| This week's article continues detailing life on Linekin Neck through information found in an 1860s Holbrook store account book. Of the purchases, most were food, and nearly all were staples. The most common items were sugar, pork, lard, molasses, and saleratus (baking soda). 
Holbrook House & Store on Linekin Neck about 1890
The attached store was located on the right side of the structure.
Molasses An enormous quantity of molasses was consumed. In the first two months of sales, fifteen families bought between one and nine gallons of molasses at 60 cents a gallon, most buying more than five gallons. Buyers brought their own containers to fill from the barrel, George Vanhorn having an odd sized one since he customarily bought one and a half gallons at a time. Molasses, half the cost of sugar, was a universal sweetener; and poured on bread, it was a common simple meal or dessert. Some residents may have fermented or distilled molasses. I remember Cecil Pierce telling me that about 80 years ago, a Mr. Graves on Southport had a still and made his own rum. One day while Cecil was working at Pinkham's Store, Graves came and spotted a spoiled barrel of molasses with a layer of dead flies an inch thick on it. He declared it was just what he wanted and took it home to power it up. Flour and Fish Holbrook's sales of flour and fish are noticeable by their absence. Of the approximately 3,200 different transactions, less than ten involved flour and fish. According to Cecil, on Southport people ordinarily bought their flour "in wood'' in 196-pound barrels or sometimes in 24 1/2-pound paper bags, an eighth of a barrel. Though nearly no Holbrook flour sales are recorded, in December 1868 the store sold 42 (empty) 25 cent flour barrels to the Suffolk Oil Company, a pogie factory. The store perhaps had another building with its own account book dedicated to such bulk items as flour and fish, maybe down by the water where the goods would have been delivered and stored. Similarly, at Pierce & Hartung's hardware store on the east side, you entered the store for tools and so on, but went down back by the water to get your lumber. Many of the Linekin Neck fishermen may have made their own fish, salting and drying their catch for home consumption. In terms of purchasing fish, Lester Barter explained to me how Harbor townspeople bought fish when he was young in the 1910s, and it probably was the same on 1860s Linekin Neck. Lester's family bought slack salted pollock by the kench. A kench was about 20 or 25 pounds of dried fish, laid alternately head to tail, tied up in a bunch for sale - no box, no paper, just the fish and twine. The Barters ordered theirs from Chris Nicholson of Monhegan Island, who sent notes to his customers alerting them when he would arrive at the Harbor with their orders, at which time the clients would cluster at the dock to get their fish. Lester said Monhegan fish was high quality since it was said there were few flies out there. Fish drying on flakes in the open air naturally attracted a lot of flies, and according to Lester, cayenne pepper was, often sprinkled on drying fish to discourage flies. Vegetables, Milk, Tobacco, and Fruit Noticeable by their absence from the Holbrook account book are vegetables and milk, a good indicator that almost everybody had a cow and a garden, generally the state of things locally. An exception - December 1, 1866, George Vanhorn bought 68 pounds of turnips at a penny a pound. Winter to me would look pretty bleak with all those turnips to get through. Lesser amounts of hard bread, salt, potatoes, crackers, veal, beef, tallow, beans, tobacco, tea, coffee, rice, and eggs were sold. Tobacco was sold in many ways: by the head, the hand, the fig, the plug, the pound, and the pack. A pound cost 90 cents, while a fig, a plug, a hand, and a head, perhaps all the same thing, cost 16 cents; though sometimes a plug was 6 cents. Raisins at 30 cents a pound and apples at 18 cents a pound were the only fruits available, with one exception. In 1867 six oranges were sold. Perhaps they arrived at the store via the sloop Little Nell which bought some items May 31, 1867. The first two oranges sold for 4 cents on June 1, the second two for 5 cents on June 3, and the last two for 8 cents the same day - now that's 100% inflation in two days! Nutmeg, cassia, mustard, cloves, and a very little peppermint were the only members of the spice/herb family that passed over the counter. Luxuries such as candy, gum, and peanuts were rarely sold. I have no idea what a 10 cent "mottle nappy" is -a tablecloth? The above foods were nearly all that were sold. Page after page you see the same items over and over. The Pogie Factories The Holbrooks provided labor and transportation for the pogie factories, fish plants that processed the netted pogies (menhaden) for oil and fertilizer. The population zoomed up with imported labor when the factories ran from late spring to fall. On the 1870 census, about a third of the population between Priest's Hill and Grimes Cove were the 72 extra pogie workers, many from Rhode Island, the birthplace of the pogie fishery. There were dormitories for the workers, many of them Cape Verdean blacks from Rhode Island. The Holbrooks often rented their oxen to Peck & Glover (a pogie factory located just north of the store) for $1.50 a day, as much pay as a man. The many entries for "Holling out Sane" imply they had a rig on their wharf to haul the pogie ,vessels' : seines. Every September they- hauled the Gallup factory's "carrarway boats" and launched them every spring, probably storing them in the fields. In May of 1867, they brought Peck & Glover's boats and sails from the Harbor where they had been stored. In 1867 Peck & Glover might have had trouble making their payroll because on a few occasions that summer the factory borrowed more than $100 from the store. On October 20, 1868 Nathaniel Foster rented oxen to haul rockweed and chum (fish scrap), probably to fertilize his garden. A few days later, the Holbrooks bought a ton of scrap from the Suffolk Oil Works, probably for fertilizer. The factories were shutting down and extra produce was being disposed of. The pogie factories seemed to take some care of their property, apparently having sheep which the Holbrooks sheared every May and gardens that the Holbrooks "ploughed" and harrowed every June. In May of 1869 the Holbrooks charged the Suffolk Oil Works for "self and oxen on potatoe ground." No doubt the pogie factories grew what food they could to feed their help. Often the sloop Shannon picked up groceries from the store for a pogie factory's "cookhouse." The Holbrook business filled many roles. It served as a grocery store, a hardware store, a dry goods store, a stable, a bank, a renter of heavy equipment (oxen), a shoe repair shop, and a boat storage facility. You begin to see how such a typical small community supplied everything for itself with one-stop shopping. The Holbrook store was the mall. |
