USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne county, Ohio, from the days of the pioneers and the first settlers to the present time > Part 15
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We can fancy the little family grouped about the cheerfully blazing fire, the father spinning tales for the little ones, and the merry mother plying the reel and singing,
"O, leeze me on my spinning wheel, O, leeze me on the rock and reel ; Frae tap to tae that cleeds me bien, And haps me fiel and warm at e'en ! I'll set me down and sing and spin, While laigh descends the simmer sun, Blest wi' content, and milk and meal- O, leeze me on my spinning wheel."
And what shall be said of the Pioneer Mothers? Heaven's bless- ing be upon them ! How comforting to believe that in that pro- cession of beatified and redeemed souls which forever circle around and are closest to the Throne, the Mothers are there !
If it be so endearing in Heaven as it is on earth, angels will whisper it, and the name of Mother will be next in sweetness to " Our Father, which art in Heaven."
The grandeur of their heroism, the simplicity and the sublimity of their lives scarcely finds its parallel in what the Fathers endured.
" ' For better or for worse,' said they, Low bending at the altar, then Arose and calmly rode away The earnest wives of earnest men."
There was no hardship they were not willing to endure, no
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sacrifice they were not ready to incur. They met the snows of winter in their cabins, endured hardship, toil and peril. Oftentimes they were exposed to the savage Indian who prowled about their doors; to the bear and wolf that encroached their domain, and spent the long and cheerless nights in their rude dwellings as watch, guardian and protector of their little families alone. Their faith and courage seemed almost divine, but like true women,
" They held it good to follow where Their love and faith went on before, Who held it were a shame to spare Themselves the toil their husbands bore."
An expansive benevolence of feeling and an unaffected hospi- tality were distinctive traits of the pioneers. The sojourner and stranger never failed to receive a cordial and hearty welcome at their hands. Did he ask for bread, it was given ; for lodging, it was not refused. If the fare was homely, it was ungrudgingly be- stowed.
And in their social relations and intercourse we find much, in- deed, to admire. It was the sincere fellowship of ardent and mu- tual friends, and not the odious caricatures and specious senti- mentalism of the later day. There was a warmth and meaning in the common shake of the hand, unaccompanied with the sinis- ter leer and fraud-crusted smile of modern salutation. Women were not painted puppets, varnished inanities, enameled statuary, stuffed skeletons, dainty toys and sickly butterflies; they were, simply, women. Men were not artificial figures, brainless swells, votaries of every gewgaw and bauble of fashion, or folly ; but were, simply, men, The home-life was a lyric of sweetness and sim- plicity.
"In days of yore friends and neighbors could meet together to enjoy themselves, and with hearty good will enter into the spirit of social amusements. The old and young could then spend even- ing after evening around the fireside, with pleasure and profit. There was a geniality of manners then, and corresponding depth of soul, to which modern society is unaccustomed. Parties were
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not so fashionable then as now, but the old-fashioned social re- unions were vastly better than the more gaudy and soulless assem- blies of the present day. Our ancestors did not make a special invitation the only pass to their dwellings, and they entertained those who called upon them with a hospitality which has nearly become obsolete.
"They did not feel inclined to spend a thousand dollars for an evening's entertainment, for fear they might be outdone by their neighbors. Guests did not assemble then to criticise the decora- tions, furniture, manner and table of those who invited them. They were sensible people, and visited each other to enjoy them- selves and promote the enjoyment of those around them. Perhaps it may be said that our ancestors were not refined, like their de- scendants of the present day. If they had been, in the sense in which the word is now understood, this generation would have been more hollow and heartless than it now is. They had clear heads and warm hearts; they believed in the earnestness of life, and in the power of human sympathies. They would have tol- erated in their descendants, with an ill-grace, the utter disre- gard of the duties of life which now prevails, and the so-called accomplishments which are designed to cover up the faults and follies of modern society would have received no favor at their hands. They taught their children to be useful, and always insisted that the useful should be a foundation for the ornamental."
But we leap the chasm of seventy years-span the distance between the historic Then and the eventful Now.
The old cabins and huts in which they lived have sunk to decay, and their occupants, with remarkable exceptions, have been dismissed from toil, and entered upon the repose of the grave. But has their influence not been felt in our midst, have they not engraven themselves upon our characters, and are not many of our lives but reproductions of theirs? Were they not strong in their power of intellect, and are not their descendants so? In the vigor, robustness and massiveness of physical develop- ment were they not more than our peers? Were they not cour-
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ageous and patriotic? Inspect the annals of border warfare, and the conflicts of the country with foreign powers, and you are stun- ned with the thundering reply. Have these virtues not been deci- sively and emphatically illustrated by their descendants ?
The fiery cross, borne by the swift-footed Walise as the signal for the marshalling of the Scottish clans, did not arouse a deeper or more intense anxiety and devotion to their country than when its sacred banner was assailed.
How different the picture of 1878! The very "type and shadows" of the pioneers have been obliterated. Since their advance into the wilderness customs have changed, nations have been convulsed, constitutions have been formed, empires wrecked and societies revolutionized. In this period two generations have been swept from the face of the earth, and three wars have devas- tated the country. During this time steamship navigation has been perfected, the sewing machine invented, and the electro- magnetic telegraph, "the greatest wonder and the greatest ben- efit of the age," been advanced to the acme of scientific perfection.
Energetic toil and audacious enterprises characterize their descendants ; productive fields, responsive to the touch of industry, yield their opulence of grain ; broad orchards and bright gardens are beautiful surroundings of nearly every farm house; princely mansions supplant the primeval dwellings; the mill and forge are at our very doors ; costly and capacious school houses are at hand churches are in abundance, whose tall domes and spires catch the last kisses of the dying daylight ; cities and villages rise like the hosts of Cadmus, as from the very earth; the old stage and post coach are too slow for this palpitating, dashing, utilitarian age; the canal has become a drowsy Python, on whose lazy breast is laid but little merchandise ; the bark canoe has succumbed to the raft, the raft to the schooner, the schooner to the sailship, and this to the ocean steamer ; and the rivers swagger under their weight of sea-bound argosies. The energies of steam have been utilized, and the unwearying fire-steed plunges across the continent like a demon of flame.
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The changed and changing conditions of the times demanded and projected these improvements. Man, in his own domain of intellectual development, must of necessity follow the same course of evolution which Nature herself has followed in the production of the, at present, diversified variety of her organized beings.
The departure has been great, indeed, from the ways and doings of the fathers, and the aspect of things has been amazingly transformed. New systems of tillage and new devisements of agriculture have been introduced, a thorough metamorphosis hav- ing overtaken the farmer and the utensils of the farm. Inventive mechanical genius has inundated the country with valuable and practical machinery so that one man performs the labor of three, and elevating the boy in the scale of possible labor to the propor- tion of a man. The human savage and the savage beast have alike disappeared, their places being occupied by the more docile, tract- able and useful tenantry of the cultivated farm. The linsey and other home-made garments are contemplated as remnants and rai- ments of a faded people, and the matron of to-day rustles in silks, ambles in satin and struts in jewels.
Society and the social routine have likewise suffered change. Caste has insinuated itself into the social fabric, and gold is the medallion on which respectability is embossed. The dogmatist and the iamist are quite as common as they are contemptible. Moral values are subject to alarming interpretations. The hospi- tality of the pioneer is alien to the prevailing modern idea. Dash, glitter, show, sham, brass, pretense, speciousness and canting hypocrisy are too distinguishing characteristics of the new-fangled man. Friendships are wanting in genuineness, and mercenary motives too thickly underlie the transactions of common life. The false head sits on the pedestal, Man, and the masqueraders whirl down the lines, until we weary of the scene,
" Where strangers walk as friends, and friends as strangers ; Where whispers overheard betray false hearts ;
And through the mazes of the crowd we chase. Some form of loveliness, that smiles, and beckons,
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And cheats us with fair words, only to leave us A mockery and a jest-maddened, confused, Not knowing friend from foe."
The chatting, mirth-making sewing party is superseded by the sewing machine. Instead of the reel we have the easy-chair; in the place of the distaff and wheel we have the ever melodious piano and the sweet guitar; instead of the cheery blaze of the glowing pine we have the dazzling chandelier; in place of the puncheon floor, the gorgeous textures of Antwerp and Brussels. The fashionable modern party, unlike the primitive reunions, may have an ancestry or pedigree, but it bears no patent from the fath- ers. It has become a studied, abnormal demonstration of pride, conceit, and other vicious family taints. Weeks are spent in its projection, in arranging its detail, and in disciplinary preparations for its execution. The Russians would capture the Dannewerk, or whip the Mussulman again while the plans were being unfolded. After all it is but a display of vanity, a heartless and hollow exhi- bition, which, it is true, after considerable expense, may serve as an introduction to some new and coveted circle, and place some- body else under an obligation to return a similar compliment, which may be done in the same selfish and calculating manner.
In our honor's name, however, let it be recorded that we are not an ungrateful posterity. If our churches are larger, more numerous and more beautiful, we assume not that our religion is more inspiring, or our Christian lives any purer than was the fathers. In the midst of a powerful devotion to wealth, it is grati- fying to note that the attention to loftier aims and higher objects has not been overlooked by the people of this generation. While the central and pivotal idea is wealth, they have not ignored its cardinal postulate, the general diffusion of education. For it vast expenditures are incurred. Without it the physical power of a community is like the strength of the sightless Cyclop struggling in the dark. Their labors of charity and works of benevolence are worthy of any race or age. They have constructed railroads, erected asylums, built infirmaries, populated cities, established
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manufactories, promoted industries, organized agricultural colleges, erected seminaries, secured salutary laws, determined the question of self government, encouraged science, fostered mechanical and inventive genius, stimulated Bible societies, incorporated and en- dowed universities, and raised temples for the worship of the liv- ing God.
From the primal gloom of a wilderness they have made our county a garden of sunshine and delights.
"O, County, rich in sturdy toil, In all that makes a people great, We hail thee, queen of Buckeye soil, And fling our challenge to the State! We hail thee, queen, whose beauty won Our fathers in their golden years! A shout for greater days begun ! A sigh for sleeping pioneers !"
May the memories of our ancestors long be cherished, and their names be held in admiring esteem and reverence. Precious and fragrant as the breath of the summer flowers be the names of those who have laid down their burdens by the wayside, and may no ungrateful thought be entertained, or unkind, rude word be spoken to the few who survive and patiently wait for the white wave to lift them free. The shore, the palm, the victory - the rest is but yonder.
" Another land more bright than this, To their dim sight appears, And on their way to it they'll soon Again be pioneers !"
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CHAPTER XII. EARLY AGRICULTURE-REFUSE LANDS-MARKETS. " Nature here wanton'd as in her prime."
WITH very rare exceptions, the first settlements throughout the county were made along the larger streams, the bottoms and low- lands. A variety of reasons may be assigned for this action and choice of the pioneers. It was dictated by a sound judgment and a clear comprehension of the exigencies of the situation. The bottoms and lands adjoining the streams presented a richer quality of soil than was perceivable upon the uplands; the underbrush, such as the mulberry, willow, alders, crab, haw, wild plum and thorn, and other scrub growths of timber, could be more speedily, and with greater ease, removed than the huge forests that occupied the hillier and more elevated portions of the county. A few acres of the valley lands could with surprising facility be prepared for either the fall or spring crop of the first settlers. In some instances there were considerable areas in these valleys which were wholly destitute of any timber growth, and all that was needed was to break their surface to make their future cultivation desirable and profitable.
These bottom ranges furnished a delicious native pasturage, which was a most valuable consideration to the emigrant from a remote corner of a distant State who had driven a single cow over the long, weary miles he had traveled, to be a part of the expect- ant support of his wife and little ones in his new home in the wild, strange places he had chosen as his own. In the summer they could be mowed, and when the grass was properly dried it made
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
a sweet and esculent feed for cattle. Numerous cool fresh water springs, bright, bubbling and healthful, issued from the hillsides, and were the faithful little feeders of the streams; and hence the question of water contributed no embarrassing ingredient to the situation. With him, well-digging and well-diggers were myths. Nature had generously provided for him, and at her invigorating fountains he drank, and was strong.
The pioneer, by virtue of his condition was, and had to be, self-dependent. If he did not originally possess the qualities, the circumstances developed foresight and penetrative sagacity in him. His chosen proximity to the streams had an immense meaning. His wheat would ripen, his corn mature, and mills had to be erected to grind his meal and flour. Here in his midst, flowing by the very door of his cabin, nature had put her forces to play, and in cheerful dalliance she was waiting to have her energies utilized.
"On these streams," said the pioneer, "mills will be built to grind our grains ; here is the natural force by which to propel them ! "
Moreover, the uplands of the county and the heavy timbered table levels and wooded ridges were conceived by the early set- tlers to be sterile and unprofitable regions. They were occasion- ally denominated "barrens," and theories of their successful til- lage were flouted and disbelieved. "This idea of the barrenness of the upland soil is supposed to have originated in the fact that the substance of its surface had been for a considerable period annu- ally exhausted by fire. These fires, for obvious reasons, rarely swept over the lower plains, and hence their fertility continued unimpaired. The practice of devastating by fire the upland for- ests, and thus defeating the operations of nature, doubtless had its origin with white hunters from the tramontane regions, who had introduced this with other more flagrant vices of civilization among the aborigines, after the latter had become instructed in the use of fire-arms and the practice of white hunters. The effect of the fires was to change the natural qualities of the soil-to incrust the sur-
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face of the earth with a material similar to a vast sheet of brick, and where anything like pulverized earth made its appearance it bore the semblance of white brickdust. Notwithstanding this periodical exhaustion, the natural vigor of the soil during each spring following the autumnal burning, would become so far recu- perated as to produce a very rank growth of vegetation, known as sedge grass, pea vines, etc. This vegetation afforded excellent pasture from early spring until about August. The sedge grass when cut in July, or earlier, afforded very nutritious and palatable food for domestic stock during the winter months.
"In the lapse of time it became a matter of necessity with the cultivators of the soil upon the bottom and valley lands, to fight and subdue these autumnal fires for the protection of their own fences, cabins, granaries, and other property; and, after a few years of rest from the exhausting process, the uplands very soon resumed their natural fertility ; a radical chemical change became apparent all over the surface of the soil, and efforts at cultivation demonstrated the fact that those rejected acres are now among the most fertile of any in Ohio for the production of the staple which is the chief source of our agricultural wealth." *
The early agricultural experiments of the pioneers were not of such a character as to produce in their minds the greatest encour- agement. The first ticklings of the soil did not so promptly respond to the laughter of harvest. The united testimony of the old settlers is, that, for several years, they realized but little from their crops.
One old pioneer said to us: "Why, even our garden stuffs did but little good ; our potatoes did not mature, and the acreage of our corn and wheat was scant." They were but poorly com- pensated for their first labors; they labored hard, and were often disappointed.
The old wooden mould-board that many of the pioneers trans- ported in their carts and wagons from the Eastern States, and the horses with which they usually conveyed them, were not of the
* Knapp's Ashland County.
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
kind to break through the webs of green, tough roots they found upon their partially cleared fields. Their plows were not adapted to the work, and their horses too often unsuited to the heavy and oppressive task. The soil could be but imperfectly tilled, and the seeds deposited in the ground could scarcely find moisture enough in the loosened soil to germinate. Whether this was the cause of it or not, the farmers complained of "sick" wheat and soft corn and watery potatoes.
There was but little incentive to cultivate the soil in those days, only to produce what the family consumed and what would sup- port the stock and pay the taxes-the latter, the farmer very fre- quently not being able to realize enough of money from his crops, to do. There was no market at home, no foreign demand, and if there had been, it would have been been beyond their reach. One of the early and oldest of the living pioneers in the county as- sured us that, upon one occasion, he hauled a load of wheat to Wooster, and, after doing his utmost to sell it, failed, and was compelled to exchange it for other commodities. In this ex- change he wanted some tobacco, which was refused him by the merchant, unless he could pay money for it, as it was a cash arti- cle. Having no money, he had to go home without tobacco.
A countryman on one occasion asked Hon. John Larwill what he was paying for wheat, to which he jocularly replied, "I will give you twenty-five cents per bushel if you will bring enough to make a walk across this muddy street."
The root of the wild ginseng which grew quite abundantly in the forests, was about the only product that commanded a cash value. It has a pointed, fleshy root, of the size of the human fin- ger, and when dry is of a yellowish white color, with a slight odor and an agreeably bitter taste, and is supposed to be a tonic and stimulant. In the spring of the year many persons made a prac- tice of gathering it. It was a cash article to those who had it to sell, and was worth twenty-five cents per pound. It is now worth one dollar per pound, and, we believe, is no longer found in the county.
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As we have elsewhere remarked, the opening of the Ohio canal in 1827 was the first god-send to the early settlers of the county, and after that the completion of the P., Ft. W. & C. R. R. im- parted value to every product of the farm, and insured prosperity to every phase of agricultural labor and largely enhanced the prices of real estate.
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
CHAPTER XIII.
JOHNNY APPLESEED.
JONATHAN CHAPMAN, better known as "Johnny Appleseed," ac- cording to such authorities as we have concerning him, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, about the year 1775. , Relative to his boyhood, and, in fact, his earlier manhood and the period preced- ing his advent into the wild wastes of the West, there is but void and silence.
Hon. John H. James, of Urbana, Ohio, who addressed, many years since, a series of communications to the Cincinnati Horticul- tural Society on early gardening in the West, to one of which communications he refers in a letter of June 1I, 1862, says of him :
"I first saw him in 1826, and have since learned something of his history. He came to my office in Urbana bearing a letter from the late Alexander Kimmont. The letter spoke of him as a man generally known by the name of Johnny Appleseed, and that he might desire some counsel about a nursery he had in Cham- paign county. His case was this: Some years before he had planted a nursery on the land of a person who gave him leave to do so, and he was told that the land had been sold, and was now in other hands, and that the present owner might not recognize his right to the trees. He did not seem to be very anxious about it, and continued walking to and fro as he talked, and at the same time continued eating nuts. Having advised him to go and see the person, and that, on stating his case, he might have no diffi- culty, the conversation turned. I asked him about his nursery, and whether the trees were grafted. He answered 'No' rather
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decidedly, and said that the proper and natural mode was to raise fruit trees from the seed.
"In 1801 he came into the Territory with a horse load of apple seeds, gathered from the cider presses in Western Pennsyl- vania. The seeds were contained in leathern bags, which were better suited to his journey than linen sacks; and, besides, linen could not be spared for such a purpose. He came first to Lick- ing county, Ohio, where he planted his seeds. I am able to say that it was on the farm of Isaac Stadden. In this instance, as in others afterward, he would clear a spot for his purpose, and make some slight enclosure about his plantation ; only a slight one was needed for there were no cattle roaming about to disturb it. He would then return for more seeds, and select other sites for new nurseries. When the trees were ready for sale, he left them in charge of some one to sell for him, at a low price, which was sel- dom or never paid in money, for that was a thing the settlers rarely possessed. If people were too poor to purchase trees, they got them without pay. He was at little expense, for he was ever wel- come at the settlers' houses.
"Nearly all the early orchards in Licking county were planted from his nursery. He had also nurseries in Knox, in Richland and in Wayne counties."
The fact that he made his appearance in Licking county and other sections at so early a period as 1801, seems to be quite well authenticated. For the succeeding five years, though doubtless "plying his vocation," we are unable to reliably trace him.
In 1806, equipped with a craft in harmony with his eccentric imagination, this bold, strange, riddle of a man, with an antique, fantastic cargo, slowly descended the waters of the Ohio. He was conveying a load of apple seeds to the Western territory with the avowed purpose of planting the germs of orchards yet to be on the extremest borders of the white settlements. His craft, constructed of two canoes bound together, followed the current of the Ohio to Marietta, where he entered the Muskingum, ascending the stream of that river until he reached the mouth of the Walhonding, or
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