USA > Ohio > Knox County > Past and present of Knox County, Ohio, Vol. I > Part 6
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
PIONEERS AND RYE WHISKY.
In these advanced days of Christian Temperance Unions and "wet" and "dry" elections in Ohio, it may seem strange to speak of the favorite beverage-after spring water-as being copper-stilled rye whisky. But such was the habit of the times. Everybody drank it. It was believed to be needful in health and sickness. Men could not (did not) work well days nor sleep well nights without this drink. The whisky was, of course, abso- lutely pure, although enough of it would cause drunkenness, but this needed no "sobering up" times or sick headaches. Stills for manufacturing liquor sprang up all over the country, wherever there could be found a suitable stream of water. Pioneers soon found market for their corn and rye, hence the business grew profitable, and really was the only resource they had for ready cash. Money must be had to pay taxes, if for nothing else. Whisky could be bought for twelve and fifteen cents a gallon and paid for in corn. The barrel of whisky was as common in the cellar as the cider barrel was later in this county. When a farmer had a surplus of whisky, he loaded it into flat-boats or pirogues (one or more dug-out canoes lashed together), and floated them down the rivers to New Orleans where it brought the Spanish gold coin readily. It was whisky that caused the first rebellion against the United States-the "Whisky Insurrection," growing out of the hardships
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of the sturdy Scotch-Irish of western Pennsylvania, who, while good Pres- byterian stock, did love their toddy and used it in and out of church circles. They rebelled against a tax being placed on the manufacture of the same. It brought money into the country and they needed that very commodity as we do today.
While the writer is not saying that even those early pioneers actually needed liquors to sustain life, yet they had been so reared and it took decades to get the notion out of their minds. Again, the whisky of 1808 to 1863, when the war revenue was added to it, was a different article than that sold and drunk today. Yet. we are told that even with all of its seeming purity, that it actually made red noses for men and that their children often went shoeless and ragged on account of its use.
EARLY SUPERSTITIONS.
Long years after the Salem witchcraft of New England, there was in every community in the country-especially did it obtain in Pennsylvania and was brought west to Ohio from there-a species of silly and laughable superstition, that caused people to believe in witches and fortune tellers. Often one old man was found who could foretell events and find places where stolen money and other treasure had been concealed. Another could cure wens, warts, etc., by saying over some strange words the meaning of which he did not know himself, much less his patients. The "mineral ball" he pos- sessed could locate lead, coal, gold and iron. This was no less than a wad of animal hair, hardened by other materials in the stomachs of cattle. At funerals, he advised no one to be so foolhardy as to leave the graveyard first, as if they did they were sure to die first. Other men possessed the power to heal the sick by strokes and words in a foreign tongue. But the power would leave the party, should he in some unguarded moment speak these magic words aloud. Another had a flat stone with which he claimed to cure all horses of "sweeney." simply by rubbing it over the animal just at sunrise, providing, however, the party had not spoken to any one that morn- ing, not even his wife, who also took stock in such nonsense and for a wonder kept from talking before breakfast, when her husband had a call to use the cure stone on a neighbor's horse.
WHAT MEN AND WOMEN WORE.
The frontiersman who frequently went forth on scouts and hunting expeditions, wore a combination of civilized and Indian garb. The hunt- ing shirt was universally used those days in Knox county. This was a loose
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frock reaching half way down the thighs, with large sleeves, open at the front, and so large as to lap over a foot or more when belted. The cape was large and generally fringed with a raveled piece of cloth of many bright colors. The bosom of the garment served as a pocket to hold bread, cakes, jerk, tow for wiping the gun barrel, or any other needed article. The belt, which was always tied behind, answered several purposes, besides that of holding the dress together. In cold weather the mittens, the bullet-bag, and such things occupied the front part of it. These hunting shirts were usually made of linsey, sometimes of coarse linen or deer skins. The last were cold and uncomfortable in wet weather. A pair of drawers or breeches and leggins were the dress of the thighs, a pair of moccasins answered for the feet. These were made of dressed deer skins, mostly of a single piece. Flaps were left each side and these extended some distance up the leg. These moccasins were easily adjusted to the ankle by means of thongs of buck- skin. In very cold weather these shoes were stuffed with deer's hair or dry leaves to keep the feet warmer. On account of these foot coverings, more than to any other cause, the early pioneers and hunters and soldiers were afflicted with rheumatism. Hence many slept with their feet to the fire, which thing, very likely, saved many a severe case of rheumatism.
Sometimes in winter the skin of a panther, wild cat or spotted fawn was made into a waist-coat. In summer, when it could be obtained, linen was used for wearing apparel. The flax was grown in the summer, scutched in the fall, and during the long winter evenings was heard the buzz of the little flax-wheel, which had a place in every cabin in the settlement. These machines were still in use as late as the fifties, in some parts of Knox county. It stood in a corner, had a large bundle of flax wrapped about its forked stick, a thread reaching to the spindle, and a little gourd filled with water hanging near by at the bottom of the flax stick. When the busy housewife had finished caring for a half dozen or dozen children, had milked as many cows and got supper for the many work hands and had a few spare moments in which to "rest," she might have been seen in many a Knox county cabin home, sitting down to this wheel, with tired foot on the treadle, and, with nimble fingers, pile thread upon thread on the spindle, to be reeled off on a wooden reel that counted every yard with a snap, and then it was ready for the great loom that occupied every loft in a well-regulated farm house. Weaving time was a busy scene in the cabin. The timbers and shuttles were larger than those used in a modern balloon frame dwelling. Then after the cloth was made, it was cut up and the same tired hands had to sew it all up by hand (no sewing machines till the "fifties" and few even that early in Knox county) into garments for the various members of the household. Wool went through about the same process, only it was spun on the large
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spinning wheel, colored with butternut bark and other things, now a lost art to womankind. Then the winter clothing had to be made after the loom had faithfully assisted the housewife and devoted mother.
HOW THE PIONEER WOMEN DRESSED.
The wearing apparel brought by the women from their old homes in the East, of course was kept for special occasions and served a number of years, but in time the last thread of these garments had been worked up into carpet rags, or quilted into bedspreads. Other gowns must be provided. The young children fast reached manhood and womanhood and dresses had to be made for the growing misses, so they might look respectable too. The flax patch, therefore, became an important part of the farm, almost as much so as the truck patch had been in providing food for the table. The flax grew tall and slender on the side of the clearing next to the timber. The delicate straws were carefully pulled by the girls and kept by themselves to make finery of. The stronger growth answered well enough for men's wear, and for making warp for the linsey-woolsey, and even every-day dresses for the women folks, but for Sundays, when everybody went to "meeting," the girls especially wanted something finer, just as the girls do today. This finer flax was pulled, rotted, hackled, carefully scutched, dyed in divers colors, and then carefully woven in cross-barred figures, straining a point to get turkey-red enough to mark their outline, like the circle about a dove's eye. Of such goods the maiden fair made her Sunday gown, and then, with her vandyke of snow-white homespun linen, her snow-white stockings, home knit, and possibly a pair of white kid slippers, she really was beautiful and captivating. No paint on her rosy cheeks, hidden by a neat sun-bonnet, or a broad-brimmed hat, made by her mother of rye straw, she was indeed winsome and lovable to behold. But about the white kid slippers-this needs an explanation to the present-day reader. Her brother, or lover perchance, shot six fine squirrels; she tanned the skins herself in a sugar trough, and had them done up at a considerable expense and trouble to wear Sundays and on state occasions. "How did they wear these slippers to the far-away meet- ing house, through mud and dust?" some one says. Well, it was on this wise. The young men, and girls too, carried their best boots or shoes with them, but seldom put them on till near. or quite to, the church or ball-room, when they took off their old ones and slipped into the better ones. Some young men went barefooted and carried their fine boots over their shoulders till within a short distance of the meeting house. These seem like odd, strange, hardly truthful assertions, but this was the practice in an early day in this as well as all the western country.
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Linen for "Sunday-go-to-meetin'" clothes was made with the use of copperas and was snowy white, checked and striped, and when bleached was very pretty and soft. For very choice wear it was all flax; for everyday wear, the second best, the warp was flax and the filling tow. Dye stuffs in those days were in reach of all. Butternut or walnut hulls, colored brown; oak bark, with copperas, dyed black ; hickory bark, or the blossoms of golden- rod, made yellow; madder, red; and indigo, blue; green was obtained by first coloring yellow, then dipping into a blue dye. Stocking yarn was dyed black, brown and blue; for choice stockings, strips of corn husks were lapped tightly in two or three places around a skein of yarn and dyed blue. When the husk was removed, whitish spots were found mottled in with the main color and that was called "clouded" yarn. The little tub of blue dye, with tight-fitting cover, stood in some far corner of almost every well-regulated house. Sometimes the smooth cover suited the young man when, after the old folks had gone to bed, he wanted to sit closer to his best girl, and it was then that he moved the dye-tub nearer the chimney corner.
With the advent of carding machines the work of the housewife was materially lessened. The earliest hint at "store clothes" was the soft pressed flannel, called "London Brown." The same time came in the London brown for men's wear, and when a "freedom suit" was given the one who had served his time as a bound-out boy or an apprentice, he valued this suit as highly as others did the horse, saddle and bridle given on such occasions.
In passing from this topic of dress of the ladies, it may be recorded in this, the latest annals of Knox county, Ohio, that there may be girls and women who today wear forty yards of silk and velvet upon their person, with all corresponding toggery and ornamentation, who look down on the begin- nings of fashion and the clothing worn by their mothers and grandmothers. In such foolish cases they should be reminded that as a rule these same plain women of sixty years ago and earlier, possessed more genuine womanhood, virtue and common sense in their least finger than some of the butterfly lasses of the twentieth century do in their whole body. While styles and fashion are ever changing, and remembering that those women dressed as well as their surroundings in a wilderness would permit, and that clothes do not make the man or woman, but the heart and intellect they possess, certain it is that the self-sacrificing mothers of ye olden times were model wives and mothers. From such people have come the best women and men of today. It has been said, "Luxury tends to degeneracy," and certain it is that those who pay most attention to dress today have, as a rule, the least brains and hearts, this applying equally to men and women.
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PIONEER HOUSES.
We will not enter into a lengthy detail concerning the human abode that has about passed from use in this country, the log cabin, yet a brief ac- count of their construction may not be without some interest to those who live in modern houses and are warmed by heating stoves, natural gas, steam, hot-water heat, or furnace of hot air.
The first houses were built from round poles or small logs, with the bark still clinging to their surface. The houses thus formed had stick chimneys, daubed with lime or lime mortar; they had puncheon floors and scanty furniture within them. The roof was made of riven shakes, held in place by heavy weight-poles.
The second and improved log houses were constructed of hewed logs, with sawed lumber doors and small openings filled with eight by ten window lights, on one or two sides. Some nails were then used. They were wrought nails, however, hence were expensive, for we are told that a pound of them cost a bushel of wheat. Now twenty pounds can be obtained of a much bet- ter nail-a wire, sharp-pointed nail. The old nails were forged out on the anvil by blacksmiths at night-time.
The house "raising" was a feature of pioneer times. It was then that all hands went from far and near and assisted the newcomer in providing, as quickly as possible, his home quarters. After the building was up and the family settled, a "house warming" was the rule of practice. The tools employed in building these cabins and hewed log houses were, usually, the ax, the cross-cut saw and the adze, with sometimes a hand-ax and drawing knife. The corners of the building were carried up as near plumb as possible, by having the ends of the logs notched or dove-tailed. Often the chinking and plastering, as well as the making of openings for doors and windows, was delayed for some time and then done by the owner at his leisure. Many of these houses had no loft, or second floor, but when they did have it was used for sleeping apartments. Frequently the snows of winter would sift through the gables or the clapboard roof, sufficient to cover the floor and beds over with several inches of snow. Then, too, these lofts were used many times for storing away trinkets and for hanging up roots and barks and herbs which came in good play during the winter months, for dying and for medicinal decoctions.
THE HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE.
To conclude, a description of the furniture that adorned and made homelike these early cabin homes of the settlers who sought out a home in
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- this goodly section of Ohio a hundred years and more ago will be in order. In the language of one who had gone through such experiences, we take the liberty to freely quote :
"First of all, the table had to be improvised and there was no cabinet maker to fashion it, and no lumber sawed from which to make it. Our floor was laid with broad puncheon of the chestnut species, well and truly hewn by the hand that knew how to hew to the line. Father took one of these puncheons, two feet and a half broad, putting two narrow ones in its place, bored four large auger holes and put in four legs. On this hosiptable "board" many a wholesome meal was partaken of by truly happy hearts full of thankfulness. Many an honest wayfaring man has eaten his fill at this home-made table.
"On big occasions when more table room was needed, the great front door of the cabin was lifted from its huge wooden hinges and placed along- side the ordinary table. What we sat upon at first I can not recall, probably blocks. But well do I remember when my father hitched up and loaded the . wagon down with corn and wheat, and then crossed the country some ten miles and brought home a set of oak splint-bottom chairs. Some of these chairs were still in the family in 1880. Huge band-boxes, made of blue ash bark. supplied the place of bureaus and ward robes. A large tea chest, cut in two and hung by strings in the corners, with the hollow sides outward, constituted the book case. A respectable old family bedstead was lugged across from Red Stone. An old turner and wheelwright added a trundle- bed, and the rest were whittled and hewn and shaved out of the native timber of the surrounding forests.
"But the grand flourish of the furniture was the 'dresser.' Here were spread out in one grand display pewter dishes, pewter plates, pewter basins and pewter spoons, scoured as bright as silver."
HUNTING IN KNOX COUNTY.
Nearly all of the first generation of settlers in this county were expert hunters and dearly loved the chase. They were only too glad for the appear- ance of the first frosts and first skiff of snow. The deer were plentiful and the fur-bearing animals, including bear, were to be had for the hunting a few hours for any time, anywhere out from the settlement. Many families hereabouts never knew what bread was from one month to another, but de- pended upon the forests for game and berries. Breakfast could not be eaten often till the man of the house went forth and killed some sort of game to fry or broil. In fact, the hunter preferred the outdoor life and was uneasy
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in his cabin, for he claimed it was too warm. Hunting was not a mere pas- time, but skill must needs be exercised. The traits of the animals sought for must be studied. The wind had to be consulted. A score of things con- tributed to make hunting a profession not known much about these days. The forestman needed no compass; the trees, sun and stars took its place. The bark on the north side of a tree could always be counted on as being thicker and containing more moss-this was his compass. The whole busi- ness of a hunter was one succession of deception and intrigue. From morn- ing till nightfall he was on the alert to deceive and evade the wild animals.
WOLF TRAPS.
In the winter of 1805-6, in the vicinity of Mt. Vernon, the settlers entered into an agreement to give nine bushels of corn for each wolf scalp that might be taken, and three of them caught forty-one wolves in steel traps and pens. The description of one of these wolf pen-traps and the mode of operation may not be without interest to the reader, as wolves are seldom seen in Knox county now-a-days.
Wolf pens were about six feet long, four feet wide, and three feet high, formed like a huge square box of small logs, and floored with puncheons. The lid, also of puncheons, was very heavy and was moved by an axle at one end, made of a small round stick. The trap was set by the use of a "figure four" device, well known to nearly every one. For bait, any kind of meat would do, except that of a wolf, the animal being fonder of any other than that of its own kind. On gnawing the meat on the point of the figure four. the lid fell and caught the animal. To make sport for the dogs, the legs of the wolf were frequently pulled through the crevices between the logs forming the trap, hamstrung, and then he was turned loose, when the dogs caught and finished hin.
GREAT OCCASIONS.
Among the greatest of occasions in all new countries, eighty and a hun- dred years ago, were the Fourth of July celebrations, the general training days for militiamen and the wedding days. It took more than one day to get married in Knox county then and the whole community had to help tie the knot good and tight, by dancing and drinking and other lively performances. In this there was no distinction in rank and very little of fortune. A family establishment cost a little labor and nothing else. This was the only gath- ering (save a funeral) where the guest was not expected to work his pas-
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sage, be it husking, rail splitting bees, house raisings, log rollings or reaping grain. The bill of fare at the table consisted chiefly of beef, pork, fowls, venison, bear meat, roasted and boiled, with plenty of potatoes, cabbage and other Ohio vegetables. Whisky was seldom refused at these pioneer wedding occasions. After a day or two of eating, drinking and dancing, the couple were considered married after the standard fashion of the community.
Independence Day celebrations have always had a place in Knox county, from the very earliest settlement of the county. A spot was selected somewhere on a clearing, near some good tavern, where it was certain the landlady was also a good cook. There was plenty of drumming and fifing and noise in general. Some one could always be found who felt that he was competent to preside as president or officer of the day; some one who could read toasts and others who had fought under William Henry Harri- son as orderly sergeant. There were also plenty of men who could read the Declaration of Independence, for be it remembered that among the pioneer band in Knox county there were not a few men who had attended good schools and academies and some had gone to Yale College. If a minister was not on hand, plenty of devout Methodists and Presbyterians could offer a fervent prayer. Again, if the day and its performances did not end in a ring-fight. the people went home disappointed and vowed they would never come again.
CHAPTER VII.
THE COUNTY GOVERNMENT.
Counties, like states and republics, must have a government peculiar to themselves. The county and township governments are all subservient to the higher laws of the state and nation, in this country. In this chapter will be brought out the acts of the board of county commissioners, the building of court houses and jails and the establishing of the County Institute; the building of roads and bridges; the finances of the county of Knox, with many other important items connected with the government of the county, since its organization, down to the present date (19II).
The names of the hundreds of men who have served as officials of this county in the last century, in one or more capacities, will be found in the chapter on "County, State and National Representation," elsewhere in this volume.
The proceedings of the hundreds of meetings, special and regular, of the commissioners would fill many volumes the size of this. It is of little conse- quence to know all the little details of the government of this or any other subdivision of the commonwealth of Ohio, but the following few pages will give the reader a comprehensive view of how affairs have been carried for- ward in the county. It would not be true to state that at all times the best men have filled the offices. It has not been so in any other county, in this or in any other state, but in the main good, honest, prudent men have filled the various official positions.
The first regular board meeting of the commissioners in Knox county assembled Monday, October 24, 1808, with the following present: Henry Markley, Matthew Merritt and William Douglass, commissioners, and they at once appointed James Smith their clerk.
October session, 1808-Ordered that the clerk issue an order on the county for the sum of one dollar and fifty cents for killing one wolf, proven by William G. Farquhar, in favor of Samuel Durbin.
James Smith allowed two dollars for carrying election returns to Newark.
December, 1808-Ordered that James Dunlap, Isaac Kook and James Armstrong be allowed twenty-two dollars each for fixing the county seat of this county.
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The first road petition offered was for a highway from the town of Clinton, through the settlement of Skink's Creek, to the eastern line of this county, and the same was promptly rejected by the county fathers.
William Hedrick is referred to as a prisoner, and fifty cents is charged for his diet.
Session of January, 1909-Ordered that the clerk issue an order to the following persons on the county treasurer in the sum of one dollar and fifty cents each for two days' service on the grand jury, at the January term, to- wit: James Walker, Sr., Eleazer Biggs, John Baxter, John Beam, Joseph Walker, Levi Herrod, Nat. Critchfield, William Herrod, David Johnson, James Strange, James Walker, Jr., William Cooper, Jonathan Craig, thirteen.
April session, 1809-Edward Herrick allowed twenty-five dollars for his services as prosecuting attorney during the last January term. Also allow themselves two dollars each per day for commissioner's services.
Ordered that some necessary repairs be made and done to the meeting house in the town of Mt. Vernon for the accommodation of the court.
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