by solid Thomas Taber, who wrote his name in real estate
by his thrift and force, if he did not write it in dead languages.

[7] Richard Osborn--A Reminiscence, by Margaret B. Monahan,
Quaker Hill Local History Series, No. VIII, p. 10.

CHAPTER IV.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES OF THE QUAKER COMMUNITY.

The economic activity of the early Quaker Community was varied. All they
consumed they had to produce and manufacture. Though the stores sold
cane sugar, the farmers made of maple sap in the spring both sugar and
syrup, and in the fall they boiled down the juice of sweet apples to a
syrup, which served for "sweetness" in the ordinary needs of the
kitchen.

Every man was in some degree a farmer, in that each household cultivated
the soil. On every farm all wants had to be supplied from local
resources, so that mixed farming was the rule. The land which its modern
owners think unsuited to anything but grass, because it is such "heavy,
clay soil," was made in the 18th century to bear, in addition to the
grass for cattle and sheep, wheat, rye, oats and corn, flax, potatoes,
apples. Of whatever the farmer was to use he must produce the raw
material from the soil, and the manufacture of it must be within the
community.

Two lists which come to us from early days cast light on the population
and occupations of the early period. One is the sheriff's list of
landowners in Dutchess County in 1740, on which is no name of any farmer
then resident on Quaker Hill. The other list is that of those who
claimed exemption from military duty in 1755; 38 are from Oblong and 21
from Beekman, many of them being Quakers resident on the Oblong. This
list is as follows:

Joshua Shearman, Beekman Prec'nt, shoemaker; Moses Shearman, Beekman
Prec'nt, laborer; Daniel Shearman, Beekman Prec'nt, laborer; Joseph
Doty, Beekman Prec'nt, blacksmith; John Wing, Beekman Prec'nt, farmer;
Zebulon Ferris (Oblong), Beekman Prec'nt, farmer; Joseph Smith, son of
Rich'd, Beekman Prec'nt, laborer; Robert Whiteley, Beekman Prec'nt,
farmer; Elijah Doty, Oblong House, carpenter; Philip Allen, Oblong,
weaver; Richard Smith, Oblong, farmer; James Aiken, Oblong, blacksmith;
Abrah'm Chase, son of Henry, Oblong, farmer; David Hoeg, Oblong, ----;
John Hoeg, Oblong, farmer; Jonathan Hoeg, Oblong, blacksmith; Amos Hoeg,
son of John, Oblong, laborer; William Hoeg, son of David, Oblong,
farmer; John Hoeg, son of John, Oblong, farmer; Ezekiel Hoeg, Oblong,
laborer; Juda