USA > Nebraska > Platte County > Past and present of Platte County, Nebraska : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 17
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Other physicians practicing in the county but not members of the society are: L. C. Voss and E. S. Ross, Columbus; B. L. Benthack and R. N. Ryan, Platte Center; E. A. Conley, Humphrey; E. J. Gillespie, Monroe.
CHAPTER XIII THE SIMPLE LIFE
SOD AND LOG HOUSES
The natural resources of new countries provide liberally all the necessities for human existence, until such time as the pioneer may acquire, if diligent, a more reliable and convenient supply, better adapted to his previous habits and customs. The Indian was not destructive during his occupancy of the country and left for the white man's use all the wealth of game and forest and soil, just as he had received it from Nature's bountiful hand. Thus the pioneer settlers found in great affluence wild game and fish.
If the settler came during the spring or planting season of the year, usually his first employment was in planting such crops for which he was able to prepare the ground, and then came the building of a sod or log house; meanwhile, "camping out' 'in the wagon or in a tent, for all were prepared for outdoor living. If he arrived at other than the springtime, house building was first in order of impor- tance. The pioneer always settled either in a forest, or on the prairie borders of one, but in the latter case, a little way in the timber. And. if he was early enough to have choice of a location, he selected a site facing the prairie to the south or east. In nearly every case the settler had been born, raised and always lived in a heavily timbered country. But he found here far more prairie than timber and, instinctively, he seemed to know that, soon or late, he must use the prairie largely for farming operations. Thus, most of the early settlers sought to include in their "claims" a piece of adjacent prairie land.
The settlers of 1857 and years later, without an exception, built and dwelt in sod and log houses. The sod house was constructed of the tough, fibrous sod of the prairie, which was cut in square blocks and laid together, like the modern cement block. Walls constructed with this crude material were strong and durable, and made for
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warmth in the winter and coolness in the summer. Primitive mortar, made of the mucky soil, served to weld the seams together and smooth the inner walls, which often were whitewashed and gave to the eye a very homelike and presentable appearance. As a rule, probably two- thirds of the structure was below the surface. It usually was square and was provided with a door and window. Becoming thoroughly dried by the hot summer winds and the heat of a roaring fire in the winter, this common habitation of the Nebraska settler proved to be comfortable and served the purpose of economy well and satisfac- torily.
The log houses were of three general types-of round or unhewn logs, hewn logs or built of "poles." Where the settler had time and help was sufficient, he hewed the logs in timber, where the trees were felled, and hauled or dragged them to the site of the house. Enough men were then notified on a certain day he would have a "house raising." It was universally the rule that a notification of a "raising" was a "draft" on the services of the man notified for that whole day. He was not invited, requested, or even asked to attend; he was simply notified. Of course, there might be some prior engagement that would prevent the "notified" person from being present and, for this reason, upon notification he was asked but one question: "Can you go?" During the first year or two so thin were the settlements that sometimes "drafted" neighbors would have to go from eight to fif- teen miles.
As the "raisings" began early in the morning, so as to be sure of a finish by night, those from a distance must start before breakfast time at home. But as no breakfast was served at the "raising" they must hustle out early. Some sort of a dinner, served in some sort of a manner-the best the newcomers could possibly do under the cir- cumstances-came at noon. As a rule, no supper was served and none expected. Of course no pay for the day's work was given, or would have been accepted if offered. It was a duty each settler owed the newcomer in return for like service rendered him when he came to the country.
The early settlers of this county were largely teetotalers, or very moderate' users of intoxicants, and, therefore, it was the exception when whisky was furnished at these "raisings." When offered at all to those who chose to drink, moderation was the rule, since to take too much was dangerous to the others.
The "raising" of a log house included the carrying up of the four sides, the gable end logs; proper placing of the cross poles, or logs,
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which held the gable end logs in place, and to which the clapboards would be nailed or weighted down by poles, and such sills for the floor to rest upon as the owner chose. The door and window places and fireplace were left for the owner to cut or saw out as he chose and the roof and floor he could add at his convenience.
The "raising" of an unhewn log house was in the same manner. Generally, the owner would later employ an expert to hew the logs in the wall. Good hewers were rather scarce and if the owner could not hew, he had to build his house with the crude logs and hire a hewer when he could. Good hewers commanded higher wages than common woodsmen, and for hewing logs in the wall a still higher price was demanded, it being more difficult and slower work, besides, the logs, when left for some time, became more or less seasoned and conse- quently tougher.
A "pole" house was built of very large and straight poles, or small logs, never hewn, and otherwise built as regular log houses. Comparatively few were erected and they were far from desirable. They were intended but for temporary use as a habitation and even- tually were turned into use as stables.
Log houses cost little except in labor and often were completed without the expenditure of a cent. Nothing was bought-not even a nail, a window glass or a door hinge. In such case the roof was of clapboards, weighted down by large poles, laid from end to end of the roof across the lower end of each tier of boards; the windows were of light colored paper, well oiled or greased; the doors were "batten" ones, made of puncheon or clapboards, fastened together by wooden pins, and hung by wooden hinges. The fastening consisted of a wooden latch.
BREAKING OUT A FARM
The early settlers found the prairies covered by grasses that grew tall and coarse and rank, some kinds growing taller than a man. Some seasons the "blue joint" grew as tall as a man's head on horse- back. The grass roots were large, coarse and matted the ground so closely than in places in the sloughs near the surface there were more roots than earth. Such pieces could not be broken by any plow the first settlers had.
The very early settlers did not come prepared with plows and teams strong enough to break either the heavier prairie lands or the brush. For several years after settlement began only the easily
AN EARLY DAY SOD CHURCH IN NEBRASKA
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plowed pieces were brought under cultivation. In those days all kinds of plows were made at individual shops and wholly by hand. If a farmer needed any kind of a plow, he went to his favorite black- smith and gave his order, to be filled when his turn came. But not every blacksmith was a plow maker.
Thus, for three or four years the little fields of the settlers were mostly along the edges of the timber, where some trees could be deadened and later removed as they decayed, or there came leisure time to cut them down and burn them. And then close along the timber line the grass sod was easier to break. It should be remem- bered that at first there was but very little or no brush-it was either timber or prairie-because the great, sweeping prairie fires kept down all kinds of undergrowth.
The earlier settlers brought few horses or cattle, which led them to adopt the custom of "splicing" their team forces when breaking land. A little later on "breaking" became a business quite exclu- sively its own. Plowing had to be done at a certain season of the year, between May 20 and about July 1, while the grass and brush grew most vigorously. As this was also the cultivating season of the year and corn was the leading crop, a farmer could not both break and cultivate the same season, so that one or two men would rig up a suitable breaking plow and with plenty of teams (always oxen) , make contracts with those in the neighborhood wanting breaking done and continue the work during the breaking season. The price for breaking until 1870, when the custom mostly ceased, was around $3 per acre, for prairie land, and $4 to $5 for brush. Horses and mules were seldom used, and never on brush land, because they were too fast in their movements and not steady enough. Oxen were slow, steady- going animals, stepping no faster when the draught was easy than when it was heavy. However, considerable of the prairie lands, dur- ing the early '70s, were broken by horses and mules, because clear prairie and the sod had by long pasturage become much easier broken.
PIONEER BEDSTEADS
During the first few years very few bedsteads were brought from former homes by the settlers. As soon as the log cabin was covered, two 2-inch augur holes were bored into the logs, the proper distance from one corner for the length and breadth of the bed, a round or squared post for the other corner support prepared, into which like holes were bored; round poles were fitted into these holes for bed
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railings-and the bedstead was completed. Bed ropes were always brought along. Sometimes pole crosspieces were fastened to the logs or wooden pins along the logs, to which was fastened the inside sec- tion of the bed rope, and thus was made ready for the bed clothes. To economize space, trundle beds were made to fit under each bed of standard height. These were for the children, but often were used by "grown-ups."
In those primitive days nearly every family kept a flock of geese. The very early settlers usually brought along a pair of geese, some- times more, which traveled along with the cattle and sheep while moving. These furnished feathers for beds and the woman who could boast of the largest number of feather beds stood supreme among the women of the neighborhood. Every family who could afford them slept in winter between two feather beds. To say of a family, "Why, they haven't a feather bed in the house," was to express the direst poverty of their condition. Until comparatively late years, if the parents failed to give a newly married daughter a good feather bed, it became the talk of the neighborhood.
SHOEMAKERS AND REPAIRERS
The boots worn by the early settlers were coarsely made. Wom- en's shoes were of much the same rude material. Indeed, women and girls often wore men's boots, especially in snowy and muddy weather. The footwear was bought ready made at the stores and seldom were mended, but worn as long as they held together. Women and children usually went "barefoot" from early spring to late in the fall. Men also followed this practice in the season of the year when their work admitted it. Men, women and children roamed over the prairie, through brush and timber, in their bare feet when it seemed impossible for human endurance, and many women and children, whose work did not require protracted hours in the cold and snow, wore no shoes during the winter, substituting for them home-made moccasins fashioned out of remnants of woolen clothes. Cash was always required to buy boots and shoes, and that was generally scarce and often impossible to obtain. A pair of boots or shoes was the limit of affluence for nearly all persons in the country. Going "bare- foot" was necessary, if not popular. There was no caste or exclusive- ness in the pioneer days of Platte County and necessity established customs. So that when one neighbor tried to "lord it over" another, means were at hand to discipline the culprit. Often even large girls
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were laughed out of wearing shoes at summer school. The "barefoot" scholars set the "pace" and insisted on it being observed by all. It was common, during the '60s, to see women and men at religious meetings in their bare feet. This all seems strange to us nowadays; but necessary economy in all things then required sacrifices of this character.
In most country neighborhoods there was some one who mended boots and shoes-cobblers they were called. Once in a while a farmer, who mayhap had worked in an eastern tannery, would make a try at tanning a few hides at home for himself and neighbors. The leather turned out proved of inferior quality, but as it cost nothing but labor to produce and the raw hides were cheap, the stuff answered many purposes.
EARLY TIME BLACKSMITHS
The first blacksmith in the county was Jacob Ernst, who settled in 1857 in Columbus, bringing with him a small supply of tools, besides a bellows and anvil. There was, of course, very little blacksmith work to do in 1857, that being the year after the first settlements of the county were made. Later, he did not care to work much in his smithy and abandoned the bellows and anvil entirely.
Before 1865 blacksmiths made everything required by their cus- tomers, out of bar iron or steel; horseshoes and nails were pounded out by hand. Until about 1870 charcoal alone was used by the smiths in this county.
CARPENTERS AND JOINERS
At first and until sawmills began to cut the native timber into lumber, in the latter part of 1857, there was no employment for me- chanics in woodwork. Buildings were all of logs and the finishing of them was of the rudest kind. The pioneers were, with rare excep- tions, all farmers, and the exceptions readily adapted themselves to that industry.
As sawmills increased and people began to use the lumber for houses and other purposes, workmen in wood appeared. Some were carpenters, who could build a house but were unable to put in doors, windows or do the finer work inside or outside; this class of work belonged to "joiners" and there were many more carpenters than joiners. Ready-made doors or windows were not in the market, so that all had to be made by the hand of some local joiner out of native lumber. Unless a carpenter and joiner had the contract, a carpenter
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would do the rough work and the joiner finished the job ready for the plasterers. During the middle '60s ready-made doors and win- dows came on the market and a few years later were on sale in smaller towns. This nearly ended the trade of joiners and since then the carpenter and joiner, as such, rarely has been heard of.
HARVESTING WILD HAY
Prairie grass was the only kind of stock feed, except grain, for several years after the county was settled. Until the advent of mow- ing machines, near the middle '60s, the grass was cut with a scythe. This was a slow process, but generally the grass was heavy on the bottom lands and in the prairie sloughs. The upland grass was a finer quality for hay than bottom or slough grass. It cut much less to the acre and was neglected until the quantity on the bottom lands, and increased number of stock, made the use of it necessary.
It is very often the case that the overabundance of a supply in its raw state results in great scarcity in its prepared state, through negligence to prepare and wastefulness after preparation. Thus with a wilderness of prairie grass it was often that in the spring hay was scarce and very high in price. Occasionally a considerable migra- tion through the country, or influx of settlers, would cause the scarcity and high prices. If either of these came in the spring, when otherwise there was a shortness of supply, woe unto the man who had to buy, if he had the money, or pity for his stock if he did not! In the spring of 1859, during the California travel through the county, wild hay sold as high as $40 and $50 per ton, and many were unable to purchase at any price. Settlers hauled hay as far as a day's travel one way to the roads over which the caravans were passing, went into camp and sold out their hay as they could, and then returned home feeling highly remunerated for their time. In selling hay those days, if the whole load was not "lumped off." it would be disposed of by the armful, or the seller would size up the physical ability of the buyer to carry hay, and then offer him as much as he could carry in his arms for so much. A man can never properly estimate the amount of hay he can carry until he has some experience in thus measuring hay at the rate of $50 a ton.
At the period of this great scarcity and demand, and at some later and similar periods, settlers mowed the previous year's grass, mixed it with the new hay, and sold it. Rank fraud and swindle as it was, often the buyer had to take it that way or go without hay for his
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hungry team. Some years later, a very elderly and pious farmer, then in this county and well off, at least in this world's goods, bragged to a neighbor, pointing to a fine eighty acres of well cultivated land he owned, that he entered it all with money obtained by selling Cali- fornians "last year's grass," cut in the spring and mixed with good hay. He even set up justification for his reprehensible acts, repeat- ing the same old argument: "Others were doing likewise. I may as well have their money as the other fellow."
Wild hay was put up in this manner: The grass was mown with a scythe, left two or three days in the swath to cure, forked into small piles, and when abundantly dried, hauled home and stacked. Often- times the mown hay was raked together and then pitched into piles. However, danger from prairie fires and theft generally prevented stacking where cut. Grass that would not make from three to five tons per acre was not considered worth cutting during the first ten or fifteen years.
BURIAL OF THE DEAD
Preparations for the burial of the dead in the very early days were simple and cheap. At first there were no sawmills for the mak- ing of lumber and none was brought by the immigrants. On rare occasions someone had a whip saw, with which to make a few rough boards. Up to the time when sawmills began to turn out rough boards coffins were made out of such crude material. Sometimes "pun- cheon" boards, made by splitting straight-grained logs into strips as thin as possible and them hewing them smooth, were good material for the purpose. Occasionally a portion of a wagon box was cut up and used, or a box in which articles were packed by the family and brought into the country.
By 1860 the local lumber supply began to furnish material for coffins and there were carpenters enough in the country to make them. In every considerable community there was at least one car- penter, who made a specialty of supplying coffins for that neighbor- hood. In case of a death, the deceased was measured and an order sent to the favorite carpenter and it was the unwritten law that the carpenter, upon receiving an order for a coffin, should drop any work he had on hand, except it was a similar one, and forthwith finish the order, which usually required one day. The body of a deceased person, as a rule, was kept over one whole day and buried the next. If the day following the death happened to be a Sunday, the carpen- ter made the coffin on that day, regardless of the artisan's religious
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convictions relative to working on the Sabbath. In such cases, mak- ing a coffin was not considered as labor, but as a Christian duty due from any neighbor in assisting in the burial of the dead. After 1860, and for several years, the usual charge for making a coffin ranged from nothing up to an exchange of work, "time for time," the family of the deceased, in the same manner, paying for the lumber, and sometimes furnishing it. In Columbus professional coffin makers charged from $2 to $5, according to the size and style of finish. In these primitive times now in mind there were no extras to a coffin. The woodwork and (later) screws were all. At the very first, when lumber began to be plentiful, many coffins were plain boxes, the same size from end to end. Soon afterward, however, they were all made
about in the proportion of two-thirds the width of the body for the head and one-half the body for the feet; no handles were attached. The top was all of one piece, which was nailed to the receptacle at the beginning, but later screws were used. The top, usually, was not nailed or screwed down until the last thing before lowering the coffin into the grave. At the bottom of the grave a deeper depth was dug, in size just long and wide and deep enough to hold the coffin. Then over it a single layer of rough boards was placed crosswise the length of the grave. Upon the death of a person, one or two neighbors were asked to dig the grave, the person representing the family having already selected the place in the burial ground. No charge was made for the work, and after the body was lowered into place volunteers remained to refill the grave.
Usually some kind of brief religious services were conducted in connection with the burial proceedings, by a preacher, if one was convenient, or by some elderly person of the neighborhood of kindly and religious bent. As for several years there were very few public places for gatherings, and at first none at all, funerals were held direct from the late home of the deceased to the burying ground. A prayer and a hymn or two at the house, a procession of neighbors in wagons or on horseback to the grave, a similar short service at the grave, and the ceremonies were at an end. It was customary, even among nonreligious families, to arrange with a minister to preach the funeral sermon at a later date. Because of the scarcity of ordained preachers and their prior engagements, sometimes these funeral ser- mons were not delivered for weeks or even months, and in rare cases over a year might elapse between the funeral and the sermon.
In nearly every instance the body of the deceased was kept one whole day and two nights. Watchers for the night were arranged by
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the neighbors. During the very early years, generally, families were quite a distance from each other, and often couriers had to be sent to inform them of a death. Assistance, if needed, was plainly asked and always promptly given. Even if neighbors were not on friendly terms there was not the least hesitancy about asking for or receiving assistance in case of a death, no matter when they had ceased to be on speaking terms. The occasion of a death often restored friendly relations between neighbors. In those times two of the watchers always remained close to the deceased, one at each end of the casket. This close watch was for the double purpose of protecting the body from attack by rodents, or other enemies, and to detect any sign of life, but the custom has long since disappeared from this section of the country.
PRAIRIE FIRES
The prairie settlers were in great danger of prairie fires, between the time the frost killed the grass in the fall and the coming of the snows of winter, and from the going of the snows toward spring and the growth of the new grass. The grass grew generally from two to eight or ten feet high and very thick on the ground. The settlers were confined to the timber belts along the streams and their little fields furnished but little if any obstruction to a big prairie fire. At first there was little or no brush and a belt of timber, unless of much width, would not stop it. With a high wind a prairie fire would advance at a speed now unbelievable, in most cases almost as rapid as the wind, because the wind would carry sparks and blades of burning grass through the air, igniting the grass long distances ahead of the body of the conflagration, thus continually starting new fires ahead. On an open prairie, before a high wind, no horse could run fast enough to keep up with it. Such rapidly moving fires, however, were only occasional.
Early in the fall it was the supreme but oft-neglected duty of a settler to burn wide fire guards around the exposed sides of his improvements. These guards were made by first plowing three or four furrows next the improvements, and another set of furrows sev- eral rods on the prairie side. Sometimes the latter furrows were not plowed. Then the first very calm spell that came the whole family, if large, was called into the work-or, if the family was a small one, then two or three neighbors were called upon, and the grass outside the inner furrows was set on fire in one place, close to the inner furrows, if no outside furrows were plowed, or if plowed, the fire was Vol. 1-12
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