SUMMARY - 367.
We have now endeavored to unfold the history of this county, from its earliest settlement to the present. While it has been impossible to note each fact specifically, in the process of its evolution, or enter into the details of each step in its development, yet we have taken it in its infancy, and during its initial, tottering steps, we have guided it with care, and as the framework of its organism grew into shape, and its proper functions gave it strength and direction, so have we, in proportion, withdrawn the minutiae of our description, until now she stands before us in perfection, the exponent of her own beauty and power, from which she can look back to her feeble genesis and exclaim, Ultima thule! Look in the past, and see the four posts supporting poles, covered with brush, leaves, and earth, that protected the first mill, in its transition to the round log, the hewed log, the frame, and finally the brick and steam. From the huge boulder, rudely fashioned into a millstone, with a boy to turn the bolting apparatus, to the present grand flouring establishments of endless capacity; from the little copper still, to the immense manufactures of rot: gut and tangle-foot; from the old-fashioned flax-break to swingling and fulling, the spinning wheel and tow to the carding mill and spinning jenny, with its thousand spools. The former process is so peculiar, that we describe it in this connection. In falling the home-made clothing in this county, the neighboring. men gathered at the house of one of their number-say six or eight. Taking seats on the old-fashioned split-bottom chairs, in a circle, with a rope around the backs to keep them in place, and with the web of cloth in the center, and with pants rolled up, they placed their feet so as to press in concentric opposition to each other, and a good woman, with gourd in hand to dampen the web with hot soap suds, they worked, kicking and pushing against the cloth, till a late hour at night, when the woman of the house, with yard-stick, measured the shrinkage, and finding it complete, pronounces it "thick enough," and the process
368 - HISTORY OF GREENE COUNTY.
is finished. From "hog and hominy," venison, potatoes, corn bread, sassafras or spicewood tea, to pies, pastries, and preserves, baking-powder, biscuit, etc. ; from rosy cheeks, round waists, and sound lungs, to arsenic hue, sunken chests, attenuated coupling; from the sugar-trough, to the rosewood, automatic crib; from the old wooden mold-board, with attachments, and held together by hickory withes, collar of leather, stuffed with husks, to which a hemp rope was tied, and with a boy on the horse-it is said that this unique machine among the beech roots, would kick a man down, kick him over the fence, and kick at him after he was over -from this grotesque apparatus we pass to the glittering steel mold-board, gliding smoothly between two wheels, surmounted by a whistling boy, while the furrow is turned unbroken from end to end; from the shovel-plow, the bare-footed boy, and the hoe, we pass to the modern planter, which furrows out, drops, and covers the corn ; from the sickle we go to the self-binder; froth the flail, and the hoof of the horse, and winnowing-sheet, to the steam separator; from the blazed path, meandering through the woods, to the countless turnpikes; from the lumbering ox team, to the lightning speed of the railway; the corduroy bridge in the shady swamp is succeeded by the magnificent iron structures that now span our streams; from the circle around the fire, shelling the corn by hand, to the steam-power capacity of a thousand bushels a day; from the hickory-bark bureau and clothes-press, to the inlaid productions of the cabinet-maker; from the three-legged stool, that only would stand on the pioneer floor, in its transitions to that acme of sedentary bliss, the reclining, rep-covered mahogany chair; from the homespun linsey-woolsey, to the flounced silk and satin polonaise and real point lace; from the plain sunbonnet, to the coronal flower garden; from the rude log cabin, stick chimney, capacious fireplace, greased-paper window, to the brown stone front, polished base burner, French plate, and silver call; from the old dandy' wagon, to the elliptic-spring phaeton. Such were the times then; such are the times, customs, and people of to-day ; and we may conclude, in the words of Cicero, O tempora, O mores! The old fireside home- .
"Where, piled with care, the nightly stack
Of wood against the chimney back;
The oaken log, green, huge, and thick,
SUMMARY. - 369
The knotty fore stick laid apart,
And filled between with curious art;
The ragged brush ; then hovering near,
We watched the first red blaze appear,
Heard the sharp crackle, caught the gleam,
On whitewashed wall and sagging beam,
Until the old, rude-furnished room
Burst, flower-like, into rosy bloom,"
Where nuts were cracked, and turnips scraped, and the good old dog and cat lay snoozing by the fire, have all given place to the fashioned blazonry of modern art, style, and stiff formality.