Seneca County, Ohio - Chapter 12: The Wood-Chopper How to Build a Cabin- the Difference Between the Settlers Their Benevolence and Hospitality Pioneer, 1880

THE WOOD-CHOPPER HOW TO BUILD A CABIN- THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SETTLERS THEIR BENEVOLENCE AND HOSPITALITY PIONEER GIRLS RUSTIC FURN ITU RE - TH E HOMINY BLOCK THE HANDMILL GOING TO MEETING- INDIAN VISITORS NATURAL FANNING MILL "THE LIFE IN THE WOODS FOR ME' HOME-MADE CLOTH- YOUNG AMERICA.

Till. K.N KM I KS of the country, red and white, had been subdued and driven away by victories and treaties, and the frontier made -ate and protected against their atrocities. Now the forest was to be con'iuered: diseases incident to frontier lite to be met and endured; swamp- to be drained: roads to lie opened and bridges to be built; lands to in- cleared and fenced: lite to be sustained tor several years without any income without having anything to. sell: and. first of all. ,1 i abin to be built a home to be se< urei 1.

And hither he came without a domestic animal, without any knowl edge of the country or the people here, without any preparation to meet the task that his new life demanded of him. otten without tools and general!) without the knowledge how to use them. Those ot you. American neighbors, who were at home here, and had means to help yourselves with, may perhaps imagine, but you never could reali/e, the heart-aches and hardships this difference created, and what the man who had paid his last dollar lor the piece ot land upon which he now came, with his wife and several small children, to build a cabin - destitute ot almost everything except his iron will and industry - had to undergo. When he met his American neighbor he could not tell him what he wanted. I'nder such circumstances, it was indeed very hard to fight the battle of life in the forest.

P>ut in these trying times there was one great virtue almost universal among all classes ot people, without distinction as to nativity, race or religious affiliations - a virtue that towered abo\ e their mighty oaks, brighter than a beacon light, as warming in its effects as the rays of a summer sun. cheering as a mother's smile, and soothing, like a calm from the gardens above. It was that generous, broad, innate, heavenborn hospitality that characteri/cd the settler in the woods. As misery loves company, the man who had himself reali/ed the same scene, was ipiick to furnish the necessary relief. It was not considered a hardship at all. when several of the neighbors came with their axes, a yoke of o\en and a log chain, cross cut saw. troe, maul, etc., and otten in one day put up a log cabin arid covered it with clap boards before night. Another day or two. and the owner had put up a lire place at one end and a door in the side- It the new comer could rc-pav bv working back, all right : it not. it was all the same. And so with everything else. A lavor was not asked in vain : tor it was granted, it possible, as a matter ot course. The latch-string was always out. night and day.

'I here were neither castes nor classes in society then. Some, it i-> very true, urn,- in mu< h better circumstances than others, even then: but their \\ork. their deprivations, their hardships, their sufferings and mutual dependent e upon each other in the hours of distress and need, together \uth their social gatherings, brought all down to a common level, or elevated all to a higher plane of neighborly love - as you plea->L to h.ive it -thus lormin^ a society that the outside world, awav trom the troiitier, never knew. There was no night so dark or stormy. no s\salc so deep, no distance so great, but that a call in case of sick-

In a ca-e oi di-tre-- it wa-, no urn oinnion oi i urrem e [or a hi- wile to -et out ot a warm bed. in the dark hour- oi a i old. niuht, li-h? a ton h made ot' the bark oi -hell h:« korv. ain'| le.u children alone in the cabin, wind their \\a\ through the ;or,--r. -now and water ior mile-, to tender their kind office-, 'o a neighbor.

and up. a chimney. This was done with sticks split out of an oak log, laid over each oilier in a square form on the top of the back and sides of the fire place until a heighth of one or two feet above the comb of the root was reached, and then it was well plastered on both sides with soft (lay. It Hag- stones could be found lor a hearth, very good : it not. a day hearth answered nearly as well, and the latter was the most fashionable hearth in all that part of the country where stones were scarce.

In building a cabin, an accomplished "corner man" could carry up a corner in less than one-half the time it would take an ordinary chopper. To make the notches fit the saddles neatly, required both skill and practice: and by looking at the corners of a cabin it was very easy to tell whether the corner man understood his business or not. The porch, or "stoop." as the Yankees used to call it. was made at the side of the cabin where the road was expected to be made thereafter.

( >n the tii'st or second logs abo\ e the door the end logs on that side were allowed to run as tar out and over the side, as the porch was to be wide. I pon the ends ot these projecting logs a straight log was laid length-wise, and formed the plate of the roof. As the gable end logs were now cut shorter to lorm the root", poles were laid on these length wise also, and in line with the plate. These were called "ribs." and answered the purpose ot ratters. The clap-boards were laid on these. A < lap-board was Irom six to eight inches wide, split out ot a white oak block about tour leet long, trom one-half to one inch in thickness. and. wa^ laid on these ribs without being shaved. These (lap boards were now laid down, projecting over the plate about six inches. At each end ot the plate a wooden pin held up a long straight pole, which w.is laid ou the top ot the clap-boards to hold them down. Then another laver ot dap boards was put down, and another long, straight pole placed on these, and so on. To prev ent t bese poles from slipping down, siii Rs. i .died ''knees." were put trom 'lie lower pole to the next one. end wise. '1 liese long pules were very appropriate!} called "weigh!

ogs were < ul off in the side of the ( abin where the doors , down to the lower log. The doors in the sides were gen posite cadi other, lor several reasons. \ i/ : for ventilation. .' ' thi bai k way. and very often to let the horse or the

The furniture of the cabin was of the same rustic character. There were no larue warehouses of ready made cabinet-ware in those days. Pieces of puncheon furnished with lei;s made i^ood stools, and supplied the want of chairs. A similar piece, only larger and with longer lei^s. made a very i;'ood. substantial table. Bedsteads were olten made with but one post. "How can that be done?" you ask. A two inch au^ur hole was bored into a lo^ as hi^'h as the bedstead was to be trom the floor, and as lar from the corner as the width of the bed: then a similar hole was bored in another lo^ as tar Irom the same corner as the length of the bed. Poles were then driven into these holes, and at the point where these crossed each other they were cut oil. and the ends driven into two holes, which were bored in a post at the same hei^hth from the tloor as the holes in the lo^s. The bottom ot the bed was made of basswood bark twisted and run over the poles and IOLJS. the straps (Tossing each other at ri^ht angles. This was not a patent spring bot torn, but answered the same purpose. Small pins driven into the joints held up the bed curtain which had been brought from home. Thus the cabin, with its laru'e fire-place and crackling fire, be.^an to assume an air of rural comfort and co/iness that could only be reali/ed in the cabin ai,re.

The table furniture was generally of tin or pewter. (Jueens-ware or china-ware were not only expensive, but heavy and unsate to take aloni; on the journey. The cooking utensils were equally as simple and practicable. A 'tea kettle. Dutch oven, coffee pot and skillet: sometimes, a retlector to bake in. < onstituted the most essi-ntial articles. The handle of the skilKt had to be very IOHL; to enable the cook to use it willuiut ^etlinu too close to the tire. Very olten, the end ot the handle was held up by a string suspended Irmn a lo^ in the ceiling, sshi< h was very convenient. Pins driven into the h>^s. with boards laid mi top. torined convenient shelves, and everything was made as hands and convenient as could be.

The trees near the cabin svere nosv brought dosvn and burnt up. to start a i learini; and open a patch for corn and vegetables. The patch svas em losed with a rail or brush fence, and those who knesv the use o| : . ' ,'ed :n clo\'er when thes ssere fit tor use. A very excel ake svas made from corn that was a little too hard tor roasting about thi- manner: A piece of tin, perforated Irom one side, a prater. The corn in the ear was rubbed os er that, and a solt -<-' ' h. mixed svith an eu'.i; and a little salt, made a very

\ very good hominy was also made withotit pounding it. by soaking the < om a da\ or two in strong lye made ol wooci ashes. 'I'his loosened the shell, and softened the hard part of the grain. Th'.1 lye being poured oil and the corn soaked again in tre-di water tor awhile, would -\\eil \ery large, and lose the taste of the lye. and when boiled soli made \ erv goi }<\ In nniny.

>omc ol the settlers who had ingenuity enough, and could Imd (lag >tones that answered the jMirpose. constructed instruments the\ i ailed "hand mills." I.et me describe one ot lhe>e, tor they answered no! mily the purpose ol the family that owned one. but also that ot the neighbor-, round about, who brought their corn already shelled to grind it. \\hen two or three of the neighbors met at the hand mill the same evening, one had to wait until the other was done, and it often took steady work until away beyond midnight, to grind corn enough tor bread to last during the next day:

It was a very simple affair. Two stones, about twentv inches in d.iameter. dressed round, formed the real mill. The mill was erected, near the chimney corner. The lower stone was made stationary on a block: the upper stone, (ailed the runner, was turned by hand in this wise: A pole was iinnlv fixed into a square hole on the top, near the edge. The upper end ot the pole entered a hole in a board, or a log. over head, loosely. \ broad hoop, made of a clap-board shaved thin. ->\ as uxed around the stones to keep them to their places and keep in the i orn. < >:u- person \\ould then turn the stone, \\hile the other ted 'he mill through a hole in the d "the e\e." h was hard and

It should not be forgotten that there were no bridges across the streams in those days, and people found their way out to some open road, or to a neighbor, by following bla/ed trees; that it was then necessary to wade through swamps, climb over, or walk along on logs. Men did not wear polished boots, and with such as they had. could well make their way to meeting on Sunday, lint ladies without horses to ride, and no team of any kind, had to get to church as best they could - for go. they would. And it was also regarded as perfectly in order to see girls carry their shoes and stockings in their hands, wade through the water, and after walking several miles through the woods, when near the meeting house, sit down in a fence corner, or behind a big tree, and put oil their shoes and stockings.

Alter, the meeting was over, they took them off again, and walked home barefooted, in the way they came. Sometimes a beau was polite enough to carry the shoes and stockings to the house, and thus embrace the opportunity to see "the old man."

The girls were as pretty, in their log cabins, as ours are now in their drawing-rooms, and equally as virtuous, and possessed of as much true womanhood as now. to say the least. The trails of their dresses were not as long as they are worn now, and perhaps the texture was not so line, but they looked the very picture of he.alth and beauty in their linsey-w'oolsev, and other home-made flannels: and if you married one of these girls, you had a wife in the fullest sense of the term, and a companion for life that would stand by you, come what would. It was not necessary, then, to hire a (ierman or Irish chamber-maid to fan \oiir frontier bride while she. seated in a rocking-chair, played her guitar, or hold up her trail as she stepped into her carriage. And tlu-re was no need of a French cook, chamber-maid, and a laundrygirl -making three - to wait upon the bride. These hangers-on were all dispensed with. The kitchen, the parlor, the wash-room and the drawing room were all in the same room, and tin1 lire in the big fire ] ihu e wannei i them all.

-in. t hat it \vas a dark and gloomy life. There is a < ertain pcculia r pleasure - indes. ribable. ( 'hopping in the woods, ijis. wife and children joining in the \\ork; lon/st: fishing and hunting: the relief wheels. Linen war]) and woolen filling made linsey-woolsey. This made dresses for women and children, and wampuses for the men to work in. 1'cople now dressed more comfortably. An overcoat of home-made cloth, with a double cape, was very becoming to the backwoodsman in his wolf-skin cap. Many of the long winter evenings were spent in spinning wool and flax, some using the reel, some the swift, while the men made hickory brooms or axe-handles. Kvery one was employed until bed-time. The little cabin looked like a bee-hive on a large scale.

These pages are not intended as a criticism on anybody, or anything. Their object is merely to preserve, from oblivion, scenes and incidents that accompanied the time and the circumstances in and under which this beatiful patch of country, we love to call "Old Seneca," commenced to be opened to civili/ation, and the memory of that noble, heroic class of men and women who devoted their lives to the task, and who are fast passing away.

It is questionable, however, wlvether the' present generation is possessed ot the gratitude, love and veneration properly due to its pioneer friends, for what they did and endured to make Seneca county what it is. Perhaps there is not as much of that filial love, affection, veneration and esteem due from the child to the parent, shed abroad throughout society as there should be. llovs talk of the time when they shall be nventv one years old and then be their own masters - independent, tree to do tor themselves, under obligation to nobody. They call the father "the old man." the mother "the old woman."

It Bounds so cold and so hard, so distant and so void of love, and -eems to ignore everything the honored parents did to make "Young \merica" to lie a man. There is no duty that love enjoins upon the human heart, more sacred, next to the love of (iod. than the filial love : ml ilfe< tii MI a i hiid i iwes it - parents.