USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 24
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77
The march of the army eastward may be fraught with interest to those who are accustomed to the rapid mobilization of soldiers in our present day. The first day's march was to Hellman's, fifteen miles east of Pittsburgh; the second day's march was to a point near Greensburg, marching fourteen miles that day; the third day they marched to the Nine Mill Run near Youngstown, eleven miles; the fourth day they camped two miles east of Fort Ligonier, eleven miles ; the fifth day they crossed Laurel Hill, and en- camped at the foot of its eastern slope, nine miles. The sixth day's march they reached Stony Creek, where Stonystown now stands, or a mile beyond, making eleven miles. On the seventh and eighth days they marched respect- ively eleven and twenty-four miles, and reached Bedford. From Bedford they marched to Carlisle, a distance of ninety-five miles.
207
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
David Bradford was the leading spirit of the Whisky Insurrection. He was a citizen of Washington county, and was a prominent lawyer, practicing both there and in Westmoreland. He was a very unsafe man to follow, but had great powers as an agitator. When the government issued a general amnesty proclamation it included all citizens engaged in the insurrection ex- cept Bradford. He had fled to Louisiana, then a Spanish possession, and become an extensive planter. He was always respectably connected, being during the insurrection a brother-in-law of Judge Allison, the grandfather of John Allison, late register of the treasury of the United States. His granddaughter was married to Richard Broadhead, United States senator from Pennsylvania, from 1851 to 1857. His son was married to a sister of Jefferson Davis, late President of the Southern Confederacy. In Louisiana he became wealthy, and as a planter attained a fairly high social position. He died there in 1809.
James McFarlane had been a soldier and officer of undaunted courage in the Revolution. He was born in 1751, and was therefore but forty-three years old when he was killed near General Neville's house, on July 17th. On his tombstone are engraved these words among others: "He defended American Independence against the lawless and despotic encroachments of Great Britain. He fell at last by the hands of an unprincipled villain in the support of what he supposed to be the rights of his country, much la- mented by a numerous and respectable circle of acquaintances."
General John Neville was born in Virginia in 1731, and was one of the few brave officers of the Virginia troops who escaped death at Braddock's defeat. Afterwards he was colonel of the Fourth Virginia Regiment in the Revolution, and was in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Germantown and Monmouth. After the Revolution he moved to Pennsylvania, and was a member of the supreme executive council. President Washington appointed him inspector of revenue for the counties of Western Pennsylvania, and this was why his residence, etc., were burned on July 17, 1794, as has been told above. He died near Pittsburgh, July 29, 1803.
William Findley was by far the most noted man connected with the Whisky Insurrection, but as he represented Westmoreland in Congress for nearly a quarter of a century we shall refer to him at length among special biographies of distinguished men of Westmoreland county.
The Whisky Insurrection is an important event in our history and one that has been much written of. It was the first attempt on the part of the people to disobey or overthrow the national authority. It came when the new govern- ment was in its infancy. It is well for us that Washington was then president of the United States, and that he met the opposition with that strength and dignity which characterized his every act. Those who would know more of the insurrection will be abundantly repaid by reading "The Lattimers," a novel of great strength founded entirely on the Whisky Insurrection.
CHAPTER XV
Old Customs .- Crops .- Industries .- Clothes .- Wild Animals, etc.
Westmoreland's early settlers were nearly all young men. Rarely ever were they beyond middle age. The old people were left behind in the east. Often a young man came across the mountains unmarried, and here located a tract of land, cleared a part of it, and sometimes built a house the first year. Late in the fall or winter he returned to his former home to get married. Then the two set out for their new home. He usually had a horse, not likely a thorough- bred, but an animal upon which the young wife rode, and on which was also carried a few indispensable household goods which could not be purchased here. Sometimes the well-to-do pioneer had two horses. If so, on one was a pack- saddle on which could be carried about three hundred and fifty pounds of household utensils. In any event they brought a skillet, a pot, perhaps a few dishes, an ax and mattock, for clearing land. There was generally some bed- ding material, though this was often entirely of skins of animals killed on the way or after their arrival. They also brought garden seeds, and a few dried herbs to last them until new ones could be raised.
Seed corn and seed grain generally was kept at the garrison, and thither went the farmer who was in need when planting time came. They also brought seeds from favorite apple and peach trees. The settler himself usually walked all the way, and carried a rifle on his shoulder, for a rifle he must have. Then if they had with them a few pounds of hard baked bread, and if he was fortunate enough to shoot a deer, a turkey or smaller game, they were all right for a week's journey or more through the wilderness. In novels one often reads of a bed in the wilderness, made of small branches of trees, and this is exactly what was done. There were often days of travel without the sign of a human habita- tion. If the travelers were near a settler's house, be it ever so humble and crowded, they were always welcome. This long journey was almost always made in the springtime, when sleeping outside was not dangerous nor incon- venient. They were nearly always going to a settlement where they were looked for and welcomed by old acquaintances or relatives. The journey had in it much to look forward to with pleasure. Seldom did a family locate
209
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
in a new country alone. In case the community into which they were moving was entirely new, they formed a company among neigh- bors in the east who journeyed and located together. These companies were called colonies, and often had among them entire families. As has been observed before, the first log huts or cabins were built near the forts; then they spread out along the military roads, and finally the entire community was set- tled. Nearly all the forts in our county were garrisoned by the government of the state, and in these the settler and his wife or family were made welcome until the log house was ready for occupancy. Their residence in the fort was therefore not limited to times of danger.
We had few Daniel Boones in our early pioneer days-men who isolated themselves entirely from companionship, and lived alone in the wilderness. Our people were home-makers, and after the acquisition of land, what they most desired was neighbors. They did not come here to hunt and fish, nor to buy furs and skins from the Indians. Generally they left better homes in the east, but were willing to endure all manner of hardships for a few years, with the hope of abundance later on. They very soon learned to love their new homes, and to fight for and defend them as though they were palaces. How- ever rough the land, however small the clearing, or however rude his mud- plastered log cabin, it was his own, and that consolation compensated him for all its imperfections. Because he owned it himself he was willing to defend it against all the world, if necessary. "To be a land owner," said James G. Blaine in his eulogy on President Garfield, "has been a patent and passport of self-respect with the Anglo-Saxon race, ever since Horsa and Hengist landed on the shores of England." For many years, as we have seen, he worked with his gun near him, and in company with his neighbors. In house building he was compelled to have neighbors, or at least some assistance, in putting the logs in place. He could cut down and hew the timber, and perhaps a neighbor could help him drag the hewn logs to the place selected for the house. Then came the "raising," which was the big day of our pioneer ancestry. The whole com- munity assembled and put up the skeleton of a house in a single day. Some- times they cut and hewed the logs, and put up the house between "sun up and sun down." A house fifteen by thirty feet, two rooms below and one or two above, was a good sized house for that period. The axe was the principal tool used in house building. On the day of the raising the older citizens had each a "dramı" before they began work, for whisky was supposed to be indispensable in every well regulated community. Therc was also a big dinner, which was prepared by the women of the community, and thus both old and young were brought together at the raising, and all had a part to perform. The young man could show his strength lifting logs to their places. And not by any means the least attractive feature of the occasion, were the young maidens who attended to prepare the noon dinner. The young men were rough and un- polished, half hunter, half farmer, but nevertheless they greatly attracted our
2-14
210
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
grand dames. The raising was governed by rules which greatly facilitated the work. The men were divided into two equal parties, and after the military order of the day, each side chose a captain. The logs were pushed up long slides at each side and at the ends, and the party which could the most rapidly put its logs in place were the victors. When it was at its place, it was notched at the ends to fit on the log underneath it, and thus be firmly held in place. The man who notched the ends of the logs was called the "corner man," and. there were four of these, that is, one for each corner. A sharp axe, a true eye and a strong arm were the necessary requisites of a good "corner man." Had he these qualifications he could very quickly notch the log to fit on the log be- low, and cut its upper side to fit the triangular notch of the next log. He must also keep his corner plumb. While he was doing this, those on the ground were moving the next log up the slides to its final position. A good "corner man" must have the last log finished by the time the next arrived, so as not to keep the men waiting. But if he did keep them waiting sometimes in the morning, when the logs did not have to be raised very high, later in the day he could often indulge in the sarcasm of calling for logs, for each succeeding log had to be raised one log higher. The average log when green, if twenty feet long, would weigh not less than fifteen hundred pounds, and it was not an easy matter to hoist it fifteen or twenty feet with their limited appliances.
The average house of say twenty by thirty feet was nine or ten feet to the top of the first story, and the second story was not generally more than four or. four and one-half feet to the eaves of the roof. Sometimes when the house was more pretentious, the second was a full story of eight or nine feet. The house was generally built of logs of equal length, making no provision for door or windows. The logs were afterwards sawed away for such openings. That this was done can be noticed even to this day in our old log houses. Some- times there was a chimney in the center, with a fireplace on each side, but not often. It was oftener at one side or end of the house, and frequently on the outside, in which case there was an opening through the logs for the fire place In most houses the chimney was made of stones and mortar. A few houses had chimneys made of small pieces of wood, which, when laid in thick mortar which was made to thoroughly cover the inside, were fairly well protected from the sparks of the fire. The earliest houses had no glass windows. Light was admitted through greased paper, and the light at best was very poor. There was no glass manufactured in America then, and it was a luxury only indulged in by the very wealthy.
At the top of the first story were logs called joists, which were hewn on one side only. They were usually made from small saplings, say eight or ten inches in diameter. On the top came the rafters, made after the manner of the joists, but not so heavy. The roof was made of clapboards-that is, boardlike pieces split from straight-grained trees. They were much larger and thicker than split shingles. Sometimes they were smoothed off with a drawing-knife.
21I
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
From these were also made the rough floor of the second story, if there was a second story at all, for some of the houses were but one story high. The floor of the first story in the most primitive houses was made of clay. Next to clay in advancement was the puncheon floor, which was made of logs split in the center and the flat side turned up. These flat surfaces, with a little dressing, made a comparatively level floor. The fireplace was a great wide opening, so that a log even six feet long could be rolled into it as a back log, and this helped to throw out heat. Over this great fireplace was hung the rifle, bullet-pouch and powder horn. Sometimes the antlers of a deer hung above the fireplace, and from this were suspended the implements of the hunter. The door was hung on wooden hinges. The door latch was a short bar of wood on the inside, and from it upward and through a hole in the door passed the latch-string, so that it could be opened from the outside if the string was out. But when night came, the latch-string could be drawn in, a simple way of locking the door.
The house was made comparatively warm by filling up the cracks with small pieces of wood, and covering them with mortar. It was also a dry house after the floor was put in, but these were almost its only merits. The houses burnt in Hannastown were the best in the county in 1782, yet none of them were better than the description above, and some of them were smaller. The houses in Pittsburgh before the Revolution were not equal to this. In 1774 there was but one house in Pittsburgh with a shingle roof, and it was pointed out as a marvel in wooden improvement, and as an evidence of the enterprise of the city.
Dr. McMillen, who came to Westmoreland county to preach in 1788, says : "The cabin in which I was to live was raised, but there was no roof to it, nor any chimney or floor. We had neither bedstead, nor table, nor stool, nor chair, nor bucket. We placed two boxes, one on the other, which served us for a table, and two kegs served us for seats, and having committed ourselves to God in family worship we spread our bed on the floor and slept soundly till morning. Sometimes, indeed, we had no bread for weeks together, but we had plenty of pumpkins and potatoes, and all the necessaries of life; as for luxuries, we were not much concerned about them."
Dr: Power, who also preached here during the Revolution, says that for years after he came there was not a frame, stone or brick house within the limits of his congregation, and his charge included the most advanced parts of our present county. Stone houses were not built till the latter part of the century, and even then only when building stones could be readily procured. The furniture within the house was, as Dr. McMillen has indicated, nearly all home-made, and generally without sawed lumber.
Our day laborers now would not live in such houses, even though they were rent free, yet these were the houses and castles of our ancestors, who were not inferior to us in physical or moral qualifications, nor were they by nature intellectually inferior to us. If any reader who prides himself on being
212
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
descended from one of Westmoreland's old families will go back far enough he will find his ancestor living in just such a house as is described, and likely in one not quite so complete. Nor will he be ashamed of it, if he is a truly worthy and loyal son of his pioneer ancestry. The greatest and most distin- guished man of the last century, Abraham Lincoln, was born in a one-storied log cabin in Kentucky. Daniel Webster, in a political address made during the "Log Cabin" campaign of 1840 at Saratoga, New York, said: "It did not happen to me to be born in a log cabin, but my elder brothers and sisters were born in a log cabin, raised amid the snowdrifts of New Hampshire, at a period so early that when the smoke first rose from its rude chimney and curled over the frozen hills, there was no similar evidence of a white man's habitation be- tween it and the settlements on the rivers of Canada. Its remains still exist. I make to it an annual visit. I carry my children to it, to teach them the hard- ships endured by the generations which have gone before them."
Many of our early houses had but one room, and sometimes these had a second story, called a loft, which was reached by a ladder, or by pins driven into the logs. On the rafters were hung pieces of smoked meat, all kinds of herbs for medicines, and clothes not in use.
Stables were built like houses, but of smaller logs, and they were very rarely hewn logs. They were built of smaller logs to protect the stock from wild animals, such as bears and wolves, which roamed the country at will, and were very destructive. The stables were not much of a protection against the blasts of winter, for the cracks between the logs were very rarely closed.
When the early settler began to erect a building he always located it near a never failing spring, and thus generally on the lower ground. In felling trees for his house and stable he was clearing his land, and thus his first fields were near his house. Then he cut down others, rolled them together and burnt them. Other trees were deadened, and among these he raised grain. One man in a few days, could deaden the trees on a piece of land that would make a good sized field. In a few years the storms uprooted the deadened trees, and the huge boles by that time were very dry. So if three or four were rolled together, making a "log leap," they could be reduced to ashes in a few hours. In this way the primeval woods were cut away. Very little of the timber was utilized.
The next duty was to fence a few of his fields, that is, such as he intended to farm regularly. Cattle and horses were allowed to wander at large, brows- ing in the woodland. Bells were hung on the necks of animals, so that they could be found when needed, and that the farmer might know from the sound of the bell when they were encroaching upon his fields. Bells were almost in- dispensable in the new unfenced country, yet they sometimes wrought great harmı. Often the Indians removed the bells from the animals, and, hiding be- hind bushes or in dark ravines, induced children thither whom they captured, the children thinking they were approaching the cows or horses for which they were searching. The bells on animals were also a protection against wild
213
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
beasts; rarely ever, it is said, would a wolf or a bear attack an animal which wore a bell.
Corn, rye and potatoes were the principal products of the early farmers. They were very anxious to raise wheat, but had poor success in its culture, even in our present wheat growing communities. They believed that wheat and rye could be raised only on high ground, and for that reason settled the highlands first. The more level tracts and rich river or creek bottoms which now constitute our most productive farming communities, were considered too damp for wheat or rye to live in over winter. Furthermore, the rich bottom land was very wild, and had to be reclaimed by more farming than the higher ground. Corn was largely used for bread, and by hunters and travelers in the form of "Johnny cake," which was originally called "journey cake." The average garden was a very small affair. . They raised there the sage from the leaves of which they made a tea, used as a substitute for the tea of commerce ; to the real tea our ancestors were always hostile after the tax was put on it. When Arthur St. Clair first moved his family to Ligonier valley, Mrs. St. Clair brought with her a chest of real tea. Many of her new neighbors had heard of it before, but had never seen or tasted it. They came from near and from far to attend her "tea parties." They enjoyed it so much that it was but a short time till it was all used up. Coffee was not known to our early set- tlers, but by the time of the Revolution it was used for special occasions. The root-bark of the sassafras tree, roasted chestnuts and rye were all used in the place of coffee. From necessity our ancestors in that age were clothed almost entirely in home-made garments of linen or wool, or a mixture of the two called "linsey-woolsey." or of deer skins.
Flax culture is so far removed from our generation that perhaps a few words concerning it may not be out of place here, for it was undoubtedly the mainstay among our early pioneers. Flax culture is one of the oldest of human industries. Dr. Heer, the great German botanist, has proved pretty thoroughly that it was cultivated before history was written among the prehistoric races of Europe. After many years of research he asserts that it was cultivated in Egypt five thousand years ago. Its use in the formation of textile fabrics is much older than the use of wool, notwithstanding the fact that sheep are among the oldest of domestic animals.
It is a fibrous plant, from the bark of which all linen is made. It will grow readily on any soil, but best on moist channery ground. The seed is a small brown grain, and from it is manufactured all pure linseed oil. The seea being small, a gallon would sow about two acres of ground. It grew about two and one-half feet high, and bore a very pretty blue blossom, a field of which was most attractive to the eye. When ripe it was pulled up by the roots and dried on the ground. The seeds were removed by threshing with a flail. The stem itself was very brittle when dried, and the bark was very tough, so, when "broken" on a crude machine called a break, the bark remained whole, while the brittle stems were reduced to small pieces, and they were easily
214
HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
separated from the fiber. The finer part of the fiber or bark could be spun into linen, and the coarser part was made into a cloth called tow. This separa- tion was done by drawing it lengthwise over a "hackle," which was a board set with numerous iron spikes projecting about four inches. These caught the rough material and allowed the finer fibers to be drawn through.
Then the housewife spun it on a spinning wheel propelled by a treadle tramped by one foot. Spinning wheels can yet be seen in many houses, pre- served as mementoes of the past age. Spinning with a wheel was a very an- cient and a very simple art. They spun in the days of Virgil, for he says the "slender thread of life is drawn out from the spindles of the Fates." They both spun and wove in Greece, and, still farther back than Homer's age, the Egyptians were weaving linens, which would be of a high order even in our own advanced age. Homer compares the life of man to the "swift flying shuttle of the weaver."
Nor was spinning confined to the pioneer women in the west, but our grandmothers in the best of families were taught to spin and knit, and many of them to weave. The mother of General Washington, herself a woman of high birth and great wealth, could spin, knit and weave, and Martha, the wife of the General, became famous for her knitting societies in the Revo- lution. The cloth was woven on looms, which were rather expensive affairs, and only perhaps one family in a dozen could afford one. The neighbor who had a loom took in weaving, and retained a part of each web woven in payment for such services. A fabric made of tow or linen was durable, but not a warm covering for cold weather. So a mixture of wool and linen called "linsey-woolsey" was made. Wool could be prepared for home spin- ning by carding it, which was done by two hand-cards looking not unlike currycombs for horses. Then it could be spun and woven like linen or tow. But the early pioneers' great difficulty in producing wool was to protect the sheep from wolves and bears, which were found in every section of our county. Foxes, too, were very destructive of young lambs. When the country grew older these animals were banished, and wool carding by hand was abandoned, for in many localities there sprang up fulling mills. To these the farmer sent his wool to have it made ready for home spinning, or he could have it spun at the factory and woven into such cloth as he stood in need of. The woolen factories were run by water-power, and the work they did was not expensive. They also colored the wool and made it into blankets of red and white, or blue and white, some of which may yet be seen among the older families of the county. These factories were not built in Westmoreland county till after 1800, and for twenty-five or thirty years at least the early pioneer families spun and wove their own cloth almost en- tirely. In 1807 there were two of these factories in Greensburg, as is noticed from the Farmers' Register of that year. They colored and carded wool into rolls so that the pioneer's wife could spin them, and for this they charged
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.