USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, from the close of the revolutionary war to July, 1880 > Part 21
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HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY.
cakes, while the coarser part was the hominy. Fanning the hominy a little while in a tin pan, drove all the shells out of it.
A very good hominy was also made without pounding it, by soaking the corn a day or two in strong lye made of wood ashes. This loosened the shell, and softened the hard part of the grain. The lye being poured off and the corn soaked again in fresh water for awhile, would swell very large, and lose the taste of the lye, and when boiled soft made very good hominy.
Some of the settlers who had ingenuity enough, and could find flag- stones that answered the purpose, constructed instruments they called "hand mills." Let me describe one of these, for they answered not only the purpose of the family that owned one, but also that of the neighbors round about, who brought their corn already shelled to grind it. When two or three of the neighbors met at the hand mill the same evening, one had to wait until the other was done, and it often took steady work until away beyond midnight, to grind corn enough for bread to last during the next day:
It was a very simple affair. Two stones, about twenty inches in diameter, dressed round, formed the real mill. The mill was erected near the chimney corner. The lower stone was made stationary on a block; the upper stone, called the runner, was turned by hand in this wise: A pole was firmly fixed into a square hole on the top, near the edge. The upper end of the pole entered a hole in a board, or a log. over head, loosely. A broad hoop, made of a clap-board shaved thin, was fixed around the stones to keep them to their places and keep in the corn. One person would then turn the stone, while the other fed the mill through a hole in the side called "the eye." It was hard and slow work, and the men took "turn about." While this work would take two men two hours to grind meal enough for the family for the next day, yet it was an improvement on the hominy block, after all.
The old saying that "necessity is the mother of invention," never was applied any where with greater force than in the life of the pioneer. As soon as ground enough was cleared, and wheat could be raised, no time was lost to try it. It was very difficult to stir up loose ground enough between the roots and stumps to receive the seed. Wheat drills would have been of no value then. . But small crops were raised in the start. The threshing was done with flails or thin poles, some- times on the ground, cleared up for that purpose. Now, to get the chaff away from the wheat was another difficulty. When the wind would blow, a sheet was spread on the ground, and a handful of wheat, held high up over the sheet, was allowed to run through the hand,
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while the wind blew the chaff to one side-a natural fanning mill. They had another way to clean wheat when the wind did not blow. Two men took hold of the four corners of a sheet, and wafted it, with a strong sweep, towards another man, thus creating a current of air in his direction, which separated the chaff from the wheat as it fell from his hands on to a second sheet provided to catch the clean grain. This was cleaning wheat in a calm.
A description of the difficulties in getting grinding done at the mills, is given in a former chapter, and it is only necessary to add here, that . that inconvenience was a very general one.
Excepting cases of sickness, the hardest part of pioneer life was the commencement of it, and more so, especially, with those that came here without a good preparation for the task such scenes would neces- sarily require. If a man had money enough to go into the older settlements and buy for himself a yoke of oxen, he was considered a "made man." Those that had no team at all, were doomed to depend upon those that had, to get their logging done, their milling, their plowing, and other team work. This was attended with great delay, frequent disappointments, and many other inconveniences, as may well be supposed, and necessarily made progress exceedingly slow. Horses were also a rarity. Oxen did nearly all the work a team had to do, and were, in fact, better adapted for such use then than horses. People that had oxen and a wagon attended church in style; others had to walk.
For want of churches, religious services took place at the cabin of some settler, and it made very little difference what christian denom- ination the preacher belonged to, for the people would attend service any way. The same mutuality of feeling was well sustained when, afterwards, funds were raised to build churches. People would subscribe and pay liberally with labor, material and money to the erection of churches they did not belong to or affiliate with. It was expected of every man that he should patronize religion, and not stand aloof when a call was made upon him for such a purpose. A family was naturally supposed to belong to some church. Atheists, infidels, materialists and deists were not known, or did not care to be so designated. This religious feeling, so general, allied with the broad benevolence so usual and common among the pioneers, had a wonderful effect upon society at large, and directly or indirectly compelled men to be sober, honor- able, honest, industrious and frugal, in order to be entitled to attention or respect from anybody. It is to be regretted that that element in frontier society did not live to reach this age and generation.
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It should not be forgotten that there were no bridges across the streams in those days, and people found their way out to some open road, or to a neighbor, by following blazed trees; that it was then necessary to wade through swamps, climb over, or walk along on logs. Men did not wear polished boots, and with such as they had, could well make their way to meeting on Sunday. But ladies without horses to ride, and no team of any kind, had to get to church as best they could-for go, they would. And it was also regarded as perfectly in order to see girls carry their shoes and stockings in their hands, wade through the water, and after walking several miles through the woods, when near the meeting house, sit down in a fence corner, or behind a big tree, and put on their shoes and stockings.
After the meeting was over, they took them off again, and walked- home barefooted, in the way they came. Sometimes a beau was polite enough to carry the shoes and stockings to the house, and thus embrace the opportunity to see "the old man."
The girls were as pretty, in their log cabins, as ours are now in their drawing-rooms, and equally as virtuous, and possessed of as much true womanhood as now, to say the least. The trails of their dresses were not as long as they are worn now, and perhaps the texture was not so fine, but they looked the very picture of health and beauty in their linsey-woolsey, and other home-made flannels; and if you married one of these girls, you had a wife in the fullest sense of the term, and a companion for life that would stand by you, come what would. It was not necessary, then, to hire a German or Irish chamber-maid to fan your frontier bride while she, seated in a rocking-chair, played her guitar, or hold up her trail as she stepped into her carriage. And there was no need of a French cook, chamber-maid, and a laundry- girl-making three-to wait upon the bride. These hangers-on were all dispensed with. The kitchen, the parlor, the wash-room and the drawing-room were all in the same room, and the fire in the big fire place warmed them all.
Courtships among young people had their inconveniences, very true, but daughters were scarcely ever out of their mothers' sight, and at . their social gatherings old and young commingled together.
While pioneer life had its rough sides, and its deprivations, it must not be supposed, for a moment, that it was a dark and gloomy life, and destitute of joys and pleasures. There is a certain peculiar pleasure attached to it that is almost indescribable. Chopping in the woods, burning brush and log heaps, wife and children joining in the work; the quiet and solitude of the forest; fishing and hunting; the relief
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"THE LIFE IN THE WOODS FOR ME!"
from the restraints and conventionalities of refined society; the hope for future prosperity; of nearer neighbors; of better roads and markets; of bridges, stock-growing, fields enlarging, sons and daughters growing into usefulness-these and a thousand and one other incident's made "the life in the woods" wonderfully fascinating, and created around it a halo of most peculiar happiness and loveliness. Any survivor of that generation of men, will now exclaim, when recurring to those days: "The life in the woods for me!"
There was no terror in the howling of the wintry blast when the little clearing had grown large enough to prevent the trees from falling on the cabin. The family, snugly tucked away in their warm beds, in the little cabin, lit up from the big fire-place, were not annoyed by the howling, whistling and whining of the winds in the tree-tops, nor by the crashing of breaking limbs, and the thundering of a big, falling tree. It is very true, that some of us who had to sleep aloft, often found our shoes, stockings, and, in fact, all our clothes, even our bed- clothes, covered by a bed of snow, when we waked up in the morning; for these clap-board roofs would let the snow into the cabin with wonderful facility, especially when the wind blew with it. But it was the work of a moment to shake the snow from our clothes, and get down the ladder to the fire-place, where they soon dried.
These fire places were generally very spacious, occupying nearly the whole end of the cabin, leaving just room enough for a ladder to go aloft on one side, and for a cupboard on the other. The back-log, about six feet long, and two or three feet in diameter, if green, lasted longer than a dry stick, of course, but it always disorganized the house to put a back-log to its place. It was handled and rolled over with hand-spikes, and when in its place, it was an easy matter to build a good fire in front of it, thus throwing the heat forward into the room.
For want of help to get the back-log to its place, it often became necessary to hitch a horse or an ox to it, and thus "snake" it into the house lengthwise. The log-chain was then unhitched, and the "critter" led ont of the opposite door.
The wolves passed away gradually, and no longer did their wretched howling, long drawn out, make the nights hideous about the lonely cabin. Sheep could now be raised with greater safety, and wool and mutton were both highly valued. Then came into use the large spin- ning wheel, with its "boy," and peculiar hum. Woolen socks became a luxury. Men and women wore homespun clothing. Weaving looms became plenty, and those who had no loom could get their cloth woven by a neighbor, very cheap. The hemp and flax were spun on small 13
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wheels. Linen warp and woolen filling made linsey-woolsey. This made dresses for women and children, and wampuses for the men to work in. People now dressed more comfortably. An overcoat of home-made cloth, with a double cape, was very becoming to the back- woodsman in his wolf-skin cap. Many of the long winter evenings were spent in spinning wool and flax, some using the reel, some the swift, while the men made hickory brooms or axe-handles. Every one was employed until bed-time. The little cabin looked like a bee-hive on a large scale.
These pages are not intended as a criticism on anybody, or anything. Their object is merely to preserve, from oblivion, scenes and incidents that accompanied the time and the circumstances in and under which this beatiful patch of country, we love to call "Old Seneca," com- menced to be opened to civilization, and the memory of that noble, heroic class of men and women who devoted their lives to the task, and who are fast passing away.
It is questionable, however, whether the present generation is pos- sessed of the gratitude, love and veneration properly due to its pioneer friends, for what they did and endured to make Seneca county what it is. Perhaps there is not as much of that filial love, affection, veneration and esteem due from the child to the parent, shed abroad throughout society as there should be. Boys talk of the time when they shall be twenty-one years old and then be their own masters-independent, free to do for themselves, under obligation to nobody. They call the father "the old man," the mother "the old woman."
It sounds so cold and so hard, so distant and so void of love, and seems to ignore everything the honored parents did to make "Young America" to be a man. There is no duty that love enjoins upon the human heart, more sacred, next to the love of God, than the filial love and affection a child owes its parents.
If this is a world of cause and effect, it can scarcely be presumed that a violation of this law is not followed by the penalty.
A good story is told of a man who had an old father living with him who was nervous, and trembling with age. His wife was a very cleanly and tidy woman. The old father often spilled his food on the table cloth, and they made him 'sit at a small table in a corner, by himself. Even there he occasionally broke a dish, being unable to control his nerves.
One day the son took an axe and chopped at a block, making a little trough. His little boy, by his side, asked him what he was making, and the man told the child that he was "making a trough for grand-pap
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"YOUNG AMERICA."
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to eat out of." This answer put the little fellow into a deep study, and after awhile he looked up and said to his father: "Pa, when you be an old man, I will make a trough for you, won't I?" The man dropped his axe, took the little fellow by the hand, and walked into the house.
When I see Young America driving his fine horses, hitched to a splendid buggy, with silver-plated harness, nice whip with a blue ribbon tied half-way up, holding the lines in his kid-gloved hands, going "two- forty on the plank" over roads that his old father made through a dense forest, chopping down the trees, cutting them into logs, and hauling them away with a yoke of oxen, to enable him to drive between the stumps; then wait a long time before the stumps decayed, so that a furrow could be drawn to grade the road and let the water run away,-I would like to tell the young man to sometimes think of these things. When I see "Young America" standing at the corners of streets, with boots nicely polished, fine broadcloth suit, fine silk hat sitting on one ear, walking-cane of the latest style, with a cigar stuck in his face at an angle of forty-five degrees,-though all this may be very nice-I would most kindly whisper into the ear of my young friend to remember, also. his honored father, who, in his honest home-spun, with his pants in his boots, worked hard all his life, struggling against poverty and want, and all other hardships that belonged to pioneer life.
The reading of the history of one's country should tend to create patriotic pride. Why should it not also stimulate a renewed and a higher veneration for the fathers and mothers that made the history?
Pioneer fales and reminiscences may have a charm in them for some, but others do not care to read them-regard them as they would a fish story, and remain undecided whether they shall believe them at all, or not.
Well! It is for only the better part of human nature that this book is written, any way.
So mote it be.
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CHAPTER XIII.
GOVERNOR EDWARD TIFFIN-A BIOGRAPHY.
"T IS SAID that Governor Tiffin, of Chillicothe, was a particular friend of Mr. Josiah Hedges, at the time the latter laid out and platted Tiffin, and for that reason named his town after his friend.
There are so many incidents and historic events interwoven with the life and public services of Governor Tiffin, and there is so much beauty in his private life and character, that to withhold them from the reader seemed wrong to the writer, especially after so much research and unex- pected success in securing the material. Some may be glad to preserve a memoir of the distinguished and illustrious pioneer after whom the capital of our county is named.
The peculiar traits of character of Doctor Tiffin, as a leading man in his day, associated, as he was in. his public life, with men of strong minds and remarkable ability, tended largely in starting our noble state on her proud career. The old "Buckeye state" was especially favored in being led into the constellation of this union of states by the hands of such distinguished patriots and statesmen as met in the territorial legislature in Cincinnati, and in the first constitutional convention, in Chillicothe, from 1798 to 1805, and after. They stamped their own individuality upon their time, directed the first, infantile steps and determined the destiny, of the young and growing state.
There are three daughters of Governor Tiffin still living-two in Chillicothe and one in Cincinnati, as the following documents will show. The letters annexed prove the kindness that the family of Tiffin seem to have inherited from their honored father, and their readiness to assist in the work of giving to the readers of these pages a faithful memoir of the person and character of Governor Tiffin.
Upon the suggestion of Mrs. I. R. Dresbach, of Tiffin, and being informed that a Doctor Comegys, living in Cincinnati, was a distant relative of the Governor, the writer addressed a letter to him. Upon this, answers were received, and the material furnished from which the sketch of Governor Tiffin is written:
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BIOGRAPHY OF GOVERNOR TIFFIN.
CINCINNATI, January 21, 1880.
MY DEAR SIR :-
Yours of the 17th inst. received. I enclose a memoir of Governor Tiffin written in 1869. The preface explains it. I had intended writing a fuller account of his distinguished career, but seem never to find the time.
The Governor was a man of medium stature, dark chestnut hair, deep blue eyes, a pure type of English features and rather florid complexion, very active in movements and quick in his mental actions.
I shall be glad to answer any further questions. I am pleased to see your effort to do justice to the noble pioneer race.
Very Respectfully, C. G. COMEGYS. W. LANG, EsQ.
CINCINNATI, January 24, 1880.
DEAR SIR :-
Yours of the 22d inst. is received. Gov. Tiffin had no children by his first wife; by the second five-one son and four daughters. Three of the latter are living, viz: Mrs. M. Scott Cook, (Mr. Cook is the uncle of Mrs. President Hayes), Miss Diathea Madison Tiffin, both residing in Chillicothe, and Mrs. Comegys, wife of Dr. Comegys, of Cincinnati. The oldest daughter is dead. She was the wife of Joseph Reynolds, Esq., of Urbana, Ohio. His only son, Edward, was killed in 1853 by an accident on the Erie Railroad at Yon- kers, N. Y. He was a young physician and returning from Paris, where he had been residing for two years for medical observation.
I will write to Miss Tiffin, who, I hope, can furnish you with a steel en- graving of her father's face. I hope, also, that she will be able to furnish you with a copy of General Washington's letter, introducing young Tiffin to Governor St. Clair.
Yours, Respectfully,
W. LANG, EsQ. C. G. COMEGYS.
ยท DEAR SIR :-
CHILLICOTHE, OHIO, February 2, 1880.
At the request of my brother-in-law, Dr. Comegys, of Cincinnati, I send you a copy of General Washington's letter to Gov. St. Clair. Also by ex- press a copy of Johnson's engraved portrait of my father.
Yours, Respectfully,
WM. LANG, EsQ. DIATHEA M. TIFFIN.
Attached to the foregoing letter of Miss Tiffin is the letter of General Washington, introducing young Tiffin to Governor St. Clair, who at the time of the writing was governor of the Northwestern Territory. The reader will notice the modesty and delicacy of General Washington, that characterize all his writings. This letter was recently found among old papers in the possession of Dr. St. Clair, and was never published before:
SIR :-
Mr. Edward Tiffin solicits an appointment in the territory northwest of the Ohio. The fairness of his character in private and public life, together
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with a knowledge of law resulting from close application for a considerable time, will, I hope, justify the liberty I now take in recommending him to your attention ; regarding with due attention the delicacy as well as import- ance of the character in which I act. I am sure you will do me the justice to believe that nothing but a knowledge of the gentleman's merits, founded upon a long acquaintance, could have induced me to trouble you on this oc- casion.
With sincere wishes for your happiness and welfare,
I am, etc.,
GOV. ST CLAIR.
GEORGE WASHINGTON! Jannary 4. 1798.
There is no doubt but that a knowledge of the fundamental principles of law was a powerful factor in placing young Tiffin among the first statesmen of his time, and the wonderful sagacity of Gen. Washington comprehended the man and the place where he might be utilized.
CINCINNATI, February 6, 1850.
DEAR SIR :-
Since I wrote you I have found a letter addressed to me by the late Col. Allen Latham, of Chillicothe, written at a time when I thought I would enlarge my memoir of the old Governor. I sent the Colonel a copy of my memoir, and asked him to write me what he could of his recollections. It harmonized with my statement, as you will see, and you will get a better description of his person and his gentlemanly manners. He belonged to the old regime of highly cultured men.
I have a copy of his first message to the Legislature; also his message in regard to the capture of the Blennerhasset-Burr expedition, and President Jefferson's laudation of the Governor's activity, etc., etc. If you desire to use them in your narrative, I will send them to you.
One of the most flourishing towns in the state bears Tiffin's name, and as yon are about writing a history of the pioneer era, I feel that you can make your work more attractive by such details, as well as honor a distinguished man of his time.
Very Respectfully,
W. LANG, EsQ. C. G. COMEGYS.
[SEE APPENDIX.]
Edward Tiffin was born in the city of Carlisle, England, June 19, 1766. His parents were in but moderate circumstances, and his uncle, Edward Parker, after whom he was named, assumed the care of his education. He was fitted for the study of medicine, upon which he . entered at an early age ; but before he had completed the course he embarked. for this country with his parents and family, when barely eighteen years of age, and landed in New York. He proceeded to Philadelphia, where he followed the course of medical lectures in the U'niversity of Pennsylvania. He then rejoined his father's family, who
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had settled in Charlestown, Berkely county, Virginia, and began the practice of medicine when but twenty years of age.
His thorough training brought him speedily into notice, and his suc- cess soon gave him a fine reputation and a lucrative practice. He is described by one who knew him well, as "possessed of such buoyancy of spirit and sprightliness of temperament, pleasing manners and fine conversational powers, as made him the favorite in the gay and fash- ionable circles of Berkely."
In 1789 he married Mary, daughter of Robert Worthington, and sister of Governor Worthington. She was a woman of fine culture, and is described by an eminent minister as 'one of the most conscientious and heavenly-minded women he had ever met.' With her he lived ' happily for nearly twenty years.
The manuscript minutes of Mrs. Peters, the venerable mother of the Hon. Rufus King, of Cincinnati, throw much light on the subject of dates concerning Gov. Tiffin's settlement in Ohio.
The issue of land warrants by the state of Virginia to her revolution- ary soldiers, to be located in Ohio, or the Northwest Territory, which Virginia had ceded to the general government, drew largely the atten- tion of Virginians to that region. Thomas Worthington, with other owners of scrip and a party of surveyors, left Virginia in 1797, and arrived at Chillicothe the same month. The town was then called "Massieville," having been laid out by Gen. Massie a year before. It contained about one hundred cabins, and there were about fifty more scattered about the surrounding country. An encampment of one hundred Indians was near at hand. Worthington selected lots of large size for himself and his brother-in-law, Edward Tiffin, and after con- structing two comfortable dwellings-the first that had shingle roofs and glass windows in the settlement-he returned to Virginia. Both Worth- ington and Tiffin were men of marked piety, and being in possession of slaves, and not being able to manumit them under the laws of Vir- ginia, they determined to take them to the new free soil of Ohio and the northwest.
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