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English Foods
How would you like to live in a time when children drank beer but didn't drink milk? A time when deer and swan meat were considered delicacies and lobster was everyday food? Welcome to England and New England in the 1600s.

Though the English from this time ate some of the same foods that we do today, their diet was quite different from ours. In fact, people back then had a very different idea of what foods were good for them. To their minds, bread, beer and meat were the best foods, although they couldn't often have them in New Plymouth.

In the 1600's everyone ate according to the season of the year. Back then many foods were available only at certain times of the year. No matter how much money you had, there were some foods that you just couldn't have. Without refrigeration and the fast shipping that we have today, foods couldn't be brought in from other parts of the world before they spoiled. So, it was impossible to have fresh strawberries in December.

After the colonists first arrived in Plymouth, they had three really difficult years. There were no food shops in New England, so the colonists had to produce their own food. They struggled to grow crops in a climate that was different from England. Fishing was difficult because most of the colonists weren't trained as fisherman and they brought the wrong sized fish hooks! Supplies from England didn't come as frequently as they wished, so whole years went by without any imported goods like sugar and butter.

Things did improve, though. The colonists got better at fishing. They began to grow more Indian corn, which they learned to cultivate from the Wampanoag People. And they learned the best ways to hunt and trap animals such as deer, rabbit, turkey, geese, duck, and other wildfowl. The domesticated animals that they brought from England pigs, chickens, goats, sheep and cowsûwere increasing in number and were able to be eaten. And supplies such sugar, spices, oil, vinegar and wine began to be sent over on ships yearly. Some colonists wrote letters back to friends and family saying how good their diet had become; better than when they lived in England or Holland!

The one thing they still missed, though, was beer. In England, beer was the preferred drink for the whole family, even children. Though it is possible that some families in Plymouth brewed a small amount of beer from barley, most families had to make do with drinking water. Oddly enough, water was considered downright unhealthy to drink! Some colonists were surprised that their children were so healthy when they drank water instead of beer. Milk was not considered very good to drink either. It was usually made into butter or cheese or cooked with to make tasty grain porridges.

Just like us today, the English people who lived in Plymouth back then usually ate three meals a day. But how they ate these meals is different than today. Many people would “break fast” in the morning with a little bread and butter, or cheese, or something left from the day before. In the middle of the day, everyone ate dinner, which was a largest meal of the day made up of several foods. There was probably, a thick porridge or bread made from Indian corn and some kind of meat, fowl or fish. Supper was a smaller meal, often just leftovers from dinner.

The Plymouth colonists thought a lot about food. Most of the work that they did hunting, fishing, farming, gardening, cooking, and taking care of their animals had to do with getting food on their tables. They had to plan carefully to make certain that they had enough food for the whole year, and try not to waste anything.

By the 1640s the efforts of both the English and the Dutch settlers had made the new territory of Connecticut virtually self-sufficient...As the population of Connecticut increased, so did the farming. The variety of crops expanded to include many vegetables, as well as berries and fruit trees...the farmers..raised radishes, lettuce, cucumbers, and melons...The early Connecticut farmers also dug underground pits where they stored cabbages, squash, potatoes, and other root vegetables...Fishing has always been an important part of the Connecticut economy. Shad fishing along the Connecticut River...has been a tradition since colonial times...When the English first settled in the Connecticut River Valley, the numerous shad were despised as food. Eating shad meant that a person was almost destitute or had exhausted his supply of salt pork."

1726, Temperance Tealleys was wed to the Reverend William Worthington from Saybrook. Because of the large number of guests expected, a two-day celebration was planned. Elaborate advance preparations commenced for the feast. Chairs, tables, dishes, and utensils were borrowed from the neighbors. Folloing the marriage ceremony...tankards of spiced hard [alcoholic] cider were passed...The main course was family-style and consisted of fish or clam chowder, stewed oysters, roasted pig, venison, duck, potatoes, baked rye bread, Indian cornbread and probably pumpkin casserole. A dessert of Indian pudding studded with dried plums and served with a sauce made from West Indian molasses, butter, and vinegar followed. And they did have coffee. The tablecloths were removed and trays of nutmeats and broken blocks of candy made from maple sugar, butter, and hickory nuts...Outside the front door stood a gigantic punch bowl, hollowed out from a boulder, filled with hard cider combined with West Indian products such as sugar, lemons, and limes...After the dignitaries and most honored guests were served on the first day, and after the bride and groom left on horseback for Saybrook, there was a second day of feasting for the second-rated guests.
http://www.foodtimeline.org/statefoods.html#connecticut

The Colonists stuck to foods that were familiar or similar to ones they had in Europe. They easily accepted fish, game, American bean and squash. The grim winters forced them to accept Indian corn as a staple or starve. Adaptability of European grains to American soil was difficult The Colonists became so use to corn by the time wheat, barley, rye became established, that they never gave corn up. Two of the most important present day vegetables that the Colonists did not partake of was the white potato and the tomato. They were South American vegetables that would travel to Europe first and then to the States. Two lesser known vegetables were quickly accepted--the sweet potato and the Jerusalem artichoke.

The Indians were not reluctant to adopt the foods Europeans brought into the New World. The peach, in particular, was accepted wholeheartedly and spread across the Continent faster than the settlers did. Pears, apples, apricots were also quickly cultivated and spread by the Indians. Wheat, lettuce, cabbage, lentils, carrots followed the fruit trees to their new home in the Colonies.

Since the iron kettle was the sole cooking pot, several items had to be cooked at the same time. A stew could be steaming away in the kettle with a brown bread steaming above it. A sweet pudding could be wrapped in a cloth and boiling the stew at the same time.

Glass had to be imported and was very expensive, therefore, colonial cooks used mixing bowls made of wood. Cooking utensils had to be made of iron, pewter, earthenware or stoneware. Indoor plumbing was unheard of. A farm wife had the luxury of her own well for water, but her town/city counterpart did not. The town dwellers had private wells and many of them were polluted as populations increased. They were forced to draw from a common public well.

As the 17th century slid into the 18th, Americans were still dependent upon game as the main source of food. Agriculture held little incentive since why abandon the forest full of game and waterways full of fish for the backbreaking work of clearing and tilling the soil.

by the time of the Revolution approached, both the North and the South made considerable progress in farming. They had added a number of new foods to their repertoire. The black-eyed pea, okra and watermelon came to the colonies from Africa with the slaves. Better breeds of cattle and sheep were being purposely imported. The Northerners rapidly developed fisheries and in particular cod--

Probably no heat stoves available til mid 1740s or later.Cook stoves didn't appear to after 1800

Because they dealt with the entertainment of strangers and the serving of strong drink, taverns were among the most highly regulated of early American enterprises. Across New England, "innholders" or "taverners" had to be certified by local selectmen as men "of good character" before they could be licensed by the county authorities. Once a tavernkeeper had received his license and put up his sign, he was bound by law to perform his function.

The laws of seventeenth-century Massachusetts and Connecticut lumped traveling performers of all kinds with beggars, rogues, and wandering preachers, calling them all "vagabonds" and providing that they should be whipped, fined, and either removed to a place of settled residence or expelled from the colony.

a significant change in attitudes toward women during this period, a change that had an impact on their roles both within and outside the home. To put it too simply, for attitude changes of such profundity are never simple, Americans and New Englanders of the middle class shifted from viewing women functionally to viewing them sentimentally and ornamentally. New England was particularly affected by this shift because of the developing surplus of women in the general population,

Colonial New England women were regarded as active agents in the domestic economy. It must be remembered that throughout the colonial period and much of the 19th century, the American economy, for the most part, centered on the rural household, whether large plantation or individual farm. The household was a basic unit combining production and consumption, and woman occupied a central role in this economy, working generally in or near the house at the fire, with her needle or spinning wheel, her broom and the implements of child-rearing. She worked outside too, at the well, in the kitchen and herb gardens, and often in the poultry yard. Her role was functional and necessary to the economy's functioning, just as was her husband's role in the field, or in a craft, or at a mercantile or maritime occupation. In the rural domestic economy, although a general division of labor existed on a sexual basis, much overlapping of function occurred. Women engaged in many trades, acted as midwives and prescribed medicine, even worked in the fields when emergencies developed

The functional attitude toward women is well represented in a small volume of advice by Cotton Mather, Ornaments for the Daughters of Zion, or the Character and Happiness of a Virtuous Woman (1694). While piety should be woman's chief aim, Mather emphasized numerous practical efforts at which she should excell:

Such is her Industry, that she betimes herself to learn all the Affairs of Housewifry, and besides a good skill at her Needle, as well as in the Kitchen, she acquaints herself with Arithmetic and Accomptanship [perhaps also Chirurgery] and such other Arts relating to Business, as may enable her to do the Man whom she may hereafter have, Good and not Evil all the days of her life. If she have any Time after this to learn Musick and Language, she will not loose her time, and yet she will not be proud of her Skill.1

1672 (1645 in Salem, MA) or earlier sett out a convenient Signe at ye most perspicuous place of ye said house, thereby to give notice to strangers yt it is a house of public entertainment, and this must be done with all convenient speed. [2]

Connecticut passed a similar law in 1672. Signs were necessary to direct strangers to the taverns required in each Connecticut town by a 1644 law. The taverns were to provide "provisions and lodging in some comfortable manner" for the "many strangers & passengers that upon occasion have recourse to these Townes, and are straightened for want of entertainment." [3]

The games of New England, as Charles A. Goodrich described them in The Universal Traveller of 1836, were "billiards, cards, ninepins, shovelboard, domino, backgammon, bagatelle, checkers and drafts."

http://www.teachushistory.org/detocqueville-visit-united-states/articles/early-taverns-law

French maps from the Revolutionary War have the Oliver White Tavern marked on them at the location that is now 2 Brandy Street. The records indicate that Oliver White bought the land in 1741 and sold it with a house on it in 1743. The records indicate it became a tavern between 1753 and 1764. It was customary to refer to houses by their original owners. When businesses were sold it was also advantageous to keep their original name to keep the good will of the customers.
In early America taverns were not just respectable, they were a necessity. The Colonial Records of Connecticut, as early as 1644, ordered "one sufficient inhabitant" in each town to keep an ordinary (tavern), since "strangers were straitened" for want of entertainment. The Bolton taverns were for the convenience of travelers, the comfort of our townspeople, the interchange of news and opinions, the sale of refreshments and beverages, and for incidental sociability. In fact, the importance of the tavern to Bolton was far greater than to travelers. During the 1700s, when there were no office buildings, banks, or post offices, taverns served all those functions. It was in taverns that Bolton lumber and quarry stone were bought and sold, new companies were formed, militia was inducted, auctions were held, stagecoaches stopped, and mail distributed.
The taverns played an important role in the development of a colonial transportation network. Bolton was situated on the fastest route connecting Boston, Hartford, New York, and Philadelphia. The early Bolton taverns that served stagecoaches were located on the Boston Post Road and the Providence and Hartford Roads. Until 1795 all three of those roads converged on a single road that went past the Oliver White Tavern. Prior to the Revolution it was a major smuggling route far from the British tariff and tax collectors. During the Revolution it was the main route in New England used to deploy and supply the Continental and French armies. Connecticut was then the pantry of the colonies and soon became its armory as well. Innkeepers reflected the high public status accorded their establishments. Publicans were commonly among a town's most prominent citizens and not infrequently were deacons of the church and town moderators. During the Revolutionary War the Oliver White Tavern located on East Street (now Brandy Street) was owned by Captain Joel White and it became a favorite inn of French and American officers.
http://www.boltonnews.org/zoliverwhitetavern.html

tavern keeper Ebenezer Blakesley, New Haven, CT, 1664 - 1735 Philip Leek(e), New Haven, CT, c.1611 - 1676
Peter Hubbell, Newtown, CT, 1686 - 1780 Richard Baldwin, Milford, CT, 1622 - 1665

PENFIELD SUN TAVERN, Fairfield Connecticut (The Penfield family is related to the Jennings side of the family. The Fairfield History Museum is doing ongoing research on the site.)

The 18th century building known as the Sun Tavern is situated on one of the original "Four Squares" of the Town of Fairfield which was founded in 1639. This site was occupied by various families beginning with the Reverend John Jones in 1640 until 1761 when Samuel Penfield purchased the land.

Research is still on going to determine the year that Penfield actually started to operate the building as a tavern. But records do show that, when the British burned Fairfield during their invasion in 1779, Penfield lost his house, barn, shop, outbuildings, and other items. The building was rebuilt about a year later and by 1789 was operating as a tavern. Among its guests was George Washington, who stayed there while on his tour of the New England states that same year.

In New England, the pine was among the most important trees. By royal decree in 1688 all white pines more than twenty-four inches in diameter were reserved for use as masts for the British Admiralty and came to be known as the "King's pines." [9] But the pine-tree sign comes alive when the viewer ponders the purpose of the yellow circle in the pediment. If this is interpreted as a sun, the tree becomes a liberty tree, a symbol of resistance to the Stamp Act of 1765 by which the British Parliament imposed the first direct tax on the colonists. The sign is also a covert reference to the Sons of Liberty, the secret organization of colonists dedicated to resisting British authority.

You may never have heard of "fulling" but it wasd an important job in ealy Massachusetts history. Fulling mills cleaned woolen cloth and shrunk it a bit to make it thicker. The first fulling (wool) mill in the colonies was built only 23 years after the pilgrims landed. By having a fulling mill, it freed the community from depending on England for finer fabrics.

The village mill was a very important part of the in the everyday life of the New England family. Before the 1900s, the average New England village had to be largely self-supporting. The basics of life; food, clothing, and shelter, were produced locally. Some of the basic needs required processing before they could be used. Grain needed to be ground, trees needed to sawn, handwoven woolen cloth needed to be fulled. As a result, almost as soon as the first houses were built, small industries sprang up: sawmills, grist mills, and fulling mills. The New England colonies were generally short of manpower, but had many streams and rivers suitable for water power. Because of these conditions, almost every village had at least a sawmill, a gristmill, and a fulling mill. Not only did these small industries provide goods and employment for the communities in which they were located, but also the mill ponds were the village playgrounds providing swimming and fishing holes in summer and ice skating rinks in winter.

Wheat never did well in the New England soil and climate so corn was the staple food. Indian corn and other grains must be broken up before it becomes edible. Pounding corn by hand is very hard work and does not produce a fine cornmeal. Grinding between millstones, however, produces a fine-textured cornmeal and so, almost as soon as New England was colonized, grist mills were constructed in every settlement.

Fulling mills were common in almost every New England village. When handwoven wool cloth is made on a loom, the cloth is not very tight and the wool still contains too much grease and oils. The fulling process involves beating the cloth in a wooden tub with some water and soap. Fulling removes the oils and the beating forms a denser, more compact cloth. In a fulling mill a waterwheel powers a pair of wooden mallets to beat the cloth in the tub, often for days. This process shrinks the cloth to perhaps 1/2 its original size.

The fulled cloth needs to be stretched and dried.This is done on a tentering frame. When the fulled cloth was dried, it is often further processed by having its nap raised and then cut smooth with heavy shears.

These events from New Milford(1703 patent) to give a feel for the era...Firts boy and girl born, first sermon preached voted to fence the commons first burial, streets laid out, First military comany irganized, congregational church organized 1717 first gristmill built. First meetinghouse begun.
1720 - Town voted to build a boat for the purpose of crossing the river, the expense to be borne "by the polls."

1721 - Voted in Town Meeting that a school be maintained for four months in the winter, the town to bear one-half the expense 1723-4 - In consideration for gifts of 24 acres of land from individuals, James Hine of Milford came to New Milford as its first blacksmith

1725 - Ensign William Gaylord built a log house at Gaylordsville. First Grand List made in New Milford; L2,739.lls.7d. Captain John Warner was the first settler at the "South Farms" (lower part of New Milford).
1727 - First District SchoolHouse built.
1730 - John Noble, Jr. moved to Gallows Hill, New Milford plains. He was the first permanent settler below Gallows Hill.
1731-2 - Eighteen sundry members of First Church of Christ fell away to Quakerism.
1733 - Ironworks erected at Half-way Falls (now Brookfield).
1734 - Gallows Hill Cemetery laid out.
1736 - First brid8e erected across the Housatonic at the foot of Bennitt Street. This was a free bridge and when it was swept away by floods in about three years it was replaced by a toll bridge.
around 1738 allotments, and sold by the colony at Fairfield for land in norwestern, CT Cornwall in 1738
December 3 1741 Income from sale of western lands was applied to upkeep of schools.
1754 Taxes could be paid in old tenor (tender) or new tenor (tender) money as long as the value is the same.
1755 French Indian War. Five to ten men served. General Phinehas Lyman commanded Connecticut troops.
1743 - Roger Sherman came to New Milford from Newton, Mass. Partridge Thatcher came from Lebanon, Conn. He was the first professional lawyer in New Milford.

1746 - St. John's Episcopal Church organized with visiting clergy.

1754 - Rev. Solomon Palmer the first resident Episcopal clergyman, came to New Milford. The second Congregational MeetingHouse was built. Parish of Newbury (Brookfield) incorporated by the General Assembly. New Milford contributed 8 sq. miles, Danbury 33/4 sq. miles and Newtown 6 sq. miles.

1755 - Lazarus Ruggles settled at Lanesville and erected the Iron Works.

1756 - Census taken showing 1,137 inhabitants.1758-62 - New Milford sent 139 men to the Colonial Wars.

1760 - Gaylordsville School District laid out. Upper Merryall Cemetery laid out.

1761 - The Separatists or Strict Congregationalists built a house of worship near the Center Cemetery.

1765 - Second Episcopal Church erected.

1769 - School District organized.

1774 - Census taken showing 2,776 inhabitants.

1775-80 New Milford sent 285 men to the Revolutionary War.

1778 - Three Brigades of the Continental Army (4,663 men) under the command of General McDougal camped for one month on Second Hill.

1780 - General Washington passed through Gaylordsville.

1782 - Jemima Wilkinson came to New Milford and held meetings in Northville.

1787 - Probate District of New Milford formed with Samuel Canfield first Judge.

1788 - Nicholas Wanzer deeded land to the Quakers, it being the same land on which the old Quaker Meeting House now stands with the burying ground adjoining. The old Quaker MeetingHouse was removed to its present site from Pickett District.

1789 - Town House-School House built at north end of Main Street.

1777 First rationing board was formed. Salt was rationed. Reason - it was used to make gun powder. Winter
1777 Two oxen presented by Durhamites driven 500 miles to Valley Forge to feed officers of Washington's Army.
August 1783 Town voted against half pay for life for Revolutionary War officers.
November 12 1787 Town Meeting voted against accepting Federal Constitution. No 67; Yes 4.
1789 George Washington again passed through on Eastern Tour.
1790 Pest House sold, not the land upon which it stands. Voted to give Elizur Parmelee right to set up a post on north side of meeting- house to hang his horse at.
1793 Decided by vote that three taverns was enough for the town.
1794 Provision made for a steeple clock and bell.
February 22 1798 The Aqueduct Company was formed with 19 members. One of the oldest water companies in the USA.
1798 Dollars referred to instead of pounds.

1790 - Professor Nehemiah Strong had a private school for boys about this time.

1792 - Bridge built at Little Falls, (foot of West Street).

1793 - New Milford divided into two military divisions, line running just north of the Knapp residence. The new South Company was organized, Nathan Bostwick Captain.

1794 - A destructive tornado crossed New Milford causing much damage.

1796 - Union Circulating Library established.

January 6 1843 Voted to build suitable and convenient sidewalk or footbridge on the south side and adjoining the west side of Mill Bridge

In the early days of railroads, building a line along the north shore of the Long Island Sound was considered difficult due to the many rivers that fed into it. Thus the first all-rail New York City-Boston lines ran north via the predecessors to the New York Central and the Boston and Albany Railroad). Other routes involved combined water and rail routes, some going east via the Long Island Rail Road, other departing the East River waterfront of New York for ports in Connecticut, Rhode Island, or Massachusetts. However, railroad technology soon improved, and the New York and New Haven Railroad was chartered June 20, 1844 to build such a line from New York to New Haven, where it would connect to the Hartford and New Haven Railroad, which itself connected to the future Boston and Albany Railroad at Springfield.

The first superintendent of the railroad was R.B. Mason (who later worked with the Illinois Central Railway). He was succeeded by George W. Whistler Jr. In 1854, James Henry Hoyt of Stamford, Connecticut became the third superintendent. When the railroad's first track was built in the 1840s, Hoyt had been a contractor grading portions of it, building bridges, and supplying ties. He then supplied the railroad with fuel and was again a heavy contractor when the second track was built.[1]