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Abandoned - Plimoth - Story 74

Started by Abandoned, October 31, 2021, 05:53:41 AM

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Abandoned

#15
Chapter 12


  In spring more migrants came through the north pass and were thankful to settle in Plimoth. The Maybelle left them at a port farther north up the coast, the port the Pilgrims should have landing at.   The new arrival came south thinking it would be warmer. The group of 14 adults and 2 children came from a bigger town in the Old County and the new part of Plimoth soon had 3 more houses and a school as well as a house with a cobbler shop and another with a barber shop in their front rooms.  By winter Plimoth had a General Store.  The town was doing good and storage units were near capacity.

  The next group came down the river on foot.  The ship that brought them from the Old Country got caught in a storm that blew it off course but the ship didn't make it to the inlet like ours did, instead it crashed into the rocks and shore.  The captain and crew headed north to the port they should have anchored at and the shipwreck passengers head inland down the river.  Pilmoth's population grew by 18, 12 adults and 6 children.  The town grew by 3 more houses and one with a sundries shop on its ground floor.  You could find homemade items there like aprons, bonnets, towels and linens.  All the new buildings left the town not only short of logs but short of firewood as well.  A Firewood store was built in the new part of town and everyone collected downed branches to save as many logs as possible from being cut for firewood.  Other than logs and firewood the supplies were plentiful. Plimoth indeed was prospering.

Abandoned

#16
Chapter 13


  The hunters and trapper didn't think the town was prospering.  They had no market for their furs and hides and they had more furs than were needed by the town.  No riverboat trade merchant would come down this river.  The trapper and one hunter loaded the donkey and cart with surplus furs from time to time and headed back north to the port town they came from to trade with merchant ships there.

The town's people certainly did not think they would see the Maybelle return to their shores.  But return it did and it brought a well-to-do baron and his people.  There were 19 others besides the Baron and his family of 4, a total of 23, 17 adults and 6 children.  The Baron planned to build a railroad  and make a fortune trading here like he did back in the Old Country.  He had no plans for the town, he and his people would settle back by the pass that lead to the port.  Well, weary traveler, settle was a bit of an understatement.  The Baron had a large manor house built that was more like a castle than anyone here had ever seen.

Abandoned

#17
Chapter 14


Of course the Baron wanted his manor house furnished with the best so his people built a furniture store and a home goods shop at the edge of town.  Workers would live in the shops and in the 2 stacked workplace houses next to them.

  Back by the manor a very nice workplace house was built for the house servants with a storage shed.  A private school was built there for the baron's daughter who would soon be old enough to begin her education.  The baron's son helped with the building.  A house was also built there for the baron's grounds keeper.  He would keep the estate well tidied and groomed and care for the baron's private vineyard that had already been planted.  The Pilgrims gave the housemaid seeds and chicken's for a small kitchen garden.  The grounds keeper was also chopping a little firewood for their own use at the corner of the kitchen garden by the stockpile. The Baron was upset and complained several times about the lack of logs.  He wanted the stockade around his estate finished to protect his grapes from the bears and other wildlife.

Abandoned

#18
Chapter 15


  Well of course it was the baron who was using the most logs and firewood and the Pilgrims doing most of the work.  Plimoth had things that needed to be built too.  Several young people now wanted homes of there own.  The hunters and trapper did not want trees cut from their side of town, some of the wildlife had already left the area.  The Native elders expressed their concern also when they came for the Thanksgiving feast; more of their braves had left their village in search of game.   

  As the Baron described it that railroad would need a lot of wood to build, and iron.  It was time to built a forester.  There were still many trees in the forest east of town and a lot of wildlife.  There were deer, wild boar, and the bears that the Baron was concerned about.  The Pilgrims understood the concern of having the bears so close, that's why they built a stockade.  Now they  built a forester stand and a hunter workplace to reduce the size of those animal packs.  There was a lot of wood still needed for the Baron's stockade.  He sent several young workers west to scout the railroad's route and to find a good source of more logs.  A few Plimoth's young single males went with them.  The Baron send word to the port town via our hunter and trapper that he was looking for more workers. 

  Despite the lack of logs for the stockade the Baron had a good grape harvest.  The Pilgrims questioned his priorities when instead of using logs for the stockade he built a wine maker for his own use.  Old Town Plimoth did manage to have enough logs to build a house on the west side of town and one on the east.

Abandoned

#19
Chapter 16


  The Baron's stockade did eventually get built, some older trees were being cut, and the newly planted trees were doing good.  Building projects continued.  Workers arrived from the port town to the north, 14 adults and 1 child.  Some of the workers were Dwarves who had been looking for work. Stacked houses for these workers were built next to the General Store and a single story house across from them.  A Food Store and a Bank were built there on the main road. Yes, a bank!
Over on the other side of the town on the tunnel road more stacked houses were built for the workers.  The Pilgrims learned that the railroad would be built there between Old Plimoth and the hunter's forest.  The tracks would go from Old Plimoth across the stream and to the mountain beyond.  The Dwarves would be digging the tunnel through that mountain.  The scouts still had not returned.

Abandoned

#20
Chapter 17


  While waiting for logs and for the scouts to return work on the roads began.  A road led from Main Street to the north pass.  Main Street was extended west past the mountain and continued around the mountain to join up with tunnel road.  The road from Main Street to the north pass was then widened.

  On Main street a large Town Hall with a clock was built, it was quite impressive.  A Post Office was built next to the Bank.  The Baron was doing business with the port town and there were communications between the two.  The hunter and trapper were delivering these messages.   It had been several years since the scouts left but finally word came from the port.  The Baron called a meeting at the Town Hall to inform the town's people of what had happened. 

  The scouts went much farther west than necessary or practical.  They set up a logging camp, cut a large number of trees, and attempted to float them downriver.  The logs jammed up the big lake and most of the men died trying to get the logs moving again.  Others died from hunger because they had killed off all the deer in the area. Three years ago the camp was resettled by a group of young survivors of a town downriver from there that was destroyed by a rock and mud slide.  The camp is now the town of Smallville and it was now year 3 SVT, Smallville Time.

Abandoned

#21
Chapter 18


  Well, time moved on and Plimoth was not without problems.  The town was always short of firewood and logs. Those old Plimoth houses burned a lot of wood.  There was a need for more warm coats, the town's people spent a lot of time outside gathering branches for firewood.  A furrier was built just off of Tunnel Road on the hunter's side of town.  The tailor in town switched back to making warm coats from leather and down.

There were several new houses built here and there as new couples were formed.  There were more mouths to feed and more small farmyards being planted around town too.  Even the Baron had his grounds keeper plant several rows of corn along the stockade behind the vineyard.  His people also collected branches just like everyone else.  The Baron made a deal with someone near the port town who agreed to deliver several loads of logs and branches to Plimoth.  A large wagon pulled by 2 horses came down the north pass road.  A tiny chopper was now at work at the stockpile near Main Street and the estate so the Baron had the wagon deliver the logs to Tunnel Road outside of Old Plimoth.  The log and firewood supply improved as did the surplus of warm coats and food.

Abandoned

#22
Chapter 19


  The Dwarves and other workers who arrived were busy too.  They cleared trees and stone from the path the railroad would take.  They build a trestle bridge across the stream laying the first pieces of railroad track.  The Dwarves dug the tunnel entrance while workers laid tracks to it.  It would take several years to dig that tunnel.  There was not much room on this side of that mountain but a turnaround needed to be build, at least a track that would allow the train to pull into it and then back up to the station coming to a stop facing the direction from which it came.  Land was cleared for the turnaround on the tunnel side of the stream.

  The town's people now had 2 more problems.  The work across the stream drove the bears and other wildlife back towards the hunter's side of town and from there into the town itself.  The other problem was a shortage of iron.  The surface iron close by was used for tool making, it was a long way to go for more iron. The Dwarves said they could mine for iron but they were finding very little in the mountain they were tunneling through.  This railroad building would take longer than at first thought.

  It was year 25 SVT that the tunnel through the mountain was completed and tracks were being laid. It was years later, year 35 SVT, that the Pilgrims discovered that in year 27 SVT  an expedition from Smallville settled on the other side of that mountain naming their town Chattachoo.  Those settlers hoped to build a railroad connecting to the tunnel and the Plimoth railroad.  Workers were sent there by the Baron to help.

Abandoned

#23
Chapter 20


  Help was needed in Plimoth during those years too.  The Baron tried to get iron from the man who had brought logs from the outskirts of the port town. The man was old by then and doubted his old horses could pull a cart loaded with heavy iron especially when there had been more snow than usual in the last few years.  The old man's son used that old log cart to bring a few groups of migrants as far south as Plimoth, most did not stay.   A rooming house was built on Main Street for the times he and the migrants were stranded by early autumn or late spring snowfalls.  The few migrant families that stayed in Plimoth appreciated having housing available. Bears were sighted there by the rooming house a few times but when work on the rails across the river was completed the bears returned there.

  The winters were especially  hard on the elderly Native people and food was scarce.  The Pilgrims often took baskets of food and other needed items to them.  The Baron did too and sent some of his people to help with the hunting and fishing.  A few of the young Natives stayed when they met and married Pilgrims.  There were 2 new teepees by the hunting grounds and a needlework hut to make hide clothing.  Another farmyard of the Three Sisters corn, squash, and beans, was planted there.

  The Baron also sent his people to check on the elderly in Old Plimoth to be sure they had all they needed.  As the population of Plimoth grew so did the need for more food.  The farmyards got more workers and a few more farmyards were planted.  There were more houses built too but space was limited.  Two patches of apple and walnuts trees were discovered when looking for housing sites.  Laborers were again gathering wild foods and branches, iron gathering was put on hold.  The food surplus greatly improved.

Abandoned

#24
Chapter 21


  When the food supply stabilized, iron collection and train building resumed.  The engine was built and then the material car.  Last word from Chattachoo was that they were still building tracks and were short of materials.  Iron, wood, and stone were being loaded onto the material car when work was halted again.  Latest word from the port town was that in year 33 SVT there had been a rock and mudslide upriver from Smallville that blocked that main river causing it and many other rivers to dry up or change coarse.  River travel and trade was extremely difficult and there were migrants stranded in many places.  We built another rooming house before the hauler's son returned with more migrants. 

  The migrants brought yellow fever with them.  The Baron immediately had a hospital built at the edge of the forester's forest and the Natives erected a medicine man's hut and began making herbal medicine bags.  Despite their efforts the cases increased from 1 to 4 to 8 to 13 to 19 and topped at 27.  If not for their efforts there would have no doubt been more than just the 2 deaths.  A chapel and cemetery had been built not far from the hospital.

Abandoned

#25
Chapter 22

So, weary traveler, it was not until year 35 SVT that the first east coast train was ready to go.  It was called the Chattachoo Choo Choo.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-34PuZjWaE


It was not long before the material and freight cars were replaced with passenger cars and a train station was built.  But before then something new came down the road from the north pass.  The hauler's son now had a stagecoach.  Passengers could now travel from the east port town to Plimoth protected from the rain and wind and cold and snow.  A livery stable was built down on the end of Main Street where the coachmen could rest the horses for a day or two before making the return trip.  It wasn't long before there were two coaches and extra horses.  A Stage Office was built next to the Post Office on Main Street.  The stagecoaches did not only bring passengers but they brought news and mail as well.  Other towns got world news via the river boatmen, we got ours from the stage coachmen. 

  It was from them that we learned there was a wagon train being built in the Outskirts of Smallville in year 40 SVT going west.  Smallville remained the center and go to place for refugees and those wanting survival training.  We learned from the stagecoach drivers that Riverview Resort was being built as a place for river boatmen to spend time with their families.  We learned a railway was being built out west and that gold had been discovered in the mountains causing a gold rush in the mid 60s.  Closer to us there were deadly tornadoes to the north and a giant frog invasion to the south.  Our railroad was expanding from Chattachoo to Ironwood and further west from there.  Plimoth has become a busy place.

banishedsanni

I WANT that horse carriage! Where is it from? Is it just deco or does it do anything?

Abandoned

 :)  @banishedsanni Stagecoach is new Kid mod being tested and will be released soon.  It is deco with or without luggage, driver, or horses.  Horses are also deco. There is livery stable and stage office which are houses.

banishedsanni

Awesome! Always worth checking the town storys for new content and for ideas for playing and building :D

Abandoned

#29
Chapter 23


  Much has changed, weary traveler, since my ancestors came over on the Maybelle.  Much has changed since the Baron came to town to build the railroad.  Main Street bustles with travelers and townspeople alike.  Stagecoaches not only bring folks to and from the east port town but back and forth from the rooming houses and train station as well.  The shops, Post Office, Stage Office, and Livery are busy places. 

  Although much has changed, somethings remain the same.  The Baron's estate still grows most of their own vegetables and the vineyard supplies grapes to their wine maker.  The hunters and trapper's side of town too has changed little, the furrier still makes fur coats and hides and furs are used by the tailor in Old Plimoth town.  The elderberries are still gathered along tunnel road and are transformed into delicious elderberry jam and wine in Old Plimoth Town. 

  All parts of town combined now has a population much the same as it did back in our 33rd year, which was year 23 SVT.  Folks come and go and workers moved on to continue building the railroad.    The population of permanent residents back in year 23 was 266, 153 adults, 52 students, and 61 young children.  There were 70 homes and 87 families.  Not much has changed and much has stayed the same.