INDUSTRIES AND FIRESIDES, 243 



of enjoyment was the celebration of weddings. We are 

 fortunate in having a vivid description* of one of these 

 romantic events from an eyewitness, Mrs. Job Whitcomb, 

 of Beechwood, who was fourteen years old in the year 

 1765 when the wedding occurred. 



It was the wedding of John Pratt, the oldest son of the 

 Aaron who settled Beechwood, living next to the ceme- 

 tery where Doane Street now is cut through. This bride- 

 groom, John Pratt, was to wed Bethia Tower, the eighteen- 

 year-old daughter of Daniel Tower who lived on King 

 Street. 



The narrator says that the invited guests, " a company 

 of young men, came out through the woods riding upon 

 horses, each one having his girl sitting behind him on the 

 pillion. They paraded in front of the house of the groom 

 and my beau, Joseph Whitcomb, rode his horse up to the 

 bars. I climbed up on the bars and mounted the pillion 

 behind him. We rode into the company. John Pratt, 

 the bridegroom, came out of the house dressed with a 

 three-square cocked hat, white coat with black glass but- 

 tons, knee breeches with buckles, up to the fashion. I 

 wore for a bonnet a dark hat with a low crown, wide rim, 

 a broad red ribbon tied around it, with two long bows ; and 

 two long ends came down over the shoulders. The bride- 

 groom came out of his house down to the bars, mounted 

 his horse, rode single to the head of the company and the 

 rest all followed two abreast. We went down by the 

 Cohasset meeting-house, up Deer Hill Lane (Sohier 

 Street) to Mr. Daniel Tower's house on King Street 

 where the bride lived. We had a splendid wedding and 

 the couple came to live in the groom's own house next to 

 his father's." 



* From the diary of Marshall Pratt, grandson of John Pratt, the Ijridegroom. 



