Alford Tales -- Silas Rogers, Carpenter

The next page, dear reader tells of a sad story.  It's about loss, building, and squirrels.

Wood was a primary resource for the settlers of various areas of the United States.  They used it to houses, cooking, making furniture, and even tools.  Carpenters and wagon makers made their livings off the forests, but also the animals that lived there.

So, enjoy another of Margaret's tales.

I've named it simply "Silas Rogers, Carpenter"

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When I was about 6, I remember my Pa telling me a story from when he was a young man so, it must have been sometime about the year of our Lord 1760 or so.  They lived near the sawmill of Silas Rogers.  My Pa never talked about where this was, but the mill produced much lumber for the area.  Probably somewhere in eastern Virginia.  My Pa remembered his uncle Robert's carpenter shop and he would get wood from Silas Rogers to make chest of drawers, chairs, and table or whatever some one wanted.

My Pa told of a barn raising on Silas Roger's farm.  As I recall, it was in the spring.  Many of the neighbors came around to help.  We had many bees and barn raising was one of them.  Everyone working together to help each other.  Silas Roger's had three sons.  One was 12, one 18, and the oldest 22.  His name was Paul.  He had married a young woman and they had built a cabin on the back of Silas' land.  And now they needed a barn for crops and their cow and horses.  My Pa told me that while they were loading a oak beam, the rope broke and fell.  It had fallen on Silas' youngest son, Willie.  Killed him.  Willie and my Pa had been good friends and attended school together.  The rope had been gnawed on by a squirrel and made it weak.  Squirrel stew was served for their supper, for many days.  My Pa got tears in his eyes when he told us the story.

That was the first of many sad stories for Silas Roger's family that my Pa told.  Latter that year, poor Silas' crops were destroyed.  Not by fire or draught or storms, but by squirrels  That year, there was a might squirrel migration.  I've never seen one myself but have heard about them. Thousands of squirrels moved like a might ocean wave over the land, heading to wherever they went.  I've heard further west out in Ohio and Indiana and Illinois that squirrels migrated so thick.   

Pa said that Silas moved his family to Kentucky and got land.  And started a new carpenter shop.  People would be needing furniture and barrel staves and whatnot.  But a few years later, one squirrel caused a fire, killing almost the entire family.  Pa had heard the news from Silas' sister, Rachel Davidson.  They lived not far from us.  She told my Pa that a squirrel had gotten into shop and knocked over a lantern into a pile of shavings. The carpenter shop went up in flames.  And a strong wind blew them right onto the house.  It was winter and the family got trapped outside in the cold. Several of them got the fever and died. Silas died a few years after that.

Squirrels were a curse for the Rogers family.  My Pa said squirrel was on the table whenever possible. He did not like them.  Ma makes John squirrel ever so often.  Not really fond of it.  Probably why when your grandpa comes in with a squirrel, I throw it right out.  Tell him my Mrs. Glasse does not have a receipt for squirrel. Tell him to go right back out to get us a rabbit or he'll go hungry.  He likes a good roasted rabbit.  Some milk and butter to baste.  Some current jelly.  Potatoes, turnips, carrots, onions.  I always feel bad about making him go back out to hunt again, so I let him have cowslip wine.

That chair and your bedstead and Mr. Alford's chest of drawers were all made by Silas Rogers and his son Enoch.  When my Ma died, I got the bedstead and chair.  Always loved them.  Nice cherry wood in that bed.  Silas made furniture for many folks in Rockingham County.  John often traded for weaving up shirting and blankets for them.  Remind me when we talk again to tell you about the story about General Washington sitting in one of his chairs.