Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume I, Part 4

Author: McKnight, W. J. (William James), 1836-1918
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers
Number of Pages: 650


USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume I > Part 4


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only worth eight hundred thousand dollars. Now to-day we have hundreds of millionaires. The nation that was poor in 1800 is now worth two hundred and twenty-eight billion dollars. Our great wealth is due to oil. mines, gas, pre- cious metals and agriculture.


Pine-knots, tallow-dipped candles burned in iron or brass candlesticks, and whale oil burned in iron lamps, were the means for light in stores, dwellings, etc .; gas was un- heard of for stoves, streets or lights; no furnaces or steam heat. Food was scarce, coarse, and of the most common kind, with no canned goods or evaporated fruits. In addi- tion to cooking in the open fireplace, women had to spin, knit, dye and weave all domestic cloths, there being no mills run by machinery to make woolen or cotton goods. Mrs. Wins- low's Soothing Syrup and baby carriages were unknown. The bride of 1800 took her wed- ding trip on foot or on horseback behind the bridegroom on a "pillion." To-day she can take it in an airship. The pioneer mother spun the wool and flax, knit the yarn into socks, comforts and mittens, made the blue drilling and other clothes for the family, made the soap and tallow-candles, preserved the meat, milked the cows and made the butter, carried the water from the spring. In short, her lot was terribly severe.


In 1800 men wore no beards, whiskers or moustaches, their faces being clean-shaven and as smooth as a girl's. A beard was looked upon as an abomination, and fit only for Hes- sians, heathen or Turks. In 1800 not a single cigar had ever been smoked in the United States. I wish I could say that of to-day.


Previous to 1800, or the settlement of Jef- ferson county, there were about nine inven- tions in the world, to-wit: The screw, lever, wheel, windlass, compass, gunpowder, mov- able type, microscopes and telescopes. About everything else has been invented since. To- day France averages about nine thousand, and the United States twelve thousand in- ventions a year.


In 1800 no steamboats had ever navigated the water, nothing but sail craft being used. Emigrants to America came in sailing vessels. Each emigrant had to provide his own food, as the vessel supplied only air and water. The trip required a period of from thirty clays to three months. Now this voyage can be made by the use of Jefferson county coal in less than six days in palace steamships reading wireless telegraphic news on the boat. Now ocean travel is a delight. Then canals


for the passage of great ships and transatlantic steamers were unknown.


In 1800 the use of electricity was in its in- fancy, and traveling was done by sail, on foot or horseback, and by coach. Now we have steamers, street cars, railroads, bicycles and horseless carriages ; modern tunnels were unknown. Then there was no submarine cable ; now the earth is girdled with telegraph wires, and we can speak face to face through the telephone over four thousand miles apart, and millions of messages are sent every year under the waters of the globe. Today in the United States an average of more than one to twelve telegraphic messages is sent every minute, day and night, the year through.


In 1800 human slavery was universal, and irreligion was the order of the day. Nine out of every ten workingmen neither pos- sessed nor ever opened a Bible. Hymn books were unknown, and musical science had no system. Medicine was an illiterate theory, surgery a crude art, and dentistry unknown. Books were few and costly, ignorance the rule, and authors famed the world over now were then unborn; now we spend annually one hundred and forty million dollars for schools. In 1800 there were but few daily papers in the world, no illustrated ones, no humorous ones, and no correspondents. No snapshots were thought of. Photography was not heard of. Now this science has re- vealed "stars invisible" and microscopic life beyond computation. Plate glass was a lux- ury undreamed of. Envelopes had not been invented, and postage stamps had not been introduced. Vulcanized rubber and celluloid had not begun to appear in a hundred dainty forms. Stationary washtubs, and even wash- boards, were unknown. Carpets, furniture and household accessories were expensive. Sewing machines had not yet supplanted the needle. Aniline colors and coal-tar products were things of the future. Stemwinding watches had not appeared; there were no cheap watches of any kind. So it was with hundreds of the ifecessities of our present life.


SOCIAL HABITS OF THE PIONEERS


In the social customs of our day, many minds entertain doubts whether we have made improvements upon those of our ancestors. In those days friends and neighbors could ineet together and enjoy themselves, and enter into the spirit of social amusement with a hearty goodwill, a geniality of manners, a


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corresponding depth of soul, among both the old and young, to which modern society is un- accustomed. Our ancestors did not make a special invitation the only pass to their dwell- ings, and they entertained those who visited them with a hospitality that is not generally practiced at the present time. Guests did not assemble then to criticize the decorations. furniture, dress, manners and surroundings of those by whom they were invited. They were sensible people, with clear heads and warm hearts; they visited each other to pro- mote mutual enjoyment, and believed in gen- uine earnestness in all things. We may ignore obligations to the pioneer race, and congratu- late ourselves that our lot has been cast in a more advanced era of mental and moral culture : we may pride ourselves upon the de- velopments which have been made in science and art: but, while viewing our standard of elevation as immeasurably in advance of that of our forefathers, it would be well to emu- iate their great characteristics of hospitality. honor and integrity.


CHRISTIANITY OF THOSE TIMES


The type of Christianity of that period will not suffer by comparison with that of the present day. If the people of olden times had less for costly apparel and ostentatious dis- play, they had also more for offices of charity and benevolence; if they did not have the splendor and luxuries of wealth, they at least had no infirmaries or paupers, very few law- vers, and but little use for jails. The vain and thoughtless may jeer at their unpretending manners and customs, but in all the elements of true manhood and true womanhood it may be safely averred that they were more than the peers of the generation that now occupy


their places. That race has left its impress upon our times, whatever patriotism the pres- ent generation boasts has descended from them. Rude and illiterate, sectarian and con- tentious, they may have been, but they pos- sessed strong minds in strong bodies, made so by their compulsory self-denials, their privations and toil. It was the mission of many of them to aid and participate in the formation of this great Commonwealth, and wisely and well was the mission performed. Had their descendants been more faithful to their noble teachings. harmony would reign supreme where violence and discord now hold sway in the land.


The pioneer times are the greenest spot in the memories of those who lived in them; the privations and hardships then endured are consecrated things in the recollection of the survivors. I am glad to have lived in them.


Our fathers established the first Christian. non-sectarian government in the world, and declared as the chief cornerstone of that gov- ernment under which all men are "born free and equal" Christ's teaching, love your neighbor as yourself. Since this thought has been carried into effect by our non-sectarian government, it has done more to elevate and civilize mankind in the last one hundred years than had ever been accomplished in all time before. Under the humane and inspiring in- fluence of this grand idea put into practice, the wheels of progress, science, religion and civilization have made gigantic.strides, and our nation especially, from ocean to ocean, from Arctic ice to tropic sun, is filled with smiling. happy homes, rich fields, blooming gardens and bright firesides, made such by Christian charity carried into national and State con- stitutional enactment.


CHAPTER II OUR ABORIGINES


THIE IROQUOIS, OR SIX NATIONS-INDIAN TOWNS, VILLAGES, GRAVEYARDS, CUSTOMS, DRESS, HUTS, MEDICINES, DOCTORS, BARK-PEELERS, BURIALS, ETC .- CORNPLANTER


Aquanuschiono, or "united people," is what they called themselves. The French called them the Iroquois; the English, the Six Na- tions. They formed a confederate nation, and as such were the most celebrated and power- ful of all the Indian nations in North America. The confederacy consisted of the Mohawks, the fire-striking people ; the Oneidas. the pipe- makers; the Onondagas, the hilltop people ; the Cayugas, the people from the lake; the Tuscaroras, unwilling to be with other people ; and the Senecas. the mountaineers, or our people.


The aborigines were called Indians because Columbus thought he had discovered India. and they were called Red Men because they daubed their faces and bodies with red paint. The American Indian had no universal lan- guage. In North America, there were over one thousand Indian dialects.


The Iroquois ( E-ro-quan), or Six Nations, were divided into eight families, viz., the Wolf, Bear, Beaver. Turtle, Deer, Snipe. Heron and Hawk. Each nation had one of each of the families in their tribe, and all the members of that family. no matter how wide apart or of what other tribe, were considered as brothers and sisters, and were forbidden to marry in their own family. Then a Wolf was a brother to all other Wolves in each of the nations. This family bond was taught from infancy and enforced by public opinion.


If at any time there appeared a tendency toward conflict between the different tribes, it was instantly checked by the thought that, if persisted in, the hand of the Turtle must be lifted against his brother, the tomahawk of the Beaver might be buried in the brain of his kinsman Beaver. And so potent was the feeling that, for at least two hundred years. and until the power of the league was broken by the overwhelming outside force of the whites, there was no serious dissension be- tween the tribes of the Iroquois.


In peace, all power was confined to "sach-


ems," in war, to "chiefs." The sachems of each tribe acted as its rulers in the few mat- ters which required the exercise of civil au- thority. The same rulers also met in council to direct the affairs of the confederacy. There were fifty in all, of whom the Mohawks had nine, the Oneidas nine, the Onondagas four- teen, the Cayugas ten and the Senecas eight. These numbers, however, did not give pro- portionate power in the council of the league, for all the nations were equal there. There was in each tribe, too, the same number of war chiefs as sachems, and these had absolute authority in time of war. When a council assembled, each sachem had a war chief near him to execute his orders. But in the war party the war chief commanded and the sachem took his place in the ranks. This was the system in its simplicity.


The right of heirship, as among many other of the North American tribes of Indians, was in the female line. A man's heirs were his brother, that is to say, his mother's son and his sister's son, never his own son, nor his brother's son. The few articles which con- stituted an Indian's personal property-even his bow and tomahawk-never descended to the son of him who had wielded them. Titles. so far as they were hereditary at all, followed the same law of descent. The child also fol- lowed the clan and tribe of the mother. The object was evidently to secure greater cer- tainty that the heir would be of the blood of his deceased kinsman. The result of the ap- plication of this rule to the Iroquois system of clans was that if a particular sachemship or chieftaincy was once established in a certain clan of a certain tribe, in that clan and tribe it was expected to remain forever. Exactly how it was filled when it became vacant is a matter of some doubt ; but, as near as can be learned, the new official was elected by the warriors of the clan, and was then inaugurated by the council of the sachems.


If, for instance, a sachemship belonging to


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the Wolf clan of the Seneca tribe became vacant, it could only be filled by some one of the Wolf clan of the Seneca tribe. \ clan council was called, and, as a general rule, the heir of the deceased was chosen to his place. to wit: One of his brothers, reckoning only on the mother's side, or one of his sister's sons, or even some more distant male relative in the female line. But there was no positive law, and the warriors might discard all these and elect some one entirely unconnected with the deceased. though, as before stated, he must be one of the same clan and tribe. While there was no unchangeable custom' compelling the clan council to select one of the heirs of the deceased as his successor, yet the tendency was so strong in that direction that an infant was frequently chosen, a guardian being ap- pointed to perform the functions of the office till the youth should reach the proper age to do so. All offices were held for life. unless the incumbent was solemnly deposed by a council, an event which very seldom occurred. Notwithstanding the modified system of hered- itary power in vogne, the constitution of every tribe was essentially republican. War- riors, old men, and women attended the various councils and made their influence felt. Neither in the government of the confederacy nor of the tribes was there any such thing as tyranny over the people, though there was a great deal of tyranny by the league over conquered na- tions. In fact, there was very little govern- ment of any kind, and very little need of any. There were substantially no property interests to guard, all land being in common, and each man's personal property being limited to a bow, a tomahawk, and a few deerskins. Liquor had not yet lent its disturbing influence, and few quarrels were to be traced to the influence of women, for the American Indian is singu- larly free from the warmer passions. Ilis principal vice is an easily aroused and un- limited hatred : but the tribes were so small and enemies so convenient that there was no difficulty in gratifying this feeling (and at- taining to the rank of a warrior ) outside of his own nation. The consequence was that al- though the war parties of the Iroquois were continually shedding the blood of foes, there was very little quarrelling at home.


Their religious creed was limited to a some- what vague belief in the existence of a Great Spirit and several inferior but very potent evil spirits. They had ceremonies, consisting largely of dances, one called the "green-corn dance." and others at other seasons of the year. From a very early date their most im-


portant religious ceremony has been the "burn- ing of the white dog." To this day the pagans among them still perform this rite.


In common with their fellow savages on this continent. the Iroquois have been termed "fast friends and bitter enemies," but they were a great deal stronger enemies than friends. Revenge was the ruling passion of their nature, and cruelty was their abiding characteristic. Revenge and cruelty are the worst attributes of human nature, and it is idle to talk of the goodness of men who roasted their captives at the stake. All Indians were faithful to their own tribes, and the Iroquois were faithful to their confederacy; but out- side of these limits their friendship could not be counted on, and treachery was always to be apprehended in dealing with them.


In their family relations they were not harsh to their children and not wantonly so to their wives; but the men were invariably indolent. and all labor was contemptuously abandoned to their weaker sex. They had no cows, horses or chickens. They raised tobacco. corn, beans and pumpkins.


Polygamy was practiced. Chiefs and emi- nent warriors usually had two or three wives, who could be discarded at will by their hus- bands.


Our nation, the Senecas, was the most numerous and comprised the greatest war- riors of the Iroquois confederacy. Their great chiefs. Cornplanter and Guyasutha, are prominently connected with the traditions of the headwaters of the Allegheny, western New York, and northwestern Pennsylvania. In person the Senecas were slender, middle-sized. handsome and straight The squaws were short, not handsome, and clumsy. The skin was reddish brown, hair straight and jet-black.


When a Seneca died. the corpse was dressed in a new blanket or petticoat, with the face and clothes painted red. The body was then laid on a skin in the middle of the hut. The war and hunting implements of the deceased were then piled up around the body. In the evening after sunset, and in the morning be- fore daylight, the squaws and relations as- sembled around the corpse to mourn. This was daily repeated until interment. The graves were dug by okl squaws, as the young squaws abhorred this kind of labor. Before they had hatchets and other tools, they used to line the inside of the grave with the bark of trees, and when the corpse was let down they placed some pieces of wood across, which were again covered with bark, and then the earth thrown in, to fill up the grave. At an


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early period they used to put a tobacco pouch, knife, tinder-box, tobacco and pipe, bow and arrows, gunpowder and shot, skins and cloth for clothes, paint, a small bag of Indian corn or dried bilberries, sometimes the kettle, hatchet, and other furniture of the deceased, into the grave, supposing that the departed spirits would have the same wants and occu- pation in the land of souls. But this custom was nearly wholly abolished among the Dela- wares and Iroquois about the middle of the last century. At the burial not a man shed a tear ; they deemed it a shame for a man to weep. But on the other hand, the women set up a dreadful howl. They carried their dead a long way sometimes for burial.


An Indian hut was built in this manner : Trees abounding in sap were peeled, usually the linn. When the trees were cut down the bark was peeled with the tomahawk and its handle. They peeled from the top of the tree to the butt. The bark for hut building was cut into pieces of six or eight feet, which were then dried and flattened by laying heavy stones upon them. The frame of a bark hut was made by driving poles into the ground, and the poles were strengthened by crossbeams. This frame was then covered inside and out- side with the prepared linnwood bark, fas- tened with leatherwood bark or hickory withes. The roof ran upon a ridge, and was covered in the same manner as the frame; and an opening was left in it for the smoke to escape. and one on the side of the frame for a door.


They cut logs fifteen feet long and laid these logs upon each other. At each end they drove posts in the ground, and tied these posts together at the top with hickory withes or , moose bark. In this way they erected a wall of logs fifteen feet long to the height of four feet. In the same way they raised a wall opposite to this one, about twelve feet away. In the centre of each end of this log frame they drove forks into the ground. A strong pole was then laid upon these forks, extend- ing from end to end, and from these log walls they set up poles for sheeting. and the hut was then covered or shingled with linnwood bark. As above related, this bark was peeled from the tree, commencing at the top, with a toma- hawk, and the strips were sometimes thirty feet long, and usually six inches wide. These strips were ent as desired for roofing.


At each end of the hut they set up split lumber, leaving an open space at each end for a doorway, at which a bearskin hung. A stick leaning against the outside of this skin meant that the "door was locked." At the


top of the hut, in lieu of a chimney, they left an open place. The fires were made in the inside of the hut, and the smokes escaped through this opening. There were no doors or windows. For bedding they had linnwood bark covered with bearskins. Open places be- tween logs the squaws stopped with moss gathered from old logs. Several families occu- pied a hut, hence they built them long. The inen wore a blanket and went bareheaded. The women wore a petticoat, fastened about the hips, extending a little below the knees.


Our nation, the Senecas, produced the great- est orators, and more of them than any other. Cornplanter, Red Jacket and Farmer's Brother were all Senecas. Red Jacket once, in enumerating the woes of the Senecas, ex- claimed : "We stand on a small island in the bosom of the great waters. We are encircled, we are encompassed. The evil spirit rides on the blast, and the waters are disturbed. They rise, they press upon us, and the waters once settled over us, we disappear forever. Who then lives to mourn us? None. What marks our extinction? Nothing. We are mingled with the common elements."


Drunkenness, after the whites had dealings with the red men, was a common vice, and the Indian female, as well as the male, was infatuated with the love of strong drink. Neither of them knew bounds to their desire ; they drank while they had whisky or could swallow it down. Drunkenness was a vice, though attended with many serious conse- quences, even murder and death, that was not punishable among them. It was a fashionable vice. However, fornication, adultery, stealing, lying and cheating, principally the offspring of drunkenness, were considered as heinous and scandalous offenses, and were punished in various ways.


The Iroquois married early in life, the men usually at eighteen and the women at four- teen. If an Indian man wished to marry he sent a present, consisting of blankets, cloth, linen, and occasionally a few belts of wam- pum, to the nearest relations of the person he had fixed upon. If he that made the present, and the present itself, pleased, the matter was formally proposed to the girl, and if the answer was affirmatively given the bride was conducted to the bridegroom's dwelling with- out any further ceremony; but if the other party chose to decline the proposal, the pres- ent was returned by way of a friendly nega- tive. After the marriage, the present made by the suitor was divided among the friends of the young wife. These returned the civility


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by a gift of Indian corn, beans, kettles, bas- kets, hatchets, etc., brought in solemn proces- sion into the hut of the newly married couple. The latter commonly lodged in a friend's house till they could erect a dwelling of their own.


When a young squaw was ready to marry she wore something on her head as a notice.


As soon as a child was born, it was laid upon a broad or straight piece of bark covered with moss and wrapped up in a skin or piece of cloth, and when the mother was engaged in her housework this rude cradle or bed was hung to a peg or the branch of a tree. The children were educated to fit them to get through the world as did their fathers. They were instructed in religion, etc. They believed that Manitou, their God, "the good spirit." could be propitiated by sacrifices; hence they observed a great many superstitious and idola- trous ceremonies. At their general and sol- emin sacrifices the oldest men performed the offices of priests, but in private parties each man brought a sacrifice, and offered it him- self as priest. Instead of a temple they fitted up a large dwelling house for the purpose.


When they traveled or went on a journey they manifested much carelessness about the weather ; yet, in their prayers, they usually begged for "a clear and pleasant sky." They generally provided themselves with Indian meal, which they either ate dry, mixed with maple sugar and water, or boiled into a kind of mush. As to meat, that they took as they went. If in their travels they had occasion to pass a deep river, they set immediately about building a canoe, taking long pieces of bark of proportionate breadth, to which they gave the proper form by fastening it to ribs of light wood, bent so as to suit the occasion. If a large canoe was required, several pieces of bark were carefully sewed together. If the voyage was expected to be long, many Indians carried everything they wanted for their night's lodging with them-namely, some slender poles and rushmats, or birchbark, which they used for candles.


They had their amusements. Their favorite one was dancing. The common dance was held either in a large house or in an open field around a fire. In dancing they formed a circle, and always had a leader, to whom the whole company attended. The men went be- fore, and the women closed the circle. The latter danced with great decency and as if they were engaged in the most serious busi- ness ; while thus engaged they never spoke a word to the men, much less joked with them, which would have injured their character.




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