USA > Indiana > Pioneer history of Indiana : including stories, incidents, and customs of the early settlers > Part 26
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50
The whip saw was brought into use when Abraham Lincoln's mother died in 1818, to rip planks from a black cherry log to make her coffin. It is a traditionally recorded that young Lincoln, then a lad only ten years old, sat on the door steps of their humble home, watching his father make the coffin out of the green lumber to bury his mother in, sad and grievously lamenting their poor and helpless condition to have to bury his noble mother so meanly. In after years when he was the greatest President the United States has ever had, he said to a friend "All I am or ever hope to be I owe to my angel mother." .
SHOE-MAKING.
It was a long time after the country commenced to be
332
PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA.
settled before there was any attempt to make any other kind of shoes than moccasins and shoe pacs. This soft easy foot covering was the best suited for the times and the business of those living here. After a while they had leather of their own tanning other than deer and wolf hides.
Nearly every man was an expert at making moccasins as the only thing to do was to have a pattern of the right size. There were only two seams to sew up, but to make shoes that would have the right shape and be comfortable was another thing. But as in every thing else they had the will and of course there is always a way. They cut blocks of soft tim- ber and fashioned a last the size they wanted for the feet, then secured a maple rail and cut blocks the right length for shoe pegs, made a supply of patterns and went to work at their new industry. They took the thick part of the cattle hides that they had tanned and cut soles and heel taps out of them. Then by the patterns cut the uppers, and sewed the back quarters and vamp together, then lasted the shoe and pegged the soles and heels on.
Mr. David Johnson at one time told me his experience with a pair of these newly tanned shoes which I will relate. He said that with the help of a man who had done some cob- bling before he came to this section, he made a pair of shoes and was very proud of them as he felt that he was getting away from the savage age of the country. In dry weather the shoes were all right and very comfortable. Unfortunately he went on a hunt that took him some distance from home where he intended to go into camp expecting to kill a lot of game. Before he reached the place he wanted to locate the camp, a heavy rain set in and it rained all that day, every- thing becoming very wet. He kept on for several miles in the rain but had not gone far until he felt his feet slipping about in the shoes as if there were room enough for a half dozen feet inside. He stood it as long as he could and select- ing a place to make a temporary camp, made a fire and pulled. off his enlarged shoes, intending to dry them; but it kept up such a torrent of rain that he could keep but little fire. Next morning he determined to go home and putting as many
333
PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA.
leaves in his shoes as he could, walked three or four miles, when he found he could go no farther; so he stopped and re- solved to cut off the uppers and make a pair of moccasins. His foot he said looked like the end of an overturned canoe. He pulled them off, cut the uppers away from the sole and found that the uppers of one shoe would make a pair of moc- casins with some to spare. Getting out his whang leather he made the strings and in a little while had a pair of mocca- sins made, put them on, and taking the odd shoe, started.
Being tired when he reached home he made a pallet of skins and lay down before the fire as all hunters did when they had wet feet. (It was believed that the heat bath that all hunters gave their feet was the only thing that kept them from becoming hopelessly crippled with rheumatism.) After thoroughly baking his feet at the fire, he thought he would put on his new moccasins and dry them on his feet, for he knew if they dried without something to hold them in shape they would shrink until they would be ruined. He was awakened from his sleep by his feet cramping as if in a vice and had to cut the moccasins off of his feet.
A little later sole leather was brought from New Orleans and Philadelphia that sold for a very high price. The leather had been pressed and would hold its shape fairly well. The children and most of the women went barefooted as long as they could, usually until frost. There were men who went around from house to house making shoes and many a half grown boy, as well as others, has been made glad by his com- ing. I can well remember when I have set for hours with my new wool socks on, when it was too cold to be out of doors, watching the old shoemaker. make shoes for the family. Commencing with the eldest, and going down according to the age, as I was near the foot of the line, I had to wait for some time for my turn to come; but as I now recall those days and how I felt on getting my new shoes, I think that nothing in the way of clothing in all my life was so thoroughly en- joyed as were the new, warm shoes. The best of care was taken of the shoes as it was certain that one pair would have to lost until spring came. They were greased with coon and
334
PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA.
opossum oil to make them soft and with tallow to fill the pores to keep the water out. In the early thirties, pot metal boots, as they were called because of their being so hard, were brought on by the merchants and sold at eight and ten dollars a pair. One day's walking in a pair of these boots would tire any man. When these heavy, clumsy boots are put in contrast with the elegantly shaped and made boots and shoes of this day, the great improvement is very apparent. There is no business in which there has been more improve- ments during the last seventy-five years than in the boot and shoe business.
ROPE WALK.
The first generation after settling in this country de- pended on the skins of animals and hickory withes to tie and bind with. Later on there was plenty of flax and hemp rais- ed and when long ropes or twine were wanted a rope walk had to be constructed which was very easily done in a crude manner, but it was all sufficient for making any sort of twine, cording, and strong heavy ropes. A level piece of ground was selected about two hundred feet long. A heavy slab was put in the ground at each end of the place selected, about five feet in height and twelve inches broad. A two inch auger hole was made in the center of each slab about three feet from the bottom. Into these holes were put pins with a shoulder on the outside end and a key to hold them in place on the inside. To this pin a round wheel about eight inches broad was fastened with a pin for a handle placed in a hole made for the purpose on the outside edge of the wheel. Along the walk about twenty feet apart, smooth posts were set on each side about four feet from the center with a number of pegs driven on the side facing the walk. Along the center of the walk every twenty-five or thirty-five feet a slab was driven into the ground, standing about three feet high with a notch cut in the top end and made perfectly smooth.
Whether made of hemp or flax, or of both, as was often the case, the bunch of tow or a draw-out end of it was fast- ened to the pin that the wheel was on and the wheel was
335
PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA.
turned. One held the bunch of tow under his arm, using both hands to even the string as it was twisted, and as he passed the low post, put the cord in the notch on top of it, and when he had gone the length of the walk he tied the string to the end of the other wheel and turned it until the string or cord was twisted as hard as wanted. Then it was taken off and tied to a peg on the sidepost at each end of the walk and lifted onto the pegs all along the line until there was enough strings to make a strand for a cord or rope, us- ually from three to five. Then all the strings were fastened to the ends of the wheels and twisted hard and tied back to the side stakes until three or five strands had been made. After this all the strands were tied to the wheels and twisted as hard as was wanted. The small cords were used for bed cords. They were either put through holes made in the end and side rail of the bed or put around pegs with heads driven into the rails to receive the cords. In making large ropes. such as were used for check ropes or cables, eight strings were used for a strand and six strands for a rope. When made, this was strong enough to hold anything rea- sonable. When first made, the new rope was inclined to un- twist, but it was kept in a coil when not in use so that it would hold its twist. After it had been used a few times and thoroughly wet, there was no further trouble with it.
When I was about ten years old I helped make a check rope for my father that he used on three or four trips for a. check rope and cable on flatboats loaded with produce, pork, wheat, corn and venison hams that he loaded and ran from the place where the old town of Dongola stood on the Patoka river, to New Orleans. We made the rope on a walk that ran about two hundred feet south of the place where the Mis- sionary Baptist church now stands in Oakland City. We used the same walk for many years after that to make all sorts of ropes or cords needed for our home use, mostly for bed cords. One evening while at the World's Fair in St. Louis, as I was passing through the Philippine reservation looking at their primitive style of living and the sort of tools and im- plements they had to do with, I was very forcibly reminded
336
PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA.
that they were in the same road we had passed over. Many of their implements, tools and vessels for household work were about what were in use in this country a hundred years ago. In my ramble over their grounds I came to a rope walk. I felt at home, and being interested at once in giving it a careful investigation, I found that it was the same in every particular as the one I had worked with more than fifty years ago. I then came to the conclusion that in their man- ner of living possibly they were not so far behind our people as I had thought them. I went over their exhibition pretty carefully and found many things that were used in this coun- try at an early date. One of them was a truck wagon they used with the water buffalo, but it was a very crude wagon, not nearly so good as the one I have described in this work. After getting home I looked up the history of the Philip- pine islands and found that for several hundred years they had made but little advance in any way except where they came in contact with the white race, and one display they made I was forcibly struck with-their display of sisal twine. I never saw anything to equal it.
BEE HUNTING.
Bee hunting was a very important part of the hunter's business and generally was very successfully carried on and usually quite profitable. A bee tree marked was worth one dollar in most sections of this country. The hunter would catch a bee and keep it a prisoner for a while and then it would fly away and nearly every time it flew to the tree it made its home in. Another way was to make up a bee bait of anything sweet, often a piece of honey comb with sweeten- ed water in it. They then made a little trough and put the bait in it and set it on a stump. The bees would find it in a little while and when loaded with the sweets would fly away to their tree which was some times a considerable distance away, but usually not more than two or three hundred yards. Still another way was to find a tree that they thought was probably a bee tree and then get in a position to view every part of it between the person hunting and the sun. If there
337
PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA.
were bees in it, they could be seen flying to and from the tree. When a bee tree was found. the next thing was to de- termine whether it was a strong colony or a weak one. If a strong colony the tree would be cut as soon as the bee food commenced to be scarce. If it was thought to be a weak swarm it was let alone another year. The bee hunter's mark was as sacredly respected as was his mark on hogs or cattle. The honey was gathered and was a very helpful portion of the food. All that was over their needs was sold and the same was true of the bees wax after the honey was extracted.
In the History of Gibson county, published by James T. Tartt & Co., I saw a statement that the honey bee was the fore-runner of civilization. It says-"The approach of the honey bee was always a sad harbinger for the Indians for they knew that the pale face was not far behind." I think that the author was misinformed of the facts in the case and instead of the honey bee being here only a little while before the white man came, they have been here ever since the country was suitable for their occupation, perhaps for a thous- and ages. M. Joliet, an agent for the French Colonial Gov- ernment and James Marquette a missionary and explorer in 1670, as they were on an expedition to the Mississippi river and up and down that and other rivers, found the honey bee in many localities and used the honey for food. Again in a history given by Hunter DeMot of his captivity by the Indians and his life among them in 1725, he says that the many years he traveled all over the north and from Pennsylvania to the ' Rocky mountains, the wild honey bee made its home in the hollow of the trees and that near the great prairies where such an abundance of flowers were, the bees filled the open- ings in trees on the border of the creeks and rivers in such localities with most delicious honey and where no trees were near he had seen the honey hanging under shelving rocks at cliffs and bluff banks along the rivers and creeks.
About 1630 Miles Standish who was so busy hunting In- dians that he had no time to court the beautiful Priscilla, had two of his men court martialed for being absent. The evid- ence showed they had found a bee tree and there was so much
338
PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA.
honey in it they were making a trough to put it in.
The bear was the greatest lover of honey and would risk his life for it. An old hunter by the name of Caleb Spear gives his experience in many hunting expiditions which are published in a small volume in the colonial days. Spear says that one evening while passing near a little lake of water he saw a bear jump in and roll over and over several times, then wading out and climbing up a tree for about thirty feet he went tearing away with his claws at a hole in a large limb, every now and then snorting and shaking his head. There were a number of bees flying around his head, and in a little while Mr. Bear let all holds go, fell down all in a ball and. ran to the water, going through the same performance, re- peating it half a dozen times and no doubt drowning half of the bees for they were not nearly so plentiful flying around his head. Finally he climbed up the tree and remained there until he had made a hole large enough to put his paw in when he scooped out the honey which he gulped down with great satisfaction.
Soon after my father was married he had a pet bear that was very tame-so much so that he could handle it. He lived at that time on his farm near Francisco, Indiana, now owned by Capt. C. C. Whiting. There were great quantities of honey in all the woods and he gathered several tubs full of it preparatory to taking it to Princeton to market and left the tubs in a lean-to back of the main cabin. One Sunday they went to visit some neighbors and were gone until late in . the day. The cabin had two beds in it with nice old South Carolina white counterpanes over them. The bear got loose and ate all the honey he could hold and then wallowed in it. Later he got into the cabin and proceeded to make himself at home by rolling all over both the beds and when the family got home he was fast asleep in the middle of one of them.
WITCHCRAFT AND WITCHES.
To the educated and cultured people of this date it sounds strange indeed that there ever was a period in this or any other country's history when such foolish fallacy as
339
PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA.
witchcraft was believed in, but such was the fact. Witch- craft and witches were the bane of the lives of very respect- able people.
New England had overdone the witch business so much in an early day that those believing such foolery at a later period were content to silently suffer the imaginary wrongs from those they thought were witches without resorting to drastic measures to punish them.
In fact, the conduct of the Puritans had such a reaction on themselves for brutally murdering innocent men and women on spectral evidence, that ever since there has been such an odium attached to believers in witchcraft that none were willing to own any connection with it.
The early settlers in Indiana were mostly from the south and but few of them ever heard of Salem and the witch trials. Some of them believed in witchcraft in a mild form. If a gun did not shoot well, it was often said to be bewitched. If the butter refused to gather, some said a witch had put a spell on the churn. If the soap wouldn't thicken, it was said that some old witch was the cause. If a hen failed to hatch well or a cow should give bloody milk, it was attributed by some to witches. This belief was confined to a very few in this section.
Early in the thirties a band of nomads named Griffys lo- cated in eastern Gibson county, about one and one-half miles northwest of Oakland City. They built floorless huts in a clus- ter around a large spring on land that recently .belonged to William M. Thompson. There were thirty or forty people in the colony, all of whom were superstitious and believed in witches and ghosts. They were looked upon as an indolent, lazy set, but had one feature about their manner of living which was certainly commendable; they had several very old people with them, men and women, whom they cared for and who were not related to them or had any claim on them, but had been gathered into this colony for no other reason than sympathy for their helpless and forlorn condition.
At one time Jonas and Casway Griffy came to see my father and wanted small change in bits and quarters for a
340
PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA.
silver dollar. One of them wanted to know if silver would melt in a ladle with lead. My father at once concluded that they wanted to make counterfeit coin and told them he was surprised to think they would undertake such business. They ·were much alarmed at what father said to them and said they had no thought of doing wrong; that they had had a secret among themselves they had not intended to tell, but would have to tell him in order to clear themselves of suspicion, and enjoined my father to keep it. They had lived for some years in Martin county, this state, before coming to this part, and they had so much trouble there that they moved away in the hope that their trouble would cease. But for the last several months the same trouble had come to them and they were planning to rid themselves of the evil. They wanted the small coin so they could melt it in lead and run it into bullets for the purpose of disabling witches so that they would let them alone. They said there was an old woman who lived near them in Martin county who was a terror to all the country round. She did not fear anything. would ride without a bridle and saddle the wildest, unbroken horse and would fight any man. She had nearly killed two of their neighbors in a fight. They said that before they moved down here they had four head of cows, but could not get any milk from two of them at any time-they were always milked dry. The old witch did not have any cows, but always had plenty of milk and butter. "We tried," said they, "many ways to find out how the cows were milked, but did not suc- ceed until one morning one of our women went up to the old witch's house and saw her doing something with a towel which was hanging in a small window. While the witch's back was turned she determined to find out what she was do- ing. She first stuck a pin in the towel and named it for one of our cows. Then she took hold of the fringe and com- menced to milk it as if she were milking a cow. When she had finished that cow she put another pin into the towel and named it after our other best cow and proceeded to milk her in the same way. At night she would assume the form of a black cat and go all over our homes. We tried many times to
341
PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA.
kill the cat, but could not do it. Finally old Mr. McCoy, one of our people, saw the cat go into his room. He closed the door and armed himself with an axe. Opening the door a little ways to let the cat run out, which it did, he cut off one of its ears. The next morning one of our women went over to see the old lady and found her in bed with a bandage on her head. That night she went back to Mr. McCoy's cabin, found the ear and it grew back on as well as ever, except that it was cropped. After that the same black cat was seen with one ear cropped. We brought the same four cows when we moved down here. The range was good and they gave an abundance of milk. About two months ago two of our men were in the woods hunting and saw the same crop-eared black" cat. Ever since that evening our two best cows have given no milk, and we have many other troubles which we attribute to the same cause."
A few years later the section that these Griffys occupied had a terrible scourge of what was known as the black tongue, and fifteen or twenty of the colony died from the dreadful disease. They attributed it all to the same one- eared black cat, and as soon as they were able to get away, they moved up east on the Patoka river and none of them were ever seen in this section again. I have been unable to learn if the same one-eared black cat still followed them up, inflicting misfortune upon them.
CHAPTER XIV.
AMUSEMENTS AND SPORTS OF THE EARLY PIONEERS.
There was nothing in the rude condition in which the people had to live in the early days that changed their na- tures. They had great desire to engage in feats of strength or skill and in many athletic sports, and no people ever en- joyed these times of recreation more than did these people.
Many of the games used by the early settlers were bor- rowed or copied from the Indians. Playing or rolling the hoop was one of the games often engaged in. They made a hoop about four feet in diameter out of a young hickory sapling and covered it all over with raw deer hide, making it se strong that there was no danger of breaking it. There were three parallel lines made about one hundred yards long and about fifteen feet apart on a level piece of ground, the middle line about ten yards longer than the others at each end. On the outside lines, the opposing parties, which gen- erally consisted of from ten to twenty persons, arranged themselves from ten to twelve paces apart, each individual fronting his opponent, on the other outside line. On the cen- tral line, extending a few paces beyond the wings of the other two lines, stood two persons facing each other. It is their part of the play to alternately roll the hoop with all their strength from one to the other. The object of triumph between the two is who shall catch his opponent's hoop the oftenest, and of the contending parties on the side line, which shall throw the greatest number of balls through the hoop as it passes rapidly along the intervening space. Two
343
PIONEER HISTORY OF INDIANA.
judges were appointed, with powers to appoint a third one, to determine which side was victorious.
Another game that was often played was called "Bull Pen." Eight or ten persons could play it. Two would choose up and then each select his players. The ground was laid off as nearly square as possible, about one hundred and twenty feet each way. The basemen stood at the corners. If five corners were wanted, at one side an extra corner was made extending the line to a half angle, making room for the fifth corner. The choice as to who should have the corners was first decided by the flip of a chip, wet on one side and dry on the other. The thrower would call out "Wet" or "Dry." The ball was usually a heavy one, made over a heavy pebble and wrapped with yarn and covered with buck- skin. The ball was in the hands of the corner man and was thrown from one to the other until it had gone around and had been caught by each corner; then it was said to be hot and could be thrown at any of the other sides who were in- side of the pen or square. When the ball was thrown, the corner men had to run to the right and change places, but if the ball was caught or found and thrown between a corner man and the base he was running for, the corner men went out and the pen men went to the corners. There was really great work in playing this game.
Boys would run as deer and other boys after them as hounds. Jumping was much indulged in, stand and go- three jumps or half hamen, a hop, a skip and a jump. They climbed trees and shot with a bow and arrow. In this they became experts, killing quail, squirrels and turkeys. They would practice the noise made by birds and animals in their notes of call.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.