OLD-TIME CUSTOMS AND INDUSTRIES.
Peace was indeed welcome to a people so long deprived of an accessible
market as had been the inhabitants of Vermont.
The potash fires were relighted; the lumberman's axe was busy again in
the bloodless warfare against the giant pines; new acres of virgin soil
were laid bare to the sun, and added to the broadening fields of tilth.
White-winged sloops and schooners, and unwieldy rafts, flocked through
the reopened gate of the country, and the clumsy Durham boat spread its
square sail to the favoring north wind, and once more appeared on the
broad lake where it had so long been a stranger. The shores were no
longer astir with military preparations, but with the bustle of awakened
traffic; soldiers had again become citizens; the ravages of war had
scarcely touched the borders of the State, and in a few months there
remained hardly a trace of its recent existence.
There had not been, nor was there for years after this period, a marked
change in the social conditions of the people, for the old fraternal
bonds of interdependence still held pioneer to pioneer almost as
closely as in the days when the strong hand was more helpful than the
long purse.
Class distinctions were marked vaguely, if at all, and there was no
aristocracy of idleness, for it was held that idleness was disgraceful.
The farmer who owned five hundred acres worked as early and as late as
he who owned but fifty, and led his half-score of mowers to the
onslaught of herdsgrass and redtop with a ringing challenge of whetstone
on scythe, and was proud of his son if the youngster "cut him out of his
swathe."
The matron taught her daughters and maids how to spin and weave flax and
wool. The beat of the little wheel, the hum of the great wheel, the
ponderous thud of the loom, were household voices in every Vermont
homestead, whether it was the old log-house that the forest had first
given place to, or its more pretentious framed and boarded successor.
All the womenfolk knitted stockings and mittens while they rested or
visited, the click of the needles accompanied by the chirp of the
cricket and the buzz of gossip.
For workday and holiday, the household was clad in homespun from head to
foot, save what the hatter furnished for the first and the traveling
cobbler for the last.
Once a year the latter was a welcome visitor of every homestead in his
beat, bringing to it all the gossip for the womenfolk, all the weighty
news for the men, and all the bear stories for the children which he had
gathered in a twelve months' "whipping of the cat," as his itinerant
craft was termed. These he dispensed while, by the light of the wide
fireplace, he mended old foot-gear or fashioned new, that fitted and
tortured alike either foot whereon it was drawn on alternate days.
The old custom of making "bees," instituted when neighborly help was a
necessity, was continued when it was no longer needed, for the sake of
the merry-makings which such gatherings afforded. There were yet
logging-bees for the piling of logs in a clearing, and raising-bees when
a new house or barn was put up; drawing-bees when one was to be moved to
a new site, with all the ox-teams of half a township; and bees when a
sick or short-handed neighbor's season-belated crops needed harvesting.
When the corn was ripe came the husking-bee, in which old and young of
both sexes took part, their jolly labor lighted in the open field by the
hunter's moon or a great bonfire, around which the shocks were ranged
like a circle of wigwams; or, if in the barn, by the rays sprinkled from
lanterns of punched tin. When the work was done, the company feasted on
pumpkin pie, doughnuts, and cider. Then the barn floor was cleared of
the litter of husks, the fiddler mounted the scaffold, and made the
gloom of the roof-peak ring with merry strains, to which twoscore
solidly clad feet threshed out time in "country dance" and "French
four."
The quilting party, in its first laborious stage, was participated in
only by the womenkind; but, when that was passed, the menfolk were
called in to assist in the ceremony of "shaking the quilt," and in the
performance of this the fiddler was as necessary as in the closing rites
of the husking-bee.
When the first touch of spring stirred the sap of the maples,
sugar-making began, a labor spiced with a woodsy flavor of camp life and
small adventure. The tapping was done with a gouge; the sap dripped from
spouts of sumach stems into rough-hewn troughs, from which it was
gathered in buckets borne on a neck-yoke, the bearer making the rounds
on snowshoes, and depositing the gathered sap in a big "store trough"
set close to the boiling-place. This was an open fire, generously fed
with four-foot wood, and facing an open-fronted shanty that sheltered
the sugar-maker from rain and "sugar snow," while he plied his daily and
nightly labor, now with the returning crow and the snickering squirrel
for companions, now the unseen owl and fox, making known their presence
with storm-boding hoot and husky bark. The sap-boiling was done in the
great potash kettle that in other seasons seethed with pungent lye, but
now, swung on a huge log crane, sweetened the odors of the woods with
sugar-scented vapor. Many families saw no sweetening, from one end of
the year to the other, but maple sugar and syrup, the honey from their
few hives, or the uncertain spoil of the bee-hunter. All the young folks
of a neighborhood were invited to the "sugaring off," and camp after
camp in turn, during the season of melting snow and the return of
bluebird and robin, rung with the chatter and laughter of a merry party
that was as boisterous over the sugar feast as the blackbirds that swung
on the maple-tops above them rejoicing over the return of spring.
In the long evenings of late autumn and early winter, there were apple
or paring bees, to which young folk and frolicsome elder folk came and
lent a hand in paring, coring, and stringing to dry, for next summer's
use, the sour fruit of the ungrafted orchards, and, when the work was
done, to lend more nimble feet to romping games and dances, that were
kept up till the tallow dips paled with the stars in the dawn, and
daylight surprised the coatless beaux and buxom belles, all clad in
honest homespun.
Very naturally, weddings often came of these merry-makings, and were
celebrated with as little ostentation and as much hearty good
fellowship. The welcome guests brought no costly and useless presents
for display; there were no gifts but the bride's outfit of home-made
beds, homespun and hand-woven sheets, table-cloths, and towels given by
parents and nearest relations. The young couple did not parade the
awkwardness of their newly assumed relations in a wedding journey, but
began the honeymoon in their new home, and spent it much as their lives
were to be spent, taking up at once the burden that was not likely to
grow lighter with the happiness that might increase. But if the burden
became heavy, and the light of love faded, there was seldom separation
or divorce. If there were more sons and daughters than could be employed
at home, they hired out in families not so favored without loss of caste
or sense of degradation in such honest service. They often married into
the family of the employer, and their position was little changed by the
new relation.
For many years the wheat crop in Vermont continued certain and abundant,
and formed a part of almost every farmer's income, as well as the
principal part of his breadstuff, for the pioneer's Johnny-cake had
fallen into disrepute among his thrifty descendants, who held it more
honorable to eat poor wheat-bread than good Johnny-cake, and despised
the poor wretch who ate buckwheat. It is quite possible that the first
demarcation between the aristocrats and the plebeians of Vermont was
drawn along this food line.
Wool-growing was fostered in the infancy of the State by public acts,
and almost every farmer was more or less a shepherd. A marked
improvement in the fineness and weight of the fleeces began with the
introduction of the Spanish merinos in 1809.[98] By the judicious
breeding by a few intelligent Vermont farmers, the Spanish sheep were
brought to a degree of perfection which they had never attained in
their European home, and Vermont merinos gained a world-wide reputation
that still endures; while the wool product of the State, once so famous
for it that Sheffield cutlers stamped their best shears "The True
Vermonter," has become almost insignificant, compared with that of
states and countries whose flocks yearly renew their impoverished blood
with fresh draughts from Vermont stock. Shearing-time was the great
festival of the year. The shearers, many of whom were often the
flock-owner's well-to-do neighbors, were treated more as guests than as
laborers, and the best the house afforded was set before them. The great
barn's empty bays and scaffolds resounded with the busy click of
incessant shears, the jokes, songs, and laughter of the merry shearers,
the bleating of the ewes and lambs, and the twitter of disturbed
swallows, while the sunlight, shot through crack and knot-hole, swung
slowly around the dusty interior in sheets and bars of gold that dialed
the hours from morning till evening.
A distinctive breed of horses originated in Vermont, and the State
became almost as famous for its Morgan horses as for its sheep. But,
though Vermont horses are still of good repute, this noted strain, the
result of a chance admixture of the blood of the English thoroughbred
and the tough little Canadian horse, has been improved into extinction
of its most valued traits.
The laborious life of the farmer had an occasional break in days of
fishing in lulls of the spring's work, and between that and haymaking;
of hunting when the crops were housed, and the splendor of the autumnal
woods was fading to sombre monotony of gray, or when woods and fields
were white with the snows of early winter.
The clear mountain ponds and streams were populous with trout, the lakes
and rivers with pike, pickerel, and the varieties of perch and bass; and
in May and June the salmon, fresh run from the sea and lusty with its
bounteous fare, swarmed up the Connecticut and the tributaries of Lake
Champlain.
The sonorous call of the moose echoed now only in the gloom of the
northeastern wilderness, but the deer still homed in the mountains,
often coming down to feed with domestic cattle in the hillside pastures.
The ruffed grouse strutted and drummed in every wood, copse, and cobble.
Every spring, great flights of wild pigeons clouded the sky, as they
flocked to their summer encampment; and in autumn, such innumerable
hordes of wild fowl crowded the marshes that the roar of their startled
simultaneous uprising was like dull thunder. These the farmer hunted in
his stealthy Indian way, and after New England fashion,--the fox on
foot, with hound and gun; and so, too, the raccoon that pillaged his
cornfields when the ears were in the milk. When a wolf came down from
the mountain fastnesses, or crossed the frozen lake from the Adirondack
wilds, to ravage the folds, every arms-bearer turned hunter. The
marauder was surrounded in the wood where he had made his latest lair;
the circle, bristling with guns, slowly closed in upon him; and as he
dashed wildly around it in search of some loophole of escape, he fell to
rifle-ball or charge of buckshot, if he did not break through the line
at a point weakly guarded by a timid or flurried hunter. His death was
celebrated at the nearest store or tavern with a feast of crackers and
cheese,--a droughty banquet, moistened with copious draughts of cider,
beer, or more potent liquors, and the bounty paid the reckoning. The
bounty, and the value of the skins and grease of bears were added
incentives to the taking off of these pests, which was frequently
accomplished by trap and spring-gun.
Many farmers made a considerable addition to their income by trapping
the fur-bearers, for though the beaver had been driven from all but the
wildest streams, and the otter was an infrequent visitor of his old
haunts, their little cousins, the muskrat and mink, held their own in
force on every stream and marsh; and the greater and lesser martins,
known to their trappers as fisher and sable, still found home and range
on the unshorn mountains. A few men yet followed for their livelihood
the hunter's and trapper's life of laziness and hardship, for the most
part unthrifty, and poor in everything but shiftless contentment and the
wisdom of woodcraft. There were exceptions in this class: at least one
mighty hunter laid the foundation of a fortune when he set his traps.
When the trapping season was ended, he sold his peltry in Montreal,
bought goods there, and peddled them through his State till the falling
leaves again called him to the woods. He gained wealth and a seat in
Congress, but neither is likely to be the reward of one who now follows
such a vocation in Vermont.
The annual election of legislators, justices, judges, state officers,
and members of Congress, which falls on the first Tuesday of September,
had then other than political excitement to enliven the day in the
wrestling matches and feats of strength that were interludes of the
balloting. In one instance the name of a town was decided by the result
of a wrestling match on election day. One figure constant at the
elections of the first half of this century, and by far the most
attractive one to the unfledged voters who never failed in attendance,
was he who dispensed, from his booth or stand, pies, cakes, crackers,
cheese, and spruce beer to the hungry and thirsty. When the result of
the election was announced, the successful candidate for representative
bought out the remaining stock of the victualer, and invited his friends
to help themselves, which they did with little ceremony. Nothing less
than a reception given at the house of the representative-elect will
satisfy the mixed multitude in these progressive times. The once
familiar booth and its occupant have drifted into the past with the
wrestlers, the jumpers, and pullers of the stick.
Gradually the primitive ways of life, the earliest industries, and the
ruder methods of labor gave way to more luxurious living, new
industries, and labor-saving machinery.
The log-house, that was reared amid its brotherhood of stumps, decayed
with them, and was superseded by a more pretentious frame-house, whose
best apartment, known as the "square room," came to know the luxury of a
rag carpet, or at least a painted floor, that heretofore had been only
sanded, and a Franklin stove, a meagre apology for the generous breadth
of the great fireplace whose place it took. There was yet a fireplace in
the kitchen, down whose wide-throated chimney the stars might shine upon
the seething samp-pot swinging on the trammel and the bake-kettle
embedded and covered in embers. Great joints of meat were roasted before
it on the spit, biscuits baked in a tin oven, and Johnny-cakes tilted on
oaken boards. Around this glowing centre the family gathered in the
evening, the always busy womenfolk sewing, knitting, and carding wool;
the men fashioning axe-helves and ox-bows, the children popping corn on
a hot shovel, or conning their next day's lessons; while all listened to
the grandsire's stories of war and pioneer life, or to the
schoolmaster's reading of some book seasoned with age, or of the latest
news, fresh from the pages of a paper only a fortnight old. The fire
gave better light for reading and work than the tallow dips, to whose
manufacture of a year's supply one day was devoted, marked in the
calendar by greasy discomfort. For the illumination of the square room
on grand occasions, there were mould candles held in brass sticks,
while these and the dips were attended by the now obsolete snuffers and
extinguisher. Close by the kitchen fireplace, and part of the massive
chimney stack, whose foundations filled many cubic yards of the cellar,
the brick oven held its cavernous place, and was heated on baking days
with wood specially prepared for it. Oven and fireplace gave away after
a time to the sombre but more convenient cook-stove, and with them many
time-honored utensils and modes of cookery fell into disuse.
Wool-carding machines were erected at convenient points, and
hand-carding made no longer necessary. Presently arose factories which
performed all the work of cloth-making (carding, spinning, weaving, and
finishing), so that housewife, daughter, and hired girl were relieved of
all these labors, and the use of the spinning-wheel and hand-loom became
lost arts. When it became cheaper to buy linen than to make it, the
growing of flax and all the labors of its preparation were abandoned by
the farmer. As wood grew scarcer and more valuable than its ashes, the
once universal and important manufacture of pot and pearl ashes was
gradually discontinued; and as the hemlock forests dwindled away, the
frequent tannery, where the farmers' hides were tanned on shares, fell
into disuse and decay.
Early in this century the dull thunder of the forge hammer resounded,
and the furnace fire glared upon the environing forest, busily working
up ore, brought some from the inferior mines of Vermont, but for the
most part from the iron mines of the New York shore. This industry
became unprofitable many years ago, and one by one the fires of forge
and furnace went out. With the decline of this industry, the charcoal
pit and its grimy attendants became infrequent in the new clearings,
though for many years later there was a considerable demand for charcoal
by blacksmiths. Of these there were many more then than now, for the
scope of the smith's craft was far broader in the days when he forged
many of the household utensils and farming tools that, except such as
have gone out of use, are now wholly supplied by the hardware dealer. A
common appurtenance of the smithy, when every farmer used oxen, was the
"ox-frame," wherein those animals, who in the endurance of shoeing belie
their proverbial patience, were hoisted clear of the ground, and their
feet made fast while the operation was performed. The blacksmith's shop
was also next in importance, as a gossiping place, to the tavern
bar-room and the store. At the store dry-goods, groceries, and hardware
were dealt out in exchange for butter, cheese, dried apples, grain,
peltry, and all such barter, and generous seating conveniences and
potations free to all customers invited no end of loungers.
The merchant's goods were brought to him by teams from ports on Lake
Champlain and the Connecticut, and from Troy, Albany, and Boston,
whither by the same slow conveyance went the product of the farms,--the
wool, grain, pork, maple sugar, cheese, butter, and all marketable
products except beef, which was driven on the hoof in great droves to a
market in Boston and Albany.
Daily stage-coaches traversed the main thoroughfares, carrying the mails
and such travelers as went by public conveyance, to whom, journeying
together day after day, were given great opportunities for gossip and
acquaintance. There was much journeying on horseback. Families going on
distant visits went with their own teams in the farm wagon, whose
jolting over the rough roads was relieved only by the "spring of the
axletree" and the splint bottoms of the double-armed wagon chairs. They
often carried their own provisions for the journey, to the disgust of
the innkeepers, and this was known as traveling "tuckanuck," a name and
custom that savors of Indian origin.
Such were the means of interstate commerce, mail-carriage, and travel
until two long-talked-of railroad lines were completed in 1849, running
lengthwise of the State, east and west of the mountain range. The new
and rapid means of transportation which now brought the State into
direct communication with the great cities wrought great changes in
trade, in modes of life, and in social traits.
There was now a demand for many perishable products which had previously
found only a limited home market, and a host of middlemen arose in eager
competition for the farmer's eggs, poultry, butter, veal calves,
potatoes, and fruit, as well as for hay, for which until now there had
been only a local demand.
The luxuries and fashions of the cities were in some degree introduced
by the more rapid and easy intercourse with the outer world; for many
strove to make display beyond their means, to the loss of content and
comfort. With homespun wear and simple ways of life, the old-time social
equality became less general, and neighborly interdependence slackened
its generous hold.
FOOTNOTES:
[98] Chancellor Livingston brought merinos to this country as early as
1802. In 1809 William Jarvis, our consul at Lisbon, brought a
considerable number of merinos to Vermont, and from his famous
Weathersfield flocks most of the Vermont merinos are descended.