FIRST GENERATION 1. Thomas HALL. Thomas HALL had the following children: +2 i. Lydia HALL (born in 1817). SECOND GENERATION 2. Lydia HALL (Thomas-1) was born in 1817. She died in 1909. First Ladies >From Ashfield's History, by Mary Priscilla Howes and the Ashfield Historical Society. Published by the Ashfield Historical Society, 1983. pgs. 5 - 7. She lived on Steady Lane Road where the Doyle family lives now. The house had no plaster or paint at that time, and there were plenty of cracks and crannies to give ventilation. After a supper of crackers and milk, Lydia would cuddle down in her feather bead and be quite cozy. But fire was very precious. If it went out during the night they would have to go to a neighbor's to borrow some colas, or her father might start a new fire by friction, or by putting spark to tinder from his flintlock. Because it was so vitally needed, Lydia's mother, the last one to bed, would very carefully bury the coals with ashes in the hope that they would be alive in the morning. All cloth material had to be woven; towels, table linen, bed linen, bags for grain, even handkerchiefs. Soap and candles had to be made. Clothing, cleanliness, food, heat, light and many of the tools were produced by the labor of the family. There were no matches to strike, no clocks to tell the time, no instant anything. Later in her life Lydia wrote, "Women of that day had no need to devise mans for amusement of exercise." Lydia longed for a calico dress for church and special occasions. Any color in her clothing had to come from home-made dyes, "butternut brown," "snuff color, " Blues or blacks. Perhaps she needed brighter color in her life or simply wanted some store-bought material. She was glad to help a neighbor with a day's washing for which she was paid 12-1/2 cents, or she could knit a pair of socks which could be bartered for a yard of calico. She writes of her joy when finally she had her very own calico dress - not a hand-me-down, but her very own. Lydia attended a one-room school which used to stand just below the house where I live on Lilliput Road. At recess time she played on the rocks which I can see from my kitchen window. There were no blackboards in the school. To recite, the scholars were called to teacher's desk. They were drilled and made to memorize. They were called upon to recite the multiplication tables several times a day. A good foundation in the three Rs was about all that was taught. The quill pens with which they wrote were made and sharpened by the teacher. These buildings were packed with 80 to 100 children. After Steady Lane, Lydia went to school for two terms at Franklin Academy in Shelburne Falls, a boarding school. There were about a dozen houses in Shelburne Falls and no stores. The school day opened with prayers at 5 o'clock. Breakfast was at 6:30. Then the students returned to their rooms for study hours. Their rooms were not to be left except for recitations. Because she showed unusual promise, at age 19 she was offered a position teaching the South Center school in Shelburne. She found herself in her first job, teaching 40 pupils ranging in age from three to 15, at the handsome salary of $1.25 a week. From the beginning she continued a teaching career that lasted for 40 years. She returned to Ashfield and had one more term of study, this time at Sanderson Academy. Thereafter she taught in almost every neighborhood in Ashfield: the Village School, Steady Lane, Wardville, the Round School House in South Ashfield, the New Boston or Watson School and the Spruce Corner School. All these were small buildings crammed full with children. She seldom had time to sit down during the day. Sometimes she felt that she had not accomplished all she wanted to and invited certain scholars to come to her boarding place in the evening for additional study. Believe it or not, they gladly accepted. She must have been an exceptional teacher and her influence over the years in this town was tremendous. In 1873 Lydia taught her last school, and two years later, when she was 58, she married a man named Seth Miles. I can only surmise that he must have been a very persuasive man to woo her away from the career which had been her whole life. She had a marriage that lasted 15 years. When she was over 90 she wrote her priceless Reminiscences for the Frederick G. Howes Ashfield Town History, and it is to the writings of this fine old lady that I am indebted for my research. She died at age 92, in 1909. There must be something in Ashfield's air that develops fine teachers. We think of Mary Lyon, Mrs. Amelia Ford, Miss Etta Howes and Miss Lou Harmon, to mention only a few. Surely Lydia Hall Miles set for all of them an early standard of excellence. She was married to Seth MILES in 1875.