Johnson County, Indiana - Chapter 10 (1 of 2 so headed), 1888 (part 6 of 6)

The nucleus of a fund for supplying indigent graduatss of the institution with an outfit suitable to their trades, or with money in lieu thereof, promises to meet with many additions. The fund is the out-come of the benevolence of Mrs. Fitzpatrick, a resident of Delaware, in this State, and appears to be suggested by the fact that her daughter, who was smitten with blindness, studied as a pupil in the institute, and became singularly attached to many of its inmates. The following passage from the lady's will bears testimony not only to her own sympathetic nature but also to the efficiency of the establishment which so won her esteem. " I give to each of the following persons, friends and associates of my blind daughter, Margaret Louisa, the sum of $100 to each, to wit, viz: Melissa and Phoebe Garrettson, Frances Cundiff, Dallas Newland, Naomi Unthunk, and a girl whose name before marriage was Rachel Martin, her husband's name not recollected. The balance of my estate, after paying the expenses of administering, I give to the superintendent of the blind asylum and his successor, in trust, for the use and benefit of the indigent blind of Indiana who may attend the Indiana blind asylum, to be given to them on leaving in such sums as the superintendent may deem proper, but not more than $50 to any one person. I direct that the amount above directed be loaned at interest, and the interest and principal be distributed as above, agreeably to the best judgment of the superintendent, so as to do the greatest good to the greatest number of blind persons."

The following rules, regulating the institution, after laying down in preamble that the institute is strictly an educational establishment, having its main object the moral, intellectual and physical training of the young blind of the State, and is not an asylum for the aged and helpless, nor an hospital wherein the diseases of the eye may be treated, proceed as follows:

1. The school year commences the first "Wednesday after the 15th day of September, and closes on the last Wednesday in June, showing a session of 40 weeks, and a vacation term of 84 days.

3. Imbecile or unsound persons, or confirmed imraoralists, cannot be admitted knowingly; neither can admitted pupils who prove disobedient or incompetent to receive instruction be retained on the roll.

4. No charge is made for the instruction and board given to pupils from the State of Indiana; and even those without the State have only to pay $200 for board and education during the 40 weeks* session.

7. In cases of extreme indigence the institution may provide clothing and defray the traveling expenses of such pupil and levy the amount so expended on the county wherein his or her home is situated.

8. The pupil, or friends of the pupil, must remove him or her from the institute during the annual vacation, and in case of their failure to do so, a legal provision enables the superintendent to forward such pupil to the trustee of the township where he or she resides, and the expense of such transit and board to be charged to the county.

10. Letters to the pupils should be addressed to the care of the Superintendent of the Institute for the Education of the Blind, so as the better to insure delivery.

11. Persons desirous of admission of pupils should apply to the superintendent for a printed copy of instructions, and no pupil should be sent thereto until the instructions have been complied with.

Institute For The Deaf And Dumb

In 1843 the Governor was also instructed to obtain plans and information respecting the care of mutes, and the Legislature also levied a tax to provide for them. The first one to agitate the subject was "William "Willard, himself a mute, who visited Indiana in 1843, and opened a school for mutes on his own account, with 16 pupils.

The next year the Legislature adopted this school as a State institution, appointing a Board of Trustees for its management, consisting of the Governor and Secretary of State, ex-officio,and Revs. Henry Ward Beecher, Phineas D. Gurley, L. H. Jameson, Dr. Dunlap, Hon. James Morrison and Rev. Matthew Simpson. They rented the large building on the southeast comer of Illinois and Maryland streets, and opened the first State asylum there in 1844; but in 1846, a site for a permanent building just east of Indianapolis was selected, consisting first of 30 acres, to which 100 more have been added. On this site the two first structures were commenced in 1849, and completed in the fall of 1850, at a cost of $30,000. The school was immediately transferred to the new building, where it is still flourishing, with enlarged buildings and ample facilities for instruction in agriculture. In 1869-'70, another building was erected, and the three together now constitute one of the most beneficent and beautiful institutions to be found on this continent, at an aggregate cost of $220,000. The main building has a facade of 260 feet. Here are the offices, study rooms, the quarters of officers and teachers, the pupils' dormitories and the library. The center of this building has a frontage of eighty feet, and is five stories high, with wings on either side 60 feet in frontage. In this Central structure are the store rooms, dining-hall, servants' rooms, hospital, laundry, kitchen, bakery and several school-rooms. Another structure known as the " rear building " contains the chapel and another 6et of school-rooms. It is two stories high, the center being 50 feel square and the wings 40 by 20 feet. In addition to these there are many detached buildings, containing the shops of the industrial department, the engine-house and wash-house.

The grounds comprise 105 acres, which in the immediate vicinity of the buildings partake of the character of ornamental or pleasure gardens, comprising a space devoted to fruits, flowers and vegetables, while the greater part is devoted to pasture and agriculture.

The first instructor in the institution was Wm. Willard, a deaf mute, who had up to 1844 conducted a small school for the instruction of the deaf at Indianapolis, and now is employed by the State, at a salary of $800 per annum, to follow a similar vocation in its service. In 1853 he was succeeded by J. S. Brown, and subsequently by Thomas Mclntire, who continues principal of the institution.

Hospital, Foe The Insanb

The Legislature of 1832-'3 adopted measures providing for a State hospital for the insane. This good work would have been done much earlier had it not been for the hard times of 1837, intensified by the results of the gigantic scheme of internal improvement. In order to survey the situation and awaken public sympathy, the county assessors were ordered to make a return of the insane in their respective counties. During the year 1842 the Governor, acting under the direction of the Legislature, procured considerable information in regard to hospitals for the insane in other States; and Dr. John Evans lectured before the Legislature on the subject of insanity and its treatment. As a result of these efforts the authorities determined to take active steps for the establishment of such a hospital. Plans and suggestions from the superintendents and hospitals of other States were submitted to the Legislature in 1844, which body ordered the levy of a tax of one cent on the $100 for the purpose of establishing the hospital. In 1845 a commission was appointed to obtain a site not exceeding 200 acres. Mount Jackson, then the residence of Nathaniel Bolton, was selected, and the Legislature in 1S46 ordered the commissioners to proceed with the erection of the building. Accordingly, in 1847, the central building was completed, at a cost of $75,000. It has since been enlarged by the addition of wings, some of which are larger than the old central building, until it has become an immense structure, having cost over half a million dollars.

This hospital was opened for the reception of patients in 1848. The principal structure comprises what is known as the central building and the right and left wings, and like the institute for the deaf and dumb, erected at various times and probably under various adverse circumstances, it certainly does not hold the appearance of any one design, but seems to be a combination of many. Notwithstanding these little defects in arrangement, it presents a very imposing appearance, and shows what may be termed a frontage of 624 feet. The central building is five stories in height and eontains the store-rooms, offices, reception parlors, medical dispensing rooms, mess-rooms and the apartments of the superintendent and other officers, with those of the female employes. Immediately in the rear of the central building, and connected with it by a corridor, is the chapel, a building 50 by 60 feet. This chapel occupies the third floor, while the under stories hold the kitchen, bakery, employes' dining-room, steward's office, employes' apartments and sewing rooms. In rear of this again is the enginehouse, 60 by 50 feet, containing all the paraphernalia for such an establishment, such as boilers, pumping works, fire plugs, hose, and above, on the second floor, the laundry and apartments of male em flojes.

The State Prison South

The first penal institution of importance is known as the " State I'rison South," located at Jeffersonville, and was the only prison until 1859. It was established in 1821. Before that time it was customary to resort to the old-time punishment of the whippingpost. Later the manual labor system was inaugurated, and the convicts were hired out to employers, among whom were Capt. Westover, afterward killed at Alamo, Texas, with Crockett, James Keigwin, who in an affray was fired at and severely wounded by a convict named Williams, Messrs. Patterson Hensley, and Jos. R. Pratt. During the rule of the latter of these lessees, the attention of the authorities was turned to a more practical method of utilizing convict labor; and instead of the prisoners being permitted to serve private entries, their work was turned in the direction of their own prison, where for the next few years they were employed in erecting the new buildings now known as the " State Prison South." This structure, the result of prison labor, stands on 16 acres of ground, and comprises the cell houses and workshops, together with the prisoners' garden, or pleasure-ground.

It seems that in the erection of these buildings the aim of the overseers was to create so many petty dungeons and un ventilated laboratories, into which disease in every form would be apt to creep. This fact was evident from the high mortality characterizing life within the prison; and in the efforts made by the Government to remedy a state of things which had been permitted to exist far too long, the advance in prison reform has become a reality. T^rom 1857 to 1871 the labor of the prisoners was devoted to the manufacture of wagons and farm implements; and again the old policy of hiring the convicts was resorted to; for in the latter year, 1871, the Southwestern Car Company was organized, and every prisoner capable of taking a part in the work of car-building was leased out. This did very well until the panic of 1873, when the company suffered irretrievable losses; and previous to its final down-fall in 1876 the warden withdrew convict labor a second time, leaving the prisoners to enjoy a luxurious idleness around the prison which themselves helped to raise.

In later years the State Prison South has gained some notoriety from the desperate character of some of its inmates. During the civil war a convict named Harding mutilated in a most horrible manner and ultimately killed one of the jailors named Tesley. In 1874, two prisoners named Kennedy and Applegate, possessing themselves of some arms, and joined by two other convicts named Port and Stanley, made a break for freedom, swept past the guard, Chamberlain, and gained the fields. Chamberlain went in pursuit but had not gone very far when Kennedy turned on his pursuer, fired and killed him instantly. Subsequently three of the prisoners were captured alive and one of them paid the penalty of death, while Kennedy, the murderer of Chamberlain, failing committal for murder, was sent back to his old cell to spend the remainder of his life. Bill Rodifer, better known as " The Hoosier Jack Sheppard," effected his escape in 1875, in the very presence of a large guard, but was recaptured and has since been kept in irons.

This establishment, owing to former mismanagement, has fallen very much behind, financially, and has asked for and received an appropriation of $20,000 to meet its expenses, while the contrary is the case at the Michigan City prison.

The State Prison North

In 1859 the first steps toward the erection of a prison in the northern part of the State were taken, and by an act of the Legislature approved March 5, this year, authority was given to construct prison buildings at some point north of the National road. For this purpose $50,000 were appropriated, and a large number of convicts from the Jefferson ville prison were transported northward to Michigan City, which was just selected as the location for the new penitentiary. The work was soon entered upon, and continued to meet with additions and improvements down to a very recent period. gk> late as 1875 the Legislature appropriated $20,000 toward the construction of new cells, and in other directions also the work of improvement has been going on. The system of government and discipline is similar to that enforced at the Jefferson ville prison; and, strange to say, by its economical working has not only met the expenses of the administration, but very recently had amassed over $11,000 in excess of current expenses, from its annual savings. This is due almost entirely to the continual employment of the convicts in the manufacture of cigars and chairs, and in their great prison industry, cooperage. It differs widely from the Southern, insomuch as its sanitary condition has been above the average of similar institutions. The strictness of its silent system is better enforced. The petty revolutions of its inmates have been very few and insignificant, and the number of punishments inflicted comparatively small. From whatever point this northern prison may be looked at, it will bear a very favorable comparison with the largest and best administered of like establishments throughout the world, and cannot fail to bring high credit to its Board of Directors and its able warden.

Female Prison And Reformatory

The prison reform agitation which in this State attained telling proportions in 1869, caused a Legislative measure to be brought forward, which would have a tendency to ameliorate the condition of female convicts. Gov. Baker recommended it to the General Assembly, and the members of that body showed their appreciation of the Governor's philanthropic desire by conferring upon the bill the authority of a statute; and further, appropriated $50,000 to aid in carrying out the objects of the act. The main provisions contained in the bill may be set forth in the following extracts from the proclamation of the Governor:

" Whenever said institution shall have been proclaimed to De open for the reception of girls in the reformatory department thereof, it shall be lawful for said Board of Managers to receive them into their care and management, and the said reformatory department, girls under the age of 15 years who may be committed to their custody, in either of the following modes, to- wit:

" 1. When committed by any judge of a Circuit or Common Pleas Court, either in term time or in vacation, on complaint and due proof by the parent or guardian that by reason of her incorrigible or vicious conduct she has rendered her control beyond the power of such parent or guardian, and made it manifestly requisite

" 2. When such infant has been committed by such judge, as aforesaid, upon complaint by any citizen, and due proof of such complaint that such infant is a proper subject of the guardianship of such institution in consequence of her vagrancy or incorrigible or vicious conduct, and that from the moral depravity or otherwise of her parent or guardian in whose custody she may be, such parent or guardian is incapable or unwilling to exercise the proper care or discipline over such incorrigible or vicious infant.

" 3. When such infant has been committed by such judge as aforesaid, on complaint and due proof thereof by the township trustee of the township where such infant resides, that such infant is destitute of a suitable home and of adequate means of obtaining an honest living, or that she is in danger of being brought up to lead an idle and immoral life."

In addition to these articles of the bill, a formal section of instruction to the wardens of State prisons was embodied in the act, causing such wardens to report the number of all the female convicts under their charge and prepare to have them transferred to the female reformatory immediately after it was declared to be ready for their reception. After the passage of the act the Governor appointed a Board of Managers, and these gentlemen, securing the services of Isaac Hodgson, caused him to draft a plan of the proposed institution, and further, on his recommendation, asked the people -for an appropriation of another $50,000, which the Legislature granted in February, 1873. The work of construction was then entered upon and carried out so steadily, that on the 6th of September, 1873, the building was declared ready for the reception of its future inmates. Gov. Baker lost no time in proclaiming this fact, and October 4 he caused the wardens of the State prisons to be instructed to transfer all the female convicts in their custody to the new institution which may be said to rest on the advanced intelligence of the age. It is now called the " Indiana Reformatory Institution for Women and Girls."

This building is located immediately north of the deaf and dumb asylum, near the arsenal, at Indianapolis. It is a threestory brick structure in the French style, and shows a frontage of 174 feet, comprising a main building, with lateral and transverse wings. In front of the central portion is the residence of the superintendent and his associate reformatory officers, while in the rear is the engine house, with all the ways and means for heating the buildings. Enlargements, additions and improvements are still in progress. There is also a school and library in the main building, which are sources of vast good.

October 31, 1879, there were 66 convicts in the " penal" department and 147 in the " girls' reformatory " department. The " ticket-of-leave " system has been adopted, with entire satisfaction, and the conduct of the institution appears to be up with the times.

Indiana House Of Refuge

In 1867 the Legislature appropriated $50,000 to aid in the formation of an institution to be entitled a house for the correction and reformation of juvenile defenders, and vested with full powers in a Board of Control, the members of which were to be appointed by the Governor, and with the advice and consent of the Senate. This Board assembled at the Governor's house at Indianapolis, April 3, 1867, and elected Charles F. Coffin, as president, and visited Chicago, so that a visit to the reform school there might lead to a fuller knowledge and guide their future proceedings. The House of Refuge at Cincinnati, and the Ohio State Reform school were also visited with this design; and after full consideration of the varied governments of these institutions, the Board resolved to adopt the method known as the " family " system, which divides the inmates into fraternal bodies, or small classes, each class having a separate house, house father and family offices, - all under the control of a general superintendent. The system being adopted, the question of a suitable location next presented itself, and proximity to a large city being considered rather detrimental to the welfare of such an institution, Gov. Baker selected the site three-fourths of a mile south of Plainfield, and about fourteen miles from Indianapolis, which, in view of its eligibility and convenience, was fully concurred in by the Board of Control. Therefore, a farm of 225 acres, claiming a fertile soil and a most picturesque situation, and possessing streams of running water, was purchased, and on a plateau in its center a site for the proposed house of refuge was fixed.

The next movement was to decide upon a plan, which ultimately met the approval of the Governor. It favored the erection of one principal building, one house for a reading-room and hospital, two large mechanical shops and eight family houses. January 1, 1868, three family houses and work-shop were completed; in 1869 the main building, and one additional family house were added; but previous to this, in August, 1867. a Mr. Frank P. Ains worth and his wife were appointed by the Board, superintendent and matron respectively, and temporary quarters placed at their disposal. In 1869 they of course removed to the new building. This is 64 by 128 feet, and three stories high. In its basement are kitchen, laundry and vegetable cellar. The first floor is devoted to offices, visitors' room, house father and family dining-room and storerooms. The general superintendent's private apartments, private offices and five dormitories for officers occupy the second floor; while the third floor is given up to the assistant superintendent's apartment, library, chapel and hospital.

The family houses are similar in style, forming rectangular buildings 36 by 58 feet. The basement of each contains a furnace room, a store-room and a large wash-room, which is converted into a play-room during inclement weather. On the first floor of each of these buildings are two rooms for the house father and his family, and a school-room, which is also convertible into a sittingroom for the boys. On the third floor is a family dormitory, a clothes-room and a room for the " elder brother," who ranks next to the house father. And since the reception of the first boy, from Hendricks county, January 23, 1868, the house plan has proved equally convenient, even as the management has proved efficient.

The Log Cabin

After arriving and selecting a suitable location, the next tiiiug to do was to build a log cabin, a description of which may be interesting to many of our younger readers, as in some sections those old-time structures are no more to be seen. Trees of uniform size were chosen and cut into logs of the desired length, generally 12 to 15 feet, and hauled to the spot selected for the future dwelling. On an appointed day the few neighbors who were available would assemble and have a "house-raising."' Each end of every log was saddled and notched so that they would lie as close down as possible; the next day the proprietor would proceed to " chink and daub" the cabin, to keep out the rain, wind and cold. The house had to be re-daubed every fall, as the rains of the intervening time would wash out a great part of the mortar. The usual height of the house was seven or eight feet. The gables were formed by shortening the logs gradually at each end of the building near the top. The roof was made by laying very straight small logs or stout poles suitable distances apart, generally about two and a half feet from gable to gable, and on these poles were laid the "clapboards" after the manner of shingling, showing about two and a half feet to the weather. These clapboards were fastened to their place by -'weight-poles,'* corresponding in place with the joists just described, and these again were held in their place by "runs" or "knees," which were chunks of wood about 18 or 20 inches long fitted between them near the ends. Clapboards were made from the nicest oaks iu the vicinity, by chopping or sawing them into four-foot blocks and riving these with a frow, which was a simple blade fiexd at right angles to its handle. This was driven into the blocks of wood by a mallet. As the frow was wrenched down through the wood, the latter was turned alternately over from sid« to side, one end being held by a forked piece of timber.

The chimney of the Western pioneer's cabin was made by leaving in the original building a large open place in one wall, or by cutting one after the structure was up, and by building on the outside from the ground up, a stone column, or a column' of sticks and mud. the sticks being laid up cob-house fashion. The fire-place thus made was often large enough to receive fire-wood six to ei^ht feet long. Sometimes this wood, especially the "back-log,'1 would be nearly as large as a saw-log. The more rapidly the pioneer could burn up the wood in his vicinity the sooner he had his little farm cleared and ready for cultivation. For a window, a piece about two feet long was cut out of one of the wall logs, and the hole closed sometimes by glass, but generally with greased paper. Even greased deer-hide was sometimes used. A doorway was cut through one of the walls if a saw was to be had; otherwise the door would be left by shortened logs in the original building. The door was made by pinning clapboards to two or three wood bars, and was hung upon wooden hinges. A wooden latch, with catch, then finished the door, and the latch was raised by any one on the outside by pulling a leather string. For security at night this latch-string was drawn in : but for friends and neighbors, and even strangers, the "latch-string was always hanging out,'1 as a welcome. In the interior, over the fire-place would be a shelf, called "the mantel,1' on which stood the candlestick or lamp, some cooking and table-ware, possibly an old clock, and other articles; in the fireplace would be the crane, sometimes of iron, sometimes of wood - on it the pots were hung for cooking ; over the door, in forked cleats, hung the ever trustful rifle and powder-horn ; in one corner stood the larger bed for the "old folks," and under it the trundle-bed for the children; in another stood the old-fashioned spinningwheel, with a smaller one by its side ; in another the heavy table, the only table, of course, there was in the house ; in the remaining corner was a rude cupboard holding the table-ware, which consisted of a few cups and saucers and blue-edged plates, standing singly on their edges against the back, to make the display of table furniture more conspicuous; while around the room were scattered a few splint-bottomed or "Windsor chairs and two or three stools.

These simple cabins were inhabited by a kind and true-hearted people. They were strangers to mock modesty, and the traveler, seeking lodgings for the night, or desirous of spending a few days in the community, if willing to accept the rude offering, was always welcome, although how they were disposed of at night the reader might not easily imagine ; for, as described, a single room was made

The bed was very often made by fixing a post in the floor about six feet from one wall and four feet from the adjoining wall, and fastening a stick to this post about two feet above the floor, on each of two sides, so that the other end of each of the two sticks could be fastened in the opposite wall : clapboards were laid across these, and thus the bed was made complete. Guests were given this bed. while the family disposed of themselves in another corner of the room, or in the When several guests were on hand at once, they were sometimes kept overnight in the following manner: when bed-time came the men wore requested to step out of doors while the women spread out a broad bed upon the midfloor, ami put themselves to bed in the center; the signal was given and the men came in and each husband took his place in bed next his own wife, and the single men outside beyond tliem again. They were generally so crowded that they had to lie "spoon" fashion, and when any one wished to turn over he would say "Spoon," and the whole company of sleepers would turn over at once. This was the only way they could all keep in tied.

Cooking

To witness the various processes of cooking in those days would alike surprise and amuse those who have grown up since cooking stoves and ranges came into use. Kettles were hung over the large tire, suspended with pot-hooks, iron or wooden, on the crane, or on poles, one end of which would rest upon a chair. The longhandled frying-pan was used for cooking meat. It was either held over the blaze by hand or set down upon coals drawn out upon the hearth. This pan was also used for baking pan-cakes, also called ;e flap- jacks," "batfcer-eakes," etc. A better article for this, however, was the cast-iron spider or Dutch skillet. The best thing for baking bread those days, and possibly even yet in these latter days, was the flat-bottomed bake kettle, of greater depth, with closely fitting cast-iron cover, and commonly known as the "Dutch-oven." With coals over and under it, bread and biscuit would quickly and nicely bake. Turkey and spare-ribs wei?& sometimes roasted before the fire, suspended by a string, a disli being placed underneath to catch the drippings.

Hominy and samp were very much used. The hominy, however, was generally hulled corn - boiled corn from which the hull, or bran, had been taken by hot lye; hence sometimes called "lye hominy." True hominy and samp were made of pounded corn. A popular method of making this, as well as real meal for bread, was to cut out or burn a large hole in the top of a huge stump, in the shape of a mortar, and pounding the corn in this by a maul or beetle suspended on the end of a swing pole, like a well-sweep. This and the well-sweep consisted of a pole 20 to 30 feet long, fixed in an upright fork, so that it could be worked "teeter" fashion. It was a rapid and simple way of drawing water. When the samp was sufficiently pounded it was taken out, the bran floated off, and the delicious grain boiled like rice.

The chief articles of diet in early days were corn bread, hominy or samp, venison, pork, honey, beans, pumpkin (dried pumpkin for more than half the year ) , turkey, prairie chicken, squirrel and some other game, with a few additional vegetables a portion of the year. Wheat bread, tea, coffee and fruit were luxuries not to be indulged in except on special occasions, as when visitors were present.

Besides cooking in the manner described, the women had many other arduous duties to perform, one of the chief of which was spinning. The "big wheel" was used for spinning yarn, and the "little wheel" for spinning flax. These stringed instruments furnished the principal music of the family, and were operated by our mothers and grandmothers with great skill, attained without pecuniary expense and with far less practice than is necessary for the girls of our period to acquire a skillful use of their costly and elegant instruments. But those wheels, indispensable a few years ago, are all now superseded by the mighty factories which overspread the country, furnishing cloth of all kinds at an expense ten times less than would be incurred now by the old system.

- one loom had a capacity for the needs of several families. Settlers having succeeded, in spite of the wolves, in raising sheep, commenced the manufacture of woolen cloth ; wool was carded and made into rolls by hand cards, and the rolls were spun on the "big wheel." We still occasionally find in the houses of old settlers a wheel of this kind, sometimes used for spinning and twisting stocking yarn. They are turned with the hand, and with such velocity that it will run itself while the nimble worker, by her backward step, draws out and twists her thread nearly the whole length of the cabin. A common article Asoven on the loom was linsey, or linsey-woolsey, the chain being linen and the filling woolen. The cloth was used for dresses for the women and girls. Nearly all the clothes worn by the men were also home-made ; rarely was a farmer or his son seen in a coat made of any other. If, occasionally, a young man appeared in a suit of "boughten" clothes, he was suspected of having gotten it for a particular occasion, which occurs in the life of nearly every young man.

Dress And Manners

The dress, habits, etc., of a people throw so much light upon their conditions and limitations that, in order better to show the circumstances surrounding the people of the State, we will give a short exposition of the manner of life of our Western people at different epochs. The Indians themselves are credited by Charlevoix with being "very laborious," - raising poultry, spinning the wool of the buffalo, and manufacturing garments therefrom. These must have been, however, more than usually favorable representatives of their race.

"The working and voyaging dress of the French masses." says Reynolds, "was simple and primitive. The French were like the lilies of the valley [the Old Ranger was not always exact in his quotations], - they neither spun nor wove any of their clothing, but purchased it from the merchants. The white blanket coat, known as the capof, was the universal and eternal coat for the winter with the masses. A cape was made of it that could be raised over the head in cold weather.

that I have worn many in my youth, and a working man never wore a better garment. Dressed deer-skins and blue cloth were worn commonly in the winter for pantaloons. The blue handkerchief and the deer-skin moccasins covered the head and feet generally of the French Creoles. In 1800 scarcely a man thought himself clothed unless he had a belt tied round his blanket coat, and on one side was hung the dressed skin of a pole-cat filled with tobacco, pipe, flint and steel. On the other side was fastened, under the belt, the butcher knife. A Creole in this dress felt like Tarn O'Shanter filled with usquebaugh - he could face the devil. Checked calico shirts were then common, but in winter flannel was frequently worn. In the summer the laboring men and the voyageurs often took their shirts off in hard work and hot weather, and turned out the naked back to the air and sun."

"Among the Americans,1' he adds, "home-made wool hats were the common wear. Fur hats were not common, and scarcely a boot was seen. The covering of the feet in winter was chiefly moccasins made of deer-skirr. and shoe-packs of tanned leather. Some wore shoes, but not common in very early times. In the summer the greater portion of the young people, male and female, and many of the old, went barefoot. The substantial and universal outside wear was the blue linsey hunting shirt. This is an excellent garment, and I have never felt so happy and healthy since I laid it off. It is made of wide sleeves, open before, with ample size so as to envelop the body almost twice around. Sometimes it had a large cape, which answers well to save the shoulders from the rain. A belt is mostly used to keep the garment close around the person, and, nevertheless, there is nothing tight about it to hamper the body. It is often fringed, and at times the fringe is composed of red, and other gay colors. The belt, frequently, is sewed to the hunting shirt. The vest was mostly made of striped linsey. The colors were made often with alum, copperas and madder, boiled with the bark of trees, in such a manner and proportions as the old ladies prescribed. The pantaloons of the masses were generally made of deer-skin and linsey. Coarse blue cloth was sometimes made into pantaloons.

The ladies had linsey colored and woven to suit their fancy. A bonnet, composed of calico, or some gay goods, was worn on the head when they were in the open air. Jewelry on the pioneer ladies was uncommon; a gold ring was an ornament not often seen."

In 1820 a change of dress began to take place, and before 1830, according to Ford, most of the pioneer costume had disappeared. " The blue linsey hunting-shiA. with red or white fringe, had given place to the cloth coat. [Jeans would be more like the fact. J The raccoon cap, with the tail of the animal dangling down behind, had been thrown aside for hats of wool or fur. Boots and shoes had supplanted the deer-skin moccasins; and leather breeches, strapped tight around the ankle, had disappeared before unmentionables of a more modern material. The female sex had made still greater progress in dress. The old sort of cotton or woolen frocks, spun, woven and made with their own fair hands, and striped and cross-barred with blue dye and Turkey red, had given place to gowns of silk and calico. The feet, before in a state of nudity, now charmed in shoes of calf -skin or slippers of kid ; and the head, formerly unbonneted, but covered with a cotton handkerchief, now displayed the charms of the female face under many forms of bonnets of straw, silk and Leghorn. The young ladies, instead of walking a mile or two to church on Sunday, carrying their shoes and stockings in their hands until within a hundred yards of the place of worship, as formerly, now came forth arrayed complete in all the pride of dress, mounted on fine horses and attended by their male admirers."

The last half century has doubtless witnessed changes quite as great as those set forth by our Illinois historian. The chronicler of to-day, looking back to the golden days of 1830 to 1840, and comparing them with the present, must be struck with the tendency of an almost monotonous uniformity in dress and manners that comes from the easy inter-communication afforded by steamer, railway, telegraph and newspaper. Home manufactures have been driven from the household by the lower-priced fabrics of distant mills. The Kentucky jeans, and the copperas-colored clothing of home manufacture, so familiar a few years ago, have given place to the cassimeres and cloths of noted factories. The ready-made clothing stores, like a touch of nature, made the whole world kin, and may d~npe the charcoal man in a dress-coat and a stove-pipe hat. The prints and silks of England and France give a variety of choice and an assortment of colors and shades such as the pioneer women could hardly have dreamed of. Godey and Demorest and Harper's Bazar are found in our modern farmhouses, and the latest fashions of Paris are not uncommon.

Family Worship

The Methodists were generally first on the ground in pioneer settlements, and at that early day they seemed more demonstrative in their devotions than at the present time. In those days, too, pulpit oratory was generally more eloquent and effective, while the grammatical dress and other "worldly" accomplishments were not so assiduously cultivated as at present. But in the manner of conducting public worship there has probably not been so much change as in that of family worship, or "family prayers" as it was often called. We had then most emphatically an American edition of that pious old Scotch practice so eloquently described in Burns' "Cotter's Saturday Night:"

Those strains that once did in sweet Zion glide; He wales a portion witli judicious care, And "let us worship God," lie says with solemn air.

Once or twice a day, in the morning just before breakfast, or in the evening just before retiring to rest, the head of the family would call those around him to order, read a chapter in the Bible, announce the hymn and tune by commencing to sing it, when all would join; then he would deliver a most fervent prayer. If a pious guest were present he would be called on to take the lead in all the exercises of the evening ; and if in those days a person who prayed in the family or in public did not pray as if it were his very last on earth, his piety was thought to be defective.

The familiar tunes of that day are remembered by the surviving old settlers as being more spiritual and inspiring than those of the present day, such as Bourbon, Consolation, China, Canaan, Conquering Soldier, Condescension, Devotion, Davis, Fiducia, Funeral Thought, Florida, Golden Hill, Greenfields, Ganges, Idumea, Imandra, Kentucky, Lenox, Leander, Mear, New Orleans, Northfield, New Salem, New Durham, Olney), Primrose, Pisgah, Pleyel's Hymn, Rockbridge, Rockingham, Reflection, Supplication, Salvation, St. Thomas, Salem, Tender Thought, Windham, Greenville, etc., as they are named in the Missouri Harmony.

Members of other orthodox denominations also had their family prayers in which, however, the phraseology of the prayer was somewhat different and the voice not so loud as characterized the real Methodists, United Brethren, etc.

Hospitality

The traveler always found a welcome at the pioneer's cabin. It was never full. Although there might be already a guest for every puncheon, there was still "room for one more," and a wider circle would be made for the new-comer at the log fire. If the stranger was in search of land, he was doubly welcome, and his host would volunteer to show him all the "first-rate claims in this neck of the woods," going with him for days, showing the corners and advantages of every "Congress tract" within a dozen miles of his own cabin.

To his neighbors the pioneer was equally liberal. If a deer was killed, the choicest bits were sent to his nearest neighbor, a half-dozen miles away, perhaps. When a "shoat" was butchered, the same custom prevailed. If a new-comer came in too late for "cropping," the neighbors would supply his table with just the same luxuries they themselves enjoyed, and in as liberal quantity, until a crop could be raised. When a new-comer had located his claim, the neighbors for miles around would assemble at the site of the new-comer's proposed cabin and aid him in "gittin' " it up. One party with axes would cut down the trees and hew the logs ; another with teams would haul the logs to the ground; another party would "raise" the cabin; while several of the old men would "rive the clapboards" for the roof. By night the little forest domicile would be up and ready for a "house-warming," which was the dedicatory occupation of the house, when music and dancing and festivity would be enjoyed at full height. The next day the new-comer would be as well situated as his neighbors.

An instance of primitive hospitable manners will be in place here. A traveling Methodist preacher arrived in a distant neighborhood to fill an appointment. The house where services were to be held did not belong to a church member, but no matter for that. Boards were raked up from all quarters with which to make temporary seats, one of the neighbors volunteering to lead off in the work, while the man of the house, with the faithful rifle on his shoulder, sallied forth in quest of meat, for this truly was a "ground-hog" case, the preacher coming and no meat in the house. The Aost ceased not the chase until he found the meat, in the shape of a deer; returning, he sent a boy out after it, with directions on what "pint" to find it. After services, which had been listened to with rapt attention by all the audience, mine host said to his wife, "Old woman, I reckon this 'ere preacher is pretty hungry and you must git him a bite to eat." "What shall I git him?" asked the wife, who had not seen the deer; "thar's nuthin' in the house to eat." "Why, look thar," returned he; "thar's deer, and .thar's plenty of corn in the field ; you git some corn and grate it while I skin the deer, and we'll have a good supper for him." It is needless to add that venison and corn bread made a supper fit for any pioneer preacher, and was thankfully eaten.

Trade

In pioneer times the transactions of commerce were generally carried on by neighborhood exchanges. Now and then a farmer would load a flat-boat with beeswax, honey, tallow and peltries, with perhaps a few bushels of wheat or corn or a few hundred clapboards, and float down the rivers into the Ohio, and thence to New Orleans, where he would exchange his produce for substantials in the shape of groceries and a little ready money, with which he would return by some one of the two or three steamboats then running. Betimes there appeared at the best steamboat landings a number of "middle men" engaged in the '"commission and forwarding'' business, buying up the farmers1 produce and the trophies of the chase and the trap, and sending them to the various distant markets. Their winter's accumulations would be shipped in the spring, and the manufactured goods of the far East or distant South would come back in return: and in all these transactions scarcely any money was seen or used. Goods were sold on a year's time to the farmers, and payment made from the proceeds of the ensuing crops. When the crops were sold and the merchant satisfied, the surplus was paid out in orders on the store to laboring men and to satisfy other creditors. When a day's work was done by a working man. his employer would ask, "Well, what store do you want your order on?" The answer being given, the order was written and always cheerfully accepted.

Money

Money was an article little known and seldom seen among the earlier settlers. Indeed, they had but little use for it, as they could transact all their business about as well without it, on the "barter" system, wherein great ingenuity was sometimes displayed. When it failed in any instance, long credits contributed to the convenience of the citizens. But for taxes and postage neither the barter nor the credit system would answer, and often letters were suffered to remain a long time in the postoffice for the want of the twenty-five cents demanded by the Government. With all this high price on postage, by the way, the letter had not been brought 500 miles in a day or two, as the case is nowadays, but had probably been weeks on the route, and the mail was delivered at the pioneer's postoffice, several miles distant from his residence, on!/ once in a week or two. All the mail would be carried by a lone horseman. Instances are related illustrating how misrepresentation would be resorted to in order to elicit the sympathies of some one who was known to have "two bits" (25 cents) of money with him, and procure the required Governmental fee for 'a letter.

Peltries came nearer being money than anything else, as it came to be custom to estimate the value of everything in peltries. Such an article was worth so many peltries. Even some tax collectors and postmasters were known to take peltries and exchange them for the money required by the Government.

When the first settlers first came into the wilderness they generally supposed that their hard struggle would be principally over after the first year; but alas! they often looked for "easier times next year1' for many years before realizing them, and then they came in so slily as to be almost imperceptible. The sturdy pioneer thus learned to bear hardships, privation and hard living, as good soldiers do. As the facilities for making money were not great, they lived pretty well satisfied in an atmosphere of good, social, friendly feeling, and thought themselves as good as those they had left behind in the East. But among the early settlers who came to this State were many who, accustomed to the advantages of an older civilization, to churches, schools and society, became speedily home-sick and dissatisfied. They would remain perhaps one summer, or at most two, then, selling whatever claim with its improvements they had made, would return to the older States, spreading reports of the hardships endured by the settlers here and the disadvantages which they had found, or imagined they had found, in the country. These weaklings were not an unmitigated curse. The slight improvements they had made were sold to men of sterner stuff, who were the sooner able to surround themselves with the necessities of life, while their unfavorable report deterred other weaklings from coming. The men who stayed, who were willing to endure privations, belonged to a different guild : they were heroes every one, - men to whom hardships were things to be overcome, and present privations things to be endured for the sake of posterity, and they never shrank from this duty. It is to these hardy pioneers who could endure, that we to-day owe the wonderful improvement we have made and the development, almost

Milling

Not the least of the hardships of the pioneers was ' the procuring of bread. The first settlers must be supplied at least one year from other sources than their own lands ; but the first crops, however abundant, gave only partial relief, there being no mills to grind the grain. Hence the necessity of grinding by hand-power, and many families were poorly provided with means for doing this. Another way was to grate the corn. A grater was made from a piece of tin sometimes taken from an old, worn-out tin bucket or other vessel. It was thickly perforated, bent into a semicircular form, and nailed, rough side upward, on a board. The corn was taken in the ear, and grated before it got dry and hard. Corn, however, was eaten in various ways.

Soon after the country became more generally settled, enterprising men were ready to embark in the milling business. Sites along the streams were selected for water-power. A person looking for a mill-site would follow up and down the stream for a desired location, and when found he would go before the authorities and secure a writ of ad quod damnum. This would enable the miller to have the adjoining land officially examined, and the amount of damage by making a dam was named. Mills being so great a public necessity, they were permitted to be located upon any person's land where the miller thought the site desirable.

Agricultural Implements

The agricultural implements used by the first farmers in this State would in this age of improvement be great curiosities. The plow used was called the "bar-share" plow; the iron point consisted of a bar of iron about two feet long, and a broad share of iron welded to it. At the extreme point was a coulter that passed through a beam six or seven feet long, to which were attached handles of corresponding length. The mold-board was a wooden one split out of winding timber, or hewed into a winding shape, in order to turn the soil over. Sown seed was brushed in by dragging over the ground a sapling with a bushy top. In harvest- ing the change is most striking. Instead of the reapers and mowers of to-day, the sickle and cradle were used. The grain was threshed with a flail, or trodden out by horses or oxen.

Hog Killing

Hogs were always dressed before they were taken to market. The farmer, if forehanded, would call in his neighbors some bright fall or winter morning to help "kill hogs." Immense kettles of water were heated ; a sled or two. covered with loose boards or plank, constituted the platform on which the hog was cleaned, and was placed near an inclined hogshead in which the scalding was done ; a quilt was thrown over the top of the latter to retain the heat; from a crotch of some convenient tree a projecting pole was rigged to hold the animals for disemboweling and thorough cleaning. When everything was arranged, the best shot of the neighborhood loaded his rifle, and the work of killing was commenced. It was considered a disgrace to make a hog "squeal" by bad shooting or by a 'shoulder stick," that ig running the point of the butcher-knife nto the shoulder instead of the cavity of the beast. As each hog ell, the "sticker" mounted him and plunged the butcher-knife, ong and well sharpened, into his throat ; two persons would then atch him by the hind legs, draw him up to the scalding tub, which ad just been filled with boiling-hot water with a shovelful of ood green wood ashes thrown in ; in this the carcass was plunged od moved around a minute or so, that is, until the hair would ip off easily, then placed on the platform where the cleaners would itch into him with all their might and clean him as quickly as >ssible, with knives and other sharp-edged implements ; then two out fellows would take him up between them, and a third man manage the "gambrel"- (which was a stout stick about two feet ng, sharpened at both ends, to be inserted between the muscles the hind legs at or near the hock joint), the animal would be evated to the pole, where the work of cleaning was finished. After the slaughter was over and the hogs had had time to cool, ich as were intended for domestic use were cut up, the lard "tried" it by the women of the household, and the surplus hogs taken i market, while the weather was cold, if possible. In those ivs almost every merchant had, at the rear end of his place of business or at some convenient building, a " pork-bouse," and would buy the pork of his customers and of such others as would eell to him, and cut it for the market. This gave employment to a large number of hands in every village, who would cut and pack pork all winter. The hauling of all this to the river would also give employment to a large number of teams, and the manufacture of pork barrels would keep many coopers employed.

Allowing for the difference of currency and manner of marketing, the price of pork was not so high in those days as at present. Now, while calico and mui-lin are eight cents ayar>l and pork is rive and ?ix cents a pound, then,while calico and musliu were twenty-five cents a yard pork was one to two cents a pound. "When, as the country grew older and communications easier between the seaboard and the great West, prices went up to two and a half and three cents a pound, the farmers thought they would always be content to raise pork at such a price; but times have changed, even contrary to the current-cy.

There was one feature in this method of marketing pork that made the country a paradise for the poor man in the winter time. Spare-ribs, tenderloins, pigs' heads and pigs' feet were not considered of any value, and were freely given to all who could use them. If a barrel was taken to any pork-house and salt furnished,, the barrel would be filled and salted down with tenderloins and spare-ribs gratuitously. So great in many cases was the quantity of spare-ribs, etc., to be disposed of, that they would be hauled away in wagon -loads and dumped in the woods out of town.

In those early times much wheat was marketed at twenty-five to fifty cents a bushel, oats the same or less, and corn ten cents a bushel. A good young milch-cow could be bought for $5 to $10, and that payable in work.

Those might truly be called "close times," yet the citizens of the country were accommodating, and but very little suffering for the actual necessities of life was ever known to exist.

Prairie Fires

Fires, set out by Indians or settlers, sometimes purposely and Bometimes permitted through carelessness, would visit the prairies every autumn, and sometimes the forests, either in autumn or spring, and settlers could not always succeed in defending themselves against the destroying element. Many interesting incidents are related. Often a fire was started to bewilder game, or to bare a piece of ground for the early grazing of stock the ensuing spring, and it would get away under a wind, and soon be beyond control. Violent winds would otten arise and drive the flames with such rapidity that riders on the fleetest steeds could scarcely escape. On the approach of a prairie fire the farmer would immediately set about " cutting off supplies" for the devouring enemy by a " back fire." Thus, by starting a small fire near the bare ground about his premises, and keeping it under control next his property, he would burn off a strip around him and prevent the attack of the on-coming flames. A few furrows or a ditch around the farm constituted a help in the work of protection.

An original prairie of tail and exuberant grass on fire, especially at night, was a magnificent spectacle, enjoyed only by the pioneer. Here is an instance where the frontiersman, proverbially deprived of the sights and pleasures of an old community, is privileged far beyond the people of the present day in this country. One could scarcely tire of beholding the scene, as its awe-inspiring features seemed constantly to increase, and the whole panorama unceasingly changed like the dissolving views of a magic lantern, or like the aurora borealis. Language cannot convey, words cannot express, the faintest idea of the splendor and grandeur of such a conflagration at night. It was as if the pale queen of night, disdaining to take her accustomed place in the heavens, had dispatched myriads upon myriads of messengers to light their torches at the altar of the setting sun until all had flashed into one long and continuous blaze.

" Soon the fires began to kindle wider and rise higher from the long grass; the gentle breeze increased to stronger currents, and soon fanned the small, flickering blaze into fierce torrent flames, which curled up and leaped along in resistless splendor; and like quickly raising the dark curtain from the luminous stage, the scenes before me were suddenly changed, as if by the magician's wand, into one boundless amphitheatre, blazing from earth to heaven and sweeping the horizon round, - columns of lurid flames sportively mourning up to the zenith, and dark clouds of crimson smoke curling away and aloft till they nearly obscured stars and moon, while the rushing, crashing sounds, like roaring cataracts mingled with distant thunders, were almost deafening; danger, death, glared all around; it screamed for victims; yet, notwithstanding the imminent peril

Wild Hogs

When the earliest pioneer reached this Western wilderness, game was his principal food until he had conquered a farm from the forest or prairie, - rarely, then, from the latter. As the country settled game grew scarce, and by 1850 he who would live by his rifle would have had but a precarious subsistence had it not been for "wild hogs." These animals, left by home-sick immigrants whom the chills or fever and ague had driven out, had strayed into the woods, and began to multiply in a wild state. The woods each fall were full of acorns, walnuts, hazelnuts, and these hogs would grow fat and multiply at a wonderful rate in the bottoms and along the bluffs. The second and third immigration to the country found these wild hogs an unfailing source of meat supply up to that period when they had in the townships contiguous to the river become so numerous as to be an evil, breaking in herds into the farmer's corn-fields or toling their domestic swine into their retreats, where they too became in a season as wild as those in the woods. In 1838 or '39, in a certain township, a meeting was called of citizens of the township to take steps to get rid of wild hogs. At this meeting, which was held in the spring, the people of the township were notified to turn out en masse on a certain day and engage in the work of catching, trimming and branding wild hogs, which were to be turned loose, and the next winter were to be hunted and killed by the people of the township, the meat to be divided pro rata among the citizens of the township. This plan was fully carried into effect, two or three days being spent in the exciting work in the spring.

In the early part of the ensuing winter the settlers again turned out, supplied at convenient points in the bottom with large kettles and barrels for scalding, and while the hunters were engaged in killing, others with horses dragged the carcasses to the scalding platforms where they were dressed; and when all that could be were killed and dressed a division was made, every farmer getting more meat than enough, for his winter's supply. Like energetio measures were resorted to in other townships, so that in two or three years the breed of wild hogs became extinct.

Native Animals

The principal wild animals found in the State by the early settler were the deer, wolf, bear, wild-cat, fox, otter, raccoon, generally called "coon," woodchuck, or ground-hog, skunk, mink, weasel, muskrat, opossum, rabbit and squirrel; and the principal feathered game were the quail, prairie chicken and wild turkey. Hawks, turkey buzzards, crows, blackbirds were also very abundant. Several of these animals furnished meat for the settlers; but their principal meat did not long consist of game; pork and poultry were raised in abundance. The wolf was the most troublesome inimal, it being the common enemy of the sheep, and sometimes ittacking other domestic animals and even human beings. But heir hideous howlings at night were so constant and terrifying hat they almost seemed to do more mischief by that annoyance han by direct attack. They would keep everbody and every aninal about the farm-house awake and frightened, and set all the dogs n the neighborhood to barking. As one man described it: "Sup- >ose six boys, having six dogs tied, whipped them all at the same iine, and you would hear such music as two wolves would make." To effect the destruction of these animals the county authorities .ffered a bounty for their scalps; and, besides, big hunts were ;ommon.

Wolf Hunts

In early davs more mischief was done by wolves than by any Dther wild animal, and no small part of their mischief consisted in their almost constant barking at night, which always seemed so menacing and frightful to the settlers. Like mosquitoes, the noise they made appeared to be about as dreadful as the real depredations they committed. The most effectual, as well as the most exciting, method of ridding the country of these hateful pests, was that known as the " circular wolf hunt," by which all the men and boys would turn out on an appointed day, in a kind of circle comprising many square miles of territory, with horses and dogs, and then close up toward the center of their field of operation, gathering not only wolves, but also deer and many smaller " varmint." Five, ten, or more wolves by this means would sometimes be killed in a single day. The men would be organized with as much system as a little army, every one being well posted in the meaning of every signal and the application of every rule. Guns were scarcely ever allowed to be brought on such occasions, as their use would be unavoidably dangerous. The dogs were depended upon for the final slaughter. The dogs, by the way, had all to be held in check by a cord in the hands of their keepers until the final signal was given to let them loose, when away they would all go to the center of battle, and a more exciting scene would follow than can be easily described.

Bee-Hunting

This wild recreation was a peculiar one, and many sturdy backwoodsmen gloried in excelling in this art. He would carefully watch a bee as it filled itself with the sweet product of some flower or leaf-bud, and notice particularly the direction taken by it as it struck a "bee-line" for its home, which when found would be generally high up in the hollow of a tree. The tree would be marked, and in September a party would go and cut down the tree and capture the honey as quickly as they could before it wasted away through the broken walls in which it had been so carefully stowed away by the little busy bee. Several gallons would often be thus taken from a single tree, and by a very little work, and pleasant at that, the early settlers could keep themselves in honey the year round. By the time the honey was a year old, or before, it would turn white and granulate, yet be as good and healthful as when fresh. This was by some called " candid " honey.

In some districts, the resorts of bees would be so plentiful that all the available hollow trees would be occupied and many colonies of bees would be found at work in crevices in the rock and holee in the ground. A considerable quantity of honey has even been taken from such places.

In pioneer times snakes were numerous, such as the rattlesnake, viper, adder, blood stiake and many varieties of large blue and green snakes, milk snake, garter and water snakes, black snakes, etc., etc. If, on meeting one of these, you would retreat, they would chase you very fiercely; but if you would turn and give them battle, they would immediately crawl away with all possible speed, hide in the grass and weeds, and wait for a "greener M customer. These really harmless snakes served to put people on their guard against the more dangerous and venomous kinds.

It was the practice in some sections of the country to turn out in companies, with spades, mattocks and crow-bars, attack the principal snake dens and slay large numbers of them. In early spring the snakes were somewhat torpid and easily captured. Scores of rattlesnakes were sometimes frightened ont of a single den, which, as Loon as they showed their heads through the crevices of the rocks, were dispatched, and left to be devoured by the numerous wild hogs of that day. Some of the fattest of these snakes were taken to the house and oil extracted from them, and their glittering skins were saved as specifics for rheumatism.

Another method was to so fix a heavy stick over the door of their dens, with a long grape-vine attached, that one at a distance could plug the entrance to the den when the snakes were all out sunning themselves. Then a large company of the citizens, on hand by appointment, could kill scores of the reptiles in a few minutes.

One of the greatest obstacles to the early settlement and prosperity of this State was the "chills and fever," " fever and ague." or " shakes," as it was variously called. It was a terror to newcomers; in the fall of the year almost everybody was afflicted with it. It was no respecter of persons; everybody looked pale and sallow as though he were frost-bitten. It was not contagious, but derived from impure water and air, which are always developed in the opening up of a new country of rank soil like that of the Northwest. The impurities continue to be absorbed from day to day, and from week to week, until the whole body corporate became saturated with it as with electricity, and then the shockWme; and the shock was a regular shake, with a iixed beginning and ending, coming on in some cases each day but generally on alternate days, with a regularity that was surprising. After the shake came the fever, and this " last estate was worse than the first." It was a burning-hot fever, and lasted for hours. When yon had the chill you couldn't get warm, and when you had the fever you couldn't get -cool. It was exceedingly awkward in this respect ; indeed it was. Nor would it stop for any sort of contingency ; not even a wedding in the family would stop it. It was imperative and tyrannical. When the appointed time came around, everything else had to be stopped to attend to its demands. It didn't even have any Sundays or holidays; after the fever went down you still didn't feel much better. You felt as though you had gone through some sort of collision, thrashing-machine or jarring-machine, and came out not killed, but next thing to it. You felt weak, as though you had run too far after something, and then didn't catch it. You felt languid, stupid a»4 sore, and was down in the mouth and heel and partially raveled out. Your back was out of fix, your head ached and your appetite crazy. Your eyes had too much white in them, your ears, especially after taking quinine, had too much roar in them, and your whole body and soul were entirely woe-begone, disconsolate, sad, poor and good for nothing. Yon didn't think much of yourself, and didn't believe that other people did, either; and you didn't care. You didn't quite make up your mind to commit suicide, but sometimes wished some accident would happen to knock either the malady or yourself out of existence. You imagined that even the dogs looked at you with a kind of self-complacency. You thought the sun had a kind of sickly shine about it.

About this time you came to the conclusion that you would not accept the whole "Western con ntryaa a gift; and if you had the strength and means, you picked up Hannah and the baby, and your traps, and went back "yander" to "Old Yir^iuny," the " Jar- Beys," Maryland or " Pennsylvany."

The above is not a mere picture of the imagination. It is simply recounting in quaint phrase what actually occurred in thousands of cases. Whole families would sometimes be sick at one time and not one member scarcely able to wait upon another. Labor or exercise always aggravated the malady, and it took General Laziness a long time to thrash the enemy out. And those were the days for swallowing all sorts of roots and "varbs," and whisky, etc., with some faint hope of relief. And finally, when the case wore out, the last remedy taken got the credit of the cure.

Though struggling through the pressure of poverty and privation, the early settlers planted among them the school-house at the earliest practical period. So important an object as the education of their children they did not defe;- until they could build more comely and convenient houses. They were for a time content with such as corresponded with their rude dwellings, but soon better buildings and accommodations were provided. As may readily be supposed, the accommodations of the earliest schools were not good. Sometimes school was taught in a room of a large or a double log cabin, but oftener in a log house built for the purpose. Stoves and such heating apparatus as are now in use were then unknown. A mud-and-stick chimney in one end of the building, with earthen hearth and a lire-place wide and deep enough to receive a four to six-foot back-log, and smaller wood to match, served for warming purposes in winter and a kind of conservatory in summer. For windows, part of a log was cut out in two sides of the building, and may be a few lights of eight by ten glass set in, or the aperture might be covered over with greased paper. "Writing desks consisted of heavy oak plank or a hewed slab laid upon wooden pins driven into the wall. The four-legged slab benches were in front of these, and the pupils when not writing would sit with their backs against the front, sharp edge of the writing-desks. The floor was also made out of these slabs, or M puncheons," laid npon log sleepers. Everything was rude and plain; but many of America's greatest men have gone out from just such school-houses to grapple with the world and make names for themselves and reflect honor upon their country. Among these we can name Abraham Lincoln, our martyred president, one of the noblest men known to the world's history. Stephen A. Douglas, one of the greatest statesmen of the age, began his career in Illinois teaching in one of these primitive school- houses. Joseph A. "Wright, and several other statesmen of the Northwest have also graduated from the log school-house into political eminence. So with many of her most eloquent and efficient preachers.

Spelling - Schools

The chief public evening entertainment for the first 30 or 40 years of Western pioneering was the celebrated " spelling-school." Both yonng people and old looked forward to the next spellingschool with as much anticipation and anxiety as we nowadays look forward to a general Fourth-of-July celebration; and when the time arrived the whole neighborhood, yea, and sometimes several neighborhoods, would flock together to the scene of academical combat, where the excitement was often more intense than had been expected. It was far better, of course, when there was good sleighing; then the young folks would turn out in high glee and be fairly beside themselves. The jollity is scarcely equaled at the present day by anything in vogue.

When the appointed hour arrive^, the usual plan of commencing battle was for two of the young people who might agree to play against each other, or who might be selected to do so by the schoolteacher of the neighborhood, to " choose sides," that is, each contestant, or "captain," as he was generally called, would choose the best speller from the assembled crowd. Each one choosing alternately, the ultimate strength of the respective parties would be about equal. When all were chosen who could be made to serve, each side would "number," so as to ascertain whether amid the confusion one captain had more spellers than the other. In case he had, some compromise would be made by the aid of the teacher, the master of ceremonies, and then the plan of conducting the campaign, or counting the misspelled words, would be canvassed for a moment by the captains, sometimes by the aid of the teacher and others. There were many ways of conducting the contest and keeping tally. Every section of the country had several favorite methods, and all or most of these were different from what other communities had. At one time they would commence spelling at the head, at another time at the foot; at one time they would " spell across," that is, the first on one side would spell the first word, then the first on the other side; next the second in the line on each side, alternately, down to the other end of each line. The question who should spell the first word was determined by the captains guessing what page the teacher would have before him in a partially opened book at a distance; the captain guessing the nearest would spell the first word pronounced. When a word was missed, it would be re-pronounced, or passed along without re-pronouncing (as some teachers strictly followed the rule never to re-pronounce a word), until it was spelled correctly. If a speller on the opposite side finally spelled the missed word correctly, it was counted a gain of one to that side; if the word was finally corrected by some speller on the same side on which it was originated as a missed word, it was "saved," and no tally mark was made.

Another popular method was to commence at one end of the line of spellers and go directly around, and the missed words caught up quickly and corrected by "word-catchers," appointed by the captains from among their best spellers. These word-catchers would attempt to correct all the words missed on his opponent's 6ide, and failing to do this, the catcher on the other side would catch him up with a peculiar zest, and then there was fun.

Still another very interesting, though somewhat disorderly, method, was this: Each word-catcher would go to the foot of the adversary's line, and every time he " catched " a word he would go up one, thus "turning them down" in regular spelling-class style. When one catcher in this way turned all down on the opposing side, his own party was victorious by as many as the opposing catcher was behind. This method required no slate or blackboard tally to be kept.

One turn, by either of the foregoing or other methods, would occupy 40 minutes to an hour, and by this time an intermission or recess was had, when the buzzing, cackling and hurrahing that ensued for 10. or 15 minutes were beyond description.

Coming to order again, the next style of battle to be illustrated was to "spell down," by which process it was ascertained who were the best spellers and could continue standing as a soldier the longest But very often good spellers would inadvertently miss a word in an early stage of the contest and would have to sit down humiliated, while a comparatively poor speller would often stand till nearly or quite the last, amid the cheers of the assemblage. Sometimes the two parties first " chosen up " in the evening would re-take their places after recess, so that by the " spelling-down " process there would virtually be another race, in another form; sometimes there would be a new " choosing up " for the " spelling-down " contest; and sometimes the spelling down would be conducted without any party lines being made. It would occasionally happen that two or three very good spellers would retain the floor so long that the exercise would become monotonous, when a few outlandish words like " chevauX'de-frise," " Ompompanoosuc " or "Baugh- nangh-claugh-ber," as they used to spell it sometimes, would create a little ripple of excitement to close with. Sometimes these words would decide the contest, but generally when two or three good spellers kept the floor until the exercise became monotonous, the teacher would declare the race closed and the standing spellers acquitted with a " drawn game."

The audience dismissed, the next thing was to " go home," very often by a round-about way, " a-sleighing with the girls," which, of course, was with many the most interesting part of the evening's performances, sometimes, however, too rough to be commended, as the boys were often inclined to be somewhat rowdyish.

Singing-School

Next to the night spelling-school the singing-school was an occasion of much jollity, wherein it was difficult for the average singingmaster to preserve order, as many went more for fun than for music. This species of evening entertainment, in its introduction to the West, was later than the spelling-school, and served, as it were, as the second step toward the more modern civilization. Good sleighing weather was of course almost a necessity for the success of these schools, but how many of them have been prevented by mud and rain! Perhaps a greater part of the time from November to April the roads wonld be muddy and often half frozen, which would have a very dampening and freezing effect upon the souls, as well as the bodies, of the young people who longed for a good time on such occasions.

The old-time method of conducting singing-school was also somewhat different from that of modern times. It was more plodding and heavy, the attention being kept upon the simplest rudiments, as the names ot the notes on the staff, and their pitch, and beating time, while comparatively little attention was given to expression and light, gleeful music. The very earliest scale introduced in the West was from the South, and the notes, from their peculiar shape, were denominated " patent " or "buckwheat " notes. They were four, of which the round one was always called sol, the square one la, the triangular one fa, and the "diamond-shaped" one mi, pronounced me; and the diatonic scale, or "gamut" as it was called then, ran thus: ./a, sol, la, fa, sol, la, mi, fa. The part of a tune nowadays called " treble," or "soprano," was then called " tenor;" the part now called "tenor" was called" treble," and what is now "alto" was then "counter," and when sung according to the oldest rule, was sung by a female an octave higher than marked, and still on the " chest register." The " old " " Missouri Harmony" and Mason's " Sacred Harp " were the principal books used with this style of musical notation .

About 1850 the " round-note " system began to " come around," being introduced by the Yankee singing-master. The scale was do,re,mi,fa,sol,la,si,do; and for many years thereafter there was much more do-re-mi-ing than is practiced at the present day, when a musical instrument is always under the hand. The Carmina Sacra was the pioneer round-note book, in which the tunes partook more of the German or Puritan character, and were generally regarded by the old folks as being far more spiritless than the old " Pisgah," " Fiducia," " Tender Thought," « New Durham," " Windsor," " Mount Sion," " Devotion," etc., of the old Missouri Harmony and tradition.

Guarding Against Indians

The fashion of carrying fire-arms was made necessary by the presence of roving bands of Indians, most of whom were ostensibly friendly, but like Indians in all times, treacherous and unreliable. An Indian war was at any time probable, and all the old settlers still retain vivid recollections of Indian massacres, murders, plunder, and frightful rumors of intended raids. While target practice was much indulged in as an amusement, it was also necessary at times to carry their guns with them to their daily field work.

As an illustration of the painstaking which characterized pioneer life, we quote the following from Zebulon Collings, who lived about six miles irom the scene of massacre near Pigeon Roost, Indiana: " The manner in which I used to work in those perilous times was as follows: On all occasions I carried my rifle, tomahawk and butcher-knife, with a loaded pistol in my belt. When I went to plow I laid my gun on the plowed ground, and stuck up a stick by it for a mark, so that I could get it quick in case it was wanted. I had two good dogs; I took one into the house, leaving the other out. The one outside was expected to give the alarm, which would cause the one inside to bark, by which I would be awakened, having my arms always loaded. I kept my horse in a stable close to the house, having a port-hole so that I could shoot to the stable door. During two years I never went from home with any certainty of returning, not knowing the minute I might receive a ball from an unknown hand."

The Bright Side

The history of pioneer life generally presents the dark side of the picture; but the toils and privations of theearly settlers were not a series of unmitigated sufferings. No; for while the fathers and mothers toiled hard, they were not averse to a little relaxation, and had their seasons of fun and enjoyment. They contrived to do something to break the monotony of their daily life and furnish them a good hearty laugh. Among the more general forms of amusements were the " quilting-bee," "corn-husking," "apple-paring," " log-rolling " and " house-raising." Our young readers will doubtless be interested in a description of these forms of amusement, when labor was made to afford fun and enjoyment to all participating. The "quilting-bee," as its name implies, was when the industrious qualities of the busy little insect that " improves each shininghour" were exemplified in the manufacture of quilts for the household. In the afternoon ladies for miles around gathered at an appointed place, and while their tongues would not cease to play, the hands were as busily engaged in making the quilt; and desire a) always manifested to get it out as quickly as possible, for then the fun would begin. In the evening the gentlemen came, and the hours would then pass swiftly by in playing games or dancing. " Corn-huskiugs " were when both sexes united in the work. They usually assembled in a large barn, which was arranged for the occasion; and when each gentleman had selected a lady partner the husking began. When a lady found a red ear she was entitled to a kiss from every gentleman present; when a gentleman found one he was allowed to kiss every lady present. After the corn was all husked a good supper was served; then the "old folks" would leave, and the remainder of the evening was spent in the dance and in having a general good time. The recreation afforded to the young people on the annual recurrence of these festive occasions was as highly enjoyed, and quite as innocent, as the amusements of the present boasted age of refinement and culture.

The amusements of the pioneers were peculiar to themselves. Saturday afternoon was a holiday in which no man was expected to work. A load of produce might be taken to " town " for sale or traffic without violence to custom, but no more serious labor could be tolerated. When on Saturday afternoon the town was reached "fun commenced." Had two neighbors business to transact, here it was done. Horses were h swapped." Difficulties settled and free tights indulged in. Bine and red ribbons were not worn in those days, and whisky was as free as water; twelve and a half cents would buy a quart, and thirty-five or forty, cents a gallon, and at such prices enormous quantities were consumed. Go to any town in the county and ask the first pioneer you meet, and he would tell you of notable Saturday-afternoon fights, either of which to-day would fill a column of the Police JVews, with elaborate engravings to match.

"We cleared land, rolled legs, burned brush, blazed out paths from one neighbor's cabin to another and from one settlement" to another, made and used hand-mills and hominy mortars, hunted deer, turkey, otter, and raccoons, caught fish, dug ginseng, hunted bees and the like, and - lived on the fat of the land. We read of a land of " corn and wine," and another "flowing with milk and honey;" but 1 rather think, in a temporal point of view, taking into account the richness of the soil, timber, stone, wild game and other advantages, that the Sugar creek country would come up to any of them, if not surpass them.

I once cut cord- wood, continues Mr. Cox, at 31 J cents per cord, and walked a mile and a half night and morning, where the first frame college was built northwest of town (Crawford svi lie). Prof. Curry, the lawyer, would sometimes come down and help for an hour or two at a time, by way of amusement, as there was little or no law business in the town or country- at that time. Reader, what would you think of going six to eight miles to help roll logs, or raise a cabin? or ten to thirteen miles to mill, and wait three or four days and nights for your grist? as many had to do in the first settlement of this country. Such things were of frequent occurrence then, and there was but little grumbling about it. It was a grand sight to see the log heaps and brush piles burning in the night on a clearing of 10 or 15 acres. A Democratic torchlight procession, or a midnight march of the Sons of Malta with their grand Gyasticutus in the center bearing the grand jewel of the order, would be nowhere in comparison with the log-heaps and brush piles in a blaze.

But it may be asked, Had you any social amusements, or manly pastimes, to recreate and enliven the dwellers in the wilderness? "We had. In the social line we had our meetings and our singingschools, sugar-boilings and weddings, which were as good as ever came off in any country, new or old ; and if our youngsters did not " trip the light fantastic toe " under a professor of the Terpsichorean art or expert French dancing- master, they had many a good "hoe-down" on puncheon floors, and were not annoyed by bad whisky. And as for manly sports, requiring mettle and muscle, there were lots of wild hogs running in the cat-tail swamps on Lye creek, and Mill creek, and among them many large boars that Ossian's heroes and Homer's model soldiers, such as Achilles, Hector and Ajax would have delighted to give chase to. The boys and men of those days had quite as much sport, and made more money and health by their hunting excursions than our city gents nowadays playing chess bv telegraph where the players are more thau 70 miles apart.

What The Pioneers Have Done

Illinois is a grand State, in many respects second to none in the Union, and in almost every thing that goes to make a live, prosperous community, not far behind the best. Beneath her fertile soil is coal enough to supply the State for generations; her harvests are bountiful; she has a medium climate, and many other things, that make her people contented, prosperous and happy; but she owes much to those who opened up these avenues that have led to her present condition and happy surroundings. Unremitting toil and labor have driven off the sickly miasmas that brooded over swampy prairies. Energy and perseverance have peopled every section of her wild lands, and changed them from wastes and deserts to gardens of beauty and profit. When but a few years ago the barking wolves made the night hideous with their wild shrieks and howls, now is heard only the lowing and bleating of domestic animals. Only a half century ago the wild whoop of the Indian rent the air where now are heard the engine and rumbling trains of cars, bearing away to markets the products of our labor and soil. Then the savage built his rude huts on the spot where now rise the dwellings and school-houses and church spires of civilized life. How great the transformation! This change has been brought about by the incessant toil and aggregated labor ot thousands of tired hands and anxious hearts, and the noble aspirations of such men and women as make any country great. What will another half century accomplish? There are few, very few, of these old pioneers yet lingering on the shores of time as connecting links of the past with the present. What must their thoughts be as with their dim eyes they view the scenes that surronnd them? We often hear people talk about the old-fogy ideas and fogy ways, and want of enterprise on the part of the old men who have gone through the experiences of pioneer life. Sometimes, perhaps, such remarks are just, but, considering the experiences, education and entire life of such men, such remarks are better unsaid. They have had their trials, misfortunes, hardships and adventures, and shall we now, as they are passing far down the western declivity of life, and many of them gone, point to them the finger of derision and laugh and sneer at the simplicity of their ways? Let us rather cheer them up, revere and respect them, for beneath those rough exteriors beat hearts as noble as ever throbbed in the human breast. These veterans have been compelled to live for weeks upon hominy and, if bread at all, it was bread made from corn ground in hand-mills, or pounded up with mortars. Their children have been destitute of shoes during the winter; their families had no clothing except what was carded, spun, wove and made into garments by their own hands; schools they had none; churches they had none; afflicted with sickness incident to all new countries, sometimes the entire family at once; luxuries of life they had none; the auxiliaries, improvements, inventions and labor-saving machinery of to-day they had not; and what they possessed they obtained by the hardest of labor and individual exertions, yet they bore these hardships and privations without murmuring, hoping for better times to come, and often, too, with but little prospect of realization.

As before mentioned, the changes written on every hand are most wonderful. It has been but three-score years since the white man began to exercise dominion over this region, erst the home of the red men, yet the visitor of to-day, ignorant of the past of the country, could scarcely be made to realize that within these years there has grown up a population of 2,000,000 people, who in all the accomplishments of life are as far advanced as are the inhabitants of the older States. Schools, churches, colleges, palatial dwellings, beautiful grounds, large, well-cultivated and productive farms, as well as cities, towns and busy manufactories, have grown up, and occupy the hunting grounds and camping places of the Indians, and in every direction there are evidences of wealth, comfort and luxury. There is but little left of the old landmarks. Advanced civilization and the progressive demands of revolving years have obliterated all traces of Indian occupancy, until they are only remembered in name.