My father's mother died when he was 21 years of age. He married and he and mother lived with his father for a while. I was born in the house grandpa built. Later father went to work for J. W. Peebles in the store. My earliest recollections are living over the store. I used to sit on the outside stairs and watch for the stage. Mr. James Raymond drove that stage and carried the mail to and from Russell.
One thing in the store I remember vividly is the "peanut roaster." It whistled continually when in use. A kerosine lamp was used for heat to roast the peanuts.
When I was about three, Grandpa William Wyman died, and we moved back to his house on Birch Hill Rd. Father then took over Grandpa’s blacksmith shop.
I recall when our first phone was installed. That must have been around 1907 or 1908. It was a party line with at least eight families on the one line. Each phone rang when any number was called. Needless to say there was a lot of "listening in" on others calls.
Grandpa Almon Smith was eating dinner in 1905 when he started coughing. He stepped outside and dropped dead. I never knew whether he choked or had a heart attack. That same summer, grandma got ill and she came to live with us, where she died. She was "laid out" in our living room and her funeral was at our house. Blandford, then, had its own hearse. I've often wondered if grandma's body was embalmed. I doubt it very much.
The Smith grandparents had owned the house beside the Hill cemetery. It was sold to a Margaret Delhanty and her mother. After the estate was settled, mother and dad bought their first car, a Stanley Steamer. This must have been about 1910 or 1911. There were few cars in Blandford at that time.
All roads were dirt. It was nearly impossible to drive a car in the winter. Everyone jacked up his car and put blocks under the axels to relieve the pressure on the tires. If a man driving a car met a horse on the road, he must stop until the horse and driver had passed. Horses were afraid of automobiles.
There was no running water into the house until Elwin was about three years old. In 1910 the well in the back yard went dry as soon as it grew real warm. We then carried every drop of water used by the family and animals as well.
Mother had no ice box until I was nine or ten years old. She hung the milk can in the well. She also hung some food there as well. Father bought ice from Charles Hayden in the winter and put it into an ice house, which was really a wooden pen. The ice was buried in sawdust. In the warm weather a piece would be chopped off and put into a wash tub in the cellar. Most food was kept in lard pails or glass jars in the tub. We also used the ice to make ice cream on Sundays, especially if we had company.
Just before Thanksgiving father would butcher two pigs. We kept one, the other he took to Peebles store. He exchanged much of the pork for a barrel of flour and one-half barrel of sugar. The other one he cut up for our use. Mother made salt pork and lard out of the fattest pieces. She cured and smoked bacon, two hams and usually one shoulder. Some of the chops and a roast were put into a crock and covered with lard. This kept in the cellar for several weeks.
Mother tried to raise turkeys but had very little luck. Turkey poults died easily. We had chickens and plenty of eggs.
Father raised one beef creature. He tried to kill it and did, but he had so much trouble, he would never kill another. Mother corned some of that meat. We ate a lot of salt pork, corned beef, dried beef, eggs, chicken and canned salmon in the summertime. Mother always canned two or three hundred jars of fruit and vegetables every summer. We picked wild berries by the water pail. We didn't get many strawberries and used them fresh. Mother baked all her bread, pies, cakes and cookies in a wood stove. The stove seemed to need as much wood in the summer as in winter. All water had to be heated on the stove. She finally got a range with a reservoir in the back that furnished hot water. It still had to be heated with wood. Later she got a Florence oil stove. This was such a relief from the heat in the summer.
After automobiles became more plentiful, dad couldn't make a living in the blacksmith's shop. He went to work for Colby Haines as a carpenter. He was to get $4.00 a day. Mother got the Sears catalogue and went thru it page by page choosing things she would be able to buy. Later dad worked in the #2 mill in Woronoco and I think for Lane Construction Company. He was a carpenter the rest of his life.
Mother was the first woman in Blandford to get a driver's license. All she had to do was have someone vouch that she had driven a certain number of miles and send the application into Boston.
Our first gasoline car was a 1912 Model T Ford. The top could be folded back. There were side curtains that had to be snapped in place in case it rained. In a sudden shower someone usually got wet before all the curtains were in place. The speed limit on most roads was 15 miles per hour. The radiator was made of brass. A tank on the running board
held gas for the head lights. There were side lamps that burned oil. These were up near the windshield.
The windshield was in two parts and the top half could be opened. Two straps, one on either side, went from the top to just behind the the headlights to hold the top down.
Before the Model T, father had a Stanley Steamer. Before he could drive that, he had to build a fire and heat water to make steam. I don't remember what he used for fuel, but the fire seemed to be inside
the motor.
I didn't start to school until I was seven. I had to wait til
Lillian was nearly six. We then walked to school. It was a mile and a quarter. We went to what is now Blandford's Historical building. The first year I attended school, all eight grades were in the same room. Several "district schools" began to close as there were so few pupils. These children came by horse and buggy to the Center school so the 5 - 8 grades were moved up stairs into what was town hall and also the Grange met there monthly.
About a week before Thanksgiving and again after the January thaw, father always had a pig butchered. This began a week of busy days.
The day before a fireplace was built of stones or brick. A large galvanized tank was brought out and set on the fireplace. Pail after pail of water was carried from the pitcher pump to fill the tank. Even the little ones helped with their lard pails. A wood sled was drawn up under a tree near by. A large wooden tub was placed at the end of the sled. Tackle blocks were hung from the tree limb. After supper father sat and pounded resin into powder. Knives were checked and some sharpened. Now
all was in readiness for the butcher on the morrow.
Early next morning dad was up building a fire under the tank to have plenty of boiling water ready for the butcher. As soon as he came, all the children were sent in doors. Men were too busy to watch little people around sharp knives and hot water.
At the first squeal from the pig, I was in the deepest closet with fingers in my ears. I was nearly grown before I learned the pig squealed only when being caught, not when killed.
The wooden tub now was filled with scalding water. The pig was rubbed with resin, dunked in the hot water and then pulled onto a sled body. With old fashioned candle sticks and using the base the men hurriedly scraped the hair from the hide. A knife then was used to shave the carcass to remove all the bristles. The animal now was splashed with water and with the tackle blocks pulled into the tree above the
ground.
Now for me came the long-awaited hour. The children were allowed to go outside to watch as father opened the animal and remove the organs.
Our first anatomy lesson came at an early age. Father as he removed each part explained what it was and its function as best he could. He said human bodies were very similar to the pigs. Thus, we learned the location of the heart, liver, kidney and lungs.
The intestines went into a pail of cold water. Later the fat would be removed. Many farm women cleaned the intestines and used them as sausage casings. Mother would have none of that.
The bladder went into a pail of warm water. Father washed this well and with a bicycle pump filled it with air. The boys now had a football for an hour, a day or if lucky even longer.
The liver was handled very carefully until the gall bladder had been safely cut away. One drop of liquid from the gall could spoil pounds of meat.
After all internal organs were removed, the carcass was washed thoroughly and left to hang until all body heat was gone.
Next evening the kitchen table was pulled to the center of the room, the pig brought inside, and the animal cut up. Hams, shoulders, loins bacon and sausage meat was made ready for curing or eating.
Mother made a brine of salt, brown sugar, salt peter and water. Into this went the meat to be cured and smoked. I only remember the brine had to be salt enough to float an egg.
The fat back was cut into pieces, put into a large crock and smothered with salt. Water was added to well cover the meat. A weight had to be placed over the pork or it would float and then spoil.
The sausage leans were ground by hand with the meat grinder. This was a tedious chore but several took turns til all was done. This is mother’s recipe for sausage.
All the fat left was rendered for lard. The skin was removed. The fat cut into cubes of about one and a half inches.
One thing in the store I remember vividly is the "peanut roaster." It whistled continually when in use. A kerosine lamp was used for heat to roast the peanuts.
When I was about three, Grandpa William Wyman died, and we moved back to his house on Birch Hill Rd. Father then took over Grandpa’s blacksmith shop.
I recall when our first phone was installed. That must have been around 1907 or 1908. It was a party line with at least eight families on the one line. Each phone rang when any number was called. Needless to say there was a lot of "listening in" on others calls.
Grandpa Almon Smith was eating dinner in 1905 when he started coughing. He stepped outside and dropped dead. I never knew whether he choked or had a heart attack. That same summer, grandma got ill and she came to live with us, where she died. She was "laid out" in our living room and her funeral was at our house. Blandford, then, had its own hearse. I've often wondered if grandma's body was embalmed. I doubt it very much.
The Smith grandparents had owned the house beside the Hill cemetery. It was sold to a Margaret Delhanty and her mother. After the estate was settled, mother and dad bought their first car, a Stanley Steamer. This must have been about 1910 or 1911. There were few cars in Blandford at that time.
All roads were dirt. It was nearly impossible to drive a car in the winter. Everyone jacked up his car and put blocks under the axels to relieve the pressure on the tires. If a man driving a car met a horse on the road, he must stop until the horse and driver had passed. Horses were afraid of automobiles.
There was no running water into the house until Elwin was about three years old. In 1910 the well in the back yard went dry as soon as it grew real warm. We then carried every drop of water used by the family and animals as well.
Mother had no ice box until I was nine or ten years old. She hung the milk can in the well. She also hung some food there as well. Father bought ice from Charles Hayden in the winter and put it into an ice house, which was really a wooden pen. The ice was buried in sawdust. In the warm weather a piece would be chopped off and put into a wash tub in the cellar. Most food was kept in lard pails or glass jars in the tub. We also used the ice to make ice cream on Sundays, especially if we had company.
Just before Thanksgiving father would butcher two pigs. We kept one, the other he took to Peebles store. He exchanged much of the pork for a barrel of flour and one-half barrel of sugar. The other one he cut up for our use. Mother made salt pork and lard out of the fattest pieces. She cured and smoked bacon, two hams and usually one shoulder. Some of the chops and a roast were put into a crock and covered with lard. This kept in the cellar for several weeks.
Mother tried to raise turkeys but had very little luck. Turkey poults died easily. We had chickens and plenty of eggs.
Father raised one beef creature. He tried to kill it and did, but he had so much trouble, he would never kill another. Mother corned some of that meat. We ate a lot of salt pork, corned beef, dried beef, eggs, chicken and canned salmon in the summertime. Mother always canned two or three hundred jars of fruit and vegetables every summer. We picked wild berries by the water pail. We didn't get many strawberries and used them fresh. Mother baked all her bread, pies, cakes and cookies in a wood stove. The stove seemed to need as much wood in the summer as in winter. All water had to be heated on the stove. She finally got a range with a reservoir in the back that furnished hot water. It still had to be heated with wood. Later she got a Florence oil stove. This was such a relief from the heat in the summer.
After automobiles became more plentiful, dad couldn't make a living in the blacksmith's shop. He went to work for Colby Haines as a carpenter. He was to get $4.00 a day. Mother got the Sears catalogue and went thru it page by page choosing things she would be able to buy. Later dad worked in the #2 mill in Woronoco and I think for Lane Construction Company. He was a carpenter the rest of his life.
Mother was the first woman in Blandford to get a driver's license. All she had to do was have someone vouch that she had driven a certain number of miles and send the application into Boston.
Our first gasoline car was a 1912 Model T Ford. The top could be folded back. There were side curtains that had to be snapped in place in case it rained. In a sudden shower someone usually got wet before all the curtains were in place. The speed limit on most roads was 15 miles per hour. The radiator was made of brass. A tank on the running board
held gas for the head lights. There were side lamps that burned oil. These were up near the windshield.
The windshield was in two parts and the top half could be opened. Two straps, one on either side, went from the top to just behind the the headlights to hold the top down.
Before the Model T, father had a Stanley Steamer. Before he could drive that, he had to build a fire and heat water to make steam. I don't remember what he used for fuel, but the fire seemed to be inside
the motor.
I didn't start to school until I was seven. I had to wait til
Lillian was nearly six. We then walked to school. It was a mile and a quarter. We went to what is now Blandford's Historical building. The first year I attended school, all eight grades were in the same room. Several "district schools" began to close as there were so few pupils. These children came by horse and buggy to the Center school so the 5 - 8 grades were moved up stairs into what was town hall and also the Grange met there monthly.
About a week before Thanksgiving and again after the January thaw, father always had a pig butchered. This began a week of busy days.
The day before a fireplace was built of stones or brick. A large galvanized tank was brought out and set on the fireplace. Pail after pail of water was carried from the pitcher pump to fill the tank. Even the little ones helped with their lard pails. A wood sled was drawn up under a tree near by. A large wooden tub was placed at the end of the sled. Tackle blocks were hung from the tree limb. After supper father sat and pounded resin into powder. Knives were checked and some sharpened. Now
all was in readiness for the butcher on the morrow.
Early next morning dad was up building a fire under the tank to have plenty of boiling water ready for the butcher. As soon as he came, all the children were sent in doors. Men were too busy to watch little people around sharp knives and hot water.
At the first squeal from the pig, I was in the deepest closet with fingers in my ears. I was nearly grown before I learned the pig squealed only when being caught, not when killed.
The wooden tub now was filled with scalding water. The pig was rubbed with resin, dunked in the hot water and then pulled onto a sled body. With old fashioned candle sticks and using the base the men hurriedly scraped the hair from the hide. A knife then was used to shave the carcass to remove all the bristles. The animal now was splashed with water and with the tackle blocks pulled into the tree above the
ground.
Now for me came the long-awaited hour. The children were allowed to go outside to watch as father opened the animal and remove the organs.
Our first anatomy lesson came at an early age. Father as he removed each part explained what it was and its function as best he could. He said human bodies were very similar to the pigs. Thus, we learned the location of the heart, liver, kidney and lungs.
The intestines went into a pail of cold water. Later the fat would be removed. Many farm women cleaned the intestines and used them as sausage casings. Mother would have none of that.
The bladder went into a pail of warm water. Father washed this well and with a bicycle pump filled it with air. The boys now had a football for an hour, a day or if lucky even longer.
The liver was handled very carefully until the gall bladder had been safely cut away. One drop of liquid from the gall could spoil pounds of meat.
After all internal organs were removed, the carcass was washed thoroughly and left to hang until all body heat was gone.
Next evening the kitchen table was pulled to the center of the room, the pig brought inside, and the animal cut up. Hams, shoulders, loins bacon and sausage meat was made ready for curing or eating.
Mother made a brine of salt, brown sugar, salt peter and water. Into this went the meat to be cured and smoked. I only remember the brine had to be salt enough to float an egg.
The fat back was cut into pieces, put into a large crock and smothered with salt. Water was added to well cover the meat. A weight had to be placed over the pork or it would float and then spoil.
The sausage leans were ground by hand with the meat grinder. This was a tedious chore but several took turns til all was done. This is mother’s recipe for sausage.
All the fat left was rendered for lard. The skin was removed. The fat cut into cubes of about one and a half inches.