USA > Indiana > Randolph County > History of Randolph County, Indiana with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers : to which are appended maps of its several townships > Part 14
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CABINS.
Cabins were built of round logs from eight to ten inches through, and covered with clapboards. They were of all sizes ;--- some perhaps twelve by fourteen feet, and some eighteen by twenty-five feet, with one seven or eight feet story and a loft above in the roof.
A small cabin would have one door and one window. A large one might, perhaps, possess two of each. The chimney and fire- place would be wholly outside, opening of course into the house.
At the "raising," the neighbors for miles around were ex- pected to come and lend their aid (who at first, were not many),
and they went. No " shirks " were there. " Help me and I will help you," was their motto, and the rule was faithfully prac- ticed.
On the " raising day," the body of the house would be com- pleted and the roof put on. Cutting out the door and window holes, and the opening for the fire-place, putting in the doors and windows, building the fire-place and chimney, laying the punch- eon floors, chinking and daubing the cracks between the logs, laying the loft, etc., were done by the owner at his pleasure as he had opportunity. Barns and outhouses were raised from time to time, so as not to tax the settlers too heavily.
These cabins, though not elegant, were, when properly com- pleted, solid and substantial, and warm to boot ; and many, many years of happy, contented, prosperous life have been spent with- in their lowly walls. And many who lived all their youthful years in such a humble domicile but who have since become able to abide in stately mansions, can now truthfully declare that their happiest days were spent nevertheless beneath the shelter of those mighty, overshadowing forest trees, under the lowly roof of that old- time log-cabin. How true the words of the poet :
"'Tis not in titles, nor in rank,
'Tis not in wealth like London bank, To make us truly blest."
NOTE .- Many of the early-built cabins had no windows at all. The door and the big open-mouthed fire-place were the only avenues for light. It is within the knowledge of the writer of this sketch that families who emigrated from Carolina to Ran- dolph County in 1847, had never seen any glass windows, and had no idea what they were for. Some houses dwelt in in 1846 had no windows.
The ideas of convenience then were not just like our own. In about 1850, the daughter of one of the earliest settlers said of a certain new house that she occupied (with her large family), " the' room is so convenient [the house had but one room] we can set up six beds in it."
HOW TO BUILD A " CAMP."-BY JOSEPH HAWKINS.
" Have a big log, cut notches up and down the log fourteen feet apart, set double stakes fourteen feet out from the log, cut small logs six to eight inches thick, 'scafe' off the ends so as to fit the notches in the log, put one end in the notch and the other be- tween the stakes ; in the notch let the ends touch, but put blocks between the other ends, so as to make the upper one slant enough for the roof, put some logs atop of the big log and some across the front above ; put on the roof, and stuff the cracks with moss.
Moss was plenty on the old logs, as thick as a cushion and as soft as a sheepskin ; you could tear off a sheet as long as a bed-quilt if you wished. We often used sheets of moss for blank- ets to ride on instead of a saddle. The front of the camp was open six feet high, and logs were across above. A log heap fire was built in front on the ground. At first we left it unprotected, but the smoke would sweep into the camp and choke us so that we could not stay. Then we took puncheons and set them upright in a semi-circle around (outside of ) the fire, leaving passages next the camp to go in and out at. This mended matters greatly. We lived in this camp from March un- til November, 1829. We cleared that summer nine acres-five for early corn and four for late corn, potatoes, turnips, etc.
The men had built three camps side by side against the same log, expecting to have three families. Only two came, and that left two camps for us. There were eight in our family, and the two older boys fixed a bed in the extra camp, and the rest of us slept (in three beds) in our own proper camp."
CANDLES.
Candles were made by taking a wooden rod ten or twelve inch- es long, wrapping a linen or cotton cloth around it, and cover- ing it with tallow pressed around the stick with the hand.
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IIISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.
Lamps were made by digging the inside from a large turnip, sticking up a stick in the center, about three inches long, with a strip of cloth around the stick, and turning melted lard, or deer's tallow, in until the rind was full.
Often the great blazing fire-place gave light enough, and many an evening's work has been done with no other means of vision.
HOUSES.
The houses were made strong in this way. The loft was con- structed of split logs, and the doors of split timbers three or four inches thick, with battens fastened across and hung on strong wooden hinges, having also a strong wooden bar across the door inside, fastened at each end by the fork of a tree put into the door casing by a hole bored with a large auger.
To break into such a house as that would be by no means easy, yet the dwellings were seldom locked Such a thing as en- tering a house unlawfully, was well-nigh unknown.
CLEARING.
After the cabin-building or along with it or even before it, for great numbers lived in camps all summer, would come the "clearing."
One piece would be cleared entirely, for an orchard, and the fruit trees would be planted as soon as they could be procured. And some (though few) of those orchards thus planted in the fresh clearing are still standing after the lapse of more than half a century. But where are the hands that set their tiny infant trunks and straightened their branching roots within the opened earth? Alas! alas! They will be seen on earth no more ! Ask of the memorial stones that stand in melancholy sadness to tell the inquiring person-by the names, the ages, mayhaps the vir- tues, but never the vices, nor the failings of those whose ashes lie beneath the sward ! Besides the orchard was opened an ad- ditional clearing for a corn field. The undergrowth and small trees were cut down and piled and burned, the larger trees were (leadened, the "grubs" were taken out, and the ground planted in corn, etc. "Then ten to twenty acres or more would be deadened "in the green," and year by year the process of clearing up this "deadening" would go on, till, in the lapse of time, every old tree-trunk would have fallen and been consumed; the stumps themselves would be burned out by the roots, and the result would be, after untold hard work, night and day, winter and summer a clean, bright, beautiful field.
" DEADENING."
The manner of clearing up a deadened field was somewhat tedious and quite curious. The girdled trees were left to dry standing, and to fall at their leisure. Every spring and autumn several trees would be found prostrate upon the earth. Men in those days loved to make wind, water and fire work as well as they do now, and some of their ways of doing so were quite in- genious.
These huge trees lying on the ground were not chopped up by the axc-that would be too hard work. But limbs and broken fragments would be laid crosswise on the trees at proper lengths, and a fire built upon the body of the trunks, which would be kept up till the trunk was burnt completely through. The fires had to be tended and replenished for days and sometimes for weeks. This work was black and dirty but it saved untold labor, and the ashes produced by the burning greatly enriched the land where they lay. This method of cleaning was called "nigger- ing," and taking care of the fires was said to be "tending the niggers." It was no small pleasure and amusement for a lot of jolly lads to take a round over a clearing at night, and "right" up the waning fires across the massive tree-trunks, shouting, hallooing, laughing and singing, making the echoes ring through the surrounding woods as they went running and dancing from fire to fire in mutual rivalry as to who should fix up the greatest number.
The shadows of the night made bright and splendid by the blazing piles as the flames burst forth afresh under the process of replenishment, the flying sparks from the brands as they were broken and thrown anew into the fires, and all the hurry and ex- citement of the scene, made the work of "tending the niggers," at night, a time of jolly and boisterous merriment hardly to be sur- passed.
Sometimes after a deadening had stood for several years, a heavy storm of wind would sweep over the field and bring down immense numbers of those decaying trunks to the ground in a single night. Then would come work indeed. Hundreds and hundreds of smoking, blazing fires would cover the whole area, and the process would go on for days and weeks, till at length the huge logs would all have disappeared, the last pile of "brands" would be consumed, and the field would be found-like Solomon's beloved in the Canticles-"black but comely ;" covered with coals and ashes, but the delight of the settler's heart, and waiting for the upturning plow, the springing seed, and the laughing crop.
LANDS.
There were no pre-emption laws at that day. A considerable time passed after the treaty with the Indians ceding the public lands before the survey was completed and they were thrown into market. During this intermediate time, many persons " squatted," as it was termed, i. e., moved upon the unsurveyed land and made greater or less improvement. And. also, after the lands were thrown into market and became subject to entry, many persons came to the county who, though unable to enter land, would select a tract, move upon it and intend it for their own.
The settlers would respect the presumptive right of the " squatter," for, while there was no public law, the pioneers " were a law unto themselves ;" and, if any heartless speculator should venture to "enter " a tract thus occupied, neither he nor any other inan under his authority dared take possession ; but if any such ven- tured to show themselves, they were hunted from the land like a wolf or a panther, and might feel thankful if they kept their heads safe on their shoulders.
It was " squatter law "-and that law was most sternly obeyed and enforced-that he who had built and begun an improvement, should have the right to buy at first hands as long as he might choose to claim it. And many a poor fellow, penniless at first, and utterly unable to buy a foot of land, made a location never- theless, opened out a " clearing," built a cabin, and contrived, "by hook and by crook," to raise money to enable him to become the proud possessor of a homestead, monarch (not indeed of all he could survey, but) of one little piece of earth's genial surface, enough to constitute that dearest of all places, a home. And not a few who now have spread themselves like a green bay tree, began life in the woods, or their fathers before them or along with them did, in exactly that humble and lowly way. Not seldom the poor emigrant would accept the offer of one who had made an " entry," to purchase " on time," giving. sometimes, 50 per cent in advance, or maybe more, hoping to make the money for payment out of the land by the time his notes fell due.
This living by sufferance, the state of uncertainty, the danger that one's cabin and clearing would be " entered " over his head, was decidedly unpleasant, however, and no one did so except by the force of sheer necessity. Those who could possibly do so, made an "entry," so as to put their homestead beyond contin- gency. And it could not be expected that a " squatter " would " improve " much beyond what was absolutely needful to enable him to live, and certainly not more than enough to furnish him the means of raising the funds for the purchase of his coveted spot. Yet, still improvement went on, and, where the settler, as was mostly the case, had actually entered his land and obtained his " patent " under the broad seal of the nation, he went to work with a will; and the amount of clearing, of cabin building, of deadening, of burning, of fencing, of planting and of harvesting,
HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.
which was accomplished from year to year, was something won- derful to behold. The statistics of the quantity of land entered during each respective year, from the time of the first patent till the last tract of land had been hunted out, show how steady, and in some years how rapid, was the current of emigration flowing over these lands, and filling all the region with a thoroughly active and intensely earnest population. Of one family composed of stalwart and enterprising boys, some of whom are still living to enjoy the fruits of their labor, it is said that they surpassed all others in the county for the amount of "clearing " which, for themselves and for others, they accomplished during the years in which these giant forest trees were being prostrated to the earth, and the fruitful soil was being opened to the genial sunshine. Hundreds and hundreds of acres did that single heroic group subdue by their conquering prowess; and the tokens of their valor still remain in the fruitful fields, yielding, ever since that triumphant hour, their abundant harvests for the comfort and the sustenance of man and beast.
There were few in those early times but actual settlers. Some there had been in various places, the advance guard of pioneer- ism, who would "squat" down for a brief period till permanent settlers would commence to take possession, and who would almost instantly " pull up stakes," and "shove ahead " to some still unsettled region.
But the body of settlers had "come to stay," at least to make an actual and bonafide commencement, and intended substantial business. These felt all on an equality with each other, and each and all stood ready with might and main, with hand and heart, to uphold the right of every other, and to render every possible assistance in the struggle for establishment and pros- perity. Hospitality and sociability were everywhere. The latch-string was always out, and every neighbor bade every other freely welcome. And great . comfort and much enjoyment was experienced by these rude settlers. And almost perfect security existed, moreover, locks and bars and bolts were things wellnigh unknown. Stores were fastened with a pin outside the door, like an old-fashioned stable ; the dwellings were left open, or at least unlocked through the watches of the night, or, if fastened at all, it was through fear, not of man, but of the prowling wild beasts.
It is an interesting reminiscence of those pioneer days that, as late as 1837-40, John Connor, the veteran mail carrier for nearly thirty years on the route northward from Winchester, used to take, upon a horse led by his side, a heavy sack of silver money, sometimes to the amount of $5,000 or $6,000 at a time, for payment at the Fort Wayne land office, for land entries at that point. He would " camp out " one night as he went, yet he was never molested ; and, to the honor of the old veteran be it said, no man ever lost a cent by unfaithfulness of his. Night and day, summer and winter, through mud, snow and rain, whether sweltering in a July sun or shivering beneath a Decem- ber snow storm, swimming the swollen streams booming during the freshets of the spring months; faithfully, untiringly, heroic- ally, did that conservator of the United States mail press onward from south to north and from north to south alternately, grow- ing old but not rich, in his country's service; and only leaving that department of work to enlist in the army at the commence- ment of the war of 1861.
May the day be long deferred when such integrity, though found among the poor and lowly, shall fail to receive its due meed of honor in the hearty approbation and esteem of the public, in whose behalf such untiring faithfulness has been exerted.
All honor to him who thus, through many long years of weari- ness and privation and toil, faltered not in the path of public duty, heroically performing what was then so indispensable to the public welfare, and, for accomplishing which needed result, no better and easier method had then been discovered.
FURNITURE.
This country lies far interior, away from all water-courses,
those old time channels of inter communication. Emigrants could reach this county only by a long and tedious stretch of wagon road and forest trail. Hence the settlers brought with them commonly only the most necessary things, and especially those for which no substitute could be found in the new land ; kettles, ironware, etc., must be brought, since nothing could be found in the West to take their place. Bedsteads, chairs and tables were useful, but they were also heavy and hulky, and awkward to move, and substitutes could be found, and they were, in many cases, left behind.
Feather beds, bedding, pewter ware, cooking utensils, etc., were brought. But for bedsteads, the settlers made. something which answered the purpose. Two rails with one end inserted in the side and end logs of the cabin, meeting in a post at the inner corner driven into the ground, with clapboards laid across from the side rail to a strip pinned upon the log, would do for a bedstead. One active young wifo made one for herself by boring holes in some poles and making two benches, and laying eight. large, thick clap-boards upon them, and lo ! she had a bedstead; and on went her straw bed, all the bed she had and her sheets and bed quilts ; and she was never prouder of anything in her life than she was of her bedstead and her bed, nice and good and brand new.
Sometimes, for an extra nice "fixing," men would split out pieces from a straight-grained oak, and make bed rails, and pre- pare other pieces for the slats, boring auger holes in the side rail and in the side house log, and putting the slats in these, and that was good and solid. Four high posts would stand at the corners, and rods or wires be strung from top to top of the four posts, and curtains would be hung on the rods; and who could wish a neater curtained bed than that ? Often two of these would be made for a single cabin, one in each farthest corner ; one for the father and mother, and the other for company ; and the chil- dren-why, they had to go into the loft, and sleep under the rafters to the music of the rain falling on the roof, or of the snow rattling on the clapboards. And that was a jolly place to sleep. And instead of chairs were made puncheon stools, and puncheon benches, which last were better than chairs or stools either, since half a dozen urchins could sit upon one. And as for chairs or stools at the table, they were not needed, inasmuch as all the half grown boys and girls had feet, and they stood up at the table, like folks at a modern Sunday-school celebration picnic dinner ; and almost every article of convenience that set -. tlers had they made for themselves. Door hinges and latches were made of wood, and a string sufficed to raise the latch ; and to pull the string inside was better than a lock, because no false key could pick the lock or unbolt the door. A poking stick answered for tongs, and some stones on the hearth did in- stead of andirons; and, as for stoves, those articles had not been invented yet, or, if they had, it would cost so much to haul the bulky things of the sort which were called stoves in those days into these Western wilds, that when here, the cost would be more than that of a forty-acre lot.
FOOD, COOKING, ETC.
The people of the present time will doubtless be glad to learn how the pioneers managed (not merely to raise or earn, but) to make their bread in those days when stoves and ranges, and all the modern paraphernalia of baking and cooking were not.
Bread was made mostly of cornmeal, and in three forms, viz. : "Dodgers," " Pone," and "Johnny Cake."
To the people now all these three are reckoned as one ; but to the pioneer, they were entirely distinct, yet all excellent of their kind, and either or all good enough to make " a pretty dish to set before the king."
" Dodgers" were made of meal with pure water and a little salt, mixed into a stiff dough, and molded with the hand into a kind of oval cake, and baked in a "bake-pan" or " Dutch- oven," viz., a round iron vessel as wide across as a half-bushel
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HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.
or less, and six or eight inches deep, with legs, of course, and a lid with a raised rim to hold coals on the top.
The coals were put in abundance underneath the " oven," and on the top as well ; and when the bread was done there came out the "dodgers," as moist, as sweet, as nice as epicure ever saw.
" Pone" was made with meal, water and salt, with the addi- tion of milk or cream and yeast, thinner than dodgers, and was baked in the same way.
"Johnny Cake" was made with lard and butter, water and salt of course, and baked in a loaf or cake, say six inches wide and an inch thick, upon a board perhaps two feet long set up before the fire. When one side was baked enough the other side of the cake was turned to the fire till it was done, and then you would have perhaps the sweetest and best corn bread ever made. Besides these there were grated corn, pounded hominy, lye hominy, green corn (roasting ears), etc. Corn has been well said to be the poor man's grain, and on account, among other things, of the ease with which it can be made into food, the variety of which it is capable, and the general excellence of the different kinds. Lye hominy and green corn. the two simplest forms of its preparation, are at the same time well-nigh the best and most delicious food that ever passed the lips of man.
After wheat had been raised, of course, some flour was used, but still for a long time corn was the chief source of bread. The mills were but poor, many of the first for grinding wheat having only hand bolts, and the flour would be none of the best.
But you are not to think that the settlers were destitute of meat. On the contrary, they had abundance, and that of the best and rarest kinds. Deer, turkeys, pheasants and what not were plenty ; and a good rifle would bring some of them down at almost any hour. To shoot turkeys standing in his cabin door was no uncommon exploit for the pioneer ; and to bring down on an average, one deer a day, besides a full day's work, was what many a backwoods man succeeded in doing.
Almost every settler (and settler's son) was a hunter as well, and those who did not care themselves to shoot deer could readily get all the venison they wished of their sportsman neighbors, and that almost for a song.
Then there were hogs, at first or very soon afterward. There were many " wild hogs," that were the offspring of such as had strayed from older settlements, or from the Indians, some of whom kept swine. These hogs were called "elmpeelers," and were long-legged, long-bodied, long-headed, sharp-snouted, with short, straight, pointed ears, and as nimble nearly as a wolf; and, when very wild, more savage than the bears themselves. They would make but a poor show (except as a curiosity) at one of our modern fairs, but at that time they wore highly valued, even above the fat, unwieldly, helpless things called improved stock.
When a " Yankee man" was trying to sell some improved breed to the western " hoosier " (or " sucker " it may be) and men- tioned as an advantage that they could not run, " Can't run ?" said the settler. "No," said the Yankee. "Don't want 'em," replied the " sucker." "My hegs have to get their own living and look out for themselves, and I would not give a snap for a hog that can't outrun a dog."
So "improved stock" was then and there at a discount.
These woods-hogs would get fat only during " mast years," and sometimes the herds of hogs would get to be three or four years old and would become thoroughly wild and very savage, fleet of foot and almost as fierce as a tiger, so that hunters would be obliged to take to a tree to get beyond their reach.
During the non-inast years these troops of swine would sub- sist upon roots, etc., such as hickory roots, sweet elm roots, slip- pery elm bark and such like. There was no hog-cholera then. Swine even now peel elm trees, eating the bark as high as they can get at it, and in such cases they seem clear of cholera. This habit of eating the bark from elm trees is what probably gave hogs in those days the name of "elmpeelers." When fatted on
hickory and beech mast the meat was very sweet but oily, and would not make good bacon. Hunting wild hogs was grand sport, though somewhat dangerous withal.
Besides pork, as above described, and wild game, the streams abounded in fish; bass, salmon, pike, buffalo, red horse, white and black suckers, silver sides, catfish, etc., were plentiful in the streams, and men could have all they pleased to catch. Besides bread and meat, potatoes were soon raised, so as to furnish a full supply; as also pumpkins, squashes, cabbages, and other garden vegetables. But wheat, for several years, proved nearly a failure, so that flour, if used, had to be brought from the Miami or some other older settlement ; and only a few could afford to take the trouble to get it, or cared to obtain it if they could.
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