They did not keep a hotel, but people were in the habit of stopping
here, as it was a half-way house to Troy, and they found themselves
obliged to entertain a number of travelers.
Those were busy days for the family. Susan's journal contains many
entries such as, "Did a large washing to-day.... Spent to-day at the
spinning-wheel.... Baked 21 loaves of bread.... Wove three yards of
carpet yesterday.... Got my quilt out of the frame last 5th day.... The
new saw-mill has just been raised; we had 20 men to supper on 6th day,
and 12 on 7th day." But there were quilting-bees and apple-parings and
sleighing parties and many good times, for the elastic temperament of
youth rallies quickly from grief and misfortune. Susan went to
Presbyterian church one Sunday, and the gray-robed Quaker thus writes:
To see them partake of the Lord's supper, as they call it, was
indeed a solemn sight, but the dress of the communicants bespeaks
nothing but vanity of heart--curls, bows and artificials displayed
in profusion about most of them. They say they can dress in the
fashion without fixing their hearts on their costume, but surely if
their hearts were not vain and worldly, their dress would not be.
The attic in this old house was finished off for a ball-room; it was
said that great numbers of junk bottles had been laid under the floor
to give especially nice tone to the fiddles. The young people of the
village came to Daniel Anthony for permission to hold their
dancing-school here but, with true Quaker spirit, he refused. Finally
the committee came again and said: "You have taught us that we must not
drink or go about places where liquor is sold. The only other
dancing-hall in town is in a disreputable tavern, and if we can not
come here we shall be obliged to go there." So Mr. Anthony called a
council of his wife and elder daughters. The mother, remembering her
own youth and also having a tender solicitude for the moral welfare of
the young people, advised that they should have the hall. Mr. Anthony
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