Francis J. Degnan
The room was about twenty-eight feet by twenty-two, a classroom’s size. It had just been erected and the housewrights, sawyers and joiners had just left. The house had been well built, logs hewn and joined with mortise and tenon set on a stone sill. Clapboards had been nailed over the upright posts and studs. The walls had been filled with nogging, rolls of clay and straw, to insulate and keep the cold out. The windows were diamond shaped pieces of glass set in lead. Most other homes still had oiled paper windows. Dinner was finished and at the hearth flames were low, but the new stone fireplace would be much safer than the clay, earth and wood one it replaced. In the attic by the chimney was the smoke room that would soon hold hams, bacon and sausages. The attic, children’s sleeping and storage area would have a wonderful aroma soon. The trestle table, stools and long bench called a settle had just been used for the first time. Like some benches of the era, its top was movable; it tilted to an upright position conserving space. The bed didn’t fold like some of the period did, but rested in a corner using the walls and a single leg for support. The bed would seem abnormally short today because of the habit of sleeping in a halfsitting position on large feather pillows. In colder weather the courting couple would bundle together on the bed while the rest of the family occupied the hearth. Blank floors replaced dirt ones and spanned a shallow earth cellar that along with the attic would soon be full of drying cider. The only possessions that had been brought into the house had been the family’s chest. The chest held all that was dear, remembrances, special linens and personal items. There were no closets and all other clothes hung from a few pegs along the wall. The single family home of the mid and late sixteenth century wasn’t much more than this: yet it was a great step up from the bark covered dugouts that had held the first Plymouth settlers that first winter.
The early and middle part of the seventeenth century saw the addition of a second floor to most new construction. The chimney was now centrally located and there were three to five rooms upstairs and down. Each room might have a fireplace to heat it, the largest one located in the kitchen and used for cooking. The South, some kitchen hearths were so large a person could stand in them, in New England, they never reached such a grand scale. The house may have also had added to it a rear room under a continuation of the roof. This area might be the weaving area in a home. This extension was later incorporated into the basic house design and became known as the salt box house. There are two Yaleowned buildings that are on the Green that reflect this era. It is worthwhile to have students compare the great stone edifices and towering everpresent construction with these structures and draw their own opinions about times, places and life styles.
This was a period of expansion and the Indians were at times troublesome. Houses on the outskirts of a settlement might be made of solid squared timbers and have shutters that bolted from the inside. This type of dwelling was called a garrison house and for the most part was secure. In Milford the Indians were intimidating enough that around a reasonably large part of town the residents constructed a stockade. A docent leading a tour retold a story of the frustrated Indians who resorted to chanting, “White men all same like pigs.” Evidently they didn’t agree with Ben Franklin’s adage that “Good fences make good neighbors.”
In the mid seventeenth century, especially in the hundred year old economic centers families of wealth and position built Georgian style homes. This style is credited to Sir Christopher Wren who is considered in part to have designed the College of William and Mary, the second oldest college in the United States founded in 1693. Within a short time the style was being repeated throughout the colonies. With no more than an architectural book the builder constructed homes that reflected this style. Houses had tripped roofs that allowed for a third floor. They were at least two rooms deep with windows placed symmetrically to allow for ample light. Entrance walls and great staircases were now in vogue. First floor rooms were now paneled although toward the end of the period wallpaper made its debut. The chimney became chimneys and were at the ends of the structures. Floors were now carpeted, the wealthy covering the floors with oriental carpets.
Furniture too, had evolved; the chest that had held all one’s important belongings and the crude stools and table had been undergoing a metamorphosis. To the chest, drawers had been added. Then in order to increase the utility of the piece the chest became all drawers. Hence, the chest of drawers! Chests were placed on top of one another forming the chest on chest. Highboys were chests that had long graceful legs, a style that was called Queen Anne. The fashions that arose during the reigns of the British sovereigns influenced American furniture. Locks and fine hand made pulls indicated the increased emphasis on personal belongings and privacy. Chairs now for the first time were being upholstered with fine fabric, but the loose cushion was not yet in style. Thomas Chippendale published a text in 1754 that was to set the style for the rest of the century.
Some aspects of colonial life had not undergone such drastic changes. Both in the Colonies and England a flame had to be kept lit. It wasn’t until well into the eighteen hundreds that matches made their appearance. Every family had its tinder box flint and steel. Woven bits of worn linen were good tinder. Paper was too valuable to use. The fireplace that was used for both heat and cooking also provided some light in addition to the meager amount provided by the small windows. Early Connecticut settlers found that Pitch Pine was not only a source of pine tar but also burned brightly. They would keep a torch of it burning for additional light. Pitch Pine became known as candle wood. No doubt Lake Candlewood was named because of the amount of this resource in the area. The pine odor must have been pleasant.
The most common light was the candle. Most settlers made their own from animal grease or tallow, that substance which congeals when it cools after the roast is cooked. The woman of the house made the candles either by dipping or the mold method. Unlike the pine the tallow didn’t have an agreeable odor. These candles gave off a weak light and smoke. Disagreeable as they were, candles were the major source of light during the Colonial period.
Tallow was not only saved for candles but also for soap. The soap was the product of lye, made from wood ash and water, and tallow. It was a very harsh soap that resulted from the boiling of lye and tallow.
Perhaps the most demanding household task was making the family clothing. New England colonists had little money to afford the imported English loomed yard goods. To make the clothing, they had to weave the cloth. In order to weave the cloth, yarn had to be spun. In order to produce the yarn, raw materials had to be raised and prepared. Wool and flax were the sources of material to be spun. The preparation of linen yarn from the flax plant was a laborious process involving nearly twenty operations. Rippling, rerting, scutching and hackling were among the more unique terms employed to name the procedures. Linen was produced first in the colonies. Linen could be sown in May and harvested in June. Sheep, on the other hand, were not native to America and it took many years to increase their numbers to a point where there was an ample wool supply.