USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume I > Part 17
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JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
crossed by a shorter one within the fork, with its outer end through another crack. From the front pole, through a crack between the logs of the end of the house, the boards were put on which formed the bottom of the bed. Sometimes other poles were pinned to the fork a little distance above these, for the purpose of supporting the front and foot of the bed. while the walls were the supports of its back and head. A few pegs around the wall, for the display of the coats of the women and hunting shirts of the men, and two small forks or buck's horns fastened to a joist for the rifle and shot pouch, completed the carpenter work.
In the meantime the masons were at work.
were still occupied in the forties. I have been in many a one in my childhood. In proof of the smallness of the early cabin I reproduce the testimony on oath of Thomas Lucas, Esq., in a celebrated ejectment case :
"In the court of Common Pleas of Jefferson county. Ejectment for sixteen hundred acres of land in Pinecreek township. Elijah Heath vs. Joshua Knapp, et al.
"16th September, 1841, a jury was called per minets. The plaintiff after having opened his case in support of the issue, gave in evidence as follows :
"Thomas Lucas .- Masons have in the sur- veys about twelve acres of land, a cabin house. and stable thereon. They live near the line of
FAT LAMP AND SNUFFERS
With the heart pieces of the timber of which the clapboards were made, they made billets for chunking up the cracks between the logs of the cabin and chimney. A large bed of mortar was made for daubing up these cracks. A few stones formed the back and jambs of the chimney.
The furnishings for the table of the pioneer log cabin consisted of pewter dishes, plates and spoons, or wooden bowls, plates and noggins. If noggins were scarce, gourds and hard-shelled squashes answered for drinking cups.
The iron pots, knives and forks, along with the salt and iron, were brought to the wilder- ness on packhorses over Meade's trail or over the Milesburg and LeBoeuf State road.
Some of these log cabins near Brookville
the town tract, the town tract takes in the apple trees ; think they claim on some improve- ment. Some of this improvement I think is thirty-five years old,-this was the Mason claim. The first improvement was made in 1802; I call it the Pickering survey, only an interference. Jacob Mason has been living off and on since 1802,-two small cabin houses on the interference, one fifteen or sixteen feet square, the other very small. twelve or fifteen feet,-a log stable."
At this time, and previously, many of these cabins were lighted by means of a half window. one window sash, containing from four to six panes of seven by nine glass. U'p to and even at this date ( 1841) the usual light at night in these cabins was the 'old iron lamp, something like the miner wears in his hat, or else a dish
-
77
JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
containing refuse grease, with a rag in it. Each smoked and gave a dismal light, yet by it women cooked, spun and sewed, and men read the few books they had as best they could. The aroma from this refuse was simply hor- rible. The cabin was daily swept with a split broom made of hickory. Brooms were first made in 1826. The hinges and latches of these cabins were made of wood. The latch on the door was raised from without by means of a buckskin string. At night, as a means of safety, the string was "pulled in." and this locked the door. As a further mark of refine- ment each cabin was generally guarded by from two to six worthless dogs.
Of the pests in and around the old cabin, the housefly, the bedbug, and the louse were the most common on the inside ; the guat, the woodtick, and the horsefly on the outside. The horsefly is the most cruel and bloodthirsty of the entire family. . Ile is armed with a most formidable weapon, which consists of four lancets, so sharp and strong that they will penetrate leather. lle makes his appearance in June. The female is armed with six lancets. with which she bleeds both cattle and horses, and even human beings. It was a constant hight for life with man, cattle and horses against the gnats, the tick, the lice and the horsefly, and if it had not been for the pro- tection of what were called "gnat-fires" life could not have been sustained, or at least it would have been unendurable. The only thing to dispel these outside pests was to clear land and let in the sunshine. As an all-around pest in the cabin and out, day and night, there was also the flea.
The warmuses, breeches and hunting shirts of the men. the linsey petticoats, dresses and bedgowns of the women, were all hung in some corner of the cabin on wooden pegs. To some extent this was a display of pioneer wealth. Wigs were worn by men until about 1800. Boots came into use about 1800.
In the cabins of the more cultivated pioneers were usually a few books, and the long winter evenings were spent in poring over these well thumbed volumes by the light of the great log fires, in knitting, mending, curing furs, or some similar occupation. It was not until 1850 that rubber goods were introduced and wall paper was first used in houses in Jefferson county.
PIONEER FOOD AND CLOTHING
The food and raiment of the first settlers made a near approach to that of John the Baptist in the wilderness. Instead of locusts
they had wild turkey, deer and bear meat, and their clothing was made of skins; and home- spun woolen, linen or tow cloth.
DRESS OF MEN
The old pioneer in winter often wore a coon- skin cap, coonskin gloves, buckskin breeches, leggings, and a wolfskin hunting shirt. Some wore cowhide shoes, others moccasins of buck- skin, others again were in their bare feet. In winter, men wore deerskin pantaloons and a long loose robe called a hunting shirt, bound round the body with a leather girdle, and some a flannel warmus, which was a short kind of coat. In those days men appeared at church in linen shirts with collars four inches wide turned down over the shoulders ; linen vest ; 10 coat in summer. Moccasin shoes, buckskin breeches, blue broadcloth and brass buttons, fawnskin vests, roundabouts and woolen wammuses, leather or woolen galluses, coonskin or sealskin caps for winter, with chip or oat-straw hats for summer, were common articles of dress. Every neighborhood had then usually one itinerant shoemaker and tailor, who periodically visited " cabins and made up shoes or clothes as required. All ma- terial had to be furnished, and these itinerant mechanics worked for 'fifty cents a day and board. Corduroy pants and corduroy overalls were common.
The hunting shirt was a kind of loose frock reaching half-way down the figure, open before, and so wide as to lap over a foot or more upon the chest. This generally had a cape, which was often fringed with a raveled piece of cloth of a different color from that which composed the garment. The bosom of the hunting shirt answered as a pouch, in which could be carried the various articles which the hunter or woodsman would need. It was always worn belted, and made out of coarse linen, or linsey, or of dressed deerskin, according to the fancy of the wearer.
Breeches were made of heavy cloth or of ‹leerskin, and were often worn with leggings of the same material or of some kind of leather. The deerskin breeches or drawers were very comfortable when dry, but when they became wet were very cold to the limbs, and the next time they were put on were almost as stiff as if made of wood. The moccasins in which the feet were usually encased were easily and quickly made, though they needed frequent mending. Hats or caps were made of the various native furs.
It is an interesting fact that pants, the dis-
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JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
tinctive feature of men's dress, were worn in Egypt for the first time. Both women and men had been wearing aprons. Aprons were the very first attempt to ornament and deco- rate the person. Before they appeared men and women wore skins and furs. The aprons were a fanciful frill. The women of Egypt got to wearing them long, and imperious fashion required the men to do the same. It was difficult for the meu to move freely, though, wearing these long aprons. A genius appeared. Ile cut holes in the apron, stuck his legs through, and he had the rudimentary trouser. Little by little something was added behind or in front until today we have the perfect pattern.
Trousers in practically their present shape were introduced into the British army in 1813, and tolerated as a legitimate portion of evening dress in 1816.
One bright spring morning in 1815 a London tailor walked down Bond street clad in odd loose breeches that hung to his toes. He was a great curiosity. It is hard at this time to realize the storm of disapproval that attended the transition from knee breeches to trousers. The jaunty tailor was assaulted by a mob and was arrested for indecency. The Duke of Wellington, fresh from his laurels at Water- loo, was later impressed with the greater con- venience of the new garments and determined to popularize long trousers. So he had a pair made, and wore them to a ball. Despite his high standing as a popular hero, he was turned away with the ultimatum, "the guests at this ball must be dressed." But slowly and surely the fashion of long trousers displaced that of breeches, stockings, shoes and buckles.
DRESS OF WOMEN
I have seen "barefoot girls, with cheek of tan," walk three or four miles to church, and on nearing the church step into the woods to put on a pair of shoes they had carried with them. I could name some of these who are living to-day. A woman who could buy eight or ten yards of calico for a dress at a dollar a yard put on queenly airs. The women wore flannel almost exclusively in the winter. They had linsey petticoats, coarse shoes and stock- ings, and buckskin gloves or mittens when any protection was required for the hands. All of their wearing apparel, like that of the men, was made with a view to being service- able and comfortable, and all was home manu- factured. Other articles and finer ones were sometimes worn, but they had been brought
from former homes, and were usually relics handed down from parents to children. Jewelry was not common, but occasionally some ornament was displayed. Every married woman of any refinement then wore daycaps and nightcaps. The bonnets were of beaver, gimp or leghorn, and sunbonnets. For shoes, women usually went barefoot in the summer, and in the winter covered their feet with moccasins, calfskin shoes, buffalo overshoes and shoepacks. Hoopskirts were first worn by women in 1856.
AAlmost every article of clothing, all of the cloth in use in the old cabins, was the prod- ttet of the patient woman weaver's toil. She spun the flax and wove the cloth for shirts, pantaloons, frocks, sheets and blankets. The linen and the wool, the "linsey-woolsey" woven by the housewife, formed all of the material for the clothing of both men and . women, except such articles as were made of skins.
That old, old occupation of spinning and weaving, with which woman's name has been associated in all history, and of which the modern world knows nothing except through the stories of those who are great-grand- mothers now, that old occupation of spinning and weaving which seems surrounded with a glamour of romance as we look back to it through tradition and poetry, and which always conjures up thoughts of the graces and virtues of the dames of a generation that is gone, that old, old occupation of spinning and weaving, was the chief industry of the pioneer woman. Every cabin sounded with the softly whirring wheel and the rhythmic thud of the loom. The woman of pioneer times was like Solomon's description : "She secketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands; she layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff."
The wool and flax were all prepared for weaving by hand, there being no carding ma- chines in the county for many years after its first settlement ; then women carded by hand. When woolen cloth was wanted for men's wear, the process of fulling was as follows : The required quantity of flannel was laid upon the bare floor, and a quantity of soap and water thrown over it; then a number of men seated upon stools would take hold of a rope tied in a circle and begin to kick the flannel with their bare feet. When it was supposed to be fulled sufficiently, the men were released from their task, which was a tiresome one, yet a mirth-provoking one, too, for, if it were possible, one or so must come
SPINNING-WHEEL, REEL, AND BED- WARMER
FLAX BRAKE
LARGE SPINNING WHEEL
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TILL
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JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
from his seat, to be landed in the midst of the heap of flannel and soapsuds, much to the merriment of the more fortunate ones.
The linen and tow cloth supplied the place of muslin and calico of the present day. They were made from flax. The seed was sown in the early spring and ripened about August. It was harvested by "pulling." This was gen- erally done by a "pulling frolic" of young people, pulling it out by the root. It was then tied in little sheaves and permitted to dry, hauted in and threshed for the seed. Then une straw was watered and trotted by laying it on the ground out of doors. Then the straw was again dried, over a fire, and "broken in the flax break," after which it was again tied up in little bundles and then scutched with a wooden knife. This scutching was a frolic job, too, and a dirty one. Then the rest of the process consisted of spinning, weaving and dyeing. That which was for dress goods was made striped, either by color or blue through the white, which was considered a nice sum- mer suit, when made into what was called a short gown and petticoat, which matched very well with the calfskin slippers of that day. The nearest store was at Kittanning, thirty- five miles distant, and the road but a pathway through the woods, and calico was fifty cents per yard. Linen cloth sold for about twenty- four cents a yard, tow cloth for about twenty cents a yard. Weaving originated with the Chinese. It took a thousand years for the art to reach Europe.
WIIAT THE PIONEER COULD HAVE, OR DID ILAVE, TO EAT
In the early cooking everything was boiled and baked ; this was healthful. There was no "rare fad," with its injurious results. The common dishes served were wheat and rye bread, wheat and rye mush, Indian corn pone, corn cakes, corn mush and milk, sweet and butter milk boiled and thickened, buckwheat cakes, mush and souens, doughnuts and baked pot-pies. Then there were potatoes, turnips, wild onions or wramps, wild fruits, wild meats, birds and fish.
Buckwheat souens was a great pioneer dish. The buckwheat flour and water were mixed in the morning, with enough yeast added to lighten the batter, which stood until evening. or until it was real sour. Then it was stirred into boiling water and thoroughly cooked, like corn mush, and eaten hot or cold with milk or cream.
The pioneer Irish settler lived on hog, hominy, and Indian pone for breakfast, mush
and milk, sweetened water, molasses, bear's oil or gravy for supper. Our German settlers lived on cabbage, sauerkraut and speck, Schnitz and Knoff, grumbire soup and noodles, roggenbrod and schmierkaese. I have "filled up" on elm and birch bark.
Soda was made by burning corncobs.
Wheat was brought into Massachusetts by the first settlers. Rye was also brought by them and cultivated. Corn (maize) and po- tatoes are natives of America, and were used by our Indians. Our Indian corn was first successfully raised in 1608, on the James river, in Virginia. Oats were brought by the first settlers and sown in 1602. Buck- wheat, a native of Asia, was taken to Europe in the twelfth century, and grown in Pennsyl- vania in 1702. Barley was introduced by permanent settlers and is a native of Egypt.
We are indebted to the "heathen Chinee" for the art of bread-making from wheat, 1998 B. C. In parts of Europe the wheaten loaf is unknown. Baked loaves are practically un- known in many parts of south Austria and Haly, as well as the agricultural districts of Roumania. In the villages of the Obersteier- mark, not very many miles from Vienna, bread is seldom seen, the staple food of the people being sterz, a kind of porridge made from ground beechnuts, which is taken at breakfast with fresh or curdled milk, at dinner with broth or fried in lard, and with milk again at supper. This sterz is also known as heiden, and takes the place of bread not only in Steiermark, but in Carinthia and in many parts of the Tyrol. In the north of Italy the peasantry live chiefly on polenta, a porridge made of boiled maize. The polenta, however, is not allowed to granulate like Scotch por- ridge, or like the Austrian sterz, but is boiled into solid pudding. It is eaten cold as often as it is hot.
For meats the pioneer had the flesh of hogs, bears, elks, deer, rabbits, squirrels, wood- chucks, porcupines and turkeys. The saddles or hams of the deer were salted by the pioneer. then smoked and dried. This was a great luxury, and could be kept the year through.
The late Dr. Clarke wrote : "Wild game, such as elks, deer, bears, turkeys and part- ridges, were numerous, and for many years constituted an important part of the animal food of the carly settlers in this wilderness. Wolves and panthers came in for a share of this game, until they, too, became game for the hunters by the public and legal offer of bounties to be paid for their scalps, or rather for their ears, for a perfect pair of ears was
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JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
required to secure the bounty. All these have become nearly extinct. The sturdy elk no longer roams over the hills or sips 'salty sweetness' from the licks. The peculiar voice of the stately strutting wild turkey is heard no more. The howl of the wolf and the cry of the panther no longer alarm the traveler as he winds his way over the hills or through the valleys, and the flocks are now permitted to rest in peace. Even the wild deer are now seldom seen, and a nice venison steak rarely gives its delicious aroma among the shining plate of modern well set tables.'
Pike, bass, catfish, suckers, sunfish, horn- chubs, mountain trout and eels were abundant in the streams. The old settler shot, seined. hooked with a line, and gigged his fish. Gig- ging was done at night by means of a light made from burning fagots of pitch pine. It usually required three to do this gigging, whether "wading" or in a canoe, one to carry the light ahead, one to gig, and one to care for the fish.
Pheasants were plentiful, and enlivened the forest with their drumming. The water and woods were full of wild ducks, geese, pigeons. and turkeys. The most remarkable bird in America was the wild turkey. It is the original turkey, and is the stock from which the tame turkeys sprung. In the wild state it was to be found in the wooded lands cast of the Rocky Mountains. In pioneer times it was called gobbler or Jock by the whites, and Oo- coo-coo by the Indians. Our pioneer hunters could imitate the gobbling of a turkey, and this deceptive ruse was greatly practiced to excite the curiosity of the bird and bring it within shooting distance. The last wild turkey in Jefferson county was killed in the seventies near the town of Falls Creek.
The pioneer in his log cabin was surrounded by turkeys gobbling to each other at early dawn. Turkeys were good swimmers. They could swim across water a mile wide. The wild turkey had no particular home. He roosted at night anywhere in his range, on the topmost twigs of the highest trees. He knew how to conceal himself, or shape himself into a knob on a part of a dead limb.
To obtain a turkey roast when needed, the pioneer sometimes built in the woods a pen of round logs and covered it with brush. Whole flocks of turkeys were sometimes caught in these pens, built in this wise: "First a narrow ditch, about six feet long and two feet deep, was dng. Over this trench the pen was built, leaving a few feet of the channel outside of the enclosure. The end of the part
of the trench enclosed was usually about the middle of the pen. Over the ditch, near the wall of the pen, boards were laid. The pen was made tight enough to hold a turkey and covered with poles. The corn was scattered about on the inside, and the ditch outside baited with the same grain. Sometimes straw was also scattered about in the pen. Then the trap was ready for its victims. The tur- keys came to the pen, began to pick up the corn, and followed the trench, with their heads down within. When they had eaten enough, the birds tried to get out by walking around the pen, looking up all the time. They would cross the ditch on the boards, and never think of going to the opening in the ground at the center of the pen. When the hunter found his game he had only to crawl into the pen through the trench and kill the birds. In the fall turkeys became very fat, and gobblers weighing over twenty pounds were sometimes captured for Christmas in this way.
Apples. crabapples. wild, red and yellow plums, haws, blackberries, huckleberries, elderberries, wild strawberries, chokecherries, wild grapes and wild gooseberries were found here, and there were hickory-nuts, chestnuts, beechnuts, hazelnuts, and butternuts. Up to 1850 grapes and fruits were not cultivated in Pennsylvania.
For sweetening the pioneer had domestic and wild honey, maple sugar, maple molasses, and corncob molasses. Bee trees were numer- ous, and would frequently yield from eight to twelve gallons of excellent honey. These trees had to be cut in the night by the light of pitch pine fagots. Corncob molasses was used by many.
Ile drank metheglin, a drink made from honey ; whisky, small beer, rye coffee, butter- milk, and fern, sassafras, sage and mint teas.
Coffee is a native of Arabia and has been used there a thousand years. It was intro- dneed into England as a beverage in 1750. Tea has been used in China and Japan for thousands of years. Distilled liquor was dis- covered in India and introduced into Europe in 1150. The name whisky was given to it by the Scotch, who made it from barley.
PIONFER PRICES FOR SKILLED AND UNSKILLED LAROR
Carpenters Per day
1800
.$0.70
1810
1.00
1820
1.13
1830-1840
1.40
1850-1860
1.50
1015
2.50-3.00
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JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
Day Laborers
Per day
1800
.$0.62
1810
0.82
1820
0.90
1840-1860
( about ) 1.00
1915
1.75-2.00
Previous to 1840 a day's work was not limited by hours. It was by law and custom from "sunrise to sunset," or whatever the employer exacted. In 1840, however, Presi- dent Van Buren signed the pioneer executive order fixing a day's work in the Washington navy yard at ten hours per day. It took a great and protracted struggle for years and years to secure the general adoption of the ten-hour system.
EARLY FOOD PRICES
In 1799, when Joseph Hutchinson lived in what is now Jefferson county, wheat sold in this section of the State at two dollars and fifty cents per bushel, flour for eighteen dol- lars per barrel, corn two dollars, oats one dollar and fifty cents, potatoes one dollar and fifty cents per bushel.
In 1817 the average price of wheat in this region was $3.50 per bushel. In 1827 the price was $2. The following are the prices from that time to 1887, taken every ten years : 1837, $3.50; 1847, $3.15: 1857, $2.75; 1867. $3.25; 1877, $2.
In and before 1830 flour was three dollars per barrel; beef, three cents a pound, venison ham, one and a half cents a pound ; chickens, six cents apiece : butter, six and eight cents a pound ; eggs, six cents a dozen.
Food Prices, 1852-1915
1852
1015
Wheat, per bu.
$0.75
$1.65
Rye, ber bu.
0.621/2 1.20
Oats, per bu.
0.40
0.62
Corn, per bu.
0.621/2 1.05
Potatoes, per bn.
1.25
0.75
Hay, per ton
15.00
22.00
By act of Assembly of May 11. 1915. the legal weights of produce were fixed as follows :
Per
bushel
Wheat
60 1b.
Corn (in the ear)
70 Ib.
Corn, shelled
56 1b.
Rye
56 1b.
Buckwheat
48 10.
Barley
48 1h.
Oats
32 1b.
White Beans
60 1b.
White Potatoes
60 11
Per bushel
Onions
50 1b.
Turnips
60 1b.
Dried Peaches
33 1b.
Dried Apples
35 1b.
Clover Seed 60 1b.
Flax Seed 56 1b.
Timothy Seed 45 İb.
Hemp Seed
44 1b.
Corn Meal
50 Ib.
PIONEER HABITS AND CUSTOMS
The habits of the pioneers were of a sim- plicity and purity in conformance with their surroundings and belongings. The men were engaged in the herculean labor, day after day, of enlarging the little patch of sunshine about their homes, cutting away the forest, burning off the brush and debris, preparing the soil, planting, tending, harvesting, caring for the few animals which they brought with them or soon procured and in hunting. While they were engaged in the heavy labor of the field and forest, or following the deer or seek- ing other game, their helpmates were busied with their household duties, providing for the day and for the winter coming, cooking, mak- ing clothes, spinning and weaving. They were fitted by nature and experience to be the con- sorts of the brave men who first came into the western wilderness. They were heroic in their endurance of hardship and privation and lone- liness. Their industry was well directed and unceasing. Woman's work then, like man's, was performed under disadvantages, which have been removed in later years. She had not only the household duties to perform, but many others. She not only made the clothing. but the fabric for it.
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