Preble County, Ohio - Chapter 7: A Picture of the Pioneers, 1881

THERE is a corps of active, brave men, usually volunteers, in advance of nearly every great and thoroughly organized army. It is their self-imposed duty to go ahead, and with axe and pick prepare the way for the fighting rank and file that follows. They are called pioneers. Beside the implements of labor they bear arms, for their position is a dangerous one. They are obliged to keep a constant lookout for an ambush, and they march on in momentary fear of a sudden attack, for the enemy, familiar with the land they are invading, and which to them is a zerra incognito, full of terrible possibilities, is liable at any moment to sweep down upon them, or pour into their midst a volley of arrows or musket balls.

The Virginians, Pennsylvanians, North Carolinians and Kentuckians who pushed their way into the great wilderness of southwestern Ohio, were the pioneers of one of the grandest armies earth ever knew. An army whose hosts are still sweeping irresistibly onward, and which, now after more than four score years, has not fully occupied the country that it won. It was the army of peace and civilization, which came not to conquer an enemy in blood and carnage and ruin, but to subdue a wilderness, by patient toil; to make the wild woodland blossom as the rose, to sweep away the forest, till the virgin soil, make fertile fields, and hew out houses which were to become the abodes of peace and plenty. The pioneers were the valiant: vanguard of such an army as this.

The hardy, resolute pioneers who penetrated the vast unknown land northwest of the Ohio, who settled along the Miamis and west of them in Preble county and the surrounding region, found a land as fertile and as fair as heart could wish. The long, cool aisles of the forest led away into mazes of vernal green, where the swift deer bounded by unmolested and as yet unscared by the sound of the woodman's axe or sharp ring of the rifle. All about them were displayed the lavish bounties of nature. The air was fragrant with the thousand odors of the woods in early spring. Underneath the giant oaks and sugar trees, the low-branched beeches, the walnuts and the chestnuts and the sycamores, the ground was jeweled with strange and brilliant flowers, and the rich sweet grass, green to the water's edge, in the fertile valleys of the streams.

The pioneers could enjoy the pristine beauty of the scene, but they had before them the stern, hard realities of life. They could enjoy the vernal green of the wide extending forest, and the evidences of the fertility of the country they had come to inhabit; they could look forward and fondly anticipate the life they were to lead in the midst of all this beauty, and the rich reward that was to be theirs for the cultivation of the mellow soil, but they had first to work - there was no time for lotuseating ease in this valambrosia. The seed-time comes before the harvest in more senses than one.

Serious dangers, too, these pioneers were exposed to. 'The Indians could scarcely be trusted, or, at least, such was the feeling among the settlers. They were constantly apprehensive of trouble. 'The larger wild beasts were a source of much dread, and the smaller ones the source of great annoyance. Besides these was the liability to strange forms of sickness which always exists in a new country, and which was doubly feared as the settlers were beyond the reach of medical assistance. In the midst of all the loveliness of the surroundings there was a feeling of loneliness which could not be dispelled, and this was a far greater source of trial to the men and women who first dwelt in the western country than can be imagined. The deep-seated, constantly recurring sense of isolation, made many stout hearts turn back to the older settlements and the abodes of comfort, the companionship and sociability they had abandoned to take up a new life in the western woods.

The pioneers making their way to what is now Preble county, by the Ohio in boats and thence northward through the forest, or all of the distance overland in the great Canastoga wagons, arrived at the place of their battle of life. They had brave hearts, however, strong arms, and were possessed of an invincible determination. Frequently they came on without their families, to make a beginning, and, this being accomplished, would return to their old homes for their wives and children. The first thing done by the pioneer who brought his family with him was to provide a shelter, however poor and simple, from the rain. This having been done, ground was made ready for some crop, usually corn, as that was the surest. The trees were girdled, the underbrush cut away, if there chanced to be any, and the ground swept with fire. Ten, fifteen, twenty, or even thirty acres of land, might thus be prepared and planted the first season. In the autumn the crop would be gathered and garnered with the least possible waste, for it was the food supply of the pioneer and his family, and life depended upon its preservation.

While the crop grew, the pioneer busied himself with the building of his cabin, which must answer as a shelter from the storms of the coming winter, a protection from the ravages of wild beasts, and possibly as a place of refuge from the Indians.

If a pioneer was completely isolated from his fellow men, his position was indeed a hard one, for without assistance he could construct only a very poor habitation. In such case the cabin was usually made of light logs or poles and laid up roughly to answer the purpose of a temporary shelter, until other settlers had come into the vicinity, by whose help a more substantial structure could be built. Usually a number of families came into the country together, and located within such distance from each other that they were enabled to perform many friendly and neighborly offices. Assistance was 'always readily given our pioneers by all of the scattered residents of the forest within a radius of several miles. The plan commonly followed in the erection of a log cabin was that which allowed a union of labor. The site of the cabin home was selected, if possible, where there was a good water supply, by a never-failing spring, or if such could not be found it was not uncommon to first dig a well. When the cabin was to be built the few neighbors gathered at the site and first cut down within as close proximity as possible a number of trees as nearly of a size as could be found, but ranging from a foot to twenty inches in diameter. Logs were chopped from these and rolled to a common center. This work and that of preparing the foundation would consume the greater part of the day in most instances, and the entire labor would most commonly occupy two or three days, sometimes four. The logs were raised to their places with hand-spikes and skid poles, and men standing at the corners with axes notched them as fast as they were laid in position. When the structure became several logs high the work would be more difficult. The gables were formed by beveling the ends of the logs and making them shorter and shorter as each additional one was laid in place.. These logs in the gables were held in place by poles which extended across the cabin from end to end, and which served also as rafters upon which to lay the rived "clapboard" roof. The so-called "clapboards" were five or six feet in length, split from oak or ash logs, and made as smooth and flat as possible. They were laid side by side, and other pieces of split stuff laid over the cracks so as to effectually keep out the rain. Upon these logs were placed to hold them down, and the latter were kept in position by blocks of wood inserted between them.

The chimney was an important part of the structure, and taxed the builders, with their poor tools, to the utmost. In rare cases it was made of stone, but most commonly of logs and sticks laid up in a manner similar to those which formed the cabin. It was in nearly all cases built outside of the cabin, and at its base a huge opening was cut through the wall into it, to answer as a fireplace. The sticks in the chimney were held in place and protected from fire by mortar formed by kneading clay and straw together. Flat stones were secured for the back and jambs of the fireplace.

An opening was chopped or sawed in the logs on one side of the cabin for a doorway. Pieces of hewed timber three or four inches thick were fastened on each side, by means of wooden pins, to the ends of the logs, and the. doors (if there were any), were fastened to one of these by wooden hinges. The door itself, was a clumsy piece of woodwork. It was usually made of heavy boards rived from an oak log, and held together by heavy cross pieces. There was a wooden latch upon the inside, raised by a string which passed through a gimlet hole and hung upon the outside. From this mode of construction arose the old and well-known hospitable saying, "You will find the latch-string always out." It was only pulled in on rare occasions - at night when the occupants had an idea that prowlers might be in the vicinity. Very many of the cabins of the pioneers had no doors of the kind here described, and the entrance was only protected by a blanket, or skin of some wild beast suspended above it. The window was a small opening often devoid of anything resembling a sash, and very rarely having glass. Greased paper was sometimes used in lieu of the latter, but more commonly some old garment constituted a curtain, which was the only protection from sun, or rain, or snow. The floor of the cabin was made of puncheons - pieces of timber split from trees about eighteen inches in diameter, and hewed as smooth as possible with the broad-axe. They were half the length of the floor. Many of the cabins first erected in this part of the country had nothing but the earthen floor. Sometimes the cabins had cellars, which were simply small excavations in the ground for the storage of a few articles of food and perhaps some cooking utensils. Access to the cellar was readily obtained by lifting a loose puncheon. There was sometimes a loft, used for various purposes, among others for a *guest chamber." It was reached by a ladder, the sides of which were split pieces put together like everything else in the house, without nails.

The furniture of the log cabin was as simple and primitive as the structure itself. A forked stick set in the puncheon floor, and supporting two poles, the other ends of which were allowed to rest upon the logs at the side and end of the cabin, formed a bedstead. A common form of table was a split slab supported by four rustic legs set in augur holes. "Three legged stools were made in similar, simple manner. Pegs driven in augur holes in the logs of the wall supported shelves, and others displayed the limited wardrobe of the family, not in use. A few other pegs, or perhaps a pair of buck's antlers, formed a rack where hung the rifle and powderhorn, which no cabin was without. These, and perhaps a few other articles, brought from the old home, formed the furniture and furnishings of the log cabin. The utensils for cooking and the dishes for table use were few. The best were of pewter, which the careful housewife of the olden time kept shining as brightly as the most pretentious plate of our later day fine houses. It was by no means uncommon that wooden vessels, either coopered or turned, were used upon the table. Knives and forks were few; crockery very scarce, and tinware not abundant. Food was simply cooked and served, but it was of the best and most wholesome kinds. The hunter kept the larder supplied with venison, bear meat, squirrels, wild turkeys and the many varieties of small game. Plain corn bread or *pone," baked in a kettle in the ashes, or upon a chip or board in front of the great open fire-place, answered the purpose of all kinds of pastry. The corn was, among the earliest pioneers, pounded or grated, there being no mills for grinding it for some time, and then only small ones, and perhaps a considerable distance away. The wild fruits in their season were made use of, and afforded a pleasant variety. Sometimes especial efforts were made to prepare a delicacy, as for instance, when a woman experimented in mince pies, pounding wheat for the flour to make the crust, and using crab apples for fruit. In the lofts of the cabins was usually to be found a collection of articles that made up the backwoodsman's materia medica - the herb medicines and spices, catnip, sage, tansy, fennel, boneset, pennyroyal and wormwood, each gathered in its season; and there were also stores of nuts, and strings of dried pumpkin, with bags of berries and fruits.

The habits of the pioneers were of a simplicity and purity which was in strict conformance to their surroundings and belongings. The men were engaged day after day in the herculean labor of enlarging the little patch of sunshine about their homes, cutting away the forest, burning off the brush and debris, preparing the soil, planting, tending, harvesting, caring for the few animals which hey brought with them or soon procured, and in hunting. While they were engaged in the heavy labor of the field and forest, or following the deer or other game, their helpmeets were busied with household duties - providing for the day and the winter coming on, cooking, making clothes, spinning and weaving. 'Vhey were fitted by nature and by experience to be the consorts of the brave men who first came into the western wilderness. They were heroic in their endurance of hardship and privation and loneliness. Their industry was well directed and unceasing. Woman's work then, like man's, was performed under disadvantages, which were removed in later years. She had not ouly the household duties to perform, but many others. She not only made the clothing, but the fabric for it.

That old, old occupation of spinning and weaving, with which woman's name has been associated in all history, and of which the modern world knows little save through the stories of those who are grandmothers now - that old occupation of spinning and of weaving, which seems surrounded with a glamour of romance as we look back to it through the mediums of tradition and poetry, and which always conjures up thoughts of the grace and virtues of the dames and damsels of a generation that is gone - that old, old occupation of spinning and of weaving, was the chief industry of the pioneer women.

Every cabin sounded with the softly whirring wheel and the rythmic thud of the loom. The woman of pioneer times was like the woman described by Solomon: *She seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands; she layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff." Almost every article of clothing, all the cloth used in the old log cabins, was the product of the patient woman weavers' toil. She spun the flax and wove the cloth for shirts and trowsers, frocks, sheets and blankets. The linen and the wool - the "linsey woolsey" woven by the house-wife - formed the material for all of the clothing of men and women, except such articles as were made of skins. The men commonly wore the hunting shirt, a kind of a loose frock reaching half way down the thighs, open before, and so wide as to lop over a foot or more upon the chest. It generally had a cape, which was often fringed with a raveled piece of cloth of a different color from that which composed the garment. The bosom of the garment answered as a pouch, in which could be carried the various articles of which the hunter or'the woodsman had need. The hunting shirt was always worn belted. It was made of coarse linen, of linsey, or of dressed deer-skin, according to the fancy of the wearer. Breeches were made of heavy cloth, or of deer-skin, and were often worn with leggings of the same material, or some kind of leather, while the feet were usually encased in moccasins, which were easily and quickly made, though they needed frequent mending. The deer-skin breeches or drawers were very comfortable when dry, but when they became wet were very cold to the limbs, and the next time they were put on were almost as stiff as if made of wood. Hats or caps were made of the various native furs. The women were clothed in linsey petticoats, coarse shoes and stockings, and wore buckskin gloves, or, more often, mittens, when any protection was needed for the hands. All of their wearing apparel, like that of the men, was made with a view to being serviceable and comfortable, and nearly all was of home manufacture. Other articles and finer ones were worn sometimes, but they were brought from the former homes and were usually the articles handed down from parents to children. Jewelry was very rare, but occasionally some ornament was displayed.

In the cabins of the cultivated pioneers were usually a few books - the Bible and hymn book, *Pilgrim's Progress," "Baxters Saints Rest," *Hervey's Meditations,"

"Æsops Fables," "Gullivers Travels," 'Robinson Crusoe," and the like. The long winter evenings were spent poring over the pages of some well thumbed volume, by the light of the great log fire, in knitting; mending, curing furs, etc.

Hospitality was simple, unaffected, hearty, unbounded. Whiskey was in common use in the cabins of most of the early settlers. Nearly every one had his barrel stowed away. It was the universal drink at merry-makings, bees, house-raisings, house-warmings, and weddings, and was always set before the traveler who chanced to spend the night or take a meal in the log cabin. It was the good, old-fashioned whiskey - '"'clear as amber, sweet as musk, smooth as oil," - that the few octogenarians and nonogenarians of to-day recall to memory with a suggestive smack of the lips.

As the settlement increased, the sense of loneliness and isolation was dispelled. The asperities of life were softened; its amenities multiplied. Social gatherings became more numerous and more enjoyable. The logrolling, harvesting, and husking bees for the men, and the apple butter and quilting parties for the women, furnished frequent occasions for social intercourse. The early settlers took much pleasure and pride in rifle shooting, and as they were accustomed to the use of the gun as a means, often, of obtaining subsistence, they exhibited considerable skill, in their frequent friendly contests of marksmanship.

A wedding was the social event of the most importance in the sparsely settled new country. The young people had every inducement to marry and usually did so as soon as they were able to provide for themselves. When a marriage was to be celebrated the whole neighborhood turned out. After the ceremony was performed it was customary to serve a substantial dinner - a backwoods feast of beef, pork, fowls, and bear or deer meat, with such vegetables as could be procured. The greatest hilarity prevailed during the meal, and after it was over dancing was begun, generally to te kept up until the next morning. It was commenced with "a square four," which was followed by "jigging it off." The "settlement" of a young couple was thought to be thoroughly and generously made when the neighbors assembled and raised a cabin for them.

During all of the early years of the settlement, varied by occasional pleasures and excitements, the great work of increasing the extent of the tillable.ground went slowly most primitive kind, but the soil that had held in reserve the accumulated riches of a century produced splendid harvests, and the husbandman was well rewarded for -his labor. The ground was warmer then than now and the season a little earlier.

Flour and meal were difficult to obtain. Only the commonest goods were brought into the countrv during the first few years of settlement, and they sold at enormous prices, being packed from Detroit or wagoned from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and thence. floated down the Ohio. Tea was worth two or three dollars a pound coffee brought from .seventy-five- cents to a dollar; salt five or six dollars per bushel of fifty pounds, 'and the commonest calicos were sold at a dollar per yard. Long journeys on foot were often made by the. pioneers to obtain the necessities of life or some article, then esteemed a luxury, for the:sick. Hardships: were cheerfully borne, privations stoutly endured; 'the best was made of what théy had by the pioneers and their families, and they toiled patiently on, industrious and frugal, simple in their tastes and pleasures, happy in-an independence, however hardlf gained, and looking forward hopefully to a future of plenty which should reward them for the toils of their earlier: years, and a rest from the struggle, amidst the benefits gained by it. Without an iron will and an indomitable resolution they could never have accomplish ed what they did. Their heroism deserves the highest tribute of praise that can be awarded.

During the war of 1812 many of the husbands and fathers volunteered their services to the United States. Women and children were then left alone in-many isolated cabins all through Ohio, and there was a long reign of unrest, anxiety and terror. It was feared by some that the Indians might take advantage of the desertion of these homes by their natural protectors, and pillage and destroy them, but happily their fears proved to be groundless, and this part of the country was spared any scenes of violence.

After the close of the war there was a 'greater feeljng of security than had ever existed before; a new motive was given to emigration, and the country fast filled up. with settlers. The era of peace and prosperity was fairly begun.. Progress was slowly, surely made; the forest shrank away before the: woodman's axe. The pioneers, assured of perfect safety, began to make better plans for the future; resorted to new industries; enlarged their possessions. and improved the means of cultivation. Stock was brought in from Kentucky and the east. More commodious structures took the places of the old ones; the large double log house. of hewed logs replaced the old cabin, and log and frame barns were built for the protection of stock and the housing of crops. Frame houses began to appear here and there. Society began to form itself; the school-house and the church appeared, and advancement was made manifest in a score of ways. With so much accomplished, however, there still remained a vast work to perform, for as yet only a beginning had been made in the western forest. 6 brunt of the struggle, however, was past, and the way made in the wilderness for the army that was to come.