Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1921-10-13
FIRST MEETING
WOMAN'S CLUB
Miss Geneviye Winchester and
Mrs. Edward Clemens Entertain
With Music and Reading

The Catholic Womans Club held
the first meeting of the season at the
Parochial school on Wednesday, Oct.
5th. Many members and visitors We're
pleasantly entertained by Miss Gene
We've Winchester, who gave two very
fine selections on the piano. Mrs.
Edward Clemens then read a very
interesting and instructive paper. on
Colonial Days. Extracts from her
paper are as follows:
When the colonists first landed on
American shores the hardest of ali
hardships was building homes. On
every side were dense forests, but
no saw mills and but very few small
saws. There was limestone and clay,
but no way to make bricks, plenty of
stone, but no facilities for cutting or
using it. At first they were entirely
homes made them revert to the an
cient form of shelter, cave dwelling
These were the poorest homes ever
known by any Americans. They
quickly began to copy the Indian wig
wan, and these became very num-
erous because they were easily made
Then came the log cabin. These con-
sisted of one room, and did not sat
isfy these ambitious men for long and
they soon began to build the English
houses. These consisted of large
room, with a vast chimney at one end
and sloping loft above, which was
reached with the aid of narrow lad
der. Later, two rooms, one on either
side of the chimney was added. Later,
as saw mills sprang into existance and
stones could be obtained the colon
lists built large homes, some of which
are wonderful in design and comfort
even today. At first the houses were
lighted by pitch pine which was very
plentiful and called candle wood In
1884 Governor Winthrop introduced
candles and imported tallow and
wicks from England Then the women
began to make their own candles.
Shallow lamps of pewterin which fish
and whale oil was burned was next in
troduced. Then Count Renford invent
ed the glass lamp of our grandfather's
time with it's steady white light. The
lights were obtained by the use of
flint and finder boxes. All the cook
ing was done in the huge fireplace.
1t is interesting and gratifying to note
the intelligent eagerneSs of our first
colonists for wool culture. In 1854
New England had fulling mill. The
present industry of hosiery and knit
goods known as Germantown goods
began with the earliest settlers OF
Germantown, Penn. In 1705 New York
ers were making wool serge In 1899
vessels sailing to England were pro-
hibited from taking on board any
wool goods, and an arbitrary law was
passed prohibiting the transportation
of home made woolens from one
American province to another These
laws we're never fully observed, and
as it farther across the Atlantic ocean
than st. Georges Channel, the col
Onists were spared the fate which
England's same policy paralyzed and
obliterated the glorious wool industry
OF Ireland. The colcnists soon adopt
ed the modes of travelling of the In
dams, which was mostly by canoe. In
1889 the first sanoe ferry ran from
Charlestown to Boston. In 1850 wag
ons made trips between towns, then
came the mail and stage coach. The
strict observance of Sunday as holy
day was one of the characteristics of
the Puritans. Any one breaking the
Sabbath was publicly punished One
of the darkest pages in the history Of
the Colonist Is that covered by witch
craft. BY the laws Of England, witch
craft was punishable by death. Men
like Cotton Mather and Samuel Paris
used this superstition OF the people to
further their own ambitions and put
their enemies to death but out Of all
these hardships Of superstition and
oppression the colonists laid foun-
dation of the America OF today
Elizabeth Sarahan See'y.