The Company Pasture and the Cow Stalls
Many of the folks that came to
work in the early 1900’s came from a farm background.
The Mill Company made an
effort to allow families to keep part of this life
style. They provided a very large cow pasture and cow
barns or cow stalls at two different locations for
people to use. As late as the 1940’s this was still
being done. By then, not every family kept a cow for
milk and butter but many did.
The large pasture and one set of cow stalls was on the
western edge of the village just off of Cleveland
Street. The gate to the pasture and the cow stalls were
located just beyond where Cook Drive ends today.
My great aunt, Pearl Baker, lived on Cleveland Street
and kept a cow in the pasture. Sometimes, I got to go
with her to do the milking. Keeping a cow required that
you go to milk it early in the morning and again late in
the afternoon. Aunt Pearl made the quarter mile round
trip twice a day to take care of her cow and do the
milking. No matter the weather or temperature, the
milking had to be done. The milking was not the end of
it. She had to bring the milk home, strain it and put it
in an icebox or refrigerator. Some of it she put up to
“clabber” and then had to churn that into butter in a
hand churn. She then had to salt and press the butter
into a decorative mold. In the “olden days” there was
much more to getting a glass of milk than stopping by
the corner store.
Most of the folks that kept cows also made their own
butter and buttermilk. This was an art in itself.
The other set of cow stalls and a small pasture was
located just to the right of where Moore street joins
Highway 150 on the north end of the village. My Uncle
Otis and Aunt Nettie Teaster lived on Moore Street and
kept a cow in this pasture. Sometimes, I got to go with
my cousins when they milked their cow.
The Pasture
The Mill Company provided a large, fenced tract of
land for the use of the people that kept cows in the cow
stalls. It was bordered on the south and west by the Pacolet River and was
quite large, probably from 50 to 75 acres.
Though it was intended for cows, the pasture served many
boys as a combination park, hunting preserve and jungle.
Probably, most boys that grew up or lived in Pacolet
Mills on the north side of the river have fond memories
of the pasture. They hiked, played cowboys and Indians,
shot their BB guns, swam in the river, played baseball,
flew kites, had cow pie fights and did a thousand other
things.
In the late 1950’s a very large gully in the pasture was
turned into a trash dump for the town. This was in the
years before the use of covered landfills. The dump drew
a large colony of big rats. The rats, in turn, drew
teenaged boys armed with their .22 rifles. Though never
featured in Field and Stream magazine or shown on
today’s Wildlife and Hunting cable channels, trash dump
rat shooting was fine sport.
The Hog Pens
There was a special area set aside in the large pasture
for hog pens. Families could keep one or more pigs in
their own pen. One set of these pens was downhill from
the cow stalls toward the river. Families saved their
table scraps and collected them from their neighbors to
feed to their pigs. Recycling was done before it was
fashionable. Reusing the table scraps for pig feed made
sense and saved money. Probably, most families did not
have to spend an extra penny to feed the pigs until they
were ready to slaughter.
Hog Killing Time
The slaughtering of the grown hogs was a big event. The
owners tried to pick a time when the weather was very
cold and expected to stay cold for a period of time. In
the time before the widespread availability of
refrigerators it had to be cold so that meat would not
spoil before it could be processed. People banded
together to help each other kill and dress the hogs. It
was very hard work.
Children especially liked the lard making process.
Pieces of meat with lots of fat were cut up into small
pieces and put into a large cast iron pot. This pot was
put over an open fire and cooked for a long time. This
rendered the lard which meant separating the fat from
any remnants of lean meat that had been in the small
pieces. This produced a large quantity of lard, or
almost pure fat, in the bottom of the pot. Any pieces of
lean meat or skin eventually was cooked and floated on
top of the lard. These “cracklings” as they were known,
were delicious and much sought after by the children.
However, these cracklings were still very rich in fat.
When a child ate too many, which was almost always, they
could have a terrible stomach ache. I remember this all
too well.
This web site has
been started as a public service to share the story of
Pacolet.
See more information about my Pacolet connection at Gerald Teaster.