Intro
This is the 89th story in the Smallville Series. The story is about one of the oldest settlements in Smallville's World. Mapleton is near the east coast, north of Plimoth story 74, and south of East Port story 90. East Port has been mentioned in several other stories in the past and will be the next story after this one. Its location is now marked on the map along with Mapleton. Mapleton is the small settlement from which the Baron in Plimoth ordered logs from to build his railroad, in approximately year 5 SVT. Five families were living in Mapleton before Smallville was settled. The story is being told in approximately year 40 SVT.
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Map seed #379418223 Valley One River, Small, Harsh, Disasters Off, Medium-seed (5 Families)
Mods activated for this map and load order are:
Map Changing and Starting Mods: Banished UI Maps, Labor Window, RK Minimized Status, CC Light Rain, override Map, Kid Deco Tree Fall, Kid Deco Tree Spring, Kid Tree Replacer XLight, Kid New Flora Edit, Family Start
Tweak Mods: Fishing Dock +25%, Hunting, Increased CC, 1:1 Alternative (Voeille), override Winter Clothes, Rock Respawn, Tiny Smoke
Major or Must Have Mods: An Empty Square, Nomads (Kid), override Uneducated, Storage Crates, Jinxie Bitty Chicken Coop, Kid Abandoned Places SE, Kid Forest Outpost, Kid Tiny, Kid Tiny Downtown
Supporting Mods: Kid Bed and Breakfast, Kid Deco Animals, Kid Deco People, Kid Farmyard, Kid Hedgerow, Kid Stagecoach, Kid Traveling Trader, Kid Washing Mod, Kid Work Shop
Mod Note: There are no new mods or updates in this story. I cannot say when there will be any, nothing is being worked on at this time. I have a goal set to have a total of 100 towns on the Smallville World Map, so this and the remaining stories will be tying up loose ends and using mods I want to use again.
So, weary traveler, welcome to Mapleton. I can tell you the town's history while you wait for the stagecoach.
Chapter 1
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What I know about the early history of Mapleton I learned from my grandmother. She and Grandpa came over from the old country on the Maybelle with family and friends. That was several years before the baron who wanted to build a railroad did. Yes, the baron in Plimoth whose workers were responsible for jamming up the river with logs. Their abandoned logging camp became Smallville. I can't give you exact years because there weren't any records kept here back then, in fact the town didn't even have a name for a long time: it was more of a family settlement than a town. By the time I was old enough to be interested in family and town history, my grandma's memory wasn't so good.
There were still native people living in the area when they arrived by ship in East Port. There were 10 adults with 10 children; 3 were newborns and another 2 were soon to be born. The trip was long and rough, most of them were seasick. They wanted to get as far from the water as possible. They did not get far; it was cold and snowing. It was difficult traveling with so many children, and with the supplies, 2 goats, and the chickens they acquired in East Port.
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The group was some distance from East Port near a small inlet when they decided they'd gone far enough. The first thing they did was build a well; there was no fresh water. It takes a lot of snow to melt to get a bit of water and what snow fell did not stay on the ground long. It was a Native hunting party passing through that showed them which trees to tap for water. The Natives called it sweet water. Yes, the trees were maple trees. Many years later the trees were the reason the settlement was named Mapleton.
Chapter 2
After the well was built, a hunting stand was built to the northwest. A forest house was built next to it for my grand uncle and aunt, Jalonzo and Jakaylie. He was my grandfather's brother and she was my grandmother's sister. They had their first child, a girl, shortly after they moved into the house. My grandfather, Jarrence, and my grandmother, Jaquelind's, log house was next to be built not far from their siblings. Shortly after they moved in their house they also had a baby girl, their 2nd daughter. As the three girls grew up they continued to look very much alike; they were often mistaken as triplets rather than cousins.
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Another log house was built not far from Grandpa and Grandma's house. The couple had the most children so they would take care of the goats. A workshop for tools and coats was built by the stockpile, and a storage barn was built across from it by the well. Two more log houses were built south of that area for the remaining two families. Both families had son's that became adults just after they arrived here. Two small forest houses were built for them, side by side, near the parent's houses. The two fathers of those boys were brothers. Grandma couldn't remember which boy, Garolyn or Clevelyn, belonged to which family.
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Chapter 3
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Grandma's sister was very ill after the birth of her child; no one thought she would recover. A cemetery and then a tiny chapel were built between their 2 houses. She did recover and soon had another child. She and Jalonzo took turns doing the hunting, child tending, and scavaging from the winter hedgerow. Together they provided the settlement with venison, leather, berries, rabbit meat, and branches for firewood.
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Grandma had a chicken coop next to the house; she tended some of the chickens that the families brought with them from East Port. They provided the settlement with eggs and chicken meat. When she had time, Grandma scavenged from the spring hedgerow behind the house. There were hazelnuts, wild oats, asparagus, berries, and branches for firewood to gather. She could see Grandpa out back planting and cutting trees and gathering stone, iron and branches that littered the area. Grandpa was very good with wood; he was always building a barrel or crate or cart for someone. Everyone soon had a cart for gathering branches.
Chapter 4
The other 3 families in the log houses also had hedgerows and farmyards. The family closest to Grandma and Grandpa had the goats to milk. They had 2 apple trees and grew carrots and oats. Like Jalonzo and Jakaylie, they too took turns doing the chores. Dall watched the children and tended the goats and farmyard when Darlen made coats at the workshop. Darlen watched the children and tended the goats and farmyard when Dall was at the workshop making tools.
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The couple in the log house south of them had 2 children left at home plus a newborn, and a farmyard and hedgerow to tend. Their farmyard had an apple tree where the chickens they tended liked to gather. The couple grew wheat and beans and chopped some firewood. From their spring hedgerow they gathered hazelnuts, plums, wild honey, and hunted the rabbits for meat.
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The couple in the log cabin by the well also had a newborn that first year. In their farmyard they grew corn, potatoes, and cabbage. They picked berries and had a chicken coop for the rest of the chickens the families brought from East Port. In spring they picked asparagus and herbs from the spring hedgerow along the tree line. Everyone in the settlement always looked forward to spring.
Chapter 5
Jalonzo, the hunter, and his wife, Jakaylie had the farthest to go to the storage barn than any of the others. It meant more time out in the cold without a warm coat. The trip also meant less time to hunt and less venison and leather to put in storage. Jalonzo's brother, my grandfather, made him a storage crate so he could store a bit more food closer to home. When the storage barn was nearly filled to capacity, a tiny shed was built on the other side of the stockpile. There was a nice variety of food stored and there were plenty of tools. The supply of hide coats was a bit low; there was never enough leather.
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There was a hunter and a trapper from Plimoth that took their meat, leather, and furs to East Port to trade with the merchant that came to port there. They would stop in the settlement to rest a spell. They were given a hot meal and their donkey was given water and hay. Several times when the weather was bad, they spent the night in the storage barn. As repayment they would unload some of their leather and furs for the families. A tiny tailor shop had to be built in order for warm coats to be made from the furs. The blacksmith was usually busy making tools in the workshop.
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To make travel a bit easier for those traders the settlement's dirt roads were being extended to the southwest and the northeast. Thought was being given to pave the settlement roads with stone; there was a lot of stone on the stockpile.
Chapter 6
It was from the hunter and trapper that the families learned what was going on in the world. Grandma wasn't sure but she thought the first thing they heard about was some town that was buried in a landslide, or it could have been about the logging camp that jammed up a river, or it could have been about the railroad some baron in Plimoth wanted to build. Whichever they learned of first, they knew about the young survivors of the landslide that settled in the abandoned logging camp and founded the town of Smallville.
Leannine, in the log house by the well, thought the settlement should have a school to teach the children about those things and how to read and write. Maybe the hunter and trapper could teach them a little about trading. There would be no river boat trader coming into their inlet from the rough and rocky coast and they had no need to trade, but their children may have a need in the future. Her daughter would be reaching school age very soon so a small forest outdoor classroom was built behind her house; she would be the teacher. The outdoor classroom would only be used on the warmest days.
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It was from the native people that the families learned about supply and demand. Several times when the weather or hunt was bad and food was scarce, the families gave food to the hunting party that told them about the maple tree's sweet water. With more hunters and trappers in the area the hunt was not as good as it once was; the hunting party was moving west. As a farewell and thank you gift, the tribe gave the families 2 horses from their herd. Grandpa built a cart for the Natives and the families filled it with food for their journey. They would be missed.
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Chapter 7
Grandma remembered when a family of 4 and an older man came to the settlement. It was the spring after the stable was built behind the storage barn for the 2 horses. My father was just an infant at the time but as a boy he really like those horses. Even as a toddler he would pick wild oats to feed them. After more stories about my father she told me that the family was on a very small crowded ship when a sudden spring storm washed the mother and 2 children overboard. The husband and an older man jumped in to save them. They all made it to the rocky shore and our inlet. The family moved into the stable rooms and the older man moved into a forest house that was built for him near the hunter and his family. The man would cut and plant trees in the clearing. More logs would be needed.
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According to Grandma, that was the same year that a 2nd storage barn was built down the road past the stockpile. There would be more room for logs on the stockpile because the stone that was taking up so much room was being used to pave and widen the roads of the settlement. The hunter and trapper said it would make their trip to East Port a lot easier. They again left some furs and hides at the storage barn. They brought a message from the baron of Plimoth who said he would see that the settlement got more furs and hides if the settlement would supply him with logs for his railroad and firewood.
Grandpa agreed. Since he now had horses he could build a big cart to take more logs and branches to Plimoth than the hunter and trapper could take back in their hunter's cart. Grandpa built the wood cart, loaded it with logs and branches, hitched up the horses, and took the wood to Plimoth. Grandma and Grandpa didn't agree on the number of trips Grandpa made to Plimoth; it was so long ago.
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Chapter 8
It didn't matter how many trips Grandpa made to Plimoth with logs and branches; after each delivery a cart with furs, leather, and meat was delivered to the settlement. It was parked by the new storage barn down the road from the old one. The families had leather coats and vest to wear inside, and warm fur coats to wear outside. Work on the railroad in Plimoth continued.
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There was a shipwreck along the coast, the only survivors made it inland to the settlement. It was the year the mill was built behind that new storage barn. One of the couples built a tiny house there and they took turns milling our oats or wheat, whichever there was the most of at the time. The miller couple got wheat and bean seeds from the family in the log house across from them. A farmyard was planted by the apple tree behind that house. The miller and spouse tended it.
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The other couple built a tiny house on the other side of that log house. They had 2 adult children, a girl and a boy. The son had a forest house built behind his parent's. That made 3 houses with single young men of about the same age in the settlement. Both the new families had baby girls a short time later. They were named Symond and Melia. The miller's daughter, Melia, my mother, got a baby sister named Tiffaniah, the following year.
Chapter 9
Not much new or different happened in the following years; animals were tended, crops were harvested, wild foods and firewood were gathered. Children started school and children finished school. A new tiny schoolhouse was built next to Dentonewall and Leannine's log house. The old outdoor forest school behind their house where she taught was taken over by a few of their chickens.
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The daughter of the couple living in the stable, Drucile, finished school and moved in with Garolyn, one of the single young men living alone. The other two young men were disappointment she did not chose them. Drucile and Garoyn soon had a baby boy they named Earner. Her mother also had another child, a baby boy named Bronso.
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Everyone was a bit surprised when shipwreck survivor Jevonte's sister moved out of their parent's tiny house and in with him. It may have been too crowded with a toddler and newborn in the parent's house. Some thought Destances moved in to console her brother over the loss of Drucile. There was more talk when she had a child and named it after the miller, Shedric. Grandma said the girl spent a lot of time at the mill. No more was said.
Chapter 10
Grandma may not have been good at remembering dates but she had a lot to tell about the families. The teacher's daughter moved in with the other young single man and both mother and daughter had a baby girl that year. The teacher's other daughter, Leliann, moved into a forest house that was built for her by the hunter; she wanted to be a gatherer in the forest there.
Dall and Darlen who tended the goats, had all 3 of their children finish school and move out. The twin boys, Jerdith and Joesephus, had houses built near their parents. Leliann, the gatherer, promptly moved out of her new forest house and in with Joesephus. The twin's sister, Milaniyah, moved into the house Leliann vacated and she became the gatherer.
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That was the year there was an outbreak of yellow fever in Plimoth. Grandma remembered because she was so worried about her son, Jarviller, my father. She was so proud of him. He was just a schoolboy but he helped take care of the horses and could hitch them to the wagon and drive it to the stockpile for his father, my grandpa, to load with wood. A group of migrants stopped in the settlement on their way to Plimoth. My father took them there in the empty wood wagon. Those migrants brought the yellow fever to Plimoth but neither my father nor anyone else in the settlement contracted it.
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Chapter 11
Time moved on and Plimoth had less need for wood and the hunter and trapper did not come to the settlement anymore. Plimoth was in need of clothes and tools and even food. The settlement was doing well; the families had plenty of everything they needed. Another storage barn and tiny shed were built. The families were healthy and happy. More new couples were formed, houses were built, and babies were born.
It wasn't long before my father was out of school and he helped his father build a log house nearby for his sister, Raquelinor. She married his friend, Tuckery, from the stable house. Grandma and Grandpa was so happy when their first grandchild was born; Raquel and Tuckery had a baby girl they named Myleena, my Aunt Myleena. Grandma said everyone, including her and Grandpa, was surprised when, a short time later, she and Grandpa also had a baby girl they named Reathari.
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Grandma remembered that fall and winter very well; it snowed early and often and was followed by a very wet and rainy spring. Two migrant families came to the settlement from the north; one family had 2 children. Travel was difficult with the rain, the mud, and the pigs they had with them. They wanted to know if the families would take the pigs. No one in the settlement knew anything about the animals or how to care for them. The 2 families agreed to stay; they reckoned they had gone far enough south. They built 2 houses a short distance from town and settled the pigs in a low-lying muddy area at the base of the east mountains.
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Chapter 12
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It was a few years after the migrants with the pigs arrived that my father built a house next to the stable's small horse pasture. The stable couple were getting older and had a 10-year-old schoolboy still at home. Their son Tuckery and my aunt Raquelinor had their 2nd daughter so my father was helping the older couple and taking care of the horses. He was still taking migrant families to Plimoth in the old wood wagon. His sister, my aunt Oralie, was still living at home helping Grandma and Grandpa with the 3-year-old and the forest work.
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As soon as the miller's daughter, Melia, turned 15 she moved in with my father. I was born in autumn right before the first snowfall. Grandma & Grandpa had another daughter, and they were happy to have a 3rd granddaughter, me. Yes, I had 2 sets of grandparents, Grandma & Grandpa on my father's side, and Grandpa Shedric and Grandma Elayna on my mother's side.
Chapter 13
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The year after I was born I got a baby sister named Aylen. We got another cousin that year; Uncle Tuckery and Aunt Raquelinor named their 3rd baby girl Gwendy. Grandma said it was the year the fancy hostel was built down the road from our houses. My sister and I later figured out that I was born in year 20 SVT and she in year 21 SVT.
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The hostel was built to match the butcher shop that was built down by the pig farmyard. Ruther and Hillison, the pig farmers, described the shop and other buildings that were in the village that they came from. The hostel was called a Bed and Breakfast where guests stayed overnight and were give something to eat the next morning before leaving. Grandpa and my father thought that was a good idea because often migrants arrived late in the day or the weather was too bad to make the trip to Plimoth. They began building a bakery.
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Chapter 14
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The Rise and Shine bakery was built down the road from the mill across from my Aunt Tiffaniah's house. After my mother married my father, my aunt moved out leaving Grandpa Shedric and Grandma Elayna alone in the house by the mill. Grandma Elayna was the one milling the flour for several years. Aunt Tiffaniah would work in the bakery. It was cold and snowing when the next migrant families came to the settlement on their way to Plimoth. They were very happy to stay at the Bed and Breakfast and awake to fruit filled pastries warming on the hearth.
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Grandma said the bakery was built the year that the Baron in Plimoth wanted Grandpa to deliver a wagon load of iron. Grandpa said no; not only was he feeling too old to do such heavy work but he did not want the old horses pulling such a heavy load. My father had some ideas. On his last trip he saw that the railroad tunnel going west from Plimoth had been dug and the train engine was being built. There would soon be more migrants coming from East Port wanting to go west.
Chapter 15
On that last trip to Plimoth, my father learned from the migrants that they saw we had maple trees and they wanted to know if we tapped them for sap. Back in the old country they had pancakes for breakfast with the most delicious maple syrup made from that sap. The sugar map is the one to tap; if we weren't sure which were the maple trees to tap just look for the most colorful trees in the forest in fall. The maples drop a lot of seeds so they usually grow in small groves. There are only a few weeks in late winter and very early spring to tap the trees. The nights are cold and the days are warmer and it is that rise and fall that starts the sap flowing. The sap is then boiled until the water evaporates and the thicker syrup remains.
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That autumn several groves of sugar maple trees were found by looking for the most colorful trees. A work shed was built by the three groves closest to the settlement. One was a short distance from the Bed and Breakfast hostel, and the other 2 were south of the mill and bakery. By late winter buckets were set out by the trees just waiting for the weather to warm and the sap to start flowing.
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Chapter 16
By the time the maple trees were tapped, a sap boiler had been built behind the bakery. A branch cart and woodpile box were placed nearby to provide a steady supply of firewood. The sap would be boiled day and night until the water was cooked out and only the syrup remained.
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Grandma said that was the winter the settlement suffered it first loss. Gerel, the forester, died of old age. My sister and I figured he must have been about 68 years old. He was the older man who dived into the water to help a husband save his wife and children who had been swept overboard during a sudden storm at sea on their way here. The family he helped save is the couple who live in the stable. Gerel lived in the farthest house west past the forest hunter. He found one of the maple groves far to the west. He was a loner who never married but all the families thought it was sad that he did not get to share in the first breakfast with the maple syrup at the newly built pancake house. The stable couple's young son and his new bride moved into Gerel's forest house leaving the couple alone in the stable house.
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Chapter 17
There were more deaths and moves in the next few years. My father's sister Oralie married Gardo and moved out from Grandma and Grandpa's house to one of the 2 new forest houses down the road from the Bed and Breakfast. Grandma asked several times which family Gardo was from and had to be reminded he was the youngest son of one of the shipwreck families.
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The other shipwreck family was my mother's parents. Grandpa Shedric died of old age leaving Grandma Elayna alone in the mill house. Cayley from the stable house also died of old age leaving Amarco alone. A year or so later, Amarco married Grandma Elayna and moved into the mill house with her. A young man living by the storage barn took over the milling.
My sister, Aylen, and I would be finishing schooling soon. We were at that age where we were interested in who was marrying who and who was having babies. We suggested that the settlement should have a town hall and we should start keeping records while Grandma's memory was still good. A tiny town hall was built and my sister and I were in charge of compiling the records. Many of the families came to tell us their family history. Many thought that if we were now a town with a town hall, the town should have a name. It was late winter of year 32; the temperature was above freezing and the maple trees would be tapped any day. We named the town Mapleton.
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Chapter 18
The following year, my father with some help from Grandpa, completed the project he was working on; they built a stagecoach. My father had an idea; first he would take the stagecoach to East Port and hopefully trade it for 2 younger horses. He promised Grandpa that he would stop to rest the 2 old horses often and would bring them back home. My father would then build a 2nd stagecoach. The first would bring migrants from East Port to Mapleton and the second would take them from Mapleton to Plimoth. The railroad train would be ready to make its first trip west by then.
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Everything went according to plan. My father returned from East Port with 2 horses and news. We often got news from East Port migrants of storms and flood and food shortages. The news was passed on to Plimoth. This news was of a landslide north of Smallville that blocked the main river; because of the blockage, some rivers were drying up and others were changing course. Trade and travel were very difficult; there may be more migrants.
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My father brought something else back from East Port; he got coffee beans from one of the trading ships. A greenhouse was built to grow the beans, and a Breakfast Nook was built to serve toast with jam and coffee, or bacon and eggs with coffee. Settlement families and migrants were happy with either, those that weren't had pancakes. The next group of migrants were taken by stagecoach to Plimoth.
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Chapter 19
In the following years more elders died, more couples were formed, and more babies were born. Amaraco died of old age at 73 and was soon followed by Grandma Elayn at 74. They joined their spouses in the town cemetery.
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A new house for one of the couples was built behind the tiny school, and 2 more houses were built in the center of town. A storage barn and a chicken coop were built over by the Bed and Breakfast and the Breakfast Nook. Three more houses were built along that road. Another spring hedgerow was found that would provide more hazelnuts, wild oats, asparagus, mushroom, and branches for firewwod. We all look forward to that first harvest of asparagus in spring.
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Chapter 20
So, weary traveler, it's spring again in Mapleton. The snow melted and the maple trees were tapped and the sap was boiled. The trees, shrubs, and wildflowers are blooming, and there's a new colt in the stable pasture. There are little piglets and baby chicks too.
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The Breakfast Nook is frying eggs and bacon, and pancakes with syrup are being served in the Pancake House. The morning coffee is being brewed. You should have enough time for breakfast before the stagecoach is ready to leave. Not many folks go from here to East Port, it is usually the other way around. Maybe you'll decide to stay there.
Fare thee well, weary traveler. Have a good morning and a happy First Day of Spring.
The End
Yes, when I look at these pictures I realise just how lucky I am to live somewhere where it doesn't snow.
For me spring is long gone, summer is over and autumn has just begun.
It was another lovey story on the passing parade of life - no matter where you live. :)
Thanks Glenn :) I often say I would not want to live somewhere that doesn't have our four seasons, I like each one. I think that is why I like Banished so much, I like the trees changing and the rain and the snow falling. I think the preference has a lot to do with where we are born. I have fond childhood memories of playing outside in the snow. I like raking leaves and shoveling snow. ;D
@Abandoned ;D ;) :)Thank you for the beautiful story. You portray the developing village life very nicely with added decorations. One gets the impression that this village is real, not fantasy. I also have 4 seasons and I also welcomed spring, I like to watch nature wake up to life. Regards
:) Thanks
@taniu. Yesterday I saw a few little greeneries coming up in the garden. :) But this morning it does not look like spring. I awoke to an inch of snow on the ground. It stuck to the trees and shrubs. It is very pretty :) Spring snow never stays around long. I wish you and your wife a wonderful spring.
@Abandoned ;DThank you very much . I hope that we will see new great stories from the world of Banished, although the map is already very full of new villages. ;) Regards
;D oh, I think there is room for a few more ;D