Steuben County, Indiana - Chapter 1: Introductory, 1885

Chapter 1: Introductory

Importance of Local History. - Life in the Backwoods. - Courage OF THE Pioneers. - Their Labor and Rewards, - Change of Fifty Years. - Integrity and Generosity of the Early Settlers. - Grand Ac hievements.

All history is essentially local. No record of events, however important, can make a vivid or lasting impression upon a reader's mind if the locality of the occurrences is not given due prominence. By association the scenes of great events become sanctified and endeared in the hearts of a people. Who, for instance, can gaze unmoved upon the house which was the home or the birthplace of an illustrious man? Who can give expression to his emotions as he stands upon the ground where some decisive struggle for liberty took place?

Even the most prosaic places, even the simplest of every-day occurrences, are sometimes elevated beyond their natural condition, becoming illustrious and important on account of the memories which surrounded them. And even within the narrow limits of a county, events, perhaps of little moment in themselves, are constantly transpiring, which growing venerable through age become invested with peculiar interest, and are rightfully worthy of perpetual remembrance. A small community has its place in history as well as a large one. Every intelligent and public-spirited citizen feels a degree of pride in the achievements, the industrial growth the religious, social, and intellectual progress of his county.

Thus it is that in almost every section of the Union efforts are now being made to perpetuate local history. No cause is more worthy of popular attention. Centuries hence, when a history ot the American people shall be written, the historian will gather his data largely from the facts which are now being collected and put 16 (245) in preservable form. But the greatest importance of local history lies in the interest which we may expect posterity to entertain for it. The work of the pioneers - humble in its details yet magnifi cent in its results; the first rudely built church or school-house; the founding of a village; the inception of an industry - each mark an epoch in the history of any locality. The nationality and characteristics of the early settlers; their lives, adventures and hardships; the part performed by them in civil, judicial or military affairs - all these are topics in which their descendants can never cease to have an interest.

Life In The Backwoods

The life of the pioneer is humble yet glorious. He prepares the way for advancing civilization, endures poverty and hardship, toils without recompense, that his posterity may enjoy the full fruition of his labors. He is the adventurer in fields untried, the pathfinder, the discoverer, the advance agent leading others to a land of promise. In all ages and countries he has been honored and remembered on account of his self-sacrificing labor.

Pioneer life in Steuben County finds its almost exact counterpart in every part of the West. When the first settlers arrived here, they found a fair and beautiful region, but just left by the aboriginal inhabitants. Forests were to be felled, prairies broken cabins built, mills, school-houses, churches, roads - the labor of a lifetime rose before them. But were these bold spirits dismayed? Not they! They had journeyed from their far distant homes, through a rough country, over bad roads, rivers, swamps and marshes, passing nights with no shelter above them, and toiling forward by day, meeting new obstacles ever and anon. Now they had reached the land for which they had started, and fair and pleasant was the prospect.

In Steuben County the settlement is of so recent date that almost every one is familiar with pioneer ways either from actual experience or from hearsay. Nevertheless, for the benefit of posterity, who may be interested in knowing what was the real nature of pioneer life and the character of the work of the early settlers we devote a portion of this chapter to a description of primitive manners, customs and labor.

Such has been the change since the days of our fathers and grandfathers in this State, it is almost as though a new race of beings had come into possession of the land. Clothing, diet, dwellings, social customs, individual habits, have all been transformed. Old ways are notour ways; but they were good ways, and served their purpose admirably, and the memory of them is full of tender interest to us. The earliest settlers, upon their arrival, constructed hastily what they called " three-faced camps; " that is, buildings with three walls, and the front open. These camps were usually about seven feet high, without floors, and roofed with poles upon which bark or shingles lay, held in place by weight-poles. No windows, doors or chimneys were needed in these dwellings, which were not built for temporary residences, but usually merely to serve as shelter while the cabin was being constructed.

The cabin of round logs was a material advance upon the camp. The interstices between the logs were filled with chips, or sticks, then daubed abundantly with clay mortar. A log "house" - in distinction from a cabin - was constructed of hewed logs, and was the prevailing style of residence for rich and poor. The building was often without a floor, but more commonly one was built of " puncheons," or split logs, made smooth as possible on one side by the adze or the ax. The roof was covered with lone: shingles. or " shakes," held in place by weight-poles. For a flre-place, a space about six feet long was cut out of the logs at one end of the room, and three sides were built up with logs, making an offset in the wall. This was lined with stone when convenient, and plentifully daubed with clay. The chimney was built of small split sticks, plastered together with clay, and rose but little above the roof.

A space for a doorway was cut in one side of the cabin, and in it was hung a door made of split shingles or puncheons, fastened together with cleats and wooden pins. The hinges were also of wood, and the latch. The latch-string was of leather, extending through a hole a few inches above the latch, to the outside, so that a pull lifted the latch from the catch enabling the door to open. It was only necessary for those inside to pull the latch-string in to lock the door securely against all comers.

The living-room was of good size, as it ought to be - for it was parlor, dining-room, sitting-room, kitchen, pantry and bed-room, all in one. The rafters were usually adorned with flitches of bacon or festoons of dried pumpkins. In one corner of the apartment were seen the loom and, perhaps, the spinning wheel, while the kitchen utensils were grouped about the ample fire-place. One

The trusty rifle usually hung of er the door, and near it the powder-horn and hunting-pouch. Well-to-do families had a spare room for guests - that is, a space in the loft of sufficient size to contain a bed, besides serving usually the purpose of a lumber-room. The loft was reached by a ladder from the main room . Sleeping apartments were sometimes separated from the sitting-room by partitions made by suspending quilts, coverlets or sheets from the upper floor.

This mode of living was not so irksome as might be supposed. People soon became accustomed to it, and patiently put up with it until their means had increased sufficiently to enable them to enlarge their domicile by a lean-to, or, better yet, to construct a double log cabin - a happy distinction to which only the wealthy could attain. The furniture of the cabin was as primitive as the house itself. Bedsteads, chairs and tables were of home manufacture, and the makers were not always skilled workmen. The articles used in the kitchen were few and simple ; a " Dutch oven," a skillet, or longhandled frying pan, an iron pot or kettle, and sometimes a coffeepot were all that the best furnished kitchen contained. When a stone-wall formed the base of the fire-place a long iron crane on which, attached to a pot-hook, hung a large pot or kettle, was one of the indispensable features. The style of cooking was necessarily simple, as all of it had to be done at the fire-place and in the fire. Corn meal, cooked in various forms, such as "mush," " Johnnycake," " hoe-cake" and " pone," was one of the staple articles of diet. The "pone'' and "corn-dodger" were cooked in the Dutch oven, set upon a bed of glowing coals. The oven being filled with dough, the cover, already heated on the fire, was placed over it and covered with hot embers. After the bread was cooked, it was taken from the oven and placed near the fire to keep it warm, while the oven was again pressed into use in the preparation of some other article of food. The "hoe-cake" was cooked upon a board or flat stone placed in front of the fire, a thick dough of meal and water having first been prepared. Cooked pumpkin was sometimes added to the dough to give it richness and flavor. Venison or ham was fried in the Dutch oven. Hominy or hulled corn was often added to the frugal meal. Wild honey was found in abundance; game was plenty, and although flour was at first scarce, the pioneer's bill of fare was usually a good one, containing a plenty, if not a variety, of good wholesome food, well cooked.

The pioneers were true-hearted and hospitable. Strangers were never denied shelter or food, though often the family were much discommoded by furnishing such entertainment. The early settlers of Steuben County were mainly from the older States of the Union - New Tork, the New England States and Virginia - though there were some English and Irish. They were generally poor, and understanding the hardships and disadvantages of poverty them" selves, they sympathized with, and aided the more readily, those whom they found in need of assistance. Selfishness was not in their nature. They were bold, brave, free-hearted, and led useful and upright lives. Of course there were exceptions - now and then a selfish man, and once in a great while a rascal - but the great body of the early settlers was composed of men fearless in the right, honest, generous, truthful, and independent even though they were poor- Their situation was one calculated to beget feelings of friendliness and helpfulness. They were all situated alike; all had left the associations and the friends of other days, and were seeking the accomplishment of a difficult task. There was no room for idlers, but newcomers were looked upon as helpers, and the watch-word appeared to be, "The more the merrier." Says an early writer: " Men must cleave to their kind and must be dependent upon each other. Pride and jealousy give way to the natural yearnings of the human heart for society. They begin to rub off the neutral prejudices; one takes a step and then the other; they meet half way and embrace, and the society thus newly organized and constituted is more liberal, enlarged, unprejudiced, and, of course, more affectionate than a society of people of like birth and character who bring all their early prejudices as a common stock to be transmitted as an inheritance to posterity."

The life of toil and hardship was one well calculated to develop a strong character and a self-reliant, trustful spirit. Many men of eminence have risen from humble homes; have studied by the firelight, or in the old-fashioned log school-houses, and become distinguished far above those reared in homes of luxury and schooled in aftiuence. The best citizens of Steuben County to day are those who have cleared the forests and subdued the prairies, or the descendants of these early settlers. The boys in early times were early taught to put their hands to every kind of farm work; they plowed and grubbed; pulled flax, broke and " hackled" it; wore tow shirts, coon-skin caps; picked and carded wool; and " spooled" and carded wool. The girls were taught to make and mend their own clothes; to cook, wash and scrub; to lend a hand in the harvest field if necessary. They were not injured by the exercise. It gave them strength and muscle, and fitted them for useful wives and mothers.

Such industry, coupled necessarily with energy and frugality, brought its own certain reward. The men grew prematurely old while sustaining their burdens, but they saw the forests pass away and beautiful fields of grain take their place. Marvelous indeed has been the change wrought in a half century. Many an aged pioneer, as he sits in his easy chair and overlooks the past, involuntarily exclaims, "Is it possible that all these things have been wrought by the hand of man within the space of one life-time?''

" The voice of Nature's very self drops low, As though she whispered of the long ago, When down the wandering stream the rude canoe Of some lone trapper glided into view And loitered down the watery path that led Thro' forest depths that only knew the tread Of savage beasts and wild barbarians That skulked about with blood upon their hands And murder in their hearts. The light of day Might barely pierce the gloominess that lay Like some dark pall across the water's face And folded all the land in its embrace. The panther's screaming and the bear's low growl, The snake's sharp rattle and the wolfs wild howl, The owl's grim chuckle, as it rose and fell In alternation with the Indian's yell. Made fitting prelude for the gory plays That were enacted in the early days.

" Now o'er the vision like a mirage, falls The old log cabin with its dingy walls And crippled chimney, with the crutch-like prop Beneath, a sagging shoulder on the top. The 'coon-skin battened fast on either side ; The whisps of leaf tobacco, cut and dried; The yellow strands of quartered apples hung In rich festoons, that tangle in among The morning-glory vines that clamber o'er The little clapboard rcof above the door; Again through mists of memory rise The simple scenes of home before the eyes : The happy mother, humming with her wheel The dear old melodies that used to steal So drowsily upon the summer air; The house-dog hid his bone, forgot his care

The clothing of the early settlers was simple, being usually entirely of home manufacture. The supply brought with the family into the new country was made to serve until flax could be raised from which to make more. It was with difiiculty that sheep could be kept, owing to the prairie wolves; but after sheep had been in troduced and flax and hemp raised in sufiicient quantities, it still remained a difficult task for the women of the household to make cloth and fashion clothing for the entire family. Flannel and linsey were woven and made into garments for women and children, and jeans for the men. The wool was usually colored with walnut or some other kind of bark; or else black and white wool mixed made "pepper and salt" cloth. Every household was a factory in which every branch of clothing manufacture was carried on - carding, spinning, weaving, cutting and sewing. Before carding machines were introduced all the wool used was carded by hand on cards about four inches wide and eight or ten inches long. Flax, after being dried, broken and "scutched," was spun on a small wheel, worked by a treadle, such as may now be seen once in a while among the lumber of an ancient garret. Tow and linen cloth was worked into shirts and dresses, or pantaloons for summer wear. Tow, the coarse part of flax, formed the filling of the cloth, the strong linen threads being the warp. A tow and linen shirt was not a thing of beauty, and it had a tendency to irritate the skin, but the boys of that day were satisfied with it.