USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Pioneer sketches : scenes and incidents of former days > Part 10
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found myself in their company on our way home. In due time, a good lunch was served : Mince pie, fried cakes and cheese, apples and cider, of which young folks can at most any time eagerly partake. Of course, while in good com- pany, time swiftly flies, and when the wee hours 1 and 2 came we were retracing our steps homeward, and when we had advanced about half a mile from the corporate limits of Tighthole, opposite the dense black hemlocks, we heard a cracking of the ice near shore on the eastern side of Alsworth Coles' duck pond, on the E. & P. Canal.
It was one of those strange. cold wintry nights when. everything in animate and inanimate creation generally was hushed in the arms of Morpheus. The sun the previous evening looked as if it was wading in a snow drift. Already the snow was knee deep on the ground. The moon, appar- ently, was scooting into and out from behind the clouds, playing a grand panorama in space on that cold, gray night. Her bewitching, silvery disc reflecting through the clouds, yet feebly into the hemlocks on the dark side of that duck pond on the eleven-mile level of the raging canal, gave one an impression long to be remembered.
But hark! The clinks of ice again on that dark shore soon revealed the form of a black brute snuffing around, which made directly for me. The pale flittering of the moonlight enable dine,
"As the brute came nearer," To see more clearer : There was no such dog round there,
""Twas nothing else than a big, black bear."
I thought of many things in a minute. Nothing with me but a pen-knife and the arms that God gave me to de- fend myself. Something must be done, and that quickly.
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The leer and grin on the face of my early visitor betokened a grim visage of an early picnic with bruin. To run was useless, and to climb a tree would be sport for the brute. There was a straight rail fence within a few feet of me, capped and staked. I quickly jerked from the fence one of the stakes, about six feet long, which was in such shape that I could wield it to advantage, and quickly wheeled about with uplifted stake. When bruin was only a few feet below me I gave a terrific yell, which echoed far beyond the realms of Tighthole or the present limits of Keepville. That yell had a magical effect on the bear, as he wheeled about and sat upon his haunches, threw his head to one side, gave me a parting grin, and marched off toward the dark hemlocks, across the icy pond from whence he came.
Well, I was exceedingly glad that my carly visitor had concluded to leave me at that lonely spot on that lonely night, " alone to my glory." With quickened footsteps I made up the tow-path for my Uncle Ira Locke, near the Union school-house, which was about one and a-half miles from my paternal roof. Arriving, I knocked loudly on his door. He opened the door and said: "Come in. Out rather late, aren't you, for a boy ?" "Yes, I guess so. I just had a little experience down the tow-path that you needn't say anything about, at least not until you see those bear tracks, as the boys would laugh at me." "All right," said uncle; "but you must stay here the remainder of the night, as the weather is cold and the snow deep." He did not have to use much persuasion to get me to stay, as a few hours of refreshing sleep would better fit me to solve the coming school-day's problem of Dayboll and the etymology of Kirkham at the old school-house a few hours later.
A MIDNIGHT VISITOR.
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The bear's tracks were the next day seen all right, and by some hunters tracked beyond Porky street and into the big woods of Denmark, Ohio. Its shaggy robe has served to keep many a one warm and more comfortable than it did me on that cold, wintry night on the Erie & Pittsburg Canal on my lonely excursion one and a-half miles south of the antiquated burg of Tighthole.
" So you see one can never know at all"
What's going to happen out on the E. & P. Canal.
In fact, the half never has been told
Of the haps and mishaps about ancient Tighthole.
CHAPTER XXXIII
"IN LOVE AND OUT."
1
LOVED HER, and she seemed to me As fair as Summer skies; Her gentle, sunny face to see Was gladness to my eyes.
Her hand was soft, her foot was small, Her cheeks were like the rose; But I admired most of ali The freckles on her nose. She jilted me, and then I learned
That love indeed is blind; Her many charms I once discerned, Have faded from my mind.
She isn't near so pretty as The lilly or the rose; I'll never wed a girl who has Such freckles on her nose.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE HOME OF OUR YOUTH.
HERE is no place to where our memories . should more fondly cluster than around the home of our youth. Like the flow- ers of Spring time budding into blossom, buoyant and imaginative thoughts waft us forward to prospective future scenes, to be enacted in the drama of life. What a vast field lies stretching out to the gaze of the youthful eye upon which to contemplate ! Hence the great game of chance in the race of life soon commences.
Some play it with great skill and precision, Others soon land in a poor house or a prison; A righteous home teaching in a majority of cases, Will land us all in proper places.
Industry, temperance and frugality are the three main spokes in the wheel of fortune. Look ye out upon the plodding multitude marching up and down the avenues of life. Behold the buoyant and sunny face of the maiden or the matron, the air of content upon the visage of the busy man, or the smiling, happy youth. Again, behold the woman-
With pale face, unsteady step and solemn mien, With noble form and feature as e're was seen, With downcast look she plods her way anlog, Driven from home into the throng.
PIONEER SKETCHES. 177
Look ye there, a reeling form, with slobbered face, Following the one whom he had disgraced,
Thrown out to earn her living in anguish and in tears,
By one with whom she had spent best portion of her years.
Such scenes are not confined to the middle ages, but to the tender youth. Then can we wonder how it is that there are so many fallen creatures in our land? A proper train- ing and living in the home of our youth does much to pre- vent this unhappy condition. Therefore we have work-
For the missionary from every hand,
Without going to India's distant heathen land,
To educate our kin in industry, temperance and truth,
Right here among us, at the home of our youth.
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CHAPTER XXXV.
THE HOG-HIS EXPLOIT IN A WELL-THE RESCUE
A hog is a hog the world around, To drive him you first must knock him down.
O IT APPEARED IN 1847, when our paternal ancestor bought a hog from Moses Church about five miles away. I was sent to drive the hog home, but that hog wouldn't drive and I returned home, took a horse and wagon and Cousin Truman back with me for that hog. We found the critter as obstinate as ever. He would only go a few rods in our direction, and then would about wheel, with hoggish grunts, and make a lunge for his pig stye. This being repeated several times we got weary and, our patience exhausted, we found that some other tactics must be resorted to, and the next time that barrow made a lunge to get past us a heavy hickory whipstock held in our right hand, met him between the snout and eyes, and he stopped right there in the road. We sadly picked him up, and it was all we could do to put him into the wagon. Then we could drive our hog behind the horse in the wagon. It was a hot day; the hog was hot and we were all hot. Arriving at Col. Rutler's store, Spring, we halted for water to quench our thirst. The sensible colonel recommended that we treat our hog to a couple of
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buckets of cold water as the best panacea for a living hot hog on a hot July day. This was done, with soothing effect, and his porkship's grunts became more animating.
My father met us there and we drove home and put the hog into a yard with another of about equal size. But that hog was soon destined to take a more extensive bath at the expense of its owner. About 6 o'clock one fine morning I got up and noticed both hogs in the door yard. When the dog noticed them he started furiously for them. The hogs bristled up and retreated sideway, and when this Church hog got alongside of the well curb he pushed it aside and down went the hog into the well, 12 feet deep, in which were five feet of water. I immediately told father what had happened. He sprang out of bed, not waiting to dress himself, and quickly went down into the well. Placing his bare feet firmly in place in the well stones, he grabbed the hog by the ears and pulled upward. That old barrow shot right up out of the water and his head was nearly even up to father's. The scene was one that would fill the bill for the ideal artist and his camera. But don't forget that that hog was in the meantime putting in his best strength and grunts, with the toes of his hind feet firmly placed in a crevice of the stone wall and his fore feet digging away upon his almost naked deliverer. I could only leave them in this condition while running to John Woodard's, our nearest neighbor, for help. Mr. Woodard and Anson Sargent were soon on hand to the rescue. A rope was adjusted around the body of the hog under the fore legs, and a turn or two around a handspike and his hogship lifted up out of the well. The hog gave a few grunts and was all right, while father's breast, back and legs were pretty badly lacerated.
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A hog is a hog, we very well know, When you want him to move he won't go, You can't even coax him with an ear of corn The biggest hog of a hog that ever was born.
Beside us sits our ancestor, whom we call Uncle Alf, As we write this sketch he greets us with a hearty laugh About the hog in the well in the days of yore, And how he came out with legs and body quite sore.
Yet my father is with us, going on eighty-eight, Which affords us consolation that he is so hale, hearty and straight.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
A TRIP TO MEADVILLE FOR A POUND OF TEA.
E THOUGHT we had had mentioned everybody and almost everything con- cerning the early settlers of Spring, but when I think of that hero, Simon Washburn, who traveled on foot forty- four miles, through forest, o'er hill, valley and stream, to Meadville, in 1825-
To buy a pound of tea, at $2 a pound, to save the life Of his earnest, darling wife.
Pardon me, reader, for the inference, but what else could we infer, "A. D. 1891," that in making that long and tedious journey through the woods expressly to buy a pound of tea, for anything short of saving a life, when, in performing the act, he imperiled his own life in becoming an easy prey to the wild beasts of the forest.
But occasionally a pioneer lady, as well as some women of to-day, must have their tea to cure a headache, to pro- duce shuumber or wakefulness, and to stimulate the nerves to greater action, and while at the same time the lady or gentleman who should moderately imbibe a little rye tea is going "all wrong sure" and thrilling appeals are lauded
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upward and broadeast for the saving ordinance "prohibi- tion." But if they would discover that a strong decoction of green tea would bear up an egg as long or kill a dog quicker than would a dram of rye whisky, they would not be, perhaps, such strong drinkers of strong tea. But as long as tea parties are the rule and narrow giper toe shoes are in fashion, it will be in order, however baneful its effects to the wearer and the drinker.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
THIRTY-TWO POUNDS OF BUTTER FOR A POUND OF TEA-THE TEA PARTY-FORTUNE TELLING.
T SEEMS that in the good old days of 1820 some people apparently had as keen a relish for some articles and beverages as they have nowadays, and would undergo much more in the acquisition of the same. The patient toil, the personal endurance exhibited on many occasions tells the story of determined and persevering action of the pioneer men and women.
Frederic Bolard had a farm in Spring. Pa., and he also manufactured bells, which article was in great demand at that day to strap around the neck of the cow or sheep so it might be heard in the forest, so that at night the boys could tell in what direction to go for the cows, perhaps a mile or two away in the woods.
One day Mrs. Elizabeth Bolard discovered that her stock of tea in the canister was getting low, when she pre- pared some butter for market, and the next morning sad- dled her trusty horse and mounted him with two pails of butter, containing 32 pounds, and rode away to Meadville and back, a distance of 36 miles, and exchanged the 32 pounds of butter for one pound of tea, the price of the butter being 64 cents and the tea $2.00 per pound.
In view of the above facts, it seems there must have been some fascinating allurement back of this-the fash-
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ionable tea party and the fortune teller around the tea table, where sits Misses Smith, Jones, Brown and Simpkins and others. Supper is over, the tea cups emptied of their deli- cious beverage, when a new supply of tea grounds are placed in the hands of those who are anxious to have their fortunes told; then the cups are inverted and whirled in the hands and gently tapped on the table by the fair appli- cant, that the tea grounds may be jotted along down the sides of the cup, when one by one hands over her cup to the romantic fortune teller, who is no novice at the business. The romance commences, the mystery is unveiled to the fair one, the haps and mishaps of the future are revealed in thrilling pathos. The zeal and enthusiasm which the fortune teller manifests in the work is unequalled even by the latter day phrenologist while examining the bumps of the cranium, delincating the traits of character. Soon there is seen in the cup of tea grounds a dove (a carrier pigeon) carrying a letter in its beak, indicating glad tidings of great joy, and when the inspired fortune teller commences to unravel and interpret the contents of that mysterious missive, the heart of fair Abigail swells with emotion during the spell of the anxious ordeal through which she is passing, under the gaze of the much amused members of the tea party. When her fortune is told, should there remain some vestige of which she would like to know, she adds more material and again flips her cup, hoping to get the balance of her desired for- tune. When the fortune teller has in like manner served all of the party, quite satisfactorily of course, she becomes the heroine of the party. Then follows a good time gen- erally, and in due time the party retires to their respective homes-and pronounce that tea good and cheap, if butter didn't fetch but 64 cents a pound in exchange.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
MANUFACTURING BLACK SALTS-SALT WELLS.
HOMAS FOSTER, Samuel and David Thompson, settled in Spring, Pa.,, be- fore the war of 1812. Having emi- grated from Ireland, they were unac- quainted with the ways and some of the resources possessed by the schem- ing New England Pioneer in making the most out of the situation at that carly day in a primeval forest. Con- sequently they had not learned for some years after settling upon their lands how to utilize the principal factor to exchange for cash, which was simply the manufacture of black salts, an article that found a ready sale for cash at Meadville, Erie, Pa., or Conneaut, Ohio.
In 1818 Captain Phineas Sargent and family emigrated from the east and settled in the said township, Spring, Pa. ; he proceeded to teach the above named pioneers how to convert their ashes into black salts, of which a wagon-load could be transported to market in one days' time, from which they could readily realize more money than from the sale of a span of horses, or a couple of yoke of cattle, a big flock of sheep or several litters of pigs. It was an article that they generally threw away, except a few bushels. required for making family soap, as the new land did not require the ashes, as the cultivated does to-day.
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Well, as this black salt making is one of the by-gones, especially in the crude manner resorted to by the pioneer, I will therefore venture to explain its method, which may be of interest to the aspirant, the young man of the silver spoon, or to the Dandy Jim of to-day.
The timber on the fallow-field, usually comprising say from three to twenty acres, was rolled into log heaps and burned to ashes; these were raked into heaps and when cool, to prevent their getting wet and leeching, were hauled together and covered from the storm. Leeches were then erected (generally made from split timber, like staves) the leech filled with ashes, tamped down so that when the water was applied it would take some hours for it to soak through, thereby producing a strong lye which was put into a chaldron kettle or kettles, set in an arch and boiled down to the consistency of molasses, and thicker. It was stirred freely with an iron spud, to prevent it sticking to the kettle, and when about as thick as mush it was removed from the kettle and put into a wooden trough and, when cool, cut and put into barrels, it was ready for the market, and usually brought from $3 to $5 per hundred pounds.
Alfred Sargent, who is 87 years old and well and hearty at the present time, says that when a youth of 15 years, his father, Phineas Sargent, built the lecches for Foster and Thompson and set him to work boiling salts. With one kettle he could boil one hundred pounds per day.
At Meadville there were factories to convert the salts into pearl ash and saleratus. Later Col. Hiram Butler, at Spring Corners, manufactured saleratus, and on one occasion the writer bought six pounds of the best kind of saleratus for twenty-five cents. About the same time Messrs. John and Rearson Clark. of Albion, Pa .. made a
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genuine article and sold it very cheap, which of course was an indispensible article in every family. And now, we presume to say, with the vast increase of population sale- ratus or pure soda-like our spices, coffee and many other articles of food-are wickedly adulterated.
Because somebody wants to make a corner or a ring. On some very essential thing; On our food, and coffee that we drink,
How quick it kills they don't stop to care or think.
Salt was an indispensible and expensive article to the early settlers. It was freighted on pack horses over the Allegheny Mountains from the sea board and sold for fifty cents per quart. Years after, about 1810, a salt well was drilled by Daniel Shryock, of Beaver Township, and one by Samuel Wells in Elkereck Township. Each of these wells was about 100 feet deep. The water did not contain as much salt as the Onondaga wells in New York, but it proved a Godsend to the carly settlers of Crawford and Erie Counties, Pa., for years, until 1825-6, when the eastern salt could be obtained at Lake Erie ports, and when the E. & P. Canal was finished, 1840, the price of salt was much lower; and to-day it is used as a land fertilizer, but more to kill angleworms on many a poor garden spot in Ashtabula and elsewhere.
Young man, you who fly through the land upon the rail, In days of yore would have to haul in your sail; And learn, by experience, the Pioneers' fate,
And realize you either had to fish or eut bait.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
SPARKS OF HUMOR.
National characteristics. -- A Scotch and Irish officer walking through a street in Liverpool chanced to see a very pretty girl behind the counter of one of the shops. The Irishman at once proposed to go in and purchase something in order to get a better view of the beauty, but the Scotch man replied, "Na, na; there's nae use wasting siller. Let's gang in and ask two saxpences for a shillin."
The Medical Gazette alleges that the following was re- ceived by a physician from a man whom he knew, practicing medicine and desiring counsel :
"Dear Dock I have a Pashunt whose Physical Sines shows that the windpipe has ulcerated off, and his Lungs have dropped down into his stomick. I have given him every thin, without effect. His Father is wealthy, honor- able, influential, as he is member of assembly and I don't want to lose him. What shall I do, Ans by return male. Your Frat."
Dr. Squill -- "Yes, I realize my time to die has come; but I feel that I am not going among strangers."
Parson Snooks -- "No. indeed. doctor. Think how many of your patients have preceded you !"
Lawyer-"If you and your husband can't agree, why don't you agree to disagree! "
Fair Client-"Never! If I'd agree to disagree, he'd think I was giving way."
CHAPTER XL.
A TRIP ON LAKE ERIE-OHIO CITY-AKRON-RETURN TO SCHOOL.
URING the fore part of Septem- ber it was, by my parents as well as by myself, thought best for me, at that time, when re- covering from a long spell of sickness, to take a trip on the lake and visit an uncle in Ohio City, with the view of a more speedy return to health.
There being no railroads at that time, I took the stage coach to Erie, and from there I took passage on the steamer G. P. Griffith. The day was pleasant, but the lake was rough from the few days' previous storm, and the steamer rolled beautifully in the troughs of the sea. When we were off Ashtabula I began to experience the desired effect: my stomach was getting riled up. I went on to the hurri- cane deck to get a full sniff of the breeze-more fresh air -as a tonic to my revolting stomach. But no! As this was my first ride on Lake Erie, I was destined to get my money's worth then. I laid down on the deck, clutched my hands on the railing, with head protruding forward to the edge of the vessel, and proceeded to "give up the ghost." By the time we were in sight of Fairport I felt much better. And let me say here, that did me more good than lobelia, or all the doctor's medicine I ever took for an emetic.
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That steamboat, the G. P. Griffith, on her next trip up the lakes, when near Erie, went down with 300 German emigrants (steerage passengers) by taking fire in her hold through the carelessness of those passengers. As the reader may recollect, when the fire was discovered the steamer was headed for shore; but the fire had made such headway that the vessel was soon in flames, and those of the passen- gers who were not drowned by jumping into the lake were roasted alive. The crew and some few others reached shore in the small boats. This was one of the greatest holocausts on our lake marine.
Arriving at my Uncle Albert Powell's, I found Cousins Edgar and John were on the lakes and not expected home for some weeks. After making a three or four-day visit I began to feel tip-top. One day, while on the wharf over the river at Cleveland, I noticed a canal boat loading cop- per, bound for Portsmouth, on the Ohio River. This copper was of the simon pure, from the mines of Hancock & Houghton, Lake Superior, and was in large flakes, weigh- ing many hundred pounds each. The captain made me an offer to go a trip with him, which I accepted and assisted in loading the boat. Then we started for Portsmouth. I soon found that this canal captain was more mulish than manly, and I left him at Akron. There I met one Hiram Force, who was engaged in a wood business at that place, with whom I engaged to help in the business. He and his pleasant family proved much more congenial than the canal captain during my sojourn with them for six weeks.
At the close of lake navigation I returned to Cleveland and found Cousin Edgar at home and John at Indiana, to remain for the winter. After a short visit in Cleveland I had the good luck to get a boat for Erie, the Keystone
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State, she being the last boat down the lakes, late in De- cember, affording me a much cheaper and pleasanter ride than the stage coach.
At Erie I took the stage home. Having received let- ters, during my absence, from some of my schoolmates, the same afternoon of my return I visited our school and was glad to find our old mates all right, enjoying the even tenor of life in their "happy days." A brief account of my adventures was demanded, and I was looked upon as something of a traveler.
The next morning I was on hand and took my place in my old class. Before long I was fairly sailing through the diagraphs of Cobb, syntax of Kirkham and the knotty problems of Dayboll, etc., all of which, for some reason, seemed more pleasant to me at the old district school than the more modern regime in schools of later years.
The following summer and fall a select or high school was taught in the neighborhood, which I attended. That winter I taught school near Coneantville. In the spring I bought a three-year-old colt of Samuel Brainard to mate one that my father had, for which I was to give three months' work, commencing the first of April. I did the work and got the colt. In June I contracted to cut some wood, wherein I gained time, enabling me, about the mid- dle of June, to go into Townsend's clover hay-field at good wages, where I was engaged the first of July. My sister Cornelia, Cousin John and his affianced and his sister, Electa Powell, called in a carriage for me to accompany them to my father's. With a spanking team, we had a pleasant, lively spin of ten miles in one hour and arrived at our father's domicil.
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