USA > Ohio > Darke County > History of Darke County, Ohio, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume I > Part 24
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"Give me your $5, Mr. Bloom, and I will tell you right now who cut it."
"Are you certain, 'Coonskin?' I want you to be sure because I don't want to cause an innocent man any trouble," said Mr. Bloom.
"Oh, I am as certain as certain can be, Mr. Bloom, and I wouldn't tell you a lie for $50," said Brown.
"Well, here's your $5, now tell me who it was."
"Coonskin" took the $5 and slowly folded it up and after putting it into his pocket looked at Mr. Bloom and laughed.
"Well, who was it?" said Bloom.
"I tut your bee tree, Mr. Bloom-now prove it," said "Coon- skin."
Brown couldn't talk very plain but Mr. Bloom understood him and then the matter dropped.
DOMESTIC LIFE. Early Mothers.
The housewives of Greenville "before the war" days, had their full share of hard work as well as their husbands. No sewing machines, no washing machine, no laundries, no dress- makers, no milliners, no bar soap made lots of hard work for them. They couldn't phone to the grocery or store and have goods delivered to them on the double quick. Some one had
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to "go up town" with the market basket and tote home all the supplies for the family. No gas or coal stoves-all used wood, and sometimes when there was no wood, they had to gather chips, and when the chips were all gone they had to carry wood or chips from the woods near by. I don't say that all had to sit up late at night mending her children's clothes, or might run short of capital letters. Many and many a mother had to sit up late at night mending her children's clothes, or making new ones for them to wear to school next day. She would work until late in the night-husband and children asleep-and then be the first one out of bed in the morning to get breakfast and get the children off to school, then she turned her attention to dishes and washed them. Next she had to make the beds, sweep the house. feed the chickens, slop the pigs (of course she milked the cow while the water in the tea kettle was heating), darn stockings awhile, sew a little on her new calico dress, then hurry and peel potatoes and get other things ready for dinner for the children will soon be home from school. About this time she discovers that there isn't a bit of lard or sugar or coffee in the house. She can't go to the grocery and she can't find any one to send : what does she do? She borrows coffee from one neighbor, lard from an- other and sugar from another. You see those days neighbors were neighbors, and not mere "howdy-do" acquaintances. Friendship was door-wide in every house in the town. When the children got home from school they were dispatched to the grocery immediately for sugar, coffee and lard and the neigh- bors were paid back in full ; and thus it went until after the war. Then strangers began pouring into town, Some were good and some weren't ; some were honest and some weren't : and an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust prevailed the whole community.
In the boyhood days in my homeland it was the custom for women to smoke Of course there were exceptions, but my recollection is that the majority of the older women in Darke county in those days smoked pipes. If I should tell you their names you would be surprised, and yet I could name a dozen or more of them within yelling distance of our old home. Women have as much right to smoke as men have. I do not think it a bit becoming for a woman to chew tobacco and let the "juice" run out of the corners of her mouth and trickle down her chin, yet I can see no harm in it. if her husband or
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lover chews. A man who smokes or chews should never marry a woman who neither smokes nor chews, and vice versa. I hold the same opinion as to drinking or gambling. A to- bacco-using or whisky-drinking woman is generally as clean as a man with like habits.
Clothing and Fashions.
You see there were no dressmakers in Greenville before 1860, and the fact of the matter was that it was cheaper and better in every way to engage a dressmaker from Dayton or Cincinnati to cut and fit garments for all these families, than for them to go to the city at the expense of car and hotel bills. But because they hired city dressmakers they were called "big bugs."
The first Greenville dressmaker, to my recollection, was Sarah Shade, sister of Enos Shade, and it was along about 1860 that she opened a shop. The first milliner of my recol- lection was Mrs. Long-wife of Sheriff Ol Long. After she began trimming hats, Sarah Shade added millinery to her dressmaking business.
In those days there were no such things as ladies' coats or jackets-no, indeed. Every woman in town wore either a shawl or mantello. Another thing I remember very distinctly. and that was the women had but two ways of fixing up their hair. One way was to part it in the middle and comb it down as flat as a pancake over the ears, hiding them completely ; the other way was to curl it in spiral rolls and let it hang all around the head like icicles from a rain spout.
One thing I forgot to mention about the style of dresses is that in those days styles did not change from season to season, as many styles lasted two or three years, and few women were so curious as to have their hats retrimmed more than once a year : so you see there was no flubdubbery in the "fifties" about headgear or wearing apparel.
It used to be the custom in Darke county for newly-mar- ried Dunkard women to wear capes to distinguish them from the unmarried. I don't now whether that custom prevails today or not. Darke county was blessed with a large number of Dunkard families. Better farmers, better citizens never lived than the Dunkards. Hundreds, yes thousands, of these
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thrifty people have recently located in California. The more the better for the state.
There were no store clothes in those days, and Sunday suits were a variety. "Lintsey woolsey" for the women and home- spun jeans for the men, constituted the clothes of the realm. Coonskins were currency, and butter and eggs were a drug on the market. The young men all wore "wamuses" and galluses of the home-made variety. Only " dudes" wore white shirts, and they weren't always starched. Husking bees, log rollings, quilting parties and apple-butter making were the amusements of those days. Log barns, log houses, log churches and log school houses-all patterned after one style of architecture. In school or church the females sat on one side and the males on the other. Some of the children had to go miles and miles to school, and many had to go the same distance to church. There were no county roads-but here and there logs were laid down in the muddy spots (and in the winter and spring all spots were muddy) and over these cor- duroys, it was jolt, jolt, jolt.
Household Equipment.
That was the period of big iron kettles used by nearly every farmer for cooking feed, food, and boiling clothes. There were a few copper kettles in the county and these were usually rented out at twenty-five cents a barrel for cider in apple but- ter seasons. They were also used for cooking fruit for canning purposes. The cans were made of tin by either a Mr. Allen, I. N. Beedle, Billy Stokeley, or Fred Rehling. The latter, I think, struck Greenville in 1854. These cans were closed with red sealing wax.
Those were also the days of sickles, scythes and grain cradles -the days of back-logs and andirons-the days of the spinning wheel-the days of candles and tallow dips-the days of the knitting needle, when every mother knit socks, stockings, and mittens for the whole family-the days of quilting, when the neighbor women all congregated at some house and helped the wife make her quilts. Many top quilts in variegated colors were woven by some women who owned a loom. That was the time when wool was taken to some woolen mill and carded into strings two or three feet in length, and these strings would be attached to the spinning wheel and converted into yarn.
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There were very few stoves in Darke county up to 1854. Many farmers' wives had to cook in the fireplaces. Pork, beans, hominy, potatoes, onions and mush constituted the "grub" leaders in many homes.
Soon after out-door ovens became popular and numerous. Nearly every family had an ashhopper from which they drained lye to make soft soap with, and this was used for all purposes.
Wild turkeys, wild geese, wild pigeons and pheasants were plentiful, and every Sunday game would be found on the tables. There were plenty of deer in the neighborhood of Dallas (Ansonia). Lots of coons, minks, foxes, muskrats, rab- bits and squirrels in all parts of the county, and their hides could be seen nailed to nearly every barn.
The woods were full of hickory nuts, walnuts, butternuts. haws, wild cherries, plums, Mayapples, mulberries, blackber- ries, hazelnuts, etc. Wild flowers, roses especially, were abun- dant. All these are gone I understand-nothing but a sweet memory of them remaining.
Log houses, log barns, log schoolhouses and log churches. once prevalent in the county have all passed into history.
So have the flintlock guns, the smoothbore rifle and the tube guns that were fired with "SB" caps.
The old crane wells have gone the same way. Boots are 110 longer in style, and the fish oil with which they were greased is seldom seen nowadays.
The only outside newspapers coming to Greenville in those days were Greeley's New York Tribune, Sam Medary's Ohio Statesman, and the Cincinnati Weekly Gazette.
Could the pioneers of the days I have recalled gaze upon Greenville and Darke county today they would say :
"Evolution, hast thou no end !"
There were no restaurants or laundries in those days. Housewives, as a rule, done their own washing every Monday. Nearly every yard had a well or cistern, and there were many ash hoppers scattered over the town. Bar soap was a rare article, but soft soap was abundant. There were possibly 100 or more soap kettles in town. Very few persons were able to buy petroleum oil, but nearly every family in town owned a pair of candle moulds. Many of the aristocratic families were able to own brass candle snuffers. Some didn't own any snuffer at all-they either snuffed the candle with a pair of scissors or wet their thumb and finger and snapped off the
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wick. Candlesticks were plentiful-most of them were made of tin, some of brass and a few were coated with German sil- ver. There were one or two families that owned candlesticks that held two or more candles. Such were considered extrav- agant people.
There were no wood or coal yards in Greenville in the fifties. I don't think I ever saw a load of coal in Greenville until after the war. The family that didn't own an ax, a saw- buck and saw with a woodpile in front of the gate, wasn't in style in those days. It became fashionable later on to have woodsheds. Horses, cattle, sheep and hogs used to roam the streets and often break into a garden and get a "belly full" of garden truck before they were discovered. It used to be the custom for the owner of the garden to hold the stock in "hock" until the owner came and paid the damages and took his animal away.
*
There used to be a fluid sold in Greenville-the name of which puzzles me. It was for lighting purposes, and was used in lamps before I ever heard of gasoline, petroleum, kerosene or coal oil. I know that people were afraid of it, although I never heard of it exploding. It was soon taken off the market when kerosene came, and if it had not been for the smell I would have said that it and kerosene were one and the same.
The kerosene lamps were made beautiful to behold by put- ting different colors of yarn in the bowl of the lamp. The family that could afford most colors got the most praise. Then along came the lamp shades. My, but they were pretty -all colors and many of them escoloped around the edges. Of course there was one way to make them safe from explo- sion and to make them burn brighter, and that was by putting a little salt in the bowl of the lamp.
When kerosene lamps and kerosene lanterns became pop- ular in Darke county it made the candle-makers mad and Greenville's only candle-maker-Thomas Carter-got dis- gusted and moved back to Kentucky where he learned the candle-making business.
There were a great many teams of oxen in Darke county in the fifties. It was always claimed that a team of oxen could pull a heavier load than a span of horses. I don't know whether than was so or not, but I do know that a good team (18)
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of oxen was kept at much less expense than a team of good horses. There was no trouble to yoke up a pair of oxen. All you had to do was to hold up one end of the yoke, and say "Come, Buck," and the near ox would juke his head under the yoke, and all you had to do was to slip the little "neck" yoke up through the holes in the big yoke-stick in the wooden pin and Buck was "hitched." Then you called "Breck," the "off" ox, and he went through the same program.
Of course every driver used an ox gad, that is the whip ten or fifteen feet in length often, and mounting the wagon away you went. The team was guided by the voice: "Gee Buck-gee there!" or "haw, Buck, whoa haw!" that is all there was to it.
It always paid to give your oxen plenty of water, for if you didn't, they'd get it if they had to run off the road with the wagon, load and all, and rush down hill into the creek.
When a farmer had a lot of "clearing" to do he generally used two or three yoke of oxen to haul the logs to the log heap where they were burned to get them out of the way. I guess there are not many log heaps burning in Darke county today.
Nearly every wagon in those days, '54 to '60, had a coupling- pole that usually stuck out behind from three to six feet, and on this pole hung the tar bucket which was used to grease the wagon wheels. I haven't seen a tar buchet on a wagon in an old coon's age. Some of the Pennsylvania Germans, espe- cially the Dunkards of early days, owned big wagons with beds on them large enough to hold the furniture of an ordi- nary hotel. The tires on the wheels were broad, and each wagon bed had a feed-box on the rear end of the bed and a tool box on each side, and also a box in front for curry-comb, harness grease and brushes. All such wagons were made in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Those were the days for elderberry and dried apple pies. Many times I have seen the roofs of houses covered with elderberries and apples drying in the sunshine. Applebutter pies were also quite popular. But the great royal dish for children was mush and milk. Many was the time I made my ยท supper on mush and milk and my breakfast on fried mush and cane molasses.
I made many a five-cent piece digging sassafras root and selling it to families for tea.
Speaking of dried apples: It used to be the fashion to give
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an apple-cutting party at some house where all the girls and boys of the neighborhood would gather and make love, tell stories and peel apples. An apple would be sliced into several pieces, and the pieces would be strung on thread or cotton string in bunches about six feet long, and these bunches would be laid on the roof to dry or hung up in some out-of-the-way spot. I have seen them strung from wall to wall in bed- rooms, kitchen and garret. Perhaps that was what made dried apple pie such a favorite in the way of "dessert."
Early Notables.
For a little town-a town in the backwoods-a stuck in the mud town, Greenville had more lively boys and girls than many towns double its size. It had a Thespian club, a mili- tary company, a debating society and several mite societies. There were some mighty good lawyers in Greenville, too : Judge Beers, Judge Wilson, Judge Meeker, Judge Calder- wood, Judge Wharry, Judge Allen, Riley Knox and Charley Calkins, either of whom would have ranked high with the best lawyers in any large city. There were also several "long headed" men in Greenville who did not belong to any of the professions, namely : Moses Hart, Manning Hart, John Huff- nagle, Enos Shade, Allan LaMotte, Eli Helm, Wash. Weston, Sam Ullery, Henry Arnold, Henry Garst, William Morning- star, the Katzenberger brothers, George W. Moore, Michael Miller, John Spayde, Isaac Rush and T. P. Turpen. And where will you find better physicians than Dr. Gard, Dr. Otwell, Dr. Lynch, Dr. Licklider, the Drs. Matchett and Dr. Miesse? The latter paid no attention to local practice, but his name and fame was scattered all over the country and he grew rich while few persons in Greenville had but little idea of his extensive practice abroad.
Gavin Hamilton was the best auctioneer.
Bill Williamson was the best horse-trader.
Ezra Sharpe was the best constable.
William Laurimore was the best squire. (Nobody knew what J. P. meant in those days.)
Linus Purdy was the best bricklayer.
Hezekiah Owings was the best marshal.
John Wharry was the best surveyor.
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Old-Time Carpenters.
1854-1876-Washington and Mathias McGinnis, Enos Shade, Harve House, Fred Kissel, John Frybarger, David Hoovler, Luther Robinson, Leonard Stebbins, Al Hardman, Reuben Kunkle, Jacob Meybrun, Daniel Lecklider, Daniel Larimer, Jack Scribner, William Tate, Alexander and William Kerr, Manning F. Hart, Alonzo Shade, Daniel Neiswonger, Harve Robinson and Jerry Sanson. Who have I left out?
Old-Time Painters.
The back yonder painters of Greenville were: George Hun- ter, Bob Brown, Henry Shamo, John Cox, Bill Cox, Hen Low, D. O. May, L. O. Galyan, Dr. J. L. Garber, Joe Nickodemus, John Boyd, Lum Clawson and Bill Knight. Who have I missed?
Old-Time Bricklayers.
From 1854 to 1876 I recall Linus Purdy, Thomas Stokeley, Benjamin and Egbert Reed, John Krause, John Hamilton, Cash Baxter and Ike Smith. Who have I missed?
An Early Shoemaker.
Talking about early shoemakers, it is well to remember that William J. Bireley came here as a cobbler in 1830 and worked for William Martin, Sr.
Early Superstitions.
I didn't hear of any ghosts, haunted houses or Jack O'Lan- terns when I was in Darke county last summer. There used to be lots of them there when I was a boy. I didn't see or hear of any witches either. They used to be very plentiful too-to hear about. I don't think the county was any more superstitious than other counties in early days, but there was a plenty of it just the same. I will note a few : To kill a snake and leave it belly up to the sky was sure to fetch rain. To tramp on a toad and crush it would cause the cows to give bloody milk. To spill salt was sure to bring disaster. To pick up a pin-head toward you-was bad luck. To hear a rooster crow at the door, or drop a dish rag was a sure sign of some one coming. To hear a dog howl under the win- dow was a sign that some one near was going to die soon. To
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leave the house and forget something and go back after it, denoted misfortune of some kind. To hoist an umbrella in the house was serious disappointment if not worse. To see the new moon over your left shoulder was bad luck, but to see it over the right shoulder was good luck. To dream of the dead, denoted a wedding. To put on socks or stockings wrong side out and not know it at the time was sure to bring the best sort of luck. To sing before breakfast denoted sick- ness. To spit on fish worms and give them "dutch hecks" insured a good catch of fish. To plant potatoes in the "dark of the moon" was sure to impair them with "dry rot." The above were some of the "superstitions" that once prevailed in Darke county. Others I may take up at another time.
Here are a pair of superstitions that people believed in fifty years ago and in many places outside of Darke county they still believe in them, namely : If a ground hog sees his shadow there will be six weeks more of winter. This superstition is proverbial in many states, so much so that "groundhog day" is a fixture in the vocabulary of each community. The other superstition that has hung fast to so many persons all these years is this: "Look out for a long and severe winter when the squirrels begin to carry nuts and corn to their dens in the trees or ground."
It was a bad sign for any one to make you a present of a knife, for it always "cut friendship."
It was a bad sign to drop your fork at the table, unless the point happened to stick into the floor. In that case you would have "sharp luck all day." It was generally good luck to put on your left boot first, but if you happened to put on your hat wrong end first "great disappointments" were ahead of you. It was dangerous to wear hoopskirts with steel springs in them in rainy weather as they were "sure to draw light- ning," and many was the time that the "belles" of Darke county would jerk off their skirts on the double quick and hide them somewhere if a rain storm was approaching. And often and often when visiting friends of an evening, if a streak of lightning appeared or a roll of thunder was heard, the vis- iting ladies were sure to leave their hoopsirts with their friends and go home without them.
When anything was lost it was best to spit in the palm of your left hand, hit it with the forefinger of your right hand, and in whatever direction the spit flew there you would find your lost article.
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When fishing it was always good policy to throw the very small fish back into the creek as soon as you took them off of the hook, for if you didn't the big fish wouldn't bite at all.
Obsolete Trades, Customs, etc.
There is not a cooper in Greenville-that is, a hoop-pole cooper. When wooden hoops gave way to iron ones, the draw knife cooper went out of business.
Brick moulders are just as scarce and with them went the "off-bearers." Greenville used to have quite a number of brick moulders.
The hotel gongs and dinner bells-first and second-are no longer heard in Greenville. It's lonesome without them.
Cows no longer march single file through Broadway on their way to the creek to drink as they used to.
Even the "town pump" is no more. The squeaking of the handles was exceedingly musical (?) in days gone by.
Boys no longer play marbles on the public square nor do men get out and pitch horse shoes there as they used to.
Greenville has "society" now but there was a time there when "we uns were just as good as you uns" and a darned sight better. Greenville is very much cityfied now and socie- tyfied as well.
During my last visit to Greenville I missed hearing any one sing :
"Oh landlord fill the flowing bowl Until it does run over. For tonight, tonight, we'll merry, merry be, And tomorrow we'll get sober."
Or:
"We'll harness up our hosses, Our business to pursue And whoop along to Greenville As we used for to do."
Or:
"From Waddleton to Widdleton it's eighteen miles.
From Widdleton to Waddleton it's eighteen miles." Or : "We're bound to run all night, We're bound to run all day ; I'll bet my money on that bob-tail hoss, Who'll bet on the bay?"
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Or:
"It's many days you've lingered Around my cabin door. Oh. hard times, hard times, Come again no more."
Or: Roll on silver moon, Guide the traveler on his way- Roll on, roll on, roll on."
Or: "There is the landlord Who'll feed your horse oats, corn and hay- And whenever your back is turned He'll take it all away- In these hard times."
I didn't see a yoke of oxen during the whole of my stay there. There used to be scores of ox teams in Darke county. I didn't hear the crack of an ox whip, and not once did I hear any one say :
"Whoa there, Buck, Gee there, Bessy."
Not a boy in the whole town did I see walking on a pair of stilts.
Nor did I see a game of mumble-dy peg.
Nor a game of horse-shoes.
I did not see a single tin lantern with holes punched through it.
I didn't see a candle stick nor a tallow dip.
Not even a pair of candle moulds could be seen.
I didn't see a cooper shop in the town.
Nor a gunsmith shop.
I didn't see a pair of red-top boots on the feet of any boy or anywhere else.
I didn't hear a Jew's-harp.
I didn't see a package of saleratus.
Nor a plug of dog-leg tobaco.
I didn't see a goose-quill pen.
There were lots of things I didn't see that used to be plen- tiful.
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Events of 1856.
The Courier was not in existence then, but the editor, John Calderwood, was and had been here some nine years.
He remembers two big events in that year (1856). One of them was a Democratic barbecue. held in Armstrong's "big woods," near the spot where Mrs. William Schnouse now resides (314 Washington avenue, near Cypress street). There was a big ox roasted that day and there was a big crowd to eat it. One of the "big" speakers was Samuel Medary.
The other big event was a sort of double show day, that is to say, two shows were held here on the same day, namely, Spaulding & Rogers' circus and Van-Amburg's menagerie. The circus was held where the Michael Miller residence now stands, and the menagerie was held near where the high school building now stands.
That year. 1856, was a great year for noted events. The presidential election was held that year, and John C. Freemont was the republican candidate, and James Buchanan the dem- ocratic candidate. Among the "big" men who spoke here during that campaign were Tom Corwin, Salmon P. Chase and Sam Galloway. Corwin was the leader-the most popu- lar. Ohio never produced his equal as a stump-speaker. For that matter, no other state could show an equal to Corwin. Ingersoll, the greatest orator that ever belonged to the United States, said of Corwin: "He stood peerless and alone in a class by himself."
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