Lyddie: Chapter 01 - The Bear

Lyddie and her family lived in a cabin similar to this one at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont.

Photo credit Jessica Gallas, personal photo, c. 2020

Thirteen-year-old Lyddie Worthen lives on a small farm in Vermont with her mother, younger brother Charlie, and two younger sisters, Rachel and Agnes. In November of 1843, a bear disrupts their lives. Lyddie is cooking a pot of oatmeal when a bear, attracted to the smell, forces its way through the door of the house. The family retreats into the sleeping loft, out of the bear’s reach. The bear quickly discovers the oatmeal and sticks its head inside, getting the handle of the pot stuck around its neck. In pain, the bear crashes through the front door and into the forest.

Lyddie and her siblings laugh about the bear, but their religious mother takes it as a sign that the end of the world is near. Fearing the worst, she decides to move the family to the farm of her sister and brother-in-law. The children don’t want to go. Their father had gone west in hopes of making money and they want to wait for him to return. Their mother doesn’t think he will ever come back, but the children still have hope. The next morning Lyddie’s mother and siblings leave. Lyddie stays behind after convincing her mother that someone should take care of the farm.

Two weeks later, Charlie returns home. Together, Lyddie and Charlie take care of the farm through the winter, but they feel the pains of hunger when they run out of bread and milk, forcing them to resort to shooting rabbits and peeling bark for soup. When spring comes, their cow gives birth to a calf. They are happy to have milk and cream again, and they enjoy sugar from their maple trees. The siblings are feeling hopeful until they receive a letter from their mother. To help pay off the family’s debts, she lent the fields and pastures to a neighbor and hired Lyddie out to a tavern and Charles to a mill (probably a sawmill) to work. Their dreams of staying on the farm alone quickly end.

Fact Check: The End of the World

Lyddie’s mother is convinced the end of the world will happen soon. Did people in the 1840s really think the end of the world was coming?

What do we know?

The period spanning the late 1700s and early 1800s has been called “the Second Great Awakening.” During this time, there was a great religious revival in the United States. People attended church in great numbers and built social movements that tried to change society in important ways, from ending slavery to improving conditions for workers, to outlawing the sale of alcohol. The Second Great Awakening was in part a response to significant change in society. That change, which included a booming industry but also financial panic, made some people scared. A man named William Miller capitalized on that fear when he preached that he had calculated precisely when the end of the world would happen: soon! By 1844, he had attracted between 50,000 and 100,000 followers, many from nearby New England and New York, but also from the Midwest, Mid Atlantic. Miller and his followers distributed flyers and periodicals sharing their version of the end of the world, and they held tent meetings across the country. Many of Miller’s followers were poor. They found his message attractive because they believed the second coming of Jesus would end their suffering. Joining also proved their worth: when the end of the world occurred, Miller taught, only true believers would escape God’s punishment. Some Millerites were so confident that the end of the world was near that they disposed of their possessions, stopped working, and/or ceased caring for themselves.

What is the evidence?

Primary Source: See a broadside warning reader of the end of the world.

Broadsides like this drew people to the tent meetings to listen to the preaching of the Millerites. With every meeting, more people joined the group.

Miller, William. “Published Editorial.” Second Advent Herald, (Boston, MA), October 16, 1844.

Miller, William. “Published Editorial.” Second Advent Herald, (Boston, MA), October 16, 1844.
Adventist Digital Library, May 24, 2016. https://adventistdigitallibrary.org/adl-421832/end-world-october-22-1844

Primary Source 2:
The following is an excerpt from “Signs of the Times” Boston, July 1, 1840, a newspaper designed to recruit more followers to Miller.

"“This last harvest is the great battle of God Almighty, when the wicked of the earth will be cut off by famine, pestilence, and the sword…"

Himes, Joshua V. ed. “Miller’s Lectures.—NO. 1: The Harvest of the World.” Sign of the Times, (Boston, MA), July 1, 1840. https://documents.adventistarchives.org/AdvRelated/STM/STM18400701-V01-07.pdf

SecondarySource :

“A self-educated farmer and converted deist, William Miller began to lecture throughout rural New York in 1831 that, according to his calculations, Christ's Second Advent would occur sometime in late 1843 or early 1844. (...) He attracted no greater following than other revivalists of the "burnt-over district" until, in 1839, he recruited Joshua Himes, a Garrisonian abolitionist, to promote his crusade. During the economic depression that gripped the nation in the wake of the Panic of 1837, Millerism prospered under Himes' direction.

Adventist papers entitled The Midnight Cry and Signs of the Times were published in major cities; the movement spread from its New England base north to Canada, south to Virginia, west to Missouri, and across the Atlantic to England; and an estimated 120 Millerite tent-meetings were held during the warm months of 1842, 1843, and 1844 with estimated attendance of a half-million.

The appearance in March 1843 of the most brilliant comet of the century was hailed by some Millerites as an omen from God, a Last Warning which corroborated their prophet's calculations. Although the parousia did not occur by March 1844 as expected, the movement continued to spread.”

Scharnhorst, Gary. “Images of the Millerites in American Literature.” American Quarterly 32, no. 1 (1980): 19–36. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2712494

Fact Check: Going west

Lyddie’s father left his young family to try to make money in the West. Did many Vermonters leave their farms and go west?

What do we know?

In the early 1800s, some Vermonters went west to Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana in search of a better life and more opportunities. Better roads and new canals made traveling west easier than it had ever been. Between 1820 and 1830, 39 of Vermont’s 245 towns saw a decline in population, as young men, either alone or with their families, left Vermont.

What is the evidence?

Primary Source:

Illinois Central Railroad Company. Farm lands for sale. The Illinois central railroad company is now prepared to sell over two millions of acres of prairie farm lands, in tracts of 40 acres or upward, on long credit and at low rates of interest! ...
.

Chicago Democratic Press Print. Chicago, 1855. Pdf. Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/item/2020783732/

Secondary Source:

New roads and canals in the early 19th century made traveling west easier.

“1811: Construction of the National Road begins at Cumberland, MD; reaches Wheeling on the Ohio River in 1818 and Vandalia, IL in 1839.

1823: Champlain Canal connects Lake Champlain and western Vermont to the Hudson River.

1832: Erie Canal connects New York with the Great Lakes and the Northwest Territory.”

Rooker, Sarah. “Timeline of Westward Migration and U.S. Expansion.” Flow of History, July 20, 2020. https://www.flowofhistory.org/timeline-of-westward-migration-and-u-s-expansion/.

Secondary Source :

“In some respects, the motivations of emigrants and Millerites coincided. The Panic of 1837 and the ensuing years-long depression were a spur to individuals inclined toward one or the other. Either the hard times were a sign of the end times, or they were a sign that it was time to set out for the territories. Broadly defined, overlanders were seeking opportunity—away from the more established societies of the east, or the quickly filling-up towns of the Missouri frontier.” (Pg 138)”

Bicknell, John. America 1844: Religious fervor, westward expansion, and the presidential election that transformed the nation. Chicago Review Press Incorporated, 2015.

Fact Check: Sending children out to work

Were many small Vermont farmers in debt in the 1840s? Did farmers often send their children out to work to pay debts?

What do we know?

In the early 1800s, there were many small, subsistence farms in Vermont, meaning each family produced what they needed to feed themselves, with little or nothing left over. Gradually, some farmers created larger farms by buying smaller farms and beginning to produce products for a regional market, rather than just for their families’ subsistence. Smaller family farms still existed but were vulnerable: one or two bad years could mean disaster for the family. Subsistence farmers borrowed money from wealthier neighbors, leaving a debt on their farm, which could result in their losing the farm to the neighbor if the debt was not paid on time. To pay the debt, some farmers chose to send their older children out to work. These children would receive food and lodging and might either earn money for the family debt or learn a trade to support themselves.

Lyddie and Charlie are sent to work to pay for their family debt. Since they appeared to be abandoned by their father, they would have been considered orphans, even with their mother still alive. If their mother had not sent them out to work, it is possible that the local government would have stepped in to do so.

What is the evidence?

Primary Source:

Diary of Erastus P. Williams

Erastus Williams was born in 1809, and at the age of 15 he began working as a farm hand. When he married in 1835, he bought his own farm. In his diary he complains about how difficult it is to keep up with the farm work, and eventually talks about his financial worries.

“March 1836

31st This month is gone but winter is not. Hay and grain are gone, but the snow is not. Truly this is a hard winter and long will it be remembered…

April 1836

24th Sunday Clear, cold and windy. I staid (stayed) at home to take care of my lambs… I think grass does not grow yet, and hay is gone. Many cattle are almost starved. Grain is very scarce…

January 1842

29th warmer with signs of a thaw I went to the village settled with (paid) Dr Dennison and Downer & Nevans and Downer and Fish. I almost dread to settle with anyone for I owe almost every body but I hope some time or other, to pay up all my debts our new house has increased my debts a good deal, but probably I have a house that will last as long as I shall

April 1842

…Dea (Deacon) Flinn came here, this afternoon. he gave me a deed of a lot of wild land in Bethel Gilead valued at $200. I still keep his note and am to give up the deed when he pays the note. I hope it will be soon for I need the money …”

Erastus P. Williams. Excerpts from a diary of a Vermont farmer, 1836-1842. Vermont Historical Society (2020). https://vermonthistory.org/williams-diaries

1. Secondary source:

In the early 19th century, wealthy families had the means to hire people to help in their houses, take in family members, or have guests stay with them for extended periods of time. For poorer families, life was very different.

“… the households of the poor sent [their children] out. Orphans and children from destitute families were “bound out” to farm and household service in wealthier ones, usually until they reached adulthood.”

Larkin, Jack, The Reshaping of Everyday Life 1790-1840. New York: Harper & Row, 1988.

2. Secondary Source:

“Binding out was practiced in North American communities from colonial settlement forward into the mid-1800s. Rooted in Old World poor laws and customs, it was familiar to colonists and was heavily used in English, Dutch, and French communities in North America. Sometimes it was a clear success: the child’s daily life improved significantly and the child acquired skills that promised independence in adulthood. Sometimes it was a clear failure: the child’s daily life worsened and the child reached adulthood without acquiring skills necessary to live independently as an adult. Most of the time, however, it was neither success nor failure but rather a holding pattern. It kept vulnerable children alive, it put them in a family setting, it put them to work at some useful occupation, and it familiarized them with the kind of manual labor that was the lot of most early Americans.”

Herndon, Ruth Wallis, and Murray, John E., eds. 2010. Children Bound to Labor: The Pauper Apprentice System in Early America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Voices from the Field

Black Bear Behavior by Dave Wattles
Black Bear & Furbearer Biologist
Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife

Photos & Multimedia

The bear that broke down Lyddie’s door was a black bear like this one. Found throughout Vermont, black bears generally try to stay away from people. https://vtfishandwildlife.com/learn-more/living-with-wildlife/living-with-black-bears/if-you-encounter-a-bear

Cooking over an open fire. The oatmeal Lyddie was cooking hung over the fire from a long handle like the pots seen here. Fort Scott National Historic Site https://www.nps.gov/fosc/learn/education/cookhearth.htm

Video:

Life on a New England Farm with an interpreter from Old Sturbridge Village www.osv.org
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svSWkDK-PCg

See it yourself

Learn about Vermont history at the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne Vermont
https://shelburnemuseum.org

Learn about New England wildlife at the Squam Lake Natural Science Center in Holderness, New Hampshire
https://www.nhnature.org

Learn about Vermont farm life at the Billings Farm and Museum in Woodstock, Vermont
https://www.billingsfarm.org

Writing Prompts

Opinion

Like Lyddie’s mother, many people in the 1840s believed the world was coming to an end. How did Lyddie feel about her mother’s belief? Provide reasons that are supported by facts and details.

Informative/explanatory

Explain how Lyddie and Charlie made it through the winter without their mother. Include concrete details.

Narrative

What would your reaction be, as a young person living on a farm in 1843, to a bear breaking down your door and eating your only food? Use concrete words and phrases and sensory details.