History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

70 HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTON. [1736.
The Frame Raised.
Duriiig the summer the foundations were
laid, Gideon Hale being paid £6,13 for
*' moulding the underpinning," and the timber was made
ready for the frame. Everything was prepared for raising
in September, and on Tuesday, the 21"' day of the month,
the work was commenced. It was apparently the inten-
tion that the raising should be done by voluntary labor,
but after the sills were laid, the town voted to hire men for
that purpose, paying them 5s. per day and furnishing
liquor. In a week's time the entire frame of the building,
with the exception of the spire, was in place. The town
treasurer's account shows that seventy-six men were employed
in that work, fifty-four of whom labored five days,
and the others a shorter time. Forty-nine gallons of rum,
and thirty-six pounds of sugar were required to get the
timbers into place, and twenty gallons seem to have been
consumed while the framing was in progress, making in all
sixty-nine gallons of liquor that were required for this part
of the work, besides a number of barrels of "cyder," as
well as several barrels of beer. Dea. Ebenezer Hunt thus
describes in his Journal the work of raisi]ig the frame : —
" In November, 1735, we passed a vote to build a new meeting house
70 feet in length, 46 feet in breadth, and proceeded to get the timber
the winter following ; and in the summer of 1786 we framed it—Mr.
Joseph Wright master—and on the 16"' day of Sept. we laid the sills, it
being on Thursday, and appointed to begin to raise on Monday following,
but that proved a wet day ; so the town met together and agreed
to hire 60 men to raise the meeting house and to give them 5s. the day,
they keeping themselves excepting drinks, and on Tuesday morning
they began to raise, it being the 21^*' day of said Sept. and they raised
all the posts in the length of the house, excepting two of a side ; and
on Wednesday, the 22'', they finished the body of the house, and put up
two beams ; and on Thursday' the 23'^ we put up all the beams and made
some preparations for raising the upper part of the bellfree ;
and on
Friday the 24"'. we finished the scaffolding and raised one half of the
bellfree ; and the next day the 25"' it rained till noon, and in the after-
noon they finished the body of the bellfree : and on Monday, the 27"^
of said month, we finished the raising of the house ; and we have
abundant cause to take notice with thankfulness of the kindness of
God to us in protecting and preserving the lives and limbs of all
those that were active in the building of the house, for except the
Lord build the house, thej' labor in vain that build it.
"On Thursday, the 21"' day of July, 1737, the spire of our meeting
house was raised with good success, for which we have cause to be