USA > Pennsylvania > Butler County > History of Butler County, Pennsylvania. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 7
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Although the Scotch, Scotch-Irish and Irish were the predominant bloods represented among the pio- neers of the county, there were, nevertheless, a few early German settlers, and a very sparse sprinkling of other classes. The early German pioneers came into the county through the influence of a few indi- viduals. Detmar Basse came from Germany in 1802, settled in Jackson Township, and, in 1803, founded Zelienople, which has ever been practically a German village. George Rapp founded Harmony in 1805, bringing into the county the colony of Germans who constituted the Harmonist or Economite Society. When that society removed, in 1815, the community still remained German, Abraham Zeigler, who settled there in 1814 and bought the lands, bringing in a large muuber of settlers of his nationality from West- ern Pennsylvania.
The general German settlement of the county did not begin until about the year 1830, and from that time onward for a quarter of a century, the stream of this inmigration continued to flow with a strong vol- mme. The German settlers of this period are to be found in every township in the county. their greatest strength probably being in Summit, where they have almost completely displaced the descendants of the Scotch-Irish pioneers. They have made good farm- ers, succeeding. by patient industry and close econo- my, in gaining an independent condition where the people of almost any other nationality would have failed, in a majority of instances, to have secured more than a mere living. Saxonburg was founded in 1532 by a colony of very intelligent Germans, led by John A. Roebling, and retains its distinctive national characteristics.
CONTESTED LAND TITLE.
It is impossible for us of the present day to real- ize the full measure of the effect that the contested
The pioneers of the county were nearly all trish, Scotch or Scotch- Irish. As a rule, these people were , land title had upon the settlement of Butler County
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IHISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
and the surrounding region. The contlieting claims of the settlers and land speculators to the ownership of the soil has been explained in the preceding chap- ter. Little was there said, however, of the operation of that controversy for many years in retarding the improvement of the country, and the bitterness of the animosity aroused was only alluded to-not illus- trated.
As has been said, the speculators, or " land-job bers," who had secured warrants for many thousands of acres of land in Butler County, were usually sue- cessful in ejecting the pioneers who. in good faith, had settled and made improvements upon the tracts to which they thus expected to obtain title. Many a poor man had the result of his several years of hard work suddenly taken from him, and was compelled to seek a new location, and begin anew the task of clear- ing land and making a home. Some of them settled on lands not far removed from their " squatter " posses- sions, and others emigrated from the region in which they had been the victims of misfortune and, as they alleged, of injustice, to the farther West.
But this was not all. The prevailing insecurity of title prevented many from coming into the country who would otherwise have done so, and among them were many of the best class of immigrants. When it is borne in mind that litigation concerning the lands was actively carried on for a period of at least twenty years subsequent to 1796, and that it operated both toward the impoverishment of those who were settlers, and against the immigration of others, it will be readily seen that its adverse effect upon the development of the country was a very material one.
The severity of the large landholders' proceedings was moderated in a very marked degree by an occur- rence of the year 1815, which is well worth narrating. not alone for its intrinsic interest, but because of its far-reaching effect and its valne as an illustration of the intense feeling of the time.
Up to 1815. it had been the custom of the land speculators or their agents to bring ejectment suits against the settlers whom they found on lands for which they (the speculators) held warrants. These suits were almost invariably decided in favor of the hated " land-jobbers," and the "squatters " were aroused to a feeling of the utmost excitement and in- dignation. Often the equity of the case appeared upon the side of the farmer, but the technicalities of the law were favorable to the speculators, and they were fast securing the lands upon which the pioneers had made improvements, and seldom making any allowance for their work Numerous threats had been made against the heavy land-owners. their agents and the officers of the law engaged in carrying out the orders of the United States and County Courts.
Opposition had been met with by the latter in a few cases, but it was not serions, and, until the time of which we write, not organized.
A SHOOTING AFFAIR OF IS15, AND ITS EFFECT.
But now the long-existing conflict assumed a more serious aspect. The farm near the borongh of Butler, now owned by the heirs of Mrs. Gront, had been en- tered by Abraham Maxwell on the ground that no prior settlement had been made upon the tract in ac- cordance with the act of 1792, and he was advised by William Ayres, Esq., of Butler, that his claim to pos- session was valid. He had built a cabin upon the land and made quite an extensive clearing. The land was covered, however, by one of Robert Morris ** warrants, taken out in the name of Christian Stake, and was one of the 107 tracts which, at the sale of Morris' property, came into the hands of Stephen Lowrey.
In the spring of 1814, Maxwell leased the property to Samuel Robb. Soon afterward, Lowrey brought suit of ejectment against the owner and lessee, and obtained a judgment in the United States Court at Philadelphia, by reason of the defendant's default of appearance.
The order for ejectment was put into the hands of a Deputy Marshal named Parchment, who made prep- arations to dispossess Robb. The latter had refused to give peaceable possession, and his decision had been made known, not only to the officers, but to the farmers in the surrounding country, many of whom, located on lands claimed by Lowrey, had suffered, or expected to suffer, ejectment. One morning in Octo- ber. 1815. the Deputy Marshal and a party of sup- porters made preparations to visit the farm and re- move Robb from the cabin. They assembled at a tavern which stood in the south part of the village, where is now the Willard House, and there also, at the same time. gathered a number of farmers, all bitterly hostile to Lowrey and " land-jobbers " in gen- eral. Both parties were armed with rifles and other weapons, and many of the farmers came on horseback. They had assembled with the determi- lation to oppose Robb's ejectment. When the offi- cers' party, led by the Deputy Marshal. and includ- ing the great land-owner. Lowrey, with a number of adherents, started out upon the road leading along the creek toward Maxwell's farm, the other company closely followed, and they reached the farm and the cabin together. Robb stood in the doorway and ro- fused Parchment entrance. Possession was demand- ed. and Robb resolutely refused it. The members of the officers' party. the armed farmers and the little squad of men and boys from the village who had fol-
* See preceding chapter
HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
lowed the contestants to the spot, curious to see what would be the outcome, had crowded around Parchment and Robb; but when they heard the refusal of the latter to yield to the officer's demands, and saw that no immediate effort was to be made to take forcible possession of the premises, they fell back and broke into little groups to gossip upon the situation. The members of the opposing parties mingled. and each sought to modify the views and actions of the other. Each, however, was immovable, and there appeared to be no possibility of a peaceable adjustment of the affair.
Lowrey and Maxwell were standing close together. and conversing with much excitement, by the side of a rail fence which ran from the corner of the log cabin down to the road. Each was trying to convince the other of the justice of his own claim. Suddenly the dull and confused sound of the many voices was pierced by the sharp crack of a rifle. Maxwell stag- gered back against the fence, exclaiming, "I am shot!" and the persons whose attention was not im- mediately drawn toward him saw a man, rifle in hand, bounding through the bushes up the hillside.
All was excitement. consternation and indigna- tion. No one know what next to expect. Maxwell was apparently dying, and his friends believed that, the murderons shot had been fired by one of Lowrey's zealous followers. The farmers excitedly abused Lowrey, and asserted that he was responsible for the shooting. He called upon God to witness that he was innocent of any knowledge of the crime, and ap- peared deeply affected by the startling occurrence. In the meantime, Maxwell had been carried into the cabin, and Dr. George Miller, of Butler. summoned to attend his dangerous wound. Later. a messenger. mounted on a fleet horse, rode to Pittsburgh and in a short time, Dr. Agnew, of that city, arrived at the bedside of the wounded man. His life hung in the balance, but. by careful nursing. was saved, although it was two months before he could be removed from Robb's cabin to his own home, a few miles distant. In the excitement which followed the shooting, each party tried to fix the blame upon the opposite. The fact that it was Maxwell who was shot, led the people generally to suspect that one of the land speculators' party was the guilty one. But later, when all of the circumstances were coolly and carefully reviewed. it became the opinion of most of the people that the man who tired the shot was one of the farmers who sympathized with Maxwell and Robb, and who had. in endeavoring to kill, or at least to wound Lowrey. accidentally shot this early champion of " squatters'" rights. Maxwell, at the time the rifle was fired. it will be remembered, was standing near and convers- ing with Lowrey. As was his habit when interested
or excited, he was moving to and fro, and it was doubtless owing to this circumstance that he came near losing his life. It was never positively known who fired the shot.
This occurrence, which we have related somewhat at length. was the means of changing most radically the policy of the land speculators. Up to this time, they had almost invariably dispossessed the settlers of their lands by suits of ejectment. but. after the shooting of Maxwell, almost all of the contested claims for lands were compromised, the farmer being allowed a certain portion of the tract on which he was settled for his improvement. or granted the whole upon payment of a nominal sum. The change resulted in a great advantage to the farmers, and accelerated the improvement of the country.
CHAPTER V.
A PICTURE OF PIONEER LIFE
Cabin Building Furniture-Cooking Utensils and Table Ware-Food -Ilabits of the Pioneers-Employment of the Men -- Women's Work -Spinning and Weaving in the Olden Time-Dress of the Pioneers -Their Books-Sense of Isolation-Hospitality-Whisky-Scarcity of Money Improvement.
THE pioneers arriving at their places of destina. tion, after long and tedious journeying over In- dian trails or roads rudely improved, as a rule, brought very little with them with which to begin the battle of life among now surroundings. They had brave hearts and strong arms, however, and possessed invin- cible determination to hew ont for themselves homes which should in time become the abodes of happiness and plenty. Sometimes the men came on without their families to make a beginning, but more often all came together. The first thing to be done, after a rnde temporary shefter was provided, was to prepare a fittle spot of ground for the growth of some kind of crop. This was done by girdling the trees. clearing away the underbrush, and sweeping the surface with fire. The ground was then broken as thoroughly as possible with the few rude implements which the pio- neer possessed. Ten, fifteen, twenty, or even thirty acres of land might be thus prepared. and planted the first season. In the autminn. the crop would be carefully gathered and garnered with the least possible waste, for it was the chief food supply of the pioneer and his family, and life itself might possibly. com- fort surely. depended upon its safe preservation.
Cabin building occupied the attention of the pio- noor while the first crop was growing. He would need a shelter from the storms and cold of the ap- proaching winter, and perhaps a protection from wild beasts. The pioneer who was completely isolated from
33
IHISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
his fellow-men occupied an unenviable situation, for without assistance he could construct only a poor habitation. In such cases, the cabin was usually con- structed of very light logs or poles, and was laid up roughly, only to answer as a temporary shelter until other settlers should come into the owner's neighbor- hood, by whose help a more substantial structure could be built. Usually a number of families came into the country together, and located within such distance of each other that they were enabled to per- form many friendly and neighborly offices. After the first year or two from the time of the primal set- tlements in the county had elasped. there was no diffi- culty in cabin building. Assistance was always readily given a pioneer by all of the scattered residents of the forest within a radius of several miles.
The commonly-followed plan of erecting the log cabin was through a union of labor. The site of the cabin home was usually selected with reference to a good water supply. It was often by a never-failing spring, or if such could not be found in a location otherwise desirable, it was not uncommon to first dig a well. If water was reached, preparations were made for building near the well: if not. the search for a situation affording it was continued, but there was little trouble on this score, among the hills of Butler County.
diameter. Logs were chopped from these, and rolled to the common center, where they were to be used in building the home of the pioneer family. Often this preliminary work was performed by tho prospective occupant of the family alone, or with such assistance as could be rendered by wife or children. If such was not the case, it would occupy the greater part of the day. The entire labor of erecting the cabin would usually occupy two or three days. After the ground logs were laid, the others were raised to their places by the use of hand spikes and " skid poles," and men standing at the corners with axes notched them as fast as they were laid in position. The place of " corner man " was one of honor and distinction. and the persons chosen for these positions were sup- posed to be particularly skillful in wielding the ax. .
Greater difficulty attended the work after the cabin was built a few logs high. It was necessary that the logs in the gables should be beveted. and that each succeeding one should be shorter than that on which it rested. These gable logs were held in place by poles which extended across the cabin, serving also as rafters upon which to lay the rived " clapboard "
roof. The so-called clapboards were five or six feet in length, and were split from oak logs, and made as fat and smooth as possible. They were laid side by side, and other pieces of split stuff were laid over the cracks to keep out the rain. Upon those were laid logs to hold them in place, and these were secured by blocks placed between them at the ends.
The chimney was an important part of the struct- nre. In some cases it was made of stone, and in some of logs and sticks, laid up in a manner .similar to those which formed the walls of the house, and plastered with mud. It was built outside of the house, and at one end. At its base, a huge hole was eut through the wall for a fire place. The back and sides of the latter were formed of large. flat stones.
An opening was chopped or sawed in one side of the cabin for a door way. Pieces of hewn timber, three or four inches thick, were fastened on each side with wooden pins, or in some cases iron nails, and these formed the frame on which the door (if there was one) was hung. either by wooden or leather hinges. The door itself was a clumsy piece of wood- work. It was made from boards rived from an oak log, and held together by heavy cross-pieces. There was a wooden latch upon the inside, raised from with- out by a string or thong of deer-skin, which passed through a gimlet hole. From this mode of construc- tion arose the old and well-known homely figure of hospitality, " You will find the latch string always . cut." When, on rare occasions. it was pulled in. the door was considered fastened. Many of the pio-
When the cabin was to be built. the few men in the neighborhood gathered at the site. and first out down, within as close proximity as possible, the requi- site number of trees. as nearly of a size as could be found, but varying often from ten to fifteen inches in , neer cabins had no door of this kind until they had been occupied for many years. Instead of the door on hinges, a blanket or some old garment was fre- quently suspended before the opening to guard the occupants of the cabin from sun or rain.
The window was a small opening, usually near the door, and in most cases devoid of frame or glass. In lieu of the latter, greased paper was often used. and sometimes an article of the housewife's limited ward- robe constituted a curtain.
The floor of the cabin was made of puncheons. These were pieces of timber split from trees about eighteen inches in diameter, and hewed smooth with a broulax They were usually half the length of the floor. Some of the cabins earliest erected in But ler County had nothing but earth floors. Occasionally there was one which had a cellar -that is. a small excavation under the floor to which access was had by removing a loose puncheon. Very commonly the
cabins were provided with lofts The loft was used for various purposes, and among others as the " guest chamber," which pioneer hospitality offered to the wayfarer and the stranger. It was reached by a lad der. the sides of which were split pieces of sapling.
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
Although the labor of building a rough log cabin was usually performed in two or three days, the occu- pants were often employed for months in finishing and furnishing it. The walls had to be "chinked and daubed," various conveniences furnished, and a few rude articles of furniture manufactured. A forked stick set in the floor and supporting the ends of two poles. the other extremities of which rested upon the logs at the side and end of the cabin, formed the basis for a bedstead. A common form of table was a split slab supported by four rustic legs, set in anger holes. Three-legged stools were formed in similar simple manner. Pegs driven in auger holes in the logs of the wall supported shelves, and upon others were displayed the few articles of wearing ap- parel not in use. A few other pegs, or perhaps a pair of deer horns, formed a rack where hung the rifle and powder horn, which no cabin was withont. These, and a few simple articles in addition, formed the fur- niture and furnishings of the pioneers' cabin. In contrast with the rude furniture fashioned by the pio- neer with his poor tools, there were occasionally a few souvenirs of " the old home."
The utensils for cooking and the dishes for table use were few. The best of the latter were made of pewter, and the careful housewife of the olden time kept them shining as brightly as the pretentious plate in our latter day fine houses. Knives and forks were few, crockery very scarce, and tinware by no means abundant. Food was simply cooked and served, but. it was, as a rule, of the best and most wholesome kind. The hunter kept the larder well suplied with venison, bear meat, squirrels, wild turkeys, and the many varieties of small game. Plain corn bread, baked in a kettle in the ashes, or upon a board or broad chip, in front of the great, open fire-place, was a staple article of food. Corn was either pounded into coarse meal. or carried a long distance to mill to be ground. The wild fruits in their season were made use of, and af- forded a pleasant variety. In the lofts of the cabins was usually to be found a collection of articles making up the pioneer's materia medica -- the herb medicines and spices-catnip, sage, tansy, fennel, boneset, wormwood and pennyroyal, each gathered in its season: and there were also stores of nuts. strings of dried pumpkin, with bags of berries and fruit.
The habits of the pioneers were of a simplicity and purity which was in conformance with the char- aeter of their surroundings and belongings. The days were full of toil, both for man and woman. The men were engaged constantly in the rude avocations of pioneer life- cutting away the forest, logging, burn- ing the brush and the debris, preparing the soil. planting, harvesting. and caring for the few animals
they brought with them or soon procured. The little openings around the log cabins were constantly made larger, and the sunshine year after year admit. ted to a larger area of the virgin soil, which had been growing rich for centuries, and only awaiting culti- vation to give evidence of its fertility.
While the men were engaged in the heavy work of the field or forest, their helpmeets were busied with a multiplicity of household duties, providing for the day and for the year; cooking, making or mending clothes, spinning and weaving. They were heroic in their endurance of hardship and privation and loneli- ness. They were, as a rule, admirably fitted by nature and experience to be the consorts of the sturdy, in- dustrious men who came into the wilderness of West- ern Pennsylvania. Their cheerful industry was well directed and unceasing. Woman's work, like man's, in the years when this country was new, was per- formed under many disadvantages, which have been removed by modern skill and science, and the growth of new conditions.
The pioneer woman had not only to perform what. are now known as household duties, but many which were removed in later years. She not only made cloth- ing, but the fabric for it. Money was scarce, and the markets in which satisfactory purchases could be made were far away. It was the policy of the pioneer (urged by necessity) to buy nothing which could be produced by home industry. And so it happened that, in nearly all of the cabins scattered through the west- ern woods at the beginning of the present century, and for many years later, was to be heard the drowsy sound of the softly whirring spinning wheel. and the rythmie thud of the loom, and that women were there engaged in those old, ohl occupations of spinning and weaving, which have been associated with her name in all ages but our own. They are occupations of which the modern world knows little, except what it has heard from the lips of those who are grandmothers now. They are occupations which seem surrounded with the glamour of romance as we look back upon them through tradition and poetry, and they invari- ably conjure up thoughts of the virtues and graces of the generations of dames and damsels of the olden time. The woman of pioneer times was like the woman of whom Solomon sang: "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 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 eloth, for shirts and trowsers, froeks. sheets and blankets. The linen and the wool. the " linsey-woolsey " woven by the housewife, formed nearly all of the articles of clothing worn by men
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
and women, except such as in the earliest days of the settlement were made of skins.
As late as 1840 or 1845, in Butler County, every farmer had a patch of from a quarter to half an acre of flax, which was manufactured into cloth by the family. The flax, before it was ready for spinning, had to be put through the process of "hackling " and " sentching." and the latter of these operations fre- quently furnished occasions for " bees," at which the people combined industry with merriment and socia- bility. Clothes entirely of home manufacture were almost universally worn until as late as 1840, and the wearing of " store " clothes was thought by many to be an evidence of vanity.
Men in the pioneer days commonly wore the hunt. ing-shirt, a kind of loose frock reaching half way down the thighs, open before, and so wide as to lap over a foot upon the chest. This generally had a cape, which was sometimes fringed with a piece of raveled cloth of a color different from that of the gar- ment. The hunting-shirt was always worn belted. The bosom of the garment answered as a pouch in which could be carried the various articles needed by the hunter or woodsman. The shirt, or, more prop- erly, coat, was made of coarse linen, of linsey or of As the settlement increased, the sense of loneli- ness and isolation was dispelled, the asperities of life were softened, its amenities multiplied. Social gatherings became more numerous and more enjoy- able. The log-rollings, harvesting and husking bees; and occasional rifle matches for the men, and the ap- ple butter-making and quilting parties for the women. furnished frequent occasions for social intercourse. Hospitality in the olden time was simple, unaffected and unbounded, save by the limited means of the peo- ple. During the early years of the settlement, whisky 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 ma- terial, or of some kind of leather. The deer-skin breeches or trousers were very comfortable when dry, but, when they became wet, were cold to the limbs, and, the next time they were put on, were almost as stift as if made of boards. Hats or caps were made of the various native furs, in crude form, each man being his own hatter until, a few years after the first settlements, men who followed hat-making as a trade . was in common use, and was furnished on all festive came into the country and opened little shops, in which they made woolen hats.
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