USA > Indiana > Jackson County > History of Jackson County, Indiana > Part 22
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The chimney of the Western pioneer's cabin was made by leaving in the original building a large open place in one wall, or by cut- ting one after the structure was up, and by building on the out- side from the ground up, a stone column, or a column of sticks and
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mud, the sticks being laid up cob-house fashion. The fire-place thus made was often large enough to receive fire-wood six to eight feet long. Sometimes this wood, especially the "back-log," would be nearly as large as a saw-log. The more rapidly the pioneer could burn up the wood in his vicinity the sooner he had his little farm cleared and ready for cultivation. For a window, a piece about two feet long was cut out of one of the wall logs, and the hole closed sometimes by glass, but generally with greased paper. Even greased deer-hide was sometimes used. A doorway was cut through one of the walls if a saw was to be had; otherwise the door would be left by shortened logs in the original building. The door was made by pinning clapboards to two or three wood bars, and was hung upon wooden hinges. A wooden latch, with catch, then finished the door, and the latch was raised by any one on the outside by pulling a leather string. For security at night this latch-string was drawn in; but for friends and neighbors, and even strangers, the "latch-string was always hanging out," as a welcome. In the interior, over the fire-place would be a shelf, called "the mantel," on which stood the candlestick or lamp, some cooking and table-ware, possibly an old clock, and other articles; in the fire- place would be the crane, sometimes of iron, sometimes of wood-on it the pots were hung for cooking; over the door, in forked cleats, hung the ever trustful rifle and powder-horn; in one corner stood the larger bed for the "old folks," and under it the trundle-bed for the children; in another stood the old-fashioned spinning- wheel, with a smaller one by its side; in another the heavy table, the only table, of course, there was in the house; in the remaining cor- ner was a rude cupboard holding the table-ware, which consisted of a few cups and saucers and blue-edged plates, standing singly on their edges against the back, to make the display of table furniture more conspicuous; while around the room were scattered a few splint-bottomed or Windsor chairs and two or three stools.
These simple cabins were inhabited by a kind and true-hearted people. They were strangers to mock modesty, and the traveler, seeking lodgings for the night, or desirous of spending a few days in the community, if willing to accept the rude offering, was always welcome, although how they were disposed of at night the reader might not easily imagine; for, as described, a single room was made
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to answer for kitchen, dining-room, sitting-room, bed-room and parlor, and many families consisted of six or eight members.
SLEEPING ACCOMMODATIONS.
The bed was very often made by fixing a post in the floor about six feet from one wall and four feet from the adjoining wall, and fastening a stick to this post about two feet above the floor, on . each of two sides, so that the other end of each of the two sticks could be fastened in the opposite wall; clapboards were laid across these, and thus the bed was made complete. Guests were given this bed, while the family disposed of themselves in another corner of the room, or in the "loft." When several guests were on hand at once, they were sometimes kept overnight in the following manner: when bed-time came the men were requested to step out of doors while the women spread out a broad bed upon the mid- floor, and put themselves to bed in the center; the signal was given and the men came in and each husband took his place in bed next his own wife, and the single men outside beyond them again. They were generally so crowded that they had to lie "spoon" fashion, and when any one wished to turn over he would say "Spoon," and the whole company of sleepers would turn over at once. This was the only way they could all keep in bed.
COOKING.
To witness the various processes of cooking in those days would alike surprise and amuse those who have grown up since cooking stoves and ranges came into use. Kettles were hung over the large fire, suspended with pot-hooks, iron or wooden, on the crane, or on poles, one end of which would rest upon a chair. The long- handled frying-pan was used for cooking meat. It was either held over the blaze by hand or set down upon coals drawn out upon the hearth. This pan was also used for baking pan-cakes, also called "flap-jacks," "batter-cakes," etc. A better article for this, however, was the cast-iron spider or Dutch skillet. The best thing for baking bread those days, and possibly even yet in these latter days, was the flat-bottomed bake kettle, of greater depth, with closely fitting cast-iron cover, and commonly known as the "Dutch-oven." With coals over and under it, bread and biscuit
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would quickly and nicely bake. Turkey and spare-ribs were sometimes roasted before the fire, suspended by a string, a dish being placed underneath to catch the drippings.
Hominy and samp were very much used. The hominy, how- ever, was generally hulled corn-boiled corn from which the hull, or bran, had been taken by hot lye; hence sometimes called "lye hominy." True hominy and samp were made of pounded corn. A popular method of making this, as well as real meal for bread, was to cut out or burn a large hole in the top of a huge stump, in the shape of a mortar, and pounding the corn in this by a maul or beetle suspended on the end of a swing pole, like a well-sweep. This and the well-sweep consisted of a pole 20 to 30 feet long, fixed in an upright fork, so that it could be worked "teeter" fashion. It was a rapid and simple way of drawing water. When the samp was sufficiently pounded it was taken out, the bran floated off, and the delicious grain boiled like rice.
The chief articles of diet in early days were corn bread, hominy or samp, venison, pork, honey, beans, pumpkin (dried pumpkin for more than half the year ), turkey, prairie chicken, squirrel and some other game, with a few additional vegetables a portion of the year. Wheat bread, tea, coffee and fruit were luxuries not to be indulged in except on special occasions, as when visitors were present.
WOMEN'S WORK.
Besides cooking in the manner described, the women had many other arduous duties to perform, one of the chief of which was spinning. The "big wheel" was used for spinning yarn, and the "little wheel" for spinning flax. These stringed instruments fur- nished the principal music of the family, and were operated by our mothers and grandmothers with great skill, attained without pecuniary expense and with far less practice than is necessary for the girls of our period to acquire a skillful use of their costly and elegant instruments. But those wheels, indispensable a few years ago, are all now superseded by the mighty factories which over- spread the country, furnishing cloth of all kinds at an expense ten times less than would be incurred now by the old system.
The loom was not less necessary than the wheel, though they were not needed in so great numbers. Not every house had a loom
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-one loom had a capacity for the needs of several families. Set- tlers having succeeded, in spite of the wolves, in raising sheep, commenced the manufacture of woolen cloth; wool was carded and made into rolls by hand cards, and the rolls were spun on the "big wheel." We still occasionally find in the houses of old set- tlers a wheel of this kind, sometimes used for spinning and twist- ing stocking yarn. They are turned with the hand, and with such velocity that it will run itself while the nimble worker, by her backward step, draws out and twists her thread nearly the whole length of the cabin. A common article woven on the loom was linsey, or linsey-woolsey, the chain being linen and the filling woolen. The cloth was used for dresses for the women and girls. Nearly all the clothes worn by the men were also home-made; rarely was a farmer or his son seen in a coat made of any other. If, occasionally, a young man appeared in a suit of "boughten" clothes, he was suspected of having gotten it for a particular occasion, which occurs in the life of nearly every young man.
DRESS AND MANNERS.
The dress, habits, etc., of a people throw so much light upon their conditions and limitations that, in order better to show the circumstances surrounding the people of the State, we will give a short exposition of the manner of life of our Western people at different epochs. The Indians themselves are credited by Charle- voix with being "very laborious,"-raising poultry, spinning the wool of the buffalo, and manufacturing garments therefrom. These must have been, however, more than usually favorable representatives of their race.
"The working and voyaging dress of the French masses," says Reynolds, "was simple and primitive. The French were like the lilies of the valley [the Old Ranger was not always exact in his quotations ],-they neither spun nor wove any of their clothing, but purchased it from the merchants. The white blanket coat, known as the capot, was the universal and eternal coat for the winter with the masses. A cape was made of it that could be raised over the head in cold weather.
"In the house, and in good weather, it hung behind, a cape to the blanket coat. The reason that I know these coats so well is
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that I have worn many in my youth, and a working man never wore a better garment. Dressed deer-skins and blue cloth were worn commonly in the winter for pantaloons. The blue handker- chief and the deer-skin moccasins covered the head and feet gen- erally of the French Creoles. In 1800 scarcely a man thought himself clothed unless he had a belt tied round his blanket coat, and on one side was hung the dressed skin of a pole-cat filled with tobacco, pipe, flint and steel. On the other side was fastened, under the belt, the butcher knife. A Creole in this dress felt like Tam O'Shanter filled with usquebaugh-he could face the devil. Checked calico shirts were then common, but in winter flannel was frequently worn. In the summer the laboring men and the voyageurs often took their shirts off in hard work and hot weather, and turned out the naked back to the air and sun."
"Among the Americans," he adds, "home-made wool hats were the common wear. Fur hats were not common, and scarcely a boot was seen. The covering of the feet in winter was chiefly moccasins made of deer-skins and shoe-packs of tanned leather. Some wore shoes, but not common in very early times. In the summer the greater portion of the young people, male and female, and many of the old, went barefoot. The substantial and uni- versal outside wear was the blue linsey hunting shirt. This is an excellent garment, and I have never felt so happy and healthy since I laid it off. It is made of wide sleeves, open before, with ample size so as to envelop the body almost twice around. Some- times it had a large cape, which answers well to save the shoulders from the rain. A belt is mostly used to keep the garment close around the person, and, nevertheless, there is nothing tight about it to hamper the body. It is often fringed, and at times the fringe is composed of red, and other gay colors. The belt, frequently, 'is sewed to the hunting shirt. The vest was mostly made of striped linsey. The colors were made often with alum, copperas and madder, boiled with the bark of trees, in such a manner and proportions as the old ladies prescribed. The pantaloons of the masses were generally made of deer-skin and linsey. Coarse blue cloth was sometimes made into pantaloons.
"Linsey, neat and fine, manufactured at home, composed gener- ally the outside garments of the females as well as the males.
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The ladies had linsey colored and woven to suit their fancy. A bonnet, composed of calico, or some gay goods, was worn on the head when they were in the open air. Jewelry on the pioneer ladies was uncommon; a gold ring was an ornament not often seen."
In 1820 a change of dress began to take place, and before 1830, according to Ford, most of the pioneer costume had disappeared. "The blue linsey hunting-shirt, with red or white fringe, had given place to the cloth coat. [Jeans would be more like the fact. ] The raccoon cap, with the tail of the animal dangling down behind, had been thrown aside for hats of wool or fur. Boots and shoes had sup- planted the deer-skin moccasins; and leather breeches, strapped tight around the ankle, had disappeared before unmentionables of a more modern material. The female sex had made still greater prog- ress in dress. The old sort of cotton or woolen frocks, spun, woven and made with their own fair hands, and striped and cross-barred with blue dye and Turkey red, had given place to gowns of silk and calico. The feet, before in a state of nudity, now charmed in shoes of calf-skin or slippers of kid; and the head, formerly unbonneted, but covered with a cotton handkerchief, now displayed the charms of the female face under many forms of bonnets of straw, silk and Leghorn. The young ladies, instead of walking a mile or two to church on Sunday, carrying their shoes and stockings in their hands until within a hundred yards of the place of worship, as formerly, now came forth arrayed complete in all the pride of dress, mounted on fine horses and attended by their male admirers."
The last half century has doubtless witnessed changes quite as great as those set forth by our Illinois historian. The chronicler of to-day, looking back to the golden days of 1830 to 1840, and comparing them with the present, must be struck with the tend- ency of an almost monotonous uniformity in dress and manners that comes from the easy inter-communication afforded by steamer, railway, telegraph and newspaper. Home manufactures have been driven from the household by the lower-priced fabrics of distant mills. The Kentucky jeans, and the copperas-colored clothing of home manufacture, so familiar a few years ago, have given place to the cassimeres and cloths of noted factories. The ready-made clothing stores, like a touch of nature, made the whole world kin, and may drape the charcoal man in a dress-coat and a
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stove-pipe hat. The prints and silks of England and France give a variety of choice and an assortment of colors and shades such as the pioneer women could hardly have dreamed of. Godey and Demorest and Harper's Bazar are found in our modern farm- houses, and the latest fashions of Paris are not uncommon.
FAMILY WORSHIP.
The Methodists were generally first on the ground in pioneer settlements, and at that early day they seemed more demonstrative in their devotions than at the present time. In those days, too, pulpit oratory was generally more eloquent and effective, while the grammatical dress and other "worldly" accomplishments were not so assiduously cultivated as at present. But in the manner of conducting public worship there has probably not been so much change as in that of family worship, or "family prayers" as it was often called. We had then most emphatically an American edi- tion of that pious old Scotch practice so eloquently described in Burns' "Cotter's Saturday Night:"
The cheerfu' supper done, wi' serious face They round the ingle formed a circle wide; The sire turns o'er, wi' patriarchal grace, The big ha' Bible, ance his father's pride; His bonnet rev'rently is laid aside, His lyart haffets wearing thin and bare; Those strains that once did in sweet Zion glide; He wales a portion with judicious care, And "let us worship God," he says with solemn air.
They chant their artless notes in simple guise; They tunc their hearts, -by far the noblest aim; Perhaps "Dundee's" wild warbling measures rise, Or plaintive "Martyr's," worthy of the name; Or noble "Elgin" beats the heavenward flame,- The sweetest far of Scotia's hallowed lays. Compared with these, Italian trills are tame; The tickled ear no heart-felt raptures raise: Nae unison hae they with our Creator's praise.
The priest-like father reads the sacred page,- How Abraham was the friend of God on high, etc. Then kneeling down, to heaven's Eternal King The saint, the father and the husband prays; Hope "springs exulting on triumphant wing," That thus they all shall meet in future days;
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There ever bask in uncreated rays, No more to sigh or shed the bitter tear, Together hymning their Creator's praise, In such society, yet still more dear. While circling time moves round in an eternal sphere.
Once or twice a day, in the morning just before breakfast, or in the evening just before retiring to rest, the head of the family would call those around him to order, read a chapter in the Bible, announce the hymn and tune by commencing to sing it, when all would join; then he would deliver a most fervent prayer. If a pious guest were present he would be called on to take the lead in all the exercises of the evening; and if in those days a person who prayed in the family or in public did not pray as if it were his very last on earth, his piety was thought to be defective.
The familiar tunes of that day are remembered by the surviving old settlers as being more spiritual and inspiring than those of the present day, such as Bourbon, Consolation, China, Canaan, Con- quering Soldier, Condescension, Devotion, Davis, Fiducia, Funeral Thought, Florida, Golden Hill, Greenfields, Ganges, Idumea, Imandra, Kentucky, Lenox, Leander, Mear, New Orleans, North- field, New Salem, New Durham, Olney ), Primrose, Pisgah, Pleyel's Hymn, Rockbridge, Rockingham, Reflection, Supplication, Salva- tion, St. Thomas, Salem, Tender Thought, Windham, Greenville, etc., as they are named in the Missouri Harmony.
Members of other orthodox denominations also had their family prayers in which, however, the phraseology of the prayer was somewhat different and the voice not so loud as characterized the real Methodists, United Brethren, etc.
HOSPITALITY.
The traveler always found a welcome at the pioneer's cabin. It was never full. Although there might be already a guest for. every puncheon, there was still "room for one more," and a wider circle would be made for the new-comer at the log fire. If the stranger was in search of land, he was doubly welcome, and his host would volunteer to show him all the "first-rate claims in this neck of the woods," going with him for days, showing the corners and advantages of every "Congress tract" within a dozen miles of his own cabin.
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To his neighbors the pioneer was equally liberal. If a deer was killed, the choicest bits were sent to his nearest neighbor, a half-dozen miles away, perhaps. When a "shoat" was butchered, the same custom prevailed. If a new-comer came in too late for "cropping," the neighbors would supply his table with just the same luxuries they themselves enjoyed, and in as liberal quantity, until a crop could be raised. When a new-comer had located his claim, the neighbors for miles around would assemble at the site of the new-comer's proposed cabin and aid him in "gittin'" it up. One party with axes would cut down the trees and hew the logs; another with teams would haul the logs to the ground; another party would "raise" the cabin; while several of the old men would "rive the clapboards" for the roof. By night the little forest domicile would be up and ready for a "house-warming," which was the dedicatory occupation of the house, when music and dancing and festivity would be enjoyed at full height. The next day the new-comer would be as well situated as his neighbors.
An instance of primitive hospitable manners will be in place here. A traveling Methodist preacher arrived in a distant neigh- borhood to fill an appointment. The house where services were to be held did not belong to a church member, but no matter for that. Boards were raked up from all quarters with which to make temporary seats, one of the neighbors volunteering to lead off in the work, while the man of the house, with the faithful rifle on his shoulder, sallied forth in quest of meat, for this truly was a "ground-hog" case, the preacher coming and no meat in the house. The Host ceased not the chase until he found the meat, in the shape of a deer; returning, he sent a boy out after it, with directions on what "pint" to find it. After services, which had been listened to with rapt attention by all the audience, mine host said to his wife, "Old woman, I reckon this 'ere preacher is pretty hungry and you must git him a bite to eat." "What shall I git him ?" asked the wife, who had not seen the deer; "thar's nuthin' in the house to eat." "Why, look thar," returned he; "thar's deer, and thar's plenty of corn in the field; you git some corn and grate it while I skin the deer, and we'll have a good supper for him." It is need- less to add that venison and corn bread made a supper fit for any pioneer preacher, and was thankfully eaten.
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TRADE.
In pioneer times the transactions of commerce were generally carried on by neighborhood exchanges. Now and then a farmer would load & flat-boat with beeswax, honey, tallow and peltries, with perhaps a few bushels of wheat or corn or a few hundred clapboards, and float down the rivers into 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, buying 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 used. Goods were sold on a year's time to the farmers, and payment made from the proceeds of the ensuing crops. When the crops 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 you want your order on?" The answer being given, the order was written and always cheerfully accepted.
MONEY.
Money was an article little known and seldom seen among the earlier settlers. Indeed, they had but little use for it, as they could transact all their business about as well without it, on the "barter" system, wherein great ingenuity was sometimes displayed. When it failed in any instance, long credits contributed to the convenience of the citizens. But for taxes and postage neither the barter nor the credit system would answer, and often letters were suffered to remain a long time in the postoffice for the want of the 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 the case is nowadays, but had prob- ably been weeks on the route, and the mail was delivered at the pioneer's postoffice, several miles distant from his residence, only
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once in a week or two. All the mail would be carried by a lone horseman. Instances are related illustrating how misrepresenta- tion 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 procure the required Governmental 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 gener- ally supposed that their hard struggle would be principally 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 settlers who came to this State were many who, accustomed to the advantages of an older civilization, to churches, schools and society, became speed- ily home-sick and dissatisfied. They would remain perhaps one summer, or at most two, then, selling whatever claim with its im- provements 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 unmitigated curse. The slight improvements they had made were sold to men of sterner stuff, who were the sooner able to surround themselves with the necessities of life, while their unfavorable report deterred other weaklings from coming. The men who stayed, who were willing to endure privations, belonged to a different guild; they were heroes every one,-men to whom hardships were things to be overcome, and present privations things to be endured for the sake of posterity, and they never shrank from this duty. It is to these hardy pioneers who could endure, that we to-day owe the wonderful improvement we have made and the development, almost
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