George Holcomb

by Alex Brooks

Holcomb was married on April 15 of this year, 1819.  He turned 28 on June 13, 1819.
July 4, Sunday: This afternoon I and my wife walked to singing school at the school house near Mr. Simeon Wylie’s.  We took tea going over at Mother Springs.
July 5: Today I went to Independence to Mr. Henry Hull’s at New Lebanon Springs. I rode with Mr. Henry Platt, Jr., an oration was delivered by the Rev. Mr. Churchill, but I did not get there in time to hear it. Today I spent 63 cents, and handed brother Wm 63 cents and Samuel Carnehand 31 cents to spend.  [Read more…] about The Life Of George Holcomb – A Case Of Self Murder

by Alex Brooks
The first mention of George’s wedding is on April 13 of 1819.  In the midst of recording a multitude of errands, he slips in:
I called to Wm Clark’s store and bought goods for my wedding to the amount of $3.68.
April 15, Thursday: On this day at seven in the afternoon I was married to Miss Lucinda Wylie by the Rev. Mr. Churchill of New Lebanon.  We were married at the house of Mrs. Widow Deborah Springs and Mr. John Wylies in this town, priest tax two dollars.
[Read more…] about The Life Of George Holcomb – George Gets Married

by Alex Brooks
Saturday, June 13, 1818: “This day I am 27 years of age.
August 20, Thursday: Today we drew timber from home down to frame Wm a shop on Mr. Ephraim Pierce’s land opposite of Wm’s house, and drew rails and fenced a yard for the shop, and I took the wall down.  Wm has agreed to give fifty cents a year for twenty years for the ground on which his shop is to stand.
[Read more…] about The Life Of George Holcomb – A Shop for Brother William

by Alex Brooks
One of the difficulties of being a businessman in the early 1800s is that there are many different kinds of money and some of them are shakier than others. The Federal Government did not print any money during George Holcomb’s lifetime. The first Federal money, known as “greenbacks,” was printed in 1863 to finance the Civil War.
[Read more…] about The Life Of George Holcomb – Funny Money

by Alex Brooks

Summer of 1816
There is a great deal of haying in August, and they are selling their cider brandy for about a dollar a gallon.
Sept 18, 1816, the question of military duty comes up again: “I called to Doc Main’s and he gave me lines to go to the Surgeon to get discharged from military duty.”  [Read more…] about The Life Of George Holcomb – George Hires Young People For Farm Labor

by Alex Brooks
The previous episode ended in mid-October of 1815. During the next six weeks, George gathers a lot of apples and makes cider, applesauce and “cider cheese” and makes trips to Albany to sell all these products. During this time the Still House is finished, mostly by the work of his cousin Sylvester. On December 1, 1815, George sets off for Troy to get a license for the stilling.
[Read more…] about The Life Of George Holcomb – George Begins Making Liquor

by Alex Brooks
As spring comes on in 1815, the 23 year old George is developing some commercial schemes, but is greatly hampered by ill-health. After spending three days in early March pruning his apple trees, he finds himself “lame with a boil” and is unable to get much work done for the next week. But on March 16 he begins “a journey to the Eastward,” on foot. He doesn’t say the purpose of the journey, but he seems to have a commercial purpose in mind. He does a bit of trading along the way, buying and selling strings of beads and “moraco shoes”  Before leaving, he had spent most of a day going to Canaan to inquire about the price of “moracco shoes.”
He stopped at Uncle Levi Pease’s farm in Shrewsbury, but that did not seem to be the destination, as he soon continued on farther east.  He settled on Lynn, Mass. as a destination, probably because of the shoe industry there, which got started by about 1635 and became by the time of the Revolutionary war the largest supplier of footwear to the Continental Army. But George never made it there, stopping in Concord due to ill-health.  “I found that I could not travel, for my health will not admit of it…now the roads are so bad and I am somewhat out of health, I will not go to Lynn, but make my best way home.”  He walked straight home, a journey that took a little over four days.  Upon his return home, he was unable to work, and for three days the journal entries say only, “I am unwell.”
The following day he went to Doctor Main’s and got some “billius pills for to cleanse my stomach.”  The following day, Sunday, he notes that he is “taking Physic, for I am quite unwell.”  Monday he reports feeling better.
In mid-April he starts ploughing and planting again.
April 23 he went to Albany, where he sold four barrels of cider for $18.50.  He bought $9 worth of iron “for a wagon tire.”  He also bought salt at 88 cents per bushel, green tea at $1.37 a pound, brown sugar at 19 cents a pound, and various other items.
Building The Still
After several inquiries about stills over the past half year, on June 27 and 28 of 1815, he plowed and scraped a place to set the still house and over the next three days they cut and raised the frame of the still house.  In July he continues to pursue construction of the still house, procuring boards and shingles, but July 13 he fell ill again, with swelling at the jaw.  He continued unwell all the rest of the month, with fevers, stomach disorders and pains in his ear, jaw and throat.
In August, severe illness continues: “today our people are holding green frogs to my mouth, I do begin to have quite a pain in my ear.
Friday: Today I remain as yesterday, I try frogs to my mouth.
Saturday: We tried frogs, but they do not answer.
Monday his father carried him to Richmond to see a different doctor, who had just about the same advice as Doc Main.  He worked not at all during August, being constantly sick.  In September he says in the journal that he is about the same as last month, and his old complaint continues, but he is up and about more.  During this period his cousin Sylvester continues to work on the still house.  At the beginning of October, there is a crisis with very bad swelling on his jaw, below his ear.  The Doctor lanced it twice, and soon he is feeling better.  By mid-October references to the illness cease.

by Alex Brooks
On January 17, 1815, George attended a town meeting “to make resolves against the conscripts law,” as he was apparently not the only one opposed to the draft. But the danger was past by then, as the peace treaty had been signed in Ghent three weeks earlier.
[Read more…] about The Life Of George Holcomb – A Dispute With Brother Sylvester

by Alex Brooks

When the last episode ended, Holcomb had just returned on November 17, 1813, from a year’s journey to Eastern Massachusetts, his first extended time away from home. His father had asked him to come home to take over the family farm.
Holcomb left originally to escape the draft, but having secured a new “certificate” exempting him from military service because he is hard of hearing, he apparently felt safe enough to come home.
[Read more…] about The Life Of George Holcomb – George Begins His Life’s Work

In the last episode, George bargained with his uncle Levi Pease about his wages, and Pease assured George he would be satisfied. But George was not happy with the reckoning:
“when we brought in our accounts, mine was only 55 dollars, for he would not allow me for what I did in September last, he thought my work only paid my board, and his account against me is 28 dollars and 86 cents, of which he makes this debt against me, is the money he has paid me in the time and things to  stores when sick, likewise the doctor bill he has agreed to settle and the shoemaker bill likewise – of which he stands indebted to me now 26 dollars 14 cents, if no mistakes.  One thing more he makes up the debt before-mentioned against me, that is my board, when sick, of which he charged two dollars a week.”
Holcomb clearly was unsatisfied by these reckonings and immediately set out to find work:  “Set out to look me a place for a home and to work.  I went from this town to Worcester.”  He inquired for work all over Worcester in divers establishments.  Finding only one offer, of 5 dollars a month, he set out for the cotton factory at Northbridge but found that no hands were wanted. On the evening of the third day he met up with a man named Levi Lincoln who offered to pay him 95 dollars for six months work.  Holcomb accepted and returned to Shrewsbury that evening.  The next day he packed up his clothes and carried his belongings to Levi Lincoln’s farm near Worcester, beginning work the next morning.
On June 19 Holcomb’s father and sister arrived to visit him, and they all went over to Uncle Levi Pease’s farm in Shrewsbury to spend the Sunday together.  “Father wishes me to come home as quick as the times will do, for he says to me he wants to put his farm under my care, if not part or all in my hands.”
He rose early Monday morning and walked to Worcester, so as to be back at work by six in the morning as usual.  On Tuesday his father and sister came by on their way back to Stephentown, bringing presents of clothing for George.
He worked steadily all through the summer, though he was bothered on several occasions by “disentery symptoms,” even missing one day of work because he was “so out of health.”
At the end of September he secured another Certificate (he has now learned to spell the word correctly) which will discharge him from military duty if he is called on.  The reason for the discharge was “hard of hearing.”
Nov 2, 1813: “Tuesday I worked for Lieut Governor Lincoln on his son Levi account.”
On Nov. 8, Levi Lincoln paid him 97 dollars for his work over the summer and fall, and Levi Pease paid him the remainder of the wages owed him for work done the previous fall and winter.  He settled all his debts with local merchants and set out to go home to Stephentown on November 12.  He arrived home at 4 o’clock November 17, after six days of traveling.  Two days later he began work for his father.