USA > Indiana > Marshall County > A twentieth century history of Marshall County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 22
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46
The ague was the most prevalent of the different varieties of malarial diseases, and it came on every day, every other day, every three days, every seven, fourteen and twenty-one days, and was known as the "chills and fever," "fever'n ager," "shakes" and the like. To the newcomer it was a holy terror, but it was no respecter of persons. It attacked old and young alike. In the fall of the year, after all had gone through the summer's siege of this hated disease, nearly everybody looked pale and sallow like they had been frostbitten. It came on with a chill, which usually developed into a shake that would make one's teeth chatter so that the sound could be heard for some distance about the cabin. The shaker covered himself with blankets and comforters, no matter how hot the weather was, and he shook and shook and shook until his bones fairly rattled. In an hour or two the chill went off and then came on the fever, followed by a thirst for water that could not be quenched. After two or three hours the fever passed off and the patient began to recuperate sufficiently to get up and walk about. But oh, how miserable he did feel! In many cases it was impossible to get rid of it and it had to be endured until frost came and killed the malaria that produced it.
The year 1850, when the entire population of the county was only about 5,000, more deaths occurred than during any year before or since on the basis of population. From the census report which was made on the first of June of that year the total number of deaths from the diseases named was set down at 133. That was June I. It is quite probable that a great many more deaths occurred during July, August, September and October, so that it is fair to estimate that not less than 300 souls were removed by death caused by malaria, generated through impure water during that year!
A note by the census taker stated that "this year has been remarkable for the unusual number of deaths. A very fatal disease known here as typhoid fever has prevailed to an alarming extent in the center of the county and spread in all directions, reaching to the extreme parts of the county. The flux, bilious and scarlet fever have also been prevalent."
The physicians here at that time were not very well read and were scantily supplied with medicines which were supposed to be specifics for these diseases and half the time not knowing what the real ailment of the patient was, probably a large per cent died for lack of proper medical knowl- edge and attention.
In those days most of the doctors considered "bleeding" necessary to get the patient's system in proper condition to receive medical treatment. When he arrived he looked wise, felt the patient's pulse, examined the tongue, shook his head to indicate that it was a dangerous case and that bleeding was necessary! The clothing was removed from the patient's arm, a string tied tightly around it above the elbow to stop the circulation, a bowl or pan was procured to catch the blood, the doctor took his lance,
155
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
ripped open the vein, and the blood spurted out two or three feet high. Sometimes half a bowl full would be drawn from the patient before the flow could be stopped. The next thing was to administer a dose of calomel and jalap. As a general thing this would take his insides out and salivate him so his gums and teeth would be permanently ruined. If the patient recovered under this treatment the physician was considered "the best doctor in the country," and his praises were sounded far and wide. If he died, his death was attributed to the inscrutable interposition of Divine Providence !
Driven Wells.
During the Civil war, or perhaps a little later, driven wells were invented. that is, procuring water through hollow pipes driven into the ground to a considerable depth, far enough, at least, to go below the surface water. As pure water could be procured through these wells they became at once very popular. Well drivers became numerous, every neighborhood having one or more. Whenever a resident wanted a well on his premises he employed one of these well drivers to put one down for him. It happened that these driven wells had been patented, that is, the "process" had been patented by the United States patent office, and as these well drivers did not have permission from the patentees to use their process every well driven into the ground was liable to pay a royalty, which was fixed at $10 by the United States district court. About 1879 the owners of Green's patent, having secured the names of all owners of driven wells, sent them notices that they were indebted to the patentees for infringement of their patent in the well driven on their premises in the sum of $10 and unless it was paid within a reasonable time a suit would be brought against them in the United States district court to recover the amount. As might be expected, this created great excitement among the people owning driven wells, as they had paid the well drivers for putting down the wells and they supposed that was all there was of it. The excitement increased as it extended to every township in the county and finally resulted in the organi- zation of an Anti-Driven Well Association to resist the payment of the royalty demanded. It was a Plymouth organization, but quite a number of members belonged to it from various localities throughout the county. A legal opinion as to the probability of successfully resisting the payment of the royalty was secured from the law firm of Baker, Hord & Hendricks, of Indianapolis, to the effect that similar cases had been brought against the patentee and in every case his patent had been sustained, giving him the lawful right to collect royalty on all infringers. At the same time the agent of the patentee, fearing a long siege of litigation, proposed that he would compromise with the members of the association for $5 on each well, half the amount originally asked. The legal opinion, together with this proposition, was made to the association at a called meeting, and in view of the uncertainty of succeeding in the courts, the proposition was accepted, each of the members paying $5 for each well, and the association disbanded. For a considerable time it created quite a bitter feeling among those who wanted to fight it out and those who favored compromising. Finally most of those having wells paid up and the matter was dropped. While the royalty collected from the people was not far removed from highway
156
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
robbery, yet the wells did more to improve the health of the community by furnishing pure water and driving out malaria than anything that ever occurred.
XXVI. CLEARING UP FARMS.
The clearing up of farms was the hardest work the pioneer farmer had to do. The land was mostly covered with a heavy growth of timber, which had to be cut down and rolled into log heaps, and the limbs, etc., piled into what was called "brush heaps" and burned, which, as the timber was green and full of sap, was a very slow process, and frequently took several seasons before the chunks were all consumed. The slaughter of the very best kind of timber in those early days is something fearful to contemplate now by the people living away down here three-quarters of a century since then, when the country has been almost entirely denuded of some of the finest timber that ever grew out of the earth. At that time there was no particular use for it, and the only object was how best and the cheapest way to get rid of it. The finest stately poplars, the tall oaks, the ash, and above all the dif- ferent varieties of walnut, of which the black walnut was afterwards found to be the most valuable because particularly adapted to the manufacture of furniture, came down by the woodman's ax. In after years the walnut timber that grew upon the land was found to be more valuable than the land itself.
When the timber on a piece of land had been felled and was ready to roll, the neighbors for miles around were invited to a "log rolling" and with several yoke of oxen to help in hauling the logs together, the work was soon done. The ground was generally covered with underbrush and small saplings, and the roots had to be taken out with a mattock and grubhoe, and this primitive implement had to be operated by main strength, and those who know how it is themselves know that it was the hardest kind of work. Stock, such as cattle, hogs, sheep and horses, ran at large, and so the clearing had to be fenced, and this was done with rails split from the trees near by. An iron wedge, a few "gluts," an ax and a maul were the implements used, and as in "grubbing," the splitting had to be done by main force.
To fence a forty-acre lot was a long, tedious job, and many a man ruined his health by long continuance at this kind of labor. But after this work was done, there was a harder job still-that of plowing the ground. There were no chilled plows in those days, and the first plowing of the ground was nearly always done with a large breaking plow and wooden moldboard, to which were hitched two or three or more yoke of oxen. When the ground had been gone over it had more the appearance of having been rooted up by the hogs than having been turned over with a plow. Plows met with roots and stones every few rods, and many is the time that he who held the plow handles was hit in the side or in the umbilical region by the handles when the plow struck a big root, and had the breath knocked out of him before he knew what the matter was.
Usually the first crop planted was corn, and between the rows was planted the old-fashioned "Hoosier punkin." It was worth all that was raised to keep the chipmunks, wild squirrels, blackbirds and crows from stealing all
157
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
the seed that was planted. Usually the corn rows near the fence and woods would have to be replanted two or three times, and even then if half the hills came up it would almost invariably be destroyed while in the roasting-ear before it matured.
The ground was very rich, and it was a race from start to finish between the weeds and corn as to which could outgrow the other, The weeds that caused the most trouble, and were the greatest annoyance, were the wild nettles. To touch them was equal to the sting of a bee, and the more one tried to keep clear of them the more one was sure to run into them.
As soon as the ears of corn turned from the milk into the grain they were used by the family for food. They were cooked in various ways, which- ever was the most convenient. They were boiled, roasted before the fire, the grain cut off the cob and fried, or boiled in a kettle with beans, with a piece of pork for seasoning ; and when a fellow was real hungry, with a piece of hot corn bread, and a bowl of sweet milk, there was nothing like it in the heavens above or in the earth beneath.
When the corn ripened, and before the frost came, the stocks were cut off close to the ground and set up in shocks of the proper size, larger at the bottom and small at the top, tied with a band made of smaller stalks or of bark or grass.
It was after the corn had been cut and shocked from one of these fields that our own Hoosier poet, James Whitcomb Riley, drew his inspiration for that charming bit of poetry that touches a tender chord in the breast of every one who has breathed the pure air of country life and the farm, and which is inserted here as a fitting conclusion to this brief sketch:
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock, And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock, And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens, And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence; O it's then's the time a feller is a-feelin' at his best, With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest, As he leaves the house, bare-headed, and goes out to feed the stock, When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.
They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmosphere When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here- Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossoms on the trees, And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees; But the air's so appetizin', and the landscape through the haze Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock -- When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.
The husky, rusty rustle of the tossels of the corn, And the raspen' of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn; The stubble in the furries-kindo' lonesome-like, but still A-preachin' sermons to us of the barns they growed to fill; The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed; The hosses in their stalls below-the clover overhead !- O it sets my heart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock, When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!
When your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps Is poured around the cellar-floor in red and yeller heaps, And your cider-makin's over, and your wommern-folks is through With their mince and apple-butter, and their souse and sausage too,-
158
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
I don't know how to tell it-but ef such a thing could be As the angel's wantin' boardin, and they'd call around on me, --- I'd want to 'commodate 'em-all, the whole endurin' flock, When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!
XXVII. JAMES M. GREER'S RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY TIMES.
James M. Greer, Sr., who came to this county with his parents about the time of the organization of Marshall county, has lived in Bourbon town- ship and vicinity ever since to the present time, has written several articles for the county newspapers giving his experiences and recollections of his pioneer days, from which the writer of this has permission to make the following extracts. Mr. Greer says :
"I have seen wild deer in the woods where Bourbon now stands. The deer was a great help to the pioneer in settling Marshall county, as he could have venison the year round. I have seen seventeen deer in one drove. They stay behind each other when running, with their hind feet wide apart and tail high in the air. The under side of a deer's tail is white, and as they jump high in running, their tails present quite a picturesque appearance. The young deer (called fawn) is spotted, the spots being about the size of a silver ten-cent piece. The fawn is said to be scentless. It appears that nature has provided them with that defense from ferocious animals. A neighbor told me he went out one moonlight night to his cornfield to watch for deer as they came into the cornfield to eat corn. He said he hid himself there to see what the deer would do when they came in the field. When they came they went to eating, and when they got done they went to playing. They skipped, jumped and ran in a circle, and it looked to him like they were playing some kind of a game. He watched them as long as he wanted to ; then he shot one of them and that ended the game.
Feeding Cattle.
"Pioneers had a hard time to live and make ends meet. In the spring of the year the stock became poor. I have known men to cut down trees in the spring of the year so their stock could get the swelled buds to eat to keep them from starving until the grass got started. They put a bell on the stoutest one if there was one able to carry it. They would go to the lowland and marshes where the grass had started. They would wade into the marshes to get the grass and mire down. The owners wound hunt for them, but couldn't always find them. I recollect one cow that wasn't found until in summer, and then her horns was all that could be seen. In those days some of the marshes would almost mire a cat; there were a good many cows lost in that way. There were a good many cow bones that rotted in the marshes of Marshall county.
Going to Church.
"Going to church in pioneer days was termed 'going to meeting.' I will tell a narrative of preaching in pioneer days. Stuart Bailey, father of Wellington Bailey, of Plymouth, was a pioneer preacher. He told me that
159
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
he went in west of Plymouth to a pioneer settlement to preach. He said that he got to one of the pioneer dwellings after following a crooked trail through the woods until he was about given out. A boy was dispatched to the pioneers of the neighborhood to let them know the preacher had come and there would be preaching at his father's house that evening. About dusk the pioneers began to come in. The house was soon full. Rev. Stuart Bailey told me there had been pumpkins cut into rings and hung on poles overhead. He said that he took his stand beside a bed and went to preach- ing. He preached and they sang soul-stirring songs. Most all of them got to shouting. He said he was about exhausted and he fell back on the bed and looked at them jumping, shouting aud knocking the pumpkin rings high and low. Religion was free in those days. We had it among us without money and without price, and I believe it to have been a far better article to that in general use among us at this time. The pioneer preachers of Mar- shall county preached because they were devoted to their religion and also for the love they had for the people, and not for money ; they were earnest, honest, industrious men, and practiced what they preached. When my memory reverts to those happy boyhood years my eyes are filled with tears.
Corn Planting.
"The early settlers had to chop all winter to get some ground ready for corn in the spring. There would be fifteen or twenty log rollings in each neighborhood every spring : some men didn't get in more than four or five acres of corn-some ten. When the corn got into roasting ears the black and gray squirrels would go to eating it up. They were in great numbers. The children had to watch the squirrels out of the corn. At intervals they took the dogs and went around the field and drove them into the woods. The early settler had from one to three dogs. I think the county could hardly have been settled without the noble dog. They were all well trained for coon and deer. A good coon dog was considered worth $50. Some hunters would catch enough coons in one winter to pay for the dog. There was a greater demand for dogs sixty years ago than there is today.
Pioneer Hogs.
"When the early settlers first came to Marshall county they brought hogs with them. They put them in pens and kept them there until they got naturalized to the place, then they would be turned out and taught to come to a feeding place. The sows would stray to the woods after the mast and farrow ; the pigs would get to be hogs and before found would be wild. The only way the owner would know the hogs were his was by the mark on the sow; every man had his sows marked. When the mast was good I have known men to kill their hogs off the mast that hadn't had a grain of corn. The meat would be soft and spongy. When the mast was scarce the hogs would be thin. The neighbors would help each other get their hogs up. Five or six men and that many dogs would go into the woods, catch them, tie them, haul them home, put them in a pen and feed them until they got fat enough to kill. Sometimes they wouldn't fatten ; they would act like so many hyenas. They wouldn't eat and would have starved to death. It took a pen eight or ten feet high to hold them ; I have known men to let them out because
160
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
they couldn't be fattened; they were wild hogs for certain. In those days the dog was a great friend to his master and an incalculable benefit.
A Den of Wolves.
"The timber wolf was of a dark color; they didn't do much harm. I could hear them howling at night in the woods. The dogs kept them away, the sheep were always shut up at night. Some men split slabs out of logs and set them in the ground and made a kind of fort for their sheep. There was a wolf that was called the prairie wolf; it was smaller than the timber wolf and about the color of a fox. They lived in the ground. My father found a den of them and I was with him when he dug them out. The old wolves were absent. There were five young ones in the den about as large as a tomcat. The county paid $3 each in county orders for wolf scalps. They would pay taxes. A wolf scalp is the skin off the top of the head with the two ears attached. There were wild cats also; their heads were shaped like a bulldog's ; they were of a gray color and had a short thick tail. There was also an animal that was called a porcupine. Its body was covered with quills ; they were very hard and tapered to a sharp point ; when disturbed they would turn the sharp points out from the body and when in quietude they lay flat on the body. I have known dogs to kill them, but I never knew a dog to kill one that didn't have to be made fast and the quills pulled out of his mouth with a pair of pincers.
Beaver Dams.
"There was also beaver in Marshall county. One day, I don't know when, I saw large trees growing on what is said to be a beaver dam. It is said the beaver used his tail for a trowel. There were otters here, it is said. I never saw one, as they are hard to see. They are an aquatic animal. There were plenty of mink here in an early day; they were sought for their fur. There are some here yet. There were plenty of wild turkeys here when this county was first settled. I have seen good-sized droves of them. When I was big enough to handle a gun it was hard to get a shot at a turkey or deer. I got to shoot the black and gray squirrels. They finally became extinct and the red squirrel and the fox squirrel took their place. The red and fox squirrels are more of a domestic nature. When the first settlers came here they cut the timber down on a spot of ground big enough that the trees wouldn't reach the house. Then they built the house and moved into it. They didn't have to haul any wood for a long time. The wild turkey hens, not being aware of their new neighbors, would stroll up within a few rods of the house with a drove of small turkeys. If you would catch the little turkeys, the hen would go through all kinds of monkey-shines. She showed to be in distress.
"In the settling of Marshall county the prairie chickens were plentiful. They hatched in the marshes; they were speckled and about the size of a pheasant. I don't think they were as plentiful, though, as the quail around Moses' Israelite camp.
An Indian Doctor.
"In the early settling of Marshall county snakes, frogs and mosquitoes were beyond enumeration. People and stock were bitten by the rattlesnakes.
1
161
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
There were two kinds of rattlers, a big yellow one and a smaller one-a dirty brown. A man got bitten by one of these reptiles. They sent for an Indian doctor, and when he came he sat and looked at the sufferer and wouldn't do anything. The wife said to the doctor, 'Why don't you do something for him?' The doctor said, 'I want pay.' They soon got the spondulix and then the old Indian went to work. The Indians claimed there was an herb that grew in the woods for every ill that man was heir to. I am inclined to believe the Indians had some botanical instinct. There is no doubt but what the Indians could stop the effect of rattlesnake virus, but how extensive their knowledge was I don't know.
Pioneer Ague.
"Ague was prevalent among the early settlers; sometimes half the population would have the ague. It wasn't considered dangerous. When a man took the ague he would have a chill; when the chill went off he would have a high fever and vomit everything out that was in him. His head would ache like it would burst. This occurred every other day until broken up ; quinine was the best remedy known to break it up, but in some cases it appeared that nothing would do it. I have known men to have it over a year before they could get clear of it. In those days quinine fluctuated; it was $4 per ounce at one time; many people were not able to buy it at any price. I think the ditching and driven wells had much to do with the ob- literation of the ague.
Buck Ague.
"There was another kind of ague that was called buck ague. It would come on a man when he was about to get a shot at a buck-a deer, I mean. When a man got it bad he would shake so bad he could hardly hold his gun ; there was never any fever after the chill went off. In this kind of an ague the man that got it didn't get any venison, as a rule.
Boot Makers, Etc.
"The pioneers, as a rule, made their own shoes. John Gibson, grand- father of Mrs. Broda Parks, tanned leather for the pioneers for a number of years. His son-in-law, Stephen Staley, bought the tannery and tanned leather for the pioneers for a number of years. A great many of the pioneers owned looms, and they made some beautiful blue cloth with a wool front and a cotton back. They wove some flannel cloth, took it to South Bend and had it fulled and called it full cloth. I have seen my mother spin sewing thread on a little wheel; she spun it from flax. I said the pioneers made their own shoes; it has been said that necessity is the mother of in- vention ; I believe that is what invented so many shoemakers.
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.