USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, from the close of the revolutionary war to July, 1880 > Part 20
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It seemed, however, that when the back stairway caught fire, it com- municated with the logs very rapidly. A slight current of wind carried the flames all along the ceiling of the offices; and the office of Cowdery
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and Wilson, being close to the stair case, had the logs burnt nearly through at this time, and the sand had commenced pouring down. One jump brought me into the south window of the office, when three logs. with about twenty loads of sand on top, fell down into the office. Another jump out, landed me on my hands and feet on the ground, with the cheers of the crowd on that side; but before I could get up, the whole cornice on the south side fell and nearly covered me; but, as good fortune would have it, a piece of the cornice that fell close by, end-ways, operated as a prop to the balance, and I was pulled from under the rubbish without injury.
After the first alarm of fire, a few bucketfuls of water would have been sufficient to put it out. It was then just breaking through the cornice and roof, at the northeast corner of the house. There was no way to reach the fire. There was no fire-engine, no hooks, no ladders, no fire company. The people were as helpless as children, and doomed to stand by and see their new and beautiful court house burn down. They did all they could do. They saved the records, some of the furniture, and the neighboring buildings.
There was a great difference of opinion as to the cause of the fire. Some laid it to incendiarism; others laid it to Mr. John Elder, who was deputy clerk, for leaving his candle burning in his room in the upper story, immediately below where the fire first broke through. John was seen, late in the evening, coming down stairs, dressed up, and some time after the roof was all ablaze, came back, being dressed for Sunday. He had a bed, his clothing, books, and some furniture in the room, and slept there. Be this as it may, Sunday morning, May 23, found the court house in ashes within its walls. The gable ends had fallen in, and all the chimneys but one.
On the Monday following, Mr. David Bishop, a most daring, reckless man, in some way got up on to the north wall and walked eastward towards the only chimney yet standing, and just as he stretched out his hand to touch it, it fell outside to the ground. How Mr. Bishop avoided falling after it, is simply a miracle.
The commissioners, at their June session thereafter, paid Mr. Joseph Walker, as trustee of the Methodist Protestant church, $25 for the use of their church in holding the May term of the court for that year.
On the 10th day of June, 1841, the county commissioners ordered as follows:
That the auditor be required to give public notice by advertisement in the Van Burenite and Tiffin Gazette, of Tiffin; the Ohio Statesman and Ohio State Journal, of Columbus; the Norwalk Experiment, of Norwalk; the
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REBUILDING THE COURT HOUSE.
Sandusky Democrat, of Lower Sandusky; and the Findlay Courier, of Findlay, until the 22d day of July next, for rebuilding and completing the court house without delay.
On the 23d day of July, 1841, the board contracted with John Baugher to build a new house, using the walls of the old house, which were considered all-sufficient, and have ever since so proved to be- i. e., the carpenter and joiner work and painting, for $3,080. Jacob Emich contracted for the brick work, furnishing all necessary material, for $800. Allison Phillips contracted for the plastering work, with the material, for $450.
At the January session, 1843, of the board of commissioners, the new court house was accepted and occupied.
In 1866, an addition was made on the east end of the court house, with a vault and safe for the treasurer, and vaults made to preserve the records and papers in the other offices. The addition constitutes the office of the recorder and treasurer, with grand and petit jury rooms above.
On the 9th day of June, 1843, the county commissioners contracted with Ephraim Riker to build the jail and sheriff's residence, on Mad- ison street, for $3,487.
In 1877, the new jail on Market street was built.
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CHAPTER XII.
THE WOOD-CHOPPER-HOW TO BUILD A CABIN-THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SETTLERS - THEIR BENEVOLENCE AND HOSPITALITY - PIONEER GIRLS - RUSTIC FURNITURE - THE HOMINY BLOCK - THE HANDMILL- GOING TO MEETING-INDIAN VISITORS-NATURAL FANNING MILL-"THE LIFE IN THE WOODS FOR ME"-HOME-MADE CLOTH-YOUNG AMERICA.
"Some love to roam O'er the white sea foam, Where the wild winds whistle free: But a chosen band In a forest land And a life in the woods for me."
T HE ENEMIES of the country, red and white, had been subdued and driven away by victories and treaties, and the frontier made safe and protected against their atrocities. Now the forest was to be conquered ; diseases incident to frontier life to be met and endured ; swamps to be drained ; roads to be opened and bridges to be built ; lands to be cleared and fenced; life to be sustained for several years without any income-without having anything to sell; and, first of all, a cabin to be built-a home to be secured.
Money was very scarce. Every dollar the immigrants had was invested in land, as a general thing. Among those who afterwards were considered the most wealthy were men who cleared lands for others at fifty cents per day, boarding themselves, or for eight to ten dollars per acre, to raise money for indispensable necessaries of life, or to pay taxes. Many pioneers were compelled to work on the canals, to get a little money, leaving their families alone in the woods for months at a time. (See chapter on "Canal System.")
The "oak openings" in Thompson township, undulating and "fair to look upon," covered with beautiful wild flowers from early spring to late in the fall, attracted the attention of men from Pennsylvania, and of some from New York, who were seeking for places to build homes in the west.
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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SETTLERS.
The settlers along Silver creek, Honey creek, Rocky creek and the river were from Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, Ken- tucky, and from southern Ohio. The German, Irish and French immigrants, a vast majority of whom located west of the river, began the life in the woods here about the year :829, and continued their coming until about 1850. The larger part of them came hither between 1830 and 1840. The settlers east of the river were principally native Americans, and familiar with the customs, habits, manner of living, laws and language of the people-could buy and sell without an inter- preter, and transact all kinds of business in their own American way. Not so with the emigrant from a foreign land. Everything was new and strange to him ; the language of the people, their laws, manner of living, even the tools they worked with-all, all was new and strange.
There never was a people in the world that could beat the Americans in the use of the axe, and as a wood chopper the American frontiers- man never had his equal.
Perhaps it did look awkward to see a man raise his axe over his head to chop down a tree, hacking into it all around in some fashion to get it down. But this was no laughing matter; the thing had to be learned by experience. The foreigner had no wood to chop in the land of his birth. A crooked axe-handle, and such an axe, were not in use in his country at that time. An American coming upon a German chopping in the woods, would often stop and show him how to. swing, and not raise the axe perpendicularly, etc. The teacher was kind enough in his gratuitous lesson, and while his talk was all "lost upon the desert air," the foreigner saw the utility in the swing, and soon became an apt scholar. The manner in which the tall timbers along Wolf creek came down to let the sun shine in upon the ground, was one of the very many testimonials that proved how rapidly the man from western Europe became Americanized, and especially the German.
There was another distinguishing feature between the American and foreign frontiersman. The American, familiar with his language and the habits of his people and having a knowledge of what he was to meet in the west, accustomed to the use of tools, etc., had no ocean to cross to come here. He found his neighbors to be his own countrymen. He could pack his household goods, with his family, into a wagon, drive his cattle before him, and when the spot was selected where he would build his home it did not take him very long to make himself and his loved ones comfortable-at least comparatively so. The settler from a foreign land was compelled to reduce his household goods to the smallest possible quantity, on account of the vast distance
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he had to travel from his native hills and valleys to find a place to locate, in the the woods of Seneca county.
And hither he came without a domestic animal, without any knowl- edge of the country or the people here, without any preparation to meet the task that his new life demanded of him, often without tools and generally without the knowledge how to use them. Those of you, American neighbors, who were at home here, and had means to help yourselves with, may perhaps imagine, but you never could realize. the heart- aches and hardships this difference created, and what the man who had paid his last dollar for the piece of land upon which he now came, with his wife and several small children, to build a cabin-destitute of almost everything except his iron will and industry-had to undergo. When he met his American neighbor he could not tell him what he wanted. Under such circumstances, it was indeed very hard to fight the battle of life in the forest.'
But in these trying times there was one great virtue almost universal among all classes of people, without distinction as to nativity, race or religious affiliations-a virtue that towered above their mighty oaks, brighter than a beacon light, as warming in its effects as the rays of a summer sun, cheering as a mother's smile, and soothing, like a calm from the gardens above. It was that generous, broad, innate, heaven- born hospitality that characterized the settler in the woods. As misery loves company, the man who had himself realized the same scene, was quick to furnish the necessary relief. It was not considered a hardship at all, when several of the neighbors came with their axes, a yoke of oxen and a log chain, cross-cut saw, froe, maul, etc., and often in one day put up a log cabin and covered it with clap boards before night. Another day or two, and the owner had put up a fire-place at one end and a door in the side. If the new comer could re-pay by working back, all right ; if not, it was all the same. And so with everything else. A favor was not asked in vain ; for it was granted, if possible, as a matter of course. The latch-string was always out, night and day.
There were neither castes nor classes in society then. Some, it is very true, were in much better circumstances than others, even then ; but their work, their deprivations, their hardships, their sufferings and mutual dependence upon each other in the hours of distress and need, together with their social gatherings, brought all down to a common level, or elevated all to a higher plane of neighborly love-as you please to have it-thus forming a society that the outside world, away from the frontier, never knew. There was no night so dark or stormy, no swale so deep, no distance so great, but that a call in case of sick-
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KINDNESS OF SETTLERS.
ness, distress or death, would be promptly responded to. To feed the hungry, to furnish relief in cases of distress and need, and to help each other was the mission of the society. It was only necessary to have one's wants made known; help came of itself. And even in after years, if, by reason of sickness, accident or mishap of any kind, a neighbor could not take care of his harvest or make his hay, neighbors volunteered their services and did the work, without asking or expect- ing pay.
Viewing pioneer life from this standpoint, is it to be wondered at that neighbors would thus share and sympathize with each other? All this mutual help came spontaneously, without reward or expectation there- of. Woman then, more than ever, proved to be that sweet angel of charity at the bed-side of the sick and dying, ministering to the suffer- ing, and smoothing the pillow of the departing.
In a case of distress it was no uncommon occurrence for a man and his wife to get out of a warm bed in the dark hours of a cold, winter's night, light a torch made of the bark of shell hickory, and leaving their children alone in the cabin, wind their way through the forest, through snow and water for miles, to tender their kind offices to a suffering neighbor.
How well the beautiful words of the poet apply to this noble pioneer neighborhood :-
"No precious gem that crested fortune wears. Nor priceless pearl that hangs from beauty's ears,
Shine with such lustre as the tear that breaks For others' woes down virtue's manly cheeks."
To go three, four or five miles and help a man raise a cabin, was in the order of things. The work had to be done, and the man could not do it alone. That was enough; and there was no dodge or disposition to get away from it, or make an apology. To help, was as imperative as the laws of the Medes and Persians. If a man was notified to help at a "raising," and did not put in an appearance, it was regarded as a failure to perform a binding obligation, and a repetition of the same had a tendency to injure the man's character in the esteem of his neigh- bors. To avoid this, a man would often neglect his own affairs and go, rather than be talked about and blamed for dodging a duty. Nothing would excuse him but sickness or accident.
If boulders or other stones could be found handy, they were rolled together and put on top of each other, to form the back and sides of a fire-place. A clay bank would answer as a substitute. The sides and back of a fire-place thus made secure, the next thing was to top out
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and up, a chimney. This was done with sticks split out of an oak log, laid over each other in a square form on the top of the back and sides of the fire-place until a heighth of one or two feet above the comb of the roof was reached, and then it was well plastered on both sides with soft clay. If flag stones could be found for a hearth, very good ; if not, a clay hearth answered nearly as well, and the latter was the most fashionable hearth in all that part of the country where stones were scarce.
In building a cabin, an accomplished "corner man" could carry up a corner in less than one-half the time it would take an ordinary chop- per. To make the notches fit the saddles neatly, required both skill and practice; and by looking at the corners of a cabin it was very easy to tell whether the corner man understood his business or not. The porch, or "stoop," as the Yankees used to call it, was made at the side of the cabin where the road was expected to be made thereafter.
On the first or second logs above the door the end logs on that side were allowed to run as far out and over the side, as the porch was to be wide. Upon the ends of these projecting logs a straight log was laid length-wise, and formed the plate of the roof. As the gable end logs were now cut shorter to form the roof, poles were laid on these length- wise also, and in line with the plate. These were called "ribs," and answered the purpose of rafters. The clap-boards were laid on these. A clap-board was from six to eight inches wide, split out of a white oak block about four feet long, from one-half to one inch in thickness, and was laid on these ribs without being shaved. These clap-boards were now laid down, projecting over the plate about six inches. At each end of the plate a wooden pin held up a long straight pole, which was laid on the top of the clap-boards to hold them down. Then another layer of clap-boards was put down, and another long, straight pole placed on these, and so on. To prevent these poles from slipping down, sticks, called "knees," were put from the lower pole to the next one, end-wise. These long poles were very appropriately called "weight poles," for they held the clap-boards down and kept them straight. Thus the roof was made.
Now the logs were cut off in the side of the cabin where the doors were wanted, down to the lower log. The doors in the sides were gen- erally put opposite each other, for several reasons, viz: for ventilation, to get out at the back way, and very often to let the horse or the ox, that had just hauled in a back-log, walk out at the other door, without being put to the necessity of turning around.
For want of a sawed plank, a straight piece of puncheon was used to
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BUILDING A LOG HOUSE.
hold up the ends of the logs thus sawed off for the door, and was pinned against these ends very firmly, forming at the same time the door jamb. A sheet or an old quilt was made to answer for a door until some boards could be procured for that purpose. These were hard to find. Saw mills were scarce, and often far a way; but when the necessary boards were procured, they were pinned to two cross pieces split out of a straight block, the larger end of which projected about six inches, and having an inch hole through it. This cross piece was called a batten. and while it served that purpose it was also a hinge. The inch hole in the projecting end of the batten fitted over a wooden pin put into the door jamb, standing upright, and supplied the hook. Next, a wooden latch and catch was fixed to the other edge of the door, with the string by which the latch was raised running through a small hole and hanging down outside, and the door was done. There was no glass to be had for the window, and for the want of it a piece of paper pasted over the hole let light enough through to see by, especially when the paper was greased.
It required considerable mechanical skill to make a good puncheon floor. The puncheons were split out of straight oak logs and hewed with a broad-axe on one side, then spotted on the other to fit level on the sleepers below. All this required a knowledge of the use of the broad-axe, and some help. For want of either of these, a clay floor was made by filling up the bottom, as high as the lower log, with clay; and to make a good one the clay was mixed with water and an ox or a horse led through it for hours at a time, to tramp the clay into a paste, and when thus prepared it was pounded with a piece of plank and lev- eled up to suit. The clay floor was thus even with the lower log, and the door swung nicely over it, and close to it. This kind of floor kept the wind from blowing under the cabin, added to its warmth, and was easily repaired. For want of boards or slabs the loft was useless until these could be procured; then a ladder, placed in a corner of the cabin, generally near the fire-place, led "up stairs." The spaces between the logs were filled up with short blocks, called "chinking," which were wedged together in such a manner as to prevent their falling out. The chinking was then covered with a coating of wet clay, inside and out.
Now the cabin was completed, and formed a human habitation as good and as comfortable as surrounding circumstances would admit of. There was not a nail in the whole structure. Two wooden hooks pinned against one of the joists held the familiar rifle in its place, ready for use at a moment's warning, and always in reach, for the ceiling of the cabin was never very high.
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The furniture of the cabin was of the same rustic character. There were no large warehouses of ready made cabinet-ware in those days. Pieces of puncheon furnished with legs made good stools, and supplied the want of chairs. A similar piece, only larger and with longer legs. made a very good, substantial table. Bedsteads were often made with but one post. "How can that be done ?" you ask. A two inch augur hole was bored into a log as high as the bedstead was to be from the floor, and as far from the corner as the width of the bed; then a simi- lar hole was bored in another log as far from the same corner as the length of the bed. Poles were then driven into these holes, and at the point where these crossed each other they were cut off, and the ends driven into two holes, which were bored in a post at the same heighth from the floor as the holes in the logs. The bottom of the bed was made of basswood bark twisted and run over the poles and logs, the straps crossing each other at right angles. This was not a patent spring bot- tom, but answered the same purpose. Small pins driven into the joists held up the bed curtain which had been brought from home. Thus the cabin, with its large fire-place and crackling fire, began to assume an air of rural comfort and coziness that could only be realized in the cabin age.
The table furniture was generally of tin or pewter. Queens-ware or china-ware were not only expensive, but heavy and unsafe to take along on the journey. The cooking utensils were equally as simple and practicable. A tea kettle, Dutch oven, coffee pot and skillet: sometimes, a reflector to bake in, constituted the most essential articles. The handle of the skillet had to be very long to enable the cook to use it without getting too close to the fire. Very often, the end of the handle was held up by a string suspended from a log in the ceiling, which was very convenient. Pins driven into the logs, with boards laid on top, formed convenient shelves, and everything was made as handy and convenient as could be.
The trees near the cabin were now brought down and burnt up, to start a clearing and open a patch for corn and vegetables. The patch was enclosed with a rail or brush fence, and those who knew the use of roasting ears, lived in clover when they were fit for use. A very excel- lent cake was made from corn that was a little too hard for roasting cars, in about this manner: A piece of tin, perforated from one side, made a grater. The corn in the ear was rubbed over that, and a soft meal secured, which, mixed with an egg and a little salt, made a very good cake. It was baked in a skillet, generally, but often on the back of a shovel, washed clean, and set up before the fire at an angle of
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BUILDING-INDIAN HABITS-MILLS.
about 45 degrees. "Johnny-cake" was baked that way, and made a very good substitute for bread. A piece of fat venison or bear's meat, with corn cake and a glass of milk, made a feast "fit for a king to eat."
No conquests celebrated by royalty, no festive night, with royal pomp and circumstance, furnished a meal so free from heart-ache and wrong, so full of true happiness and real enjoyment, as that of the pioneer frontiersman.
Afterwards, when people could afford the expense, they built houses of logs hewed on two sides-often one and one-half-sometimes two stories high. When whitewashed on the outside, they looked very cleanly and comfortable.
It was no uncommon occurrence with people who lived near the trails of Indians, to have a number of these red men come into the cabin and lay around the fire all night. They would come in at most any hour of the night, without making any noise, and in the morning, when the inmates of the house awoke, they found the Indians sound asleep on the floor, with their feet towards the fire. The cabin door was scarcely ever locked, and the Indians never learned the custom of knocking at a door to be allowed admittance. Parents would often leave their cabin of evenings in the care of their children, to sit up with a sick neighbor some miles away, when Indians would come in for a night's lodging, stay all night, and go away without molesting or disturbing anything.
Flouring mills were scarce, and often far off. Gradually, some of these useful structures sprung into existence along the river and on Honey creek; but even then, when a man had no team, he continued to experience the trouble of reducing his corn into meal as theretofore. The corn did not get as hard then as it does now. The corn patches were in the woods, in spots here and there around the scattered cabins, and the air was filled with moisture, which kept the corn wet and soft. To prepare it for the hominy block, or the mill, it had to be dried before the fire, for it would not shell without this preparation.
The hominy block was a piece of a log about two feet long, set up on end, with a hole burnt into the upper end, forming a mortar. The end of a hand-spike was split to receive the sharp end of an iron wedge, which was held to the handle by an iron ring driven down tightly upon it. The head of the wedge crushed the corn in the hominy block, and thus they had a mortar and pestel. The corn often required a great deal of pounding before it would become fine enough for meal. The meal was then sifted, and the finer portion used for
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