USA > Indiana > History of Hastings, Indiana > Part 3
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Another essential "tool" made from timber was the "mud" boat. It consisted of two flat runners "pegged" or bolted together. It slid well on mud, ice, or snow, but, was hard to control it from stopping or sliding side wise. It was transportation for the family, could be used for hauling manure, buzz poles, etc.
After getting these limbs of trees together the neighbors would help to cut in firewood lengths. These pole piles and holes in the trees and ditch planks were the chief places of protection for rabbits. I nearly forgot the fodder or corn
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shocks. Rabbits learned to climb trees then, too. Where can he go for protection today?
Rail Splitting
When I think of A. Lincoln with his wooden maul or sledge hammer driving wedges to split logs for rails or fence posts, I think of the enormous amount of energy it took - - more than a cup of coffee and a doughnut for breakfast. Hewing out barn timbers was in the same class.
Then, gathering hickory, beech, walnuts, butternuts and hazel nuts in the fall was fun. Cracking nuts by the box stove on a cold winter evening and picking out the "goodies" (kernels) shortened the evening. I would give several butternuts to anyone wishing to start trees this fall as I have a small tree in front of my barn.
Sometimes a swarm of bees would fly over while they were plowing corn or making hay. By throwing dirt or pounding on tin or metal you could get them to lite on a bush and then transferred to a hive to provide a table spread.
Many times you would be lucky to find a "bee tree," a hive of bees in a hollow tree. After frost time man came along and took all their summer work and killed the bees. There was a saying a hive of bees in May was worth a ton of hay, if gotten in June a silver spoon, but one gotten in July wasn't worth a
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fly.
In Proverbs 6-6 we read "Go to the ant thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise. " With this thought in mind, except we change the word "ant" to "bee," I would like to introduce you to my friend Otto Beer.
First I want to say he doesn't need that. What I really want to say is that here amongst us dwells a high authority on bees. I listened attentatively to the "Lives of Honey Bees" at our Sunday school class party several years ago as Mr. Beer presented the subject.
Any school class, club or party that has never heard Mr. Beer surely is missing a rare opportunity on Christian living, good citizenship, integrity, industry and frugality as the bee teaches us a lesson.
While talking about natural sweets, lots of maple and sugar water was boiled down to make maple syrup in those early days.
Saw Mills
While talking to Dr. Owen Lentz. he stated his father, Ed Lentz, and family moved from the Darsh marsh at the corner of road 1200 N and 500 W to Milford about 1910. He went into partnership with his father, Albert Lentz, who owned a sawmill just across the street and to the south of the Lentz Coal
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Company . This sawmill, I believe, burned twice. Joe Griffith and Phil Caris were their teamsters, Isaac Mitchell and Tim Dygert were veteran log haulers from the Island. Monger's of Elkhart and Griffith were saw mill operators later in Milford.
Around Hastings William Tusing, Ira Collins, and Enos Hollar operated mills for many years. Sherman Collins had been and is still sawing at his home site.
Harold, son of William Tusing, has, along with his sons, operated the Dutchtown sawmill for many years.
On a cold winter morning while walking to school you would see a log hauler skidding logs to the roadside to be loaded on his wagon log bunks or bobsleds if the ground was covered with snow. Back in the woods you might hear the crash of a giant oak as it toppled to the ground. After placing the reins (lines) on the horses' hames the five command words - - gee, haw, gidap, back, and whoa - would direct that faithful team like trained circus horses while the driver was busy with the chains and logs. Most of these dumb animals were treated kindly by their masters. Each driver knew the limit of his team's pulling power and endurance. One man with a large team wanted everyone else to know he had the best pullers.
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Now everyone should be proud of his work, but, it can be overdone. One spring day this man who had never been stuck (so he said) started for Nappanee with a load of logs. One log or one too large was the straw that broke the camel's back. He hadn't gone too many miles when the wagon dropped to the axles and with might or main she couldn't be gotten out. Along came neighbor X with a smaller team and a load fitted to the thawed- out road.
"Are you stuck?" he asked. "Nope, just unable to move it," was the reply. "I'll hook on in front and see what we can do."
The large load was soon pulled to solid ground and Mr. X thanked him for his help. Then the man said, "If it hadn't been for my big team, we'd never pulled it out." How right he was!
Classified Forests
When I was a boy from 30 to 40 per cent of the Island was covered with forests and now we nearly cut the zero off.
I have heard it said many times, "My woods will last me," with no thought for future generations. I have always loved woods so I have had mine "classified. " To do this all livestock is fenced out, and the forest is "farmed" or
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undesirable trees, vines etc., are cut .. Selected trees are cut as they mature.
There is a two cent an acre tax. A good "farmed" woods will produce 300 board feet of lumber a year or about $14 yearly income per acre.
A few more classified forests and less bulldozing would help this farm surplus some and bring pleasure to future generations.
I love to take Ronnie and Gary Cotton, my grandsons from Pierceton, to my woods. Yes, there on that beech tree is the notch to show their height in 1961, 1963, and 1964.
Oscar Haney and I went "prospecting" (rambling) in my woods one Sunday afternoon in May. After going part way through we sat down on a fallen tree.
As that soft southern wind rustled the tree leaves and with birds flitting and singing all over the place, our little dog scared a bunny from the underbrush. With this peaceful scene of nature Mr. Haney mused, "If heaven is as nice as this I'll be satisfied."
I sometimes wonder if people in general aren't too much inclined to have silver and gold to pave the streets with over there, rather than enjoying much of God's beauty here.
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OLD HASTINGS BAND; LIFE OF COMMUNITY (Eighth in a Series) By Kenneth Haney
The Hastings band was formed in the early teens and was the life of the community for about a decade.
Under the efficient direction of Ziler Grove many happy day and evening concerts were enjoyed. A platform was erected in front of the store with single gas lights hung at the corners of the stand. Folks from all parts of the Island gathered on Wednesday evenings to enjoy the music and do their trading.
The first practicing was done above the store. Later the building to the south of the store, occupied formerly by Claude Weimer's barbershop, was moved to the east side of Enos Hollar's lane and used until the band was discontinued. It was put as near the road as possible to take advantage of the precious gravel.
The band sponsored the Hastings Big Days which included a ball game (I'll tell about this later), sack races, bicycle races (both short distances and around the two and a half mile Hastings square), pie and watermelon eating contests (with your hands tied behind you back), nail driving, foot racing, etc. I
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can't remember any grease pole climbing or catching the greased pig.
There were horse races (local horses) from the church to the store. Their "sulky" was made from the front axel and wheels of a buggy. Lew Davis, John Hollar, John Brock, Alex Hollar, and Charlie "Sigh" Hollar were some top contenders.
There was also an eating stand to help make money to pay for prizes along with homemade ice cream socials occasionally.
Allen Dierks recalls when the above picture was taken, Orville Yeager was driving his Model T nearby. A "fractious" horse became unruly and in the excitement Mr. Yeager pinned Allen's father, Henry, against the bandstand near the school house and injured him severely.
Boys were Boys
Boys were boys then, too! One night the rear Ziler Grove's "Flivver" was lifted up and blocks put under the axel. In those days when you came out of a building it was always dark (no artificial light unless you had a kerosene lantern sometimes called a "Smutsiagger.") Mr. Grove came out to his car, "twisted her tail", and got in. He put it in low, pulled down the gas and with a "roar" he just sat there with the kids standing at a distance viewing the spectacle.
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Mr. Grove, a quite friendly man, took it good naturedly. He was a man you couldn't help but admire.
Clay Pigeon Shooting
In the fall there was the clay pigeon shooting or trap shooting to raise money. The Tusing, Biller and Hollar boys were good at this target practice.
When a rabbit took off as they went out hunting it didn't have much of a chance. When rabbits were sold a little profit could be realized.
With me, and I had lots of company, the ammunition cost too much for sales, unless the game just died from fright.
When I think of these band boys with their diligent practice and their efforts to bring entertainment to an otherwise drab atmosphere, surely they were a wonderful booster to our early community.
When I think of the present band opportunities which we support by public taxation and which we were deprived of, how grateful this generation would be for its opportunity, with Milford High School only five miles away.
I was told if you furnish your clothes, your books and your way, you can go. Many of you folks could say the same thing in this or other realms of your life.
The dole never made good citizens.
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Earning your bread by the sweat of your brow or the poor ye shall have with you always will soon be out-moded by the anti-poverty crusade.
The Ball Team
About 1903 Hastings had a baseball team that was tops. With Alex Hollar as pitcher and Charlie Geiger as catcher or Jack and Butch Kline as the battery, they weren't afraid of Nappanee, Milford, Gravelton, Foraker and others.
"Coon" Earl Biller and "Sigh" Hollar were sometimes relief pitchers. Others on the team were Lew and Otto Davis, Enos and George Hollar, "Flick" Sam Biller and Claude Good. Henry Biller was water boy.
Two prominent Oldtimers were Charlie and Vern Wysong, who played on the Nappanee or Gravelton team.
The baseball diamond, which was a good one for that day, was located against and to the southeast of Emma Biller's woods.
Many a hard hit ball had to be retrieved from the mud in the far outfield. You never could hit the ball out of the park, but there was a possibility of never finding the ball.
Later on a second generation with indoor ball enjoyed the same kind of rivalry with surrounding communities and seldom were at the bottom of the "Totem" pole.
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EARLY THRESHING IN HASTINGS COMMUNITY
(11th in a Series)
By Kenneth Haney
When I think of wheat and oats threshing in the early days on the Island the word "precious" seems to stand out. In the fall, winter wheat was sown and if it survived the "Hooving" of the spring thawing you might get a 15 to 25 bushel average yield.
Fertilizer was unknown until that old standby 2-12-6 came into use.
Oats were sown by hand which was the Bible times way or by a mechanical broadcaster and disked or harrowed in. In this virgin soil, or "new ground", oats made a fairly good yield.
Harvest time and the McCormack or Deering binder cut and tied the bundles of grain and dropped them in piles to be shocked.
A good job of shocking withstood the wind and rain very well, but, a poor job looked like a tornado had struck the field.
There were few threshing machines at first and much grain had to be stacked or hauled into the barn to be threshed later in the season.
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One of the First
One of the first threshing owners around Hastings was Joe Estep, He was the son of Sam Estep, Hastings store owner, and the father of Cleo, Gale, and Gladys (Mrs. Ted Baumgartner). Gale, a likeable young chap died soon after the family returned from Florida one spring.
Mr. Estep owned the Robert Hollar farm before he moved to Milford. It seems to me he owned the threshing "rigs".
He was one of the first owners of an automobile around Milford. Mrs. Haney recalls he took the cooks and children on What a thrill! their first auto ride after dinner one day.
After Mr. Estep, John Kaiser threshed on the Milford- Hastings road and the South Jefferson Threshing Company took the territory from the Albert Krull farm northwest to the David Deisch (Richard Hollar) farm. It was a large shareholder company and sometimes threshing in a wet season wasn't completed until late August. A wet season sure kept a farmer on edge.
Others who operated machines on the fringe were Frank Heiber, William and Jacob Hartter (Harter?) and Frank Heplers and his boys in the west end. Some of those who helped to operate these machines were William Murphy, Tom Sumpter, Clarence (Sox) Hollar, Butch and Jack Kline.
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A Typical Day
On threshing day mother and father would be up at 4 a.m. Father milked the cows and got the horses harnessed while mother was baking pies and getting things ready for dinner. The neighbor women would come early to assist.
There was wood or coal to be loaded on the mudboat, neighbors to be notified if they were to haul bundles, haul grain or pitch. There were cattle or hogs to be shut up and gates opened.
If chicken wasn't on the menu there was a quick trip to Henry Erick or Dave Hill's butcher shop at Milford for beef. As you looked into those ice coolers filled with fresh meat in those hot days my how your mouth "watered" (saliva) !. Canned meat or salted pork wouldn't be used today for dinner!
A threshing crew of four, eight bundle wagons, five pitchers, and three shovelers along with the cooks and children took a lot of beef, noodles, applesauce, tapioca, dessert, pie and cake, etc. Everyone tried to get to the first table although there was generally enough to eat.
The crew had pulled the outfit from the neighbors farm last night after dark with two oil lanterns as lights. Old Coaly, as the steam engine was familiarly called, was fired up early and the whistle blowed to call all helpers to come.
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Maybe a whistle from another machine saying "good morning" could be heard in the distance. There was a code of whistles for bundle wagons, grain wagons, water wagon, etc.
One morning the whistle struck and blew for several hours. Blowing the whistle of a steam engine still tingles my spine!
Old Coaly, loved to drink water, and leaking flues and the steam valve popping off were taboo with the water wagon boy. With water in ditch it wasn't too bad but to use water from the local farmer's water tank wasn't appreciated especially if the wind mill wasn't running.
Some of the straw was put in the barn and how I envied any boy who could throw this bedding down for the cattle or horses.
Many farmers made a pole shed and covered it with straw and around three sides for shelter. A good job of straw stacking was appreciated when bedding cattle and horses in the winter. Empty barns, useless in this automatic age, were valuable in those days and really appreciated.
I, like other boys, carried water to the thirsty men for my dinner. Sometimes a generous farmer gave me a nickle or dime bonus.
With a crockery jug, weighing as much as the water it held, you kept making the rounds of the stubble fields, barefoot regularly.
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To drink from a jug from which a man with a big "cud of Tobacco" had just drunk was hard on your stomach. To have a man give the jug a flip of the jug to wash off the bacteria from mouth made your heart sink. But to have some man say, "This water tastes like -- -- , did you get it out of the horse tank?" Made you feel like going home.
As you sat at that dinner table loaded with good food those wonderful cooks had prepared, you forgot those unpleasant words on those hot days!
Threshing lasted until after dark and then cows to milk and late to bed. Both mother and father would be all in but their "shoe strings." Supper as well as dinner was given to the help in those days.
Dad's day of freedom came when junior was about 15 years old. He was big enough to drive a bundle wagon this year and had joined the ranks of the "men". Just a few years earlier he had graduated from Sunday "knee britches" (breeches) to long pants.
With his team and wagon he drove into the wheat field. was warned to "bind" the load well. After getting on a "jag" he asked the pitcher how it looked and got a nod of approval that it would "ride". As he drove that steel tired wagon up
He
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the lane one wheel dropped in a mud hole and he felt the load "shift" (slide). His heart weakened as he saw the load's rectangular shape had changed.
By dropping the speed to "supper low" and holding his breath he figured he could make it to the machine. But luck was against him! As he neared Old Coaly one corner slipped off. He drew the belt side of the separator and drove too close. As the belt screeched against the bundle buts, the man tending the separator yelled to get the load away and those were precious inches.
To make matters worse, the wind was strong and he had the dirty side. With that divider board in the feeder it was hard to throw the bundles head first in and about every other one fell on the ground. Every time his fork clanked on the feeder there was one sheaf less on the wagon.
Finally after a super human effort he got his "shirt tail" load of "topped out for rain" off and he became a man! And, life for day became easier.
One night I went to the straw stack and killed about 40 English sparrows who had burrowed into it for nesting. They were given to my neighbor lady who made a "pot pie" from the breast. She said this was a delicacy in her native state of Georgia.
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Wheat was traded for flour at the mill and mother would bake those large brown loaves from it. Perfection, Gold Medal, and Vesta were common brands. Vienna was made in Milford, but, when World War I started I was told the name had to be changed, because it was the capital of Austria-Hungary.
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WASH DAY RECALLED BY HASTINGS WRITER HANEY (12th in a Series) By Kenneth Haney
A week end spent, holy and true, and you won't worry of Monday blue.
This just about sums up wash day of early times and today. Breakfast over, the copper wash boiler was filled with water and put on the old wood range stove. In those early days many of the clothes were "boiled" and then lifted from the boiler with a broom stick. Then, with the application of some "soft soap" they were rubbed on the zinc washboard and then put into a tub of water where a few squeezes of the bag of "bluing" seemed to bring out that color on the clothes.
After twisting the clothes or running them through the hand-turned wringer they were ready for the clothes line in the front yard or hanging on the picket fence.
As those clean clothes tossed to and fro in the gentle breeze a feeling of pride came into a woman's heart.
Truly the coming of the hand and then power washing machines were a God send to our hard working mothers. Those washboard hands were a far cry from the many hand lotion ones
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of today.
'Soft Soap'
"Soft soap" was made by filling the old salt barrel with wood ashes and pouring water over them. The backing water was caught and boiled to the density that would float and egg.
This solution saved the money that would be necessary to buy Red Seal lye. After adding fats such as tallow, meat fryings, old lard, etc., and boiling, you had soap.
There was a common saying that "flattery" was like soft soap or it was about half lye (lie).
The early settler also found if you planted cabbage seed after burning a brush pile you would get thrifty plants. Potash wasn't known by name but these people knew what it would do.
Butchering
One of the delightful days was butchering. That was the day to play hooky from school.
When you were called to get up before daylight the big iron kettles were filled with water and the fire beneath was crackling and sending out its glow in the darkness.
One of the custom butcherers, Wesley Charlton, Martin, or later Orville Lutes, Isaac Tusing, Sylvanus Mellot, among
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others, had set this day to do your job. Maybe a neighbor or two would come to exchange with you.
From four to eight hogs were commonly butchered. Head cheese (sort of Brunsweiger), side meat (bacon), pig souse (from hocks and ears) or hog knuckles and sauerkraut, patty cakes or linked sausage, a piece of tenderloin dropped in the boiling lard or some fresh "cracklings" from the pressed out lard. These along with ham brought the saying of "eating high on the hog."
Canning or salting ended the preserving process along with some hickory smoking.
One day a peddler told me that in Greece they covered the hog with straw and set it afire. I'm willing to try anything once. If I hadn't gotten scared and put out the fire because I thought it was cooking the hog, it would have been successful but as it was I had a mess.
My brother, Foy, and family of Mount Prospect, Illinois, haven't gotten butchering out of their systems yet!
The present lean hog is a far cry from the 10 to 12 month lardy hog of the Island settlers.
With 20 to 40 gallons of lard, a bin of potatoes, wheat for flour, plenty of meat and canned fruit, and a wood shed
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full of dry hard wood, you were ready for a cold winter and visiting with neighbors on those long evenings.
Sorghum
Sorghum or "cane" was raised for molasses. It was a variety something like now used for silage. The leaves were stripped from the stalk before frost.
After cutting and tying in bundles they were hauled to Mr. Hamman at Milford, Enos Hollar or Eli (Daddy) Hershberger to crush and boil.
For spreading on bread, molasses cookies, cakes, etc., it was an important food.
Apple Butter
In those early days nearly everyone had an orchard and strange to say many of the diseases now that are common were absent or caused little trouble.
With two or three 50 gallon barrels and a load of apples you went early to the cider mill. After waiting in line an hour or so you would get the juice pressed from the apple.
After arriving home this apple cider was boiled down in a copper kettle to about one-twelfth its original volume. Into
this preservative was poured the "snits" or parts of pealed apples which the neighbors had helped do the night before. From 15 to 25 gallon crocks full of tarty applebutter was
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common and wow, was it ever good!
Taxes
That old saying, "There's only two things sure -- death and taxation." I've heard it many times. Many taxes are levied for an emergency -- like the income taxes, but, they're so easily collected that they are never stopped.
Showing the tax on 36 acres of land, which I own, was $11.35 for a year. It is dated April 28, 1904. On April 12, 1933, the same land was taxed at $15.24 for a year. This was when we used up the surplus when we didn't build a new school building.
In the spring four neighbors would each put a team on the large road grader to fill those large axle deep mud ruts. On that smooth flat surface, in April bare footed, it seemed you could "fly" down the road!
In the fall with a pair of basswood "dumpboards" cut out at Lentz saw mill you would haul your levied number of yards of gravel for your "land" tax.
This along with several neighbors would make a distance of two blocks a year or so. After walking in mud the majority of the way home from school you felt like you were walking on the kings highway, even though it was a short distance.
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Most of the early gravel was taken from the Orn gravel pit where Clarence Stieglitz now owns. The Moor or Berger pit furnished the west end - gravel. Sometimes cutting brush or mowing the roadside was land tax.
The ditches were dug by allotment. You were given a certain distance to clean out, generally in the fall. Some did a poor job and these ditches were unsatisfactory.
The next step was when you paid your assessment or tax and one man did the job. The road supervisor for a section of township was taken by the township trustee which was better. Finally the county highway and a gasoline tax brought us our fine gravel and blacktop roads.
Now, with the new drainage laws going into effect we hope it will be an improvement to the past tho we face it with misgiving.
With only a teacher to pay and some fuel and a little repair there was little tax to pay for schools.
So with poor roads, poor drainage, poor schools and low taxes, advancement was slow. Should one kick on taxes? Not if well spent! We got just about what we paid for.
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DISEASE ON 'THE ISLAND' AS REMEMBERED BY MR. HANEY (13th in a Series) By Kenneth Haney
As I walk through the Island cemetery or other cemeteries a feeling of sadness comes over me. Here is a family tombstone and maybe one to four markers with angel carvings of infants who failed to survive birth.
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