Quaker Hill / A Sociological Study

by Warren H. Wilson

Eagle never tried to sell his goods on the Hill, and indeed it is doubtful if he carried them for any other purpose than to conceal his real commodities, which were watches. Of these he carried a good selection of the better and of the cheaper sorts, all concealed in the center of his pack, among impossible dry goods and varied fancy wares.

An attempt was made to rob him, or at least to annoy him, by some young men; and he shot one of his assailants. For this offence he was, after trial, sent to the Asylum for the Criminal Insane.

His earlier journeys over the Hill found him a welcome guest at the Quaker homes. But the substitution of boarding for the ancient hospitality made the peddler unwelcome; and he passed through without stopping in his later years.

The Quarterly Meeting of the Society of Friends was the annual culmination of the hospitality of the Hill population. Coming in August, "after haying," it was for a century and a half the great assembly of the people of the Hill, and of their kindred and friends; and until the Orthodox Meeting ceased to meet, in 1905, there was Quarterly Meeting in the smaller Meeting House. The old hospitality was never diminished by the Quakers as long as their meetings continued. Even though the same house were filled with paying boarders, the family retreated to the attic, the best rooms were devoted to the "Friends travelling on truth's account;" and the same house saw hospitality of the old sort extended for one week to the religious guests, and of the new sort faithfully set forth for the guests who paid for it by the week.

The Quakeress and daughter of Quakers has produced the summer boarding-house; which is no more than the ample Quaker home, organized to extend the thrifty hospitality continuously for four months, for good payment in return, which has always been extended to Friends and visiting relatives for longer or shorter periods in the past, as an act of household grace.

The Quaker Hill woman is a good housekeeper. The substantial farmhouses on the Hill are outward signs of excellent homes within. The table is well spread, with a measured abundance, which satisfies but does not waste. The rooms are each furnished forth in spare and righteous daintiness, over which nowadays is poured, in occasional instances, a pretty modern color, timidly laid on, which does not remove the prim Quakerness. Ventures in the use of decoration, however, have been crude in most cases, and the results, so far as they have been effected by the taste of the woman of the Hill, are incongruous in color, and ill-assorted in design. It is in house-furnishing that the tendency of the daughter of the Quakers shows the most frequent variation. Occasionally one sees the outcropping of a really artistic spirit—peculiarly refreshing because so rare—which has only in a woman's mature years ventured to indulge in a bit of happy color; but the venture if successful is always reserved and simple; and the most of such ventures are of unhappy result.

The housekeeping arts have reached a high degree of perfection on the Hill. Cooking is there done with a precision, economy and tastefulness in sharp contrast to the non-aesthetic manner in which the Quakers conduct most occupations. It is, moreover, a kind of cooking after the Quaker manner, at once frugal and abundant. For of all people, the Quakers have learned to manage generously and economically.

The outcome of this housekeeping is the diversion of much of the business energy of the Hill to the "keeping of boarders." Seven of the old Quaker families, and one Irish Catholic household are devoted to the keeping of boarders; five of them being supported in the main by this business. Of these five families, however, four reside upon farms of more than one hundred and fifty acres apiece. These families sell at certain times in the year, a certain quantity of milk, or make butter, or fatten calves, but not as their central means of support.

To these farmhouses come year after year the same paying guests, each house having its own constituency, built up through thirty years of patient and unbroken service. The charm of the Quaker character, the excellence of the cooking and the enjoyable character of the other factors of the household, bring patrons back; while the benefits of the elevation and pure air are, to city dwellers, material returns for the moneys expended. For this board, the price charged is, in the Irish Catholic household, five dollars per week; in one of the oldtime Quaker houses, six dollars, and in the others from eight to ten or twelve dollars per week.

The season in which boarders can be secured in paying numbers is a period extending from June fifteenth to October first, with the houses filled only in the months of July and August. For this period, which is one continued strain upon the housekeepers and their aids, preparation begins as early as the month of March. The housework is generally done by the women of the family, with some employed help, of an inferior sort. The horses and carriages on the farm must be used for the transportation of guests, and for hire to those who drive for pleasure. On one farm sheep are kept; though most of the boarding-houses buy their meat supplies of the dealers mentioned below.