USA > Indiana > Elkhart County > History of Elkhart County, Indiana; together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history: portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 13
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TRADE.
In pioneer times the transactions of commerce were generally carried on by neighborhood exchanges. Now and then a farmer wonld load a flat-boat with beeswax, honey, tallow and peltries, with perhaps a few bushels of wheat or corn or a few hundred clap- boards, and float down the rivers into the Ohio and thence to New Orleans, where he would exchange his produce for substantials in the shape of groceries and a little ready money, with which he would return by some one of the two or three steamboats then run- ning. Betimes there appeared at the best steamboat landings a number of "middle men " engaged in the " commission and for- warding " business, bnying up the farmers' produce and the tro- phies of the chase and the trap, and sending them to the various distant markets. Their winter's accumulations would be shipped in the spring, and the manufactured goods of the far East or dis- tant South would come back in return; and in all these transac- tions scarcely any money was seen or nsed. Goods were sold on a year's time to the farmers, and payment made from the proceeds of the ensuing crops. When the erops were sold and the merchant satisfied, the surplus was paid out in orders on the store to labor- ing 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 yon want your order on?" The answer being given, the order was written and always cheerfully accepted.
MONEY.
Money was an article little known and seldom seen among the earlier settlers. Indeed, they had but little use for it, as they conld transact all their business abont as well without it, on the " barter " system, wherein great ingenuity was sometimes displayed. When
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it failed in any instance, long credits contributed to the conven- ience 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 twenty- five cents demanded by the Government. With all this high price on postage, by the way, the letter had not been brought 500 miles in a day or two, as is the case nowadays, but had probably been wecks on the ronte, and the mail was delivered at the pioneer's postoffice, several miles distant from his residence, only once in a week or two. All the inail would be carried by a lone horseman. Instances are related illustrating how misrepresentation would be resorted to in order to elicit the sympathies of some one who was known to have " two bits " (25 cents) of money with him, and pro- cure the required Govermental fee for a letter.
Peltries came nearer being money than anything else, as it came to be custom to estimate the value of everything in peltries. Such an article was worth so many peltries. Even some tax collectors and postmasters were known to take peltries and exchange them for the money required by the Government.
When the first settlers first came into the wilderness they generally supposed that their hard struggle would be princi- pally over after the first year; but alas! they .often looked for "easier times next year" for many years before realizing them, and then they came in so slily as to be almost imperceptible. The sturdy pioneer thus learned to bear hardships, 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 set- tlers who came to this State were many who, accustomed to the advantages of an older civilization, to churches, schools and society, became speedily home-sick and dissatisfied. They would remain perhaps one summer, or at most two, then, selling whatever claim with its improvements they had made, would return 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 unmiti- gated curse. The slight improvements they had mnade were sold to men of sterner stuff, who were the sooner able to surround them- selves with the necessities of life, while their unfavorable report deterred other weaklings from coming. The men who stayed, who
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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 we to-day owe the wonderful improvement 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.
MILLING.
Not the least of the hardships of the pioneers 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, sometimes taken from an old, worn-out tin bucket or other vessel. It was thickly perforated, bent into a semicirenlar form, and nailed, rough side upward, on a board. The corn was taken in the ear, and grated before it got dry and hard. Corn, however, was eaten in various ways.
Soon after the country became more generally settled, enterpris- ing 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 desired loca- tion, and when found he would go before the authorities and secure a writ of ad quod damnum. This would enable the miller to liave the adjoining land officially examined, and the amount of damage by making a dam was named. Mills being so great a public neces- sity, they were permitted to be located upon any person's land where the miller thought the site desirable.
AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.
The agricultural implements used by the first farmers in this State would in this age 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 a coulter that passed through a beam six or seven feet long, to which were attached handles of cor- responding length. The mold-board was a wooden one split out of
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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 oxen.
HOG KILLING.
Hogs 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." Immense kettles of water were heated; a sled or two, covered with loose boards or plank, constituted the platform on which the hog was cleaned, and was placed near an inclined logshead 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 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 con- sidered a disgrace to makea hog " squeal " by bad shooting or by a " shoulder-stiek," that is, running the point of the butcher-knife into the shoulder instead of the cavity of the beast. As each hog fell, the " stieker " 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 scalding tub, which had just been filled with boiling-hot water with a shovelful of good green wood ashes thrown in; in this the careass was plunged and moved around a minute or so, that is, until the hair would slip off easi- ly, then placed on the platform where the cleaners would pitch into him with 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 a third man to manage the " gambrel " (which was a stout stick abont two feet long, sharpened at both ends, to be inserted between the muscles of the hind legs at or near the hoek joint), the animal would be elevated to the pole, where the work of eleaning was finished.
After the slaughter was over and the hogs had had time to cool, such as were intended for domestic use were cut up, the lard " tried " out by the women of the household, and the surplus hogs taken to market, while the weather was cold, if possible. In those days almost every merchant had, at the rear end of his place of
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business or at some convenient 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 market. This gave employment to a large number of hands in every village, who would cut and pack pork all winter. The hauling of all this to the river would also give employment to a large number of teams, and the manufacture of pork barrels would keep many coopers employed.
Allowing for the difference of currency and manner of market- ing, the price of pork was not so high in those days as at present. Now, while calico and muslin are ten cents a yard and pork two to four cents a pound, then, while calico and muslin were twenty-five cents a yard pork was one to two cents a pound. When, as the country grew older and communications easier between the seaboard and the great West, priecs went up to two and a half and three cents a pound, the farmers thought they would always be content to raise pork at such a price; but times have changed, even con- trary to the current-cy.
There was one feature in this method of marketing pork that made the country a paradise for the poor man in the winter time. Spare-ribs, tenderloins, pigs' heads and pigs' feet were not con- sidered of any valne, and were freely given to all who could use them. If a barrel was taken to any pork-house and salt furnished, the barrel would be filled and salted down with tenderloins and spare-ribs gratuitously. So great in many cases was the quantity of spare-ribs, etc., to be disposed of, that they would be hauled away in wagon-loads and dumped in the woods out of town.
In those early times much wheat was marketed at twenty-five to fifty cents a bushel, oats the same or less, and corn ten cents a bushel. A good young mileh-cow could be bought for $5 to $10, and that payable in work.
Those might truly be called "elose times," yet the citizens of the country were accommodating, and but very little suffering for the actual necessities of life was ever known to exist.
PRAIRIE FIRES.
Fires, set out by Indians or settlers, sometimes 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 them- selves against the destroying element. Many interesting incidents are related. Often a fire was started to bewilder game, or to bare
HUNTING PRAIRIE WOLVES IN AN EARLY DAY.
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a piece of ground for the early grazing of stock the ensuing spring, and it would get away nnder 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 abont " 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 con- stituted a help in the work of protection.
An original prairie of tall and exuberant grass on fire, especially at night, was a magnificent 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 present day in this country. One could scarcely tire of beholding the scene, as its awe-inspiring 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 cannot convey, words cannot express, the faintest idea of the splendor and grandeur of such a conflagra- tion at night. It was as if the pale queen of night, disdaining to take her accustomed place in the heavens, had dispatched myriads upon myriads of messengers to light their torches at the altar of the setting 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 to the zenith, and dark clonds of crimson smoke curling away and aloft till they nearly obscured stars and moon, while the rush- ing, crashing sounds, like roaring cataracts mingled with distant thunders, were almost deafening; danger, death, glared all around; it screamed for victims; yet, notwithstanding the imminent peril
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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 latter. As the country settled game grew scarce, and by 1850 he who would live by his rifle would have had but a precarious subsistence had it not been for "wild hogs." These animals, left by home-sick immigrants whom the chiils or fever and agne had driven out, had strayed into the woods, and began to multiply in a wild state. The woods eacl fall were full of acorns, walnuts, hazelnuts, and these hogs would grow fat and multiply at a wonderful rate in the bottoms and along the blutf's. The second and third immigration to the country found these wild hogs an unfailing source of meat supply up to that period when they had in the townships contignous to the river be- come so numerous as to be an evil, breaking in herds into the farmer's corn-fields or toling their domestic swine into their retreats, where they too 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 wild hogs. At this meeting, which was held in the spring, the people of the town- ship were notified to turn out en masse 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 convenient 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 winter's supply. Like energetic measures were resorted to in other townships, so that in two or three years the breed of wild logs became extinct.
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NATIVE ANIMALS.
The principal wild animals found in the State by the early set- tler were the deer, wolf, bear, wild-cat, fox, otter, raccoon, generally called "coon," woodelinck, or ground hog, skunk, mink, weasel, muskrat, opossum, rabbit and squirrel; and the principal feathered game were the quail, prairie chicken and wild turkey. Hawks, turkey buzzards, crows, blackbirds were also very abundant. Sev- eral 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 common enemy of the sheep, and sometimes attacking other domestic animals and even human beings. But their hideous howlings at night were so constant and terrifying that they almost seemed to do more mischief by that annoyance than by direct attack. They would keep everbody and every ani- mal about the farm-house awake and frightened, and set all the dogs in the neighborhood to barking. As one man described it: "Sup- 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 authorities offered a bounty for their scalps; and, besides, big hunts were common.
WOLF HUNTS.
In early days more mischief was done by wolves than by any other wild animal, and no small part of their mischief consisted in their almost constant barking at night, which always seemed so menacing and frightful to the settlers. Like mosquitoes, the noise they made appeared to be about as dreadful as the real depre- dations they committed. The most effectual, as well as the most exciting, method of ridding the country of these hateful pests, was that kuown as the " circular wolf hunt," by which all the men and boys would turn out on an appointed day, in a kind of circle con- prising many square miles of territory, with horses and dogs, and then close up toward the center of their field of operation, gather- ing not only wolves, but also deer and many smaller "varmint." Five, ten, or more wolves by this means would sometimes be killed in a single day. The men would be organized with as much system as a little army, every one being well posted in the meaning of every signal and the application of every rule. Guns were scarcely ever allowed to be brought on such occasions, as their use
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would be unavoidably dangerous. The dogs were depended npon for the final slaughter. The dogs, by the way, had all to be held in check by a cord in the hands of their keepers until the final signal was given to let them loose, when away they would all go to the center of battle, and a more exciting scene would follow than can be easily described.
BEE-HUNTING.
This wild recreation was a peculiar one, and many sturdy back- woodsmen gloried in excelling in this art. He would carefully watch a bee as it filled itself with the sweet product of some flower or leaf-bud, and notice particularly the direction taken by it as it struck a "bee-line" for its home, which when found would be generally high up in the hollow of a tree. The tree would be marked, and in September a party would go and cut down the tree and capture the honey as quickly as they could before it wasted away through the broken walls in which it had been so carefully stowed away by the little busy bee. Several gallons would often be thus taken from a single tree, and by a very little work, and pleas- ant at that, the early settlers could keep themselves in honey the year round. By the time the honey was a year old, or before, it would turn white and granulate, yet be as good and healthful as when fresh. This was by some called "candid " honey.
In some districts, the resorts of bees would be so plentiful that all the available hollow trees would be occupied and many colonies of bees would be found at work in crevices in the rock and holes in the ground. A considerable quantity of honey has even been taken from such places.
SNAKES.
In pioneer times snakes were numerons, such as the rattlesnake, viper, adder, blood snake and many varieties of large blue and green snakes, milk snake, garter and water suakes, black snakes, etc., etc. If, on meeting one of these, you would retreat, they would chase you very fiercely; but if you would turn and give them battle, they would immediately crawl away with all possible speed, hide in the grass and weeds, aud wait for a "greener " customer. These really harmless snakes served to put people on their guard against the more dangerous and venomous kinds.
It was the practice in some sections of the country to turn out in companies, with spades, mattocks and crow- bars, attack the princi- pal snake dens and slay large numbers of them. In early spring
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the snakes were somewhat torpid and easily captured. Scores of rattlesnakes were sometimes frightened out of a single den, which, as soon as they showed their heads through the crevices of the rocks, were dispatched, and left to be devoured by the numerous wild hogs of that day. Some of the fattest of these snakes were taken to the house and oil extracted from them, and their glittering skins were saved as specifics for rheumatism.
Another method was to so fix a heavy stick over the door of their dens, with a long grape-vine attached, that one at a distance could plug the entrance to the den when the snakes were all out sunning themselves. Then a large company of the citizens, on hand by ap- pointment, could kill scores of the reptiles in a few minutes.
SHAKES.
One of the greatest obstacles to the early settlement and pros- perity of this State was the "chills and fever," " fever and ague," or " shakes," as it was variously called. It was a terror to new- comers; in the fall of the year almost everybody was afflicted with it. It was no respecter of persons; everybody looked pale and sallow as though he were frost-bitten. It was not contagious, but derived from impure water and air, which are always developed in the opening up of a new country of rank soil like that of the Northwest. The impurities continue to be absorbed from day to day, and from week to week, until the whole body corporate became saturated with it as with electricity, and then the shock came; and the shock was a regular shake, with a fixed beginning and ending, coming on in some cases each day but generally on alternate days, with a regu- larity that was surprising. After the shake came the fever, and this " last estate was worse than the first." It was a burning-hot fever, and lasted for hours. When you had the chill you couldn't get warm, and when you had the fever you couldn't get cool. It was exceedingly awkward in this respect; indeed it was. Nor would it stop for any sort of contingency; not even a wedding in the family would stop it. It was imperative and tyrannical. When the ap- pointed time came around, everything else had to be stopped to at- tend to its demands. It didn't even have any Sundays or holidays; after the fever went down you still didn't feel much better. You felt as though you had gone through some sort of collision, thrashing-machine or jarring-machine, and came out not killed, but next thing to it. You felt weak, as though you had run too far after something, and then didn't catch it. You felt langnid, stupid and
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sore, and was down in the month and heel and partially raveled out. Your back was ont of fix, your head ached and your appetite crazy. Your eyes had too much white in them, your ears, especially after taking quinine, had too much roar in them, and your whole body and soul were entirely woe-begone, disconsolate, sad, poor and good for nothing. Yon didn't think much of yourself. and didn't believe that other people did, either; and yon didn't care. You didn't quite make up your mind to commit suicide, but sometimes wished some accident would happen to knock either the malady or yourself out of existence. You imagined that even the dogs looked at you with a kind of self-complacency. You thought the sun had a kind of sickly shine about it.
About this time you came to the conclusion that you would not accept the whole State of Indiana as a gift; and if you had the strength and means, you picked up Hannah and the baby, and your traps, and went back "yander " to "Old Virginny," the " Jar- seys," Maryland or " Pennsylvany."
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