USA > Pennsylvania > Greene County > History of Greene County, Pa. : containing an outline of the state from 1682, until the formation of Washington County in 1781. History during 15 years of union. The Virginia and new state controversy--running of Mason's and Dixon's line--whiskey insurrection--history of churches, families, judges, senators, assembly-men, etc., etc. > Part 13
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of the opposite sex. The taients of neither can find them em- ployment. They cannot dig : to bog some of them are ashamed. Ås the community fails to discover their ability,it will not sup- port them. They must consequently fall back on poor old fat- ther and mother, who, after toiling as long as they can to sup- port this idleness, finally drop into the grave with a conscious- ness that their hard-earned accumulations will soon be like the "small dust of the threshing floor," driven away by the wind of literary smattering. Our ancestors had no trouble like this. Their sons could chop, grub, plow, make rails, build fences, &c. Their daughters were not like the lilies of which it is said, "they toil not, neither do they spin, yet Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these." Our mothers could spin, and the little education they got in the log cabin school house made them a match for the shrewdest sharpers of that day who tried to cheat them out of their hard earned pittance. This educa- tion was not visionary, but practical, preparing them for the stern realities of life. Consequently the young men and wo- men who loved each other, saw no barrier in the way of their marriage, the parents on both sides saw none, and so the wed- ling day was set. This was to be no ordinary occasion. The kinsfolks and neighbors were to be there ; old Captain whisky usually came the day before; the sedate old minister, (with his buckskin breeches, long stockings fastened above the knees with silver buckles, and low slippers fastened in a similar way). must be there ; the bride must be as "fine as a fiddle," especially her cap ; no matter how abundant and beautiful her hair, she is done going bare-headed now. No Roman Catholic convent was ever more exacting in its demands that the young nun should wear her veil and brow-band of spotless linen than these old mothers were that their daughters should now begin to wear a cap, just because they had got married. Where they got the notion, I know not, but one thing is certain they had it; and
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then the cap must be of a peculiar pattern, all crimped and frilled and ornamented with numerous bows and furbelos. How about the groom? Matters are becoming serious with him. Every time he calls to see the girl to whom he has plighted his faith and troth, the over-anxious mother-in-law (as she is soon to be) puts him through his catechism about what he is going to wear on the "weddin day." She knows he has no coat of his own. All the sparking has been done while the groom was clad in his hunting-shirt. But now motherly pride rebels against the thought that her daughter must be married to a man "standin up before the minister with nothing but a hunting-shirt on." But one evening the intended groom comes in with a smile on his face and soon relieves the anxiety of all by telling what a clever man he has found who has con- sented to lend him his coat on the wedding day. He has lent, it already eight times on similar occasions ; all he "axes" for its use is a share of the good dinner and a dance at the wedding. All parties are happy now. This coat that has been married so often, deserves a minute description. It is made of sky-blue cloth, with a very short waist and an extreemly long swallow- tail. It has just fourteen large brass buttons on it, with the words, "treble gilt stands color," on the inside of each one. but are simply for ornament and not utility. This is a self-ad- justing coat-will fit either a large or a small man ; hence the sleeves are made long with a cuff that can be turned up if worn on a short arm, or down if the man should happen to be long in the arms. But the most exquisite thing about this coat is the collar. It took a tailor a whole day to quilt it. No wonder, for it must be five inches broad-a complete foundation for a man's hat to set on, so if his hat must fall off it always falls forward, as it cannot fall backward. If the wearer is traveling away from the wind the back of his neck is completely pro- sected. But while we have been describing the bride's cap and
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the groom's coat, the wedding day has come. It is ushered in by the firing of rifle guns, for want of artillery. The females ; oh ! how busy are they. That wild turkey must be well "biled;" them buckwheat-cakes is "gitten" too "lite ; " them corn-dodgers must be put to bake now, etc. All this time the men are gathering out in the yard. They have picked out two of the best riders to "run for the bottle" (old black Betty.) The signal for the start is to be the firing of a gun near a mile away, by the side of the road along which the groom's company is expected to come. Hark! that is it ; now there is mount- ingin hot haste, and away go the two horsemen, "helter skel- ter," "neck or nothing"-best man foremost-who, when he meets the approaching company, receives from the hand of the groom's right-hand man, a well-filled bottle, with which he returns in triumph, the groom's first treat, of which all parties partake, even the minister condescending to take the bead off the whisky by taking the first dram out of the neck of the bottle, all following him by drinking from the bottle, instead of pouring the liquor into a tumbler. The groom's company now arrive. Most of the young men are without sad- lles, while the girls are mounted on pack-saddles. Not a cloth coat in the assembly except the barrowed one that the groom wears, while the man who lent it to him acts the part of grooms- man; for it is the condition of lending the coat that the owner shall be present, and as he has been to so many weddings ho knows how to do, and in consequence of this superiority, he is selected as "second best." He is on this occasion arrayed in the nice new hunting shirt of the groom. The company dis- mount. The girls are clad in flannel and linsey skirts, sur- mounted by bright colored chince calico short gowns. Most of the boys have buckskin moccasins on, while the girls gener- ally have coarse cow-leather shoes. It is now time for the ser- vices to commence, which is with prayer about five minutes
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long, then an exhortation about ten minutes in length. Now all the questions that are found in the statutes of the State and also the canons of the church, the holy man telling the parties how Adam and Eve were married in the garden of Eden, etc., another long prayer and the twenty minutes ceremony is over, except kissing the bride, in which the preacher leads off, and is immediately followed by the groom, and then by all present -both male and female. Dinner is now ready, during the eat- ing of which the adventures of the morning are recounted -- how a brush fence was built across the road ; how near one of the girls was to being "throwed" by the firing of a gun, by a fel- low hid in the woods, who was mad because he was not "axed" to the wedding; how they had to turn out into the- woods because some body had tied grape-vines across the road, etc. Dinner over the minister departs, after receiving one dol- lar for his services. Then the fun begins. A game of "corner ball" is the first thing in order, by the boys alone, while the "gals" are helping clear the tables and wash the dishes. When, this is done, "prisoner's base" is introduced, which is engaged. in by both sexes. Running foot races, hop, step and jump, all claim a place in the afternoon amusements. The shades of evening are now beginning to fall, and what was left from din- ner is now handed round as a piece for supper. The young people have paired off for the dance. The fiddler has his vio- lin in order, and the dance begins, the bride and groom always taking part in the first "set." About ten o'clock the newly married couple retire, while the rest keep up the dance. Those who are not dancing are sitting on benches around the wall, and in order to make the seats go as far as possible they mnoho wach one carry double, the young man sitting down first, taking bis girl on his lap. Some would become so enamored with their position that when they were requested to take their places in the next set, instead of complying they would roar
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out, "Oh ! dear mother my toes are sore, dancing on your puncheon floor !" About twelve o'clock the dancers are treated to another piece, and are permitted once more to kiss old black Betty's lips (take a dram). Some one suggests that the bride and groom must be hungry, and a committee is appointed to carry them some of the roast pig, corn bread and pumpkin pie up the ladder into the "bridal chamber" immediately under the clapboard roof. "Don't forget to take old "Betty" (the bottle) along with you," shouts one of the thoughtful swains as the committee is about to start, which is accordingly done. The i committee on refreshments having discharged its duty, return and make their report, when the dance is renewed with vigor. Some of the party grow weary and secrete themselves for a nap, but they are soon hunted up and hanled out on the floor. and the fiddler is requested to play, "We'll dance all night till broad day-light, theu go home with the girls in the morr. ing," or another piece, "We'll all hold out till morning." By this time morning has come. The tired dancers readjust their delapidated finery preparatory to their departure for the "in- fare," where another day of fun and frolic comes off. But just as the "sun retires to rest in his wigwam behind the western waters," the company breaks up, the chivalrous beaus see that their various sweet-hearts don't fall off the pack-saddle on their way to their fathers' houses. The tired swains return to their various places of abode, esteeming this quite "glory enoug !! for any two days" of their lives. About two weeks after the wedding the whole neighborhood is invited in to build a house for the couple hereafter to be considered an independent family. The two old men have met, and looked out a place near a good spring. When the morning of the appointed time arrived, men on horseback and on foot come shouting through the woods towards the place indicated in the invitation, with axes on their shoulders. See, there comes a yoke of oven attached
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to a log sled. Yes, there is another team of oxen drawing a large sled on which are seated three women, bringing Dutch ovens, skillets and lids, pewter dishes, knives and forks, to assist in getting dinner down in the "big woods," nsing the water out of the new spring for cooking. This was called "christening the spring." But all hands have come to work, not to talk. Men with axes are coming in from all directions More women arrive bringing bear and deer meat and pork. The small trees are falling all around. The first log is hauled. A large tree is cut near the spring for clapboards for the roof, the stump of which is taken for one corner. Large short logs are laid in for the other corners. Then the old rough carpen- ter, who acts as "boss," begins to call loudly for four men by name to come forward as corner men. Now one log is on, now another, now "up it goes." Against dinner is ready the lower story is up and the "jice is on." Dinner is eaten amidst great hilarity, and many a joke is at the expeuse of the recent groom and bride. But all must hurry for four rounds of logs are to go on besides ribs, weight-poles and gable-end timber : yet many hands make light work. Log by log, stick by stick, the balance of the materials go up until just as the sun is beginning to cast long shadows through the tree- tops, the roof is on. The puncheons are ready, but cannot be put in yet because of "a mortar hole," which, for the sake of convenience, must be under the house. Afew men are busy removing soil and digging up clay, and boys are equally busy carrying water from the new spring to mix the clay. What is this coming in at the new door-way? Ah, I see, it is an ox and his mate coming to tramp the clay into mortar for plastering the new-made home. "Come to supper," are the glad tidings uttered by a woman's voice. The tired men dis- patch this meal more quietly than the previous one, and now all who have family cares of their own to discharge, take
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tools, oxen, horses and dishes and depart for their own cabins, leaving the young men and boys to daub the house before com- ing home. The oxen have been kept going round and round all this time ; the clay and water, under pressure of their feet. is a glistening batch of sticky mortar. The faithful oxen are turned out to eat a half-bushel of nubbins that awaits them in a trough before the door. The bare-footed boys now roll up their buckskin linsey or tow trousers and leap into the mortar hole, where they gather np double handfuls of mud and throw it into the cracks between the logs, in which one of the heart pieces out of the clap-board tree has already been inserted and is called "chunking." These mud throwers are followed by the young men with wooden trowels, made out of a waste clapboard, who smooth the mortar off and close all the crevices so well the summer rain and winter wind are compelled to stay on the outside. Against 9 o'clock, P. M. the house is completely daubed inside, and the sleepers are laid in. The lights used are old gourds half filled with grease into which a twisted rac has been inserted, the end hanging over the edge of the gour! and is set on fire. The next day three or four old men came back to fit down the puncheons in the floor, make the door and build the chimney. The door is made by pinning two broad puncheons together with large wooden pins driven into cross pieces, which project about eight inches on one side. Throug !. this projecting end a hole is bored and an upright piece of wood is dressed small at the top to fit this hole and then pinned fast to the door cheek for a hinge. A wooden latch is made to drop into a wooden catch and in order that it may do so casily. both catch and latch are copiously greased. Now let us have the chimney built and we are done. The fire-place is about ten feet wide, for our new beginner does not want to spend alı his time chopping wood; he expects to put in his winter days clearing land. The logs that are sawed out are split in two for
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jambs. Logs are laid across these to support the back-wall. This then is built up as high as the mantel, and then small sticks are built on it intersected with mud, into which straw cut about two inches long is mixed, giving the whole thing the name of "cat and clay." When the chimney is thus carried up above the roof and large stones are set in for the jambs to keep the fire from burning the wood-work, the cabin is done, and is left to dry for a few days, when the mothers on both sides do their best to rig out the young couple for house-keep- ing. If the bride is twenty-two years old, she most likely has a feather-bed of her own; but women were scarce in those days, and were not often allowed to arrive at that age, unless they were outrageously ugly. In case they were married at seventeen or eighteen, the two mothers generally managed to get them a feather-bed, but sometimes they went to house- keeping on straw. Some kind of a dresser must be made to hold in a conspicuous way the new set of pewter plates that "dad" has bought for his daughter. The six pewter spoons are hung in notches in the edge of the lower shelf of the dresser, while the mush dish and little porringers are stood up on their edges, just behind where the knives and forks are laid. The bed-stead is made by boring two holes in a log and two more holes in the puncheon floor. Into these holes in the ilco: the lower end of a small forked stick is driven, which fork is about two and a half feet high, so as to be on a level with the hole in the wall, into which hole another pole is tightly driven and allowed to rest at the outer end in the top of the fork. Two poles are now laid lengthwise, one in front and the other back against the wall. Acercas these poles, clap boards are laid and the stead is ready for the bed. Now for the "house- warming." The first evening after the moving. those young men who worked so hard at building and daabing the cali, are now invited to bring their partners and enjoy some of the
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
hospitalities of the new home. The new dishes are to be eaten off of the first time as they set so nicely on the new pun- cheon table. After the homely meal is over, all hands engage in five or six reels or jigs, and then go home. They must not dance all night as they did at the wedding.
Another of the gatherings of our ancestors at a later date than the times I have been describing, say about fifty years ago, was the "corn-husking." I never saw corn cut up and husked on the stalk in Western Pennsylvania until within the last forty years. Previous to that time the farmers pulled the cars off the stalks, which they left standing in the field. The corn was then hauled and thrown in a long ridge about four feet high. The neighbors were invited in on a moon- light night. Two young men or boys were nominated as cap- tains, who requested two, sometimes three old men to di- vide the heap for them. This was done by carefully stepping the heap, asking which end was hauled first, etc. They then I ud a large rail across the pile and declared it ready. The captains had previously tossed a board or a stone, having a wet and dry side to it ; the one who got the wet side twice, had the choice of hands, and as soon as the rail was laid, he called out his favorite's name, requesting him to come to the rail. As fast as the hands were thus alternately chosen, they set in to husking with all their might, each one making as much noise as he possibly could. Whenever one side found them :- selves sure of victory, they picked up their captain on their shoulders and began a most frightful screaming -- this was called "hoisting the captain." But it often happened that both sides claimed the victory. In that case both captains were hoisted. They were often thrown against each other by men under the influence of liquor. A ground scuffle and sometimes angst was the result. If any unfair play was shown to hang person In favor of one of the captains and against the other in this
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scuffle, it was immediately resented, sometimes leading to two or three fights during the same evening. When all things had become quiet again, the husks were thrown in pens previ- ously prepared. All hands then proceeded to the house where supper was smoking on the table. This supper consisted prin- cipally of chicken pot-pie washed down with an occasional tin of sweet cider ; this course was supplemented by several pieces of pumpkin pie. I have gone to as high as six of these huskings in one week, in the moonlight nights in the fall of the year, and I believe to-day that it was the surest and quick. est way of getting corn into the crib. The cattle and hogs were turned into the corn-field while the ground was still dry They eat most of the fodder, gathered up all the corn that was massed in pulling. The stalks were then left where they ought to be on the field, and not in the barn-yard, where they are only a nuisance, besides a man can husk three cars to one where they are pulled off the stalk. While our fathers were .: bout right in getting in their corn, I think they made several mistakes in their methods of farming, first as regards the rota- tion of crops. They had the corn field where they expected to raise their corn from year to year, although almost all the mitriment suited to the grain was gone, and their crop would not exceed fifteen bushels to the aere, yet with all their good common sense they failed to see what the difficulty was. They also had the wheat field where they expected to raise their wheat for munbers of years in succession, never allowing the land to rest a few years under a good coat of grass. They would have thought a man insane who would have spent a few dollars of his hard-earned money for a bushel of clover or timothy seed. They also had the narrow strip of land along the spring run or some larger rivulet which they denominated the meadow, so called just because it happened to be level and smooth. The stones were picked off it, and although it
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HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
was mowed with a scythe for ten successive years, although scarcely a timothy head was to be seen, yet they persisted in mowing that small undergrowth, which required a scythe so sharp that it must literally shave the mossy sod, else the mower would leave but a light swath behind him. About the only ro- tation that I have any knowledge of was in the new piece of ground of about one acre that was just cleaned out last spring, and named the "potato patch." Next spring, on good Friday, it must be sown in flax, and a new piece cleared for potatoes. There was also the truck patch which was to be omnibus, from the fact of its containing almost every thing-pumpkins, squashes, beans, peas and onions, garlic, red peppers, shives, etc., with quite a large space left for setting out the tobacco plants and cabbage plants, with just room enough for two or three hills of Jerusalem apples (tomatoes) which were only raised to lay in the window for ornament, the children being cationed under penalty of death not to touch them, for they "arc the baddest kind of poison." The tobacco was al- most sure to be a good crop, provided the suckers were kept pulled off and the tobacco worm was carefully looked after. The cabbage was not likely to bead very well as the land was too new.
Thus far we have said nothing about the religious habits of the people of Greene county one hundred, eighty or cven fifty years ago. We hope no one will conclude that this si- lence is because our ancestors had no religion. Nothing could be farther from the truth than such a conclusion as this. It is true that some other localities had the advantage over some portions of this county, from the fact that there was more congruity among our carly settlers, which enabled them to or- ganize congregations, build churches and sustain ministers at a much earlier period than Greene county did. With the sin- gle exception of the Muddy Creek settlement, and South Ten-
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mile. Presbyterianism did not get any footing for about forty years after the first settlements made in the county. Although this denomination was about abreast with he Baptists, yet the settlement of the former sect was more marginal than the lat- ser, and when the thoroughfare that afterwards became the National Road was opened early in the present century, the line of Scotch-Irish emigration followed that road into Wash- ington county instead of Greene, where they settled down on Chartier's, Pigeon, Mingo and Raccoon creeks. They were noble people, but have been eulogized too much by their de- Scendants of the first generation, by covering up all their de. fects and hiding all their excellencies. While Presbyterians were thus found shying off from Greene county, the Baptists had come here to a great extent on account of Episcopal perse- vution in Virginia, and as the communications were kept open in the rear, there was a constant tide of emigration to this ter- ritory as long as there was puplic land to be taken up. An- other reason for the increase of one denomination over the other is, that Presbyterians at a very carly day introduced a long and expensive course of ministerial education, which, when Required, compelled the man on which so much was expended, to deinand more for his services than the man who had just stepped from his plow or shop into the ministry. In conse- quence of much of the roughness of the territory of Greene county and the lightness of crops, their salaries, as a mat- ter of course, were small, causing all those who must have fat salaries to go elsewhere to seek them, thus leaving the few Presbyterians already here as sheep without a shepherd. Another difficulty that was found to exist was that inasmuch as it required so many long years to enter the Presbyterian ministry, anxious, pious parents did not often wait to see whether the Lord would call their sons as he did Aaron and Samuel, but concluding He would surely call them. seized
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time by the forelock and sent on their sons to the academies and colleges almost before they had come to years of discre- tion. When those years were reached it was too late to send them to a trade or to the plow. Too much money had already been expended on them to be lost, and although the most san- guine friends could detect no existing qualifications for preach- ing the everlasting Gospel, yet the distressed parents hoped those qualifications would make their appearance in due sea- son. The faculties of colleges were slow in telling those dis- appointed parents their "dear sons" could never succeed in the ministry, teaching with them was a "matter of bread and but- ter." The Presbytery also was hopeful that the talent that was now evidently buried in a napkin, would in due time bc brought to light, and thus the dear boy was pressed on through college, through the seminary, and now sure enough he was through. The common people did not want to hear him ; he co ild not look them in the face; he roads his little discourse from the manuscript that no doubt he wrote, but who com- posed it is quite another question-the probabilities are that, he did, but there is a possibility that he did not. Along side of this one talented youth, there graduated a fine talented man- a star of the first magnitude ; one that his Creator had en- dowed with all the qualifications necessary for his arduous work. But men of this kind are so few and far between that it is not likely that he will settle down on a salary of five hun- dred dollars, when there are abundance of places that are offer- ing two or three thousand dollars ; hence the brilliant men go to the large churches, while the men who depend on their di plomas as their only recommendation, were under the necessity of "stopping"-for a while at least-in Greene county, where they often become almost the laughing stock of the people who alternately listened tothem, and then to men who had never spent a week in a college in their lives, These people would
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