USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 26
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Another crying need of the settler was salt. This they could not produce from their land, and neither they nor their live stock could get along well without it. In Craig's "History of Pittsburgh" is quoted a letter from Broad- head, written to the president of the council, in which he says salt will purchase material which money would not buy. He urges them to send salt, and that they can't possibly send too much salt. All the salt was then brought here on packhorses from Hagerstown, Maryland, or from Philadelphia, hence its great scarcity. In 1790 one bushel of salt was worth twenty bushels of wheat. Meat could not be kept without salt, so the scarcity of salt brought about a corresponding scarcity of meat. When Pittsburgh was garrisoned it was not
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uncommon to send the soldiers out to hunt in the woods for game. Few cattle were raised because of the enormous prices of salt. About 1800, Kentucky salt was manufactured from the inexhaustible salt wells of that state, and was brought up to Pittsburgh in barrels on boats, and after that it was cheaper. Yet, in 1806, Kentucky salt was worth fourteen dollars per barrel, though the barrels were about one-third larger than they are now. For many years it was worth from 121/2 to 20 cents per quart at retail. Deer licks were known here long before the Revolution, but the farmers had neither the money nor the knowledge to bore for and manufacture it. It was not infrequent that a train of packhorses went east laden with skins and furs and returned laden with salt.
Both congress and the legislature of Pennsylvania passed measures to re- lieve the people from their crying need of salt. In September, 1776, a large amount of salt was found secrêted by some Tory merchants in Philadelphia, and it was at once confiscated and divided around among the counties, the share of Westmoreland county being three hundred and nineteen bushels. In 1778 the legislature purchased a large quantity for free distribution, and they also passed a law against any one having a monopoly of the salt trade. The Continental Congress itself established a salt works in New Jersey, but like most of its exploits, the works were not successful. In 1779 a "Committee of Salt" was appointed by the state to regulate its price and to force its sale on the part of those who had laid by large quantities of it. In a "Merchants Memorial" relative to a seizure of salt made by the "Salt Committee" on October 23, 1779. it is stated that they had refused $200 per bushel for it, and that now when taken from them for the state's benefit they were only receiving 30 pounds, or $150 for it. Flour was very scarce in the east, so President Reed proposed in 1799 that salt be distributed among the counties in proportion to the amount of flour sent east by them.
Salt wells were inexhaustible in Kentucky, but they had not as yet begun to distill whisky, so when our people began to make whisky, boat loads of it were sent down the river and exchanged for salt. But salt in the early part of the last century remained high in price, and it was not unusual for farmers to unite and send down to Hagerstown or Kentucky a train of packhorses which could carry back the salt for the farmer for the coming year. Each packhorse could carry from three to four hundred pounds of salt. As late as 1820 famers' boys went in groups for salt. One horse could carry two hundred and fifty pounds of salt, and a boy rider in addition. The rate of travel was about twenty-five miles per day. The boys looked forward all year to the prospect of the trip to the salt works in the fall. When they returned they were veritable young heroes, and were sought to tell of their sight-seeing trip. Shortly after 1800 salt was discovered in the Conemaugh Valley by an old woman named Deemer, who saw salt water oozing up in the river bottom in times of low water. William Johnston first sunk a well and started a salt works there. His land lay near Saltsburg, where he built a grist mill and called his place
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Point Johnston. This was in 1812 or 1813, and his works, which could pro- duce about thirty bushels of salt a day, brought down the price considerably.
Salt was known on Jacob's Creek long before this, because of the deer-licks there. William Beck first began its manufacture in that locality, that is on Sewickley Creek. It was there about five hundred feet below the surface, while Johnston bored a well only about two hundred and ninety feet deep, where he found an abundance of salt water. On Sewickley they bored the well by man-power purely. Four men stood on the ground, four on a platform above them, and the eight men grasped the shaft of the auger, and, raising
SMITH'S MILL BUILT AT SMITHTON ABOUT 1801
it about three feet, let it fall; this was repeated time after time, and the auger was turned an inch or so each time. There was a rope fastened to the auger after the end of the shaft passed under the ground. It is known that they were three years in boring a hole five hundred feet deep, but it is scarcely probable that the work was steadily pursued. The well was tubed and the manufacture of salt began, and this reduced the price of salt in Westmoreland county from five to seven dollars a barrel, the manufacture being fairly started in 1820. It was boiled in kettles and salt pans over
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wood fires. The water was pumped from the well with horse-power. All this primitive manner of manufacture made it very expensive, and for years afterwards a good cow might be exchanged for salt, but brought only one barrel.
A great many references have been made to the Continental money of this formative period of our county, and to its fluctuating values. The real value was so indefinite that it is hard to say what it was worth in gold or silver. It was, however, an important factor in the settlement of our county, and must be properly considered. It was practically the only measure of values they had for years. Gold and silver had scarcely any circulation at all in those years west of the Allegheny mountains, but it became a measure of values in 1789, when the country as a Union came under the new or pres- ent constitution. Prior to that Continental money had scarcely any pur- chasing power at all. An old order book of 1780 among other things pre- scribes the amounts which landlords are allowed to charge their patrons for liquor and accommodations. These rates are as follows, and are given in Continental money: One-half pint of whisky, $6; whole pint of whisky, $8.50 ; supper, $2; breakfast, $2; lodging, with clean sheets on the bed, $3; one horse and hay over night, $3.
So no valuation of property based on such depreciated currency can be of any value to us. In 1779 flour and bacon were very scarce here and were brought across the mountains on packsaddles. Bacon sold for one dollar a pound, and flour was $16 per barrel. Congress resorted to all man- ner of devices to sustain the value of its currency. It passed embargo acts, legal tender acts, limitation of prices acts, enacted penalties for refusing to take it, etc., but all their enactments were ineffectual in giving it a pur- chasing power equal or anything like equal to its denomination. The only result seemed to be to bring the Continental Congress into greater con- tempt. Perhaps our people suffered more from it after the Revolution than at any other time. Soldiers at the close of the war were paid off in it. This brought much of it into our county, and resulted in the immediate disappearance of what little gold and silver we had. As if this was not enough, the state also issued a currency. There was no reason why this might not have been good, for it could have been redeemed by the issuing power. But the people were so opposed to paper money that the state's cur- rency had but little more value than that of Congress.
The county commissioners of our county in 1780 adopted a system of value which must have been about fair, for it was confirmed by our courts. In this system $30 in Continental money was valued at three shillings and six pence. This would indicate that one dollar in gold was worth more than $150 in Continental currency. David Duncan, commissioner of purchases, reported that he had purchased in 1781 stall-fed beef at one shilling per pound, state money, and whisky at six or seven shillings per gallon. He 15
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
further said, "I have had men in the Glades trying to purchase beef, but not one would sell without hard money."
The people in Westmoreland had much trouble to pay their preachers. Instead of money they often delivered farm products. In Fairfield township, in 1789, they stipulated that the amounts subscribed by the members were to be paid either in money or grain, and wheat was to be rated, when de- livered at the parsonage, at four shillings per bushel, rye or corn at two shillings and six pence per bushel. They also bargained that this should be paid quarterly, and that it should be sued for as lawful debts if not paid. In Sewickley congregation in 1792 they agreed that one-half the preacher's salary should be paid in money and one-half in produce. They rated wheat at four shillings per bushel, rye at three shillings, and corn at two shillings and six pence per bushel. Rye was higher then than corn, because they had begun to manufacture it into whisky. It is not uncommon to find an old will among our records in which the father gives his land to a son, or per- haps divides it between his sons, and stipulates that he shall deliver to the other son or daughters, as the case may be, a certain number of bushels of wheat, rye, oats or corn, and sometimes these products of the farm were to be delivered annually to such heirs as their entire share of the estate. Thus he made, as he supposed, an equal division of his property, and one which his children could carry out.
Late in the century the merchant came, and stores were started by the mer- chant laying in a stock of groceries and common fabrics, which he replen- ished twice each year by going east for them. Heretofore we have been dealing almost entirely with the farmers, for there were few others worth considering in the community. But late in the century came the first stores kept by the old-time merchants. They were usually at some important cross- roads, where was also a blacksmith shop and a few other houses, and some- times, when water-power was near, a gristmill was the center around which the others clustered. The merchant kept a "store," not a shop, and usually lived in the rear of his storeroom. His storeroom was perhaps not over twelve by sixteen feet, and had counters around three sides of it. It was heated by a wood fire. On his shelves he had dishes, groceries, ammunition, tobacco, and a few common fabrics by the web. His goods were sold mostly at about one hundred per cent. profit. While this seems enormous, it was perhaps not too great, for he took all kinds of farm products in payment, and sometimes had great difficulty in disposing of them. He took in bacon, wool, butter, eggs, whisky, flour, and, as an old-time merchant of a much later date once told the writer, "a little of everything except money." With all his profits on his goods he generally had hard work to replenish his store twice each year. This he did in the early years after 1800 by a long horse- back journey to Baltimore or Philadelphia, carrying in his saddlebags the gold with which to pay for the goods he purchased. He was usually looked
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up to as the leading business man of his community. He wrote letters, articles of agreement, etc., for his neighbors, and sometimes founded a little town, which frequently even yet exists. Later he was postmaster of the community or the village, and kept an account of letters sent from the office, and charged his patrons with those which they received, for the postage was then paid by the person who received the letter. So, if the patron who received the letter did not have the cash to pay the postage, it was charged to him on the books of the storekeeper, in the postoffice book, however, as though he had received so much powder or lead. A book of that kind kept by an old-time merchant in the early half of the last century is now in the possession of the writer. It is a home-made, red-lined book, and is kept very neatly with a quill pen. It gives the names of the people receiv- ing letters, the office or state from which they came, and the amount of postage charged, for this varied according to the distance the letter was carried. A letter from any place in this county is charged six cents postage ; one from Pittsburgh 10 cents and 121/2 cents, perhaps according to its size. From Ohio a letter cost 1834 cents; from New York, 25 cents. There are several charges of 391/2 cents, and in each the word "ship," or England, is opposite, indicating that it came from a foreign land. Only about one letter in a hundred is written to a woman, and even these are mostly to widows.
Western Pennsylvania is by nature a grain producing country. When the century closed, Pennsylvania was the only state that was producing more grain than its inhabitants consumed. For this surplus there was but a lim- ited market. Flour could not, with profit, be shipped a long distance on packhorses, even though the east had great need of it. Every section in that age had learned, because of the limited facilities for transportation, to pro- duce enough of each commodity to supply its own needs if possible. Nev- ertheless, we had a surplus of grain, and this brought about the -manufac- ture of whisky. When it was taxed by the United States, as we have before seen, it came very nearly bringing about a civil war, so great had the in- dustry grown in a few years.
Furthermore, the country dealer had to purchase skins and furs from the Indians, who wanted liquor more than any other commodity. We have therefore preserved to us many letters from traders to their houses in the east, stating that they are handicapped in securing furs and skins by not having whisky to offer in return for them, and that those who have whisky get all the paltry trade. Their universal request is for whisky.
About 1784 the firm of Turnbull, Marmie & Co., who were iron pro- ducers in Philadelphia, sent a few stills to Westmoreland county. They were at once set up, and the business grew very rapidly. In a few years the Phil- adelphia company opened up an iron business in Pittsburgh with the main purpose of making stills, though they engaged also in a general iron busi- ness. They were among the first, if not the first, iron producers in the city which has since controlled the iron market of the world. Our people now
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
could find a market for their whisky, and could not find a market for their rye and corn. Hence they were in a measure compelled to distill their products. By 1792, or thereabouts, stills were very numerous all over West- ern Pennsylvania. Judge Veech, who wrote a great deal on the Whisky Insurrection and the early history generally, says there were only a few less than six hundred in the western counties of the state. Every community had them. In some sections there was a still in every fifth or sixth house. Many, indeed all of them, were very small affairs compared with our mam- moth plants of this generation, but they made whisky, and that was all they were meant to do. Many farmers traded land for stills. A farmer who had no still took his grain to his neighbor who had one, and the neighbor took a part of the product in pay for distilling it. Resultant from this the farmers engaged largely in rye culture, and even those who had no money could convert their rye into liquor. The stills were small, such as are used by the latter day. "moonshiners," and could be put in a cellar, a spring-house, or a small log cabin built for that purpose, and which has since been known by the pretentious name of "still-house." Very few of them had mills con- nected with the stills, but some of the larger ones were located near an old- fashioned gristmill. The farmer took his grain to the mill, and after it was properly ground, hauled it to the distiller.
As a result the use of liquor became very general, though the almost universal testimony is that but few of our ancestors drank to excess. Store- keepers took whisky regularly in exchange for goods, and sold it to their customers. It was not unusual, indeed it was quite common, for the country merchant to have a barrel on his counter, and to give each customer a dram, the women and children as well as the men. There were few farmers who did not have a barrel in their cellars, to which all members of the family had free access. This custom was kept up and was not uncommon as late as 1840. The general custom was to drink it straight, but sometimes it was mixed with tansy or mint, or sweetened with maple sugar. Taken in mod- eration, it was probably a preventive of fevers, ague and colds, and many other diseases in their incipiency. Davy Crockett said it made a man warm in winter and cool in summer. It was used by the barrel at raisings, parades and musters. It was common to pass it around at weddings and at all other gatherings. Ministers did not preach against it as they do now. Often at funerals, in cold weather, it was heated and given in tin cups to those who had a long ride or walk to the graveyard. This appears almost shocking to us, but it must be remembered that they drank it as a tonic or medicine, as we drink coffee, and not as a beverage. Clergymen drank it openly. Rev. Dr. McMillen was certainly a man of high character and many virtues, yet his biographers all' relate of him that when on his way to Presbytery. in company with Rev. James Patterson, they stopped at a tavern to get a drink. When the liquor was poured into the glasses, Patterson, being a very devout
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man, proposed to ask a blessing before drinking it. But, the blessing being a somewhat protracted effort, while it was in progress and Patterson's eyes were closed, the old doctor drank both glasses, and then admonished the young preacher that he must ever thereafter "watch as well as pray." But the young preacher did not go away thirsty. On one occasion Bishop Onder- donk came to Greensburg to attend and officiate at a rather extensive and important confirmation. On his way to the church, clad in the usual robes of his order, he stopped at Rhorer's hotel and drank a tumbler of brandy and no one thought he had done anything particularly out of the way. It is not correct to say that clergymen generally drank, using the term as we use it now, but many of them, like their parishioners, used liquor, but in moderation.
In 1756 Reverend Beatty, who has been spoken of as chaplain in Forbes' army, and as preaching the first sermon at Fort Duquesne after its capture, accompanied Benjamin Franklin and his forces to Fort Allen. Franklin says in his autobiography that the preacher complained to him that the soldiers did not attend prayers with any degree of regularity, and Franklin told him that each soldier was entitled to a gill of rum each day, and advised Rev. Beatty to act as steward in dispensing the rum, and to distribute it each morning after prayers, or after the sermon. The reverend gentleman took the advice kindly, and told Franklin afterward that it worked to a charm, saying that prayers were never more generally nor more punctually attended. Yet he was a man of high character, and, as the reader will see, figured largely in the early Presbyterianism of the county and of Western Penn- sylvania.
In 1811, Washington Furnace, near Laughlintown, had just been com- pleted, and on the Fourth of July the citizens had a great celebration, not only of the nation's birth, but of the great strides they were making in the iron industry as well. The Register of that date reports the proceedings, and says that "after partaking of a handsome and wholesome repast, they drank some whisky mixed with pure water." These people were leaders in the religious and social world, and we must not be considered as seeking to cast a reflection or disrespect upon their memories. We are merely en- deavoring to give the reader a few illustrations of the almost universal cus- tom of using liquor among our better people.
The government, though economical by necessity, purchased a great deal of whisky for the Revolutionary soldiers, and issued it to them as regular rations. It was not uncommon for a young man to engage to work with a farmer all winter for his bed and board and three drams per day. In fact, whisky in those days was used somewhat like coffee is now. A favorite proverb of our liquor using ancestor was, "Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto those that be heavy of heart." "Let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more."
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When General William Irvine announced the "Glorious News" of the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, he added the following: "The com- missaries will issue a gill of whisky extraordinary, to the non-commissioned officers and privates upon this joyful occasion." Commissioned officers were not limited to a "gill, extraordinary." This was in Pittsburgh, and the sur- render was doubtless properly ratified.
Furthermore, in the age of which we are writing, whisky was almost a measure of value, a medium of exchange in the place of gold which did not circulate, or of Continental or state money which had no fixed value. Corn, wheat, rye, etc., were valued by the quantity of whisky a bushel would bring. John Barleycorn was always a ready sale, and with it the pioneer could purchase all groceries, household goods or anything else in the market. Land was often bought with whisky. Our best men bartered farms for stills or their product. Our records show that farms now in the coal belt, and worth more than a thousand dollars per acre, were once sold for a few gallons of whisky. Even subscriptions to the clergyman's salary were some- times paid in whisky, and not infrequently it was used in paying off church debts.
From the first, as we have seen, its manufacture and sale were. under the control of the courts, which also fixed the rates the landlord might charge his customers for accommodations. By our law a justice of the courts could neither make nor sell liquor. Several times Edward Cook, one of the justices, was returned for distilling liquor. These informations were always either quashed by the court or ignored by the grand jury. In 1784 several men in our county were convicted and fined for both making and selling liquor without license. The council in Philadelphia remitted the fines be- cause of "the peculiar distress to which the frontier inhabitants had been subjected during the Revolution." While a justice could not sell liquor, he could grant the permission to his relatives, and so Robert Hanna, a justice, had his daughter Jean repeatedly licensed to sell spirituous liquors.
In March sessions of our court in 1794 the judges regulated the num- ber of tavern-keepers' licenses to be granted in this county. They licensed eight for the town of Greensburg. There were no other towns in the county then, for Pittsburgh had left us with the formation of Allegheny county, in 1788, but there were several highways leading to Greensburg. On each of these they granted licenses, and to these were granted twenty-seven licenses. making thirty-five in all. At that time a great many little matters now paid for by the county were done without the thought of pay, except a free al- lowance of whisky. When the trial lists were to be made up the lawyers met in the prothonotary's office and selected the cases to be tried. The prothonotary had for this occasion a jug of old rye and a plentiful supply of tobacco. On election day the constables served at the window of the election room, and never received any other remuneration than as much whisky
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as they wanted to drink. Jurors served regularly without pay or mileage, but the county commissioners supplied them with free whisky while here. Later was added the pay for their dinner at the hotel, but no further re- muneration was thought of till about 1810.
The first mills for grinding grain were small hand affairs which could he hauled around from one farm to another, to suit the trade. Later on a larger and better style was introduced, which were turned by a water- wheel, but they generally had tread-wheel attachments by which they could be propelled in times of low water. These mills were called tub mills, because of the tub-shaped hopper into which the grain was put to be ground. From this we have several streams named Tub Mill, Tub Creek, etc., after the mills located on them. These streams, it may be observed, were larger then than now, and were regular in their flow. This is of course due to the cutting away of the forests, which allows the rainfall to flow at once from the hillsides, consequently many of the streams which formerly turned mills are now almost gone.
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