The People Who Used to Live Where You Live

Did you know that 200 years ago in the place you live there were forests of trees higher than the trees that are there now? There were wild animals: bears, catamounts, and wolves, as well as moose and deer. The first settlers had great courage. They had no roads to travel from one place to another, just paths hacked through the dark woods. The first houses they built had no windows; the floors were dirt. Beds were mattresses made of pine branches. In this first edition of the The Stone House Times you will read about Samuel and Silence Cobb, two pioneer heroes from the village of Coventry.

Tug-of-war was once a very serious game. Grown-ups played it as much as children. Towns had teams sponsored by the fire department, police or different stores just as they may have softball teams today. When children played tug-of-war they tried to pull the opposing team across a chalk-line, sometimes through a ditch of water. Adult teams performed at town fairs and picnics and were sometimes drawn through pits of gooey mud or burning ashes. Women entered tug-of-war tournaments too, and often they won against men because many of them weighed more.