USA > Ohio > Wyandot County > Past and present of Wyandot County, Ohio; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievemen, Vol. I > Part 12
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While there were social amusements in pioneer times in Wyandot county, religious services were not neglected. As there were but few church buildings then, camp meetings were
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frequently held during the summer season. Camp meeting trips were enjoyable outings. The roads to camp grounds often ran by sequestered farm homes and through shady wood- lands, where the rays of the sun shimmered charmingly through the leafy tree tops; and the fragrance of the wayside flowers deliciously perfumed the summer air. At the camp white tents in a semi-circle party surrounded an amphitheater of seats in front of a pulpit canopied by trees.
The Creator of heaven and earth reared the columns of those camp cathedrals along whose bough-spanned dome soft winds whispered and in whose leafy fretwork birds sang.
From the mossy floor flowers sent up their perfume like altar incense, and, in accord with the place and surroundings, the congregation was wont to sing :
"There seems a voice in every gale, A tongue in every flower, Which tells, O Lord, the wondrous tale, Of Thy Almighty Power."
At the camp visitors were received with cordial greeting, for the campers had the warmth of friendship in their hearts and of Christian zeal in their souls, and their frank manners and winsome ways were favorable preludes to the services which followed.
At these camp meetings some of the worshipers would become quite demonstrative at times, for the personal mani- festations of joy or devotion differ as much as our natures differ. No two persons give expression in the same way to any human emotion. Religion can come to you only in ac- cordance with your nature, and you can respond to it only in the same way.
Singing was a prominent feature of the camp meetings and services. It was the old fashioned singing without the instrumental accompaniment. Singing was such as our dear old mother sang, and although faulty, perhaps in note, came from the heart and went to the heart.
The singing of today may be more artistically rendered, but it is the old time songs that comfort us in sorrow and sus- tain us in our trials, as they come back to us in the hallowed remembrance from the years that are past.
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"Johnny cake" was the principal form of bread for breakfast, and pone for dinner, with wild game, hominy and honey, while the standard dish for supper was mush and milk. Log rollings, house raisings and wood choppings, were big occasions then and dinners of "potpie" were served.
Corn huskings were also great events, and nearly all the pioneer gatherings would wind up with a dance after supper, in which all present joined. In the absence of a fiddle the music was furnished by some one whistling or blowing on a leaf.
The hominy block was a piece of log about two feet long, set up on one end, with a hole burnt in 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 pestle. 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 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 made without pounding it by soak- ing 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, 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 flagstones that answered the purpose, constructed instru- ments they called "hand mills." Let me describe one of these hand mills 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.
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The lower stone was made stationary on a block; the upper stone called the runner, was turned by the hand in this wise :
The upper end of the pole entered a hole in the board or log, overhead, loosely. A broad hoop made of a clapboard, 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 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 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 thresh- ing was done with flails or thin poles, sometimes 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, 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 four corners of the sheet and wafted it with a strong sweep, toward another man, thus cre- ating 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.
The tales of the hardships, trials and difficulties, privations and sufferings of the pioneers can hardly be realized by those of the present generations. The pioneers of Wyandot county have gone to their long homes.
Occasionally a log cabin may be yet seen along the road- side for-
"The cabin homes of Wyandot some still are left today In shady nooks by babbling brooks or on the great highway."
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These cabins were once the homes of peace and happiness. Little feet danced cheerfully over those puncheon floors, and the great log fires in those old chimneys cheered the inmates on many long winter evenings.
The pioneers who came to Wyandot in the end had peace- ful and happy homes on the old hunting grounds of the In- dians and from them has descended a sturdy people, whose pluck and energy have never been surpassed anywhere.
It is a great thing to make history. The men who partici- pated in the Indian wars won victories for civilization and mankind. And these victories we are all enjoying today. Nothing therefore could be more appropriate than the stirring events of those times and the peace which followed should be recorded in history, thereby doing honor to the brave men who participated in them. It is fitting to rejoice over the pros- perity attained in securing the fairest and most beautiful land to be found anywhere.
We should not ignore our obligations to the pioneer but in remembering them, congratulate ourselves that we live in an age of improved utilities. The pioneers were the manufac- turers of almost everything they used, not only their farming implements but also the fabrics with which they were clothed. How different now!
All earthly things are given to change, and the firesides of the pioneer period have given place to the furnaces and registers of today. But the remembrances of the associations of the past have an attractive charm and a strong hold on our sentiments and affections.
Though the scenes of our memory may be darkened with the shadows and bereavements and of sorrows, yet it is still a cherished indulgence to recall them.
The rose and the thorn grow on the same bush; so the re- membrances of the past, of our friends who have gone before, are mingled with both pleasure and sorrow.
As the roads were mere bridle paths, the people walked, or rode on horseback. The cabins were built of logs, and the first ones had greased paper windows. The chimneys were on the outside and were made of sticks and mortar. The floors were of puncheon. The fireplaces were large enough for "back logs" and "fore sticks." Very few families had clocks. They guessed the hour of noon or ascertained it by the creeping of sunlight up to the "noon mark" drawn upon the floor.
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The furniture of a cabin was usually a few chairs, a plain table and a bedstead. The bedsteads were made by poles being crossed and stuck into the wall at one end and resting on "Y" sticks at the other end. A little later came the trundle bed, which was low and was pushed beneath the other bed during the day. There were no carpets upon these cabin floors and a set of dishes consisted of six plates and six cups and saucers, and happy was the wife who possessed these luxuries, for many a family had only a few pewter plates which they brought with them. The cooking utensils were a teakettle, an iron pot and skillet, also brought from the other side of the mountains, upon the backs of the horses.
They grew gourds and hard shell squashes, from which they made bowls and dippers. Salt had to be brought from the east until a road was opened to the lake, and the supply often became exhausted, and its scarcity was a great privation to the first settlers.
It would be difficult to picture to the mind of anyone, the vexations and troubles inflicted upon the frontier by the then great scarcity of money. There was very little to be had for any purpose.
Barter and trade was the order of the day, and while this exchange was all right in some respects, it would not answer for others. Taxes could not be paid in that way, and the mer- chant after waiting a long time had to have cash with which to meet his bills in New York or Philadelphia. When some pio- neer brought on articles that were indispensable for the house- hold, or for farming purposes, there was no money to buy them with. Often, long credits furnished relief. When a man had anything to sell, it found no market for money. He could trade it away for something he wanted from his neighbor. If a man wanted an article from another and had nothing to trade for it, he paid in work by the day, or agreed to clear so many acres of land for the article.
Men bought their cows, their horses or hogs in that way. Corn and wheat were hauled by ox teams, generally to Mans- field, or Portland, now Sandusky City, to be sold for money. Wheat was raised under the difficulties described in a former chapter, hauled to market, from forty to sixty miles away where it could be sold for only thirty cents a bushel in cash, or · for three shillings in trade, and was not an article on which farmers became rich very fast.
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Portland was the principal market for wheat, and many a load of wheat was exchanged there, at three shillings a bushel, for salt at five dollars a barrel, when it took about one week to make the trip.
The hardest of all hardships that the frontier settler had to contend with, was the malarial disease everybody was subject to. The ground was covered with water and decaying vegetable matter ; the river and creeks were clogged with drift- wood, and fallen timbers; beaver dams set the water back, thereby covering large tracts of lands, while wild cat swamps (as they were then called) were very numerous. There were terrible thickets and jungles of brush bushes of various kinds growing on rich, boggy soil.
It was in these trying times that men were compelled not by avarice, but by absolute stern necessity to find employment on the canals, the only public work then in the state, and the only places where money could be had for labor.
It was a sad parting when the father left his little ones in the care and charge of the pioneer mother, to go sixty miles or more from home, and be gone for months at a time to work on the canals and himself become a subject to these malarial diseases.
They were even more prevalent along the canals than else- where, because they were constructed through dense forests, along the most sluggish streams and on the most level ground, in order to avoid the expenditure which locks would require and the delay they would naturally cause in moving traffic.
Log huts were built on ground near the line of the survey, which were occupied as headquarters, as lodging, cooking, etc. They were as rough as they were temporary and the contractor or sub-contractor would spend no more money for the comfort of his men.
The work on the canals commenced as early in the spring as the weather would permit and as soon as the frost was out of the ground, and was prosecuted with a will until along in July, when the laborers broke down with bilious diseases, and the work had to be abandoned in consequence until after the few first early frosts, in the fall, when it was again resumed and pushed forward into the winter.
During the time the father was at work on the canal the mother with her little ones was alone in the cabin, miles away . from neighbors, no doctor to call to assistance in cases of sick-
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ness, no one to counsel or help in time of need. The trials and incidents of such a life lead the contemplative mind to sad and serious meditation.
The absence of foreign demand for produce during the first twenty years offered no incentive to a production beyond family and neighborhood wants.
Aside from the supply of such wants there was no stimulus to agricultural enterprise. Railroads later multiplied rival markets, gave value to productions of the farm that before had been worthless, and secured a reward to every department of agricultural enterprise and an increase in the value of real estate that was far beyond the most sanguine hopes of those who first settled the country.
For want of churches, religious services took place at the cabin of some settler, and it made very little difference what Christian denomination the preacher belonged to, for the peo- ple would attend services anyway.
While pioneer life had its rough sides, and its deprivations, it must not be supposed for a moment, that it was dark and gloomy life, and destitute of joys and pleasures. There was a certain peculiar pleasure attached to it that is almost indescribable.
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.
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 at 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 the door to be allowed admittance. Parents would often leave their cabin of evenings in 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 with- out molesting or disturbing anything.
Flouring mills were scarce and often far off. Gradually some of these useful structures sprung into existence along
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the river and on the creeks; but even then when a man had no team, he had to continue reducing his corn into meal as there- tofore. 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 mois- ture, 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.
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 gath- erings, 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 and stormy, no swale so deep, no distance so great, but that a call in case of sickness, 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 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 expecting pay.
Viewing pioneer life from this standpoint is it to be won- dered at, that neighbors would thus share and sympathize with each other ? All this mutual help came spontaneously, without reward or expectation thereof.
Emigrants who crossed the mountains and descended and settled in the Ohio valley, usually brought with them their household goods, and their flocks of sheep, their horses, and cattle. They crossed the mountains in large wagons, and drove their flocks before them.
On reaching the Ohio river they put all on board of flat- boats and descended the river to their places of destination. But when emigration began to set in for northwestern Ohio, the emigrants had to find their way through a dense forest, as best they could. There were no roads open, and no bridges
South Eighth Street
Corner of Wyandot and Eighth Streets
St. Peter's School, North Eighth Street
South Eighth Street Homes
SCENES ALONG THE RESIDENCE STREETS OF UPPER SANDUSKY
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across any of the numerous creeks and rivers in which this northwestern part of Ohio abounds. There were immense swamps on both sides of the Sandusky and all along its tribu- taries. Farther west and north the country was almost one continuous immense swamp on both sides and as far north as the Maumee, and west to Indiana, and far into that state.
The soil was very rich and the farmer well knew that as soon as the water and the forest were conquered, the soil would eventually reward him for his toil. But to subdue these and become master of the situation required almost superhuman power and most patient fortitude and heroic courage.
When once settled and the cabin erected, it was not only a home and shelter for the pioneer and his family, but for · every stranger who passed that way, "without money and without price." The latch string was always out, for these pioneers were great-hearted people, and be he white, black or red, none was turned away empty. Their cabin not often more than fifteen or twenty feet square, made of rough beech logs with bark still adhering to them, were occupied by a dozen or even a score of people for a night, and no complaints made for want of room; genuine hospitality always finds room enough and never apologizes for lack of more; and when breakfast time came, there was no apology for scarcity of knives, forks and spoons, for "fingers were made before any of these."
The fare was homely but generally abundant; what to eat, drink and wear were questions not, perhaps difficult for so- lution in those days. The first was the easiest to solve. The deer, bear, the wild turkey, the rabbit, the squirrel, all started up, and seemed to say, "eat me." These had been prepared for the red men of the forest, and were equally abundant for the pioneer. The forest was full of game, the stream full of fish, and wild fruits were abundant.
To get bread required both patience and labor, the staff of life was one of the articles that must be earned, by "the sweat of the brow;" it could not be gathered from the bushes, fished from the streams, or brought down with the rifle.
Every backwoods man once a year added to his clearing, at least a "truck patch." This was the hope and stay of the family; the receptacle of corn, beans, melons, potatoes, Vol. I-9
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squashes, pumpkins, turnips, etc. Each variety more per- fectly developed and was delicious because it grew in virgin soil. The corn and beans planted in May, brought roasting ears and succotash in August. Potatoes came with the corn; and the cellar, built in the side of a convenient hill, and filled with the contents of the truck patch, secured the family against want. When the corn grew too hard for roasting ears, and was yet too soft to grind in the mill, it was reduced to meal by a grater, and whether stirred into mush or baked into Johnny cake it made for people with keen appetities and good stomachs, excellent food.
A person is not a pioneer simply because he or she is aged; for age does not make one a pioneer. A pioneer is defined by Webster and as understood by the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, as one who goes before, as into wilder- ness, to prepare the way, etc. The pioneer period in Ohio, was prior to 1820, and ended with that year.
As Wyandot county was not settled at as early a date as some of the eastern counties in the state, the pioneer period should perhaps in this case extend to 1835. It has been said that the pioneers did not write history-they made it-and that even their sons, who kept notes of events, lost them in their removal to the still further west.
The collections of material for historical purposes covering what in Ohio is called the pioneer period has been a diffi- cult task. That was not an age of literature but of work, of clearing the forest and of building homes.
The pioneers made history but they had no time to write it. A few of the first settlers may have kept chronicles and annuls, but after the county was somewhat improved, the same impulse that brought them to Ohio, impelled them to again take their places in the line of the march of civiliza- tion to the still farther west, and while en route their records were lost.
And when the historian came to write of the early settlers of the county, the information obtained was largely of the traditional kind, and it has been difficult often to discriminate between facts and fiction.
There were state and county records but the woof of events, in part outside of official records, is needed to make the web of history.
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THE MATTHEW BRAYTON MYSTERY
In the fall of 1825 the disappearance of Matthew Brayton, a child of seven years, from the home of his parents in Craw- ford township, Wyandot county, aroused the sympathy and interests of the pioneers throughout a wide extent of territory.
William Brayton, Matthew's elder brother, had started with him in search of some stray cattle; after proceeding some two or three miles they were joined by Mr. Hart, a neighbor, and as the search promised to be a protracted one, Matthew was told to follow a path through the forest to Mr. Baker's house, some sixty rods distant, and there await his brother's return. At the close of day William Bryton called at Mr. Baker's residence, but found Matthew had not been there. He hastened to his home, informed his parents, and a hunting party set out at once to search for the missing boy. His tracks were traced for a little way along the path he had taken and then lost. All the next day the search continued, the hunting party increasing in number as the story of the lost boy spread throughout the region, but the day closed, and no further trace of the boy found. The second day the woods were filled with searching parties that came in from all directions to show their sympathy and lend their aid to the distressed parents.
The Indian villages were examined, but the Wyandots not only expressed ignorance of the boy's movements but joined in the search with great zeal. It was learned from them, how- ever, that a party of Canadian Indians had passed north on the day of the boy's disappearance, but they did not know whether the boy was with them or not.
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