Samuel Merrill, 1928, reprint 1983

Newbury in the Seventeenth Century - Chapter VI, pp55-65

Primitive Conditions

   One who has visited the backwoods settlements of our least populous States can picture to himself the scattered log cabins which sheltered the colonists during the first years of the Newbury settlement, each cabin surrounded by its little clearing, with garden, and modest shelter for the few animals which they were able to provide. Highways were mere trails through the woods, often too narrow to permit the passage of a cart, and ferries were the only means of crossing the tidal streams which must be passed in journeying north or south. It was more than a century before a bridge was built by which the traveler could cross the Parker River near the Lower Green, and until 1792 no bridge connected Newbury with the towns on the north bank of the Merrimack.

   But the log cabins of the early settlers very soon gave place to more comfortable and commodious frame houses, for saw mills soon followed grist mills as public utilities. The roads were improved, fields were cleared of timber, the number of cattle was increased, and industry commanded prosperity, as industry always will. The fare was simple, but on tables abundantly supplied. Potatoes were unknown in Newbury until 1719, and tea was first brewed there in 1720. Coffee, too, was an untasted luxury until after the seventeenth century had reached its end. The daily dishes of that (*) time were fish, pork and game, turnips, bean porridge, hasty pudding, and a limited variety of other meats, vegetables and grains, with plenty of cider and homebrewed beer.

(*) The art of making bean porridge should not be lost to the world. It is an excellent dish, though unfamiliar to most people in the twentieth century. It may be made as follows: Soak three cups of beans over night in two quarts of cold water. In the morning add one medium slice of salt pork, and boil all together, slowly, several hours, until the beans are soft. Boil a beef knuckle and about 1 1/2 pounds of beef cut into small pieces in two quarts of water until the meat is thoroughly cooked. Cook the beans and beef together, slowly, all day, being careful not to burn. Thicken with corn meal. Salt to taste. Corned beef, if not too salt, was often used instead of fresh beef.

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