Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

94 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES.
married, and the. law was changed. The matter was finally
settled by compromise, and Rebecca Blush came into posses-
sion of nearly all her first husband's estate.
Elisha Blush was a shoemaker by trade, a very honest
and worthy man, and an exemplary member of the Metho-
dist Church. At the time of his first marriage he was thirtyone
and his wife forty-six years of age. She died Nov. 7,
1830, aged 86 years, and six weeks and three days after he
married Eebecca Linnell, a grand niece of his first wife, a
young woman aged 29. Elisha Blush died May 1836, aged
77, and his widow is the present wife of the Rev. Scolly G.
Usher, now a practicing physician at the West.
When young I had often heard of Aunt Beck's Museum,
and there are very few in Barnstable who have not. In the
winter of 1825, I resided in her neighborhood, and made
several calls to examine her curiosities. Her house, yet remaining,
is an old-fashioned, low double-house, facing due
South, with two front-rooms, a kitchen, bedroom and pantry
on the lower floor. The east front-room, which was
her sitting-room, is about fourteen feet square. The west
room is smaller. Around the house and out-buildings every
thing was remarkably neat. The wood and fencing stuff
was carefully piled, the chips at the wood-pile were raked
up, and there Avas no straw or litter to be seen about the
barn or fences. It was an estate that the stranger would
notice for its neat and tidy appearance.
In my visits to her house the east front-room was the
only portion I was permitted to see, though I occasionally
caught a glimpse of the curiosities in the adjoining rooms
through the half-opened doors. I was accompanied in my
visits by a young lady who was a neighbor, and on excellent
terms with Aunt Beck. She charged me not to look
around the room when I entered, but keep my eye on the
lady of the house, or on the fire-place. To observe such
precautions was absolutely necessary, for the stranger who,
on entering, should stare around the room, would soon feel
the weight of Aunt Beck's ire, or her broom-stick. 1 followed
my instructions, and was invited to take one of the
two chairs in the room. It was a cool evening, and all being
seated close to the fire, we were soon engaged in a
friendly chat, and I soon had an opportunity to examine the
curiosities. In the northeast corner of the room stood a