MEMORIES OF THE 



THE OLD RED HOUSE 



After the lapse of the log-house period, our folks built what 

 they always spoke of as the '' new house," even after it was sixty 

 vears old. The cellar wall was started in Jul}^ 1823, and the 

 chimneys in the north and south ends of the main part were 

 built in 1825. The family moved to the new house in 1824, 

 before it was completed. The front part was occupied for a 

 few years as a store, and while so used the lower part was not 

 finished up. 



It was built in the fashion of those days, with a long, two- 

 story front, with piazza across the whole length, a wide hall 

 running through the middle, and with a long, one-and-a-half- 

 story wing, perpendicular to the main part, for kitchen, wood- 

 shed, well and storeroom. At first it had only chimneys and 

 fire-places for heating and cooking purposes. There was a big 

 chamber on each side of the hall upstairs, in each of which 

 three double beds were frequently set up and in use. These 

 sleeping-rooms were large, airy and well lighted — all right in 

 the summer, but cold and uncomfortable in the winter. Their 

 hard, bare, ash floors were like ice in the cold, frosty weather, 

 and unless a piece of old carpet or a rug was in front of your 

 bed, you would shudder and shiver from the minute you got out 

 of bed until your teeth rattled. With the thermometer twenty 

 to forty degrees below zero, nothing saved you but the big 

 feather-beds, in which you could cuddle down between the 

 flannel sheets and cover up your head with all the blankets you 

 could endure. Each room was plenty large enough to make two 

 good bedrooms, and one of them was so divided later. 



There was but one closet or clothes-press in the house, and 

 that was a big, dark one off the south room. It was always 



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