Throughout the year, Lincoln County Historical Association is celebrating the 260th anniversary of the Chapman-Hall House, which stands at the head of Main Street in Damariscotta. This is a good time to reflect on the life of a family in the middle of the 18th century.

We wonder if Nathaniel and Miriam Chapman had time to put in a garden when they built their house in 1754. A family generally had two gardens for food crops, one of which was positioned not far from the house and immediate out buildings. This “kitchen” garden would be planted with a variety of vegetables to be used as soon as they matured.

In addition to the kitchen garden, fields were planted to provide larger quantities of vegetables, such as potatoes, pumpkins, cabbages, and corn for winter storage and possibly for sale or trade. Oxen were used to turn the soil for the gardens, as draft horses had yet to come on the scene.

At the same time as the Chapmans established their home in Wiscasset, we know that a family living in similar circumstances in Charlestown, New Hampshire had a field garden well stocked with watermelons. Mrs. Susanna Johnson recorded the following: “On the evening of the 29th of August (1754) our house was visited by a party of neighbors, who spent time very cheerfully with watermelons and flip ... ” (Flip was a popular 18th century drink, the basis of which was ale, sweetened with sugar or maple sugar, and rum. Sometimes an egg was stirred in, and the whole mixture was heated with a red-hot poker taken from the fireplace.)

The Chapman-Hall House is one of three historic sites under the care of the Lincoln County Historical Association. The Lincoln County Historical Association, a nonprofit organization that provides stewardship for the 1754 Chapman-Hall House in Damariscotta, the 1761 Pownalborough Courthouse in Dresden, and the 1811 Old Jail and Museum in Wiscasset. For further information on the Lincoln County Historical Association please visit the website: www.lincolncountyhistory.com