Vermont Roots ...Bringing our Past into the Future

History of Peru, Vt. --Charter, New Hampshire, White Settlers, Physical Condition

HISTORY OF PERU.

The history of a small country town, and that in no way conspicuous among its neighbors, can hardly be expected to furnish much to interest the general reader. Such a work must be made up of particulars and minute details. It is seldom that great or distinguished characters occur to give interest to the story The narrative must derive its claim to the reader's attention mainly from his acquaintance with the scenes, or his connection with the actors described. The problem of history may be thus stated, giving the present state, condition and character of the people, to determine those influences in the past which have tended to produce these results. It is the task of the historian to trace the development of these influences and so to arrange the history of events as to give a miniature of the character and spirit of the age which he describes. He must set before us not only the great statesmen and scholars, but also ordinary men in their ordinary dress, and engaged in their ordinary employment. He must visit the dwellings of the poor and the abodes of misery as well as the palaces of wealth and luxury. No anecdote, no familiar saying is insignificant which can throw light upon the state of education, morals or religian, or mark the progress of the human mind. Since the natural features of a country have an important influence upon the character of its inhabitants, they must be described in their primitive wildness as well as in their present state of cultivation and improvements.

CHARTER

AND DOINGS OF THE ORIGINAL PROPRIETORS.

Peru lies in the northeast corner of Bennington county, bounded on the north by Mount Tabor, east by Landgrove, south by Winhall, west by Dorset. It was chartered at Portsmouth, [p. 14] N. H., by Benning Wentworth, October 13th, 1761, as colonial governor of the Province of New Hampshire, receiving his appointment from King George the Third, by the name of Bromley, for the due encouragement of settling a new plantation within said province under certain reservations and conditions.

PROVINCE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.

I, George the Third, By the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith. To all to whom these presents shall come: For the encouragement of settling a new plantation within our State Province by and with the advice of our trusty and well beloved Friend, Benning Wentworth, Our Governor and Commander-in-Chief of our Province of New Hampshire and of our council of said Province, Upon the conditions and reservations hereinafter made, given and granted, and by these presents for us and our heirs and successors, do give and grant in equal shares unto our loving subjects, inhabitants of our said Province and our other governments, to their heirs and assigns forever, Whose names are entered on this grant to be divided among them into 72 equal shares all that tract or parcel of Land situate lying and being within our said Province, containing 23,040 acres, according to a plan and survey made by our Governor's order and returned into our Secretary's office, butted and bounded as follows, Viz., Beginning at the northwest corner of Winhall, Thence due north six miles to the southwest corner of Harwich (Mt. Tabor), Thence east six miles to the southeast corner thereof, Thence due south six miles to the northeast corner of Win hall, Thence due west by Winhall to bounds began at, and the same is incorporated into a Township by the name of Bromley, and the inhabitants that do or shall hereafter inhabit said Township are enfranchised with and entitled to all the privileges that other towns exercise and enjoy, and as soon as there shall be fifty families residing and settled thereon, they shall have the liberty of holding two fairs, and a market may be opened one or two days in a week, and the first meeting for choice of Town Officers agreeable to the laws of our Province shall be held on the first Monday of November next; said meeting shall be notified by Samuel Gilbert, and the annual meetings for the choice of Town Officers shall be held on the second Tuesday of March annually. To have and to hold said tract with the appurtenances thereof to them and their heirs and assigns forever upon the following conditions:

1. Every grantee, his heirs or assigns, shall plant and cultivate five acres of land for every 50 acres owned, and shall continue to do so upon penalty of forfeiting his grant of said Township.

2. All white or pine trees suitable for masting our Royal Navy shall be carefully preserved for that use.

3. Before any division of said land shall be made among the grantees, a grant of land as near the centre of the Township as may be, one acre of Land allotted to each grantee for a Town Lot.

4. Yielding and paying to us, our heirs or successors, one ear of Indian corn on the 25th day of December for ten years.

5. Every proprietor settling or inhabitating shall yield or pay unto us, our heirs and successors on and after the 25th day of December, 1772, one shilling, proclamation money, to any officer appointed to receive the same.

There is no record of any proprietors' meeting until 1797. A meeting of the proprietors was called by the request of the proprietors by Moses Warner, Justice of the Peace of Andover, to be held at the Inn of Jonathan Butterfield in Bromley the and day of March, 1797. Proprietors met agreeable to warning. Chose Joseph Bullard, Moderator; Ebenezer Hurlburt, Proprietors' Clerk; Joseph Bullard, Treasurer; John Waters, Collector. Chose a committee of three, consisting of Nathaniel Leonard, Benjamin W. Willard and John Waters, instructed them to run the out lines of Bromley. Voted that persons who have made pitches and improved and built on them, be quieted, have them instead of their lot; if they had any legal title to a right. Voted the committee be instructed to lay out and survey three lots of one hundred acres to each proprietor's right, to be numbered first, second, and third division of said right, and to be drawn separately. The record of said division and draft is found on the 80th page of proprietors' record and onward. The whole expense of surveying, according to the above record, was $917.63. At a proprietors' meeting held June 6, 1798, voted that $13.90 should be assessed to each proprietor's right, to be collected and paid into the treasury before the 7th inst.

The meetings of the proprietors were kept alive by adjournment from time to time, year after year. September 6th, 1798, adjourned June 5th, 1799; then adjourned to September 10th, 1800, A. D. Chose Reuben Bigelow, Proprietors' Clerk, Bromley, September 10th, 1800. Meeting opened according to adjournment. Chose a committee of Ebenezer Hurlburt, Esquire Kimball of Harvard, and [p. 16] Reuben Bigelow to be empowered in behalf of the proprietors to treat with Asa Utley and others respecting the land in the east part of Bromley, which Utley and others pretended to claim. It is said and thought that the Utleys, who were the first settlers, found the east and west lines were over six miles, allowance having been made for the high mountains which lay in the west part of the town. Utley made the east line further west than the original survey, claiming the land as a part of the gore now Landgrove. Several law suits grew out of it, and it was finally settled by the Legislature establishing a jurisdictional line in 1835. Also said committee to prosecute Asa Utley and others or defend to final judgment any suit which may be brought or commenced respecting this land. Voted to dissolve this meeting; Attest R. Bigelow, Proprietors' Clerk. Reuben Bigelow defended suit brought by Asa Utley and others against the proprietors of Bromley. His bill for the same was $283.88, which amount was allowed by the proprietors the 29th day of September, 1802. By request of more than one-tenth of the proprietors a meeting was warned to be holden at the house of Reuben Bigelow the 29th day of September, 1802, by Robert Pierpoint, Justice of the Peace. Meeting called by Proprietors' Clerk. Voted to assess each right $4.17 to pay expense of law suit. Proprietors' meetings were held and adjourned each year until 1809. Another law suit was had between Asa Utley and others and the proprietors of Bromley in regard to the disputed land in the easterly part of the town. No settlement was effected. The proprietors had to pay a bill of cost amounting to $341.22. At a meeting held by the proprietors September 14th, 1809, they voted to raise a tax on each right of individual land of $5.17, which was raised and paid. At a meeting of the proprietors held September 3rd, 1815, a committee of two from each town of Landgrove and Peru, who had been appointed, made a report establishing the line surveyed by Esquire Dunton in part, and completed by Daniel Ormsby, county surveyors, A. D. 1803. Report dated January 3rd, 1814. Jonathan Twist, Nathan Burton, committee for Peru; Asa Utley, Peabody Utley, committee for Landgrove. The report was accepted by the proprietors at a meeting of the proprietors. At a subsequent meeting the acceptance was reconsidered; no settlement was effected under the proprietors' administration. The disputed land in the easterly part of the town without further suits for the soil. A pauper suit grew out of it. After one or two suits was settled [p. 17] another generation occupying the land, old feuds and quarrels are forgotten. Peter Dudley and Josiah Barnard were elected a committee to layout and survey a fourth division of lots on the undivided land. In their report they reported 15 acres were divided to each proprietor's right. Johnson Marsh, Surveyor; expenses of the same, $58.50. September 24th, 1824, meeting adjourned to the and Wednesday in September next. No record of another proprietors' meeting until May 15th, 1853. A meeting of the proprietors was warned to meet at L. Howard's hotel in Peru on the rath day of July, 1853, by Welcome Allen, Justice of the Peace. Peru, July 14th, 1853, proprietors met agreeably to above warrant. Chose O. P. Simonds, Moderator; O. P. Simonds, Proprietors' Clerk; Johnson Marsh, Collector; George Marsh, Treasurer. Voted to make a fifth division of all the undivided land in Peru. Chose Johnson Marsh committee to allot said land by employing a surveyor and other help necessary to do it. Voted that said division and survey be completed and presented to proprietors at L. Howard's hotel in Peru on the 30th day of November next, at one o'clock p. m. At Peru, November 30th, 1853, at the hotel of L. Howard, Johnson Marsh, committee to allot and survey the undivided land in Peru, reported he had performed the duties and divided said land into 32 acre lots, and made a draft for each proprietor's share. Voted to accept the above report as valid and correct. Cost of the survey and division, $96.63. Annual meeting of the proprietors was held by adjournment until May 21st, 1857, A. D. No record of any further meeting of the proprietors can be found.

This last and final division was of the land on the west mountain, south of the notch road, being east of Dorset east line.

The Colonial Governor of the Colony of New York, in his surveys on New Hampshire Grants, surveyed all the territory embracing Peru, giving it the name of Brindley. It is not known that he granted it to any individual or chartered it to any number of individuals. and no person ever claimed title under a grant from New York officials.

I am indebted to Judge Wheeler, who furnished me with these facts, and who has a plot of Brindley in connection with adjacent towns. It is found in the documentary history of New York at Albany. I presume this survey of the New York Governor was [p.18] subsequent to the charter granted by Governor Wentworth In 1761.

FIRST KNOWN WHITE PERSONS IN TOWN.

The first white men who trod on the soil of Peru were a company of eighteen men under command of Captain Eleazer Melvin, who started from Northfield, Mass., on the 13th day of May, 1748, on an expedition against the Indians on or about Lake Champlain. The record of the journey says:

"Marched the first day to No.2, camped; May 14th, they marched to No. 4; from No. 4 (Charlestown) marched northwesterly over the mountains to the Lake. On May 25th fired at the Indians from a point about a mile from Crown Point. The Indians being so numerous they retreated east three or four miles, thence traveled southeast ten miles, camped; May 26th, marched southeast about five miles, south about eleven miles further; May 27th, marched southeast to Otter Creek, one mile below the first falls, and marched about four miles above the falls; May z Sth, marched up Otter Creek to the Crotch, about six miles, up south branch ten miles; May 29th, marched up the south branch to the head of it, thence southeast over a large mountain, leaving another large mountain on the northwest, keeping course down the mountain, crossed several streams supposed to be the head waters of Saratoga River (now Battenkill), marched this day about sixteen miles; May 30th, marched south southeast about six miles, came upon a branch of West River, traveled down the river about eight miles, camped; May 31St, our provisions being very short we began our march before sunrise and traveled till about half- past nine o'clock, being beside the river. Several of the company desired to stop to replenish, being faint and weary, whereupon we halted and began to take off our packs and sat down, and in about a half minute after our halting the enemy rose from behind a log and several trees about twenty or thirty feet at the furthest distance and fired about twelve guns at us, but do not know whether any men received any hurt though so near. Whereupon I called to the men to face the enemy and run up the bank, which I did myself, and several others attempted, but the enemy was so thick they could not. I had no sooner jumped up the bank but the enemy were so thick just upon me I discharged my gun at one of them about eight feet from the muzzel of my gun, who I saw fall about the same time that [p. 19] I discharged my gun. The enemy fired about twenty guns at us, killed four men, viz.: John Hayward, Isaac Taylor, John Dod and Daniel Man. The men who were alive, or most of them, fired immediately on the enemy, several of which shots did execution, as can be witnessed by several who saw the enemy fall, but seeing the enemy numerous and their guns being discharged, they retreated, several ran across the river, where some of them had a chance, or opportunity, to fire again at the enemy. Some ran up the river and some down, and some into the thicket on the same side of the river. For my own part, after I saw my men retreat, and being beset by the enemy with guns, hatchets and knives, one of which, or a bullet, I cannot certainly tell which, carried away my belt, and with it my bullets, all except one I had loose in my pocket. I ran down the river and two Indians followed almost side by side with me, calling, 'Come, Captain, Now, Captain,' but upon my presenting my gun towards them, though not charged, they fell a little back and ran across the river. I charged my gun, moved a few steps and one of them fired at me, which Was the last gun fired. I looked back and saw nine of the enemy scalping the dead men, and six or seven running across the river and several about the bank of the river, all very busy, which I apprehended were carrying off their dead. I then, being alone, went to the side of the hill in sight of the plan of battle, and there seated myself to look for some of my men and to see if the enemy made any shout, as is customary with them when they get the advantage. But hearing no more of them, nor seeing any of my own men, I made the best of my way to Fort Dummer, where I arrived the next day before noon. One of my men got in an hour before me, eleven more came in a few hours in different companies. Six men were killed in the fight. Captain Melvin returned the next day with forty men to bury the dead."

The above was copied from Melvin's Journal, in New Hampshire Historical Collection, Volume 5, pages 109, 110 and I I 1.

Ensign Taylor was taken captive by the Indians between Hinsdale and Fort Dummer the 17th day of August, 1748. He was taken up West River over the Highlands to the head-waters of Otter Creek. Taylor, on his return from captivity, gave an account of passing over the ground where Captain Melvin's affair happened. There is no doubt but that Captain Melvin's party were the first white persons ever passed through Peru, and Ensign Taylor [p. 20] was taken up West River, passed over the high land to the headwaters of the Otter Creek, through Peru, A. D. 1748, and Indian arrows were found in the sand bed below the Haynes mill about 1825. I am indebted to Judge Wheeler, of Brattleboro, for furnishing these facts. It is an established fact that the Indians, during the time the French owned and occupied Canada, frequently crossed the mountains in their predatory excursions upon the frontier settlements on and east of the Connecticut river, following up the streams to the low places on the mountains, then down the branches that run into the Connecticut river and uice tcrsa.

Captain William Utley came from Connecticut with his family in 1769. He settled on the spot where Menzie Thompson's house stands. Undoubtedly he expected and knew that he was in the Township of Bromley; as evidence that he thought so he attended three of the early conventions of the State as delegate from the town .of Bromley, viz.: He was a delegate at Dorset in I776; on October 30th, 1776, was delegate at a session held at Westminster; also delegate at a session held at Windsor, November 9, 1777. It was said the line of the town was east of the Utley house called the Munline. Bromley being surveyed, more than six mile" allowance was made for the high mountain; its being measured from the west line six miles without allowance for the mountain brought the line a half mile or more west of Utley's house, leaving Utley on the gore of land between Weston and Bromley. This was a bone of contention for years. The difficulty was referred to commissioners at different times, but no settlement was concluded until 1835. The citizens agreed on a line which was established by the legislature as jurisdictional line and each town acquiesced.

William Barlow in 1773 came from Connecticut, built a house near where the old house stood below the road on M. B. Lyon's farm. It is not known what became of him; some say he left during the war, but returned and died in Peru. He was buried on the place in the corner of the Holton lot, where others were buried.

In 1777, Ira Allen, secretary of a convention held at Manchester, wrote in pressing terms to Meshech Weare, president of the provinciai council assembled at Exeter, N. H., to send troops or soldiers to Vermont. On the 9th day of July, 1777, President Weare sent a letter to Ira Allen, stating that "They have now determined that a quarter part of the militia of twelve regiments shall be immediately drafted, formed into three battalions under the [p. 21] command of Brigadier General John Stark, and forthwith sent into your State to oppose the ravages and coming forward of the enemy." It was furthermore stated that the troops would depend for provisions upon Vermont. It was also requested that proper persons be sent to No.4 (Charlestown), to meet General Stark, and advise with him relative to the route and disposition of his troops. It is supposed that General Warner met Stark at No.4, perhaps others with him. In a history recently published by C. C. Coffin, it is said General Stark found a cannon at No.4, which he mounted on cart wheels and took along with him. It is pictured in Coffin's history, the horses tugging to take the cannon along, the men lending a hand to get it over hard places. The route they traveled was through Springfield, Chester, Andover, Landgrove, Bromley (Peru), corner of Winhall into Manchester. The troops found a road cut through the wilderness to Captain Utley's in Landgrove, but here the road ended. They dined with Captain Utley, and for a part of their rations he prepared a potash kettle of mush, or in Yankee terms, hasty pudding. From this place they followed the scarred trees, removing the impediments in the way or going around them. For six or eight miles there Was no road, and but one opening in the wilderness, that was on the farm where M. B. Lyon lives, where it is said a part of the troops camped, the rest going further on and camping near where Gen. Dudley built his house. He found two bayonets near the spring, and other indications of a camping place. Judge Munson, in his History of Manchester, says General Stark was on the mountain the 6th of August, 1777, and on the 7th came down to Manchester. This was the largest company of men that ever traveled through Peru. After this it is probable the delegates attending the early conventions of the State passed over the mountain on this route.

EARLY PHYSICAL CONDITION.

Bromley, now Peru, was chartered to be six miles square. It is bounded on the north bv Mount Tabor, on the east by Landgrove, on the south by Winhall, and on the west by Dorset. It is a mountain town. The west half of the town is a high mountain range running north and south through the town, with only one notch where a road could be made, nearly midway between the north and south lines of the town. This mountain is the backbone of the Green Mountains, the water-shed where the water divides. [p. 22] The Mad Tom rises on the mountain, runs west to East Dorset, where it unites to form the Battenkill river. South of this the Little Mad Tom runs west into the Kill. These waters flow south and west, and empty into the Hudson a little above the monument that marks the spot of Burgoyne's surrender. North of Mad Tom are the head-waters of the Otter Creek, which rnn west and north to Lake Champlain at Vergennes, thence into the St. Lawrence. The waters on the east side of the mountain flow into the West River, thence southeasterly into the Connecticnt and Long Island Sound. The waters of Peru rnn to the ocean in three different directions. The streams are small but afford good mill privileges for the use of man, and there is not any country on earth that affords cleaner or purer water than flows from the sides of these mountains. Buffam Pond is high on the mountain, containing several acres; it lies in Peru and Mount Tabor, is noted for its good trout fishing. Mud Pond is in the southeasterly part of the town, is a small pond, but is noted for its blood-suckers. The west part of the town is not susceptible of cultivation on account of the steepness and ruggedness of the mountains. The east half was accessible to the early adventurers; it lies pitching to the east and southeast. It was originally covered with a heavy growth of timber, consisting of spruce, hemlock, balsam, pine, white and sugar or rock maple, white and yellow birch, white and black ash, beech, basswood, and some elm. A few lots in the town still have the primitive growth of timber, and are more valuable than mnch of the cultivated land. The soil is various; in some sections it is a wet, loamy mixture of clay, while other parts are dry and gravely. The land that was covered with hard wood produced bountifully when first cleared, but the more it is cultivated the poorer it becomes. That part covered with dark timber is not as good when first cleared, but cultivation improves it, and is the most desirable for farming purposes, being warmer, more free from stones, and more easily worked than the hard-wood land is.

The first settlers had much to contend with in the early time of the town. With plenty of timber of the best kind, there were no mills to cut it into boards, and it could be used only in its primitive state, hence log houses and barns were the primitive buildings of the first settlers. The first thing for immigrants to do was to select a spot near some spring or rivulet on which they could erect their mansion, then dig a hoie in the ground to substitute for a cellar, [p. 23] where through a trap door a ladder was put for stairs, with which to go down for such vegetables as they might have; they were always sure to have a pork barrel well filled, also such fruit as grew natural on the trees. As for a barrel of cider there was no place to get it into the cellar, but that was not the worst of it, there was no cider to put in. Then clear the spot of brush and trees, and cut logs for the dimensions of the house, which was usually one room with a large stone chimney in one end, with a fireplace large enough to hold half a cord of wood. The foundation was laid with logs on the ground, on which the superstructure was erected with logs rolled one upon another, notched at the corners so that the logs would be held in place and lie near together. Cross timbers would be put on for the chamber floor, then the timber for rafters, on which cross ribs were pinned covered with spruce bark or long shingles riven and shaved, which made a roof. The floor was made of split timber, and hewn with an axe, but it was not long before boards could be obtained. The fireplace was large, with a wide stone hearth, the chimney built to the chamber floor with stones, topped out with split sticks laid cob house fashion, well daubed over with clay mortar to make it proof against fire. The cracks between the logs were filled with mortar to keep the cold out and the heat in. A window of six lights on each side gave light in winter and let in air in summer. A doorway was cut out in which was hung a door made of rough boards, nailed together with cleats, and hung on wooden hinges, which, when the door would swing, made music instead of the piano. The door was fastened with a wooden latch with a string on the outside for opening. Pins were driven into the logs on the side and rough boards laid on for the cupboard, which held the china, pewter, tin ware and knives and forks. A large iron crane hung in the fireplace so as to swing backward and forward, furnished with hooks made like the letter S, on which utensils for cooking and washing hung, and made so that they could be swung over the fire or out into the room. The house was then ready to receive the furniture, which was of the simplest kind. For a bedstead, poles were placed on crotches, tables were made with boards or bark laid on poles, while for chairs they used shingle blocks. The real wants or necessities were few and easily supplied. No doubt there was joy and happiness among the early settlers, and the mother never happier than she was when she drew the trundle bed from beneath her own on which to place the little ones, and the little ones happy for such a [p. 24] bed to sleep on under a mother's care. As new emigrants arrived roads were made, the forest melted away, the land was covered with various crops for the sustenance of man and beast, the wild and ferocious animals of the forest were supplanted by domestic ones useful to emigrant settlers. Soon saw mills were erected and trees were made into useful lumber, framed houses and barns began to appear. With all this the wants and necessities of the inhabitants increased, and has continued to do so until the present time.

The first settlers of Peru were limited in means to furnish homes .and utensils for necessary use, and their farming tools were of very primitive kind. They had no carts or wagons, and at first sleds of the rudest kind, with stone boats, were in use summer and winter. Hay and grain were taken to barns and stacks on sleds that had no iron about them. The first ploughs were made with one handle, beam framed into it, with a pin in the upper end by which to hold it, wooden mould board covered with strips of iron nailed on, with a point of steel which could be taken off and sharpened. Soon ploughs had two handles, About 1825 cast iron ploughs came into use. There has been a constant improvement in ploughs. The first carts were without iron, except bands around the hubs and boxes in the hub for axletree to roll in. The felloes were six inches wide, doweled at the ends with pins to hold the blocks together, and were called block wheels. With these clumsy wheels, ant! a cart body equally as clumsy, the work was done. Soon straps of iron were nailed on the felloes for tires. Great improvements have been made in carts. Harrows at first were crotches cut from trees, with about seven iron teeth to scratch among the stumps. Time has improved all these tools. The best are now used, with the mower added. About I8I5 the first one-horse wagon was brought into town by Esquire Bigelow, and by 1825 one-horse wagons were in general use. The only spring that they had was in the axletree, the body being bolted to the axletree. Ninety years have made a great change.

The farmers in those days calculated to raise half an acre of flax, selecting the most feasible land. Well prepared by enriching it with the finest of fertilizers, they had well cultivated a good seed bed for flax seed. It grew from two to three feet high, and no crop looked handsomer or more beautiful than the flax patch when in full bloom. It is usually ready for harvest in August. Pulling flax, oh, what a job. All the help indoors and out was called into requisition to pull the flax. When dry it was bound in small bundles and the [p. 25] seed pounded off, which was carefully saved. It was a cash article and found ready sale. The flax was carried to the smooth field, thinly and evenly spread to rot; when properly rotted it was bound in large bundles and stowed away in the roof of some shed or other out place. In February or March, on bright sunny days, the farmer would have his bundles of flax on the fences or wood piles to dry. He and the boys in the barn breaking and swingling. The fibre would be cleaned of shives, becoming soft and pliable and ready for the good matron of the house to take in hand, with all the girls she had to help (it was no disgrace for young ladies to spin and weave in those days). The house was furnished with all the implements for making cloth, such as the hatchel, tow cards, linen wheel, tow wheel and quill wheel. Warping bars and loom were the machinery of this factory. The power to run it was the feet, hands and brain of the old and young women who had skill and the wiIl to manufacture with their own fingers the material for their finest and best garments, and they were their own mantua makers. In the spring you would hear the buzzing of the wheels and the strike of the loom, and see the large bunches of the yarn hung around to grace the kitchen. They would make their own white diaper tablecloths and towels, white underlinen, striped gowns, checked hanclkerch iefs, aprons, etc., in which clothes they were fitted out for any company in any place. They would manufacture their husbands', fathers' and brothers' white summer shirts, trousers and frocks. It was common to see webs of tow and linen cloth spread on the grass to whiten out by sprinkling water on it, let the sun dry it, and so continue to do until it was white. Tow cloth had a ready market, and quantities were made to sell. Farmers kept sheep for domestic purposes. In June the wool was sorted into bundles according to its quality, sent to the carding machine and made into rolls. The whole paraphernalia of cloth-making machinery was called into requisition 'for converting the wool into cloth. Beech, hemlock and butternut bark, with sumach berries were 111 demand for dyeing, and withal the blue dye stood in the corner of the fireplace. The plain woolen cloth was made for bed blankets, and some was sent to the clothier to be colored, fulled and dressed for the best suits, some was colored in the yarn to be woven into striped cloth for frocks; most of the men wore them. Some of the yarn was knit into stockings for family use and to sell, and some knit into leggings shaped to the foot to wear instead of boots in the deep snow.