History of McDonough County, Illinois, together with sketches of the towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent individuals, and biographies of the representative citizens, Part 9

Author:
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Springfield, Ill. : Continental Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1150

USA > Illinois > McDonough County > History of McDonough County, Illinois, together with sketches of the towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent individuals, and biographies of the representative citizens > Part 9

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HISTORY OF MCDONOUGH COUNTY.

ing on a hook of the same material. To open the door from the outside, a strip of buckskin was tied to the latch and drawn through a hole a few inches above the latch-bar, so that on pulling the string the latch was lifted from the catch or hook, and the door was opened without further trouble. To lock the door, it was only necessary to pull the string through the hole to the inside. Here the family lived, and here the guest and wayfarer were made welcome. The living room was of good size, but to a large extent it was all-kitchen, bed-room, parlor and arsenal, with flitches of bacon and rings of dried pumpkin suspended from the rafters. In one corner were the loom and other implements used in the manu- facture of clothing, and around the ample fire-place were collected the kitchen fur- niture. The clothing lined one side of the sleeping apartment, suspended from pegs driven in the logs. Hemp and flax were generally raised, and a few sheep kept. Out of these the clothing for the family and the sheets and coverlets were made by the females of the house. Over the door was placed the trusty rifle, and just back of it hung the pow- der horn and hunting pouch. In the well-to-do families, or when crowded on the ground floor, a loft was sometimes made to the cabin for a sleeping place and the storage of "traps " and articles not in common use. . The loft was reach- ed by a ladder secured to the wall. Generally the bedrooms were separa- ted from the living-room by sheets and coverlets suspended from the rafters, but until the means of making these partition walls were ample, they lived and slept in the same room.

Familiarity with this mode of living did away with much of the discomfort, but as soon, as the improvement could be made, there was added to the cabin an additional room, or a " double log cabin " being substantially a" three-faced camp," with a log room on each end and con- taining a loft. The furniture in the cabin corresponded with the house it- self. The articles used in the kitchen were as few and simple as can be imag- ined. A "Dutch oven," or skillet, a long handled frying pan, an iron pot or kettle, and sometimes a coffee pot, con- stituted the utensils of the best furnish- ed kitchen. A little later, when stone formed the base of the chimney, a long iron " crane" swung in the chimney place, which on its " pot-hook " carried the boiling kettle or heavy iron pot. The cooking was all done on the fire- place and at the fire, and the style of cooking was as simple as the 'utensils. Indian, or corn meal, was the common flour, which was made into "pone " or " corn-dodger," or "hoe-cake," as the occasion or variety demanded. The " pone " and the " dodger " was baked in the Dutch oven, which was first set on a bed of glowing coals. When the oven was filled with dough, the lid, already heated on the fire, was placed on the oven and covered with red hot coals. When the bread was done, it was taken from the oven and placed near the fire to keep warm while some other food was being prepared in the same "oven " for the forthcoming meal, The " hoe-cake" was prepared in the same way as the dodger-that is, a stiff dough was made of the meal and water, and, taking as much as could conveniently be held in

HISTORY OF MCDONOUGH COUNTY.

both hands,it was moulded into the desir- ed shape by being tossed from hand to hand, then laid on a board or flat stone placed at an angle before the fire and pat- ted down to the required thickness on the "johnny-cake board." In the fall and early winter, cooked pumpkin was sometimes added to the meal dough, giving a flavor and richness to the bread not attained by the modern methods. In the oven from which the bread was taken, the venison or lam was then fried, and, in winter, lye hominy, made from the unbroken grains of corn, added to the frugal meal. The woods abounded in honey, and of this in pioneer times, the early settlers had an abundance the year round.

These simple cabins were inhabited by a kind and true-hearted people. They were strangers to mock-modesty, and the traveler seeking lodgings for the night, or desirous of spending a few days in the community, if willing to ac- cept the rude offerings, was always wel- come, although how they were disposed of at night the reader may not easily imagine: for, as described, often a single room would be made to serve the pur- pose of a kitchen, dining-room, sitting- room and parlor, and many families con- sisted of six or eight persons.

CHARACTER OF THE PIONEERS.

The character of the pioneers of Mc- Donough county falls properly within the range of the historian. They lived in a region of exuberance and fertility, where Nature had scattered her bless- ings with a liberal hand. The fair sup- ply of timber, the fertile prairie, and the many improvements 'constantly going

forward, with the bright prospect for a glorious future in everything that ren- ders life pleasant, combined to deeply im- press their character, to give them a spirit of enterprise, an independance of feeling, and a joyousness of hope. They were a thorough admixture of many nations, characters, languages, conditions, and opinions. There was scarcely a state in the Union that was not represented among the early settlers, All the various religious sects had their advocates. All now form one society. Says an early writer: " Men must cleave to their kind, and must be dependent upon each other. Pride and jealousy give way to the natural yearnings of the human heart for society. They begin to rub off the neutral prejudices; one takes a step and then the other; they meet half way and embrace; and the society thus newly organized and consti- tuted is more liberal, enlarged, unpreju- diced, and, of course, more affectionate than a society of people of like birth and character, who bring all their early prejudices as a common stock, to be transmitted as an inheritance to pos- terity."

They were bound together by a feeling that all were equal, and were laboring and striving for a common end. They had all left more or less comfortable homes in the eastern' states, and cast their lot in a country where there was nothing save the intrinsic merits of the location. Here they were all on equal footing; riches could give no advantage, even had they existed, and the absence of the aristocratic element that is now so painfully apparent in society, must alone have been a great source of com-

HISTORY OF MCDONOUGH COUNTY.

fort to the pioneers. They all felt an equal interest in the improvement and development of the country, and to the softening and smoothing over of the rough edged disadvantages against which they had to contend. Every one was thought of and treated as a brother. Their public gatherings were like the reunion of a parted family, and the fact that there was no rivalry, made the oc- casions doubly joyous. Their hospitality knew no bounds.

CLOTHING.

The clothing of the early pioneers was as plain and simple as their houses. Ne- cessity compelled it to be in conformity to the strictest economy. The clothing taken to the new country was made to render a vast deal of service until a crop of flax or hemp could be grown, out of which to make the household apparel. The prairie wolves made it difficult to take sheep into the settlements, but after the sheep had been introduced, and flax and hemp raised in sufficient quantities, it still remained an arduous task to spin, weave and make the wearing apparel for an entire family. In summer, nearly all persons, both male and female, went barefooted. Buckskin moccasins were much worn. Boys of twelve and fifteen years of age never thought of wearing anything on their feet, except during three or four months of the coldest weather in winter. Boots were. unknown until a later generation. After flax was raised in sufficient quantities, and sheep could be protected from the wolves, a better and more comfortable style of clothing prevailed. Flannel and linsey were woven and made into garments for

the women and children, and jeans for the men. The wool for the jeans was colored from the bark of the walnut, and from this came the term "butternut," still common throughout the West. The black and white wool mixed, varied the color, and gave the name "pepper-and- salt." As a matter of course every family did its own spinning, weaving and sewing, and for years all the wool had to be carded by hand on cards from four inches broad to eight and ten inches long. The 'picking of the wool and carding was work to which the little folks could help, and at the proper sea- son all the little hands were enlisted in the business. Every household had its big and little spinning wheels, winding- blades, reel, warping-bars and loom The articles were indispensable in every family. In many of the households of McDonough county, stowed away in empty garrets and out-of-the-way places, may still be found some of these almost forgotten relics.

The preparations for the family cloth- ing usually began early in the fall, and the work was continued on into the win- ter months, when the whir of the wheels and the regular stroke of the loom could heard until a late hour of the night. No scene can well be imagined so abounding in contentment and domestic happiness. Strips of bark, of the shell bark hickory, thrown from time to time in the ample fire place, cast a ruddy, flickering light over the room. In one corner, within range of the reflected light, the father is cobbling a well worn pair of shoes, or trying his skill at mak- ing new ones. Hard by, the young ones are shelling corn for the next grist. The

HISTORY OF MCDONOUGH COUNTY.

oldest daughter whirls the large spin- ning wheel, and with its hum and whir trips to the far side of the room, draw- ing out the thread, while the mother, with the click of the shuttle and the measured thump of the loom, fills up the hours. The whole a scene of domestic industry and happiness rarely elsewhere to be found.

Industry such as this, supported by an economy and frugality from which there was no escape, necessarily brought its own reward. Changes and alterations were to be expected, but the reality has distanced the wildest conjecture; and stranger still, multitudes are still living who witnessed not only the face of nature undergoing a change about them, but the manners, customs and industries of a whole people almost wholly changed. Many an old pioneer sits by his fireside . in his easy chair with closed eyes, and dreams of the long ago, in sympathy with the poet describing eastern pioneer life, and seeing here and there strains that are parallel to his own experience:

" The voice of Nature's very self drops low, As though she whispered of. the long ago, When down the wandering stream the rude canoe

Of some lone trapper glided into view, And loitered down the watery path that led Thro' forest depths, that only knew the tread Of savage beasts and wild barbarians, .

That skulked about with blood upon their hands,

And murder in their hearts. The light of day Might barely pierce the gloominess that lay Like some dark pall across the water's face, And folded all the land in its embrace, .

The panther's screaming, and the bear's low growl,

The snake's sharp rattle, and the wolf's wild howl,

The owl's grim chuckle, as it rose and fell In alternation with the Indian's yell, Made fitting prelude for the gory plays That were enacted in the early days. Now, o'er the vision, like a miracle, falls The old log cabin with its dingy walls, And crippled chimney, with the crutch-like prop Beneath, a sagging shoulder at the top, The coon skin battened fast on either side, The wisps of leaf tobacco, cut and dried ; The yellow strands of quartered apples hung In rich festoons that tangle in among The morning glory vines that clamber o'er The little clapboard roof above the door ; Again, thro' mists of memory arise The simple scenes of home before the eyes; The happy mother humming with her wheel ; The dear old melodies that used to steal So drowsily upon the summer air,

The house dog hid his bone, forgot his care And nestled at her feet, to dream, perchance, Some cooling dream of summer-time romance. The square of sunshine through the open door That notched its edge across the puncheon floor, And made the golden coverlet whereon The god of slumber had a picture drawn Of babyhood, in all the loveliness Of dimpled cheek and limb and linsey dress. The bough-filled fire-place and the mantle wide, Its fire-scorched ankles stretched on either side, Where, perchance upon its shoulder 'neath the

joist, The old clock hiccoughed, harsh and husky

voiced ;

Tomatoes, red and yellow, in a row,

Preserved not them for diet but for show; The jars of jelly, with their dainty tops; Bunches of pennyroyal and cordial drops, The flask of camphor and vial of squills, The box of buttons, garden seeds and pills; And thus the pioneer and helpsome aged wife Reflectively views the scenes of early life."

In early days more mischief was done by wolves than by any other wild ani- mal, and no small part of their mischief consisted in their almost constant bark- ing at night, which always seemed men- acing and frightful to the settlers. Like

HISTORY OF MCDONOUGH COUNTY.

mosquitos, the noise they made appeared to be about as dreadful as the depreda- tions they committed. The most effect- ual, as well as the most exciting, method of ridding the country of these hateful pests, was that known as the circular wolf hunt, by which all the men and boys would turn out on an appointed day, in a kind of circle comprising many square miles of territory, with horses and dogs, and then close up toward the center field of operation, killing the "varmints" as they came into view.

WEDDINGS.

The wedding was an attractive feature of pioneer life. There was no distinc- tion of life and very little of fortune On these accounts the first impressions of love generally resulted in marriage. The family establishment cost but little labor- nothing more. The marriage was always celebrated, in those days, at the house of the bride, and she was generally left to choose the officiating clergyman. A wedding, however, en- gaged the attention of the whole neigh- borhood. It was anticipated by both old and young with eager expectation. In the morning of the wedding day, the groom and his intimate friends. assem- bled at the house of his father, and after due preparation, departed en masse for the "mansion" of his bride. The jour- ney was sometimes made on horseback, sometimes on foot, and sometimes in farm wagons and carts. It was always a merry journey, and to insure merri- ment the bottle was always taken along. On reaching the house of the bride, the marriage ceremony took place, and then dinner or supper was served. After the

meal the dancing commenced, and gen- erally lasted until the following morning. The figures of the dances were three and four-handed reels, or square sets and jigs. The commencement was always a square four, which was followed by what the pioneers called "jigging,"- that is, two out of the four would single. out for a jig, and were followed by the remaining couple. The jigs were often accompanied with what was called "cut- ting out"-that is, when either of the parties became tired of the dance, on intimation the place was supplied by some one of the company without inter- ruption of the dance. In this way the reel was often continued until the musi- cian was exhausted. About nine or ten o'clock in the evening a deputation of young ladies stole off the bride and put her to bed. In doing this, they had to ascend a ladder from the kitchen to the upper floor, which was composed of loose . boards. Here, in the pioneer bridal chamber, the young, simple- hearted girl was put to bed by her en- thusiastic friends. This done, a deputa- tion of young men escorted the groom to the same apartment, and placed him snugly by the side of his bride. The dance still continued, and if the seats in the house were scarce, which was gen- erally the case, says a local witness, every young man, when not engaged in the dance, was obliged to offer his lap as a seat for one of the girls, and the offer was sure to be accepted. During the night's festivities, spirits were freely used, but seldom to excess. The infair was held on the following evening, where the same order of exercises was generally observed.

HISTORY OF MCDONOUGH COUNTY.

SHAKES.

Another feature of pioneer life, which every old settler will vividly recall, was the "chills and fever," "fever and ague," or "shakes," as it is variously called. It was a terror to new-comers, for in the fall of the year almost everybody was afflicted with it. It was no respecter of persons; everybody looked pale and sal- low, as though frost-bitten. It was not contagious, but derived from impure water and air, which was always devel- oped in the opening up of a new coun- try of rank soil like that of McDonough county. The impurities continued to absorb from day to day, and from week to week, until the whole corporate body becomes saturated with it as with elec- tricity, and then the shock came; and the shock was a regular shake, with a fixed beginning and ending, coming on, in some cases, each day, but generally on alternate days, with a regularity that was surprising. After the shakes came the fever, and this "last estate was worse than the first;" it was a burning hot fever, and lasted for hours. When you had the chill you couldn't get warm, and when you had the fever you couldn't get cool. It was exceedingly awkward in this respect-indeed it was. Nor would it stop for any contingency-not even a wedding in the family could stop it. It was imperative and tyrannical. When the appointed time came around, everything else had to be stopped to at- tend to its demands. It didn't even have any Sundays or holidays. After the fever went down you still didn't feel much better; you felt as though you had gone through some sort of a collis- ion, threshing-machine, jarring-machine,

and came out not killed, but next thing to it. You felt weak, as though you had run too far after something, and then didn't catch it. You felt languid, stupid and sore and was down in the mouth and heel and partially raveled out. Your back was out of fix, your head ached and your appetite crazy. Your eyes had too much white in them; your ears, espec- ially after taking quinine, had too much roar in them, and your whole body and soul were entirely woe begone, disconso- late, sad, poor and good for nothing, You didn't think much of yourself, and didn't believe that other people did either, and you didn't care. You didn't . quite make up your mind to commit suicide, but sometimes wished some ac- cident would happen to knock either the malady or yourself out of existence. You imagined even the dogs looked at you with a sort of self-complacency. You thought the sun had a sort of sickly shine about it. About this time you came to the conclusion that you would not take the whole state as a gift; and if you had the strength and means you would pick up Hannah and the baby, and your traps, and go back "yander" to " Old Virginia," the " Jarseys " Mary- land, Pennsylvania, Kentucky or Ten- nessee.

"And to-day, the swallows flitting Round my cabin, see me sitting Moodily within the sunshine, Just within my silent door, Waiting for the 'ager,' seeming Like a man forever dreaming; And the sunlight on me streaming Throws no shadow on the floor;

For I am too thin and sallow, To make shadows on the floor- Nary shadow any more!"

HISTORY OF MCDONOUGH COUNTY.

The foregoing is not a mere picture of imagination. It is simply recounting in quaint phrase of what actually occurred in hundreds of cases. Whole families would sometimes be sick at one time, and not a member scarcely able to wait upon another. Labor or exercise always aggra- vated the malady, and it took General Laziness a long time to thrash the enemy out. These were the days for swallowing all sorts of roots and "yarbs" and whisky straight, with some faint hope of relief. Finally, when the case wore out, the last remedy got the credit of the cure.

SNAKES.

In pioneer times snakes were numerous, such as the rattlesnake, viper,adder, blood- snakes, and many varieties of large blue and green snakes, milksnakes, garter and watersnakes, and others. If, on meeting one of these, you would retreat, they would chase you very fiercely; but if you would turn and give them battle, they would immediately turn and crawl away with all possible speed, hide in the grass and weeds and wait for a "greener" cus- tomer. These really harmless snakes served to put people on their guard against the more dangerous and venom- ous kind. It was a common paactice, in order to exterminate them, for the men to turn out in companies with spades, mattocks, and crowbars, attack the prin- cipal snake dens, and slay large num- bers of them. In early spring the snakes were somewhat torpid and easily cap- tured. Scores of rattlesnakes were sometimes frightened out of a single den, which, as soon as they showed their heads through the crevices of the rocks, were dispatched, and left to be devoured

by the numerous wild hogs of that day. Some of the fattest of these snakes were taken to the house and oil extracted from them, and their glittering skins were saved as a specific for rheumatism. Another method for their destruction was to fix a heavy stick over the door of their dens, with a long grapevine at- tached, so that one at a distance could plug the entrance to the den when the snakes were all out sunning themselves. Then a large company of citizens, on hand by appointment, could kill scores of the reptiles in a few minutes.

AGRICULTURE.

In the earlier settlements of this sec- tion, ponds, marshes and swamps abounded where to-day are found culti- vated and fertile fields. The low and flat places were avoided for the higher grounds, not only on account of the wetness, but for sanitary reasons. Agri- cultural implements were necessarily rude, and the agriculture of a corre- sponding character. The plow used was called a "bar-share" plow, the iron point of which consisted of a bar of iron about two feet long, and a broad share of iron welded to it. At the extreme point was a coulter that passed through a beam six or seven feet long, to which was attached handles of corresponding length. The mold-board was a wooden one split out of winding timber, or hewed into a winding shape, in order to turn the soil over. In the springtime, when the ground was to be prepared for the seed, the father would take his post at the plow, and the daughter posses- sion of the reins. This is a grand scene -one full of grace and beauty. The

HISTORY OF MCDONOUGH COUNTY.

pioneer girl thinks but little of fine dress; knows less of the fashions; has probably heard of the opera, but does not understand its meaning; has been told of the piano but has never seen one; wears a dress "buttoned up behind;" has on "leather boots," and "drives plow" for father. In the planting of corn, which was always done by hand, the girls always took a part, usually drop- ping the corn, but many of them cover- ing it with the hand-hoe.

In the cultivation of wheat, the land was ploughed the same as for corn, and harrowed with a wooden-toothed harrow, or smoothed by dragging over the ground a heavy brush, weighed down, if neces- sary, with a stick of timber. It was then sown broadcast by hand at the rate of about a bushel and a quarter to the acre, and harrowed in with the brush. The implements used to cut the wheat was either the sickle nor the cradle. The sickle was almost identical with the“grass hook" in use, and the cradle was a scythe fastened to a frame of wood, with long, bending teeth or strips of wood, for cutting and laying the grain in swaths. There were few farmers who did not know how to swing the scythe or cradle, and there was no more pleasant picture on a farm than a gang of work- men in the harvest field, nor a more hi- larious crowd. Three cradlers would cut about ten acres a day. One binder was expected to keep up with the cradle. Barns for the storage of the unthreshed grain are comparatively a "modern in- vention," and as soon as the shock was supposed to be sufficiently cured, it was hauled to some place on the farm con- venient for threshing, and there put in

stack. The threshing was performed in one or two ways, by flail or tramping with horses, generally the latter. The flail was used in stormy weather, on the sheltered floor, or when the farm work was not pressing; the threshing by tramp- ing commonly in clear weather, on a level and well tramped clay floor. The bundles were piled in a circle of about fifteen to twenty feet in diameter, and four to six horses ridden over the straw. One or two hands turned over and kept the straw in place. When sufficiently tramped, the straw was thrown into a rick or stack, and the wheat cleared by a "fanning-mill," or sometimes, before fan- ning-mills were introduced, by letting it fall from the height of ten or twelve feet, subjected to the action of the wind, when . it was supposed to be ready for the mill or market.

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History of McDonough County, Illinois, together with sketches of the towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent individuals, and biographies of the representative citizens, Part 9

Author: Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Springfield, Ill. : Continental Historical Co. Number of Pages: 1150

Author:
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Springfield, Ill. : Continental Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1150