History of Chautauqua County, New York : from its first settlement to the present time : with numerous biographical and family sketches, Part 11

Author: Young, Andrew W. (Andrew White), 1802-1877; Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. fmo; Huntington Free Library. fmo
Publication date: 1875
Publisher: Buffalo, N.Y. : Printing House of Matthews & Warren
Number of Pages: 948

USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York : from its first settlement to the present time : with numerous biographical and family sketches > Part 11

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But the principal meat of early settlers did not long consist of game. Pork and poultry were soon raised in abundance. The common fowl fur- nished meat and eggs. Geese, though sometimes eaten, were raised chiefly for the feathers, with which old beds were replenished and new ones filled. Doubtless, many still repose on beds made by their mothers or grandmothers half a century ago.

EARLY FARMING.

Agriculture is a term hardly applicable to pioneer farming. The imple- ments used would, in this age of improvement, attract attention as great curiosities. The " virgin soil," as has been observed, was ready for the seed when cleared of its timber. The principal instrument of tillage for several years was the triangular harrow, usually called drag. This instrument con- sisted principally of two pieces of timber, (hewed, before there were mills for sawing,) about five inches square and six feet long, put together in the form of the letter A. The drag was sometimes made of a crotched tree, and needed no framing. The teeth were nearly double the size of those now used, in order to stand the severe trial they were to undergo. The drag bounded along over stubs and roots and stones, drawn by oxen often driven by boys.

When the roots had become sufficiently brittle to admit of the use of the plow, an instrument was used which it would puzzle the young men of the present day to give a name. The idea of a cast iron plow had not then been conceived by the inventor. It is said to have been invented by Jethro Wood, of Scipio, Cayuga county, N. Y., about fifty years ago, though it is a much less number of years since it came into general use. Late improvements in the plow and the harrow, and the invention of cultivators, drills, and other labor-saving implements, have wonderfully changed the aspect of farming, and increased the power of production.

In harvesting, the change is not less striking. Before the decay and removal of stumps permitted the use of the grain cradle, wheat was cut with

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

the sickle, now a rare instrument. It was then a staple article of merchan- dise. In the old day-books and journals of the early merchants, if they could be found, under the names of scores of customers would be seen the charge, "To I Sickle," followed, in many cases by that other charge, "To I gallon Whisky," an article deemed by some as necessary in the harvesting operation as the instrument itself. The cradle, which superseded the sickle, is now fast giving way-in many parts of the country has already entirely given place-to the reaper, an instrument then no more likely to be invented than the photographic art, or the means of hourly intercourse with the inhab- itants of the opposite side of the globe. Fields of wheat of one hundred to five hundred acres each, are not rare in some of the Western States. Let a person imagine an attempt to cut these immense fields of grain by hand- fuls with the sickle, and he cannot fail to appreciate the invention of the reaper.

Grain was generally threshed by the early settlers with a flail, ten to twenty bushels a day. There were no fanning-mills to separate the grain from the chaff. For many years the mill-peddlers did not venture so far west as Chautauqua. Grain was cleaned with a fan. Neither the instrument nor the operation is easily described ; nor was it probably ever much used here. Another method was nearly as follows : A riddle [a very coarse sieve] about 30 inches in diameter and 5 or 6 inches deep, was filled with wheat in the chaff. To "raise the wind," a linen sheet, perhaps taken from the bed, was held at the corners by two men, who gave it a semi-rotary motion, or sudden swing. Another man holding up and shaking the riddle with its contents, the chaff was blown from the falling wheat. About ten bushels were thus cleaned in half a day. When at length farmers had the means of buying mills, and the roads admitted of their transportation, fanning-mills were introduced. A large portion of this county was early supplied with mills of an excellent quality, by one of its present worthy and distinguished citizens, the Hon. George W. Patterson, of Westfield. But this once common and useful article has been superseded by machines propelled by horse-power or by steam. A single machine now receives the sheaves and delivers the cleaned grain at the rate of from one hundred to two hundred bushels a day. A reaper is in use in some of the Western states, which carries two binders, who drop along its track the cut grain in sheaves bound.

In hay harvesting, also, improvements would seem to have attained perfec- tion. A lad of sufficient age to drive a team can mow from fifty to one hundred acres in an ordinary haying season ; and the hay may all be raked during the same season by one person.

While, by the invention of the cultivator and other implements, the power and facility of producing corn has been greatly increased, there has not yet appeared, nor is there likely to appear, any invention that will materially facilitate the process of harvesting it. The husking of corn was 'generally done in the field, as at present. In those portions of the country settled by the Dutch, the ears, when fully ripe, were broken from the stalk, thrown into

EARLY COOKING.

heaps, and then hauled into the barn, and thrown into a long heap across the barn floor, ready for a corn-husking, in which the neighbors, old and young, were invited to participate on some evening. The anticipation of a "good time " secured a general attendance. A good supper, which several of the neighboring women had assisted in preparing, was served at eight or nine o'clock. The "old folks " would then leave, and in due time the boys would gallant the girls to their homes. The recreation afforded to the young people on the yearly recurrence of these festive occasions was as highly enjoyed, and quite as innocent, as most of the amusements of the present boasted age of refinement.

EARLY COOKING.

To witness the several processes of cooking in pioneer times, would alike surprise and amuse those who have grown up since cook-stoves came into use. The first thing likely to attract notice would be the wide fire-place already described. Kettles were hung over the fire to a stout pole, some- times called lug pole, the ends of which were fastened into the sides of the chimney at such height as not to be likely to ignite from the heat or sparks. The kettles were suspended on trammels, which were pieces of iron rods with a hook at each end. The uppermost one reached nearly down to the fire, and with one or more shorter ones, the kettle was brought to the proper height above the fire. For the want of iron, wooden hooks were sometimes used for trammels. Being directly above the kettles, they were safe from fire.

The long handled frying pan was a common cooking utensil. It was held over the fire by hand ; or, to save time, the end of the handle was sometimes laid on the back of a chair, the pan resting on the fire, while the cook was " setting the table." The pan was also used for baking short cakes. It was placed in a nearly perpendicular position before the fire, leaning slightly backward, with coals under or back of it to bake the under side. A more convenient article was the cast iron, three legged, short handled spider which was set over coals on the hearth for frying meat. Its legs were of such length and so adjusted, that, when used for baking cakes or bread, being turned up towards the fire, to the proper slope, handle upwards, it would keep its position. An early mode of baking corn bread, (cast iron ware being scarce,) was to put the dough on a smooth board, about 2 feet long and 8 inches wide, placed on the hearth in a slanting position before the fire. When the upper side was baked, the bread was turned over for baking the other side. When lard was plenty, the bread was shortened, and called johnny-cake. But a better article for baking bread than either the pan or spider, was the cast iron bake-kettle, in some places called "Dutch oven," with legs and a closely fitted cover. Standing on the hearth with coals under and over it, bread and biscuit were nicely baked. Bread for large families was usually baked in large out-door ovens built of brick or fire-proof stones. Turkeys and spare-ribs were roasted before the fire, suspended by a string, a dish or pan being placed underneath to catch the drippings.

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

Some of the inconveniences of cooking in these open fire-places will be readily imagined. Women's hair was singed, their hands were blistered, and their dresses. scorched. But framed houses with jamb fire-places measurably relieved the pioneer house-wives. In one of the jambs was fixed an iron crane, which could be drawn forward when kettles were to be put on or taken off. But the invention of cook-stoves commenced a new era in cookery ; and none, most averse to innovation, have intimated a desire to return to the "old way," which will hereafter be known only in history.

FARE OF THE EARLY SETTLERS.

Among the many hardships of pioneer life, not the least is the difficulty in procuring bread. For at least two years the settler in the woods must obtain his family supplies chiefly from other sources than his own land. This difficulty is enhanced by the remoteness of his residence from older settle- ments, where his supplies are to be obtained. Hence, those who settled in this county within the first few years, had a severer experience than those who came after a surplus of grain was produced, and mills for grinding it were built in the earlier settlements.

The first settlement in the county where grain was produced, was com- menced at Westfield in 1802. The settlers there had to go to Erie, a distance of more than thirty miles, for provisions, as we learn from the fact that Edward McHenry, on his way thither for that purpose, lost his life by the upsetting of his boat on Lake Erie. In the Memoir of Zattu Cushing, by O. W. Johnson, Esq., we are informed that the first settlers at Canadaway, [now Fredonia,] went to Niagara Falls and to Canada to get their grain ground. When intending to cross Lake Erie, they started when the lake was likely to be calm. Three men were required to row the boat. On one occasion Judge Cushing and his companions were wrecked on the Canada shore, losing their boat and grain. As they were absent ten days, their families gave them up for lost.

John Eason settled at Fredonia in 1804. All the money he had on his arrival was ten dollars, which he paid for a barrel of flour procured from Canada, across Lake Erie. Upon this, together with fish and wild game, he chiefly relied for sustenance until he could raise vegetables, which were his principal means of support during the first year. Whole families, for many days, tasted not a morsel of bread, subsisting upon game and other products of the forest. Leeks, with which the woods abounded, furnished, to some extent, food for man and beast. The leaves, which were in some regions far advanced before the disappearance of the winter snows, furnished for cattle a valuable pasture ground ; and the bulbs, later in the season, were, in times of scarcity, used by settlers as a substitute for common articles of food. There are probably still living on the Purchase persons who have eaten many a meal, consisting in great part, of cooked leeks.

Before there were mills within a convenient distance, families lived for weeks on hulled wheat, and on meal from corn pounded out at home. For this

HOUSEHOLD MANUFACTURES.

purpose, one end of a large block was scooped out, making a cavity holding half a bushel or less of corn. A spring pole was fixed over the rafters, or to something else of proper height. On the end of the pole a wooden pestle was suspended by a rope. It will readily be imagined that the principal use of the pole was to assist in raising the pestle ; and that a small quantity of grain was pounded at a time. The pestle was not in all cases hung to a pole, but was sometimes used wholly with the hands of the operator. Probably hominy-blocks, or hominy-mills, as they were called, will never again appear in any part of our country. A "corn cracker" of this kind was attached to the saw-mill built by David Dickinson, an early settler at Silver Creek.

HOUSEHOLD MANUFACTURES.

Nearly all the clothing of the early settlers was made from cloth of home manufacture. Long after the country had passed its pioneer state, the farmer's house continued to be a linen and woolen factory. Where more spinning was to be done than the wife could do in addition to her ordinary house-work, or where the daughters were too young to help, spinsters were employed to . come into families to spin flax in the winter season, and wool in the summer. The price usually paid these itinerant spinsters was a shilling a day, the day's work ending .at early bed time. Some will be surprised when told that many of these women had money to show at the year's end. It was the custom, to some extent, to count a certain number of "runs " as a day's work. This had a tendency to accelerate the motion of the wheel, and lessen the hours of labor. These small earnings would not go far toward clothing Chautauqua farmers' daughters of the present generation.

The spinning exercise is one which the young women of modern times have never enjoyed. The wheel used for spinning flax was called the "little wheel," to distinguish it from the " big wheel," used for spinning wool. These " stringed instruments " furnished the principal music of the family, and were operated by our mothers and grandmothers with great skill, attained without expense, and by far less practice, than is necessary for our modern dames to acquire a skillful use of their elegant and costly instruments. They were indispensable household articles, and were to be found in nearly every family. The loom was not less necessary than the wheel. There were some houses, however, in which there was none. But there were always some, who, besides doing their own weaving, did some for others.

Woolen cloth was made in families. There being at first no carding machines, wool was carded and made into short rolls with hand cards. These rolls were spun on the " big wheel," which is still to be seen in the houses of some old settlers, being occasionally used for spinning and twisting stocking yarn. It was turned with one hand, and with such velocity as to give it sufficient momentum to enable the nimble mother, by her backward step, to draw out and twist a thread of nearly the length of the cabin. The same loom was used for both linen and woolen. A cloth was sometimes made called linsey, or linsey-woolsey, the warp being linen and the filling woolen.

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

Woolen for men's outer garments was generally sent to the fuller and cloth-dresser to be finished, if fulling-mills and cloth-dressing establishments were within a convenient distance. Woolen flannel was also made and worn by the mothers and daughters. Flannel for women's wear, after dye-stuffs were to be had, were dyed such color as the wearer fancied. It was somhe- times a plaid made of yarn of various colors, home-dyed. To improve their appearance, these flannels were sent to a cloth-dressing shop for a slight dressing, which was finished by a powerful pressing between large sheets of smooth pasteboard, to give them a glossy surface.

Much dyeing, too, was done in the family. Dye-woods and dye-stuffs formed no small portion of a merchant's stock. Barrels of chipped Nicara- gua, log-wood, and other woods, kegs of madder, alum, copperas, vitriol, indigo, etc., constituted a large part of teamsters' loading for the merchants. Many remember the old dye-tub standing in the chimney corner, covered with a board, and used also as a seat for children when chairs were wanted for visitors, or when new supplies of furniture failed to keep pace with the increase of the family. Mr. Goodrich, [Peter Parley,] describing early life in his native town in Connecticut, speaks of this "institution of the dye- tub," as having, "when the night had waned and the family had retired, frequently become the anxious seat of the lover, who was permitted to carry on his courtship, the object of his addresses sitting demurely in the opposite corner." We have no authority for saying that it was ever used here on such occasions.

Nearly all the cloth worn was " home-made." Rarely was a farmer or his son seen in any other. If, occasionally, a young man appeared in a suit of "boughten cloth," he was an object of envy to his rustic associates. Few, except merchants, lawyers, doctors, and some village mechanics, wore cloth that had not passed through the hands of the country cloth-dresser. Hence, the early merchants kept small stocks of broadcloth. Cloths of the finer qualities they sometimes bought in small pieces containing a certain number of full patterns-one, two, or three-to avoid loss on remnants.

There were also itinerant tailoresses, who came into families to make up men's and boys' winter clothing. The cutting was mostly done by the village tailor, if a village was near. " Bad fits," which were not uncommon, were generally charged to the cutter. Hence the custom of tailors, when advertising, "Cutting done on short notice, and warranted to fit," to append the very prudent proviso, "if properly made up." These seamstresses charged for their work two shillings a day. This was thought by some a little exorbitant, as the usual price of help at housework was but six shil- lings a week, Sundays not excepted.

Boots and shoes also were made in many families. Farmers got the hides of their slaughtered cattle tanned "on shares;" or, if their share was judged insufficient to shoe a whole family, the tanning and dressing were otherwise paid for. Then there was in the neighborhood a circulating shoemaker, who made his yearly autumnal circuit with his "kit." The children had a happy

STORES AND TRADE.

time during his sojourn, which lasted one, two, or more weeks, according to the number of feet to be shod. The boys who had doffed their old shoes when the winter snows had scarcely disappeared, to enjoy the luxury of going barefoot, were now no less joyful in the anticipation of new ones to protect their feet from the frosts or early snows.

Large boys and girls, when leather was scarce and dear, have been known to go barefoot the greater part of the year. And it was not a rare thing to see girls as well as boys, not of the poorer families, at the age of twelve, at Sunday meetings, with feet unshod. Some made shoes for themselves and their families. Boots were little worn, even by men, except in the winter season. Men's boots and shoes were usually made of coarse leather, called cowhide. Occasionally a young man attained the enviable distinction of appearing in a pair of calf-skin boots, made by a skillful workman. Boots and shoes for both feet were made on one last. In those days "rights and lefts " were unknown. In this department of dress as in others, in respect to style and cost, the past and the present exhibit a remarkable contrast.

We only add, a general revolution in household labor has taken place within the last fifty years. The substitution of cotton for flax, and of the various kinds of labor-saving machinery for hand-cards and spinning-wheels and looms, has vastly lightened the labor of women. One of the results of these improvements is the opportunity they afford for mental and intellectual culture. That the mass of American women duly improve these opportuni- ties, will hardly be affirmed.

STORES AND TRADE.

A great inconvenience incident to pioneer life, is the want of the many articles essential to the comfort of a family, which the farm cannot supply. Therefore, no immigrant is more welcome in a new settlement than the first merchant. Fortunately, there are seldom wanting those who are ready to establish a store when and where there is a population sufficient to sustain one. Some of the early stores were kept in log buildings. The first stocks of goods were not large ; yet they comprised most of those articles which were needed by the settlers.

But the gratification of some at the advent of the early merchant, was greatly moderated by their inability to purchase his wares. The inhabitants generally were poor. They had expended nearly all their money in their removal ; and the little they had left was wanted to buy breadstuffs and other absolute necessaries. Farmers who had been here long enough to raise a small surplus, obtained some money from new-comers. But the majority were not so fortunate.

Goods were dear, being transported at great cost. They were principally brought from Albany in wagons, a large part of the way over new and very bad roads. A trip from Buffalo to Albany and back required for its perform- ance three or four weeks, and sometimes even a longer time. Between Cat- taraugus creek and Buffalo, the roads were for a considerable distance almost

HISTORY OF CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY.

impassable. But the high price of the merchant's goods was but one-half of the farmer's misfortune. While he had to pay a double price for nearly every staple article of store goods, he was obliged to sell the products of his farm at about one-half of their cost in labor. There are yet many living who dis- tinctly recollect the condition of the country from its early settlement, and the relative prices of merchandise and the products of the farm. More accurate information, however, may be obtained from the books of the early merchants, to which reference will be made.

The books of J. & M. Prendergast, [Jediah and Martin,] early merchants at Mayville, show the prices of goods from September, 1811, to January, 1815. They were among the earliest merchants in the county. The sur- rounding country was as yet very sparsely settled ; yet their books show a considerable trade, to which the Prendergast families were liberal contributors. The first four sales appear to have been made to four different persons of that name. The county seat and a land office having been established there, Mayville was a convenient place of trade to many in remote parts of the county.

On a glance at the pages of these old books, our modern clerks would find, in the keeping of accounts, something of which they have no practical knowledge. The old mode of reckoning was by pounds, shillings and pence. And to most adults it is known that, until a comparatively late period, the prices of goods per yard or pound, both in buying and selling, at wholesale and retail, were given in shillings and pence. Merchants generally marked their goods in this currency, and so charged them to their customers ; but the aggregate cost of the number of yards or pounds of the article sold, was " carried out " in dollars and cents. But in the books alluded to, the aggre- gate cost of the number of yards or pounds sold was also carried out in pounds, shillings and pence, and set down in three separate columns. The footing of a bill of many articles would, at the bottom of the columns, be £8 7s. 9d .- 8 pounds, 7 shillings and 9 pence. Happily, this clumsy method of reckoning and keeping accounts has been superseded by the decimal method-by dollars, cents and mills.

The prices of some articles, in shillings and pence, are here given: Wool cards, 8s. a pair ; spider net, 7s. 6d. a yard ; loaf sugar, 3s. a pound; calico, 3s. 4d. a yard ; hyson tea, 14s. a pound ; pins, 2s. 6d. a paper ; powder, 8s. a pound; shot, 2s .; unbleached cotton, 2s. 7d. a yard. Farmers found it no easy matter to pay for iron Is. 3d. a pound ; steel, 2s .; nails, is. 7d. to 2s. 6d. ; paper, 3s. a quire ; skin tea, Ios. a pound ; nutmegs, Is. each. Before the close of the year, prices began to be affected by the war. In December, 1814, flannels were 8s. to gs. 6d. a yard; cambric muslin, 18s .; book muslin, 16s .; factory cotton, 5s. a yard; satinet, 27s. 6d. ; nails, 2s. to 2s. 6d .; Swedes steel, 4s. a pound ; maccoboy snuff, 8s. a pound ; coffee, 5s. ; pow- der, 12s. ; skin tea, 20s. ; imperial tea, 26s. ; cotton yarn, 9s. ; cotton stock- ings, 13s. a pair.

If medical services rose to a point corresponding to the prices of the

STORES AND TRADE.

drugs and medicines used by the physicians, their patients would have had no less cause to complain of onerous "doctors' bills " than they who are now so unfortunate as to need such services. One of this mercantile firm [Jediah] being himself a physician, we find a charge : " To call and puke, 2 oz. val. sylv., and caskarel, and epispastic," in all, £1 4s. Jacob Rush was charged 6 oz. laudanum, 4s. oz., and 2 pukes, 2s. each,-£1 8s. Dr. Alexander McIntyre, who, being a physician, might be expected to buy medicines at a discount from ordinary retail prices, was charged as early as 1812, for glauber salts, 3s. 6d. lb. ; bark, 32s. ; camomile flowers, 3s. 6d. oz .; gum Arabic, Is. 6d. oz .; opodeldoc, to ordinary customers, 5s. Whisky, that staple article in those days, kept pace with other goods till it reached 12S. to 14s. a gallon. But the books indicate no perceptible decrease in its consumption.

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