Photograph: Tomatoes

Posted on 30 June, 2008 by Janice Brown

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New Hampshire Glossary: Food Preservation

Posted on 30 June, 2008 by Janice Brown

Today when we think of food preservation, we envision the act of enveloping a half-eaten burrito in plastic wrap and tossing it into the refrigerator.  There are fewer people every day who can remember life without an electrically powered food cooling device,  yet the refrigerator is still relatively new technology.

Prior to the use of mechanical coolers, the methods of food preservation included salting, smoking, curing, pickling, corning, preserving/sugaring (fruit), drying, bulk storage in a root cellar, sulfuring, and cold storage.

Salting: The earliest European settlers used salt to cure fish as a preserving agent. Corning is a technique of dry-curing meat with coarse “corns” of salt that were rubbed into the beef. Modern day corning is achieved by brining, or using salt water along with peppercorns and bay leaf as spices.

Smoking: in colonial days the smoking of meat was usually performed during cold months, with December being particularly popular for pig butchering and smoking. A small enclosed shelter where a fire could smolder for weeks was built as an out-building. The meat was hung high enough to be safe from rodents. Usually the meat was packed in a tub of coarse salt for six weeks before being smoked. This building was sometimes called a “meat house.” Smoking was a technique known and used by the Native Peoples.

Pickling: salt, water, spices and homemade vinegar were combined with vegetables (and other items such as flowers) and placed in crocks to preserve the summer crops. A colonial housewife knew that her mixture was strong enough when a fresh egg floated in it. Sometimes the vegetables were cooked prior to preservation. A seal was placed over the top of the jar or crock (a wet piece of leather, and sometimes a wet pig's bladder was used, when the item dried out, it shrunk making a tight seal).

Sugaring: this was the frequent method for preserving fresh fruit, if you had the sugar. Fruit boiled in a sugar syrup then dried were called confections. Sweetmeats were fruit preserved by cooking in a sugar syrup then stored covered in a transparent sugar syrup. The pulp was made into marmalades, while the juice of the fruit was made into jellies.

Drying: Both the Native peoples and the early European colonists used drying as a method to preserve food, however the colonists preferred salting. Peas, pumpkins, apples, beans and blueberries were often dried. The Native Peoples pounded meat to small pieces and mixed it with melted fat, bone marrow and wild berries to make “pemmican.”

root cellar: thick-walled rooms were built beneath the ground. Root vegetables, tubers and hardy vegetables could be kept cool here. The preservation here was temporary as it was subject to rot, rats and other animals.

sulfuring: slices of fruit, such as apples, apricots, peaches and pears are exposed to sulfur smoke to kill bacteria.

cold storage: besides using a root cellar, another early form of keeping food cold was to place it in a spring-house.  This was a shed or outbuilding built over a flowing spring. Butter, cream and milk was placed in the running water to stay cool. Eventually the wealthy settlers built ice-houses that were stocked with winter ice and surrounded by hay and sawdust to slow the melting process.

Janice

**Also See**

–IN A PICKLE! TYPES OF FOOD PRESERVATION IN THE 19 CENTURY Virginia (PDF)–

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New Hampshire Architecture: Italianate Style

Posted on 28 June, 2008 by Janice Brown

The Italianate style house was built from the mid to late 1800s, and was inspired by the villas of Italy.


These two and sometimes three storied houses made use of single or paired decorative brackets under wide comices. The roof was typically flat or hip. New Hampshire has several fine examples of this style including:

–Historical Society of Chester County–

–Benjamin F. Webster House, Broad Street, Portsmouth NH (1880 Italianate)-
Benjamin Webster began as a carpenter’s apprentice and became rich through real estate and construction. Note the steeply pitched roof that is not typical of Italianate architecture. No doubt the roof was pitched to avoid collapse during years of heavy snowfall.

–Post Office Block, Manchester NH–

–Plumercrest Bed and Breakfast, Epping NH–

–Lewis Downing Jr. Home at 13 Pleasant Street, Concord NH-

Janice

P.S. The photograph pictured above is of the Benjamin F. Webster House in Portsmouth New Hampshire– its copyright belongs to David Taylor. He gives permission to use it for one-time private or educational use. Consider yourself educated 🙂

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"How To Survive A Summer Vacation," by B. Elwin Sherman

Posted on 26 June, 2008 by Janice Brown


 
“I work harder on my summer vacation than I do on my job.”
 
I'm here, dear dedicated readers, to prevent those words from ever being uttered again.  No one should come away from leisure time without feeling leisurely, and my dictionary defines “vacation” as “leisure time spent away from work devoted to rest or pleasure.”
 
Right there is where we get into trouble.  Rest is always pleasurable, but pleasure is not always restful.  In fact, pleasure can be downright laborious, as we all recognize from this column's opening declaration.
 
Thus, having a pleasurable, restful summer vacation takes careful planning: the kind that a carpet-flopped dog applies when it gets up and moves away from the couch, only to re-flop over there by the TV.  (As a general rule, we should pay more attention to animals.  They have no ulterior motives, and often have no apparent motives at all.)
 
As a specific rule, surviving summer leisure is far more challenging than making it through a winter's labor.  Winter is easy in our North Country, once you resolve to not pummel anyone who crunches around the re-formed frozen tundra spouting: “Well, at least you can dress for the cold.”  These people should be duct-taped into six layers of woolen hats and thermal union suits, then parachuted over the equator.
 
Yes, you can dress for the cold, but you can also not dress for the heat–a far more pleasurable, restful and cheaper application, as we enter the canicule.
 
“Canicule,” as we all recall from our high school French lessons, means “a chocolate-glazed jelly doughnut.”  This is what I recall, anyway, which is why I flunked French class.  It actually means “heatwave,” or “scorcher,” or “the hot period between early July and early September.”  I remember spending my last adolescent canicule wondering how I'd ever survive it without the unrequited affections of my senior class French teacher.
 
(CONFIDENTIAL to Mademoiselle Rousseau:  If you're still out there, that was my longest, hottest summer vacation ever, and I did finally give up wearing a beret, eating chocolate-glazed jelly doughnuts, and calling everything “magnifique!”)
 
No summer vacation plan (remember the flopping dog) should ever be set in motion without a Plan B.  Here, I confess to being a worst case scenario kind of guy.  No, this is not being pessimistic.  A pessimist is always expecting the worst.  I'm always expecting the best, but I'm ready with a satisfying alternative when everything goes wrong, which it usually does (the first rule in: “Sherman's Two Rules For Living With Rules”).
 
Again, look to your dog's example.  You don't see him descending into a combination of road rage and helpless funk when the family car breaks down enroute to visiting Crocodile Safari Land.  He's just happy for the chance to go off and chase jackalopes while you wait for the tow truck.
 
So, as you “plan” your summer vacation, a few do's and don'ts:
 
DON'T use this time to “catch up” on projects in and around the house.  These activities have few, if any, leisurely components to them, and are almost always dangerous, irritating or beyond your expertise.  If they weren't, you wouldn't have waited until now to tackle them.
 
Yes, the eaves at the top of your house where the ladder just barely reaches are still unpainted.  Big deal.  Go with Plan B, and think of yourself as the neighborhood's king of the unpainted peaks.  Then, lie down next to the dog and have a nice restful AND pleasurable nap.
 
This will avoid your having to spend a long-awaited canicule (and beyond) in the restful but most decidedly unpleasureable mode of orthopedic traction after you went with Plan A, painted over the hornet's nest hole YOU KNEW was up there, and jackknifed backwards off the abbreviated ladder into the juniper bushes.
 
DO let them know at your job that you are not to be called during your vacation for ANY reason.  Yes, maybe that invoice you misrouted on your last day of work resulted in the entire eastern seaboard's widget vendors being mistakenly billed for doohickeys, but you don't need or want to know this until you return to work.
 
Save it for when you end your off-duty canicule and go back to find your desk emptied.  You should always avoid receiving word that you've been fired (Sherman's 2nd Rule) while lying in a body cast and recovering from an overdose of hornet venom.
 
DON'T take the family to Crocodile Safari Land, unless your idea of restful pleasure is ogling big lizards in a concrete sinkhole, and watching some disaffected guy (probably an ex-widget invoicer just out of rehab) stunning them into submission with hypnotic underbelly rubs.
 
DO take time to embrace every day of your well-earned respite as if it were your last (and have faith that this will not be the case).
 
DON'T forget to just plain relax, and enjoy every restful, pleasurable moment that life affords you free of charge:  walk in the woods, swim in the water, sit in the sun, and nap with the dog.
 
DO remember the Plan B bug repellant, life jackets, sunblock and flea collar, and if you're going to stop and smell the flowers, I'd first check for hornets.
 
We'll save Plan C for next winter.
 
* * * * *
Syndicated humor columnist B. Elwin Sherman is off somewhere not painting over a hornet's nest in the North Country.  He can be reached via his website at elwinshumor.com.  Copyright 2008 B. Elwin Sherman.  All rights reserved.  Used here with permission.
* * * * *  
 
B. Elwin Sherman's Humor — Books/Columns.
http://www.elwinshumor.com
 
WITBONES — “Ask A Humorist!”

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Hopkinton New Hampshire’s Medal of Honor Recipient: Carlos W. Colby (1837-1922)

Posted on 24 June, 2008 by Janice Brown

Carlos William Colby, a farmer’s son, was born in 1837 in the small town of Hopkinton, New Hampshire. He moved with his family from New Hampshire to a farm near Alton, Illinois in 1850. Carlos enlisted in the Union Army in September of 1862, in Company G, 97th Illinois Infantry, mustered in as a second corporal.

He received a Congressional Medal of Honor in 1896 “…for most distinguished gallantry in action at the battle of Vicksburg, Mississippi.” His letters home survive, many of which were published by his great-grandson John S. Painter under the title of “Bullets, Hartack and Mud: A Soldier’s View of the Vicksburg Campaign” (Journal of the West, Vol IV, No. 2, 1965).

Medal of Honor Recipient: COLBY, CARLOS W.
Rank and Organization: Sergeant, Company G, 97th Illinois Infantry.
Place and Date: At Vicksburg, Miss., 22 May 1863. Entered Service At: Madison County, Ill.
Birth: Merrimack, N.H. [actually Hopkinton, Merrimack Co. NH]
Date of Issue: 31 January 1896.
Citation: Gallantry in the charge of the “volunteer storming party.”

When the Civil War ended, Carlos Colby returned home, married Anne E. Rowe, farmed and raised a family. Carlos Colby died, aged 85, in 1922, and is buried at Cress Hill Cemetery in Hillsboro IL. Note: Carlos Colby is my cousin, through his LONG family line (see LONG family tree link below, in the genealogy section).

Janice

-Descendants of Carlos W. Colby-

–Grave Site of Carlos W. Colby–

–Inventory of Carlos W. Colby Papers, 1821-1937, bulk 1861-1865-

–Men of NH Who Served During Civil War in Units Not in NH–

–Medal of Honor Recipients, from the Battle of Vicksburg–

***********************************
***COLBY FAMILY GENEALOGY***
***********************************

Anthony Colby (1605-1660) and Martha (c1610-?)
Thomas Colby (1650-1691) and Hannah Rowell (1653-1707)
Thomas Colby (1675-1741) and Frances Willoughby (1672-1778)
Ezekiel Colby (1699-1761) and Mary Elliot (1699-1761)
Elliot Colby (1735-1811) and Judith Sargent (1739-1782)
John Colby (1767-1850) and Sarah Flanders (1774-1837)

James Colby, son of John & Sarah (Flanders) Colby was b. 9 January 1798 in Warner, Merrimack Co. NH and d. 19 Jan 1852 in Upper Alton, Madison County IL, aged 54 years. He married 15 Feb 1826 to Abigail Bailey Long, dau of Dr. Moses & Lucy (Harriman) Long, by Rev. Mr. Hatch. She was b. 11 May 1794 at Hopkinton NH, and d. 19 Feb 1859. They resided in Warner NH for about 10 years, then moved to Hopkinton NH, to the old Long homestead where they lived until 1850. (He purchased farm from Moses Long & Stephen H. Long on East slope of Emerson Hill, 3 miles West of Hopkinton, NH). In 1850 Mr. Colby and his family moved west with his family, settling in Alton IL. (He purchased a farm at Alton, lived near B.F. Long & G.W. Long). James Colby died 19 Jan 1852, aged 54 years. Abigail B. (Long) Colby died 19 Feb 1859.
[ALSO SEE Long genealogy]
Children of James & Abigail B. (Long) Colby:
1. infant son, b. abt 1828 Hopkinton NH; died in infancy
2. Lucy Long Colby, b. 21 Apr 1829 Hopkinton NH; m. 12 Nov 1849 to Theodore Alexander Stout; res. Princeton NJ
2. George H. Colby, b. 31 March 1831 Hopkinton NH; res. Alton IL
3. Sarah Lyman Colby, b. 11 Aug 1832 Hopkinton NH; teacher in the Missouri School for the Blind, St. Louis MO
4. Caroline Maria Colby, b. 14 Aug 1834 Hopkinton NH; m. 1856 to Charles H. Thomas; died at Alton IL Dec 1864
5. +Carlos William Colby; b. 15 May 1837 Hopkinton NH; res. North Alton IL, soldier during the war of the Rebellion

Carlos William Colby, son of James & Abigail B. (Long) Colby, was b. 15 May 1837 in Hopkinton, New Hampshire. He died 19 May 1922 in Peoria, Peoria Co. IL. He married 20 Dec 1866 in Alton, Madison Co. IL to Anne Elizabeth Rowe. She was b. 29 March 1844 in Alton IL and d. 18 Dec 1899 in Butler, Montgomery Co. IL.  He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1863 for gallantry in the charge of the “volunteer storming party” at Vicksburg on May 22, 1863.
[SEE rootsweb family tree] [Also see descendants of Carlos William Colby link above]
———–
American Civil War Soldiers
Name:     Carlos Colby ,
Residence:     Godfrey, Illinois
Enlistment Date:     11 Aug 1862
Enlistment Place:     Madison County, Illinois
Side Served:     Union
State Served:     Illinois
Birth Date:     15 May 1837
Death Date:     20 May 1922
Service Record:     Promoted to Full 1st Sergeant.
Enlisted as a Corporal on 11 August 1862.
Enlisted in Company G, 97th Infantry Regiment Illinois on 11 Aug 1862.
Mustered Out Company G, 97th Infantry Regiment Illinois on 29 Jul 1865.
Promoted to Full 2nd Lieutenant on 1 Aug 1865.
———–
U.S. Census > 1870 United States Federal Census > Illinois > Madison > Township 5 Range 10
Colby, Carlos A. 33 M W Farmer 6000/500 NH
Colby, Anni E. 28 F W House Keep Illinois
Colby, Charles W. 10/12 M W Illinois Sep
Rowe, Elizabeth 64 F W North Carolina
Grover, Alice 18 F W Servant New York
————
U.S. Census > 1880 United States Federal Census > Illinois > Madison > North Alton > District 24
Colby, Carlos W. W M 43 Farmer NH NH NH
Colby, Annie E W F 35 Illinois England NC
Colby, Charles W. W M 10 IL
Colby, Florence I W F 7 IL
Colby, Carlos F W M 1 IL
Rowe, Elizabeth W F 74 IL [should be NC]
Allen, Mary Ann W F 21 IL
————
Children of Carlos W. & Anne “Annie” Elizabeth (Rowe) Colby:
1. John Rowe Colby, b. 10 May 1868 Alton, Madison Co. IL, d. young in 1869
2. Charles Willis Colby, b. 9 Oct 1869 ALton, IL; m. Mamie McRenolds
3. James Rowe Colby, b. 3 July 1871 Alton IL, died young in 1871
4. Florence Mae Colby, b. abt 1873 Alton IL
5. Cora Lee Colby, b. 24 Dec 1875 Alton IL, died young in 1879
6. Carlie Faye Colby, b. 19 July 1878 Alton IL, d. 1945 unmarried
7. Stella Long Colby, b. 31 Dec 1881 Alton IL, d. 1899
8. Henry Hastings Colby, b. 21 Jan 1885 Butler, Montgomery Co. IL; m. 1911 Ida C. Miller; had issue b. in IL. He d. in Houston TX; had issue

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