USA > West Virginia > Hampshire County > History of Hampshire County, West Virginia : from its earliest settlement to the present > Part 23
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So far as can be ascertained from an examination of county records, mutilated and destroyed by time and war, the last public and legalized burning of a convicted man in Hampshire county occurred in July, 1823, in the old court house. A negro slave, named Simon, the property of David Collins, was tried on a charge of assault. The record does not show that he had a jury. The court found him guilty and ordered the sheriff to burn him on the hand and give him one hundred lashes, chain him, and keep him on "coarse and low diet." . The minutes of the court state that the sheriff "immediately burned him in the hand in the presence of the court," and gave him then and there twenty-five lashes. The remaining seventy-five were reserved for future days. The judges who were present on that occasion were John McDonald, Christopher Heis- kell, Vause Fox, John Brady and W. C. Wodrow. The sheriff who executed the order of the court was Francis White, and the clerk was John B. White.
It is but justice to the law-makers of Virginia, and the
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people at that time, to state that nearly all of these severe laws came from England, or were enacted in the colony of Virginia many years before the Revolutionary war. Some of them date back to the time of Cromwell, or even earlier. Although the people of Virginia took the lead in the move- ment for greater liberty, both mental and physical, they could not, all at once, cut loose from the wrecks of past tyranny. They advanced rapidly along some lines, but slowly along others. They found those old laws on the statute books, and re-enacted them, and suffered them to exist for a generation or more. But we should not believe that such men as Patrick Henry, Edmund Randolph, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and the other statesmen and patriots of that time believed that a man should be nailed to a post for stealing a pig, or that the crime of stealing a hymn book from a church should be punished with death without benefit of clergy.
A law passed near the close of the last century, and still in force in 1819, provided sheriff's fees on a number of items, among which were the following: For making an arrest, sixty-three cents; for pillorying a criminal, fifty- two cents; for putting a criminal in the stocks, twenty-one cents; for ducking a criminal in pursuance of an order of court, forty-two cents; for putting a criminal in prison, forty-two cents; for hanging a criminal, five dollars and twenty-five cents; for whipping a servant, by order of court, to be paid by the master and repaid to him by the servant, forty-two cents; for whipping a free person, by order of court, to be paid by the person who received the whipping, forty-two cents; for whipping a slave, by order of the court, to be paid by the county, forty-two cents; for selling a servant at public outcry, forty-two cents; for keep- ing and providing for a debtor in jail, each day, twenty- olle cents.
It was more expensive to be whipped or pilloried by the sheriff than by a constable, although there is no evidence
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that the sheriff did the work any more effectively. Since the person who received the punishment usually paid the fees of the officer who performed the service, it is proba- ble that such person preferred being whipped or nailed to a post by the constable because it was less expensive. Some of the constable's fees are shown below: for putting a condemned man in the stocks, twenty-one cents; for whipping a servant, twenty-one cents; for whipping a slave, to be paid by the master, twenty-one cents: for removing a person likely to become a charge on the county, per mile, four cents.
It would appear from this that it was customary to send persons out of the county who were likely to become pau- pers; but, of course, the county to which they were sent must take charge of them, or send them on to the next county. Most likely the pauper was hustled on from county to county, it being found cheaper to move him than to maintain him. Not much can be said in praise of a cus- tom which sent paupers to some one else to be cared for; but, at that time, indigents were not numerous. Although each county might claim and exercise the right of shoving its paupers into another county to be cared for. yet when it came into possession of an indigent in this manner from an adjoining county, it considered it hard luck. There is a letter preserved in the old county records giving an in- sight into the feelings of disgust with which one county court received a pauper from another. The letter contains a fine vein of sarcasm, and is worth quoting:
" WINCHESTER, COUNTY OF FREDERICK, "STATE OF VIRGINIA, AUG. 4, 1794.
" TO THE HONORABLE COURT OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY.
"STATE OF VIRGINIA, GENTLEMEN:
"GREETING :- The court of Frederick beg leave to in- form the court of Hampshire that we have just received a visit from one Simon Pelman, a pauper, who informs us that he was sent to us by the court of Hampshire. The
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court of Frederick beg leave to inquire to what may we at- tribute the honor of this visit from Mr. Pelman, late of your county? This court were not aware that they had merited the distinction of being thus waited upon by your envoy extraordinary. But, notwithstanding this court were taken by surprise, they find themselves in a position to return the honor by returning Mr. Pelman to Hampshire, by the road which he came; with the sugges- tion that when it again shall please you to accredit to us an ambassador of Mr. Pelman's rank, you will so far observe the rules of diplomacy as to inform us of your purpose, that we may not again be taken by surprise, but may be prepared to meet your envoy on our frontiers and receive him in a manner becoming his rank and the dignity of the court which sent him.
"COURT OF FREDERICK COUNTY."
Within the past century several important changes have taken place in the laws under which Hampshire county has been governed. An act of assembly, passed November 29, 1792, provided that in cases where a person is suspected of having committed a murder, and the coroner's jury recommend that he be held for trial, and he eludes arrest, the coroner must seize his house and property and hold them until he surrenders himself or is arrested. Where a defendant was found guilty the costs of the prosecution was collected by sale of his property, if he had any prop- erty; but he might pay cost and thus save his property. No constable, miller, surveyor of roads or hotel-keeper was eligible to serve on a grand jury. A law passed January 16, 1801, provided a fine of five dollars as a penalty for kill- ing deer between January 1 and August 1 of each year. A law enacted January 26, 1814, provided that sheep-killing dogs should be killed. If the owner prevented the execu- tion of the law upon the dog he was subject to a fine of two dollars for each day in which he saved the life of the dog. The bounty on wolves was made six dollars for each scalp,
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by a law passed February 9, 1819. But the bounty was not always the same, nor was it uniform throughout the counties of Virginia. In 1828 George O. King and Isaac Davidson were each paid twenty dollars for the scalps of two old wolves which they had killed in Hampshire county. There were six wolves killed in the county that year. A law of January 16, 1802, provided a fine of thirty dollars for setting the woods on fire: and a law of January 4, 1805, pun- ished by a fine of ten dollars the catching of fish in a seine between May 15 and August 15.
There was a severe law passed by the Virginia legisla- ture February 22, 1819, for the benefit of tavern-keepers. It provided a fine of thirty dollars for each offense, to be levied against any person. not a licensed tavern-keeper, who should take pay from a traveler for entertainment given. Not only was this law in force in and near towns, but also within eight hundred yards of any public road. There was a law enacted by the assembly of Virginia December 24, 1796, which was intended to favor the poor people. It is in marked contrast with many of the laws of that time. for they were generally not made to benefit the poor. The law had for its object the aiding of persons of small means in reaching justice through the courts. A man who had no money had it in his power to prosecute a suit against a rich man. He could select the court in which to have his case tried; the court furnished him an attorney free; he was charged nothing for his subpoenas and other writs; and he was not charged with costs in case he lost his suit.
CHAPTER XXVI.
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AGRICULTURAL AFFAIRS.
BY H. L. SWISHER.
In the settlement of a new country one of the first things that occupies the attention of a people is agriculture. More especially is this the case in a county like our own in which the chief source of wealth is in the agricultural products. Dangers and hardships attended every step of the early settler's progress. After his cabin was built it became necessary for him to supplement the supplies of game and fish he could capture, by the food products of his truck patch and cornfield. His implements for clear- ing and cutlivating the ground were rude and in the use of these he was often molested. When he went to the field he must carry with him his gun, as he labored he must keep constant watch lest some Indian in ambush shoot him at his work. Not infrequently was he compelled to throw down his hoe and seizing his gun cover his own retreat to the nearest fort.
Agriculture in the early settlements was not carried on extensively. A small patch of corn, and perhaps one of tobacco, together with a small garden or truck patch was the extent of each settler's farming. Very often the only implement used in the cultivation of these primitive crops was the hoe, as the keeping of a horse was difficult, owing to the thieving Indians. The first plows used were made entirely. of wood and the addition of an iron plate to the lower end of his wooden implement gave rise to what was called the "shovel plow." Oxen and horses were both used by the early settlers in tilling their lands and if there
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was any favor shown it was to the ox, if we may call con- stant and persistent use showing favor. The early har- row was even ruder than the early plow and sometimes it consisted in nothing more than a thorn-bush slightly · trimmed and weighted down by tying some chunks across it. The first manufactured harrows had wooden frames and wooden teeth. The scythe, when indeed that im- proved implement came into use, was not made of carefully tempered steel as it now is, but was wrought at the village smithy, and instead of being ground to sharpen it, it was beat thin on an anvil. Nor was it supplied with a sneathe crooked like the one now in use, but had only a straight stick which was usually cut from the nearby woods. In using this the mower was compelled to bend himself like the bow of promise. Forked saplings peeled and care- fully dried served to handle the hay and grain. Wooden spades and shovels were the only kind then in use. It is safe to say that if the present generation could see the rude and clumsy tools with which the early settlers had to raise and harvest their crops they would be filled with wonder and would look upon them as implements of tor- ture if they were compelled to use the same in agricul- tural pursuits today. We must not think, however, that our forefathers in this then wilderness had no enjoyment for they spent many a happy hour and their fewer wants and these easily satisfied, made them on the average as well content as their descendants.
When clearing land there were frequent "log rollings" at which the neighbors would gather for miles around bringing with them their teams of oxen and horses to assist in putting the logs in heaps to burn them. Usually the "clearing" had been burned over previously to make way with the smaller brush and undergrowth. This left the remaining logs blackened and as the men worked among them they became sweaty and begrimed. The teams were no less so. All around rose the flames and
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smoke of the burning heaps while the sooty laborers toiled in the midst. It was such a scene as might casily be imagined in the workshops of the mythical blacksmith Vulcan underneath Vesuvius. Another gathering in these early settlements was the "raising." When one man in a community wished to build a house or barn it was an expected courtesy upon the part of his neighbors to assist him until the heavier parts were in position. No pay was tendered nor expected for this help, but a like labor was, perhaps, afterwards asked of the one assisted. Another social and co-operative gathering of those times which has now been almost wholly abandoned is the corn husking. The ears of corn were "jerked" husk and all from the stalks and hauled together in huge ricks. Some night when the weather was favorable, usually a moonlight night, the neighbors were all invited to the husking. A general overseer of the work was appointed and the men were arranged along the rick of corn at regular intervals. Then the work began. It was considered especially lucky to find a "red ear" and as the husks were torn off each one was carefully scrutinized to see if it was of the desired color. While the men were enjoying themselves at the husking the women of the neighborhood were usually assembled at the farm house at a "quilting." After a few hours' work the "quilting" and "husking" alike broke up in a dance or as it was popularly called a "hoe down." Sometimes there was a too liberal use of "rock and rye" and a few fights lent interest to the gathering.
In those early times when it was necessary that almost everything used should be produced on the farm, or at least in the neighborhood, women added much to the com- fort of the home by their skill and industry. Almost every household was supplied with a loom, a spinning wheel and all else that was necessary for changing the wool or flax from its original condition into clothing and blankets. Wool was sheared from sheep raised on the
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farm. It was carded, spun and woven or knit into cloth- ing on the place. The flax was grown in the fields, it was allowed to weather in the patches where it was raised, it was broken on the flax brake and the woody portion combed out on the hackle, spun and woven into cloth without leaving the farm on which it was grown.
Evidently the tobacco crop in Hampshire was once a much more important affair than it is now. As stated in another chapter, it formed the medium of exchange, serv- ing as money until after the Revolutionary war. In March, 1819, the general assembly passed an act providing that "Public warehouses for the receipt of tobacco be estab- lished at Romney warehouse and Cresap's warehouse, at the confluence of North and South branches of the Potomac in Hampshire county." Before tobacco could be stored in these warehouses it was necessary that it be inspected. There was an inspector appointed for Romney. His salary was sixtv-two dollars and fifty cents a year. At Cresap's the inspector was paid at the rate of eighty-four cents a hogshead, of which seventeen cents were to be paid the proprietor of the warehouse for rent. There is no record to show how many hogsheads or pounds were stored in any year. Another important crop that began to be culti- vated early in this county was wheat. In fact the soil here is so well adapted to the cultivation of this cereal that it has become the principal crop raised for shipment. In early years, however, it was cultivated on a much more limited scale. Numerous difficulties stood in the way of an exten- sive acreage. The sowing was a matter of no small labor. The seed had to be scattered by hand and then covered by harrowing or "shoveling" it in. This was not only labori- ous, but also very slow. Harvesting, too, was a tedious process. A sickle was then the most improved reaping implement. The reaper gathered a grip of grain in his left hand and cut it off with the right. These handfuls were placed in bundles and bound into sheaves. When it
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came time to haul the crop in from the fields this was done on sleds, as wagons were then not in general use. Thresh- ing the crop was next. This was accomplished by means of the flail, and it required an expert hand to flail ont fifteen bushels a day. Another mode of threshing somewhat in "advance of the flail and less laborious, was to place the grain on a barn floor and tramp it out with horses. There was a chance here to use the small boy, ever such a con- venience about a farm. He could ride one horse and lead another around over the grain. When it was well tramped it was turned and gone over again until at length most of the grain was threshed out. The next step in advance was a threshing machine, known as a chaff-piler. This was probably introduced in this country as early as 1835. It was a small affair and very incomplete, not separating the chaff from the wheat. The first "separators" were horse-power machines and came into use about a half cen- tury ago. The last advance was the steam thresher, and now the greater part of the grain in the country is threshed by these machines. No such thing as a windmill was known here before the present century, and the early method of separating the chaff and grain was to toss the mass into the air and the chaff, being lighter, would be blown away, while the wheat would fall to the ground on a sheet or floor prepared to receive it.
After the crop was raised it had yet to be prepared for food. The matter of making meal and flour like the other mechanic arts, was in the pioneer days, rude and incom- plete. Corn was the chief crop raised by the early settlers and the matter of its preparation for table use was of first importance. The hominy block was one of the earliest contrivances. A large block was hollowed out at one end by burning. The top of the opening in the block's end was large, but it narrowed at the bottom so as to form a funnel-shaped cavity. The corn was placed in this block, and by means of a wooden pestle it was pounded into a
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more or less fine condition, so that it served partly for johnny-cake and bread, while the coarser was cooked as hominy. While the corn was soft it was sometimes pre- pared for bread by means of a grater. This consisted of a piece of tin punched full of holes and bent into concave shape by nailing its sides to a piece of wood. The ears of corn were rubbed on the rough surface of the tin and a kind of meal was thus made. The sweep for pounding grain is thus described by Dr. Doddridge: "This was a pole of some springy, elastic wood thirty feet long or more, the butt end of which was placed under the side of a house or a large stump. This pole was supported by two forks placed about one-third of its length from its butt end, so as to elevate the small end about fifteen feet from the ground. To this was attached, by a large mortise, a piece of sapling about five or six inches in diameter and eight or ten feet long, the lower end of which was shaped so as to answer for a pestle, and a pin of wood was put through at the proper height, so that two people could work at the sweep at once." A little more improved was the hand- mill which came into use somewhat later. This was con- structed of two circular stones, one running on to the other. The nether of these was called the bed stone and was stationary. The upper one was called the runner; around these was a wooden hoop with an opening for dis- charging the meal. In the upper surface of the runner there was a hole near the edge into which the end of a pole was fitted. The other end of this pole was put through a hole in a board fastened to the joist above. With one hand grasping the upright pole the operator turned the stone and with the other he put the grain into the central open- ing in the runner. The grinding of one bushel of grain was considered a day's work.
The first water mills were designated tub mills. In this the upper stone was stationary and the lower one turning against it ground the grain. A perpendicular shaft was
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fitted into the lower stone or runner. On the lower end of this shaft there was a water wheel about five feet in diam- eter. The wheel was sunk in the stream and the force of the running water caused it to revolve, turning the stone at the other end of the shaft. Following these came the grist mills, with a water wheel having a horizontal shaft. In these early mills bolting cloths were not used. Seives were used, but not the ordinary wire seive of today. At that time they were made by stretching deerskin tightly over a hoop and punching it full of holes with a hot wire. Ever since Hampshire became even sparsely settled it seems the inhabitants have had a surplus of wheat, and it has furnished them a means of obtaining ready money. In the early days after the revolution the matter of trans- portation was a serious hindrance to commerce. Goods had to be hauled from the cities in wagons, and the pro- ducts of the farm had to be taken to market in a like man- ner, at least in most instances.
Hampshire had an important advantage in this particu- lar. Through the most fertile and productive valley of the county ran the South branch river. By means of boats this river was made to perform an important service. Had a person chanced to pass up the South brauch in those days, at the various eddies and places of easy access, as far up as Moorefield, he would have seen scores of barrels of flour sitting. When the river began to rise boatmen would come and build boats, load the flour upon them and float away with it to market. There were no particular depots or places for storing the flour, but it was placed on the river bank at such points as it could be casily loaded. Flour merchants would hire boatmen to build boats to take this flour to market. The boats used were usually mere flat structures, built temporarily for the purpose of transporting this flour and sold for lumber when their des- tination was reached. There were, however, keel boats of more expensive and graceful build, that were pushed
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back up the river by the boatmen when they had delivered their cargo. This traffic ceased about 1830. Two of the men who used to make these boating trips, James Lari- more and Samuel Larimore, lived on Jersey mountain, near Three Churches. They, together with Captain Jake Earsom, another of their number, are well remembered by persons now living. Alexandria and Washington were the principal markets for this flour. Some fourteen miles above Washington the Potomac plunges over a precipice some sixty feet in height. To get around this a canal was built. It was about a half mile in length and deep enough" to float heavily loaded boats. The walls of this historic canal, the first in America, are still standing and are fre- quently visited by those interested in the early industrial history of this country.
Much of the drudgery of farming has been removed by the introduction of farm machinery. It is no exaggera- tion to say that one man can with the improved machinery of today, accomplish as much as five men could with the implements in use at the beginning of this century. In- provements in farm machinery came slowly, but the pro- gress already made is very great, and there is unquestion- ably still a large field for improved inventions in agricul- tural implements. One of the first improvements of im- portance was the grain drill, and while the first invention was a rude machine, it was an immense step forward from the shovel plow. The "old blue drill," as it was called, was in use in this county as early as 1350. Windmills came in somewhat earlier, perhaps as soon as 1810. Pre- vious to their appearance grain had been cleaned by means of a sheet. One man taking hold of each end, the sheet was swung to and fro, creating a current of air by this motion. A third person tossed the wheat into the air or stood upon an elevated placed and poured in from a vessel. While this was a slow process it was more satisfactory than one would at first suppose. The first windmills had 23
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RESIDENCE AND FAMILY OF EPHRAIM HERRIOTT.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR LENOX AND ILDENICU. DANICE
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wooden cogwheels and were kept oiled by means of soft soap. The iron cogwheels came in about 1840. Reaping machinery was introduced along the South branch valley several years before the civil war. The reapers were what were then known as "droppers." They did not bind the grain in sheaves, but threw it off in bunches, and it was afterwards tied by hand. About 1870 the binder came into use, and these machines, now highly improved, are in general use throughout the county. The mower and hay- rake are two inventions that have added much to the ease of caring for the hay crop. These machines in their present improved form have not been in popular use more than a quarter of a century. The first rake for gathering hay by means of horse power was almost entirely of wood. It was without wheels and slid upon the ground much after the manner of a sled. Occasionally one of these old rakes is still used.
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