LaurieAnnie's photos with the keyword: SturbridgeVillage

Pottery Goshen, Connecticut, c. 1819 Moved to OSV, 1961 Kiln built by OSV, 1979 Earthenware production,, usually as a part-time activity, has been practiced in rural agricultural communities for thousands of years. Into the middle of the 19th century, the farmer-potter was a presence in the New England countryside. Hervey Brooks (1779-1873) came to the town of Goshen as a 16-year-old apprentice in 1795 and practiced the potter’s craft there until 1873. In restoring his pottery shop and re-creating a working version of his kiln, Old Sturbridge Village researchers have drawn on his detailed accounts from 1802-73 and undertaken extensive archaeological studies of the original site. As a potter, Brooks spent his early years working primarily for other craftsmen. He crafted some 26 different varieties and sizes of jugs, bowls, pitchers, and platters. After 1819 he worked for himself and began by producing such a backlog of wares that he did not fire a kiln again for eight years. Then, from 1828 on, Brooks regularly made and fired one kiln load of ware each year between June and November—most commonly producing milk pans, cooking pots, and jugs. Throughout his life he devoted most of his time to his own farm and labor for others, including haying, chopping and hauling wood, hoeing potatoes, grafting apple trees, shingling, splitting rails, and even some blacksmithing. Brooks sold some of his redware to country stores on contract, and he exchanged smaller lots with his neighbors for goods and services. However, increasing competition from tinware producers and local population decline gradually eroded Brooks’s market. Brooks hung on long after virtually all the rest of New England’s redware potters had given up the craft, burning his last kiln of ware in 1864. Excerpted from Old Sturbridge Village Visitor's Guide © 1993-2004, Old Sturbridge Inc. Text from the Old Sturbridge Village Web Site: www.osv.org/

Pottery Goshen, Connecticut, c. 1819 Moved to OSV, 1961 Kiln built by OSV, 1979 Earthenware production,, usually as a part-time activity, has been practiced in rural agricultural communities for thousands of years. Into the middle of the 19th century, the farmer-potter was a presence in the New England countryside. Hervey Brooks (1779-1873) came to the town of Goshen as a 16-year-old apprentice in 1795 and practiced the potter’s craft there until 1873. In restoring his pottery shop and re-creating a working version of his kiln, Old Sturbridge Village researchers have drawn on his detailed accounts from 1802-73 and undertaken extensive archaeological studies of the original site. As a potter, Brooks spent his early years working primarily for other craftsmen. He crafted some 26 different varieties and sizes of jugs, bowls, pitchers, and platters. After 1819 he worked for himself and began by producing such a backlog of wares that he did not fire a kiln again for eight years. Then, from 1828 on, Brooks regularly made and fired one kiln load of ware each year between June and November—most commonly producing milk pans, cooking pots, and jugs. Throughout his life he devoted most of his time to his own farm and labor for others, including haying, chopping and hauling wood, hoeing potatoes, grafting apple trees, shingling, splitting rails, and even some blacksmithing. Brooks sold some of his redware to country stores on contract, and he exchanged smaller lots with his neighbors for goods and services. However, increasing competition from tinware producers and local population decline gradually eroded Brooks’s market. Brooks hung on long after virtually all the rest of New England’s redware potters had given up the craft, burning his last kiln of ware in 1864. Excerpted from Old Sturbridge Village Visitor's Guide © 1993-2004, Old Sturbridge Inc. Text from the Old Sturbridge Village Web Site: www.osv.org/

Freeman Farm House, Sturbridge, Massachusetts, c. 1810-1815 Moved to OSV, 1950. Relocated, 1956 Barn, Charlton, Massachusetts, c. 1830-50 Corn Barn, Thompson, Connecticut, c. 1830-60 Smokehouse, Goshen, Connecticut, c. 1800 Haying began in the cool of the morning. Farmers, with their sons and hired neighbors, mowed as fast as they could, spreading, turning, and raking hay into windrows, and rolling it into cocks to minimize damage from rain or dew. As one observer described it, “everything about it has the urge, the hurry, and the excitement of a battle.” Once mowing had begun, any mismanagement or delay could have costly consequences and good farmers made ready well in advance an extra supply of scythes, pitchforks, and rake handles. The signs of the working life of a farming family are found all around the Freeman Farm, even in the house where buckets of milk are taken into the buttery to cool and separate. Country women seemed endlessly busy with the chores that were traditionally their own. Taking care of the dairy and making butter and cheese were skills that provided much of a household’s trade with the outside world. Thrifty management of large kitchen gardens meant not only planting, weeding, and saving seeds, but also harvesting and preserving the produce. The work of putting food by, whether in sand in the root cellar, dried, pickled in brine, or smoked, just led right on to the planning, cooking, and serving of household meals. Everyday bread for New England tables was traditionally “rye and Indian,” a combination of rye flour and corn meal, both ground at a neighborhood gristmill. Indian corn, or maize, was the region’s most important grain crop, borrowed from Native American agriculture. It thrived, while wheat, the settlers’ favorite European grain, had failed through southern New England. Rye was grown instead. But by 1825, even breadstuffs showed signs of the changes that were starting to overtake New England farming. Many rural families were buying newly available wheat flour from New York and Ohio. Some gladly abandoned their heavy traditional loaves for lighter bread. Others added one-third part wheat flour to the old recipes. Following early 19th-century practice, the re-created landscape at the farm is divided into parcels for mowing, for pasture, for tillage, and for woodlot. New England farmers were steadily clearing their holdings, opening up forested land for grazing and hay. Native grasses were allowed to flourish in the pastures, but hayfields were sown with more nutritious “English” ones. Farmers prepared their fields with ox-drawn plows and harrows, and cultivated them through long days of hard labor. Through the winter, farmers could be found felling trees for fencing, repairing tools, building sheds, chopping firewood, or working at a supplementary trade. Caring for livestock was year-round work. Feeding the animals and cleaning their stalls, attending when they gave birth, shearing the sheep, milking the cows, and training young oxen were the common doings of everyday life. Work still follows the old seasonal and daily rhythms at the Freeman Farm today. Crops are planted and harvested, food is prepared at the kitchen hearth, animals are tended in the barnyards, and produce is prepared for use or for trade. Field and garden crops are the traditional varieties originally grown in early New England. The cattle, sheep, swine, and poultry have been carefully bred to resemble early 19th-century animals in size, shape, and coloring. Visitors can discover here the re-created patterns of a whole way of life, which even then was beginning to show signs of giving way to the future. The modest one-and-a-half story gambrel-roofed house at the farm was home for Pliny Freeman, his wife Delia, and a varying number of their seven children and kin. Their story is typical in many ways of the experiences of New England families. As the population of New England grew, it was harder to pass on an enduring connection to the land. Pliny, unlike his father or father-in-law, did not have enough land to

Contrary to popular belief, covered bridges were not built that way to keep the snow and rain off travelers. And not all New England bridges were covered. The builders of covered bridges wanted to outsmart Mother Nature and make their structures last as long as possible by protecting them from New England weather. The covered bridge's roof and sides were easy to replace. They kept wind, rain, snow, and sleet from the heavy beams and timbers that supported the bridge load. Ironically, it was necessary to shovel snow onto covered bridges in the winter to let sleighs and other horse-drawn vehicles pass over them. Only a few covered bridges remain--as they deteriorated, they were replaced by concrete and steel bridges, which don't need wooden covers to protect them. Excerpted from Old Sturbridge Village Visitor's Guide Edited by Kent McCallum © 1993,1996, Old Sturbridge Inc. Text taken from Old Sturbridge Village's Website: www.osv.org/