History of Cass County, Indiana, from its earliest settlement to the present time; with Biographical Sketches and Reference to Biographies, Volume I, Part 9

Author: Powell, Jehu Z., 1848- [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago and New York. The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 763

USA > Indiana > Cass County > History of Cass County, Indiana, from its earliest settlement to the present time; with Biographical Sketches and Reference to Biographies, Volume I > Part 9

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).

This cabin may not be a model home, but it was the beginning of a great prosperity and as such is worthy of preservation in history on account of its obscurity and severe economy. But it was a home not-

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PIONEER CABIN

withstanding, and we venture the observation that with all its lack of comforts, with all its pinching poverty, with all its isolation and dan- ger, it was often a happy home. As the pioneer became more thrifty, the old round log cabin would give way to the more comfortable hewed logged house and the more prosperous would erect double hewed logged houses with an upper story, glass windows, stone or brick fireplaces with brick chimneys. As sawmills were erected the floors and doors of the houses were made of sawed lumber and finally the log house was entirely replaced by frame, brick or stone houses and today a log house is a curiosity in Cass county. The first log houses in the county were constructed entirely of wood. Not a nail or metal of any kind was used, but everything fitted and pinned together with wooden pins.

John Finley, a pioneer poet who moved to Richmond, Indiana, in 1820 and died there in 1866, gave a vivid description of a pioneer home

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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY

in his poem, "The Hoosier's Nest," first published in the Indianapolis Journal January 1, 1833.

"The emigrant is soon located In Hoosier life initiated Erects a cabin in the woods Wherein he stores his household goods. At first round logs and clapboard roof With puncheon floor, quite carpet proof And paper windows, oiled and neat His edifice is then complete. When four clay balls in form of plummet Adorns his wooden chimney summit Ensconced in this let those who can Find out a truly happier man. I'm told in riding through the West A stranger found a Hoosier's Nest And fearing he might be benighted He hailed the house and then alighted. The Hoosier met him at the door Their salutations soon were o'er. He took the stranger's horse aside And to a sturdy sapling tied; Then having stripped the saddle off He fed him in a sugar trough. The stranger stooped to enter in The entrance closing with a pin- And manifested strong desire To seat him by the log heap fire Where sat half-a-dozen Hoosieroons With mush and milk, tin cups and spoons.

- Invited shortly to partake Of venison, milk and Johnny cake The stranger made a hearty meal And glances round the room would steal. One side was lined with divers garments The other spread with skins of varmints, Dried pumpkins overhead were strung, Where venison hams in plenty hung; Two rifles placed above the door; Three dogs lay stretched upon the floor In short, the domicile was rife With specimens of Hoosier life.

Ere long the cabin disappears A spacious mansion next he rears; His field's seem widening by stealth An index of increasing wealth And when the hives of Hoosiers swarm, To each is given a noble farm."

PRICE OF LAND.

When the first settlers came to the county the land had not all been surveyed and it was difficult to locate or describe a given tract of land and the pioneer would preempt or locate on a piece of land

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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY

without any title or even knowledge of its description, and were known. as squatters, but these squatters' rights were quite generally recognized ..

. The title to the land was acquired by the government by treaty from the Indians.

The United States donated certain sections of land to the state to aid in the construction of the canal and the Michigan road, hence we have in Cass county lands designated as canal, Michigan road and government lands. For some years after the first settlement of the county the price of the government land was fixed at $1.25 per acre.

FURNITURE

The furniture of the first settlers of Cass county was very rude and simple. Owing to lack of roads and means of transportation the pioneer could bring but few articles with him and most of the house- hold furnishings were made by his own hands. Bedsteads were made by driving posts into the floor and pegs into the walls; on these poles were laid or sometimes cords or straps of deer hides were drawn over and across instead of springs. This net held the fine twigs and leaves and later the straw tick and finally the great feather beds which were the pride of every housekeeper's heart. Many of the children born in Cass county were rocked in a cradle made of a log hollowed out and popularly known as a sugar trough, such as were used in sugar camps.

Rough stools and benches were used as chairs, or rustic chairs were constructed of poles and hickory withes and bark. A store box that held the household goods in their journey into the wilderness was used for both table and cupboard, if the family were so fortunate as to pos- sess such a box, otherwise a table was constructed of riven stough and smoothed off with ax and laid on a rough frame made of the same material.

A mortar, in which corn or acorn, was ground into hominy or meal was made by burning out a hollow in a nearby stump, or two flat stones were used as a mill to grind the corn after the fashion of the Indians. Gourds were in general use for dippers and drinking cups. Wooden spoons, knives and forks were the common table ware with a few pewter plates. An iron pot, skillet and old Dutch oven constituted the cooking utensils of the pioneer. The pots used for boiling purposes, sat on the open fire or later swung to the iron crane, in the great fire- place, while the Dutch oven was placed on the hearth and covered over with live coals to do the family baking, and such corn pones as our grandmothers used to bake in the cabin in the clearing cannot be dupli- cated in modern bake shops.

Apples, potatoes and corn roasted before the open fire or in the ashes had a flavor fit for an epicure. The hoe-cake or Johnny-cake was baked on a board in front of the open fire and the meats broiled on the live coals. Lamps were prepared by dividing a large turnip in the middle and scraping out the inside down to the rind, then inserting a stick, say three inches in length in the center, so that it would stand upright. A strip of cotton or linen cloth was then wrapped around it and melted lard, deer's tallow, bear, coon or possum oil, whichever might be procured, was poured in until the turnip rind was full and lamp was ready for use. Some would construct a lamp of clay and dry it in the sun or burn it in the fire. Others brought with them crude lamps made of iron or earthenware in which they would burn the fats from wild animals, with a wick made of some old cloth. Later candles were made by dipping the wick in melted tallow and were. known as dipped candles. These were followed by the candle moulds.

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which every house wife had, as the people became more prosperous. Even these crude lamps could not always be had and the only light was a torch of hickory bark or the light from the fireplace in winter, and the writer has spent many an evening reading from the light emitted from the great fireplace in his father's home. It was in the sixties, during the War of the Rebellion, that coal oil was first used in our house, and then cost seventy-five cents to a dollar a gallon. Nearly every household had its rude loom and spinning wheel. The women would spin the flax and wool, weave the yarn into cloth and make the garments for the family and knit the stockings.

TYPICAL SCENE IN PIONEER CABIN, SHOWING SPINNING WHEEL BESIDE FIREPLACE, WITH OLD HOUSEHOLD ARTICLES, IN JUDGE BIDDLE'S ISLAND HOME, WHICH WAS ERECTED ABOUT 1835

The dress of the pioneer was homemade throughout and not always made of woven cloth, but the skins of animals were often used to make various articles of clothing. Caps, mittens, and moccasins were made of deer or coon skins. Every householder tanned his own leather, and hunting shirts, work coats and pants were made of buckskin. Buck- skin was often used for clothing, not only because it was available, but because it resisted nettles, briars, the stings of insects and bites of rattlesnakes, which was the bane of early settlers. The women made their own soap, cured the meats, consisting of venison, bear and wild hogs, spun and wove the cloth, made the clothing, molded the candles, churned the butter, tended the garden and in addition to the ordinary household duties, frequently assisted outdoors in clearing the land by Vol. 1-4

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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY

piling and burning brush, etc. But the pioneer woman did not spend much time before the looking-glass or making frills or ruffles, or attend- ing shows, operas or woman's clubs.

There was no waste space in the pioneer cabin. The floor space was occupied by the rude home-made beds, stools and table, and the walls were decorated not by paintings, but by necessary and useful articles of the household.

The ax, the augur, saw and awl Hang on pegs upon the wall, The kitchen utensils bright and clean May also on the wall be seen; Overhead were hung divers things Seed-corn, pumpkin and beans on strings. Herbs, barks and roots, all of the best, Drugs, found in the land of the West. In the cabin, no closets are found, So their garments are hung all 'round. The cabin is parlor, kitchen and bin, Chamber and closet all in one.

Friction matches were unknown to the pioneer, and every house- hold had its tinder box containing a piece of steel and flint with some very inflammable material, usually dry knots from old hickory trees called punk, and a horn of powder, in order that a fire might be kindled; but when a fire was once started it was the custom to always carefully preserve some live coals by covering them up on the hearth with hot ashes.

Percussion caps were also unknown to the early settlers, and the old flint lock guns were in general use requiring the gun pan to be primed with powder before it could be fired, and making it difficult and almost impossible to fire off their guns in damp, rainy weather. The pioneer's gun was his constant companion. It was always kept loaded and hung over the door ready for instant action. When he went to the clearing or field to work, his gun was taken along and laid in some convenient place that he might defend himself against the Indians who might be lurking around, or wild animals with which the primeval forest was infested, or perchance, a deer, bear, wild turkey or other game might be seen that he could kill, to restore the family larder, for wild game furnished the early settlers of Cass county with one of the principal courses of sustenance until the land was cleared, crops grown and domestic animals raised.

The bears, wolves, panthers, wild-cats, foxes, mink, etc., were very destructive to domestic animals in the first settlement of Cass county. The chickens, young pigs, lambs and calves would be killed and carried off by wild beasts, and the pioneer had to be ever watchful and at night house all his domestic animals, and before he had stables erected he often housed the brood sow, the ewe or the few chickens he had brought with him in the corner of his cabin.

The food of the frontiersman was as simple and plain as the rest of his living. Corn pone, hominy, roasting ears with venison and game were the universal diet. Wheat-bread, tea and coffee were luxuries seldom seen. Sassafras and spicewood tea were the common table drinks, but the pioneer usually had plenty of sugar and syrup from the maple trees found in most sections of Cass county.

Wild plums, crab-apples, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, paw-paws (Indiana banana), haws and wild grapes were gathered by

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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY

the early settlers while they were waiting for their cultivated orchards to develop. Before the forest could be felled and crops raised the hogs were fattened on the mast, beech nuts and acorns-and they were good substitutes for corn. Horses were scarce and what few wagons were found could not be used, as there were no roads, but only Indian trails. Two men would often "ride and tie" on their way to town. That is, one would ride a mile or two, then tie the horse and walk on. When the other man came up, he would untie the horse and ride on until he overtook his companion. Thus they would alternately ride and walk.

When a man and his wife went on a journey she usually rode behind on the same horse; generally each carried a baby on their arms. The "bee" was a distinguishing social feature of pioneer life. If a new cabin or stable was to be built all the neighbors for miles around would assemble and assist in raising the building. When a clearing was made a log-rolling followed with all the men for miles around to assist. Then there were corn-huskings, wool-shearings, apple-parings, sugar-boilings and quilting bees. Each of these community tasks was the occasion for a prodigal feast and social visit. Then the isolated households came together for much needed companionship. Often the work would be divided equally, they would "choose sides," and see which side could out-do the other. After the work was over they would engage in various outdoor sports, as shooting matches, wrestling matches, pitch- ing quoits, leap-frog and other tests of strength and skill on which the frontiersman prided himself. The singing school and spelling match were the great joy of the winter months as soon as there were roads made through the forest. The singing master with tuning fork in hand without any accompaniment trained the neighborhood to read "buckwheat" notes and sing the hymns from the "Sacred Melodian" or the "Missouri Harmony," and the little log school house or church would be crowded on these occasions.

The young folks would have their plays on the puncheon floor of the cabin or adjourn to the grove outside if the weather was favorable, where they would play with a zest, "We're marching down to old Quebec," "Old Dusty Miller," "Oh, Sister Phebe, how merry were we the night we sat under the juniper tree," "I suppose you've heard of late, of George Washington the Great," "I want no more of your weevily wheat," and many others that were sung to simple airs as they marched around with rhythmic motion similar to a quadrille.

The wedding was an attractive feature of pioneer life. A descrip- tion of a wedding in olden time as related to the writer by an octo- genarian will serve to show the progress made in society as well as preserve an important phase of history. A wedding engaged the atten- tion of the whole neighborhood. On the morning of the wedding day the groom and his friends would assemble at the house of his father and go in a body to the cabin of the bride. The journey was sometimes made on horse-back, sometimes on foot and again in farm wagons or carts. The marriage ceremony was performed, followed by a dinner or supper, after which dancing commenced, generally lasting till the following morning. The figures of the dances were three and four- handed reels or square sets and jigs. About ten o'clock in the even- ing a deputation of young ladies stole off the bride and put her to bed. In doing so they had to ascend a ladder from the kitchen to the loft, which was laid with loose boards or puncheon. In this rude pioneer bridal chamber, the young, simple-hearted girl was put to bed by her girl friends. This done, a delegation of young men escorted . the groom up the ladder to this primitive bridal chamber, and placed

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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY

him snugly beside his bride. The dance continued, and if seats were scarce, which was generally the case, the young man not engaged in the dance, was obliged to offer his lap for a seat for one of the girls; and the offer was sure to be accepted. The infare was held the next evening at the cabin of the groom, when the same order of exercise was observed. The bride was attired in linsey-woolsey and the groom dressed in jeans, yet they were neat and clean in body and soul, and who will say that they were not as happy as the modern bride and groom attired in silks and broadcloth, decorated with precious gems and occupying a palace. This young couple started house-keeping in a log cabin described above, where not a nail or metal of any kind was used in its construction and furnished by a few necessary articles made of riven timbers or poles by the hands of the groom together with a few cooking utensils and table-ware of the plainest kind made up the household furnishings costing not more than ten or fifteen dol- lars all told.

COUNTRY FIDDLER

Every neighborhood had a pioneer fiddler who was a unique char- acter and an important personage at the country dances; in fact he was indispensable to the success of the "fandango." With swooping flourishes of his violin, his foot beating time on the puncheon floor, which would often shake the whole cabin, at the same time calling the figures in uncouth "buffoonery," the fiddler set the merry feet to flying to the tune "Jay Bird," "Old Dan Tucker," or "Possum Up a Gum Stump."

The dancing was as vigorous as the music. High steps, a flourish- ing swing with a jig or a hoe-down thrown in was the delight of the youth of those days.

Whitcomb Riley graphically portrays a Hoosier fandango in pioneer days:

"My playin's only middlin'-tunes picked up when a boy, The kindo-sorto-fiddlin' that the folks calls cordaroy ;

The Old Fat Gal and Rye Straw and My Sailor's on the Sea Is the old cowtillions I saw, when the ch'ice is left to me." And so I plunk and plonk and plink, And rosun up my bow, And play the tunes that make you think The devil's in your toe.

TRADE AND MONEY

Trading was a feature of pioneer life, and the assembling of the people in social, religious or political gatherings was always followed by barterings. The people stood around the church door before and after "meetin" or around the public square on "court day" to dicker about articles they needed. Then trade and barter was quite universal because there was no money in circulation and the pioneer had to exchange the articles he had for others. that he needed. An editor announced that he would take his pay for subscriptions in corn, gin- seng, pork, chickens, flour, hominy, cord wood, coon skins or almost anything but promises.

There was a trading post at the mouth of Eel river in 1824 before any permanent settlers located in Cass county and it was never aban- doned, and there was always a ready sale for furs and peltries, and for some years after the settlement of the county there was no banks

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and no money, and coon skins became the standard of value and circu- lated as money.

POSTOFFICE AND MAIL

One of the greatest privations of the pioneer was the difficulty in sending or receiving letters and papers to and from his relatives and friends back home.

When Cass county was settled there was not a railroad in Christen- dom. Transportation was carried on by canal, river and sea, and inland by pack saddle or stage coach, but for some years there was no mail. routes into Cass county and the pioneer had to depend on some chance traveler to carry letters to and from his cabin home in the wilderness. When one was going on a journey it would be known and the settlers for miles around would bring letters for him to carry back to friends at home, for in the early settling of Indiana letter postage was forty cents. If a trader, traveler or settler was about to start out to this section of Indiana letters would be sent by them to pioneer friends addressed to the settlement on the Wabash or Eel.river, as there were no postoffices established as yet and they had to trust to its being delivered to the rightful owner by directing it to his settlement; but each man knew his neighbors for many miles around, and mail was generally safely delivered, but not as quickly as it is today by the twentieth century limited on the Pennsylvania Railroad.

In the olden day, pens and ink were not to be had, and the frontiers- man did his writing with a goose-quill pen dipped in poke-berry juice for ink, and the writer remembers using such a writing outfit before the days of envelopes, when we wrote on one side of the paper and folded it very neatly in the form of an envelope.

HOSPITALITY

The loneliness of the isolated situation of the pioneers made them very hospitable and travelers or visitors were always welcomed by the early settlers and were given the best accommodations the cabin afforded. They were sociable, accommodating and helpful to each other. They would assist each other in erecting their houses and stables, or rolling logs in clearing the land. They were kind and considerate in sickness or accidents, and the pioneer women were ever ready and willing to act as house-keepers and nurses to sick and unfortunate neighbors, and their service and substance were freely given without money and without price. Their charity knew no bounds. They were ever ready to act the part of the good Samaritan. There were no sects, creeds or distinctions, but all were on a common plane .. The exclusive four hun- dred was never heard of in olden times. What a change in Cass county in the past eighty years, both in the physical features of the country and the modes of living and habits of the people. Then people were charitable, generous and willing to assist each other without remunera- tion, but to-day you seldom know when your neighbor is sick, and if you accidentally find it out you may make inquiry as to his condition, but never go and care for him, but he must employ a paid nurse or be taken to the hospital. There was certainly a greater degree of Chris- tian charity exhibited by the pioneer and mutual helpfulness than we find in this day and age with all our boasted progress.

Religious meetings in those days were thronged by old and young, wherever an itinerant preacher was announced to speak. They came for miles around, on foot, in carts and farm wagons, but generally on

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horseback, with two or three riding behind each other on the same horse.

Marriages were solemnized all along the circuit of the pioneer preacher, and funeral sermons preached for the dead who were buried without any religious ceremony for months prior to the visit of the minister in that settlement, even though the bereaved one had been consoled by a remarriage.

Next to the ministers the most accepted nomadic characters were the tinkers and peddlers who traveled through the sparsely settled country and repaired clocks, and the cobbler who made semi-annual visits to make or mend shoes, but the latter was generally done by the pioneer himself on rainy days, which were usually devoted to repair- ing shoes, harness, plows, or making ax and hoe handles, rakes or rustic furniture for the home. The itinerant peddler with his double- decked receptacle containing all kinds of small articles and toys, which he carried on his head, was the wonder and delight of the children, and he would generally be sighted down the road a long distance off, and a half dozen Hoosieroons might be seen with their heads at the window viewing with intense interest and covetousness the peddler's collection of toys and curios.

Another frontier personage who has passed into oblivion with the water-witch, is the bee-hunter. The wild bees made their honey in hollow trees, and the bee-hunter possessed great acumen, and by long experience in studying the habits of the bees could follow bees from watering troughs in dry weather, or watch their course from flowers where they extracted the nectar, to the woods and locate the bee-tree, and on his decision large forest trees were cut down, even on a stranger's land, in order to secure the honey. The acute eye of the bee-hunter could detect a bee a long distance; it was said on a clear day he could see a bee a mile away. Wild honey and maple sugar were the principal confections in pioneer times.

There were no stores where family supplies could be purchased, and if they were, the settler had no money with which to buy supplies, and the family dressed scantily. They generally went bare-footed, and even in cold weather the boys would go to school bare-footed. Often he would heat a slab of wood nearly to the burning point then start on a run to school, and when his feet became nearly frozen, he would stand on the board to warm them, and again start on a run, carrying his warming board to school where he would sit with his feet on the warm board. The writer has occasionally seen barefooted boys in frosty weather drive cows from their beds and warm their feet on the warm ground where the cow has laid all night. In order to save shoe-leather many people would walk barefooted on the dusty road, carrying their shoes until they approached the meeting house, when they would sit down by the roadside and put on their shoes and stockings.

Many a young couple have started in life with no capital except strong and rugged bodies. Many unique stories are told of the primi- tive weddings. Squire Jones reports the following case in point. A young man rode up to his cabin, with his would-be bride riding behind him on horse-back. They dismounted and hitched the horse to a sapling. After waiting a while he asked if he was a "squire." Being told that he was he then asked the "squire" what he charged to tie the knot. "You mean to marry you?" "Yes, sir." One dollar, the squire answered. "Will you take it in trade " "What kind of trade?" "Beeswax." "Bring it in." The young man went to the horse, and brought the beeswax, but it lacked thirty cents of being enough to pay for tying the knot. After meditating some minutes with an embar-

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History of Cass County, Indiana, from its earliest settlement to the present time; with Biographical Sketches and Reference to Biographies, Volume I, Part 9

Author: Powell, Jehu Z., 1848- [from old catalog] ed Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Chicago and New York. The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 763

Author: Powell, Jehu Z., 1848- [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago and New York. The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 763