USA > Pennsylvania > A pioneer outline history of northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 22
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In 1825 Charles C. Gaskill, who lived in Punxsutawney and was agent for the Holland Land Company, advertised one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land for sale, in lots to suit purchasers, and on the following terms,- viz .: All purchasing land for two dollars per acre must pay ten dollars down, the balance in eight annual payments, with interest on and after the third year. Those buying at one dollar and seventy-five cents per acre, one-fourth in hand, the balance in eight annual payments, with interest on and after third payment. Those paying one dollar and fifty cents per acre, one-half down, and the remainder in payments as above stated. All land was bought and sold on a simple article of agreement.
DRESS OF MEN
Moccasin shoes, buckskin breeches, blue broadcloth coats and brass but- tons, fawn-skin vests, roundabouts, and woollen warmuses, leather or woollen gallowses, coon- or seal-skin caps in winter with chip or oat-straw hats for summer. Every neighborhood had then usually one itinerant shoemaker and tailor, who periodically visited cabins and made up shoes or clothes as required. All material had to be furnished, and these itinerant mechanics worked for fifty cents a day and board. Corduroy pants and corduroy overalls were common.
The old pioneer in winter often wore a coon-skin cap, coon-skin gloves, buckskin breeches, leggins, and a wolf-skin hunting-shirt.
The warmuses, breeches, and hunting-shirts of the men, the linsey petti- coats, dresses, and bed-gowns of the women, were all hung in some corner of the cabin on wooden pegs. To some extent this was a display of pioneer wealth.
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
DRESS OF WOMEN
Home-made woollen cloth, tow, linen, linsey-woolsey, etc. I have seen " barefoot girls with cheek of tan" walk three or four miles to church, when, on nearing the church, they would step into the woods to put on a pair of shoes they carried with them. I could name some of these who are living to-day. A woman who could buy eight or ten yards of calico for a dress at a dollar a yard put on queenly airs. Every married woman of any refinement then wore day-caps and night-caps. The bonnets were beaver, gimp, leg- horn, and sun-bonnets. For shoes, women usually went barefoot in the summer, and in the winter covered their feet with moccasins, calf-skin shoes, buffalo overshoes, and shoe-packs.
Large spinning-wheel
Linen and tow cloth were made from flax. The seed was sown in the early spring and ripened about August. It was harvested by " pulling." This was generally done by a " pulling frolic" of young people pulling it out by the root. It was then tied in little sheaves and permitted to dry, hauled in, and thrashed for the seed. Then the straw was watered and rotted by laying it on the ground out of doors. Then the straw was again dried and " broken in the flax-break," after which it was again tied up in little bundles and then scutched with a wooden knife. This scutching was a frolic job too, and a dirty one. Then it was hackled. This hackling process separated the linen part from the tow. The rest of the process consisted of spinning, weaving, and dyeing. Linen cloth sold for about twenty-four cents a yard, tow cloth
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for about twenty cents a yard. Weaving originated with the Chinese. It took a thousand years for the art to reach Europe.
In the State Constitutional Convention of 1837 to amend the constitu- tion I find the occupation of the members elected to that body to be as follows, -viz .: Farmers, 51 ; iron-masters, 3; manufacturer, I ; mechanics, 2; house- carpenters, 2; brick-maker, I ; paper-maker, I ; printers, 2; potter, I ; judge, I; attorneys, 41 ; doctors, 12; editor, I ; merchants, 9; surveyors, 4; clerks, 4; total membership, 136. From this it will be seen that farmers received proper recognition in the earlier elections.
Flax-brake
THE PIONEER HOMES OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
" This is the land our fathers loved, The homestead which they toiled to win. This is the ground whereon they moved, And here are the graves they slumber in."
The home of the pioneer was a log cabin, one story high, chinked and daubed, having a fireplace in one end, with a chimney built of sticks and mud, and in one corner always stood a big wooden poker to turn back-logs or punch the fire. These cabins were usually small, but some were perhaps twenty by thirty feet, with a hole cut in two logs for a single window,-oiled paper being used for glass. For Brussels carpet they had puncheon floors, and a clapboard roof held down by weight poles to protect them from the storm. Wooden pegs were driven in the logs for the wardrobe, the rifle, and the powder-horn. Wooden benches and stools were a luxury upon which to rest or sit while feasting on mush and milk, buckwheat cakes, hog and hominy.
Hospitality in this log cabin was simple, hearty, and unbounded. Whis-
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key was pure, cheap, and plenty, and was lavished bountifully on each and all social occasions. Every settler had his jug or barrel. It was the drink of drinks at all merry-makings, grubbings, loggings, choppings, house-warm- ings, and weddings. A drink of whiskey was always proffered to the visitor or traveller who chanced to call or spend a night in these log cabins.
Puncheon boards or planks were made from a log of straight grain and clear of knots, and of the proper length, which was split into parts and the face of each part smoothed with a broadaxe. The split parts had to be all started at the same time, with wedges at the end of the log, each wedge being struck alternately with a maul until all the parts were separated.
The furniture for the table of the pioneer log cabins consisted of pewter dishes, plates, and spoons, or wooden bowls, plates, and noggins. If noggins were scarce, gourds and hard-shelled squashes answered for drinking-cups.
Spinning-wheel, reel, and bed-warmer
The iron pots, knives and forks, along with the salt and iron, were brought to the wilderness on pack-horses over Meade's trail or over the Milesburg and Le Bœuf State road.
Some of these log cabins near Brookville were still occupied in the forties. I have been in many of them in my childhood. In proof of the smallness of the early cabin I reproduce the testimony on oath of Thomas Lucas, Esq., in the following celebrated ejectment case,-viz. :
" EJECTMENT
" In the Court of Common Pleas of Jefferson County. Ejectment for sixteen hundred acres of land in Pine Creek township. Elijah Heath vs. Joshua Knap, et al.
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" 16th September, 1841, a jury was called per minets. The plaintiff after having opened his case in support of the issue, gave in evidence as follows : " Thomas Lucas .- Masons have in the surveys about twelve acres of land, a cabin house, and stable thereon. They live near the line of the town tract, the town tract takes in the apple-trees; think they claim on some improve- ment. Some of this improvement I think is thirty-five years old,-this was the Mason claim. The first improvement was made in 1802; I call it the Pickering survey, only an interference. Jacob Mason has been living off and on since 1802,-two small cabin houses on the interference, one fifteen or sixteen feet square, the other very small, twelve or fifteen feet,-a log stable."
At this time and before it many of these cabins were lighted by means of a half window,-viz .: one window-sash, containing from four to six panes of seven by nine glass. Up to and even at this date (1841) the usual light
Ox-yoke and tin lantern
at night in these cabins was the old iron lamp, something like the miner wears in his hat, or else a dish containing refuse grease, with a rag in it. Each smoked and gave a dismal light, yet women cooked, spun, and sewed, and men read the few books they had as best they could. The aroma from this refuse grease was simply horrible. The cabin was daily swept with a split broom made of hickory. The hinges and latches of these cabins were made of wood. The latch on the door was raised from without by means of a buckskin string. At night, as a means of safety, the string was "pulled in," and this locked the door. As a further mark of refinement each cabin was generally guarded by from two to six worthless dogs. Cabins, as a rule, were built one story and a half high, and the space between the loose floor and roof of the half-story was used as a sleeping room. I have many a time climbed up an outside ladder, fastened to and near the chimney, to a half- story in a cabin, and slept on a bed of straw on the floor.
15
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Of pests in and around the old cabin, the house-fly, the bed-bug, and the louse were the most common on the inside; the gnat, the wood-tick, and the horse-fly on the outside. The horse-fly is the most cruel and bloodthirsty of the entire family. He is armed with a most formidable weapon, which consists of four lancets, so sharp and strong that they will penetrate leather. He makes his appearance in June. The female is armed with six lancets, with which she bleeds both cattle and horses, and even human beings. It was a constant fight for life with man, cattle, and horses against the gnat, the tick, and the horse-fly, and if it had not been for the protection of what were called " gnat-fires," life could not have been sustained, or at least it would have been unendurable. The only thing to dispel these outside pests was to clear land and let in the sunshine. As an all-around pest in the cabin and out, day and night, there was the flea.
PIONEER FOOD-WHAT THE PIONEER COULD HAVE, OR DID HAVE, TO EAT
Buckwheat cakes, mush, and souens, corn-mush and milk, rye-mush and bread, hominy, potatoes, turnips, wild onions or wramps, wild meats, wild birds, fish, and wild fruits.
In and before 1830 flour was three dollars per barrel; beef, three cents a pound ; venison ham, one and one-half cents a pound ; chickens, six cents a piece ; butter, six and eight cents a pound ; and eggs, six cents a dozen.
In the early cooking everything was boiled and baked; this was healthy. There was no "rare fad," with its injurious results. The common dishes served were wheat- and rye-bread, wheat- and rye-mush, Indian corn-pone, cakes, and mush, sweet and buttermilk boiled and thickened, doughnuts, and baked pot-pies. Soda was made by burning corncobs. We are indebted to the heathen Chinese for the art of bread-making from wheat, 1998 B.C.
Buckwheat souens was a great pioneer dish. It was made in this wise : Mix your buckwheat flour and water in the morning; add to this enough yeast to make the batter light; then let it stand until evening, or until the batter is real sour. Now stir this batter into boiling water and boil until it is thoroughly cooked, like corn-mush. Eat hot or cold with milk or cream. Buckwheat is a native of Asia.
MEATS
Hogs, bears, elks, deer, rabbits, squirrels, and woodchucks.
The saddles or hams of the deer were salted by the pioneer, then smoked and dried. This was a great luxury, and could be kept all the year through.
The late Dr. Clarke wrote, " Wild game, such as elks, deer, bears, tur- keys, and partridges, were numerous, and for many years constituted an important part of the animal food of the early settlers in this wilderness. Wolves and panthers came in for a share of this game, until they, too, became game for the hunters by the public and legal offer of bounties to be paid for their scalps, or rather for their cars, for a perfect pair of ears was required
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to secure the bounty. All these have become nearly extinct. The sturdy elk no longer roves over the hills or sips 'salty sweetness' from the licks. The peculiar voice of the stately strutting wild turkey is heard no more. The howl of the wolf and the panther's cry no longer alarm the traveller as he winds his way over the hills or through the valleys, and the flocks are now permitted to rest in peace. Even the wild deer is now seldom seen, and a nice venison steak rarely gives its delicious aroma among the shining plate of modern well-set tables."
FISH
Pike, bass, catfish, suckers, sunfish, horn-chubs, mountain trout, and eels.
The old settler shot, seined, hooked with a line, and gigged his fish. Gig- ging was done at night by means of a light made from burning fagots of pitch-pine. It usually required three to do this gigging, whether " wading" or in a canoe,-one to carry the light ahead, one to gig, and one to care for the fish.
BIRDS
Pheasants were plentiful, and enlivened the forests with their drum- ming. The waters and woods were full of wild ducks, geese, pigeons, and turkeys.
The most remarkable bird in America was the wild turkey. It is the original turkey, and is the stock from which the tame turkeys sprung. In the wild state it was to be found in the wooded lands east of the Rocky Moun- tains. In pioneer times it was called gobbler or Bubly Jock by the whites, and Oo-coo-coo by the Indians. Our pioneer hunters could mimic or imitate the gobbling of a turkey, and this deceptive ruse was greatly practised to excite the curiosity and bring the bird within shooting distance. The last wild turkey in Jefferson County was killed in the seventies near the town of False Creek.
To obtain a turkey roast when needed, the pioneer sometimes built in the woods a pen of round logs and covered it with brush. Whole flocks of turkeys were sometimes caught in these pens, built in this wise :
" First, a narrow ditch, about six feet long and two feet deep, was dug. Over this trench the pen was built, leaving a few feet of the channel outside of the enclosure. The end of the part of the trench enclosed was usually about the middle of the pen. Over the ditch, near the wall of the pen, boards were laid. The pen was made tight enough to hold a turkey and covered with poles. Then corn was scattered about on the inside, and the ditch outside baited with the same grain. Sometimes straw was also scattered about in the pen. Then the trap was ready for its victims. The turkeys came to the pen, began to pick up the corn, and followed the trench within. When they had eaten enough, the birds tried to get out by walking around the pen, look- ing up all the time. They would cross the ditch on the boards, and never think of going to the opening in the ground at the centre of the pen. When the
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hunter found his game he had only to crawl into the pen through the trench and kill the birds."
In the fall turkeys became very fat, and gobblers were sometimes captured for Christmas in this way weighing over twenty pounds.
FRUITS
Apples, crab-apples, wild, red, and yellow plums, blackberries, huckle- berries, elderberries, wild strawberries, choke-cherries, and wild gooseberries ; and there were
SWEETS
Domestic and wild honey, maple-sugar, maple-molasses, and corn-cob molasses. Bee-trees were numerous, and would frequently yield from eight to twelve gallons of excellent honey. These trees had to be cut in the night by the light of pitch-pine fagots.
DRINK
Metheglin, a drink made from honey; whiskey, small beer, rye coffee, buttermilk, and fern, sassafras, sage, and mint teas.
Distilled liquor was discovered in India and introduced into Europe in 1150. The name whiskey was given to it by the Scotch, who made it from barley.
To fully illustrate the pioneer days I quote from the " History of Craw- ford County, Pennsylvania,"-viz. :
" The habits of the pioneers were of a simplicity and purity in conform- ance to their surroundings and belongings. The men were engaged in the herculean labor, day after day, of enlarging the little patch of sunshine about their homes, cutting away the forest, burning off the brush and débris, pre- paring the soil, planting, tending, harvesting, caring for the few animals which they brought with them or soon procured, and in hunting. While they were engaged in the heavy labor of the field and forest, or following the deer, or seeking other game, their helpmeets were busied with their household duties, providing for the day and for the winter coming on, cooking, making clothes, spinning, and weaving. They were fitted by nature and experience to be the consorts of the brave men who first came into the western wilderness. They were heroic in their endurance of hardship and privation and loneliness.
" Their industry was well directed and unceasing. Woman's work then, like man's, was performed under disadvantages, which have been removed in later years. She had not only the common household duties to perform, but many others. She not only made the clothing, but the fabric for it. That old, old occupation of spinning and weaving, with which woman's name has been associated in all history, and of which the modern world knows nothing, except through the stories of those who are great-grandmothers now,-that
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old occupation of spinning and weaving which seems surrounded with a glamour of romance as we look back to it through tradition and poetry, and which always conjures up thoughts of the graces and virtues of the dames and damsels of a generation that is gone,-that old, old occupation of spinning and weaving was the chief industry of the pioneer woman. Every cabin sounded with the softly whirring wheel and the rhythmic thud of the loom. The woman of pioneer times was like the woman described by Solomon : ' She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands; she layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.'
" Almost every article of clothing, all of the cloth in use in the old log cabins, was the product of the patient woman-weaver's toil. She spun the flax and wove the cloth for shirts, pantaloons, frocks, sheets, and blankets. The linen and the wool, the 'linsey-woolsey' woven by the housewife, formed all of the material for the clothing of both men and women, except such articles as were made of skins. The men commonly wore the hunting-shirt, a kind of loose frock reaching half-way down the figure, open before, and so wide as to lap over a foot or more upon the chest. This generally had a cape, which was often fringed with a ravelled piece of cloth of a different color from that which composed the garment. The bosom of the hunting-shirt answered as a ponich, in which could be carried the various articles that the hunter or woodsman would need. It was always worn belted, and made out of coarse linen, or linsey, or of dressed deer-skin, according to the fancy of the wearer. Breeches were made of heavy cloth or of deer-skin, and were often worn with leggings of the same material or of some kind of leather, while the feet were most usually encased in moccasins, which were easily and quickly made, though they needed frequent mending. The deer-skin breeches or drawers were very comfortable when dry, but when they became wet were very cold to the limbs, and the next time they were put on were almost as stiff as if made of wood. Hats or caps were made of the various native furs. The women were clothed in linsey petticoats, coarse shoes and stockings, and wore buckskin gloves or mittens when any protection was required for the hands. All of the wearing apparel, like that of the men, was made with a view to being serviceable and comfortable, and all was of home manufacture. Other articles and finer ones were sometimes worn, but they had been brought from former homes, and were usually relics handed down from parents to children. Jewelry was not common, but occasionally some ornament was dis- played. In the cabins of the more cultivated pioneers were usually a few books, and the long winter evenings were spent in poring over these well- thumbed volumes by the light of the great log-fire, in knitting, mending, curing furs, or some similar occupation.
"As the settlement increased, the sense of loneliness and isolation was dispelled, the asperities of life were softened and its amenities multiplied : social gatherings became more numerous and more enjoyable. The log-roll-
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ings, harvestings, and husking-frolics for the men, and apple-butter-making and the quilting-parties for the women, furnished frequent occasions for social intercourse. The early settlers took much pleasure and pride in rifle-shooting, and as they were accustomed to the use of the gun as a means often of obtain- ing a subsistence, and relied upon it as a weapon of defence, they exhibited considerable skill.
" Foot-racing, wrestling, and jumping matches were common. The jumping matches consisted of the ' single jump,' backward jump, high jump, three jumps, and the running hop, step, and jump.
"A wedding was the event of most importance in the sparsely settled new country. The young people had every inducement to marry, and generally did so as soon as able to provide for themselves. When a marriage was to be celebrated, all the neighborhood turned out. It was customary to have the ceremony performed before dinner, and in order to be in time, the groom and his attendants usually started from his father's house in the morning for that of the bride. All went on horseback, riding in single file along the narrow trail. Arriving at the cabin of the bride's parents, the ceremony would be performed, and after that dinner served. This would be a substantial back- woods feast, of beef, pork, fowls, and bear- or deer-meat, with such vegetables as could be procured. The greatest hilarity prevailed during the meal. After it was over, the dancing began, and was usually kept up till the next morn- ing, though the newly made husband and wife were, as a general thing, put to bed in the most approved fashion and with considerable formality in the mid- dle of the evening's hilarity. The tall young men, when they went on the
floor to dance, had to take their places with care between the logs that sup- ported the loft-floor, or they were in danger of bumping their heads. The figures of the dances were three- and four-hand reels, or square sets and jigs. The commencement was always a square four, which was followed by ' jigging it off,' or what is sometimes called a 'cut-out jig.' The 'settlement' of a young couple was thought to be thoroughly and generously made when the neighbors assembled and raised a cabin for them."
PIONEER PRICES FOR SKILLED AND UNSKILLED LABOR
FOR CARPENTERS.
FOR DAY LABORERS.
1800.
70 cents per day 1800 62 cents per day
1810.
$1.09 per day 1810. 82 cents per day
1820.
I.13 per day
1820. .90 cents per day
1830-1840.
1.40 per day
1840-1860. $1.00 (about) per day 1850-1860
1.50 per day
Previous to 1840, a day's work was not limited by hours. It was by law and custom from " sunrise to sunset," or whatever the employer exacted. In 1840, however, President Van Buren signed the pioneer executive order fixing
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a day's work in the Washington Navy-Yard at ten hours per day. It took a great and protracted struggle for years and years to secure the general adop- tion of the ten-hour system.
PIONEER EVENING FROLICS, SOCIAL PARTIES, PLAYS, AND AMUSEMENTS-HOW THE PIONEER AND EARLY SETTLERS MADE THEIR LOG CABINS MERRY WITH SIMPLE, PRIMITIVE ENJOYMENTS
In the pioneer days newspapers were few, dear, printed on coarse paper, and small. Books were scarce, only occasional preaching, no public lectures, and but few public meetings, excepting the annual Fourth of July celebration, when all the patriots assembled to hear the Declaration of Independence read. The pioneer and his family had to have fun. The common saying of that day was that " all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." As a rule, out- side of the villages, everybody lived in log cabins, and were bound together by mutual dependence and acts of neighborly kindness. At every cabin the latch-string was always out. The young ladies of the " upper ten" learned music, but it was the humming of to "knit and spin;" their piano was a loom, their sunshade a broom, and their novel a Bible. A young gentleman or lady was then as proud of his or her new suit, woven by a sister or a mother on her own loom, as proud could be, and these new suits or "best clothes" were always worn to evening frolics. Social parties among the young were called " kissing parties," because in all the plays, either as a penalty or as part of the play, all the girls who joined in the amusement had to be kissed by some one of the boys. The girls, of course, objected to the kissing; but then they were gentle, pretty, and witty, and the sweetest and best girls the world ever knew. This was true, for I attended these parties and kissed some girls myself. To the boys and girls of that period-
" The earth was like a garden then, And life seemed like a show, For the air was rife with fragrance, The sky was all rainbow, And the heart was warm and joyous; Each lad had native grace, Sly Cupid planted blushes then On every virgin's face."
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