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HISTORIAN’S CORNER
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From "Life of the Phelps Pioneers"
By John M. Parmelee
Chapter Six - "Housing"
The following information about log houses was written in 1797 and was probably applicable from 1790 to 1797: A log house with two rooms cost $100 if made by a carpenter. A small log house, 20 ft. square, would cost $50. Wages were $1 per day and land cost 25 cents per acre. If two families or neighbors wanted to settle together, they could do with one yoke of oxen and one set of farm utensils. The price of a yoke of oxen was $70, one cow $15, an oxcart $30, and farm utensils $20.
The typical farm house was constructed with walls of logs, notched and fitted together with the openings chinked (a stony substance) and plastered with mud. The lower part of the chimney was made of stone and the upper part with sticks and mud. The roof was of bark and the floors were of split logs with flat sides joined at the edge. Blankets formed divisions into rooms. The door was made of hewn planks, hung on wooden hinges, and windows were made of greased paper. Glass and nails were not generally available. The sleeping apartment was the loft, reached by a ladder. Furniture and dishes were hand made. The huge fireplace had hooks and a trammel, a bake pan, and a kettle. They usually had one crude table and reed bottom chairs or wood blocks used as chairs. There was usually a spinning wheel and maybe a loom.
Social gatherings often had a fiddler, and a fife and drum were used at martial gatherings. Men spent much of their time removing obstructions from navigable streams, building roads and mills, and clearing land of trees and brush. Cooperation between families was necessary and commonly practiced.
A fireplace was essential for heat and cooking. Construction consisted of laying a 5" or 6" diameter pole across the stone portion of the base. This was known as the tug pole. Trammels (adjustable pot hooks) were suspended and kettles hung over the fire. Later, after the blacksmiths came, iron cranes were made and attached to the side of the chimney. Hooks were attached to the bar of the crane. Kettles could then be attached and swung over the fire without reaching in to attach the kettle to the trammel.
For baking bread, an iron kettle with a cover was used. The kettle was set in the bed of coals and coal was placed on the cover and replenished several times. The kettle was then pulled out to the hearth (an evergreen shrub protected the floor).
Shortcake was baked in a long-handled baking pan. This pan was elevated by resting the end of the handle on the back of a chair. This was set before the fire of coals and coals placed under and around the pan. Turkey was cooked before the fire by suspending it from hooks attached to a short iron suspended from the ceiling by a heavy cord of tow. During the roasting process, one of the young children had the job of basting the turkey with the gravy dripping into a pan below.
The bake kettle was soon superseded by the clay oven. To construct this, a platform was covered over with clay and after it had hardened a large quantity of wood was piled on it. The outside of the pile was evened up and plastered over with a heavy coating of clay. After this was hardened, the wood was burned out and the oven was ready for use. Preparatory to baking, the oven was heated by burning a large quantity of wood in it. The ashes and coals were then taken out and the bread or cake was put in to bake. Fires were never allowed to go out. The fire was covered with ashes. If fires did go out, they were restarted by a flint stone or some coals borrowed from a neighbor.
There was no bathroom in a log cabin, so a privy or outhouse was built in back of the house or cabin. The larger privy had two sections, one for the male and one for the female. The moon was always regarded as being female, so the familiar crescent was carved in her door and, the sun being regarded as male, the sun was carved in his door. Several methods were used to control the smell, such as sweet clover, ashes, or ground limestone.
The first families had no clocks. Each cabin had a "noon mark". The time was computed before noon and after noon by the shadow on the floor in relation to the "noon mark".
From 1790 to 1796 neighborhood settlement was most successful. Mutual aid and encouragement along with sympathy and friendship were prevalent. The people settled in the villages and hamlets, such as Vienna, Oaks Corners, Orleans, Plainville, and West Vienna. The first record of the name Vienna was about 1815. East and West Vienna were known villages until the village of Phelps was incorporated in 1855.
The first frame house in the village of Vienna was built by Seth Deane, with the help of his friend, Oliver Phelps. This house replaced his log house, which stood where the Old Mill hot dog stand is now located. Deane and Phelps had earlier, in 1792, built the first saw mill, which was where the Old Mill is. The mill yard was between the house and the mill. The house was a 1-1/2 story structure, facing east, and had a porch. To frame a house required all the able bodied men in the community. They were all invited to the raising. The owner and family would feed the men, and the women and children would make a holiday of the occasion. The Deane house was moved to the north side of Main Street in 1808, later purchased by Attorney Charles E. Hobbie, then torn down in 1888.
The first barn in Phelps was built by Col. Bannister in 1810. The first well was dug in 1809-10 by James McCarty and was 60 ft. deep. The fist store came to the village in 1817. There was no organized fire protection until 1840, except "bucket brigades". Those were operated by men lined up at the fire, passing buckets of water from one to the other from the nearest source of water to the fire.
The 1790 census showed 1,081 inhabitants in the whole Phelps-Gorham Purchase, with the Robinsons and the Grangers being the only ones listed in the District of Sullivan, which became Phelps. In 1800, 104 men voted in Phelps. A total of 1,744 voted in Ontario County, with 15,298 being counted as residents. Phelps Town had 576 families and 3,408 residents in 1810. By 1830, Phelps had 4,798 residents. In 1836, 212 persons lived in Vienna village. As a comparison, Geneva in 1790 had 15 houses, 20 families with all but three living in log houses. In 1806, Geneva had 68 houses, 35 of which were on Main St. By 1812, Geneva had 130 buildings and 800 inhabitants.
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