The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2): Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years — John Shaqi
The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2): Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty YearsHarper, Ida Husted
History
The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (Volume 1 of 2): Including Public Addresses, Her Own Letters and Many From Her Contemporaries During Fifty Years
Harper, Ida Husted
Anthony, Susan B. (Susan Brownell), 1820-1906
To go to school the children had to pass Grandmother Read's, and they
were always careful to start early enough to stop there for a fresh
cheese curd and a drink of "coffee," made by browning crusts of rye and
Indian bread, pouring hot water over them and sweetening with maple
sugar. Then in the evening they would stop again for some of the
left-over, cold boiled dinner, which was served on a great pewter
platter, a big piece of pork or beef in the center and, piled all
round, potatoes, cabbage, turnips, beets, carrots, etc. The story runs
that, when the mother remonstrated with the children for bothering the
grandmother for what they could have at home, Susan replied, "Why,
grandma's potato peelings are better than your boiled dinners." The
Anthonys and Reads used white flour and real coffee on state occasions,
but very few families could afford such luxuries.
One of the recollections of Grandmother Anthony's house is of the
little closet under the parlor stairs, where was set the tub of maple
sugar, and, while the elders were chatting over neighborhood affairs,
the children would gather like bees around this tub and have a feast.
Always when they left, they were loaded down with apples, doughnuts,
caraway cakes and other toothsome things which little ones love. Along
the edges of the pantry shelves hung rows of shining pewter porringers,
and the pride of the children's lives was to eat "cider toast" out of
them. This was made by toasting a big loaf of brown bread before the
fire, peeling off the outside, toasting it again, and finally pouring
over these crusts hot sweetened water and cider. The dish, however,
which was relished above all others was "hasty pudding," cooked slowly
for hours, then heaped upon a platter in a great cone, the center
scooped out and filled with sweet, fresh butter and honey or maple
syrup.
In those days every sideboard was liberally supplied with rum, brandy
and gin, and every man drank more or less, even the elders and
preachers. When the farmers came down the mountain road with their
loads of wood or lumber, they always stopped at Grandfather Read's for
a slice of bread and cheese and a drink of hard cider, but the elders
and preachers were regaled with something stronger. This was the
custom, and criticism would have been considered fanatical.
The little factory nourished and produced many yards of excellent
cotton cloth. A store was opened in one corner of the house to supply
the wants of the employes and neighbors, and the Anthonys enjoyed a
plenty and prosperity somewhat unusual where small incomes and close
economy were the rule.
[Footnote 1: Her oldest daughter, Hannah, became a famous Quaker
preacher.]
[Footnote 2: A wedding trip was taken to Palatine Bridge, Deerfield,
Union Springs, Farmington, Rochester and other points in New York
State, to visit relatives of both families, all the long journey being
made in a light one-horse wagon, many miles of it over corduroy roads.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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