444 HISTORY OF COH ASSET. 



For many years after the railroad was laid to Cohasset 

 these packets continued to do freighting for the citizens 

 of the town. Many are the families that used to lay in 

 their supplies of groceries brought down in the fall of the 

 year from Boston in these packets. 



It was a day of great delight to some children when 

 their household laid in the winter's stock of food. Per- 

 haps a quarter of beef had been bought and would be cut 

 up, some of it for salting, some for freezing, and some 

 for immediate use. The frugal habits of these hard-work- 

 ing people made it easy to resist extravagance even in the 

 face of abundance ; and this was the most economical 

 way of buying their provisions. However, these domestic 

 scenes have almost ceased since the passing of the 

 packets. 



One cruise of packeting is still to be mentioned which 

 went many thousands of miles farther than Boston. It 

 was the little brig Pianette, which loaded up with Cohasset 

 men and supplies during the California gold excitement in 

 1849. Captain Henry Pratt with nineteen others* regis- 

 tered in Boston, March 30, 1849, ^nd sailed south around 

 Cape Horn and up again through the Pacific Ocean for San 

 Francisco, where she arrived after the long voyage of five 

 months. That group of Cohasset men made our quota 

 of the famous California " Forty-Niners." Some of them 

 returned the next year and others remained to gain some 

 of the yellow dust which was able to magnetize men from 

 every part of the globe. 



♦Zealous Bates. Aquila Kilburn. 



Israel C. Vinal. George W. Stoddard. 



Charles P. Bourne. Lot Stoddard. 



Otis V. Barnes. Henry Bates. 



Isaac Pratt. Artemas Thorndyke. 



George Bradford. Charles A. Cousens. 



James Bates. Clark Cutting. 



George Smith. Elijah Marble. 



Joseph Briggs, Jr. Manuel King. 

 Frederick Bates. 



