USA > Ohio > The Western Reserve and early Ohio > Part 5
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iron-wood hook was in the reach of all. Some cabins, and later, all, were fitted with the iron trammel and hooks, on which to hang the iron kettle or mush pot. In some families one iron kettle served alike for brew- ing the mint tea, crust, corn-meal, or acorn coffee for frying the meat, boiling the potatoes, or even in which to bake the corn break or Johnny-cake. The capacious fire-places would take a log of almost any thickness and from six to ten feet in length. The front and back logs were placed on the andirons; the front log always being the largest in diameter, and of some tough, slow burning wood. Between the back and front log was heaped smaller and quicker burning wood. In winter time, if the room was large, there was always danger of freezing on one side, while you roasted upon the other. Over the chimney was set a pair of deer-antlers, on which hung the goodman's rifle, powder-horn and bullet pouch. Sometimes the rifle rested on wooden pins driven in an overhead joist. From the joists hung bunches of dried herbs, little bags of dried fruits, pumpkin, sacks of nuts, slabs of bacon, jerked venison, or smoked hams and bunches of dipped candles. Did the reader ever dip candles ? Candle wicking twice the length of the candle is hung across a small round stick very close together. A kettle of melted tallow being ready, these strings of wicking were dipped therein. These strings dry almost immediately upon being tak- en out, leaving a thin coating of tallow around the wicks ; this process is repeated until the candles are of the required thickness. The writer has dipped as many as a hundred dozen of candles in a single evening. The spinning and carding wheels, the flax hutchell and the
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quilting frames, when not in use, were found in one corner of the room.
The soap of the pioneer had to be made by himself or family . The wood ashes were leached, the lye ob- tained was boiled with refuse fat in large iron kettles until the soap was of the proper consistency.
The "soap-boilings", the "hog-killings", the "log- rollings", the "wood-choppings" and "quiltings" and a little later on, the "corn-huskings" and "parin' bees" were red letter days to the young people. Days full of excitement, of jolity and good fellowship, of feasting and merriment. Among these amusements, consisting half of hard work and half of play, must not be omitted the cabin-raisings. Men and boys would cheerfully walk from ten to twenty miles to attend a cabin rais- ing, returning often after night, through the woods with their lighted torches of pine knots or hickory bark. There were no "masses or classes" in those days, the rich and poor dressed alike, and were on an equality. The clothing of the men consisted of the homespun, or deerskin hunting frocks, and pants made of buckskin. The women attired alike in homespun of their own manufacture.
The early settlers of the Reserve were a rough, hardy intelligent set; they believed in a God, in good order and education. They were always ready to start a church or a school, and to help each other on any and every occasion. Books were scarce, but the Western Reserve boy did not think himself a man until he had at least mastered "the three R's". The early Reserve teacher was usually from the best blood and talent of the New England states ; they were far, very far above
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the average in ability, and many of them rose to state or national renown, and in later years we find many of our wisest lawyers and statesmen laying their heads together, calling up old reminiscences of "keeping school and boardin' round", and talk of the warm chim- ney corners, of the suppers of mush and milk, or Johnny-cake and jerked venison ; of the settlers robust, rosy daughter, toward whom they cast "sheep's eyes", of the old fashioned spelling school and the walk home with the girls; of the country singing schools and of the jealous swain in the gay wamus, of the first love that only survived one school term; of the long win- ter's night in cabins, lit by only the fitful glare of the burning fire; of the nightly feasts of hickory, hazel, butter and walnuts, of doughnuts and cider, of fun and frolic, of hunting tales, and of those more fierce and pathetic, the stories of border Indian warfare.
In some localities log rollings were of common oc- curence, every settler having one or more each year. Settlers came for miles around. Oxen and axes, hand- spikes and muscle were in demand. The logs were cut, hauled and heaped into great towering pyramids. The boys and girls piled the brush, started the fires, and danced around the burning piles, as much play as work, and as much work as play, but all with joyous hearts and willing hands.
Later on came the stump pullings and the stone picking, the burying of hardhead boulders. If the writer only had a penny for each backache caused by this kind of work, he would have a great many pennies.
Then there were the "wood choppings" and "quilt- ing bees", where everybody, old and young, would go;
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the men with their axes and teams, the women with their "good things" for dinner or supper, and also with their needles and large motherly hearts. Some old lady, or widow or lone woman or superannuated couple would get wood enough to last them all winter, and qulits and warm things enough to keep the cold and frost out of doors where they belonged. Those were the good old days, the days in which people did not live for themselves alone, but for their neighbors; the days when people did not preach "Love thy neighbor as thy- self" but they did more, they practiced it, lovingly, kindly, but earnestly and effectively.
The religion of the Reserve pioneer was varied, coming as they did almost entirely from New York and the New England States, their religious con- victions were inherited and ingrained. The blood of the Puritan and the Pilgrim was nothing, if not God- fearing, and labor-loving. Transplanted to the solemn silences of this forest border land, all the mysticism in their nature came to the surface. If a man or a woman is inclined to worship God, he or she will do it in a heavy forest land, it is a compulsion, an absolute neces- sity . God in the man cries aloud for utterance and will not be denied. "These people had all the warmth and fire in their souls of which to make active Christians. At their camp-meetings in the beautiful wildwood, with their frank, honest, unstudied manners, their native intelligence and their cordial winsome ways, re- ligion was attractive and lovely, and they could not help being zealous workers."
"One poor woman in giving her experience, years afterward, unconsciously drew an exquisite picture for
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the pencil of the beauty-loving artist. She said she was working near the roadside, poorly clad, when the sound of singing came to her ear-sweet singing of men's and women's voices mingling together. It came nearer, and her surprise increased, when, in glimpses among the trees, she saw a procession on horseback. Abashed she hid herself behind a tree and peeped around. It was a company of men and women return- ing home to the Southern part of the county from a great Methodist camp-meeting that had been held at the springs. The class-leader and his wife rode fore- most; her bonnet hung by the ribbons down her back, her light brown hair lay in loose curls on her shoulders. Her face was lighted up beautifully, it seemed the glor- ified face of an angel; all their faces glowed with a joy such as she had never known in her life and as they rode, some horses carrying double, in and out among the low-hanging branches, their voices blended in har- mony and sweetness as they sang that old hymn:
"What is it that casts you down, What is this that grieves you ? Speak and let the worst be known, Speaking may relieve you."
General Brinkerhoff has said: "The settlement of Ohio was a mighty work and those who did it were men of iron nerve, of undaunted courage and persistent force."
"God Almighty has so arranged and constituted the nature of things that nothing great or good, or strong in matter or mind, comes to the earth except it comes thru storm. It is the law, and the struggle un- der it, which has made Ohio, of all the states of the
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Union, foremost in war and foremost in the councils of the nation."
The pioneers of Ohio, for the most part, were God- fearing, Christ-loving, serious-minded men; their cour- age was a Christian courage, rooted and grounded in the hope of a life that lies beyond. Wherever they went, churches went with them; and, wherever log cabins were gathered, there also was the meeting house and the school house."
The census of 1890 showed that Ohio had more church buildings than any other state in the Union. A people who remember God must of a necessity be a great people.
In closing his stories of Ohio, Wm. Dean Howell says: "I am willing to leave the reader with the im- pression that the people of Ohio are that sort of ideal- ists who have the courage of their dreams. By this courage they have made the best of them come true, and it is well for them in their mainly matter-of-fact and practical character that they show themselves at times enthusiast and even fanatics. It is not ill for them that they should now and then have been mis- taken. This has helped to keep them modest in the midst of their prosperity, and their eminence in saving and governing the union of the states. Such as they are, they seem to me, as a whole, the first of the Americans."
Hogs and sheep were the most prized animals a settler could keep. Pork filled the larder and made a most savory change from the dry wild meats that the forest furnished. The wool of the sheep made his warmest and finest clothing and kept the spinning
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wheel of the house-wife singing all the winter through. But as dearly as these were prized, yet the bear and the wolf loved them still more.
Hogs were always marked by bears for their prey. Bruin dearly loved pork, and would take any risk to obtain a savory meal of hog-meat. They would enter a pig-stye close to a cabin, in broad daylight, and if not prevented, carry off the inmates of the stye.
Pork was not only a much relished change for the pioneer, but its fat furnished him lard for the house- hold and its skin made him sole-leather, while the ani- mal itself was a protection for him and his family against venomous snakes. The hog dearly loved rattle- snakes and was its most deadly enemy. These animals would spend hours to secure a rattler, and as soon as killed, eat him. While the bite of the rattler was death to all other animals, it did not seem to affect the hogs in the least.
Wolves were only troublesome and somewhat dan- gerous when the settlements were few and far between. Their especial delicacy was sheep, or when they could not get them, young pigs; often killing them in pref- erence to the older hogs. At first it was almost impos- sible to keep either hogs or sheep, although both were almost indispensable to the pioneer who had to procure his own provisions, and manufacture his own clothing. The settlers kept as many males among his stock as possible, as these usually defended the younger and weaker animals. An old boar with his long tusks was no mean antagonist as many found out to their cost. Even then constant watchfulness, day and night, was necessary to preserve them from the bears and wolves.
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A bear-proof and a wolf-proof pen was absolutely neces- sary for their preservation during the hours of dark- ness.
Once upon a time while a settler was hauling in hay a wolf chased a pig from among the drove in the woods, pursuing it into the meadow where the men were at work. The wolf in this race was closely follow- ed by the drove of hogs, including several old males. So closely was his wolfship pressed, that he was com- pelled to mount a hay-cock to save himself. In this position he was surrounded by the infuriated swine. Suddenly one of the larger hogs rushed upon the heap of hay, upsetting it, and dislodging the wolf, which was seized as soon as he struck ground and literally torn to pieces. This was, however, of rare occurence, but hogs running in the woods hunting nuts and tender roots, which had escaped from the settlements and become wild, were always very ferocious, and have been known to attack persons. Luckily, though, this was rare.
There was a class of men, not settlers, who were found occupying lonely cabins, and in some cases, caves, in many of the townships when the first settlers actual- ly came. How long they had been there, it was impos- sible to find out. In one of these new townships seven of these squatters were so found. They made no im- provements but lived by hunting and trapping. "These were wild-harum-scarum fellows who cared more for hunting wild animals and bees, fishing and trapping, than for tilling the soil." As soon as it became too crowded for these early adventurers they would move on to a newer locality where neighbors did not exist. Not all these strange characters were hunters, neither
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did they consist altogether of the rough diamonds of the borderland. A number of cases has come under the writer's notice in which these forerunners of a rude civilization were men of education and refinement, of great mental ability and culture, some of them having filled no mean positions in the haunts of civilization. One was a talented and successful minister, a graduate of Yale, a forceful speaker and a man of power. One was a French trader, who had lost his stock in trade; an- other was a medical practitioner whose powers of heal- ing were reputed to be miraculous. Another was a graduate of Yale, who left that institution at the head of his class. Still another had been a commander of a foreign army. Two were rich and hid their money in fence posts and hollow forest trees. All had tried to lose their identity, and memory of other days, in the unbroken wilderness of the Ohio country, where man was least and God was most.
In the days of an early winter two of these strange characters came upon the track of a bear. A light snow had fallen the previous night, and the tracks were easily followed until they stopped at the foot of a hol- low tree standing on the edge of a swamp. Bruin holed, active preparatoins were at once made to dislodge him from his winter quarters. Two sturdy pairs of arms were soon swinging that great civilizer of Ohio's for- est-the ax. Merrily rang the ax's stroke and the chips fell to right and left. When the tree was about half cut down, and quite unexpectedly to the men, the bear made his unannounced appearance among the dogs and men, then ran away along the edge of the swamp. With great hue and cry they were after him
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immediately. The dogs being 'more nimble on their feet than the human bipeds, soon overtook bruin. Tige and Jowler presented their compliments in the front, while Trip and Penny attacked the enemy's rear. The hunters were soon on hand but in the excitement of the chase had left their guns behind. The bear was giving the dogs a lesson in boxing, and sundry yelps and kiyis bore evidence to his proficiency in that ancient art. The men with the exception of an axe and tomahawk were unarmed . In this dilemma it was proposed to use the axe as an offensive weapon, but upon trial, it was found that they were in more danger of killing the dogs than the bear. The bear dropped down on all fours and commenced another retreat; one of the men then seized it by the rump and gave it three deep cuts with his tomahawk. The bear compelled him to release his hold and made a masterly retreat. The men then returned on their trail, secured their guns, followed the bear's deveous tracks some two miles further, cornered and shot him.
Deer was hunted frequently in the night time by "shining", when they had come down to the streams to drink. A canoe being provided, the hunter would place a bright light in the bow, and silently drop down the stream. Should a deer be near, he would stand quietly a few moments and watch the approaching light. The hunter in the stern of the canoe could see his two eyes shining out of the darkness. Now was the time, and aiming between the two eyes, rapidly fired. An expert "Shiner" frequently brought in six or eight deer as an evening's work.
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One November night an Indian named "Greasy" concluded he would try "shinning" on a stream that rises in the southern part of the Reserve. Placing fire in one end of his bark canoe and seating himself in the other, gun in hand, he dropped quietly down the stream. The fire lighted up either bank. After going a half mile the hunter saw in the bushes two bright eyes gaz- ing at his beacon light. When he fired the eyes dis- appeared, but a wounded deer struck the water so near the canoe as to upset it, putting out the light and leav- ing "Greasy" to exercise his swimming powers in the ice-cold waters. He soon came up and swam ashore through the darkness and chill of a cold winter's night. Shivering and half frozen he came back to camp minus canoe, gun, deer and temper.
Snakes were the terror of the women, and the pest of the men in the pioneer times. So plenty were rattle- snakes that they threatened the lives of all. The orig- inal surveyors of the Western Reserve used to kill them, roast them over their fires at night, and eat them when short of provisions. It was one of these survey- ors that gave the common yellow rattlesnake its scien- tific name, which it bears today. General snake hunts were organized quite frequently by the settlers in order to kill off these pests. Considering the number of these reptiles it is remarkable that the loss of life was no greater. They many times were found in the cabin, and sometimes in the bed.
An old Indian named Cornstalk came to a settler's cabin one night, and taking a seat appeared to be very downcast and glum. Upon being questioned as to the cause he said :
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"Injin tired. Injin hunt all day on hill for bear." "Did you kill any ?" was asked.
"Me no kill any deer. Too shy! Me hunt for bear. Me hunt but no kill bear. Injin hungry! Injin tired." After a short pause he continued.
"Injin bad scared today."
"What scared you ?" was asked.
"Me look in rocks for bear sign. Ugh! Snake big! Me turn around, ugh! Snake there, too; me look on this side, on that side; snake here, snake there, snake all around. Ugh! Injin scared. Injin fast."
The settler afterwards looked up the locality and succeeded in killing hundreds of rattlers. It was sit- uated in a deep, rocky ravine, and to this day it bears the name of "Snake Den."
The squealing of a pig was usually the settler's notice that a "ba'r" was around.
One afternoon while a pioneer and his son were digging potatoes they heard the squealing of a pig. Being very busy, they paid no attention to it at the time. A second time the pig was heard to squeal in the high nettles behind the house. The pioneer started for his gun; it was empty, he had but one bullet and that had the neck on. The gun was loaded and he start- ed for the sounds of distress, when his son told him that he saw a man with a black coat on carrying off a hog. He soon discovered the bear, but the bear had discovered him first, and was ready for him. The hog was lying upon the ground, and bruin was standing on him in an upright position. The pioneer took careful aim and fired, the bear dropped and the pioneer cut his throat with a knife. The hog was in bad shape, the
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bear had eaten the flesh along the spine from shoulder to hips. The wound was dressed with tar, and strange to say, the hog recovered and afterwards raised a litter of pigs. The bear measured seven feet.
In those strenuous days of old-time, women had need to be as good rifle shots as their husbands, but the majority could no more fire a rifle accurately than the women of today can throw a stone. Yet it was oftimes imperative for a woman to be able to fire a gun, either in defense of her life and those of her children, or to obtain food when the husband and father was absent from home. Food by no means plenty at any time, was sometimes utterly lacking in the unavoidable absence of the head of the family.
Mr. Garber relates a story of Mrs. Leedy. The woman's husband was absent from home, "and about noon the old pig announced the usual alarm. Mrs. Leedy seized the rifle and her eldest son Lewis, the ax, and at once marched to the field of battle, a few hun- dred yards from the cabin. The old dog, "Sign", ac- companied them and when within a few rods of the spot, her restraint gave way to her eagerness for fight, and she bounded at the bear. Bruin left without cere- mony, with "Old Sign" at his side. Mrs. Leedy brought the old flint-lock in line and sent a bullet after him. But she was not familiar with shooting "on the wing", and the race went on. A few days after, the pig gave alarm again, and this time Mr. Leedy took down the gun, and when he arrived near the fight, the bear stood upright on the pig and eyed his enemy some time, ap- parently in a study whether to contest the ownership of the pig or not. He swung his paws back and forth
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a few times but said never a word. Mr. Leedy knew the enemy, he had seen him before. He was the same "ole bar" a chief among the bears. The gun was fired ; the bear leaped into the air, fell on his prey, howling, sprang forward towards his assailant, and after hesi- tating a moment, moved off."
"It was followed but darkness ended the chase. The bear was wounded near the heart and bled freely, yet lived. The next fall or winter he came in contact with another settler. After receiving two bullets from the hunter's rifle, he invited him to a rough and tumble fight, which equaled some of Davy Crockett's best. Seven-some say-eleven balls were taken from his carcass, a number of which was returned to their owners. Mr. Leedy received the ball he shot."
The rifles of those days were of different bores, not carrying balls of the same size. They ranged all the way from a Queen Anne arm carrying an ounce ball, to the light squirrel riffe taking a "thirty two." Every setler knew the size of the bore of his neighbor's rifle, and in finding a bullet in the carcass of game not belonging to them, they could usually tell from whose rifle it came.
Women in those days were frequently attacked by wolves, but casualties were were fortunately few. Mr. Garber is the authority for the following: Rachel Gat- ton went to Mansfield one time with a web of linen, to trade for kitchen utensils . She went on horseback and alone, her steed being a rapid traveler. After trans- acting her business, she started for home and when about half-way she discovered that a pack of wolves were pursuing her. She made the best of her time, but
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the ravenous creatures came up with her finally. The brutes jumped at the horse and bit him in the side, which made him kick, plunge and stamp, but he kept faithfully on his course and his rider clung to his back for life. They in time arrived at the cabin." The ter- ror-stricken girl was lifted from her horse while the wolves were driven away.
These are only a few of the trials which the pion- eers of Ohio were called upon to face and endure, but these old times have passed away, their actors have laid down the armor of life, their forms are but mould- ering dust. The rampant and aggressive civilization of the twentieth century has taken their places; the soil on which they fought and starved and endured is dotted with teeming cities and the rush and hurry of count- less feet, yet their deeds live. We are what we are to- day, because they were what they were in the dim, misty days of tradition.
Let us do honor to the brave souls whom no dan- ger could appal, no disaster turn aside, no conditions make afraid. Fighting death in many forms, fearless- ly braving the terrible storms of a forest country, the dangers of flood and fire, fighting the wild beasts in their most secret lairs, or the wild men of the wilder- ness in their own native fastness or enduring the pangs of want, and hunger, and starvation without a murmur. Taming the denizens of an unknown and mystery brooding country, subduing the wilderness, preparing the virgin soil, never broken, for the seeds of a better life, leveling the mighty monarchs of a primeval world, that the sun of Heaven could shine in on the accumu- lated mold of centuries, teeming with richness that in
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the future was to bring forth food for the tillers of the wornout and overtaxed lands of Europe, and finally to make the savage desert bud and blossom and bear fruitage for unknown and unborn generations of men yet to come. They kept their faith bright and through all these privations and dangers they were destined to build up a people whose cleverness and conscience, skill and intelligence, qualities of both heart and mind, were in the near future, to not only be the saviors of their own country or Nation in times of appalling National peril, but was yet to exercise a controlling influence up- on the hearts and consciences of the worn-out dynasties of all European and Asiatic countries in the world.
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