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Orrin Stone was
an
There was
sufficient land for numerous sons and daughters and Orrin was preparing
to move
from the family cabin to one of his own when he made the initial entry
in his
diary. The date was
A perusal
of the terse observations through a period of several years leaves many
questions unanswered; yet a partial pattern of frontier life evolves. Hard labor was a routine.
In the
winter months he was busy “chopping” to level the forest in preparation
for
fields and crops. In the course of a year
he spent 65-75 days chopping, logging, and splitting and additional
days at
woodworking, fence building and hauling. In
March and April chopping yielded to “sugaring”. Preparing
troughs, tapping trees, sap
gathering and boiling syrup absorbed most of his working hours for
about three
weeks. And before April yielded to may, he turned to plowing and later planting and
hoeing. The diary indicates some 30 to
40 days labor in the plowing of wheat, corn, oats and potatoes, and
corn became
principal occupation from July through October.
In-between-times
he laid his chamber floor, caulked or mudded his cabin, mended fences,
drove
his cow or hog to be bred (sometimes over considerable distances),
marketed his
potatoes or ashes in Oswego, and borrowed his father’s oxen to carry
his grain
to the mill.
There was a
respite from heavy toil on Sundays when there were occasional meetings
in the
schoolhouse at the Corners, or in Hiel
Stone’s
barn. A local lay preacher conducted the
Baptist service. Recreation was found in
raisings and bees and singing school. Stone
occasionally went hunting and fishing, but took
special delight in
searching for bee trees in the woods.
He also
belonged to the local militia, and sometimes accepted the duty of
conveying the
“warning” to the members. In an
emergency in 1814 attending the war of 1812 he accompanied the militia
to In later life, Stone was a postmaster, storekeeper, and farmer. He died in 1876.
The Society
is indebted to Mrs. George M. Penney of |