Introduction

The material for this article continues to be taken from a journal written by my great aunt, Ellen Hersey Schoolcraft Taylor, who was born in 1885 and died in 1975. Ellen grew up on Chase Hill Road in East Andover, along with three sisters and a brother, Guy, who was my grandfather.

My previous article relayed Ellen’s excitement as a child, while visiting her Grandfather Eastman and his farm on the other side of Tucker Mountain in Hill. Ellen is older now, and she and her sisters often take turns staying with their grandfather, and helping him during the busy summer season. In this section of Ellen’s journal, she tells a little bit about her grandfather’s hired help, and she writes a few character sketches of people in the area.

Excerpts from Ellen’s Journal

Grandpa had a big farm with 200 sheep, some cattle and horses, and a big garden. He never locked his doors, so the neighbors could come and take things, and help themselves to his garden. Because the farm was so big, Grandpa would hire a man each summer to help him with the haying and the tending of the garden. Usually someone would come along looking for work and Grandpa would hire him.

A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

One particular summer, a man came along named Frank Brown. He was very agile and did so well that we liked him very much. One rainy Saturday, Frank told Grandpa he wanted to visit his folks in Salisbury. Grandpa let him take a horse and wagon, and gave him a buffalo robe so he would be warm and dry. Not long after, Grandpa was summoned to go for his horse and wagon. Frank Brown had sold them! Fortunately for Grandpa, the robe had the letters E. T. Eastman printed on the inside of it. This had given Frank away, and Grandpa was able to get everything back.

Apparently, Frank had seen where Grandpa kept his money in the top bureau drawer in the front room. Frank had broken into the drawer and stolen some of the money – actually a good deal of it! (Ellen writes: I have this bureau in my East Andover home now, and it still shows where the lock was broken.) Well, he didn’t work for Grandpa anymore that year, but he did return one day.

My sister, Blanche, was coming in from the back room, which was open in the summer. A masked figure came up behind her and said: “Got any money”? He proceeded to the front room to look for some, but he found none. Grandpa had moved his money, and now hid it in his bed! Blanche told me to run to the neighbor’s house, which was up the hill. Our neighbor wasn’t home, but by that time, all was quiet again. My brother Guy later discovered that Frank had lived in the sap house for a while, and had dug up some of Grandpa’s vegetables, but he had since disappeared.

The Peloagers

The Peloagers came again and since Grandpa needed more help, he hired them. He had to take both of them, and they stayed in the front room for about four weeks. It was very warm when they were here, and how we missed being able to use that room. We had to cook for them, and they were so fussy. How thankful we were when they left!

Character Sketches

The Hilliard Brothers: Nate, John, and Tim

Nate got married, but his wife never seemed to stay at home. So Nate said: ‘I’m just as well off without her!’

John was sort of a hermit, and lived by himself. He had a cow of which he was very fond, and he received most of his living from the cow’s milk. He trapped many hedgehogs and got money for them. He was very dark from living outside in the sun.

Tim moved to East Andover and got married. For some time he took care of the church although he didn’t attend. Tim had nothing to clean the church with except for a broom. He said if the women would pick their skirts up, there wouldn’t be as much dirt dragged in for him to clean up. That was true, for skirts were very long then.

Albert Bush was a poor boy, who Grandpa took in to help with the chores. In time he grew up and got married. They had a son named Byron, who was burned terribly while starting the fire one morning. He recovered, although he wasn’t able to speak plainly as a result of his injuries. Byron had a pair of little steers, and he and his mother would ride to Danbury in a little cart to shop for food. My mother was always kind to them, and gave them things. I remember Mother buying red print material, and making an apron for them.

Grandpa’s Sunday Ritual

Grandpa never worked on Sunday. After shaving and putting on a shirt in the morning, he would go to salt the sheep. He would call them, and they would come running. After dinner he would read his large print Testament and rest.

Epilogue

Grandpa (Ebenezer Tucker Eastman) died on March 6, 1877 at age 84 and is buried at the Lakeview Cemetery in East Andover. His farm remained in the family for two more generations, belonging next to his daughter Mary Eastman Hersey and her husband Benjamin (my great grandparents). They continued to live on Chase Hill Road, but used the farm land in Hill to pasture their young stock in the summer – driving them over the mountain in the spring, and back again in the fall. They cut the hay on the Hill farm to feed their cattle in East Andover in the winter – transporting it by oxen and wagon. Wood was cut on the Hill farm for their own use, and to sell.

Mary and Benjamin Hersey’s son, Guy, (my grandfather) was the next owner of the Eastman farm, and he used the farm and its land exactly the same way as his father had. It amazes me when I think how these hard-working farmers traveled back forth over Tucker Mountain Road – a distance of four miles each way – with their only means of transportation being on foot, or by oxen!

A Little About Ellen

As mentioned earlier, Ellen went on to teach many terms of school in East Andover and the surrounding area. Ellen’s niece, Edith Robie, made a later entry in the back of Ellen’s journal which said: “Aunt Ellen taught at Dyer’s Crossing School. That wasn’t for long, as Lillie McKeage’s father, who was on the school board, thought Lillie should teach there, and Aunt Ellen was transferred to Flaghole.”(The McKeages were the former owners of the Hale Shaw farm on Emery Road.) Ellen had boarded at her sister Blanche Robie’s house (end of today’s Sam Hill Road) for the term she was teaching at the Dyer’s Crossing School.

Ellen and her husband, Otis Schoolcraft, eventually bought a house on Chase Hill Road in East Andover (the house below where Ellen grew up), and they lived there with their children Gilman and Wenona. Ellen was active in the community and the East Andover church. She was interested in photography, taking many pictures over the years, and developing them herself. Their house remained in the family until the late 1980s at which time it was sold by Ellen’s daughter Wenona who was a long time resident of Keene. Wenona has recently returned to Keene after living in Missouri for eleven years.

A special thank you to Wenona for allowing me to make a copy of her mother’s journal, and for giving me permission to use material from it for these articles.