The History of Miami County, Ohio, Part 42

Author: W. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1880
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1051

USA > Ohio > Miami County > The History of Miami County, Ohio > Part 42

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Digitized by Google

344

HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY.

burning fore-sticks. A fire, such as would send forth light and heat throughout the house, would then be made, around which the inmates would while away the tedious hours in calm domestic enjoyment, thinking that they enjoyed as much happiness as the rest of mankind. Who is there to dispute it ?

In regard to food, it may be supposed that the early settlers of this township were but meagerly supplied, particularly as to variety. Wild meats, such as venison, wild turkey, pheasant, quail and fish, were abundant, only requiring skill in the hunter and angler to get ample piscatorial supplies from the Stillwater and its tributaries. But bread, another indispensable article of food, was, to many, almost unattainable. The scarcity of both grain and mills was the cause of this want ; but the courageous and patient pioneer, making a virtue of necessity, conformed his wants, as much as possible, to his circumstances. Lye hominy, so-called (which needs no description), was brought into almost universal use, and many a hungry laborer, both male and female, satisfied their hunger by this simple article of food. The author remembers hearing it said that a man who once sat down to dine upon nothing but a loaf of bread, con- soled himself by saying : "I have a variety here. I have top crust, bottom crust and crumb." That man' surely understood the philosophy of contentment. A settler of 1833 related this circumstance : " I had to go a long distance to mill to get material for bread, and, stopping at a cottage by the way, asked the good housewife if she could provide me with dinner. She rather demurringly replied that she had little else but meat. I told her to provide what she could, and I would be satisfied. She went to the green corn patch, and returned with several ears that had just passed from the milky state, being about half way between roasting-ears and ripeness. Cutting the grain from the cobs, she pounded it in a mortar until it became somewhat pulpy ; stewing the grain, then, in a vessel, she placed it, with meat, upon a most humble table, and invited me to dine. Having an appetite sharpened by fasting and travel, I partook with a hearty good will, and thought I had never eaten a more delicious meal. 'Another circumstance which I will relate shows that people were not always satisfied with such meager diet. I heard it told a great many years ago, but in what township it happened I cannot tell. After the means of living had been much augmented, two men were hired to make fence-rails, their employer, as usual, boarding them. Their food consisted of a kind of fermented corn bread, called pone, and hominy. This fare not being satisfactory to the laborers, they made their labor unsatisfactory to their employer. One day, a member of the family observing that their mauls descended with slow speed and feeble force, and guessing the cause, told his parents those mauls seemed to say, ' Hominy and pone ! Hominy and pone !' and suggested an improvement in their food. This was accordingly made, and the re-animated bee- tles then descended to the lively tune of, 'Meat, cabbage and bread ! Meat, cab- bage and bread !' thus proving that the improved diet, if it did not, like Tam O'Shanter's fiddle, put life and mettle into the heels, it did, into the hands of the railsplitters."

The first settlers of this township, having come from a region very different in climate, soil and productions from this, had much to learn, but no one to teach them. They had left the land of the cedar, the chestnut and pine ; a land whose soil, if soil it might be called, was so sandy, so sterile, so desolate, that, in the language of C. B. Faulkner, a Southern statesman, it seemed "barren, desolate and seared, as it were, by the hand of heaven; a soil that annually requires the aid of every ounce of fertilizing material that could be obtained to make its pro- ductiveness anything like remunerative." So great was the contrast between the fertility of the Atlantic slope and the regions of the Stillwater and Great Miami, hat an emigrant who had left South Carolina in 1803, at the age of seventeen years, and returned with the author in 1850, declared, after he had seen his old ative State, that he would leave it if he had to go all the way upon his hands und knees.

Digitized by Google

345

HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY.

ile ur

is torax:

பங்

One thing of great advantage to the immigrant, but of the art of which he was totally ignorant, was that his township was abundantly furnished by nature with the materials for molasses and sugar making.

This tree, namely, the sugar maple, of which I have just written, is too well known to require a description ; neither need I dwell upon the great luxury in its sirup or molasses, which, when properly made, is so much superior to that of sorghum or sugar-cane that its flavor is almost equal to that of the fabled nec- tar of the gods. Neither will I describe the process of its manufacture, for it is too well known, but I will say something of the convivial enjoyments of the young people of those early days, when they met around the sugar furnace or boiler, at what was called a " stirring-off." The poet, whose vivid imagination enables him to paint scenes as with the flashing fires of Mount Parnassus, thus describes :

" Some sat apart, to tell and hear Things only meant for Love's own ear, While some, with little ladles, dipped The liquid sweet and slowly sipped, That seemed to linger on the taste; Others, with skill and nicest care,

Drew off the thick and grainy paste, To form in crystals in the air."

Our forefathers appear not to have suffered much in going through the process of acclimation, as but few deaths are recorded in those early days. They endeav- ored to learn the easiest and cheapest methods of clearing away the forests and sowing and planting them with cereals and grasses best adapted to their nature. They had left a country in which cotton, tobacco and rice were the staple articles of the markets, but these they did not attempt to cultivate here. Some would raise a few stalks of tobacco, for mouth consumption, but none for the markets, and, indeed, if they had, they would have found no market here for it. Their great aim was to raise that which was nutritious and beneficial. It was left to after years to bring the cultivation of tobacco and the making of whisky.

The forests of this township were so dense that the smooth clearing-off of a single acre for an orchard cost a vast amount of labor. As much as two hundred cords of timber would have to be cut and burned before the ground was ready for the planting of apple or peach trees. A vast amount of undergrowth had also to be grubbed up by the roots and burned. While these were in a green state, it was no easy matter to burn them. The first object of the enterprising pioneer, after getting his necessary buildings, was to have a garden and orchard. When these were obtained and attempted to be plowed, a new difficulty presented itself. The numerous stumps left standing, with their green roots, interposed a formidable bar- rier to the plowshare. These roots spread out in all directions, crossing each other and forming a network, which tried the mettle of the team and the patience of the driver. The plow, stopped by the stubborn roots, would have to be drawn back and the team started again. If the roots broke and the plow passed through, they would often spring back with such force as to make it necessary for the driver to spring up, or he would receive their recoiling blows upon his toes or shins. Being unable to keep his feet up more than a moment or two, they would sometimes descend too soon and receive the strokes as aforesaid. On such occasions, the man or boy, if a rough, would make use of expletives that grated harshly on the ears of the moralist. These misfortunes, the writer, when a boy, full often experienced, but his early training prevented him, on such occasions, from indulging in profan- ity. In a few years, however, these tenacious roots would decay and fertilize the soil, the unresisted plowshare would pass steadily through them, and the teeming crops would amply reward the previous pains and labors of the husbandman.

The plows of those days were very simple and unique in their construction; and, though they were somewhat superior to those which the prophet Elisha used with twelve yoke of oxen, they were greatly inferior to those of the present day ; they were called bar-shares, having an iron shoe and wooden mold-board ; the sheath and beam were often made from a fence-rail, and the handles would be of

Digitized by Google

346

HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY.

the most unpretentious character. . A man who was anything of a mechanic could make one of them in less than two days, and they were not considered worth paint- ing ; in time these were succeeded by the bull plow, about the only difference being that the front part of the mold-board of the latter was iron ; this was, however, considered a decided improvement. In a few years, the bull plow was succeeded by the patent, the mold-board of which was made of cast iron ; these were made at plow-shops, constructed with skill and painted. Many successive grades of im- provement have brought this indispensable implement of husbandry to its present almost perfect form.

In those early days, mast, such as acorns, hickory and beechnuts, grew in the forests in great abundance, furnishing autumnal and winter food for swine. The mast-made pork, as it was called, though softer and more flaccid that the corn-fed, was savory and much relished by the people, and, though millions of wild pigeons annually infested the forests, they did not appear materially to diminish the acorn crop. The pigeon-roosts, or places where these birds came to pass the night, were almost marvelous to behold. They would come to their nightly rendezvous in in- numerable multitudes, settling in the tree-tops, in the greatest confusion. All night long the breaking of overloaded limbs could be heard, crashing on the ground, wounding or killing a part of their feathered occupants. The roosts would occupy a great many acres. In the early morning, when the feathered myriads had flown, the upper forest would resume its usual quiet, while the lower would be strewn with wounded, fluttering birds, many of which would be taken to grace the tables of the neighboring cottages. The flesh of these birds was not as white and savory as that of the quail, but it was eatable and appeased the hunger of many families. One of these roosts existed for years in the western forest, not far from the present village of Laura. The writer has seen these birds in innumerable myriads passing overhead with a rushing sound, in one direction in the morning, but in the other in the evening. Their forest supplies having about ceased, they are now seldom seen.

The pecuniary resources of the early settlers of this township, were very lim- ited; they had but little paper money, no specie but the old Spanish coin, consist- ing of milled dollars of 100 cents value ; half-dollars of 50; quarter-dollars of 25; eleven-penny bits of 124 ; and five or fippennybits (so called) of 64 cents value. For the convenience of change, the larger pieces were many of them quartered, and they had what was called "cut-money.""In the course of time, paper money and the American decimal coin came into use; the Government at length, not liking a mixed metallic currency, determined to make it all national, and, accord- ingly, passed an act, during Pierce's administration, cutting down the Spanish coin 20 per cent in value, at the same time offering its previous value in national coin at the mint ; this caused it nearly all to be sold to the Government, and recast into our governmental currency. Once in a while an old Spanish dollar, quarter, levy and fip may be seen, being kept only as mementoes of the past. But if money was scarce in those days, the real necessity for it was in like proportion ; the taxes on land were hardly 10 per cent of what they are at present. Luxuries, both in food and equipage, such as now exist, were then hardly known ; and, although the peo- ple were not bookish men, they seem to have understood the philosophy of adapta- tion, and to have reasoned like the poet :

" Our portion is not large, indeed, But then how little do we need, For nature's calls are few ; In this the art of living lies, To want no more than may suffice, And make that little do."

Accordingly, instead of casting about for money to purchase the requirements of life, as is much done at present, they looked to themselves to acquire them. From the sugar-tree, as above stated, they obtained sugar and molasses ; from their fields they drew the flax that furnished their summer apparel ; and from their

Digitized by Google

347

HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY.

Lanie Du? orth pis

SORRY

117

sheep they clipped the wool which clothed them in winter. The uncouth but strongly made flax-breaks, the neatly made little spinning-wheel, humming all day long, and a part of the night, preparing both warp and woof, or chain and filling, (as it was called) for the awaiting loom. For every-day wear the linen was left uncolored, but for Sunday it was sometimes striped and checkered with copperas ; these fabrics were both cooling and enduring, being well adapted to the wear and tear of the clearing and harvest field. The wool, after being carded by machinery, was spun upon the big wheel, and woven into flannel, linsey or cloth (satinet coming in in after years) ; sometimes flannels and linseys would be striped and checkered in the most unique manner, according to the taste of their owners. With the exception of carding and filling, which last was applied to cloth, the work was done at home, leaving but little to pay for outside assistance. For coffee, they used scorched or browned rye, barley, wheat flour, potatoes, etc. For tea, they could get all they desired from the buds of the aromatic spicewood and the roots of the sassafras. They depended for beef and pork on their own raising, and also on their own grain for bread. Those who brought no wagons depended mainly on sleds of their own making. There being an ample supply of oak bark, those who wished to could do their own tanning. The writer knew a man who, in addition to furnishing himself with things as above stated, also made the shoes for his family. This man owned 160 acres of land, which he cultivated without much hired help, and could say at the end of almost every succeeding year, "I have $5 for the tax gatherer, $4 for the schoolteacher, $1 for the store-keeeper, and a fig for the doctor." A few articles, however, such as salt, iron, nails, cooking utensils, cutlery, etc., had to be purchased ; but the demands for such from each family cost but few dollars per annum. To obtain those articles, it was necessary to go to Cincinnati, that being the nearest place where they could be had. Accordingly, one would furnish a wagon and two horses, or one, another would find the requisite number for a four- horse team, and, thus combining, they would start, taking a few barrels of flour, either for themselves or neighbors, and provisions, both for themselves and horses, they would start for the Queen City, often with a spirit of hilarity, particularly the younger ones, as thinking they were doing something rather big. It would require from five to six days to make the trip ; when made, the neighbors would joyfully gather in to receive the articles they had sent for. This custom lasted for more than twenty years, until the completion of the canal to Dayton made it no longer necessary.

We will now call the reader's attention to the costumes of the first settlers of this township. Being nearly all Friends, they brought with them the form of dress peculiar to that society. The men wore low-crowned, broad-brimmed hats, short- breasted coats, with straight collars and no unnecessary buttons, long vests, and pantaloons without suspenders. This form of dress was defended upon the ground that they found it comfortable, and did not seek change, and that it was the same as in the days of George Fox, the founder of the society ; the only difference between it and the costumes of the English noblemen, being in the ornamental ribbons and fixtures appended to the latter. The portraits of the Father of his country, and the elder Adams, represent them as wearing the same kind of coats. The dress of the females was equally plain and conformable to the ancient order; on their heads they wore immense white beavers, having an indentation or crown in the center, about half an inch in depth, and encircled by a white band or ribbon; the brim was full six inches in width and having also white ribbons attached to the extremities ; they were drawn down over the ears, and the strings tied under the chin, thus securely holding it on the head. These hats were of very fine tex- ture, being made of beaver fur, and were rather costly ; they were not calculated to keep the head warm, but to shade it. The next upper garment was a bed gown, or wrapper, reaching just below the waist and lapping over a petticoat or skirt ; the sleeves of the gown reached only to the elbows, where they were met by other pieces called slips ; even gloves, in those days, were made to reach to the elbows. They had also plain silk bonnets called hoods. These garments, made of as many

Digitized by Google

348

HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY.

pieces as possible, constituted the. tout ensemble of a Friend or Quaker woman's dress. Their dress, however, excepting their beavers, did not differ much from that of other women. After coming here, the young women declined to wear these beavers, and, in time, the old laid them aside. These early female fashions changed a great many years ago. The male fashions have changed also, and now very lit- tle is to be seen of the original. Of all articles of female apparel, the beaver was the most grotesque ; stuck upon a woman's head, it looked somewhat like an inverted tray, or sugar-trough, with both ends out ; the article had undoubtedly been carried from Pennsylvania to the South, for in years long after its discontin- uance, a family from that State having come and settled here, the mother wore one not only to the Dunker meetings, but to the Milton stores, where she did her trading. Passing, on horseback, by the schoolhouse, some of the sharp-eyed chil- dren would see her, and, giving the signal to the scholars, that mother D ---- was passing, order would be for the time suspended, and both teacher and scholars, rushing to the door and windows, would join in irrepressible laughter. The good old dame did not seem to be sensible of the merriment she was causing, nor that she was the only representative of the head-dress of a bygone generation, for we think she wore it until her death.

We propose now to give our readers a brief account of the labors and experi- ences of a prominent family of this township, having obtained the first fifteen years of its history from an only surviving son, now in his eighty-sixth year, and the only man living who remembers those early scenes.

We refer to Samuel Jones, who came from Columbia County, Ga, and settled here in the year 1805. He was not the first settler, it is true, but none of those are left to tell their tale. About the first of June, in the year aforesaid, two teams, one drawn by four and the other by two horses, reached in the morning their place of destination, with his household goods and family, having stayed the previous night at his brother-in-law's. The place selected for their residence was about a half-mile west of the Stillwater, and nearly two miles north of Milton, in Section 9, on the north bank of a most romantic glen, full forty feet in depth, which still remains unreclaimed from the forest. His family consisted of seven sons and four daughters, namely, the sons-John, Jonathan, Francis, Samuel, Jesse, Thomas and Asa ; the daughters were Dorcas, Mary, Sarah and Rachel. The eldest son was about twenty-five, and the youngest daughter about five years of age. There was, to use the words of Jesse, the only survivor, and who gave us this history, "not a stick amiss when we arrived there." Stalwart brothers, with their father and other help, soon made the impression that betokened in the near future a con- quered wilderness. They first felled a large white oak ; while some were sawing off board-cuts, others were riving them ; others, still, were cutting forks and poles and putting up a tent frame. Before night they had it covered and weather- boarded on three sides, the south one being left open ; a small cooking-tent joined it on the south. The main tent, having the ground for floor, was covered with leafy brush, on which were placed their pallets. Whether their first night's slum- ber was sound or not, we are left to guess, but the thought of having reached their long-wished-for home must have given them much enjoyment. They had brought with them their necessary cooking utensils, such as pot, tea-kettle, skillet and frying- pan. . During their long journey, they had learned the trade of gypsy-cooking, and were thus at no loss in preparing forest meals. Their greatest difficulty was in getting material for bread. Of wild meat they had abundance, such as venison, wild turkey, fish, etc. The river, not having been as yet much disturbed by fish- ermen, was teeming with its finny inhabitants, whole shoals of which, in sportive gambols, would spring out of the water, dropping back with a splash.

These fish could be taken by bushels, either with the hook or the drag-net. The drag-net was made principally of grapevines, some thirty or more feet in length and four feet in width ; the strandy vines were interwoven with bark and the interstices filled with full-leaved shrub branches, presenting an impassable barrier to the larger fish. They were thus caught in desired quantities, and fish,

Digitized by Google

bat Ši21

MRS. MALINDA .C.VOORHIS, (DECEASED.)

Digitized by Google

351

HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY.

flesh and fowl seemed the order of the day. They had a rather singular way of shooting deer after night. Providing themselves with a canoe or dug-out, they would erect a board palisade or screen on the side next the shore ; on the same side was placed a lantern or blazing torch. Behind this screen, and nearly oppo- site the light, sat the hunter, rifle in hand, with the barrel pointing shoreward through a port-hole, and waiting in silence for the deer to come down and drink. The unsuspecting animal, being blinded by the light and hearing little or no noise, would allow the canoe to come within a rod of him. This was considered rare sport. As before remarked, while meat was plenty, bread was scarce, the family once going three weeks without any except what they made from grain pounded in a mortar. Hominy was then used daily, but was a poor substitute for bread. Corn was bought at 25 cents, and wheat at 50 cents per bushel. At that time, wheat and corn were both ground by the same buhrs, and the flour, if bolted, was done by hand. This enterprising family went cheerfully on with their work, and soon had cleared an acre of land, and, strange as it may seem, they sowed two crops on it, one of turnip seed and the other of wheat. From it, in December, they got a good crop of turnips, and in the next summer a good crop of wheat. In October, they built a substantial log house, which afforded them comfortable winter quarters. During the winter and spring, they cleared several acres for corn in the Stillwater bottom, and, though it was not planted until the 5th or 6th of June, it yielded a most bountiful crop. As corn was more easily obtained than wheat, it was used to much greater extent. In addition to triple loaves, baked in the skillet, they had the johnnycake, of widespread popularity, which remained in use for many years. This consisted of a flat cake of corn dough put upon a board about six inches wide and twenty or twenty-four inches long, having the ends rounded. This was placed on its edge before the fire, and, being always in sight, was baked without scorching. It has been remarked by an old Revolutionary soldier named Conner, who lived on Stillwater, that they frequently substituted a " nigger's " foot for the board. .

In a few years, Samuel Jones' seven sons (excepting Jonathan, who settled in Indiana), were married and settled not far from him ; his four daughters also did the same, and he had the singular satisfaction of beholding quite a community of descendants springing up around him, subduing the wilderness and making it the abode of civilized life. Some of them being good hunters, many a deer, turkey, pheasant and other wild animals fell before their unerring rifles. The howling of the wolf had no terrors for them, the gobble of the wild turkey was music in their ears, and the timid pheasant, as it started up in flight before them, might have reminded them of these thoughts of Pope :

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

The History of Miami County, Ohio, Part 42

Author: W. H. Beers & Co. Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1051

Author: W. H. Beers & Co.
Publication date: 1880
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1051