THE HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, CHAPTER XLVI, CLEARING LAND; FARMING; DRESS; MODE OF LIVING, ETC. from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time by W. W. H. Davis, A.M., 1876 and 1905* editions. Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Donna Bluemink. dbluemink@cox.net USGENWEB NOTICE: Printing this file by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. _____________________________________________________________________________ Transcriber's note: Liberty has been taken with numbering footnotes so as to include all footnotes from both the 1876 and 1905 editions, plus any additional text and pictures in the 1905 edition. All 1905 material will be noted with an asterisk. Transcriptionist's note: Because an additional chapter (on Bridgeton) was added to the 1905 edition, the chapter numbers for the 1905 edition will be one number ahead of 1876 addition. _____________________________________________________________________________ CHAPTER XLVI or CHAPTER XVII (Vol. II), 1905 ed. CLEARING LAND; FARMING; DRESS; MODE OF LIVING, ETC. County heavily timbered. -Land cleared. -Labors of men and women. -Primitive farming. -Horse trains. -Meadow land. -Golden age. -Grand religious festival. -Indian corn. -Produce carried to Philadelphia. -Privit-hedge. -Settlers lived well. -Luxuries introduced. -Professor Kalm's account. -Costume. -The fashions. -Social customs. -Marriage. -Manners. -Spinning-wheels. -Price of land and produce. -Wages. -Pennsylvania currency.* BUCKS COUNTY was heavily timbered (1) at its settlement, and a good deal of land was cleared by co-operative labor. On a given day a number of neighbors would assemble, armed with grubbing-hoes and other implements, the ground was staked off, and at a signal they fell to work with a spirit, grubbing up the saplings with great skill. They were felled with the tops together, so that they could be more easily fired. The trees were girdled and left to fall in course of time, when the trunks were rolled together and burned. The bodies and branches of the saplings were hauled off, but the ground was plowed with the trees standing. The log-rolling was made another season of fun and frolic. At these times the amount of labor done was prodigious, which the descendants of the early settlers are hardly equal to. A great deal of the other hard labor of that day was done by companies, which made the heaviest job light. While the fathers and sons cleared the land and made the crops, the mothers and daughters attended to in-door work. They picked, carded, and spun the wool for clothing, and swingled, hatcheled, and spun the flax, quilted, and did many other things that fell to the lot of woman in a new country, besides frequently assisting the men in their farm work. The beginning of the last century saw the children of the first settlers entering upon the stage of life. They were accustomed to hardship, and were noted for their strength and vigor. In that day there were few or no barns, the grain was stacked and threshed with the flail on the ground. (1) DeVries, who sailed up the Delaware in 1631, says the trees on the banks were not close together, and there was very little underwood. At that early day the Indians cultivated corn, peas, and beans, and grapes grew wild along the river. For many years, while it was a question of bread for themselves and families, our Bucks county ancestors farmed in a primitive way. Wheat was the main crop, which was carried a distance on horseback to mill through the woods along Indian paths. The horses traveled in trains, tied head and tail, like the pack-mules among the Andes, with a man riding or leading the foremost mule. Wheat was the only article for market until there was a demand in Philadelphia for butter, cheese and poultry. By 1720 most of the original tracts were settled, and to some extent improved. The farms were divided into large fields, and pretty well fenced. Low and swampy ground was always cleared for meadow, but the plow was seldom used to prepare new land. But little grass was raised for years, and the red and white clover were propagated to the exclusion of all other kinds. All their domestic animals were so badly housed and fed in winter that by spring they were in almost a starving condition. In the summer they lived in the woods, and in the spring were not infrequently lost in the bogs hunting for early pasture. Cows were scarce and high for a number of years, selling for 30-40 dollars when wheat was only 30 cents a bushel. The horses used for all purposes were of the "Wood breed," raised from those brought originally from New England, gentle, hardy and easy keepers. The English horse, introduced at a later day, was larger and more elegant in carriage. During the quarter of a century from 1735 to 1760, time were so prosperous that it was called the "golden age," and was decreed the happiest period since the settlement of the province. Industry, fertile fields, and favorable seasons blessed the farmer's labors with large increase, but while riches sensibly increased, the people lived without any appearance of luxury. Good dwellings and comfortable barns had been built, and comforts and conveniences were added by degrees, but dress and furniture were plain. The wooden trencher and pewter spoon were used by the most wealthy, and simplicity prevailed everywhere. For pastime men hunted and fished, while the women, who married young and raised large families of children, were principally occupied with household duties. During the "golden age" a grand religious festival, lasting three days, was held at the Wrightstown meeting-house, to give thanks for the bounties of Providence. People came to it from a long distance, and were known to travel ten or twelve miles on foot to attend it. The intercourse with Philadelphia was then limited, and the luxuries of the cities had not found their way into the country. There was no rivalry in dress, nor did the people strive to acquire money to purchase superfluities, but as fashions and luxuries gradually spread into the country, manners and customs changed. Indian corn was not raised in large quantities before about 1750, when it became an article of trade, and the grain-cradle and grass-scythe were introduced about this time. Down to the Revolution much of the transportation was done on horseback, and that was the most frequent way of traveling. Produce was carried to Philadelphia market in wallets, or panniers, slung across horses, and in early days jurymen attending court at Newtown carried forage for horses and rations for self in the universal wallet. Carts were in general use by the middle of the century, and a few had wagons, for one and two horses. There were wagons in the north-west part of the county in 1739. Their introduction did much to increase the wealth and comfort of the early farmers, as they were enabled to do their work with greater convenience, and the labor of going to market was decreased. John Wells was the only person in Buckingham and Solebury at that day who possessed a riding-chair, said to have been the first in the county, a vehicle that remained in use about an hundred years. (2) John Watson tells us that the building of the new stone meeting-house in Buckingham, about 1731, stimulated the erection of a better class of dwelling-houses in that section of the country, and several of the old log houses gave way to stone, or frame and clapboard, and an occasional one is standing to this day. At the settlement of the county many of the farmers planted the privit-hedge around their fields, like their ancestors in England, but in the summer of 1766, from some unexplained cause, it all died, and was never re-planted. The old Watson property in Buckingham had upward of two miles of this hedge planted upon it. (2) At this time there were only eight four-wheeled carriages in the province, one of which was owned by Lawrence Growden of this county. The early settlers lived well in their log cabins, as soon as the era of necessity had passed. They were both well-fed and well-clothed, but not in fine garments. The women manufactured the clothing of the family from wool and flax, and milk, butter and cheese became plenty for domestic use when fodder could be procured to keep stock through the winter. Hogs were raised and fattened, and the forest furnished game. Mush and milk were an universal dish. Pancakes, made of a thin batter of flour and eggs and other ingredients, baked in a pan over the fire, were in every house. The housewife, or maid, prided herself on the dexterity with which she could turn the cake, by tossing it up the wide chimney and catching it in the pan again as it came down. But little tea and coffee were drunk for the first 70 years, and they did not come into common use until between 1750 and 1760. At first they were only used by the wealthy, and that on Sunday. In their stead a tea was made of garden herbs, and a coffee of rye and wheat burned to a brown. Children went barefooted half the year, and farmers through the summer. Indian meal was first exported to the West Indies, and wheat to France, about 1767, which stimulated their production. About this period potatoes began to be raised in quantities, and were fed to both cattle and hogs. The destructive Hessian fly made its appearance about 1780, previous to which the wheat crop was seldom if ever known to fail. The war between France and England, in 1754, changed the situation of things in several respects. A more plentiful supply of money stimulated trade and improvements, and raised prices. Wheat went up to a dollar a bushel. Taxes were raised to pay off the war debt, but the burden was not felt, because of the increased ability to pay. The importation of foreign goods was largely increased, and many luxuries were brought into the country, among which were calicoes and other expensive articles for women and men's wear. Fashion now intruded itself among the rural population, to change with each year, and household furniture was increased in quantity and improved in quality. With this improved style in living and taste in dress, was introduced the distinction between rich and poor, which grew up almost insensibly, and was maintained with considerable rigor in colonial times. Those who had the means now bought foreign goods, and homespun was discarded. Habits of luxury were thus introduced, and the simple, but virtuous, society of our ancestors split upon the rock of fashion. From the accounts that have come down to us, this county at the middle of the last century was a land literally "flowing with milk and honey." A distinguished foreigner, (3) who traveled through the lower part of it between 1748 and 1750, and elsewhere in the province, gives a glowing account of what he saw, and the picture is a delightful one to contemplate at this day. He says: "Every countryman, even a common peasant, has commonly an orchard near his house, in which all sorts of fruit, such as peaches, apples, pears, cherries, and others are in plenty. Peaches (4) were raised in great quantities and of delicious flavor, which were cut and dried for winter. The stock had greatly degenerated, and the professor mentions that there was great decrease in the water in streams, because the country had been cleared of so much of the timber. Seed-time and harvest were the same time of year as now, and the manner of putting in crops the same where machinery is not used. Land being plenty and not manured, it was cultivated until the virtue had gone out of it, when another piece was seized upon the former was allowed to lay fallow to recuperate. In the fall of 1748, the professor traveled through the river townships, en-route from Philadelphia to New York. He crossed the Neshaminy by ferrying, paying three-pence for each person and his horse, and continuing up the river, he says: "About noon we came to New Bristol, a small town in Pennsylvania, on the bank of the Delaware, about 15 English miles from Philadelphia. Most of the houses are built of stone, and stand asunder. The inhabitants carry on a small trade, though most of them get their goods from Philadelphia. On the other side of the river, almost directly opposite to New Bristol, lies the town of Burlington. We had now country-seats on both sides of the roads. Now we came into a lane enclosed with pales on both sides, including pretty great cornfields. Next followed a road, and we perceived for the space of four English miles nothing but woods and a very poor soil. In the evening we arrived at Trenton, after having previously passed the Delaware in a ferry." The Professor described, with minuteness, how the farmers trailed the water of spring upon their meadows to raise grass, a practice followed 75 years later. Hay was not then raised upon upland, and the value of farms was rated according to their quantity of meadow land. (3) Professor Peter Kalm of Sweden. (4) Kalm tells us the peach was introduced by Europeans, while Mr. Bartram says it is an original American fruit. The first settlers of the county brought with them the costumes prevailing in England at that day, each according to his station, but their hard life in the wilderness obliged them to change their dress to suit the circumstances, and they adopted coarse and strong clothing. There was but little alteration in the first 50 years. Buckskin and coarse tow-cloth were in universal use for trowsers and sometimes for jackets, hemp and tow-cloth for shirts, wool hats, and strong shoes, with brass nails in them, made up the common dress, and in winter linsey jackets and leathern aprons and trowsers were added. Among the wealthy, and in the towns, the style was more pretentious. Cloth was the material in use by then, while velvet, silk and satin, with embroideries, were reserved for great occasions. The men wore the square-cut coat and long flap waistcoat; wigs were universal, and those who wore their own hair were considered mere nobodies. There were various styles of beaver hats, much trimmed with gold lace, with the wide brims looped up on both sides, and knee-breeches, long stockings, and shoes with broad buckles. The skirts were wadded almost as stiff as a coverlet, to keep them smooth, and the cuffs, open below, reached up to the elbow. Ladies wore hoops. The silk gown was much plaited in the back, the sleeves double the size of the arm, and only coming down half way to the elbow. The rest of the arm was covered with a fine Holland sleeve, nicely plaited, with locket buttons, and long-armed gloves. Aprons were fashionable, and much worn, large or small, according to the taste of the wearer. About 1750 a fashionably-dressed lady carried an elegant snuff-box with a looking-glass in it, wore a watch, bracelets, chains and necklace, and black patches were worn upon the face as beauty-marks. The hair, an object of great care, was elaborately done up over a framework of wire, with mountains of curls, flowers, feathers, etc. Cloth bonnets and caps were in vogue. A bride wore a long black veil without the bonnet. Fashionable people wore articles, the very names of which, with the material they were made of, have long been forgotten. (5) Breeches made of plush, were worn in the country until after the Revolution, and buckskin breeches in Philadelphia as late as 1760. Horse jockeys wore gold binding on their hats. The country people began to adopt Philadelphia fashions about 1750, when women indulged in silk and linen handkerchiefs, silk for gowns, and fustians and cotton-velvet for coats. Those who could afford it, wore silver shoe-buckles. Men carried muffs to keep their hands and wrists warm, and among the coats in fashion about the middle of the last century, we find the names of shamokums, hussars, surtouts, and wraprascals. The bonnets were monstrous, high, silk affairs, called wagon bonnets, from their resemblance to a Jersey wagon. Prior to the Revolution, people dressed according to their position, and classes could be distinguished by their costume. Hired women, and the wives and daughters of tradesmen, wore a short-gown and petticoat of domestic fabric, and other parts of their dress to correspond. This period called peddlers into use, who traveled the country to sell the more expensive goods now required. Between 1750 and 1760, society had undergone a revolution almost without the knowledge of those who were affected by it. The traveling costume of a minister among Friends, an hundred years ago, consisted of a coat with broad skirts reaching below the knees, and low, standing collar, waistcoat without collar, coming down on the hips, with broad pocket and pocket-flaps, breeches with an opening a few inches above and below the knee, closed with a row of buttons, and a silver buckle at the bottom, shoes with silver buckles, and woolen yarn stockings, and boots to the knee in the winter. On the head was worn a black beaver, with broad brim turned to a point in front, and rolled behind. Now place him on horseback, with a pair of leathern saddle-bags containing his wardrobe slung at the back of his saddle, oiled-silk cover for his low-crowned beaver, oil-cloth cape over his shoulders reaching nearly to the saddle, and stout overalls to protect his breeches and stockings, and one has a good idea of a traveling Friend as he went about the country preaching. (5) Here are the names of some of these almost forgotten materials: "Paduasoys, ducapes, colored persian, pins and nuns, nonsopretties, scarlet, lettered and rose garters, alopeens, camlets, camblettes, durants, florettas, silk saggathies, and hairbines." Among the early settlers of this county, which is the case with the inhabitants of all newly-settled countries, great social intercourse was kept up. The old and young of both sexes met together in frolics to pull flax, gather grain and hay, and to husk corn. When all the grain was cut by the sickle, it was the custom for a large company to assemble in the field and contend for victory. Women sometimes became dexterous in the use of that implement and strove in competition with the men. John Watson tells us, in his History of Buckingham and Solebury, that bout 1741 twenty acres of wheat were cut in Solebury, by sickle, in a half day. In imitation of the custom in England weddings were made the occasion of great festivals, a large number of guests were invited, and a good dinner and supper provided. The festivities were frequently continued the next day, and plays and sports of various kinds were practiced. Some of them were rather rough, but were sanctioned by the social customs of the day. For many years from the settlement of the county, persons about to be married were obliged to put a notice of it upon a meeting-house door for 30 days before it was to be consummated, in the presence of three witnesses, and the marriage was to be performed by a justice of the same county. This applied to marriages out of the meeting. The bride rode to meeting on a pillion behind her father, or a near friend; but after the ceremony the pillion was transferred to the husband's horse, behind his saddle, and with whom she rode home. The coffins of the dead were carried to the grave on the shoulders of four men, swung on poles so that they could travel more easily along narrow paths. The birth of children was likewise made the occasion of festival, and the guests were served with wine and cordials. The tender infant was loaded down with clothing, and when sick spirits and water, stewed with divers spices, were administered to it. The manners of the period were rough, and often lewd, and fist-fights were of common occurrence - but the inhabitants grew up a healthy and vigorous race, with few diseases, and those but little understood. At that day tailors and shoemakers traveled around among their customers and worked at their houses. The farmers laid in a stock of leather for shoes, and stuffs for clothing, which these wandering tradesmen came twice a year to make up, boarding with the families they worked for. There was scarce a house in town or country that did not contain a spinning-wheel. It was the boast of the women of the Revolution, that without foreign aid they kept the whole population clothed, while their husbands, fathers and sons fought the battles of the country. No young lady's marriage outfit was complete without a big wheel and foot-wheel, and it was the pride of all, that they knew how to use them. Now these wheels are unknown unless found in a museum of curiosities, or stowed away in some old garret as useless relics of the past. Land was first fenced on the Delaware, under municipal regulations, in 1656, to protect the crops. Goats were to be guarded by a herder, under a penalty, or the owner to pay the damage done. Hogs were to be yoked, or killed by the soldiers. Under the Swedish government no deeds were given for land unless granted by the queen, but the Dutch issued many deeds subsequent to 1656. When the country was first settled land was plenty and cheap, and one could get a farm almost for the asking. Shortly after John Chapman's death, 1694, his widow traded 100 acres in Wrightstown to William Smith for an old gray mare. There is a tradition that William Penn offered his coachman, whose name is said to have been Moon, the half square on which Leatitia court is situated in Philadelphia, in lieu of a year's wages, £15, but he refused this, and accepted a tract of land in Bucks county. As the country was settled up, and the inhabitants increased, land gradually appreciated in value. By 1700 improved land was generally sold by the acre, the nominal price being the value of 20 bushels of wheat, and continued with little variation for several years. When wheat was two shillings six-pence per bushel land was sold at 50 shillings per acre, equivalent to about $12.50, without allowing for the increased value of money. The price, however, depended on the price of wheat, and it fluctuated in a sliding scale. When wheat brought 33 cents land was $6.67, wheat 40 cents land $7, wheat 46 cents land was $9.33, wheat 56 cents land was $13.31, wheat $1 land was $20, and with wheat at $1.12 land sold for $26.62 an acre. As a rule rye sold for a shilling less per bushel, and Indian corn and buckwheat two shillings. At this era of low prices beef sold for 2-1/2 cents per pound, and pork for the same. The books of Richard Mitchel, who kept store in Wrightstown from 1724 to 1735, give these prices, and wheat for the period ranged from three shillings to four shillings - 40-53 cents. The land being strong and new produced from 15-30 bushels of wheat to the acre. The crops failed in the summer of 1705, when wheat was under four shillings the bushel, 53 cents, and goods of all kinds very dear. This year money was so scarce that Penn asked the passage of an act making bonds assignable and current as money, and he wanted a "land bank" chartered. This was a season of trial to the settlers. Logan writes to Penn on the 17th of May, that it had been the hardest winter, with the deepest snows known to the oldest settlers, and that the Delaware was still closed. There was great sickness especially among children, in the winter of 1705. Previous to December 27, 1762, the government price of unseated land was fixed at £15. 10s. per 100 acres, about $40. From that time down to the commonwealth, in 1784, the price fluctuated from $24 to $41.33 per 100 acres. There was no fixed price in the manors or the Proprietary surveys, these being private property. For several years after the county was settled, warrants were issued on credit, and notes and bonds given for the purchase money. The land sold to immigrants by William Penn was charged with a quit-rent of one English shilling to every 100 acres, due him as lord of the soil, made payable at his manor-house, Pennsbury, the 1st day of March, yearly, where James Steele, held the office of receiver for many years. James Logan, who went to Bristol to receive the rents in 1705, complained that he went three times into one township to settle with the purchasers, but could not get more than one-half to come in, as they had no money, and were ashamed to appear. Wages have fluctuated from the settlement of the county, for many years being governed by the price of wheat, and afterward entirely independent of it. From 1699 to 1701 William Penn paid laboring men from 2s. 6d to 4s. a day. In 1775 the price of labor was 8s. 6d. At, and after, the Revolution, when wheat was 5s. a bushel, the price of labor in the harvest-field was 2s. 6d. for men and 1s. 3d for boys. The wages of hired men were from £16 to £20 a year, and from £8 to £10 for women. In 1719 wheat flour was 9s. 6d. per cwt,; in 1721, 8s. 6d. to 9s.; 1748, 20s.; 1757, 12s. 6d. In 1774 flour was 18s. 6d., and wheat 7s. 9d. In 1812 carpenters received but 80 cents a day, with board. Fifty years after the arrival of Penn, beef sold at 4 cents per pound. (6) At the Durham furnace, in 1780, sixty Continental dollars were equivalent to one hard dollar, and potatoes were sold at 2s. 6d. per bushel, hard money, or £5 Continental. [Down to about 1830 female help in the house was paid 62-1/2 cents a week.*] (6) Pennsylvania currency: 7s. 6d. = $1 £1 = $2.66-2/3 1s. = 13-1/2 cents 1d. = 1-1/9 cents. END OF CHAPTER XLVI, 1875 edition END OF CHAPTER XVII, 1905 edition