USA > New York > Orange County > Monroe > Chronicles of Monroe in the olden time : town and village, Orange County, New York > Part 7
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The same minister rode out to a log cabin in the woods, for a similar purpose, and was met at the door by the groom, who was anxious to have the con- tract made as binding as the law allows, and addressed him thus: "Did you bring one of them things ?- them, ah - certificat's ?"
He was assured everything was prepared to per- form the ceremony aright. After some confusion as 13
CENTRAL RESERVE
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Chronicles of Monroe in the Olden Time.
to their relative places and the proper answers to be given, they were tied together. Then from the lips of paterfamilias came the query : "Sam, did you settle ?" Sam settled; and as the dominie called for his horse, it was said to him: "We would like to have you stay to tea, because we have tea things, but you are in a hurry." The next day they expressed regret that he did not stay, for they had two kinds of cake : gingerbread and biscuit.
The marriage ceremony was seldom performed in the church at that day, at least in Monroe, but mostly at the home of the bride, or at the house of minister or justice of the peace. When the marriage took place at home, it was an event that excited the whole neighborhood. There were dressmaking and brewing, baking, and general furbishing for weeks. Cook-books and patterns ready cut and marked could not be bought then. The experienced talent of the parish was called in, and many an original trousseau and novel delicacy was the outcome. When the bride could make her own attire, and her mother cook the entire menu, that was something to boast of. One such feast we recollect, in which there were nine courses, all of home production.
A wedding party was the scene of great merri- ment, seldom of intemperance. The music was fur- nished by native talent. One of the old dancing- masters was of so serious a turn that he would practise on his violin and read his Bible at the same time. While a wedding was at its highest, the rude boys would come and serenade .the couple with horn and tin pan, which they called" riding skimbleton." Sometimes they proceeded to great extremes, such as placing a stone on top of the chimney, or snatching
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food from the stove. A sharp lesson was adminis- tered to them once, when the doctor offered them wine in which tartar emetic had been placed. A very sick crowd was laid out on fence and wood-pile. On another occasion they fired a gun just as the ceremony was in progress. The bride nearly fainted. This time the perpetrators were arrested and fined. And yet weddings and skimbletons continue as of yore.
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York Public Libre Hampton Grange Branch; 503 W, 1450. 000 CIRQULATHIS E
CHAPTER XVII.
MILLS AND SMITHY.
T THE flour and feed mill was needed almost as soon as the country began to be settled. The primi- tive mill was a private one, consisting of a rude, hol- low stone with a rounded one for pestle. With these the corn was pounded as the settlers could learn from their Indian neighbors. The bolting was done with a fan, as in Scripture times. Samp and hominy were the common food at first. But soon there would be a longing on the part of some goodwife for some wheat or rye flour to try her hand upon. We are
informed of one of the early settlers who walked to the river and brought home a bag of flour on his back. But it was not long before a flour and grist mill was built in the Clove. In the old records it bears the name of Cunningham's Mill. It was built by some one of the Smith family, for the deeds show that Hophni Smith sold the property to Abner Cun- ningham for £480 in 1788. The latter sold in 1806 to Nicholas Knight, yeoman of Smith's Clove. The deed mentions the stone arch of the bridge, a white- oak bush as a monument, the raceway and mill, with house, in lot No. 43 of the Cheesecock Patent. The stump of a white-oak tree is on the south side of the highway to-day.
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Mills and Smithy.
The machinery of this mill was mostly of wood. The bolting was done by hand. An old musket was found in the mill, which Daniel Knight undertook to take apart, when the load exploded and injured his eyesight. He was conducting a customer down to the basement when the old man fell. Mr. Knight said : "Did you miss the steps ? " He replied : "I missed the top one, but I hit all the rest." A saw- mill stood a little west of the grist-mill, and most of the timber of the neighborhood was sawed there. The old dam gave way in a freshet while owned by Daniel and Jeremiah Knight, but was rebuilt with greater strength.
When it came into possession of Chauncey B. Knight the mill was entirely renovated. The wooden machinery was taken out, and the latest improve- ments, even a new wheel, introduced. But the water-power was soon found to be inadequate to the increased dimension of the wheel and heavier ma- chinery, especially in a dry time. This led its owner to build a steam-mill in the village near the depot, which has done its work for more than a quarter of a century, and under the management of Messrs. Chas. Knight and Geo. R. Conklin is doing yeoman service to-day. The scene now is very different from the mill scenes of seventy years ago, when the farmer's boy came on an ambling nag, with a bag of grain divided for a saddle, and the plethoric ends swinging on either side. The dusty miller, after nag- ging him, helps unload and swing the grist within his dusty domain, and then proceeds to toll it before it is emptied into the hopper. Now the farmer drives up with sturdy team, weighs it on the platform scale, himself with it, and straightway loads a ton or two
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of reed, weighs, drives off and fills his bins at home, from which he feeds his splendid herd with the inde- pendence of a lord of the manor.
It is related that a portly yeoman expressed some surprise that his loaded wagon weighed so much more than he expected. " Oh !" said his little grand- son, " Grandpa, you forget you were in the wagon, and weighed yourself."
Another well-remembered mill near Monroe village was the old fulling-mill. It stood on the bank of the Outlet Brook, near the mill-pond. It was the property of Nicholas and afterwards of Daniel Knight. The history of its acquisition is worthy of record. According to the deed, Philadelphia Cock sold to Nicholas Knight her one-half dower right in the property - the fulling-mill and house and 181 acres of land -for the consideration of five shillings. No doubt there must have been some unexplained encum- brance assumed by the purchaser.
Now this mill, after running many years, was over- hauled and put in order by the late Horace Hall. Although he had no previous experience, he repaired it and acquired therefrom a reputation for like work throughout the neighborhood. He lived to tell of it until recently, when he died, September 8, 1892, in his eighty-fourth year.
It is often asked by the present generation, Of what use is a fulling-mill, and what is the process of fulling ?
The wool, after shearing and washing, was brought hither by the good dame who had no conveniences at home, nor sufficient skill, and was further cleansed, bleached, and carded by great cylindrical cards into rolls. It was then ready for spinning, and skilled
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Mills and Smithy.
housewives preferred to do this with their own deft hands, spinning-wheels being necessary furniture of every well-regulated household. But sometimes circumstances rendered it expedient to have the subsequent processes finished at the mill. It was then woven into cloth or blankets, rolls of flan- nel, or coverlets, which were then put into troughs with fuller's earth or suds and soaked and pounded, then hung on frames with tenter-hooks and dried. When it had been thus cleansed and shrunk, it was folded and laid on an iron table, with a heavy iron plate laid on the cloth, while a powerful screw pressed the plates together until the material had every drop of moisture pressed out of it and was ready for the draper and tailor.
This was an important industry in the early days, when the shears and knitting-needles were common implements, and great factories and merchant tailors were unknown.
The old house that belonged to the fulling-mill is still standing, just beyond the road across the pond. That road was not there in the days of the mill, but was built about 1858.
The Seamanville mill is an old one. It belonged to Daniel Miller, who is remembered as the person who gave the land on which the old Presbyterian church stood, and the present burial-ground. It had been owned and operated many years by Charles Turner, son of the late Peter Turner. The mill had the reputation of grinding very fine flour. There were a sawmill and distillery on the Still Brook, some of the timbers of which, or the dam, can still be seen. So at Turners there was an old sawmill, and after- wards a grist-mill.
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Chronicles of Monroe in the Olden Time.
Highland Mills and Tannery have been in posses- sion of the Cromwell family many years, and have given name and business to the Lower Clove.
Other mills might be mentioned, as, for instance, the fishing-rod and tackle factory of the Messrs. Hall, and the iron bedstead factory at Southfield. Few parts of the country are more favored than this old town with water-power and desirable mill-seats.
The blacksmith was an important individual in a rural community, even in very early times. The plow had to be shod, tools had to be made; for there were no great factories in those days to turn out tools by steam. The country smith made the hoes and coulters and axes, often the carving-knife and chisel. In such a stony country the horses and even the oxen must be shod. The shop stood by some cross-road to catch customers, and was a mere shanty, but the resort of many a traveller and neighbor. They come with broken wagons and shoeless horses, and as they stand under the grimy shed about the glimmering forge their voices are heard above the ringing anvils and the puffing bellows. Not seldom are important questions of town politics and social ethics settled here. One of Rogers' groups repre- sents the sturdy smith illustrating a siege in which he took part, the parallels of approach being drawn in the scales and dust at the foot of his anvil.
We remember that when our village geologist visited the shop of William Hudson he discoursed learnedly about oxygen and hydrogen. But the man of the leathern apron said, "He need not talk to me about his oxygen and cowdrogen, for I do not believe in them." But he did know how to make an ax or adz, and Hudson's tools were the best in the market.
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Mills and Smithy.
He could also shape and temper a penknife blade. He had never heard of the spectroscope, yet he would watch the play of color when he was forging an axe, as the color changed from straw to pink and pink to blue, and when the desired tint was reached out he would snatch it and plunge it into oil or water, and produce a choice tool, while he did not pretend to any scientific explanation of the process. He died of apoplexy, in the height of his usefulness.
Cortland Rumsey, of Turners, was another skilled workman of the forge. He could repair even so deli- cate an instrument as a watch.
He also, like many others, felt the hand of Death, before whom the strong bow themselves, while the fairest wither like the flowers of spring touched by the frost.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
INNKEEPING.
A MONG the earliest avocations was that of keep- ing houses of public entertainment. Their evolution has been the reverse of some others. The ancient caravansary became a hostelry; that, a cof- fee-house; then a tavern; and that a saloon, where only liquors are drunk and drunkards made. At that stage the publican becomes the synonym of sin- ner. But in the early settlement of the country, or before it was settled, and when modes of travel were primitive, there was a necessity for houses of enter- tainment where the traveller could stop and rest his beast and refresh himself. If there was a bar, it was because every one used liquor freely, not even excepting the minister. People travelled then on horseback, or by private conveyance, or by stage- coach, which had its regular routes, carrying, besides passengers, the United States mail. Wherever it
was convenient for such to stop for rest or change of teams, a hostelry would spring up. All the way from New York, on the great stage route, were such places of entertainment. The Clove was a good day's journey from the city. Starting from Hoboken in the morning, travellers would find it convenient to rest, after fifty miles, at Monroe village; hence the importance of its hotels. There was one at the old or upper village very early. This old hostelry, ac-
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Innkeeping.
cording to Homo, was presided over at different times by Brewster Tuthill, Isaac Van Duzer, Peter Ball, Daniel Vail, Sylvester Gregory, and Hophni Smith. Town meetings and elections were held at the old tavern, and many were the questions outside the ballot-box which were settled in blood between the athletes of the Upper and Lower Cloves and South- field. It would be deemed a very tame election in which three or four of these contests did not occur. It had, for a sign, two men ; some said it represented Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton shaking hands, something that modern bruisers do before they fight, but it is more likely it was the landlord welcoming his guest. When Monroe moved to its present site the hotel went with it, and was kept in the William Sea- man house. Here the old stage would rumble up with the sound of bugle, and while the obsequious landlord would help out the dust-covered passenger, boots would snatch bandbox and bundle, horses would be changed, the mails be delivered, and the whole place be agog. All are curious to see the strangers and learn the news. There are some anxious faces, parents inquiring after absent sons, friends asking in regard to an accident or battle, lovers looking for letters; but the scene takes on more humorous coloring as Jehu jokes with the boys, or flirts with the barmaid; or the old bar-room loungers come up to be treated by some politician seeking votes. John Van Buren came thus to Monroe, and apologized for public drinking to the tavern loungers, much to their amusement. The Monroe Hotel was first kept by De Witt MeGarrah ; afterwards, at the newer site, by John Goff. It was here, in 1854, at a Fourth of July celebration, that the
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toast was given, "The Monroe doctrine, the doctrine of Monroe."
Another hotel stood where the Granite House now is. This was kept by the father of David Lynch. It had a sign painted by a wandering artist, repre- senting on one side a high-stepping horse, elegantly caparisoned, and ridden by a neatly dressed rider, who, on the air proceeding from his mouth, says, " Am going to law." On the reverse is the same horse, spavined and starved, while the man walks be- side, saying, "I have been to law." It probably told the experience of mine host, as of many others. This sign was such a curiosity that visitors were usually taken thither to see this work of an old master.
There was another hotel at the other end of the village, to intercept the traveller from the other di-
rection. It stood where Alfred Carpenter's house stands. It is related that the lazy landlord would send a boy to lead a traveller's horse up and down the scrub-oaks when he wanted him curried. There were plenty of such curry-combs in those parts then. It is also related that a lady and her daughter were riding from church on horseback; they took refuge from a shower under the hotel shed; when the young lady looked down upon her white dress, what was her disgust to see it covered with fleas! We are glad to say substantial dwellings and happy homes occupy all these sites now. Other routes through the Clove had places of entertainment well known at the time; such, for instance, as the hotels of John Coffey, George Wilkes, John Galloway, and M. Dickerman.
These were on the lower road, the grand route to Newburg and the river towns. Through this beau- tiful valley rumbled the Albany coaches, carrying
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Innkeeping.
many a celebrity of the State, army, and society. But now all is changed, the splendid trains of the Erie Railway sweeping back and forth, bearing freight and passengers, like the countless corpuscles of an artery, to the great life centres beyond. Nor would a history of public entertainment be complete without mention of Peter Turner, who had the fore- sight to perceive that the Erie Road would have to pass through the Clove, and would need an eating- station within fifty miles of New York; hence his choice of the location now called by his name. Here he had a sawmill first, then erected a grist-mill ; afterwards he built the hotel at the bottom of the hill. His restaurant was well known by every trav- eller, and was famed for its coffee and crullers. This afterwards developed into the splendid Orange Hotel, which was under railroad management, the moving spirit of which was the late James Turner, son of Peter Turner. This fine structure was burned, and the old hotel and restaurant recovered their ancient and unrivalled fame.
The late George Goff informed me that his father, Michael Goff, kept a house of entertainment on the old Bloomingdale road, just out of New York, before he moved to Central Valley ; and that Thomas Addis Emmet, the Irish patriot, when banished, was enter- tained by him. The best rooms were given up to him and his suite. Mine host and his family took the rooms over the stables. George Goff was born during the time, "like his Master," as he used to say, "in a stable." Michael Goff afterwards removed to Central Valley, where his son John Goff was born, who bought the hotel at Monroe, one of the best- known in the county. He married Phoebe, the sister of Peter Turner, but left no children to succeed him.
CHAPTER XIX.
MERCHANDIZING.
A NOTHER occupation early in vogue was that of merchandizing ; first the peddler came through, like Harvey Birch, with his pack of wares. He would spread out his trinkets and gaudy kerchiefs to captivate the servant, with tapes and needles, a tablecloth or dress pattern, for mistress, a jackknife for the boy, or " specs " for the old man. There was more of respectability about it then. Indeed, in the old country the peddler was the Christian colpor- teur, conveying secretly the sacred classics to Swiss chalets nestling in deep glens or on dizzy crags. The coming of the travelling merchant was always wel- come, and was rewarded with rest and refreshment. But as wants multiply, something more permanent and expensive is needed; hence the country store. Look in on its bewildering variety of goods. You can hardly get in, for the boxes and samples of vege- tables and fruits. Your progress is impeded within by cases of shoes and enormous boots. There are showcases containing all sorts of ribbons, laces, em- broideries, with all those little dainty things called notions by the fairer part of creation. Vis-à-vis with them is another, catering to coarser tastes: full of pipes
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Merchandizing.
and snuff-boxes, cigars and tobacco, colored sticks of candy and bull's-eyes. Gaudy prints adorn the coun- ters on one side, while the shelves are plethoric with textures to suit every age and taste, from overalls for father to pinafore for "sis "; from a lawn for the bride to a scarf for the dominie. In battle array, on the other side, are all sorts of hardware, from a sickle to a razor, a monkey-wrench to a carpet-tack. Further on are groceries, wet and dry : tea, coffee, molasses, vinegar, starch, candles, sugar, bacon, cod- fish, and mackerel. Overhead are all descriptions of tinware and bits of sheet-iron for stovepipe, for the merchant must do some of the work of the tinker. Harness and saddles and horse-blankets are for sale till the harness-maker comes. Then there are seeds and bulbs and plants; often hay and feed. What a medley of smells, particularly in the cellar, where are the cheese and butter, fish and pork, and oils for paint or illumination!
The store is an attractive place in a country vil- lage. Women come to shop, but men love to sit on the barrels and talk and smoke, or eat crackers and cheese. All the petty happenings of the village are brought to light and discussed. One old man de- clared that he could not stub his toe behind the barn, or his old cat have kittens, but some one would re- port it.
When Mr. Goff fell into his well, he bet that before he was dry some one would report it.
When political campaigns were rife, discussions would run high, and sharp words be spoken. On one occasion two neighbors were discussing some question ; one of them said : "You lie- under a mistake." At first the other was ready for a blow ;
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Chronicles of Monroe in the Olden Time.
but when he heard the entire sentence he relented, saying : "Next time I want you to put your words a little closer together." We recollect a man from the mountain coming in and asking if the merchant had any superb cheese. Just then a young man burst into a laugh. "Who is he ?" said the irate customer. When informed he said : "He is a pusillanimous poor creetur'." A young druggist came to town and started business. He was inclined to be somewhat stilted in phraseology, and would talk of things in juxtaposition. Stepping into a store where the late Matthew B. Swezey was busy, he inquired what he was doing. He replied : "I am extracting the sugar from this barrel, and it is so contiguous to the bot- tom of the barrel, I am rather ambiguous whether I can extricate it." A pebble was handed me by one who had read a little of Lyell or Hitchcock, and an answer desired as to its nature. I described it as a water-washed pebble of milky quartz, veined with graywacke. "You 're mistaken," said he; "it is the petrified fruit of the Lepidodendron." One of the merchants had sent up a pattern of rather gaudy vel- veteen to the house of a Friend, for what was called
a waistcoat. Next day his wife returned it, with the remark that it was not comely, as it was "all vanity and moss." "I want some Merrimac calico," said a lady. Several pieces were exhibited. She astonished the salesman by saying : "You call it Merrimac, but I'll guarantee it was made in this country." One even- ing, when a store was closed, the frequenters of the store brought out a pack of cards and began to play. They were regarded then with such holy horror, that they were played clandestinely, as the very work of the devil. On the occasion referred to the minister
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Merchandizing.
visited the store rather late. Seeing a light, he en- tered, when, lo! the contraband was out of sight, nor would have been suspected, had not one of the old gentlemen naïvely said: "Well, you nearly ketched the boys playing kiards !"
The early groceryman sold liquor from his store. Before the temperance reform it was customary so to do. Nor was it a small part of their trade. Then it was-considered necessary to take a drop of some- thing for every ailment and almost every stage of duty. The nurse must wash the baby in it; the old man must take it for his nightcap. The harvesters must have it in the field. The goodwife must have a little to keep off the megrims, and even the minis- ter did not refuse what he called spiritual refresh- ment. It is not strange to find, upon looking over some of the old books, the frequent repetition of such items as "N. E. Rum, Apple-jack, Brandy and Cider." These, with tobacco, were the largest pur- chases of some of the mountaineers and miners. Whenever there was a little balance over, it used to be said that they took it out in these poisons. But time has wrought a change for the better, and a corner grocery for the sale of liquor belongs to the regions of barbarism or caricature.
The first store in Monroe was at the upper village, and was kept by Timothy Little, who married a daughter of Rev. Mr. Baldwin. His successors were Griffen and Vyle, with Matthew B. Swezey for clerk. When business forsook the upper village and settled around the present site, John McGarrah built the hotel for his son De Witt, and a storehouse for himself.
It is an interesting fact in regard to the father of 15
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Chronicles of Monroe in the Olden Time.
John McGarrah and great-grandfather of Messrs. Theodore and Eugene, that he was a member of the State legislature when the Erie Canal bill was before that body, and that he voted for the bill. But for that enlightened act he was burned in effigy by his political opponents !
On the opposite corner was the store of Matthew B. Swezey, who sold out to Chauncey B. Knight, the former continuing as his clerk.
Gates W. McGarrah built a store at the further end of the village, where, in 1843, he conducted busi- ness till 1847, when he died, much respected as a merchant and beloved by friends.
Henry Bertholf succeeded him, and he was suc- ceeded by the sons of Mr. Gates McGarrah, Theodore and Eugene, who conducted the store in partnership for many years ; it at last closing out with the latter, February, 1896.
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