USA > Vermont > Addison County > Cornwall > History of the town of Cornwall, Vermont > Part 28
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While many of the citizens of this town deserve credit for their efforts in this direction, it is believed that all will accord to our townsmen, Messrs. Merrill and Alonzo L. Bingham, a measure of enterprize in improving the character of our sheep, and in opening. a market for them at home and abroad, which had by no one been , previously exhibited. They commenced with the purchase and rais- ing of the best Spanish Merinos within their reach, and the char- acter of their stock secured extensive sales at high prices, both of bucks and ewes, to other breeders in this and remote parts of the country. About the year 1846, they became acquainted with the French Merino sheep imported by John A. Taintor of Hartford, Conn., and believing that their great size and abundant yield of wool, would render traffic in them not only profitable to themselves, but beneficial to the community, they were induced to purchase largely of the importer, and to breed them with great care and ex- pense. The yield of wool obtained from these sheep was, in some instances, almost fabulous, extending from eighteen or twenty to more than thirty pounds from a single animal. The result was, as the Messrs. Bingham calculated, that the demand for the sheep became quite clamorons, and sales were effected at prices varying from ten or twenty dollars to several hundred dollars for single bucks and ewes. These sheep received numerous premiums at the Fairs in this and other States in which they were exhibited.
At a somewhat later period, the Hon. Rollin J. Jones, who had for several years previously been engaged in active efforts to secure, by purchase and by breeding, a first rate flock of Spanish Merino sheep, was induced to engage in raising French Merinos, more par-
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ticularly with reference to Western trade; and in 1849 having formed apartnership with Sylvester B. Rockwell, Esq., they em- barked largely in this trade, and prosecuted it with a degree of energy, to which their success has corresponded. To supply them- selves with a more ample stock they purchased in 1858, an entire shipment of French Merino sheep imported by Solomon W. Jewett, then of Weybridge, at an expense of $18,000. These were sold to their customers, in the West, at prices which yielded an ample return for their investment. They have introduced many valuable sheep, both French and Spanish Merinos, into Western New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and other States still more remote. For the last two years they have resided in Califor- nia, and in connection with Simeon S. Rockwell, Esq., who had before been largely engaged in the Western sheep trade, they have been prosecuting their traffic on the shores of the Pacific.
Numerous other citizens of Cornwall have been, and are at the present time, engaged in raising very valuable sheep, with a pri- mary view to supply the wide and urgent demand from abroad for stock of the first quality.
The character of the sheep raised in Cornwall is amply attested by the fact, that, purchasers of the choicest varieties are wont to visit the flocks of the town, and from them often to make their se- lections. And it is asserting no more than the truth to say, that the traffic has been fraught with benefits as great to the buyer as to the seller, and even greater to the community at large. Those who successfully labor to improve our sheep, or other kinds of stock, ought to be accounted public benefactors.
Our dealers in sheep have been charged with coloring their ani- mals, or with giving them what is widely known as " Cornwall finish." The fact is admitted. The operation is performed by the use of oil and lampblack, or umber, or other coloring material, on the exterior of the fleece, and the object of the operation is two fold :- first, to make the fleece appear more oily and of course heavier and more valuable than it is; and secondly, to heighten the beauty of the wool when opened, by a contrast with the dark coat on the surface. Whatever, either of credit or of blame, is
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involved in this practice ; whether it can be proved that it originated in Cornwall or not, we readily accord to our neighbors in adjacent towns, the credit of having been apt scholars in the art, and of 'having eagerly and fully availed themselves of all the advantages arising from its practice. The prefix of the name of any other town in this vicinity to " finish," would be as appropriate as Corn- wall. The true reason why Cornwall has acquired this unenviable notoriety, is, that at the time the practice of coloring sheep was introduced, the dealers of this town were more extensively and suc- cessfully engaged in the traffic than those from any other locality, and all readily joined in imputing to us the practice, the better to conceal their own obliquities.
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CHAPTER XXXIV.
CHANGES IN THE HABITS AND USAGES OF THE PEOPLE -- MODES OF LOCOMOTION - RIDING ON HORSEBACK UNIVERSAL - RIDING " DOUBLE," OR TWO ON A HORSE - THE PILLION AND SADDLE- BAGS-HOW MOTHERS USED TO TRAVEL WITH THEIR CHILDREN --- MATERIALS AND MODES OF DRESS - FURNITURE OF THE DWELL- ING AND TABLE-HUSKING AND OTHER 'BEES' -ITINERANT SHOE- MAKERS-MODES.OF WARMING-INTRODUCTION OF LABOR-SAVING MACHINERY - CHANGES AFFECTING MORAL CHARACTER AND HABITS-" YOUNG AMERICA."
In some portions of the world which have long been densely peopled, generations, nay, centuries pass away, leaving but little trace of change in prevalent habits and usages. The same fashioned implements are employed in the cultivation of the soil ; the same in the manufacture of clothing, and in the preparation of food ; the same in the various mechanical operations. The inhabi- tants of the present period neither know nor desire other dwellings than those used from time immemorial by their predecessors. The very style of dress adopted by their ancestors, is hallowed by usage, and on that account retained. For their modes of instruction and worship, custom secures respect and veneration which eschew change. Not so with the descendants of the Anglo-Saxon race, who penetrated the forests of New England, a portion of whom were the pioneer settlers of this State, and of this town. They rere bent on change until cultivated farms, and comfortable dwell-
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ings, and abundant harvests and flocks and herds were theirs. In the habits and usages of such a community, the lapse of eighty years must have wrought marked and important changes.
When the first settlers of this region arrived, their only means of locomotion were such water conveyances as they could command, or their own feet, with occasionally a horse in the possession of those most favored. This would necessarily have been true, even if their pecuniary ability had been greater than it was. Without roads, wheels could not have been used; and without at least a bridle-path through the interminable forests, the horse, if possessed, would have been "a vain thing for safety " or comfort. All the earliest settlers made a highway of Otter Creek, for the conveyance of their families, tools and supplies, in winter using sleds, and in summer using rafts or such rudely constructed boats as they could provide. Whatever of stock they brought with them was driven through the woods. When roads began to be opened it was the first resort to convey moderate burdens on the backs of horses. In this way settlers went to Pittsford, and sometimes to Ticonde- roga, to get their grain converted into flour or meal.
In the absence of wheel carriages, the saddle was an indispensable article of traveling equipage. Consequently it was one of the first things sought by every man who was so fortunate as to own a horse. And every man and woman and child became accustomed to ride on horseback, either for business or pleasure. The mother who would visit friends in near or remote places, mounted the "side-saddle," as the saddle for ladies' use was called, and taking her infant in her arms, and sometimes in emergencies, an older child behind her, with instructions to "sit steady, and hold fast to mother's clothes," she journeyed for hours, and sometimes even for days. My own mother, an early settler in Middlebury, was wont to tell her listening chil- dren how she used, on horseback, to visit our grandfather in Tin- mouth, Rutland County, a distance of forty-five miles, carrying one or another of our number "on her lap," and some mothers even visited Connecticut in this way. Nothing was more common in my early childhood than for the father, when going to meeting. to take his son or daughter behind him on his horse ; or for the husband to
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take his wife, first having placed behind his saddle the pillion with its drapery, or having spread a cloth to prevent the soiling of the "Sunday dress." Riding " double," as it was called, or two on a horse, especially a man and boy, was as common at the begin- ning of this century, as is the riding of two or more in a one-horse wagon at the present day. And this mode of locomotion had its advantages. It rendered those who practiced it more robust and. vigorous, and rendered the traveler more independent of ill wrought or circuitous roads. Doubtless some of the diseases of our period, which, if not produced, are aggravated by our luxurious convey- ances, would recede before a return to the more simple and more primitive usages of the fathers. Dyspepsia rarely found admission to the cabin, whose inmates, male and female, were each in their ap- propriate sphere, occupied from day to day with the axe and plow and scythe, or with the spinning wheel and the loom. Ennui was rarely a guest in the dwellings whose occupants were frugally fed, and whose thoughts and hands were fully and usefully employed. And certain it is, that the fathers with their habits of economy and - self-reliance, as a general thing, happily escaped some of the em- barrassments of more modern times. Poor Richard quaintly says :
Many estates are spent in the getting, Since women for tea forsook spinning and knitting, And men for punch forsook hewing and splitting.
For many years after the settlement of Cornwall, the traveler who used his own feet for locomotion, was wont to carry his ward- robe and such other articles as he wished to convey, in his knapsack, and after roads were opened and the horse could be used, the port- manreau or "saddle-bags," contained the baggage, with sometimes the addition of a valise tied to the saddle before or behind. The fathers, when they first entered Vermont, made little use of that modern convenience, the trunk, which, at the present rate of in- crease, threatens to rival in dimensions, and to surpass in the cost of its furnishings, their lowly cabins. .
The ox-cart was of course a common vehicle at an early period, as oven were almost exclusively used for farm work, but the team
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wagon was not introduced to any extent till after the commencemen; of the present century. . The one-horse wagon was not introduced till about the period of the war of 1812. It used to be said in my youth, that this vehicle was introduced by Gen. Dearborn while in command of the northern department of the army, who, on account of his corpulence, was unable to ride on horseback, and for that reason it was called a " dearborn.". .
The log cabir, has given place to the more imposing and commo- dious dwelling, and its rudo furniture to that more conveniently fashioned, and more tastefully and expensively made. Changes no less marked bave occurred in the materials of dress. Once cotton was not " king," nor did it aspire to supremacy. It formed, indeed, the staple of some of the fancy articles of dress, but the housekeep- ers of eighty years ago generally expected to spin and weave with their own hands, or to have spun and woven under their supervision, an amount of linen, sufficient to furnish the bed room, the table, and the wardrobe, the material for which was grown and prepared for use by the father or brother on the farm. For the daily wear of the laboring man in summer, the frock and trowsers were made of the tow, hatcheled from the flax while preparing it for the finer fabries in which, bleached in the sun, or woven in stripes or plaids of various hues, the females were wont to array themselves. In winter, both males and females were dressed in woolen fabrics, carded and spun and woven by the same industrious hands, but fin- ished by the clothier, whose business it was to make it into "fulled cloth," as it was called, for males; and for females, into flannel slightly milled, and colored to suit the fancy of the wearer. The writer well remembers when no housekeeper thought her beds well furnished in the winter with other than flannel sheets, or her fam- ily well clad with other than flannel shirts. In summer linen supplied the place since filled by cotton for under garments. The preparing of worsted was also, in olden time, an art which it was supposed every housewife should understand, and the needful im- plements for this purpose, the comb or hatchel, were found in many well furnished houses. The art became, indeed, in time, "a branch of business," and its prosecution was remunerative to experts in its
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335 practice. It has, however, passed away with the long wool of the native sheep.
It would have been difficult, perhaps impossible, to make the fa- thers and mothers of 1784, with their stern habits of industry and. self-reliance, comprehend the change which the lapse of seventy- eight years has wrought in the tastes and employments of their descendants. They could hardly have been made to believe that in 1862, many of their grand-sons of twenty-five or thirty years of age, would be strangers to a field of fax, to the brake, the swing- ling knife, and the hatchel, or to the raising and preparing for use, an article which they considered indispensable to every well provided home. Nor would they have believed that the distaff would be ban- ished from the fireside, and that the flax wheel which it was the pride of the grandmother, in her rude dwelling, to use dexterously, would, by the grand-daughters, be known only, if known at all, as a curiosity stewed in the garret among the relics of a by gone age. No one who was, in early life, accustomed to witness the mother employed at her flax wheel, can ever forget the zest with which she prosecuted her loved employment, and the air of thrift and enjoy- ment which seemed to pervade the group by which she was sur- rounded. To such an one the discontinuance of the use of the implement gives emphasis to the beautiful line,
" Her wheel at rest, the matron charms no more."
Yet these changes are not imaginary. They are real, and are the result of the entire revolution in the manufactures of the country, and of our widely extended commercial relations. The power of , water and of steam manufacture the fabrics for our clothing, more cheaply and more perfectly than the mothers could, or than their descendants can do it by hand. It costs, too, less outlay of labor, which human nature will always avoid as far as possible, to pro- duce the commodities which the manufacturer consumes, and in which the commercial man traffies, than was involved in the more. complicated system of the fathers. It may, however, well be questioned, whether the moral and social bearings of this change are not to be regretted.
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There are some still living, who well remember when the trencher or wooden plate was used on even well furnished tables, on which the ample stock of "pot-luck," often including the boiled Indian pudding, was served to those around them, or when the bean porridge or succotash was placed upon the table in a central bowl of wood or brown earthen, with a spoon for each of the guests to "help him- self." Many remember, also, the buffet, or bofat, as it was pro- nounced, in the corner of the room, with its array of polished pew- ter, from the broad platter down to the child's plate and porringer, the pride of many an industrious matron, and the envy of those less fortunate, or less skillful in imparting a polish.
The powdered hair and queue ; the small clothes fastened by buckles at the knee; the massive shoe-buckles of brass or silver, covering the whole breadth of the instep; the broad-brimmed hat, cocked in triangular form, are all familiar to the memory of those who are seventy years of age, as once appendages of male attire. The great grandmothers were wont to have their dress slippers with wooden heels, from two to three or four inches in height, and to array themselves in hoops, which, in size, rivaled those worn by modern ladies, while they surpassed them in weight and incon- venience.
It was common in the early days of Cornwall for the inhabitants to make "bees," as they were called, for the purpose of aiding each other in doing within a few hours, what it would take an in- dividual unaided a long period to accomplish. When the settler arrived, it was a matter of course that those who bad preceded him, should lend a friendly hand in erecting for him a log cabin, that he might have a shelter of his own. Sympathy in privation, perhaps, in the outset, and fondness for social intercourse, rather than ne- cessity, led to frequent gatherings for mutual aid in the prosecu- tion of ordinary labors. So long as it was the universal practice to "top" the growing corn and allow the ears to remain and ripen in the field, it was a practice almost equally prevalent for neigh- bors when they had gathered their corn to the barn, to invite each other on successive evenings to aid in husking. So when through infirmity or misfortune, the business of an individual fell in arrears,
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kind neighbors were wont to make a bee on his behalf, and thus to afford timely aid, and these gatherings were as common among fe- males as males.
The amusements of the youth were of an athletic character. Running, leaping, and especially wrestling and ball-playing. Some- times a formal challenge would be given and accepted by different parties in the same town, or in adjacent towns ; the stake being & supper, or a "treat" of punch or "egg nog." Such games usually ended trainings, raisings, &c, at which too often spirituous liquors contributed to hilarity.
Newspapers after they began to be printed in this region, were circulated by carriers, who rode from house to house.
For a long period it was the custom for certain shoemakers to go from house to house, once a year or oftener, and do the work of the families in that line, a mode of employment which they were accus- tomed to speak of as " whipping the cat." A similar course was pursued by tailors, and is, by tailoresses, kept up till the present day.
Our fathers were strangers to the modes of warming and venti- lating their buildings now mostly adopted. It would not be ex- pected that those who were encumbered with a surplus of wood, would much study economy in its use. The fire-place, with its trammels or crane and "pot-hooks," wide enough to receive logs "sled length," as they were drawn from the forests which the set= tlers were laboring to clear, was naturally used, as it secured at once a fire of warmth and durability, with but little expenditure of labor. The fathers probably would have rejected the stove, if it had been offered them, not only as unsocial, but as requiring to fit their fuel, an objectionable amount of labor. Precisely at what date the stove was first used in this region, it may be difficult to ascertain. I have no recollection of having seen one earlier than . about 1812. They were first introduced to the kitchen as an aid in culinary labors, and for some time chiefly employed in that de- partment of the family. They were first prized as convenient, next as economical by those whose fields had become so far denuded of rood, as to render its preservation an object of some thought. For
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these and other reasons, they came gradually into general use, un- til an open fire upou the hearth is a novelty. At this date it is true, as it has for several years been, that few newly constructed houses have any fire-place, except in the kitchen, and in most of them even this is dispensed with. An arch of brick is constructed instead, with kettles set, or with an iron top with apertures more or less numerous, for the reception of kettles. This, with an oven attached, or with the oven of the cooking stove, greatly facilitates, and of course relieves, the labors of the house-keeper.
Most important aids in agricultural pursuits, to which our fathers were strangers, have been within a very brief period, tendered to us by the introduction of labor saving machinery. The fields which our predecessors laboriously passed over from year to year with the scythe, we are enabled in a quarter of the time, and with less than a quarter of the manual labor they employed, to mow in a more perfect manner with the machine, moved by horse-power. The horse-rake in a multiplicity of forms, not more perfectly, but more expeditiously performs the work which was done by hand, while the drag-rake performs equally well, and much more easily, the the raking after, and the gathering of the lighter portions of the hay, The grain-cradle, too, and the reaper moved by horse-power, perform a mission which cost the fathers with their sickles, many a day of wearisome and exhausting toil. The modern plow, with its polished iron or steel mould-board, presents a striking contrast to the clumsy wooden implement with which our fields were furrow- ed in early days. The modern cultivator would have abridged the labors performed by the fathers in their fields of corn and potatoes. Our harrows, too, perform more and better service than those em- ployed in early times, and it probably is not claiming too much, to say, that our forks and hoes, and other similar implements, are in lightness and convenience, at least equally improved. The thresh- ing-machine accomplishes in a few hours or days, what once re- quired weeks or months. The hand fan for cleaning grain, was once the only implement employed for this purpose. This was suc- ceeded by winnowing mills which were a great improvement, though they simply separated the chaff from the grain. These, in
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turn, are giving place to far more perfect implements, which with less labor, not only separate the chaff, but cleanse the grain from all admixture of foul seeds.
Nor ia labor-saving machinery confined to the field or barn. At every turn it tenders its aid to diminish and lighten domestic labors. The churn, with its numerous improvements ; the washing machine, more or less complicated, and numerous other utensils which need not be specified, offer their kindly aid to her "whose work is never done." And over, and beyond all, the sewing machine proffers its friendly assistance to the matron, doomed to the incessant use of the needle, because her lack of health or of pecuniary means, or her aversion to dependence on others, prohibit the employment of help. No labor-saving machinery, perhaps, offers to the female portion of the community aid so appropriate and so needful, presented as it is, in forms diverse, and constructed with more or less of complication, and with finish more or less expensive, to suit the taste and means of the purchaser.
Would that the only changes brought to light by a review of the past were those which relate to the structure or furniture of our dwellings ; to the contents of our wardrobes; and to the modes and facilities for performing agricultural and domestic labors. There are changes more directly affecting the fabric and the welfare of society. There is laxness in family government and in the school, where there was comparative firmness. Shall I add there is re- missness in church discipline, where there was vigilance and decis- ion and promptness. Instead of standing or kneeling when ad- dressing the Throne of Grace in the public assembly, the congrega- tion deliberately keep their seats, as they would not presume to do if addressing a fellow being in high position.
In reference to the phase of society alluded to above, Timothy Titcomb, in one of his recent essays, well remarks :
"Nothing is more apparent in American character and American life, than a growing lack of reverence. It begins in the family, and runs out through all the relations of society. The parent may be loved, but he is much less revered than in the olden time. Parental authority is cast off early, and age and gray hairs do not command the tender regard and that careful respect that they did in the times
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of the fathers. In politics, it is the habit to speak in light and disrespectful terms of those whose experience gives them the right to council and command. Young men talk flippantly of "fossils," and "old fogies," and wonder why men who have been buried once will not remain quietly in their graves. .Of course, when such a spirit as this prevails, there can be no reverence for authority, no respect for place and position, and no genuine and hearty loyalty. We nickname our Presidents, and "old Buck" and "old Abe" are spoken of as familiarly as if they were a pair of old oxen we were in the habit of driving. Every man considers himself good enough for any place, and great enough to judge every other man. If a pastor does not happen to suit a parishioner, the parishioner has no feeling of reverence for him that would hinder him from telling him so to his face. Every man considers himself not only as good and as great as any other man, but a little better and a little greater. No being but God is revered, and He, I fear, not overmuch. What we call " Young America," is made up of about equal parts of irreverence, conceit and that popular moral quality familiarly known as " brass."
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