The Bark Covered House Chapter 25 Jon Reads To You

0:00 welcome back to the bark covered house by William Nolan and we are on chapter

0:06 25 of the book today it's called making a bargain when I was 21 we had

0:12 a good young team of our own and father made it a rule to go

0:17 to Detroit once in two weeks with butter

0:21 and eggs when we had other farm products he

0:24 went oftener every other Friday was his Market

0:28 Day for butter and eggs his butter was

0:30 contracted at Detroit by the season for one

0:34 shilling a pound and father thought that it

0:37 did very well but starting early he could go and do his marketing and return

0:43 by noon how different from what it was when it took us two nights in a day

0:48 sometimes more to go to Detroit and back father had to sell his produce cheap

0:54 when we had commenced raising and had some to sell all appeared to have an abund

1:00 to sell Detroit Market seemed rather small not

1:04 having its outlets for shipping and everything we

1:06 had to sell was cheap we also bought cheap we had good tea for 50 cents

1:12 a pound sugar from 6 to 10 cents per pound and clothing much cheaper than it

1:18 was when we came to Michigan we could buy brown sheeting for 6 to 8 cents

1:26 per yard very different from what it was when everything we bought was so dear

1:31 and when we had so little to buy with one day father and I went to Detroit

1:35 with a large load of oats and we drove on to the market and offered

1:39 them for sale 18 cents a bushel was the highest offer we could get for them

1:44 and father sold them for that price we fattened some pork and took it to Detroit

1:49 and sold it for 20 Shillings per 100

1:52 weight in days back father had often paid one

1:57 shilling a pound for pork and brought it home on his arm in a basket over

2:03 2 mil now we were able to sell more than we had to buy and the balance

2:07 of the trade was in our favor and of course we were making some money

2:12 laying up some for a rainy day or against a time of need I told father

2:18 as we had a good team it would be handy if we got me a buggy

2:23 I could take mother at her pleasure and it would be very handy for me

2:27 to go around with so I went and bought bought one it was a double buggy

2:31 with two seats and after the buggy was

2:34 bought when mother and my sisters wished to go

2:36 to meeting or to visit friends I would hitch up the team and take them

2:40 in what I thought was a pretty good style we had what I called a gay team

2:46 and in fact a good rig for the woods of Michigan I took care of the team

2:50 and when I went out with them I tried to make those horses shine I trimmed

2:55 their head stalls with red balls as large

2:58 as hen's eggs and from them hung scarlet ribbons 6 in long when I came home

3:04 in the evenings between Sundown and Dark Through

3:08 the Woods the little horses made the evening

3:10 Breeze fan my passengers and we left the little songsters in the shade now I

3:17 worked very hard and helped father all I could

3:19 in fixing up his farm he had everything

3:21 around him that was necessary to make him

3:24 and mother comfortable about this time I formed

3:27 a more intimate acquaintance with a young lady

3:30 Miss Travis although her name was very familiar

3:34 to me and sounded very beautiful in my ear

3:36 somehow or other I wished to have it changed after I made this acquaintance I

3:41 thought I would go to Detroit and spend the next fourth and see what they were

3:46 doing there and try City Life a little as one of my sisters wanted to go

3:51 I gave Miss Travis an invitation to go

3:53 with us which invitations she accepted so when

3:57 the morning of the 4th came we started town we put up at the Eagle Tavern

4:02 on Woodbridge Street and spent the day very

4:06 patriotically we had what we thought a very

4:09 Splendid dinner we had the first cherry pie that some of us had eaten since we

4:15 came to Michigan we visited all the sites that we we could hear of and honored

4:20 almost every display with our presence when

4:23 the salute of the day was fired of course we were there and they fired one big

4:29 gun from Michigan as the cannon thundered forth

4:32 its fire and smoke it seemed to sweep

4:34 the street with its tremendous force it was

4:37 terrible and Grand it seemed to bid Defiance to all the world it was the salute

4:44 of the cannon of American Freeman we thought we would go over to Canada and see

4:50 what was going on there when we were across we observed that the people didn't

4:54 seem to be paying any attention to the fourth but we felt very much like whole

4:59 holding Independence and thought we would take

5:01 a walk down toward sandwich of course I was

5:05 seeing all I could of Canada but miss

5:08 Travis took the greater part of my attention

5:11 the more I enjoyed her company the more I thought in view of future life

5:16 that it was necessary for me to make a private bargain with her after we walked

5:21 as far as we thought it was pleasant we turned back toward Windsor when we were

5:26 nearly there we met a man and I

5:28 pointed over the river toward Detroit and asked him

5:30 saying what place is that yonder why he

5:34 says that's the United States of America over

5:37 there he answered me like a man with frankness

5:40 supposing that I was a stranger to Detroit

5:43 and accompanied by beautiful young ladies of Canada

5:47 he naturally supposed that I did not know

5:49 the place I left Canada thinking that all

5:52 of the North American continents ought to belong

5:55 to the United States we sailed back

5:58 to Detroit the Beautiful city of The Straits we

6:01 all felt as though we were at home in our own country and thanked Our Stars

6:05 that we did not live in Canada that we lived in the land of the free

6:10 and that our flag the old star spangle Banner waved over the home of the brave

6:15 we went back to the Eagle Tavern I told the Hustler I wanted my team

6:20 in a very few minutes he had it ready and we were on our way home enjoying

6:26 our evening ride I was very atten

6:29 and Vigilant in the presence of my company when

6:32 we were home we told our parents all the incidents of the day we had had

6:36 a good time and had enjoyed ourselves very much then I attended to hard work

6:42 and farming and I think it would have

6:44 been difficult to find a man who would have

6:47 performed more labor than I did until I was past 22 years old in the meantime

6:53 I was having an eye out and thinking of domestic affairs and life I will not

6:58 tell what the old folks would call it I call it falling in love with Miss

7:02 Travis I made a private bargain with her and got the consent of her father

7:06 and mother which was a hard job

7:08 for me although they acquiesced willingly it was also

7:12 approved by my parents we had it ratified

7:15 by a minister and afterwards I heard her called

7:19 by others Miss William or Mrs William Nolan

7:23 she had taken a new name upon herself

7:26 I left my father's home and built up one for myself myself and another and never

7:31 more to return to my father's house

7:33 and call it my home okay there's William Nolan's

7:38 uh chapter 25 of the bar covered house uh I love the part about you know

7:42 it's like hey Dad maybe maybe you ought to buy me a buggy so that you

7:45 know we can we can go to town in fact he even said buy me

7:49 a buggy not buy you or the family or whatever it's like the classic you know

7:54 16-year-old and and maybe dad you ought to buy me a car so that you know I

7:58 can take I can go to trips in the store and and it'll make it easier

8:03 very interesting that it's like sure go ahead you know buy a buggy um and they

8:08 they get a buggy with you know two seats not just you know one seat with two

8:12 people but you know you can you can

8:14 have a four-door sedan basically of the 1830s and then the funny you know he's

8:22 he talks he's talked before about these patriotic

8:26 uh sort of gatherings so the 4th of July lie is a big deal and uh

8:32 you know everybody comes into town and they

8:35 shoot off a Giant Cannon and and it's

8:37 all patriotic and of course Detroit is right

8:39 there with Windsor across the river they cross

8:42 the river he doesn't say how I'm sure there isn't a bridge so they probably

8:45 had little fairies he didn't discuss that but you

8:47 know he gets faired across the river

8:49 and of course yeah the Detroit and Windsor is so close that you can just walk

8:53 along the river even today there are sort

8:55 of parks on the Canadian side you can look over and see Detroit and and you know

9:01 there they are walking along in Canada looking at Detroit from afar and um then

9:08 that little conversation you know they have with somebody

9:11 about you know that's America over there

9:13 and and then the funny part about like I

9:17 think I think United States should own all of North America I like the way he

9:23 doesn't today we wouldn't we wouldn't necessarily say

9:26 that unless we were joking I don't know

9:28 how joking he is in there but and um I like the part about the the market

9:34 days so they go to town twice a week they go to sell you know

9:38 the the the eggs you know butter and of course he describes the idea that you

9:45 know what they had to offer was what

9:47 everybody else had to offer so everybody's got

9:50 eggs and butter except for you know

9:52 the the people in downtown whatever uh so that they

9:57 are cheap they're inexpensive and unfortunately there's no

10:00 shipping there's no you know way to transport

10:03 those eggs and butter out of Detroit and so since there's a plethora of of goods

10:09 those things sell pretty cheap at least there was a market for it and they were

10:13 able to make some money off of it um and of course when they came all

10:17 those things were expensive now everything is really

10:20 cheap because lots of people moved in and they're

10:22 producing exactly the same thing so standard

10:25 sort of Market situation but we get uh

10:28 a glimpse of just how that plays out with an individual right here and by now

10:34 in as he's writing at this point in his age these are he's probably writing um

10:41 and it's probably the 1840s by that time maybe even the late 1840s old enough

10:46 to you know drive a buggy around and and also um you know look for his future

10:52 wife so super interesting chapter I want to thank

10:56 you for for being part of this sort

10:57 of you know book study as it were as we read through one of the more

11:02 important books of understanding what it's like

11:06 to live in early America even though this is

11:10 1830s and 40s it still gives us a really good picture of what it was

11:15 like further east and earlier so still gives us an idea about what it would be

11:20 like you know in the late 18th century

11:23 or very very early 19th century whether you're

11:25 in Ohio or Pennsylvania uh one F book and I'm so so glad it's one

11:31 of those resources that we have available to us so I hope you have a great day