Easton Historical Society

Yes, "e" is the most common letter in the English language, but it didn't belong in the title of yesterday's blog-I meant "The Tim Thomas Flap."

The old cliche is that a camel is a horse put together by a committee, but if you were at the continued roll out of the new Easton Historical Society yesterday, you discovered that a committee of disparate voices can put together a very good project. Last year the Board of Directors finally undertook to fix some damage to the South Room at the historic Richardson Railroad Station. It was damage to the ceiling caused by a burst heating pipe during the Blizzard of 1978. I'd like to say that years of thought went into the repair, but most directors had simply stopped looking up when they went into the room! However, past President Debbie McPhee was determined that things would finally be fixed during her term. The good news was the Society decided to revamp the layout of the building while the repairs were going on.

Many people contributed ideas and somehow a coherent design emerged. A small library was added so that researchers wouldn't have to climb to the second floor. Computer services were upgraded with an eye to creating a catalog of materials, adding digitized versions of old photos, and improving our web page. Many large items that had cluttered the floor in the South Room were put in storage and exhibit cases were moved to the North Room creating a meeting area in the South Room and a gallery for art and maps. Finally, a big screen TV was purchased to replace old fashioned screens and projectors. The TV and computer are hooked up to a wireless system that will allow visitors to connect while at the station.

All this came together yesterday with the arrival of 8th grade students from Easton's Middle School who were winners at the school's National History Day competition. History Day is best described as a science fair for history students and Easton has entries in table top exhibits, websites, and documentaries. Members of the Society and the public checked out these projects and offered suggestions for the next level of competition on March 3rd. The technology worked flawlessly, the crowd flowed through the small building effortlessly, and the cookies and punch were very good.

Much of the organizational work and supervision of the renovation was done by the Society's curator Frank Meninno who spends many hours at the Railroad Station each week. Kudos should also go to the Board who managed to mesh their ideas into a cohesive vision, Very soon the Historical Society will be announcing even more new uses for its technology and improved exhibit space. Stay tuned!

The Tim Thomas Flap

Sorry, there have been technical difficulties with the blog the last couple of days. I lost an interesting post on dog DNA which I'll try to repost later today.

Figure I should weigh in on Tim Thomas since everyone else has. Frankly, I don't know if I would have visited the George W. Bush White House if the OA Mock Trial Team ever won the National Championship. The good news is it would have been a moot question since I probably couldn't have passed the security check anyway. There's the team thing and the "respect the office" argument to consider. I understand the team thing-"there's no I in team, although there's definitely an I in Tim" was something I heard all week. That's the most compelling argument for visiting the White House even if Der Fuhrer is in office-don't embarrass the team. Anyway the Mock Trial Team would need a chaperon lest they steal the White House silver for souvenirs.

I always thought the "Respect the Office, if not the Man" argument was a crock. Heck, we're paying this guy's salary. If I don't like the person who I pay to paint my house, I fire him-I don't muse on the fact that he represents the latest in a line that stretches back to Michelangelo (Geez, Mike your girls all look like East German weight lifters). This isn't a partisan thing for me. I liked Ike. JFK not so much-would America have been better off if he had slipped Bill Clinton some advice on conducting extramarital affairs when kid Clinton visited the White House? No problem with Ford, Carter, and George H. W. Bush-easy to respect those three. I had students working in the first Clinton White House, but wouldn't have visited in the second term. Here's the rub I would have thought twice about visiting LBJ, Nixon, and Reagan, but in retrospect I would have been wrong. I've come to see LBJ and Nixon as tragic figures who would have liked to have done better-interesting to meet. Reagan in retrospect gets high marks in foreign policy and Tip O'Neil liked him. Respect the office because you don't know how the guy will turn out? Maybe.

I had a revelation yesterday. There is a fatal flaw in our Constitution. The President is both head of state and head of the government. The British do it better. The Queen is the head of state and gets to go to all the ribbon cutting and state funerals while the Prime Minister gets yelled at by all the opposition back benchers and soccer hooligans. I'm proposing a Constitutional Amendment to create a hereditary head of state (hey, it's not as stupid as some of the amendments I've heard lately). The position has to be hereditary otherwise partisan wrangling will cause the Tim Thomas problem all over again. The amendment would give the White House to the Head of State while the President would have to sleep on a cot in the Old Executive Office Building (Take that Willard). I have a short list of who should be the founder of our hereditary Head of State Dynasty. Justin Bieber is at the head of the list and just think he could sing the National Anthem at all those ribbon cuttings. Helen Mirren would be my second choice since she's already played the Queen, but I don't know about her kids (maybe she could adopt Bieber).

The Brits really did a good job splitting off the head of state. If they didn't have the Queen, they'd have all those empty palaces and no tourists to visit them. Another thing the British did that Americans should consider: they burned Washington. Get a torch Timmy.

What are We Thinking?

A New York City artist and computer programmer R. Luke DuBois went online to 21 dating services and searched every zip code for words that occurred more often than any others. He then put the results on a US map which appears in this month's National Geographic. Some highlights:

Minnesota: baritone, beer, cuddle, nightgown, shy.
Indiana: alcohol, Hoosier, Pacer, unemployment
Alabama: Baptist, beau, conservative, cornbread, infidelity
Utah: polygamy, serpent, silken, unfathomable, westerner
Arizona: devious, endeavor, sequin, superstition, tan, uninsured, wildflower
Washington: cheesecake, cougar, gig, hard, ideas, picky, single, wet
West Virginia: ashtray, coal, coonskin
California: acting, architecture, entertainment, gay, grass, kindness, looks, masculine, platinim, super,   vegetarian, wish, yoga

From recent and immanent primary states:
Iowa: dynasty, marshmallow, osaka
New Hampshire: foliage
South Carolina: bigotry, dependable, Saskatoon
Florida: aeronautical, famous, flashy, Latino, legs, magic, retired, sunny, tanned

What, dear reader, showed up for us here in Massachusetts? Just one word.…Sox.
Take that Belichek! THE equipment truck will be leaving shortly after the Superbowl.

The Wonderlich Test

Playoff Sunday and the Christian Science Monitor published a shortened version of the Wonderlich Test used to evaluate the intelligence of college graduates wishing to play in the National Football League. Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers scored a 35, Tom Brady scored a 33, and Tim Tebow got a 22. There are lots of simple math problems and a few verbal analogies, but you have to cover 50 questions in 12 minutes. The speed of the test makes it a real challenge. The sample test required 13 answers in three minutes. Without paper and pencil I scored a 42 missing a math question (not hard, just couldn't do it in my head) and declaring that credit and credence weren't similar enough for me. You can try the same test at this site. I'm thinking there may be a score above which you realize that having people trying to break you in half may not be the best way to make a living.

An interesting new (2009) search tool agrees with me on the credit/credence thing. I'm talking about Wolfram Alpha. This site is called a computational knowledge engine because rather than give you a million sites to check out like Google. It tries to take your query and present an answer often creating charts, tables, and graphs to do so. It's great for comparing elements, cities, countries and historical figures, but it also functions like a wonderful dictionary. Both credit and credence come from Latin roots, but credence is the older word first appearing in English writing for the first time 674 years ago. One places credence in something one believes to be true while credit is mere approval. Credit first appeared in English literature in 1526 and is one of the top 2,000 most used words in English. Wolfram Alpha also tells you,you'd receive 4 more points in Scrabble for using credence. Play around with Wolfram Alpha; it's a growing site with great upside. By the way you can use the site to solve all the math problems on the Wonderlich.

Maggie and the White Shadow

I have been practicing the art of tracking for the last few days. Calling it the "art of tracking" is a way of romanticizing for city folk what we really do in the woods since tracks are seldom visible unless there is a snowfall or a soft spot in a trail. What trackers mostly do around here is look for sign. Sign is anything from scraped vegetation to the remains of an acorn. The largest subset of sign is poop which trackers euphemize as scat. Scat is almost as diagnostic of an animal as a track.

Enter Maggie the sixteen pound Pomeranian. Poms, despite folks silly desire to make them as small as possible, are meant to be all purpose farm dogs designed to herd the farm animals and then haul a sled or cart to market loaded with carcasses. They are not bred for their noses like beagles, bassets, or bloodhounds, but the all-purpose label sticks here as well and Poms can follow a trail pretty well. Now lady canines are supposed to leave most of the scent marking to the boys, but ALL Poms are Alpha dogs so Maggie marks up her territory wherever she finds an interloper. This combination of ability and attitude makes her an ideal trail dog. At twelve she is still active and intelligent and has found many things in the last week that will be interesting to NRT's new EcoRangers. Just as an aside, do you know why dogs scatch after they go to the bathroom? Always thought it was a way to cover up the scat, but instead it's just the opposite. Both dogs and cats have scent glands on the bottom of their feet. The space between the scent of the front paws and the back paws gives any other dog a slightly exaggerated view of the size of the first one. No matter how exaggerated there must be coyotes at Sheep Pasture who are laughing their heads off at Maggie's attempts to impress.

Yesterday, the Master Scatologist discovered some old fox scat along the Coit Trail. Not an unusual finding although the fox population waxes and wanes in a complex dance of prey availability and presence of coyote competitors. Further along the trail Maggie discovered a log with fresh weasel scat interestingly on closer, (but not too close!) examination traces of old weasal scat were found as well. This is clearly an important spot for the weasel population in the East Woods.

Now I imagine most readers have seen a red fox a time or two in Easton so I'll talk about Mustela frenata, the long-tailed weasel today.

Yes, the first thing you should know is that this weasel changes color between summer and winter. The process takes about a month to complete twice a year. The long-tailed weasel is the biggest animal with the weasel name (other mustelids like fishers, martens, and minks have other names). It is 12 to 17 inches long with half that length being tail and weighs only 7 or 8 ounces. It is a super-efficient predator and can kill prey five times its size. Like all mustelids its a tough customer, there is even a record of one killing a large hawk as the hawk was flying away with the weasel in its talons. The word weasel comes from the Sanskrit "visra" meaning to have a musty smell. All mustelids have this smell topped off by the incredibly "musty" skunk. Weasels are elusive partly by nature, partly by camouflage,  and partly because they are nocturnal. You are unlikely to see one unless you catch it in a hen house where weasels can go into a killing frenzy. The weasel was probably attracted to the hen house in the first place by rats or mice. Outside the hen house weasels are our friends because their typical diet of rodents helps keep the deer tick population in check. The weasels in the East Woods are not doing a particularly good job since it is one of the most tick infested areas at Sheep Pasture. The weasel is also adaptable to the presence of humans to a degree so it is one animal that is not currently threatened with extinction.

Today, I'm taking my snowshoes out to  find the weasel's track. Maggie loves snow, but she may be staying home today in case I do follow the weasel to its den. Weasels normally live in ground burrows including things as tiny as an abandoned chipmunk hole. As noted in earlier blogs Maggie only bothers to attack other dogs and chase deer, but no sense taking the chance she'll mistake a smelly old weasel for a Yorkshire terrier.

But is he conservative enough?

Charleston SC  (AP) The search for a conservative alternative to Willard "Mitt" Romney took a new turn yesterday with the entry of Ogg  into the race. Ogg was born 35 years ago in a South Carolina lab that was attempting to sequence DNA from the bones of a German Neaderthal. He  declared for the Republican nomination with a news conference yesterday evening.  With a tone reminiscent of Newt Gingrich, the new candidate said "Ogg, want go Washington, now!" The new candidate has many views sure to appeal to Republican conservative voters in South Carolina where the Constitutional ban on literacy tests has increased the electorate substantially. When asked about his view on Iranian nuclear weapons the new candidate said "Ogg hate Iranians! Kill! Kill!" A former member of the Bush administration speaking from an undisclosed location on condition of anonymity said "This is a cogent reaffirmation of my, err President Bush's view on one of the members of the Axis of Evil." Tea Party members were also heartened by Ogg's views on the Federal Reserve Board-"Ogg hate Federal Reserve! Kill! Kill!"

In what has become a litmus test for candidates in South Carolina, Ogg was only too happy to release a detailed list of his assets: one spear, one bone necklace, one leather loincloth. The candidate was pleased to announce that he was "one of the 9 fingers and 10 toes, not a middle finger like Romney." Ogg's campaign manager guessed that this was the candidate's humorous way of announcing he was one of the 99%.

Not all of the new candidate's views are aligned with conservative Republican positions. Hawks in the party were not happy with Ogg's plan to cut the defense budget by replacing guns with spears and aircraft carriers with "big, big, big canoes" although Ron Paul said the idea might have merit. Needless to say Ogg has views on evolution that differ from the majority of his party. His position on global warming is also at odds with received Republican wisdom. When asked about climate change he stated "Where did ice go? Ogg want bring back hairy elephants!" Birthers in the GOP are concerned that the bones used to get Ogg's DNA  came from Germany and demanded to see his birth certificate. On the other hand, evangelicals claim Ogg's unusual natal circumstances are an indication that he is "born again."

While the Romney campaign has remained quiet about the entry of the new candidate. Other candidates have spoken up. The Perry campaign welcomed "another good old southern boy" to the campaign and praised Ogg for being able to remember more than two things at a time. Herman Cain threw his support behind Ogg with a statement that read in part: "Any candidate with a pick up line like 'Ogg want to hit on head and drag to man cave' is all right with me." The GINGRICH campaign reaffirmed it's belief that GINGRICH is the true conservative in the race and announced that GINGRICH would appear at the next debate in a loincloth that's even smaller than Ogg's. When informed of this Ogg said "No matter if elephant is hairy or not, Ogg kill, kill!." Politics is indeed different in South Carolina.

A Last Comment on Sausages and an Interesting Article

OK, if you double the amount of sage, savory, and pepper in the Ames recipe for sausage you can actually taste something. Definitely different than the spice combinations I'm used to today. A little research-God bless Wikipedia-has led to some interesting revelations. As I noted the other day, summer savory was almost certainly the herb used by Mrs. Ames. Winter savory is generally considered to be too bitter for use in large does. Checking out summer savory I learned that in Atlantic Canada it is often used as a substitute for sage. The names of several traditional dishes where it is used are given and savory in sausages is also confirmed. Thus the Ames recipe comes from a flavor tradition that has deep roots around here. The final taste combines some of the mustiness of sage with a back of the mouth warmth and some sharpness from the savory. The amount of black pepper in the recipe isn't enough to add an overall heat to the sausage in my opinion. Overall, interesting and easy to make, but out-of-step with the preferences for spicier sausages today. I'd be careful of this savory, by the way, it's apparently a staple of Transylvanian cuisine and we all know what else those Transylvanians have a craving for.

On a serious note The Chronicles of Higher Education just published a thoughtful and intellectually rigorous skewering of conservatism by Professor Corey Robin of Brooklyn College. It's a really challenging article because I think most of us are pretty inconsistent in our political ideas. I hate change-does that make me conservative? Professor Robin makes a distinction between traditionalists who are happy with the familiar and conservatives who feel compelled to defend hierarchical orders-the idea that the elites should rule. I read a comment in the Patch the other day from someone called Bob or Bill "the Swede" Anderson claiming that the Shovel Shop project will turn North Easton into downtown Taunton. My first visceral reaction was to write a response along the lines of "Ain't that what they said about the Ames' dumping all those Swedes on the town a century and a half ago?" I hate hierarchies, I hate us being better than them, I hate bosses taking advantage of workers, financiers cheating small time investors, husbands abusing wives, arbiters of taste telling me what Christmas decorations are appropriate, and the state making demands for my obedience, yet like most teachers since Socrates I believe the best qualified should be the leaders in every field of endeavor. I suppose like Socrates I have the naive belief that in order to be the best qualified you would know to act in the best interests of all. But, of course, its presumptuous to say you have any idea what's in the best interests of anyone else, and great knowledge also breeds great arrogance (just ask Socrates about Alcibiades). Here I am stuck in the middle way wishing I was still a philosophy teacher-nothing like a bunch of 18 year olds to straighten things out. Thanks Professor Robin for making me think!

Sausage Taste Test

I bought a pound of ground pork and followed the recipe from yesterday's blog. Well, not quite followed. Along with the teaspoons of sage, savory, and pepper I added a quarter teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of smoked paprika. The reason for the addition was that both the sage and savory have a musty tone in their taste profile and I thought a little salt might brighten the flavor. The smoked paprika was added to simulate the slightly smoky taste cooking in a wood fired stove might add. I mixed the sausage at noon time and cooked it up for supper. Unfortunately, none of the herbs and spices made any difference as the finished sausage patty had almost no flavor. Perhaps my diabetes has finally ruined my sense of taste, but the carrot-ginger soup from Soups on Center that I had for lunch tasted fine. Hopefully, Mrs. Ames just liked very, very, very mild sausages. I'll give the stuff another try this evening. In fact, you'll be hearing a lot more about recipes containing savory since at nearly $7 for a bottle, it had better be good for something!

A quick Bonnie update. She is doing very well. Yesterday she was even able to push off with her bad foot. No plans to move her back with Edwin yet, but she is nearly back to normal.

The Oakes Ames Sausage

I promise I won't keep quoting from someone else's unpublished manuscript, but the diary of Evelina Gilmore Ames is incredibly fascinating. Mrs. Ames did not like to cook. She enjoyed baking which usually occupied one day a week. Mince meat pie was a weekly staple apparently because it cleaned up the leftovers from the previous week. I've read through a year and a half of her two year diary and only struck upon one recipe. In the lost diary of Anna C. Ames, Evelina's future daughter-in-law, there were many wonderful and useful recipes along with ideas for table settings, lists of guests, and ideas for home remedies. Two very different women, and remember that Anna, the epitome of the late Victorian domestic manager, became the fighter for women's right to vote.

Here's Evelina's sausage recipe 38 pounds of pork, 4 1/2 ounces of sage and savory, 3 1/2 ounces pepper. Unmentioned but implied is the need for natural sausage casings. We don't know if the 4 1/2 ounces was the total for sage and savory, but it seems like it would be 4 1/2 ounces of each. Given the time the sausage was made, I'm almost positive that these would be dry spices rather than fresh. The savory was almost positively summer savory. Winter savory was grown in New England gardens and had a stronger taste than the summer variety, but it wasn't as popular as a dried seasoning.

There's an old Maine joke about a city boy who arrives on a farm and sees a pig limping around with a wooden leg. When he inquires of the farmer what's going on the farmer replies "we had a fire in the kitchen and that pig rushed into the house and woke us all up and saved our lives." "Is that how he lost his leg?" "No, there was another time when my son fell down a well, and that pig ran back and forth until I got the idea something was up and went and rescued my son." "So that's how he lost his leg?      "Oh no, my wife says that damned pig is just too good to eat all at once!"

Seems to me one hind quarter would be about 38 pounds of finished meat, but what can we do with this recipe if we don't have that much meat lying around? Okay 4.5 ounces dry spices converts to 10 tablespoons and a little more than two teaspoons and 3.5 ounces converts to 8 tablespoons and 1 teaspoons. If you have a pound of ground pork add 1 level teaspoon of ground sage and 1 level teaspoon of ground savory. The pepper comes out to be 3/4 of an already scant teaspoon of the other spices so I go with a recipe of 1 level teaspoon of each (make the pepper somewhat coarsely ground)for a pound of sausage. Mix thoroughly into the ground pork and make sausage patties. Wait until tomorrow for my taste test of this recipe!

Patric Quinn and a Musical Test

Either Pat Quinn didn't drop his lantern in a tub of varnish starting the fire that destroyed the shovel shop back in March, 1852 or the Ames family was a very forgiving family. Now a name like Pat Quinn probably was a common one in 19th century Massachusetts, but it's hard to believe there was more than one with wife Eliza and son Frederick. Pat "the Lantern" Quinn was still employed by the shovel company in 1855! By that time Pat and Eliza had two more kids. They apparently weren't living in company housing, but Pat was cashing a company paycheck. Don't know if the loss was covered by insurance, or whether Oakes and Oliver Ames didn't want to risk a strike by their Irish workers, or whether they genuinely were willing to set an accident aside, but Pat Quinn's name didn't live in infamy like Mrs. O'Leary and her cow in Chicago. Mrs. Ames reports that as many as 50 carpenters worked to build temporary shops which were completed by March 28 only 25 days after the fire.

This article from NPR brought back fond memories. Once in the good old days I was lucky enough to have Megan Fergusson, one of the best young violists in the country in my philosophy class at OA. A debate broke out one day about computer generated music. I took the side that given a digitized score and the right synthesized instrument all but a professional musician wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the computer and a human performer. Meg took the other side insisting that not only could an ordinary person easily recognize a computer that they could also tell the difference between two high level musicians playing the same piece. We learned a lot about computer music as it existed a decade ago (today's computers actually create the tiny imperfections of human performers). At that time strings were hard to simulate on a computer so the class challenged Megan to prove her claim that we could tell the difference between one of her solos and that of a recorded adult. I and the class failed miserably. Megan played beautifully and the record sounded exactly the same! Now you can take a similar test. The attached article let's you compare a modern violin with a Stradivarius. Professional musicians participated in a double blind test on several instruments and couldn't consistently distinguish a Strad from a modern violin (by the way the Red Violin is a great movie about these remarkable instruments).

I've listened to a lot of music since Megan was in my class. Really listened, and she was right you can tell the difference between YoYo Ma and Pablo Casals versions of Bach's solo cello music. I could even pick out the Strad in this test (I listened to each five times before I made my guess-listen for the famous warm tone). Thanks Megan for teaching me to really listen! Here's a link to Megan's website where you can hear her playing! Dr. Fergusson! I always assume students forget me about two minutes after they leave my class (and always apologize to those who don't forget!), but I'll always remember that class fondly and particularly Megan and her viola.

Update on Bonnie and the 1852 fire at the Shovel Shop

Thanks to all the folks who have been asking about Bonnie. Her left hind leg seems to be back to normal and her right leg is a little slow but much improved. She was full of life yesterday which was the first day off her pain killing medication. This morning she seemed a little more restrained (I may have woken her up at 6:30 am), but she was enthusiastic about getting a bit of carrot. Our Executive Director says she can stay if is not in "any" pain. Need to explain that "any" isn't the way old age works. Bonnie at 7 is entering her so-called "golden" years. The teachers definitely want Bonnie back because it turns out she was quite a sensation with the kids. Edwin meanwhile has become a diva it seems, hiding his head when he should be showing off his eyes and ears for the NRTs adaptations program.

Finally got to the part in Mrs. Oakes Ames diary where she describes the fire that destroyed the original finishing shops on March 3, 1852. She claims that a lantern used by Patric Quinn fell in a tub of varnish setting off the fire. She notes that her husband came home about 4 am in a better mood than she expected and went to bed. Her sons remained at the fire until later. On the following Sunday after church the family took a carriage ride to the site and she declared it "dismal" Surprising that she didn't walk down to see it since even I would call it a short walk-guess ladies walking that distance just wasn't done. By March 8 carpenters were at work building the temporary factory that ultimately became the four duplexes on Oliver Street. Quinn was 34, born in Ireland. He and his wife Eliza from Nova Scotia had a 2 year old son Frederic. I need to do a little more research, but it appears that Mr. Quinn wasn't in Easton for the next census-more on this tomorrow!

Some things to read

Arts and Letters Daily often comes through with interesting articles to read. One from the Chronicle of Higher Education reminds us that 2011 was the 400th anniversary of the printing of the King James
Bible. The article tells the story of how this great work of literature was created. On a lighter note I recommend a book review on Churchill's eating and drinking habits (Johnny Walker Black and champagne).

It's also the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens. I read A Tale of Two Cities early in my high school career and enjoyed it thoroughly. I never realized my high school self missed 90% of the novel until I heard it read as an audiobook. Not sure I can wade through the Victorian prose in a read, but I think I'll celebrate the bicentennial by listening to another Dickens novel.

I'm addicted to Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels which mix history with the contemporary action thriller. Scott Brick, the reader, really makes the action come alive. Just finished Arctic Drift which manages to solve global warming and the lost Franklin expedition in one book. The mystery of Franklin's expedition to find the Northwest Passage has always fascinated me. It also plays into my search for the saddest song ever written, the old ballad "Lord Franklin" certainly is a contender. Just discovered in the 10,000 songs on my IPod that Bob Dylan used the music from the old song in "Bob Dylan's Dream."  The original ballad came out about 1852 with music taken from a song called "The Croppy Boy" about the 1798 Irish rising. Wikipedia calls that one of the "saddest ballads of the rebellion."  Here's the lyrics to "Lord Franklin:"

We were homeward bound one night on the deep
Swinging in my hammock I fell asleep
I dreamed a dream and I thought it true
Concerning Franklin and his gallant crew
With a hundred seamen he sailed away
To the frozen ocean in the month of May
To seek a passage around the pole
Where we poor sailors do sometimes go.
Through cruel hardships they vainly strove
Their ships on mountains of ice were drove
Only the Eskimo with his skin canoe
Was the only one that ever came through
In Baffin's Bay where the whale fish blow
The fate of Franklin no man may know
The fate of Franklin no tongue can tell
Lord Franklin alone with his sailors do dwell
And now my burden it gives me pain
For my long-lost Franklin I would cross the main
Ten thousand pounds I would freely give
To know on earth, that my Franklin do live.

Hungry

Friday on the way to my weekly lunch with old friends. I pulled up to the stoplight at Owen O'Leary's. In the tiny island was a young man with a cardboard sign that had one word "Hungry." Like almost every other self-absorbed member of my generation, I've seen homeless people before and ignored them (while making sure to donate to the appropriate charities), but this guy was dressed in worn, but clean work clothes. He didn't look like he was someone who had learned to work the system. Standing where he did almost guaranteed cars would zoom by him. The expression on his face had that same look of pain and dignity that one sees in the photographs of Dorothea Lange from the 1930s.

I drove on trying to convince myself that I couldn't have pulled over and given him money, hoping someone in the other part of the intersection would help. More convinced than ever that something is terribly wrong with this country beyond the supposedly improving economic conditions. Let's be fair "the country" is an abstraction, there is something terribly wrong with us when someone can be hungry in a land where so many are, like me, obese.

News-Better and a Diary

Things looked bleak for Bonnie early yesterday morning, but a visit to Lloyd's brought better news. While a possible tumor or infection is not out of the question, the best diagnosis is a sprained back with a disk problem as a more serious version of the same thing. The vet was a little hopeful since her legs were not completely inactive. Due to her age it was decided not to sedate her for an x-ray. She was given an anti-inflammatory injection and a four day supply of pain killers. She is spending those days in the property managers office. Visitors can see her through the window that looks out over Simba's pen. Early in the afternoon she was using her back legs a little although later she was less mobile. Back home in the Heavy Horse Barn, Edwin is very upset that his friend has disappeared. Wish we could tell him that she's OK for the next few days at least. Here's a picture of the two before the vet visit yesterday:

At an Ames reunion several years ago, I heard Sarah Ames, the wife of John Ames III speak about her efforts to transcribe the diary of Evelina Gilmore Ames. Evelina was the wife of the future Congressman Oakes Ames. The tidbits that Sarah Ames shared at the reunion were interesting, and I had a chance to talk to her after the speech. I was very pleased when she remembered me last week with a draft copy of the diary which covers the years 1851 and 1852. It is a truly amazing thing. At the time of the diary her husband was already 9 years into being one of the two managing partners of the Shovel Company and by far one of the three richest men in town, but you would hardly know this from Evelina's diary which revealed that her husband had only one suit besides his Sunday suit. She also spends day after day in the winter of 1851 mending clothes for her husband and sons. She did have help and seems rarely to cook a meal, but she cleaned every day-her account of spring cleaning in 1851 goes on for days and baked for the family once a week. She seemed to work about a half day at chores and then spend the rest of the day exchanging visits with a vast network of family and friends. These connections are often interesting. In 1851, for instance, visits to Dr. Caleb Swan are mentioned. Now a few years later Dr. Swan becomes a leading liberal in opposition to the No Nothing Party with Evelina's father-in-law as an ardent supporter, but shadowy reports indicate that both Dr. Swan and Evelina's husband were involved in the Underground Railroad. Shifting through the daily chores one finds a woman who visited the schools and took an interest in the young teachers and who tended sick neighbors. We are also treated to tantalizing bits and pieces about what flowers she planted in her garden-the earliest references available in Easton to the best of my knowledge and how she felt about the wave of Catholics who were moving into town-she attended the consecration of the first Catholic chapel in town and seems to share her husband's more enlightened view of immigrants. She was a pious woman (although not above an occasional Sunday headache) and along with being close friends with the Unitarian minister attended hymn singing with the Methodists. No indication of interaction with the Congregational minister, however. Don't know how much more Sarah Ames plans to do with this draft, but it is already a  major contribution to the history of Easton. Wonder if there are diaries for other members of the family from this era. Thank you to both Mrs. Ames!

News-Bad

Sometimes, it's the paragraphs you don't get to read that mean the most. The January 2nd post originally started with a paragraph about my fears that 2012 might be just as miserable as 2011 despite all the positive changes that are coming to town. It didn't take long. Yesterday, Jen Cummings, the NRT's Executive Director, had to put down her riding horse who she had owned for twenty years. Then when I went in to feed Bonnie and Edwin, I discovered that Bonnie is having trouble moving her back legs. There were signs she may have tripped coming out of her litter box. I feel terrible because I had just cleaned the boxes over the weekend, and they were at a low point in litter. It's never been a problem before, but Bonnie does have really big feet for her size. Amanda, one of the NRT teachers also works taking care of the animals in Wheaton College's Science Labs and the Animal Protection Society, checked her out but could find no major problems-perhaps a minor disk slippage. She doesn't seem to be in any pain, but rabbits are very good about hiding their hurts-it's a survival mechanism. Bonnie did let out a few of what passes for bunny growls when Amanda examined her. Haven't heard those in quite awhile; she used to growl at everyone when she first arrived here three years ago. Her appetite is good and the rear legs are not completely paralyzed so we brought in extra bedding hay for warmth and will contact the flying vet this morning. Here's a photo of Bonnie from yesterday:

Wish it was a little clearer. As always Edwin is nearby to look after his friend. One of the teachers called Bonnie a real sweetheart with the students-a big change from her days in the shelter. Let's hope she pulls through. On a happier note here's a picture of Simba the Ox and his friend Fauna the Goat.

Stunning Sheep Data from the 1771 Census

As dedicated readers know, I've been working to develop a list of Revolutionary War veterans. As part of this, I digitized the 1771 property census of Easton (double checking is underway). This remarkable document would be the starting point for an environmental history of the town because before this evidence is generic rather than specific. With the 1771 data, you can know many things. The first thing you learn is that people cheated on this evaluation. The Leonard family, for example, owned at least some iron making facilities in 1771 yet none is mentioned in the document. However, while the specifics aren't mentioned, the assessment does put the three Leonards among the richest men in town. So let's take a look at this remarkable document. In 1771 there were 248 property owners enumerated. This included a few out-of-towners who owned land here and several widows who headed up their family's holdings. Censuses in 1765 and 1776 show that Easton grew from 837 people to 1,172 so the number of families was probably close to the number counted in 1771.

The most interesting thing about the census is it enumeration of land use. Almost 2800 acres were devoted to pasture, hay, grains, and vegetables. In the first 80 years of settlement a little less than 15% had been developed for agriculture. Even after taking out 4,000 acres for the Hockomock Swamp, this means that only about 20% of the land had been developed. There is another evaluation census from 1798 that is not readily available and federal agricultural censuses begin in the mid-19th century so the next check on land development is an 1830 map that seems to show much more land in agriculture. By 1830 the population had more than doubled from its 1765 numbers, but the map shows much more than 40% of the land without forest. What this probably means is that there was a revolution in agriculture working side by side with the Industrial Revolution. As more and more people trapped themselves in the "dark, satanic mills," agriculture in Easton morphed from a primarily subsistence system to a market driven system.

This change was already underway for some farmers in 1771. The average number of sheep per owner was 4, but the richest men in town had seven times that number. A truer picture of the concentration of sheep among the wealthy is that the median of this data is zero-half the people in town had no sheep at all. Sheep production soared by a third in the next decade as more people caught on to the cash value of wool. Based on 1777 prices lamb or mutton sold for three and a half pennies per pound with beef at three pennies and pork at four and a half. Cow hide fetched three pennies a pound with calf skin six pennies a pound. Wool fetched 24 pennies a pound. Now the sheep in the 18th century were scrawny by today's standards-probably more like the mini-sheep from Sheep Pasture's last crop of lambs, but if the sheep had a fleece that weighed only three pounds that would give you 72 English pennies. A quarter of the people enumerated in 1771 had annual real property values less than the value of one sheep fleece!