USA > Massachusetts > Our western border : its life, combats, adventures, forays, massacres, captivities, scouts, red chiefs, pioneer women, one hundred years ago, containing the cream of all the rare old border chronicles > Part 23
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A few pegs around the walls for a display of the coats of the women and hunting shirts of the men, and two small forks or buck's horns protruding from a joist for the rifle and shot-pouch, completed the carpenter work. In the meantime the masons were also at work. With the heart-pieces of the clap-board timber, they made billets for chinking up the cracks between the logs of the cabin and the chimney. A large bed of mud mortar was made for daubing over these cracks so filled, and a few stones formed the back and jambs of the chimney.
The cabin being thus finished, the ceremony of house-warming took place before the young couple were allowed to move into it. This ' warming ' was a dance lasting a whole night, indulged in by the bride and groom, relatives and neighbors. On the day following, the young couple took possession of their new mansion. At house-raisings, log-rollings and harvest parties, every one was expected to do his duty faithfully. A person who shirked his duty on these occasions, was called a ' Laurence,' or some other still more opprobrious epithet, and if it ever came his turn to require a like aid, the idler soon felt his punishment in the general refusal to attend his call. Every man, too, of full age and size, was expected to do his full share of military or scouting duty. If he did not, he was 'hated out as a coward.' Even the want of any article of war equipments, such as ammunition, a sharp flint, a priming wire, a scalping knife or tomahawk, was thought highly disgraceful."
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
BORDER CUSTOMS AND BATTLES-TATTLING-THIEVES, &C.
" A man who, without good cause, failed to go out on a scout of campaign when it came to his turn, met with an expression of contempt in the countenances of all his neighbors, and epithets of dishonor were fastened upon him without mercy. Debts, which make such an uproar in civilized life, were then but little known. After the depreciation of the continental currency, they had no money of any kind, but paid for everything by peltry, produce or labor. A good cow and calf were often the price of a bushel of alum salt. Any petty theft was punished with all the infamy that could be heaped upon the offender.
A man on a campaign stole from his comrade a cake out of the ashes. He was immediately named 'the bread rounds !' This epithet of reproach was bandied about thus : when he came in sight of a group of men, one of them would call out ' Who comes there?' Another would answer 'The bread rounds.' If any meant to be more serious, he would call out 'Who stole a cake out of the ashes ?' Another would answer out the thief's name in full ; to this a third would give confirma- tion by exclaiming 'That's true and no lie!' This kind of tongue- lashing he was doomed to bear for the rest of the campaign, as well as for years after.
If a theft was detected on the frontier, it was deemed a detestable crime and the maxim was 'a thief must be whipped !' If the theft was serious, a jury of the neighborhood, after hearing the testimony, would condemn the culprit to Moses' Law-that is, to forty stripes, save one. If the theft was trifling, the offender was doomed to carry on his back the U. S. flag of thirteen stripes, which stripes were well and heartily laid on. This was followed by sentence of exile. He had to decamp in so many days, under penalty of having his stripes doubled. If a woman was given to tattling and slander, she was allowed to say what she pleased without being believed, her tongue being said to be no scandal.
With all their rudeness these people were given to hospitality and freely divided their rough fare with a neighbor or a stranger, and would have been offended at the offer of pay. In their forts and settlements, they lived, worked, fought, feasted and suffered together in cordial har- mony. They were warm and constant in their friendships. On the other hand, they were revengeful in their resentments, and the point of honor sometimes led to personal combats. If one called another a liar, he was considered as having given a challenge which the one who re- ceived it must accept or be deemed a coward. If the injured party
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THE HOUSEHOLD CUSTOMS.
was unable to fight the aggressor, he might get a friend to do it for him. The same thing took place on a charge of cowardice or any other dishonorable action-a battle must follow. Thus circumstanced, our people in early times were very cautious of speaking evil of their neighbors.
Sometimes pitched battles occurred, in which time, place and seconds were appointed beforehand. I remember seeing one of these in my father's fort. One of the young men knew well that he should get the worst of the battle, and no doubt repented the engagement, but there was no getting over it. The point of honor demanded the risk of a bat- tle. He took his whipping; the contestants then shook hands, and that was an end of it. The mode of battle in those days was danger- ous in the extreme; although no weapons were used, fists, teeth and feet were used at will, but, above all, the detestable practice of gouging, by which eyes were sometimes put out, rendered this mode of fighting frightful indeed. The ministry of the Gospel contributed immensely to the happy change which has been effected in our western society. At an early period in our settlement, three Presbyterian clergymen com- menced their labors. They were pious, patient, laborious men, who collected their people into regular congregations, and did all for theni that circumstances would allow. It was no disparagement to them that . their first churches were in the shady groves, and their first pulpits a kind of tent, constructed of a few rough slabs and covered with clap- boards."
THE HOUSEHOLD CUSTOMS-HUNTERS IN INDIAN DRESS.
"The women did the offices of the household, milked the cows, cooked the mess, prepared the flax, spun, wove, and made the garments of linen or linsey. The men hunted and brought in the meat; they planted, ploughed and gathered the corn. Grinding it into meal at the hand- mill or pounding it into hominy in the mortar, was occasionally the work of either or the joint labor of both. The men alone exposed themselves to danger, fought the Indians, cleared the land, reared the hut or built the fort in which the women were placed for safety. . Much use was made of the skins of deer for dress, while the bear and buffalo skins were consigned to the floor for beds and covering. Wooden ves- sels, either turned or coopered, were in common use as furniture. A tin cup was as rare a luxury as an iron fork.
Every hunter carried his knife; it was no less the implement of a warrior ; not unfrequently the rest of the family were left with but one or two for the use of all. When the bed was, by chance or refinement, elevated above the floor, it was often laid on slabs placed across poles
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
and supported on forks; or, when the floor was of puncheons, the bed- stead was hewed pieces, pinned on upright posts or let into them by auger holes. The food was of the most wholesome kind. The richest milk, the finest butter and best meat that ever delighted man's palate, were eaten with a relish which health and labor only could command. Hats were made of native fur, and the buffalo wool employed to make cloth, as was also the bark of the wild nettle. There was some paper money in the country. If there was any gold and silver, it was sup- pressed. The price of a beaver hat was, in the depreciated currency of the day, worth five hundred dollars
The hunting shirt was universally worn by the men. This was a kind of loose frock, reaching half way down the thighs, with large sleeves, open before, and so wide as to lap over a foot or more when belted. The cape was large and sometimes handsomely fringed with a raveled piece of cloth of a different color from that of the hunting shirt itself. The bosom of this shirt served as a wallet to hold a chunk of bread, cakes, jerk, tow for wiping the barrel of the rifle, or any other necessary for the hunter or warrior. The belt, which was always tied behind, answered several purposes besides that of holding the dress to- gether. In cold weather, the mittens, and sometimes the bullet-bag, occupied the front part of it. To the right side was suspended the tomahawk, and to the left the scalping knife in its leathern sheath.
The hunting shirt was generally made of linsey; sometimes of coarse linen, and a few of dressed deer skins. These last were very cold and uncomfortable in wet weather. The skirt and jacket were of the common fashion. A pair of drawers or breeches and leggins were the dress of the thighs and legs ; a pair of moccasins answered for the feet much better than shoes, and were made of dressed deer skin. They were mostly made out of a single piece, with a gathering seam along the top of the foot, and another from the bottom of the heel, without gathers, as high as the ankle joint, or higher. Flaps were left on each side to reach some distance up the leg, and were adapted to the ankles and lower part of the leg by thongs of deer skin, so that no dust, snow or gravel could find its way within.
The moccasins in general use cost but a few hours of labor to fashion, and were done by a moccasin awl made from the back spring of an old clasp knife. This awl, with its buck-horn handle, was an appendage of every bullet-pouch strap, together with a roll of buckskin thongs for mending moccasins, which was the labor of almost every evening. They were sewed and patched together with deer-skin thongs, or whangs, as they were commonly called. In cold weather, these moc- casins were well stuffed with deer's hair or dry leaves, so as to keep the
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SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE PIONEERS.
feet comfortably warm; but in wet weather it was usually said that wearing them was only 'a decent way of going barefooted,' and such, indeed, was the fact, owing to the spongy texture of the leather of which they were made.
Owing to the defective covering of the feet more than to anything else, the greater number of hunters and warriors were afflicted with rheumatism in the limbs. Of this disease they were all apprehensive in cold or wet weather, and therefore always slept with their feet to the fire, to prevent or cure it as well as they could. This kept them from being confirmed cripples for life.
In the latter years of the Indian war, our young men became more enamored of the Indian dress. The drawers were laid aside, and the leggins made longer, so as to reach the upper part of the thigh. The Indian breech-cloth was adopted. This was a piece of linen cloth, nearly a yard long and eight or nine inches broad, hanging before and behind over the belt, sometimes ornamented with coarse embroidery. To the same belt which secured the breech-cloth, strings, supporting the long leggins, were attached. When this belt, as was often the case, passed over the hunting shirt, the upper part of the thighs and part of the hips were naked. The young warrior, instead of being abashed by this nudity, was proud of his Indian dress. In some few instances I have seen them go into places of public worship in this dress. Their appearance, however, did not much add to the devotion of the young ladies. The linsey coats and bed gowns, which were the universal dress of our women in early times, would make a strange figure at this day. They knew nothing of the ruffles, leghorns, curls, combs, rings, and other jewels with which the ladies now decorate themselves. Such things were not then to be had. Instead of the toilet, they had to handle the distaff or shuttle-the sickle or weeding hoe-contented if they could obtain their linsey clothing and cover their heads with a sun- bonnet made of six or seven hundred linen."
THE SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE PIONEERS.
" The sports of the pioneers were such as might be expected among a people who, owing to circumstances as well as education, set a higher value on physical than mental endowments and on skill in hunting and bravery in war, than any polite accomplishment or the fine arts. Many of the sports were imitative of the exercises and stratagems of hunting and war. Boys were taught the use of the bow and arrow at an early age, and acquired considerable adroitness in their use, so as to kill a bird or a squirrel. One important pastime of boys was that of imitat-
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
ing the noise of every bird and beast of the woods. This faculty was not merely a pastime, but a very necessity of education, on account of its practical utility. Imitating the gobbling and other sounds of the wild turkey, often brought those watchful and keen-eyed tenants of the forest within reach of the rifle. The bleating of the fawn brought its dam to her death in the same way. The hunter often collected a company of mopish owls to the trees about his camp and amused him- self with their hoarse screaming. His howl would raise and obtain re- sponses from a pack of wolves so as to inform him of their whereabouts, as well as to guard him against their depredations.
This imitative faculty was sometimes requisite as a measure of pre- caution in war. The Indians, when scattered about in a neighborhood, often collected together by imitating turkeys by day and wolves by night. In similar situations our people did the same. I have often witnessed the consternation of a whole neighborhood in consequence of the screeching of owls. An early and correct use of this imitative faculty was considered as an indication that its possessor would become in due time a good hunter and a valiant warrior.
Throwing the tomahawk was another boyish sport in which many acquired considerable skill. The tomahawk, with its handle of a cer- tain length, will make a given number of turns within a certain dis- tance ; say, in five steps it will strike with the edge, the handle down- wards at the distance of seven and a half it will strike with the edge, the handle upwards, and so on. A little experience enabled the boy to measure the distance with his eyes when walking through the woods, and to strike a tree with his tomahawk in any way he chose. A well- grown boy at the age of twelve or thirteen, was furnished with a small rifle and shot pouch. He then became a foot soldier and had his port- hole assigned him. Hunting squirrels, turkeys and raccoons, soon made him expert in the use of his gun.
Shooting at a mark was a common diversion among the men when their stock of ammunition would allow it ; this, however, was far from being always the case. The present mode of shooting off-hand was not then in practice. This mode was not considered as any trial of a gun ; nor, indeed, as much of a test of the skill of a marksman. Their shoot- ing was from a rest, and as great a distance as the length and weight of the barrel of the gun would throw a ball on a horizontal level. Such was their regard to accuracy in those sportive trials of their rifles, and in their own skill in the use of them, that they often put moss or some other soft substance on the log or stump from which they shot, for fear of having the bullet thrown from the mark by the spring of the barrel. When the rifle was held to the side of a tree for a rest, it was pressed
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SPORTS AND PASTIMES OF THE PIONEERS.
against it as tightly as possible, for the same reason. Rifles of former times were different from those of modern date; few of them carried more than forty-five bullets to the pound. Bullets of a less size were not thought sufficiently heavy for hunting or war.
The athletic sports of running, jumping and wrestling, were the pas- times of boys in common with men. Dramatic narrations, chiefly con- cerning Jack and the Giant, furnished our young people with another source of amusement during their leisure hours. The different incidents of the narration were easily committed to memory, and have been handed down from generation to generation. The singing of the first settlers was rude enough. 'Robin Hood' furnished a number of our songs; the balance were mostly tragical; these were denominated 'love songs about murder.' As to cards, dice, backgammon and other games of chance, we knew nothing about them. They are among the blessed gifts of civilization ! Dancing was the principal amusement of our young people of both sexes. Their dances, to be sure, were of the simplest forms ; three-handed and four-handed reels and jigs. Country (contra) dances, cotillions and minuets, were unknown. I remember to have seen, once or twice, a dance which was called "The Irish Trot.'"
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
THE CAPTIVITY OF JOHN MCCULLOUGH.
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF AFTER EIGHT YEARS A CAPTIVE.
We have quoted liberally from Dr. Doddridge, because he himself liva! on the border ; was an actor in the stirring scenes which occurred during the Indian wars, and, being well acquainted with the early pioneers and their ways and customs, has graphically pictured them, writing only of what he himself saw or knew. Such a chronicle, there- fore, is obviously worth a score of those written at this late day and from a modern stand point.
For a somewhat similar reason we publish a few simple narratives of captivities, because, like that of Smith's, already related, they furnish the most faithful transcript of Indian daily life and habits. They treat of a singular and deeply interesting period and condition in our history -the like of which has never occurred since and can never occur again. Before, therefore, we proceed to the settlement of Kentucky, or sketch the lives of the remarkable worthies who traveled or fought over that "dark and bloody ground," we select two narratives of captivities which happened contemporaneously with that of Captain Smith. And first, we give an abridgment of what John McCullough saw and suffered during an eight years' residence among redskins. We quote :
I was born in Newcastle county, in the State of Delaware. When I was five years old my father moved his family from thence to the back parts of then Cumberland (now Franklin) county, to a place well known by the name of Conococheague settlement, about a year before what has been generally termed Braddock's war. Shortly after the com- mencement of the war, he moved his family into York county, where he remained until the Spring of 1756, when we ventured home; we had not been long at home until we were alarmed again ; we then fled down to Antietam settlement, where we remained until the beginning of harvest, then ventured home to secure our crops; we stopped about three miles from home, where we got a small cabin to live in until my father went home and secured the grain.
On the 26th of July, 1756, my parents and oldest sister went home to pull flax, accompanied by one John Allen, a neighbor, who had business at Fort Loudon, and promised to come that way in the evening to accompany them back. Allen had proceeded but about two miles
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CAPTIVITY OF JOHN MCCULLOUGH.
toward Loudon when he heard the Indians had killed a man that morn- ing, about a mile and a half from where my parents were at work; he then, instead of going back to accompany them home, agreeably to his promise, took a circuitous route of about six or seven miles, for fear of Indians. When he came home, my brother and I were playing on the great road, a short distance from the house; he told us to go immediate- ly to the house or the Indians would catch us, adding, at the same time, . that he supposed they had killed our father and mother by that time,
We were small ; I was about eight years old, my brother was but five; we went to the house, the people were all in a bustle, making ready to go to a fort about a mile off. I recollect of hearing them say, that somebody should go and give my parents notice ; none would venture to go; my brother and I concluded that we would go ourselves ; ac- cordingly we laid off our trowsers and went off in our shirts, unnoticed by any person, leaving a little sister about two years old sleeping in bed ; when we got in sight of the house we began to halloo and sing, rejoicing that we had got home; when we came within about fifty or sixty yards of the house, all of a sudden the Indians came rushing out of a thicket upon us ; they were six in number, to wit, five Indians and one Frenchman ; they divided into two parties ; three rushed across the path before, and three behind us. This part of the scene appears to me yet more like a dream than anything real: my brother screamed aloud the instant we saw them; for my part, it appeared to me that the one party were Indians and the other white people; they stopped before us; I was making my way betwixt two of them, when one of the hind party pulled me back by my shirt ; they instantly ran up a little hill to where they had left their baggage ; there they tied a pair of moccasins on my feet ; my brother at that instant broke off from them, running towards the house, screaming as he went ; they brought him back, and started off as fast as I was able to run along with them, one of them carrying my brother on his back.
We ran alongside of the field where my parents were at work; they were only intercepted from our view by a small ridge in the field, that lay parallel to the course we were running; when we had got about seventy or eighty perches from the field, we sat down in a thicket of bushes, where we heard our father calling us; two of the Indians ran off towards the house, but happily missed him, as he had returned back to the field, supposing that we had gone back again. The other four started off with us as fast as I was able to travel along with them, jump- ing across every road we came to, one catching by each arm and sling- ing me over the road to prevent our tracks from being discovered.
We traveled all that day, observing still when we came to an emi-
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OUR WESTERN BORDER.
nence, one of them would climb up a tree, and point out the course they should take, in order, I suppose, to avoid being discovered. It came on rain towards evening ; we traveled on till a good while after night ; at last we took up our lodging under a large tree ; they spread down a blanket for us to lie on, and laid another over us; an Indian laid down on each side of us on the edge of our cover, the rest laid down at our head and feet. At break of day we started again; about sunrise we heard a number of axes at a short distance from us; we also discovered where logs had been dragged on the ground the day before ; they immediately took the alarm and made off as quick as possible. Towards evening we stopped on the side of a mountain ; two of the Indians and the Frenchman went down into the valley, leaving one to take care of us; they were not long gone till we heard them shooting ; in a short time they came back, carrying a parcel of hogs on their backs, and a fowl they had killed; also a parcel of green apples in their bosoms; they gave us some of the apples, which was the first nourish- ment we got from the time we were taken.
We then went down the mountain into an obscure place, where they kindled a fire and singed the hair off the hogs and roasted them; the fowl they roasted for us. We had not been long there till we heard the war halloo up the run from where we had our fire, and the two Indians came to us, whom I mentioned had ran towards the house when they heard my father calling us; they had a scalp with them, and by the color of the hair I concluded that it had been my father's, but I was mistaken ; it was the scalp of the man they killed the morning before they took us; this scalp they made two of, and dried them at the fire. After roasting the meat and drying the scalps, we took to the mountain again; when we had got about half way up, we stopped and sat down on an old log-after a few minutes' rest they rose up, one after another, and went to the sides of rocks and old logs and began to scrape away the leaves, where they drew out blankets, bells, a small kettle, and sev- eral other articles which they had hidden when they were coming down.
We got over the mountain that evening; about sunset we crossed a large road in sight of a waste house; we went about a quarter of a mile further and encamped by the side of a large run; one of then went about two or three hundred yards from the camp and shot a deer and brought it to the camp on his back. I had been meditating my escape from the time we crossed the road. Shortly after dark we laid down; I was placed next to the fire, my brother next, and an Indian laid down on the edge of the blanket behind us. I awoke some time in the night, and roused my brother, whispering to him to rise, and we would go off; he told me that he could not go; I told him that I would go myself, but
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MCCULLOUGH'S IDEA OF THE DEVIL.
he replied that he did not care. I got up as softly as I could, but had not got more than three or four yards from the fire till the Indian who lay at our backs raised his head and said, " Where you go?" I told him I was going for a call of nature; he said, "make haste, come sleep." I went and laid down again.
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