USA > Indiana > A history of Indiana from its exploration to 1850 > Part 36
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The "log-rolling" was almost an institution in Indiana for fifty years. All the men in the neighborhood, probably from twenty to fifty, gathered early in the day with axes and hand-spikes and piled the heavy logs in large heaps, three to ten logs in a heap, ready for burning. The men worked in "squads" of from ten to twenty each. There was both individual and team rivalry. Young bucks "pulled each other down" at the hand-spikes, while the squads worked to see who could work over the most ground or build the most heaps.
After the logs were piled the young men spent a social
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hour or two jumping or wrestling. While the men were rolling logs their wives and grown daughters were busy at the house, "quilting." The housewife usually had two or three quilts "pieced" for the occasion. One of these at a time was stretched in the quilting frames by which it was supported high enough to be convenient to the women sit- ting. The best quilters gathered around the four sides of the quilt while the others helped in preparing dinner and supper. The meals were a feature of the event. Every- thing good was prepared and all the tableware of the com- munity was borrowed for the table service. After the sup- per was over, a short time might be spent in dancing, but this was not common at log-rollings, both on account of the hard day's work and the necessity of changing clothes after handling the dirty logs. The number of log rollings in a community varied from twenty to forty. May was a hard month for the pioneer.3
If the settler had time, the easiest way to clear his land was to "deaden" the trees in July or August, let them stand two years before clearing. Many of them would then burn up as they stood. Such "deadenings" were to be seen on almost every farm.
Many of the best cuts of oak, poplar, walnut and ash logs were left at the rolling to be split into rails for the fence. The "new ground," however, was usually fenced during the fall or winter.
The plowing was done with a jumping shovel, of which the stock was wood and the point iron. An upright cutter stood just ahead of the point to jump it over roots. This was a modest implement and plowed where it could and jumped out where it couldn't. It had a reputation for kick- ing. When the point struck a root or rock the handles were thrown back violently, striking the unwary plowman just below the belt. The harrow was made entirely of wood.
3 Those who are fond of telling of the good old days may try this program : Rise at 3 a. m., "chunk up" ten acres of log-heaps before 6 a. m., breakfast, walk three to ten miles, roll logs till 6 p. m., walk home, "chunk up" ten acres of log-heaps before going to bed. Repeat it thirty days in succession, rain or shine.
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If no harrow was handy, a "drag" made of brush did quite as well. The harness, single- and double-trees were the flimsiest. "Truck" wagons with solid wooden wheels were common. Oxen were used about as much as horses. Pitch- forks and spades were made of seasoned wood. The culti- vation was anything but satisfactory and the crops meager. Grain, except corn, was sown broadcast and "brushed in" with a light "drag." Corn responded best to this rough agriculture and creditable crops were raised.
The early pioneers of the upper Mississippi Valley lived on corn. Roasting ears lasted from the first of August to the last of September. By that time the early corn was ready for the "gritter." By November, the first grists were ready for grinding. Cornbread and hominy were staples from then till spring, when garden vegetables took the place of the hominy. From corn was made the ever- present whiskey, without which nothing of consequence could be done.
After the log-rolling season work on the farms was without excitement until the harvest season. Beginning with wheat, which ripened about June 20, the harvest sea- son lasted until the hay was in the mow, about August 1. Again there was a community of work. The harvesters gathered in groups of ten to twenty. The cradlers vied with each other in laying a straight, even swath and in not leaving a stalk of wheat standing. Then there was racing across the fields by the cradlers. When the field was done the "stubble call" was given. The housewife, assisted by the neighbor women, prepared bounteous dinners and sup- pers for the reapers. Lunch, consisting of pie and coffee, was served at 10 a. m. and 4 p. m. The hay harvest fol- lowed hard after the wheat, when the cradlers took up the scythes and the binders the pitchforks. The wheat and hay were put into stacks and then the harvest season was over. Sometimes a big harvest home barbecue or picnic followed.
A period of inactivity followed harvest, during which the farmer watched his corn crop ripen, hunted squirrels, fished, built a house or barn, broke ground for wheat or
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attended shooting matches or camp meetings. It was dur- ing this period, also, that sickness prevailed, especially fevers and chills.
With the appearance of frost, the corn gathering time was on. Much of the corn was cut in fodder, and after the fodder was cured the corn was shucked off. The remainder was gathered off the stalk, the ears being snapped off and hauled to the barn. During the long winter nights the neighbors again gathered together, this time for a husking bee or "corn shucking." The above was the usual program of the year's work. Produce for down river trade was gathered in the fall and loaded on boats in March or April, the boatmen returning by June. One cannot help but notice the mutual helpfulness of the pioneers of each neigh- borhood.
§ 80 THE FIRST PUBLIC UTILITIES
EACH farm was largely self-sustaining. Each neigh- borhood had a small store where powder, lead, salt, iron, leather, whiskey and a few other commodities were bar- tered for beeswax, tallow, ginseng, furs, deerskins and other marketable produce. At the county seat stores, one could buy calicoes, silks, cambrics, blue cloth for men's suits, collars, stocks, coffee, tea, sugar and plug tobacco. The latter articles were costly. Money was very scarce and little of it passed over the counter. Trading horses was almost a passion with the pioneers. Two horsemen rarely met without a banter for a trade. Saturday afternoons at the taverns or towns were devoted to horsetrading, or "horse-swapping," as it was called.
The most inconvenient work of the pioneer was getting his corn and wheat ground into meal and flour. Horse mills were the earliest. Such a mill consisted of a pair of burrs made of hard stone so set that one stone revolved on the other, their rough surfaces almost touching. The grind- ing was slow and the meal poor. Next came the water mills. These were often built by settlers from the east. An undershot waterwheel usually furnished motor power. They did better and quicker work than the horse mills, but
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it was often forty miles to the nearest one, and then one had frequently to wait two days to get his "turn." In later years the miller kept a large stock of flour or meal on hand, and could trade with the farmer at once. The most common evidence of pioneer life existing today in Indiana is these old mills with their races and dams.
Travel through the country was tedious. The roads were mere bridle paths. The coach roads were continuous mud holes. In course of time the mud was replaced with poles to make the corduroy; the poles with boards to make the plank roads; the boards with stone to make the pike. Neither has proved satisfactory.
Along the larger roads certain houses with accommoda- tions for travelers came to be known as taverns. Such were usually the double log houses. The law compelled the tavern keeper to have at least one extra bed and an extra horse stall. The county board fixed prices for meals, lodging, drinks and horse feed. Each tavern paid a license fee. All classes of travelers ate and slept together, the sleeping usu- ally being done on the floor. What was lacking in style, however, was usually made up in geniality. One could ap- preciate the latter when he "alighted" at a tavern after a hard day's ride in the rain or snow and mud. The traveler was welcomed into the "big house" and given a seat before the roaring fire. A boy removed his muddy boots and leg- gings, giving the guest a light pair of slippers in return. Dry clothing was furnished, after which there were a steaming supper and a warm feather bed. Next morning his boots, dry and greased, his leggings and greatcoat, all dry and warm, were brought, he stepped dryshod from the door of the hostelry in the saddle stirrup and pursued his journey, thankful for the good night's rest and enter- tainment.
§ 81 FESTIVALS AND FESTIVITIES
THE chief fixed holidays of the pioneers were New Year, Fourth of July and Christmas. These days were, in gen- eral, set aside for the little folks. In the larger towns on
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the Fourth there was usually some formal banquet with endless toasts by the dullest of orators. On New Year's day there was frequently a neighborhood hunt, ending with something to drink. Little work was done, but no great amount of celebrating was ever indulged in. Christmas was the supreme holiday of the children. In a humbler way it was much as it is now. Apples, sweet-cake, home- made candy, such simple toys as could easily be contrived, together with warm gloves or stockings, knit by the mother, were the common gifts. The poor were remembered with substantial gifts of things to eat and wear. The young folks often arranged for a sleighride if there was snow. Except among the Quakers, Santa Claus was a universal visitor Christmas eve. The Christmas dinner was the prin- cipal attraction for the married folks.
The greatest sports for the men were the shooting matches, which were in order from September 1 till Christ- mas. The long squirrel rifle, with flint lock and "set trig- gers," was a favorite with every pioneer and shared with the dog the pioneer's affections. Resting on a pair of deer antlers, it held the place of honor over the cabin door. Up to a distance of 100 yards it was fairly reliable, up to fifty it was accurate.
The shooting match, like the old English contests with the bow and arrow, was primarily a trial of skill. Little value was placed on the quarters of beeves or venison won, as compared with the glory of winning. An elaborate sys- tem of rules and regulations governed it, but the essentials were as follows : A level stretch of ground 100 yards long, a large tree to receive the balls as they passed through the boards, charred so that the balls would make a neat round hole. Those who fired "offhand" stood eighty yards away, those with a "rest" one hundred yards. Old marksmen fired "offhand." There were two ways of determining the result. In one case the nearest shot took first choice, the next took second, and so on. In the other the added dis- tance of three shots was taken. Under some rules all three shots had to be within a certain distance, say two inches, of the center or the man lost.
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A form of amusement that came from the South, but which was soon abandoned in Indiana on account of its rudeness, was "goose pulling." A goose was hung head downward from the limb of a tree about ten feet high. The goose's neck was coated with grease. The participants rode under at a gallop and endeavored to pull the fowl's head off. Some one stood by with a whip to see that the horse passed at the proper gait.
Dancing was generally indulged in before the religious revivals of the late twenties and early thirties. The folks usually gathered at some house that had an especially smooth puncheon floor and danced the night away. The sleepy old fiddler's arm was made of iron and he could reel off "The Arkansas Traveler," "Old Dan Tucker," or "Cot- ton Eye Jo," for hour after hour. The dancing consisted of the square dance, three figures to the set, with a Virginia Reel, a "jig" or a "hoe down" when some ecstatic couple wished to show their artistic execution of the "side step," "back step," "single or double shuffle," "heel and toe" or other fancy foot maneuvers. This harmless amusement may still be seen in many parts of Indiana. In many places it disappeared long ago before the relentless crusade of the Protestant churches, largely because rowdies made the dance the scene of drunken brawls.
Those who had moral objections to dancing substituted social games which in nature much resembled the dancing. "Keeping Post Office," "Picking Cherries," "Weevilly Wheat," "London Town," "Dusty Miller," "Needle's Eye," were the names of some of the commoner of these. The players sang the refrains, accompanying them by rhythmic performances almost like those of the dance. Many of the games had forfeit features in which kisses were the inva- riable penalties. The intermissions at spelling schools, singing schools, and debates were occupied by these games.
Weddings were the occasions for a two days' festival, the night intervening being devoted to dancing. The wed- ding was performed at the home of the bride. A formal invitation was sometimes written by the schoolmaster and
1
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carried around by the groomsman, but the usual way was just to "send word." The guests were supposed to arrive about 11 a. m. The groom, accompanied by five or six of his best friends, left his father's home on horseback in time to reach his destination about 11:30 a. m. As soon as the ceremony was performed, the married couple sat down at the head of the table, around which all the guests gathered. Of all the neighborhood feasts this was the most sumptu- ous. Everything available in the way of rations and table service in the whole community was brought into service. After a night of dancing interspersed with all kinds of jests and pranks, including a charivari, at the expense of the married pair, the whole company repaired to the home of the groom's father, where another dinner, the "infare," was served. In the afternoon the newly married couple were escorted to their new home, if one were ready. If there was no house ready the couple lived with the old folks until a house was built, when the young people gathered together for the last ceremony of the wedding, that of in- ducting the couple into their new home. This, and the dancing which accompanied it, were called the "house warm- ing."4
§ 82 SICKNESS AND PHYSICIANS
CONTRARY to most statements in novels, the health of the pioneers was bad. Poisonous vapors hung over the swamps and drowned woodlands. The sun was unable to penetrate the deep foliage and dispel the miasma. The river bottoms and flat lands were notoriously subject to malaria. No one thought of the housefly or mosquito being disease disseminators. There was no science of medicine, only a practice. We know now that most of their diagnoses were wrong, hence it is difficult to say what diseases were most
4 Besides the above there were muster day, election day, and the camp meeting which have been described elsewhere. Discussions of early customs in Indiana are too numerous to mention. The following, however, are excellent : Baynard Hall, The New Purchase; D. D. Banta, Making a Neighborhood; Young, History of Wayne County; William F. Vogel, "Home Life in Early Indiana" in Indiana Magazine of His- tory, X; the various county histories.
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destructive. There can, however, be no question of the terrible ravages of smallpox, typhoid and malarial fevers, pneumonia, tuberculosis and bronchitis. Among the chil- dren two diseases were especially prevalent at this time- croup and cholera infantum. The fact that at least half of the babies died before they reached the age of four will help one understand the terror caused by these ailments, croup in winter and cholera infantum in summer.
Here is a recipe for cholera infantum copied from the Medical Investigator, published by Horace N. T. Benedict, a botanic physician of Springfield, Lawrence county, Indi- ana, in 1847: "Take a double handful of dewberry roots, double handful of the roots of cranebill, two gallons of witch hazel leaves. Boil these separately until the strength is all extracted. Strain and pour the liquid into one vessel and boil down to a quart. Add a pint of good French brandy and a pound of loaf sugar."
Or, take the following recipe for "yaller janders" (yel- low jaundice) : "A double handful of the bark of wild cherry root, an equal amount of bark from the root of the yellow poplar, a like quantity of sarsaparilla, same of red sumach roots, and half that amount of bitter root. Boil them in two gallons of water until it is reduced to one-half gallon. Strain and let it simmer down to one pint. Mix this with a gallon of hard cider, shake it well and add two ounces of madder. Take a half teacupful three times per day." These and others at hand illustrate the practice of the herb doctors or "botanic physicians," as they called themselves. They have only recently disappeared. The concoctions were intentionally made as bitter and nauseous as possible. In most cases the medicine was called "bitters."
There were a few physicians in the State who had been trained in the east, but the greater number were strictly home-grown. As a result, this period was the heydey of the quack, who either came from the east or operated from some eastern city. The treatment of the best physicians of that time seems rather bloodthirsty to us. Taken as a class,
-
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however, they were honest, trying to the best of their abil- ity to serve their fellow sufferers.
The herb doctors, or the "Botanic School," led a spirited fight against the other school of practitioners, whom they called the "calomel doctors." The calomel doctors won out in the long struggle, and the reputation for quackery has fastened itself on the "yarb" doctor just as it has on the "wildcat" bank and the "Deestrick skule."
The "Thompsonians" were a school of physicians who took a somewhat middle ground between the "calomel" and the "botanic" schools. They relied very largely on vapor treatment. Diseases should be sweated out of the system was their theory. A special chair was manufactured known as the "vapor bath chair" and sold widely through- out the State. Whatever the disease might be, the patient was clapped into the "vapor chair" and steamed as nearly to death as was thought safe. This treatment was supple- mented usually by liberal doses of "white walnut" pills. The vapor treatment was perhaps the least harmful of all the panaceas then in vogue.
The people were an easy prey to all kinds of knavery; sure cures for cancer, consumption and other prevalent dis- eases, especially "milk sickness," made their regular ap- pearance. An example, taken from an advertisement in a leading paper, will suffice: Fontain & Son, chemists of the Royal University of Paris, after long experiment, had at last found a certain cure for the dread disease, consump- tion. They named their discovery the "Restoration Fran- caise." The son, Louis, at once came to America and opened an office at Washington, D. C. By way of adver- tisement he offered through all the churches of Indiana to give an eight-franc bottle to any poor person who would leave his name and address with the preacher.
Lobelia was a standard nostrum with the "botanics," so much so that they were frequently called in derision the "lobelia doctors." The standard lobelia prescription was as follows : "Fill a jar with the green herb, lobelia, well bruised and pressed, and for every quart the jar will con-
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tain add four or five pods of red pepper. Then pour on enough good whisky to cover the herb and let stand. The longer it stands the better." This was called a sovereign remedy for phthisic, croup, whooping cough, colds and catarrh. The doctor quoted, says he had administered it with excellent effects to infants not a day old and to the aged long past three score and ten. Another kindly doctor adds that no careful man will be without a jar of good lo- belia in the house, which, together with a judicious use of warming teas, "such as pennyroyal, catnip, balm, sage, etc., will save many dollars in doctors' fees, as well as many children's lives."
The foregoing are sufficient to show the struggle that was going on in our State during this period. We are at first disposed, as Eggleston unfortunately did in another field, to hold the whole society up to ridicule. Nothing would be more unfair or dishonorable. These men were as a rule as honest as physicians are today. The superior skill of our physicians now is due in no small degree to the patient work of the pioneers.5
§ 83 STATE CHARITIES
ORGANIZED charity or philanthropy was unknown among the earliest settlers. If a man's house burned or he met disaster in any way, his immediate neighbors helped him to the best of their ability. Neighborly kindness was more in evidence then than now. Neighbors sat up with and nursed the sick and buried the dead. There were no pro- fessional nurses nor undertakers. The deaf and dumb, the blind, the lame, the insane, and the feeble minded were a burden to themselves and their friends. The township trustee gave out a little aid reluctantly to some of the un- fortunates. Just preceding the Civil War the counties be- gan to establish poor asylums where the worthy poor were given a home, but this has proven anything but satisfac- tory.
5 Dr. G. W. H. Kemper, A Medical History of Indiana.
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The hard times following the panic of 1837 caused a great amount of suffering. As early as 1839 the attention of the General Assembly was called to the miserable con- dition of the insane, then kept as criminals in the county jails. The State was not in a financial condition to under- take any systematic relief. The most that could be done was to awaken the public conscience. Expert physicians from the east lectured at different points in the State, and especially before the General Assembly, on the treatment and care of the insane. Governor James Whitcomb, a New Englander by birth and a graduate of the State University, took a deep interest in such matters. Among other things he collected reports from the county sheriffs on the num- bers and condition of the insane in 1842. The General As- sembly of that year authorized the governor to gather data from other States on the manner in which they cared for their insane. As a result of this the General Assembly in 1844 levied a small tax for the purpose and the next year a commission drew up plans and arranged for the purchase of the farm of Nathaniel Bolton, on Mount Jackson, imme- diately west of Indianapolis. In 1847 the central building was erected on this site at a cost of $75,000. Since then the State has cared in an adequate manner for such un- fortunates.
In 1843 William Willard, a mute from the east, visited Indiana and estalished a school for his fellow defectives. The work was looked upon with favor, and in 1844 the State opened a school with Mr. Willard in charge. Such men as Henry Ward Beecher and Bishop Matthew Simpson took an active interest in the work. A site for a school, 130 acres, just east of Indianapolis, was purchased in 1846, where, by 1850, a spacious building was erected. The school has been entirely successful and still flourishes.
The founder of the blind asylum of Indiana was William H. Churchman, himself blind. He was born in Baltimore and educated in Pennsylvania. He began teaching in 1839. James M. Ray, of Indianapolis, visited his school in Louis- ville and at once became interested in the work. A small
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appropriation in 1845-6 enabled Mr. Ray and Mr. Church- man to visit different parts of the State and awaken an interest in the condition of the blind. The ministers, as usual, assisted in the charitable work, Mr. Beecher taking the lead. The friends of the unfortunate blind were at first reluctant to let them go from their immediate care. Finally, Mr. Churchman and his friends found twenty blind persons who would attend, and twenty-eight more who were eligible and friendly to the undertaking. With these the asylum was opened in Indianapolis in 1847. The school grew slowly but surely and during the next ten years earned for itself a place in the public confidence.6
6 George W. Cottman in Indiana Magazine of History, March, 1914. Goodrich and Tuttle, History of Indiana, ch. 34. The newspapers of the decade from 1840 to 1850 contain the popular discussions of this question. The public interest which from 1827 to 1840 had been ab- sorbed in internal improvements was turned to schools and benevolent institutions.
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CHAPTER XIX
THE MEXICAN WAR
§ 84 TEXAS AND OREGON QUESTIONS
As early as 1820 young men of Indiana became inter- ested in Texas. The extraordinary offers of land by Moses Austin and others who had received large land grants from the young Mexican Republic attracted these adventurers. Visiting New Orleans in the flatboat trade, they heard with astonishment the stories of border life. The decade from 1840 to 1850 in Indiana offered little inducement to the ad- venture-loving sons of the old Indian fighters. The Texas country, covered with herds of buffalo, and almost sur- rounded by warlike Indians and Mexicans, and inhabited by such renowned heroes as Bowie, Houston, Crockett, and Travis, had for them a resistless fascination. After a month's trip on a flatboat, finding themselves at New Or- leans in the opening of the spring, with more money in their pockets than they had ever had before, with romantic Texas, easily reached on the one hand, and far-away, pro- saic Indiana, reached by a tedious upstream trip in a row- boat, or a walk of 1,500 miles, on the other hand, it is not hard to understand how many of the young flatboatmen in the early days drifted into Texas.
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