USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume I > Part 16
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As there was a fence law then, act of 1700, the ground had to be fenced, according to this law, "horse-high, bull-strong, and hog-tight." Efforts were made by the pioneer to enforce this law in four ways, viz. : First, by slashing trees and placing brush upon the trees ; second, by using the logs from the clearing for the purpose of a fence: third, by a post and rail fence, built straight, and the end of each rail sharpened and fastened in a mortised post : fourth, by the common rail or worm fence. These rails were made of ash, hickory, chest- unt, linn and pine. I have made them by con- tract price myself.
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The Pennsylvania fence law of 1700 was repealed by an act approved June 23. 1885.
IMPLEMENTS
The tools of the pioneer were the ax, six- inch auger, drawing knife, shaving knife, broadax and crosscut saw. These were all used in the erection of his shelters. The dex- terity of the pioneer in the sleight and use of the ax was remarkable, indeed marvelous. He used it in clearing land, making fences, chop- ping firewood, cutting paths and roads, build- ing cabins, bridges and corduroy. In fact, in all work and hunting, in traveling by land, in canoeing and rafting on the water, the ax was ever the friend and companion of the pioneer.
one solid piece. The plough was all cast iron, except the beam and handles. The importance of this invention was so great that it attracted the attention of ploughmakers and scientific men all over the country. Thomas Jefferson (afterwards president of the United States) wrote a treatise on ploughs, with a particular reference to the Newbold plough. He de- scribed the requisite form of the moldboard, according to scientific principles, and calculated the proper form and curvature of the mold- board to lessen the friction and lighten the draught.
The Newbold plough would have been perfect had it not been for one serious defect. When the point, for instance, was worn out, which would soon be accomplished, the plough was ruined and had to be thrown aside. This
OX YOKE AND TIN LANTERN
The early axes were called pole-axes. They were rude, clumsy and heavy, with a single bit. About 1815 an improved Yankee single- bit ax was introduced, but it was too clumsy. In about 1825 the present double-bitted ax came to be occasionally used, and machinery began to be used a little in agriculture, but not in Jefferson county until after 1840.
I have seen wooden ploughs, but I have seen them with the iron shoe pointed and colted. These were stiff in use in the late thirties. I have driven an ox-team to the drag or triangular harrow. This was the principal implement used in seeding ground, both before and after the introduction of the shovel-plough in 1843.
The greatest improvement ever made on plonghs, in this or any other country, was made by Charles Newbold, of Burlington, N. J .. and patented in 1707. The mold-board, share, landslide and point were all cast together in
defect, however, was happily remedied by Jethro Wood, who was the first to cast the plough in sections, so that the parts most exposed to wear could be replaced from the same pattern, by which means the cast-iron ploughs became a complete success. His plough was patented in 1819, twenty-two years after Newbold's patent. It is a wonder that so long a time should have elapsed before any one thought of this improvement. These two men did more for the farmers in relation to ploughs than any others before their time.
In harvest time the grain was first reaped with a sickle ; then came the cradle. In my boyhood all the lying grain thrown down by the storms was still reaped with a sickle. I carry the evidence of this on my finger. A day's work was about two acres. McCormick perfected his reaper in 1848. Grain was usually threshed by a flail, though some tramped it out with horses. By the flail ten
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bushels of wheat or twenty bushels of oats was a good day's work. Men who traveled around threshing on shares with the flail charged every tenth bushel, including board. The tramping was done by horses and by farmers who had good or extra barn floors. The sheaves were laid in a circle, a man stood in the middle of the circle to turn up and over the straw as needed, and then, with a boy to ride one horse and lead another, the "tramp- ing" in this circuit commenced. This was hard work for the boy : it made him tired and sore where he sat down. I know this from ex- perience. To prevent dizziness. the circuit was frequently reversed. One man, a boy and two horses could tramp out, in this way, in a day about fifteen bushels of wheat or thirty- five bushels of oats. Grain was cleaned by means of two hand riddles, one coarse and one fine. These riddles had no iron or steel about them, the bottom of each being made of wooden splints woven in. The riddles were two and a half feet in diameter and the rings about four inches wide. Three men were re- quired to clean the grain-one to shake the riddle, while two others, one at each end of a tow sheet, doubled swayed the sheet to and fro in front of the man shaking the riddle. These three men, in this way, could clean about ten or fifteen bushels of wheat in a day. This process was practiced in the early twen- ties. Windmills came into use about 1825.
HAYING IN THE OLDEN TIME
Haying in the old days was a much more formidable yearly undertaking than it is to modern farmers. Before the era of labor- saving haying implements farmers began the work early in the day and season, and toiled hard until about September. Human muscles were trained to exert a force equal to the then unused horsepower. On large farms man "hands" were required. Haying was an event of importance in the farmer's year. It made a great demand upon his time, strength, and pocketbook. His best helpers were engaged long in advance, sometimes a whole season. Ability to handle a scythe well entitled a man to respect while haying lasted. Experts took as much pains with the scythe as with a razor. Boys of today have never seen such a sight as a dozen stalwart men mowing a dozen-acre field.
On the first day of haying, almost before the sun was up, the men would be at the field ready to begin. The question to be settled at the very outset was as to which man should
cut the double. This was the first swath to be cut down and back through the center of the field.
The boys brought up the rear in the line of the mowers. Their scythes were hung well in, to cut a narrow swath. They were told to stand up straight when mowing, point in, keep the heel of the scythe down and point out evenly, so as not to leave hog troughs on the meadow when the hay was raked up. Im- patient of these admonitions, they thought they could mow pretty well and looked ambitiously forward to a time when they might cut the double. I always worked in the rear line.
Undoubtedly, life on a farm is full of labor and solicitude, but so is life in every other vo- cation. The farmer has to fight a constant battle with insects, the elements, the sharpers, the railroads, etc., but every other man has the same sort of battle to fight with just as dangerous enemies.
Thirty-nine out of every forty lawyers, sixty-one out of every sixty-two bankers, ninety-one out of every ninety-three iner- chants, eighty-seven out of every eighty-eight manufacturers and capitalists, and ninety-nine out of every hundred in all other professions and trades, die in poverty and bankruptcy. while, on the other hand. one hundred and forty-nine out of every one hundred and fifty farmers die surrounded with comfort and plenty.
It might be proper to say here that the first agricultural society in America was organized in Pennsylvania in 1784.
MAPLE SUGAR MAKING
One of the pioneer industries in Jefferson county was maple sugar making. Maple sugar was first made in New England in 1752. The sugar season commenced either in the last of February or the first of March. In any event, at this time the manufacturer always visited his camp to see or set things in order. The camp was a small cabin made of logs, covered usually with clapboards, and open at one end. The fireplace or crane and hooks were made in this way: Before the opening in the cabin four wooden forks were set deeply in the ground, and on these forks was suspended a strong pole. On this pole was hung the hook of a limb, with a pin in the lower end to hang the kettle on. An average camp had about three hundred trees, and it required six kettles. averaging about twenty-two gallons each, to boil the water from that many trees. The
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trees were tapped in various ways: First, with a three-quarter-inch auger, one or two inches deep ; in this hole was put a round spile about eighteen inches long, made of sumach or whittled pine, two spiles to a tree. The later way was by cutting a hollow notch in the tree and putting the spile below with a gouge. This spile was made of pine or some other soft wood. When a boy I lived over five years with Joseph and James McCurdy, in what is now Washington township. Indeed, all I say here about this industry I learned from and while with them. At the camp there were always from one to three storage troughs made of cucumber or poplar, and each trough held from ten barrels upward. Three hundred trees required a storage of thirty barrels and steady boiling with six kettles. The small troughs under the trees were made of pine and cucum- ber and held from three to six gallons. We hauled the water to the storage tronghs with one horse and a kind of "pung." the barrel being kept in its place by plank just far enough apart to hold it tight. In the fireplace there was a large backlog and one a little smaller in front. The fire was kept up late and early with smaller wood split in lengths of about three feet. We boiled the water into a thick syrup, then strained it through a woolen cloth while hot into the syrup barrel. When it had set- tled, and before putting it on to "sugar off," we strained it the second time. During this sugaring we skimmed the seum off with a tin skimmer and clarified the syrup in the kettle with eggs well beaten in sweet milk.
The "sugaring off" was always done in cloudy or coll days, when the trees wouldn't run "sap." One barrel of sugar water, from a sugar tree, in the beginning of the season. would make from Gve to seven pounds of sugar. The sugar was always made during the first of the season. The sugar was made in cakes, or "stirred off" in a granulated con- dition, and sokl in the market for from six and a quarter to twelve and a half cents a pound. In "sugaring off." the syrup had to be frequently sampled by dropping some of it in a tin of cold water, and if the molasses formed a "thread" that was brittle like glass, it was fit to stir. I was good at sampling, and always anxious to try the syrup, as James MeCurdy could substantiate. In truth, I was never very hungry during sugar making, as 1 had a con- tinual feast during this season of hot syrup, treacle and sugar.
Skill and attention were both necessary in "sugaring off." for if the syrup was taken off too soon the sugar was wet and tough, and if
left on too long. the sugar was burnt and bitter. With the passage of time this industry has died out in our section. In the census chapter of 1840 you will find how many pounds of maple sugar were manufactured in each township and the sum total in pounds for the county.
While maple sugar making has passed in Jefferson county, it still is quite an important industry in many parts of the country.
Maple beer used to be quite common, and was a delightful beverage. A little yeast added to rich maple-water caused it to ferment quickly and by proper handling become a clear, sparkling drink, which was often flavored with spruce, juniper evergreen and other agreeable and healthful herbs, roots or flowers.
TAR-BURNING
Among the pioneer industries was tar- burning. Kilns were formed and split fagots of pitchpine knots were arranged in circles and burned. The tar was collected by a ditch and forced into a chute, and from there barreled. John Matson, Sr., marketed on rafts as high as forty barrels in one season. Free- dom Stiles was the king "tar-burner." Pioneer prices at Pittsburgh for tar was ten dollars a barrel.
PIONEER WAGONS IN JEFFERSON COUNTY
For many years there were extremely few wagons and but poor roads on which to use them. The early vehicles were the prongs of a tree, a sled made of saplings, called a "pung." and oxcart. In fact, about all the work was done with oxen, and in driving his cattle the old settler would halloo with all his might and swear profusely. This profanity and hallooing were thought to be necessary. The pioneer sled was made with heavy single runners, the "bob" sled being a later innovation, viz., about 1840.
The pioneer wheeled vehicle made in what is now Jefferson county was a wooden ox- cart. constructed by Joseph Barnett in 1801. The wheels were sawed from a large oak log. and a hole was chiseled in the center for the hickory axle. Walter Templeton, a very in- genious man, and forced to be a "jack-of-all- trades" for the people who lived in what is now Eldred township, made two wooden wagons in 1820, one for himself and one for his neighbor, Isaac Matson. These wagons were all wood except the iron linch-pin to keep the wheel in place. The wheels were solid.
TAKING OUT A TIMBER STICK
MAKING MAPLE SUGAR
:RK
PU
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TILE
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and were sawed from round oak logs. The hind wheels were sawed from a larger log, and a hole was chiseled in the center of each for the axle.
Matson hauled, in 1830, the stone spawls for our pioneer jail in his wagon, with two large black oxen, called "Buck" and "Berry." Matson's compensation was one dollar and fifty cents a day and "find" himself.
Draying in those days was usually by two oxen and a cart; but Daniel Elgin bought these black oxen from Matson, and used one of them for some time for a one-ox dray. in Brookville.
The pioneer tar to grease these axles was made in this way; Pitchpine knots were split fine and dropped into an iron kettle ; a piece of board was then placed over the mouth of the kettle, and then the kettle was turned upside down over a little bed of earth prepared for it. This bed had a circular drain around it, and this circular drain had a straight one, with a spout at the end. Everything being completed for the burning, the board was taken from under the kettle, and the kettle was then covered with fagots. The wood was fired and the heat from the fire boiled the tar from the split knots and forced it into and through these drains, from the spout of which it was caught in a wooden trongh.
HOW THE PIONEER BOUGHT HIS LAND
"By an act of the Legislature, passed April 1, 1784, a sale of lands was authorized. The Second section of this law provides that all lands west of the Allegheny mountains shall not be more than three pounds ten shillings for every one hundred acres. Section Four pro- vides that the quantity of land granted to one person shall not exceed four hundred acres : section Six provides for the survey and laying out of these lands, by the surveyor general or his deputies, into tracts of not more than five hundred acres and not less than two hundred acres, to be sold at public quetion at such times as the 'Supreme Executive Council may direct.'
"When all claims had been paid, 'in specie. or money of the State,' for patenting, survey- ing, etc., a title was granted to the purchaser. In case he was not ready or able to make full payment at the time of purchase, by paying all the fees appertaining thereto, he was allowed two years to complete the payment, by paying lawful interest, and when the last pay- mment was made, a completed title was given.
"By the act of April 8. 1785, lands were sold
by lottery, in portions not to exceed one thou- sand acres to each applicant. Tickets, com- mencing with number one, were put on a wheel, and the warrants, which were called 'Lottery Warrants,' issued on the said ap- plications, were severally numbered according to the decision of the said lottery, and bore date from the day on which the drawing was finished.
"Section Seven of this act allowed persons holding these warrants to locate them upon any piece or portion of tinappropriated lands, the land upon each warrant to be embraced in one tract, if possible.
"On the 3d of April, 1702. the Legislature passed an act for the sale of lands, which, in some respects, differed from the laws of 1784 and 1785. It offered land only to such persons as shall settle on them, and designated the kind and duration of settlement. By section Two of this act all lands lying north and west of the Ohio and Allegheny rivers and Conewango creek, except such portions as had been or should be appropriated to public or charitable uses, were offered to such as would 'cultivate, improve, and settle upon them, or cattse it to be done, for the price of seven pounds ten shillings for every hundred acres, with an allowance of six per centum for roads and highways, to be located, surveyed and secured to such purchasers, in the manner hereinafter mentioned.' Section Three provided for the surveying and granting of warrants, by the surveyor general, for any quantity of land within the said limits, to not exceed four hundred acres, to any person who had settled upon and improved said land.
"The surveyor general was obliged to make clear and fair entries of all warrants, in a book to be provided for the purpose, and any applicant should be furnished with a certified copy of any warrant upon the payment of one quarter of a dollar.
"In this law the rights of the citizen were so well fenced about, and so equitably defined, that risk and hazard came only at his own. But controversies arising, concerning this law. between the judges of the State courts and those of the United States, which the Legislature, for a long time, tried in vain to settle, impeded for a time the settlement of the district. These controversies were not settled until 1805. by a decision of Chief Justice Marshall, of the Supreme court of the United States.
"At the close of the Revolutionary war several wealthy Hollanders, William Willink, Jan Linklaen, and others, to whom the United
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States was indebted for money loaned to assist in carrying on the war, preferring to invest the money in this country, they pur- chased of Robert Morris, the great financier of the country at that time, an immense tract of land in the State of New York, and at the same time took up, by warrant (under the law above cited ), large tracts in the State of Pennsyl- vania, cast of the Allegheny river. Judge Yeates, on one occasion, said: 'The Holland Land Company have paid to the State the consideration money of 1,162 warrants, and the surveying fees on 1,048 tracts of land (generally four hundred acres each), besides making very considerable expenditures by their exertions, honorable to themselves and useful to the community, in order to effect settle- ments. Computing the sums advanced, the lost tracts, by prior improvements and inter- ferences, and the quantity of one hundred acres granted to cach individual for making an actual settlement on their lands, it is said that, averaging the whole, between two hundred and thirty dollars and two hundred and forty dollars have been expended by the company on each tract.'
"An act was passed by the Legislature, March 31, 1823, authorizing Wilhelm Willink, and others, residents of Holland, to 'sell and convey any lands belonging to them in the Commonwealth.'
"Large tracts of lands in Jefferson county were owned by the Holland Company, and Charles C. Gaskill, of Punxsutawney, was the agent of the company for their sale. He was appointed by John J. Vandercamp, the general agent. Ile finally sold to Alexander Caldwell. and Lee, and Gilpin. Mr. Gaskill conveyed much of these lands to actual settlers in this county.
"The Timothy Pickering lands were sold by Hon. Thomas White, of Indiana, who also controlled the Samuel Hodgdon and other lands."
Sales of unseated lands in this county for taxes were authorized December 23, 1822.
In 1825 Charles C. Gaskill, who lived in Punxsutawney and was agent for the Holland Land Company, advertised one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land for sale. in lots to suit the purchasers, and on the following terms: All purchasing land for two dollars per acre must pay ten dollars down, the balance in eight annual payments, with interest on and after the third year ; those buying at one dollar and seventy-five cents per acre, one-fourth in hand. the balance in eight annual payments, with interest on and after third payment ; those
paying one dollar and fifty cents per acre, one- half down, and the balance in payments as above stated. . All land was bought and sold on a simple article of agreement.
In 1840 wild lands sold at from one dollar to two dollars per acre.
PIONEER HOMES OF JEFFERSON COUNTY
This is the land our fathers loved, The homestead which they toited to win. This is the ground whereon they moved, And here are the graves they slumber in.
The home of the pioneer was a log cabin, one or one and a half stories high, chinked and daubed, having a fireplace in one end, with a chimney of sticks and mud, and in one corner always stood a big wooden poker to turn backlogs or punch the fires. These cabins were usually small, but some were perhaps twenty by thirty feet, with a hole in two logs for a single window, oiled paper being used for glass. Cabins, as a rule, were built one story and a half high, and the space between the loose floor and roof of the half story was used as a sleeping room. I have many a time climbed up an outside ladder, fastened to and near the chimney, to a half-story in a cabin and slept on a bed of straw on the floor.
For Brussels carpet they had puncheon floors. A clapboard roof held down by weight poles protected them from the storm. Wooden pegs were driven into the logs for the ward- robe, the rifle, and the powderhorn. Wooden benches and stools were a luxury upon which to rest or sit while feasting on mush and milk, buckwheat cakes, or hog and hominy.
l Hospitality in this cabin was simple, hearty and unbounded. Whisky was pure, cheap, and plentiful, and was lavished bountifully on each and all social occasions. Every settler had his jug or barrel. It was the drink of drinks at all merry-makings, grubbings, loggings, house- warmings, and weddings. A drink of whisky was always proffered to the visitor or traveler who chanced to call or spend a night in these log cabins.
HOW THE PIONEER BUILT IIIS CABIN
On the first day the material was gathered at the point of erection, the clapboards for the roof and the puncheons for the floors were made. The puncheon boards or planks were made from trees eighteen inches in diameter, logs of straight grain and clean of knots, and of the proper length (one-half that of the floor), split into parts, and the face of each
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part smoothed with a broadax. The split parts had to be all started at the same time. with wedges at the end of the log, each wedge being struck alternately with a maul until all the parts were separated.
In the morning of the next day the neighbors collected for the raising. The first thing to be done was the election of four corner men, whose business it was to notch and place the logs. The rest of the company furnished them with the timbers. A corner man would cry, "More wood or whisky. What I call for last, I want first." At all these frolics whisky was
square, two end logs projected a foot or eighteen inches beyond the wall, to receive the butting poles, as they were called, against which the first row of clapboards was sup- ported. The roof was formed by making the end logs shorter until a single log formed the comb of the roof. On these logs the clap- boards were placed, the ranges of them lapping some distance over the next below them, and kept in their places by logs placed at proper distances from them, called weight poles.
The roof, and sometimes the floor, was finished on the same day of the raising. A
EARLY BARN
served plentifully. In the meantime the boards and puncheons were collected for the floor and roof, so that by the time the cabin was a few rounds high, the sleepers and floor began to be laid. The door was made by sawing or cutting the logs in one side, so as to make an opening about three feet wide. This opening was secured by upright pieces of timber, about three inches thick, through which holes were bored into the ends of the logs, for the purpose of pinning them fast. A similar opening, but wider, was made at the end for the chimney. This was built of logs, and made large, to admit of a back and jambs of stone. At the
third day was commonly spent by a few car- penters in leveling off the floor, making a clapboard door and a table. This last was made of a split slab, and supported by four round logs set in auger holes. Some three- legged stools were made in the same manner. Pins stuck in the logs at the back of the house supported some clapboards which served for shelves for the table furniture. A single fork, placed with its lower end in a hole in the floor, and the upper end fastened to a joist, served for a bedstead, by placing a pole in the fork, with one end through a crack between the logs of the wall. This front pole was
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