USA > Indiana > Adams County > Standard history of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana : An authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume I > Part 11
USA > Indiana > Wells County > Standard history of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana : An authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume I > Part 11
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
MILLS AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS
Soon after the country became more generally settled, enterpris- ing men were ready to embark in the milling business. Sites along the streams were selected for water-power. A person looking for a mill-site would follow up and down the stream for a desired location, and when found he would go before the authorities and secure a writ of ad quad damnum. This would enable the miller to have the adjoining land officially examined, and the amount of damage by making a dam was named. Mills being so great a public necessity, they were per-
94
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
mitted to be located upon any person 's land where the miller thought the site desirable.
The agricultural implements used by the first farmers of Adams County would in this age of improvement be great curiosities. The plow used was called the "bar-share" plow; the iron point consisted of a bar of iron about two feet long, and a broad share of iron welded to it. At the extreme point was a coulter that passed through a beam 6 or 7 feet long, to which were attached handles of corresponding length. The mold-board was a wooden one split out of winding tim- ber, or hewed into a winding shape, in order to turn the soil over.
RUSTIC WATER MILL
Sown seed was brushed in by dragging over the ground a sapling with a bushy top. In harvesting the change is most striking. Instead of the reapers and mowers of today, the sickle and eradle were used. The grain was threshed with a flail, or trodden out by horses or oxen.
HOG SHOOTING AND STICKING
Hogs were always dressed before they were taken to market. The farmer, if fore-handed, would eall in his neighbors some bright fall or winter morning to help "kill hogs." Immense kettles of water were heated; a sled or two, covered with loose boards or plank, eon- stituted the platform on which the hog was eleaned, and was placed near an inelined hogshead in which the sealding was done; a quilt
95
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
was thrown over the top of the latter to retain the heat ; from a crotch of some convenient tree a projecting pole was rigged to hold the ani- mals for disemboweling and thorough cleaning. When everything was arranged, the best shot of the neighborhood loaded his rifle, and the work of killing was commenced. It was considered a disgrace to make a hog "squeal" by bad shooting or by a "shoulder-stick"; that is, running the point of the butcher-knife into the shoulder instead of the cavity of the breast. As each hog fell, the "sticker" mounted him and plunged the butcher-knife, long and well sharpened, into his throat; two persons would then catch him by the hind legs, draw him up to the scalding tuh, which had just been filled with boiling-hot water with a shovelful of good green wood ashes thrown in; in this the carcass was plunged and moved around a minute or so, that is, until the hair would slip off easily, then placed on the platform, where the cleaners would pitch into him with all their might and clean him as quickly as possible, with knives and other sharp-edged implements; then two stout fellows would take him up between them, and a third man to manage the "gambrel" (which was a stout stick about two feet long, sharpened at both ends, to be inserted between the muscles of the hind legs at or near the hock joint), the animal would be ele- vated to the pole, where the work of cleaning was finished.
PORK PACKING AND MARKETING
After the slaughter was over and the hogs had had time to cool, such as were intended for domestic nse were ent up, the lard "tried" out by the women of the household, and the surplus hogs taken to market, while the weather was cold, if possible. In those days almost every merchant had, at the rear end of his place of business, or at some convenient building, a "pork-house," and would buy the pork of his customers and of such others as would sell to him, and cut it for the market. This gave employment to a large number of hands in every village, who would cut and pack pork all winter. The hauling of all this to the river would also give employment to a large number of teams, and the manufacture of pork barrels would keep many coopers employed.
There was one feature in the method of marketing pork that made the country a paradise for the poor man in the winter time. Spare- ribs, tenderloins, pigs' heads and pigs' feet were not considered of any value, and were freely given to all who could use them. If a barrel was taken to any pork-house and salt furnished, the barrel would be filled and salted down with tenderloins and spare-ribs gratuitously.
96
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
So great in many cases was the quantity of spare-ribs, etc., to be dis- posed of, that they would be hauled away in wagon-loads and dumped in the woods out of town.
In those early times much wheat was marketed at 25 to 50 cents a bushel, oats the same or less, and corn 10 cents a bushel. A good young milch cow could be bought for $5 to $10, and that payable in work.
Those might truly be called "close times," yet the citizens of the country were accommodating, and but very little suffering for the actual necessities of life was ever known to exist.
FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE
Fires, set by Indians or settlers, sometimes purposely and some- times permitted through carelessness, would visit the prairies every autumn, and sometimes the forests, either in autumn or spring, and settlers could not always succeed in defending themselves against them. Many interesting incidents are related. Often a fire was started to bewilder game, or to bare a piece of ground for the early grazing of stock the ensuing spring, and it would get away under a wind, and soon be beyond control. Violent winds would often arise and drive the flames with such rapidity that riders on the fleetest steeds could scarcely escape. On the approach of a prairie fire the farmer would immediately set about "cutting off supplies" for the flames by a "back fire." Thus, by starting a small fire near the bare ground about his premises and keeping it under control next to his property, he would burn off a strip around him and prevent the at- tack of the on-coming flames. A few furrows or a ditch around the farm constituted a help in the work of protection.
An original prairie of tall and exuberant grass on fire, especially at night, was a magnificent spectacle, enjoyed only by the pioneer. Here is an instance where the frontiersman, proverbially deprived of the sights and pleasures of an old community, is privileged far be- yond the people of the present day in this country. One could scarcely tire of beholding the scene, as its awe-inspiring features seemed constantly to increase, and the whole panorama unceasingly changed like the dissolving views of a magic lantern, or like the aurora borealis. Language cannot convey the splendor and grandeur of such a conflagration at night.
The following graphic description of prairie fires was written by a traveler through this region in 1849: "Soon the fires began to kindle wider and rise higher from the long grass; the gentle breeze increased
97
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
to stronger currents, and soon fanned the small, flickering blaze into fierce torrent flames, which curled up and leaped along in resistless splendor; and like quickly raising the dark curtain from the luminous stage, the scenes before me were suddenly changed, as if by the ma- gician's wand, into one boundless amphitheatre blazing from the earth to heaven and sweeping the horizon round,-columns of lurid flames sportively mounting up to the zenith, and dark clouds of crimson smoke curling away and aloft till they nearly obscured stars and moon, while the rushing, crashing sounds, like roaring cataracts mingled with distant thunders, were almost deafening; danger, death, glared all around; it screamed for victims; yet, notwithstanding the imminent peril of prairie fires, one is loth, irresolute, almost unable to withdraw or seek refuge."
ERADICATING THE WILD HOGS
When the earliest pioneer reached this western wilderness, game was his principal food until he had conquered a farm from the forest or prairie-rarely, then, from the latter. As the country settled game grew scarce, and by 1850 he who would live by his rifle would have had but a precarious subsistence had it not been for "wild hogs." These animals left by home-siek immigrants whom the chills or fever and ague had driven out, had strayed into the woods, and began to multiply in a wild state. The woods each fall were full of acorns, walnuts and hazelnuts, and on these hogs would grow fat and multi- ply at a wonderful rate in the bottoms and along the bluffs. The second and third immigration to the country found these wild hogs an unfailing source of meat supply up to that period when they had in the townships contiguous to the river became so numerous as to be an evil, breaking in herds into the farmer's corn-fields or tolling their domestic swine into their retreats, where they too became in a season as wild as those in the woods. In 1838 or 1839, in a certain town- ship, a meeting was called of citizens of the township to take steps to get rid of wild hogs. At this meeting, which was held in the spring, the people of the township were notified to turn out en masse on a certain day and engage in the work of catching, trimming and brand- ing wild hogs, which were to be turned loose, and the next winter were to be hunted and killed by the people of the township, the meat to be divided pro rata among the citizens of the township. This plan was fully carried into effect, two or three days being spent in the ex- citing work in the spring.
In the early part of the ensuing winter the settlers again turned Vol. 1-7
98
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
out, supplied at convenient points in the bottom with large kettles and barrels for scalding, and while the hunters were engaged in kill- ing, others with horses dragged the carcasses to the scalding plat- forms where they were dressed; and when all that could be were killed and dressed a division was made, every farmer getting more meat than enough for his winter's supply. Like energetic measures were resorted to in other townships, so that in two or three years the breed of wild hogs became extinet.
EXTERMINATING THE WOLVES
The principal wild animals found in the state by the early settlers were the deer, wolf, bear, wild-cat, fox, otter, raccoon, generally called "coon," woodchuck, or ground hog, skunk, mink, weasel muskrat, opossum, rabbit and squirrel; and the principal feathered game were the quail, prairie chicken and wild turkey. Hawks, turkey buz- zards, crows, black-birds, were also very abundant. Several of these animals furnished meat for the settlers; but their principal meat did not long consist of game; pork and poultry were raised in abundance. Wolves were the most troublesome of the wild animals, being the common enemy of the sheep, and sometimes attacking other domestic animals, and even human beings. But their hideous howlings at night were so constant and terrifying that they almost seemed to do more mischief by that annoyance than by direct attack. They would keep everybody and every animal about the farmhouse awake and fright- ened, and set all the dogs in the neighborhood to barking. As one man described it: "Suppose six boys, having six dogs tied, whipped them all at the same time, you would hear such music as two wolves would make." To effect the destruction of these animals the county authorities offered a bounty for their scalps, and, besides, big hunts were common.
In early days more mischief was done by wolves than by any other wild animal, and no small part of their mischief consisted in their almost constant barking at night, which always seemed so men- acing and frightful to the settlers. Like mosquitoes, the noise they made appeared to be about as dreadful as the real depredations they committed. The most effectual, as well as the most exciting method of ridding the country of these hateful pests was that known as the "circular wolf hunt," by which all the men and boys would turn out on an appointed day, in a kind of cirele comprising many square miles of territory, with horses and dogs, and then close up toward the cen- ter of their field of operation, gathering not only wolves, but also deer
99
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
and many smaller "varmint." Five, ten or more wolves by this means would sometimes be killed in a single day. The men would be organ- ized with as much system as a little army, every one being well posted in the meaning of every signal and the application of every rule. Guns were scarcely ever allowed to be brought on such occasions, as their use would be unavoidably dangerous. The dogs were depended on for the final slaughter. The dogs, by the way, had all to be held in check by a cord in the hands of their keepers until the final signal was given to let them loose, when away they would go to the center of battle, and a more exciting scene would follow than can be easily de- scribed.
HUNTING BEES
This recreation was a peculiar one, and many a sturdy backwoods- man gloried in excelling in this art. He would carefully watch a bee as it filled itself with the sweet product of some flower or leaf-bud, and notice particularly the direction taken by it as it struck a "bee-line" for its home, which when found would be generally high up in the hollow of a tree. The tree would be marked, and in September a party would go and cut down the tree and capture the honey as quickly as they could before it wasted away through the broken walls in which it had been so carefully stowed away by the little busy bee. Several gallons would often be thus taken from a single tree, and by a very little work, and pleasant at that, the early settlers could keep themselves in honey the year round. By the time the honey was a year old, or before, it would turn white and granulate, yet be as good and healthful as when fresh. This was by some called "candied" honey.
In some districts, the resorts of bees would be so plentiful that all the available hollow trees would be occupied and many colonies of bees would be found at work in crevices in the rock and holes in the ground. A considerable quantity of honey has even been taken from such places.
AFTER THE SNAKES
In pioneer times snakes were numerous, such as the rattlesnake, viper, adder, blood snake and many varieties of large blue and green snakes, milk snake, garter and water snakes, black snakes, etc., etc. If, on meeting one of these, you would retreat, they would chase you very fiercely ; but if you would turn and give them battle, they would
100
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
immediately crawl away with all possible speed, hide in the grass and weeds, and wait for a "greener" customer. These really harmless snakes served to put people on their guard against the more danger- ons and venomous kinds.
It was the practice of some sections of the country to turn out in companies, with spades, mattoeks and crow-bars, attack the princi- pal snake dens and slay large numbers of them. In early spring the snakes were somewhat torpid and easily captured. Scores of rattle- snakes were sometimes frightened out of a single den, which, as soon as they showed their heads through the crevices of the rocks, were dispatched, and left to be devoured by the numerous wild hogs of that day. Some of the fattest of these snakes were taken to the house and oil extracted from them, and their glittering skins were saved as spe- cifies for rheumatism.
Another method was to so fix a heavy stick over the door of their dens, with a long grape-vine attached, that one at a distance could plug the entrance to the den when the snakes were all out sunning themselves. Then a large company of the citizens, on hand by ap- pointment, could kill scores of the reptiles in a few minutes.
How YOU FEEL WITH CHILLS AND FEVER
One of the greatest obstacles in the early settlement and prosperity of this state was the "chills and fever," "fever and agne," or "shakes," as it was variously called. It was a terror to new-comers; in the fall of the year almost everybody was afflicted with it. It was no respecter of persons; everybody looked pale and sallow as though he were frost-bitten. It was not contagious, but derived from impure water and air, which are always developed in the opening of a new country of rank soil like that of old Indiana. The impurities continue to be absorbed from day to day, and from week to week, until the whole body became saturated with them as with electricity, and then the shock came; and the shock was a regular shake, with a fixed he- ginning and ending, coming on in some cases each day, but generally on alternate days, with a regularity that was surprising. After the shake came the fever, and this "last estate was worse than the first." It was a burning hot fever and lasted for hours. When you had the chill you couldn't get warm, and when you had the fever you couldn't get cool. It was exceedingly awkward in this respect; indeed it was. Nor would it stop for any sort of contingency; not even a wedding in the family would stop it. It was imperative and tyrannical. When the appointed time came around, everything else had to be stopped
101
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
to attend to its demands. It didn't even have any Sundays or holi- days; after the fever went down you still didn't feel much better. You felt as though you had gone through some sort of collision, threshing-machine or jarring-machine, and came out not killed, but next thing to it. You felt weak, as though you had run too far after something, and then didn't eateh it. You felt languid, stupid and sore, and were down in the mouth and heel and partially raveled out. Your back was out of fix, your head ached and your appetite was erazy. Your eyes had too much white in them, your ears, especially after taking quinine, had too much roar in them, and your whole body and soul were woe-begone, disconsolate, sad, poor and good for noth- ing. You didn't think much of yourself, and didn't care. You didn't quite make up your mind to commit suicide, but sometimes wished some accident would happen to knock either the malady or yourself out of existence. You imagined that even the dogs looked at you with a kind of self-complacency. You thought the sun had a kind of sickly shine about it.
About this time you came to the conclusion that you would not ac- cept the whole State of Indiana as a gift ; and if you had the strength and means, you picked up Hannah and the baby, and your traps, and went back "yander" to "Old Virginny," the "Jarseys," Maryland or "Pennsylvany."
THE SPELLING-SCHOOL THRILLS
The chief public evening entertainment for the first twenty years of the Adams County pioneer was the celebrated "spelling-school." Both young people and old look forward to the next spelling-school with as much anticipation and anxiety as they afterward anticipated a general Fourth of July celebration ; and when the time arrived the whole neighborhood, yea, and sometimes several neighborhoods, would flock together to the scene of the academical combat, where the ex- eitement was often more intense than had been expected. It was far better, of course, when there was good sleighing; then the young folks would turn out in high glee and be fairly beside themselves.
When the appointed hour arrived, the usual plan of com- meneing battle was for two of the young people who might agree to play against each other, or who might be selected to do so by the school-teacher of the neighborhood, to "choose sides;" that is, each contestant, or "captain," as he was generally called, would choose the best speller from the assembled crowd. Each one choosing alternately, the ultimate strength of the respective parties would be about equal.
102
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
When all were chosen that could be made to serve, each side would "number," so as to ascertain whether amid the confusion one cap- tain had more spellers than the other. In case he had, some com- promise would be made by the aid of the teacher, the master of cere- monies, and then the plan of conducting the campaign, or counting the misspelled words, would be canvassed for a moment by the cap- tains, sometimes by the aid of the teacher and others. There were many ways of conducting the contest and keeping tally. Every sec- tion of the country had several favorite methods, and all or most of these were different from what other communities had. At one time
RING IN THE SPELLING SCHOOL
they would commence spelling at the head, at another time at the foot; at one time they would "spell across," that is, the first on one side would spell the first word, then the first on the other side; next the second in the line on each side, alternately, down to the other end of each line. The question who would spell the first word was determined by the captains guessing what page the teacher would have before him in partially opened book at a distance; the captain guessing the nearest would spell the first word pronounced. When a word was missed, it would be repronounced, or passed along with- out re-pronouncing (as some teachers strictly followed the rule never to re-pronounce a word), until it was spelled correctly. If a speller on the opposite side finally spelled the missed word correctly, it was counted a gain of one to that side; if the word was finally corrected
103
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
by some speller on the same side on which it was originated as a missed word, it was "saved," and no tally mark was made.
Another popular method was to commence at one end of the line of spellers and go directly around, and the missed words caught up quickly and corrected by "word-catchers," appointed by the cap- tains from among their best spellers. These word-catchers would at- tempt to correct all the words missed on his opponent's side, and failing to do this, the catcher on the other side would catch him up with a peculiar zest, and then there was fun.
Still another very interesting, though somewhat disorderly, method was this: Each word-catcher would go to the foot of the adversary's line, and every time he "catched" a word he would go up one, thus "turning them down" in regular spelling-class style. When one catcher in this way turned all down in the opposing side, his own party was victorious by as many as the opposing catcher was behind. This method required no slate or blackboard tally to be kept.
One turn, by either of the foregoing or other metheds, would oe- cupy forty minutes to an hour, and by this time an intermission or recess was had, when the buzzing, crackling and hurrahing that en- sued for ten or fifteen minutes were beyond description.
Coming to order again, the next style of battle to be illustrated was to "spell down," by which process it was ascertained who were the best spellers and could continue standing as a soldier the longest. But very often good spellers would inadvertently miss a word in an early stage of the contest and would have to sit down humiliated, while a comparatively poor speller would often stand till nearly or quite the last, amid the cheers of the assemblage. Sometimes the two par- ties first "chosen up" in the evening would re-take their places after recess, so that by the "spelling-down" process there would virtually be another race, in another form; sometimes there would be a new "choosing-up" for the "spelling-down" contest ; and sometimes the spelling-down would be conducted without any party lines being made. It would occasionally happen that two or three very good spellers would retain the floor so long that the exercise would become mo- notonous, when a few outlandish words like "chevaux-de-frise," "om- pompanoosue" or "baugh-naugh-claughber," as they used to spell it sometimes, would create a little ripple of excitement to close with. Sometimes these words would decide the contest, but generally when two or three good spellers kept the floor until the exercise became monotonous, the teacher would declare the race closed and the stand- ing spellers acquitted with a "drawn game."
The audience dismissed, the next thing was to "go home." very
104
ADAMS AND WELLS COUNTIES
often by a round-about way, "a-sleighing with the girls," which, of course, was with many the most interesting part of the evening's per- formanees; sometimes, however, too rough to be commended, as the boys were often inclined to be somewhat rowdyish.
MORE FOR FUN THAN MUSIC
Next to the night spelling-school the singing-school was an oeea- sion of mueh jollity, wherein it was difficult for the average singing- master to preserve order, as many went more for fun than for music. This species of evening entertainment, in its introduction to the West, was later than the spelling-school, and served, as it were, as the second step toward the more modern civilization. Good sleighing weather was, of course, almost a necessity for the success of these schools, but how many of them have been prevented by mud and rain ! Perhaps a greater part of the time from November to April the roads would be muddy and often half-frozen, which would have a very dampening and freezing effect upon the souls, as well as the bodies of the young people who longed for a good time on such occasions.
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.