USA > Indiana > Marion County > Indianapolis > History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana > Part 13
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20
21
8
LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP.
Town 16 North, Range 4 East.
5
Sec-
tion.
66
HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.
Name and Date.
Aeres.
tion.
William Hardio, July, 1821
142
2
William S. Whitaker, October, 1824 80
12
William Hardin, July, 1821
141
2
John Grewel, December, 1823 80
12
Epbraim Morrison, August, 1824.
70
3
Samuel Ferguson, January, 1825. 80
13
Robert McClaine, September, 1821 70
3
Ilenry Brady, December, 1823 80
13
Peter Casteter, October, 1821 69
3
Benjamin Atherton, December, 1823 80
13
William McClaren, Jr., April, 1824
69
3
Jacob Blacklidge, October, 1823
80
14
David Sheets, March, 1824
80
3
Andrew Morehouse, March, 1824
80
14
Daniel Ballinger, October, 1823.
80
3
Jacob Sowduski, August, 1824
80
14
Daniel Ballinger, October, 1823
80
3
Robert Brown, February, 1824
80
14
Philip Ray, July, 1821.
80
3
Jehn W. Redding, January, 1823
160
15
Adam Eller, August, 1824
80
10
Levi Becbee, July, 1821.
160
15
Leonard Eller, April, 1825.
80
10
James Deyle, March, 1822
180
15
James Templer, August, 1821.
80
10
James Doyle, January, 1822
160
15
David Jamisoo, Jr., June, 1824
160
10
Jacob Daringer, November, 1823.
160
22
William D. Rooker, April, 1823
160
10
John North, September, 1823.
80
11
Arebibald C. Reed, August, 1824 80
Town 15 North, Range 5 East.
Lorenzo Dow, May, 1826 56
3
William Sanders, December, 1825 80
3
Samuel Fullen, October, 1825 80
3
Luke Bryan, December, 1825 56
55
4
Luke Bryan, December, 1825
55
4
Jesse Enlow, October, 1822
160
36
Joshua Reddick, December, 1825.
80
36
Robert Warren, October, 1824.
80
36
Town 17 North, Range 5 East.
John and Daniel Kuns, February, 1824 80
15
James Wilson, December, 1825. 160
18
Stephen Brown, November, 1826
160
5
Stephen Brown, November, 1826
113
6
Christian Beaver, October, 1824 80
30
Stephen Brown, November, 1826.
160
6
Willoughby Conner, September, 1826
43
6
Joseph Charles, November, 1822
43
6
Demas L. MeFarlond, December, 1825.
80
8
James Harris, November, 1824
80
9
Polly Holliday, January, 1823.
80
9
David E. Wade, Marel, 1824 80
1
Jacob Blacklidge, November, 1823.
160
9
William Ferguson, February, 1825. 64
2
Samuel Fergusen and Jobn Pogue, January, 1825
80
10
Jehn Ketley, December, 1825
80
10
William Riley, December, 1825
80
2
Benjamin Sailor, March, 1823
80
21
William Clemens, August, 1821. 136
3
Benjamin Sailor, March, 1823.
80
21
William Clemens, August, 1821
70
3
Benjamin Sailer, April, 1823 80
21
Samuel Beeler, August, 1823. 80
22
Nathan Harlau, October, 1823 80
22
Town 16 North, Range 4 Eurt.
Robert Kelley, December, 1825. 80
Jacob Mason, August, 1822 80
22
William Vanlaningham, March, 1822 80
22
Edward White, December, 1823 80
10
Harris Tyner, January, 1823 80
22
David Shields, December, 1821 160
27
Thomas Askren, September, 1825. 160
35
Razain Hawkins, August, 1825 80
35
Razain Hawkins, August, 1825 80
35
David Buckhannon, February, 1824 80
11
Joel Blacklidge, October, 1823 80
12
Ambrose Shirley, November, 1822 80
12
12
Nehemiah Smith, December, 1825.
10
Edward Morin, December, 1825 80
William Merin, December, 1825 80
12
Abraham Lemasters, February, 1825. 80 10
87
6
Daniel Rumple, October, 1824 80
30
Jesse Enlew, October, 1822 160
31
WARNEN TOWNSHIP. Town 15 North, Range 4 East.
Joseph Charles, November, 1822.
80
1
Samuel Ferguson, January, 1825 80
1
James llolliday, April, 1822.
80
9
Asa Grewell, December, 1823. 80
2
Jacob W. Fisher, October, 1822 160
2
Bishop & Stevens, January, 1825
21°
Michael and Zinoa Skinner, August, 1821 70 3
160
3
Jacob Sowduski, January, 1822
80
3
Josbna Stephens, October, 1824.
80
10
Benjamin Atherton, Dceember, 1823 80
10
Edward Heizer, August, 1823 80
10
John Hall, October, 1821. 160
10
William J. Morrison, December, 1825. 80
11
Andrew Morehouse, August, 1823 160
11
Jacob Sowdusky, August, 1824. 80
11
Name and Date.
Aeres.
Sec- tion.
David Buckhannon, February, 1824 80
22
John North, September, 1823 160
11
Leonard Eller, April, 1825.
80
11
Joseph Eller, March, 1824
80
15
John Eller, March, 1824
80
15
Robert Kelley, December, 1822.
80
15
Town 17 North, Range 4 East.
Gilbert A. Cheney, March, 1825.
40
35
Calvin Fletcher, James Rariden, November, 1826 .. 80
SO
4
James Holliday, April, 1822
160
4
Stephen Brown, November, 1826
112
5
Joseph Bray, December, 1825 80
5
Cornelius Williams, December, 1825 80
5
Christian Beaver, Octeher, 1824. 80 20
Daniel Rumpal, October, 1824 80 20
Stephen Brown, November, 1826
63
7
Daniel Yandes, November, 1824 ..
Jacob Sowduski, January, 1822
Jobn Wilson, October, 1821 80
3
22
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. Town 14 North, Range 4 East.
4
Cornelius Williams, December, 1825
4
Luke Bryan, December, 1825
22
Sec-
67
ORIGINAL ENTRIES OF LANDS IN THE COUNTY.
Name and Date.
Acres.
Sec- tton.
Name and Date.
Acres.
Sec- tion.
Luke Bryan, December, 1825
80
14
Henry Myers, August, 1821
80
9
Luke Bryan, April, 1825
80
14
Dempsey Overman, July, 1821.
160
10
Luke Bryan, April, 1825
80
15
John Watts, July, 1821.
160
10
Henry Alcoro, July, 1821
80
10
Henry Alcorn, July, 1821
80
10
Jeremiah Bernight, February, 1823
78
3
Martin Riley, July, 1821.
80
10
Moses IIuffman, March, 1822
78
3
James Burns, Joly, 1821
80
10
William Rector, January, 1822
78
3
David Marrs, October, 1821
80
11
John Dawson, January, 1823
80
3
Cline Roland, December, 1825
80
11
Benjamin Reetor, March, 1825.
80
3
Dempsey Overman, July, 1821.
80
11
Powler Ilibs, December, 1825
7
Jacob Pence, August, 1822
80
11
Hugh Beard, December, 1825
80
8
James Cully, July, 1821.
80
11
John Dawson, January, 1823.
160
15
James Cully, July, 1821.
80
11
Peter Mann, October, 1822
80
10
Thomas Shelten, December, 1825. 80
160
12
Jacob W. Fisher, October, 1822
160
10
Robert Murphy, April, 1825.
80
12
Andrew O. Porter, October, 1821 160
10
Jacob Penee, August, 1822
80
12
Peter Carberry, July, 1822 80
10
Samuel True, December, 1825
80
13
John Dawson, January, 1823
160
15
Samuel Dabney, December, 1823.
80
13
Jacob Smock, December, 1824 40
19
Samuel Dabney, September, 1825
80
t3
William Morris, December, 1824
40
19
Richard Good, February, 1825
80
14
Jaceb Fullenweider, December, 1825.
80
14
Henry Alcoro, March, 1831
80
14
Samuel Dabney, December, 1825
80
14
Moscs F. Gleno, May, 1822.
80
15
Stephen Yager, December, 1825
80
27
George Vandegriff, July, 1821
80
15
George Smith, April, 1825. 80
27
William McBride, July, 1825
80
15
Joseph Smith, December, 1822.
160
15
Aotheny W. Bowen, December, 1821.
80
17
Henry Ilardin, May, 1822.
160
21
John Patterson, November, 1821
80
27
Jobn Patterson, November, 1821 80
27
Josinh Bisbce, July, 1821 80
27
Charles W. Wilson, August, 1821 80
27
Michael Cloyd, August, 1821 80
27
Isaiah Bisbee, July, 1821.
80
28
Michael Cloyd, August, 1821 80
28
Reuben Adamus, October, 1824
160
31
Thomas Carle, September, 1825 73
Thomas Bryant, April, 1825. 147
Mary Aldridge, February, 1825. 80
80
5
Jnecb Turoer and Thes. Bryant, Dceember, 1825. Peter Demott, November, 1826.
147
6
Isaac Ilelms, October, 1824
Baker F. Ewing, March, 1825
79
6
John Daoner, June, 1823 ..
79
6
Francis Vorie, December, 1825.
158
7
Peyton Bristow, May, 1823
80
1
Jacob Smock, May, 1822.
80
7
Henry Riddle, September, 1822
80
1
Luke Bryan, December, 1825
160
8
Elijah T. Foote, July, 1821.
75
2
Luke Bryan, December, 1825
80
8
Elijah T. Focte, July, 1821
75
2
Abraham Lemasters, December, 1825. 80
8
Peyton Bristow, May, 1823.
80
2
Gerrardus R. Robbins, Nevember, 1822. 160
8
Peyton Bristow, August, 1821
160
Jacob Smock, May, 1822 2
80
8
John Johnston, July, 1821
74
3
Samuel Smoek, November, 1826.
80
9
Philip W. Sparger, October, 1821 80
3
Nehemiah Smitb, December, 1825
80
9
Jebn Bowen, December, 1821 80
3
William McClain, December, 1825.
80
9
John Watts, October, 1821 80
3
Robert Brenton, August, 1822
160
9
David C. Cassett, July, 1821. . 80
3
Cornelius Demott, May, 1822
160
17
Rudy Daily, March, 1823 69
4 Randal Litsey, October, 1822 160
160
18
Elijab Elliett, July, 1821.
88
5 William Sanders, August, 1825
80
18
Martin D. Bush, July, 1821
80
8 William Sanders, Deeemher, 1825 80
18
James Martin, Joly, 1823 80
9 David Brewer, December 1824 80
21
Richard Watts, July, 1821 160
9 Daniel A. Brewer, December, 1824 160
21
5
Charles W. Wilson, August, 1821 160
34
William Griffith, October, 1824 160
32
PEANY TOWNSHIP.
Town 14 North, Range 3 East.
Henry D. Bell, October, 1821. 154
1
Isane Kelly, August, 1821
152
1
Henry Riddle, September, 1824. 80
1
Samuel Brewer, October, 1823 80
7
Robert Hunt, July, 1821
80
21
Robert Hunt, July, 1821
360
22
Ilezekiah Smart, August, 1822. 160
22
Ilezekiah Smart, December, 1823. 80
22
Town 14 North, Range 4 East.
Robert White, December, 1824. 73
5
Reuben Adams, February, 1825.
80
32
5
Jacob Turner, September, 1825
80
5
Robert MeCather and Isaac Brazleton, December, 1825
80
27
William Townsend, December, 1825. 160
34
Town 15 North, Range 5 East.
12
William Rector, January, 1822
80
10
David Marrs, October, 1821
Town 15 North, Range 4 East.
80
Town 14 North, Range 5 East.
Rudy Daily, March, 1823. 85
5 Randal Litsey, October, 1822
17
5
6
68
HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.
Town 15 North, Range 3 East.
Name and Date.
Acres.
tion.
Simeon Smock, October, 1821
160 25
John MoFall, Angust, 1821. 160 25
Lewis Nichols, October, 1821 80
25
Peter Demott, October, 1821
80 25
Peter Demott, October, 1821 80
25
Henry Brenton, August, 1821
80
25
George Marquis, November, 1824.
80
26
John Shaffer, Angust, 182]
80
26
Lewis Davis, Angust, 1821.
160
26
James Andrew, Jr., July, 1821.
80
26
Isaac Senseney, August, 1821
80
26
Abraham Lemasters, July, 1821
80
26
Joseph S. Benham, July, 1821.
80
26
Lewis Davis, Angnst, 1821
80
27
William Vandegriff, July, 1821
30
27
William Sanders, July, 1821 160
27
William Sanders, June, 1822
43
27
Richard Vost, November, 1821.
70
27
Samuel Whitcher, April, 1822. 139
33
Emannel Glympsc, March, 1823 SO
33
William Myers, July, 1821 160
34
William Sanders, January, 1823.
80
34
John D. Lutz, Angust, 1821. 80
34
William Townsend, July, 1821 160
35
George Norwood, July, 1821. 160
160
35
Amos Cook, July, 1821. 160
35
Henry Ballinger, July, 1821. 160
36
John Smock, July, 1821. 160
36
Henry Brenton, Angust, 1821
80
36
David Marrs, October, 1821. 80
36
John Poole, July, 1821.
160
36
Town 15 North, Range 4 East.
William S. Hughey, April, 1825.
80
28
Nathan Alldridge, November, 1823
80
28
Susannah, Jacob, and Azariah Mosly, February, 1823.
80
28
James Thompson, June, 1824. 160
28
William Arnold, August, 1824. 160
28
James McLanghlin, July, 1823
80
29
Sarah Jane Smith, December, 1825.
160
30
Lawrence Demott, October, 1821
157
30
Henry Comingore, November, 1822 156
30
John Smock, Angust, 1821. 80
31
Richard Corwine, July, 1821
157
31
John Smock, Jnly, 1821.
160
31
Stephen Miller, Jannary, 1822
159
31
S. G. IIuntington, August, 1821.
80
32
John Smock, August, 1821 80
32
Milton White, Ootober, 1824 80
32
Milton White, September, 1824 80
32
Jacob Coffman, Angust, 1821 160
32
Benjamin L. Crothers, August, 1821 160
33
George Petro, August, 1821. 80
33
CHAPTER IV.
Social Condition of the Early Settlers-Amusements-Religious Worship-Music-General Description of Pioneer Life in Marion County-Diseases once Prevalent-Causes of Dimin- ution.
THUS far this history has followed as closely as any record, or accurate memory, or other authentic ac- count would permit, the course of events in the first settlement and growth of the town and county up to the opening of the year 1825, occasionally pausing to group about some conspicuous locality or occur- rence such incidents of the later history as closely connected themselves with it, and presented at a single view a summary of the subject, which would be less intelligible if broken up by scattering the points about in chronological order. Brief biograph- ical references also have been introduced with the first appearance of citizens who were then or sub- sequently became conspicuous for services to the community. But there is a good deal more of the history of any State or town than appears in its public records and the accounts of its material growth and development. How the people lived, worked, and amused themselves is quite as much to the purpose of a faithful chronicle as the building of mills, open- ing streets, and holding courts. For the first two dec- ades of the existence of the town and the settlement about it the social conditions were so little changed that an account of any part of that period will be no misfit for any other part. The changes towards city development and conditions were not distinctly shown. till the impulse of improvement that ran a little ahead of the first railway began to operate. There- fore the incidents, anecdotes, and descriptions in this division of the work are used as illustrative of a period of substantially unchanging conditions, and not of any particular year or condition. They are substantially true of any year for two decades or thereabouts.
For the first few years the relations of the settlers and Indians were occasional points of interest or alarm. One or two incidents will show that the New Purchase was not different in its chances of Indian trouble from settlements beyond the Missis-
S. G. Huntington, Angust, 1821. 80
32
35
Abraham Lemasters, July, 1821
Sec-
69
SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE EARLY SETTLERS.
sippi twenty years ago, and beyond the Rocky Moun- tains now. Mr. Nowland describes one of these incidents : "John McCormick kept the first tavern or place of entertainment in the place, and provided for the commissioners a portion of the time when they were here for the purpose of locating the capital. His house stood on the east or left bank of the river, a few steps below where the National road now crosses it. One bright sunny morning about the middle of March my father and I took a walk to the river. When within about fifty yards of the cabin of Mr. McCormick we heard cries of ' Help! Murder!' coming from the house. We ran, and by the time we got there several men had arrived. A well-known and desperate Delaware, called ' Big Bottle,' from the fact that he generally carried a large bottle hung to his belt, had come to the opposite side of the river and commanded Mrs. McCormick to bring the canoe over for him. This she refused to do, knowing that he wanted whiskey, and when drinking was a dangerous Indian. He set his gun against a tree, plunged into the river, and swam over, and when we reached the house was ascending the bank, tomahawk in hand, preparatory to cutting his way through the door, which Mrs. McCormick had barricaded. At the sight of the men he desisted, and said he only wished to ‘ scare white squaw.' He was taken back to his own side of the river in a canoe, and admonished that if he attempted to seare the ' white squaw' again her hus- band would kill him. This rather irritated him. . He flourished his scalping-knife towards her, and intimated by signs from her head to his belt that he would take her scalp."
Not far from the time of this pleasing incident of aboriginal amiability another of a more serious char- acter occurred, illustrating the inevitable proclivity of whites to cheat Indians, and the very probable effect of the cheat when discovered. Mr. Now- land is authority for the story. "Robert Wilmot, the second merchant (Daniel Shaffer was a little earlier), had a small stock of Indian trinkets, and for a short time carried on trade with tho Indians, but a little occurrence frightened him, and he soon returned to Georgetown, Ky., his former residence.
A Delaware Indian named Jim Lewis had pledged some silver hat-bands (there is something to open the eyes of the 'dudes' of 1883 1) to Wilmot for goods, and was to return in two moons to redeem them. He kept his word, but when he came back Wilmot had sold the bands to another Indian, which so exasperated Lewis that he threatened if he ever caught Wilmot going alone to his corn-field he would take his scalp. This frightened him so much that he never would go alone, but often requested and was accompanied by Dr. Livingston Dunlap. His alarm grew so serious finally that he sold out and returned to Kentucky. As it was pretty generally known that Lewis was the murderer of the white man found near the Bluffs, on an island of the river, this threat against Wilmot had a tendency to alarm and put on their guard other settlers."
The Indians had been greatly irritated by the intrusion of the whites into their favorite hunting- ground, and occasional manifestations of enmity were to have been and were expected ; still, the relations of the races were not always those of ill-will and ill- service. The late James Sulgrove, who came to the settlement in 1823, and at his death in 1875 was the oldest business man in the city continuously in the same business, used to tell a little incident of the good feeling of the Indians that may go to set off the less pleasant ones. His father, while riding through the dense woods where West Indianapolis now stands, with a child before him, saw an Indian following at a rapid pace, as if to overtake him. Feeling a little alarmed, he hurried his horse ahead, but saw that the Indian hurried too. Knowing the impossibility of escaping by speed in the deep, miry mud of the river bottom with the child to take care of, he slackened his pace and let the native come up. As he approached he held out a child's shoe in his hand, which had dropped from the foot of the little fellow on the horse, and been picked up by the Indian, who had followed pertinaciously through the mud to return it. Trivial as such an affair is, it is worth noting as an evidence that the Indians then, as now and always, treat the whites in much the same way the whites treat them. If there is no special cause of dislike or hostility, the Indians are
70
HISTORY OF INDIANAPOLIS AND MARION COUNTY.
as well disposed to be kindly and hospitable as other men. If they are swindled and abused they can hardly be more vindictive, if we may trust the early reports of revengeful white murders.
Of the homes and modes of life of the early set- tlers some little suggestion has been made in occa- sional allusions, but a better idea is given in Mr. Now- land's account of the way his father's family settled themselves here in the fall of 1820 on their arrival. He says that a Quaker from Wayne County by the name of Townsend, the same who afterwards joined in putting in operation the first wool-carding machine here, had come out to the settlement and built a cabin and covered it, but had left the sawing out of the necessary openings to a more couvenient season and returned to the White Water. Mr. Nowland's father took possession, by the advice of a friend, but, for fear of cutting openings for doors, windows, and a chimney in the wrong place, decided to cut none at all, and made an entrance by the novel process of prying up two corners of the house and taking out the third log from the bottom. A few clapboards taken from the middle of the roof let the smoke out, and the whole affair was about as comfortable as a wigwam. The fire was built on the ground, which was the floor, and rag carpets were hung round the walls to exclude the wind, against which there was no provision of "chinking and daubing." The neighbors, in the generous fashion of the back woods, all assisted readily in anything that required their help, and a cabin of their own was soon provided for the family. There may possibly be in the city yet one of these primeval cabins weather-boarded over, as a good many were, and made most excellent resi- dences too, as handsome as a frame and as solid as a brick ; but the unhewed cabin, unfaced and left in its native roughness, probably disappeared with the burning of a double log house on the bank of Pogue's Run, near Mississippi Street, some years before the war. The double cabin was the palatial structure of the early settlements of the New Purchase. A two-story, hewed-log house was sometimes built, but it was as phenomenal as Vanderbilt's marvelous home. There was one on Maryland Street, south side, west of Meridian, near the present east end of
the Grand Hotel, that was occupied by a family named Goudy for a time, and afterwards by some of the hands employed on the National road in 1837 or 1838 or thereabouts. It may have been the first house used by the Methodists as a place of worship in 1825, for they did use a hewed-log house on Maryland Street, near Meridian. It disappeared forty years ago. One-story houses frequently made a sort of second story of the garret by a ceiling of loose plank or puncheons and a ladder, and this was sometimes the children's room and sometimes a guest's room. Doors were usually battencd, swung on large wooden hinges, and fastened with a wooden latch, lifted from the outside by a string fastened to it and passing through a hole in the door above. The hospitable assurance of a back woodsman that his " latch-string was always out" can be readily appre- ciated with this explanation. It meant that his house could be entered at any time by anybody. If the latch-string were drawn in through the hole a person outside would have no chance to get in. A close-jointed hewed-log house was warmer in winter and cooler in summer than a brick, and, except that it would rot, was preferable. Unhewed houses were always more or less subject to the intrusion of va- grant breezes and curious eyes by the falling out or knocking out of the "chinking" and " daubing" that filled the spaces between the logs. This was usually made of blocks of split wood, from six inches to a foot long by three or four inches wide and an inch or two thick, laid in oblique rows between the logs and covered thick with the mud of the country.
Chimneys were usually built clear outside of the house, against a hole eight or ten feet wide by five or six high cut out of the logs or left by measure- ment when the logs were cut before the raising, as other openings were arranged for frequently. The square of the chimney at the bottom, as high as the fireplace inside, was built of heavy split timber notched like the logs of the wall and heavily " daubed." The upper part was narrowed from the square structure below to the usual size of a smoke- vent of brick, but made of small split sticks laid on each other in courses of pairs and thickly plastered with clay or mud. As dangerous as such work would
71
SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE EARLY SETTLERS.
appear in such close contact with the huge fires of the backwoods, there was not more danger if the " daubing" was well looked to than there is in the " defective flue" that is the terror of city house- holders and the pest of insurance companies. Be- sides, if a chimney should take fire it could be dis- cerned at once, for the whole extent of the flue was as open as the door, and a tinful of water could do all that a steam-engine is needed to do now, and with- out damaging anything, where the engine would do as much harm as a fire. With all the rudeness and lack of luxuries and even of conveniences, the pio- neers of the West had some countervailing advan- tages even in the structure of their houses.
Log cabins were abundant here when cooking- stoves came round, but they had been going out for some years, and there was never any considerable association between the home of the backwoods and the kitchen of the city. The cooking of the cabin was all done in the big fireplace. Mr. Nowland tells how the fires were made. The back-log, cut the full length of the fireplace, was laid at one end on a sled called a " lizard," and hauled into the house by a horse till it was opposite the fireplace, when it was rolled in, and followed by a " forestick" of the same size, and brought in the same way. Smaller wood filled in the space between the two on the heavy and- irons,-sometimes stones or smaller logs,-and with proper attention to the small fuel such a fire would last twenty-four hours. The baking was done in skillets, set in front of the fire on a bed of coals, with the lid covered with coals. If it was a "johnny-cake" that was to be baked, it was spread out by hand till it was a foot or so long and half as wide or more by nearly an inch in thickness, and then laid on the "johnny- cake board," about like the half of a modern sleeve- board, and set on edge before the fire, supported by a big chip or a stone or anything handy. Nothing · more savory was ever made of grain than a “johnny- cake." The frying was done like the baking, and not unfrequently with the same utensil. For boiling, an iron crane usually hung in the fireplace, with two or three heavy iron hooks, that could be moved along the lever, like the weights on a steelyard, to find the best spot of the fire. Against the end walls of the
big fireplace it was a common sight to see venison liams hanging to dry, or "jerk," as the phrase is now. Pumpkins cut into thin strips and dried were fre- quent adornments of strings or poles near the ceiling or along the walls. A "smoke-house," to cure the winter's bacon, was an usual adjunct of the cabin, and the family meat was kept there with other pro- visions. Before there were any mills, or when low . water prevented them from grinding, corn was often made into "lye hominy," or, when just hardening from the roasting ear into maturity, was grated on a half-cylinder of tin punched outwardly full of holes, the outturned edges of the hole rasping an ear away rapidly in the deft hands of a back woods housewife. Potatoes were roasted in the hot ashes and embers, and the boy who has eaten then thus cooked, and will not swear that no other cooking is comparable, is " fit for stratagems" and all other bad things.
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