USA > Indiana > Monroe County > The new purchase : or, seven and a half years in the Far West > Part 31
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"Hem !- what do you say? Don't it seem damp towards the right?"
"I think it does-and maybe the river is that way. Don't it seem like rising ground towards the left, to you?"
"It does-let's try the left-we've had enough of thickets for one day-hark ! hark !! "
"Bow-wow-wow! bow-wow!" on the left.
"Sure enough! a dog towards the left! push a-head that way."
' The canine outcry was reduplicated and prolonged; and we
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were soon rewarded for our sagacity in going to the left by coming whack-up against a worm-fence! But by groping our way through this impediment, a light was soon discerned gleam- ing through some crevice; and the noise of the dog then subsided into an angry growl-which growl was again exchanged into a bark, as we let out our hearty and door penetrating "Hullow !" This backwood's sonnet had soon the desired effect on the clap- board shutter; for it now creaked slowly open, and allowed to issue from the cabin the following reply in a strong soprano, yet vibratory from apprehension-
"Well-who be you? what's a wantin?"
"Strangers, ma'am, from the Big Meeting at Vincennes ; we've been lost all day in the Swamp below Stafford's-and we're lost now. Will you be so kind as to let us stay the rest of the night here ?"
"Well, it's most powerful onconvenent-couldn't you a sort a keep on to Fairplay-'taint more nor two miles no how, and you'd git mighty good 'comedashins thar?"
"Oh! ma'am, we'd never find the way in the dark. Besides, our horses are nearly given out ; and we ourselves haven't touched food for nearly two days-"
"Well! now! if that aint amost too powerful hard like !- I'm a poor lone woman body-but I can't let you go on-so come in. But, strangers, you'll find things right down poor here, and have to sleep on the floor, as 'cos I've no more nor two beds and them's all tuk up by me and the childurn. Howsever, thar's a corn heap over thar to feed your critturs; but we're now teetotally out of meal ;- and Bill's to start in the morning for a grist-and I'm powerful sorry we've nothin to eat-"
"Oh! thank you, ma'am-never mind us-thank you-never mind! If we get corn for our poor brutes, and shelter for our- - selves that will do-thank you, ma'am-never mind !"
Having fed our jaded animals we entered the cabin, and de- positing our saddles and furniture in one corner, we sat down on two rude stools, like some modern ottomans in the city; being so low as to force one's knees and chins into near proximity. They had indeed, no covering or cushion, unless such be con- sidered the lone woman's indescribable, lying on the one, and
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Bill's tow-linen breeches on the other-articles we considerately, however, removed for fear of soiling.
The next thing we did was to poke up the slumbering fire; by the light of which we first cast rueful looks on one another, and then some sideway glances around the apartment. In one spot, stood a barrel with an empty bag of dim whiteness, hanging partly in and partly out, while across its top was laid a kneading bowl, and in that a small washing machine ;- the barrel being manifestly the repository of meal, and the bag the very affair Bill was to ride, in the morning, to mill. Near us was a shelf holding a few utensils for mush and milk, several tin cups, a wooden bowl in need of scouring, and some calabashes ; a large calabash we had noticed outside the door, having a small grape vine for a handle, and intended to represent a bucket for water and other wet and dry uses. In a strap of deerskin nailed under the shelf were stuck certain knives, some ornamented with buck-horn handles, one or two with corn-cob handles, and one handleless; and interspersed judiciously in the same strap were pincushions, scissors, comb, and a few other et ceteras of a hoosiery toilette.
But the curiosities were "the two beds and all tuk up by the mother and the childurn." What the bedsteads were made out of was not ascertained. Ricketty they were, screeching, squirming, and wriggling at every slight motion of the sleeping household; but tough and seasoned too must have been to bear up under their respective loads, especially considering the way some that night kicked under the covers, and, occasionally over them!
In one bed were the lone (?) woman and two children; and in this I am confident having counted three heads, and one with a cap on. In the other were three or four bodies-Uncle John insisted on four-but I only counted three heads at the bolster ; yet Uncle John in his very last letter held to it, that he saw another head sticking out near the foot, and two or three legs in such direction as could come only from a head in that latitude. Strong presumptive evidence, granted ;- yet only presumptive, for a real backwood's boy can twist himself all round; beside the fleas 2 that night made the bed loads twist their utmost, and legs
2 Fleas out there are very savage-but while they make the folks very active in bed, they cannot wake them; for nothing scarcely breaks a woodsman's sleep.
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and arms became so surprisingly commingled, that no ordinary spectator could tell to what bodies they severally pertained. And never were beds so "all tuk up," nor so wonderfully slept all over, till by daylight the whole of their sleep must have been fully extracted ; and hence, it was plain enough there was no room for Uncle John or me in either bed; and if we wanted any sleep we must get it out of the puncheons. We spread, therefore, our horse-blankets each on a puncheon, our separating line being an interstice of three inches; and, transforming saddlebags into pillows, we essayed to sleep away our weariness and hunger. But the "sweet restorer's" balmy influences were all confined that night, to the two regular beds; and that among other causes owing to a motherly she-swine with a litter of ever so many pigs, and some other bristled gentry in the basement, whence ascended an overpowering dry hickory nut fragrance, and endless variations of grunt, squeak, and shuffle-and in all likelihood the oceans of fleas disturbing us! If not thence, I leave it to such critics to ascertain, who delight in saying and finding smart things.
Upon the whole it was not, then, so old that about an hour before dawn, we made ready to set out in search of Fairplay. And of course our preparations awaked the lone woman; when the "cap," already named, being elevated above the sleeping line of the other heads, and also several capless pates of dirty matted hair-(gender indeterminate)-being also raised and thrust forth in the other bed, we thus held our farewell colloquy :
"Well, my good friend, we thank you kindly for your hospital- ity, and we are about starting now ;- what shall we pay you?"
"Laws! bless you, stranger! how you talk !- why do y'allow I'd axe people what's lost anything ?- and for sick 'comedashins ?" Oh! ma'am-but we put you to trouble-"
"Trouble !- I don't mind trouble now no how-I've had too big a share on it to mind it any more amost-"
"Why, ma'am you've been very kind-and we really can't go away till we pay you something-"
"Stranger !- I sees you wants to do what's right-but you needn't take out that puss-I'll have to be a most powerful heap poorer nor I'm now, afore I'll take anything for sich a poor shelter to feller critturs what's lost-and them a comin from
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meetin too! Ain't that oldermost stranger a kinder sort a preacher ?"
"No. my friend, I'm only a member-"
"Well-I couldn't axe meetin folks nothin for the best. I'm right glad you didn't take the right hand trail below our fence, you'd a got into the swamp agin. Now jist mind when you come to a big sugar what blow'd down by the haricane, and take the . left, and that will git you clear of the bio-and then keep rite strate on forrerd and you'll soon git to Fairplay.
Farewells were then cordially exchanged, and we left the poor lone woman with emotions of pity, gratitude, and admiration; and we thought too of "the cup of water"-"the two mites"-of "one half the world knows not how the other lives"-and "man wants but little here below"-and of all similar sacred and secular sayings, till we came to the prostrate sugar-tree. There we made a judicious digression to avoid miring and suffocating in the morass, and then shortly after dismounted safe and sound, but frightfully hungry, at Fairplay.
And here we rest awhile to devour two breakfasts and repair if possible the loss of dinner and supper; and in the meanwhile we shall speak of the village.
Fairplay was a smart place, consisting of two entirely new log houses, built last summer, in spite and opposition to Briarton con- cealed in the bushes on the other side of the river: and also a public or tavern-in futuro, however, as it was only now a- building. As yet it was not roofed entirely, nor were the second story floors laid, nor had it any chimneys. Indeed, its walls were incomplete, the daubing being-ah! what is the fashionable grammar here, for the case absolute? I do not wish to be be- hind the age too far, and am desirous of having the Fairplay hotel grammatically daubed. "Daubing being done?" No, it was not completed. "Daubing doing?"-that would make mud an active agent; whereas, in the operation, it is the most passive subject in the world, and is dreadfully trampled, pounded, beat, splashed, scattered and smeared. "Daubing a-doing?" no: the work had ceased for the present, and the clay was actually dry where the work had been "being" done. Stop! I have it-the daubing "being" being done! and so all eating and sleeping were
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in one large airy room below, with a flooring of unnailed boards, and half a dozen windows full of sashes but destitute of glass ; and having also two doors closed with sheets instead of shutters.
Cooking was performed to-day out of doors; hence while waiting for breakfast we inhaled the savory essence of fried chickens, fried bacon, roasted potatoes, herb-tea, store-coffee, and above all, of slap-jacks compounded from cornmeal, eggs and milk, and fried in a pan-thus in a measure getting two breakfasts out of one. True, with the fragrance entered the smoke ; yet what great pleasure is without its concomitant pain! Beside-but take care ! take care! here comes the breakfast, and we are ordered :-
"Well, strangers! come, sit up and help yourselves. I allow you're a sorter hungry after sich a most powerful starvation."
Breakfast among the Stars *
"Landlord ! our horses, if you please."
"They're at the door-they look a right smart chance wusted- but maybe they'll take you home-wish you a pleasant journey and no more scrapes."
The landlord's wishes were not disappointed, for in due time we were snug at home.
CHAPTER XLI.
"This man's brow, like the title leaf, Foretells the nature of a tragic volume."
Nor long after Mr. Seymour's return to Glenville, the patri- archal cabin with its acres of clearings, deadenings and girdlings, and with all its untouched and unfenced woods, was sold to a stranger ; and then our friends all removed to Bishop Hilsbury's late residence, near the tannery.' The name, indeed, was retained, but the glory of Glenville Settlement was fading.3 Still visits were
3 "A man named Magennis bought our cabin and Mr. Reed's about a mile from the Indian grave. A brick house was put up by Magennis. Mrs. Young was buried near the Tannery. The R. Road must run through Glenville. Paris C. Dunning had a brother who settled in Gossport. Mr.
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interchanged, although we of Woodville received more than we paid; and my emotions became most delightful, whenever re- turning on Saturday evenings from a short squirrel hunt, I dis- cerned at a distance Uncle John's horse tied to our rack. Often, too, would some of us, the day he was expected, sit the last hour at an upper window, and watch the leafy barrier, where our dear friend was expected momentarily to break through into the mellow light of the departing sun-ay! that dear old man was so loved, we felt like hugging and kissing the very horse that brought him !
Christmas was now approaching ; and all Glenville that remained was expected to spend the holiday at Woodville. For this visit, our whole house had been prepared-bedrooms were arranged to render sleeping warm and refreshing-fat poultry was killed- mince-pies concocted, cider bought ; in short, all the goodies, vege- table, animal, and saccharine, usually congregated at this joyous season, were stored and ready. In the parlour, a compound of sitting-room, dining-room, and bed-chamber, a magnificent fire of clean white sugar-tree with a green beech back-log was warming and enlivening; while the lid of the piano was raised, with copies of favourite pieces ready, and an eight-keyed flute, and a four- stringed violin on its top-all ready for a grand burst of innocent fun and frolic at the coming of the loved ones! Oh! we should be so happy !
Night at length drew near; and so after an entire afternoon passed in expectation and affirmations, thus-"Well, they will be here in a few minutes, now!"-and after repeated visits to our observatory in the attic, we had concluded that, beyond all
Young had the store there. In his store Brasier and I talked about the earth's shape. There the buttons were sold. Bush, Reed, and myself constituted the first Wabash Presbytery, formed in Mr. Reed's cabin near the tannery. I suggested the name 'Gossport'-for 'Old Man' Goss -- also 'Alexandria,' and 'Youngsville.' Mr. Alexander and Mr. Young owned the tract. 'Gosport' was preferred as Mr. Goss was the largest owner." Hall's Letter to Nunnemacher, Oct. 19, 1885.
On January 19, 1826, Young sold to Elisha McGinnis 80 acres in Section 17-II-2. This "Glenville settlement" is still owned by a descendant of Elisha McGinnis,-four miles north of Gosport. This information. is furnished by the courtesy of Mr. ICharles S. Surber, Recorder of Owen County, Indiana.
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doubt, within a half-hour the cavalcade would arrive. But, that half-hour elapsed, and no friends came! and then another! and still another! and even then no friends! It was then so very much later than our old folks had been wont to come, that we all sat now in the gloom of disappointment around the parlour, . uneasy, and with forebodings of evil-when the clatter of a horse moving rapidly over the frozen earth called us in haste to the door; upon opening which, John Glenville was seen dismounting, who immediately entered and with a countenaonce of deep distress-
"Why, dear John! what is the matter?
"Melancholy enough! poor Uncle has fallen and broken his thigh! I've come over for Sylvan, and must go back with him instantly. I left word for him to be ready in fifteen minutes."
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Ah! dear reader! if one's happiness is wholly from the earth, what shall we do when that happiness is so marred? Our joy be- came instant mourning-our pleasant apartment, cheerless-our dainty food, tasteless-our music, the voice of lamentation !
Dear old kind-hearted man! after all the sore disappointments of a long life is this sad affliction added to your sorrows, and pains, and many bodily injuries! 'Again, in old age, must you lie in that dark forest in the anguish of broken limbs !- again sep- arated from many that so love you! What a Christmas eve for you! how different from those passed in our days of prosperity !
For myself, when recalling the incidents of our late journey- our harmless pleasantries-our solemn and serious conversations- his hoary head on the floor of the lone woman's cabin-his patience, hilarity, and noble heart-and thought of him refused a night's lodging, who had sheltered and fed so many strangers, and of him turned, weary, hungry and sick into a western wilderness at night !- and now that grey head on a pillow of anguish! that pleasant face changed by pain! that often broken body again crushed and mangled-But, let us change the subject.
Our friends had purposed leaving home early on the morning of the 24th, but an unforeseen business having called away John Glenville, the expedition was postponed a few hours. Yet when he came not at the hour, it was then concluded that the old folks
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should set out by themselves, with the belief that Mr. Glenville could easily overtake them on the road. To prepare the horses, Mr. Seymour descended a small hill to the stable, whilst Aunt Kitty remained in the cabin to arrange a few small matters pre- vious to the starting. But as her brother was absent a full quar- ter of an hour beyond what seemed necessary, she stepped to the cabin-door, and with the slightest possible impatience-when, to her amazement, she heard a faint voice calling on her for help, and the groans of one as in great bodily pain! She flew in alarm down the hill-and at the stable-door lay Uncle John, his leg broken off at the head of the thigh bone, himself in an agony of pain, and in danger of perishing even from cold, without a speedy removal! His horse had proved restive on being led from the stable, and in a consequent struggle Mr. S. slipping on some ice had fallen and received the hurt.
Aunt Kitty quickly decided on her plan. She brought from the cabin the buffalo robe bestowed by the Osage warchief, and spreading it near her wounded brother, she managed, weak and unaided, to get him, a large and heavy man, fairly into the mid- dle of the robe. Staying, then, her tears, and raising her heart to God for fortitude and strength, she began to drag her mourn- ful load towards the cabin. But she soon found herself too weak for the task, and in despair looked around-when, on her way home, and, by an unusual path near our cabin, passed now that very woman' commemorated elsewhere in this work for a novel appearance in cow hunting! Catching a glimpse of this woman Aunt Kitty cried out for asistance; and the kindhearted neigh- bour was almost instantly at her side, and adding a strength superior to that of a dozen pretty ladies, she soon, with Aunt Kitty's aid, had our wounded relative hauled to the cabin-door. Here, with great difficulty and labour on their part and pain on his, the sufferer was partly lifted and partly dragged up and over the steps and sill, and finally laid on a low bed prepared for his reception.
Mrs. Littleton now examined her brother's wound, and with the help of her humble friend, she forced the leg into something like a natural position, and then splintered and bandaged it, to the best of her ability. In a few minutes after this, John Glenville
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entered the cabin, who, on learning the mournful accident, in- stantly remounted and hurried to Woodville.
Dr. Sylvan was unfortunately not at home, and we obtained only one of his students; when Glenville, having refreshed himself a few moments with us, was, attended by the pupil, quickly re- plunged into the cold and darkness of a now tempestuous night and howling wilderness! They reached the cabin a short time before day-break: but the embryo surgeon, without adding or taking from, deemed it best to let all the bandages remain as Aunt Kitty had bound them! And so poor Uncle John, after lying on his bed for seventy wearisome days and nights, rose again to life and health-yet not to his former shape and activity; for the leg had shrunk in the knitting of the bone, and his right side was two inches shorter than before the accident.
And yet, reader, so youthful and buoyant the spirit of this noble old gentleman, that he and I hunted often together after his re- covery-he walking with a crutch in one hand and a heavy rifle in the other! But so gloomy had become the cabin life to the old folks, where death might easily occur from the absence of ordinary help, and where, perhaps, Uncle John's deformity might have been lessened by prompt medical aid, that our tannery was sold, and our relatives removed to Woodville. Mr. Glenville, however, chose a new site for a store several miles from the old settlement, which then, as to us, ceased to be-save that sacred spot reserved in the sale, and where rest, far from us, scattered as we are, and ever in this life shall be, the ashes of the mother!
Once, but once, subsequent to this desertion, did I pass along a new road laid through that settlement, and between the two cabins. Around, for many acres, the forest was no more, but corn and grain were ripening in its place. A new brick house stood in our garden; and the cabin was changed into a stable. And yet, while all the changes were for the better, and a most joyous evening was smiling on the coming harvest-I sat on my horse and had one of my girlish fits of tears !
Yes !- I cried like Homer's heroes-and that in spite of the critic who, running over the book to make an article, will say, "the author, tender-hearted soul, cries again towards the close of year the third, Chap. xli. p. 318." Yes !- I cried! And
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FOURTH YEAR
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since that summer's evening, I have never seen my first forest home; for I purposely ever after avoided the hateful new road through it, and that too by the Indian grave.
1
CHAPTER XLII.
FOURTH YEAR.
"Sit mihi fas audita loqui." "It is the witness still of excellency. To put a strange face on his own perfection."
OUR fourth year introduces an epoch, the Augustan age of the New Purchase-the opening of the State College ! 1
And now comes on the stage, as one principal actor, my friend, the Reverend Charles Clarence, A.M., Principal and Professor of Ancient Languages. This gentleman had accepted our appoint- ment, not for the paltry stipend paid as his salary, but wholly because he longed to be in the romantic West, and among its earliest literary pioneers; and hence, early this spring, he was with us, and not merely ready, but even enthusiastically impatient to commence his labours.
His wife was with him-the woman of his seven years' love! They had tasted, however, the wormwood of affliction's cup, and even now wore the badges of recent bereavements. Mr. Clarence, leaving his wife and two little children, went to the South again on business ; and after an absence of four months, on returning to his boarding house in Philadelphia, he was surprised at hearing and seeing no signs of his babes. His wife, instead of answer- ing in words his eager questions, suddenly threw her arms about his neck, and bursting into an agony of tears, exclaimed,-"Both are dead !- come into our room-I'll tell you all !"
Here was a sad waking from day-dreaming! and Clarence was with us, having altered views of life, and seeing that we have something to do in it, besides to amuse or be amused. Happy
1 The State Seminary was opened by Hall in 1824. . This would place his coming to Indiana as early as 1821. It was probably his third year, not his fourth.
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chastisement our friend afterwards deemed it, when encountering sore disappointments and many, in his professional career : ay ! he was destined to endure the utter crushing of all his high hopes and purposes. For, if ever man was influenced by disinterested motives, and fired with enthusiasm for advancing solid learning,- if ever one desirous of seeing Western institutions rival, if not ex- cel others,-if a person came willing to live and die with us, and to sacrifice eastern tastes and prejudices, and become, in every proper way, a Western Man, my friend Clarence was he.2
His labours and actions proved this. Look for instance at his daily teaching-his five and six hours usually spent in the recita- tion room; at his preaching, always twice on the Sabbath, and com- monly several times during the week; at his visits to the sick and the dying, and his attendance on funerals! And these things extended beyond his own denomination-when requested, and that was often; for rarely, even in his own sicknesses and melancholy hours, did he refuse what seemed his duty to others. When too feeble to leave his house, he heard the recitations in his bed; and when unable to stand, he sat in his congregation and preached, his person emaciated and his face death-like. Nor did he con- fine his teaching to the routine himself had followed, but he in- troduced other branches, and also a course of Greek, unknown then in western colleges, and not common in eastern ones; and this, although it added to the severity of his private studies, and for many months kept his lamp 3 burning even till two o'clock! His only inquiry was, how can I best promote the interests of the institution? In short, therefore, all his learning, his talents, his experience, his accomplishments, were freely and heartily em- " , ployed and given, in season and out of season ;- and a knowledge of all the music he possessed, vocal and instrumental, was im- parted, gratuitously, to the students-and also grammar, moral philosophy, and the like, gratuitously, and at extra hours, to cer-
2 In these pages Hall as Carlton is speaking of himself as Clarence. Hall was married in Danville, Kentucky (Letter to Nunemacher). He appears to have returned with his bride to Philadelphia, where he lost two children before he came to Indiana.
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