Clinton County, Indiana - Chapter 4: The Pioneers, 1913

In coming to make their homes in a new country, away from relatives whom they left behind, old friends and former associates, most of the immigrants coming hither brought but little with them. A few came bringing sufficient money to buy half a section of government land, but nearlv all had enough - one hundred dollars - with which to buy an eighty acre lot. Many of them were landless in the home country which they left behind them and came to this newer country that they might have a home of their own. But they brought with them better things than land, money, riches or lavish wealth ; it was the determination to make this their future home, to be good and worthy citizens of a new and rising commonwealth, to be brave, patient, self-sacrificing, upright and worthy of a noble destiny. Often, all the property a family brought with them, including all their furniture, household and farming implements and other needed articles was carried in a single wagon, drawn by an ox team or a single horse. Sometimes, but not often, all that was brought was carried on a single horse. Their first abode was a log cabin, of which there were three grades; first, was the cabin made of small round logs, scarcely more than poles, which by a little saddling and notching at the corner of the rising cabin were piled up round after round until the proper height, eight to nine feet was reached, then the gables of the upper portion were formed by shortening the logs gradually at each end of the building. At intervals of every two or three feet some of the best, stoutest and straightest logs were laid from gable to gable upon these rude rafters clapboards were laid, which made the roof of the structure. These boards were split out of the timber growing around the cabin. Instead of being nailed down, often, they were held in place by other lighter logs or poles laid on- them. This rude house, you would call it a hut, was then "chunked and daubed" ; the chunking consisted in placing in the openings between the logs other smaller pieces of timber, split to the proper size to fit the separate openings. Then a mixture of mud or mortar, prepared sufficiently stiff to "stick-" was spread over the openings closing them up and making the cabin habitable. Before the advent of the saw-mill, the floors of these rude cabins were roughly hewn puncheons laid upon sleepers set in the foundations of the building when erected. At that early day, a puncheon door, or a bed quilt did duty as a door.

But these puncheons used for floors, doors, etc., were soon superseded bv sawed boards, for most of the earliest mills erected in the county were saw mills. A few of these early cabins had no glass windows, a log was left out, or afterwards cut out, of one side of the room, the place filled with a rude frame over which greased paper or cotton cloth did duty as glass. Persons are yet living who remember well those paper windows not only for the pioneer's cabins but even for old time school houses. In at least one instance, the writer saw an immigrant's home he had made in a cabin in which not an article of furniture was of sawed lumber. The bedsteads were poles one end of which was inserted in a post set about six feet from one wall and four feet from the other, so that the other end of each of the two poles could be fastened to the opposite wall. A cross pole or two was laid and on these poles or sticks and clapboards were laid : on that, the bed was made, in this case the tables were puncheons, the chairs w ere each a small square piece of puncheon with legs at each corner inserted. But this old time rude condition did not long endure.

The next sort of a log cabin, a somewhat higher type, was a log structure similar to the other, only the logs wrere larger. After the logs were laid in place and the walls completed, a workman skilled in that business, went all over the inside of the building and with a well sharpened broad ax, but one of which could be found in a neighborhood, scutched down each log, by cutting or shaving off the projecting round portion, thus leaving the walls of the cabin with the logs presenting a perpendicular face toward the inside of the room.

The third style of log cabins was known as the hewn log, similar to the other styles, only the logs were, when cut from the forest much larger. The cabin when completed was far more pretentious : some of which have come down to our day and can yet be seen and are now in use. The logs were hewn where the tree had fallen and the logs had been cut the proper length which in this style of cabin, or house, was from eighteen to twenty- four or twentyeight feet. The logs being hewn on both sides, were laid up carefully, the slopes and kerfs skillfully cut so as to snugly fit one into the other. After the house was coupled, the projecting ends of the logs at the corners were sawed off. These hewed logs were often raised a story and a half high and covered with clapboards, and sometimes with shingles, securely nailed down.

These cabins, especially, the last named class were usually "raised" by what was known as a house-raising to which all the men in the vicinity had been invited who assembled at the proper hour in the morning, appointed their corner men who were generally skilled as such, and ( sometimes paid) : the foundations were laid, the owner having had ready the corner-stones for the foundation and the work went bravely on. At noon a sumptuous dinner had been prepared to which all did ample justice.

In that early day, cook stoves, or stoves of any kind were but little known. A broad fire-place c chimney was left in one side of the room, into this opening originally left, or cut out after the building was erected, on the outside, from the ground up. a stone column or often a column of split laths or sticks laid up. cob-house fashion. Over all this from top to bottom, mud or plaster was well laid and the chimney made secure. These chimneys were usually of such a size that logs six to nine feet long could be burned therein and the famous back-log in many a fire place was often a huge affair which was so large as to be handled only by rolling it into its p'ace. In th i < broad fireplace all the cooking was done, suspended from an iron crane fixed in one side of the chimney pots were hung, on the live coals in the fire, meat and other food was fried, on the hearth made of well tamped clay, most delicious bread was baked in a round, high and deep-formed skillet upon which a lid was placed, and with hot coals beneath the skillet and come well piled on the highly rimmed top, biscuit of wheat flour or better than that, golden hued corn-dodgers were baked, either of which were fit for an epicure.

For years, many of these simple homes constituted of but a single room - sometimes another was added on to the first cabin - which was parlor, sitting room, dining room and kitchen. Yet in these humble homes were growing up a generation which for exalted ideas of manhood and womanhood for morality, thrift, industry and the noblest ideals of American citizenship, was not excelled in any other county in any state in the Union.

Beyond the founding of a home, the improvement of and the clearing up of a farm in order, one of the first things to which the early pioneers of Clinton county paid any attention, was the church and their relation thereto. Though for a short time deprived of church privileges in the larger and social sense, yet in many of these early settler's homes, God was not forgotten. Family worship around the pioneer's fireside was not abandoned. The pro- portion of homes in which family worship was kept up. morning and evening, was far greater than now when family worship is rapidly coming to be a lost art. Xot only was the morning and evening prayer backed up as it was by a living faith that never faltered, but a portion of the Word was reverently read, and with that was often sung a stanza or two of some wellknown hymn : "Come thou fount of every blessing" or "When I can read my title clear," or some other well-known hymn sanctioned by its use for generations w as sung, the whole family joining in the melody.

As to early church privileges, especially in the years between 1826 and, say. 1832, the^e means of grace were few and highly appreciated. Four denominations quickly occupied the field, two. one of strong, the other of milder Calvinistic views, and two both equally Arminian in belief and creed, soon invaded the territory. The Old School Baptists and the Presbyterian church both had early church organizations here in Clinton county, the Baptists mostly in the southwest part of the county and the Presbyterians under the lead of that eminent man of God, Rev. James Carnahan - these were the first to have settled church organizations. The Methodists and the United Brethren in Christ, through circuit itinerant systems were also here in less organized but in a more militant form.

Of all the earlv institutions of Clinton countv. no greater contrast exists or can exist than between w hat the common schools were then and the magnificent svstem which w e have now ; but let it be stated by one who knows some of the defects in both then and now. that in proportion to the limited means at the disposal of the people for the education of their children that in that early dav. the dav of sma'l things and the facilities for an education of the youth of todav, as grand and as elaborate as they are now. the ends reached, the results wrought, taking into consideration the meagerness of the old and the fullness, the elaborateness of the new. in the ends reached, the old, the former, will surpass that of the latter, two to one.

This results from such considerations as the following: in the educational process two elements exist, the subject to be worked upon and the svstem itself apart from the subject - that is. what is to be educated and the means used for it. The facilities of the o'der day. as poor as they were, were used to the full. Xo effort put forth was lost, full and complete use of those opportunities v'as made, none were wasted. The teachers of those good old days were mainly self-educated, and from the time when a child began his first dav in school up to the day when he had learned all that was then taught in the common schools, the pupil was in close personal touch with the teacher. The education of most of the teachers of that old day was exceedingly limited, but the scholar got the full benefit of what there was.

Both systems had nearly, not quite wholly, the same class of infantile and youthful members on which to operate, but the means and the methods were vastly different, the men and the women now considerably advanced in life though they lived at a time and under such meager conditions as there were, are not lacking in information. The ends sought by an education as slender as they were then, in proportion to the facilities of today and the expense incurred therefor, the ends and results of the older time will outweigh those wrought today two to one.

The old time country school building in those ancient days was usually a hewn log structure, sometimes a roomy log cabin of the size of twenty by thirty feet - but seldom larger; c'apboard roof, roughly seated, often long slabs were used for seats, with pins driven in for legs. The desks were w fide boards fastened to the walls, sloping towards the pupil who sat in front of them. The teacher's ow n desk was a rude affair usually constructed by himself, generally but not always with a sloping hinged top. Metallic or steel pens were unknown then; all used quill pens, which the teacher was expected to keep in usable order; for this purpose he carried a rather sharp pocket knife. When the scholar's pen he was using became dull, blunted, or impaired in any way, he took it to the teacher who mended it. If the teacher had the care of thirty or fortv pupils, which was considered a large school for those davs. so many scholars were using pens that the systematic teacher had to provide a rack, one end of which was marked "Unmended. " and the other end "Mended" ; each pupil knowing his o'wn pen could place it in the unmended place and come and get it when he saw it in the "Mended" side.

Up to the year 18^0 in the rural districts there were no available school funds either for tuition or special school purposes; the old district system yet prevailed. The district was the unit of the system, not the school township as now. The affairs of the school district were in the hands of a board of three district trustees who met. may be, once a year. To each county was given a small sum annually, very small, wholly the bit of interest earned by the little accumulation in the state school fund and the meager income from the sale of congressional school lands. The trustees met and said whether they should allow the small sum due to each district to be used or not - it did not average $20.00 to the district a year. If a teacher applied for the usual thirteen weeks' school, he was allowed to take a subscription paper around and parents signed the number of scholars for which they would guarantee the payment, which was usually $2.00 a scho'ar. When a teacher had thirty scholars pledged at a designated time he opened school. At the close of the term, if the trustees had voted the use of the public money, it was given to the teacher who pro rated the little sum among his patrons, deducting from the $2.00 tuition per scholar the sum allotted to each.

As for the current expenses of the school, such as fuel, the patrons each brought one load of firewood which usually lasted the winter term through; if it did not, a few of the more liberal patrons brought each another load.

If a teacher in one of the rural districts received $60.00, as subscribed, he was satisfied, or rather had to be. As to his board if he did not live in the district, he boarded around, that is. he boarded with and among his patrons. Often this was all arranged among and by the patrons who had an understanding that he was to board the first week with Mr. So and So, next week with another and so on round, taking it by turns. Some of them always wanted to put off their turn until after ''hog-killing time," so they would have plenty of sausage for the teacher, who you can be assured always lived well, sometimes a little too well, for at the end of the term the gluttonous teacher found himself with a disordered stomach.

Just before the Christmas holidays the teacher was usually, that is, more often than otherwise, subjected to a pretty severe test as to how to take a joke. He was formally asked by a committee duly appointed by the older members of the school to furnish a treat for the scholars on Christmas, which - the treat - was usually two bushels of apples, then costing him about $1.00. If he at once agreed to furnish the treat, all went well, but if he refused, as was sometimes the case, the next morning when he came to the house to take up school, he would find most of the pupils there ahead of him and the door securely fastened - he was effectually barred out; if he succeeded in breaking in at ali. he was often subjected to very rough usage, sometimes very rough indeed. The scholars generally got their treat.

The rude school buildings to which reference has been made were not erected by the use of public funds. The citizens of a locality where it was deemed best to establish a school united their efforts, cut the trees, hewed the logs and put them up and erected the building by their own unaided efforts. As to heating those rude school houses, stoves were unknown; in one side of the room a large fireplace was left by the cutting out or leaving a very wide space into which a chimney was built ; this space well fitted and daubed with mortar all around, a big fire was kept in the cold weather. The use of this fireplace, well filled with the wood therein brought, heated the room in a certain or rather uncertain way. Yet there was some system about it, geo- graphically speaking, for next to the fire was the torrid zone and off in the remote part of the house they had the frigid zone and between the two extremes there was the temperate zone. On real cold days the pupils in the room remote from the fire were permitted to come up in platoons and stand before the fire until they got entirely warmed. They were then allowed to retire and another platoon took their place!

It was in these rude school houses that the largest use was made of the oiled or greased paper windows; one log was left out of two sides of the school house almost its entire length, the proper frames set in the apertures, the oiled paper applied and the light was thus afforded. While the improvised window was not exactly transparent, it was sufficiently translucent to afford sufficient light for the school.

When a scholar desired to leave the room, as he passed out at the door, he turned a pass or a small board on which the word "out" was printed; when he came back he turned the pass so that the word "in" could be seen; it was then known no one else was out and any other scholar could "pass" out

Sometimes the teacher, even at that early day, had a bell which he rang when "books" were called, in the morning, after a recess, or when the afternoon session was called. If he had no bell the signal was given by striking the outside of the door or the side of the house with a piece of board which called in the school from play to books.

The principal school books used in those days were. Webster's elementary speller, the English reader, which was used as a reader, often most any kind of a book, a history or what the parents happened to have in their homes did duty; Pike's arithmetic was much used then: Ivirkham's grammar came into use in the early thirties; Olney's geography a little later. There was but very little classification until McGuffey's readers came into use; then the pupils were partially classed and read in classes. For a time blackboards were unknown; then instruction in arithmetic was largely personal. A pupil brought his arithmetic to school; if he was a beginner he commenced at addition, in the meantime studying the multiplication table so that when subtraction with its intricacy of "borrowing one" was mastered he could go on with multiplication. The process of working out long division was the first real hard place in his arithmetical route, but by the aid of the teacher that was mastered. The bestowal of individual instruction by the teacher to the pupil was the saving clause, the redeeming element which prevented the complete failure of the old "come up and say your lesson" system of those good old days.

This account of the education and schools of the pioneers would be very imperfect were not some reference made to the old fashioned spelling schools.

These spelling schools, or matches, were for the older members of the school, the youths, the lads and misses, but often adults not members of the school took part. Of these spelling matches there is one invariable quality and then two different methods of carrying out the contest. There must first be a choosing up. Two captains are chosen by a sort of common consent or the teacher or some one in limited authority selected them; these captains selected the spellers usually in a rotation according to the supposed ability of the speller, the best in the house chosen by one captain, then another selected one and so on until the entire house was chosen who would take part in the match.

Two methods now were open, one is to let the first chosen of each line stand up, as if in a duel, spelling word about; the first of the two missing a word was out and another of his side took his place, and so on until all were out except the last speller who had won a victory for his side.

In the other method both sides stood up in line all together, facing each other. The head of one line spelled the first word pronounced, then the other opposite to him and so on back and forth from one side to the other. Any one missing a word was out. until all were spelled down but the last one, who was the champion of his class which won.

Speaking of teaching spelling in those days, the final afternoon session was not closed without the spelling lesson, in which all the older pupils stood in line and spelled as the words were pronounced to them, one after the other, until the lesson assigned had all been spelled. In some schools this spelling exercise was held at the close of the morning session also.

In the manner of teaching spelling then and now there was a great difference. unnecessary to be alluded to here; but this is true, in those old times there was more good spelling than in these later days : that is in proportion to the whole number of pupils in a school a greater proportion than now were good spellers.

In the later thirties and early forties a system of teaching geography was practiced, not so much in the regular three months term time as in special sessions of from five to ten weeks, usually along in midsummer, after harvest; this geography school requires special mention here as a part of ancient history. The tuition rate was usually from $1.00 to S2.00 for the term, invariably paid in advance. This system was known as the "Singing Geography System." Teaching geography in the common schools now takes a much wider range, physical, political, economic, commercial, etc. Tn the singing ( ?) geographv onlv political geographv was taught.

Its distinctive feature consisted in all the scholars in the class, under the direction of a very competent teacher, for he knew the entire course well "by heart," with the "Geography Book," the good old Olney, spread before them, with pointer in hand, the scholars were recjuired to look up. point out and repeat all in unison, the names of the objects on the map. in a sing-song voice, the names of these objects. Starting out with the names of the countries, or states, as for example, the names and capitals of the various states and territories of the United States were rattled off in this way: Maine. Augusta;

Maine, Augusta: Massachusetts. Boston, Massachusetts. Boston, and so on all over the union, taking in every state and territory. Then the rivers were taken in rotation, in the same manner: then the gulfs, bays, sounds, etc., and on until nearly every geographical feature was covered. Manv a lad or miss laid the foundation of his geographical knowledge in a lesson course of a few days that stood him well in hand during all of life's pilgrimage.

One social feature of pioneer life must not be forgotten for its educational value as well as social, and that is the local debating clubs that in an early day pervaded all the counties of Northwestern Indiana. In the debates conducted in those pioneer days not only the young men but men of mature age and even old men took part. The questions debated either had an ethical, social or economic side. Temperance, slavery, labor, in the later forties, the subject of the Mexican war, also slavery and even questions of religious creed, such as the doctrine known as Universalism was a prolific subject of debate, as this doctrine was then new. was debated at these country lyceums. The split in the Methodist church in the early thirties and the division in the Presbyterian church in the later years of that decade were subjects of debate in these country clubs. But no subject was even debated with the frequency, the eagerness and pertinacity as "Pursuit or Possession." Much eloquence and skill was wasted on the affirmative and negative of that theme: among the younger men "pursuit" usually came out ahead.

From the time of the early pioneers and on up to the end of the first fortv years of the existence of the county its people always had a poor home market. Even in the palmy days when Jefferson was an actual shipping point, pork was packed then, but it had to be hauled to Lafayette or Delphi, the nearest points on the Wabash and Erie canal : the cost of this wagon transportation was of course charged up to and thrown back upon the producer. After that canal was opened farmers of Clinton county hauled their net pork, the carcasses of fatted hogs, and sold it at the markets named for $1.50 a hundred weight ; net pork at that price : good shelled corn ; the farmers tramped it out on their barn floors or on hard tamped dirt floors, tramped it out as they did their wheat with their horses, hauled it to market and received 16 cents a bushel for that shelled com; 33 to 37/4 cents a bushel for their w heat, 10 to 15 cents for oats and so on.

There were stores at Jefferson, Frankfort and other points where goods of nearly every description suited to the wants of the people could be procured and in the way of barter, eggs, poultry, etc., could be sold by the fanner and farmers' wives. Butter sold at seven to ten cents a pound, and eggs at three cents a dozen, and that, too. as late as the early forties. At no time, however, did the early pioneers lack for meat. From time of the first settlement in 1826 up to say 1830, there was an abundance of wild game which cost nothing but a few hours hunting and the killing. As the western part of the county became more populous meat was not wanting. For at stated times some farmer killed a beef or a hog and his neighbors came on the day of the killing and bought in a sort of retail way meat in such quantities as they wished. Good hind quarter chunks, not steaks, sold at four cents a pound and the other parts of the carcass a little less. Pork sold somewhat lower than that.

There was a time, in fact, and it lasted up to about the good year 1840, when any one who chose, could get his pork for nothing, especially in the fall when it was. too. in its be>t condition. From various causes the lowprice of pork and the fact that some hogs by their owners moving away and other causes, a breed of wild hogs grew up which infested all of the western half of Clinton county and the eastern part of Tippecanoe county, which by liv ing off of the abundant beechnut and acorn crop, by November made most excellent pork, it was well flavored, not excessively fat : in fact, quite otherwise. The hog in his wild state, or even the domesticated porker is cleanly. The mast upon which he fed and the succulent herbs and roots which he ate made his flesh, largely made up of successive layers of fat and lean, most delicious and fit for an epicure !

Flog killing time was always an event in every settler's family. Some neighbors were usually called in to help, and there was generally one man in each neighborhood who w as the best shot. Up early in killing days, the water had been heated in the huge iron kettles of the day, a hogshead or very large barrel had been procured, the gambrels had been prepared, the scalding vessel was in position with its platform attached thereto, the water hot and all was ready. Inclosed in a pen two men did the killing act. one who did the shooting and he wras a sure shot, for he would hit the hog whether still or in motion with a shot that allowed no sqquealing; next the "sticker" rushed in and by deft movements got the brute over on his back and plunged his always sharp and roundly pointed knife into the victim's throat in such a way as not to injure either shoulder. The sousing the dead hog into the scalding tub, turning and twisting it about so that every part was well scalded, the drawing out of the carcass, the work of pulling, raking and scraping all the hair off, the washing and hanging up by the gambrel, the ends inserted into the sinews of his hind feet, the work of getting the offal from the deal hog, all the rest of the work was but mechanical, though usually performed by an expert at the business.

The work of making the sausage, for which the most edible portions of the hog were used, must not be omitted. Of course, the work of stuffing the sausage, the casing neatly and very cleanly prepared out of the entrals was always done with a regular sausage stuffer, of which there was at least one in the neighborhood. But if no regular stuffer was to be had, a pretty fair substitute for the task consisted of a part of the smaller portion of a cow's horn, one as straight as could be found, each end neatly cut off. By forcing the sausage meat on the larger end of this cow horn stuffer and then with a plunger fitted to push the meat into the casing, a good part of which had been piled up on the smaller end of the stuffer. the work was slowly, patiently but effectively done and sausage was made.

For a short time the early settlers of Clinton county had some difficulty in procuring the staff of life, their bread. To barely allude to the fact that thev had no crop until the end of the first vear, there were then no grist mills in the county. They had then to get their flour and corn meal by going an entire day's journey after it. For a short time, only a season or two, corn meal of a most delicious kind was procured by grating, using a perforated grater board made by taking a piece of sheet tin ; old scraps of tin vessels were often used, punching it full of holes, bending it into a semi-cylinder and nailing it on to a board ; the corn in the fall while yet soft was rubbed on this grater, a meal was made, which whether made into a mush or corn cake, was at once palatable and nutritious. But soon mills were erected : the early ones called corn crackers, but later on regular mills for grinding both wheat and corn. One of the earliest of these in Clinton county was the Wineship mill, which served its purpose for forty years. Mills were established on all the principal streams, most of them on Killtnore creek. The last of these mills were Bogh' smill on the south fork of Wild Cat, and Pence's mill northwest of Jefferson: this last did effective work for more than sixty years; Bogh's mill for more than forty years.

Much of the water power, which was far more abundant in former years than now, which at the present time is all going to waste, was then utilized

In those primitive days money was scarce and as far as possible a system of barter prevailed by which the use of money was avoided. During the earliest of these pioneer days peltries were legal tenders anywhere: the oldfashioned "daddy (?) dollar," which was very much like the silver dollar of today, the French five- franc piece and Spanish quarters constituted the metallic money in circulation. In the panic of 1837 money was not only had to procure, but the bank notes then in circulation and for twenty years after were an abomination; many of them circulating at a discount.

Up to the time of the completion of the Wabash and Erie canal and indeed for twenty years thereafter, much of the trade of all the western portion of the state went by fiat-boats to Xew Orleans. The shipper would load up with grain, fowls, honey, some vegetables, and other products that would find an early sale down there - then disposed of for a little cash, but mostly groceries, and any goods w hich he needed and come home on a steamer line. Many a wagon load of wheat was hauled to Chicago and then sold, the seller bringing back salt, dry goods or clothing. After the canal was constructed all this foreign selling and buying ceased.

Although the agricultural implements of that day were primitive, as you might think, yet they did the work, but were far from being anything like what they are today. In the first three or four years, or even longer, all wheat was cut by the sickle, then in the early forties came the cradle; next, the reaper that cut the grain, which fell back upon a platform from which, sheaf by sheaf, it was raked off by a man standing on the hind end of the reaper behind a support. From that, by successive improvements, you now have the complete self-binder. From the first settling of the county in 1826, and on during all the thirties, wheat was threshed out by flailing or tramping out by horses, on a barn floor, or on the ground prepared by tamping. In the early forties, possibly earlier, came the first specimen of the thresher, w'hich was but little else than a toothed cylinder and concave that threshed the wheat but did not separate the grain from the chaff and straw; next was the traveling thresher, which partially winnowed the wheat and prepared it for market ; then the larger thresher, run at first wholly by horse power, afterward by steam, up to the great threshing machines now in use.

The breaking plows in use in those days were either of a wooden or cast iron mould board; in the Twelve Mile and other prairies, these plows did not freely scour; a clipper plow, so-called, was invented which bv the peculiar

The other implements used then and now differ but little in use and shape. The modern corn cultivator was unknown and the corn was all tended by a one-horse shovel plow, going twice in a row. The work band who could plow seven acres of corn in a day, with a single shovel equal to fourteen acres with the modern cultivator, was a marvel of industry and usually got extra pay.

Speaking of the wages of farm hand in those pioneer davs, boys up to 14 to 16 years, working by the month, wet and dry. received a salarv of $6.00 a month : the young man doing a man's work, was paid from $7.00, $7.50 or $8.00 on up to $10.00 a month: he got his. boarding and washing. This was thus on up to 1850, the wages then going up to $13.00, not beyond $13.50 or $14.00. During the plowing season the work band on a farm was up from his rest at 4 a. m., fed his horses, ate at 5, was out in the field by sun up or shortly thereafter: an hour, or sometimes an hour and a half, at noon, work on to 4 or 5 p. m., eat his supper, went back to bis plowing and plowed as long as be could see a row of corn. When the corn was ''laid by,'' the wheat and the hay harvest was done, he may have got a half a day off. The things, the clothing, bats, boots or shoes, a farm boy or man had to buy those days were not as cheap as now.

Though the farm and other implements of that time were not finished up as finely as those of today, not quite as well adapted for their purpose as those of today, they were substantial and when they needed repairs no trouble about that. Tn fact, nearly all farm implements, especially the wooden parts thereof, were all manufactured right here at home. Tn those primitive days home manufacturers had almost the entire field to themselves. Every part of a breaking or shovel plow could he replaced by a skillful carpenter or wagonmaker of those days, except the iron parts. Wagon, plows, harrows and, in fact, nearlv all tools in that day were completely made over, fully and completely repaired or made anew. Blacksmiths made the shovels for the plows and the wagon-maker did the rest. If a wagon became so worn as to be useless it was burned up, the iron parts saved and all made over except, possibly, the hubs. The wooden parts of plows were replaced as well as of other implements.

In fact in those days there was much more manufacturing at home than now by far. A tailor who had his shop near the western county line made a suit of clothes, way back in the early thirties, just as good as can now be made. You took the satinet, linsey-woolsey or the all wool cloth to him and you got just as good a suit, not quite as artistic as now; in many a family, in addition to the big wheel for wool, and the little wheel for flax, there was a loom, in which not only rag carpets were woven but various grades of cloth as well. Up to eighty years ago no boots or shoes, or but few, were imported. Men and women, too, are yet living, who. up to their twentieth year, never wore any but a home-made boot or shoe. In every neighborhood was, at least, one shoemaker. In Jefferson and Rossville and some other towns in the western part of the count}-, boot and shoe factories, one in Rossville continued on employing from four to seven hands, until the earlier fifties; several tan yards in the county supplied the good oak-tanned leather, several west and north of Frankfort, at Middle Fork, or on the Sam Ryger place - Samuel Ryger was a first-class tanner - on the Shortly farm, the Steele and finally the Dorner tannery, most of these coming down to our day.

The truth of history must lie told whether it suits us or not: it is not generally known that among other things manufactured, produced and of course consumed, there were whiskey factories, regular distilleries within the boundaries of Clinton county, as many as seven of them, all running at one time using and affording a home market for, good honest Clinton county grown corn and rye. taking it through the different processes of grinding, scalding, mashing, fire coppering and taking it through the beer stage and then distilling it. all through the various processes of making good sour mash whiskey, equal in fame and reputation to the well-known as highly favored and daintily flavored Kentucky whiskey. This whiskey was better in its day than that made now because the latter is always doctored, chemical substances are put into it and other deleterious ingredients. But those still houses are gone, but few know where they were, their mash tubs, their distilling vats, their coils of pipe, their ''worms of the still." all are gone and forever.

Going back to pioneer life as it was lived, it was not all hard work, sacrifice, privation and the dark side of life. There was a bright side to those oldtime days. Those good old fathers and mothers had their periods of mirth and relaxation, their season of genuine fun and real enjoyment. The women had their wool-pickings, the carpet sewings and their quilting-bees, the men their ''house raisings." "log rollings" and "corn huskings,'' in which the useful and the practical were combined with the social and the agreeable. As for the young people it has often been said by some of them who were afterwards permitted to live to a great old age that those former days were better, had far more enjoyment in them than the later days. Rest assured, the young people of the first ten or fifteen years of Clinton county life did not lack for enjoyment. The young girls had their quiltings especially for young people, their social parties where both sexes of young folks mingled in friendly social intercourse. Singing schools were popular with all the young people; the old Missouri Harmony was the favorite book from which most of the best tunes and melodies were sung: in winter spelling schools, and at all times since pioneer days, the school house was open for the voting people.

A wedding was always a great social event in a vicinity because the number invited was usually large and the occasion covering both the wedding and the "infair" held at the parents' home of the groom, were events in those days each to be well remembered until the next one. The social dances of those days have been called hoe-downs but for no more or better reason than the elite dance of today. True, the "double shuffle" step may have been practiced with greater force or speedier agility, but the cotillion was very much the same then as now.

There were other coarser sports in those days, especialiv for the men. There was the fox-drive: notice of which had been given out weeks ahead; the day came, the appointed lines were formed, usually taking in an entire township, the captains and leaders of each line had been appointed: noisy musical instruments, such as horns, drums, and even bells were used on the lines to keep them intact : the lines closed up on what foxes or other vermin might be enclosed therein, finally, the center of the territory was reached, the victims caught in the meeting were dispatched with clubs or by the dogs, as no firearms were allowed in the drive.

Then there was the old time shooting match. There were several sorts of these. For a time the skill of the marksmen was put to the test, the turkey as the prize. A five or a ten cent charge was made for each shooter, the number limited by the value of the bird; each man tried his skill on a separate target, the one making the best shot got the turkey. Later a more barbarous plan was used. The turkey was tied off a good ways from the place of the marksmen, who, by turns shot at the poor bird, the first one drawing blood got the turkey, but Clinton county pioneers never permitted this method ; it came in the late forties. A coarser and yet more reprehensible form of amusement was horse-running, the horses on the turf being scrub stock. The races were held in a sort of a fast and loose style, the usual amount of jockeying, the poor brutes shamefully beaten, and the race for that day usually broken up in a row. This form of amusement was indulged in only by a certain class and was not patronized by most Clinton county pioneers.

For a time, when Clinton county was settled in the early thirties the drink habit, in a mild form almost universally prevailed. The immigrants from Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky were all addicted to it; there were but very few total abstainers. At all public gatherings the bottle was freely passed around. Xo log-rolling, house-raising, corn-husking or any other similar event could come off without whisky. Comparatively few men ever became intoxicated which was then abhorred almost as much as today. The farmer kept it in his cupboard or on his sideboard; before each meal the pater- familias, has grown-up sons and hired men all took a swig at the old-fashioned quart or half gallon inflated bulb-shaped bottle or decanter; this was usually a mixture of whisky and tansy, the latter placed there for health's sake. The amount of whisky drank in this day was less than it is now though more partook of the beverage. Whisky was sold in every village, in every store there, at mere crossroads and everywhere ; at one place in the county a ten by twelve log cabin was used as the saloon, then styled a grocery, the story is the fellow sold three kinds of whisky according to the price out of the same barrel: if you wanted a i2l/2 gallon of the fluid you got it well watered, if a i8-'4 gallon, it was slightly watered: but if you called for a 25 cent a gallon article you got the pure stuff.

But the better, more intelligent class of people saw the drink habit was becoming too prevalent, a few men were going down to drunkard's graves, young men were dying before their time. All could see some harm and no good was the result of too much whisky being drunk. The Washingtonian movement xvas inaugurated and swept ox er the county. The temperate orator of that day, the later forties, told the people of the evil of intemperance and plead for total abstinence. Pledge clubs were formed. Men by the hundred signed the pledge, the progress of the great evil was arrested.

Next came the Good Templars, a sacred order, its members all pleded to sobriety and abstinence; next came the demand for legislation - this is a part of modern history. But all this in a mild form swept over Clinton county and is a part of this history.