FIRST SETTLERS AND EARLY HOME LIFE 



hill or stream and keep the name given It by the Indians, 

 even if it has seventeen syllables. 



It would be interesting to know how the first white 

 man came, whether afoot on a hunting excursion, or on 

 horseback, or by canoe. When history was beginning, 

 the makers were so occupied with the problems of just 

 living that it probably never occurred to them that in 

 the after years people would be glad to know the small- 

 est details of their daily life. As soon as they had 

 gotten a foothold and built up a few rough houses, they 

 called a minister and voted a church. This, as being of 

 the utmost importance, they carefully recorded. Little 

 side lights on the life of those early times often shine 

 from these records, as, for instance, a minister was 

 called and settled and given as pay "twenty pounds law- 

 ful money, forty cords of wood and the privilege of 

 running the town cider mill" ; or from the account of 

 the settlement of another whose salary was to be paid 

 in pork, corn, rye, peas, and other farm products. So 

 strong was the power of the church and so important 

 the minister in the town or State that nearly every town, 

 in making allotments, set aside one or two or three 

 for the use of the minister forever. In some towns one 

 plot was given to "the first minister, his heirs and as- 

 signs forever," and another "for the use of his succes- 

 sors." 



As has ever been true, the march of civilization was 



ni73 



