USA > Indiana > Putnam County > Biographical and historical record of Putnam County, Indiana > Part 9
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PIONEER LIFE.
ture, so familiar a few years ago, having given place to the cassimere and cloths of noted factories. The ready-made clothing stores, like a touch of nature, made the whole world kin, and may drape the charcoal man in a dress-coat and a stove-pipe hat. The prints and silks of England and France give a va- riety of choice and an assortment of colors and shades such as the pioneer women could hardly have dreamed of. Godey and Demnor- est and Harper's Bazar are found in our modern farm-houses, and the latest fashions of Paris are not uncommon.
FAMILY WORSHIP.
The Methodists were generally first on the ground in pioneer settlements, and at that early day they seemed more demonstrative in their devotions than at the present time. In those days. too, pulpit oratory was generally more eloquent and effective, while the gram- matical dress and other > worldly " accom- plishiments were not so assiduously cultivated as at present. But in the manner of conduct- ing public worship there has probably not been so much change as in that of family worship, or " family prayers," as it was often called. We had then most emphatically an American edition of that pious old Scotch practice so eloquently described in Burns' " Cotter's Saturday Night: "
"The cheerfu' supper done, wi' serious face They round the ingle formed a circle wide; The sire turns o'er wi' patriarchal grace,
The big ha' Bible, ance his father's pride; His bonnet rev'rently is laid aside, His lyart haffels wearing thin and bare ;
Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide; He wales a portion with judicious care, And " let us worship God," he says with solemn air.
" They chant their artless notes in simple guise; They tune their hearts,-by far the noblest aim ; Perhaps " Dundee's" wild warbling measures rise, Or plaintive " Martyrs," worthy of the name :
Or noble " Elgin " beats the heavenward flame,- The sweetest far of Scotia's hallowed lays.
Compared with these, Italian trills are tame; The tickled ear no heart-felt raptures raise; Nae unison hae they with our Creator's praise.
" The priest-like father reads the sacred page, -- How Abraham was the friend of God on high, etc.
" Then kneeling down, to heaven's Eternal King The saint, the father and the husband prays; Hope "springs exultant on triumphant wing," That thus they all shall meet in future days; There ever bask in uncreated rays,
No more to sigh or shed the bitter tear, Together hymning their Creator's praise, In such society, yet still more dear,
While circling time moves round in an eternal sphere."
Once or twice a day, in the morning just before breakfast. or in the evening just before retiring to rest, the head of the family would eall those around him to order. read a chapter in the Bible, announce the hymn and tune by commencing to sing it, when all would join; then he would deliver a most fervent prayer. If a pions guest was present he would be called upon to take the lead in all the exer- cises of the evening; and if in those days a person who prayed in the family or in public did not pray as if it were his very last on earth, his piety was thought to be defective.
The familiar tunes of that day are remem- bered by the surviving off settlers as being more spiritual and inspiring than those of the present day, such as Bourbon, Consolation, China, Canaan, Conquering Soldier, Conde- scension, Devotion, Davis. Fiducia, Funeral Thought, Florida. Golden Hill, Greenfields, Ganges, Idumea, Imandra, Kentucky, Lenox, Leander, Mear, New Orleans, Northfield, New Salem, New Durham, Olney, Primrose, Pisgah, Pleyel's Hymn, Rockbridge, Rock- ingham. Reflection, Supplication, Salvation, St. Thomas. Salem, Tender Thought, Wind- ham, Greenville, etc., as they are named in the " Missouri Harmony."
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HISTORY OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
Members of other orthodox denominations also had their family prayers in which, how- ever, the phraseology of the prayer was somewhat different and the voice not so loud as characterized the real Methodists, United Brethren, etc.
HOSPITALITY.
The traveler always found a welcome at the pioneer's cabin. It was never full. Although there might be already a guest for every pancheon, there was still "room for one more," and a wider circle would be made for the new-comer at the log fire. If the stranger was in search of land, he was doubly welcome, and his host would volunteer to show him all the " first-rate claims in this neck of the woods;" going with him for days, showing the corners and advantages of every " Con- gress tract " within a dozen miles of his own cabin.
To his neighbors the pioncer was equally liberal. If a decr was killed, the choicest bits were sent to his nearest neighbor, a half- dozen miles away, perhaps. When a " shoat " was butchered, the same enstom prevailed. If a new-comer came in too late for . crop- ping," the neighbors would supply his table with just the same luxuries they themselves enjoyed, and in as liberal quantity, until a erop could be raised. When a new-comer had located his claim, the neighbors for miles around would assemble at the site of the new-comer's proposed cabin and aid him in " gittin'" it up. One party with axes would cut down the trees and hew the logs; another with teams would hanl the logs to the ground; another party would "raise" the cabin; while several of the old men would " rive the clapboards " for the roof. By night the little f ast domicile would be up and ready for a ". house-warming," which was the dedicatory occupation of the house, when music and
dancing and festivity would be enjoyed at full height. The next day the new-comer would be as well situated as his neighbors.
An instance of primitive hospitable man- ners will be in place here. A traveling Methodist preacher arrived in a distant neighborhood to fill an appointment. The house where services were to be held did not belong to a church member, but no matter for that. Boards were raked up from all quarters with which to make temporary seats, one of the neighbors volunteering to lead off in the work, while the man of the house, with the faithful rifle on his shoulder, sallied forth in quest of meat, for this truly was a " ground-hog " case, the preacher coming and no meat in the house. The host ceased not to chase until he found the meat. in the shape of a deer; returning, he sent a boy out after it, with directions ou what " pint " to find it. After services, which had been listened to with rapt attention by all the audience, mine host said to his wife, " Old woman, I reckon this 'ere preacher is pretty hungry and you must get him a bite to eat." " What shall I git him? " asked the wife, who had not seen the deer; " thar's nuthin' in the house to eat." . Why, look thar," returned he; " thar's a deer, and thar's plenty of corn in the field; you git some corn and grate it while I skin the deer, and we'll have a good supper for him." It is needless to add that venison and corn bread made a supper fit for any pioneer preacher, and was thankfully eaten.
TRADE.
In pioneer times the transactions of com- merce were generally carried on by neighbor- hood exchanges. Now and then a farmer would load a flat-boat with beeswax, honey, tallow and peltries, with perhaps a few bushels of wheat or corn or a few hundred clapboards, and float down the rivers into
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PIONEER LIFE.
the Ohio and theuce to New Orleans, where : the letter had not been brought 500 miles in he would exchange his produce for substan- a day or two, as is the case now-a-days, but tials in the shape of groceries and a little had probably been weeks on the route, and ready money, with which he would return by
the mail was delivered at the pioneer's post- some one of the two or three steamboats office, several miles distant from his resi- then running. Betimnes there appeared at . dence. only once in a week or two. All the the best steamboat landings a number of mail would be carried by a lone horseman. "middle men " engaged in the " commission Instances are related illustrating how mis- and forwarding " business, buying up the farmers' produce and the trophies of the chase and the trap, and sending them to the various representation would be reported to in order to elicit the sympathies of some one who was "known to have "two bits" (25 cents) of distant markets. Their winter's acemula- 'money with him, and procure the required tions would be shipped in the spring, and the Governmental fee for a letter.
manufactured goods of the far East or distant these transactions seareely any money was seen or used. Goods were sold on a year's time to the farmers, and payment made from Poltries came nearer being money than South would come back in return: and in all 'anything else, as it came to be custom to estimate the value of everything in peltries. Such an article was worth so many pultries. Even some tax collectors and pornmasters the proceeds of the ensuing crops. When were known to take pelties and exchange the crops were sold and the merchant satisfied, them for the money required by the Govern- the surplus was paid out in orders on the ment.
store to laboring men and to satisfy other creditors. When a day's work was done by a working man, his employer would ask, " Well, what store do you want your order on?" The answer being given, the order was written and always cheerfully accepted.
MONEY.
Money was an article little known and sel- dom seen among the earlier settlers. Indeed, they had but little use for it, as they could transact all their business abont as well with- out it, on the " barter" system, wherein great ingentity was sometimes displayed. When it failed in any instance, long credits con- tributed to the convenience of the citizens. But for taxes and postage neither the barter nor the credit system would answer, and often letters were suffered to remain a long time in the postoffice for the want of the 25 cents demanded by the Government. With all this high price on postage, by the way. its improvements they had made, wonbl re- 17
When the first settlers first came into the wilderness they generally supposed that their hard struggle would be principally over after the first year; but alas! they often looked for "casier times next year" for many years before realizing them, and then they came in so dlily as to be almost imperceptible. The sturdy pioneer thus barned to bear hand- ships, privation and hard living as good soldiers do. As the facilities for making money were not great, they lived pretty well satisfied in an atmosphere of good. social, friendly feeling, and thought themselves as good as those they had left behind in the East. But among the early settlers who came to this State were many who, accus- ' tomed to the advantages of an older civiliza- tion. to churches, schools and society, became speedily home-sick and dissatisfied. They wonld remain perhaps one annaner, or at most two, then selling whatever claim with
346
HISTORY OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
turn to the older States, spreading reports of the hardships endured by the settlers here, and the disadvantages which they had found or imagined they had found in the country. These weaklings were not an ummitigated curse. The slight improvements they had inade were sold to men of sterner stuff, who were the sooner able to surround themselves with the necessities of life, while their un- favorable report deterred other weaklings from coming. The men who stayed. who were willing to endure privations, belonged to a different guild; they were heroes, every one, --- men to whom hardships were things to be overcome, and present privations things to be endured for the sake of posterity. and they never shrank from this duty. It is to these hardy pioneers who could endure, that
Not the least of the hardships of the pio- neers was the procuring of bread. The first settlers must be supplied at least one year from other sources than their own lands; but the first crops, however abundant, gave only partial relief. there being no mills to grind the grain. Hence the necessity of grinding by hand-power, and many families were poorly provided with means for doing this. Another way was to grate the corn. A grater was made from a piece of tin, some- times taken from an old, worn-out tin bucket. or other vessel. It was thiekly perforated, bent into a semi-circular form, rough side upward, on a board. The corn was taken in the car, and grated before it got dry and hard. Corn, however, was eaten in various ways,
Soon after the country became more gen- erally settled, enterprising men were ready to embark in the milling business. Sites along the streams were selected for water- : power. A person looking for a mill-site would follow up and down the stream for a desirable location, and when found he would go before the authorities and secure a writ of ad quod dammum. This would enable the miller to have the adjoining land officially examined, and the amount of damage by making a dam was named. Mills being so great a public necessity, they were permitted to be located upon any person's land where the miller thought the site desirable.
AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.
The agrienltural implements used by the we to-day owe the wonderful improvement , first farmers in this State would in this age we have made, and the development, almost miraculous, that has brought our State in the past sixty years from a wilderness to the front rank among the States of this great nation. of improvement be great curiosities. The plow used was called the " bar-share" plow; the iron point consisted of a bar of iron about two feet long, and a broad share of iron welded to it. At the extreme point was MILLING. ! a coulter that passed through a beam six or seven feet long, to which were attached han- dles of corresponding length. The mold- board was a wooden one, split out of winding timber, or hewed into a winding shape, in order to turn the soil over. Sown seed was brushed in by dragging over the ground a sapling with a bushy top. In harvesting the change is most striking. Instead of the reapers and mowers of to-day. the sickle and cradle were used. The grain was threshed with a flail, or trodden out by horses or oxel.
HOG KILLING.
Ilogs were always dressed before they were taken to market. The farmer, if forehanded, would call in his neighbors some bright fall or winter morning to help " kill hogs." Im- mense kettles of water were heated; a sled or
PIONEER : LEFE.
two, covered with loose boards or plank, con. Faltaost every merchant had, at the rear end stituted the platform on which the hog was of his place of business or at some conven- ient building. a " pork-house," and would buy the pork of his customers and of such others as would sell to him, and cut it for the mar-
cleaned, and was placed wear an inclined hogshead in which the scalding was done; a quilt was thrown over the top of the latter to retain the heat: from a crotch of some ket. This gave employment to a large nom- ber of hands in every village, who would ent and pack pork all winter. The hanling of all this to the river would also give employment to a large number of teams, and the mann- facture of pork barrels would keep many coopers employed.
convenient tree a projecting pole was rigged to hold the animals for disemboweling and thorough cleaning. When everything was arranged, the best shot of the neighborhood loaded his rifle, and the work of killing was commenced. It was considered a disgrace to make a hog ~ squeal " by bad shooting or by a " shoulder stick." that is, running the point of the butcher-knife into the shoulder instead of the cavity of the breast. As each hog fell, the " sticker" mounted him and plunged the butcher-knife, long and well sharpened, into his throat ; two persons would then catch him by the hind legs. draw him up to the sealdling tub, which had just been filled with boiling hot water with a shovelfa! the careass was plunged and moved around a
Allowing for the difference of currency and manner of marketing the price of pork was not so high in these days as at present. Now, while calico and muslin are 10 cents a yard. pork is 2 to 4 cents a pound; then. while calico and muslin were 25 cents a yard, pork was 1 to 2 cents a pound. When. as the country grew older and communications easier be- tween the seaboard and the great West, prices went up to 23 and 8 enits a pound, of good green wood ashes thrown in; in this ' the farmers thought they would always be content to raise pork at such a price; but minute or so, that is, until the hair would times have changed, even contrary to the slip off' easily, then placed on the platform, current-cy.
where the cleaners would pitch into him with There was one feature in this method of marketing pork that made the country a par- adise for the poor man in the winter time. : Spare-ribs, tenderloins, pigs' heads and pigs' feet were not considered of any value, and were freely given to all who could use them. all their might and clean him as quickly as possible, with knives and other sharp-edged implements; then two stont fellows would take him up between them, and with a third man to manage the " gambrel " (which was a stout stick about two feet long, sharpened at both ; If a barrel was taken to any pork-house ends, to be inserted between the muscles of , and salt furnished, the barrel would be filled the hind legs at or near the hoek joint), and salted down with tenderloins and spare- the animal would be elevated to the pole, where the work of cleaning was finished.
ribs gratuitously. So great in many cases was the quantity of spare-rib-, etc .. to be dis- posed of, that they would be hauled away in wagon-loads and dumped in the woods out of town.
After the slangliter was over and the hogs . had had time to cool, such as were intended for domestic use were ent np, the lard " tried " ont by the women of the household, and the In those early times much wheat was mar- keted at 25 to 50 cents a bushel, oars the surplus hogs taken to market, while the weather was cold, if possible. In those days same or less. and corn 10 cents a bushel. A
HISTORY OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
good young milch-cow conld be bought for 85 to $10, and that payable in work.
Those might truly be called " close times," yet the citizens of the country were accom- modating, and but very little suffering for the actnal necessities of life was ever known to exist.
PRAIRIE FIRES.
Fires, set out by Indians or settlers, some- times purposely and sometimes permitted through carelessness, would visit the prairies every autumn, and sometimes the forests, either in autumn or spring, and settlers could not always succeed in defending themselves against the destroying element. Many in- teresting incidents are related. Often a fire was started to bewilder game, or to bare a piece of ground for the carly grazing of stock the ensuing spring, and it would get away under a wind, and soon be beyond control. Violent winds would often arise and drive the flames with such rapidity that riders on the fleetest steeds could scarcely escape. On the approach of a prairie fire the farmer would immediately set about "cutting off supplies " for the devouring enemy by a "back fire." Thus, by starting a small fire near the bare ground about his premises, and keeping it under control next his property, he would burn off a strip around him and prevent the attack of the on-coming flames. A few furrows or a ditch around the farm constituted a help in the work of protection.
An original prairie of tall and exuberant grass on fire, especially at night, was a mag nificent spectacle, enjoyed only by the pioneer. Here is an instance where the frontiersman, proverbially deprived of the sights and pleasures of an old community, is privileged far beyond the people of the pres- ent day in this country. One could scarcely tire of beholding the scene, as its awe-inspir- ing features seemed constantly to increase,
and the whole panorama unceasingly changed like the dissolving views of a magic lantern, or like the aurora borealis. Language can- not convey, words cannot express, the faint- est idea of the splendor and grandeur of such a conflagration at night. It was as if the pale queen of night, disdaining to take her accustomed place in the heavens, had dis- patched myriads upon myriads of messengers to light their torches at the altar of the set- ting sun until all had flashed into one long and continuous blaze.
The following graphic description of prairie fires was written by a traveler through this region in 1849:
" Soon the fires began to kindle wider and rise higher from the long grass; the gentle breeze increased to stronger currents, and soon fanned the small, flickering blaze into fierce torrent flames, which curled up and leaped along in resistless splendor; and like quickly raising the dark curtain from the luminous stage, the scenes before me were suddenly changed, as if by the magician's wand, into one boundless amphitheatre blazing from earth to heaven and sweeping the horizon round --- columns of lurid flames sportively mounting up the zenith, and dark clouds of crimson smoke curling away and aloft until they nearly obsenred stars and moon, while the rushing, crashing sounds, like roaring cata- racts mingled with distant thunders, were al- most deafening; danger, death, glared all around; it screamed for vietims; yet, not- withstanding the imminent peril of prairie fires, one is loth, irresolute, almost unable to withdraw or seek refuge."
WILD HOGS.
When the earliest pioneer reached this Western wilderness, game was his principal food until he had conquered a farm from the forest or prairie -rarely, then, from the
PIONEER LIFE.
latter. As the country settled game grew scarce, and by 1550 he who would live by his
1 rifle would have had but a precarions subsist- ence had it not been for " wild hogs." These animals, left by home-siek immigrants whom the chills or fever and ague had driven out, had strayed into the woods, and began to multiply in a wild state. The woods each fall were full of acorns, walnuts. hazelnuts, and on these hogs would grow fat and multi- ply at a wonderful rate in the bottoms and along the bluffs. The second and third im- migration to the country found these wild hogs an unfailing source of meat supply up to that period when they had in the town- ships contiguous to the river become so numerons as to be an evil, breaking in herds into the farmer's corn-fields or toling their domestic swine into their retreats, where they foo became in a season as wild as those in the woods. In 1838 or '39, in a certain township, a meeting was called of citizens of the township to take steps to get rid of will hogs. At this meeting, which was held in the spring, the people of the township were notified to turn out en mutese on a certain day and engage in the work of catching, trimming and branding wild hogs, which were to be turned loose, and the next winter were to be hunted and killed by the people of the township, the meat to be divided pro rata among the citizens of the township. This plan was fully carried into effect, two or three days being spent in the exciting work in the spring.
In the early part of the ensuing winter the settlers again turned ont, supplied at con- venient points in the bottom with large kettles and barrels for scalding, and while the hunters were engaged in killing, others with horses dragged the carcasses to the scalding platforms, where they were dressed; and when all that could be were killed and
dressed a division was made, every farmer getting more meat than enough, for his wen- ter's supply. Like energetic measures were resorted to in other townships, so that in two or three years the breed of will hogs became extinet.
NATIVE ANIMALS.
The principal wild animals found in the State by the early settlers were the deer. wolf, bear. will-cat, fox, ofter, raccoon, gen- orally called " coon," woodchuck, or ground hog, skunk, mink, weasel, muskrat, opossum, rabbit and squirrel; and the principal feath- cred game were the quail, prairie chicken and wild turkey. Hawks, turkey buzzards, crows, blackbirds, were also very abundant, Several of these animals furnished meat for the settlers; but their principal meat did not long consist of game: pork and poultry were raised in abundance. The wolf was the most troublesome animal, it being the comnon enemy of the sheep, and sometimes attack- ing other domestic animals, and even human beings. But their hideons howlings at night were so constant and terrifying that they almost seemed to do more mischief by that amoyance than by direct attack. They would keep everybody and every animal about the farm-house awake and frightened, and set all the dogs in the neighborhood to barking. As one man described it: "Snp- pose six boys, having six dogs tied, whipped them all at the same time, and you would hear such music as two wolves would make."
To effect the destruction of these animals the county anthorities offered a bounty for their scalps; and, besides, big bunts were common.
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