Knox County, Ohio - Chapter 22: Pioneer Times, 1881

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 - WHISKEY SUPERSTITIONS - DRESS OF THE MrEN - THE FLAX WHEEL AND LOOM - MoreE Asour CLOTHING - ''KICKING FROLIcs" - DRESS OF THE WOMEN - WHITE KID SLIPPERS - DYEING - FouURTH OF JULY AND MILITIA MusTERS- - CABINS AND THEIR CONSTRUCTION - FURNITURE OF THE CABINS - HOoOsIER POEM - EARLY LanD LAaws - Toma- HAWK RIGHTS - HUNTING - EARLY WEDDINGS - DANCING AND '' HOUSE WARMING," SCHOOLING, SCHOOL TEACHERS, ETC. - SPELLING SCHOOLS - CONCLUSION.

So the sun climbs up, and on, and over, And the days go out and the tide comes in, And the pale moon rubs on the purple cover Till worn as thin and as bright as tin ; "But the ways are dark and the days are dreary, And the dreams of youth are but dust in age, And the heart gets harden'd and the hands grow weary Holding them up for their heritage. - Joaquin Miller.

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 -

'We piled, with care, our nightly stack Of wood against the chimney-back - The oaken log, green, huge, and thick, And on its top the stout back-stick ;

The ragged brush; then hovering near We watch the first red blaze appear, Heard the sharp crackle, caught the gleam On whitewashed wall and sagging beam, Until the old rude-furnished room

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 Knox 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 came largely on foot over the Alleghany 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, while others 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 fifty-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 fora suitable locacation.

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 cab- ins, often 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 a night, and no complaints made for want of room; genuine 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 generally 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 rabbit, the squirrel, all started up and said, or seemed to say, "eat me." These had been prepared for the red men ofthe 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, squashes 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 the 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 stixred 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 satisfactory 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 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 affairs - - 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 skillet, 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 inches thick, was done through. This was a different thing from johnnycake; 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 think 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, about even with the chamber floor, answered fora 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 in stead 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 board-cake was made by mixing the cornmeal up with warm watter, 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.

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 tbey 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 corn bread 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, were considered a fair exchange, but little of these very expensive articles was used.

Next to water, the drink of the pioneers was whiskey - copper-still rye whiskey. 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 night. 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 whiskey 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 deliri- um-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 alongthestreams. Pioneers soon found a market at these stills for their corn, hence corn became the great crop, and whiskey the great article of commerce. It was the only thing that would bring money, and money they must have to pay taxes. Whiskey could be purchased for twelve or fifteen cents per gallon and paid for in corn, and the barrel of whiskey in the cellar, was as common as the barrel of cider was later. The whiskey that was not consumed at home was shipped on flatboats or pirogues* on the Muskingum, Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans and sold for Spanish gold. The first rebellion against the Government of the United States, commonly called the whiskey insurrection, had its growth out of the hardships of the Scotch-Irish of western. Pennsy]lvania, who in the mother country had learned to love whiskey and hate gaugers; and this population gave tone and character to the first settlers of eastern Ohio. There was this apology for the production of whiskey, 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 whiskey 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 the happenings of yesterday in Europe and America. While apologizing somewhat for those whiskey days, it may be well to say that whiskey 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 superstitions 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 said 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 horse-shoes over the cabin doors, and were careful to spit in the fire, and not 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 in the early morning, one of them 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 treetops, and undcr the dead leaves, and beside the chimney; and tracks, with a cloven foat 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 woollen 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 it died; and if it lived, it lived." find the places where money was buried, cure wens by words, blow the fire out of burns, mumble over felons and catarrhs, remove warts, and, with his mineral ball search out where stolen goods were hidden. The "mineral ball" to which the superstitious ascribed such marvellous 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 into 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 under 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 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 was large and sometimes fringed with a ravelled 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, 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.

weather. A pair of drawers, or breeches and leggins were the dress for the thighs, a pair of mocca- 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 little 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 moccasons. In cold weather the moccasons were stuffed with deer's hair or dry leaves.to keep the feet warm; but 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 detective covering for the feet more than to any other circumstance, the greater number. of the hunters and watriors 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 latier 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 tne belt before and behind, leaving the ends 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, wild cat or spotted fawn was worn. In summer, when it could be had, linen was made up into waring 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 flaxwheel, 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' of 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 ona 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 clearing land. It may seem odd at 'this day that a woman of small stature, besides doing her own housework, should make two hundred 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 man had purchased the cloth for his wedding coat, and, as a measure of economy, em- ployed one Nancy Clark to make it up. Nancy was an exper; on hunting-shirts, buckskin breeches and ''sich," but had never cut a coat, so my mother cut out the coat. Nancy made it up, but on the eve of the wedding, when tried on, instead of allowing his arms to hang gracefully by his side as became a bridegroom, it turned him into 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 boarding 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 woollen goods wore out, my father bought six sheep to com- 'mence with, and within the first week the wolves chased the old dog under the cabin floor, and killed two of them within 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 them 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 stockings off, and pants rolled up above the knee. Just think of making love in that shape! The cloth was placed-in the centre, wet with soap suds and then the kicking commenced by measured steps 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 out 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 cotillon 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 apparel, Such as the new country afforded, had to be provided. Besides, the little girls sprang up into womanhood with the rapidity of che native butterweed, 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-woolsey, and even every-day dresses for the women, but for Sundays, when everybody 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 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 beauty of a fawn's. Possibly those white kid slippers 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 slippers 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 every-day shoes or boots, or go barefoot to within 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 water-proof or repellant is now, only that it was harsh and not finished. Dye-stuffs 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 golden rod 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 close-fitting 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 homemade barred flannel, like lustrous satin. It smelt of the shop, however; the odor of dye-stuff 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 possibly there is a lady in today's society, who, with five pounds of colored hemp on the back of her head and thirty-five yards of silk velvet in her train, would be uncharitable enough to Jaugh at these pioneer mothers and daughters; if so, those whosé opinions are worth anything fully understand that there was more work and 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.

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 whiskey 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 meet- -ing; 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 of Yalecollege. When no minister was present to act as caplain, a good pious man was called to that post. If the meeting did not end with a grand ring fight, the people who

The houses, or huts, in which these pioneers lived have been often described; their form and proportions, 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, hay-houses, pigpens, smith-shops, hen-houses, loom-shops, schoolhouses, etc. Some of them are yet standing in this county, and occupied, to some extent, in some portions of the county as dwellings. A specimen of one of these appears in the upper right hand corner 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 horse-shoes, etc., all welded together to eke out the nail rods from which they were 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 ora stone 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 log-chain would "snake" them 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 skilful axemen would carry up the corners, and the remainder with skids and forks or hand-spikes would roll up the logs. As soon as the joists were laid on, the cross-cut saw was brought from the woods, and two men went to work cutting out the dooryand chimney place; and while the were secured. Often the 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 was of more importance during the summer season than 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 bed post was placed - only one being 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 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 4 snug cabin stood 1n the midst of the forest, with a clearing around it, made principally by cutting down the trees for the building. Every crack was chincked and daubed with ordinary clay mixed with water, and when completed, and a fire of hickory logs in the great fireplace, 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 or 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 as a general store-room for the household Boods, and often for the corn crop

The furniture of the backwoods matched the architecture well. There were a few quaint specimens of cabinet work dragged into the wilderness, 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 at 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 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 bookcases. A respectable old bed-stead, stillin 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 shoemaker's 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 and exchange it for four shoats, and in each sack thrust one shoat tail foremost and another head foremost, tie up the mouths of the sacks, 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 chancellor of the exchecquer to make it legal tender, nor the judgment of the chief justice to declare it constitutional. The law

The following poem, originally published in the Cincinnati Chronicle in 1833, 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:

With mush and milk, tin-cups and spoons, White heads, bare feet, and dirty faces, Seemed much inclined to keep their places. But madam anxious to display

And glances round the room would steal. One side was lined with divers garments, The other spread with skins of 'varments;' Dried pumpkins overhead were strung, Where venison hams in plenty hung;

Is from the famous Scottish poet, Who seemed to feel as well as know it, That '' buirdly chiels and clever hizzies Are bred in sic a way as this is."

The early land laws of western Pennsylvania and Virginia allowed to each settler four hundred acres of land, and no more, as a "settlement right;" and as the first settlers of this and the 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 themselves 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 their 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 Pennsylvania. 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 tivers 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 hundred-acre 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 dream." 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

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 hap-

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 fur-bearing animals. It was a customary saying that fur was good during every month, in the name of which the letter r occurred.

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-bed 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.

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 he cooked and ate his supper with a keen relish with his fellow hunters, after which came the pipe 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. people 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 a 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 his bride by noon, the usual time for celebrating the nuptials, 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, fowls, venison and bear 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 of the dances were three or four handed reels, or square setseand 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 "cutting out;" that is, when either of the parties became tired of the dance, 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 his 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."

About nine o'clock a deputation of young ladies stole off the bride, and put her to bed, after 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 for a dozen hungry men. and they were compelled to eat and drink until they could 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 unfrequently 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 couple, 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 inthe 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 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 somewhat, 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 happened 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 Clark expedition to the mouth of the Columbia river in 1804- 5-6; and Weem's Life of Washington. Parents of children bought 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 may be through; while the second class would get as far as "'cessation," and 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 over year 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. That was the kind of a start many a great man had. These schools cannot be despised when it is remembered that the greatest and best of the nation, including such men as Abraham Lincoln, Edwin M. Stanton, and Stephen A. Douglas, 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, to again work his way gradually to the head. These classes sometimes contained thirty or forty scholars, and it was something of 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 ina 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 spelling-school ; whole families came on the great two-horse sled, including the old lady and gentleman, all the children, little and big; even the baby and the dogs came. 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 centre 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 then to 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 plowmen with stolid face upturn 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.

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?

It is hard to be reconciled to this natural order of things; to see the pioneers passing away; to 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 its 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 Knox county can comprehend its growth and its change, or more fully appreciate the sad words of the poet when he sang in mournful strain -