Coshocton County, Ohio - Chapter 27: Pioneee Times, 1881

Chapter 27: Pioneee Times

Where the Pioneers Came From - Their Condition and Character - What They Lived On - The ' ' Truck Patch' ' - Hominy Blocks - Mills - Cooking - Cultivation of Domestic Animals - Wild Turkeys - Whisky - Superstitions - Dress of the Men - The Flax Wheel and Loom - More About Clothing - " Kicking Frolics " - Dress of the Women - White Kid Slippers - Dyeing - Fourth of July and Militia Musters - Cabins and Their Construction - Furniture of the Cabins - Hoosier .Poem - Early Land Laws - Tomahawk Rights - Hunting- Early Weddings - Dancing and " House Warming, ' ' Schooling, School Teachers, etc. - Spelling Schools - Conclusion.

PIONEER days for Coshocton county and the State of Ohio are gone forever ; the wolf, bear, deer, Indian, and all associations and reminiscences of those "good old days" have long since faded from sigh*-, if not from memory, and the pioneers, most of them, are gone, too -

It remains to write their history, and the history of the times in which they lived, as of another race of beings; and, if possible, to impress the best of it upon the character of the present and future generations ; for it is a history worthy of imitation and preservation. A study of the characteristics of the pioneer fathers and mothers is calculated to ennoble the mind and strengthen the hand for the battle of life.

It would require a volume to tell of their habits and customs ; of their trapping and hunting ; of their solitary lives in the great woods, surrounded by wild animals and wilder men; of their dress, manners, and peculiar ways ; of their cabins and furniture ; of the long winter evenings by the logheap fire upon which -

^And on its top the stout back-stick ; The knotty fore-stick laid apart. And filled between with curious art The ragged brush ; then hovering near We watch the first red blaze appear. Heard the sharp crackle, cangnt the gleam On Whitewashed wall and sagging beam, Until the old rude-furnished room Burst flower-like into rosy bloom."

It was a free, happy, independent life ; full of hardships, indeed, but sweetened with innocence and peace; with alternations of labor, pleasure and rest.

The pioneers of Coshocton were largely from New England, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland, who sought to better their condition by making permanent homes in the wilderness west of the Ohio river. They carne largely on foot over the Allegheny mountains, many of them having' a single horse and wagon, or a two-horse wagon, in which their worldly possessions were carried, and in which the very old or very young, only, were allowed to ride. Many of them were poor, and, like Jack in the story, " came to seek their fortunes." A few came with ox teams; some with horses, two, three or four of them ; some in two-wheeled carts, whileothers packed all their worldly possessions on a couple of old " critters." Instances are related of a bag on top, or snugged down in among the bundles, made somewhat after the fashion of a double knapsack, and a couple of babies poked their little bronzed faces out of the slits in this novel conveyance, and rode along like little " possums."

From fifteen to flfty-five days were required in making the toilsome journey to the far West, by the first pioneers. Streams had to be forded frequently. It was not unusual for a team to give out on the way and cause a delay of a fortnight or a month to one of the families. The joy was very great when the team hove in sight and the family rejoined the party who had found "the end of the road," or stopped until the men looked for a suitable Ideation.

When once settled and the cabin erected, it was not only a home and shelter for the pioneer and his family, but for every stranger who passed that way, " without money and without price." The latch string was always out, for these pioneers were great hearted people, and no man, be he white, black or red, was turned away empty. Their cabins, ofteii not more than fifteen or twenty feet square, made of rough beech logs, with the bark still adhering to them, were frequently occupied by a dozen, or even a score, of people for the night, and no complaints made for want of room; genuine hospitality always finds room enough, and never apologizes for lack of more; and when breakfast time came, there was no apology for the scarcity of knives,, forks and spoons, for "fingers were made before any of these." The fare was homely, but gener-' ally abundant. What to eat, drink and wear,, were questions not, perhaps, difficult of solution, in those days. The first was the easiest to solve. The deer, the bear, the wild turkey, the rabbity the squirrel, all started up and said, or seemed to say, " eat me." These had been prepared for thered men of the forest, and were equally abundant for the pioneer. The forest was full of game, the streams full of fish, and wild fruits were abundant. To get bread required both patience and labor ; the staff of life was one of the articles that must be earned " by the sweat of the brow;" it could not be gathered from the bushes, fished from the streams, or brought down with the rifle. Every backwoodsman once a year added to his clearing, at least, a -- truck patch." This, was the hope and stay of the family; the receptacle of corn, beans, melons, potatoes, squasheSr pumpkins, turnips, etc., each variety more perfectly developed and delicious, because it grew in. virgin soil. The corn and beans planted in May brought roasting ears and succotash in August. Potatoes came with corn, and the cellar, built in the side of a convenient hill, and filled with the contents of the truck patch, secured the family against -want. When the corn grew too hard for roasting ears, and was yet too soft to grind in the mill, it was reduced to meal by a. grater, and whether stirred into mush or baked into johnnycake, it made, for people with keen appetites and good stomachs, excellent food. Place before one of those brawny backwoodsmen a square foot of johnnycake and a venison steak broiled on hickory coals, and no art of civilization could produce a more saisfactory meal.

Next to the grater comes the hominy block, an article in common use among the pioneers. It consisted simply of a block of wood - a section of a tree, perhaps - with a hole burned, or dug, into it a foot deep, in which corn was pulverized with a pestle. 'Sometimes this block was inside the cabin, where it served as a seat for the bashful young buckskinned backwoodsman while " sparking" his girl; sometimes a convenient stump in front of the cabin door was prepared for, and made one of the best of hominy blocks. When pigs began to be raised, the natural relation between pork and beaten corn suggested the grand old idea of "hog and hominy."

Hominy blocks did not last long, for mills came quite early and superseded them, yet these mills were often so far apart that in stormy weather, or for want of transportation, the pioneer was compelled to resort to his hominy block, or go without bread. In winter, the mills were frozen up nearly all the time, and when a thaw came and the ice broke, if the mill was not swept away entirely by the floods, it was so thronged with pioneers, each with his sack of corn, that some of them were often compelled to camp out near the mill and wait several days for their turn. When the grist was ground, if they were so fortunate as to possess an ox, a horse, or mule, for the purpose of transportation, they were happy. It was not unusual to go from ten to twenty miles to mill, through the pathless, unbroken forest, and to be benighted on the journey, and chased, or treed by wolves. A majority of the pioneers, however, settled in the vicinity of a stream, upon which mills were rapidly erected. These mills were very primitive afiairs - mere " corn crackers " - but they were an improvement on the hominy block. They merely ground the corn, the pioneer must do his own bolting. A wire sieve was then one of the most important articles of household furniture. It always hung in its place, on a wooden peg, just under the ladder that, reached to the loft. The meal was sifted and the finest used for bread. How delicious was that " Indian pone," baked in a large deep skiUet, which was placed upon coals raked from the fire-place to the hearth. Fresh coals were continually placed under- it and upon the iron lid until the loaf, five or six incnes thick, was done through. This was a different thing from johnnyoake ; it was better, and could not always be had, for to make it good, a little wheat flour was needed, and wheat flour was a precious thing in those very early days.

A road cut through the forest to the mill, and a wagon for hauling the grist, were great advantages, the latter especially was often a seven days' wonder to the children of a neighborhood, and the happy owner of one often did, for years, the milling for a whole neighborhood. About once a month this good neighbor, who was in exceptionally good circumstances, because able to own a wagon, would go about through the neighborhood, gather up the grists and take them to mill, often spending several days in the operation, and never thinking of charging for his time and trouble.

The trammel and hooks were found among the well-to-do families, as time progressed. Previous to this, the lug-pole, across the inside of the chimney,abouteven with the chamber floor, answered for a trammel. A chain was suspended from it, and hooks were attached, and from this hung the mush-pot or tea-kettle. If a chain was not available, a wooden hook was in reach of the humblest and poorest. When a meal was not in preparation, and the hook was endangered by fire, it was shoved aside to one end of the lug-pole for safety. Iron ware was very scarce in those days. Instances are related where the one pot served at a meal to boil water for mint tea or crust coffee, to bake the bread, boil the potatoes, and fry the meat. By fine management this was accomplished. Frequently the kettle had no lid, and a flat stone, heated, and handled with the tongs, was used instead of one, when a loaf or pone or pumpkin pie was baked. A shortcake could be baked by heating the kettle moderately, putting in the cake, and tipping it up sidewise before the glowing fire. Bannock, or boardcake, was made by mixing the corn-meal up with warm water, a pinch of salt and a trifle of lard, into a thick dough, spreading it on a clean, sweet-smelling clapboard, patting it with the cleanest of hands, and standing it slanting before the fire, propped into^the right position by a flat-iron behind it. Baked hastily, this made a delicious cake, sweet and nutty and fresh, and the pretty stamp of the mother's dear, unselfish, loving fingers was plainly detected in the crisp crust.

The cultivation of domestic animals, both beasts and fowls, for the purpose of food, began early. Cows for milk, butter, beef, and leather, and swine for pork, were bred, ear marked and turned into the woods to browse. " Root hog or die," was the law for man and beast, but the woods were prolific and the hogs grew fat. The young pigs were exceptionally a sweet morsel for the bear. Bruin always singled out these young animals in preference to any other meat; but the pigs were often successfully defended by the older hogs, who, upon the least signs of distress from one of their number, would go boldly to the rescue, and fiercely attack the foe, however formidable ; often the pig was released and bruin, or the panther, compelled to ascend a tree for safety.

The boys often found wild turkeys' nests in the woods, and would bring home the eggs, and place them, to be hatched, under a trusty old hen, in an outside chimney corner, where they could assist the hen in defending the eggs and brood from the opossum or hawk. A flock of turkeys sometimes originated in this way, but more often, as they grew to maturity, they would fly away into the woods and never reappear. This grandest of birds is identical in civilized and savage life, and is the peculiar production of America. The wild ones were always a dark brown, like the leaves of their native woods, -but when tamed, or "civilized," the diversity of color becomes endless.

When cornbread and milk were eaten for breakfast, hog and hominy for dinner and mush and milk for supper, there was little room for tea and coffee ; and at a time when one bushel of wheat for a pound of coffee and four bushels for a pound of tea, where considered a fair exchange, but little of these very expensive articles was used.

Next to water, the drink of the pioneers was whisky - copper-still rye whisky. Everybody drank it. It was supposed to be indispensable to health, to strength and endurance during the labors of the day, and to sleep at iiight. It was supposed to be absolutely indispensable to warmth and animation in cold, chilly winter weather. It was the sacrament of friendship and hospitality; it was in universal use; yet there was probably less drunkenness in those days than at present. The whisky was absolutely pure; it was not drugged, doctored and poisoned as it is to-day, and, although enough of it would bring drunkenness, it did not bring delirium tremens, or leave the system prostrated, and the victim with a headache upon " sobering up " It was the first thing in demand as an article of commerce. Stills for its manufacture sprang up everywhere, all along the streams. Pioneers soon found a market at these stills for their corn, hence corn became the great crop, and whisk}' the great article of commerce. It was the only thing that would bring money, and money they must have to pay taxes. Whisky could be purchased for twelve or fifteen cents per gallon and paid for in corn, and the barrel of whisky in the cellar, was as common as the barrel of cider was later. The whisky that was not consumed at home was shipped on flat-boats or pirogues on the Muskingum, Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans and sold for Spanish gold. One of the first rebellions against the Government of the United States, commonly called the whisky insurrection, had its growth out of the hardships of the Scotch- Irish of Western Pennsylvania, who in the mother country had learned to love whisky and hate gangers; and this population gave tone and character to the first settlers of Eastern Ohio, There was this apology for the production of whisky that it was the only means of disposing of surplus crops, or bringing money into the country.

The hardy pioneers, after disposing of their cargo of whisky in New Orleans, would often set out on foot for home, a distance of say fifteen hundred miles. Think of it, ye who ride in palace coaches at the rate of forty miles an hour while reclining in cushioned seats, smoking your cigar, and reading in your morning paper of the happenings of yesterday in Europe and America. While apologizing somewhat for those whisky days, it may be well to say that whisky was not probably of any special benefit, was not to be compared to the pure water of their springs, and that too many of the pioneers drank too much of ' it, and that too often it made their eyes and noses red, their children ragged and their wives wretched, as it does to-day.

In every neighborhood there were a few families who had brought with them the superstitious of their forefathers, and the result was that some poor man or woman was reputed to be a witch. Not much proof was required. If a woman had very black eyes, or stepped stealthily, or spoke in a low tone of voice, and the gossips s.aid she was in league with the prince of the black art, it did not take long to fasten the reputation upon her, and the ignorant looked with awe and fear upon the poor hunted, watched creature. And so they greased their broom handles, and laid dead snakes head foremost in the paths, and hung horseshoes ever the cabin doors, and were careful to spit in the fire, and not to look over their left shoulders when they passed the abode of the doomed one. But sometimes her wrath fell upon them, and the oxen would lie down in the furrow, and no power could move them, not even hot coals, nor boiling soapsuds when poured upon them. One time, when the family of a poor man rose early in the morning, one of the oxen lay still and slept heavily and breathed noisily. On examination it was discovered that he had been witch-ridden; his sides were black and blue from the kicking heels that had urged him on to his best paces, and the corners of his mouth were torn from cruel bits guided by jerking hands. People who were objects of the witch's spite found a brood of downy young chicks in their chests, and piles of sprawling kittens under the half bushel ; and they overheard deep, cavernous voices, and fine piping ones, in conclave at midnight up in the air and the tree-tops, and under the dead leaves and beside the chimney ; and tracks, with a cloven foot among them, were discernible. Think of the misery of a poor creature reputed to be a witch, met in her own lowly cabin by a weeping mother beseeching her to remove the spell of incantation that her sick child might recover ! No denial of the absurd charge could avail her ; no sympathy offered was accepted; and the foolish mother could do no more than return home, burn some woolen rags to impregnate the out-door air, stand the child on its head while she could count fifty backwards, grease its spine with the oil of some wild animal, cut the tip hairs off the tail of a black cat and bind them on the forehead of the persecuted one, while she repeated a certain sentence in the Lord's Prayer. Then, in her own language, " If the child died, why, it jes' died ; and if it lived, it lived."

A superstitious old man was often found who could divine secrets, tell fortunes, fortell events, find the places where money was buried, cure wens by words, blow the fire out of burns, mumble over felons and catarrhs, romove warts, and, with his mineral ball search out where stolen goods were hidden. The " mineral ball " to which the superstitious ascribed such marvelous power.

was no less than one of those hairy calculi found in the stomachs of cattle, a ball formed compactly of the hair which collects on the tongue of the animal while licking itself. This man, one of the class whose taint infects every neighborhood, could not from any consideration be prevailed upon to leave a graveyard first of all, " Why, drat it ! " he would say, " it's sure and sartin death; never knowed a fellow to leave the graveyard . fust, but what he'd be the next 'un planted there ! " When an old neighbor of his died suddenly, this man said, with his thumbs hooked in his trousers' pockets restfully : " Why, drat him, he might a know'd more'n to leave the graveyard fust man ! As soon as I seed him do it, I says to myself, says I, ' Dan you're a goner ; you're done for ; they'll tuck you unter next time, an' nobody but your booby of a self to blame for it!'"

On the frontier, and particularly among 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. The hunting shirt was universally worn. This was a kind of a loose frock reaching half way down the thighs, with large sleeves, open at the front, and so large as to lap over a foot or more when belted. The cape waslarge and sometimes fringed with a raveled piece of cloth of a different color from that of the hunting shirt itself. The bosom of the hunting shirt served as a pocket to hold bread, cakes, jerk, tow for wiping the gun-barrel, or any other necessary article for the hunter or warrior. The belt, which was always tied behind, answered several purposes besides that of holding the dress together. In cold weather the mittens and sometimes the bullet-bag occupied the front part of it. To the right side was suspended the tomahawk, and to the left the scalping-knife in its leathern sheath.

The hunting shirt was generally made of linsey, sometimes of coarse linen or deer skins. These last were very cold and uncomfortable in wet weather. A pair of drawers, or breeches, and leggins were the dress for the thighs, a pair of moccasins answered for the feet. These were made of dressed deer skin, and were mostly of a single piece, with a gathering seam on the top of the foot and another from the bottom of the heel, without gathers, as high or a httle higher than the ankle joint. 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 moccasins. In cold weather the moccasins were stuffed with deer's hair or dry leaves to keep the feet warm, bvit in wet weather it was usually said that wearing them was " a decent way of going barefooted ; " and such was the fact, owing to the spongy texture of the leather of which they were made. Owing to this defective covering for the feet - more than to any other circumstance, the greater number of the hunters and warriors were often afflicted with rheumatism in their, limbs. Of this disease they were all apprehensive in cold and wet weather, and therefore always slept with their feet to the fire to prevent or cure it as well as they could. This practice, unquestionably, 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 the young men became more enamored of the Indian dress. The' drawers were laid aside and the leggins made longer, so as to reach the upper part of the thigh. The Indian breech-cloth was adopted. This was a piece of linen or cloth nearly a yard long and eight or nine inches broad ; it passed under the belt before and behind, leaving the end for flaps hanging before and behind over the belt. The flaps were sometimes ornamented with some coarse kind of embroidery work. To the belt were also secured the strings to which the 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.

Sometimes, in winter, a waistcoat of the skin of a panther, wildcat or spotted fawn was worn. In summer, when it could be had, linen was made up into wearing apparel. The flax was grown in the summer, scutched in the fall; and during the long winter evenings was heard the buzz of the little flax- wheel, which had a place in every cabin. Even those who are not pioneers can remember this flax-wheel, for it was in use as late as 1850, or later. It stood in a corner, generally ready for use by having a large bundle of flax wrapped around its forked stick, a thread reaching to the spindle, and a little gourd filled with water hanging conveniently at the bottom ot the flax-stick, and whenever the good pioneer mother had a little spare time from cooking for a dozen work hands, caring for a dozen children, milking a dozen cows, and taking care of the milk and butter, besides doing all the housework and keeping everything clean and neat as a pin, she would sit down to this wheel and with foot on the treadle, and nimble fingers, pile thread upon thread on the spindle, to be reeled off on a wooden reel that counted every yard with a snap, and then it was ready for the great loom that occupied the loft. This loom was a wonder - it would be a wonder to-day, with its great beams, larger than any beams they put in the houses of to-day - ^its treadles, its shuttles, etc. Day after day could be heard the pounding of that loom, the treadles went up and down, the shuttles flew swiftly from one hand to another through the labyrinth of warp, and yard after yard of cloth rolled upon the great roller. And then this cloth was to be cut into little and big clothes and made up with the needle; and, remember, this and a great deal more than any one can think of was to be gone through with every year. Wool went through about the same operation, only it was spun on the large wheel, colored with butternut bark and other things, but woven on the loom and made up for winter clothing.

But innovations were soon made. My father had brought out a huge trunk full of coarse broadcloth, and this tempted the young men to have coats to be married in. They would bargain with my father for the cloth and trimmings, and with my mother for making the coat, and pay both bills by grubbing, making rails or clearmg land. It may seem odd at this day that a woman of small stature, besides doing her own housework, should make 200 rails a day with her needle and shears, and find time for reading and mental culture every day. I never think of my mother's tailoring skill, without being reminded of one instance. A young mai* had purchased the cloth for his wedding coat, and, as a measure of economy, employed one Nancy Clark to make it up. Nancy was an expert on hunting-shiris.

buckskin breeches and " sich," but had never cut a coat, so my mother exit out the coat. Nancy made it up, but on the eve of the wedding, when tried on, instead of allowing his arms to hang gracefylly by his side, as became a bride-groom, it turned him int(5 a spread eagle with arms extended upward. The wedding day was at hand, and, in his perplexity, he brought the coat to my mother to diagnose its disorder, and, if possible, administer the proper remedies. She found there was nothing more serious than that Nancy had sewed the right sleeve in the left side, and the left sleeve in the right, and put them upside down. As luxury and extravagance in dress increased, an old tailor, with shears, goose and sleeve-board, began to "whip the cat" around the neighborhood, and my mother's occupation except in her own family, "was gone. The custom of whipping the cat, both for tailors and shoemakers, was in vogue many years after, and, like the schoolmaster bparding around, had this advantage, that if they received poor pay for their work, they were fed and lodged while they were about it.

But the material for winter clothing was hard to get As the woolen goods wore out, my father bought six sheep to commence with, and within the first week the wolves chased the old dog under the cabin ftoor, and killed two of them w'ithin a few yards of the cabin door. On account of the scarcity of wool, many a night I sat up until midnight, with a pair of hand-cards, mixing wool with rabbit's fur, and carding them together, while my mother spun and knit thend into mittens and stockings for her children to wear to school.

" Kicking frolics " were in vogue in those early times. This was after wool was more plenty, and it was carded, spun and wove into cloth. Half a dozen young men, and an equal number of young women (for the " fun of the thing " it was always necessary to preserve a balance of this kind), were invited to the kicking frolic. The cabin floor was cleared for action and half a dozen chairs, or stools, placed in a circle in the centre and connected by a cord to prevent recoil. On these the six young men seated themselves with boots and stocking off, and pants rolled up above the knee. Just think of making love in that shape ! The cloth was placed in the center, wet with soap suds, and then the kicking commenced by measured , «teps, driving the bundle of cloth round and round, the elderly lady with gourd in hand pouring on more soap suds, and every now and then, with spectacles on nose and yard-stick in hand, measuring the goods until they were shrunk to the desired width, and then calling the lads to a dead halt. Then, while the lads put on hose and boots, the lasses, with sleeves rolled up above the elbow, rung out the cloth and put it on the garden fence to dry. When this was done, the cabin floor was again cleared and the supper spread, after which, with their numbers increased somewhat, perhaps, they danced the happy hours of the night away until midnight, to the music of a violin and the commands of some amateur cotillion caller, and were ready to attend another such frolic the following night.

The costume of the woman deserves a passing notice. The pioneers proper, of course, brought with them something to wear like that in use where they came from; but this could not last always, and new apparal, such as the new country afforded, had to be provided. Besides, the little girls sprang up into womanhood with the rapidity of the native butter weed, and they must be made both decent and attractive, and what is more, they were willing to aid in making themselves so. The flax patch, therefore, became a thing of as prime necessity as the truck patch. On the side next to the woods the flax grew tall, slender and delicate, and was carefully pulled by the girls, and kept by itself, to make finery of. The stronger growth did well enough for clothing for the men, and warp for the linsey-wolsey, and everyday dresses for the women, but for Sundays, when everbody went to " meeting," the girls, especially, wanted something nice, just as they do to-day. This fine flax, therefore, was carefully pulled,'carefully rotted, carefully broken, carefully scutched, carefully hackled, carefully spun, carefully dyed in divers colors, and carefully woven in cross-barred figures,, tastefully diversified, straining a point to get turkey-red enough to put a single thread between the duller colors, to mark their outline like the circle around a dove's eye. Of such goods the rustic beauty made her Sunday gown,' and then with her Vandyke of snow-white homespun linen, her snow-white home-knit stockings, and possibly white kid^slippers, she was a sight for sore eyes and often for sore hearts. No paint or arsenic was needed, for active exercise in the open air, under a sun-bonnet, or a broad-brimmed hat, made by her mother out of rye straw, gave her cheek an honest,'healthful glow, and to her eyes the brightness and the beauty of the fawn's. Possibly those white kid sHppers have caused a nod of skepticism. This is the way it was done : Her brother, or lover, shot six fine squirrels ; she tanned the skins herself in a sugar-trough, and had them done up, at a considerable expense and trouble, to wear on Sundays and state occasions. Possibly it may be wondered how the shppers would look after walking five or ten miles through the mud to church, as was frequently done. There were ways of doing these things that were only whispered among the girls, but have leaked out - and the same process was indulged in more or less by young men, who were fortunate enough to own a pair of fine boots - and that was to wear the everyday shoes or boots, or go barefoot to wfthin a few rods of the " meeting-house," and then step into the woods and take the wraps from the precious shoes and put them on.

Linen for Sunday clothes was made of copperas and was white, checked or striped, and when bleached was very pretty and soft. For very choice wear it was all flax ; for every day or second best, the warp was flax and the filling tow. Linsey-woolsey, or linsey, was wool and cotton, very much the same as water-proof or repellant is now, only that it was harsh and not finished. Dyesfuffs in early times were in reach of all - butternut or walnut hulls colored brown; oak bark with copperas dyed black; hickory bark or the blossoms of the goldenrod made yellow ; madder, red ; and indigo, blue ; green was obtained by first coloring yellow, and then dipping into blue dye. Stocking yarn was dyed black, brown or blue ; and, for very choice stockings, strips of corn husks were lapped tightly in two or three places around a skein of yarn, and dyed blue. When the husks were removed, whitish spots were found, and the rare " clouded " yarn was the result. The little tub of blue dye, with its closefitting cover, stood in the warm corner in every well regulated household, and it made a very convenient seat, and the cover was always worn smooth. Many a lad inclined to matrimony has sneaked slyly along and seated himself on the dye-tub as soon as the old folks retired. When carding machines came and lessened the labor of the toiling women, one of the first indications of anything as fine as " store clothes " was the soft, pressed flannel, grand enough for any uncommon occasion, called " London brown.'' The folds lay in it, and it shone to eyes accustomed to look upon nothing finer than home-made barred flannel, like lustrous satin. It smelt of th^ shop, however ; the odor of dye-stuflf and grease and gummy machinery clung to it for a long while About this time a better quality of men's wearing apparel appeared in < the same wonderful color of London brown ; and, to young men coming of age, who had been indentured boys, the beautiful " freedom suit " was valued higher than the horse, saddle and bridle.

It is just barely possible .there is a lady in today's society, who, with five pound of colored hemp on the back of her head and thirty-five yards of silk velvet in her train, would be uncharitable enough to laugh at these pioneer mothers and daughters; if so, those whose opinions are worth anything fully understand that there was more work an,d worth, more value to the world and the community in which she lived, in the little finger of one of these pioneers than in the whole body, train, hair and all, of the aforesaid " lady.'' By the testimony of all history, luxury tends to degeneracy. If the clothes of the pioneers were poor, they made up in brain and heart. The tables are turned - the vacuum of brain and heart is filled with fine clothes. Let it be remembered that the solidity and value of this beautiful structure called society, lies in the foundation - in the pioneer fathers and mothers, and it is only because of this solid foundation that the structure is able to stand at all.

The great days among the pioneers were the Fourth of July and those upon which the militia assembled for muster. These were the holidays, when the people ceased, from labor and turned out en masse, and when plenty of fun and whisky were expected. The place of assembling was generally in some clearing near some " tavern," the landlady of which had the reputation of being a good cook. There was plenty of drumming, fifing and noise, and somebody was always found who could readily perform the duties of president of the meeting; somebody who could read the toasts, and somebody who had been under Harrison or Van Rensselaer as orderly sergeant, to act as marshal. Plenty of men were ready to read that wonderful document, the " Declaration," for among the settlers were not only many excellent scholars and gentlemen, but here and there could be found a veritable graduate o£ Yale college. When no minister was prese'nt to act as chaplain, a good pious man was called to ' that post. If the meeting did not end with a grand ring fight, the people went home disappointed.

The houses or huts, in which these pioneers lived have been often described; their form and proportion's, and general appearance have been repeatedly impressed upon the mind of the student of history. They were built of round logs with the bark on, and side chimneys of mud and sticks, puncheon floors, clapboard roof, with and without a loft or second floor, and all put together without a nail or particle of iron from top to bottom. These buildings stood many a year after the original inhabitants moved into better quarters. They served for stables, sheep-pens, hayhouses, pig-pens, smith-shops, hen-houses, loomshops, school-houses, efce. Some of them are yet standing in this county, and occuped, to some extent, in some portions of the county as dwellings. A specimen of one of these appears in the upper right hand comer of the accompanying cut.

A second grade of log cabin, built. later, was quite an improvement on the first, being made of hewn logs, with sawed lumber for door and window frames and floors. Glass also took the place of paper windows of the old cabin; nails were also sparingly used in these better cabins. It was sometimes built near the old one and connected with it by a covered porch, as shown in the cut. When nails were first used, for a few years a pound of them was exchanged for a bushel of wheat. They were a precious article, and were made by hand on a blacksmith's anvil, out of odds and ends of old worn-out sickles, scythes, broken clevis-pins, links of chains, broken horseshoes, etc., all welded together to eke out the nail-rods from which they we;re forged. The first cabins were often erected, ready for occupation, in a single day. In an emergency, the pioneers collected together, often going eight or ten miles to a cabin-raising, and, in the great woods where not a tree had been felled or a stpne turned, begin with dawn the erection of a cabin. Three or four wise builders would set the corner-stones, lay with the square and level the first round of logs ; two men with axes would cut the trees and logs ; one with his team of oxen, a " lizzard " and a logchain would " snake " thefti in ; two more, with axes, cross-cut saw and frow, would make the clapboards ; two more, with axes, cross-cut saw and broad-axe would hew out the puncheons and flatten the upper side of the sleepers and joists. Four skillful axemen would carry up the corners, and the remainder, with skids and forks or handspikes, would roll up the logs. As soon as the joists were laid on, the cross-cut saw was brought from the woods, and the two men went to work cutting out the door and chimney place '. and while the corner men were building up the attic and putting on the roof, the carpenters and masons of the day were putting down the puncheons, laying the hearth and building the chimney high enough to keep out the beasts, wild or tame. In one corner, at a distance of six feet from one wall and four from the other, the bedpost was placed - only one being needed. A hole was bored in the puncheon floor for the purpose of setting this post in, which was usually a stick with a crotch or fork in the upper end ; or, if an augur is not at hand, a hole is cut in the puncheon floor, and the fork sharpened and driven into the ground beneath ; rails were laid from this fork to the wall, and, usually, nice, straight, hickory poles formed the bottom, upon which ' straw or leaves were placed and the blanket put on. This made a comfortable spring bed, and was easily changed and kept clean. Often the chinking and daubing of the walls, putting in windows and hanging the door were left until fall or some leisure time after the corn crop and the contents of the truck patch were secured. Often th6 pioneers did not erect a cabin at all until a crop was secured - living, "meanwhile, in their covered wagons, and cooking beside a log in the open air, or erecting a " pole cabin," or " brush cabin," mere temporary affairs, to shelter the family until time could be^ had for erecting a permanent one. The saving of the crop Avas of more importance during the summer season than shelter; but when the first frost came, a sure indication of approaching winter, active preparations were made for the permanent cabin, and the work was pushed forward until a snug cabin stood in the midst of the forest, with a clearing around it, made principally by cutting down the trees for the building. Every crack was chinked and daubed with ordinary clay mixed with water, .and when completed, and a fire of hickory logs in the great fire-place, no amount of cold could seriously disturb the inmates. The heavy door was hung on wooden hinges, and all that was necessary to lock it at night was to pull the latch- .string inside, and the strong wooden latch held it fast against wild animals and storms. Thieves there were none, and even had there been, there was nothing in the hut of a settler to tempt their cupidity. Many of these cabins had no loft or second floor, but when this was added it was used as a sleeping room for the younger members of the family, and a general store-room for the household goods, and often for the corn crop and contents of the truck patch.

The furniture of the backwoods matched the architecture well. There were a few quaint specimens of cabinet work dragged into the wil derness, but these were sporadic and not common. I can best describe it by what I saw in my father's house. First of all a table had to be improvised, and there was no cabinet-maker to make it, and no lumber to make it of. Our floor was laid with broad chestnut puncheons, well and smoothly hewn, for the obsolete art of hewing timber was then in its prime. Father took one of these puncheons, two feet and a half broad, putting two narrow ones in its place, bored four large augur holes and put in four legs, or round poles with the bark on. On this hospitable board many a wholesome meal was spread, and many an honest man, and many a wayworn stranger, ate his fill and was grateful.

On great occasions, when an extension table was needed, the door was lifted off its hinges and added to the puncheon. What we sat upon first I cannot conjecture ; but I remember well when my father loaded his horses down with wheat and corn, and crossed the country a distance of eight or ten miles, and brought home, in exchange, a set of oak splint-bottomed chairs, some of which are intact to this d^y. Huge bandboxes, made of blue ash bark, supplied the place of bureaus and wardrobes ; and a large tea chest cut in two, and hung by strings in the corners, with the hollow sides outward, constituted the book-cases. A respectable old bedstead, still in the family, was lugged across from Red Stone. An old turner and wheelwright added a trundle-bed, and the rest were hewn and whittled out according to the fashion of the times, to serve their day and be supplanted by others as the civilization of the country advanced.

But the grand flourish of furniture was the dresser. Here were spread out in grand display pewter dishes, pewter plates, pewter basins and pewter spoons, scoured as bright as silver.

Money was scarce, but our fathers learned to live without it. All was barter. The preacher's stipend, the lawyer's fee, the schoolmaster's salary, the workman's wages, the shoemakers account, the tailor's bill, were all paid in barter.

I have seen my father, when he had a surplus of grain and a deficit of pigs, fill two sacks of corn, and on the backs of two horses carry it to a distant part of the neighborhood gnd exchange it for four shoats, and in each sack thrust one shoat tail foremost and another head foremost, tie up the mouths of the sack, mount them on horseback, rip a hole in the seam of the sack for each snout to stick out, and bring them home to be fattened for next year's pork. Here was a currency - a denomination of greenbacks which neither required the pen of the chancelor of the exchequer to make it legal tender, nor the judgment of the chief justice to declare it constitutional. The law of necessity governs in every case, and wise men may fret every hair ofi' their heads without changing the results. .

The following poem, originally published in the Cincinnati Chronicle in 1883, portrays so graphically life in a log cabin that it is eminently worthy of preservation. Although written by a " Hoosier," and intended to portray Hoosier life, it applies equally well to log cabin life everywhere :

Suppose, in riding through tlie West, A stranger found a " Hoosier's nest," In otiier words a buckeye cabin Just big enough to hold Queen Mab in ; Its situation low but airy, Was on the borders of a prairie. And (earing he might be benighted, He hailed the house and then alighted. The " Hoosier " met him at the door, Their salutations soon were o'er ; He took the stranger's horse aside And to a sturdy sapling tied, Then having stripped the saddle off, He fed him in a sugar-trough. The stranger stooped to enter in, The entrance closing with a pin, And manifests a strong desire To seat himself by the log-heap fire, Where half a dozen Hoosieroons, dred acres of land, and no more, as a " settlement right;" and as the first settlers of this and adjoining counties were largely from those States, they were, of course, governed largely by the habits, customs and laws of those States in the absence of any of these on this side of the river ; therefore many of the first settlers seemed to regard this amount of the surface of the earth as allotted by Divine Providence for one family, and believed that any attempt to get more would be sinful. Most of them, therefore, contented them-

A Pioneer Home

Where venison hams in plenty hung ; Two rifles were placed above the door. Three dogs lay stretched upon the floor - In short, the domicil was rife With specimens of Hoosier life. The host, who centered his aifections On game, and range and quarter sections. Discoursed his weary guest for hours, Till Somnus' ever potent powers Of sublunary cares bereft 'em.

No matter how the story ended - The application I intended Is from the famous Scottish poet, Who seemed to feel as well as know it. That " huirdly chiels and clever hizzies Are bred in sic a way as this is."

selves with that amount - although they might have evaded the law, which allowed but one settlement right to any one individual, by taking out title papers in other than their own names, to be afterward transferred to them as if by purchase. Some few indeed, pursued this course, but it was generally held in detestation.

Owing to the equal distribution of real property divided by the land laws, and the sterling integrity of the forefathers in the observance of them, there were few, if any, districts of ." sold land," as it was called, that is large tracts of land in the hands of individuals or companies, who neither sold nor improved them, as was the case in Lower Canada and some parts of Pennsyl- vania. True, large tracts of land were purchased by companies, but this was done almost always for the purpose of establishing a settlement.

The earliest settlers had become so accustomed to " getting land for taking it up," that for a long time it was believed that the lands on the west side of the Ohio would ultimately be disposed of in this way; hence almost the whole tract of country between the Ohio and Muskingum rivers was parcelled out in what was familiarly known as " tomahawk rights ; " that is, the pioneer, upon finding a suitable location, would cut his name with his hatchet or knife upon the trunk of a large tree, and thus lay claim to four hundred acres of land about that spot. Some of them were not satisfied with a single four hundredacre tract, but laid claim in this way to a number of tracts of the best land, and thus, in imagination, were as "wealthy as a South Sea dr,eam." Some of these land jobbers did not content themselves with marking trees at the usual height, but climbed the large beech trees and cut their names in the bark from twenty to forty feet from the ground. To enable them to identify those trees at a future period, they made marks on other trees around for references.

Nor was it an easy matter to dispossess these squatters ; their claim was generally respected by the settlers, and these rights were often bought and sold, those who subsequently desired these lands for permanent settlement preferred to purchase the " tomahawk right '' rather than enter into quarrels with those who made them.

Hunting occupied a large portion of the time of the pioneers. Nearly all were good hunters, and not a few lived almost entirely for many years on the results of the chase. -The woods supplied them with the greater amount of their subsistence, and often the whole of it ; it was no uncommon thing for families to live several months without a mouthful of bread of any kind. It frequently happened that the family went without breakfast until it could be obtained from the woods.

The fall and early part of winter was the season for hunting deer, and the whole of the winter, including part of the spring, for bears and furbearing animals. It was a customary saying that

As soon as the leaves were pretty well down, and the weather became rainy, accompanied with light snow, the pioneer hunter, who had probably worked pretty faithfully on his clearing during the summer, began to feel uneasy about his cabin home ; he longed to be off hunting in the great woods. His cabin was too warm ; his feather-led t too soft ; his mind was wholly occupied with the camp and the chase. Hunting was not a mere ramble in pursuit of game, in which there was nothing of skill and calculation ; on the contrary, the hunter, before setting out in the morning, was informed by the state of the weather in what situation he might reasonably expect to find his game; whether on the bottoms, on the hillsides or hilltops. In stormy weather the deer always seek the most sheltered places, and the leeward sides of the hills ; in rainy weather, when there was not much wind, they kept in the open woods, on high ground. In the early morning, if pleasant, they were abroad, feeding in edges of the prairie or swamp ; at noon they were hiding in the thickets. In every situation, it was requisite for the hunter to ascertain the course of the wind, so as to get to leeward of the game ; this he often ascertained by placing his finger in his mouth, holding it there until it became warm, then holding it above his head, and the side that first cooled indicated the direction of the wind.

These hunters needed no compass ; the trees, the sun and stars took its place. The bark of an aged tree is much thicker and rougher on the north side than on the south; and the same may be said of the moss; it is much thicker and stronger on the north than the south "side of the tree ; hence he could walk freely and carelessly through the woods and always strike the exact point intended, while any but a woodsman would become bewildered and lost.

The whole business of the hunter consisted of a succession of intrigues. From morning till night he was on the alert to gain the wind of his game and make his approach without being discovered. If he succeeded in killing a deer, he skinned it, hung it up out of reach of wolves, and immediately resumed the chase until evening, when he bent his course toward the camp, where

Jie cooked and ate his supper with a keen relish with his fellow-hunters, after which came the and the rehearsal of the adventures of the day. The spike buck, the two and three pronged buck, the doe and barren doe, figured through their anecdotes with great advantage.

A wedding among the pioneers was a most -wonderful event, not only to the parties immediately interested, but to the whole neighborhood. Teople generally married young in those days. There was no distinction of rank and very little of fortune. A family establishment cost little labor and nothing else. A wedding was about the only gathering at which the guest was not required to assist in reaping, log-rolling, building cabin or some other manual labor.

On the morning of the wedding day the groom and his attendants assembled at the house of his father, for the purpose of reaching the house of Tiis bride by noon, the usual time for celebrating the nuptuals,and which, for certain reasons, must take place before dinner. The people assembled from great distances, on foot and on horseback, and all dressed in the somewhat fantastic toggery of the backwoods. The dinner was generally a substantial one of beef, pork, fowl, venison and hear meat, roasted and boiled, with plenty of potatoes, cabbage and other vegetables.

After dinner the dancing commenced and generally lasted until the next morning. The figures the dances were three or four-handed reels, or square sets and jigs. The commencement was always a square four, followed by what was called '" jigging it off; " that is, two of the four would begin a jig, followed by the other couple. The jig was often accompanied by what was called out;" that is, when either of the parties became tired of thedance, on intimation the place was supplied by some one of the company without any interruption to the dance ; in this way the dance was often continued until the musician was heartily tired of the situation. Toward the latter part of the night, if any of the company, through weariness, attempted to conceal themselves for the purpose of sleeping, they were brought out, paraded on the floor, and the fiddler ordered to play, " We'll all hang out till morning."

which a deputation of young men, in like manner, stole off the groom and placed him snugly beside his bride. If the couple were not subsequently disturbed during the night it was a miracle. Generally, in the small hours of the night, " Black Betty" (the bottle) was sent up to them, or carried up by an interested delegation, together with as much bread, beef, pork, cabbage, etc., as would suffice a dozen hungry men, and they were compelled to eat and drink until they would hold no more.

In later years, if there was an older unmarried brother of the bride present, he was certain to be compelled " to dance in the hog-trough." This somewhat humiliating operation was inflicted upon him as a lesson to bachelors. Sometimes he would submit quietly, cheerfully, and gracefully, marching to the pig-pen and dancing his jig in the trough from which the swine devoured the off-fallings of the cabin table ; at other times he would escape from his assailants and seek safety in flight, and if fleet on foot, sometimes escaped ; but if overtaken, he would not unf requently fight with great desperation, and it often required considerable force to accomplish the desired object.

After the wedding the next duty of the neighbors was to erect a cabin for the young conple, and dedicate it by a " house warming " before they were allowed to , move into it. This house warming consisted of a twenty-four hours' dance and carousal in the new cabin. This ended the ceremony, except that not half of it has been told, and thereafter the couple were considered married, according to the laws and usages of society.

At a little later time, say from 1820 to 1840, the the pioneers were living a little easier. Their farms were partially cleared, many of them were living in hewed log houses and many in frame, and even brick houses. Most of them had barns and innumerable out-houses. They generally had cattle, horses, sheep, hogs and poultry, and were living in comparative comfort. Their neighbors were near, and always dear. Their schools and churches had improved some- what, yet even at this late day there were hundreds of log school-houses and churches. About three months in a year was all the schooling a farmer's boy could get. He was sadly needed at home from the age of five years, to do all sorts of chores and work on the farm. He was wanted to drive the cows to water and to pasture ; to feed the pigs and chickens and gather the eggs. His duties in the summer were multifarious ; the men were at work in the field harvesting, and generally worked from early morning until late at night, and the boys were depended on to " do the chores ; " hence it was impossible to spare them to attend school in summer. There was no school in spring and fall. In winter they were given three months' schooling - a very poor article of schooling, too, generally. Their books were generally anything they hapened to have about the house, and even as late as 1850, there was no system in the purchase of school books. Mr. Smucker, of Newark, Ohio, says his first reading books at school were Patrick Gass' Journal of the Lewis and plark expedition to the mouth of the Columbia river in 1804- 5-6 ) and Weem's Life of Washington. Parents purchased for their children whatever book pleased their fancy, or whatever the children desired them to purchase. A geography was a geography, and a grammar a grammar, regardless of who was the author. This great confusion in school books made trouble for the teacher, but that was of small moment. He was hired and paid to teach whatever branches, out of whatever books the parents thought were best. The branches generally taught in the early schools, however, were reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic, and, later, geography and grammar. Boys attending school but three months in a year made but little progress. They began at the beginning of their books every winter, and went as far as they could in three months; then forgot it all during the nine months out of school, commencing again the next winter just where they commenced the previous one. In this way they went over and over the same lessons every year under different teachers (for many of the teachers only taught one term in a place), often getting no further in arithmetic than " vulgar fractions " or the " rule of three," and in their old Webster's spelling books the first class probably got as far as " antiscorbutic" and maybe through; while the second class would get as far as " cessation," and the> the third class probably not through "baker," certainly not beyond "amity." There were always three or four classes in spelling, and this exercise was the last before school was dismissed in the evening. Their old books were conned overyear after year, until they were worn out and the children grew up to manhood and womanhood,, and never knew, and perhaps do not know to this day, what was in the back part of them. This was the kind of a start many a great man had.. These scdools can not be despi.«ed when it is remembered that the greatest and best of the nation, . including such men as Abraham Lincoln, Edwin M. Stanton and Stephen A. Douglass, were among the boys who attended them.

There was always much competition in the spelling classes as to who should get the "head mark." In the later schools it was the custom that the best speller might stand at the head until. he missed, when the one who spelled the word correctly should take his place, and he then stood next to the head ; but they did things differently in the earlier schools ; the head of the class once gained and held until the last spelling at night,, the head mark was received and the lucky scholar then took his place at the foot of the class, toagain work his way gradually to the head. These- .classes sometimes contained thirty or forty scholars, and it was somethingjof an undertaking to get from the foot to the head. Spelling-Schools were the beauty and glory of school-days. The scholars were always coaxing the teacher to appoint a night for a spelling-school, and were usually gratified one or two nights in a month or oftener. A night was chosen when the moon shone, and the sleighing was good, and then the entire neighborhood and perhaps the adjoining neighborhood would turn out to the spellingschool ; whole families came on the great twohorse sled, including the old lady and gentleman, all the children, little and big ; even the baby and the dogs Qame. Schools in adjoining districts sent their best spellers to try and carry off the honors.. The old log school house was crowded, and the great box stove, cast at the Mary Ann furnace,, in Mary Ann township, Licking county, and.

which stood in the center of the room on a box of bricks, was red hot, and kept so during the entire evening. Two good spellers were designated by the teacher to choose sides, and everybody was chosen in one class or the other ; then the spelling began, the words being given out by the teacher,' first to one class and then to the other, beginning at the head. A tally sheet was carefully kept to see who missed the most words. After recess the "spelling down" was indulged in ; the two classes stood up, and whenever a word was missed the speller sat down, and the one who .stood up after all had been spelled down, was the hero or heroine of the hour, and always chosen first in future contests.

A year means a hundred-fold more now than formerly. History is made rapidly in these days. The red men's trail across the valley, and over the hills, and along the river's bank, could be traced by the fewest number in this day ; their favorite haunts and play grounds are shorn of their primal charms in the sweeping aside of the grand old woodland. The cattle upon a thousand hills roam over the land that they loved, and quench their thirst in the brooks and pools, that long time ago mirrored their dusky features. The plowman with stolid face upturns in the brown furrow the relic that their fingers deftly fashioned, and the mattock and scraper bring forth to the glare of day and the gaze of the curious, the crumbling brown bones of the chieftain and his squaw; and the contents of the Indian's grave, the moldering clay, will live anew in a pavement to be trodden under the foot of men.

Ah, these old Indian graves on breezy knolls and reedy river banks - who knows but the site was selected by the sleepers therein ; who knows but they dreamed in their moody moments that the tide of civilization was slowly coming nearer and nearer, to crowd aside their people and intrude upon, and finally possess their vast' and beautiful hunting grounds ?

see them stand leaning on their staves, dim-eyed, and with white locks tossed in the winds, dazed at the change that has stamped its seal upon the wilderness whose winding paths they once knew so well. They beheld it slowly laying off its primeval wildness and beauty, and grandeur of woods and waters, until now it blooms like unto the garden of the gods. How beautiful the labors of their hands ! How much we owe them ! But the olden time is passing away and bearing on its bosom the dear old men and women whose " like we ne'er shall see again." The glory of one age is not dimmed in the golden glory of the age succeeding it; and none more than the pioneers of Coshoction county can comprehend its growth and its change, or more fully appreciate the sad words of the poet when he sang in mournful strain -

Chaptee Xxviii The Canals

A Great Work - Celebration of the Opening of the Ohio Canal at Licking Summit - Work on the Canal - First Boat - Walbonding Canal - Length, Capacity and Business of the Canals.

A LARGE majority of the people of Ohio know bul littie at present about the great Ohio canal, and the interest taken in it at the commencement of the work. It was considered one of the greatest undertakings of the age, and, indeed, was the beginning of that grand series of internal improvements which has greatly assisted in placing Ohio amolfg the foremost States of the Union. The following history of this great work is taken mostly from the writings of Col, John Noble, one of the contractors in the work, and from those of William Wing, Esq., deceased. Mr. Wing was also a contractor on the canal, and -died in Columbus, Ohio, February 13, 1878, in in his seventy-ninth year. He was well versed in the pioneer history of Central Ohio, and has left behind him writings of much historical value. Before the building of the canal this county had no outlet for produce, except by wagons to the lake, or by boat down the Muskingum river, and thence to New Orleans. The country was full of produce for which there was no market. Ham was worth three cents per pound; eggs, four cents per dozen ; flour, one dollar per hundred ; whisky, twelve and a half cents per gallon, and other things proportionately cheap.

The commissioners appointed by the legislature to carry on the work appointed Judge D. S. Bates, an experienced engineer of the State of New York, and in their wisdom, made "Licking Summit," in Licking county, the place of beginning. They then gave notice to all concerned throughout Ohio and the adjoining States, that a commencement of the excavation would be made on the fourth of July, 1825.

Samuel Forrer, of Dayton, was appointed principal acting engineer ; John Forrer, local engineer on the Summit, and the latter immediately prepared a few rods of ground, where the line of the canal would pass through a field, for the public demonstration.

The invited guests included many of the notables of the State and nation, among whom were Governor De Witt Clinton, of New York ; Messrs. Eathburn and Lord; General Edward King, of Chillicothe; General Sanderson,- of Lancaster; Governor Morrow, of this State; Ex-Governor Worthington ; Hon. Thomas Ewing, who was the orator of the day, and many others. Governor Clinton was expected to throw out the first spadeful of earth; This gentlemar^had proven himself the great friend of internal improvements, having been the principal promoter in the building of the Erie canal in his own State.

A correspondence between the leading friends of the enterprise resulted in the appointment of a committee to carry out the wishes of the commissioners. This committee consisted of Judge Wilson and Alexander Holmes, of Licking, and Judge Elanthan Schofield, one of the earliest surveyors in this section, and John Noble, of Fairfield county. This committee, at their first meeting, engaged Gottleib Steinman,a hotel keeper of. Lancaster, to furnish a dinner, upon the ground, for the invited guests ; and as many more as would pay for a dinner ticket, at one dollar and fifty cents a ticket. This proved to be a losing business for Steinman. It happened to be wet two or three days before the fourth, and as there were no houses near the site of the entertainment, rough Booths were constructed in the woods; tables and seats were made of plank, hauled from saw-mills at a considerable distance from the place. All the fancy part of the dinner, including pastry, etc., was prepared at Lancaster, eighteen miles south. The entire preparation was made under ±he most unfavorable circumstances. The roasts and broils were prepared on the ground. The fourth opened fine and clear; the dinner was good, and enjoyed by all that partook; but of the thousands who attended, many prepared for the emergency by bringing a hamper of provisions with them.

The ceremonies began according to programme. Governor Clinton received the spade, thrust it into the soil, and raised the first spadeful of earth, amid the most enthusiastic cheers of the assembled thousands.

This earth was placed in what they called a. canal wheelbarrow, and the spade was passed to Governor Morrow, a statesman and a farmer. He sank it to its full depth, and raised the second spadeful. Then commenced a strife as to who should raise the next. Captain Ned King, commanding the infantry company present from Chillicothe, raised the third ; then some of the guests of Governor Clinton's company threw in some dirt, and the wheelbarrow being full. Captain King wheeled it to the bank. It is impossible to describe the scene of excitement and confusion that accompanied this ceremony. The people shouted themselves hoarse. The feeling, was so great that tears fell from many eyes.

The stand for the speaking was in the woods.. The crowd was so great that one company of cavalry was formed in a hollow square around the back and sides of the stand. The flies, afterthree days' rain, were so troublesome that the horses kept up a constant stamping, much to the annoyance of the crowd. Caleb Atwater, the noted geologist, was present, and made the following remark afterward at Lancaster: "I suppose it was all right to have the horses in front o£ the speaker's stand, for they can not read, and we can."

others, were invited to Lancaster, where they were handsomely entertained by the citizens. Eathburn and Lord were the men who negotiated the loan of four hundred thousand doUal-s for Ohio ; and the Lancaster bank was the first tt> make terms- with the fund commissioners to receive and disburse the money.

The wages for work on the canal were eight dollars for twenty-six working days, or thirty and three-fourth cents per day, from sunrise to sunset. The hands were fed well, lodged in shanties, and received their regular " jiggers " of whisky the first four months.

Micajah T. Williams and Alfred Kelley were the acting commissioners, and proved themselves faithful public servants. They were often passing up and down the line, and saw the evil effects of the "jigger" of whisky. They left notice at each contract station that they would not pay estimates monthly if the contractors furnished whisky on the work - an order that caused much grumbling among a certain class of the men, but it was promptly obeyed by the contractors. A jigger was small, not a jill in measure, but fifty or sixty men taking four of these per day^at sunrise, at ten o'clock, at noon, at four o'clock, and before supper - would exhaust a barrel of whisky in four or five days. Men from Fairfield, Hocking, Gallia and Meigs counties, and all the country around, came to work on the canal. Farmers and their sons wanted to earn this 'amount of wages, as it was cash - a very scarce article - and they must have it'to pay taxes and other cash expenses, f

Before the canal was finished south of the Summit, the north end from Dresden to Cleveland was in operation ; and wheat sold on the canal at seventy-five cents per bushel. Corn rose in proportion, and the enemies of the canal, all of whom were large landholders, or large taxpayers, began to open their eyes. One of these, a Mr. Shoemaker, of Pickaway county, below Farlton, was a rich land owner, and had opposed the building of the canal, as it would increase his tax and then be a failure. This gentleman, for such he was, said that his boys, with one yoke of oxen and a farm cart, hauled potatoes to Circleville and sold them for forty cents per bushel until they had more money than sufficed to pay all his taxes for a year. This was an article for which, before this, there was no market, and he was now a convert to improvement. Wheat raised from twenty-five cents to one dollar per bushel before the canal was finished.

The contracts for building the canal were made soon after breaking the ground at Licking Summit. The first embraced all the section from the point of breaking ground, south, including the embankment of the Licking Summit reservoii- to the deep cut, so called, and there was one section at the south end of the cut let about this time to Colonel Noble. At these lettings, statements were posted up for the information of bidders, of the quantity and different kinds of work in each section, and also their estimates of the value of doing the same. Bidders from New York were present, and obtained some of the heaviest jobs - as the reservoir job, and some others. The price of excavation and embankment was from nine to thirteen cents per cubic yard; grubbing and clearing, per chain, two to ten dollars, according to circumstances. But little masonry was let in this division; and the work here was let about ten per cent below the engineer's estimates. Colonel Noble probably took his contract on the engineer's estimates, as it was deemed necessary that that section should be finished, in order to afford drainage when the deep cut should be put under contract. It is said that the colonel was at considerable 'expense in procuring machinery to pull down the large- elm trees, of which there were many on the section, and that the attempt to get them out that way was not a success. His contract, therefore, did not prove a profitable one.

The next letting at Newark included the deep cut, so called, and the South Fork feeder. The length of this cut was about three miles. At the deepest place it was about thirty-four feet, descending gradually in either direction to about eight feet at either end, so that it would average about twenty-four feet the whole length. It was divided into two sections, and the whole was let at fifteen cents per cubic yard ; the north half to Scoville, Hathaway & Co , of New York, and the south half to Osborn, Rathburn & Co., of Columbus The first named party sub-let their job to Hampson & Parkinson, of Muskingum county, who carried it on for a time and abandoned it at very considerable loss, it is said. The other party, under the firm name of Osborn, Williams & Co., prosecuted their work to final completion, and undertook the unfinished part of the north section ; but they obtained, at different times, of the commissioners, an advance on the price originally agreed upon, so that at the close they were paid about thirty cents a yard for the work. Probably the average was twenty-five cents per yard cost to the State.

It is somewhat singular, that on the highest part of the cut there was a swamp of a few acres, where the water stood in the spring of the year, and as it was raised by heavy rains, the waters flowed from the swamp north to the waters of the Licking, and south to the tributaries of the Scioto.

The next work was also let at Newark. It commenced at the north end of Licking Summit, thence northward to Nashport, including all the heavy work, and the dam at the lower end of tlie Licking Narrows. The letting embraced some twelve to fifteen locks, two aqueducts and culverts, with the usual excavation and embankment. The masonry of the locks was bid in at from two dollars to two dollars and fifty cents per perch of sixteen and one-half cubic feet, which included a lock finished, except the excavation of the pit and embankment around the lock. The other niasonry was let at proportionate rates, and the other work went very low. There was great competition.

The next letting was at Irville, in Muskingum county ; commencing at the north end of the above described work, extending north to Eoscoe, upon which there was considerable heavy work let at about the same rates as above, competition being no less.

The next work was let at Lancaster, commencing at the south end of Colonel Noble's job, thence southward to Circleville. This included some heavy work, also. There were some twenty or twenty-five locks, a few culverts and aqueducts, a dam at Bloomfield, and about the usual amount of earth work. All were let at low prices; the first six locks south of Licking Summit at three dollars and fifteen cents per perch ; the face stone was hauled from the neighborhood of Lancaster, an average distance of eight miles. Lower down.

about Carrol, Lockport and Wtnchester, the locks were about two dollars and fifty cents a perch. The light locks, just above the junction of the main canal with the Columbus feeder, were let at thfee dollars and twenty-five cents a perch.

At these prices it required the closest economy to do the work without loss. Some of the jobs awarded were abandoned and afterwards re-let at better prices. The price of labor was very low. Wages did not rise above ten dollars per month, for four or five years. There was no " eight hour system ; " the men worked all day. Very few Irish or other foreigners had arrived at that time, and the work was mostly done by native Americans.

It was a great undertaking for the State to build the canal , and although its working lias never paid the interest on its cost, yet, it has, without doubt, paid for itself many times over by the increased wealth it brought to the State, and the great increase in values of every marketable thing, covering a large extent of country.

That part of the canal lying in Coshocton county was built in 1827-30. Among the chief contractors were the following citizens of the county, viz : Thomas Johnson, William Renfrew, Matthew Stewart, Solomon Vail, A. Ferguson, Ephraim Thayer and A. G. Wood.

A sad incident in the construction of the canal was the death of Judge Brown, a citizen of Coshocton, who had a contract, and was killed while superintending his work by a falling rock. An amusing incident was the exploit of one of the M - e girls, who was employed as cook for a gang of hands. Picking up the rifle of one of the boys who was preparing for a Sunday hunt, she declared she would shoot a man on the other side of the river, who was only an old bachelor, and, therefore, as she alleged, of very little use, and so saying she fired, and actually hit the crown of the man's hat.

The first boat - the " Monticello " - arrived from Cleveland August 21, 1830. She remained several days at the point of the hill above the aqueduct, attracting wonder-stricken visitors in multitudes from this and even adjoining counties.

The Walhonding canal was commenced in 1836, and finished in 1842. In the engineering corps were William H. Price, Charles J. Ward, John Waddle, Jacob Blickensderfer, Henry Fields and

Sylvester Medbery. Several of the gentlemen named above as contractors on the Ohio Canal were also connected with this. In addition to these* were John Frew^ S. Moffit, Isaac Means, John Crowley, W. K. Johnson and others. This canal lies wholly within the county, extending from Eoscoe to Eochester, twenty-five miles. It cost JG07,268.99, or an average of $24,290.76 per mile.

The first superintendent of the~Ohio'|canal, residing at Eoscoe, was S. E. Hosmer, now of Zanesville. Alonzo Eansom, James Hay, John Mirise, James Carnes and William E. Mead also held this office. The first collector was Jacob Welsh, from Boston, Massachusetts, who (and also John M. Sweeny) had been in the engineering corps under Leander Eansom. At his death, E. Bennett was appointed. The following persons have held that position, viz : John D. Patton (now of Washington City), Houston Hay (of Coshocton), Chauncey Bassett (now in Illinois), William M. Green (ex-postmaster of Dayton), C .H. Johnson (of Coshocton), James Gamble (deceased, of Walhonding), and Foght Burt (now in Illinois). '

The first canal-boat launched in the county was called the "Eenfrew,'' in honor of James Eenfrew, a merchant of Coshocton. It was built by Thomas Butler Lewis, an old Ohio keel-boatman.

It was intended to have the Walhonding canal extended to the northwestern part of the State, but there was already (1842) much talk of a speedier mode of conveyance. The work had been very expansive, and the members of the legislature from districts where canals were not regarded as practicable, were indisposed to continue the appropriations. - '

The " Grand Canal," as it was first called, passes entirely across the State, connecting the waters of Lake Erie with those of the Ohio river. It is three hundred and six miles long, exclusive of the lateral canal to Columbus, eleven miles, and the Dresden side cut, together with slack-water navigation to Zanesville, seventeen miles more, making in all three hundred and thirty-four miles, including its various windings. It commences at Cleveland and passes up the Cuyahoga river to the Old Portage, between it and the Tuscarawas river ; by the city of Akron, and over to the Tuscarawas, down whose valley it follows to Massillon, Dover, New Philadelphia, Newcomerstown, Caldersburgh, Coshocton and Dresden, where it leaves the Tuscarawas, or rather the Muskingum, as the river is called below Coshocton, and takes a southwesterly direction, passing Nashport, and striking the Licking river just beyond the eastern line of Licking county, passing up that river to Newark; thence up the south fork to Hebron, Deep Cut, Baltimore, apd Carrol, reaching the Scioto river just within the limits of Pickaway county, eleven miles south of Columbus. From this point it follows the Scioto valley to the Ohio river, passing the towns of Bloomfield, Circleville,Westf all, Chillicothe and Piketon to Portsmouth. It is owned and controlled by the State, and is under the immediate supervision of the board of public works, who appoint all its officers, and have entire charge of all its affairs. It is divided into three divisions, each of which is in charge of a chief engineer, who looks after repairs and other matters, and makes a yearly report to the board. Collectors are stationed at various places along the canal, whose business is to collect tolls and water rent. A specified amount of toll is paid by those who run the boats, both upon the boat and cargo, the rate depending upon the value or qualityof the cargo. It varies from two or three mills to two or three cents per mile. The boats are owned by private individuals, who have the use of the canal by paying the tolls. Before the days of railroads, these boats did a through business, and some of them were " passenger packets," which were lightly and neatly built, and arranged for carrying passengers, and made much quicker time than the freight boats. Since the advent of railroads, however, this class of boats has, of course, disappeared, and those carrying freight now. do only a local business, the railroads doing all through business. The boats will carry from fifty to eighty tons, and draw from two to three feet of water. Their principal business now is to transport coal, wheat, building stone, and any freight that does not require quick transportation. In 1861 the canal was leased to a cpmpany for ten years, and at the end of that time the lease was renewed for ten years, but the company abandoned the lease in 1878, the State taking possession again in May, 1879. For several years prior to leasing it, the canal had been a heavy yearly expense to the State, the receipts falling much below the expenditures ; since taking possession again in 1879, however, t]ie receipts have largely exceeded the expenditures, and the State, probably for the first time in the history of this enterprise, is now making money out of it.

In 1875, a little steamboat was built at Jacobsport by Mr. Parker, proprietor of the i^ill, and was running as a pleasure and burden boat for short distances on Wills creek.

The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis railroad is the only railroad now in complete running order through the county. It is familiarly known as the " Pan Handle route " - so called