File:A history of Hatfield, Massachusetts, in three parts - I. An account of the development of the social and industrial life of the town from its first settlement. II. The houses and homes of Hatfield, (14783913302).jpg

Identifier: historyofhatfiel00well_0 (find matches)
Title: A history of Hatfield, Massachusetts, in three parts : I. An account of the development of the social and industrial life of the town from its first settlement. II. The houses and homes of Hatfield, with personal reminiscences of the men and women who have lived there during the last one hundred years; brief historical accounts of the religious societies and of Smith Academy; statistical tables, etc. III. Genealogies of the families of the first settlers
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Wells, Daniel White, b. 1842 Wells, Reuben Field, b. 1880, joint author
Subjects:
Publisher: Springfield, Mass. : Pub. under the direction of F.C.H. Gibbons
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Public Library

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mespun. Every woman had a Scotch plaid cloak, calleda camlet, and handed down from mother to daughter as anheirloom. The dower given to every girl by her father onher wedding day was a brass kettle and a cow. Many of thebrass kettles were cherished family possessions with whichtales of savage warfare were connected. It was the customof the people to bury in the ground the treasured brass kettlewhenever the danger of an Indian attack seemed imminent.For much of the cooking heavy iron pots were used. Forthe table service there was shining pewter ware. Gourdswere used for dippers, and for receptacles for milk there wereearthen pans like tile, glazed on the inside. A few familieshad furniture of English workmanship acquired in the palmydays of colonial times, but much of the furniture was of the 210 HISTORY OF HATFIELD. plain, homemade type. There w as no covering for most ofthe floors, which were kept clean and shining by frequentpolishings. The sand hank in the highway opposite the land
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Ruins of an Old-Fashioned Chimney,Showing the huge kitchen fireplace. of E. S. Warner near the Hill bridge was reserved for publicuse because it contained a deposit of sand of especial meritfor scouring purposes. Near the river was an abundance ofrushes prized for scouring pewter. The baking was done in huge brick ovens. There was not HISTORY OF HATFIELD. 211 a stove of any description in Hatfield before 1800. On bak-ing days the fire was built early in the morning on the floorof the oven and kept replenished till all the surrounding wallswere heated. Then the embers were removed and the floorwas carefully swept to receive the loads of bread and piesthat the housewife and her daughters had prepared. Aportable tin oven was used for warming up food when com-pany came unexpectedly. This could be set upon the hearthin front of the fireplace and put away when not in use. Itwas the custom to keep a batch of dough in the cellar undera damp cloth to be ready for emergencies, and when guestsar

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