Twentieth Century History of Youngstown and Mahoning County Ohio and Representative Citizens, Part 12

Author: Sanderson, Thomas W
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 993

USA > Ohio > Mahoning County > Youngstown > Twentieth Century History of Youngstown and Mahoning County Ohio and Representative Citizens > Part 12

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).

Captain J. C. Hartzell, a prominent citizen of Sebring, who has at different times con- tributed much interesting pioneer information to local journals, describes in a recent article, the days "when our good old mothers told time by a noon mark, and made not only their own soap, but most other useful and needful things in housekeeping. They baked their own bread in a clay or brick or stone out-oven, and lighted the home with a lard lamp or cruisie, a strip of canton flannel, or a bit of candle wick in the melted lard or candle, dipped, and later along moulded them in tin moulds.

"Then they made their own sugar, and plenty of it; made their own clothes from wool off the sheep's back to the woven web, the warm and durable linsey-woolsey dress, or from the flax patch to the linen coat, gown, or towel; doctored their own or neighbors' fam- ilies with medicines of their own garnering from gardens, field, and forest. * * * Each old pioneer opening in the virgin forest would have a most interesting story to tell of the be- ginning of civilized home life, if there were only some ready writer to set it down in good black print, while there are yet a few, a very

few, of the living witnesses of the labor in that struggle with the wilderness."

A PRIMITIVE MILL.

The Captain thus describesa primitivehand" mill: "I am reminded of an old hand mill, the stones of which are buried in the earth, and form part of the foot-walk from the front door- of the old Snode home to the little entrance gate into the yard. They are about two feet in diameter, and furrowed faces tell truthfully that this low estate in which we find them to- day was not the intent of the original designers. Our good mother Snode says they were brought along with the family pioneer wagon from New Jersey, when they came to this- neighborhood. The old parchment deed for the home farm, signed, I think, by James Madison, President, is still in their possession. Mother Snode is ninety years old (1907), and has. spent nearly her entire life near where she now resides.

"The mill, of which the stone above men- tioned formed a part, was most likely the first grain-grinding machine in the settlement. The stones are perhaps two and a half or three inches thick. The upper stone, or runner, has- an oblong eye in the center, and hole or socket not far from the outer edge, a stout stick reach- ing from the socket to a fixed timber above, with a like socket directly over the center of the stones all loosely fitted, composed the mill. The grinding, or power, was after the Arm- strong patent. The family used it and it was. free to the neighbors, and the toll executed by the proprietor was good neighborship. Mrs .. Snode says that she has often ground grain upon it, and eaten corn cakes and mush, and all the good things that came from the king of grain. Then in her home you will find an old sun dial, which, with the aid of the com- pass made the noon mark nearly accurate. Here are also the cards that prepared the wool for the spinning wheel. the big wheel, the little wheel, and the reel, sickles for cutting grain, an old platter with the date of 1702, an old"

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shackle, such as were used in slavery days, and the same as you may see any day when con- victs are employed on public works. Except the shackle, the implements could have been duplicated in almost any pioneer homestead.

OLD-TIME THRESINING.

"In separating the grain from the straw, the flail was the primitive implement, but quite as commonly the grain was thrown upon the great threshing floor, and two teams of horses put upon it, and round and round they walked, and on a cold snappy day the work was ac- complished with less labor, though by no means a light job. Flax was pulled just before the ripening point, tied in small bundles and again thinly and evenly spread ujem the green meadow and turned until the windly stalk was rotted : then it was broken, seutelted. hatchieled, and prepared for the spinning wheel. * *

* 'Tis a long jog forward from the little hand- mill (above-mentioned), which might have re- duced from one to two bushels of grain to fine meal in a day, to the Pillsbury mills with their daily output of 35,000 barrels of flour.

"Old things are passing away. Very few . boundaries and States, Init otherwise the okl

are now here who have lived in these primitive tintes and seen the wild deer seudding through the native forest on the very site of our thriv. ing town, with its great stacks belching forth clouds of Black smoke that hide the noonday sun, Int tell of a busy human hive underneath.

BOUNTY ON WOLF SCALPS.

grandfather of our Aber on the hill, invaded U'ncle Jake's wolf preserve, and, not regarding family ties or maternal affection, killed both the mother and her children, and so destroyed Uncle's infant industry, very much to his ‹lisgust.

OLDEN SCHOOL DAYS.

"In his old wagon house I attended a geo- graphy school in the winter evenings. The itineraut teacher had a set of Pelton's outline maps, and the class, when the term was over, certainly had a good understanding of the physical earth, oceans. gulis, bays, lakes, rivers. iulets, countries, population, chief cities. States and their capitals, boundaries, etc., etc., and all of this set to a song. Each pupil, as the lesson went on, took a turn at the maps with a pointer, somewhat resembling a billiard cue, and pointed to each place and gave answer as to the length of the river, or height of a volcano, or other mountain, etc., as requested by the teacher. That was a good school, and the knowledge we gained in that old wagon house has stood us in good stead all along the journey of life. Some changes have been made in world is about the same as we left it when we qui U'nele Jake's wagon shed."

The Captain, who refers to himself in the article so extensively quoted. as "a link between the old and the new," came upon the scene after the roughest and most primitive conditions of pioneer life had been supplanted, to some ex- tent at least, by the comforts and conveniences of a more cultivated society. The world as he knew it "was a pretty comfortable world, and the men who made it so were, many of them, still in the vigor of mature manhood, but many vi the primitive habits and customs, either of

"My Uncle Jake, father of the elder Mrs. Diver of Beloit, used to tell me the tales of the long ago, when wild game was plentiful. He said wolves were such a scourge that the State offered a bounty of $5 each for wolf ! choice or necessity, still clung to the old homes scalps. His people lived then sonth of Damas- i for a long time, and ve scribe might write on cus, and he knew the lair of wolves near by: and on to tell of our school life. spelling schools, and the okl literaries on the hill. the oll fulling, grist, and sawmills:" religion, also. "for we had the gospel preached to us, and none of your snippet, two-for-five serious, but giaMl, two-hour. all-wool-and-yard-wide ser- year after year, as the pups came on, he would capture and scalp them. I believe he said scalps were receivable for taxes, and he felt safe for his tax money as long as his wolves were not waylaid in this, to him. useful em- ployment : but after a time Abner Woolman, i mons."

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VIEW OF ENTRANCE TO CALVARY CEMETERY, YOUNGSTOWN

SCENE IN MILL CREEK PARK, YOUNGSTOWN

VIEW OF ENTRANCE TO OAK HILL CEMETERY, YOUNGSTOWN

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"Every tinkle on the shingles Wakes an echo in the heart, And a thousand dreamy fancies Imo batsy being start. And a thousand recollections Weave their bright hues into woof As I listen to the tinkte Of the rain upon the roof."

Dr. Manning, who settled in Youngstown in t&tt, said: "The qualifications for a school teacher in those days were few and moderate. If a man could read tolerably well, was a good writer, and coukl cipher as far as the rule of three, knew how to use the birch scientifically. and had firmness enough to exercise this skill, he would pass mnster."

EARLY YOUNGSTOWN CITIZENS.

Some further reminisceures of those times are found in a letter from Roswell M. Grant. uncle of the late President Grant, who, in writ- ing from Mayslick, Ky., September 7. 1874. in answer to an invitation to attend the reunion of old citizens and pioneers held at Youngs- town that year, said in part :

"My father soll his tan yard to Join E. Woodbridge, and moved to Maysville. Ky .. lewing Margaret and myself with Colonel Hillman, abont the year 1820. Colonel Hill- man about the same time sold his farm and movel over to town to keep a hotel. At that time the citizens were as follows: 1st, above Colonel Raven was J. E. Woodbridge: 2d, John F. Townsend, hatter : 3d. Colonel Wil- liam Raven. farmer : 4th, William Sherman. hatter: 5th. opposite. George Tod; 6th, Mr. Abraim, chair maker: 7th. Samuel Stuart. tavern ( Colonel Hillman bought Stuart ont ) : 8th, opposite, Dr. Dutton : 9th, Esq. Baldwin, farmer: 10th. Kilpatrick, blacksmith; 11th. Henry Wick, merchant: 12th, Hugh Bryson, merchant : 13th. Lawyer Hine: 14th, Mr. Bis- sell; 15th. Mr. Bruce, shoemaker: 16th. Rev. Mr. Duncan. The above are all the citizens there were in Youngstown from 1805 up to 1810.

"I well remember the Indians coming down the river in canoes, and camping in Colonel

Hillman's sugar camp, at the lower end of the farm, and upon the river bank. They would stay some days. Also, the old chici would come to see Colone Hillman to settle some dis- pute between them. They would bring some thirty or forty warriors with them. They would stop at the plum orchard at the upper end of the farm. These visits were often. 1 had forgotten to mention the names of Mr. Hogue, a tailor, and Moses Crawford, who lived below Judge Tod's, on the bank of the river. Crawford tended Colonel Hillman's mill. Bears, wolves, deer, and wild turkey were plenty. I went to school in the old Ing school- house eight years; to Master Noyes five years of the time. David Tod, Frank Thorne, and myself were leaders in all mischief; so said Master Noyes.

DRAFT OF 1812.

"In the War of 1812. the whole country was drafted, and rendezvousedin Youngstown. After they left, Captain Applegate, Lieutenant Bushnell, and Ensign Reeves enlisted one him- dred meu for one year. During the enlistment Captain Dillon's son, with an ebler fife, and myself with a drum, furnished the music. Colonel William Rayen commanded the regi- ment. Judge Tod had a Colonel's commission in the regular army. Colonel Hillman volin- teered, and after arriving at Sandusky. Gen- eral Harrison appointed him Wagon-Master General of the United States Army. John E. Woolbridge was paymaster. Mr. Hogue. Moses Crawford, Dr. Dutton, Henry Wick. Hugh Bryson, and Mr. Bruce, were all the men left in Youngstown during the war. I had for- grotten Mr. Thorne, a cabinet maker, who lived near the old school house

"Jesse R. Grant left Judge Toil's in 1810. Went to Maysville, Ky .. and finished his trade with my brother Peter. Went to Deerfield. O., als at the year 1815. Took charge of my father's old tam yard. Sold out and went to Ravenna. Carried on the business nntil 1821. He then went to Point Pleasant, forty miles below Maysville. Sunk a tan yard there. Same year he married Miss Hannah Simpson, where

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U. S. Grant was born April 27, 1822."

With the permission of Captain Hartzell, we also publish the following article, which, under the title, "Some Reminiscences of Ye Olden Time," appeared in the issue of The Sebring News, January 29th of the present year (1907) :

"Some time ago, as I was rambling through ·one of our big potteries, I noticed a vessel · containing soft soap. The same looked mighty familiar and I made inquiry, only to find that :soft soap was imported from England and finds its uses in all potteries.

HOMEMADE SOAP.

"When I was a boy, both soft and hard soap, in fact all soap, was made by the good 'house mothers. In our home I was the gen- eral roustabout, a very present help in time of need-if I could be found. The old Mahoning 'formed the north boundary of our farm and "its purling, laughing, hurrying waters, as they glide over on and on to join the brimming :river, chattering as they go, often beguiled me from duty's path and I often found congenial company with neighbor's boys, though if they were not present, the river was always inter- «esting. And why not, for when I was a boy, any boy or man could fish with hook and line, seine or gig; so that there were times when, mother being about to set in with her annual -soap-making, and wanting me to set up the ·ash-hopper and such like needful work, I had a foreboding of the coming siege and retired 'to the river for a rest, and vacation. But when the head of the house came home, there was always a settlement in which no com- promises were admitted and I paid up.

"In those days every home used wood for fuel and the big wide fire-places eat up a big lot of timber-good timber, too-and the ashes thus resulting during the entire year, were saved and safely garnered to the soap-making season. And when the time was ripe, always spring time, when grass greened and robins came back to their old haunts, then the old ash- hopper went into commission again, repairs. if needed, were made, and serious work began.

THE OLD ASH-HOPPER.

"The hopper itself was a crude affair, a thick wide slab four or five feet long from the sawmill nearby with a gutter dug in the center the whole length of the slab to catch the drip, furnished the bottom and the foundation. The hopper part was of very simple construction, made of any sort of boards cut in three and a half or four foot lengths, made wide at the top and narrow at the lower edge, the boards fitting into the groove of the slab bottom. And now we are ready for operation. First, the handy lad is sent to dig sassafras roots to put in the hopper for a starter, and after being lined on the inside with rye straw the ashes are filled in slowly, and tamped down solid until the hopper is filled. When all this is in order, water is poured on the top, perhaps a pail or two a day, and when the mass is well wet and the lye begins to drip from the groove to the vessel placed beneath for its holding, we may say the enterprise is well started.

"All the waste fat from the butchering and from the cooking, with the meat rinds sliced from the hams and bacon, having been hoarded, are now brought into use and are added to the kettle of lye as needed, the kettle is hung over a fire and the sequence of it all is soap, the same as our potters are bringing over from 'Merrie England' today.

SOAP SPOOKERY.

"There was a goodish bit of spookery about our soap-making of years agone and a common inquiry when neighbor women met was about the soap. Aunt Susan would say, 'Well, Mary has had good luck with her soap,' or mother would take her visitors out to see her soap. thrust in her long paddle to the bottom of the kettle and pry up the mass until it would bulge and crack and split into a thousand tumbling bits, and finally settle back into a solid, livery whole. Then they would say, 'You had good luck this time!'

A barrel or two of soap was made in this wav each year and when the soap gave out, one neighbor would send to the other for a pail of soap, borrow it. Hard soap was made by a

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little different handling. To me there was always a bit of mystery in the getting of good soap, but none at all about making and filling the hopper.

THE OLD ASHERY.

"As time passed on, my uncle, Nick Eckes, built an ashery on the side or slope of a hill near North Benton, on a farm now owned and occupied by Walter Miller, and after that my architectural genius, so often called out in the building of our home soap factory, was allowed a vacation in that direction, but continued to develop as we shall see further on.

"Uncle Nick, to my mind, was a wonder- ful man. His ashery had several great kettles set in arches where he boiled the lye after it had been leached through hundreds of bushels of ashes. The hoppers were permanent and set well above the boiling kettles, and there he made potaslı, pearlash, soap and the like, bar- reling up the two first named and wagoning

them to market in some far off place, most likely Pittsburg. He went from house to house with his great wagon and team and gathered the ashes for which he paid ten cents a bushel in trade. He had a high seat on his wagon and a good sized box on either end with secure lid and all fast to the seat. As he sat in the middle of the seat with his treasures on either side where he could lift the lid and take out vast quantities of all sorts of valuables, he was, to my mind, a man to excite a barefoot boy's ambition.

THE STAGE DRIVER.

"There was only one other man his superior in position, culture and training to whom we boys offered unstinted homage and admiration and that was the jolly stage driver, who blew his horn, cracked his long-lashed whip over his four-in-hand team and went sailing into town, where he delivered and took on mail, pas- sengers and such light merchandise as he could carrv.

"In a talk with Uncle John Schaeffer on this line, he very well remembered the same and

said when the mail was first started (I think the route was from Cleveland, then a strag- gling village of a few thousand inhabitants, to Steubenville, the land office of these parts), the road was new and not the best. There were two bad chuck holes, one on either side of his house and the stage driver told him that if he would fill them up he would give him a free ride in his coach to Salem and back. The offer seemed so generous that Uncle fulfilled his con- tract with pick and shovel and the stage driver was as good as his word.

"When the stage coach went flying by, my, oh my! The driver fairly scorned the earth and he certainly was a grand figure, so grand that none of us boys could ever hope to gain such a high position. When I was a boy, there were no railroads, telegraph, telephones and such like conveniences and yet we didn't seem to miss them and managed to get along fairly well.

THE FIRST SETTLEMENT.

"My forebears came from near Bethlehem, Pa., and settled about five miles north of Se- bring, near the time Ohio was admitted into the Union. The first settlement was made just north of the forty-first parallel and in what has long been known as the Connecticut or Western Reserve, and by an original charter for the colony, belonged to the State of Connecticut. Connecticut finally disposed of the same to the Connecticut Land Company, and by this land company to actual settlers.

"The reserve was mostly settled by down- East Yankees, a most intelligent, orderly and enterprising people. Our family formed a colony of Pennsylvania Germans, but good neigliborship always prevailed and the location was a happy one.

"The writer was born in the year in which Queen Victoria began her long reign in Eng- land, and the pioneers had passed through the hardships incident to hewing homes out of virgin forests, inhabited by wild game and roving bands of Indians, and had secured homes of great comfort. When I put in my appearance, the men and women who had borne

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the hardships of real pioneers, who had wielded the axe and the rifle, were still living, and I still have a most vivid memory of them and stories of the life they lived.

MATCHES UNKNOWN.

"Matches for lighting fires were not then known, or at least I have no recollection of them. The evening fires in the great fireplace before retiring. were banked. The manner of it was this way :

"The fireplace was furnished with heavy dog irons and against the back wall was placed a great log, preferably of green wood, Lighter wood was laid upon the dog irons and an iron crane was swing in the side of the wall. pro- vided with adjustable hooks to accommodate pots and kettles with any length of bail. The foresticks having been pretty well burned out in the evening, the brands were laid in the center and well covered with such cold ashes as had accumulated on the generous and al- ways hospitable hearth. In the mornings, all the first fellow up had to do was to stir up the heap. only to find that the triks had been turned into a fine heap of glowing coals and so we soon had a blazing, cheery-looking and very comfortable kitchen. Sometimes, how- ever, there were lapses and there were no glow- ing cuals in the heap. Maybe the brands were ton dry or the cover too thin-something any- ! way. Often your scribe has been ruthlessly, cruelly, dragged from his trondle bed when it seemed as if he had only begun to sleep and ; rest his tired luxly from the tuils of the previous day, and was sharply ordered to run quickly wer to either U'nele Billy's or Unele John's for fire, which was brought in a brand or a small torch of the ever-present hickory bark.

chinked walls and clapboard roofs, and the same often held in place by heavy poles and a bit of chimney laid mp in clay mortar, I never knew a fire to occur in my youth, cither of a house or a barn. while today, with our better houses and all the convenient knick knacks we have about us. the fire losses are appalling.

IF FIRES ALL WENT OUT?

"Well, 1 was often worried : suppose the fires in the neighborhood should all go out. what would we do then? So one day. I was telling my Uncle Jolm of my ghemmy fore- Innlings, and he went into his house and took down his ritle from the wooden hooks over the door, her abling place when not in use. She had a thunt lock. Every family had a little store of pink, and hunters carried it. Punk is a dry, white ingus and is found on decaying logs and timber and catches a spark, and if you have the fint and the steel yon are independent of these dangerous, modern, ready-made fire- brands, called matches. So Uncle John. gun in hand, placed a bit of punk in the pan of his rifle, pulled the trigger, and lo, in the wink of an eye, my fears were allayed ; no more fore- lunlings of disaster to disturb my mind in the bine of fire.

"We had a member of these old pioneer Inmiters in our neighborluunl and their prowess in the chase had supplied the pioneer families with meat and they always talked of their rifles nest affectionately and gave to them, in speak- ing. the feminine gender, The butts were often ornamented with inlaid silver. shell or bune devices, and the old powder horns were also decorated. Bullet pinches were real curios- ities.

"When I was a Ind. the larger game was mostly gone, but the world was full of gray and black squirrel, and both pheasant and quail were plenty. The old rifles were mostly out of commission and were not much need except at butchering time, or at an occasional shooting much on the river bottom. But these days pressed all too soon; the old hand-made fint

"Well, you youngsters say, that was tough, and not near so sleek and handy as to draw a match over hip, and zip, there you have it. But, now; just see here. The time- of which 1 write, an insurance company, either life or fire, was not known in our neighborhood. and although many. in fact. I beheve the most of our old neighbors lived in log houses with | and cap-locks gave way to the muzzle-loading

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cap-lock shot gun, sometimes single and often double-barreled, and then game began to thin out.

WILD PIGEONS : WHERE ARE THEY ?

"And, by the way, can any of my old time chums tell what ever became of the wild pi- geons? You remember, long ago, when seeding time came, and the mast, beech-nuts, acorns and black and red haws began to ripen and the frosts brought the nuts to the ground, how the wild pigeons came in covies by the thousands, and, after a day's gleaning in newly sown wheat fields or the wood lands, with crops filled with everything good-for pigeons-they would wing their way to the old Beaver swamp to spend the night ; and how the noise of their flighit was deafening-and so many, they ap- peared like a dark cloud: the noise of them when settling to roost, and how in the carly morn they started in every direction for another day's foraging, often in small parties, only to return in the evening to the same roost. 'Tivas a fine place, the swamp, when one wanted pigeons. The last pigeon potpie we had at our house, we had Twing Brooks and Barbe Black- burn for guests. We took small toll of the pigeons here, but they seemed to disappear, and in a season or two, were gone.

PIONEER MILLING ENTERPRISE.

"A small stream of water with its source somewhere near Squire Armstrong's home. made its way through the Beaver swamp and meandered through the fields, here and there, crossed the state road near Joseph Ladd's, lately deceased. I called there occasionally and he told me that he was the second to own and occupy the farm where he lived so long and died. I think he told me, Pleasant Cobbs entered or took the land from the government, and he bought the same of Cobbs, so he was the second from the wilderness.

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Twentieth Century History of Youngstown and Mahoning County Ohio and Representative Citizens, Part 12

Author: Sanderson, Thomas W Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 993

Author: Sanderson, Thomas W
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago, Ill., Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 993