Mealtime:
Winter dinners generally consisted of a dish of porrige with a few beans in
it, a little summer savory; plus an Indian pudding with sauce and a dish of
boiled pork and beef, with turnips and a few potatoes. Potatoes were scarce,
and rarely larger than a hen's egg. Three or four bushels was a large crop.
Breakfast and supper were much the same. Milk, if they had it, was eaten
with toasted bread, otherwise, sweetened cider with bread and cheese.
Sunday breakfasts usually were pancakes, doughnuts, brown toast, or some sort
of pie and chocolate sweetened with molasses or bohea tea with brown sugar.
Dinner was not served until after church services. This meal might include a
roast goose, turkey, spare ribs, or a stew pie; in the spring and summer. The
evening meal was most commonly bread and milk.
At that time farmers would break up a piece of new ground and plant wheat,
and turnips. Wheat, with the help of a sieve, became flour. No family had a full
barrel of flour. A writer of years gone by, says "the chiefest corn they
planted, was Indian grain, before they had ploughs; and let no man make a jest
at pumpkins, for with this food the Lord was pleased to feed his people, to
their good content, till corn and cattle were increased."
Corn was pounded into meal with a wooden or stone pestle in a mortar made
from a large log hollowed at one end until grinding mills were built. Barley was
cultivated and much of it made into malt for beer, which they drank instead of
hard liquor.
The Massachusetts General Court required corn and beans to be used when
voting for counselors; the corn for a positive vote and the beans against plus a
heavy penalty if a voter used more than one grain of corn or one bean.
Clothing:
For materials, the inner fibers of flax could be separated, after being rotted
in water was made into thread and then woven into fabric and made into clothing.
Sheep provided wool as well as mutton
Generally, men had one decent coat, a vest and some small clothes and some
type of fur hat. They also had an every day jacket that reached about half way
down the thigh, a striped vest, and small clothes made of home spun flannel
cloth, fulled at the mill, but not sheared. Flannel shirts, knit woolen
stockings, with leather shoes, and a silk handkerchief for holidays completed
the wardrobe.
Old men had a great coat, and a substantial pair of long boots that reached
to the knee, usually made of good leather that lasted for life. Young men never
wore great coats.
Summer clothing was a pair of wide petticoat trousers, reaching down half way
between the knee to the ankle. Bare feet were the order of the day for
summertime farm work.
Boys, as soon as they left their petticoats, were put into small clothes,
summer or winter, home made cloth for daily wear, better quality for meeting
dress. The oldest son had a pair Sunday pants and which were passed down to the
next in line as they were outgrown.
Some time later long trousers were introduced, called tongs, not much
different in shape from today. Made from linen and cotton in the summer and
flannel in winter. they were soon adopted by men of all ages.
One writer of those past times, tells of a neighbor who had four sons
between nineteen and thirty years of age. The oldest got a pair of boots,
the second a surtout, the third a watch, and the fourth a pair of silver
shoe buckles. The neighborhood gossip soon had the family on the high road
to insolvency.
Women, old and young, wore homemade flannel gowns in the winter. Summer
clothing was wrappers, or shepherdess without a waist and gathered round the
neck. A woman usually had one calico gown and also a calimanco or camlet, some
times made of poplin. Short sleves came only to the elbow. On holidays the
ladies wore as many as three ruffles on each arm, sometimes ten inches wide.
Long gloves, coming up to the elbow, were secured by tightens, made of black
horse hair. House dresses were not yet in fashion so ladies wore aprons, made of
checked linen, cotton, and for Sunday, white cotton, long lawn, or cambric.
They wore caps only when they appeared in full dress and they had two kinds;
one, called a strap cap tied under the chin and the other a round cord cap which
did not cover the ears. Their shoes, made of thick and thin leather or
broadcloth with turned up peaked toes had wooden heels covered with cloth or
leather, an inch and a half high. Usually they had very small muffs, and some
wore masks.
The manner of living, and the mode of dress, were in some ways healthier than
present day. Pulmonary complaints were much less frequent, indeed a young person
was rarely visited with this disease; however, acute fevers were frequent,
called the long or slow fever, which ran thirty-five, forty, and sometimes fifty
days before it reached a crisis. Less common was a slow nervous fever, which
usually lasted longer.
Housing:
The first houses were often very coarse rude structures with steep roofs covered
with thatch, or small bundles of sedge or straw, laid one over the other. In a
few years houses of a better construction began to appear. These houses often
had two stories in front, and sloped down to a low one in the rear; the small
windows opened outward on hinges. The glass was smal in the shape of a diamond,
and set in lead sashes.
Fireplaces were built of rough stones with chimneys of boards, or short
sticks, crossing each other, plastered inside with clay, and were large enough
to receive a four foot log and also seat the family children in the corners,
where they could look up and count the stars. Chimneys were uniformly placed,
fronting to the south, regardless of whatever side the road might be on, so
that, when the sun shone on it, the house might serve as a sundial.
Tthe first settlers commonly wore their beards so long oin winter, that it
would sometimes freeze together making it difficult to get their drinking
vessels to their mouths.
Men and women were commonly addressed as Goodman and Goodwife. Only those who
held some important office or belonged to a respectable family were given the
complimentary title of Master or Mistress. Two small "f"s or "ff" replaced the
Capital F.
Sabbath:
In those days young women did not consider it a hardship, nor a disgrace, to
walk five or six miles to a Sabbath meeting or a lecture. In country towns,
scarcely a chaise, or any other vehicle was used. Horses fitted with saddles and
pillions were a common conveyance. A man and woman rode together on the same
horse, and sometimes a little boy rode before the man, and an infant in the lap
of the woman: no inconsiderable journeys were made in this way. Horses then were
made to pace, that they might carry their riders more gently. It was not until a
little before the revolutionary war, that they were learned to trot. A horse
that would sell for forty dollars was considered as of the first quality, and
one more than nine years old, was considered of little value.
Every body went to meeting on the Sabbath and lecture days, however distant
they lived. Those who owned horses shared the riding with their neighbors on
those days. The custom in many country towns was for the owner, with his wife,
to ride half way, to a horse block made for that purpose, and there hitch his
horse, and walk on, for his neighbor who had set out on foot to ride, and do
when they returned.
The church sexton's duties were, not only to ring the bell, and sweep the
house, but to keep the hour-glass, and turn it at the commencement of the
minister's sermon, who was expected to close at the end of the hour. If he
went on, or fell short of the time, it was sufficient cause of complaint.
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