USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume Three > Part 2
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Women and children, and even men, were not safe beyond the clearing in the forest around their humble homes. Wives lived in terror lest the savage enemy should massacre husband and children; but the rifle was at every doorstep, and ever within reach of the early settler. At night it stood beside his humble couch, and at home, in the forest, or at his log-house church, it was his constant companion.
But the ax of the pioneer was a more potent weapon, for with it his strong arm razed the forest, built the cabin, the church, the schoolhouse, and the mill, before which the savage, the wolf, the panther and the bear fled in dismay-fled forever with their dangers into the gloomy vales of distant forests.
In these wooded shades where life was but a chance midst lurking dangers, the stoutest hearts doubtless grew heavy and cheeks pale, when by the dim candle light their thoughts reverted to the romantic New England or Virginia village, in which they had spent the delights of their youth. They contrasted mayhap, the rude cabin with its rough insufficient necessities with the rural cottage midst the sweet New England hills, and sadness thickened over their memories. But time grew new joys to supplant those of memory, and the dreaded forest touched with pity, became gentler and
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
less fierce and buried in their solitary depths the waning echoes of the sad thoughts of their old sweet home.
General Anthony Wayne won his signal victory at "Fallen Timbers" in 1794, and the whoop of the Indian was heard no more in eastern, and southern Ohio. Henceforth the life of the pioneer was unfretted with external dangers, and quietly pursued its rough but virile career, evolving that splendid generation of men and women to whom Ohio owes all her accomplish- ments.
The first generation of Ohio was drawn from all parts of the older colonies. The New Englander settled at Marietta and upon the lands of the Ohio Company; men from Virginia peopled the country between the Little Miami and the Scioto; New Jersey men made their home upon the Symmes tract; the Pennsylva- nians poured over into the "Seven Ranges"; and the Connecticut and New York farmers flocked into the Western Reserve. These gradually commingled and leavened Ohio with her best blood. The history of the State, however, is full of evidence that the original settlement gave a persistent color of character to these respective regions. Thus the restless energy, enterprise and versatility of the New Englander is evident where he abounds, and the thoughtful conser- vatism of the Virginian has blossomed into a galaxy of splendid names which stand through history for the strength of the entire nation, and the sturdy conscience of the Scotch-Irish and Quaker have sprinkled all with a decided savor.
But the life of these old pioneers from which has flowed, as from a fountain, events great and small,
GOVERNOR THOMAS KIRKER
From a painting in the Capitol at Columbus.
Born in Ireland in 1760; served in the first General Assembly of Ohio as Senator from 1803 to 1815; as Repre- sentative and Speaker of House of Representatives, 1816; as Senator from 1821 to 1825; he became acting Governor when Governor Tiffin resigned, serving from March 4, 1807 to December 8, 1808; died, February 19, 1837.
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
must be pictured. That picture when contemplated from this age abounding in artificiality has all the charms, color and beauty with which nature clothes her own. It is a beautiful picture because that life was close to nature and partook of the inscrutable handi- work of the Maker of all things. Its works were ever great because they were the first echoes of nature's voice, and its works were immortal because that voice never ceased to echo.
The sturdy men and brave women who entered upon this life were generously equipped for it. They, as a rule, were the merchant, the farmer, the mechanic, the soldier, the politician, ready to make war, or to make law; to put their hands to the plow or to the helm of state as their country might require. Ever patient, ever industrious, frugal and provident, with a love for learning and a reverence for religion, alert to virtue and quick to resist oppression and wrong. Such were the husbandmen that wrought the wilderness of Ohio into a garden.
But there was dross among them. The idle, the dissolute, the wayward, impatient of the restraint of law, the unfortunate, reckless in despair, and the help- less drifted with the tide, but they faded away or became at most the useless ballast of society.
As the stream of pioneer life became less tumultuous, it became greater in volume. Thousands crowded into the primitive "arks" of the day, floated down the Ohio River to their new homes, bringing with them the bare necessities of life. An ax, an auger, the trusty knife and rifle, a flintlock in those days, a plow perhaps,
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
with a minimum of bedding and clothes, a few iron and pewter utensils and a faithful dog. This was their "outfit."
These river rafts or "arks" were a feature of early life. At the beginning they were built of rough lumber at Pittsburgh or wherever the water journey started, and usually by the head of the emigrant family or party. It was designed for the special trip and at their destination was dismantled, and the lumber used in building cabins and barns. It was supplied with a great steering oar at the rear, and was intended to float with the current. It was usually of considerable dimension, decked over and furnished comfortably. A long and eventful trip it was likely to be.
The dangers of grounding, and in early days of being waylaid by the Indians, were always at hand. Yet it must have been picturesque to the most prosaic voyagers. The deep green forests which shaded the high terraces of the Ohio River with the stately syca- mores stalking like ghosts along the shore, the fish glinting in the swirling waters, the thrushes singing their carols, and the dim mysterious light of the tall woods as the passerby gazed into them, as into a ruined cathedral, must have filled the mind with a sense of sacred repose that softened the hardships incidentally encountered.
Arrived at his destination the emigrant at once tasted of the sweets of hospitality. He and his family seldom failed to share the frugal cabin of an older settler. It was never too full for the stranger in need. Children were tucked away in trundle beds or on pallets. Clothes and quilts were arranged in hangings to shield one
3 1833 02324 119 0
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
family from another, as they sought rest in the single cabin room. An anecdote related by an Englishman will illustrate the meagre utilities of the pioneer. He was sojourning in the Western Reserve in the early days of the nineteenth century. His host in order to provide sufficient room at his humble table, unhinged his only door and put it in place of the bench ordinarily used by the family for that purpose. The generous meal of hoe cake, a brown ration of bacon, venison, potatoes and pumpkin pie doubtless obliterated the memory of all inconveniences and made him at peace with the world.
As soon as practicable after the arrival of the emi- grant and family, a day was set by his future neighbors for a "house-raising" upon the land he had chosen to make his home. This was an event in pioneer life. It was one of those occasions when a community of labor was at the same time an instance of hospitality and a time of general merry-making and rejoicing. It was one of those events which stuck warmly in the memory of all concerned, and was related with much gusto long years after to grandchildren.
On the appointed day the neighborhood gathered to build the log cabin. A party volunteered as wood- choppers, whose business it was to fell the trees and cut them to the proper length. A man with a team was at hand to haul them, or if the logs were close by, a log chain was attached and they were "snaked" to the cabin site. The logs were assorted and placed in convenient places for the builders. A carpenter, if there was one, searched the woods for a proper log for making clap-boards for the roof. It must be
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
straight grained and three or four feet in diameter. These boards were split about four feet long and were used without planing or shaving. Another party was employed in preparing "puncheons" for the floor of the cabin. These were split logs hewn and smoothed with a broad ax.
These materials for the cabin were usually prepared the first day; the second was devoted to the "house raising." Four experts were placed at the corners, whose duties were to notch and place the logs. The rest of the company furnished them with timbers and laid the puncheon floor. An opening was left in the wall about three or four feet wide for the door and another for the window, and one wider than the rest for the broad chimney to be built outside of the cabin at the back end. This chimney was built of logs lined with stone or plastered thick with sticks and straw or grass. This plaster served for "chinking"-that is, for filling the interstices between the logs in the walls. The roof of clapboards was held down by logs placed lengthwise and bound firmly to the structure. Not a nail was used, wooden pegs doing service instead.
Now after all the labor came the reward that was to seal the good-will and friendship so well begun. The owner for whom this was done gave a "house warming." The same neighbors all gathered, and such feasting, singing, gossip and dancing does not grace and warm the hearts of this tussling age of the world. We can only look back upon it and our imagina- tions echo in a minor key the free, wholesome, uncon- ventionalized happiness of those olden days. The wrinkled faces of our grandfathers and grandmothers
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
flush with joy as they recall such scenes; for perhaps it was at one of them that the delicate cords of love began first to attune their heart strings.
As soon as practicable the farmer, for that was what the emigrant had now become, fashioned a rough puncheon table, some three legged stools, for three legs adjusted themselves better than four to the uneven floors. Later these stools were associated with the hickory backed splitbottomed chairs familiar even now, as relics. The primitive beds of the early pioneer were wide, low platforms, built in a convenient corner. As the family grew, a puncheon floor was built on the rafters, and a ladder led to the bedroom in the shallow loft. Long wooden pins were driven into the log walls, which supported shelves upon which were displayed pewter plates, basins and spoons scoured bright. Sometimes an eight by ten inch looking-glass sloped against the wall over the towel roller. Pots in time accumulated and were hung under the shelves, and a gun hung on a hook near the door. A clumsy shovel and a pair of tongs with loose joints and one shank straight, so that a blood blister followed a pinch by a careless handler, stood by the fire place. A spinning wheel and working tools found a place, when not in use, in the corner. Wearing apparel and extra bedding hung on pegs along the wall, and in winter strings of dried apples and peaches lined the rough rafters. In the very early days glass was unobtainable, and greased paper admitted a dim light from the only window. Before supplies began coming down the Ohio River, or facilities existed for home manufacture, candles were rare, and their place was supplied by the
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
burning of pine or hickory knots, or the grease "dip"; or if it was winter, the roaring fire in the wide fireplace afforded the only light. Then the days were full of weary toil, and soon after night fall the people fell to rest. Their evenings were short and light was not long in demand.
The cooking was all done on an open fire. The three legged Dutch oven with iron lid, spiders, skillets, and the everlasting iron pot were the chief agencies for frying, boiling, baking, and roasting. A pair of fowls, a turkey, or a joint of meat were often hung up in front of the fire by a strong cord, and some child was kept busy turning it so it would roast well, and turning him- self so that he wouldn't.
The daily baking was done in the Dutch oven with a bed of glowing coals under it and on the lid; the biscuits were baked in the covered spider; the pot hung from the crane for boiling. Corn meal was molded into "Johnny" cakes which were baked on a slanting board before the fire; if packed in cabbage leaves and cooked in the ashes, it was called ash cake. But the chief baking was done out of doors in a clay oven kept heated with chips and wood.
Those were indeed wretched who were reduced to "hog and hominy." The whole family, women, boys and men labored hard and long. The keen appetites seldom failed to find a simple but sumptuous meal, one that was sweet even in memory. In early days venison and bear meat were not rare, and the garden patch furnished roasting ears, cabbage and potatoes. It was not long before milk and butter were plentiful, and chickens, geese and turkeys soon became so. Corn
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
meal took the place of flour, but salt was scarce and costly. These pioneers were a sturdy race sturdily fed, and grew strong and forceful enough to withstand difficulties, to which a less hardy people would have succumbed.
The dress of the pioneer was very plain and generally made of a fabric spun by the women of the family. The wool of the few sheep, which almost every farmer kept, and the flax that grew in the flax patch furnished the materials. The wool was carded and the flax pulled and dressed, and both were spun and woven into the family linsey garments of the day. The young women felt themselves well dressed in a "linsey" gown, being commonly worn at church, singing school and frolics. The young men, in summer, wore shirts and pantaloons made of coarse linen woven from the best grade of the flax. Before the facilities for manu- facturing "fullers" cloth and the "stogie" boot came to hand, their winter dress was deer skin leggings and moccasins, worn with a heavy linsey blouse or shirt. In summer, men, women and children pursued their daily labors barefooted. Indeed, foot-wear was ac- counted so much of a burden that maidens would "tote" their shoes to church, stop just before getting there at some convenient place along the road, put on their shoes and stockings and after church, take them off again. Their shoes were doubtless coarse and tight and hurt their freedom-loving feet.
Before cloth could be spun and crops gathered, a clearing had to be made in the forests for the fields. This could hardly be called a clearing at first, for the underbrush and small trees were cut and burned,
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
and the larger trees deadened by cutting a girdle through the inner bark; the leaves yellowed and fell, and then there was enough sunshine to ripen the corn, pumpkins, and garden "truck" planted amidst the dead trees. In time these skeletons became dry and were grubbed out and at last the field was clear.
This clearing of the dense forests that once covered Ohio has proven a Herculean task, and has required the persistent energies of our hardy forefathers to accomplish it. The raising of crops required the build- ing of barns and the housing of stock and grain. By this time a surplus was on hand and the one-time emi- grant began to emerge from his primitive pioneer stage. His sons were now grown up and he began to enjoy the reward of his frugal and laborious life in the greater comforts that at last made that life luxurious.
Indeed, the pioneer life was far from being stolid, grave and leaden. These days of labor were seasoned with frolics. In the towns, which in those early days were Marietta, Cincinnati, Chillicothe and Cleveland, we read of balls and soirees and amateur theatricals; outside of these places the pleasures of life took another, but equally enjoyable form. At the harvestings, the huskings, the quiltings, the house-raisings and in fact at any prolonged task the neighbors came in to help. This was always the signal for a frolic, which was the only reward for labor. Nor did they forget the unfor- tunate. If any neighbor was sick, or shorthanded, and his crops needed gathering, all hands turned out with sickle and rake and saved it.
The event of the harvest was the "husking bee." It was an occasion of jollity where young and old
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
gathered for a frolic. Everybody was welcome and every- body came. Prior to the gathering the farmer lads had gone through the corn field, pulled off the ears and husks together, and thrown them on the ground in heaps. They were gathered up, hauled into the barn yard, and heaped nearby in a long pile four or five feet high. Care was taken to make the pile symmetrical from end to end, so it could be divided by a rail laid across the center.
It was evening when the husking party assembled, and the ceremony took place by the weird light of the stars or moon. Two captains, formerly chosen, called out one from the crowd alternately, until all were chosen. Then a trusted member of each party walked solemnly along either side of the heap to detect in the dim light any unevenness or flaw. Finally they decided where the rail should be laid that divided it in twain. This done, the captains set a man at each side, whose duty it was to cut the heap as rapidly as possible where the rail lay. Then the parties fell to husking, standing along the heap with it in front of them, throw- ing the corn over the heap in front and the husks behind them. From the time they began until they finished each one worked incessantly and feverishly, unless perchance he bolstered up his nerve by taking a nip from the passing "jug of inspiration."
The captains coached their respective parties and urged them on desperately. The side which finished its task first seized its captain and amidst triumphant shouts bore him on their shoulders jeering and banter- ing the defeated party. At last all hands fell to, in carrying the husks to the fodder house, where they were kept protected from the water.
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
In the meantime the matrons and the maids were preparing the feast. This was the bounteous season of the year when the turkeys and pigs and chickens were fat. Their carcasses had been dangling and sizzling before the huge fire, and the rich aroma from their browning sides wafted to the busy huskers in the barn yard, whetted their appetites and urged them on to the feast. The shouting and cheering of the vic- torious party was the signal for putting the supper on the table. Soon the robust forms of the huskers, flushed with labor, mingled with their wives and sweet- hearts, whose cheeks, too, were rosy with the excitement and labor of the day. The merry din and chatter of the feast echoed beyond the spacious cabin and lost themselves in the moon-lit forest. The bountiful repast melted before keen appetites.
Soon the tables were cleared, some thoughtful swain began to draw upon his fiddle and the dance began. Love, merriment and joy warmed the hearts and tingled the blood of old and young, and the youth who saved the red ear that he had husked, seized some rollicking maid and claimed the kiss to which he was entitled. It was wonderful how many red ears of corn there were in the husking, and how many red ears of an- other sort there were after the kissing. "Twas the "wee sma' hours" of the morning when the husking bee broke up, and no telling how many sweet secrets were told that set the hearts of the lads and lassies to tingling as they wended their long way home through the cool twilight.
Then there were quilting parties, sewing, spinning parties and weaving parties that kept the busy dames
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
from growing sad. There were few newspapers and little literature in those days, and gossip was the chief avenueof information, and right heartily was it indulged in. Public opinion was the great moral defender, and it was at these gatherings that public opinion was formulated and expressed among the rural folk, so that even gossip performed a healthy function in those olden days.
The wedding was the occasion of great rejoicing, as it has ever been. The house-raising, as already described, often provided a home for the newly married couple, but the "infair" was the chief event.
A wedding "infair" as it took place among the very early pioneers has been described somewhat as follows: On the morning of the wedding day the groom and wedding party assembled at the house of his father, with the purpose of reaching the home of the bride by noon, the usual hour for the ceremony. The men were dressed in linsey hunting shirts and other home- made apparel; the women in linsey petticoats or linen gowns with few ruffles or ornaments. All were on horseback with rough homemade saddles and bridles. The march was double file, lady and gentleman side by side, if the narrow forest path admitted. But all was not likely to go well, for sometimes mischievous persons prepared an ambuscade by the wayside, guns were fired from cover, and the horses of the shrieking girls springing to one side caused many chivalric deeds by their escorts who usually rescued them unhurt, much to the merriment of the rest of the company.
Another ceremony often occurred before the house of the bride was reached. It was called "running for
3
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
the bottle." When the party were about a mile from their destination, two young men, the most expert riders, were singled out to ride for the bottle, which was at the home of the bride. The rougher the path, the more logs and brush, and deeper the intervening hollows the better. The one to secure it at once announced his success by a "whoop" that could not fail to be heard by the approaching horseback party. Riding back he passed the bottle first to the groom, then to his attendants and finally it was passed clear down the line, each taking a dram in honor of the occa- sion, and eventually it was returned to the victor who tucked it proudly in the bosom of his shirt and rode on with the company.
After the marriage ceremony there was a substantial feast, during which great hilarity prevailed. Dancing followed which often lasted through the night. It consisted of reels, square sets and jigs, which continued until the company in weariness concluded to go home. The account as given by an old chronicler is much more in detail, a prominent feature of which was the frequent production of the jug, or "brown betty" as it was called.
One would think from the constancy with which the "bottle" is mentioned in the varied features of early pioneer life, that these people were given generally to an immoderate use of whiskey and intoxicants. Such was by no means the case. In many of the early communities the prevailing forms of hospitality could not be carried on without them. Many men took a dram as an appetizer before meals, but drunkenness was as much of a disgrace then as it is now, and less
FACSIMILE OF MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE Issued by Charles William Byrd as Acting Governor after the removal of General St. Clair. Original in pos- session of Daniel J. Ryan.
Minister of the sorul on to w the Baron authorized to solesize the Bands of matrimony in the
asense and rermit -
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it shall we avion
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Charles im Charles Calling Psych. acting as Governor
.
THE RISE AND PROGRESS ЯТАЈІІТЯНО ПОЛІЯЯАМ НО АЛІМІЭЭАТ
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