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 15

Author: Tucker, Ebenezer
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : A.L. Klingman
Number of Pages: 664

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 15

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

But how was cooking (other than baking bread) done ? This way: A stiff bar of iron-wood (or of iron itself ) was fastened in the chimney lengthwise the fire-place, about midway from front to rear, and perhaps eight feet high, called the "lug-pole." On this bar were suspended several hooks of different lengths, made of small iron rods (or sometimes of wood). These hooks extend- ed far enough downward so that the pots and kettles of various sizes would hang above the fire and close enough to it to receive the needful amount of heat. Thus, boiling of all kinds was done.

For roasting (or hasting), a wooden pin was fastened over the fire-place, and from this pin the turkey, venison saddle, or what not, was hung by a string or a wire in front of the blazing fire- place. The side next the fire would soon be cooked, and, by turning it round and round, the whole would be done "to a turn,' the gravy dripping out into a dish set below upon the hearth. Thus, with milk and butter in abundance after the first two or three years, with tree-sugar and molasses in profusion, with wild berries and plums, etc., with which the woods abounded, the settlers, after they once got started, had no lack. In fact, many things of which they had a plentiful supply, would now be reckoned (if they could be obtained at all) a wonderful luxury.

As to the supply of game and the readiness with which it could be gotten, it may be stated that one man has been known to kill nine deer in a single day, another has killed six. These are of course extreme cases, vet to kill a deer or two, half a dozen turkeys, and fifteen or twenty pheasants in a day was nothing uncommon for a single person.

To light the house, no gas nor kerosene, nor even tallow candles were needed. The huge fire-place would, for any ordin- ary purpose, give light enough. Some had a kind of contrivance consisting of a sort of dish or bowl with a nose or spout for the rag-wick to lie in. In the dish was melted tallow or lard, and the wick lay with one end in the melted lard, and the other up along the spout. This lamp would hang by a string in the middle of the room and well supplied the place of chandelier or astral. Sometimes a still simpler arrangement was employed, a broken saucer with some tallow or lard in it would have a piece of rag laid in as a wick, and your lamp was all complete. And for outdoor uses, the boys used to light themselves and their company to meetings or spelling schools, or to hunting sprees or "hoe down " parties, with torches, consisting of a handful of hickory bark. All that had to. be dono was to peel some bark as you went along, light the ends in the fire-place when about to start for home, and keep it whisking about as yon went on. The more wind the better, though wind in those forest paths gave little trouble. A group of torches scattered along among the trees, flaring and dancing and flashing as they were waved hither and thither by their bearers, presented so picturesque a sight as in these artificial days can seldom be witnessed. A good torchi-light was worth half a dozen lanterns any day (or any night rather).

IMPLEMENTS.

The methods and means of work were simple enough.

Trees were girdled and felled, and cut into lengths with the ax. In fact the ax was, to the settler, the tool of all work. With- out it he was helpless. With it he was a crowned king.

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

With an ax and an auger and an old hand-saw, he could make wellnigh anything.

Rail-splitting was done with maul and wedge.

Moving logs was was done with a lever, or hand-spike, while one in a hundred or a thousand would boast a crow-bar.

Clapboards were split out with a frow.

Puncheons were split with maul and wedge, and shaped and smoothed with the ax, or with a large, long frow, suited to the purpose.

Flax was threshed by whipping the bundles on a barrel-head, or a block set endwise. It was spread and rotted, and dried and "broke," and swingled (scutched), and hatcheled (hackled), the tow carded, and the flax or the tow spun and reeled, and spooled or quilled, and warped, and woven, and colored, and made up into garments.

Grain was hand-reaped, or cradled, and threshed with a flail, or tramped on the ground with horses, and cleaned with a sheet or a basket fan.

Hauling was done on a sled, made out of " crooks " split from a tree-root.

Plowing was done with a bar-share plow, which had only a wooden mold board.

Hoes were huge, ungainly things, large enough to cut and dig " grubs " with.

Men traveled mostly on foot, or on horseback. Many a man went on foot to Fort Wayne or to Cincinnati to enter his land. One man entered three different forty-acre tracts, and went on foot to Cincinnati for the purpose, each several time, except that one of the trips was made partly on horseback. The old man is still living to enjoy the fruits of his labor. Boys, sixteen years old, have tied up their money in a rag, and gone on "Shank's mares " alone through the woods, to make entry of land for father, or mother, or possibly for themselves.

Many a farm was tilled for years with a single horse, or even an ox. Not seldom a poor fellow's only horse would lie down and die, and leave him in a " fix " indeed. However, people were accommodating, and a person could get help from his neighbors to the extent of their ability.

Wagons were very scarce. To become the owner of a wagon was an event to reckon from as the beginning of a new era.

One early settler says, that in a space of two miles square, where resided perhaps thirty families, only two wagons were to be found.

He says moreover, that the neighbors got up a milling expedition, taking a wagon with six horses, and twelve bushels of grain. The horses were restive and wild and would not pull together, and the wagon became fast in the mud; and six men took a horse and a sack of grain apiece and "put out " for the mill, leaving the wagon in the mud hole to be got out at some other time.

Thus our ancestors plodded on; slow and tedious and awk- ward their methods would now be reckoned, but honest, faith - ful, industrious, frugal, simple-hearted, sincere, hospitable and generous. They heroically accomplished the herculean tasks ap. pointed to their lot, and bore patiently and successfully the burdens which providence laid upon their shoulders. Let their posterity beware how they contemn the humble condi- tion of their forefathers. Let this generation look back to those old-time scenes, and to the worthy actors in them, not with a feeling of shame nor a sense of disgrace, but let them reckon it an honor to have sprung from a line of ancestry so noble, so ex- celleni, so hardy and energetic, so worthy of sincere respect, nay, almost of reverence ; and let them see to it that in met !- ods of energetic labor and in heroic success in the employment of 'larger and better means of accomplishment, they prove them- selves before the world to be worthy successors of their venerable progenitors.

CLOTHING.

Most of the settlers brought with them into the wilderness

all they could afford, to last them until more could be raised, at least to last for one year, and often for more than that.

After a corn field and a truck patch must come a flax pateli. When the flax became ripe it was pulled, threshed, spread, rot- ted, gathered np, broken, scutched, hackled, spun, woven and put on the back to wear. All the machinery needed for this work was a flax-brake, a scutching-board, a hackle, a spinning-wheel, a quill-wheel and winding blades, warping bars and loom, all of which were very simple and inexpensive, and most of them could be made in the vicinity or even at home. And all the work, from sowing the seed to taking the last stitch upon the garment, was done upon the premises, and much of it was performed as easily by the lads and the lasses as by the men and women them- selves.

The hackling of the flax produced tow. This tow was carded and spun, the flax was spun into " chain," and the tow into fill- ing, and both were woven into "tow linen ;" and out of this strong and not unsightly fabric, many garments for summer wear were made; dresses for females being colored according to the taste, and the males wearing theirs uncolored. For winter, people had sheep, and took the wool, carding it by hand, spin- ning it on a " big wheel," and weaving it with linen or cotton warp (or chain) into "linsey-woolsey " or "jeans." The "lin- sey " was worn mostly by the women, and the jeans by the men ; sometimes the fabric was colored " butternut," and sometimes blue.

Cambrics, muslins, etc., were scarce and costly, and rarely used. For outer garments men soon began to use deer-skins, making pantaloons and "hunting shirts." The latter was much like a modern sack coat, and a very comfortable, though not especially handsome garment it proved itself. At first the buckskin was obtained, ready dressed, of the Indians; but the settlers soon learned to prepare it themselves. The men had commenced to make and sew their own buckskin garments, the work being too hard for female fingers. The sewing was done with the sinews from the deer's legs, or with a " whang," i. e., a thong or string cut from the deer hide, a shoemaker's awl, and a very large needle. These buckskin clothes were just the thing. They were within the reach of all, costing nothing but labor ; they were very durable, lasting for years; they were warm, and as to looks, each man looked as well as his neighbor. and what more is needed ? And they were an almost perfect protection. The sting of the nettle, the scratch of the briers, and even the bite of the rattlesnakes was harmless. The cockle-burs and the Spanish needles would not stick to them, they kept out the cold " like a charm," and, moreover, when properly dressed, and neatly made, they presented by no means an unsightly appearance.

The garments were commonly made and worn large and free, which of course greatly added to their comfort and convenience. Sometimes, however, in standing near the fire, a man would get his " breeches " hot, and another in mischief would clap the hot buckskin to the flesh, and the luckless wearer would jump, with a yell and a bound, clear across the room, as though the great log fire were tumbling on him. Sometimes too they would get wet, and if allowed to dry, the skin would become very hard and stiff, and could not be used again till it had been softened by dampening and rubbing.

The Indians made moccasins, and the settlers bought and wore them, being excellent for dry weather, winter or summer, but not for wet. For the wet season, strong leather shoes were used, though many, especially the younger class, went much barefooted.

Upon the head the men wore in the winter chiefly a strong, well-made, low crowned, broad-brimmed wool hat, somewhat like that which the older Quakers now : wear. Sometimes a warm head-gear was made from a coon-skin. It was comfortable, but looked wolfish. In summer, home-made hats, braided from whole rye-straw, grown for that purpose, were in extensive use.

Women also made their bonnets out of straw, only each par-

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

ticular straw was split into five or six pieces by a "splitting ma- chine."

This machine may be thus described : Narrow strips of tin were firmly set in a piece of wood an inch square and six inches long. The straw was spread open and drawn through these tin " teeth" and made into strips of equal width. Five of these strips (sometimes seven) were plaited into a braid, and the braid made long enough for a whole bonnet. The braid was ironed smooth (having been bleached if thought necessary), and nicely sewed inte bonnets; and they looked equal in neatness (not to say taste) to the fashions of the present day.

Sun-bonnets were made much as at the present day, of calico and pasteboard. The great object of a bonnet was at that time supposed to be to protect the face, head and neck from the sun, and the wind and the cold ; and they were made accordingly. What a bonnet is for now is best known, perhaps, to the wearers ; or, if they do not, how should anybody else be expected to know ?

The fashions of that primitive time, doubtless, would seem awkward and uncouth at the present day ; but the clothing answered the prime ends for which clothing is worn, decency and comfort, even better perhaps than the garments of the present day. And as to looks, folks were better satisfied with what they had then than people are now ; and, if they were suited who had them to wear and to look at, surely we who are so far removed by two generations of time have no occasion to complain.

It can be truly affirmed that underneath those coats and hunt- ing shirts, uncouth in looks and awkward in fit, dwelt souls brave and generous, and hearts tender and kind, loyal, affectionate and true. God grant that the same may ever be truly declared of their children and their children's children while the ages roll. Fashions may come and fashions may go, but what matter, so the deep fountain of love and truth and faithfulness in the hu- man soul remains pure, untarnished and perennial.

MONEY.

Money was scarce, little, indeed, was needed, for, as has been shown, almost every necessity and luxury was produced at home. Some money, however, was necessary, chiefly to pay taxes, and to buy iron and salt, powder and lead. Taxes indeed, for many years, were low. The first county tax levied in Randolph was "twenty-five cents upon each horse-beast." The first settlement of the treasurer showed as follows :

Receipts. .$20.00

Expenditures. 20.00

Balsnce. .. 00.00

That was in May, 1819.

In November, $260.00 were the receipts, and $259.75 the disbursements.

In 1820, the county treasury boasted of $462.63, $309.63 of which were realized from the sale of lots, and $1 from a fine, leaving $152.00 as the avails of county taxation in a single county for a whole year. And up to 1829 the annual county taxes still fell sbort of $900.00. So "taxes" required but a small amount of the "needful."

But iron and salt and powder and lead were indispensable, and heavy and costly. They took money, and abundance of it, or its equivalent.

As a specimen of the costliness of articles in those times, the statement is made that Benjamin Bond, who came to Wayne County in 1811, gave for nails twenty-five cents a pound, and paid for them in cordwood cut upon his land just west of New Garden meeting-house in Wayne County, at twenty-five cents a cord upon the ground, a cord of wood for a pound of nails !

Once in Western Pennsylvania in the long, long ago, a horse was given for a barrel of salt, and at another time (in this region) eighteen dollars was given for a bushel. Money could be ob- tained, indeed, though not largely. Deer skins would bring fifty cents; raccoon skins thirty-seven and a half cents, and muskrats twenty-five cents. The fur buyer, when he came his annual

round, would pay cash; but the merchants paid only in trade. If the settler would wait for the fur buyer, he could have the cash, if not, he must "dicker" it out, and let the merchant finger the cash himself.

Deer must be killed from May till November, and raccoons and muskrats from December till April. So the hunter had his harvest all the year round; only, if he wanted money, he must store up till the fur-dealer came. But necessaries could be gotten at any time. And these were comparatively few, though some- what expensive. A side of sole leather and of upper leather, a barrel of salt, powder and ahot for hunting, some fish hooks, and perhaps an ax, would suffice for a whole year. For land buying, some money was required, of course, and after the "specie-circu- lar" in the spring of 1837, only silver (for gold was not then in circulation, being, before the days of California, dear, and of course scarce, or, more properly speaking, not in ordinary use as money at all) was available, and hard work indeed it often was to obtain the needful.

One (now old) man tells of the strait he was put to at the time when that famous "Specie Circular" came in force. He was a lad of eighteen years. Having had his eye for a long time upon a fine sugar camp near his father's dwelling, but without money enough for his purpose, he heard that another man intended to "enter" the tract. Hurrying to gather up funds for that and for some more land desired by his father, he set out, on foot and alone, carrying his money, tied in a knot in his pocket handkerchief, most of the way in his hand, bound for the land office at Fort Wayne. The money was largely in paper, and in just three days the "specie circular" was to come in force. He hoped to reach Fort Wayne by that time and struggled on. But he could not "make it." The third night found him at St. Mary's, a few miles short. The next day he entered the Land Office, not knowing what he could do, fearing the worst yet hoping the best. The Receiver happened to be an acquaintance of his father's, and agreed to take his "paper money." And so he made his point and got his land. And then, afoot and alone, he wended his way homeward again, without money only as he borrowed two dollars of his friend, the Receiver, but happy in possession of the certificate which would in due time bring for him a patent under the "Bread Seal" of the United States of America, The reason why he was found thus with no money to go home on, was this: He supposed that the tract of land he wished to enter was an "80 acre" piece. It was 84, which would take exactly $5.00 extra, so the question came up, "Will you take all your money and get your land, or will you save your money and not purchase?" He had come too far to go back with his object all unaccomplished, and the young hero decided that he would have the land and get home as he could. And have it he did, and, under the generous offer of his friend, the Receiver, he accepted the loan of two dollars to pay his expenses homeward. It is a pleasant thing to note that, though this boy (and his father) were ardent Whigs of that olden time, and the Receiver was & Van Buren Democrat, he befriended the boy nevertheless, like the frank and genial man that he was.

AMUSEMENTS.

Wherever there are human beings, there will be amusements. Thousands of years ago a prophet foretold that Jerusalem should be rebuilt, and that the streets "should be full of boys and girls playing in the midst thereof." Wherever there are boys and girls there will be playing, and men and women are only grown-up children.

The Indians of the western continent, the Africans of the eastern, all tribes and and all nations of men, have their sports.

Even the various tribes of animals are not without their games, in which they engage with rollicking glee. And the human tribes, savage and civilized, barbarous and cultivated, rich and poor, in the torrid heats and amid northern snows, in the sands of Arabia, in the valleys of India, on the plains of China, amid the

HISTORY OF RANDOLPH COUNTY.

snows of Norway and of Lapland; on the stormy steppes of Rus- sia, amid the glaciers of Greenland, and in the North American wastes, where wander the wild Esquimaux ; in every spot where human foot has trod, jollity has found a resting place, and fun has set up his throne.

When the woods were full of Indians, as at first, the white boys played and romped with the copper-colored children ; and the men would pitch quoita, and heave stones, and run races, and jump with the savage braves.

The Indians indeed were wonderfully susceptible of the ridic- ulous. Solemn as they seemed, they were full to the brim of native fun and enjoyed a joke hugely. When the son of the first settler, a lad seven or eight years old, was passing near an In- dian wigwam, driving a calf up to his pen, a squaw standing be- hind a bush jumped out with what the frightened boy thought to be a gun, and started for him. He sprang like a deer, and wild calf, and scared boy, and yelling squaw, went thrashing through the woods together. The boy ran to his father's cabin and the squaw after him. She had no gun, but only a stick ; but she was 80 "tickled" at the boy's fright, that she just fell down on the cab- in floor and laughed, and laughed, and rolled over and laughed, as if she never would have done. She laughed and jabbered over her broken English as she lay there thinking of the chase and the fright she had given the little white boy, until the lad grew madder and still madder at the wild creature, and wished her anywhere but there, laughing and making fun of him.

The sports of the settlers were generally of the more active kind as, jumping, wrestling, running races, with frequently a " hoe- down " at an evening merry-making, after a raising, or a log-roll- ing, or a spinning bee, or some other gathering for werk and as- sistance.

An invitation would be given to the men and boys to come and help roll logs, or to raise a building, or something like that, aud to the women to come and bring their spinning wheels. Both classes would go. The men would roll logs or what not, and the women would spin. At nightfall supper would be served, and then for a frolic by such as pleased to take part in it, which would doubtless be fast and furious, since those who participated were atalwart lads and buxom lasses, and, in sober truth, "all went merry as a marriage bell."

And not seldom the women would carry their spinning wheels as they went and returned, on foot.

There have been indeed more harmful sports than these back - wooda-balls, especially if they were kept free from the mischievous presence of and disturbing power of intoxicating drinks (which was not always the case), since they were for the most part simply lively methods of working off a superabundance of animal spirits, which mere hard work outdoors or indoors could not subdue.

Then for the boys, hunting served the purpose both of hard work and high sport as well, for to chase the bounding deer through the leafy woods, or to wait and watch for his forest lord- ship, as his kingly horns would come tossing proudly among the waving boughs, and to bring his active form to the earth with the unerring shot of the faithful rifle amid the wild baying of the eager hounds as they gathered to be "in at the death,"-these, wild and fiery hunts were, for these rollicking boys, the keenest of aports. And thus it was-

" Mid earnest work and furious play

The youngsters passed their lives away."

RELIGION.

But not all even of the young spent their leisure hours in sport. For many, very many, the religious exercises of those earliest days of primitive simplicity were more satisfying, as they were certainly more profitable, than any form of mere worldly pleasure could possibly be. Great numbers of the first settlers of Randolph were men and women of a strong and earnest religious faith and, of a hearty, loving spirit, fearing God, and delighting to do good to men.

The earliest religious meetings were probably of the Friends or the Methodists, possibly the former, though whichever may have been first, the other was not far behind.

The Friends built a house for divine worship, either the first or the second summer of their residence here, and the humble edifice served the double purpose both of church and school- house.

The Methodists began their meetings in the house of Ephraim Bowen, Sr., not very long after his removal to this county, and the first Methodist sermon ever preached in the county was de- livered in that unpretentious abode; and the great body of those who belonged to that people, which in truth was not a large crowd, gathered there to listen to its cheering words. The min- ister officiating was Rev. Mr. Holman, of Louisville, Ky., and his text was an appropriate one for the introduction of the gospel mes- sage into the new land: " Is there no balm in Gilead ? Is there no physician there ? Why then is the hurt of the daugh- ter of my people not recovered ?"

Some who heard that sermon are still among us, and they speak highly of that first effort by that gifted servant of Christ. Mr. Bowen's dwelling was long a place for the Methodist meet- ings of that region.

Perhaps the earliest houses of worship through the county were built by the Friends, the one at Arba being the first, those at Lynn, Jericho, White River, Dunkirk, Cherry Grove and per- haps some others, following not long after in point of time. The Methodist meetings were held mostly at firat in private houses, as Mr. Bowen'a in Greensfork near Arba, Mr. McKim's at Spartanburg, Mr. Marshall's in Ward Township, Mr. Hubbard's and Mr. Godwin's in Green Township, and so on. Other de- nominations also gathered congregations in various parts, as : The Disciples, the United Brethren, the Christians, the Protes- tant Methodists, the Baptists, the Presbyterians, and in latter days the Anti-Slavery Friends, the Wesleyana, as also the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and perhaps others.

There are now also Lutherans, Catholics, Universalists. Dunk- ards, etc. Just when each of these arose, it is at present difficult to tell.

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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 15

Author: Tucker, Ebenezer Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago : A.L. Klingman Number of Pages: 664

Author: Tucker, Ebenezer
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago : A.L. Klingman
Number of Pages: 664