USA > Ohio > Portage County > History of Portage County, Ohio > Part 27
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HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
" Some of you will remember that on the 10th of February, 1874, seventy- three persons met at the residence of the venerable Samuel Olin, in Streets- boro, mainly by invitation of his sister, Mrs. J. B. Stratton, and her venerable husband. The primary object was to enjoy a social reunion of " Old Folks," and partake of Father Olin's generous hospitality. At that meeting Christian Cackler, being the first white boy that ever crossed the Cuyahoga River here, invited all those present and many others to meet at his pleasant home in October following to enjoy his hospitality. At that meeting an organization was effected that has enlarged into the grand proportions of your present organization. There have joined up to this meeting 620 persons, and out of this number (up to the fall of 1882) 112 have died. Comparatively few of those present at the organization remain. Another decade will evidently wit- ness the departure from earth of the last of the original members. The society, since it extended its borders, has rapidly grown, including as it now does in its territory all of Portage and Summit Counties. All above sixty years of age are permitted to become members."
The annual meetings of the association are occasions of much interest and enjoyment, as many as 5,000 to 6,000 persons being in attendance. Eloquent addresses are delivered, music by the Pioneer Band discoursed, and a sump- tuous dinner served at the beautiful grounds selected in the village of Kent. This is as it should be, for the people of to-day scarcely realize or appreciate how much they owe to the large-hearted pioneer fathers and mothers, who, with their children, braved the perils of the wilderness; who reared their families in the fear of God, and implanted within them many of the virtues necessary to the welfare of humanity, then 'passed from the scene of action, leaving to their descendants an inheritance that should ever be cherished and kept in sacred remembrance. The history of Portage County would be incom- plete without fitting notice of those pioneers who, by reason of their limited sphere of action, could not become conspicuous in the great drama of life, but whose busy hands and conscientious regard of duty made them necessary fac- tors in the establishment of the solid foundation upon which our republican form of government is embedded. It is a little thing to preserve their names in the pages of history, yet it is all that is left to do, for their lives were much alike; they met the stern necessities of the hour, and were content in the con- sciousness of duty well done.
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HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
CHAPTER V.
PIONEER DAYS AND TRIALS-HABITATIONS OF THE FIRST SETTLERS-FURNI- TURE, FOOD AND MEDICINE-HABITS, LABOR AND DRESS-EARLY MANNERS AND CUSTOMS-BEES AND WEDDINGS-THIE HOMINY BLOCK AND PIONEER MILLS-PRICES OF STORE GOODS AND PRODUCE-ITEMS FROM AN OLD CASH BOOK-MODE OF LIVING-CHURCHIES AND SCHOOLS-PERIOD OF TIIE WAR OF 1812-PRICES AFTER THE WAR-FIRST CROPS RAISED IN THE COUNTY- AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS OF THE PIONEERS, AND SUBSEQUENT IMPROVE- MENTS MADE IN THEM-PIONEER FARMING-CHEESE AND BUTTER STATIS- TICS-FIRST STOCK BROUGHT INTO THE COUNTY-STOCK STATISTICS SINCE 1840-STATISTICS OF WHEAT, CORN, OATS AND HAY-TOTAL VALUATION OF PROPERTY BY DECADES-PORTAGE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES-POR- TAGE COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.
"THE first settlers who built their cabins in the unbroken forest of Portage County came not to enjoy a life of lotus-eating and ease. They could, doubtless, admire the pristine beauty of the scenes that unveiled before them, the vernal green of the forest, and the loveliness of all the works of nature; they could look forward with happy anticipation to the lives they were to lead in the midst of all this beauty, and to the rich reward that would be theirs from the cultivation of the mellow, fertile soil; but they had first to work. The dangers they were exposed to were serious ones. The Indians could not fully be trusted, and the many stories of their depredations in the earlier Eastern settlements made the pioneers of Ohio apprehensive of trouble. The larger wild beasts were a cause of much dread, and the smaller ones a source of great annoyance. Added to this was the liability to sickness which always exists in a new country. In the midst of all the loveliness of the surround- ings, there was a sense of loneliness that could not be dispelled, and this was a far greater trial to the men and women who first dwelt in the Western coun- try than is generally imagined. The deep-seated, constantly recurring feeling of isolation made many stout hearts turn back to the older settlements and the abodes of comfort, the companionship and sociability they had abandoned in their early homes to take up a new life in the wilderness.
The pioneers making the tedious journey from the East and South by the rude trails, arrived at their places of destination with but very little with which to begin the battle of life. They had brave hearts and strong arms, however, and they were possessed of invincible determination. Frequently they came on without their families to make a beginning, and this having been accomplished, would return to their old homes for their wives and children. The first thing done, after a temporary shelter from the rain had been pro- vided, was to prepare a little spot of ground for some crop, usually corn. This was done by girdling the trees, clearing away the underbrush, if there chanced to be any, and sweeping the surface with fire. Five, ten, or even fif- teen acres of land might thus be prepared and planted the first season. In the autumn the crop would be carefully gathered and garnered with the least possible waste, for it was the food supply of the pioneer and his family, and life itself depended, in part, upon its safe preservation. While the first crop was growing the pioneer had busied himself with the building of his cabin, which must answer as a shelter from the storms of the coming winter, a pro-
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HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
tection from the ravages of wild animals, and, possibly, a place of refuge from the red man.
If a pioneer was completely isolated from his fellow-men, his position was certainly a hard one; for without assistance he could construct only a poor habitation. In such cases the cabin was generally made of light logs or poles, and was laid up roughly, only to answer the temporary purpose of shelter, until other settlers had come into the vicinity, by whose help a more solid structure could be built. Usually a number of men came into the country together, and located within such distance of each other as enabled them to perform many friendly and neighborly offices. Assistance was always readily given each pio- neer by all the scattered residents of the forest within a radius of several miles. The commonly followed plan of erecting a log-cabin was through a union of labor. The site of the cabin home was generally selected with refer- ence to a good water supply, often by a never-failing spring of pure water, or if such could not be found, it was not uncommon to first dig a well. When the cabin was to be built the few neighbors gathered at the site, and first cut down, within as close proximity as possible, a number of trees as nearly of a size as could be found, but ranging from a foot to twenty inches in diameter. Logs were chopped from these and rolled to a common center. This work, and that of preparing the foundation, would consume the greater part of the day, in most cases, and the entire labor would most commonly occupy two or three days-sometimes four. The logs were raised to their places with hand- spikes and "skid poles," and men standing at the corners with axes notched them as fast as they were laid in position. Soon the cabin would be built sev- eral logs high, and the work would become more difficult. The gables were formed by beveling the logs, and making them shorter and shorter, as each additional one was laid in place. These logs in the gables were held in place by poles, which extended across the cabin from end to end, and which served also as rafters upon which to lay the rived " clapboard " roof. The so-called " clapboards " were five or six feet in length, and were split from oak or ash logs, and made as smooth and flat as possible. They were laid side by side, and other pieces of split stuff laid over the cracks so as to effectually keep out the rain. Upon these logs were laid to hold them in place, and the logs were held by blocks of wood placed between them.
The chimney was an important part of the structure, and taxed the build- ers, with their poor tools, to their utmost. In rare cases it was made of stone, but most commonly of logs and sticks laid up in a manner similar to those which formed the cabin. It was, in nearly all cases, built outside of the cabin, and at its base a huge opening was cut through the wall to answer as a fire- place. The sticks in the chimney were kept in place and protected from fire by mortar, formed by kneading and working clay and straw. Flat stones were procured for back and jambs of the fire-place.
An opening was chopped or sawed in the logs on one side of the cabin for a doorway. Pieces of hewed timber, three or four inches thick, were fastened on each side by wooden pins to the end of the logs, and the door (if there was any) was fastened to one of these by wooden hinges. The door itself was a clumsy piece of wood-work. It was made of boards rived from an oak log, and held together by heavy cross-pieces. There was a wooden latch upon the inside, raised by a string which passed through a gimlet-hole, and hung upon the outside. From this mode of construction arose the old and well - known hospitable saying: "You will find the latch-string always out." It was pulled in only at night, and the door was thus fastened. Very many of the cabins of the pioneers had no doors of the kind here described, and the
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HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
entrance was protected only by a blanket or skin of some wild beast suspended above it.
The window was a small opening, often devoid of anything resembling a sash, and very seldom having glass. Greased paper was sometimes used in lieu of the latter, but more commonly some old garment constituted a curtain, which was the only protection from sun, rain or snow.
The floor of the cabin was made of puncheons-pieces of timber split from trees about eighteen inches in diameter, and hewed smooth with the broad-ax. They were half the length of the floor. Many of the cabins first erected in this part of the country had nothing but the earthen floor. Sometimes the cabins had cellars, which were simply small excavations in the ground for the storage of a few articles of food, or perhaps cooking utensils. Access to the cellar was readily gained by lifting a loose puncheon. There was sometimes a loft used for various purposes, among others as the "guest chamber " of the house. It was reached by a ladder, the sides of which were split pieces of a sapling, put together, like everything else in the house, without nails.
The furniture of the log-cabin was as simple and primitive as the structure itself. A forked stick set in the floor and supporting two poles, the other ends of which were allowed to rest 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 rustic legs set in augur holes. Three-legged stools were made in a similar simple manner. Pegs driven in augur holes into the logs of the wall supported shelves, and others displayed the limited wardrobe of the family not in use. A few other pegs, or perhaps a pair of deer horns, formed a rack where hung the rifle and powder-horn, which no cabin was without. These, and perhaps a few other simple articles brought from the "old home" formed the furniture and furnishings of the 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 most pretentious plate of our later-day fine houses. It was by no means uncommon that wooden vessels, either coopered or turned, were used upon the table. Knives and forks were few, crockery very scarce, and tin-ware not abundant. Food was simply cooked and served, but it was of the best and most wholesome kind. The hunter kept the larder supplied with venison, bear meat, squirrels, fish, wild turkeys, and the 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 fire-place answered the purpose of all kinds of pastry. The corn was among the earlier pioneers pounded or grated, there being no mills for grinding it for some time, and then only small ones at a considerable dis- tance away. The wild fruits in their season were made use of, and afforded a pleasant variety. Sometimes especial effort was made to prepare a delicacy, as, for instance, when a woman experimented in mince pies by pounding wheat for the flour to make the crust, and used crab-apples for fruit. In the lofts of the cabins was usually to be found a collection of articles that made up the pioneer's materia medica-the herb medicines and spices, catnip, sage, tansy, fennel, boneset, pennyroyal and wormwood, each gathered in its sea- son; and there were also stores of nuts, and strings of dried pumpkin, with bags of berries and fruit.
The habits of the pioneers were of a simplicity and purity in conformance to their surroundings and belongings. The men were engaged in the hercu- lean labor, day after day, of enlarging the little patch of sunshine about their homes, cutting away the forest, burning off the brush and debris, preparing the soil, planting, tending, harvesting, caring for the few animals which they
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HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
brought with them or soon procured, and in hunting. While they were engaged in the heavy labor of the field and forest, or following the deer, or seeking other game, their helpmeets were busied with their household duties, providing for the day and for the winter coming on, cooking, making clothes, spinning and weaving. They were fitted by nature and experience to be the consorts of the brave men who first came into the Western wilderness. They were heroic in their endurance of hardship and privation and loneliness. Their industry was well directed and unceasing. Woman's work then, like man's, was performed under disadvantages which have been removed in later years. She had not only the common household duties to perform, but many others. She not only made the clothing, but the fabric for it. That old, old occupa- tion of spinning and of weaving, with which woman's name has been associated in all history, and of which the modern world knows nothing, except through the stories of those who are grandmothers now-that old occupation of spin- ning and of weaving, which seems surrounded with a glamour of romance as we look back to it through tradition and poetry, and which always conjures up thoughts of the graces and virtues of the dames and damsels of a generation that is gone-that old, old occupation of spinning and of weaving, was the chief industry of the pioneer women. Every cabin sounded with the softly- whirring wheel and the rythmic thud of the loom. The woman of pioneer times was like the woman described by Solomon: "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, all of the cloth in use in the old log-cab- ins, was the product of the patient woman-weaver's toil. She spun the flax and wove the cloth for shirts, pantaloons, frocks, sheets and blankets. The linen and the wool, the " linsey-woolsey " woven by the housewife formed all of the material for the clothing of both men and women, except such articles as were made of skins. The men commonly wore the hunting-shirt, a kind of loose frock reaching half way down the figure, 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 raveled piece of cloth of a different color from that which composed the garment. The bosom of the hunting-shirt answered as a pouch, in which could be carried the various articles that the hunter or woods- man would need. It was always worn belted and made out of coarse linen, or linsey, or of dressed deer skin, according to the fancy of the wearer. Breeches were made of heavy cloth or of deer skin, and were often worn with leggings of the same material, or of some kind of leather, while the feet were most usually encased in moccasins, which were easily and quickly made, though they needed frequent mending. The deer-skin breeches or drawers were very comfortable when dry, but when they became wet were very cold to the limbs, and the next time they were put on were almost as stiff as if made of wood. Hats or caps were made of the various native furs. The women were clothed in linsey petticoats, coarse shoes and stockings, and wore buck- skin gloves or mittens when any protection was required for the hands. All of the wearing apparel, like that of the men, was made with a view to being serviceable and comfortable, and all was of home manufacture. Other articles and finer ones were sometimes worn, but they had been brought from former homes, and were usually relics handed down from parents to children. Jew- elry was not common, but occasionally some ornament was displayed. In the cabins of the more cultivated pioneers were usually a few books, and the long winter evenings were spent in poring over these well-thumbed volumes by the light of the great log-fire, in knitting, mending, curing furs, or some similar occupation.
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HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
Hospitality was simple, unaffected, hearty, unbounded. Whisky was in common use, and was furnished on all occasions of sociality. Nearly every settler had his barrel stored away. It was the universal drink at merry-mak- ings, bees, house-warmings, weddings, and was always set before the traveler who chanced to spend the night or take a meal in the log-cabin. It was the good old-fashioned whisky, "clear as amber, sweet as musk, smooth as oil," that the few octogenarians and nonagenarians of to-day recall to memory with an unctuous gusto and a suggestive smack of the lips. The whisky came from the Monongahela district, and was boated up the streams or hauled in wagons across the country. A few years later stills began to make their appearance, and an article of peach brandy and rye whisky manufactured; the latter was not held in such high esteem as the peach brandy, though used in greater quantities.
As the settlement increased, the sense of loneliness and isolation was dis- pelled, the asperities of life were softened and its amenities multiplied; social gatherings became more numerous and more enjoyable. The log rollings, harvestings and husking-bees for the men, and the apple-butter making and the quilting parties for the women, furnished frequent occasions for social intercourse. The early settlers took much pleasure and pride in rifle shooting, and as they were accustomed to the use of the gun as a means, often, of obtaining a subsistence, and relied upon it as a weapon of defense, they exhib- ited considerable skill.
A wedding was the event of most importance in the sparsely settled new country. The young people had every inducement to marry, and generally did so as soon as able to provide for themselves. When a marriage was to be celebrated, all the neighborhood turned out. It was customary to have the ceremony performed before dinner, and in order to be in 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 trail. Arriving at the cabin of the bride's parents, the ceremony would be performed, and after that, dinner served. This would be a substantial back- woods feast of beef, pork, fowls, and bear or deer meat, with such vegetables. as could be procured. The greatest hilarity prevailed during the meal. After it was over the 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 . in the most approved fashion, and with considerable formality, in the middle of the evening's hilarity. The tall young men, when they went on the floor to dance, had to take their places with care between the logs that supported the loft floor, or they were in danger of bumping their heads. The figures of the dances were three and four hand reels, or square sets and jigs. The com- mencement was always a square four, which was followed by "jigging it off," or what is sometimes called a " cut out jig." The "settlement " of a young couple was thought to be thoroughly and generously made when the neighbors assembled and raised a cabin for them.
During all the early years of the settlement, varied with occasional pleas- ures and excitements, the great work of increasing the tillable ground went slowly on. The implements and tools were few and of the most primitive kinds, but the soil that had long held in reserve the accumulated richness of centuries, produced splendid harvests, and the husbandman was well rewarded for his labor. The soil was warmer then than now, and the season earlier. The wheat was occasionally pastured in the spring to keep it from growing up so fast as to become lodged. The harvest came early, and the yield was often from twenty to thirty bushels per acre. Corn grew fast, and roasting ears were to be had by the 1st of August in most seasons.
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HISTORY OF PORTAGE COUNTY.
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. Next to the grater came 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. Some- times this block was inside the cabin, where it served as a seat for the bashful young 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 hom- iny blocks. These blocks did not last long, for mills came quite early and superseded them, yet those mills were so far apart that in stormy weather, or for want of transportation, the pioneer was compelled 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, or a horse or mule for the pur- pose of transportation, they were happy. It was not unusual to go from ten to thirty miles to mill, through the pathless, unbroken forest, and to be be- nighted on the journey and chased by wolves.
As the majority of the pioneers settled in the vicinity of a stream, mills soon made their appearance in every settlement. Those mills, however, were very primitive affairs-mere "corn-crackers"-but they were a big improvement on the hominy-block. They merely ground the corn; the pio- neer must do his own bolting. The meal was sifted through a wire sieve by hand, and the finest used for bread. A road cut through the forest to the mill and a wagon for hauling the grist were great advantages. The latter, espe- cially, was often a seven days' wonder to the children of a settlement, and the happy owner of one often did for years the milling of 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 around through the settle- ment, 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.
Only the commonest goods were brought into the country, and they sold at very high prices, as the freightage of merchandise from the East was high. Most of the people were in moderate circumstances, and were content to live in a very cheap way. A majority had to depend mainly on the produce of their little clearings, which consisted to a large extent of potatoes and corn. Mush, corn bread and potatoes were the principal food. There was no meat except game, and often this had to be eaten without salt. Pork, flour, sugar and other groceries sold at high prices, and were looked upon as luxuries. In 1798-99 wheat brought $1.50 per bushel; flour $4 per 100 pounds; corn $1 per bushel; oats, 75 cents, and potatoes 65 cents. Prices were still higher in 1813-14, corn being $2 per bushel; flour $14 per barrel; oats, $1, and salt from $12 to $20 per barrel.
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