Jacob Prescott was an amazing man, and was always busy!
He lived to be an old man, and died at the age of eighty-six,
from Senile Bronchitis in Deerfield, New Hampshire.
He used to be a farmer, but quit for some strange reason,
and went on to become an innkeeper. Towards the end
of his life he was a middle-class, average man. Personally,
I think it was because he didn’t make much money in
farming, so he became an innkeeper. He was raking
in the big bucks, but had to pay off all of his debt from
farming, so it all evened out, and he turned out to being
in-between rich and poor. He was not only well educated,
but was respected by the community, and donated land to the
town of Deerfield. He went to church every Sunday, but
didn’t donate money until right before he died.
He was selfish in doing so, but it shows that he must have
budgeted his money well, been frugal, and had a really successful
business for back then. His so-called “Hotel”
was located on Deerfield Parade, in Deerfield, New Hampshire.
It still exists today!
One thing that would stand out if you were looking at his
house was the size of the door; it could have been used for
giants! His “hotel” consisted of ten rooms,
and was originally built in 1800 as a private residence.
There was original wall sponge stenciling on the walls, and
when the Prescotts moved there they had gotten rid of the
big chimney, so they could put in two smaller stove chimneys.
The walls were made of plaster, and the ceilings were made
of horsehair and plaster. All of the rooms had Indian
shutters (shutters you could put in the windows from the inside
the house); these gave the people privacy, and saved them
from huge, cold, ghastly winds. His “hotel”
was extremely spacious especially since it included the breezeway,
barn, and carriage shed.
His “hotel” was across the street from a private
academy, and a while later the Prescotts donated one-fourth
of an acre of their land to the town, and that land was the
home of a modernly furnished schoolhouse.
Was it really a hotel where people stayed over night for long
periods of time? Well, advertisements were listed under
hotels, and would say: Glenwood House, J.W. Prescott prop:
Deerfield Center. It wasn’t really a hotel; it
was more like a carriage house that had a bar and rooms in
case people needed to stay because their carriages didn’t
arrive. If they did, their room would be very small,
and they would have to share it with two to five other people.
There were several inns and taverns in Deerfield in the 1800’s,
but this was different, and much better because his carriage
house included both of those, plus was a great, relaxing,
resting spot to wait for carriages. It was where people
would be dropped off from their carriage and wait for one
that would go to their designated destination. While
people were waiting for their carriage they could go inside
to the tavern, which was located in the front two rooms.
They had bottles that had an automatic stopper in it which
only let people take one swig of beer, so people wouldn’t
get greedy, and there would be some left for other people.
These were called pig bottles.
If they wanted a jolly good time they could go upstairs to
the two small rooms, where there was a hinged wall, with hooks
in the ceiling, and they could raise the wall and hook it
on the ceiling to have a humongous ballroom for dancing as
mellow, or as crazily as they felt like. Before the
Prescotts lived there these two rooms could turn into a bigger
one, which was used as a public meeting room, and was why
these rooms had abnormally high ceilings.
In the winter they would use horse-pulled sleighs instead
of carriages because they glided along, instead of getting
stuck so much.
The stagecoaches and sleighs that brought travelers were rather
large, and could hold about fifteen to twenty people!
The kitchen would have had a wood stove, with a hearth, and
would have been filled with scrumptious smells because they
had to feed their whole family, as well as all of their hungry
guests’ bellies.
Some other rooms that they had in this house back then, were
a huge dining room, laundry room, pantry, family room, and
an office. They had one outdoor room, behind their house,
which wasn’t unusual for back then, and it was their
smelly outhouse. The laundry room, and gigantic pantry
connected to the breezeway between the house and the barn.
They also had a bulkhead, which led to their cellar where
they probably stored meats and spices until they were ready
to use them. There were dirt basements, which had gullies
that ran from end to end, so there wasn’t any danger
of flooding.
There were hooks on the wall near the back staircase, and
what they were used as is a mystery; some people think that’s
where they might have dried out their spices, hung their meats
on them, or even hung clothes on them; no one will ever know.
They would have kept various kinds of animals in their barn,
and the walls had advertisements, and some were quite a few
times bigger than humans.
One of the original tavern drinking glasses (used for beer
or wine) still exists in his house today. It was a pale
green colored glass that was hand blown. A corner cabinet
made of rare chestnut wood can still be found in his house
today. The front of it is very fancy, but the back is
very plain, which shows that even people way back then were
frugal, and knew how to budget their money.
The owners now wanted to buy a stove that Jacob would’ve
had, so they bought one! A little while later they found
a piece of his original stove and realized it was the same
exact model that they had bought. They polished the
original piece of the stove and put it on their stove, so
now it has that one special attachment!
The same family that lives there found runners from one of
the original sleighs out in the woods right around where they
found part of the old stove. They had some awesome discoveries,
and interesting thoughts as well. They thought that
the Prescotts made, or were related to people who made musical
instruments, such as cellos and bases. I bet they found
musical instruments, parts of them, or newspaper articles
with their name in them, to persuade them into thinking this.
All the various information fit together in the end, to create
an amazing story that doesn’t stop you from wondering!
I can really visualize what life was like for him and his
family, thanks to all that exciting research, and my special,
extremely fortunate, visit to Jacob Prescotts’ house!
Bibliography
- E-mail to John Fladd, from Mel Graykin, On Thursday,
22 January 2004 15:45:05-0500, http://www.sau53.org/horde/imp/view.php?thismailbox=INBOX&index=96&id=1&action…
- Interview With The Runion- Berefords
- Jacob Prescott’s House Tour
- Real estate listing from Historical Significance
- Real estate listing from An Outstanding Property
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