The History of Union County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, towns military record;, Part 31

Author: Durant, Pliny A. [from old catalog]; Beers, W. H., & co., Chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, W. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1254

USA > Ohio > Union County > The History of Union County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, towns military record; > Part 31

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).

The log cabin of the pioneer has been so often described that most per. sons are familiar with its peculiarities, even though they may never have seen such a building; but it is not out of place to give a description here: When the walls of the cabin had been laid. the spaces between the logs were filled with split sticks of wood, which made up the "chinking," and a " daubing" of clay mortar was plastered over, making a comparatively solid and substantial wall, through which the cold wind seldom swept in winter, and through which the excessive summer heat hardly penetrated. The floor was often nothing more than earth tramped hard and smooth, but the kind commonly in use was made of "puncheons," or split logs with the flat sides upward, hewed smooth. The roof was made by gradually drawing in the top to the ridge-pole, laying the "clapboards " on cross pieces and fastening them down with long weight-poles. In constructing a fire-place, a space about six feet in length was cut out of the logs on one side of the room, and three sides were built up with logs, making an offset in the wall. If stones were plenty in the neighborhood, they were used to line the fire-place; if not, earth was brought into requisition. The flue, or upper part of the chimney, was built of small split sticks, two and a half or three feet in length, carried a little space above the roof and plastered over with clay; this, when finished, was called a "cat-and-clay chimney." A space

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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

was cut in one side of the room for a door-way, and a door made of clap- boards was hung on wooden hinges, secured by wooden pins to two cross-pieces. The fastening was a wooden latch catching on a hook of the same material. To open the door from the outside, a strip of buckskin was tied to the latch and drawn through a hole a few inches above the latch-bar; on pulling the string, the latch was lifted and the door was pushed open. To lock up the house it was only necessary to draw in the latch-string.

"Here the family lived," says a writer, "and here the guest and way- farer were made welcome. The living-room was of good size, but to a large ex- tent it was all-kitchen, bedroom, parlor and arsenal, with flitches of bacon and rings of dried pumpkin suspended from the rafters. In one corner were the loom and other implements used in the manufacture of clothing, and around the ample fire-place was collected the kitchen furniture. The cloth- ing lined one side of the sleeping apartment, suspended from pegs driven in the logs. Hemp and flax were generally raised, and a few sheep kept. Out of these the clothing for the family and the sheets and coverlets were made by the females of the house. The country abounded with the weed called Spanish needle, which seemed to grow everywhere and in immense quantities. Instances are given where this plant was pulled and treated precisely as flax, making a beautifully white and substantial goods. Over the door was placed the trusty rifle, and just back of it hung the powder horn and hunting-pouch. In the well-to-do families, or when crowded on the ground floor, a loft was some- times made to the cabin for a sleeping place, and the storage of 'traps' and articles not in common use. The loft was reached by a ladder secured to the wall; generally the bedrooms were separated from the living room by sheets and coverlets suspended from the rafters, but, until the means of making these partition walls were ample, they lived and slept in the same room. The morning ablutions were made at the trough near the spring, sometimes from a pewter basin on a stump near the door.

" Familiarity with this mode of living did away with much of the discom- fort, but as soon as the improvement could be made, there was added to the cabin another room, or a double log-cabin was constructed, being substan- tially a three-faced camp, with a log room on each end and containing a loft. The furniture in the cabin corresponded with the house itself. The articles used in the kitchen were as few and simple as can be imagined. A 'Dutch oven,' a skillet, a long-handled frying-pan, an iron pot or kettle, and sometimes a coffee-pot, constituted the utensils of the best furnished kitchen. A little Jater, when a stone wall formed the base of the chimney, a long iron crane swung in the chimney place, which on its pot-hook carried the boiling kettle or heavy iron pot. The cooking was all done on the fire-place and at the fire, and the style of cooking was as simple as the utensils. Indian or corn meal was the common flour, which was made into 'pone,' or 'corn-dodger,' or 'hoe- cake,' as occasion or variety demanded. The 'pone' and the 'dodger' were baked in the Dutch oven, which was first set on a bed of glowing coals. When the oven was filled with the dough, the lid, already heated on the fire, was placed on the oven and covered with hot embers and ashes. When the bread was done, it was taken from the oven and placed near the fire to keep warm while some other food was being prepared in the same way for the forth- coming meal. The 'hoe-cake' was prepared in the same way as the dodger- that is, a stiff dough was made of the meal and water, and, taking as much as could conveniently be held in both hands, it was molded into the desired shape by being tossed from hand to hand, then laid on a board or flat stone placed at an angle before the fire, and patted down to the required thickness. In the fall and early winter, cooked pumpkin was added to the meal dough,

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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

giving a flavor and richness to the bread not attained by the modern methods. In the oven from which the bread was taken, the venison or ham was then fried, and, in the winter, lye hominy, made from the unbroken grains of corn, added to the frugal meal. The woods abounded in honey, and of this the settlers had an abundance the year round. For some years after settlements were made, the corn meal formed the staple commodity for bread."

In everything the pioneers were economical, and they made the best of such advantages as circumstances furnished. The rifle, with its accompany- ing appendages-powder-horn, bullet molds, bullet-pouch and wiping stick -was an indispensable weapon; the ax was also an implement without which no one would think of venturing into the wilderness with the view of making a home there. Such other tools, dishes, etc., as could be conveniently trans- ported, were taken along, but for many articles they placed reliance on their ingenuity to invent after they should become settled. Rude and rough as these home-made necessaries were, they answered the purposes for which they were intended, and complaint was never heard because they were not of better quality or more finished appearance. In the struggle to provide against the needs of the future, eacli accepted the conveniences at hand and wrought patiently toward the accomplishment of the object for which he had entered a strange country. The clothing worn by the immigrants was made, by careful use, to do duty until crops of flax or hemp could be grown out of which new household apparel could be manufactured. After sheep were introduced, it was easier to work up the material for clothing, and the spinning wheel, wool card, winding blades, reel, warping bars and loom were familiar implements to the pioneer women, old and young. A pioneer of Champaign County thus writes: "The boys were required to do their share of the hard labor of clear- ing up the farm, for at the time the country now under the plow was in every direction heavily timbered or covered with a dense thicket of hazel and young timber. Our visits were made with ox teams, and we walked or rode on horse- back or in wagons to meeting. The boys pulled, broke and hackled flax, wore tow shirts and indulged aristocratic feelings in fringed hunting-shirts and coon-skin caps; picked and carded wool by hand, and spooled and quilled yarn for the weaving till the back ached."

Rail or pole corn-cribs, covered with clapboards or prairie hay, wooden plows, rail fences, wooden-toothed harrows-or in their stead, heavy brush dragged over the ground-the mattock and hoe, etc., were the agricultural implements used. The ground was rich and mellow, and good crops of corn were the rule. A bushel and a quarter was sown broadcast to the acre. "Occasionally, a field would be grown producing what was called 'sick wheat,' so named from its tendency to cause vomiting. Various devices were adopted to obviate this, but none of any avail; but it was commonly understood that the best thing to be done with it was to convert it into whisky." Wheat ripened early in July, and at first was cut with the sickle; afterward the cradle was introduced, being a great improvement, and in the course of time the needs of the farmer were supplied by the reaper, the first one being a clumsy affair compared with the perfect machines of to day. The grain was thrashed either with the flail or tramped out on a hard clay floor by horses-generally the latter process being adopted. Many a gray-haired citizen of Union County at this time will recall the painful and tiresome experience of riding a bare- backed horse, in none too good condition, all day on the golden straw, round and round in a circle, while one or two persons turned and kept it in place. After the grain was winnowed, with the aid of the wind, it was ready for mill or market, notwithstanding it contained more or less chaff and dirt. Colum- bus, Sandusky, Dayton and Cincinnati furnished markets for the wheat, and

LA Theover.

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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

after transporting it to any of those places it brought but a small price-25 to 40 cents per bushel. A bushel of wheat would just pay the postage on a letter from the old home in the East, and at such a rate it may easily be understood that correspondence was limited. Apple seeds brought from the older settle- ments were planted, and in a few years there was plenty of hard cider-used as a temperance drink, and as thorough an intoxicant as the whisky. Cider brandy, or "apple jack," was a favorite beverage, and in some localities "cider was used as a remedy for all sorts of ills. A kind of tea made of hard strong cider, with a pepper pod sliced into it, was a dose to make rheumatism beat a retreat; willow bark and the heart of an ironwood pickled in cider was good for fever and ague .* Wild cherry bark and cider was a warming tonic, etc." Hard cider was a power in politics in the Harrison campaign of 1840, and many a zealous supporter of the hero of Tippecanoe "primed up in a mug of hard cider " in order to take the cobwebs from his throat and enable him to sing the rousing campaign songs which aided so largely in coaxing victory to perch on the banner of the Whig party.

Root beer and home-brewed ale were also used by the settlers. The sugar maple and the "bee tree" furnished sweets for the household. The Indians learned from the whites the process of making maple sugar, but their mode was hardly as cleanly as that of their teachers. A writer says: "When their sirup was about ready to granulate, they would have a raccoon ready to cook, which they would put into the sirup, hair, skin, entrails and all. The coon would get done in a short time, when he was removed and allowed to cool. A crust of sugar came away with the hair and skin. The flesh seemed nicely cooked, but the sugar-well !" It is a fact that, in later years, where there are yet Indians living on their reservations-notably in Michigan-they will make maple sugar to sell, but when they wish afterward to purchase any for their own use, they will ask for " white man's cake sugar;" they do not care to eat that of their own manufacture.

Money was a scarce article among the early settlers, most of them coming into the forest with scarcely the bare necessities of a primitive life. Barter was the general system of trade, and the farmers "changed work" with their neighbors in busy seasons. in order that none might be behind. The small amount of money in circulation was confined almost exclusively to the centers of trade. Spanish milled dollars, divided into halves or quarters, constituted what was called "cut money," so prepared for the purpose of making change, as but a small amount of fractional currency was to be obtained, and not enough to supply the demand. Most of the money which the settler could raise was expended for taxes, and in payments on his lands, for these were obligations which could be discharged in no other manner.

The following homely rhyme illustrates pioneer times in a comprehensive manner. It was prepared to be read August 21, 1878, at the golden wedding of Thomas Snodgrass and wife, of Marysville, but was not presented on that occasion. Mr. Snodgrass was a native of Union County, and in 1828 married Eliza Calloway. The "poem" is entitled

NEW COUNTRY. " This wilderness was our abode Full fifty years ago; And when we wished good meat to cat We caught a fawn or doe. For fish we used the hook and line, And pounded corn to make it fine; On johnny-cakes our ladies dine In this new country.

* There is a tradition that farther south, on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, a sovereign remedy for th " chills " was to swallow a bullet.

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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

"Our paths were through the winding wood, Where oft the savage trod; They were not wide, nor searce a guide. But they were all we had. Our houses, too, were logs of wood. Rolled up in squares and caulked with mud ; If the bark was tight our roofs were good. In this new country.

"We wandered through the fields and woods And drank of the purling stream: No doctor, priest or lawyer here Was scarcely to be seen; Our health, it needed no repair. No pious man -for God is prayer: And who would fee a lawyer here In this new country?

"Our children, too, in careless glee. Oft made their mothers sigh; And the savage bear was oft aware He heard our children cry: The rattlesnake our children dread. And ofttimes fearful mothers said. 'I fear some beast will take my babe,' In this new country.

" Our occupation was to make The lofty forest bow: With axes good we chopped our wood, For well we all knew how: We cleared our land for rye and wheat, For strangers and ourselves to eat; From the maple tree we drew our sweet In this new country.

"Of deer skins we made moccasins. To wear upon our feet: And checkered shirts we thought no hurt Good company to meet. Was there a visit to be paid, By winter's night or winter's day, The oxen drew our ladies' sleigh In this new country.

" The little thorn bore apples on, When mandrakes they were gone: And sour grapes we used to eat When wintry nights came on. For wintergreen, the girls did stray; For butternuts. boys climbed the trees, And spicewood was our ladies' tea In this new country.

"And fifty years, now, have fled. And their scenes have passed away; And since my wife and I were wed We have grown old and gray: And as this is our wedding day, Unto our friends we would say, Prepare to meet us in that day In the good country."

EARLY RELIGIOUS MATTERS.

About 1799, the Presbytery of Transylvania. Ky., was divided into three Presbyteries, viz .: Transylvania, West Lexington and Washington, the latter including all that portion of Ohio west of the Scioto River. Rev. Archibald Steele, a licentiate of Washington Presbytery. and an uncle of Gen. William B. Irwin, a former well-known citizen of Union County, was commissioned

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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

as a missionary in Southwestern Ohio in the spring of 1799, with authority to visit all new settlements, make out a list of all members of his denomination, whenever they wanted a church, and report to the Presbytery for proper action. An extract from his journal, as follows, shows how and where he found some of the first Presbyterian families in Union County: "Leaving Buck Creek, took the trail for Darby; at 4 o'clock arrived at the house of my old friend Joshua Ewing, where the family, consisting of Joshua and his family, James, his brother, Betsey, his sister, and their aged mother, lived in a new town on the west bank of Big Darby, named North Liberty." This was in the southeast part of what is now Darby Township. Here Mr. Steele organized a Presbyterian Church in the fall of 1800, calling it North Liberty. Joshua Ewing and Samuel Kirkpatrick were elected Elders at the organiza- tion of this, the first religious body formed in what now constitutes Union County, and one of the pioneer organizations of the State. But very few families had then settled in the neighborhood, and the membership of this church included most of them. The people lived far apart, and never had a pastor nor stated supply. Neither was a house of worship erected, and in a short time the organization was dissolved by mutual consent. Out of the materials that belonged to it, however, the churches of Upper and Lower Liberty were formed, the former being near what is now Milford Center, and organized in the latter part of 1807 or early in 1808. Rev. Samuel Woods, was the first pastor, from whose tombstone is taken the following: " Rev. Samuel Woods, first pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Upper and Lower Liberty, was installed pastor in this church June 15, 1808, and died April 27, 1815, in the thirty-sixth year of his age." Mr. Woods was born in Cum- berland County, Penn., January 15, 1779, aud was a graduate of Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Penn.

The first house of worship erected by a religious society in Union County was built by the Presbyterians of Upper Liberty, in 1809. It stood on the line dividing the farms of Rev. S. Woods and Elder Samuel Reed, between the road and the old graveyard. "It was a plain, primitive building of hewn logs, twenty-four feet square. All the materials and mechanical labor were supplied by the membership. It was not necessary to consult an architect and get up plans and specifications and give out the contract to the lowest respon- sible bidder. and then, when dedication day came, report a few thousand as a debt to be removed before the Lord could get the building. But this primi- tive church edifice was for many years without the means of heating; the people, therefore, met during the winter in schoolhouses and private dwell- . ings. It was also very plain internally: slabs with rude legs were used for seats. Tradition has it that two or three families in process of time became so aristocratic as to construct backs to their pews, thus showing that at a very early day invidious distinctions will intrude themselves upon a church." An addition of eighteen feet was made to one side of the old church about 1822- 23, and the building was used until 1834, when a brick structure was erected at Milford Center, and the congregation removed there. The old house stood a mile and a half east of the village, on the north side of Darby Creek.

A STRANGE RELIGIOUS SECT.

Nelson Cone, of Jerome Township, and an old settler of Union County, furnishes the following article under the above head. It was read at the annual meeting of the Union County Pioneers, September 27, 1SS2:

" Early in the winter of 1816-17. a band of fanatics, calling themselves 'Wandering Pilgrims,' came from the East, crossing Darby at Georgesville. At this point, being undecided which course to take, their leader, who was

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styled the Prophet, settled the matter by placing his staff at the forks of the road and allowing it to drop. It fell along the road leading up stream, which they then followed to a village on Treacle's Creek. in Union Township, called Ricetown. Here they remained three or four weeks, practicing and preach- ing their peculiar religious rites and doctrines. They were a motley set- men, women and children-numbering in all from thirty-six to forty persons. The men were unshaven and all were uncombed and unwashed, it being a part of their religion to wash neither garment nor person. Each person, old and young, wore over the back a piece of coarse canvas, representing sack- cloth. A more squalid, filthy-looking set of beings could scarcely be imagined. It was their habit to pass from place to place, begging meal and milk and lodgings wherever night happened to overtake them. Their religion taught them to use neither knife, fork, spoon nor plate, and they were forbidden to touch the lip to cup or vessel out of which a 'Gentile' had ever drank. In preparing food, the meal was first cooked in a large vessel, which was then placed in the center of the room and mixed freely with milk, making a dish which they called . hasty puddin'.' The company then threw themselves on the floor about the vessel, reclining in imitation of the apostles, and fed them- selves with the right hand. Meantime the Prophet walked around the group, jabbering an exorcism in what they called an unknown tongue. I remember very distinctly the words, 'yaw, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, repeated over again and again The devil by this was supposed to be forbidden the sacred circle. Now and then, when meat happened to form part of their repast. the old Prophet's exorcism would be interspersed with rapid admonitions, . Don't eat up all the meat; I don't care nothin' about the puddin'.' Never washing, their hands were of course black with dirt, except the fingers of the right hand to the knuckle joints, which were kept by the process of eating singularly white and clean. To save themselves from pollution in drinking, they each carried a quill, or wooden tube, with which to suck water from a vessel. In their devotion, they would, all of them, utter in concert meaningless jabber, each in the natural tone of voice, exclaiming, 'My God. my God, my God. my God.' several times repeated. following and closing with, 'Bah, ba, bah, ba, bah. ba, ba.' From wbence they came or where they went, no one seemed to know. Report had it that the Prophet, in trying to walk the waters of the Little Miami soon after, was drowned. It was said that the wily old pretender had fixed a plank walk just under the surface of the water, on which he had made frequent exhibitions of his miraculous powers. One night some one removed one of the planks, and a rain having roiled the water, the Prophet went head- long into the gap and was drowned."

SCHOOLS.

It was several years after the first settlements were made in the county before attention was turned to educational matters. The people had been too busily engaged in preparing their homes and clearing the ground for cultiva tion. As soon, however, as circumstances would admit, instructors of the youthful mind found employment, and the simple log-cabin in which the school was kept sent smoke from its chimney curling upward through the trees of the forest. The dwellings of the inhabitants were often temporarily used as schoolhouses, and the pedagogue who found himself placed in charge of a troop of backwoods youngsters was welcomed by their parents as a valu- able addition to their little community. He enjoyed all the pleasures of "boarding around," and partook of the homely fare set before him with as keen a relish as any of his entertainers. When a schoolhouse was built, it was of a simple sort so often described -- a "rude log structure," with a great

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HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

chimney and a wide fire-place, an opening cut in the logs for a window and stopped with greased paper, which admitted a softened light, slab benches standing on wooden pegs, a slab desk running around the sides of the room and resting on wooden pins placed in holes bored in the logs. The books used were few and made to do long service: arithmetic was thoroughly knowu to the more advanced scholars as far as the "single rule of three." or perhaps beyond that. after the "master" had taught them about as far as lie knew, and then they were ready to "quit school." Reading and writing were taught in all schools, and these three forined nearly the sum total of the branches which it was deemed necessary for the pupils to understand. A little later, geography, grammar and other studies were introduced, and step by step, as the times demanded, the schools developed until finally the magnificent system now in use was adopted, and even that has been greatly improved since its intro- duction.

The first school in Union County was taught in 1812 or 1813, in Darby Township, in a private dwelling near the Mitchell Graveyard, by Alexander Robinson. Abner Chapman taught a school near Plain City, in 1513; this was attended by members of James Robinson's family, from Darby Township. In 1814, a school was taught in a log schoolhouse which stood near the resi- (lence of Thomas Robinson, also in Darby Township. Henrietta Millington first presided over this school. As the settlements progressed, schools were organized and schoolhouses erected in various parts of the county, and ex- cellent educational facilities have been enjoyed for many years. County Auditor W. L. Curry, in his last annual report upon the schools, thus writes: "In submitting this annual report, I am happy to say that the year has not been without its good results in the schools of this county. Several new and beautiful schooolhouses have been erected during the year. and they are the best exponents of the interest taken by the people in the education of their children; and as a general rule the people who have the enterprise to erect good school buildings employ the best teachers and have the best schools, and the good influence exerted over pupils by having neat, well-arranged schoolhouses and beautiful grounds surrounding cannot be overestimated- to which all good instructors can give ready testimony. Our country school- houses are not as well equipped for the work of teaching with a supply of apparatus, such as maps, charts and globes, as they should be, but there is a gradual improvement in that direction. It has been the aim of our Board of Examiners for the last few years to raise the standard of teachers' qualifica- tions, and I am glad to report that their efforts in that direction have not been entirely futile, for it is now scarcely possible for an incompetent teacher to procure a certificate even of the lowest grade, and they are zealously sustained in their course by the best teachers and intelligence of the county.

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The History of Union County, Ohio, containing a history of the county; its townships, towns military record;, Part 31

Author: Durant, Pliny A. [from old catalog]; Beers, W. H., & co., Chicago, pub. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago, W. H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1254

Author: Durant, Pliny A. [from old catalog]; Beers, W. H., & co., Chicago, pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, W. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1254