THE FIRST HOMES. I 79 



£ ^' d. 



I Cow ;^7. 5^. I Ox ^9. 2 swine ;;{^i. lOi-. . 17. 15. 

 Land Meadow & Swamp Orchards & fences, 74 



Total '^'^Z'h- 2. o 



This home and the others already set forth make up the 

 verifiable first homes of our town. 



That there were others which had crept in before the 

 year 1700 we may be sure, but whose and where they 

 were it would be difificult to ascertain. 



The Beal families in the vicinity of Turkey Hill per- 

 haps deserve a place in this chapter ; for the two brothers, 

 John and Lazarus, sons of Jeremiah, established their 

 homes at what is now North Cohasset a few years after 

 our first settlers. 



John began married life in 1686 and his brother three 

 years later, but the places where they located are not now 

 within the boundary of Cohasset. The " Beal " house, 

 which now stands a little south of the North Cohasset 

 railway station, is said to have been built in the year 1690. 



For many years they and their descendants were in- 

 cluded among the taxpayers of this region, and when the 

 community became a precinct they were a part of it ; but 

 a narrative of what is now Cohasset may properly omit 

 those lands outside. The few homes which truly may be 

 called the first were established before the year 1700, 

 and they nestled within the primeval forest in cleared 

 patches as hostages given to wild nature, guaranteeing 

 that those men were in earnest. One is forced to rely 

 upon imagination to picture the condition of those homes, 

 for public records and private documents are almost 

 wholly wanting to furnish data of information. 



But whose imagination can picture adequately that 

 frontier life ? 



Coarse garments; poorly cooked food, no carpets, no 



