USA > Indiana > Marshall County > A twentieth century history of Marshall County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 24
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The animal was usually skinned, and only the hide and saddles and tallow carried home, unless it was a small animal and there was more than one hunter, in that case the legs of the deer would be tied together, a pole passed between them, and it would be carried home on the men's shoulders.
There were pretty good marksmen among the old pioneer hunters, those who could pick a squirrel out of the tops of the highest trees, and had no trouble in hitting wild turkeys and other wild fowl, that couldn't hit a deer one time in a dozen. The sight of a deer within shooting distance would invariably give him what was called the "buck ager," that is, his nerves would become unstrung and he would shake and tremble like an aspen leaf, making it impossible for him to hold his gun steady enough to get a focus on the animal, and so, if he fired and happened to hit hini it was by accident. Those who were afflicted with this annoying disease seldom overcame it. It was a chronic ailment from which there seemed to be no relief.
Deer were very plenty in the region of Maxinkuckee lake. They went in families, or droves, and had regular runways from their feeding grounds to the lake and river where they went to drink. Near these watering places salt would sometimes be scattered, and these cunning animals soon cultivated a taste for this saline substance, and could be frequently found at these "licks" if the hunter could secrete himself so as not to be seen.
It was not an unusual sight to see eight or ten deer running through the prairies or woods, and the writer, when a small boy, remembers of having seen a drove of twenty, running tandem through an open stretch of ground about one-half mile from his father's house. They were running in a leisurely lope, with their short white tails erect. It was an exciting and beautiful sight, one that will never be forgotten.
Many hunting stories are still remembered, some of which, although strictly true in every way, will be hard to be believed by the present gen- eration.
Sidney Williams, who settled in the territory now known as Walnut township, in the vicinity of Argos, was an expert rifleman, and if he had half a chance he was sure to bring down his game every time, and in many of his hunting tours he frequently brought in from one to half a dozen deer. On one occasion he saw a large buck feeding on an island in a
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marsh not far away. He told the hunter who was with him that he would have that animal, and perhaps three or four others that were grazing in the bushes near by. The buck on the island was a sentinel to give warning to those in the bushes of approaching danger, for, it should be known that these animals have a system of signals to enable them to flee from danger as have other noncombatants. Williams prepared himself for his trip across the marsh by cutting a willow bush and sticking the stem under his coat collar and letting the branches hang over his head while he crept on his hands and knees about forty rods until he got within shooting distance.
The deer looked in astonishment at the moving bush, but before he could make out what it was, Williams had leveled his gun, taken aim, pulled the trigger and the deer fell dead, the ball having passed through its heart. Two other fat sleek fellows came out of the bushes to see what the matter was. One of them was killed, but the gun failing to "go off" the other escaped by running away as fast as his legs could carry him.
At another time he started after a gang of nine deer early in the morn- ing. At first he commenced firing light charges. He followed them up, increasing the charges until they became used to it and did not appear to be disturbed by the sound of the gun. He succeeded in shooting the leader, after which the balance of the gang became confused so that they did not know what to do or where to go. Williams continued to drop one every shot until at four o'clock in the afternoon he had the entire gang of nine deer scattered around so near together that in less than two hours he had secured a wagon and a man to help him, and had them loaded and ready to start for home !
At another time, another hunter of the neighborhood, with a pack of dogs started up five deer which were chased to the bluff on Maxinkuckee lake. It was in the winter season of the year and the lake was frozen over with a coating of smooth ice. The deer went down the bank, struck the ice and fell perfectly helpless. An ax was secured and all five of the deer were knocked in the head and killed.
If the reader has any doubt about the truthfulness of this story, a blank affidavit will be secured, properly filled out and affirmed to, and filed as an evidence of good faith in the archives of the Ananias club.
There were fur traders all through this region at that time, who visited the various settlements periodically and paid good prices for all kinds of hides.
Raccoons were plenty all through the woods, and coon hunting by the light of the moon was a favorite amusement for the boys, and even the old men occasionally enjoyed the exciting sport. A good coon dog was a necessity. Without a dog that could scent the track of a coon, run him clown, tree him and hold him there, and bark so you could follow him up and find "where he was at," it would be next to impossible to catch any of these night prowlers.
Sometimes two or three coons would be run up the same tree. They usually went as near the top as possible and hid in the forks. If the moon shone bright enough they could sometimes be brought down by a rifle shot, but this did not often happen. If some of the boys could climb the tree and had courage enough to do so, his coonship might be punched off of his perch with a stick, and if he fell to the ground he was sure to be caught. if
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the dog understood his business. Usually, however, to secure the game the tree had to be chopped down. The dog watched which way it was falling and by the time it was down he was at the top, among the limbs, ready to catch his victim if he had not been killed or crippled in the fall of the tree. Then a fight for life would ensue, for these raccoons were warriors from away back. If the dog could hold them until the hunters could get to his assistance the tragedy was ended and the defenseless animal was knocked in the head with an ax and killed. If there was more than one, the others would generally get away and climb the nearest tree, when, if they were captured, the same operation would be gone through with.
Sometimes in the race after coons, the dogs would scare up a polecat, and, pressed too close, he would open his perfume sack and the sickening stench he would emit was enough to knock a strong man down. There is probably no smell on earth so deathly nauseating as that of this spunky little animal, if you happen to be in close proximity to him when he decides to give you an illustration of the manner in which he defends himself. He is provided with a small sack in which the fluid is deposited. When closely pressed the fluid is emitted and "switched" into the face of the enemy from the end of his long bushy tail. It is an efficient weapon, for the odor is so exceedingly strong that even animals turn and run to get away from it. They are of the weazel family, and live mostly on fowls of various kinds. In the early days the woods were full of them, but of late years they have become almost extinct, for which-thanks !
There was another little animal, quite numerous about that time, that also had a peculiar but very effective way of defending himself-the porcu- pine. He was furnished with quills upon his body covered with sharp prickles, some of which were as much as twelve inches long, and capable of being erected at pleasure. When attacked he rolled his body into a round form, in which position the prickles were presented in every direction to the enemy. The ends of the quills were as hard and sharp as the points of steel darning needles, and no animal could touch him without being severely punished. He would remain rolled up in a round form until the danger had passed, when he would undo himself and go about his business.
At that time there were also panthers and catamounts lurking about through the woods, and an occasional black bear was seen between 1835-40, but these animals being dangerous to the inhabitants were soon killed and driven out by the white hunters and Indians who were still in that region.
XXX. PRIMITIVE SAW MILLS-WIGWAMS AND HOW INDIANS LIVED.
The splendidly cultivated farms, the substantial brick and frame houses with their elegant and comfortable furnishings, the large and well filled bank barns, with sheds and buildings in which all kinds of farm machinery is housed ready .for use when wanted, are in striking contrast with the dwellings and general outfit of the pioneers who were here at the begin- ning of the settlement of the county and for many years afterwards.
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
Prior to 1850 there was probably not, outside of Plymouth, half a dozen houses built of any other material than logs. Up to that time, at least, there was no steam saw mills, and only two or three water mills where lumber was sawed. There was one of these mills at Wolf creek and one at Plymouth. This latter mill was located on Yellow river about half way between Zehner's flouring mill and the dam a short distance above. Evi- dences of the old dam and race are still visible. Milburn Coe was the pioneer who had the courage to establish this early enterprise. Each of these mills was operated with a single upright saw, and the amount of lumber manufactured did not begin to supply the demand for doors, window frames, floors, etc., and was too expensive to put into houses.
The water power by which these mills were operated was very uncer- tain. The dams were constructed of brush, limbs and logs, dirt and stone, and for many years, every time there was a freshet these dams would gen- erally go out with a rush and a roar. In 1850 a heavy rain and sudden rise of water in Wolf creek carried away the dam. Robert C. Bliven, who happened to be out about the center of the dam, was caught in the break, carried off in the great rush of water and drowned. It took a long time to repair broken dams, and in the meantime the mills stood idle, often for many months, and so the supply of lumber was at no time for many years equal to the demand.
Before these mills were built there was some lumber sawed with what was called "whip saws," and the first sawed boards the writer ever remem- bers to have seen were manufactured in this way. It was a very slow process, this cutting lumber with a whip saw, but it supplied boards for doors, sash, casings, etc., and therefore was a step in advance of the broad axe. A platform ten or twelve feet high was erected, on to which small poplar logs were "skidded" up poles placed in a slanting position. The saw was about six feet in length, with long handles, and was operated by two men, one on top of the platform, and the other underneath, on the ground. The top man pulled the saw up and the man on the ground, with a bandanna tied over his eyes to keep the sawdust out pulled it down. It was very slow and very hard work, and beyond the actual wants for the purposes named, no lumber was sawed. The size of the boards was very irregular. If, when the saw started in, the board was an inch and a quarter, or an inch and a half, there was no telling what it would be in the middle, or at the end when it came out. When the saw got a start in one direction it was hard to get it turned back, and then it was likely to go as far the other way before it could be checked and brought into the line marked out for it to follow. If any of these boards are still in existence they ought to be preserved as relics of the beginning of our civ- ilization. They would be a great curiosity to the present generation.
There being no lumber, brick, or other materials out of which houses could be built, the next best thing was to construct them out of logs. But before attempting a description of these early cabins, it will be interesting to many to give a brief pen picture of the Indians found here, their wig- wams, and the mode of living at the time the first white settlement was made.
The Indians that were here then, estimated to be about 1,500 in the entire county, lived in what is generally known as "wigwams." They were
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made out of poles set in the ground some distance apart, and coming together five or six feet at the top where they were securely tied together with strings made of rawhide, hickory or other bark. They were enclosed with limbs and brush, outside of which was a covering of hides of deer, fox, and other animals to shed the rain and snow, and to keep out the cold in winter. In front of the wigwam was an opening for passage in and out, which had for a door skins of animals fastened together, and tied to the poles at the top, from which it hung loose to the bottom.
The furnishings of these primitive dwellings were very few, plain, and simple. They had no chairs, stands, bedsteads, tables, cupboards or bureaus. The beds were of grass, leaves and mosses spread out on the ground and covered with the skins of animals dressed with the hair on. These hides were also sometimes used for covering, but the principal article of covering, however, was coarse woolen, or partly woolen colored blankets, furnished by the government, or purchased of traders who early found their way among the Indians in this part of the country.
These wigwams were generally located near the lakes and water courses, so that those who lived in them could easily supply themselves with water for drinking and cooking purposes, and fish, frogs and water fowl for food. They were supplied with very few cooking utensils, and, as a consequence, the provisions on which they lived were mostly eaten without cooking. Venison, fowl and fish were broiled over fires made of logs and limbs. They were cut into convenient pieces and held over the fire on the end of short sticks. They had no salt or pepper and their food was prepared without seasoning.
During the spring and summer the squaws cultivated small patches of ground with sharp sticks, stone shovels, and small iron hoes and picks, on which they raised Indian corn, potatoes, and other vegetables in small quan- tities. The male Indians supplied the wigwams with wild meats and fish, and this constituted the food supply of these early inhabitants.
Except in the winter season, when the weather was very cold, they wore a very scanty supply of clothing. Their footgear was moccasins made of soft tanned deer skin, and some of them were ornamented with a variety of colored beads worked into them in fantastic shapes, and they were other- wise adorned with colored ribbons, etc. Their shirts and trousers, as we call them, were made of tanned buckskin sewed together with strings made of hides, and were ornamented in various ways with fringes, beads, shells and other things to attract the eye of the beholder. All were provided with blankets which they wore over their shoulders, folded in their arms tightly around their bodies.
Very few of them wore any sort of head dress. They had no use for hats and caps. Their heads were covered with a heavy mass of coarse black hair, which, as they never had it cut, was all the protection they needed. The big Indians, the chiefs, and High-muck-a-mucks, of course, wore feathered headgear to distinguish themselves from the common every- day Indian. It is somewhat remarkable that the oldest inhabitant does not remember ever having seen an Indian with a bald head, or one with a full beard. As a race, they seem to have had an aversion to the beard, and occupied their leisure time, of which they had more than they knew what to do with, pulling out by the roots the thinly scattered hairs that showed themselves on their copper colored physiognomies.
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY. XXXI. PRIMITIVE BRICK MAKING.
But there were other things than those which imply the drudgery of farming connected with farm life. Those who tell of the pioneer days are too apt to present the dark side of the picture-the toils and privations and sufferings that all the early settlers were compelled, by force of cir- cumstances, to endure.
As years went by, other industries than chopping down trees and plow- ing up and planting the ground, and cultivating and harvesting the crops occupied the time of the people, and so it came to pass in the course of time that many diversified occupations sprang up that furnished less laborious and more congenial employment to many who were unable to do the work required in clearing and preparing the thick timbered lands for cultivation.
Brick making was a necessary industry that was early established in two or three places in the county. The first one that is remembered was located on what is now the Berlin farm, a short distance north of the present village of Rutland. All that region was settled as far back as 1836, and among the first inhabitants were Platt B. Dickson, and his sons, John, Bayless, Elias and Hugh; William Thompson, and his sons, Lewis, John, Eleazer and Ed; Thomas and Samuel McDonald; Daniel Hults and his sons, Joseph and Uriah; Tivis Porter, Vincent Brownlee, David Voreis, Hiram Lish and several others. The brick yard referred to was on the farm of Platt Dickson, to the west, in front of and across the road from the present residence of Thomas Berlin. A clay bank had been opened a mile west on the farm of John Dickson, out of which it was found fairly good bricks could be made. In excavating in this clay bank, when at a depth of ten or twelve feet from the surface, in breaking off a large lump of firmly cemented clay, a tree toad was found solidly embedded therein. It was removed from its imprisonment and placed on a board in the warm sun. In less than half an hour it came to life and hopped off as lively as if nothing had happened. How it came to be there and how it could retain the life principle, possibly for ages, and then again come to active life, is a conun- drum which is respectfully referred to those who know more about it than the writer.
The writer has a very vivid recollection of that primitive brick yard. He was quite young, only having just entered into his teens, and his employ- ment there-off-bearing bricks-was the first labor, other than doing "chores" around the house, he had ever performed. About an eighth of an acre of ground was scraped off until the soil was removed, and leveled down to the smoothness of a floor, when it was given a light coating of fine dry sand. The hollow trunk of a large size beech tree, about ten feet in length, sawed square off at each end, was procured. A shaft was placed in the center, fastened at the top in a hole made in two cross-bars, and at the bottom in a wooden socket. At the bottom of this shaft were four iron paddles shaped something like the screw paddles of a steam propeller, for the purpose of grinding the clay into mortar. On the top was fastened a crooked beam, which projected out and down a sufficient distance so that a horse could be handily hitched to the lower end. Into this beech gum hopper the dry clay was thrown until it was partly full when water was thrown upon it to give it the proper consistency, when the horse was
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started to grinding. A square hole and a pit was made at the bottom, into which the mud was forced, and from here it was taken on wheelbarrows up a gang plank, and dumped on a large square table, where it was worked up by the molder into bricks and carried off in molds by the "off-bearer" and laid down on the yard in rows to dry.
It was considerable of a trick to fill the molds properly and expedi- tiously. An expert could usually fill up the molds as rapidly as three or four men or boys could carry them away and deposit them on the yard. Each mold was made to hold three bricks, the weight of which would probably be six or eight pounds. The molder stood at the table, mud before him, and a pile of sand near by. Before laying his mold on the table the off- bearer sanded it by dipping it into water and then into a box containing dry sand, so that the mud would not stick to the molds. The molder cut off with his right hand a chunk of mud which he supposed was sufficiently large to fill one apartment of the mold, rolled it in the sand to the shape of an old-fashioned "corn dodger," and slammed it into the mold with sufficient force to fill the apartment and make a perfect brick. The other apartments were filled in the same way. The surplus mud on top was cut off with a sharp, smooth wooden knife, and the mold was ready to be carried off by the off-bearer. The first were carried to the farthest part of the yard, the mold laid down on the lower edge and, with a quick motion, turned over and the mold removed, leaving the bricks to their fate. And so the process was continued until the yard was full of green bricks laid out in the sun to dry.
It was a very easy thing for one who couldn't get the hang of off- bearing to spoil more bricks in a day than his wages would come to. If he laid his mold down too close, he was sure to spoil the bricks in front by turning his mold over on them, and mashing them out of shape. In that event they had to be removed, and that took time in addition to spoiling them.
If the weather was warm and dry, a yard full of bricks could be made and taken care of in two or three days. After drying the first day, all hands had to help turn them bottomside up to the sun to dry. Sometimes a gathering cloud would indicate a sudden rain and then every one went to work carrying in the dry or partly dry bricks and piling them up in ricks under sheds built for that purpose. Frequently the rain would come up so suddenly that a whole yard full of green bricks would be drenched and entirely spoiled. Then the mud would have to be shoveled up and carted away to the dump, the yard scraped off and resanded, and work commenced again as before.
The most difficult task in connection with brickmaking in the olden times, and even yet, was placing them in a kiln in such a way as to permit the heat to penetrate all parts of the structure so that the bricks would be burned evenly throughout. Arches every three or four feet, extending through the kiln from one side to the other, into which it was necessary that fire should be kept constantly burning, had to be carefully con- structed, and after the whole was completed it was tightly incased with bricks, and plastered over with soft mud all around. Air holes, and smoke holes were made in the top to regulate the smoke and heat, and when all was ready, fire was started in the arches, and the burning process was
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begun. The heating was gradual at first, until the bricks were sufficiently hot to prevent breaking or cracking. Then the poplar rails and kindlings of various kinds were shoved into the arches the full length and every- thing was kept red hot for a fortnight when the fires were allowed to go gradually out, and the burning process was at an end.
It was necessary to keep the fires up night and day, and so the brick yard hands were divided off into two gangs, one to work in the day time, and the other to worry through the night. If the fires were allowed to go down, the effect was to injure the quality of the bricks; or, if they were made too hot. it was liable to result in making clinkers of those near the arches, twist them out of shape, and thus render them unfit for use.
The writer was left in charge of the red hot kiln one night, and directed to keep the fires going steadily. Between two and three o'clock in the morning, overcome by exhaustion and many nights of broken rest, he sat down by a post near one of the arches, and in spite of every effort to keep awake he dropped over, sound asleep. As good luck would have it, one of the proprietors, living near by, happening to awaken earlier than usual, came on the scene in time to prevent the fires from going out. When the sleeper awoke about seven o'clock in the morning, he found himself lying flat on the ground, his trousers legs full of straw, and a bouquet of dogfennel adorning his manly bosom. To say that he was frightened on account of the probability that, by his failure to keep awake, he had more than likely ruined the whole summer's work, and that he was ashamed of the sorry plight in which he found himself, would not half express the utter ridiculousness of the situation. After ascertaining, however, that no serious damage had been done, he gradually regained his equilibrium and all went well thereafter.
Those who composed the night forces during the burning of kilns were generally reinforced during the evenings by some of the neighboring boys, and a detail was usually designated to forage the chicken roosts, apple and peach orchards, corn fields and melon patches in the neighborhood, for provender for the night's meal. If the family dog did not make too much noise and arouse the lord of the household, but little trouble was ever encountered in securing everything necessary to provide a banquet fit for a king.
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