THE TOMLINSON FAMILY RECORD
By Dr. S. W. Heath, 1905
Page 145
CONCLUSION
In the Biographical department many things have been omitted
which should be added at the close, since they belong to all members
in common. The inconveniences, sacrifices, and deprivations of the
first and second generations should be mentioned. Their homes were
lighted first by the bark torch, then the grease dish with a rag laid
in it for a wick. This was followed by a grease lamp which gave out
more smoke than light. A great improvement was made when they reached
to tallow candle age and a part of every mother's Saturday work was to
mold two or three dozen tallow candles for the coming week. The
kerosene lamp appeared about 1860 with kerosene selling at 75 cents per
gallon.
Clothing worn by these early pioneers consisted of woolen homespun;
that is wool carded into rolls the size of your finger and two
feet long. These were spun into threads about ten feet long on a
large spinning wheel, the mother turning the wheel with a stick, then
walking backward to draw out the thread, which was afterward run up
on the spindle, which was reeled off into skeins and dyed with walnut
bark into a brindle dog brown color called butternut (because dyed
with butternut bark) and when a boy was dressed up in a new suit of
this and looked at himself it made him feel quite sheepish.
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