USA > Indiana > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Indiana > Part 20
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The farmer's kitchen was always large and roomy and the center of the home life of the family. The rest of the house was cold and cheerless, but the large fireplace in the kitchen made that room, except in the severest weather, fairly comfortable. Over the fireplace and across the top of the room poles were hung, on which hung the winter's supply of dried fruits and dried vegetables. On the pot-hooks were hung the pots and kettles, the prin- cipal domestic utensils. Most of the cooking was done in these pots and
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kettles, and boiling was the favorite method of preparation. Most of these pots and kettles were provided with long legs, so that the utensils might be set on the hearth and a good fire of live coals maintained beneath them. Many of the pioneers' kitchens were provided with iron skillets and Dutch ovens, with cover for baking, the "johnny cake" being a favorite article of diet. Every fireplace was provided with andirons, usually made of iron, and some of the more pretentious homes had brick ovens built at the side .of the fireplaces.
Every schoolboy is familiar with the picture of the kitchen fireside in Whittier's "Snow Bound," but, as Mrs. Earle has pointed out, "The discom- forts and inconveniences of a colonial home could scarcely be endured today. Of course, these culminated in the winter time when the icy blasts blew fiercely down the great chimneys and rattled the loosely fitting windows. The rooms were not warm three feet away from the blaze of the fire." Had it not been for the great featherbeds and, warm comforts and home-made blankets, sometimes supplemented by heavy bed curtains, the long winter nights could scarcely have been endured.
At the table the pioneer fared well. Of course, in the very beginning many suffered from the want of proper food. Mrs. Lydia Herriott, wife of Samuel Herriott, one of the first settlers of Franklin, often told of their family being without breadstuff of any sort for a month, but after the clear- ings had been enlarged so as to provide a plentiful supply of corn, the early settlers had little reason for complaint in the matter of food supply. Game was everywhere abundant. To quote Judge Banta :
"Venison was plenty indeed, and unskillful was that pioneer who could not now and then secure one for his table. Many persons kept the larder supplied the year round. William Rutherford, on one occasion, knocked one on the head with an axe, as it ran past him where he was making rails. One, pursued by dogs, took shelter in Gideon Drake's sheep pen adjoining his cabin, and Mrs. Drake and a neighbor woman, closing the door of the pen, slaughtered it, and made venison of it before the pursuing hunter came up. One Sunday morning, shortly after King's cabin was built, Isaac Voorheis was sitting on the bank of Young's creek, immediately south of Judge Woollen's residence. Hearing the bay of a dog up the creek, he looked that way, and saw a deer coming toward him. Keeping quiet. it came down to a point opposite to him and plunged in, but the current carried it down against a log, when Vorheis rushed in and caught it, and in his hands it became venison for the family. .; .
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"Wild turkeys were more abundant even than deer. Wherever there was food for them they were to be found in goodly numbers. Their 'keonk' was a familiar sound to the inmates of every cabin. In the spring of 1823, a drove passed over the after-site of Franklin, numerous enough to make a well marked trail a hundred yards in width, but they were extremely poor and were, no doubt, migrating in search of food. Simon Covert has been heard to say that for several years after he moved to the neighborhood of the Big Spring, he could at any time within a two hours' hunt during the fall and early winter season, kill one or more turkeys. Jacob Fisher was an expert turkey pen builder, and thought nothing of catching six or eight turkeys at a time in his pen. As late as 1850 flocks of fifty were to be seen in the woods in Union township, and in 1856 a wild turkey hen hatched a brood within fifty yards of John Barlow's house in Clark township. Wild turkeys often did much mischief scratching up the newly planted corn, eating it after it was grown, and treading down the smaller grain before it was harvested. Richardson Hensly, of Hensly township, lost his first planting of corn by the turkeys scratching it up.
"Men who bring a wilderness, inhabited by wild beasts, to a state of civ- ilization, never lack in romantic incidents with which to add flavor to the tales told in old age. There are but few, indeed, who do not yield to the charm of border-life incident. Men who came in conflict with the wild beasts of the country, necessarily met with experiences that, when after- ward related, bordered on the romantic. However dangerous some of the encounters had with the wild animals by the pioneer hunters of the county, no man ever lost his life, or for that matter, received serious injury, save Lewis Hendricks, who lived in the Sugar creek neighborhood, in an en- counter with a bear, when he met with an accident that left him disabled for life. He had wounded the animal and, in company with a neighbor. was hunting for it. One on either side of a brush fence in which it was supposed to be lying. they were walking slowly along, when it rushed out and attacked Hendricks. His companion ran to his assistance and shot the infuriated ani- mal. but not before it had stripped the flesh from his arm, and otherwise in- jured him.
"Hardly a hunter of any note lived in the county during the first ten years, who could not boast of his success as a bear hunter. Curtis Pritchard, William Spears, Robert Worl and Jacob Woodruff, while hunting, found three full grown bears holed in trees. Kindling a fire in one of the trees, one was smoked out and shot. Cutting the tree down. before it fell another de-
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scended and ran with such rapidity as to escape the flying bullets. Five dogs pursued it, and after a half-mile chase, brought it to bay. Two of the dogs it killed outright and crippled badly two others before it was dispatched. The third beast was shot and killed as the tree fell in which it had concealed itself. Bear meat was prized by some as an article of food. Benjamin Crews had at one time eight hundred pounds of the meat cured and smoked like bacon, which he sold for the same price.
"The most ferocious beast that roamed the woods was the panther. The bear, the wolf, and even the deer, would fight savagely when in close quarters, but each would run from the hunter whenever it could. The panther, on the contrary, was reputed to make battle with man without provocation. Two brothers by the name of Smith, living in Nineveh, in the early days, went to hunt straying cattle. They carried no guns, and when night came they made a camp fire and lay down and slept. During the night one of them was awakened by a noise and, stirring the fire to a blaze, he plainly heard a panther leap off through the bushes to an open space, not far distant, where it stopped and lashed the earth with its tail. Several panthers were shot at Collins' Lick, one by a man named John Weiss, and under circumstances showing the narrow risk an unskilled hunter sometimes ran. Weiss carried a very in- efficient arm and had no experience as a hunter. He went to the lick to watch for deer. and while hiding in ambush he happened to look around and was horrified to see, close by, a panther crouched, ready to spring upon him. Without a thought. he brought his gun to bear upon it and. through sheer good luck, shot it dead in its tracks. Weiss never went hunting again.
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"Near the headwaters of Honey creek, Samuel and John Bell were lying in wait at a marsh much frequented by deer. The sun went down and twi- light was coming on, when Samuel's attention was directed to an object crawl- ing toward his brother, who was several yards away. It was a panther, and he knew enough of the habits of the animal to know it meant mischief. But he was an experienced hunter. a good marksman and, withal, had a cool head and steady nerves. Taking deliberate aim, he shot the beast through the head. More hunters, however, got into trouble with wounded deer than with all the other animals of the country. John Smiley once knocked one over. and on going to it. it arose to meet him with 'hair turned the wrong way.' Smiley sprang behind a sapling and it made a rush at him with lowered antlers. Lay- ing hold of a horn on either side of the sapling, he held on for dear life. Round and round went both until, wearied with the fruitless contest, the buck smoothed its hair in token that his fight was over, when Smiley let it go, and
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he walked off undisturbed. Joseph Young, of Union township, knocked a buck down one day, and on touching its throat with the knife it sprang to its feet and made at him. Young jumped behind a large oak tree and the deer took after him, but by hook and by crook he managed to keep the tree between him and his assailant, receiving no more than an occasional prick of the horn. After its rage had abated, it gave its antlers a toss and disappeared in the thicket.
"One of the most desperate encounters with a wounded deer was had by Henry Musselman. To the throat of a paralyzed buck he touched his knife, when it gave an unexpected flounce, sending his knife through the bushes. It was a powerful deer and the hunter, who had his knee on its head and a firm hold of its antlers, saw at a glance that his safety depended on holding it down. Of course there was a struggle and, although the advantage at first was with the hunter, yet it soon became evident to him that the animal's power of endurance was equal to, if not greater than his own. His knife was lost, and his unloaded gun was leaning against a tree more than twenty feet away. What was he to do? Realizing more and more that his safety lay in keeping on top, he held on in grim desperation. In their struggle a spice bush was broken, and in the splintered stub he thought he saw a weapon of deliverance. If he could only put those baleful eyes out, the victory was his. One after another he broke off the splintered stubs, and jabbed them into the creature's eyes, till their sight was gone, after which he left the blind Sampson of the woods to stumble over the logs and thrash through the bushes in impotent rage until he could load his gun and give it the death shot.
"Another incident in this connection may be mentioned. Jesse Wells, an old-time settler on the Blue river, who was long well known as a Methodist preacher, was given to hunting. On one occasion he 'creased' a deer, and proceeded to bleed it. Taking hold of its hind legs to turn it over, the creature came to life and, giving one tremendous kick, which knocked the knife so far away that it was never afterward found, the animal leaped to its feet and furiously assailed him. Wells was a lithe, active man, but in spite of his best efforts to secure shelter behind a large poplar tree standing close by. the en- raged brute succeeded in piercing his knee with one of the sharp prongs of its antler. Once behind the tree, the animal abandoned the fight and disappeared in the forest. Jesse Wells ever after walked with a stiff knee. which came of the wound received in that fight."
The pioneers were able to find an abundance of honey of the wild bees and some became expert bee hunters and spent much of their time in the
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woods in this interesting and profitable enterprise. Johnson county was blessed with an abundant supply of maple trees and sugar making was every- where common. The maple trees were tapped in the early spring time when the sap began to run, a notch being cut in the side of the tree, a spile of pawpaw or elder inserted and the sap drained into a huge trough. It was then brought in buckets to the camp and boiled down, either to sugar or molasses.
The first settlers brought with them from their older homes in the South and East the cuttings and seedlings for their orchards and vines and there was soon an abundance of fruits for the table. Apple, peach and pear trees throve, and wild berries and small fruits were abundant. In the autumn . the housewives prepared large supplies for the winter's need. While they lacked the present sanitary methods of canning, dried fruits and preserved and spiced fruits were put up in large quantities. The making of apple but- ter, peach butter and many fruit liquors was an avocation of every house- wife.
Within a very few years after the settlement of the county, "foreign merchandise" began to be brought in by enterprising merchants and the prod- ucts of other countries, such as sugar, molasses, tea and coffee, were to be had in exchange for the produce of the farm and field. The business must have proved profitable, for it was one of the few callings which were re- quired to pay a license under the early tax levies. For example a license to run a coffee house was issued to Abraham Lay in 1839, and, while license fees for retailing "foreign merchandise" had been fixed in the tax levy of 1826. this is the first record found of the sale of coffee in Johnson county.
Indian corn provided the early settler with the chief articles of diet. Not only was the green corn a substitute for bread, but with hominy, porridge. succotash, there was little need for the finer breads of the present day. Much of the corn was prepared for the table by hand by the means of rude mortars and pestles, but, like the saw mills, grist mills were fairly abundant even in the beginning of the county's history. Most of these were located on the small streams, but a few were driven by horse power. By the middle of the thir- ties, the following grist mills had been erected within the limits of Johnson county : Smiley's mill : McDermitt's mill. later known as Beard's mill and Clark's mill: Collier's mill, and the Thomas Williams' mill. all on Sugar creek : Thompson's mill. on Blue river at Edinburg: Isaac Williams' mill. on Nineveh creek: Covert's mill. near Franklin: Houghter's mill. Slaughter's mill and St. John's mill, on Stott's creek in Union township; and Barnes'
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mill, on Indian creek in Hensley township. These were all rudely constructed mills and their product was not of the best, but the pioneer farmer was glad to make use of them, even though it took a day to get his bag of corn ground.
Corn not only provided food for the table, but it was used in many of the games enjoyed by the pioneer children. Checkers, fox and geese, and "Hull, Gull, how many" were all favorite recreations of the boys and girls in the pioneer homes.
A pioneer family was clothed in homespun. The fathers raised sheep, but the mothers dyed the wool with home-made walnut and butternut dyes, carded it into rolls, spun it into yarn and wove the web of the durable jeans.
One reading the early records sometimes wonders at the large bounty offered for the killing of wolves. For each wolf scalp, the hunter was al- lowed one dollar, quite a large prize in that early day, and the wolves must have been fairly plentiful, for in the year 1828 the county paid a bounty for eleven wolf scalps, and in 1829 for fifteen scalps, but of the latter eight were from wolves under six months old. It will thus be seen that the pioneer farmer was much concerned about the loss of his flock from these pirates of the woods.
As soon as the early settlers had cleared their fields from stumps they planted one field of flax and occasionally one of hemp. The seed was sown broadcast and while the flax was growing its cultivation usually depended on the women and children. The flax was cut or pulled shortly before it was fully ripe and laid out carefully to dry and was turned several times in the sun. It was then "rippled," the stalks of flax being drawn through a "ripple" comb fastened on a plank. After the seed "bolles" were thus pulled off, the stalks were tied in bundles and set up in the field or taken to the barns. While in the Eastern states the flax was allowed to stand in the fields until the fibers had rotted, in Indiana it was usually taken from the barns and spread on the grass at night time to be rotted by the dews. After the flax was rotted it was then broken in a flax brake, a heavy base with three raised planks set thereon, above which was a top with a plank so set as to work between those in the base. the upper portion being worked by hand from a pivot at one end. The flax was usually broken twice, so as to remove all the outside fiber, and it was then "swingled" with a fork or knife to remove any small particles of the bark that still adhered. This work must be done in dry weather when the flax was dry. The clean fibers were then bunched into "strikes" and were again "swingled." After being thoroughly cleaned it was sometimes "beetled" by pounding in a trough. so
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as to make the fibers soft and smooth. After this came the "hackling," and upon the number of "hacklings" depended the fineness of the flax. "Hack- ling" required much dexterity, for if care was not used all the fiber would be converted into tow. The hackles were made of iron teeth set closely together in a board, through which teeth the flax, after being slightly wetted, was pulled and laid into threads. This process was repeated with hackles having teeth set more closely together until the fiber was of suffi- cient fineness to be spun. Mrs. Earle thus describes the process of spinning : "Seated at a small flax wheel, the spinner placed her foot on the treadle and spun the fiber into a long, even thread. Hung on the wheel was a small bone, wood or earthenware cup, or a gourd shell filled with water, in which the spinner moistened her fingers as she held the twisting flax, which, by the movement of the wheel, was wound on bobbins. When all were filled, the thread was wound off in knots and skeins on a.reel. Usually the knots or 'lays' were of forty threads and twenty 'lays' made a skein or 'slipping.' To spin two skeins of linen thread was a good day's work." After the spinning, the skeins of thread were bleached, sometimes in the brooks, until the thread was washed and rinsed to the proper color.
The farmers' wives and daughters knew how to weave as well as to spin, and in nearly every pioneer home was a loom upon which the linen cloth was woven. Even after the linen was woven into cloth it still had many processes to undergo before it was ready for garments. It was often- times worked through as many as two-score processes of rubbing, rinsing, drying and bleaching before it was used, but the linen thus made, if it were well done, was of the finest quality and had a finish and durability never found in the machine-made product.
Few of the men and boys, however, were able to afford this costly garment. Their shirts were usually made from the coarser threads of the tow, and, while the garment was prickly to the wearer, it was strong and serviceable. Even the women's garments were made of cheaper materials than linen, and linsey woolsey, a fabric made of the fibers of flax and wool woven together, was the dress worn by women, and not only about the home, but on social occasions as well.
Not only did the housewives weave their linen and woolen garments, but the bed spreads and even the carpets were woven on hand looms. The pioneer mothers not only spun and wove, but had many other laborious duties. The making of home-made soap was one of these. Throughout the year scraps of grease and meats were saved, as well as the wood ashes
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from the great fireplaces. In the early spring time the husband made a large hopper or barrel, in which the ashes were placed; water was poured on them and the lye caught in a trough beneath. The lye was then boiled, with the grease added, until the soft soap became like a jelly and it was then ready for use. The housewives also picked the geese and the ducks and made the feather beds and pillows. A few made their own brooms, al- though this was not common in Johnson county.
While the burden of all these household duties fell largely upon the women, the men were scarcely less industrious. Farm implements of the pioneer days were hand-made and of the rudest character. Col. W. M. Cockrum, in his "Pioneer History of Indiana," gives an excellent account of the makeshift implements of the earliest days in Indiana, when nearly every farmer was his own blacksmith and carpenter. He says:
"In the pioneer days, there was no wagon or blacksmith shop in the country and the early settlers had to depend on their own resources for such farming tools as they needed. They made a very serviceable plow with a wooden mould-board. The plow share, point and bar were of iron, all in one piece. Three short bolts, two for the mould-board and one to fasten the handle to the heel of the bar, and one long bolt from the bottom of the share up through the plough sheath to the top of the beam, was all the iron about the plow, and that cost more than the best two-horse plow would cost . now.
"The wooden mould-board was made of the best hard wood obtainable. White oak was often used. Post oak was the hardest of any, and when dried was the smoothest. After fashioning the mould-board, it was dressed down to the proper size and shape and then placed in the chimney above the fire to season. The stock was made of the best hard wood and much after the fashion of today, only not so smooth nor in any way finished as well, but it was strong and serviceable.
"They had a very serviceable harrow made entirely of wood. They se- cured a slippery elm or iron-wood, if they could find any large enough, and cut four pieces the proper length for an 'A' harrow, first sloping the two side pieces at one end, and fitting them to the center or tongue-piece, a hole having been bored through each of the three pieces, and securely pinning them together. A cross-piece was then placed about the middle of the har- row and pinned to the center and the two side pieces. Two inch auger holes were then bored along the side pieces about ten inches apart and filled
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with dried hickory pins that extended about eight inches below the side tim- bers, thus making a harrow that did good work and required a heavy pull to break in any way.
"For single and double trees, they made them much after the fashion of today, except that the clips, clevices and lap-rings were made of hickory withes, which, if properly made, would last for a season. The horse collars were made mostly of corn shucks, platted in large rope-like sections, and sewed together hard and fast with leather thongs, to make the bulge or large part of the collar, short pieces of platted shucks being made and fast- ened up as high as needed. A roll made by sewing two platted parts to- gether was securely fastened on the edge of the collar, forming a groove for the hames to fit in. They also made collars of rawhide, cutting it in the proper shape and sewing the edges together, stuffing the inside with deer hair to make it hold its shape. Hoop ash timber was pounded up fine and when mixed with deer hair made a better material for the purpose than the manufactured excelsior of today.
"The bridle was made of rawhide. For a bit, they took a small hickory withe, made a securely fastened ring on both ends of it, leaving enough of the withe between the rings to go into the horse's mouth, and wrapping that portion with rawhide to keep the horse from biting it in two. A bridle . was made very quickly by securing a piece of rawhide long enough for the reins, then putting the leather in the horse's mouth and looping it around his lower jaw just back of his front teeth, and with this a horse was guided better and with more ease than with the bridle bit.
"A wagon that was termed a truck was made by cutting four wheels from a large tree, usually a black gum. A four-inch hole was made in the middle of the wheels, in which axles fitted. Then splitting a tough hickory or white oak pole three or four feet at the big end, spreading these split pieces apart about fifteen inches, and boring two holes through the front axle and the two ends of the tongue, they then fitted a piece called a sand- board over the ends of the tongue with holes in it to correspond with those in the axle. Having pinned it all securely together, they fastened the end to the front end of the wagon. A coupling pole was fitted into the center of the two axles and pinned there. Heavy bolsters were put on over the axles and on them a board bed was made.
"Oxen were the usual teams that were hitched to these crude but serv- iceable wagons. A heavy wooden yoke went on the oxen's neck. Two hickory bows enclosed the neck and up through the the top of the yoke. thus
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