Per day from $0.50 to $0.72
For making the woodwork of a wagon $25.00
Of a lumber sleigh 1.50
Of a plow 1.00
Of a fanning mill 12.50
MASON'S WORK.
Per day from $0.50 to $0.75
The sums paid for the mason and carpenter's work of the dwelling house
of Peter Gumaer, done about the year 1753, will show how cheap those
mechanics worked at that time.
The house was 45 by 40 feet on the ground, with a cellar under the same,
divided into four cellar rooms and four dwelling rooms. The walls were
of stone, masoned with clay mortar and were about two feet thick,
pointed outside of the house and inside of the cellar rooms with lime
and sand mortar, and plastered inside of the rooms and chamber with
mortar of lime, &c. The mason work of this house was done by three
masons, by the job, for 30 L., equal to $75; and the carpenter's work
was also done by the job, by a Mr. Wells, for the like sum of 30 L.,
equal to $75.
To show how cheap these mechanics worked, I have thought proper to give
a further description of this house, being as follows, to wit: The two
side walls were about 20 feet high from the bottom of the cellar to the
plates, and the two end walls were about 28 feet high. The two walls,
which divided the cellar and dwelling house each into four apartments,
were about 16 feet high from the bottom of the cellar to the chamber
floor. The two chimneys, with the supporting walls in the cellar and
forming the fire-places, were about 40 feet high from the bottom of the
cellar to their tops, and were each about 10 x 6 feet square above the
upper floor, from which they were tapering towards the top of the roof,
and above it were about 4 or 5 feet square.
The carpenter's work consisted of hewing, fitting and laying the cellar
beams, which were about one foot square, and reached from the outside to
the inside walls, also hewing, planing and laying the beams of the upper
floor, which were of pitch pine timber and about 14 X 10 inches square,
also hewing and planing the plates on which the roof rested, also hewing
the rafters, which were about 8 x 6 inches square at the lower ends and
about 5 inches square at the top end and those on the sides were about
32 feet long, and those on the two other sides, or ends, were about 26
feet long, and each pair of the long rafters contained a girth of about
25 feet long and about 8 x 6 inches square. The lath on which the
shingles were nailed were of split timber, hewed 1 1/4 inch thick and
about 5 inches wide, the shingles were of white pine timber 3 feet long
and 1 inch thick at the butt end, shaved to near an edge at the other
end; the lower and upper floors were of pitch pine boards, 1 1/2 inch
thick planed on the side within the rooms.
The house contained 7 inside panel doors, four outside framed doors, and
four cellar batten doors, five windows, which contained each 24 panes of
glass, and panel window shutters to each window, four small windows
above the outside doors and eight small chamber and cellar windows, and
a large closet each side of one of the fire places. These two jobs were
paid in money, which was of much more value at that time than at
present.
Few country dwelling houses contain as great a weight of materials as
were put into this building. It lasted until the year 1823, and, with a
little repairing and a new roof, might have stood and been a good house
until the present time. It contained all its first materials except a
small repair of the floors before each fire place, and rebuilding the
east wall, from which the pointing had been washed by northeast storms
of rain and caused it to fall. The lower and upper floors, and the two
end roofs, were yet water tight when the house was taken down. The roofs
on the north and south sides had become leaky, and more on the north
than south side. The two end roofs were very steep, and those on the
sides were somewhat steeper than roofs of the present time.
* * * * *