USA > New York > Orange County > Deerpark > A history of Deerpark in Orange County, N.Y. > Part 6
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exercise which have heretofore been mentioned, this generation enjoyed . all these in the same manner as the first, but these had superior dwellings which were comfortable stone houses which every farmer, with very few, exceptions, in this town possessed before the Revolutionary War commenced. These were closer than the first dwellings erected here, but still not very tight houses. Each room generally had an outside door, and all the rooms generally were on the lower floor ; the chamber above these was used for granaries, flour barrels, and to store many different articles. The cellars were used for their milk and dairy articles, meat casks, cider barrels, winter apples, potatoes, turnips, and other vegetables. These cellar articles were not saleable in former times, but were generally used by the families who produced them.
The table furniture generally consisted of ordinary table ,knives, and forks, pewter plates, pewter basins and, platters of different sizes, pewter spoons, and a. pewter mug which would contain about two quarts of cider, on which was a cover to open and close by means. of a hinge, which last article was generally brought on the table for drink when the meal consisted of meat and hearty victuals, but was not used with their milk diets.
In the time of the war many of those articles were destroyed, and wooden plates, wooden bowls and dishes of different sizes were manufactured with a. turning lathe and used for table furniture.
Now, although our parents lived in this plain and simple style, yet our mothers were as neat and clean housekeepers as their circumstances and business con- cerns would admit. They generally cleaned house
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every spring and fall, in which they scrubbed and washed with soap-suds the under part of the upper floor and beams, and whitewashed the walls, and every Saturday scrubbed and wiped the floors of their sitting rooms and kitchens. Floor carpets were not used in their time. The linen shirts, trowsers and frocks of the men and boys, and the linen clothes of the women worn during one week, were in the next boiled in a pot or kettle of lye, and, after a proper time, the pot was carried out to a pounding block, where, while hot, the clothes were taken out by pieces and battled on the block with a battle, and then put in a tub of soap- suds, made of soft home-made soap, in which the same was washed and thereafter rinsed in clean water and dried. Our fathers, their sons and slaves, labored hard in the hot season of the year and often wet their shirts and trowsers with the sweat of their bodies, and this manner of boiling, battling and washing those 'linen clothes was very effectual to clean the same. 1
All the travel before the war, in time of the war and for some years thereafter, was performed on foot, on horseback, and in lumber wagons and lumber sleds. In this manner people visited each other, and attended to all their religious and other meetings, and to all their traveling business concerns. Many of the women had become habituated to ride on horseback, and had their side-saddles for the same. When a dance was had, the young men fetched the girls on horseback, and the young man's horse became the carrier of him and his lady, who mounted on it behind him. In those times no paints adorned the houses of our fathers, nor arti- cles of fancy their rooms. No fanciful tables or table furniture ; no great variety of eatables and drinks were
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furnished for one meal ; no clothing of superfine cloth or silk was worn in those times, nor even a pair of boots and rarely a fur hat. Pleasure wagons and pleasure sleighs did not ease and make comfortable the travels of our parents ; no umbrellas .covered their heads from the rays of the sun and the storms through which they had to pass. All of which articles are now furnished in great abundance, and generally all can enjoy more or less of thein.
The buildings of those times, especially before the war, for storing grain, hay, horses and cattle, consisted of a barn and one or two barracks for each farmer, all covered with straw roofs. The barns were built nearly square on the ground, with a floor through its middle and a stable along one side for horses and one along the other side for cattle. When the barn would not contain all the grain, raised on the farm, one or two barracks were erected by setting four or five long posts in the ground, hewed eight square, tapered towards the top end. Holes to contain iron bolts about an inch and a half thick were bored through each post at about one foot and a half apart, from the bottom to the top. These holes contained the bolts on which the frame of the roof laid, which was raised to the top of the poles by means of a windlass, and, after being filled with grain, whenever any of it was taken out, the roof was let down therewith to prevent rain and snow from blowing on it.
This generation generally ended their days after the commencement of a great change in our country ; and by contrasting their manner of life with that of the present time (now 1858), we behold the great change
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made in a term of about half a century in the habits of life in this town.
THIRD GENERATION.
Between the years 1780 and 1800 this generation of the Peenpack neighborhood, of which I am a member, and the second generation of the lower neighborhood, came on the stage of action and' commenced their own business transactions, in which we generally followed' in the habits of our parents in respect to labor and diet, which continued for some time after the war ended. A change from the moral behavior of our parents was generated among the young people in the time of the war, and rude, vulgar and uncivilized habits had been acquired. After the war ended West India and York rum was introduced into this part of our country after stores became established in it, and farmers generally began to use these liquors in time of harvest and haying, during which time, in the first in- stance, a dram was taken early in the morning and work commenced and continued until about 8 o'clock, when breakfast was taken and then a bottle which held near a quart was filled with liquor and taken to the field for about six laborers, to last that day. This had been a practice before the war commenced and was considered to be an antidote against people in- juring themselves by drinking cold water when the body was much heated by labor ; and as those liquors enlivened people and made them more vigorous to perform work during their operation, it was thought to be profitable in that respect. These, and the use of
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cider, were the first changes in this town, from the habits of the people in the time of the war.
USE OF SPIRITS AT FUNERALS AND WED- DINGS.
Liquor was used at funerals. The practice was to give each person a dram before entering the house in which the corpse was. This was done by two men who were placed with liquor at each door of the house or each side of one door, and was thought in those times to be an antidote against contagion, and for that purpose a dram was given to each bearer before he performed his official duty. Rum and cider were also used to treat people for their services in assisting in raising buildings after the war had ended. Rum was also used at weddings to treat the friends who at- tended it. In those anterior times and even within my own recollection, it was customary to invite to a wedding all the young people in this present town and some down the Delaware in New Jersey and Pennsyl- vania ; and people, after the war ended, had not the means to furnish a variety of good victuals for their friends and neighbors who, yet treated them with those liquors, which had a superior estimation in those times to that of the present. They cheered and made lively and sociable the friends and neighbors who col- lected together, with trifling, if any, evil consequences, for people in those days guarded themselves against drinking so much as to become intoxicated and I have
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never known of any farmer of the second generation becoming drunk, yet there may have been such instan- ces, and in progress of years it became a custom to make many afternoon frolics with liquor to get differ- ent jobs of work done. This led to intemperance and their multiplicity was unprofitable in a neighborhood. The young people sometimes had rude dancing frolics, where their only beverage was rum which was used in different ways, clear, sweetened with sugar, or made into sling, milk punch, eggnog, &c. The quantity of liquor drinked at these frolics, and the rudeness of the times caused many a fist fight, and this fighting be- came common at other gatherings of people where liquor was drank.
The use of those liquors increased and others were introduced, such as gin, brandy and different sorts of wines, &c. All these,generally of foreign manufacture, in progress of time, were kept for sale in stores by the large measure, and in taverns by small measure, where travelers and others who entered the taverns could not only have a choice of the variety of liquors, but also have their palatable taste improved by the infusion of sugar and other articles, whereby slings, milk punch, eggnog, hot toddy and other palatable compositions were made and much drinked in taverns. And in pro- cess of time distilleries were numerously erected in this part of our country, and cider and rye whisky, peach brandy, &c. were distilled in great quantities and other liquors were sometimes formed out of these. All of this flooded our country with a great amount of liquors of different kinds, the use of which became so fashionable that the greater part of families generally kept some in their houses to treat therewith the friends
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and neighbors who should visit them, and occasionally to use it in the family.
After some years' continuance of this extravagant use of spirituous liquors, its pernicious effects became apparent, and the writings of those who exclaimed against it, the warnings from the pulpit, and at last the formation of temperance societies had the effect of making the practice of keeping and using liquor in families unfashionable, and it became generally aban- doned and many refrained from its use. This was a fortunate change, for all classes of people had become sufferers from the bad effects of those habits which had principally originated from the introduction of the fashion of treating each other with those liquors pre- pared in the most palatable manner, both at home and in taverns ; and I have no doubt that more than one- half of the liquor drank in those days was merely to follow the fashion of the times. Men generally dis- like to be different from others. This is a powerful inducement to sway men to conform in a greater or . less degree to the customs and fashions of their time, and, when these happen to be pernicious, thousands sometimes become the sufferers from their evil conse- quences.
- TREATING VISITORS.
About the year 1800, the practice of keeping spirit- uous liquors and other appendages in families to treat visitors commenced. In 1813, when I commenced housekeeping, I thought it necessary to keep liquor, sugar, &c., in the house to treat visitors, and from that
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time until temperance societies were formed, I thought I could not agreeably entertain a visitor without hav- ing those articles, and if I happened to have none in the house at such time I generally sent out for them.
Cider had been a very plentiful and common drink in this neighborhood for many years. Cuddeback and Gumaer had been in the habit of drinking wine in their country, and after settling here, it appears, made early provision to have cider for their drink ; for there were apple trees in their orchards and in Van Inwe- gen's orchard between two and three feet in diameter in the time of the Revolution ; and when Gumaer (my grandfather) built his house, before the French war commenced, he had an opening left in the back wall of his cider cellar for a gutter to pass through it from his cider press back of the house into the cellar, and this gutter and others led the cider into the different cider barrels in it. From which it appears that the making of cider had become quite a business at that time, and, as it was no salable article, it was generally all drank by the family and visitors and by the Indians. It was a common drink from the time it was made in the fall until spring, when Gumaer made beer to drink in warm weather, for which he had a large brass kettle set on mason work, a long building and other fixtures to make and dry his malt. The use of cider by the white people never made them drunk, but some Indians, if they could get enough to drink, would sometimes get both drunk and abusive, in consequence of which it was generally withheld from them after they had drank enough. In respect to which I will here relate an occurrence. A large, stout
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Indian at a certain time, came to Gumaer's and asked for a drink of cider. The pewter mug, which held two quarts, was filled and given to him. He drank and set it down by him, which, after drinking a few times, he emptied and asked for more. Gumaer told him he had drank enough, and that he would not let him have more. The Indian, after asking a few times and see- ing he would not get more, took the mug and went off with it. Gumaer went to the barn, where his black man, Jack (who feared no Indian), was threshing with other hands, and told him that the Indian had gone off with the mug and that he must go and get it from him. Jack went, overtook the Indian, got hold of the mug, and, after a hard scuffle, got it from him and returned to his work. The Indian also returned and followed Jack to the barn and challenged him to fight. Jack, having felt his strength, did not like to undertake it ; but, after some provocation of the Indian, a severe, long and hard fight was had, in which Jack became the conqueror. He had had many a fist fight with the Indians, but said this was the hardest he ever had. The Indians, when they became somewhat intoxicated, would often fight each other, in which they would make great exertions to get hold of each other's heads and try to twist each other's necks. From all of which, it appears, they could drink more cider than the white people and enough to make them drunk, against which the latter had to guard to evade the trouble of their intoxication. They would never revenge injuries which emanated therefrom, but imputed the same to the liquor as the sole cause.
After rum was kept in taverns in our neighborhoods
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a company of Indians from other places sometimes came here to have a drinking frolic, for which they procured rum and selected a place for that purpose at : a distance from the dwellings of the white inhabitants, so as not to disturb them, where they appointed two of their number to keep sober to watch and prevent them from hurting each other. To these two men they gave up all their guns, hatchets and knives, who hid them out of the way so that they should not have weapons wherewith to hurt each other ; and when all their arrangements were made they began to drink and. soon got into a very noisy, turbulent and rude frolic, in which they would whoop, halloo, take hold of each other, scuffle, wrestle and sometimes fight. This they continued till their thirst for rum became satisfied, and after becoming sober, they were dull, stupid and de- prived of the liveliness and activity they possessed before they commenced drinking, which had to be re- stored by abstinence.
NO DRUNKARDS AMONG THEM.
The first and second generations of the first four fam- ilies who remained in this neighborhood had the free use of cider for a term of about one hundred years, including the time of the war, in which they could not have it, and during the greatest part of all that time had the means to procure as much other liquor as they craved, and yet not a single individual of them be- came a drunkard. When they came into company where rum or other spirituous liquors were drank, they would become lively, cheerful and humorous,
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by partaking of the same, but not as the saying is, " under foot." Such instances of sobriety, under such attending circumstances, for such a length of time, seldom occur.
We of the third generation, as well as our fore- fathers, have also been in a like habit of drinking cider during the greater part of our lives, and for many years in the habit of drinking all sorts of spirit- uous liquors without a single individual of us becom- ing what is termed a drunkard, but two or three of our class did sometimes become intoxicated and made a considerable approach towards being entirely over- come by the effect of liquor. Such also was the ad- vancement of Gumaer toward those allurements as has been mentioned and there have been rare instan- ces of some of us of sober lives becoming intoxicated. It is now (in 1858) 168 years since this neighborhood was first settled. Take 28 years from this time for the growth of an orchard to make cider, and 140 years remain for the use of its production which must have become plentiful within a less time than 28 years, for the first orchards of Cuddeback and Gumaer and one of Swartwout, which became Van Inwegen's, were on the very best of their river flats and must have had a very quick growth ; the trees became large and were between two and three feet in diameter about the year 1780 when they appeared to have their full growth and some limbs began to die. From all of which we have reason to infer that the manufacturing of cider commenced here before the year 1720 and that much of it had been drank here from that time until the year 1840, previous to which its use began to abate and
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within that time many other spiritnous liquors have been used with a mere trifle of intoxication for so long a time.
Now, although we and our forefathers received a mere trifle of the bad effects of liquors in this respect, yet the constitution of some of us must have been in- jured by their use. I, myself, have experienced the bad effects therefrom in respect to my own constitu- tion, which at one time became so weak against its effects that if I drank so as to feel the least alteration from its influence it hurt me. This, however, was not the case with many others ; some hard drinking men who came here among us remained healthy and lived to be old. Whether such would or would not have arrived to an older age without the use of liquor is un- certain.
Our diets continued to be the same as has been men- tioned for some years after the Revolutionary War ended ; but the diets of mush, &c., which were eaten with milk, began to be abandoned after different kinds of teas and coffee began to be usel,and,after becoming generally used, the milk diets were in a manner wholly abandoned. ' In these drinks a little milk and sugar was put ; molasses also was very plentifully used, and with this, sugar and other articles, many palatable, different kinds of sweet cakes, pies, &c., were made ; also, different kinds of spices became fashionable for adding agreeable flavors to some diets. Now, all these are eatables and drinks which we did not have in our early days. In addition to all these we now have dif- ferent kinds of preserves made with sugar, molasses,
.
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and different sorts of fruit, berries, &c., and some other diets we did not have.
After tea and coffee had been used for some time, they were preferred by the young people to the milk diet ; but some of the older class, who had been habit- uated to eating buttermillk pop, mush and milk, and other diets, often chose to have these in preference to tea or coffee. Such are the effects of habit.
As to our industry and labors for the support of our families and to make advancement, they continued during our lives to be about the same on an average as those of our parents, in which some were more perse- vering and others less than their respective parents.
The inhabitants of the lower neighborhood who were contemporary with our parents, and those who were the same with ourselves, have also continued and progressed in about the same manner as we and our parents have done in the habits of life mentioned.
After our manner of living changed, we were from time to time afflicted with ailments and diseases which all have continued to suffer at times, more or less, until the present time ; but of late years have not had such mortal distempers in this vicinity as some we had at certain previous periods.
PHYSICAL STRENGTH OF FIRST GENERA- TION.
The first generation of the sons of the four families were reputed to have been strong men. It was said that the three eldest sons of Jacob Cuddeback, Benja-
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min, William and James, could carry 12 skipple wheat (9 bushels), by putting it into four three-skipple sacks, and, placing one under each arm and taking hold with each hand of the top of the others, could, on a barn floor, in this manner carry it from one end of the barn to the other ; and that Anthony Swartwout's two sons, Samuel and James, could do the same, and that Har- manus Van Inwegen's son Gerardus, who was a smaller man, could carry it a few steps. Abraham Cuddeback, youngest son of his father, could not do it, nor Peter Gumaer's son Peter, so that only two out of eight were unable to carry it. From which the difference of their bodily strength, and that of those now on the stage of action becomes apparent.
The degeneracy of the inhabitants of this neighbor- hood has not been confined to them alone, but has ex- tended from here down the Neversink and Delaware rivers throughout the Holland Dutch settlements ; also from this neighborhood to Kingston. In the lower neighborhood in this town formerly were men as stout as those mentioned. It was said that one man in it could add one more bag of wheat an l hold it with his teeth, and carry 15 skipple wheat (114 bushels).
Among the first generation along the Delaware river in the States of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, were men of equal strength with those mentioned, but not generally as strong. Such was also the case in respect to the inhabitants from here to Kingston.
The second generation of the four families did not arrive to as great bodily strength as the first, but still were strong men. All of them, excepting three, were men whose stature averaged about six feet, and their average weight was near 200 lbs. when in prime of
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life. Two of the three, who were of shorter stature, averaged about the same weight. I have seen the smallest, lightest and weakest man of their whole num- ber with only the use of one hand, take a short three skipple sack, filled with rye, from the ground and put it on his shoulder. There were twelve of these men, and nine of them had families. These had 36 sons, who were all inferior in bodily strength to their respec- tive fathers, and were all smaller and lighter men, ex- cepting a few of the sons of Cornelius Van Inwegen, who were taller and may have been heavier than their fathers, and nearly or quite as strong. All the others were inferior to their fathers, and some much weaker in strength. Such a change in the bodily characteris- tics of these sons from that of their fathers must have proceeded from their different habits during the time of their respective growths, in which there was some difference, both in respect to diet and other attend- ants. The first (being the second generation) during their growth had for their eatables bread of unbolted wheat meal and meat soups, thickened with such meal, and they had a great proportion of wild meat of ani- mals, fowls and fishes, which were yet plentiful here at that time. These diets their children did not have during the time of their growth, excepting a meal of fresh wild meat sometimes. They had rye bread and pork and beef, preserved with salt. This meat was generally used for dinner, together with some potatoes, turnips, and other kinds of roots and vegetables. Bread and butter, mush and milk, and other milk diets potatoes, turnips, and other roots and vegetables, were plentiful here during the growth of the first as well as
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the second of those two classes of people. Now, in addition to the change mentioned, there was another of a different nature, which must have affected in a small degree the growth of the first, and in a great degree that of the latter. This was the effect of the French and Revolutionary wars, in each of which a fort was built at the house of Gumaer, and his neigh- bors all collected in it, which had the effect of creating more impure air in it than when occupied by one family. This, in the first war, could not hurt the con- stitutions of the children as much as in the next, be- cause its duration was shorter, and most of them were sent from here to relatives in other places, and there were not as many in the fort as in the last war when the number in it of all classes was about 100 from the time the fort was built in 1777 until the war ended. The walls of the house, both in the rooms below and on the chamber, were all lined with beds, and although the inmates of the house remained healthy, yet the col- lection of so many people in it, and their beds and bedding, must have created much impure air,especially in the night when the doors were shut and all were in it, whereby the constitutions of the children must have become weakened and their growth retarded, so as to have remained both weaker and smaller than what they would have been if the war had not occurred. This stagnation of growth, which caused the third gen- eration to remain inferior in strength to their respec- tive fathers, did not continue to debilitate in the same ratio, the fourth class, but these arrived to about or nearly the same strength of body as that of their fathers. In relation to health, however, there has been a gradual decline, and people have now become
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