then N. 42 degrees W. to a stake and stones, then E. to the bounds first mentioned, containing II acres.
No. 9. (1762, August 28, Vol. 87, p. 415.) Nehemiah Rand of Charles- town, Mass., received a Deed from Samuel Wells of Boston, of Lot No. 71, containing 130 acres, in consideration of 276.
No. 10. (1763, March 10.) Benjamin Lynde to Joseph Blaney, Second Division Lot No. 63, bounded N. by Lot 64; E. by Lot 62 ; S. by Lot 50; W. by the Masonian Proprietors' Land.
No. II. (1763, June 10, Vol. 87, p. 412.) John Rand, Clerk, to Nehe- miah Rand, in consideration of 356., " Lot No. 127, of 130 acres, bounded westwardly on Lot on which I live, No. 71." Signed by John and Sarah Rand.
No. 12. (1764, January 18, Vol. 73, p. 132.) John Carson of New Boston to Stephen Whiting of Dedham, Mass., a lot containing about 7 acres.
No. 13. (1764, February 23, Vol. 71, p. 305.) James Richardson of Salem, Mass., Heir of Major Joseph B. Richardson of Woburn, Mass., sold to Benjamin Lynde six sevenths of James Richardson's two Rights, the other seventh having been given to Joseph Bevins for settling, and what was sold for taxes.
No. 14. (1764, December 1, Vol. 74, p. 313.) Stephen Spaulding of Derry, to David Stratton of Lyndeborough, 70 acres, more or less, bounded thus : Beginning at the N. W. corner of Lot No. 68, running S. to its S. W. corner ; from thence running E. 49 rod, 4 ft., from thence N. across the lot to a rock maple tree on the N. Line of said lot; thence running E. 1212 rod to a white maple and heap of stones &c.
No. 15. (1764, April 25, Vol. 72, p. 514.) Edward Bevins, Jr., to Benja- min Lynde, in consideration of 16£ L. M., home Lot No. 18, at gun hill bounded north on Lot No. 28, E. on Lot No. 19; S. on Lot No. 5, and W. on Lot No. 17, and contains about 68 acres, and is the Lot bought of said Lynde.
No. 16. (1765, May 30, Vol. 79, p. 407.) Stephen Putnam, Carpenter, of Danvers, Mass., to Edward Spaulding of Nottingham West, for 40£., L. M., 260 acres, being Lots No. 113 and 122.
No. 17. (1765, September 25, Vol. '78, p. 261.) Mrs. Martha Birne, grand-daughter of Major Joshua Hicks, through Benjamin Lynde, Benja- min Pickman, John Bickford, Benjamin Goodhue and Joseph Blaney, Committee for Lyndeborough, sold to James Grant Lot No. 47, being one half of the commons for said lots.
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