Historic Sketch, Settlement of New Berlin, Chenango Co. NY

 Historic Sketch of the Settlement of the Town of New Berlin

by John Hyde

New Berlin Gazette, New Berlin, NY, July 29, 1876

The first emigrants who commenced a settlement in the town of New Berlin were often times sorely troubled for provisions before they were able to clear up their wild lands and raise crops for bread.  Many times, had the mother been obliged to send her children supperless to their bed while the husband and after was absent, traveling the forest path to a distant settlement in quest of food to supply the family wants.

Having located his lot, the first important business for the emigrant is to build a log house, a family residence.  For this purpose he selects a place near a spring of water or a running brook and clears it off ready on which to erect his dwelling house and to be composed of materials furnished by his own labor.  With his woodman's axe, he cuts down trees of suitable size and of proper length intended for the dimensions of the building and a sufficient number for the height.  these logs are to form the body of the building.  Poles of suitable size and length are cut for the rafters.  Elm bark supply the place of shingles and basswood logs, split into slabs furnish the floor.

All being ready, the neighbors are invited to a log house raising. The main building is to be made of logs packed upon each other and the ends interlocked by a dovetail process of construction belonging to the ingenuity of a back woodsman in the art of house building.

The building is made without the aid of the square and compass or any other of the carpenter's tools, and without iron or glass and like Solomon's temple, "there was neither hammer nor any tool of iron (except the axe) heard in the house while it was building."  The roof is made of bark pealed from the elms and tied on to the rafters with strings made of the inner rind of the bark and the floor is made of split basswood slabs.

A "housewarming" is considered proper for the introduction of the newcomers into their new abode and to the more intimate acquaintance of their neighbors.  A pastime called a "log rolling bee" was not infrequent amongst the early settlers.  After the "summer follow" has been prepared, the trees felled and cut into log rolling length, and the brush heaps burned, the neighbors are invited to a log rolling bee.  On the day appointed they come with their ox teams, the logs are drawn and rolled into heaps and the united strength of kind neighbors accomplish a work which could not have been performed by one man alone. An agricultural log rolling of former days suited the outward man and his clothes; political log rolling of the present day benefits the inner man and his reputation.

At these social gatherings of the roundabout settlers, mirth and merriment mingled with the labors of the day, and cheerful and national songs enlivened the workmen, resounding in freedoms choicest notes and loud echoing through the woods might be heard, "Hail Columbia, happy, happy land." In the primitive society of New Berlin, the divine command "Love thy neighbor as thou lovest thyself," seems to have bene literally fulfiller in the mutual assistance rendered to each other.

Raising of crops on new land was simple and the tools of husbanddry were equally so.  In planting corn, the turf was turned up with a hoe, kernels of corn tucked under, and the turf turned back, and no farther labor was required but to keep the -?- weeds down until the corn harvest.  Grain was sowed and harrowed in with a two pronged, wooden tooth barrow, and harvested with a reaper sickle threshed with a flail and winnowed with a fan. Grass was mowed by a scythe, raked by hand and drawn on a sled to the stack or barn. Stumps and roots prevented the plough to be used in fixing the land for crops or other machines for gathering them.

Flax was raised for summer clothing for the family for there were no cotton factories.  Frocks of sheep furnished wool for winter garments.  Wives and daughters were good spinners and made fine linen out of flax, and cloth out of the tow, and flannel out of wool which the clothier manufactured into cloth, some for women's wear, and some for men's wear. This kind of family clothing furnished a better protection against the summer's heat or winter's cold than can be had in this age of boasted improvement. Children were allowed to tumble about in coarse, loose dress, unshackled by ge-gaw wrappings, enjoying the freeness of their limbs; no steel spring carriages with stuffed seats to weaken the muscles and enfeeble the body. Girls and boys were early taught in the school of industry, requiring habits of price and economy.  Success in later life was the result.

In that early age of New Berlin's history, the tailer, with his yard stick, shears, needles, amble pressboard, and goose, went from house to house to make up that winter's clothing for the family. The shoemaker did not forget his vocation and with his knife, wax, awls, strap, paste and bench went his rounds to mend, patch and make up the family shoes and boots.  And while the emigrants were engaged in clearing up their lands and providing food and clothing for their families they were not unmindful that tother duties were encumbered on them to perform in aid of civilization and the maintenance of social relations.

Common schools were founded, school districts formed, log schoolhouses provided, and school masters employed during the winter months and school mistresses during the summer season to teach the common school branches of education. The parents paid the teachers wage in proportion to the number of scholars they sent to school.  This early attention to common school education by the first settlers of New Berlin has been the direct productive agent in the growth and prosperity of the people.

In the arrangement for the general welfare, religion was not overlooked. Religious meetings were held in schoolhouses, in barns or in dwelling houses, as convenience directed. The ministers were usually supported by contributions, seldom by salaries.  Occasionally there might appear one, who, like the apostles of old, preached without money and without price, and his doctrine was considered to be orthodox and sound in the case of Christianity.  Missionaries sometimes found their way into the infant settlements and at such times large, gatherings from every quarter of the neighborhood came forth to hear the glad tidings of the gospel preached and with a sincerity and honestly of purpose equal to the well-dressed congregations of the present time.