History of White County Illinois, Part 6

Author: Inter-State Publishing Company
Publication date: 1883
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 831

USA > Illinois > White County > History of White County Illinois > Part 6

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

"Yours was a time of good fellowship, when the latch string of your cabin doors hung generously on the outside. It was a time when men for self-protection rallied together and stood shoulder to shoulder. You have lived to see great changes in men, man ners, things, and in the ways of doing things. These latter days have marked many wonderful events, and he would be an unwise

Digitized by Google

235

HISTORY OF: WHITE COUNTY.

man who should dispute any promise of the future. There is still a grander outlook beyond. With all our great gains, we have had our losses. With our present increase in material wealth we have lost much of the old time morality. Crime has increased in a greater ratio than population. With all your early poverty you had no paupers, made so by vicious and immoral habits. Labor-saving machinery has cheapened what we eat and what we wear; but it has sent the tramp and the vagabond abroad in the land to demand of us that we divide these blessings with him. It is my solemn opinion that in all our progress in many direc- tions, we are standing still, or going backward in the most vital and important one. On the sea we have converted the oceans into commonplace ferries, and in the matter of communicat- ing thought have ignored them entirely. On the land our speech takes no thought of distance, and over the iron ways of commerce busy traffic and idle pleasure go careering at the rate of ninety miles an hour. We have bred the wool off the horse, tempered his bones like unto steel, increased his size and speed until he becomes again the marvel of Job. We have bred the bristles off the hog, built him up into a creature of mammoth pro- portions and converted him into nothing but an economical ma- chine for turning corn into fat. We have bred the horns off the ox and changed him into a mountain of meat that knows his master's crib better than any ox ever did. But with all breeding, we are not breeding better men and women, and our minds go back to the 'flesh pots' of the past, when in the 'good old times' men were honest, brave and generous. Though their hands were hardened with toil, yet were they soft as the touch of charity and palsied with fear at the thought of crime. When the women were beautiful, wise and virtuous, though arrayed in homespun, the work of their own hands, yet were they queens of dignified, generous hospitality, and' angels of mercy to the distressed in their neighborhoods.

" It has been my peculiar good fortune to have been always on : good terms with the 'Old Settler.' I have sat at his feet, as it were, and absorbed wisdom. He is a delightful old ' Has Been.' Nothing pleases him so much as to sit around and tell the boys how it was when he was young. Much as we pride ourselves, we have not improved on his manner of telling things, nor on his memory. We have never beaten the jump he made when a boy nor the number of acres of wheat he cradled when a man. When

Digitized by Google

236

HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY.

he gets to telling of the old times one feels a sort of regret that he did not live in that far-away time to enjoy it with him. I always felt like being there to see when my old settler friend told me of the time when the wild pigeons flew overhead in such dense clouds that it grew so dark the chickens went to roost. I wanted to be with him, up on the Skillet Fork, when he cut that big tree. You know it was so large, that after he had cut on it two or three days, he concluded he would walk around it to see how big it really was, and was much surprised to find two men at work on the same tree, and they had been cutting a week. I always wanted to see that tree. I wanted to be with him down in Possum, when he was plowing and the lightning struck his horse and plow and melted the trace chains into solid rods, and came 'mighty near' jerking the plow handles out of his hands. And another time when he was plowing corn, he saw the lightning zig zagging down the corn row. I always wanted to see that side step of his to the right, when he pulled his plow out of the way and dodged the fiery ball as it went by ,and hit a 'pistol grubbed ' white-oak sapling and · knocked it into bug dust.' But the most delightful thing about this story was the big chunk of information he gave you at its conclusion, ' that you could dodge the zigzag lightning, but it was no use trying to dodge the forked kind.' I always wanted to see that pumpkin, out in Big Prairie, inside of which he found his sow and pigs, after they had been lost six weeks in the winter. I wanted to be with him when he went coon hunting down in the Wabash Bottoms and found a big, hollow sycamore 'plumb full of coons,' packed in so solid that when they breathed they forced the tree to crack open an inch or two. I always wanted to see the mast the year when he got his hogs so powerful fat. He was a truthful old settler, and the more he got settled, the more truthful he be- came. He said the year of the big mast his hogs got so fat they couldn't see, and he had to saw rings off a marrow bone and ' prize ' open the wrinkles of fat around their eyes and put in these bone rings so that the hogs could see out. There was one hog he noticed in particular. This hog had a tail about a foot long, and the fatter the hog grew the shorter became the tail. The fact was, the tail stuck out through the fat like a rat's tail in an auger hole. Finally, the tail disappeared entirely, and when the hog smothered to death my friend had to probe the hole to the depth of three inches to feel the end of the tail. One feels as though one's life had been alinost a failure withont a sight of that hog. Whenever

Digitized by Google

237

HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY.

after this my truthful friend 'started in' to tell me anything about the old times, I always felt like clasping my hands and say- ing, 'Let us pray,' because I knew I should need all the faith I could muster to enable me to swallow and digest what he was going to tell me.

" My friends, these stories were young once; but they have been handled so much that they are getting bald-headed like some of us, and should therefore, be treated with respect and reverence. But the good old times are gone, yet while their memories linger in our fancy, like the tints of a glorious sunset, we have this satis- faction: The delightful present is with us, made more enjoyable by your company. And what an active, rushing, roaring present it is. Every dawn ushers insome new wonder-every evening wit- nesses the accomplishment of some new fact. Science, art, com- merce, religion, general intelligence, literature and a wide-spread desire on the part of all for the common betterment of the lot of all humanity-all these unite and blend their efforts in forming the resplendent bow of promise that spans the present, and the brilliant rosy-tinted future lies before us. To you who stepped over the threshold of manhood fifty or sixty years ago, it must be a source of peculiar gratification to note the difference between then and now. The nursling of a nation, which laid wholly on the east of the Mississippi River, and by far the greater bulk of it east of the Alleghany, has grown to overspread the continent. From a few paltry thousands it now swarms with more than fifty millions. Yet with all this growth and with all this population, it is not, in one sense, so much of a nation as it was in your earlier days. Then it was compact, and had a character all its own. Since then our ma- terials to make a nation have come in too fast to be properly blended into distinct national characteristics. We are forming a new nation. The whole thing is an experiment on such a scale as the world never saw before. We are taking in people from every race under heaven; we are mixing them together in all sorts of conditions and proportions. From the British isles we get the best blood and sinew of the brave English, the thrifty Scot, the laboring, delving Irish and Welsh. From the continent of Europe we get the hardy Swedes, Norwegians, Finns, Laps and other dwellers un- der the Arctic Circle. The broad empires of Russia, Austria and Germany; the republics of France, Switzerland, and the kingdoms that lie along the Mediterranean Sea; the principalities of the Rhine and the Danube; the lesser Duchys of Hesse, Saxony, Wurtemburg

Digitized by Google

288

HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY.

and Baden, are all pouring into our midst an active, energetic peo- ple seeking free homes. From Africa, India, China, Japan and the islands of the sea we are taking in contributions of people to swell this tidal wave of humanity. What the outcome will be time alone can tell. Our future is not so much a question of education or intelligence as it is a question of race. If there be enough of the Anglo-Saxon leaven to leaven this national lump we are secure. With the Anglo-Saxon element the 'spirit of '76' will live, thrive and prosper. . This Saxon people is a wonder. It stands at the head and front of all humanity. Its characteristics are so strongly marked that whether conqueror or conquered it swallows up and assimilates into itself the conquered and the conquerors. It has projected itself through the centuries, and like a planet in its orbit has, by its superior attractive force, overcome the lesser nationali- ties with which it came in contact and attached them to itself. It stands, as it ever did stand, on the broad basis of freedom and indi- vidual independence. Jefferson's immortal declaration has been read in your hearing. My esteemed friend, Mr. Youngblood, has told you in eloquent language of the struggles of the heroes of the Revolutionary war; bnt grand and towering as these events now ap- pear to our conceptions, viewed in the light of their consequences, they were but the direct fruits of centuries of struggle, persistently, bravely, doggedly undergone by this superb Anglo-Saxon people. Jef- ferson's axiom, 'All men are created free and endowed with certain in- alienable rights,' was the Anglo-Saxon's birthright. Like the heav- enly flame of the ancient fire worshipers, this light of freedom was not allowed to die out from among this people. It was enshrined in their hearts and lives. Through all the strange vicissitudes of its national life, this flame still burned. Tyrannical kings did their utmost in their endeavors to stamp it out; arrogant, licentious, proud and bigotted priests attempted to smother it; vicious, turbu- lent barons, with petty spite tried to quench it; many times its ray has appeared as only a faint glimmer in the dark pall of smoke that hovered over the martyrs burned for its sake; but, forever, thank God! its expiring gleam was fanned into newer, fresher life by the moans and sighs of the widows and orphans of the victims in its sacrifice. Smoldering and slumbering in the national heart it was fanned into a brighter flame by such brave thinkers as Eras- mus and Wycliffe. Tyndal, with his translation of the Bible, placed the fire on every man's own hearthstone. The spoliation of the church by Henry VIII. made its light shine over all England.

Digitized by Google

239

HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY.

Again it faded away, only to burst into a lurid flame in the sacri - fice of Ridley, Latimer, Cranmer, Rogers and a glorious host of never-to-be-forgotten names; until, finally, the immortal Oliver Cromwell and his compatriots, John Hampden and John Pym, arose and ushered in the dawn that was to herald the glorious sun- burst of the Independence of the American colonies. My friends, with such sires and such traditions how can we prove false to the trust, or use unwisely the heritage bequeathed to us? The future will take care of itself if we can only teach these lessons to our chil - dren. For my part I pin my faith to the preponderance of this noble, enduring Anglo-Saxon element in our civilization. With it as the basis of our Government, the nation bids fair to be liberal, widespread, dominant, proud, generous, imperious and free. You old men stand on the mountain-top of your experience and the wide horizon of the future lies before you. Tell us, is there any portentious cloud in all that extended view ?

"Is it clear in the north? Is it clearin the south! Is it clear in the east? Is it clear in the west? These are the momentous questions we ask of you as to the future.

"You have nobly done your part in shaping that future for us. For all that we bless and thank you. We can only hope that this legacy you have given us, with all its blessings enlarged, improved and with just as good prospects of durability, we may be able to pass over to our children, when we, in our turn, shall have become old settlers."

Digitized by Google

CHAPTER III.

PIONEER LIFE.

It is interesting and even profitable to study the many ingenui- ties human beings find themselves compelled to invent and practice when in a country deprived of manufactured articles. And these practices are of course more or less modified by the previous customs of people in their mother country.

Most of the early settlers of Northern Ohio were from New York, New England and Germany; of Southern Ohio, from Penn- sylvania, Virginia and the Carolinas; of Indiana, from Virginia and Kentucky; of Southern Illinois, from Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, etc .; of Northern Illinois, from all the States eastward to the Atlantic; of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, from States eastward and from Germany and Scandinavia; of Michigan, from New York; of Missouri, from Virginia, Kentucky, Tenuessee, etc.

Emigration is nearly always resorted to by the poorer classes of people who desire to obtain a lot of ground for a permanent home; and, as it is a law of nature that misfortunes attend poverty and scarcely ever come singly, most of the first settlers would become dissatisfied and move again, sometimes further west or to some other locality near by, but generally back to their old homes in the East or South. Time, however, would demonstrate that they could not possibly rise to competence in the older sections, and that the West at the same time was growing rapidly, and they would make a second and more determined effort to make a home in the newer world. They scarcely ever return East the second time.

THE LOG CABIN.

After arriving and selecting a suitable location, the next thing to do was to build a log cabin, a description of which may be inter-

(240)

Digitized by Google

241

HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY.

esting to many of our younger readers, as in some sections these old-time structures are no more to be seen. Trees of uniform size were chosen and cut into logs of the desired length, generally 12 to 15 feet, and hauled to the spot selected for the future dwelling. On an appointed day the few neighbors who were available would assemble and have a " house-raising." Each end of every log was saddled and notched so that they would lie as close down as possi- ble; the next day the proprietor would proceed to "chink and daub" the cabin, to keep out the rain, wind and cold. The house had to be re-daubed every fall, as the rains of the intervening time would wash out a great part of the mortar. The usual height of the house was seven or eight feet. The gables were formed by shortening the logs gradually at each end of the building near the top. The roof was made by laying very straight small logs or stout poles suitable distances apart, generally about two and a half feet, from gable to gable, and on these poles were laid the " clap- boards " after the manner of shingling, showing about two and a half feet to the weather. These clapboards were fastened to their place by " weight poles," corresponding in place with the joists just described, and these again were held in their place by "runs " or " knees," which were chunks of wood about 18 or 20 inches long fitted between them near the ends. Clapboards were made from the nicest oaks in the vicinity, by chopping or sawing them into four-foot blocks and riving these with a frow, which was a simple blade fixed at right angles to its handle. This was driven into the blocks of wood by a mallet. As the frow was wrenched down through the wood, the latter was turued alternately over from side to side, one end being held by a forked piece of timber.

The chimney to the Western pioneer's cabin was made by leaving in the original building a large open place in one wall, or by cut- ting one after the structure was up, and by building on the out- side from the ground up, a stone column, or a column of sticks and mud, the sticks being laid up cob-house fashion. The fire-place thus made was often large enough to receive fire-wood six to eight feet long. Sometimes this wood, especially the " back-log," would be nearly as large as a saw-log. The more rapidly the pioneer could burn up the wood in his vicinity the sooner he had his little farm cleared and ready for cultivation. For a window, a piece about two feet long was cut out of one of the wall logs, and the hole closed sometimes by glass, but generally with greased paper. Even greased deer-hide was sometimes used. A doorway was cut

Digitized by Google

242

HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY.

through one of the walls if a saw was to be had; otherwise the door would be left by shortened logs in the original building. The door was made by pinning clapboards to two or three wood bars, and was hung upon wooden hinges. A wooden latch, with catch, then finished the door, and the latch was raised by any one on the outside by pulling a leather string. For security at night this latch-string was drawn in; but for friends and neighbors, and even strangers, the " latch-string was always hanging out," as a welcome. In the interior, over the fire-place would be a shelf, called "the mantel," on which stood the candlestick or lamp, some cooking and table ware, possibly an old clock, and other articles; in the fire- place would be the crane, sometimes of iron, sometimes of wood; on it the pots were hung for cooking; over the door, in forked cleats, hung the ever trustful rifle and powder-horn; in one corner stood the larger bed for the " old folks," and under it the trundle bed for the children; in another stood the old-fashioned spinning-wheel, with a smaller one by its side; in another the heavy table, the only table, of course, there was in the house; in the remaining corner was a rude cupboard holding the table-ware, which consisted of a few cups and saucers and blue-edged plates, standing singly on their edges against the back, to make the display of table furniture more conspicuous; while around the room were scattered a few splint-bottomed or Windsor chairs and two or three stools.

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 accept the rude offering, was always welcome, although how they were disposed of at night the reader might not easily imagine; for, as described, a single room was made to answer for kitchen, dining-room, sitting-room, bed-room and parlor, and many families consisted of six or eight members.

BLEEPING ACCOMMODATIONS.

The bed was very often made by fixing a post in the floor about six feet from one wall and four feet from the adjoining wall, and fastening a stick to this post about two feet above the floor, on each of two sides, so that the other end of each of the two sticks could be fastened in the opposite wall; clapboards were laid across these, and thus the bed was made complete. Guests were given this bed, while the family disposed of themselves in another corner of the room, or in the " loft." When several guests were on hand

Digitized by Google

-1

Edwin B. Webb, State Senator and Whig Nominee for Governor of Illinois in 1852

Digitized by

Google

Carmi's Main Street in 1875

TIMES OFFICE

Digitized by

Google

245

HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY.

at once, they were sometimes kept over night in the following manner: when bed-time came the men were requested to step out of doors while the women spread out a broad bed upon the mid- floor, and put themselves to bed in the center; the signal was given and the men came in and each husband took his place in bed next his own wife, and the single men outside beyond them again. They were generally so crowded that they had to lie " spoon" fashion, and when any one wished to turn over he would say "Spoon," and the whole company of sleepers would turn over at once. This was the only way they could all keep in bed.

COOKING.

To witness the various processes of cooking in those days would alike surprise and amuse those who have grown up since cooking stoves and ranges came into use. Kettles were hung over the large fire, suspended with pot-hooks, iron or wooden, on the crane, or on poles, one end of which would rest upon a chair. The long- handled frying-pan was used for cooking meat. It was either held over the blaze by hand or set down upon coals drawn out upon the hearth. This pan was also used for baking pan-cakes, also called " flap-jacks," " batter-cakes," etc. A better article for this, how- ever, was the cast-iron spider or Dutch skillet. The best thing for baking bread those days, and possibly even yet in these latter days, was the flat-bottomed bake kettle, of greater depth, with closely fitting cast-iron cover, and commonly known as the " Dutch- oven." With coals over and under it, bread and biscuit would quickly and nicely bake. Turkey and spare ribs were sometimes roasted before the fire, suspended by a string, a dish being placed underneath to catch the drippings.

Hominy and samp were very much used. The hominy, how- ever, was generally hulled corn-boiled corn from which the hull, or bran, had been taken by hot lye; hence sometimes called " lye hominy." True hominy and samp were made of pounded corn. A popular method of making this, as well as real meal for bread, was to cut out or burn a large hole in the top of a huge stump, in the shape of a mortar, and pounding the corn in this by a maul or beetle suspended on the end of a swing pole, like a well- sweep. This and the well-sweep consisted of a pole 20 to 30 feet long fixed in an upright fork so that it could be worked "teeter" fashion. It was a rapid and simple way of drawing water. When the samp was sufficiently pounded it was taken out, the bran floated

Digitized by Google

246

HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY.

off, and the delicious grain boiled like rice.

The chief articles of diet in early day were corn bread, hominy or samp, venison, pork, honey, beans, pumpkin (dried pumpkin for more than half the year), turkey, prairie chicken, squirrel and some other game, with a few additional vegetables a portion of the year. Wheat bread, tea, coffee and fruit were luxuries not to be indulged in except on special occasions, as when visitors were present.

WOMEN'S WORK.

Besides cooking in the manner described, the women had many other ardnous duties to perform, one of the chief of which was spin- ning. The "big wheel " was used for spinning yarn and the " little wheel " for spinning flax. These stringed instruments furnished the principal music of the family, and were operated by our moth- ers and grandmothers with great skill, attained without pecuniary expense and with far less practice than is necessary for the girls of our period to acquire a skillful use of their costly and elegant in- struments. But those wheels, indispensable a few years ago, are all now superseded by the mighty factories which overspread the country, furnishing cloth of all kinds at an expense ten times less than would be incurred now by the old system.

The loom was not less necessary than the wheel, though they were not needed in so great numbers; not every house had a loom, one loom had a capacity for the needs of several families. Settlers, having succeeded in spite of the wolves in raising sheep, commenced the manufacture of woolen cloth; wool was carded and made into rolls by hand-cards, and the rolls were spun on the " big wheel." We still occasionally find in the houses of old settlers a wheel of this kind, sometimes used for spinning and twisting stocking yarn. They are turned with the hand, and with such velocity that it will run itself while the nimble worker, by her backward step, draws out and twists her thread nearly the whole length of the cabin. A common article woven on the loom was linsey, or linsey-woolsey, the chain being linen and the filling woolen. This cloth was used for dresses for the women and girls. Nearly all the clothes worn by the men were also home-made; rarely was a farmer or his son seen in a coat made of any other. If, occasionally, a young man appeared in a suit of " boughten " clothes, he was suspected of having gotten it for a particular occasion, which occurs in the life of nearly every young man.

Digitized by Google

247

HISTORY OF WHITE COUNTY.

DRESS AND MANNERS.

The dress, habits, etc., of a people throw so much light upon their conditions and limitations that in order better to show the circumstances surrounding the people of the State, we will give a short exposition of the manner of life of our Western people at different epochs. The Indians themselves are credited by Charle- voix with being "very laborious,"-raising poultry, spinning the wool of the buffalo, and manufacturing garments therefrom. These must have been, however, more than usually favorable repre- sentatives of their race.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of White County Illinois, Part 6

Author: Inter-State Publishing Company Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Number of Pages: 831

Author: Inter-State Publishing Company
Publication date: 1883
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 831