History of Licking County, Ohio: Its Past and Present, Part 40

Author: N. N. Hill, Jr.
Publication date: 1881
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 826

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PIONEER days for Licking county and the State of Ohio are gone forever; the wolf, bear, deer, Indian and all associations and reminiscences

of those "good old days" have long since faded from sight if not from memory, and the pioneers, most of them, are gone too-

"How few, all weak and withered of their force, Wait on the verge of dark eternity."

It remains to write their history, and the history of the times in which they lived, as of another race of beings; and, if possible, to impress the best of it upon the character of the present and future generations; for it is a history worthy of imitation

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and preservation. A study of the characteristics of the pioneer fathers and mothers is calculated to ennoble the mind and strengthen the hand for the battle of life.

It would require a volume to tell of their habits and customs; of their trapping and hunting; of their solitary lives in the great woods, surrounded by wild animals and wilder men; of their dress, manners, and peculiar ways; of their cabins and furniture ; of the long winter evenings by the log- heap fire upon which-

"We piled, with care, our nightly stack Of wood against the chimney-back- The oaken log, green, huge, and thick, And on its top the stout back-stick; The knotty fore-stick laid apart, And filled between with curious art The ragged brush ; then hovering near, We watched the first red blaze appear, Heard the sharp crackle, caught the gleam On whitewashed wall and sagging beam, Until the old rude-furnished room Burst flower-like into rosy bloom."

It was a free, happy, independent life; full of hard- ships, indeed, but sweetened with innocence and peace; with alternations of labor, pleasure and rest.

The pioneers of Licking were largely from New England, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, who sought to better their condition by making permanent homes in the wilderness west of the Ohio river. They came largely on foot over the Alleghany mountains, many of them having a single horse and wagon, or a two-horse wagon, in which their worldly possessions were carried, and in which the very old or very young, only, were allowed to ride. When once settled and his cabin erected, it was not only a home and shelter for himself and family, but for every stranger who passed that way, "without money and without price." The latch string was always out, for these pioneers were great hearted people, and no man, be he white, black or red, was turned away empty. Their cabins, often not more than fifteen or twenty feet square, made of rough beech logs, with the bark still adhering to them, were frequently occu- pied by a dozen or even a score of people for a night, and no complaints made for want of room; genuine hospitality always finds room enough and never apologizes for lack of more; and when break-

fast time came there was no apology for the scar- city of knives, forks and spoons, for "fingers were made before any of these." The fare was homely, but generally abundant. What to eat drink and wear were questions not, perhaps, difficult of solu- tion in those days. The first was the easiest to solve. The deer, the bear, the wild turkey, the rabbit, the squirrel, all started up and said, or seemed to say "eat me." These had been pre- pared for the red men of the forest, and were equally abundant for the pioneer. The forest was full of game, the streams full of fish, and wild fruits were abundant. To get bread required both patience and labor ; the staff of life was one of the articles that must be earned "by the sweat of the brow;" it could not be gathered from the bushes, fished from the streams, or brought down with the rifle. Every backwoodsman once a year added to his clearing, at least, a "truck patch." This was the hope and stay of the family; the receptacle of corn, beans, melons, potatoes, squashes, pumpkins, turnips, etc., each variety more perfectly developed and delicious because it grew in virgin soil. The corn and beans planted in May brought roasting ears and succotash in August. Potatoes came with the corn, and the cellar, built in the side of a convenient cliff or hill, and filled with the contents of the truck patch, secured the family against want. When the corn grew too hard for roasting ears, and was yet too soft to grind in the mill, it was reduced to meal by a grater, and whether stirred into mush or baked into johnny-cake, it made, for people with keen appetites and good stomachs, excellent food. Place before one of those brawny backwoodsmen a square foot of johnny-cake and a venison steak broiled on hickory coals, and no art of civilization could produce a more satisfactory meal.

Next to the grater comes the hominy block, an article in common use among the pioneers. It consisted simply of a block of wood-a section of a tree, perhaps-with a hole burned, or dug, into it a foot deep, in which corn was pulverized with a pestle. Sometimes this block was inside the cabin, where it served as a seat for the bashful young buckskinned backwoodsman while "sparking" his girl; sometimes a convenient stump in front of the cabin door was prepared for, and made one of the best of hominy blocks. When pigs began to be

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raised, the natural relation between pork and beaten corn suggested the grand old idea of "hog and hominy."

Hominy blocks did not last long, for mills came quite early and superseded them, yet these mills were often so far apart that in stormy weather, or for want of transportation, the pioneer was com- pelled to resort to his hominy block, or go without . bread. In winter, the mills were frozen up nearly all the time, and when a thaw came and the ice broke, if the mill was not swept away entirely by the floods, it was so thronged with pioneers, each with his sack of corn, that some of them were often compelled to camp out near the mill and wait several days for their turn. When the grist was ground, if they were so fortunate as to possess an ox, a horse, or mule, for the purpose of trans- portation, they were happy. It was not unusual to go from ten to twenty miles to mill, through the pathless, unbroken forest, and to be benighted on the journey, and chased, or treed by wolves. A majority of the pioneers, however, settled in the vicinity of a stream, upon which mills were rapidly erected. These mills were very primitive affairs- mere "corn crackers"-but they were an improve- ment on the hominy block. They merely ground the corn, the pioneer must do his own bolting. A wire sieve was then one of the most important articles of household furniture. It always hung in its place, on a wooden peg, just under the ladder that reached to the loft. The meal was sifted and the finest used for bread. How delicious was that "Indian pone," baked in a large deep skillet, which was placed upon coals raked from the fire-place to the hearth. Fresh coals were continually placed under it and upon the iron lid until the loaf, five or six inches thick, was done through. This was a different thing from johnny-cake; it was better, and could not always be had, for to make it good, a little wheat flour was needed, and wheat flour was a precious thing in those very early days.

A road cut through the forest to the mill, and a wagon for hauling the grist, were great advantages, the latter especially was often a seven day's wonder to the children of a neighborhood, and the happy owner of one often did, for years, the milling for a whole neighborhood. About once a month this good neighbor, who was in exceptionally good cir-

cumstances, because able to own a wagon, would go about through the neighborhood, gather up the grists and take them to mill, often spending several days in the operation, and never think of charging for his time and trouble.

The cultivation of domestic animals, both beasts and fowls, for the purposes of food, began early. Cows for milk, butter, beef, and leather, and swine for pork, were bred, ear marked and turned into the woods to browse. "Root hog or die," was the law for man and beast, but the woods were prolific and the hogs grew fat. The young pigs were ex- ceptionally a sweet morsel for the bear. Bruin always singled out these young animals in prefer- ence to any other meat; but the pigs were often successfully defended by the older hogs, who, upon the least signs of distress from one of their num- ber, would go boldly to the rescue, and fiercely at- tack the foe, however formidable; often the pig was released and bruin, or the panther, compelled to ascend a tree for safety.

The boys often found wild turkeys nests in the woods, and would bring home the eggs, and place them, to be hatched, under a trusty old hen, in an outside chimney corner, where they could assist the hen in defending the eggs and brood from the opossum or hawk. A flock of turkeys sometimes originated in this way, but more often, as they grew to maturity, they would fly away into the woods and never reappear. This grandest of birds is identical in civilized and savage life, and is the peculiar production of America. The wild ones were always a dark brown, like the leaves of their native woods, but when tamed, or "civilized," the diversity of color becomes endless.

When corn-bread and milk were eaten for break- fast, hog and hominy for dinner and mush and milk for supper, there was little room for tea and coffee; and at a time when one bushel of wheat for a pound of coffee and four bushels for a pound of tea, were considered a fair exchange, but little of these very expensive articles was used.

Next to water, the drink of the pioneers was whiskey-corn or rye whiskey. Everybody drank it. It was supposed to be indispensable to health, and a protection against the morning fogs. It was supposed to be indispensable to strength and endurance during the labors of the day, and to

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sleep at night. It was supposed to be absolutely indispensable to warmth and animation in cold, chilly winter weather. It was the sacrament of friendship and hospitality; it was in universal use; yet there was probably less drunkenness in those days than at present. The whiskey was absolutely pure; it was not drugged, doctored and poisoned as it is to-day, and, although enough of it would bring drunkenness, it did not bring delirium-trem- ens, or leave the system prostrated, and the victim with a head-ache upon "sobering up." It was the first thing in demand as an article of commerce. Stills for its manufacture sprang up everywhere, all along the streams. Pioneers soon found a market at these stills for their corn, hence corn became the great crop, and whiskey the great article of commerce. It was the only thing that would bring money, and money they must have to pay taxes. Whiskey could be purchased for twelve or fifteen cents per gallon and paid for in corn, and the bar- rel of whiskey in the cellar, was as common as the barrel of cider was later. The whiskey that was not consumed at home was shipped on flat-boats wr pirogues * on the Muskingum, Ohio and Mis- issippi rivers to New Orleans and sold for Spanish gold. The rebellion against the government of the United States, commonly called the whiskey insurrection, had its growth out of the hardships of the Scotch-Irish of western Pennsylvania, who in the mother country had learned to love whiskey and hate gaugers; and this population gave tone and character to the first settlers of eastern Ohio. There was this apology for the production of whiskey, that it was the only means of disposing of surplus crops, or bringing money into the country.

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The hardy piooneers, after disposing of their cargo of whiskey in New Orleans, would set out for home-a distance of say fifteen hundred miles. Think of it, ye who ride in palace coaches at the rate of forty miles an hour while reclining in cush- ioned seats, smoking your cigar, and reading in your morning paper the happenings of yesterday in Europe and America. While apologizing some- what for those whiskey days, it may be well to say the whiskey was not probably of any special bene- fit, was not to be compared to the pure water of

their springs, and that tod many of the pioneers drank too much of it, and that too often it made their eyes and noses red, their children ragged and their wives wretched, as it does to-day.

In clothing the pioneers conformed to the cir- cumstances in which they were placed. The al- most universal costume for the men was the linsey- woolsey hunting shirt, or wamus, blue, butternut, or red, according to the fancy of the wearer; buck- skin pants and moccasins, and sometimes, in win; ter, a waist-coat of the skin of a panther, wild cat or spotted fawn. In summer, when it could be had, linen was made up into wearing apparel. The flax was grown in the summer, scutched in the fall, and during the long winter evenings was heard the buzz of the little flax wheel, which had a place in every cabin. Even those who are not pioneers can remember this flax wheel, for it was in use as late as 1850, or later. It stood in a corner, gen- erally ready for use by having a large bundle of flax, wrapped around its forked stick, a thread reaching to the spindle, and a little gourd filled with water hanging conveniently at the bottom of the flax-stick, and whenever the good pioneer mother had a little spare time from cooking for a dozen work-hands, caring for a dozen children, milking a dozen cows, and taking care of the milk and but- ter, besides doing all the housework and keeping everything clean and neat as a pin, she would sit down to this wheel and with foot on the treadle and nimble fingers. pile thread upon thread on the spindle, to be reeled off on a wooden reel that counted every yard with a snap, and then it was ready for the great loom that occupied the loft. This loom was a wonder-it would be a wonder to-day, with its great beams, larger than any beams they put in the houses of to-day-its treadles, its shuttles, etc. Day after day could be heard the pounding of that loom, the treadles went up and down, the shuttles flew swiftly from one hand to the other through the labyrinth of warp, and yard after yard of cloth rolled upon the great roller. And then this cloth was to be cut into little and big clothes and made up with the needle; and, remem- ber, this and a great deal more than any one can think of was to be gone through with every year. Wool went through about the same operation, only it was spun on the large wheel, colored with but-

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" A canoe dug out of a log, or two canoes lashed together.

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ternut bark and other things, but woven on the loom and made up for winter clothing.

Judge William Johnson, in an address at a pioneer meeting, says regarding this matter of clothing:

"But innovations were soon made. My father had brought out a huge trunk full of coarse broadcloth, and this tempted the young men to have coats to be married in. They would bar- gain with my father for the cloth and trimmings, and with my mother for making the coat, and pay both bills by grubbing, making rails or clearing land. It may seem odd at this day that a woman of small stature, besides doing her own house- work, should make two hundred rails a day with her needle and shears, and find time for reading and mental culture every day. I never think of my mother's tailoring skill, without being re- minded of one instance. A young man had purchased the cloth for his wedding coat, and, as a measure of economy, em- ployed one Nancy Clark to make it up. Nancy was an expert on hunting-shirts, buckskin breeches and 'sich', but had never cut a coat, so my mother cut out the coat. Nancy made it up, but on the eve of the wedding, when tried on, instead of allow- ing his arms to hang gracefully by his side as became a bride- groom, it turned him into a spread eagle with arms extended upward. The wedding day was at hand, and in his perplexity he brought the coat to my mother to diagnose its disorder, and if possible, administer the proper remedies. She found there was nothing more serious than that Nancy had sewed the right sleeve in the left side, and the left sleeve in the right, and put them upside down. As luxury and extravagance in dress in- creased, an old tailor with shears, goose and sleeve-board began to 'whip the cat' around the neighborhood, and my mother's occupation, except in her own family, was gone. The custom of whipping the cat, both for tailors and shoemakers, was in vogue many years after, and, like the schoolmaster boarding around, had this advantage, that if they received poor pay for their work, they were fed and lodged while they were about it.

"But the material for winter clothing was hard to get. As the woolen goods wore out, my father bought six sheep to com- mence with, and within the first week the wolves chased the old dog under the cabin floor, and killed two of them within a few yards of the cabin door. On account of the scarcity of wool, many a night I sat up until midnight, with a pair of hand-cards mixing wool with rabbit' s fur, and carding them together, while my mother spun and knit them into mittens and stockings for her children to wear to school."

"Kicking frolics" were in vogue in those early times. This was after wool was more plenty, and it was carded, spun, and wove into cloth. Half a dozen young men and an equal number of young women (for the "fun of the thing" it was always necessary to preserve a balance of this kind) were invited to the kicking frolic. The cabin floor was cleared for action and half a dozen chairs, or stools, placed in a circle in the center and connected by a cord to prevent recoil. On these the six young men seated themselves with boots and stockings off, and pants rolled up above the knee. Just

think of making love in that shape. The cloth was placed in the centre, wet with soap-suds and then the kicking commenced by measured steps driving the bundle of cloth round and round, the elderly lady with gourd in hand pouring on more soap-suds, and every now, and then, with spectacles on nose and yard-stick in hand, measuring the goods until they were shrunk to the desired width, and then calling the lads to a dead halt. Then while the lads put on hose and boots the lasses, with sleeves rolled up above the elbow, rung out the cloth and put it out on the garden fence to dry. When this was done the cabin floor was again cleared and the supper spread, after which, with their numbers increased somewhat, perhaps, they danced the happy hours of the night away until midnight, to the music of a violin and the commands of some amateur cotillon caller, and were ready to attend another such frolic the follow- ing night.

The costume of the women deserves a passing Jotice. The pioneers proper, of course, brought with them something to wear like that in use where they came from; but this could not last always, and new apparel, such as the new country afforded, had to be provided. Besides, the little girls sprang up into womanhood with the rapidity of the native butterweed, and they must be made both decent and attractive, and what is more, they were willing to aid in making themselves so. The- flax patch, therefore, became a thing of as prime necessity as the truck patch. On the side next to the woods the flax grew tall, slender and delicate, and was carefully pulled by the girls and kept by itself to make finery of. The stronger growth did well enough for clothing for the men, and warp for the linsey-woolsey, and even every-day dresses for the women, but for Sundays, when everybody went to "meeting," the girls, especially, wanted some- thing nice, just as they do to-day. This fine flax, therefore, was carefully pulled, carefully rotted, carefully broken, carefully scutched, carefully hackled, carefully spun, carefully dyed in divers colors, and carefully woven in cross-barred figures, tastefully diversified, straining a point to get Turkey-red enough to put a single thread between the duller colors to mark their outline like the circle around a dove's eye. Of such goods the

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rustic beauty made her Sunday gown, and then with her vandyke of snow-white homespun linen, her snow-white home-knit stocking, and possibly white kid slippers, she was a sight for sore eyes and often for sore hearts. No paint or arsenic was needed, for active exercise in the open air under a sunbonnet, or a broad-brimmed hat, made by her mother out of rye straw, gave her cheek an honest, healthful glow, and to her eyes the brightness and beauty of a fawn's. Possibly those white kid slip- pers have caused a nod of skepticism. This is the way it was done. Her brother, or lover, shot six fine squirrels; she tanned the skins herself in a sugar-trough, and had them made up at consider- able expense and trouble to wear on Sundays and state occasions. Possibly it may be wondered how the slippers would look after walking five or ten miles through the mud to church, as was frequently done. There were ways of doing these things that were only whispered among the girls, but have leaked out ; and the same process was indulged in more or less by young men, who were fortunate enough to own a pair of fine boots; and that was, to wear the every-day shoes or boots, or go bare- foot to within a few rods of the "meeting house," and then step into the woods and take the wraps from the precious shoes and put them on.

It is just barely possible there is a lady in to-day's society, who, with five pounds of colored hemp on the back of her head and thirty-five yards of silk velvet in her train, would be uncharitable enough to laugh at these pioneer mothers and daughters; if so, those whose opinions are worth anything fully understand that there was more work and worth, more value to the world and the community in which she lived, in the little finger of one of these pioneers than in the whole body, train, hair and all, of the aforesaid "lady." By the testimony of all history, luxury tends to degeneracy. If the clothes of the pioneers were poor, they made up in brain and heart. The tables are turned-the vac- uum of brain and heart is filled with fine clothes. Let it be remembered that the solidity and value of this beautiful structure called society, lies in the foundation-in the pioneer fathers and mothers, and it is only because of this solid foundation that the structure is able to stand at all.

The houses, or huts, in which these pioneers

lived have been often described; their form and proportions, and general appearance have been re- peatedly impressed upon the mind of the student of history. They were built of round logs with the bark on, outside chimneys of mud and sticks, puncheon floors, clapboard roof, with and without a loft or second floor, and all put together without a nail or particle of iron from top to bottom. These buildings stood many a year after the original in- habitant moved into better quarters. They served for stables, sheep pens, hay houses, pig pens, smith shops, hen houses, loom shops, school houses, etc. Some of them are yet standing in this county, and occupied, to some extent, in some portions of the county as dwellings.

A second grade of log cabin, built later, was quite an improvement on the first, being made of hewn logs, with sawed lumber for door and window frames and floors. Glass also took the place of paper windows of the old cabin; nails were also sparingly used in these better cabins. When nails were first used, for a few years a pound of them was exchanged for a bushel of wheat. They were a precious arti- cle, and were made by hand on a blacksmith's an- vil, out of odds and ends of old worn-out sickles, scythes, broken clevis pins, links of chains, broken horse-shoes, etc., all welded together to eke out the nail rods from which they were forged. The first cabins were erected ready for occupation in a single day. In an emergency, the pioneers col- lected together, often going eight or ten miles to a cabin-raising, and in the great woods, where not a tree had been felled or a stone turned, began with dawn the erection of a cabin. Three or four wise builders would set the corner-stones, lay on the square and level the first round of logs; two men with axes would cut the trees and logs; one with his team of oxen, a "lizzard" and a log-chain would "snake" them in; two more, with axes, cross-cut saw and frow would make; the clapboards; two more, with axes, cross-cut saw and broad-axe would hew out the puncheons and flatten the upper side of the sleepers and joists. Four skilful axemen would carry up the corners, and the remainder with skids and forks or hand-spikes would roll up the logs. As soon as the joists were laid on, the cross-cut saw was brought from the woods, and two men went to work cutting out the door and chim-

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History of Licking County, Ohio: Its Past and Present, Part 40

Author: N. N. Hill, Jr. Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Number of Pages: 826

Author: N. N. Hill, Jr.
Publication date: 1881
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 826