Experience Stone's fire

The kitchen is the heart of the home.  As true as that is today, imagine what life was like without our fancy granite-laden, stainless steel clad (not to mention electrified) HGTV kitchens.  

Before the modern stove and indoor plumbing, life revolved around the fire, and homes were built around chimneys and fireplaces.  All cooking was done over the fire.  Taking a bath this week? No fire meant you got a cold bath.  Cold hands and bodies stood by the fire.  Hot coffee was not a push of a button.  Who's gonna wake up early, pump the water then start the fire to get that water boiling?

If the fire went out, your day was ruined.  Families could not leave the fire unattended for very long.

This short post is to imagine my 5x great grandmother, Experience Stone, and all the time she spent at her hearth.

Family member name: Experience Stone (best name ever)
Tree branch: Pearson
Lifetime: 1757-1827
Relation: My 5x great grandmother (my dad's dad's mom's dad's mom's mom's mom)

Not only did she have a husband and 10 children to feed, but they also fed hungry travelers.  Around 1800, they built their new home in Falmouth, Maine and turned it into a tavern.  It was called the Hall Tavern.  Nicholas Hall was her husband.

The Hall Tavern became an Inn.  Over 200 years later it is still an inn, now a historical landmark and called the Quaker Tavern B&B, since the Hall's were Quakers.

Quaker Tavern B&B

It was a gorgeous autumn weekend in 2016 to spend the night at my ancestor's home.  I woke up in their freezing cold bedroom, which is the true Maine experience.  I walked up and down their perfectly creaky stairs. I looked out their original lead-glass windows to see the gorgeous colored leaves, maybe even falling from the same trees.

And I sat at my grandmother's hearth. The fire was out.  But I could see her there, being the best mom and business owner she could be.

Experience Stone's hearth at the Quaker Tavern B&B

Experience Stone's view.

Locust Grove

My great great great grandmother was a Morse. Her first cousin was Samuel Morse, the inventor of the telegraph and Morse code (dot dot dash dash). 

Family member name: Samuel Finley Breese Morse
Lifetime: 1791 - 1872
Tree branch: Pearson
Relation: My 1st cousin, 6x removed (meaning = if I was born 6 generations ago we’d be 1st cousins)

I love finding out where my ancestors lived and how they lived. My dad came to visit us one weekend and we drove up to Poughkeepsie, NY to see Samuel Morse’s summer home. 

Just a bit of background... Before Samuel Morse invented the telegraph, he was an artist. Besides a very good start, he was mostly a starving artist (though extremely talented and famous in his own right) and usually could not pay the bills. His wife and children almost never had a home of their own because they couldn’t afford the rent. They lived with different family members and borrowed money often.  


With the riches from the telegraph later on in his life, he bought and extensively renovated a large home north of Manhattan.  The name of the estate is Locust Grove.  It is now a historical landmark and makes for a lovely afternoon tour. Morse was called Finley by his family. The pictures below are of Finley’s first cousin's descendant, my dad.

PS: Locust Grove doesn’t seem to give discounts for family members. ;)

Descendant of Samuel Morse's first cousin.

Outside Locust Grove, Poughkeepsie, NY.  It was pouring.

Locust Grove entry and a carriage similar to what the Morse family would have used.