Norfolk County, Massachusetts - Chapter 5: Pioneer Life and Customs, 1918

Chapter 5: Pioneer Life and Customs

CONDITIONS NOW AND THEN - THE FIRST HOUSES - HEAT AND LIGHT - FURNITURE AND UTENSILS - FOOD AND CLOTHING - MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES OF PIONEER

In these early years of the Twentieth Century the citizen of Norfolk is in the full enjoyment of the fruits of modern invention and progress. If he desires to visit another part of the county he can step into his automobile and glide along over an improved highway almost with the speed of the wind. Should he not be the fortunate possessor of an automobile, the network of electric railways is at his service, and for a trifling sum the trolley car will carry him to Boston or any of the suburban towns. In the event a longer journey is contemplated, he can take a seat in a railway coach, palatial in its appointments, and be whirled across the continent behind a powerful steam locomotive, eating his meals and sleeping comfortably at night on the train. He enters his house after dark, turns a switch, and the whole place is flooded with electric light. The telephone enables him to converse with his friends or transact his business without leaving his office or his residence. He turns a faucet and receives a supply of pure, wholesome water in any quantity desired. A boy brings the daily newspaper to his door. His children attend school in a stately edifice, heated by steam during the winter seasons and equipped with all the modern apparatus for imparting instruction. On Sunday he worships in a church with cushioned pews and carpeted floor, and listens to the jubilant tones of a pipe organ that in many instances cost thousands of dollars.

But does he ever pause to think of the slow and tedious process by which all these comforts were developed for him to enjoy? The Puritan forefathers, when they first came to this region, found none of these things. Instead they found a wilderness, inhabited only by wild beasts and savage Indians - the primeval forest untouched by the ax, the soil unbroken by the plowshare. Into this wild and desolate country they came as exiles, with little capital besides their industry and determination, and began the work of building up a community whose foundations should be laid deep and secure in the principles of everlasting justice.

The First Houses

The first problem that confronted the pioneers was to provide shelter for themselves and their families. The first dwellings were log cabins, such as the settlers themselves could construct without the aid of the trained carpenter, bricklayer or plasterer. The roofs of these cabins were covered with thatch, and in many instances the only floor was "mother earth." In some of the better cabins there was a floor of puncheons - that is, slabs of timber split as nearly the same thickness as possible, the upper surface being smoothed with an adz after the floor was laid.

A little later came the frame house. Saw mills were not introduced for several years and the first boards were made with the whip-saw. A "saw-pit" was excavated somewhere in a convenient hillside, the log to be sawed into boards was usually hewn on two sides, so that it would rest firmly upon the timbers over the pit, and on the upper hewn surface lines were struck to show the thickness of the boards required. The whip-saw was operated by two men - one standing on the top of the log to guide the saw by the lines, and the other below in the pit to pull the saw downward. It was a slow method of making lumber, but many of the first houses in the county were constructed of boards thus manufactured. Another improvement that came with the frame house was the shingle roof. The first shingles were rived or cloven with an implement called a frow, and then shaved thin at the upper end with a draw-knife. Nails and glass were the most difficult materials to obtain and in some of the houses light was admitted through oiled paper or a piece of white muslin stretched over a framework of light sticks. Brick or stone foundations were rare. The house was usually set on posts or piles and in the fall of the year earth was banked up around it to form an "underpinning" to keep out the cold. Sometimes the upper story of a house would project beyond the walls of the first story. This gave rise to the theory that they were so constructed that the settler might fire down upon Indians trying to break in at the door, but this is hardly true, when one considers that houses of that type had been constructed in England for years before the Puritans came to America.

Heat And Light

In the first cabins «n opening was left at one end for the great fireplace, capable of taking in logs or sticks of wood four or five feet long. The chimney was built outside the cabin. It was generally of stone, though, where stone was not convenient, it was sometimes built of sticks and plastered with clay to keep it from catching fire. When people began to build frame houses, the chimney was placed in the partition wall, in order that there might be a fireplace in each of the two principal rooms on the lower floor. In front of the fireplace was a hearth of stone or baked clay (bricks were used later), and upon this hearth, extending well back into the fireplace, was a pair of great andirons to support the blazing logs. Some of these andirons were "curiously wrought and highly ornamental." Here and there a pair has been preserved by some historical society or collector of curios, but many people of the present generation probably never saw an andiron and know nothing of the pleasures of an open fire.

For light of evenings the first settlers depended upon pine knots. Then came the "betty lamp," a round, shallow metal dish with a nose or spout about an inch long on one side. The dish was partially filled with oil or grease of some kind, into which was placed a loosely twisted strip of cotton cloth, one end of which projected through the spout. The projecting end was then lighted, and although such a lamp emitted both smoke and odor, it gave sufficient light to enable the housewife to attend to her duties. Over the fireplace and the table were hooks, from which the lamp could be suspended.

Another lamp, called the "phebe/' differed from the betty lamp only in that it was made with two dishes, the larger one being placed underneath to catch the ashes from the burning wick and the drippings of grease. Lamps of this character required a great deal of attention, as the wick had to be pushed forward as often as it burned down to the edge of the spout.

A little later came the sperm oil lamp. It was made of tin and burned a round wick, which passed through a small tube to the oil. In one side of the tube was a narrow slot, in which could be inserted a pin, needle or small wire to pull up the wick when the flame began to burn low. This lamp was regarded as a great improvement over the betty and phebe lamps.

Next came the tallow dip, which was made as follows : Several soft cotton wicks, about six inches long, were fastened at one end to a slender wand, then dipped into a kettle of molten tallow and hung up over a pan until the tallow adhering to the wick became hardened. Again and again the "dips" were immersed in hot tallow, a little more of which was added each time, until enough had accumulated to form a fair sized candle.

Then some genius invented the candle-moulds - a group of four, six, or even more, tin tubes, one end of which was slightly smaller than the other, soldered together in a frame. A wick was drawn through the center of each tube and the moulds were then filled with molten tallow. When the tallow hardened the candles were withdrawn. Often there was but one set of candle-moulds in a neighborhood, but the owner was nearly always generous enough to lend them, and they passed from house to house until all had a supply of candles laid away in a cool, dry place for future use.

Lanterns were sometimes made of horn, scraped thin enough to emit a faint light from the candle that was being placed inside. Others were made of perforated tin, the holes being small enough to prevent the wind from blowing out the candle, yet large enough to throw out a tiny ray of light. Such a lantern made everything look "as spotted as a leopard."

Matches were unknown in those days and every family kept a "tinder box" filled with scorched cotton rags. Into this "tinder" a spark was struck with flint and steel. The dry tinder was easily ignited and with a little care and skill could be coaxed into a flame. Then a betty lamp or a candle was lighted, when the box was closed and the tinder smothered until it was again needed.

Furniture And Utensils

Bedsteads brought from England, or made by the first cabinet makers in this country, contained three or four times as much timber as the factory made bedsteads of more modern times. The posts were often four or even six inches square, turned in ornamental designs, and reached almost to the ceiling. There were neither slats, springs nor mattresses, such as are in use today. Cords were drawn tightly around small pins or through holes in the rails, which were almost as large as the posts. LTpon this network of cords was placed the "straw-tick," on the top of which was the feather bed. Between the posts at either end were the head and foot boards, frequently ornately carved or scrolled along the upper edge. In the better class of homes a canopy was fastened to the tops of the posts, and from the edge of this canopy curtains extended almost to the floor.

Then there was the '"trundle bed," a miniature of the great "four poster" as to the manner of construction, though much smaller in its dimensions. It was occupied by the children at night and during the day was pushed back under the larger bed to economize space.

Tables and chairs were as massive in proportion as the bedsteads. Some of the chairs of colonial days, notably those of Governor Carver and John Eliot, the Indian apostle, have become historic. In the rooms of the Dedham Historical Society is preserved a chair once owned by Michael Metcalf, also Mr. Metcalf's chest, which he brought with him to Dedham in 1637. Both chair and chest are richly carved and so solidly put together that they have withstood the ravages of three centuries.

The more opulent of the pioneers ascertained the time by a "grandfather's" or "wall-sweeper" clock. These clocks were about six feet tall, with wooden wheels, and the cases were many times works oi art. The weights of the clock were cylinders of tin filled with fine sand. If the clock ran too slow more sand was added to give greater impetus to the movement, and if it ran too fast some of the sand was taken out. Those who were not able to afford a clock depended upon a sun dial, or at least a "noon mark" on the sill of one of the south windows of the house.

Cooking stoves and ranges had not then made their appearance and the meals were all prepared at the fireplace. The principal cooking utensils were an iron tea-kettle, a long-handled skillet (sometimes called a spider), and a large iron pot. Fastened to one of the walls of the fireplace was a crane, upon which the pot could be suspended over the fire. Excellent bread was often baked in the spider, by placing it over a bed of hot coals and then heaping more coals on the iron lid, so that the bread would bake at both top and bottom. The large pot was used in the preparation of the "New England boiled dinner," which consisted of meat and several kinds of vegetables cooked together.

Many of the vessels and dishes - bowls, plates and spoons - were made of wood. When porcelain or earthenware dishes first came into use, many objected to them because they dulled the knives. There were also pewter porringers, teapots, etc.

Farm implements were of the most primitive "type. Plows with wooden moldboards, harrows wtih wooden teeth, rakes and pitchforks made of wood were in common use throughout the colony. Wheat was harvested with the old sickle, or "reaping hook," and threshed with the flail. Corn and wheat were ground in hand mills brought from England until some one with a little capital and enterprise built a dam and mill on one of the streams. Settlers often went thirty or forty miles to such a mill rather than operate the old hand mill.

Food And Clothing

Not many dainties could have been found upon the tables of the early settlers. Their food was plain but wholesome - beef, pork, cornbread and beans. The early mills did not bolt the meal and it was run through a sieve to separate the bran from the part intended for use. Game was plentiful and the family frequently enjoyed a feast of wild turkey or venison. Potatoes were not introduced until the early part of the Eighteenth Century. When they began to come into use many people thought they were poisonous. If any were left at the close of the winter they were carefully buried for fear some horse or cow might eat them and be killed. A story has been told of one man, who, when he saw the first potato, bit into it raw and then remarked that it "might be all right if allowed to stay in the ground until ripened by the frost." In some of the towns there was a by-law that no cakes, buns, or similar pastries should be served except at funerals and weddings.

The first orchards were planted with seeds brought from the mother country. When they were old enough to bear fruit a stock of apple butter was prepared in the fall for use during the winter. Cider filtered through fine sand was also put in jugs and stored until such time as it might be needed.

Everybody wore homespun clothing - woolen goods in the winter and linen in the summer. Each family had its flax-brake and hackle, and in the long winter 'evenings the housewife, after her regular day's work was done, would get out her spinning wheel and spin flax until time to retire. Woolen yarn was spun on a larger wheel, the operator walking back and forth as the thread was drawn out and then wound up on the spindle. Cloth was woven on the old hand loom, garments were cut and sewed by hand with the needle, and there was probably not a lass sixteen years of age in the Massachusetts Bay colony who was not able to make her own dresses, or to operate a spinning wheel. How many of the young ladies who graduated in the Norfolk County high schools in 1917 can make their own gowns?

In every settlement there was a tanyard, to which the farmer took his hides to be converted into leather. The shoemaker, or "cordwainer," did not have a fixed place of business. Each year he made his itinerary, stopping with each of his customers and boarding with the family while he made up a supply of shoes for the several members of the household. For his services he received about sixty cents a pair.

Miscellaneous Features

One of the first things to be done in a new settlement was to erect a stockade for protection in case of an Indian outbreak. For many years a sentinel was kept constantly on guard against the Indians. The signal was the beating of a drum, three shots fired from a musket, a beacon fire at night, or the firing of a cannon, if the town possessed one. Any one of these signals would cause messengers to hurry to the outlying houses and warn the inmates.

Nearly every house was surrounded by old-fashioned flowers, such as hollyhocks, marigolds, larkspur, bouncing betty, sun flowers and honeysuckle, and in the gardens were cultivated a variety of plants "for physick." Thyme, sage, wormwood, spearmint, pennyroyal, tansy and various other herbs were carefully garnered against a day of sickness, for the nearest physician was often miles away.

Books were scarce and the few that found their way into a new colony were read and reread until their contents were almost known by heart. Every family had the Bible, the Catechism, Watts' Hymns and an Almanack, which consti- tuted the principal portion of the library. As late as the middle of the Eighteenth Century there was but one newspaper in all New England, and it had only a small circulation. Pamphlets by such men as Franklin, Adams, Jefferson and Paine, treating on the political situation, were printed and circulated among the people, which helped the cause of independence.

Late in the fall of the year the Indians burned the grass and underbrush in certain tracts of woodland to drive out the game. After the white men came the cattle belonging to them would be gathered into a common herd and pastured in these burnt woods, or wherever there was a sufficient quantity of grass. These places were called "herd walks," and the common herd was in charge of a "herdsman."

Although the forefathers were believers in temperance, West India or Jamaica rum was used freely on all occasions, such as the dedication of meeting houses, funerals, in harvest time, or when the pastor visited the family, and instances are recorded where parish meetings "adjourned to the nearest inn," where liquors were served. Yet an intoxicated person was rarely seen.

Travel in early days was chiefly on horseback, as no highways were opened for the accommodation of vehicles. In front of nearly every house, at the church, and before the stores in the villages were "horse-blocks," from which one could easily mount to the saddle.

A popular superstition was that if one ate of pancakes made of rye flour on Candlemas Day he would not want for money during the year. Consequently on that day rye pancakes were served at least at one meal in nearly every household.

Wolves and wildcats infested the woods and annoyed the settlers at night with their howls and cries. The story of Little Red Riding Hood had never been told to the children of that period, but many a night the little ones cuddled more closely together in their trundle bed and shuddered with fear as the howl of a wolf was heard near the frontier dwelling. But worse than the annoyance of their howls were the depredations of these prowling beasts upon the pig-sty and the sheep-fold. Bounties for wolf scalps in Norfolk County ran as high at one time as. two pounds.