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, (14804111813).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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ts in town to supplydeficiencies, and sugar and salt were practically the onlygroceries to be obtained. The Indians taught the settlersto make maple sugar. Herbs for flavoring and for medic-inal purposes were grown and cured. Candles were notused very much in the seventeenth century, candle wood—knots and splinters of resinous wood—taking their place.The wool of the flocks and the flax grown in the fields HISTORY OF HATFIELD. 145 furnished the material for clothing and other householdfabrics and the steps in the preparation of the raw materialwere understood by all. A fulling mill was in operaion atWest Brook quite early, though not until after 1700. Themining wheel, the loom, and the dye pot were in everyhome and most of the tailoring and dressmaking was per-formed by the members of the household. Linsey-woolsey,a mixture of linen and wool, was the commonest fabric, whiletow. the refuse combings of the flax, was made into towelsand other coarse goods. Flax was worth about 6d. per
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Old-Time Furniture. pound and tow 3d. Some things, like mittens and stockings,were of wool, others all linen, like the sheets and handker-chiefs. Cotton from the West Indies came into use quiteearly. It was spun on a large wheel like wool and some-times mixed with wool. The small wheels were used forflax. Checked and striped goods of blue and white weremanufactured, and when in excess of the wants of thehousehold were exchanged for calico and silk. When therewas an extra supply of flax flaxen yarn was sometimes sold,and homemade tow cloth, 36 inches wide, found a readymarket at 2s. per yard. Spinning was encouraged by the following colonial law. 146 HISTORY OF HATFIELD. passed by the General Court May 14, 1656, and in force forover a century :— This Court, taking into serious consideration the present streights andnecesseties that lye uppon the countrie in respect of cloathing, which is notlike to be so plentifully supplied from forraigne parts as in times past, andnot knowing any b

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