USA > Pennsylvania > Early history of western Pennsylvania, and of the West, and of western expeditions and campaigns, from MDCCLIV to MDCCCXXXIII > Part 6
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Settlements were gradually extended through the northwestern part of Pennsylvania, as far as Erie county, between 1790 and 1795. Among the early settlers in this county, were Miles,* King, Martin, Connelly, Reed, Reese, Cochran, Foster, Brown, Dobbins, Kelso, Wilson, Dun- bar. In 1795 the town of Erie was laid out by Gen. William Irvine, and Andrew Ellicott.
In relation to the manners and customs of the early pioneers of the wilderness, we cannot do better than to insert extracts from an able and observing writer.
The following is abridged from the writings of the Rev. Dr. Dod- dridge : +
" The task of making new establishments in a remote wilderness, in a time of profound peace is sufficiently difficult; but when in addition to all the unavoidable hardships attendant on this business, those result- ing from an extensive and furious warfare with savages are superadded, toil, privations and sufferings, are then carried to the full extent of men to endure them.
"Such was the wretched condition of the western settlers in making settlements there. To all their difficulties and privations the Indian war was a weighty addition. This destructive warfare they were compelled to sustain almost single-handed, because the Revolutionary contest with England, gave full employment for military strength and resources on the east side of the mountains.
* Mr. W. Miles, was captured at Fort Freeland, on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, 1778. He was then a lad, and was taken prisoner to Canada, where he remained until after the close of the revolution, when he crossed the lake, and settled in the Presque'ile country. He was a few years ago, still living at Girard, sixteen miles west of Erie.
+ Doddridge, p. 134-150.
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Their buildings were of the rudest kind-a spot was selected on which to erect a house. On an appointed day, a company of choppers met, felled trees, cut them off at proper lengths-a man with a team hauled them to the place-this while a carpenter was in search of a straight grained tree for making clap-boards for the roof. The boards were split four feet long, with a large frow, and as wide as the timber would allow-they were used without shaving. Some were employed in getting puncheons for the floor of the cabin ; this was done by split- ting trees about eighteen inches in diameter, and hewing the faces of them with a broad-axe. They were half the length of the floor they were intended to make. These were the usual preparations for the first day-the second day the neighbors collected, raised and finished the house. The third day's work generally consisted of "furnituring" the house-supplying it with a clap-board table, made of a split slab, and supported by four raised legs set in augur holes. Some three-legged stools were made in the same manner. Some pins stuck in the logs, at the back of the house, supported some clap-boards which served for shelves for the table furniture, consisting of a few pewter dishes, plates and spoons ; but mostly of wooden bowls, trenchers and noggins. If these last were scarce, gourds and hard-shelled squashes made up the deficiency. The iron pots, knives and forks were brought from the east side of the mountains, along with salt and iron, on pack-horses.
A single fork, placed with its lower end in a hole in the floor, and the upper end fastened to a joist, served for a bedstead, by placing a pole in the fork with one end through a crack between the logs of the wall. This front pole was crossed by a shorter one within the fork, with its outer end through another crack. From the first pole, through a crack between the logs of the end of the house, the boards were put on, which formed the bottom of the bed. Sometimes other poles were pinned to the fork a little distance above these, for the purpose of sup- porting the front and foot of the bed, while the walls were the supports of its back and its head. A few pegs around the walls for a display of the coats of the women, and hunting shirts of the men, and two small forks, or buck's horns to a joist, for the rifle and shot pouch, com- pleted the carpenter-work. The cabin being finished, the next cere- mony was " the house-warming." This was a dance of a whole night's continuance, prior to the cabin being moved into.
The diet of the first settlers was mainly hog and hominy. Jonny cake and pone were the bread for breakfast and dinner, mush and milk a standard dish for supper. When milk was not plenty, which was.
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often the case, the substantial dish of hominy had to serve the place of them ; mush was frequently eaten with sweetened water, molases, bears oil, or the gravy of fried meat.
Their dress was partly Indian and partly of civilized nations. The hunting shirt was universally worn. This was a kind of loose frock, reaching half way down the thighs, with large sleeves, open before, and so wide as to lap over a foot or more when belted. The cape was large, and sometimes handsomely fringed with a ravelled piece of cloth of a different color from that of the hunting shirt itself. The bosom of this dress served as a wallet to hold a chunk of bread, cakes, jerk, tow for wiping the barrel of the rifle, or any other necessary for the hunter or warrior. The belt which was tied behind, answered several purposes, besides that of holding the dress together. In cold weather, the mittens, and sometimes the bullet bag, occupied the front part of it, To the right side was suspended the tomahawk, and on the left the scalping knife in its leathern sheath.
The hunting shirt was generally made of linsey, sometimes of coarse linen, and a few of dressed deer skins. These last were very cold and uncomfortable in wet weather. The shirt and jacket were of the com- mon fashion. A pair of drawers or breeches, and leggins, were the dress of the thighs and legs ; a pair of moccasins answered for the feet much better than shoes. These were made of dressed deer skins .- They were mostly made of a single piece, with a gathered seam along the top of the foot, and another from the bottom of the heel, without gathers, as high as the ankle joint, or a little higher. Flaps were left on each side to reach some distance up the legs. These were nicely adapted to the ankles, and lower part of the leg, by thongs of deer skin, so that no dust, gravel or snow, could get within the moccasin.
The moccasin in ordinary use cost but a few hours' labor to make them. In cold weather the moccasins were stuffed with deer's hair, or dry leaves, so as to keep the feet comfortably warm.
In latter years of the Indian war the young men became more enam- ored with the Indian dress throughout, with the exception of the match coat. The drawers were laid aside, and the leggins made longer, so as to reach the upper part of the thigh. The Indian breech-clout was adopted. This was a piece of linen or cloth, nearly a yard long, and eight or nine inches broad. This passed under the belt before and be- hind, leaving the ends for flaps hanging before and behind over the belt. "These flaps were sometimes ornamented with some coarse kind of em- broidery work. To the same belt which secured the breech-clout,
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strings which supported the long leggins were attached. When this belt, as was often the case, passed over the hunting shirt, the upper part of the thighs and part of the hips were naked.
The young warrior, instead of being abashed by bis nudity, was proud of his Indianlike dress. In some few instances, I have seen them go into places of public worship in this dress. Their appearance, how- ever, did not add much to the devotion of the young ladies.
'T'he linsey petticoat and bed gown, which were the universal dress of our women in early times, would make a very singular figure in our days. A small home-made handkerchief, in point of elegance, would illy supply the profusion of ruffles with which the necks of our ladies are now ornamented. They went barefooted in warm weather, and in cold, their feet were covered with moccasins, overshoes, or shoepacks, which would make but a sorry figure beside the elegant morocco slip- pers, often embossed with bullion, which at present ornament the feet of their daughters and grand daughters.
The coats and bed-gowns of the women, as well as the hunting shirts of the men, were hung in full display on wooden pegs round the walls of their cabins, so that while they answered, in some degree, the place of paper hangings, or tapestry, they announced to the stranger, as well as neighbor, the wealth or poverty of the family in the articles of cloth- ing. This practice prevailed for a long time.
The ladies handled the distaff, shuttle, sickle, weeding hoe, &c., con- tented if they could obtain their linsey clothing, and covered their heads with sun bonnets made of six or seven hundred linen.
" Sports .- These were such as might be expected among a people, who, owing to their circumstances, as well as education, set a higher value on physical than on mental endowments, and on skill in hunting and bravery in war, than on any polite accomplishments, or fine arts.
"Amusements are, in many instances, either imitations of the business. of life, or at least, of some of its particular objects of pursuit; on the part of young men belonging to nations in a state of warfare, many amusements are regarded as preparations for the military character which they are expected to sustain in future life. Thus, the war-dance - of savages, is a pantomime of their stratagems and horrid deeds of cruelty in war, and the exhibition prepares the minds of their young men for a participation in the bloody tragedies which they represent. Dancing, among civilized people, is regarded, not only as an amusement suited to the youthful period of human life ; but as a means of inducing urbanity of manners and a good personal deportment in public. Horse-
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racing, is regarded by the statesman, as a preparation, in various ways, for the equestrian department of warfare: it is said that the English government never possessed a good cavalry until by the encouragement given to public races, their breed of horses was improved. Games, in which there is a mixture of chance and skill, are said to improve the understanding in mathematical and other calculations.'
" Many of the sports of the early settlers of this country, were imita- tive of the exercises and stratagems of hunting and war. Boys were taught the use of the bow and arrow, at an early age ; but although they acquired considerable adroitness in the use of them, so as to kill a bird or squirrel sometimes, yet it appears to me that in the hands of the white people, the bow and arrow could never be depended upon for war- fare or hunting, unless made and managed in a different manner, from any specimens of them which I ever saw.
" In ancient times, the bow and arrow must have been deadly instru- ments, in the hands of the barbarians of our country ; but I much doubt, whether any of the present tribes of Indians could make much use of the flint arrow heads, which must have been so generally used by their forefathers.
"Fire-arms, wherever they can be obtained, soon put an end to the bow and arrow; but independently of this circumstance, military, as well as other arts, sometimes grow out of date and vanish from the world. Many centuries have elapsed since the world has witnessed the destructive accuracy of the Benjamites, in their use of the sling and stone ; nor does it appear to me that a diminution, in the size and strength of the aborigines of this country, has occasioned a decrease of accuracy and effect in their use of the bow and arrow. From all the ancient skeletons which have come under my notice, it does not appear that this section of the globe was ever inhabited by a larger race of human beings than that which possessed it at the time of its discovery " by the Europeans.
"One important pastime of our boys, was that of imitating the noise of every bird and beast in the woods. This faculty was not merely a pastime ; but a very necessary part of education, on account of its utility in certain circumstances. The imitations of the gobbling and other sounds of wild turkeys, often brought those keen eyed, and ever watchful tenants of the forest, within the reach of the rifle. The bleat- ing of the fawn, brought its dam to her death in the same way. The hunter often collected a company of mopish owls on the trees about his camp, and amused himself with their hoarse screaming ; his howl would
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raise and obtain responses from a pack of wolves, so as to inform him of their neighborhood, as well as guard him against their depredations.
" This imitative faculty, was sometimes requisite as a measure of pre- caution in war. The Indians, when scattered about in a neighborhood, often collected together, by imitating turkeys by day, and wolves or owls by night. In similar situations, our people did the same. I have often witnessed the consternation of a whole neighborhood, in consequence of a few screeches of owls. An early, and correct use of this imitative faculty, was considered as an indication that its possessor would become in due time, a good hunter and a valiant warrior.
" Throwing the tomahawk, was another boyish sport, in which many y. acquired considerable skill. The tomahawk, with its handle of a certain length, will make a given number of turns in a given distance. Say in five steps, it will strike with the edge, the handle downwards ;- at the distance of seven and a half, it will strike with the edge, the handle up- wards, and so on. A little experience enabled the boy to measure the distance with his eye, when walking through the woods, and strike a tree with his tomahawk, in any way he chose.
" The athletic sports of running, jumping, and wrestling, were the pastimes of boys, in common with the men.
" A well grown boy, at the age of twelve or thirteen years, was fur- nished with a small rifle and shot pouch. He then became a fort soldier, and had his port hole assigned him. Hunting squirrels, turkeys and raccoons, soon made him expert in the use of his gun.
" Dancing, was the principal amusement of our young people of both sexes. Their dances, to be sure, were of the simplest forms. Three and four handed reels and jigs. Country dances, cotillons and minuets were unknown. I remember to have seen once or twice, a dance which . was called ' The Irish Trot,' but I have long since forgotten its figure.
"Shooting at marks, was a common diversion among the' men, when their stock of ammunition would allow it; this however, was far from being always the case. The present mode of shooting off-hand, was not then in practice. This mode was not considered as any trial of the value of a gun ; nor indeed, as much of a test of the skill of a marksman. Their shooting was from a rest, and at as great a distance as the length and weight of the barrel of the gun would throw a ball on a horizontal level. Such was their regard to accuracy, in those sportive trials of their rifles, and of their own skill in the use of them, that they often put moss, or some other soft substance on the log or stump from which they shot, for fear of having the bullet thrown from the mark, by the spring
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of the barrel. When the rifle was held to the side of a tree for a rest, it was pressed against it as lightly as possible, for the same reason.
"Rifles of former times, were different from those of modern date ; few of them carried more than forty-five bullets to the pound. Bullets of a less size were not thought sufficiently heavy for hunting or war.
" Dramatic narrations, chiefly concerning jack and the giant, furnished our young people with another source of amusement during their leisure hours. Many of those tales were lengthy, and embraced a considerable range of incident. Jack, always the hero of the story, after encounter- ing many difficulties, and performing many great achievements, came off conqueror of the giant. Many of these stories were tales of knight errantry; in which some captive virgin, was restored to her lover.
"These dramatic narrations, concerning jack and the giant, bore a strong resemblance to the Poems of Ossian, the story of the Cyclops and Ulyses, in the Odyssy of Homer and the tale of the giant, and Great heart, in the Pilgrim's Progress ; they were so arranged, as to the diffe- rent incidents of the narration, that they were easily committed to memory. They certainly have been handed down from generation to generation, from time immemorial.
"Civilization, has indeed, banished the use of those ancient tales of romantic heroism ; but what then ? it has substituted in their place, the novel and romance.
It is thus, that in every state of society, the imagination of man is eternally at war with reason and truth. That fiction should be accepta- ble to an unenlightened people, is not to be wondered at, as the treasures of truth have never been unfolded to their mind ; but that a civilized people themselves, should, in so many instances, like barbarians prefer the fairy regions of fiction to the august treasures of truth, developed in the sciences of theology, history, natural and moral philosophy, is truly a sarcasm on human nature. It is as much as to say, that it is essential to our amusement, that, for the time being, we must suspend the exercise of reason, and submit to a voluntary deception.
"Singing, was another, but not very common amusement among our first settlers. Their tunes were rude enough to be sure. Robin Hood furnished a number of our songs ; the balance were mostly tragical .- These last were denominated "love songs about murder ;" as to cards, dice, back-gammon, and other games of chance, we knew nothing about them. These are amongst the blessed gifts of civilization."
" Morals .- In the section of the country where my father lived," says Doddridge : "there was, for many years after the settlement of the
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country, "neither law nor gospel." Our want of legal government, was owing to the uncertainty whether we belonged to the State of Vir- ginia 'or Pennsylvania. The line, which at present divides the two States, was not run until some time after the conclusion of the revolu- tionary war. Thus it happened, that during a long period of time we knew nothing of courts, lawyers, magistrates, sheriffs, or constables .- Every one was therefore at liberty "to do whatever was right in his own eyes."
"As this is a state of society, which few of my readers have ever witnessed, I shall describe it as minutely as I can, and give in detail, those moral maxims which, in a great degree, answered the important purposes of municipal jurisprudence.
" In the first place, let it be observed that in a sparse population where all the members of the community are well known to each other, and especially in a time of war, where every man capable of bearing arms is considered highly valuable, as a defender of his country, public opinion has its full effect and answers the purposes of legal government better than it would in a dense population, and in time of peace.
" Such was the situation of our people along the frontiers of our set- tlements. They had no civil, military or ecclesiastical laws, at least ; none that were enforced, and yet "they were a law unto themselves" as to the leading obligations of our nature in all the relations in which they stood to each other. The turpitude of vice and the majesty of moral virtue, were then as apparent as they are now, and they were then regarded with the same sentiments of aversion or respect which they inspire at the present time. Industry, in working and hunting, bravery in war, candor, hospitality, and steadiness of deportment, received their full reward of public honor, and public confidence among our rude fore- fathers, as well as among their better instructed and more polished de- scendants. The punishments which they inflicted upon offenders by the imperial court of public opinion, were well adapted for the reforma- tion of the culprit, or his expulsion from the community.
" The punishment for idleness, lying, dishonesty, and ill-fame gene- rally, was that of " hating the offender out," as they expressed it. 'This mode of chastisement was like the atimea of the Greeks. It was a public expression, in various ways, of a general sentiment of indigna- tion against such as transgressed the moral maxims of the community to which they belonged. This commonly resulted either in the refor .. mation or banishment of the person against whom it was directed.
"At house raisings, log rollings, and harvest parties every one was
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expected to do his duty faithfully. A person who did not perform his share of labor on these occasions was designated by the epithet of " Law ..; rence" or some other title still more opprobious ; and when it came to his turn to require the like aid from his neighbors, the idler soon felt his punishment, in their refusal to attend to his calls.
" Although there was no legal compulsion to the performance of mil- itary duty ; yet every man of full age and size was expected to do his full share of public service. If he did not do so he was " Hated out as a coward." Even the want of any article of war equipments, such as ammunition, a sharp flint, a priming wire, a scalping knife or tomahawk was thought highly disgraceful. A man, who without a reasonable cause failed to go on a scout or campaign when it came to his turn, met with an expression of indignation in the countenances of all his neigh- bors, and epithets of dishonor were fastened upon him without mercy.
"Debts, which make such an uproar in civilized life, were but little known among our forefathers at the early settlement of this country. After the depreciation of the continental paper they had no money of any kind ; every thing purchased was paid for in produce or labor. A good cow and calf was often the price of a bushel of alum salt. If a contract. was not punctually fulfilled, the credit of the delinquent was at an end.
" Any petty theft was punished with all the infamy that could be heaped on the offender. A man on a campaign stole from his comrade, a cake out of the ashes, in which it was baking. He was immediately named " The bread rounds." This epithet of reproach was bandied about in this way, when he came in sight of a group of men one of them would call " who comes there ?" Another would answer "The bread rounds." If any one meant to be more serious about the matter, he would call out " Who stole a cake out of the ashes." Another replied by giving the name of the man in full, to this a third would give confir- mation by exclaiming " That is true and no lie." This kind of "tongue- lashing" he was doomed to bear, for the rest of the campaign, as well as for years after his return home.
" If a theft was detected in any of the frontier settlements, a summary mode of punishment was always resorted to. The first settlers, as far as I knew of them had a kind of innate, or hereditary detestation of the crime of theft, in any shape or degree, and their maxim was that "a thief must be whipped." If the theft was of something of some value, a kind of jury of the neighborhood, after hearing the testimony would condemn the culprit to Moses' Law, that is to forty stripes, save one.
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If the theft was of some small article, the offender was doomed to carry on his back the flag of the United States, which then consisted of thir- teen stripes. In either case, some able hands were selected to execute the sentence, so that the stripes were sure to be well laid on.
"This punishment was followed by a sentence of exile. He then was informed that he must decamp in so many days and be seen there no more, on penalty of having the number of his stripes doubled.
"For many years after the law was put in operation in the western part of Virginia, the magistrates themselves, were in the habit of giving those who were brought before them on charges of small thefts, the liberty of being sent to jail, or taking a whipping. The latter was commonly chosen and was immediately inflicted, after which the thief was ordered to clear out.
"In some instances, stripes were inflicted ; not for the punishment of an offence ; but for the purpose of extorting a confession from suspected persons. This was the torture of our early times, and no doubt some- times very unjustly inflicted.
"If a woman was given to tattling and slandering her neighbors, she was furnished by common consent, with a kind of patent right to say whatever she pleased, without being believed. Her tongue was then said to be harmless, or to be no scandal.
" With all their rudeness, these people were given to hospitality and freely divided their rough fare with a neighbor, or stranger, and would have been offended at the offer of pay. In their settlements and forts, they lived, they worked, they fought and feasted, or 'suffered together, in cordial harmony. They were warm and constant in their friendships. On the other hand, they were revengeful in their resentments. And the point of honor sometimes led to personal combats. If one man called another a liar, he was considered as having given a challenge which the person who received it must accept, or be deemed a coward, and the charge was generally answered on the spot, with a blow. If the injured person was decidedly unable to fight the aggressor, he might get a friend to do it for him. The same thing took place on a charge of cowardice, or any other dishonorable action, a battle must follow and the person who made the charge must fight, either the person against whom he made the charge or any champion who choose to espouse his cause. Thus circumstanced, our people in early times were much more cautious of speaking evil of their neighbors than they are at present.
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