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Patterson-Marrett Farmhouse |
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This is quite possibly one of my favorite buildings in Westville. This is a great example of a dog-trot house and typical of many of the farmhouses that would have been scattered across the countryside in 1850.
The farmers of the day, being a bit more isolated that the townsfolk, had to be very independent and had to make and grow most of what they used. They often did not have a lot of cash and therefore could not depend upon "store-bought" goods. Beginning with the house itself, and continuing through to the furniture and even the straw-filled mattresses on the beds, most everything was produced on site.
Also, as these houses were often in isolated locations throughout the countryside, they built their homes with a traveler's room. The room on the right front of the house is such a room. It would be left unlocked at night so some weary traveler could use it to overnight. In the morning, the traveler would normally share with some of the chores around the farm, have a good country breakfast, and be on his way.
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Breakfast would be served in the simple eating area of the house, and be prepared in the kitchen behind the house. Breakfast could be pancakes with homemade sausage or smoked bacon, or perhaps eggs and bacon or sausage with biscuits. Or even some porridge or oat meal with milk from the cows. The pancakes or biscuits would normally be covered with homemade syrup. |
| Because fire was a real danger in 1850, the
cooking would be done in a smaller building out back of the house, or to the
side of the house. This would also be where most of the baking and other
foods were prepared. However, sometimes some of the lighter cooking might be
done in the hearth in the main house. The picture at the right depicts what a well-equipped kitchen of 1850 might look.
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The day I was there
Peggy Wilson was baking biscuits in the fireplace. After mixing the dough
and rolling it out, she would cut the biscuits, place them in an iron
skillet, and they would be ready for the oven.
However, as she did not have an oven, she had to make one of her own with the skillet. |
| To do this, she first would make a small pile
of hot coals by scooping them from the main fire to a location on the hearth
just outside of the fire, but no to close to anything in the house that
might catch fire, such as a rug or curtain. She would then place a small iron grate over the small pile of hot coals she had made, and place the skillet with the biscuits on the grate over the coals. |
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To complete her "oven," she would place an
iron cover over the skillet and cover this with more hot coals from the
fire. With the skillet now sitting with hot coals on the top and the bottom, her skillet became the oven in which she baked her biscuits. The day I was there she was baking cinnamon biscuits and the smell was out of this world! |
