A Short History of Chester County, Pennsylvania

Image of William Penn from LOC

If you look at the link bar under my banner, there is a new page link "A Short History of Chester County." This is part of a paper that I had to write for school. It's not the best paper and jumps around, due to the removal of nonessential information that I had to add to meet the requirements of the paper.  It should be interesting to people who live in the area.






 
I initially intended to expand upon these excerpts to make this work more meaningful for the historic sites in Chester County but have been very busy lately. This information is still interesting when trying to place a historical building  into a context.  In the future I may expand this to include some historic sites in Chester County and 18th and 19th century farming practices. Most of the additions will be focused around the Pratt House.

For those of you interested in the Pratts, here's a sneak peak:

In 1774, tax records report that Joseph Pratt:

• Had 180 acres of land.
• Had the most horses in Edgmont at 5.
• Had the most cattle in Edgmont at 8.
• Had the most sheep in Edgmont at 12.
• Had 1 servant. 5 other men in the township had 1 servant and 1 man in the township had 2 servants.

Hope you check out the Short History of Chester County and enjoy!

The Rebel Yell: Recording of the Rebel Yell

 A quick post before I go off to take a midterm. Smithsonian put out a video of Civil War veterans giving a rebel yell in the 1930s. It was years after the war and the men were much older, but it still gives us a pretty good idea of how it sounded.

I once was lucky enough to have an older gentleman demonstrate the yell for me. Clearly he was not a veteran of the war himself, but in his childhood he frequented veteran conventions. He said that the veterans in his town taught the young boys how to do it and that the young boys had great fun sneaking out at night and using it to cause a ruckus. 

I wasn't sure if he was doing it correctly, because he was elderly but I remember that it had breaks in the sound, just like in this video. At the reenactments I've been to, the Rebels typically make it a "rolling yell" with no distinct breaks in the sound.

Click the link below to view the video:

What Did the Rebel Yell Sound Like?

How to Make Civil War Period Corset Ties

 "My! I'm so uncomfortable; I've broke my stay-lace, and I have not got another. You couldn't lend me one, Betsy, could you?" said a young woman to her next-door neighbour, as, early one morning, they were both cleaning their door-steps.

'No,' replied Betsy,  'I haven't got a spare one; but there's the boy we get our matches and black-lead from; I dare say he'll get you one in a jiffey.'" - Hogg's Weekly Instructor, 1845

 Been looking for period laces for your corset? Or laces for your shoes or boots? You're in luck because they are very easy to make. I've been meaning to replace those awful modern shoelaces I've been using to fasten my corset.

During the 1850s and 60s, laces were made by machines but making laces was a cottage industry for frugal families. Poor girls in charity institutions were taught to make them as a way to make a bit of money and stay laces and boot laces were  popular street vendor items.

Cast on three stitches.

Slide the stitches to the right end of the needle.

Knit into the stitches normally. Slide the stitches to the right of the needle.

Repeat until you reach the necessary length and cast off.

Stay lace made with crochet cotton.

 Boot and shoe laces were made exactly the same way. This lace can also be used for creating frog fasteners as most modern frog style fasteners are made from synthetic materials. There are numerous instructions available for knitted laces and it is pretty much a universal pattern. In modern times, we call this an "i cord." 

Tintype

We got our tintype in the mail. I wish I would have thought to take off my apron. Andy doesn't like the fact that he isn't wearing his glasses and the fact that his blue eyes look white. My sister says that I didn't get the "angry stare" down. :D

I recommend getting an image taken although it is expensive, it was a lot of fun and didn't take as long a time as people say it does. The whole process is long, but the taking the image is done in a few seconds. It's a long exposure time by modern standards but not unreasonable.   

It Should Not Snow in October

This will be a very quick post as I should get right back to working on that crazy project I have for school that I am tired of doing/talking/thinking about. I know that everyone I know is tired of hearing about it. Believe me, I wish I could have a life again and spend time with my friends and family.

To clarify, this project was advertised by the professor and previous students as the project that will make you cry every night and have a mental breakdown.  Well that is exactly what it is, so thank you for systematically planning depression into your students. It’s been a real joy. You have removed the ability for me to get anything done due to this anxiety that makes me want to do nothing but sleep and cry all of the time.

But no one has time for sleep or crying so we are all insomniac zombies roving around campus pumping shots of espresso into our Red Bulls. (Alternatively, I hear that another popular drink is “double brewed” coffee, where one uses coffee instead of water to make coffee.)  Although I don’t drink anything but water, I was advised to pick up a caffeine habit for 2 weeks. :D The class has a "happy hour" planned the minute class ends on the 9th. I'd rather just sleep.   

Things I look forward to once this project is dead and buried (November 9^th 2011):

-Cleaning the House. Yes, the house is absolutely disgusting and I wish I could clean it. I would probably get more work done if I just cleaned it because it is very distracting. I should really do laundry too.  

-Spending time on my other assignments. I have a lot of other big assignments but this one is huge and has been head butting the other assignments out of the way so that I am turning in a lot of subpar papers. I feel like telling my professors: “I promise you, I’m not stupid.” Anxiety is killing my brain to the point that I can’t think of names, dates, places and simple words when I need them.  Professors who know me know that something is wrong but those who don’t know me probably just think that I am stupid. 

-Going out of the house. I have been confined to the house and the library. I have a collection of errands I need to go on and no hours to go. Even more, I’d love to get to do something fun.  Not having any fun makes living pretty crappy and probably feeds the unending cycle of anxiety.  

But back to snow, I am in earnest need of getting to the library and am not sure it will be possible with this storm. 

Snow on the skylight in the kitchen.

Snow in the back yard.

I know I should look at this as a time to relax and do something not school related, but I have so much to do that I constantly feel guilty when I am doing something not related to this project.Sorry about the quality of the photos, the lens on my camera got dirty at Cedar Creek so the photos are coming out a bit smeary until I figure out how to clean it.