284 Percy Wells Bidwell 



account of the occupations of the inhabitants of this town in 1810. 

 The commercial interest was represented by 29 houses concerned in 

 foreign trade, 41 dry goods stores and 42 grocery stores. There were 

 about 300 craftsmen of all sorts, the carpenters heading the list with 

 50 men. The professional classes numbered 48, of whom 16 were 

 teachers in the public schools and the same number lawyers. Adding 

 to this total some 200 clerks, assistants and helpers, we arrive at a 

 hgure, 700, which would include all these persons and might be taken 

 as the sum of the non-agricultural class. To estimate what pro- 

 portion of the total population they and their families formed, this 

 figure should be multiplied by 5.47, the average size of a family in the 

 town.^ The sum thus obtained is 3,829 persons, or less than 55 per 

 cent of the total population ,2 who may be thought of as being 

 supported by occupations other than agriculture. They lived in 

 a compact settlement of 750 houses in the center of the town and 

 carried on their businesses, trades and professions in an equal num- 

 ber of shops and stores. 



How did the remaining 3,100 people, or 45 per cent, get their living? 

 It is only logical to assume that they were farmers, and the testimony 

 of travelers supports this assumption. Lambert found several large 

 fields of maize growing in the center of the town.^ D wight says: 

 "The supplies of flesh and fish are ample, and of vegetables, sufiicient 

 for the demand of the inhabitants, most of whom are furnished from 

 their own gardens."* In his Statistical Account he gives a detailed 

 list of the vegetables raised in these gardens.^ La Rochefoucauld- 

 Liancourt, writing some fifteen years earlier, had said: "Most of 

 them (the inhabitants) have farms in the neighborhood, which 

 supply provisions for their families. These small possessions in the 

 hands of the towns-people, make it impossible for those who have a 

 surplus of produce to find a sale for it in New Haven; it is, accordingly, 

 sent to New York."'' Wood, however, was an important import, 



' This, of course, on the assumption that each person in the above enumeration 

 was the head of a family. In case this assumption were not justified, the pro- 

 portion of the non-agricultural to the total population would be even smaller. The 

 figure 5.47 is taken from a computation made in 1787. See Statistical Account, 

 p. 80. 



"^ To this figure might be added the 60 paupers then supported from the town 

 treasury. 



» Travels, II. 297. His visit was made either in 1807 or 1808. 



' Travels, I. 162. 



« Pp. 23-24. 



' Travels, I. 523. The importance of this trade with New York will be consid- 

 ered later. See infra p. 295. 



