Licking County, Ohio - Chapter 26: Pioneer Times, 1881

INTRODUCTORY - WHERE THE PIONEERS OF LICKING CAME FROM - THE ABUNDANCE OF FOOD IN THE FOREST - THE Truck PATCH - THE GRATER AND HoMINy BLOCK - THE MILLS - THE DIFFICULTIES OF MILLING - THE INDIAN PONE AND JOHNNY-CAKE - THE CULTIVATION OF DoMESTIC ANIMALS - BEARS VERSUS PIGS - TAMING WILD TurRKEYS - WHISKEY- - - SHIPPING TO NEW ORLEANS--CLOTHING - THE SPINNING WHEELS AND LOOM - FLAX AND WooL - NANCY CLARK'S COAT - WHIPPING THE CAT - WOLF VERSUS SHEEP - KICKING FROLICS - WOMAN'S DREsSs - How THE GIRLS PUT ON STYLE IN FLAX DRESSES - WHITE Kip SLIPPERS - A COMPARISON - THE LOG CABIN - NAILS -

'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, of those "good old days" have long since faded from sight if not from memory, and the pioneers, most of them, are gone too - 'How few, all weak and withered of their force, Wait on the verge of dark eternity."

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 -

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 Licking 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. When once settled and his cabin erected, it was not only a home and shelter tor himself and 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, 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 hospitality always finds room enough and fast 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. solve.

The first was the easiest to 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 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, 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 cliff or 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 johnny-cake, it made, for people with keen appetites and good stomachs, excellent food. Place before one of those brawny backwoodsmen a square foot of johnny-cake 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

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 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 johnny-cake ; 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 day's wonder to the children of a neighborhood, and the happy owner of one often did, for years, the milling fora whole neighborhood. About once a month this cumstances, 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 cultivation of domestic animals, both beasts and fowls, for the purposes 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 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 - corn or rye whiskey. Everybody drank it. It was supposed to be indispensable to health, and a protection against the morning fogs. It was supposed to be indispensable to strength and endurance during the labors of the day, and to 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 delirium-tremens, or leave the system prostrated, and the victim with a head-ache 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 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 flat-boats or pirogues* on the Muskingum, Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans and sold for Spanish gold. The 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 Pennsylvania, 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.

The hardy piooneers, after disposing of their cargo of whiskey in New Orleans, would set out 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 the 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 clothing the pioneers conformed to the circumstances in which they were placed. The almost universal costume for the men was the linseywoolsey hunting shirt, or wamus, blue, butternut, or red, according to the fancy of the wearer; buckskin pants and moccasins, and sometimes, in winter, a waist-coat of the skin of a panther, wild cat or spotted fawn. 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 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 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 the other 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 but-

"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, employed one Nancy Clark to make it up. Nancy was an expert 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 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 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 center and connected bya cord to prevent recoil. On these the six young men seated themselves with boots and stockings off, and pants rolled up above the knee.

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 toa 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 women deserves a passing jotice. 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 the native bkutterweed, 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 rustic beauty made her Sunday gown, and then with her vandyke of snow-white homespun linen, her snow-white home-knit stocking, 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 sunbonnet, 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 made up at considerable expense and trouble to wear on Sunday: 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.

It is just barely possible there is a lady in to-day'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 laugh at these pioneer mothers and daughters; if so, those whose 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. If the clothes of the pioneers were poor, they made up in brain and heart. The tables are turned - the vacuum of brain ard 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.

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, outside 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 inhabitant moved into better quarters. They served for stables, sheep pens, hay houses, pig pens, smith shops, hen houses, loom shops, school houses, ete. Some of them are yet standing in this county, and occupied, to some extent, in some portions of the county as dwellings.

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. 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 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 stone turned, began with dawn the erection of a cabin. 'Three or four wise builders would set the corner-stones, lay on 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 door and chim- ney 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 bed post is placed - only one being needed. A hole is bored in the puncheon floor for the purpose of setting this post (which is usually a stick with a crotch or fork in the upper end) in; 'or if any auger is not at hand, a hole is cut in the puncheon floor and the fork sharpened and driven into the ground beneath; rails are laid from this fork to the wall, and usually 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 water, and when completed, and a fire of hickory logs in the great fire-place, no amount ot 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 nice, straight hickory poles form the bottom, upon which straw or leaves are placed and the blanket puton, This makes a comfortable spring bed and is easily changed and kept clean. Often the chinking and ,daubing of the walls, putting in windows and hanging the door were left until tall or some leisure time after the corn crop and the contents of the truck patch were secured. Often the pioneer 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 this was added it was used as a sleeping room for the younger members of the family, and as a gen: eral store-room for the household goods, and often for the corn crop and the contents of the truck patch.

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, cabinet-maker to make it, and no lumber to make it of. Our floor was laid with broad chestnut puncheons, well and smoothely 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 chairs, some of which are intact to thisday. Huge band-boxes 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, 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, as who should say - 'that woman's daughter will make you a good wife, my boy.'

'*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.

"'T 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 constitu_ tional. The law of necessity governs in every case, and wise men may fret every hair off their heads without changing the results."

At 4 little later time, say from 1820 to 1840, the pioneers were living @ 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

About three months ina 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 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 was 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 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 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 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, 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 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. The result was that the participants usually became correct orthographers.

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, bar2 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;

''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 'buirdly chiels and clever hizzies Are bred in sic a way as this is.'"