Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

494 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BAKNSTABLE FAMILIES.
ted so much by farming. But let any young man, of sound health,
practice in any calling in life as Goodman Hallett practiced, and he
will always succeed.
He may also have been engaged in the fisheries, and probably
was, for nearly all the first settlers were at certain seasons of the
year. The Mayos', Allyns', Lothrops', Gorhams' and Dimmoeks',
accumulated good estates in the coasting and West India trade.
They were not sole owners of their vessels. Others who did
not take an active part in these employments were interested as own-
ers, and shared the profits.
His out of door arrangements were as rude as those within,
On the east of his house there was a fine spring of water, in which
he placed a large hollow log for a curb.* The supply was pure and
abundant, and in times of drought was the resort of the neighborhood.
His large wood-pile was in front of his house, not cut and piled, but
standing on end, on each side of a large pole resting on crutches,
settled into the ground. Forty cords he considered a year's supply,
and it was cut up as wanted for the fire, into pieces three and four
feet long. Some of the logs used were large, and required the
strength of two men to roil them in, and adjust them in the fireplaces
for backlogs.
Goodman Hallett built his cribs as all in those times did, with
slender poles. Posts were set at each corner having short
branches left thereon, about three feet from the ground. On those
branches two stout poles were laid, 12 or 15 feet long. Across
these smaller ones, four feet in length, were closely laid. The
sides were constructed with long poles, and the roof with boards
overlapping each other. At each end there was a door or opening.
He had several, in which he stored his large crops. Corn
was then the measure of value. With it a man could pay his
taxes or his debts, buy houses and lands ; the necessaries or the
luxuries of life. To have corn in the crib, in those times, was
like having stocks and money in the Bank at the present time.
To say of a man "he has plenty of corn in his cribs," was equivalent
to saying he had money in his purse. Goodman Hallett was
not proud, but he delighted to exhibit to visitors his extensive
granaries, his herds and flocks, and the breadth of his cultivated
lands. Excepting for hominy or samp, he consumed very little of
his corn till it was a year old.t
*Tai about the year 1770 this was one of the best springs of water in Yarmouth.
Though on high land, it afforded an abundant supply of cool, clear, and excellent water.
About that year, during an earthquake, the spring suddenly ceased to flow. It still affords
water; but its character is entirely changed. A few years ago the old hollow tree was remoTcd,
and the spring cleared out, and a new curb put in, yet the water is poor. During
the same earthquake several springs in yarious parts of the country were similarly afTectea.
The jarring of^ the earth probably changed the direction of the fountains. The old spring
near the Gyles Hopkins house also failed about the same time. The fountain which formerly
supplied it is now entirely dried up or turned in another direction.
{"Pointing to one crib he would say, *there is my last year's crop,* then to another,