USA > Virginia > A history of the valley of Virginia, 1st ed > Part 27
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Such was the wretched condition of our forefathers in making their settlements here. To all their difficul- ties and privations, the Indian war was a weighty addi- tion. This destructive warfare they were compelled to sustain almost single-handed, because the revolutiona- ry contest with England gave full employment for the military strength and resources on the east side of the mountains.
The following history of the poverty, labors, suffer- ings, manners and customs, of our forefathers, will ap- pear like a collection of " tales of olden times," with- out any garnish of language to spoil the original por-
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traits, by giving them shades of coloring which they did not possess.
I shall follow the order of things as they occurred during the period of time embraced in these narratives, beginning with those rude accommodations with which our first adventurers into this country furnished them- selves at the commencement of their establishments. It will be a homely narrative, yet valuable on the ground of its being real history.
If my reader, when viewing, through the medium which I here present, the sufferings of human nature in one of its most depressed and dangerous conditions, should drop an involuntary tear, let him not blame me for the sentiment of sympathy which he feels. On the contrary, if he should sometimes meet with a recital calculated to excite a smile or a laugh, I claim no credit for his enjoyment. It is the subject matter of the his- tory, and not the historian, which makes those widely different impressions on the mind of the reader.
In this chapter it is my design to give a brief account of the household furniture and articles of diet which were used by the first inhabitants of our country. A description of their cabins and half-faced camps, and their manner of building them, will be found elsewhere.
The furniture for the table, for several years after the settlement of this country, consisted of a few pewter dishes, plates and spoons, but mostly of wooden bowls, trenchers and noggins. If these last were scarce, gourds and hard-shelled squashes made up the deficiency.
The iron pots, knives and forks, were brought from the east side of the mountains, along with the salt and iron, on pack-horses.
These articles of furniture corresponded very well with the articles of diet on which they were employed. " Hoz and hommony" were proverbial for the dish of which they were the component parts. Journeycake and pone were, at the outset of the settlements of the coun- try, the only forms of bread in use for breakfast and dinner. At supper, milk and mush were the standard
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dish. When milk was not plenty, which was often the case, owing to the scarcity of cattle or the want of pro- per pasture for them, the substantial dish of hommony had to supply the place of them. Mush was frequent- ly eaten with sweetened water, melasses, bear's oil, or the gravy of fried meat.
Every family, besides a little garden for the few vege- tables which they cultivated, had another small inclo- sure containing from half an acre to an acre, which they called a "truck-patch," in which they raised corn for roasting-ears, pumpkins, squashes, beaus and potatoes. These, in the latter part of the summer and fall, were cooked with their pork, venison and bear meat, for din- ner, and made very wholesome and well tasted dishes. The standard dinner dish for every log-rolling, house- raising and harvest-day, was a pot-pie, or what in other countries is called " sea-pie." This, besides answering for dinner, served for a part of the supper also, -- the re- mainder of it from dinner being eaten with milk in the evening, after the conclusion of the labor of the day.
In our whole display of furniture, the delf, china, and silver were unknown. It did not then. as now, require contributions from the four quarters of the globe to for- nish the breakfast table, viz. the silver from Mexico, the coffee from the West Indies, the tea from China. and the delf and porcelain from Europe or Asia. Yet our homely fare, and unsightly cabins and furniture, produced a hardy, veteran race, who planted the first footsteps of society and civilization in the immense re- gions of the west. Inured to hardihood, bravery and labor, from their caily youth, they sustained with man- ly fortitude the fatigue of the chase, the campaign and scout, and with strong arms "turned the wilderness in o fruitful ficids," and have left to their descendants the rich inheritance of an immense empire blessed with peace and wealth.
I well recollect the first time I ever saw a ten-cup and saucer, and tasted coffee. My mother died when I was about six or seven years old, and my father then sent
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me to Maryland with a brother of my grandfather, Mr. Alexander Wells, to school.
At Col. Brown's, in the mountains, (at Stony creek glades,) I for the first time saw tame geese; and by bantering a pet gander, I got a severe biting by his bill, and beating by his wings. I wondered very much that birds so large and strong should be so much tamer than the wild turkeys. At this place, however, all was right, excepting the large birds which they called geese. The cabin and its furniture were such as I had been accus- tomed to see in the backwoods, as my country was then called.
At Bedford every thing was changed. The tavern at which my uncle put up was a stone house, and to make the change more complete, it was plastered in ile inside both as to the walls and ceiling. On going into the dining room, I was struck with astonishment at the appearance of the house. I had no idea that there was any house in the world which was not built of logs ; but here I looked round the house and could see no logs, and above I could see no joists ; whether such a thing had been made by the hands of man, or had grown so of itself, I could not conjecture. I had not the courage to inquire any thing about it.
When supper came on, " my confusion was worse confounded." A little cup stood in a bigger one, with some brownish looking stuff in it, which was neither milk, hommony nor broth. What to do with these lit- tle cups and the little spoon belonging to them. I could not tell : and I was afraid to ask any thing concerning the use of them. -
It was in the time of the war, and the company vrere giving accounts of catching, whipping, and hanging Wie tories. The word jail frequently occurred. This word I had never heard before: but I soon discovered its meaning, was much terrified, and supposed that we were in danger of the fate of the tories; for I thought, as we had come from the backwoods, it was altogether likely that we must be tories too. For fear of being dis-
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covered I durst not utter a single word. I therefore watched attentively to see what the big folks would do with their little cups and spoons. I imitated them, and found the taste of the coffee nauseous beyond any thing I ever had tasted in my life; I continued to drink, as the rest of the company did, with the tears streaming from my eyes, but when it was to end I was at a loss to know, as the little cups were filled immediately after being emptied. This circumstance distressed me very much, as I durst not say I had enough. Looking at- tentively at the grown persons, I saw one man turn his little cup bottom upwards and put his little spoon across it : I observed that after this his cup was not filled again ; I followed his example, and to my great satisfaction, the result as to my cup was the same.
The introduction of delf ware was considered by many of the backwoods people as a culpable innova- tion. It was too easily broken, and the plates of that ware dulled their scalping and clasp knives ; tea ware was too small for men, but might do for women and children. : Tea and coffee were only slops, which in the adage of the day, " did not stick by the ribs." The idea was, they were designed only for people of quality, who do not labor, or the sick. A genuine backwoods- man would have thought himself disgraced by show- ing a fondness for those slops. Indeed, many of them have to this day very little respect for them.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Dress.
On the frontiers, and particularly amongst those who were much in the habit of hunting, and going on scouts and campaigns, the dress of the men was partly Indian and partly that of civilized nations.
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'The hunting shirt was universally worn. This was a kind of loose frock, reaching half way down the thighs, with large sleeves, open before, and so wide as to lap over a foot or more when belted. The cape was large, and sometimes handsomely fringed with a ravel- ed piece of cloth of a different color from that of the hunting shirt itself. The bosom of this dress served as a wallet to hold a chunk of bread, cakes, jerk, tow for wiping the barrel of the rifle, or any other necessary for the hunter or warrior. The belt, which was always tied behind, answered for several purposes besides that of holding the dress together. In cold weather the mit- tens, and sometimes the bullet-bag, occupied the front part of it ; to the right side was suspended the toma- hawk, and to the left the scalping knife in its leathern sheath. The hunting shirt was generally made of linsey, sometimes of coarse linen, and a few of dressed deer skins. ' These last were very cold and uncomfort- able in wet weather. The shirt and jacket were of the common fashion. A pair of drawers or brecches, and leggins, were the dress of the thighs and legs. A pair of moccasons answered for the feet much better than shoes. These were made of dressed deer skin. They were mostly made of a single piece, with a gathering seam along the top of the foot, and another from the bottom of the heel, with gaiters as high as the ankle joint or a little higher. Flaps were left on each side to reach some distance up the legs. These were nicely adapted to the ankles and lower part of the leg by thongs of deer skin, so that no dust, gravel or snow, could get within the moccason.
The moccasons in ordinary use cost but a few hours labor to make them. This was done by an instru- ment denominated a mocenson awl, which was made of the back spring of an old clasp knife. This awl, with with its buckhorn Handle, was an appendage of every shot pouch strap, together with a roll of buckskin for mending the moccasons. This was the labor of al- -most every evening. They were sewed together and
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patched with deer skin thongs, or whangs as they were commonly called.
In cold weather the moccasons were well stuffed with deer's hair or dry leaves, so as to keep the feet comfort- ably warm; but in wet weather it was usually said that wearing them was "a decent way of going bare- footed;" and such was the fact, owing to the spongy texture of the leather of which they were made.
Owing to this defective covering of the feet, more than to any other circuinstance, the greater number of our hunters and warriors were afflicted with the rheu- matism in their limbs. Of this disease they were all apprehensive in wet or cold weather, and therefore always slept with their feet to the fire to prevent or cure it as well as they could. This practice unques- tionably had a very salutary effect, and prevented many of them from becoming confirmed cripples in early life.
In the latter years of the Indian war our young men became more enamored of the Indian dress through- out, with the exception of the match coat. The draw- ers were laid aside and the leggins made longer. so as to reach the upper part of the thigh. The Indian breech clout was adopted. This was a piece of linen or cloth nearly a yard long, and eight or nine inches broad. This passed under the belt before and behind. leaving the ends for flaps, hanging before and behind over the belt. These belts were sometimes ornamented with some coarse kind of embroidery work. To the same belts which secured the breech clout, strings which supported the long leggins were attached. When this belt, as was often the case, passed over the hunting shirt, the upper part of the thighs and part of the hips were naked.
The young warrior, instead of being abashed by this nudity, was proud of his Indianlike dress. In some few instances I have seen them go into places of public worship in this dress. Their appearance however did not add much to the devotion of the young ladies.
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The linsey petticoat and bed gown, which were the universal dress of our women in early times, would make a strange figure in our days. A small home- made handkerchief, in point of elegance, would illy supply the place of that profusion of ruffles with which the necks of our ladies are now ornamented.
They went barefooted in warm weather, and in cold their feet were covered with moccasons, coarse shoes or shoepacks, which would make but a sorry figure beside the elegant morocco slippers often embossed with bul- lion, which at present ornament the feet of their daugh- ters and grand-daughters.
The coats and bed gowns of the women, as well as the hunting shirts of the men, were hung in full dis- play on wooden pegs around the walls of their cabins, so that while they answered in some degree the place of paper hangings or tapestry, they announced to the stranger as well as neighbor the wealth or poverty of the family in the articles of clothing. This practice has not yet been wholly laid aside amongst the back- woods fan ilies.
The historian would say to the ladies of the present time, Our ancestors of your sex knew nothing of the ruffles, leghorns, curls, combs, rings, and other jewels with which their fair daughters now decorate them- selves. Such things were not then to be had. Many of the younger part of them were pretty well grown up before they ever saw the inside of a store room, or even knew there was such a thing in the world, unless by hearsay, and indeed scarcely that.
Instead of the toilet, they had to handle the distaff or shuttle, the sickle or weeding hoe, contented if they con ld obtain their linsey clothing and cover their heads with a sun bonnet made of six or seven hundred linen.
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CHAPTER XIX.
The Fort.
My reader will understand by this term, not only a place of defense, but the residence of a small number of families belonging to the same neighborhood. As the Indian mode of warfare was an indiscriminate slaughter of all ages and both sexes, it was as requisite to provide for the safety of the women and children as for that of the men.
The fort consisted of cabins, block-houses and stock- ades. A range of cabins commonly formed one side at least of the fort. Divisions, or partitions of logs, separated the cabins from each other. The walls on the outside were ten or twelve feet high, the slope of the roof being turned wholly inward. A very few of these cabins had puncheon floors : the greater part were earthen.
The block-houses were built at the angles of the fort. They projected about two feet beyond the outer walls of the cabins and stockades. Their upper stories were about eighteen inches every way larger in dimension than the under one, leaving an opening at the com- mencement of the second story, to prevent the enemy from inaking a lodgment under their walls. In some forts. instead of block-houses, the angles of the fort were furnished with bastions. A large folding gate made of - thick slabs, nearest the spring, closed the fort. The stor kades, bastions, cabins and block-house walls, were furnished with port-holes at proper hights and distan. ces. The whole of the outside was made completely bullet proof.
It may be truly said that necessity is the mother of invention, for the whole of this work was made with-
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out the aid of a single nail or spike of iron, and for this reason, such things were not to be had.
In some places less exposed, a single block-house with a cabin or two constituted the whole fort.
Such places of refuge may appear very trifling to those who have been in the habit of seeing the formi- dable military garrisons of Europe and America; but they answered the purpose, as the Indians had no ar- tillery. They seldom attacked, and scarcely ever took one of them.
The families belonging to these forts were so at- tached to their own cabins on their farms, that they seldom moved into the fort in the spring until compelled by some aların, as they called it ; that is, when it was announced by some murder that the Indians were in the settlement.
The fort to which my father belonged, was, during the first years of the war, three quarters of a mile from his farm; but when this fort went to decay, and be- came unfit for defense, a new one was built at his own house. I well remember that when a little boy the family were sometimes waked up in the dead of night by an express with a report that the Indians were at hand. The express caine softly to the door or back window, and by a gentle tapping waked the family; this was easily done. as an habitual fear made us ever watchful and sensible to the slightest alarm. The whole family were instantly in motion: my father seized his gun and other implements of war; my step mother waked up and dressed the children as well as she could; and being myself the oldest of the children, I had to take my share of the burthens to be carried to the fort. There was no possibility of getting a horse in the night to aid us in removing to the fort; besides the little children, we caught up what articles of clothing and provision we could get hold of in the dark. for we durst not light a candle or even stir the fire. All this was done with the utmost dispatch and the silence of
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death; the greatest care was taken not to awaken the youngest child: to the rest it was enough to say Indian, and not a whimper was heard afterwards. Thus it often happened that the whole number of families be- longing to a fort, who were in the evening at their homes, were all in their little fortress before the dawn of the next morning. In the course of the succeeding day, their household furniture was brought in by parties of the men under arms.
· : Some families belonging to each fort were much less under the influence of fear than others, and who after an alarm had subsided, in spite of every remonstrance would remove home, while their more prudent neigh- bors remained in the fort. Such families were deno- minated "fool-hardy," and gave no small amount of trouble by creating such frequent necessities of sending runners to warn them of their danger, and sometimes parties of our men to protect them during their remo- val.
CHAPTER XX.
Caravans.
The acquisition of the indispensable articles of salt, iron, steel and castings, presented great difficulties to the first settlers of the western country. They had no stores of any kind, no salt, iron, nor iron works; nor had they money to make purchases where those arti . chs were to be obtained. Peltry and furs were their only resources, before they had time to raise cattle and horses for sale in the Atlantic states.
Every family collected what peltry and fur thev could obtain throughout the year for the purpose of sending them over the mountains for barter.
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In the fall of the year, after seeding time, every fa- mily formed an association with some of their neigh- bors for starting the little caravan. A master driver was selected from among them, who was to be assisted by one or more young men, and sometimes a boy or two. The horses were fitted out with pack-saddles, to the hinder part of which was fastened a pair of hobbles made of hickory withs: a bell and collar ornamented his neck. The bags provided for the conveyance of the salt were filled with feed for the horses: on the journey a part of this feed was left at convenient stages on the way down, to support the return of the caravan. Large wallets, well filled with bread, jerk, boiled ham and cheese. furnished provision for the drivers. At night, after feeding, the horses, whether put in pasture or turned out into the woods, were hobbled, and the bells were opened.
The barter for salt and iron was made first at Balti- more. Frederick, Hagerstown, Oldtown and Cum- berland, in succession, became the place of exchange. Each horse carried two bushels of alum salt, weighing eighty-four pounds the bushel. This, to be sure, was not a heavy load for the horses. but it was enough con- sidering the scanty subsistence allowed them on the . journey.
The common price of a bushel of alum salt at an early period was a good cow and calf; and until weights were introduced, the salt was measured into the half bushel by hand as lightly as possible. No one was permitted to walk heavily over the floor while the ope- ration was going on.
The following anecdote will serve to shew how little the native sons of the forest knew of the etiquet of the Atlantic cities.
A neighbor of my father, sonte years after the settle- ment of the country, had collected a small drove of -- rattle for the Baltimore market. Amongst the hands employed to drive them was one who never had seen any condition of society but that of woodsmen.
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At one of their lodging places in the mountain, the landlord and his hired man, in the course of the night, stole two of the bells belonging to the drove, and hid them in a piece of woods.
The drove had not gone far in the morning before the bells were missed, and a detachment went back to recover the stolen bells. The men were found reaping in the field of the landlord; they were accused of the theft, but they denied the charge. The torture of sweating, according to the custom of that time. that is, of suspension by the arms pinioned behind their backs, brought a confession. The bells were procured and hung around the necks of the thieves : in this condi- tion they were driven on foot before the detachment until they overtook the drove, which by this time had gone nine miles. A halt was called and a jury selected to try the culprits. They were condemned to receive a certain number of lashes on the bare back from the hand of each drover. The man above alluded to was the owner of one of the bells. When it came to his turn to use the hickory, "Now," says he to the thief, "you infernal scoundrel, I'll work your jacket ninc. teen to the dozen. Only think what a rascally figure 1 should make in the streets of Baltimore without a bell on my horse." The man was in earnest : having seen no horses used without bells, he thought they were re- quisite in every situation.
CHAPTER XXI.
Hunting.
This was an important part of the employment of the early settlers of this country. For some years the woods supplied them with the greater amount of their
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subsistence, and with regard to some families in certain times, the whole of it; for it was no uncommon thing for families to live several months without a mouthful of bread. It frequently happened that there was no breakfast until it was obtained from the woods. Fur and peltry were the people's money; they had nothing else to give in exchange for rifles, salt and iron, on the other side of the mountains.
The fall and early part of the winter was the season for hunting the deer, and the whole of the winter, in- cluding part of the spring, for bears and fur skinned animals. It was a customary saying that fur is good during every month in the name of which the letter R occurs.
The class of hunters with whom I was best acquaint- ed were those whose hunting ranges were on the west- ern side of the river and at the distance of eight or nine miles from it. As soon as the leaves were pretty well down, and the weather became rainy accompanied with light snows, these men, after acting the part of husbandrren, so far as the state of warfare permitted them to do so, soon began to feel that they were hun- ters. They became uneasy at home; every thing about them became disagreeable ; the house was too warm, the feather bed too soft, and even the good wife was not thought for the time being a proper companion ; the mind of the hunter was wholly occupied with the camp and chase.
I have often seen them get up early in the morning at this season, walk hastily out and look anxiously to the woods, and snuff the autumnal winds with the highest rapture, then return into the house and cast a quick and attentive look at the rifle, which was always suspended to a joist by a couple of buck's horns or little forks; his hunting dog understanding the intentions of his master, would wag his tail, and by every blan- dishiment in his power express his readiness to accom- pany him to the woods.
A day was soon appointed for the march of the little
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cavalcade to the camp. Two or three horses furnished with pack saddles were loaded with flour, Indian meal, blankets, and every thing else requisite for the use of the hunter.
A hunting camp, or what was called a half-faced cabin, was of the following form: the back part of it was sometimes a large log : at the distance of eight or ten feet from this two stakes were set in the ground a few inches apart, and at the distance of eight or ten feet from these two more to receive the ends of the poles for the sides of the camp; the whole slope of the roof was from the front to the back; the covering was made of slabs, skins or blankets, or, if in the spring of the year, the bark of hickory or ash trees; the front was left entirely open ; the fire was built directly before this opening ; the cracks between the logs were filled with moss, and dry leaves served for a bed. It is thus that a couple of men in a few hours will construct for them- selves a temporary but tolerably comfortable defense from the inclemencies of the weather; the beaver, otter, muskrat and squirrel are scarcely their equals in dis- patch in fabricating for themselves a covert from the tempest !
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