Cass County, Indiana - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 7 of those read), 1913

The Pioneer

fiighty-six years ago Cass county was an unbroken wilderness. The red man roamed at liberty over its hills and valleys; none to dispute his right save the wild beasts which sometimes contended with him for supremacy.

The Indian felt himself lord of the soil. But the Indian has gone - gone farther toward the setting sun. Though once they roamed over the forests of Cass county, and their campfires were burning on every hill top and in every valley and their wild whoop heard to ring in aU this wilderness, they have all disappeared. Instead of the wild unbroken forest of eighty Hsix years ago, now in every part of Cass county fields of golden grain are seen, instead of the Indian wigwam; the modem farm house rears its handsome form. Instead of nature's orchards of wild plum, cherry and grape now may be seen -the cultivated orchards of many varieties of delicious fruits. Instead of the Indian village composed of a few smoky huts, now rises the populous city with its paved streets, commodious business houses, stately mansions and beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing toward the clouds; instead of the narrow Indian trail we see the broad macadamized roads, interurbans and railways along which dash automobiles or the iron horse hitched to ponderous trains carrying hundreds of passengers and tons of freight. How great a change has been wrought in eighty-six years.

The New York Pubuc Library

It required brave and courageous spirits for men and women to leave their homes in the East, leave friends and relatives behind and strike out into the impenetrable forest infested with savages and wild beasts. Only the brave started, and only the brave and strong reached their destination. When a newly married couple or a family decided to go to the frontier, their departure meant a long farewell and occasioned many heartaches. As the time arrived and the dear ones were to leave, the kinsfolk and neighbors would often assemble, sing hymns and offer prayers for their safe and successful journey into the western wilderness and many a pioneer yielded up his life to disease brought on by hardships and exposures, or to the wild beasts or the red man's scalping knife. The journey from civilization to his forest home was not the least of the difficulties of the pioneer. The route lay for the most part through a rough country. Swamps and marshes were crossed with great exertions and fatigue; rivers were forded with difficulty and danger ; forests were penetrated with risk of captivity by hostile Indians ; nights were passed in open praises, with the sod for a couch and the clouds for a covering; long weary days and weeks of tiresome travel were endured. The mother and children were seated in a cart or rough farm wagon drawn by ox or mule team with the husband and father walking beside the team to urge them on and guide them through rough and unimproved roads or along Indian trails that led into hitherto imexplored forests where wild beasts and Indians held full sway. Some were not even so fortunate as to possess a wagon or cart, but trudged along on horseback or afoot, wending their way from civilization to their new homes in the wilderness. With the most prosperous and favored pioneer, the journey westward was a tedious, tiresome and dangerous one. Often the children sickened by the way and anxious parents worried over them in a rude camp, without medical aid until relieved either by returning health or by death. If the latter, a father would be compelled to dig the grave for the body of his own child in a lonely forest. Who shall describe the burial scene when the parents are the only mourners? This is a subject only for contemplation. After a few sad days the bereaved ones take up their journey, leaving only a little fresh mound to mark the sacred spot, but never to be re-visited by the mourning relatives, but left unmarked and forever unknown and roamed over by wild savages and wilder beasts of the forest.

In 1827 to 1829 two children of a family who were moving out into the western world died suddenly of smallpox as they were encamped on the south side of the Wabash river and were buried by the parents on what was known as the Neff farm, located in the northwest quarter of section 34, Clinton township, just west of the state insane asylum grounds. Later some members of the NefE family were buried here and a paling fence enclosed the graves for many years, well remembered by many old settlers, but when this river road was improved, about thirty years ago, the remains of the Neff family were removed to St. John's churchyard, but the dust of these two pioneer children lie in the center of this gravel road, oblivious to the swift automobiles that now daily pass over them. But these incidents were not frequent. Generally, the pioneers were blessed with good health and enabled to overcome the privations of forest travel. At night they slept in their wagons or on the grass surrounded by pure air, free from the dust and bad atmospheric influences of modern civilization; while their mules, horses or oxen, hobbled to prevent their escape, grazed and browsed the prairies or forest around them. But the toil and dangers of the pioneer were not ended with the termination of the journey, for their trials had just begun. The first, settlers of Cass county were subjected to hardships, privations and toil to which the present generation are entire strangers. The pioneer^ landed here in the midst of a dense forest of giant trees. Most of them had nothing but strong and willing hands, backed by indomitable courage and energy. Even if they were fortunate enough to have money, there was no opportunity to purchase any of the necessaries of life as there was not a store, factory, shop or mill in the county. Usually two or more families had journeyed together into the wilderness and were mutually helpful to each other in clearing a site and erecting a cabin, and they camped out until rude houses could be erected. It did not take as long, however, to build a pioneer cabin as it now takes to erect a modem dwelling, even with all our machinery and aids to the builder. It only required a few days for two or three men to construct a pioneer home. Just imagine yourself and family landed in the midst of an impenetrable forest, dependent upon your own hands to build a house and clear the land before any crops could be raised, in the meantime having to subsist the family as the Indians did, by gathering wild fruits and herbs and killing wild game, deer, turkeys, squirrels, rabbits, pheasants, ducks, pigeons, etc., of which, however, there was an abundance.

Sometimes a family would journey into the wilderness alone and in that case the wife and larger boys and girls were the only assistance the head of the family would have in erecting the cabin and clearing the land, but ih many cases the mother or daughter could wield an ax as dexterously and as effectually as the husband or father and rendered great and valuable assistance outside as well /as inside the cabin door.

The first cabins erected in Cass county were built of round logs, covered by clapboards split from native timber by the pioneers' own hands and weighted down by poles. The cracks between the logs were filled and closed up by sticbi and mud. The door was made of heavy riven timbers fastened to the ** bottom'* by wooden pins and hung on heavy wooden hinges and closed by a heavy wooden latch, with latch string made of buckskin, which always hung out except at night or when Indians were lurking around. At first these primitive cabins had only dirt floors and no chimneys, the flre being kindled on the ground in the center of the house with a hole in the gable for the smoke to escape. Many pioneer cabins had no windows, and the only light was admitted through holes under the clapboard roof and between the logs or when the door was open and the hole in the gable through which the smoke escaped. There were two reasons for not having windows ; first, window glass could not be obtained, and second, the house was in reality a fort to defend the occupants against, not only. Indians, but also against wild beasts, for in an early day bears, wolves and wildcats were numerous in Cass county. When the pioneer would become accustomed to the howling of wolves around the cabin at night and the whoop of the Indian he would cut out a log in one side of his house and tack over the opening oiled paper or rawhide. As time permitted he would cut out a large opening and build a fireplace and chimney of sticks and mud with a clay hearth and put in a puncheon floor made of split or hewn timber and a loft overhead of the same material, access to which was gained by a ladder made of slats pinned to the logs on one side of the cabin. This loft was a storehouse for all manner of goods and material and as the family increased it was utilized as a bedroom without beds, pallets being made on the rough puncheon floor of the loft. This loft was the guest chamber where travelers or friends would sleep when stopping with or visiting the pioneers of Cass county.

This cabin may not be a model home, but it was the beginning of a great prosperity and as such is worthy of preservation in history on account of its obscurity and severe economy. But it was a home not- withstanding, and we venture the observation that with all its lack of comforts, with all its pinching poverty, with all its isolation and danger, it was often a happy home. As the pioneer became more thrifty, the old round log cabin would give way to the more comfortable hewed logged house and the more prosperous would erect double hewed logged houses with an upper story, glass windows, stone or brick fireplaces with brick chimneys. As sawmills were erected the floors and doors of the houses were made of sawed lumber and finally the log house was entirely replaced by frame, brick or stone houses and today a log house is a curiosity in Cass county. The first log houses in the county were constructed entirely of wood. Not a nail or metal of any kind was used, but everything fitted and pinned together with wooden pins.

*'The emigrant is soon located In Hoosier life initiated Erects a cabin in the woods Wherein he stores his household goods. At first round logs and clapboard roof With puncheon floor, quite carpet proof And paper windows, oiled and neat His edifice is then complete. When four clay balls in form of plummet Adorns his wooden chimney summit Ensconced in this let those who can Find out .a truly happier man. I'm told in riding through the West A stranger found a Hoosier 's Nest ^

And fearing he might be benighted He hailed the house and then alighted. The Hoosier met him at the door Their salutations soon were o'er. He took the stranger's horse aside And to a sturdy sapling tied; Then having stripped the saddle off He fed him in a sugar trough. The stranger stooped to enter in The entrance closing with a pin - And manifested strong desire To seat him by the log heap fire Where sat half-a-dozen Hoosieroons With mush and milk, tin cups and spoons.

Invited shortly to partake Of venison, . milk and Johnny cake The stranger made a hearty meal And glances round the room would steal. One side was lined with divers garments The other spread with skins of varmints. Dried pumpkins overhead were strung, Where venison hams in plenty hung; Two rifles placed above the door; Three dogs lay stretched upon the floor In short, the domicile was rife With specimens of Hoosier life.

Ere long the cabin disappears A spacious mansion next he rears; His fieldb seem widening by stealth An indes of increasing wealth " - And when the hives of Hoosiers swarm.

When the first settlers came to the county the land had not all been surveyed and it was diflScult to locate or describe a given tract of land and the pioneer would preempt or locate on a piece of land without any title or even knowledge of its description, and were known, as squatters, but these squatters' rights were quite generally recognized.,

The United States donated certain sections of land to the state to aid in the construction of the canal and the Michigan road, hence we have in Cass county lands designated as canal, Michigan road and government lands. For some years after the first settlement of the county the price of the government land was fixed at $1.25 per acre.

The furniture of the first settlers of Cass county was very rude and simple. Owing to lack of roads and means of transportation the pioneer could bring but few articles with him apd most of the household furnishings were made by his own hands. Bedsteads were made by driving posts into the floor and pegs into the walls; on these poles were laid or sometimes cords or straps of deer hides were drawn over and across instead of springs. This net held the fine twigs and leaves and later the straw tick and finally the great feather beds which were the pride of every housekeeper's heart. Many of the children bom in Cass county were rocked in a cradle made of a log hollowed out and popularly known as a sugar trough, such as were used in sugar camps.

Bough stools and benches were used as chairs, or rustic chairs were constructed of poles and hickory withes and bark. A store box that held the household goods in their journey into the wilderness was used for both table and cupboard, if the family were so fortunate as to possess such a box, otherwise a table was constructed of riven stough and smoothed oflf with ax and laid on a rough frame made of the same material.

A mortar, in which corn or acorn, was ground into hominy or meal was made by burning out a hollow in a nearby stump, or two flat stones were used as a mill to grind the com after the fashion of the Indians. Gourds were in general use for dippers and drinking cups. Wooden spoons, knives and forks were the common table ware with a few pewter plates. An iron pot, skillet and old Dutch oven constituted the cooking utensils of the pioneer. The pots used for boiling purposes, sat on the open fire or later swung to the iron crane, in the great fireplace, while the Dutch oven was placed on the hearth and covered over with live coals to do the family baking, and such corn pones as our grandmothers used to bake in the cabin in the clearing cannot be duplicated in modern bake shops.

Apples, potatoes and com roasted before the open fire or in the ashes had a flavor fit for an epicure. The hoe-cake or Johnny-cake was baked on a board in front of the open fire and the meats broiled on the live coals. Lamps were prepared by dividing a large turnip in the middle and scraping out the inside down to the rind, then inserting a stick, say three iiiches in length in the center, so that it would stand upright. A strip of cotton or linen cloth was then wrapped around it and melted lard, deer's tallow, bear, coon or possum oil, whichever might be procured, was poured in until the turnip rind was full and lamp was ready for use. Some would construct a lamp of clay and dry it in the sun or burn it in the fire. Others brought with them cmde lamps made of iron or earthenware in which they would bum the fats from wild animals, with a wick made of some old cloth. Later candles were made by dipping the wick in melted tallow and were^ known as dipped candles. These were followed by the candle moulds, which every house wife had, as the people became more prosperous. Even these crude lamps could not always be had and the only light was a torch of hickory bark or the light from the fireplace in winter, and the writer has spent many an evening reading from the light emitted from the great fireplace in his father's home. It was in the sixties, during the War of the Rebellion, that coal oil was first used in our house, and then cost seventy-five cents to a dollar a gallon. Nearly every household had its rude loom and spinning wheel. The women would spin the flax and wool, weave the yarn into cloth and make the garments for the family and knit the stockings.

The dress of the pioneer was homemade throughout and not always made of woven cloth, but the skins of animals were often used to make various articles of clothing. Caps, mittens, and moccasins were made of deer or coon skins. Every householder tanned his own leather, and hunting shirts, work coats and pants were made of buckskin. Buckskin was often used for clothing, not only because it was available, but because it resisted nettles, briars, the stings of insects and bites of rattlesnakes, which was the bane of early settlers. The women made their own soap, cured the meats, consisting of venison, bear and wild hogs, spun and wove the cloth, made the clothing, molded the candles, churned the butter, tended the garden and in addition to the ordinary household duties, frequently assisted outdoors in clearing the land by piling and burning brush, etc. But the pioneer woman did not spend much time before the looking-glass or making frills or rulBes, or attending shows, operas or woman's clubs.

There was no waste space in the pioneer cabin. The floor space was occupied by the rude home-made beds, stools and table, and the walls were decorated not by paintings, but by necessary and useful articles of the household.

The ax, the augur, saw and awl Hang on pegs upon the wall. The kitchen utensils bright and clean May also on the wall be seen ; Overhead were hung divers things Seed-corn, pumpkin and beans on strings. Herbs, barks and roots, all of the best, Drugs, found in the land of the West. In the cabin, no closets are found, So their garments are hung all 'round. The cabin is parlor, kitchen and bin. Chamber and closet all in one.

Friction matches were unknown to the pioneer, and every household had its tinder box containing a piece of steel and flint with some very inflammable material, usually dry knots from old hickory trees called punk, and a horn of powder, in order that a fire might be kindled ; but when a fire was once started it was the custom to always carefidly preserve some live coals by covering them up on the hearth with hot ashes.

Percussion caps were also unknown to the early settlers, and the old flint lock guns were in general use requiring the gun pan to be primed with powder before it could be fired, and making it difficult and almost impossible to fire off their guns in damp, rainy weather. The pioneer's gun was his constant companion. It was always kept loaded and hung over the door ready for instant action. When he went to the clearing or field to work, his gun was taken along and laid in some convenient place that he might defend himself against the Indians who might be lurking around, or wild animals with which the primeval forest was infested, or perchance, a deer, bear, wild turkey or other game might be seen that he could kill, to restore the family larder, for wild game furnished the early settlers of Cass county with one of the principal courses of sustenance until the land was cleared, crops grown and domestic animals raised.

The bears, wolves, panthers, wild-cats, foxes, mink, etc., were very destructive to domestic animals in the first settlement of Cass county. The chickens, young pigs, lambs and calves would be killed and carried off by wild beasts, and the pioneer had to be ever watchful and at night house all his domestic animals, and before he had stables erected he often housed the brood sow, the ewe or the few chickens he had brought with him in the comer of his cabin.

The food of the frontiersman was as simple and plain as the rest of his living. Com pone, hominy, roasting ears with venison and game were the universal diet. Wheat-bread, tea and coffee were luxuries seldom seen. Sassafras and spicewood tea were the common table drinks, but the pioneer usually had plenty of sugar and syrup from the maple trees found in most sections of Cass county.

the early settlers while they were waiting for their cultivated orchards to develop. Before the forest could be felled and crops raised the hogs were fattened on the mast, beech nuts and acorns - and they were good substitutes for com. Horses were scarce and what few wagons were found could not be used, as there were no roads, but only Indian trails. Two men would often **ride and tie'' on their way to town. That is, one would ride a mile or two, then tie the horse and walk on. When the other man came up, he would untie the horse and ride on until he overtook his companion. Thus they would alternately ride and walk.

When a man and his wife went on a journey she usually rode behind on the same horse ; generally each carried a baby on their arms. The '*bee'' was a distinguishing social feature of pioneer life. If a new cabin or stable was to be built all the neighbors for miles around would assemble and assist in raising the building. When a clearing was made a log-rolling followed with all the men for miles around to assist. Then there were com-huskings, wool-shearings, apple-parings, sugar-boilings and quilting bees. Each of these community tasks was the occasion for a prodigal feast and social visit. Then the isolated households came together for much needed companionship. Often the work would be divided equally, they would *' choose sides," and see which side could out-do the other. After the work was over they would engage in various outdoor sports, as shooting matches, wrestling matches, pitching quoits, leap-frog and other tests of strength and skill on which the frontiersman prided himself. The singing school and spelling match were the great joy of the winter months as soon as there were roads made through the forest. The singing master with tuning fork in hand without any accompaniment trained the neighborhood to read ** buckwheat" notes and sing the hymns from the *' Sacred Melodian" or the ** Missouri Harmony," and the little log school house or church would be crowded on these occasions.

The young folks would have their plays on the puncheon floor of the cabin or adjourn to the grove outside if the weather was favorable, where they would play with a zest, *'WeVe marching down to old Quebec," *'01d Dusty Miller," '*0h. Sister Phebe, how merry were we the night we sat under the juniper tree," *'I suppose you've heard of late, of George Washington the Great," **I want no more of your weevily wheat," and many others that were sung to simple airs as they marched around with rhythmic motion similar to a quadrille.

The wedding was an attractive feature of pioneer life. A description of a wedding in olden time as related to the writer by an octogenarian will serve to show the progress made in society as well as preserve an important phase of history. A wedding engaged the attention of the whole neighborhood. On the morning of the wedding day the groom and his friends would assemble at the house of his father and go in a body to the cabin of the bride. The journey was sometimes made on horse-back, sometimes on foot and again in farm wagons or carts. The marriage ceremony was performed, followed by a dinner or supper, after which dancing commenced, generally lasting till the following morning. The figures of the dances were three and fourhanded reels or square sets and jigs. About ten o'clock in the evening a deputation of young ladies stole oflP the bride and put her to bed. In doing so they had to ascend a ladder from the kitchen to the loft, which was laid with loose boards or puncheon. In this rude pioneer bridal chamber, the young, simple-hearted girl was put to bed by her girl friends. This done, a delegation of young men escorted the groom up the ladder to this primitive bridal chamber, and placed him snugly beside his bride. The dance continued, and if seats were scarce, which was generally the case, the young man not engaged in the dance, was obliged to offer his lap for a seat for one of the girls; and the offer was sure to be accepted. The infare was held the next evening at the cabin of the groom, when the same order of exercise was observed. The bride was attired in linsey-woolsey and the groom dressed in jeans, yet they were neat and clean in body and soul, and who will say that they were not as happy as the modem bride and groom attired in silks and broadcloth, decorated with precious gems and occupying a palace. This young couple started house-keeping in a log cabin described above, where not a nail or metal of any kind was used in its construction and furnished by a few necessary articles made of riven timbers or poles by the hands of the groom together with a few cooking utensils and table-ware of the plainest kind made up the household furnishings costing not more than ten or fifteen dollars all told.

Every neighborhood had a pioneer fiddler who was a unique character and an important personage at the country dances; in fact he was indispensable to the success of the **fandango." With swooping flourishes of his violin, his foot beating time on the puncheon floor, which would often shake the whole cabin, at the same time calling the figures in uncouth ** buffoonery," the fiddler set the merry feet to fiying to the tune **Jay Bird," **01d Dan Tucker," or *' Possum Up a Gum Stump."

The dancing was as vigorous as the music. High steps, a flourish^ ing swing with a jig or a hoe-down thrown in was the delight of the youth of those days.

'*My playin's only middlin' - tunes picked up when a boy. The kindo-sorto-fiddlin' that the folks calls cordaroy; The Old Fat Gal and Rye Straw and My Sailor's on the Sea Is the old cowtillions I saw, when the ch'ice is left to me." And so I plunk and plonk and plink, And rosun up my bow, And play the tunes that make you think The devil's in your toe.

Trading was a feature of pioneer life, and the assembling of the people in social, religious or political gatherings was always followed by barterings. The people stood around the church door before and jdfter *'meetin" or around the public square on ** court day" to dicker about articles they needed. Then trade and barter was quite universal because there was no money in circulation and the pioneer had to exchange the articles he had for others* that he needed. An editor announced that he would take his pay for subscriptions in corn, ginseng, pork, chickens, flour, hominy, cord wood, coon skins or almost anything but promises.

There was a trading post at the mouth of Eel river in 1824 before any permanent settlers located in Cass county and it was never abandoned, and there was always a ready sale for furs and peltries, and for some years after the settlement of the county there was no banks

One of the greatest privations of the pioneer was the diflSculty in sending or receiving letters and papers to and from his relatives and friends back home.

When Cass county was settled there was not a railroad in Christendom. Transportation was carried on by canal, river and sea, and inland by pack saddle or stage coach, but for some years there was no mail routes into Cass county and the pioneer had to depend on some chance traveler to carry letters to and from his cabin home in the wilderness. When one was going on a journey it would be known and the settlers for miles around would bring letters for him to carry back to friends at home, for in the early settling of Indiana letter postage was forty cents. If a trader, traveler or settler was about to start out to this section of Indiana letters would be sent by them to pioneer friends addressed to the settlement on the Wabash or Eel. river, as there were no postoffices established as yet and they had to trust to its being delivered to the rightful owner by directing it to his settlement; but each man knew his neighbors for many- miles around, and mail was generally safely delivered, but not as quickly as it is today by the twentieth century limited on the Pennsylvania Railroad.

In the olden day, pens and ink were not to be had, and the frontiersman did his writing with a goose-quill pen dipped in poke-berry juice for ink, and the writer remembers using such a writing outfit before the days of envelopes, when we wrote on one side of the paper and folded it very neatly in the form of an envelope.

The loneliness of the isolated situation of the pioneers made them very hospitable and travelers or visitors were always welcomed by the early settlers and were given the best accommodations the cabin afforded. They were sociable, accommodating and helpful to each other. They would assist each other in erecting their houses and stables, or rolling logs in clearing the land. They were kind and considerate in sickness or accidents, and the pioneer women were ever ready and willing to act as house-keepers and nurses to sick and unfortunate neighbors, and their service and substance were freely given without money and without price. Their charity knew no bounds. They were ever ready to act the part of the good Samaritan. There were no sects, creeds or distinctions, but all were on a common plane.. The exclusive four hundred was never heard of in olden times. What a change in Cass county in the past eighty years, both in the physical features of the country and the modes of living and habits of the people. Then people were charitable, generous and willing to assist each other without remuneriu tion, but to-day you seldom know when your neighbor is sick, and if you accidentally find it out you may make inquiry as to his condition, but never go and care for him, but he must employ a paid nurse or be taken to the hospital. There was certainly a greater degree of Christian charity exhibited by the pioneer and mutual helpfulness than we find in this day and age with all our boasted progress.

Religious meetings in those days were thronged by old and young, wherever an itinerant preacher was announced to speak. They came for miles around, on foot, in carts and farm wagons, but generally on

Marriages were solemnized all along the circuit of the pioneer preacher, and funeral sermons preached for the dead who were buried without any religious ceremony for months prior to the visit of the minister in that settlement, even though the bereaved one had been consoled by a remarriage.

Next to the ministers the most accepted nomadic characters were the tinkers and peddlers who traveled through the sparsely settled country and repaired clocks, and the cobbler who made semi-annual visits to make or mend shoes, but the latter was generally done by the pioneer himself on rainy days, which were usually devoted to repairing shoes, harness, plows, or making ax and hoe handles, rakes or rustic furniture for the home. The itinerant peddler with his doubledecked receptacle containing all kinds of small articles and toys, which he carried on his head, was the wonder and delight of the children, and he would generally be sighted down the road a long distance oflf, and a half dozen Hoosieroons might be seen with their heads at the window viewing with intense interest and covetousness the peddler's collection of toys and curios.

Another frontier personage who has passed into oblivion with the water-witch, is the bee-hunter. The wild bees made their honey in hollow trees, and the bee-hunter possessed great acumen, and by long experience in studying the habits of the bees could follow bees from watering troughs in dry weather, or watch their course from flowers where they extracted the nectar, to the woods and locate the bee-tree, and on his decision large forest trees were cut down, even on a stranger's land, in order to secure the honey. The acute eye of the bee-hunter could detect a bee a long distance ; it was said on a clear day he could see a bee a mile away. Wild honey and maple sugar were the principal confections in pioneer times.

There were no stores where family supplies could be purchased, and if they were, the settler had no money with which to buy supplies, and the family dressed scantily. They generally went bare-footed, and even in cold weather the boys would go to school bare-footed. Often he would heat a slab of wood nearly to the burning point then start on a run to school, and when his feet became nearly frozen, he would stand on the board to warm them, and again start on a run, carrying his warming board to school where he would sit with his feet on the warm board. The writer has occasionally seen barefooted boys in frosty weather drive cows from their beds and warm their feet on the warm ground where the cow has laid all night. In order to save shoe-leather many people would walk barefooted on the dusty road, carrying their shoes until they approached the meeting house, when they would sit down by the roadside and put on their shoes and stockings.

Many a young couple have started in life with no capital except strong and rugged bodies. Many unique stories are told of the primitive weddings. Squire Jones reports the following case in point. A young man rode up to his cabin, with his would-be bride riding behind him on horse-back. They dismounted and hitched the horse to a sapling. After waiting a while he asked if he was a ** squire." Being told that he was he then asked the ** squire" what he charged to tie the knot. **You mean to marry youf" **Yes, sir." One dollar, the squire answered. "Will you take it in trade " *'What kind of trade!" ''Beeswax." "Bring it in." The young man went to the horse, and brought the beeswax, but it lacked thirty cents of being enough to pay for tying the taiot. After meditating some minutes with an embar- rassed countenance the young man said, '*Well, Sal, let's be going." Sal followed to the door, but turned around and with an entreating look she said: **Mr. Squire, can't you tie the knot as far as the beeswax goes! *' The squire relented and tied the knot, and sealed it with beeswax, and the happy couple mounted the horse, the bride sitting behind and clinging to her husband, feeling she had struck a good bargain.

Until the Indians were finally all removed to the West in 1838 the early settlers were in constant fear of Indian depredations. They would run off with their horses and appropriate anything they could lay their hands on; would frighten the pioneers by prowling around at night giving their warwhoops; acting in a threatening manner, thoroughly frightening the inmates of the cabin, then appropriate anything outside they could lay their hands on. When the government paid them their annuity the Indians would often get drui^ and become a great source of annoyance to the pioneer, but perhaps no more so than his white brother in a similar condition in this age. Several murders, both of Indians and whites have been reported as occurring in Cass county during these drunken orgies, but exact particulars of each case are not now obtainable. Children have been stolen, but were later restored, except one, which will be reported in the history of the township where the theft occurred. The pioneers were in constant fear that the Indians would attack and massacre them or run them or their children off as prisoners, and many occurrences of this kind took place during the settlement of Indiana.

Col. Eobt. S. Robertson in his history of the Upper Maumee Valley gives many heartrending tales of the capture of prisoners by the Indians from which we quote some incidents.

The expedition of Colonel Bouquet against the hostile Shawnees brought about the release of more thaii two hundred white prisoners who had been in captivity for some years.

Among the many prisoners brought into camp, husbands found their wives and parents their children, from whom they had been separated for years. Women frantic between hope and fear, were running hither and thither, looking piercingly into the face of every child. Some of the little captives shrank from their forgotten mothers and hid in terror in the blankets of the squaws that had adopted them. Some that had been taken away young had grown up, now stood utterly bewildered with conflicting emotions. A husband had found his wife; but his little boy not two years old when captured, had been torn from her and carried oflf, no one knew where. One day a warrior came in leading a child. At first no one seemed to know it. But soon the mother knew her offspring, and screaming with joy, folded her son in her bosom. An old woman had lost her grand-daughter, nine years before. All her other relatives had died under the scalping knife. Searching with trembling eagerness each of the captives, she at last recogniz^ the features of her long-lost child. But the girl had forgotten her native tongue and returned no answer and made no sign. The old woman groaned and complained bitterly that the daughter she had so often sung to sleep on her knee had forgotten her old age. Soldiers and oflScers were alike overcome.

Sing, said Colonel Bouquet, who had captured this Indian tribe with their white prisoners. Sing the songs you used to sing to your daughter. As the low trembling tones began to ascend the wild girl seemed startled, then listening for a moment longer, she burst into a flood of tears. She was indeed the lost child, but all else had been effaced from her memory save the recollections of that sweet cradle song. The tender sensibilities were foreign, as a role, to the Indian heart ; indeed they held such emotions in contempt ; but when the song of the old lady was seen, by them, to touch the captive's heart and bring her again to her mother's arms they were overcome by sympathy.

Many captive women who returned with their friends to tie settlements soon afterward made their escape and wandered back to their Indian husbands, so great was the change that had taken place in their natures.

Only he who knows what it means to hew a home out of a forest; of what is involved in the task of replacing mighty trees with corn; only he who has watched the log house rising in the clearing and has witnessed the devotedness that gathers around the old log school house, and the pathos of a grave in the wilderness can understand how sobriety, decency, aye, devotedness, beauty and power belong to the story of those who began the mighty task of changing the wild West into the heart of a teeming continent.

In pleading for a more just estimate of the pioneer, we do but plead for a higher appreciation of the stalwart and courageous settler who preempted the Wabash valley to civilization, who planted the seed that has grown schoolhouses and churches innumerable. They were men not only of great hearts but of great heads, aye, women, too, with laughing eyes, willing hands and humble spirits.

With all the hardships and privations of those who went into the van of civilization, there were, however, some sources of enjoyment not realized by those who came after them. They beheld the beauties of forests in all their native grandeur, before they were marred by the hand of man. They inhaled the sweet odors from a thousand wild flowers which grew in nature's garden, as they were wafted upon the morning and evening air. They saw the numerous flocks and herds of buffalo and deer, ** God's cattle upon a thousand hills," as they grazed upon virgin pasture fields of unsurpassed luxuriance, and they were charmed with the melody of the feathered songsters as their strains were poured forth from the boughs of the giant forest trees. With all their rough back-woods habits, their lack of means of mental culture, they exhibited in their lives the keeping of the great commandment, '*Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

We, to the pioneer with pleasure look In his Hoosier nest beside the brook. Where dense forest, his hands did clear. An honest heart, bearing good cheer.

To the honest heart in that Hoosier breast. Brought up in that homely Hoosier nest. We, of today, owe much that is grand, Much that's worth while, in this Hoosier land.