In a past article, This Old House – Intriguing Discoveries, I’ve written about some of the treasures we’ve discovered on our historic property, but my latest find gave me pause. While investigating how to construct new doors and windows in the barn, I reached up onto a high beam and found something unexpected: a stash of pipe tobacco and a small jackknife.

The tobacco was labeled Burley and Bright — “A Cargo of Contentment in the Bowl of Any Pipe!” My first thought was, Who stashed it there? And when? I also wondered about the age-old warning: Never smoke in a barn!

A bit of research revealed that Burley and Bright tobacco—also known as Half and Half—was widely sold from the 1930s through the 1950s. So who on the farm was a secret pipe smoker during that time?

Looking into the history of the property, I learned that during that era the farm was owned by Loyal Wright Spaulding, the fifth and final generation of Spaulding’s to live and work here. Loyal was born in Panton in 1861 and married Bertha Myrtle Kent in 1892. He passed away in December 1943 at the age of 82, and Bertha followed just a few months later in April 1944. While it’s possible that Bertha enjoyed a bit of tobacco herself, it seems more likely that Loyal tucked the pouch away during his daily chores—perhaps while milking cows or mending equipment in the barn.

But there’s another possibility.

Clues from the past

Census records show that while Loyal and Bertha had no children, they did have live-in hired help. Attached to the barn is a small addition we call the Handy Man’s Cottage, which still contains remnants of a finished room, a sink, and a now-defunct toilet. It turns out that in 1910, a 14-year-old named Josiah E. Stagg was living here as a hired hand. In 1930, George W. Erwin, age 15, was in residence. And in 1940, Howard L. Phillips, age 16, with a seventh-grade education, was listed as living on the farm.

It’s hard to imagine a teenager living and working on a farm alone at that age—but it wasn’t uncommon at the time. Perhaps one of these boys was the tobacco’s true owner, hiding his stash away in a safe, high place.

Whoever it was, the tobacco remained hidden for nearly a century, a small, silent remnant of daily life on the Spaulding farm.

Next time…

The Spaulding Family of Vermont: A 177 Year Generational Account