Ye Weary Come Home: Old Deerfield

LDS General Conference weekend was full of inspiring messages,

several of which mentioned the COVID-19 impacts on missionary work,

quick departures, isolation, delayed deployment, MTC home training.

There is likewise inspiration here in colorful foliage country.

Here, below, is the most colorful on a single branch award winner,

photographed by our NH friend Andrea. Stunning!

In mid-September, a cars errand brought us close enough 

to detour into middle upper Massachusetts to re-visit

Historic Deerfield village. One of our first visual delights

was a budding rosebush, with well-kept historic house behind.

The second half of this post will thumbnail that experience.

On a more domestic note, harvest foods are celebrating

the autumn season. We are enjoying pumpkin bread,

pumpkin ginger snaps, pumpkin spice cereal, cranberry

English muffins, fresh apple cider, and apples by the bushel.

Here is a variety I had not seen: Macoun out of

Massachusetts orchards. Midway on the sweetness

chart between Fuji (sweet) and Granny Smith (tart).

Missionary transfer activity has tentatively slowed down,

and so we pick back up our usual office cadences.

Elder Allison, of the Office Elders trio, has been assigned

to be trained and assume parts of my tasks and duties.

We celebrated the birthdays of two of our MTC group of

young missionaries that we got to know in Provo, Sister Semadeni

and Elder Persson. Finding small ways to help them celebrate

helped fill my lamp this week. (Elder Persson with Elder Knight

in Portland are "hotel" missionaries now, because all the regular

housing is filled. Concerned about their confined circumstances

I reached out, obtained a suggestion, then arranged and paid

for lunch for them to pick up on his birthday. Below is their text

with ordering specifics, and lamp-filling message.)

Another missionary interaction was encouraging and

brightened my day. Elder Stephens, a reassigned missionary

who had been whisked out of his original Phillipines assignment

last March requested language training materials that

he left behind during his rushed exit. Could we possibly find

and re-supply those materials so that he could keep improving

his skills toward the day when he can return to teach there?

Friday was Manchester District Council meeting, which "strategically"

concludes at lunchtime. We were able to treat the ten young

missionaries (plus Elder Warner, too) to pizza for lunch.

(They can't have food at in-person meetings yet - 

so they are collecting it out of my back hatch to take back

to apartments to consume it there - or somewhere on the way.)

Enroute to Worcester, I delivered materials (and pastries)

to the Peterborough Elders (Young and Hodgkin),

who humored me with a requested selfie in front of 

their too-cute New England residential apartment.

Classic New England!

Always get a little heart buzz when I read 

the road signs around Peterborough, because it is

inevitable not the hear the word in my mind morph

to become "Peter Barrow" (rhymes with "sparrow") who is

my remarkable nephew (recently recovered from COVID-19).

A less significant but still memorable part of the mid-Sept.

trip into Mass. and then back via Vermont was a side-trip

to the Vermont Country Store in Rockingham. Their catalog is

an intriguing mailbox find, so I wanted to have 

this in-person experience.

Nearly all we purchased (we arrived too late to dawdle)

were consumables, and I admit that the fudge did not even

last long enough for me to get home and take a picture.

With the story of Historic Deerfield on my mind today,

I was touched by the [recorded] music of Conference - 

that's NOT unusual. 

As I listened to the hymn lyrics to "Softly and Tenderly

Jesus is Calling" with its chorus of "Come home, come home,

ye who are weary, come home,"

my selected topic focused and came to life.

You see, a huge part of the historic story of Deerfield

developed because it was "home" for more than one culture.

And the results of the clashing and conflict have created 

many "come home" sentiments to those affected.

Here we are beginning our pandemic-changed visitor's

experience, in front of the Dwight House near the Flynt Center.

One of the new vocab additions for me that day was

the descriptive term for the layout of this style house:

the extension off the back - often as an addition that signals

increased prosperity by the homeowner - is called and spelled "el"

which I always translated in my mind to 'L', as in L-shaped.

I always find the historic markers instructive.

Find here the mention of the 1704 attack and the capture

and transport of townspeople to Canada. The 100+

who walked in February north across Vermont to Canada,

undoubtedly mourning and longing to return 'home'

This is our walking tour guide David who provided wonderful

information and insights, as a descendant of all three of

the groups involved in the raid: Deerfield residents,

Canadian French and Pocumtuck Native Tribe.

David explained why this location was important over the years,

as prime agricultural ground between the Deerfield River (left)

which flows north, and (off-map to the right) the Connecticut

River with headwaters in Canada that runs south to the Atlantic.

Water and transportation - few things more critical to settlement.

At the top of this old-style map is the end of the main Deerfield

roadway. Beyond that was the effective "wilderness" boundary.

In 1704, Deerfield was colonial America, but beyond was 

up for grabs, and the direction from whence arrived

repeated invasion from others.

A contemporary-to-us exhibit of photographs of the area

was on display in the Flynt Center of Early New England Life,

showing and quoting from accounts describing 

what the captives endured.

This interpretive painting, below, shows the 1704 Deerfield town,

behind its protective fortifications, attacked by the enemy

French come down from Canadian colonies, and their

Native American allies. Somehow the wall was breeched,

(snow had drifted up against the bulwarks),

and the assault was brutal. David's narrative was 

a balance of perspectives that it is helpful to remember.

As a retired history teacher, he talked about the purchase treaties

usually dealt to Native Americans, who did NOT believe

people could "own" the land, and therefore they did NOT

understand the concept of protected, proprietary land deals

and assumed they could still use, hunt and inhabit the areas.

(I like this image, but it doesn't look like February 29th.)

Among those taken captive in 1704 were the Rev. John Williams

and his family. His wife had given birth to their youngest child

within 6 or so weeks of the raid, and when she could not

keep pace by even the end of the first day, her life was taken

along with the infant. His teenage daughter survived the trek

and the captivity, and later was assimilated into the Native tribal

culture, and ignored pleas to return to Deerfield.

This book describes his experience.

Tragic story of clashing cultures and territorial aspirations,

but this history was part of Deerfield's "preservation capital",

and provided interest in restoration and collection by descendants,

residents and philanthropists who stepped in. Efforts began

as early as 1847, revitalized in the 1880s, then given emphasis 

by the Flynts after they enrolled their son in the Deerfield School

in 1936. Their considerable efforts and enlistment of other support

for the preservation proves them major benefactors.

This, below, is one of the homes that has been preserved:

the Wells-Thorn house, and this remarkable blue

is a true-to-history color, displaying the prosperity

of its owner, since blue was an expensive and elite color.

This front addition was added last, as parts of the 'el'

served as one-room house, then had added family quarters,

then finally the "five-over-five" windows parlor

and entertaining quarters.

This style home below, (Allen house) with unpainted 

wood exterior seems to capture so much of 

the old New England charm. We see this dark color

everywhere in our travels, and in spring I wonder why

such a dour color was chosen. Now in October, they often have

colorful wreaths on the doors, and orange pumpkins

on the stoop - visual impact becomes prize-worthy!

Here is another charmer, 

This home below is privately owned and inhabited.

As we walked, we enjoyed the changing foliage,

and also the wandering students from the Deerfield

School, with many classes being held outside in the mild

autumn weather, with teacher, display board, and students

in camp chairs sitting on grassy areas or safe-distance grouped

around porches that became teacher's rostrum,

and all with masks on.

We fit in a stop at the Old Burying Ground and had

a private tour with the idle guide there, awaiting a tour group

that didn't appear. This is the oldest stone, dated 1696.

A mass grave is memorialized for the massacre victims,

but many graves are unmarked, as proved by

ground-penetrating radar in the past decade.

We were enchanted by the funerary artwork on

old-style headstones - a more modern cemetery replaced

this one, so all headstones are old. This stone's image

illustrates what the carved text records: 

a mother and her baby interred together.

(A post on cemeteries will explore more in near future.)

Deerfield was the home of Joseph Stebbins who

responded to the Lexington Alarm at the start of

the War for Independence, and was captain

at the Battle of Bunker Hill.

The Flynt Museum offered informative exhibits on

clothing and textile arts, woodworking of the era and

area. Almost as a last thought, we were invited to climb

to second floor to see the "museum's attic" where much of their

additional collections were behind glass to be safe from

light and dust, but still cataloged and viewable.

Here are candle lamps with multi-faceted mirror discs

to help spread the flame light.

Pewter is among my favorite early American materials.

My eye was caught by these porringers, and then I read . . .

. . . the story of how the accompanying collection of tools

was found and added to the Museum's holdings,

including this rare "pewterer's touchmark" tool.

Following the end of the Civil War, interest in historic

locales, crafts and techniques had a resurgence.

In Deerfield, the "Society of Blue and White Needlework" 

promoted traditional crafts including wood working, 

furniture making, metalcraft, basketry, pottery

and netting. This is a historic piece of tapestry needlework.

Gorgeous!

Many more photos were clicked that day, of course.

As we toured and learned, looked and listened,

we appreciated once again the lives and work of

so many participants in our American history.

We had visited here once before, when daughter Kenzie

was a toddler. Some venues we remembered,

many more were new to us. Sorry that virus worries

kept us out of most of the homes.

Very happy to be here, near so much of

our country's rich and inspiring past.

Relishing each remaining week and day.