We of the third generation, as well as our forefathers, have also been in a like habit of drinking cider during the greater part of our lives, and for many years in the habit of drinking all sorts of spirituous liquors without a single individual of us becoming what is termed a drunkard, but two or three of our class did sometimes become intoxicated and made a considerable approach towards being entirely overcome by the effect of liquor. Such also was the advancement of Gumaer toward those allurements as has been mentioned and there have been rare instances of some of us of sober lives becoming intoxicated. It is now (in 1858) 168 years since this neighborhood was first settled. Take 28 years from this time for the growth of an orchard to make cider, and 140 years remain for the use of its production which must have become plentiful within a less time than 28 years, for the first orchards of Cuddeback and Gumaer and one of Swartwout, which became Van Inwegen's, were on the very best of their river flats and must have had a very quick growth; the trees became large and were between two and three feet in diameter about the year 1780 when they appeared to have their full growth and some limbs began to die. From all of which we have reason to infer that the manufacturing of cider commenced here before the year 1720 and that much of it had been drank here from that time until the year 1840, previous to which its use began to abate and within that time many other spirituous liquors have been used with a mere trifle of intoxication for so long a time.
Now, although we and our forefathers received a mere trifle of the bad effects of liquors in this respect, yet the constitution of some of us must have been injured by their use. I, myself, have experienced the bad effects therefrom in respect to my own constitution, which at one time became so weak against its effects that if I drank so as to feel the least alteration from its influence it hurt me. This, however, was not the case with many others; some hard drinking men who came here among us remained healthy and lived to be old. Whether such would or would not have arrived to an older age without the use of liquor is uncertain.
Our diets continued to be the same as has been mentioned for some years after the Revolutionary War ended; but the diets of mush, &c., which were eaten with milk, began to be abandoned after different kinds of teas and coffee began to be used, and, after becoming generally used, the milk diets were in a manner wholly abandoned. In these drinks a little milk and sugar was put; molasses also was very plentifully used, and with this, sugar and other articles, many palatable, different kinds of sweet cakes, pies, &c., were made; also, different kinds of spices became fashionable for adding agreeable flavors to some diets. Now, all these are eatables and drinks which we did not have in our early days. In addition to all these we now have different kinds of preserves made with sugar, molasses, and different sorts of fruit, berries, &c., and some other diets we did not have.
After tea and coffee had been used for some time, they were preferred by the young people to the milk diet; but some of the older class, who had been habituated to eating buttermilk pop, mush and milk, and other diets, often chose to have these in preference to tea or coffee. Such are the effects of habit.
As to our industry and labors for the support of our families and to make advancement, they continued during our lives to be about the same on an average as those of our parents, in which some were more persevering and others less than their respective parents.
The inhabitants of the lower neighborhood who were contemporary with our parents, and those who were the same with ourselves, have also continued and progressed in about the same manner as we and our parents have done in the habits of life mentioned.
After our manner of living changed, we were from time to time afflicted with ailments and diseases which all have continued to suffer at times, more or less, until the present time; but of late years have not had such mortal distempers in this vicinity as some we had at certain previous periods.
[PHYSICAL STRENGTH OF FIRST GENERATION.]
The first generation of the sons of the four families were reputed to have been strong men. It was said that the three eldest sons of Jacob Cuddeback, Benjamin, William and James, could carry 12 skipple wheat (9 bushels), by putting it into four three-skipple sacks, and, placing one under each arm and taking hold with each hand of the top of the others, could, on a barn floor, in this manner carry it from one end of the barn to the other; and that Anthony Swartwout's two sons, Samuel and James, could do the same, and that Harmanus Van Inwegen's son Gerardus, who was a smaller man, could carry it a few steps. Abraham Cuddeback, youngest son of his father, could not do it, nor Peter Gumaer's son Peter, so that only two out of eight were unable to carry it. From which the difference of their bodily strength, and that of those now on the stage of action becomes apparent.