MEMORIES OE THE 



ing friends?" and scores of other well-known church melodies. 

 Their repertoire covered all the solid old tunes, hymns and 

 anthems, the best the world has ever produced, always ending 

 up with "Old Hundred." This family concert was usually 

 closed by ten o'clock in the evening, and was followed by the 

 passing of big pans filled with apples, of fried cakes, cheese and 

 pie, and anything else that was handy, left of the wreck of the 

 Thanksgiving dinner, including cider, if it was not yet hard. 

 These annual gatherings were a kind of solid enjoyment 

 among families and relatives which, unfortunately, the change in 

 the times, customs and styles has nearly driven out of existence. 



^ ^ ^ 



THE SAWMILL 



The mill made a large amount of work every spring and fall 

 and in the early winter, and helped to keep us all busy when 

 nothing else was doing. In the early days, when the woods 

 covered the face of the country, old Deer Creek furnished plenty 

 of water the year around; but as the country cleared up and 

 dried up, it became a spring and fall mill. 



It was handy to have plenty of all kinds of lumber, but I doubt 

 if it ever paid. During my knowledge of its operation it cost 

 three times more in repairs, rebuilding, changes and running 

 expenses than its earnings came to; no books were ever kept 

 showing mill accounts so separated and classified as to enable 

 one to tell the results. I know nothing of the upper or old mill 

 and its operation except by hearsay and what I find in the old 

 books, as it was built in 1823 and 1824, worn out about 1838 or 

 1839, and the new one built in 1842 and 1843. My memory of 



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