Village Life in Olean in 1872

Uptown Olean in 1870's
MEMORIES OF FRED L. EATON
This interesting article was told by Mr. Eaton in 1897
concerning Village life in Olean in 1872.
It may be well to state that Olean, and in fact, a large part of what was known as the Holland Purchase, was settled by New England people; so that there had always been present in our population a very perceptible sprinkling of the down east Yankee, more or less modified to be sure, to suit his new environment. The Yankee characteristics of the parents were manifested largely in the children, and may have influenced somewhat the judgment of the writer, for you must remember it is the observation and experience of a boy, which I bring to you with such slight change as the matured thoughts of the subsequent man may have impressed upon it.

This community at the period we are considering numbered approximately from 1,500 to 1,800 people, and its prevailing social business atmosphere was quite that of an average New England village. It had recently suffered as every other community in this great action had suffered the loss of some of its soldier citizens, upon the battlefields of the Rebellion, and there was here and there a child or a group of children who were known to the youthful population as orphans, whose fathers had been killed in the war.

Owing to the fact that the village had been assisted, or retarded, as the case may have been, at its birth by having been associated with a real estate speculation, it possessed wide grass grown streets and a number of open or vacant spaces; those occurred in various parts of the village and were called commons. The lots lying south of State and east of Clinton were thus vacant and open; those in the center of the block between Henley and State, on the east side of First Street, and extending through to Union, including the land occupied so long by the residence of Judge Bolle were also vacant. There was another large tract north of State extending from Fourth Street almost to Second and half way up to Laurens Street. Yet another extended from Clinton Street were once pastures for the villager's cows and playgrounds for their children.

In addition to those mentioned, there were others, smaller in extent scattered here and there and they all served as catch-alls for rubbish, as places to build bon-fires and fire off cannon and anvils at times of public celebration. There was also, what was called the Academy Woods, extending from Fourth Street west to Twelfth or Thirteenth Street and from Washington and Buffalo Streets north to the Erie Railroad. Just east of where the car shops now stand and in the midst of an Oak thicket, stood a little wooden building, mysteriously spoken of by the lads who roamed the woods as the 'pest house'; and there was a great and superstitious fear of the place and its surroundings, none venturing to get nearer than good gunshot. The building stood unoccupied for years, and I have since learned was used as a smallpox hospital upon but one occasion.

During the whole of my boyhood, there was an open space on the west side of Union Street extending from the store building now occupied by Dr. Coon, to that occupied by James Black; and nothing but a row of yawning cellars and crumbling walls was to be seen as a foreground, while the background was filled in with a stable or two and a few survivors of an ancient orchard, the gnarled, crooked and half dead trees remaining, serving as targets in the fruiting season, for the miscellaneous assortment of things the small boy with a man's appetite will throw at an apple tree.

Having thus briefly described the externals of our then nascent city, I will now try to enlighten you as to its life, social and otherwise. The day of the milkman with his cart and bell had not yet arrived, and most of the citizens owned a cow or cows, which in the summer season were pastured in the streets and upon the commons before adverted to. The little boys of those of the citizens who did not own a cow, were charged with the duty of once or twice each day carrying a pail to the back door of that one of the citizens who did own a cow, and of whom the family purchased milk for the daily supply; and I can personally remember a daily journey of this character to the kitchen door of the village's wealthiest citizen, and of receiving from the hand of his thrifty and frugal wife the daily supply; nor was there ever any hesitancy on her part in taking the 6 or 8 cents in exchange. In fact, I think that life was in all respects simpler, and people were nearer together, and that there was really more wholesome fun in the world. And I believe today this will be found to be true in the smaller and more isolated communities. The sense of neighborhood and of neighborliness has not been lost; the people go into each others home in the evening, or at such times as suits them, and serve and are served possible, cider and doughnuts, if you please, but the thing about it is that they don't feel called upon to apologize because the lard was either too hot or not hot enough at the time of the frying.

The social function was almost wholly confined to what were termed tea parties, at which each village dame duly appeared dressed in her best, and generally only, black silk dress. These affairs were usually quite formal, taking place in the late afternoon and early evening, and the men of the community were seldom very much in evidence.

Tea parties of the character indicated, were supplemented at not infrequent intervals by church sociables, donations and other informal entertainment fostered by the various church organizations, card playing and dancing were forms of amusements, which receive little countenance and little encouragement. It is true the wicked Episcopalians did not set their faces against these particular forms of amusement with the same persistence and glory in their self-righteousness, as the members of some of the other denominations, but contented themselves with viewing the matter somewhat askance it may be, but still leniently.

I was a good little Presbyterian boy, and can remember quite distinctly of being scandalized; upon more than one occasion, when attending an Episcopalian church sociable, held at the house of someone of that communion. In wandering aimlessly about from room to room as a child will, on the occasions referred to, I would sometimes come across a quartet of mothers and fathers in Israel, playing whist in some quiet corner; I can remember distinctly just how wicked those bright colored, oddly designed, painted cards appeared. Lest someone should mistake this bit of pleasantry, I make haste to add that I don't really regard Episcopalians as wicked, but on the contrary, am rather inclined to the opinion that they are a part at least of the salt of the earth; and I am free to say that my views upon dining and card parties, have to some extent, become modified as I have grown older.

I think sometimes that we forget how recent has been the artistic awakening of the people, and how new is their appreciation of what is beautiful and true in the world of art. By the people, I mean those of us of whom it may be said without reproach, that we are the well to do and the moderately well to do of average American communities. It must be granted that this community as it existed twenty-five years ago, (1872), did not differ material from other communities throughout the length and breadth of the land; and in respect of its consciousness of the beautiful, as exemplified in the art of home adornment, must be regarded as having been more or less typical. Bare walls and unadorned homes were not only the rule, but there were no exceptions; and such pictures and decorations as did exist were of the crudest and most unsatisfactory character from every conceivable standpoint.

There would be in every home one, possible two, steel engravings of large size, and the same subject was depicted in almost every house. I judge the pictures must have been sold by subscription, and the canvasser must have caught every householder in town as he came to him. And the pictures, they were visions of Judgment, or Webster addressing the Senate, or other lay, platitudinous subjects, mostly without the contemporary interest which attached to the picture last named. These works of art were for the most part harsh in outline and bad in drawing. I resume there are many of them today tucked away in garrets, in hidden and forgotten corners. There were also pictures of another sort, French prints of some character in washed-out colors representing simpering ladies in the fashion-plate attitudes of that day. There was never a beautiful wood cut of soft tone, correct drawing and perspective; and as for our lithographs and our pretty half-tone pictures made by a half hundred different processes, there was nothing like them nor yet like the exquisitely colored modern chromo. Verily art for the people has been cheapened and exalted at one and the same time.

Art in another form was also known to the community. There were wreaths constructed of different materials, hair wreaths, shell wreaths, and wreaths made of corn, wheat, oats and other grains, fashioned into cone and prism shaped flowers. Oh, but they were marvels of misplaced energy and ingenuity, and altogether beautiful to see. These were usually put behind glass in an oval frame, and hung in the dining room just under the clock. There is certainly something sepulchrally suggestive about adornments of the character indicated.

But the artistic impulse, which started with the Centennial Exposition, and gradually spread itself throughout the land, commenced to be felt in near and remove places alike.

The writings and ideas of Ruskin also began slowly to diffuse themselves through the intellectual ferment, and produce therein sound and wholesome results. Mechanical ingenuity entered into development, and we who have grown to adulthood and middle age have witnessed the gradual metamorphoses, which have taken place, bring into the homes of those of small means, real beauty and artistic worth in a hundred different forms.

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