Ireland, you have a lot of rain. So even though it is raining, you are not inside weaving because you have too much farm work to do so you only weave at night after supper. Economically at the type, you would say he is a strong farmer. But he was a midland sort which means he was middle class. Not the wealthiest realm but far from being the poorest. In the early years of the linen trade, everyone is making money so life is good. But with the depression, things started going bad really quick. The linen board, when they the linen industry goes to Northern Ireland with the french huguenots so they start teaching everyone how things are done. And then they set up the lynnon board to kind of govern the production of linen. And for the girls, they would go there and learn how to spin. And they would start when they are really small, because they have the tinily little fingers so they could spin a finer thread. And part of the graduation present is they would get their own Spinning Wheel. Now
Basket of the area. And wheat here is like what tobacco was to the east of us. This 1820s American Farm was originally located about an hours drive north of here in what is now northern Rockingham County. When it was first built it was still augusta count. The main part of the house was constructed in 1773 from a german immigrant which is the typical story, coming down from pennsylvania, which is why the museum wanted the property because the family story was shared by others at the same time. Were in the parlor in this rather fancy it is fancy for a farmer. This was added by the original owner as grandson in 1820. But it is an older house. By the time this house looked like this, and by the time this parlor that we can see behind me look the like this in 1820, the frontier was quite far west. In fact it was basically in missouri. That would be the frontier, out to the mississippi. But when the main part of the house was built across the hall from us in 1773, it would depend from what
In the case of woodhouses. So second and third sons are left with, you could say nothing, tangible. An the second and third sons would be leaving and going to america to seek their fortune, you could say. Or they could choose the military, the university. And maybe be an apprentice to another tradesman much like Joseph Woodhouse was. The other thing that i would like to mention that is a Common Thread is people are wanting to have a place of their own. Whether it be english or irish or german. And so if the oldest son gets everything, then the second and third sons are going to need to leave to go to america if they want to have land. And if you came to america, before 1700, paying your passage, of course, on a ship bound to virginia, you had the right to receive 50 acres of land for free. So that was an enticement for many of the second and third sons. My name is jerry kester and im a costumed interpreter on the scotch irish farm. The time period here is between 1720 and 1740 and the
You know, you wouldnt want to have your chimney catch on fire. So the cooks was done outside. Youll see chests in there filled with we have one filled with tools an just other odds and ends. Youll see a crosscut saw on the wall which would have been an essential tool to have. Here on the settlement. The large logs that we have set up over there arebad, to demone how someone would split wood. By aprocess of using either an iron wedge or a big wooden wedge and they have made it would have looked like a giant wooden hammer. They are actually pretty heft beyond and they are called beatles, which means to strike or to hit. So you would use the beetle, drive it into the iron wedge, would which eventually split the log by length. And you could keep continue splitting it and splitting it to where you could get sizes big enough for a splitrail fence or the shakes or the shingles on the house. So it was an easier way of splitting your wood up. Weve got chunking in between. So and i believe it i
Tract, which was given to lord fairfax and the borden track south of that. But huge holdings. And then those members of the aristocrats that owned those lands were to settle it within a certain number of people within a certain number of years. So there was a lot of finangling of land and difficulties in people acquiring title. But meeting with the surveyor and finding a vacant piece of land and coming back with the guide and seeing if that property was available for purchase. And then prices of course varied depending on whether it was good bottom land or upland or whatever. But there were problems many times in acquiring final title. There were overlapping claims an you read about somebody might improve a piece of property and then some years later find it is claimed by somebody else. That was not infrequent. At that time, in the 18th century, north of us, what is Rockingham County and north, would have had a larger number of folks from germany, which this area which is now augusta c