USA > Tennessee > Old times in Tennessee, with historical, personal, and political scraps and sketches > Part 4
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HABITS OF THE PIONEERS.
" Who's been here since I've been gone?" When I left sixty years ago, industry and economy were the handmaids of virtue, contentment, and happiness. Wealth and luxury were strangers in the land, and unknown to this happy community. I will here give you some of thé habits and customs of your fathers, moth-
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ers, and grandparents. We may contrast them with the present order of things, which I presume prevails here as in other parts of the State. Our ancient habits and customs may, I think, be favorably compared with those of the present day. A long time ago Middle Tennessee was the great hunting ground of the red men of the forest. They crossed the Tennessee where they · abided and pursued and slew the buffalo, the bear, the deer, and game of minor importance. Our fathers emerged from the bloody scenes of the revolution; their bold and adventurous spirits impelled them across the Alleghanies; with the rifle in one hand and an axe in the other, they blazed their way to upper East Tennessee, and formed the first settlements upon the Holston. They then crossed over into the rich valleys of Mid- die 'Tennessee, into the great hunting grounds of the savage. In 1750 the first corn was grown, which secured a pre-emption right to six hundred and forty acres of land. There was the first nucleus of a settlement formed at Bledsoe's Lick, Sumner county, and also at the French Lick, now the capital of the State. Aud in places not far from there, stockades were built, where they cultivated the soil, while some bold spirits stood pichet to deferd them from the attacks of the savage foe. Many gallani spirits fell in the repeated raids upon the settlements.
In 1794, a campaign was planned for an attack on Nickojack, the Indian capital, South of the Tennessee river. The whole force, of about six hundred, was commanded by Gen. James Rob- ertson. A gallant company of one hundred, composing a part of this command, was led by my wife's father, Major Geo. D. Black- more, who had fought in various battles of the revolution ; had been wounded in the desperate battle of the Brandywine, and was with Washington at Yorktown, when Lord Cornwallis sur- rendered his sword and the British army to the father of our country. This band of pioneers arriving upon the North bank of the Tennessee at midnight, swam the river, carrying their guns and ammunition on small rafts covered with rawhides, pushing them before them, and at daybreak surrounded Nickojack, and fought that bloody and victorious battle, which gave peace to theic bleeding settlements. After the bloody Indian wars of fif- teen years, they drove the tomahawk and scalping knife beyond the borders of civilization ; and after this great battle, they could
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for the first time sit down and eat of their own meat and drink of the waters of their springs and rivers in peace and safety. From this time the settlements began to open West and South, and in a few years the smoke of the log cabin was seen, and the ring of the axe was heard. amidst the hills and valleys of this immediate section. Lands were easily procured at from fifty to seventy-five cents per acre. The axe was heard felling the forest and fields were opened, while, occasionally, the crack of the rifle announced that the stag of the forest had fallen. Here and there was found a contented and happy family, consisting of husband, wife and rosy children. Their wants were few and easily sup- plied. The men and boys built the cabins, opened the fields, and cultivated the soil, and cared for and attended the stock. The women and girls clothed the family, cooked the meals, and did the housework. All were contented and happy, voluntarily la- boring to secure a competency for the household. The pure water, mountain air, and daily labor gave health and robust con- stitutions to all. In those days I never heard of a case of con- sumption, gout, or weak lungs. We had a rattlesnake bite occasionally, and an Indian scare. These were the greatest dan- gers we encountered. Families in those days were not enervated and ruined by luxuries, what is called high living and fashion. They were clothed at home by their honest labor; the boys in their jeans and copperas cotton, and the girls in their beautiful stripes of cotton and linsey. Dresses were made to fit their per- sons and develop their natural and beautiful forms. One cannot tell now which is the girl and which is the dress. I have looked about over this large assembly to see if I could not find one of those beautiful striped dresses, setting off the rosy mountain pinks of the present day, but the ancient customs have disappeared " since I've been gone." In those early days but few mothers or daughters ever had a calico dress, to say nothing of the silks, cashmeres, muslins, crepes, and poplins of the present day. When a lady went to Dover or Palmyra, our commercial cities in those days, and bought a calico dress, it aroused and excited the whole community more than the killing of a bear, caught in the cow pen, which was a frequent occurrence. When a calico dress was purchased, it spread like wildfire. It was " norated " abroad that such a one had bought a calico dress.
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In those days we had our sugar camps and made our own sugar; coffee was bought at our commercial cities and used only on Sun- days. Milk, the best and most healthy beverage in the world, was daily used, and the rose bloomed and played upon every girl's cheek. There were no calomel doctor's bills to pay. They have appeared since I have been gone. They are a worthy and useful profession of the present day.
We had meeting-houses in those days, made of logs and clap- boards. We called it going to meeting. The elegant phrase now is to attend church, and we go in buggies and carriages. Then we walked from three to five miles in going to meeting, playing with the girls all the way. I have seen not further than five miles from this place. from fifty to one hundred ladies walk- ing barefooted to meeting, carrying their shoes and stockings in their hands, and on arriving near the meeting-house, sit down along the branch, wash their beautiful feet, and put on their stock- ings and shoes, preparatory to going into the house. There is a charm in a pretty foot. There was no shoddy wealth in the neigh- borhood to taint society, to drive the poor to imitate the pretended rich, which in any country is promotive of vice, and will end in bankruptcy. All did their share of the labor ; all were on social and equal terms, and made plenty for the rural wants of the fam- ily. They were a contented and happy people.
CAMP-MEETINGS.
I have always been in favor of camp-meetings. They bring the people together, who make new acquaintances and revive old associations. They create religious excitement, which is right and proper, and are great pioneers in the propagation of religion. It is as a storm, it purities the atmosphere. It moves upon the waters and harrow's up the deep; in its course it fells the most stubborn oak ; it is a religious enthusiasm that throttles sin and purifies the soul. All the Churches should unite, and revive this good old custom. The Methodi-ts are the pioneers in the good work. They first established and pu-hed forward the camp- meeting, but it now languishes, giving place to the steeples sur- mounting the large churches of the country. In the revivals of the old pioneers, McGready, Gwinn, and Blackburn, there were
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more conversions made in one year, than are now made in five, with all the advantage of increased population.
In ancient times, I have seen at one of those camp-meetings the forked lightning playing over the largest assemblages, and the wild thunder leaping from head to head, and have seen a hundred women with the jerks, the result of religious enthusiasm. In those days our women did not deform their persons with arti- ficial works about the head in the form of rats, chignons, and water-falls. There was no rouge, bespattering the rosy cheek, marring its natural beauty : nor were their beautiful forms de- stroyed by the hoop or bustle. There was no one taken in by false appearances. The match was a fair one upon both sides. Then there was no rue in the now fashionable form of divorce. In those days our beautiful women had long natural black hair, some auburn, some red, with different shades of color. They wore it plaited, forming a beautiful crescent upon the head, and when the stream of eloquence copiously flowed over the large assembly, when all the fires were lit up, I have heard this plaited hair pop like the crack of a wagon whip.
Girls and boys did not in those days wear shoes until they ar- rived at the age of twelve. The boys helped tend the crop in the summer and went to the old pennyroyal school with the girls in the winter. They all contributed to their own support and that of the family. Such girls, boys, and parents were not sub- ject to the vicious and dangerous habits of towns and cities, nor enervated by luxuries and fashions like those of the present day. They became the founders of good families, and a bold and cour- ageous people, who made the best citizens in time of peace, and the defenders of their country in time of war.
" Ill fare the land to hastening ills a prey, When wealth accumulates and men decay,
Princes or lords may flourish or may fade, A breath can make them as a breath has made, But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroyed, can never be supplied."
THE DANCE.
In those days we had our rural and innocent amusements. The log-rollings, the corn-shuckings, the house-raisings, and the reapings of the harvest; while the ladies and the girls attended
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at the same time their cotton-pickings and quiltings; and when the day's work was performed, the yard was swept, covered by the flowers of the forest, and the dance commenced. The old fashioned Virginia break-down reel, where twenty couples faced and eyed each other, as they moved through the mazes of the merry dance, while the bow was drawn across the strings of the violin (we called it a fiddle), discoursing sweet music. Then " the band " would give us " Jenny, put the kettle on," " Molly, blow the bellows strong, we'll all take tea;" then, "Leather breeches, full of stitches," and by way of variety, "Billy in the wild woods," or "Nappycot and petty-coat," and "The linsey gown, if you want to keep your credit up, pay the money down." The dancing was really enjoyable. In old times we had a favor- ite reel called " Mrs. McCloud." When the word was given, " Hand all round, set-to and face your partners," giving to each full space to display their activity and gymnastic skill in the va- rious steps of ancient times, the scene was a magnificent one. I have seen several sets at the same time, both boys and girls, cut- ting the single and double pigeon wing, which caused a thrill of excitement and emotions equal to the brilliant flights of an elo- quent speaker.
" We would dance all night by the bright moon-light, And go home with the gals in the morning."
I wish that I could recall those days, and our youth would re- turn, but they will not; they are numbered with the things that were. Our call is as ineffectual as that of Owen Glendower, who could call spirits from the vasty deep, but they would not come. To revive old associations, I frequently get my daughters to play on the piano and sing :
"Now we are aged and gray, Maggie,
The trials of life nearly done, Let us sing of the days that are gone, Maggie, When you and I were young."
How changed the times! The country dance, the old fashioned reel, has long since disappeared, and in its place we have the entree and quadrill, lancers, waltz, polka, redowa, schottische, galop, and the mazurka, all of which consist in bowing and trot- ting about, no display of the person or its charms. It is an ar- tistie abandonment of the ancient dance, in which the young girls
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and young men distinguished themselves and received the plau- dits of the assembly. The remark of old Capt. Haynie is appli- cable to this change, and the so-called artistic improvement. Capt. Haynie was an honest and well-to-do farmer, and while uninformed, he had the presumption of knowing all things; he never admitted his ignorance upon any subject. His neighbor, Capt. Reed, an old Indian pioneer, saw in the newspapers men- tion of the wonderful improvement called the railroad, and did not know what it meant, and went over to his neighbor, Capt. Haynie, and says to him, " I see a great deal in the Eastern pa- pers about the railroad. What kind of a road is it?" Capt. Haynie, being perfectly ignorant of its power or quality, concealed his ignorance, studied awhile and presumed to know, and replied to the neighbor, " That it was called a railroad, they meaning to convey the idea that it was a rail (real) road ; but, Capt. Reed, they are nothing but an imposition upon the public." So it might be said of the present system of dancing.
MUSIC.
The like change has taken place in the music of the country. In ancient times we had the banjo and " the harp of a thousand strings, the spirits of just men made perfect ;" Monkey Simon with his tamborine, accompanied by the master instrument of music, the fiddle. We sung and played by ear, uncramped by books and the black notes of the masters, which moved the wa- ters of the deep and lit up all of the fires of the heart. Our na- tional song of " Hail Columbia," "John Anderson, my Jo John," " Old Zip Coon is a very learned scholar," "The Arkansas Tra- veler," and the national song of Scotland,
"Scots who ha' wi' Wallace bled, Scots whom Bruce has often led, Welcome to your goary bed, or to victory."
" Oh, Miss Lucy Neal, If I had you by my side, how happy I would feel."
"Black Satan," and the " Nigger in the wood-pile."
" Get out of the way, old Dan Tucker, You've come too late to get your supper."
"Oh! Susannab, don't you cry for me, I'm just from Alabama, with the banjo on my knee."
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" Row, boatmen, row," and " Floating down the river on the Ohio." These and various other sentimental songs were sung by lovely women and gallant men, accompanied by the fiddle and other instruments of music, which did the soul good, and put us in the happy condition of Parson King, a leader in his Church, as well as politics during the canvass for Congress-which was an exciting one-between Gen. Hall and Col. Burton forty years ago. At a large meeting in Macon county, Col. Burton, one of Tennessee's first orators, stirred up the assembly and salted them down, by telling them that if elected to Congress, he would re- store the ancient weight of sixty pounds to the bushel of salt ; and having got them up to fever heat on the salt question he closed. Parson King then mounted the rostrum and gave in his adhesion to Col. Burton, and announced to the congregation that he had heard doctrines that day proclaimed that did his soul good, but while he was up he wished to say that "he had lost his old bay mare. She left his premises the day before yesterday with a bridle, saddle, and an old pair of saddle-bags, and in the saddle- bags there was an old bell and rope, and that he would be thank- ful for any information the congregation might have touching his old mare, saddle-bags, bell, and rope."
"Since I've been gone," wealth and luxury have introduced a new order of things. The music of the wheel and the playing of the loom are rarely heard ; the piano and the organ have taken their places. Instead of the old sentimental songs, that moved the heart and stirred the soul, we have the operatic thing that they call music, for the learned, and what is called the chaste and cultivated ear. Whenever I hear a man say that he is not moved by our ancient and sentimental songs, but has a learned and chaste ear for the opera, I put him down as an ass, as a man fit for stratagem, treason, and spoils. What I have to say upon this subject is, that the operatic music is the fly found in the ointment that destroys its perfume, and the sooner we revive and keep up our ancient customs the better for the country.
OTHER CHANGES.
" Who's been here since I've been gone ?" The striped linsey and cotton dress has long since disappeared. The fair sex are now so disguised by art and dress, that the natural beauty of the
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person is lost in the polonaise, the redingote, the overskirt, the basque, the jacket, the false calves, the bustles, the waterfalls,. the chignons, and rats, and the palpitating bosoms, so that no one can tell which is the lovely and beautiful person, and which is the dress and artificial means used to mar and disguise it. I would as soon put my hand on a muskrat as on one of those arti- ficial things used to disguise the person. In ancient times, five yards of calico made a dress, which displayed the natural beauty of the person, which no art could improve; now it takes from twenty to twenty-five, and when silks and finer articles are used, it takes from forty to fifty yards. One good bonnet a long time ago, was amply sufficient to set off and shade the mountain pink for the whole year; now we have the daisy, the sundown, the riverside, and the gipsey hat, costing from twenty-five to fifty dollars each, and which do not cover two inches of the crown, and two must be had for every season, making eight per year. The tyrant fashion will not permit a lady to appear more than once in the same dress. While the fair ones should always ap- pear neatly dressed, always copying nature, they should show their native good sense, maintain their womanhood and frown down the extravagant fashions of the day which neither add to their beauty nor the exalted esteem which we hold due to the fair. Neither does it promote their well-being, but impoverishes families, and leads to the distress of communities. For thirty or forty years it has been the fashion to consider luxury as one of the greatest natural advantages. All the wisdom of antiquity and the downfall of the great empires, show that it is one of the greatest curses that has ever befallen a people. I maintain that those luxuries and extravagant fashions which are prejudicial to the public taste, and by which so many vices are introduced, and so many kingdoms have been undone, should be reformed and utterly abandoned. I remain a professed ancient on this head. A great poet and philosopher of human life has well said :
" But times are altered, trade's unfeeling train, Usurps the land and dispossesses the swain, Along the lawn where scattered hamlets rose, Unwieldy wealth and cumbrous pomp repose.
And every want to luxury allied, And every pang that fully pays the pride,
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Those gentler hours that plenty bade to bloom, Those calm desires that ask for little room.
Those healthful sports that grace the peaceful scene,
Lived in each look and brightened all the green,
These fair departing seek a kinder shore,
And rural mirth and manners are no more."
Man can do nothing in the correction of these abuses, but must work himself to death and foot the bills. It is for the fair women of the land, who alone have the power and can successfully move in this great work. Man in his nature is unfit to govern himself or control the destinies of the world. They are the instruments, however, in the hands of woman by which great revolutions and reforms are made. We can do nothing without lovely woman. She fires the heart and nerves the arm to great and glorious deeds. Who would live without a woman ? her beauty and heaven-born influence ? If there is any such, he is a Comanche, and should be made to join his tribe in the far distant West. Our great an- cestor, Eve, by her beauty, blandishments, and importunities, governed and controlled the father of our race, Adam, and the same influence of woman has controlled and governed our race since that dav. A basin of water spilt on Mrs. Washam's gown, deprived the Duke of Marlborough, the greatest English captain, of his command, and led to the inglorious peace of Utrecht. The abduction of Helen lost Troy. The indignities offered Lucretia expelled the Tarquins from Rome and gave liberty to Italy. Joan of Arc headed the French army, restored their native cour- age, and in the great battle of Orleans saved Paris and drove the invaders from France. Cora brought the Moors to Spain, and an insulted wife and husband led the Gauls to Clusium and thence to Rome. The elopement of Dearbhorgial with MeMurrough conducted the English to the slavery of Ireland. A personal pique between Marie Antoinette and the Duke of Orleans pre- cipitared the first expulsion of the Bourbons. Esther who, to save the Jewish nation, prevailed on the King to have Haman hanged on his own gallows. History gives other accounts of the extraordinary influence of woman over man. It permeates soci- ety and controls it; it is silently and beneficially felt in all the private walks of life. Gen. Jackson kuew the force and power of woman's influence. When he was waited upon by the citizens
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of New Orbans and asked to be permitted to carry their wives and families up the river, and then they would return and help fight the battle, Gen. Jackson replied, "By the eternal God, no ! a woman should not leave the city till the battle was fought and won ;" for he well knew that the gamecock fought best when the hens were present, and the result was the glorious victory of New Orleans. Then I appeal to the fair of the land, to exert that influence and make such reforms in the fashions and customs of the country as will elevate our race and make us a more pros- perous and happy people. I want again to see that nice striped homespun dress, worn by the fairest danghters of the land. Such would look more lovely, more beautiful, and carry captive the heart of a man worth having, much sooner and more effectually than could the women who appeared at Washington lately at one of the receptions, one covered with jewels and diamonds costing from $50,000 to $100,000, others costing from $40,000 to $50,000. No wonder the government is robbed and plundered when such fashion and gaudy display are being made ; it is contagion and becomes engrafted upon the country. No honest labor or honest calling can afford such outlays. I would as lief be bit by a rat- tlesnake as to have such a woman for my wife. A man to marry a woman of such vitiated taste, would have to become a rogue to be in the line of the fashion and to keep it up, and shortly he would become an inmate of the penitentiary. This change in the fashions might be made by degrees. If wedded to some of these customs, we should do as the temperance lecturer, who, after a temperance speech, and a long ride in the sun, stopped at the house of a friend and was regaled with a lemonade, when his host, insinuatingly, asked if he wished the least drop of something stronger to brace up his nerves after his exhaustion. " No," re- plied the lecturer, " I could not think of it, I am opposed to it on principle, but," he added with a longing glance at the black bot- tle, which stood by, "if you could manage to put in a drop unbe- knownst to me, I guess it would not hurt me much." So if you keep up the present fashions, let it be unknownst to you.
THE LOG CABIN.
I will give you some other reminiscenses of scenes occurring here upwards of sixty years ago. The fine natural growth of the
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forest covered the entire country. Here and there a log cabin might be seen, with a small opening for a field for corn, cotton and wheat; potatoes and other vegetables were also raised and consumed by a hardy, industrious, and virtuous people. Gener- ally we had one large room, with a puncheon floor, and the roof was of clapboards, made without nails, but supported by poles sustained by cross-pieces. In the winter we "chinked" the cracks between the logs, and in the 'summer we knocked out the chink- ing, which afforded light and ventilation to the cabin. In those days no such thing as a glass window was ever seen. The whole of one end of the house composed the fire-place. Timber was convenient, and with the oxen we hauled up large logs and put them in the fire-place, filling the entire end of the house, and affording a warm, steady fire all night. Oh, who can tell the comforts of such a winter's fire ! around which the family and the neighbors assembled, the boys sitting in the chimney-corner lis- tening to the stirring stories of the Revolutionary and Indian wars. Being in an extensive Scotch settlement, and my father an educated Scotchman, the wars of Wallace and Bruce carried on with King Edward were rehearsed, as well as that of the Douglass. There were no formalities which destroyed the sensi- bilities and gushing of the heart. We had no visiting cards in those days. You never heard a lady say, "I must make," or " I must return a call." I despise to hear it now. I have com- manded my pretty daughters never to use the term, but they wont obey their "daddy;" they say they must conform to the fashion. On this subject I am a fogy. When the spirit moved our people, they came and found a warm welcome. No stranger was driven from their doors, but taken in and freely fed. The poor claimed kindred there, and had their claims allowed.
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