Perry County, Ohio - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 2 of those read), 1883

Indians And First Whites

INvbIANS. - There is uo history or tradition of any permanent Jndian town in whatis now Perry county, though Indians often encamped temporarily, especially on Sunday and Monday creek. and near the Great Swamp. as named by the explorer, Christopher Gist, or Big and Little Luke. now the old part of the Licking Summit Reservoir. 'Phe Indians cume to these lakes to tish, and to hunt bears, which were quite numerous in that vicinity. Phere wits an Indian trail which crossed the Muskingum near where Zanesville now is, avd crossed what is NOW Perry and Fairtield counties, to Standing Rock," (Mount Pieasant) which was tollowed the most of the wav by "Zanes Trace' and is not far from the line of the preSent Zanesville and Maysville Turnpike. There was another 'Indian trail from near where Dresden now. is passing through Muskingum, Licking and Perry to the Great Swamp, (Reservoir.) For fifty years or more previous to the time Perry county was settled. the Shawnees, Delawares and Wyandots, were the principal occupants of the county, wong the Muskingum and Scioto rivers, and they all roamed over the great stretch of country that lvy between them. - Lt is probable that these tribes tacitly agreed 'to occupy the intermediate ground between the Muskingum and the Scioto as a common hunting ground, The Shawnees originally came from Ilorida. The Wyandots caine from the north. and, at one time inhabited the Peninsula of Michigan, at another Gine the north side of the St. Lawrence river. The Indians, chiefly the Wyandots, itis to be presumed, came into what is now Perry county, after its first settlement by the early pioneers: but they were peaceable, though some of them were unprincipled, and would steal horses, and children, too, if they had ap opportunity. But there is no account of any successful attempt at child stealing by them, in this part of the country, though the mother, brothers and sisters of a child stolen by, the Indians, liveda long time, three or four miles east. of Somerset. About 1799, @ boy child of the name of Armstrony was stolen by the Indians cast of the Ohio, and carried him from home and friends mto captivity. The child grew to manhood among the Indians. in the Maumee country, became an Indian in appearance and habits, married an Indian girl, and went to battle with the Indian braves. After Wayne's victory and the treaty of Greenville, and after the war of 1812, and the arts and ways of peace were once more cultivated, young Armstrong longed to know something of his parents, brothers and sisters, of whom he had some in the Maumee country, or some other source, Armstrong learned where his relatives lived, and resolved to pay them a visit. and accordingly did so. Ile was now married, had an Indian wife and children, but the meeting was affectionate and touching. Armstrong linge cau amony his kin-folks as if loth to Jeave, and was at length prosurated with fever of a dangerous character. Armstrong in his weakness and sometimes delirium, longed for his Indian wife. who was a sort of a Medicine woman, and pleaded that she be sent for, Robert Colborn, an old trie a of the family, who lived one mile east of Somersct, hearing those appeals, rcsolved to go for the Indian woman, the sick man's wife. Ile had a weartsome aide of over one hundred males : he safely reache dl his destination, rode into the Indian village, sought out he sick inan's wile. She immediate ly mounted a pony and accompanied the messenger ou his return tip. "Chey did not Iet the grass grow under their horses fect, and inan incredible short time they arrived at the house where the: sick man lay. The squaw wife 'spowwowed" over her husband awhile, then went a short distance froin the house, up and down a ravine, gathering roots and herbs. She returned to the house, went into the kitche n, and prepared a decoction of some nature, and administered it occastonally to her sick companion, Ina tew davs he was better. and in a short time became so much improved that he returned with his wife to their Indian home, and never again visited the homes of his pale faced kinsmen. ; Tre First Wirrres. - Itis not inthe power of historian's pen to tell who was the first civilized or white person, to set fool upon, or eee the soil of what is now Perry county ; fia as the great Indian trails from the Hast to the mh c St, passe rd dirce tly through hid territory of ater itis now composed, is in the highest degre ce probable that scores if not hundreds of ¢ ine s, young and old, (rom Western Vi irginia and Pennsylvani: t, passed through here the fatter part of the last century.

It is also aca that Christopher Gist, an acqi aintance and comMp% anion of Washington, who was once of the members of the lind conipany represented by him, passed by and camped all night near the Big Lake, (Reservoir, SO i pee ie his company had he: aril wonder ful stories of the richness of the country west of the Ohio, but jt wis then as jittle known to. civilization as the heart of Africa is to-day. Capt, Gist was a surveyor, as well as explorer. A man of considerable note and great daring. In the service of the Jand company, before mentioned; and accompanied by a few attendants, he set out from the forks of the Ohio, (Pittsburgh) and followed an Indian trail to. the forks of the Muskingum, (Coshocton) and thence by way of Wakatomika (Dresden) to the old Indian town on the Scioto and Miami. This trail led through Muskingum and Licking, to the 'Great Swamp," (Rese rvoir). The original lake was in Perry county, near where Thornport now is. Captain Gist's Journal, which was subsequently publishe 'd, shows that his party encamped upon its shore, and "the next day" he continues, '*we set out from the Great Swamp." Gist was joined at the Muskingum, by a white man anda half breed, who accompanied him through the remainder of his journey.

Indian trader by the name of David Duncan, passed along this same trail by way of the Big Lake in 1773, on a journey from the Indian towns on the Scioto to the Indian towns on the Muskingum. Rev. David Jones had been a missionary ainong the Indians on the Scioto, sent out there by the Philadelphia Baptist Association, His diary shows that he followed a trail from the Indian towns on the Scioto to Standing Stone, Lancaster, '' where was an Indian town consisting chiefly of Delawares, and which was situated on a creek called Hock Hockin. It appears muddy, is not wide, but soon admits of large canoes."? This Rey. Jones was chaplain in Wayne's army of 1795, and preached the first sermon January 13th, 1790, ever preached 10 the neighborhood of Cincinnati.

'The surveyors came along in the closing decade of the last century. They simply run the section lines, but their camp fires blazed in many places. 'They run the lines and sunk the corner stones ; the marks on some of the witness trees blazed by their axes could be seen not very long ago.

Soon after the surveyors, and in some cases cotemporaneous with them, came the explorers and also the first hunters. Many of them built their camp fires and erected temporary places of abode. Several of these men subsequently became permanent settlers. This part of the country recéived quite a number of emigrants who had first settled in the level country, a short distance farther west. 'Two cases of these are well known. Robert Colborn. who had emigrated from Somerset county, Pennsy] vania, to the neighborhood of Lancaster in 1800, became dissatisfied, loaded a few ellects on horseback, and started east along Zane's Trace. One mile east of where Somerset now is, he came upon agood spring, liked the appearance of the country, unloaded his goods and resolved to stay. Ile subsequently entered a half section and lived there about twenty years, when he removed to Indiana. One of his daughters, Mrs. Mary Cole, born near Somerset in 1803, now lives at Noblesville, Hamilton county, Indiana, and is in the eightieth year of her age. A brother, Jonathan Colborn, but born in Pennsylvania in 1799, lives in the same place. Robert McClellan, who also lived near Lancaster, started out with a companion or two to hunt and spy out the land. They came over by where Rushville now is and down where Bremen is, then up Rush Creek to where New Lexington now is. At this place they Jett Rush Creek and started up the Oxawoosie. About a mile south of the present site of New Lexington, they diverged from the stream and soon came upon a big spring. Robert McClellan sat his gun against a tree, stooped and took a drink of water, then rose and said: '*Ilere will [ live and here will I die." - He did subsequently enter the laud, became the second settler of Pike township, lived and died there, and one of his descendeuts resides up _ on the land until this day. James Comly also fled from the malaria of the Pickaway plains, and became the original proprietor of New Lexington. In ways similar to these the county received many of its earliest pioneers. he os

Tur Primitrve WILDERNESs. - For the benefit of those who would like a glimpse of the country as It appeared to the Indians and first whites, the following description 1s reproduced from the Centennial Ad- dress of James Taylor at New Lexington, Ohio, July 4th, 1876. The pen picture may be a trifle fanciful and colored, but it is near enough reality to be read and studied with interest :

'"One hundred years ago to-day, the sun in his course looked down upon no spot of earth more picturesque and lovely than the territory now known as Perry county. The entire area trom east to west, and from north to south, was covered with the primeval forest, *' planted by the Lord at creation's dawn :'' - a wild paradise, an untrained aud unpruned Eden, to which our first parents, condemned in just retribution for their disobedience, t to spend their day and centuries ot life amid the arid deserts and on the barren hills of Asia, would have been glad to have gained an entrance. Jere the Arcadians could have tended their flocks on greener pastures, in a happier climate, and in more impenetrable Shen es than in their native Jand; here could have been found the realization of the poet's conception of a '* boundless contiguity of shade ;"' and here, if man had remained in his fabled simplicity and purity, Utopia might have found '*a local habitation and a name."

'The valleys, slopes and hilltops bore unmistakable evidence that the tenth, and perhaps the fortieth, generation of trees was then standing, each of which had withstood the lightnings and storms of a thousand years. Upon the summit of the water-shed between the Muskingum and the Hocking, where now stand Somerset, Bristol, Oakfield and Porterville, there then stood white oaks, and perhaps other trees, which may have been in the green before the enunciation of the Sermon on the Mount, and before Paul preached on Mars Hill: which were goodly trees prior to the battle of Hastings ; and which were giants among their fellows before Columbus dreamed of or discov ee the western world, and before John Cabot set foot on the shores of North America.

_as our best fields of clover. At the approach of winter it dried up, retaining its foliage and nutritious properties, so that in summer it afforded pasture , and in winter hay and grain for the herds of buffalo, elk and deer, as well as food for swarms of wild turkeys, pheasants, quails and pigeons, which fed and fattened on the wild pea, and the fruit of the juneberry tree, the black and the red haw, the wild cherry, the dogberry and the gum, the beec hnut, the chestnut and the acorn; the birds sharing their fri uit with the bear and the beaver, the raccoon, thé opossum, the hedgehog and the Woddehack and vray squirrels, equal in number to the promise of the seed of Abraham. Nature prepared the food, and the herbeating and graniverous beasts and birds fattened themselves to fatten the panther, the catamount, the fox and the wolf, the eagle, the hawk and the owl; while the fewer: and skins of the latter were nme to do service in adding to the comfort and adorment of the cabins and persons of the wild men of the woods.

In summer and winter, at morning, noon and night, the forest was vocal with the chirpings, twitterings, calls, cries and songs of birds, of which there was almost an infinite variety , and in numbers beyond eal: culation or estimate - eagles, hawks, owls, ravens, crows, robins, bluejays, anteaters, tomtits, " woodpeckers, innueties , sparrows, snipes and swallows. From May to August the night air seemed to vibrate with

IMISTORY OF VERRY COUNTY, 17 the plaintive cry of the whippoorwill ; throughout the year, and all the night long, the Jaughing and talking owls (species now extinet in' this regiou) met in companies to chatter, laugh and scream, imitating: the human voice in conversation, in laughter and the Indian war-whoop ; orioles of many varieties, with plumage of orange. blue and @old, abounded everywhere ; and myriads of ying squirrels. inhabiting the cavities of trees. excited the wonder and admiration of Europeans and inhabitants of the trans-Alleghany States.

In spring the blossoms of the wild plum. the crabapple and the grape, perfumed the air, and in autumn brought forth their green, golden and amber fruit tor the use of the red man and for beasts and

The pioncers of Perry county were mostly yong married men and women; the former from. twe ney -live tg thirty-five years of age, and the latter from twenty to thirty. They usu: div had a number of little children, the oldest not often over ten years. The intention to emigrate was generally tor med soon after marriage - sometimes before thi it important event. economy and frugality, of course, were pracuiced in crder that a little property might be acquired ard a litthe money laid up. Sometimes the head of the family came out alone and entered the Jand, and returning removed the { imily and eflects afterward, of, away back in Pennsylvania. Virginia, Maryland, New York -« New Jersey - for the early settlers of this county were principally mets those States- -preparations were soon completed for the move to Ohio. The pioneers came in all sorts of ways; governed more cr less by their pecuniary circumstances and yveneral surroundings at the old home. The majority moved In covered w agons. drawn by two, three or four horses. Oxen were sometimes used in place of horses. Others s brought all they possessed on horseback, not being well enough off to own or hire a wagon. Yet others moved with one horse and cart. migrants were usually from three to six weeks on the way. The western Pennsylvanians made the journey in about three weeks. A cow or two was . driven along. A trusty rifle was always a part of the movables, and faithful dog was chained or tied to the hind part of the wagon. The women and children slept in the wagon, and the family meals were cooked and prepared at the roadside. In some cases where the wagon or wagons were very full of goods, the family pitched a tent and c: umped upon "the gronnd, he journey was a long, tedious one; but it was generally looked back to and remembered with pleasure. The crossing of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers frightened many of the women and children, and was in fact attended with difficulties and even perils. The breaking up of old homes, and the DRS of the lies of kindred and friendship, was a thing of sadness and a great trial to many ; to those who laughed, «as well as to those who pee For the merriest heart was only the mask of sadness. Ohio seemed a long way off, and the distance appeared much greater than now. Yet all hoped, after a few years, to be able to visit the old home and friends lett behind. Most of the men -vho lived long, did get to return; some of them several times. Anda few of the women - a very few, however, after passing middle life, rode back in carriages or stage coaches, and revisited the scenes of their girlhood. But the great majority of the young pioneer women, when the emigrant wagon started out, looked back with tearful eyes, for the last time, upon the old familiar scenes, and were, in fact, bidding them good- -bye forever.

When the emigrant wagon reached its destination, sometimes, though not often, acabin had been made ready for occupancy, and a few acres cleared; the head of the family having come out previously and done the work or employed some onecto do it. In most cases, however, the pioneers went into this unbroken forest, and the family lived in the wagon, or camped upon the ground, while a small cabin was prepared. If neighbors were handy, or within five or six miles, it did not take very long to accomplish this; for timber was plentiful and convenient, axes were heavy and sharp, and the men knew how and were willing to wield them. In some cases, indeed, when hands were plenty, a cabin was built from the stump in one day, and a family living in it next day. But it ordinarily took a longer time than this. The first cabins were small - fourteen to sixteen, or sixteen to eighteen feet, and built out of round poles or logs. The floor was made of puncheons, split out of larger logs, and one side hewed tolerably smooth with a broad-ax. The roof was made of clapboards rived out with a mallet and frow and held to their places on the roof with weight poles, straightened on one side to closely fit the roof, and separated the proper distance by heavy short sticks, of the required length. A door was also made out of smooth, light puncbeon boards, hewed on both sides, (astened by cross-pieces and nailed or pegged on. A picce of a log or two was cutout for a window, and greased white paper was pasted on to admit the light. It was sometimes a diflicult: thing to get flour to make the paste, and corn-meal or hominy would not answer. A large hole was left or cut in the lower part of the center of one end of the cabin for the fire-place. '

The chimney was built of sticks and mud on the outside, and carried to the highest part of the roof. The hearth, usually a very large one, was laid with large flat stones, when such could be had. In their absence, the best available stone was used. Phe upper floor was also laid with puncheon, and the room above was called a loft or garret. This was reached by a ladder, sometimes from within, and sometimes from the outside of the house. In other cases, where the ground at one end of the cabin was a litle high, the loft was reached from the outside by a long puncheon, one end of which was Jaid upon the ground, and the other against the bottom of the door or opening of the Toft. Again, the Jadder on the inside was sometimes dispensed with, and in lieu thereof, there was a row of long stout pegs driven into holes bored in the wall, reaching from the ground-floor lo the ceiling. It is astonishing how quickly and gracefully the girl of the period - the pioneer pertod, of course - would glide or fly up this row of pins to her sleeping chamber. The nimblest girl of to-day, might be equal to the performance, but she would be likely to hesitate before undertaking it. The furniture of the pioneer cabin Wwas of the scantiest and rudest kind. Bedsteads were sometimes made out of rough dog-wood poles, and bottomed with strips of stout elm bark for cords.

Benches and three-legged stools took the place of chairs. A cupboard, usually called a ''dresser,'' was constructed by boring holes in the logs, driving strong wooden pins into them and placing boards on the pins. A row of wide shelyes was made in much the same way ; furnishing a place to store bed-clothes. Other families had a chest or box for this purpose. Large round boxes, made from the bark of a smooth elm tree, were often made and used for the clean and safe keep-, ing of clothing and other cherished articles. Trammels and hooks soon came into use, but the 'lug pole' reaching across the chimney. at about the height of the chamber floor and the wooden hook attached to it, often served to suspend the pots over the fire. Iron was not plentiful, or easily obtained, in those days, and pots were scarce enough. With all the iron underlying the hills, many a pioneer woman has cooked a meal for company in one pot, - boiling water for home-made coffee or tea, baking bread, boiling potatoes and frying meat all in the same vessel. This required skill and fine management; but the feat was frequently accomplished. A family who owned an iron pot, a skillet and a dutch oven, were considered very fortunate, and well off for cooking utensils. One pot and one skillet was the more common outfit.

There was, of necessity, not much in the way of adornment in the homes of the pioneers. The battle for bread and life was too sharp and earnest for this. Yet, in many houses, small and inexpensive articles of mingled use and adornment were not uncommon. Pewter was the composition of the plates, and most of the other dishes in use of which there were not many. The drinking cups were mostly made of gourds. Splitwood brooms were the instruments with which the pioneer mothers swept, scrubbed and scoured the rough puncheon floors. The cradle, an indispensable article in almost every household, was rough and homely enough, but in it has been rocked some of the proudest, brightest and most honored men and women of the land.

Distance, or lapse of time, lends much enchantment to the view, no doubt; for the lot of the pioneers was a hard one, and it is much to their credit, that they encountered and overcame hardships and privations that were enough to appall the strongest arm and the bravest heart. Before a crop could be raised, a heavy growth of timber had to be cut off, logs and brush burned, rails split and fences made. In addition to this a luxuriant growth of underbrush and _ saplings, rendered it necessary to grub and literally dig up almost every rod of ground. Barns, stables, cribs and other out-buildings, were to build, and wood chopped to keep the cabins warm and comfortable for more than half the year. Buildings could not all be erected, and the land all cleared, at once. But little by little, day after day, year after year, the forest went down, buildings went up, fields were cleared and cultivated, orchards were planted, gardens laid out, and thus was the 'solitary wilderness changed from its primitive condition into a suitable abode for civilized man. There were hardships enough at best; but the pioneers were neighborly and ever ready to assist each other, when necessary. If a house, barn or stable was to be raised, neighbors would gladly turn out and help, even from a long distance, and the hard work was often enlivened by jokes, stories, and songs. Neighbor women would also turn out and help with the baking and cooking, and the choppers, house-raisers and log-rollers were treated to the best that could be procured.

a small, rough, cabin in the woods, upon the outskirts of civilization, and patiently endured all the hardships and privations of pioneer life. In addition to the cares of the children and household} many of them occasionally assisted their husbands in the fields. And, where they did not do this, with taking care of. the children, cooking, washing, knitting, weaving, spinning and sewing, they had enough to do. The women of to-day cannot comprehend how the nursing pioneer mothers, could do all this for a large family. They could only do it by hard and constant work. They visited, to be sure, but when they went visiting, they took solid, substantial work along, and always accomplished their self-appointed task. Flax and wool were to be spun and woven, and the goods to be cut into garments and made up, and that withont any sewing machine, except the deft fingers of the natural hands. Linen for Sunday and spare clothes was made of copperas and white, and checked or striped for pretty. When nicely handled it was soft and comfortable. Linsey-woolsey, or Linsey, was made of wool and cotton, and was a very durable goods, though not very handsome. Plain white linen on home-fulled cloth or jeans, comprised the clothing for the males ; and copperas-checked linen, linsey-woolsey and flannel, that of the females. 'The flannel goods for dresses was often colored and striped quite handsomely, and a_ suit made of it looked comfortable and becoming. The hunting shirt and wamus were the most common garbs of the pioneer. 'The hunting shirts were often neatly cut and ornamented with fringe, and were picturesque and pretty. Father Dominic Young, spoken of in another chapter, who rode over a wide stretch of country here at an early day, once said to the writer that 'almost every man he met carried a rifle and wore a hunting shirt."

Johnny-cake, hog and hominy, were necessarily the principal diet of the pioneers. Without corn and hogs the western country must have settled up very slowly. Mills were few and far away and early settlers had to goa good long distance, often on horseback. But there were mills at both Zanesville and Lancaster, and the pioneers of Perry were not so bad off for grinding facilities as those of many other counties in the State. A number of '¢ corn-crackers'' were early set up in the. county, but they did not amount to much, and could not always be depended upon. Corn could be produced but sparingly, at first, and as a natural result, pork was for a time a scarce article with many. In its absence the pioneer's trusty rifle had to be depended upon for meat, and *t seldom failed to bring in a supply of some sort. Bears were not uncommon, while deer and wild turkeys were plentiful. There were many squirrels, and fish could be canght in the creeks. Nearly every family had cows, and there was milk to drink, and some butter made. After the first few years, the pioneers in general had full and plenty, so far as substantial eatables were concerned. 'To be sure, tea, coffee, and other luxuries came in slowly. an Vin

Many of the pioneers were members of religious denominations. They were principally, Lutherans, Baptists, Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians, German Reformed and United Brethren. They had not 'been here long until there was public religious worship and regular, sta- ted service. The first public worship and preaching were at private houses, before the erection of buildings dedicated to the service of the sanctuary. Settlements were sparsely populated, and persons were accustomed to go a long distance to attend divine service, sometimes a-foot, but generally on horseback. The pioneer women found time to attend these ministrations, in the midst of all their other pressing duties. These occasions were often very happy ones to the neighbors and friends assembled, and the best of feeling appeared to prevail among those who were present.

The school buildings of the early days were not what they have been since, and are now. School houses were few, and school books were scarce, and good, competent teachers very rare, if not almost unknown. There were no regular text books. Every book was a school book. The '' Master"? boarded around among the parents of the pupils, but usually contrived to stay most at the places where there appeared to be the best living, and other accommodations. Reading, writing, arithmetic and geography, were taught, after a fashion. The girls studied spelling, reading, writing and geography. It was considered unladylike for a girl to handle a slate and pencil and to study arithmetic. It was barely tolerated in girls who aspired to be teachers ; but in no others. The greater part of these schools were curiosities, in their way ; but it must be admitted that many persons managed to make them the foundation for a good and useful education, and for a worthy and successful career in life. It was customary to '' bar out"? the Master for a '¢treat'' at Christmas ; and it was not an uncommon thing for him to throw off the weight-poles, come down through the roof and -call ''books."" In some cases where the roof was nailed on, he would lay a board over the top of the chimney, and smoke out his tormentors. At other times he would goodnaturedly treat to the apples and gingercakes, and then he would be considered ''the best fellow in the world."' Spelling-matches were quite frequent, and there were many good spellers among the early pupils. The pioneer men could nearly all read and write, and knew a littlé of arithmetic and geography. The women could mostly read write, and, also knew something of geography. They were all anxious that their children should receive a better education than their parents possessed, and the great majority of them did become better educated than their parents, though the early schools were crude and unsatisfactory enough. The school houses were very similar to the dwellings of the early settlers, except that in nearly -all, one end was devoted to a fireplace, and a long, narrow window was made on three sides, with the invariable white paper pasted over to admit the light.

Before the time that the sons and daughters of the pioneers began to marry, the parents had mostly become well-to-do and in good circumstances. 'The farms were tolerably well cleared out, orchards were grown, and most of the settlers had moved out of the first cabins into better houses. An old-time wedding was a festive and joyous occasion ; though there was seldom anything like indecorum or undue hilarity. A wedding, in those days, rarely occurred without & large assemblage of invited guests. Sometime previous to the day fixed for the nuptials, a svitable and authorized person would ride around the neighborhood, often for miles, giving the invitations to the desired guests, on behalf of the bride or the bride's parents. "The groom also had the privilege of inviting all his friends. It was commonly understood between the prospective bride and groom whom each was to invite, so that invitations might not be duplicated. But this precaution was not always taken, If the prospective bride and groom lived any considerable distance apart, which was usually the case, the invited friends of the groom came to his residence on horseback, at an appointed hour, and at another hour agreed upon, would proceed in procession to the house of the bride, where soon after the arrival of the groom, the marriage ceremony would take place. The wedding dinner would be in waiting, and soon after congratulations, the dining table would be filled, the bride and groom, and attendants, if any, having the place of honor at the table. The spread was always bountiful, and everything neat, clean and inviting, if not altogether stylish. Roast turkies, chickens, pies, cakes and custards were conspicuous at these great wedding dinners. Nice, solid, yellow butter, rolled and worked by the plastic hands of some one skilled in that art, were often fashioned and moulded in the form of chickens, ducks, or other fowls, and sometimes lambs, deer, rabbits or other animals, and placed at some little elevation on the table. Of course these were intended to be looked at and not chopped into or eaten. But now and then some bold and daring innovator, near the close of the wedding feast, would cut out a good-sized slice and try its virtue as a lubricator on bread or potatoes ; always, no doubt, to his entire satisfatction. The wedding over, there was an informal, '*go as you please'' sort of enjoyment for the remainder of the day. "Toward evening, most of the married guests would return to their homes, but the young people were enlisted during the campaign, and remained over night at the home of the bride's parents, or wherever the wedding took place. At uight, often, there would be dancing, playing, singing or social converse, attended with mirth and jollity.

The infair, which took place on the day atter the wedding, was celebrated at the home of the groom, and differed from the wedding day only by the absence of the marriage ceremony. About nine or ten. o'clock, of the day succeeding the wedding, the bride and groom, atattendants, and all the guests at the house, and probably a few others who had gone to their homes to remain over night, would prepare for a horseback ride to the residence of the groom, often miles away. ITorses would be bridled and saddled and temporarily hitched to fences or trees about the yard, until the ladies had donned their riding suits, and gracefully made, one by one, the last important pose before the looking-glass. The horseblock, at this juncture, plays an important part in the programme. It is simply a short ** cut, " about three feet in length, from an oak log three or four feet in diameter, sawed off square at both ends, and set up on one end in the yard near the house. The horses of the bride and her '' attendance" are brought up, then ladies step from a chair or stool on to the block, and ina twinkling are firmly seated in their saddles, and their horses probably prancing, for horses appear to have a sort of instinct for red letter days. Other horses are in turn brought up, and soon the ladies are all in their saddles. Very few of the young fellows bring their steeds to the block, but, putting the left foot in the stirrup, bound into the saddle. Just before starting, except the spangled uniforms, the scene is not unlike a grand entree ata circus, The horses are mostly excited, and prance, and jump, and wheel or turn around in the yard. There are usually a few old stagers that stand quietly enough, and seem to wonder at the unnecessary excitement of their fellows. At last all is ready, the couples fall in, and the showy cavalcade moves off at a brisk pace. Grass does not grow much under the feet of the horses as the gay procession speeds on, over hill and dale, now through the woods and now through the open country, until it reaches its destination. As has been stated, the infair was simply a repetition of the wedding festivities, with the exception of the marriage ceremony. There was no wedding tour in the old-time days. Soon after marriage, the newly wedded couple set up housekeeping on their own account.

It must not be inferred that weddings and intairs ,were the only social occasions of the early times. The country was not settled long until singings and singing schools became a very prominent feature. The old style *' buckwheat notes' were used, but in the opinion of the old-musicians and singers, at least, the music was generally better and more desirable than most of the music of to-day. The early sons and daughters mostly had good lungs and strong voices, and there was, no doubt, force and volume in their singing.

On the night of the Fourteenth day of February, there were singings in almost every neighborhood; and, after singing, there wonld be a '¢ Valentine drawing."' The names of the girls would be written on slips of paper and placed in a hat, from which the boys would draw. Then the young men's.names would be likewise placed, and the girls would have their turn at drawing. These drawings were frequently the source of amusement. There were necessarily raisings and logrollings in the first years of settlement, but there was,. ordinarily, more prose than poetry aboutthem. But later came the choppings, quiltings, wool-pickings, sewings, knittings, spinnings, and other industrial frolics, all of which helped to lighten and variegate the too monotonous days of the toiling, patient men and women. who opened the wilderness to civilization, and made it what it ought to be, a garden and paradise for the generations to follow. If the country is not the paradise anticipated, it surely is not the fault of the pioneer men and women, who emigrated far into the wild woods, encountered Indians, fought with wild beasts, lived in cabins on hard fare, felled the heavy trees, grubbed out the undergrowth, burned the debris, planted orchards and laid out gardens, and truly caused the wilderness to '*bud and blossom as the rose."' But they are nearly all gone. There are those yet living, who 'were children and came out with pioneer fathers and mothers. But the men and women themselves - persons who were grown when they came here - have ali passed to their final rest and eternal reward.

Whatever is to be the future history of this county, and however interesting it may be, the time will never come again - certainly not for long ages - when men and women will leave old settled communities, and come here into a virgin wilderness to found new homes. This interesting period of history has closed. Tradition will soon begin to grow dim, and, without the aid of printing, the names, deeds, and heroism of the pioneers would gradually fade from human view. But wherever this chapter of ** The Good Old Days" is preserved and read by the fireside, and in the homes of present and coming generations, the dauntless, toiling pioneer men and women will be cherished and remembered, and the example of their noble deeds and precious sacrifices will not be lost upon the earth.