USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 13
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THE FURNITURE
of the pioneer cabin was in many cases as simple and primitive as the cabin itself. A forked stick, set in the floor and supporting the poles, the other ends of which rested upon the logs at the end and side of the cabin, formed a bedstead. A common form of table was a split slab, supported by four rude legs, set in auger-holes. Three-legged stools were made in a similar simple man-
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
ner. Pegs, driven in auger-holes in the logs of the wall, supported shelves, and others displayed the limited ward- robe of the family not in use. A few other pegs, or per- haps a pair of deer's antlers, formed a rack where hung rifle and powder-horn, which no cabin was without. The cradle for the pioneer babe was more likely than not to ยท be a bee-gum or a sugar-trough. Some who became prominent citizens of Cincinnati and other parts of the Purchase were rocked in sugar-troughs. These, and perhaps a few other simple articles brought from the old home, formed the furniture and equipment of many a pioneer cabin. The utensils for cooking and the dishes for table use were few. The best were of pewter, which the careful housewife of the olden time kept shining as brightly as the more pretentious plate of our latter-day fine houses. It was by no means uncommon that wooden vessels, either coppered or tinned, were used upon the table. Knives and forks were few, crockery scarce, and tinware by no means abundant. Food was simply cooked and served, but it was, in general, very excellent of its kind and wholesome in quality. The hunter kept the larder supplied with venison, bear meat, squirrels, wild turkeys, and many varieties of smaller game. Plain corn-bread, baked in a kettle, in the ashes, or upon a board in front of the great open fireplace, answered the purpose of all kinds of pastry. The wild fruits in their season were made use of, and afforded a pleasant variety. Sometimes a special effort was made to prepare a deli- cacy, as, for instance, when a woman experimented in mince-pies, by pounding wheat to make the flour fo rthe crust and using crab-apples for fruit. In the cabin-lofts was usually to be found a miscellaneous collection that made up the pioneer's materia medica, the herb medicines and spices, catnip, sage, tansy, fennel, boneset, penny- royal, and wormwood, each gathered in its season; and there was also store of nuts and strings of dried pump- kin, with bags of berries and fruit.
THE HABITS
of the Miamese were of a simplicity and purity in conformity with their surroundings and belongings. The men were engaged in the herculean labor, day after day, of enlarging the little patch of sunshine about their homes, cutting away the forest, burning off brush and debris, preparing the soil, planting, tending, harvesting, caring for the few animals which they brought with them or soon procured, and in hunting.
THE FEMALE MIAMESE.
While the men were engaged in the heavy labor of the field and forest or in following the deer or other game, their helpmates were busied with their household duties, providing for the day and for the winter coming on, cooking, making clothes, spinning, and weaving. They were commonly well fitted, by nature and experience, to be consorts of the brave men who first came into the western wilderness. They were heroic in their endurance of hardship, privation, and loneliness. Their industry was well directed and unceasing. Woman's work, then, like man's, was performed under disadvantages since re- moved. She had not only the common household duties
to perform, but many now committed to other hands. She not only made the clothing of the family, but also the fabric for it. The famous old occupation of spin- ning and weaving, with which woman's name has been associated throughout all history, and which the modern world knows little, except through the stories of the grand- mother, which seems surrounded with a halo of romance as we look back to it through tradition and poetry, and which alwyas conjures up visions of the graces and virtues of a generation gone-that was the chief industry of the pioneer women. Every cabin resounded with the softly whirring wheel, and many forest homes with the rhyth- mic thud of the loom. The pioneer woman, truly, an- swered the ancient description of King Lemuel in the Proverbs: "She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands: she layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff." Almost every article of clothing not made of deerskin, as many a hunt- ing shirt and pair of leggins was, and, indeed; about all the cloth to be found in some of the old cabins, was the product of her toil. She spun flax and wove linen and woolen for shirts and pantaloons, frocks, shects and blankets. Linen and wool, the "linsey-woolsey" of the primitive day, furnished most of the material for
THE CLOTHING
of the men and women, though some was obtained from the skins of wild beasts. Men commonly wore the hunt- ing shirt, a kind of loose frock reaching half-way down the thighs, open before, and so wide as to lap over a foot or more upon the chest. This generally had a cape, which was often fringed with a ravelled piece of cloth of a different color from that which composed the garment. The capacious bosom of the shirt often served as a pouch, in which could be carried the smaller articles that a hunter or woodsman needs. It was always worn belted, and was made of coarse linen, linsey, or buckskin, according to the taste or fancy of the weaver. In the belt was worn a hunting or "scalping knife," unhappily too ready at hand, as was sometimes proved at the cost of a human life, upon occasions of deadly quarrel. Breeches were made of heavier cloth or dressed deer-skin, and were often worn with leggings of the same material or some kind of leather, while the feet were frequently encased in moccasins after the Indian fashion, which were quickly and easily made, though they often needed mending. The buckskin breeches or leggings were very comfortable when dry, but seemed cold when wet, and were almost as stiff as wooden garments would be when next put on. Hats or caps were generally made of coonskin, wildcat, or other native fur. The women, when they could not procure "store duds," dressed in linsey petticoats, coarse shoes and stockings, and wore buckskin mittens or gloves, not for style, but when any protection was required for the hands. All of her wearing apparel, like that of the men, was made with a view to service and comfort, and was quite commonly of home manufacture throughout. Other and finer articles were worn sometimes, but they were brought from former homes or bought at the stores in the settlements along the river, in the former case being
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
often the relics handed down from parents to children. Jewelry was not common; but occasionally some orna- ment was displayed.
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PIONEER LITERATURE.
In the cabins of the more cultivated pioneers were usually a few books-the Bible and a hymn-book, the Pilgrim's Progress, Baxter's Saint's Rest, Hervey's Medi- tations, Esop's Fables, Gulliver's Travels, Robinson Crusoe, and the like. The long winter evenings were spent partly in poring over a few well-thumbed volumes by the light of the great log fire, and partly in curing and dressing skins, knitting, mending, and other employ- ments. Hospitality was simple, unaffected, hearty, and unbounded. The latch-string was "always out" at nearly every cabin.
WHISKEY
was in common use, and was furnished on all occasions of sociability. It was brought in from Kentucky and the Monongahela country, and down the Ohio and Licking rivers. A few years later many of the settlers put up small stills, and made an article of corn whiskey that was not held in so high esteem, though used for ordinary drinking in large quantities. Nearly every settler had his barrel of it stored away. It was quite the universal drink at merry-makings, bees, house-warmings, and wed- dings, and was always set before the traveller who chanced to spend the night or take a meal at a pioneer cabin. In this the settler but followed the custom of other pioneer communities.
SOCIETY.
As settlements increased, the sense of loneliness and isolation was dispelled, the asperities of life were soft- ened, its amenities multiplied, social gatherings became more numerous and enjoyable, the log-rolling, harvesting, and husking bees for the men, and the apple-butter making and quilting parties for the women, furnished frequent occasions for social intercourse. The early set- tlers took much pride and pleasure in rifle-shooting, and, as they were accustomed to the use of the gun in the chase and relied upon it as. a weapon of defence, they exhibited considerable skill. A wedding was the local event of chief importance in the sparsely settled new country. The young people had every inducement to marry, and generally did marry as soon as able to pro- vide for themselves. When a marriage was to be cele- brated, all the neighborhood turned out. It was custom- ary to have the ceremony performed before dinner, and, in order to be on time, the groom and his attendants usually started from his father's house in the morning for that of the bride. All went on horseback, riding in single file along the narrow trails. Arriving at the cabin of the bride's parents, the ceremony would be performed, and after that dinner was served. This was a substantial backwoods feast of beef, pork, fowls, and deer or bear meat, with such vegetables as could be procured. The greatest hilarity prevailed during the meal, After it was over, dancing began, and was usually kept up till the next morning, though the newly made husband and wife were, as a general thing, put to bed by the company in the most approved old fashion and with considerable
formality, in the midst of the evening's rout. The tall young men, when they went on the floor to dance, had to take their places with care between the logs that sup- ported the loft floor, or they were in danger of bumping their heads. The figures of the dances were three and four-handed reels, or square sets and jigs. The com- mencement was always a square four, which was followed by "jigging it off." The settlement of a young couple was thought to be thoroughly and generously made when the neighbors assembled and raised a cabin for them.
AGRICULTURE.
During all the early years of the settlements, varied with occasional pleasures and excitements, the great work of increasing the tillable ground went slowly on. The implements and tools were few, compared with what the farmer may command nowadays, and of a primitive kind; but the soil, that had long held in reserve the accumu- lated richness of centuries, produced splendid harvests, and the husbandman was well rewarded for his labor. The soil was warmer then than now, and the seasons ear- lier. The' bottom lands, if not flooded by the freshets, were often as green by the first of March as fields of grain now are a month later. The wheat was pastured in the spring, to keep it from growing up so early and fast as to become lodged. The harvest came early, and the yield was often from thirty-five to forty or more bush- els per acre.
PIONEER MONEY.
The first circulating medium in the new country was composed mainly of raccoon and other skins from the forest. Mr. John G. Olden says, in his entertaining His- torical Sketches and Early Reminiscences: "A deer-skin was worth and represented a dollar; a fox-skin, one-third of a dollar; a coon-skin, one-fourth of a dollar ;- and these passed almost as readily as the silver coin. The buffalo and bear-skins had a more uncertain value, and were less used as a medium of trade." Spanish dollars, very likely cut into quarters and eighth pieces, sometimes appeared, and in time constituted, with the smaller pieces of Mexican coinage, the greater part of the currency afloat. Smaller sums than twelve and a half cents were often paid or given in change in pins, needles, writing- paper, and other articles of little value. A Cincinnati merchant named Bartle brought in a barrel of copper coins to "inflate the currency" in 1794, but his fellow- merchants were so exasperated at his action that they al- most mobbed him. These troops at Fort Washington were paid in Federal money, commonly bills of the old Bank of the United States, of which a three-dollar note was then the monthly pay of a private. The bills were usu- ally called "oblongs," especially at the gaming tables, which many of the officers and soldiers frequented. The funds disbursed at Fort Washington made valuable addi- tions to the currency of the lower Miami country, and greatly facilitated its commercial and mercantile growth and business operations there.
PRICES.
From some parts of the Purchase long journeys had to be made upon occasion, and very likely on foot, when
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
medicines or delicacies were required for the sick, or some indispensable article for the household or farm was to be procured. The commonest goods at first com- manded large prices, from the distance of the wholesale houses in the Eastern cities where they were purchased, and the cost of transportation. In parts of Ohio, if not in the Miami Purchase, in the early days coffee brought seventy-five cents to a dollar; salt five or six dollars a bushel of fifty pounds; and the plainest calico one dollar a yard. What was raised in the country, however, was cheap enough. Judge Symmes notes in August, 1791, that "provisions are extremely plenty; corn may be had at Columbia for two shillings cash per bushel; wild meat is still had with little difficulty; and hogs are increasing in number at a great rate, so that I expect any quantity of pork may be had next killing time at twenty-five shil- lings per hundred."
A WAR-PERIOD.
During the War of 1812 many of the pioneer husbands and fathers volunteered in the service of the United States, and others were drafted. Women and children were left alone in many an isolated log-cabin all through Ohio, and there was a long reign of unrest, anxiety, and terror. It was feared by all that the Indians might take advantage of the desertion of these homes by their nat -. ural defenders, and pillage and destroy them. The dread of robbery and murder filled many a mother's heart ; but happily the worst fears of this kind proved to be ground- less, and this part of the country was spared any scenes of actual Indian violence during the war. After it end- ed, a greater feeling of security prevailed than ever before. A new motive was given to immigration, and the country more rapidly filled up. An
ERA OF PEACE AND PROSPERITY
was fairly begun. Progress of the best kind was slowly, surely made. The log houses became more numerous in the clearings; the forest shrank away before the wood- man's axe ; frame houses began to appear in many local- ities where they were before unknown; the pioneers, as- sured of safety, laid better plans for the future, resorted to new industries, enlarged their possessions, and im- proved the means of cultivation. Stock was brought in greater numbers from Kentucky and the east. Every settler now had his horses, oxen, cattle, sheep, and hogs. More commodious structures about the farm took the place of the old ones. The double log cabin, of hewed logs, or a frame dwelling, took the place of the smaller one; log and frame barns were built for the protection of stock and the housing of the crops. Then society began more thoroughly to organize itself; the school-house and the church appeared in all the rural communities; and the advancement was noticeable in a score of other ways. The work of the Miamese pioneers was mainly done. Their hardships and privations, so patiently and even cheerfully borne in the time of them, were now pleasantly remembered. The best had been made of what they had, and they had toiled with stout hearts to lay the foundations of the civilization that began to bloom about them. Industrious and frugal, simple in their tastes and
pleasures, happy in an independence, however hardly gained, and looking forward hopefully to an old age of plenty and peace which should reward them for the toils of their earliest years, and a final rest from the struggle of many toilsome seasons, they were ready to join in the song which was pleasantly sung for them long after by the Buckeye poet, William D. Gallagher, dedicated to the descendants of Colonel Israel Ludlow, and entitled '
SIXTY YEARS AGO.
A song of the early times out west and our green old forest home, Whose pleasant memories freshly yet across the bosom come! A song for the free and gladsome life in those early days we led, With a teeming soil beneath our feet and a smiling heaven o'erhead ! O, the waves of life danced merrily and had a joyous flow, In the days when we were pioneers, sixty years ago!
The hunt, the shot, the glorious chase, the captured elk or deer! The camp, the big, bright fire, and then the rich and wholesome cheer; The sweet, sound sleep at dead of night by our camp-fire blazing high, Unbroken by the wolf's long howl and the panther springing by, O, merrily passed the time, in spite our wily Indian foe, In the days when we were pioneers, sixty years ago!
We shunn'd not labor; when 'twas due, we wrought with right good-will; And for the homes we won for them, our children bless us still. We lived not hermit lives, but oft in social converse met; And fires of love were kindled then that burn on warmly yet. O, pleasantly the stream of life pursued its constant flow, In the days when we were pioneers, sixty years ago!
"We felt that we were fellow-men, we felt we were a band Sustain'd here in the wilderness by Heaven's upholding hand ; And when the solemn Sabbath came we gather'd in the wood, And lifted up our hearts in prayer to God, the only good. Our temples then were earth and sky; none others did we know In the days when we were pioneers, sixty years ago!
Our forest life was rough and rude, and dangers closed us round ; But here, amid the green old trees, we freedom sought and found. Oft through our dwellings wintry blasts would rush with shriek and moan: We cared not, though they were but frail; we felt they were our own. O, free and manly lives we led, 'mid verdure or 'mid snow, In the days when we were pioneers, sixty years ago!
But now our course of life is short; and as, from day to day, We're walking on with halting step and fainting by the way, Another land, more bright than this, to our dim sight appears, And on our way to it we'll soon again be pioneers; Yet, while we linger, we may all a backward glance still throw To the days when we were pioneers, sixty years ago!
Without an iron will and an indomitable resolution, they could never have accomplished what they did. Their heroism deserves the highest tribute of praise and admi- ration that can be awarded, and their brave and toil- some deeds should have permanent record in the pages of history.
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HISTORY OF HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE MIAMESE AND THE INDIANS.
Let ns welcome, then, the strangers, Hail them as our friends and brothers, And the heart's right hand of friendship Give them when they come to see us, Gitche Manito, the Mighty, Said this to me in my vision.
H. W. LONGFELLOW, "Hiawatha."
Friendship was in their looks, but in their hearts there was hatred. Straight there arose from the forest the awful sound of the war-whoop, And, like a flurry of snow in the whistling wind of December, Swift and sudden and keen came a flight of feathery arrows ; Then came a cloud of smoke, and out of the cloud came the lightning, Out of the lightning thunder, and death unseen ran before it.
LONGFELLOW, "Courtship of Miles Standish." SYMMES' PROCLAMATION.
It was remarked in the last chapter that, while Judge Symmes was detained with his party at Limestone, he had repeated information from Major Stites, then just getting settled in his block-houses and cabins at Colum- bia, that Indians had come in to see him (Stites) and share his hospitality, and that they had expressed a strong desire to see the great man of the Miami Purchase and make a peace compact with their new white brethren. This information was evidently considered important by the pioneer Columbian, since he dispatched two mes- sengers on foot, in the inclement days of early December, to make their way for sixty miles along the banks of the Ohio, to convey his tidings to the leader still tarrying at Limestone. Symmes not appearing, and the Indians con- tinuing their visits and beginning to express some impa- tience at his delay, another message was sent to him, which, as we have seen, had the effect of hastening his departure with the colony for the settlement contem- plated near the mouth of the Great Miami. Before his expedition set out, however, he, remembering, perhaps, the great example of Penn in his dealings with the In- dians, prepared and dispatched the following unique proclamation or letter to the red men of the Miamis:
Brothers of the Wyandots and Shawances: Hearken to your brother, who is coming to live at the Great Miami. He was on the Great Mi- ami last summer, while the deer was yet red, and met with one of your camps; he did no harm to anything which you had in your camp ; he held back two young men from hurting yon or your horses, and would not let them take your skins or meat, though your brothers were very hungry. All this he did because he was your brother, and would live in peace with the red people. If the red people will live in friendship with him and his young men, who came from the great salt ocean, to plant corn and build cabins on the land between the Great and Little Miami, then the white and red people shall all be brothers and live to- gether, and we will buy your furs and skins, and sell you blankets and rifles, and powder and lead and rum, and everything that our red brothers may want in hunting and in their towns.
Brothers! a treaty is holding at Muskingum. Great men from the thirteen fires are there, to meet the chiefs and head men of all the na- tions of the red people. May the Great Spirit direct all their councils for peace. But the great men and the wise men of the red and white people cannot keep peace and friendship long, unless we, who are their sons and warriors, will also bury the hatchet and live in peace.
Brothers! I send you a string of beads, and write to you with my own hand, that you may believe what I say. I am your brother, and will be kind to yon while you remain in pcace. Farewell !
JNO. C. SYMMES.
Jan. the 3d, 1789.
What was the immediate effect of this epistle upon the aboriginal mind has not been recorded; but a few months
afterwards a white man, Mr. Isaac Freeman, going in from the Maumee towns with several captives released by the Indians, was charged in reply with the delivery of the following address to Judge Symmes :
MAWME, July 7, 1789.
Brothers ! Americans! of the Miami Warriors ! Listen to ns war- riors what we have to say.
Now, Americans ! Brothers ! we have heard from you, and are glad to hear the good speech you sent us. You have got our flesh and blood among you, and we have got yours among us, and we are glad to hear that you wish to exchange. We really think you want to exchange, and that is the reason we listen to you.
As the Great Spirit has put your flesh and blood into our hands, wc now deliver them up.
We warriors, if we can, wish to make peace, and our chiefs and yours will then listen to one another. As we warriors speak from our hearts, we hope you do so too, and wish you may be of one mind, as we are.
Brothers, Warriors-when we heard from you that you wished to exchange prisoners, we listened attentively, and now we send some, as all are not here nor can be procured at present, and therefore we hope you will send all ours home; and when we see them, it will make us strong to send all yours, which cannot now all be got together.
Brothers, Warriors-when we say this, it is from our hearts, and we hope you do the same; but if our young men should do anything wrong before we all meet together, we beg you to overlook it. This is the mind of us warriors, and our chiefs are glad there is hope of peace. We hope, therefore, that you are of the same mind.
Brothers, Warriors-it is the warriors who have shut the path which your chiefs and ours formerly laid open; but there is hope that the path will soon be cleared, that our women and children may go where they wish in peace, and that yours may do the same.
Now, Brothers, Warriors-you have heard from ns; we hope you will be strong like us, and we hope there will be nothing but peace and friendship between you and us.
In explanation of a part of this missive it should be said that Symmes held at North Bend ten Indian women and children, who had been left with him by Colonel Robert Patterson, as captives taken in a raid from Kentucky to the Indian towns, to be exchanged for whites when the opportunity should offer. Freeman had been sent by Symmes to the Maumee, with a young In- dian for interpreter, to arrange such exchanges. Subse- quently, while under a flag of truce approaching the In- dians on a friendly mission, Freeman was fired upon and killed.
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