The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1900-08-22
BLUE HILL BEANKILN
IT TAKES IN AL THE BEAN POTS IN
THE TOWN.
This Unique Oven Dnkes For Fami-
lies, the Boarding Houses and the
Hotel - How "OIe Dave" LinscOtt
siRrtod,ft and Made II HiE.

The brow OF a little mountain Of that
name, way down in one corner OF Han
cock county, Me-. which claims dlstinc-
tion us being the only town in the unh
verse which has a town bean kiln-"bean
KILL" the natives call il. II Is an old In
stitution, whereby over 90 per cent OF the
beans eaten in the town are baked.
Blue Hill doesn't vary from the aver
age New England village in its loyalty to
baked beans. Its profound respect for
the bean as a staple article Of diet may
perhaps be especially marked, because IL
is OF its beans that the town brags.
As In other places, tastes differ. md,
while some cling TO the original big, fat
~yaler eye" others like the smaller pea
bean, Whine the epicureans delight in the
dimnutive Californian pea bean But
this Is all matter Of taste. The plebeian
'yaller eve" and the aristocratic Califor-
Dian nil come together on the level In the
bean kiln.
There are baked beans and baked
beans.
There Is the New England golden
brown kind. baked, with plenty Of corn
fed pork and something more than dash
Of molasses, for some "a hours over
slow, steady fire. Nothing different is al
lowed in New England, although Boston
has pre-empted the trade mark Then
there is the pale imitation, which Is as
dust and ashes TO the wanderer from the
New England fireside when, with disap-
pointment. he encounters them outside Of
New England.
The average person In charge OF New
England cuisine picks over" the beans
Friday night Having picked out all the
foreign material which may have been
left In the process Of winnowing the
thrashed beans in the wind which whis-
ties around the northeast corner of the
barn. the beans are 'put 10 soak" until
Saturday morning. when they are potted,
with generous slice of salt pork on top
sweetened with more or less molasses or
sugar and perhaps spiced with a little
mustard. Then they are baked all day
Saturday In slow oven or, at Blue Hill,
sent to the kill
The beans are first "broached" on Sat
urday night, when the top layer is re-
moved for supper, care being taken not
to 'mush" the balance, portions of which
are served Sunday morning and as many
times subsequently as the supply permits
or the good nature Of the "boHr1ers" al
lows.
Beans ure the great staple of the lum-
Der camps. OF the coasting vessels and
wherever convocations OF hungry men
gather together to satisfy their appe-
tites.
But about the great and only institu-
tion of Blue Hill.
II was away back in the sixties when
the Linscotts went to Blue Hill. They
were brickmakers from Hackensack. One
Of the family. while on visit TO some of
his people in Blue Hill, Glanced to get
mired in a mud puddle and while scrap
ing the clay from his boots noticed that
the consistency and grain was that of the
finest brick clay. lie prospected little
and found that the hills about the place
were of the same kind Of clay and that
sand of prime quality was close at hand.
Blue Hill bay was natural harbor.
There was u steady demand for bricks
everywhere, and so 1t was that the Lin
SCOTS went to Blue Hill and started the
brieSmaking business The Hackensack
people were enterpltsing, and their crew
Of employees grew larger and larger until
it absorbed all the available natives, and
1t wns necessary to import men from the
neighboring towns. This necessitated a
boarding house, and so ii was that Mrs.
Linscott's big four story frame house be-
came the shelter Of 40 or so ablcbodied
men with enormous appetites. They were
not particular as to the menu SO long as
there was plenty of food, and Mrs. Lin
scott tstbeans were pronounced just about
right.
Although the house was equipped With
q spacious brick oven, what with the
bread and pies and puddings and other
things the capacity was considerably
strained. Mrs. Linscott was complain.
ing of this when her husband, "Ole Dave"
Llnscott, said he'd see about it, He talk
ed the matter over with the foreman, and
so 1t happened that one Saturday after
noon when work was a little slack the
crew turned TO and built an enormous
arrangement in the Linscott dooryard. 1t
was like a huge brick oven as much as
anything else. They called it bean
KILL" because il was not much of any
thing else The firebOx was arranged TO
take four foot wood and the arrange
ment of ilucs and drafts was the result Of
many conferences and the consensus Of
opinion Of all the expert brick burners Of
the works.
"Build 'er big enough" said David, and
it was big enough for hundreds of bean
pots.
The "kill'' was great success. Moth
ing was ever seen like II. No such beans
ever ticlsled the palate of a hungry brick
worker as came out Of the Linscotts'
bean kiln. Then the neighbors began to
bring their beans, just as a sample order.
And when they brought them once they
did again. Finally the "kill" became so
extremely popular that thrifty David
thought there might be q chance for a
Speculation" and so a fee of n cent per
pot was established.
And this was the origin Of the kiln.
The original structure has been rebuilt
and altered many times. The Linscotts
got rich and moved back TO New Jersey,
but their successors kept up the kiln.
The price has been advanced with the in
creased price Of wood, but the custom
has not fallen of, MS more people have
moved in, and the town has become fa-
nous summer resort. And now OK a
Friday night all the youngsters Of the
village may be seen about sunset heading
for the bean kilT' with the family bean
pots.
In the summer time blackboard loads
6t guests from the Blue Iii, i'm drive
down and peer into the fiery furnace
where "Shadrach." "Meshach" and
"Abednego," the three huge pots from the
copper mine, the quarry and the spool
mill boarding houses, are going thrc Ugh