Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

GENKALOGIOAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES. 493
places to sell ; beans, pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers, melons, tur-
nips, beets, carrots, parsnips, and onions. Potatoes were not raised
by the first settlers, and it was many years before they were produced
in large quantities. Cattle were scarce and of high price, and
few were killed for beef by the first settlers ; but in time they became
abundant aad cheap. Goats were kept, and their milk was
used. Horses were early introduced ; but the country did not become
well stocked till fifty years after the settlement of Plymouth.
Pigs multiplied rapidly, and were _soon abundant in all the settlements.
Poultry of all kinds was raised. Deer and other wild ani*
mals suitable for food then roamed in the forests, and the shores, at
certain seasons, were covered with flocks of geese, ducks, plover,
and other birds.
Clams, quahogs and oysters, could be obtained at any season of
the year, and codfish, mackerel, bass, eels, and other fish, were then
more easily taken than at the present time.
None but the idle and the dissolute complained. The first set-
tlers, after securing their first crop in 1640, never suflTered for food,
—they always had an abundance of that which was wholesome and
palatable. At first they were short of clothing. They had to patch
up that which they brought out of England. The skins of the deer
and other animals, dressed by the Indians, were soft and pliable.
These supplied many of their wants and furnished them with warm
and comfortable, though not elegant articles of dress.
The little money they obtained by the sale of peltry, oil and
fish, was carefully husbanded and used to supply their most pressing
wants. Tools, iron and some kinds of buildiug materials, were indispensable,
and it was many years before they were fully supplied.
The first settlers in Barnstable were as independent and as contented
a community as ever existed. They had food enough and to
spare,—they were comfortably clad, and though their houses were
open and cold, these defects were supplied by adding wood to their
winter fires. While they suffered the inconveniences incident to a
new settlement, they had no cause to complain of smoke, dust or
gas in their rooms.
The spring of 1641 was cold and wet. Hooping cough prevailed
to an alarming extent among the children, yet only three
deaths occurred in Barnstable during the year. The bills of mortality
for the first fourteen years, exhibit an average longevity of
seventy years, showing that the inconveniences to which our fathers
were subjected were not prejudicial to their health. Their diseases
yielded to the simple remedies which our mothers gathered in the
fields and the forests.— [Ch. Records.
Goodman Hallett is called a husbandman. By honest industry,
skilful management and economy, he accumulated a large estate.
In 1676 his tax was equal to one twentieth of the whole assessment.
At this time, it may seem difficult to comprehend how he accumula-