1852
March 21 Sunday Have all been to meeting except
Susan who is not very well George carried
Amelia home at noon I had a very pleasant
visit from her of nearly two weeks. Orinthia
called with me into Edwins after church & we
helped ourselves to apples from the cellar. Augusta
sent us one filled with sand and cheese.
Called at Mr Whitwells at noon & at Mrs J Howard a moment
Spring had arrived; Amelia Gilmore left the Ames’s home and hospitality and headed back to her own quarters in southeastern Easton. George Oliver Witherell, 14-year old son of Sarah Ames Witherell, obligingly carried her home in a carriage during the intermission at church. Evelina, meanwhile, visited with the Whitwells and the Howards.
After church Evelina and Orinthia went to the home of Edwin and Augusta Gilmore and helped themselves to “apples from the cellar.” That the young couple still had apples from the previous fall suggests that the harvest had been good and the storage arrangements even better. We presume that Evelina and Orinthia took the apples with the permission of the Gilmores; Augusta sending over a barrel “filled with sand and cheese,” corroborates that. But why is a barrel with cheese also filled with sand? Any thoughts, readers?
evelinaames 
Barrel with sand and cheese – sand to help keep constant temperature?
Dear G. Holster,
Thank you for your input. No doubt you’re right that sand would provide a cool and steady medium for storing perishable items. I had just never heard of cheese being kept that way! But Evelina seemed to have no problem with it.
Thanks again.
When I was a kid living on Main Street in North Easton (east of Hilliards), we would buy eggs from the Correia’s two houses down. They had a flock of chickens and also a large vegetable garden. I know they stored extra eggs and vegetables in a large sand pile in their cool cellar in the days before extensive refrigeration. I am sure the cheese mentioned in this column was wrapped in paper or cloth to protect it from the sand.
Diane – Thank you so much for that glimpse into Easton’s more recent past. My husband, John, who also grew up in North Easton, remembers the Correia clan, too. Some lived next door on Elm Street. He recalls getting turkeys from them.
I think you’re right about containers of sand in the cellar being a cool medium for storage. And I certainly hope they wrapped that cheese…