History of Howard and Cooper counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of its townships, towns, and villages : together with a condensed history of Missouri, a reliable and detailed history of Howard and Cooper counties-- its pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens, general and local statistics of great value, incidents and reminiscences, Part 64

Author: National Historical Company
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: St. Louis : National Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1198

USA > Missouri > Cooper County > History of Howard and Cooper counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of its townships, towns, and villages : together with a condensed history of Missouri, a reliable and detailed history of Howard and Cooper counties-- its pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens, general and local statistics of great value, incidents and reminiscences > Part 64
USA > Missouri > Howard County > History of Howard and Cooper counties, Missouri : written and compiled from the most authentic official and private sources, including a history of its townships, towns, and villages : together with a condensed history of Missouri, a reliable and detailed history of Howard and Cooper counties-- its pioneer record, resources, biographical sketches of prominent citizens, general and local statistics of great value, incidents and reminiscences > Part 64

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STRANGE, BUT TRUE.

In the year 1818, Joseph Stephens, who died in 1836, Major Stephen Cole and William Ross, the hatter, started west on a hunting and exploring tour, and travelled as far as the present site of Knob Noster. At that time all the country west of the present boundary line of Cooper county, was a wilderness, no person living in it. About six miles southeast of the present site of Sedalia, in Pettis county, on the farm now owned by a man by the name of Warren, near Flat creek, they discovered what appeared to be a large, high and peculi- arly shaped Indian mound. They examined it pretty closely, and found on one side that the wolves had scratched an opening into it. After enlarging it so as to admit them, they beheld a remarkable sight. They found themselves in what resembled a room, about eight feet square, with a ceiling of logs, just high enough to permit a tall man to stand erect. On the side opposite where they had entered, sat an officer dressed in full military uniform, with gold epaulettes upon his shoulders, gold lace fringing every seam of his coat, cocked military hat, knee breeches, lace stockings and morocco slippers. As he sat erect upon a seat hewed out of a log, nothing but the ghastly hue and leathery appearance of his skin would have suggested but that he was alive. By his side stood a heavy gold-headed cane. His features were complete, and his flesh free from decay, though dried to the consistency of leather. The place in which the body was found was very peculiar. A place about eight feet square and two feet deep had been dug in the earth. The sides had been walled up with

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sod until it was high enough for the purpose, reaching several feet above the surface of the ground. The top was then covered with poles, which ran up to a point in the centre like the roof of a house. Then the poles and the surrounding walls were covered with sod two or three feet deep, ent from the prairie near by, thus excluding entire- ly the rain and air. When they left the place, William Ross, being the oldest man of the party, took the cane as a memento, but nothing else was touched.

Who this officer was, from whence he camne, what he was doing in this part of the country, what was the cause of his death, and when and by whom he was thus singularly entombed, has not, and perhaps never will be known. But he was supposed by many to have been a British officer, who, during the war of 1812, passed around by way of Canada into the Indian country, to incite the Indians against the whites ; yet this is only conjecture, though those who discovered his body account for him in that way.

Soon after this, Joseph Stephens, Sr., now living near Peters- burg, on the O. V. & S. K. railroad, in company with James D. Campbell, went into that part of the country bee hunting, and visited the burial place of this officer. They found that part of the roof had fallen in and that the wolves had eaten all of the flesh off the body, so that nothing but the skeleton and clothes remained. Joseph Ste- phens took the epaulettes as a memento, but nothing else was dis- turbed. As his mother objected to his keeping the epaulettes, he melted them into a large ball, which was worth fifteen or twenty dol- lars, as it was solid gold. This description of the burial place and the mysterious, solitary inmate was obtained from the last mentioned Joseph Stephens, and is correct and reliable, although several other and different accounts have been published. As much has been said of Samuel Cole in this, the first chapter of the history of Cooper county, the reader is referred to chapter XX. for other incidents and a more complete biographical sketch of this brave old pioneer, who still lives, at a green old age, in Cooper county.

CHAPTER II.

CUSTOMS OF EARLY DAYS.

Habits and Modes of Living of the Pioneers - Manner of Building - Furniture - Horse Collars and Horses - The Women -The Manner of Making Dresses - How They Went to Church -Simplicity of Their Lives - Food and How Cooked - Home Manu- factures - The Wearing Apparel of the Men and Boys - Log-rollings and Quiltings - Corn Huskings and Dances- The Bottle Handed Around - Athletic Exercises and Target Shooting - Fist Fighting - Pioneer Mills.

"To the aged, no days like the old days : Let the old settlers take us by the hand."

It is a trite but true proverb that " times change and we change with them ; " and it is well illustrated by the changes in dress, condi- tion and life that have taken place in this country in less than half a century. We doubt not that these changes, as a whole, are for the better. To the old man, indeed, whose life work is accomplished, and whose thoughts dwell mainly on the past, where his treasures are, there are no days like the old days, and no song awakens so respon- sive an echo in his heart as " Auld Lang Syne." The very skies that arch above his gray head seem less blue to his dimmed eye than they did when, in the adoration of his young heart, he directed to them his gaze ; the woods appear less green and inviting than when, in the gayety of boyhood, he courted their cool depths, and the songs of their feathered inhabitants fall less melodious upon his ear. He marks the changes that are very visible, and feels like crying ont, in the language of the poet : -

" Backward, turn backward, oh, Time, in thy flight!"

It is natural for the aged to sigh for a return of the past, nor would we attempt the hopeless task of convincing them that, with the changes of the years, there have come also an increase in happiness, an improvement in social life, a progress in education, an advancement in morality, and a tendency upward in all that relates to the welfare of mankind.

We may learn lessons, however, from a study of that land over which the pardonable and fond imagination of the old settler has

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thrown the " light that never was on sea or land," if, withdrawing ourselves from the activities of the present, we let the old settler take us by the hand and lead us back into the regions of his youth, that we may observe the life of those who founded a grand empire in a great wilderness. Let us leave the prow of the rushing ship, from which may be discerned a mighty future, rich in promises and bright with hope, and take our place upon the stern and gaze backward into the beautiful land of the past. No doubt we shall be led to regret the absence among us of some of the virtues of dwellers in those early days. Gone is that free-hearted hospitality which made of every settler's cabin an inn, where the belated and weary traveller found entertainment without money and without price. Gone is that community of sentiment which made neighbors indeed neighbors ; that era of kindly feeling which was marked by the almost entire absence of litigation.

Gone, too, some say, is that simple, strong, upright, honest in- tegrity, which was so marked a characteristic of the pioneer. So rapid has been the improvement in machinery, and the progress in the arts and their application to the needs of man, that a study of the manner in which people lived and worked only fifty years ago, seems like the study of a remote age. It is important to remember that while a majority of settlers were poor, that poverty carried with it no erushing sense of degradation like that felt by the very poor of our age. They lived in a cabin, it is true, but it was their own, and had been reared by their hands. Their house, too, while inconvenient and far from water-proof, was built in the prevailing style of architect- ure, and would compare favorably with the homes of their neighbors. They were destitute of many of the conveniences of life, and some things that are now considered necessaries ; but they patiently endured their lot, and hopefully looked forward to brighter days. They had plenty to wear as a protection against the weather, and an abundance of wholesome food. They sat down to a rude table to eat from tin or pewter dishes ; but the meat thereon spread - the flesh of the deer or bear, of the wild duck or turkey, of the quail or squirrel - was superior to that we eat, and had been won by the skill of the settler, or that of his vigorous sons. The bread they ate was made from corn or wheat of their own raising. They walked the green earpet of grand prairie or forest that surrounded them, not with the air of a beggar, but with the elastic step of a self-respected free man.

The settler brought with him the keen axe, which was indispen- sable, and the equally necessary rifle - the first his weapon of offence

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against the forests that skirted the water courses, and near which he made his home, the second that of defence from the attacks of his foe, the cunning child of the forest and the prairie. His first labor was to fell trees and erect his unpretentious cabin, which was rudely made of logs, and in the raising of which he had the cheerful aid of his neighbors. It was usually from fourteen to sixteen feet square, and never larger than twenty feet, and very frequently, built entirely with- out glass, nails, hinges, or locks. The manner of building was as follows : First, large logs were laid in position as sills, on these were placed strong sleepers, and on the sleepers were laid the rough-hewed puncheons, which were to serve as floors. The logs were then built up till the proper height for the caves was reached ; then on the ends of the building were placed poles, longer than the other end logs, which projected some eighteen or more inches over the sides, and were called " butting pole sleepers ;" on the projecting ends of these was placed the " butting pole," which served to give the line to the first row of clapboards. These were, as a matter of course, split, and as the gables of the cabin were built up, were so laid on as to lap a third of their length. They were often kept in place by the weight of a heavy pole, which was laid across the roof parallel to the ridge pole. The house was then chinked and daubed. A large fire place was built in at one end of the house, in which fire was kindled for cooking purposes (for the settlers generally were without stoves ), and which furnished the needed warmth in winter. The ceiling above was sometimes covered with the pelts of the raccoon, opossum, and of the wolf, to add to the warmth of the dwelling. Sometimes the soft inner bark of the bass wood was used for the same purpose. The cabin was lighted by means of greased paper windows. A log would be left out along one side and sheets of strong paper, well greased with coon grease or bear oil, would be carefully tacked in.

The above description only applies to the earliest times, before the buzzing of the saw mill was heard within our borders. The fur- niture comported admirably with the house itself, and hence, if not elegant, was in perfect taste. The tables had four legs, and was rudely made from a puncheon. Their seats were stools, having three or four legs. The bedstead was in keeping with the rest, and was often so contrived as to permit it to be drawn up and fastened to the wall during the day, thus affording more room for the family. The entire furniture was simple, and was framed with no other tools than an axe and auger. Each was his own carpenter, and some displayed considerable ingenuity in the construction of implements of agricul-

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ture, and utensils and furniture for the kitchen and house. Knives and forks they sometimes had, and sometimes had not. The common table knife was the jack-knife, or butcher-knife. Horse collars were sometimes made of the plaited husk of the maize, sewed together. They were easy on the neck of the horse, and if tug traces were used, would last a long time. Horses were not used very much, however, as oxen were almost exclusively used. In some instances, carts and wagons were constructed or repaired by the self-reliant settler, and the woeful creakings of the untarred axles could be heard at a great distance.

The women corresponded well with the virtuons woman spoken of in the last chapter of Proverbs, for they " sought wool and flax, and worked willingly with their hands." They did not, it is true, make for themselves " coverings of tapestry," nor could it be said of them, that their " clothing was silk and purple ;" but " they rose while it was yet night, and gave meat to their household," and they " girded their loins with strength, and strengthened their arms." They " looked well to the ways of their household, and ate not the bread of idleness." They laid " their hands to the spindle and to the distaff," and " strength and honor were in their clothing."

In these days of furbelows and flounces, when from twenty to thirty yards are required by one fair damsel for a dress, it is refresh- ing to know that the ladies of that ancient time considered eight yards an extravagant amount to put into one dress. The dress was usually made plain with four widths in the skirt and two front ones cut gored. The waist was made very short, and across the shoulders behind was a draw-string. The sleeves were enormously large and tapered from shoulder to wrist, and the most fashionable - for fashion, like love, rules alike, the " court and grove "- were padded so as to resemble a bolster at the upper part, and were known as " mutton legs" or " sheep-shank sleeves." The sleeve was kept in shape often by a heavily starched lining. Those who could afford it used feathers, which gave the sleeve the appearance of an inflated balloon from elbow up, and were known as " pillow sleeves." Many bows and rib- bons were worn, but scarcely any jewelry. The tow-dress was super- seded by the cotton gown. Around the neck, instead of a lace collar or elegant ribbon, there was arranged a copperas colored neckerchief. In going to church or other public gathering, in summer weather, they sometimes walked barefooted, till near their destination, when they would put on their shoes or moccasins. They were contented and even happy without any of the elegant articles of apparel now

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used by ladies and considered necessary articles of dress. Ruffles, fine laces, silk hats, kid gloves, false curls, rings, combs and jewels, were nearly unknown, nor did the lack of them vex their souls. Many of them were grown before they ever saw the interior of a dry goods store. They were reared in simplicity, lived in simplicity, and were happy in simplicity. It may be interesting to speak more specifically regarding cookery and diet. Wild meat was plentiful. The settlers generally brought some food with them to last till a crop could be raised. Small patches of Indian corn were raised, which in the earliest days of the settlements was beaten in a mortar. The meal was made into a coarse but wholesome bread, on which the teeth could not be very tightly shut on account of the grit it contained.

Johnny-cake and pones were served up at dinner, while mush and milk was the favorite dish for supper. In the fire-place hung the crane, and the Dutch oven was used in baking. The streams abounded in fish, which formed a healthful article of food. Many kinds of greens, such as dock and poke, were eaten. The "truck patch " furnished roasting ears, pumpkins, beans, squashes and potatoes, and these were used by all. For reaping-bees, log-rollings and house-raisings, the standard dish was pot-pie. Coffee and tea were used sparingly, as they were very dear, and the hardy pioneer thought them fit only for women and children. They said it would not " stick to the ribs." Maple sugar was much used, and honey was only five cents a pound. Butter was the same price, while eggs were only three cents a dozen. The utmost good feeling prevailed. If one killed hogs, all shared. Chickens were to be seen in great numbers around every doorway, and the gobble of the turkey and the quack of the duck were heard in the land. Nature contributed of her fruits. Wild grapes and plums were to be found in their seasons along the streams. The women manufactured nearly all the clothing worn by the family. In cool weather, gowns made of " linsey-woolsey " were worn by the ladies. The chain was of cotton and the filling of wool. The fabric was usually plaid or striped, and the different colors were blended according to the taste of the fair maker. Colors were blue, copperas, turkey-red, light-blue, etc. Every house contained a card loom and spinning wheels, which were considered by the women as necessary for them as the rifle was for the men. Several different kinds of cloth were made. Cloth was woven from cotton. The rolls were bought and spun on little and big wheels into two kinds of thread - one the " chain " and the other the " filling." The more experienced only spun the chain, the younger the filling. Two kinds of looms were in use. The primitive

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in construction was called the side loom. The frame of it consisted of two pieces of seantling running obliquely from the floor to the wall. Later, the frame loom, which was a great improvement over the other, came into use. The men and boys wore jeans, and linsey-woolsey hunting shirts. The jeans was colored either light blue or butternut, Many times when the men gathered to a log-rolling or a barn-raising, the women would assemble, bringing their spinning wheels with them. In this way sometimes as many as ten or twelve would gather in one room, and the pleasant voices of the fair spinners would mingle with the low hum of the spinning wheels. Oh ! golden, early days ! Such articles as could not be manufactured, were brought to them from the nearest store by the mail carrier. These were few, however, The men and boys in many instances wore pantaloons made of the dressed skin of the deer, which then swarmed the prairies in large herds. The young man who desired to look captivating in the eyes of the maiden whom he loved, had his " bucks " fringed, which lent them not an unpleasing effect. Meal sacks were also made of buckskin. Caps were made of the skins of the fox or wolf, wildcat and muskrat, tanned with the fur on. The tail of the fox or the wolf often hung from the top of the cap, lending the wearer a jaunty air. Both sexes wore moccasins, which in dry weather were an excellent substitute for shoes. There were no shoemakers and each family made its own shoes.

The settlers were separated from their neighbors often by miles. There were no church houses or regular services of any kind to call them together ; hence, no doubt, the cheerfulness with which they accepted invitations to a house raising, or a log rolling, or a corn husking, or a bee of any kind. To attend these gatherings they would sometimes go ten and sometimes more miles. Generally, with the invitation to the men, went one to the women, to come to a quilt- ing. The good woman of the house where the festivities were to take place, would be busily engaged for a day or more in preparation for the coming guests. Great quantities of provisions were to be prepared, for dyspepsia was unknown to the pioneer, and good appetites were the rule and not the exception. " The bread used at these frolies was baked generally on johnny or journey cake boards, and is the best corn bread ever made. A board is made smooth, about two feet long and eight inches wide - the ends are generally rounded. The dough is spread out on this board and placed leaning before the fire. One side is baked and the dough is changed on the board, so the other side is presented, in its turn, to the fire. This is johnny cake, and is good, if the proper materials are put in the dough, and it is properly

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baked." At all the log rollings and house raisings it was customary to provide liquor. Excesses were not indulged in, however. The fiddle was never forgotten. After the day's work had been accom- plished, outdoors and in, by men and women, the floor was cleared and the merry dance began. The handsome, stalwart young men, whose fine forms were the result of their manly outdoor life, clad in fringed buckskin trousers and gaudily colored hunting shirts, led forth the bright-eyed, buxom damsels, attired in neatly-fitting linsey wool- sey garments, to the dance, their cheeks glowing with health and eyes speaking of enjoyment, and perhaps of a tenderer emotion. In pure pioneer times the crops were never husked on the stalk, as is done at this day, but were hauled home in the husk and thrown in a heap, generally by the side of the crib, so that the ears when husked could be thrown direct into the crib. The whole neighborhood, male and female, were invited to the "shucking," as it was called. The girls and many of the married ladies generally engaged in this amusing work.

In the first place, two leading expert huskers were chosen as cap- tains, and the heap of corn divided as near equal as possible. Rails were laid across the piles so as to designate the division ; and then each captain chose alternately his corps of huskers, male and female. The whole number of working hands present were selected on one side or the other, and then each party commenced a contest to heat the other, which was in many cases truly exciting. One other rule was, whenever a male husked a red ear of corn he was entitled to a kiss from the girls.

This frequently excited much fuss and scuffling, which was in- tended by both parties to end in a kiss. It was a universal practice that taffa, or Monongahela whiskey, was used at these husking frolics, which they drank out of a bottle ; each one, male and female, taking the bottle and drinking out of it and then handing it to his or her neighbor without using any glass or cup. This custom was common and not considered rude. Almost always these corn shuckings ended in a dance. To prepare for this amusement, fiddles and fiddlers were in great demand, and it often required much fast riding to obtain them. One violin and a performer were all that was contemplated at these innocent rural games.

Towards dark, and the supper half over, then it was that a bus- tle and confusion commenced. The confusion of the tongues at Babel would have been ashamed at the corn husking, the young ones hur- rying off the table, and the old ones contending for time and order.

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It was the case in nine times ont of ten, but one dwelling-house was on the premises, and that used for eating as well as dancing. But when the fiddler commenced tuning his instrument, the music always gained the victory for the young side. Then the victuals, dishes, ta- ble and all, disappeared in a few minutes and the room was cleared, the dogs driven out, and the floor swept off, ready for action. The floors of these houses were sometimes the natural earth, beat solid, sometimes the earth with puncheons in the middle over the potato hole, and at times the whole floor was made of puncheons. The music at these country dances made the young folks almost frantic, and sometimes much excitement was displayed to get on the floor first. Generally the fiddler on these occasions assumed an important bear- ing, and ordered, in true professional style, so and so to be done, as that was the way in North Carolina where he was raised. The decision ended the contest for the floor. In those days they danced jigs and four-handed reels, as they were called. Sometimes three-handed reels were danced. In these dances there was no standing still ; all were moving at a rapid pace from beginning to end. In the jigs the bystanders cut one another out, so that this dance would last for hours.

The bottle went around at these parties, as it did at the shuck- ings, and male and female took a dram out of it as it passed around. No sitting was indulged in, and the folks either stood or danced all night. The dress of these hardy pioneers was generally homespun. The hunting shirt was ninch worn at that time, which is a convenient working or dancing dress. In the morning all go home on horseback or on foot. No carriages, wagons or other vehicles were used on these occasions, for the best of reasons - because they had none.

Dancing was a favorite amusement, and was participated in by all.

" Alike all ages, dames of ancient days Have led their children through the mirthful maze, And the gray grandsire, skilled in jestic lore, Has frisked beneath the burden of three-score."

The amusements of that day were more athletic and rude than those of to-day. Among the settlers of a new country, from the nature of the case, a higher value is set upon physical than mental endowments. Skill in woodcraft, superiority of muscular develop- ment, accuracy in shooting with the rifle, activity, and swiftness of foot, were qualifications that brought their possessors fame. Foot- racing was practised, and often the boys and young men engaged in friendly contests with the Indians. Every man had a rifle, and kept

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Author: National Historical Company Publication date: 1883 Publisher: St. Louis : National Historical Co. Number of Pages: 1198

Author: National Historical Company
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: St. Louis : National Historical Co.
Number of Pages: 1198