A brief glimpse of the Cape Cod Village in the 1800’s and its everyday
life in those days would be interesting and would also throw some light
on the fascination of the mill.
This mill and many others like it played a most important role in our
small towns, as did the country store, the blacksmith shop and, of
course, the church.
On the Cape at about that time, there were between thirty and forty
mills, either powered by wind or water, and these mills supplied
flour and corn in its various stages to the villages. Corn then was
more important than gold. The meal, of course, was used for corn meal
muffins and corn bread, and the cracked corn for the chickens and pigs.
Every family was practically self-sufficient, growing their vegetables,
and if they did not have a cow, trading eggs or other produce for milk
or cream with their neighbors. Almost everyone would supplement their
food supply with shellfish from the shores and flats and fish from the
various boats that plied the sound and bays. There were many orchards,
most of which have now disappeared. One can hardly find a grape arbor
left, but in those days apples and other tree-grown fruit were found
in every other home or homestead. Cranberries played no small part,
but they were just about developing in the 1880’s, and I can remember
distinctly, while growing up in Brewster, of earning small amounts of
money from time to time helping the farmers harvest their cranberry
crop, together with asparagus, turnips and strawberries.
I cannot remember any people being on Old Age Assistance, and I recall
distinctly there was no Social Security program. There was always
something for everyone to do whether they were young, middle-aged, or
old. For us young children there were ordinary chores in and about the
house to be done morning and evening, cutting the kindling, getting
wood ready for the fires, and generally being handy boys around the
house and barn. I can definitely say there were no gangs of teenagers
with switchblades. “Mac the Knife” was wholly unknown. The only
knives we had were pocket jackknives used for whittling and playing
mumbley-peg.
I can remember that there were many things to do the night before the
Fourth, but I can remember no destruction of property. Perhaps a few
privies might be displaced, and on Halloween fences might disappear,
but they were always found somewhere, and the culprits made to replace
them.
In the Fall almost everyone would gather seaweed from the beaches and
bank it around the house, because only the very rich could afford full
basements and what we call central heating. The small, round Cape Cod
cellars were used to keep fruits and vegetables.
I can also distinctly remember working on the town roads, helping to
get in ice for the ice houses, and I can also remember that almost
every boy knew how to handle a hammer, a saw, screw driver, or chisel,
which did not seem work to us at the time.
The mill was not exactly a gathering place for the country folk; that
was left to the country store. In Brewster, the mail would come in
about 6:00 P. M., and it was a great thing for us younger boys to
gather at the Knowles’ store at about the time the mail was due and
listen to some of the older men around the stove discuss the events of
the day and the nation.
I do not recall many critical periods of wars and threats of war, but I
do recall the fusion of the wonderful odors of the country store, the
far off cry of the lonely whistle of the mail train, the hard candy,
and the attractive chocolate-colored tobacco. I can also recall vividly
the old time “drummer” with his fancy, gay, colored straw hat, the
horse drawn carts that would bring groceries, meat and fish once or
twice a week.
All around the towns, almost everyone had a horse and some more
well-to-do people had two or three. It was not necessary to turn in the
horse every year, because the model never changed. The horses sometimes
died, but only after twelve or fourteen years of good service. Almost
everyone owned a so-called Cape Cod truck wagon, painted a faded blue
color.
I can remember the May baskets, the sleigh rides, and sliding down the
hill in High Brewster in the winter-time.
All this is in sharp contrast to the children on the present day and
the problems of juvenile delinquency. Undoubtedly lack of parental care
and instruction, to say nothing of planned obsolescence, time payments,
and lack of individual initiative, can be blamed for the conditions.
Being fortunate to have been born at about the turn of the century,
when the era of the horse was just about departing and the automobile
beginning, I think I am in a fairly good position to compare conditions
of that day with today.
I might say that I do recall when I was about ten years of age, my
mother and grandmother sadly declaring that things at that time were
different when they were children, and that they did not know where we
then were going. I put this in to show that there may be an answer to
all this through the process of evolution. I do not know.
I do know that the flour and the meal coming from these old and ancient
mills produced much better food than the present day processed flour
and meal.
I can remember many of the older figures of that time. Seth Rogers, a
typical country gentleman, and many other well-known men about that
time, who were not looking for something for nothing. They all did
work of one form or another, either on their farms or their cranberry
bogs, or in some business or trade. They did not have much time, but
the time they had was put to great use in production. They did not have
too much money because they did not need it. A man that died leaving
an estate of $5,000.00 or $6,000.00 was considered reasonably wealthy.
These men would do something for their town without expecting great
pay in return; they were not constantly looking to the town, state,
or government for handouts. They produced and developed a way of life
totally different from the way we have today.
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