298 - HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY.

CHAPTER V.

PRINCIPAL LAND DIVISIONS OF OHIO-THE VIRGINIA MILITARY LANDS-CON-

GRESS LANDS-EARLY SURVEYS-PIONEER DAYS AND TRIALS-PIONEER

CABIN-FURNITURE, FOOD AND MEDICINE-HABITS AND LABOR

-CLOTHING AND BOOKS-EARLY MANNERS AND CUSTOMS,

ETC-MILLS, TEAMSTERS AND STORE GOODS.

THE pre-historical history of Ohio, so far as regards civil organization and the exercise of authority, begins in 1769, when the colony of Virginia attempted to extend her jurisdiction over the territory northwest Of the River Ohio. The House of Burgesses passed an act establishing the county of Botetourt, with the -Mississippi River as its western boundary. This was a vast county. The act which established it contained the following passage

Whereas, the people situated on the Mississippi, in the said county of Botetourt, will he very remote from the court house, and must necessarily become a separate county as soon their numbers are sufficient, which will probably happen in a short time, be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the inhabitants of that part of the said county of Botetourt which lies on the said waters shall be exempted from the payment of any levies to be laid by the said county court for the purpose of building a court house and prison for said county.

Civil government between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers existed only nominally until 1778, when, after the conquest of the country by Gen. George Rogers Clark, the Virginia Legislature organized the county of Illinois, embracing within its limits all of the lands lying west of the Ohio River to which Virginia had any claim. Col. John Todd received appointment from the Governor of Virginia as civil commandant and lieutenant of the county. He served until his death, at the battle of Blue Licks, in 1782, and Timothy Montbrun was his successor.

In 1787, Virginia, having made her deed of cession to the United States, and the title having been protected through other deeds of cession, and through Indian treaties, Congress took the great step which resulted in the establishment of a wise and salutary civil government. Upon the 13th of July, after a prolonged discussion of the principles and issues involved, there was issued " An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the River Ohio," which has since been known as "the ordinance of 1787," or the "ordinance of freedom." By this great and statesmanlike ordinance, provision was made for successive forms of territorial government, adapted to successive steps of advancement in the settlement and development of the Western country. Chief Justice Chase says of this ordinance : " This remarkable instrument was the last gift of the Congress of the old confederation to the country, and it was a fit consummation of their glorious labors."

At the time this ordinance went into effect, there had been made no permanent settlement of the whites upon the territory embraced, except the few French villages, and their immediate vicinities, in the western and northwestern portions of it. If any such existed within the present limits

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of Ohio, they must have been situated along the Maumee River, and were of small extent. The Government had discouraged the settlement of whites up to this time, to avoid infringement upon the rights of the Indians, and consequent troubles. Military force was resorted to to break up some small settlements made along the Ohio, and in other parts of the State. After the passage of the ordinance, emigration was encouraged." When the settlers went into the wilderness they found the law already there. It was impressed upon the soil itself, while it yet bore up nothing but the forest."

When Ohio was admitted to the Federal Union as an independent State, one of the terms of admission was the fee simple to all the lands within its limits, especially those previously granted or sold, should be vested in the United States. The different portions of the lands have, at various times, been granted or sold to various companies, bodies politic, and individuals. The principal divisions were known as follows : 1, Congress lands; 2, United States Military Lands ; 8, Virginia Military District; 4, Western Reserve; 5, Fire Lands; 6, Ohio Company's Purchase; 7, Donation Tract ; 8. Symmes' Purchase; 9, Refugee Tract; 10, French Grant; 11, Dohrman's Grant; 12, Zane's Grant; 13, Canal Lands: 14, Turnpike Lands: 15. Maumee Road Lands ; 16, School Lands; 17 College Lands ; 18 Ministerial ; 19, Moravian: 20, Salt Sections. Part of the lands in this county are in the Virginia Military District, and among the finest in the State.

THE VIRGINIA MILITARY LAND.

At its session, beginning October 20, 1783, the General Assembly of Virginia passed an act to authorize its Delegates in Congress to convey to the United States in Congress assembled, all the right of that commonwealth to the territory northwest of the Ohio River. Congress stipulated to accept this cession upon condition that this territory should be formed into States, containing a suitable extent of territory, and that the States so formed should be distinctly republican, and admitted members of the Federal Union, having the same rights of sovereignty and freedom as the other States. On the 17 th of March, 1784, Thomas Jefferson, Arthur Lee, James Monroe and Samuel Hardy, the Virginia Delegates to Congress, conveyed to the United States - all right, title and claim, as well as of jurisdiction, which the said commonwealth had to the territory, or tract of country, within the limits of the Virginia charter, situate, lying and being northwest of the River Ohio."

This act of cession contained, however, the following reservation: " That in case the quantity of good land on the southeast side of the Ohio, upon the waters of Cumberland River, and between the Great and Tennessee Rivers, which have been reserved by law for the Virginia troops, upon continental establishment, should, from the North Carolina line, bearing in further upon the Cumberland lands than was expected, prove insufficient for these legal bounties, the deficiency should be made up to the said troops in good lands, to be laid off between the Rivers Scioto and Little Miami, on the northwest side of the River Ohio, in such proportions to them as have been engaged to them by the laws of Virginia." The land embraced in this reservation constitutes the Virginia Military District in Ohio, and is composed of the counties of Adams, Brown, Clinton, Clermont, Highland, Fayette, Madison and Union, and portions of Scioto, Pike, Ross, Pickaway,

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Franklin, Delaware, Marion, Hardin, Logan, Clark, Greene, Champaign. Warren, Hamilton and Auglaize. Congress passed an act authorizing the establishment of this reservation and location as defined, upon the report of the Executive of Virginia that the deficiency of good lands upon the waters of toe Cumberland existed.

The Virginia soldiers of the Continental line, who served in the Revolutionary war, were compensated in bounty awards of these lands, according to the rank, time of service, etc. The first step necessary, after securing the proper certificate of actual service, was that, of procuring a printed warrant from the land officer, specifying the quantity of lands and the right upon which it was due. This military warrant was issued from the land office, in the State of Virginia, which empowered the person to whom it was granted, his heirs or assignees, to select the number of acres specified in the lands reserved for that purpose, and to have the same appropriated. After the location was made. and the boundaries ascertained by surveying. the owner of the warrant returned it to the State authorities, and received in its place a patent or grant from the Government. This grant was equivalent to a deed in fee simple, and passed all of the title of the Government to the grantee.

On the same day on which the act was passed, Richard C. Anderson, a Colonel in the army. was appointed Surveyor for the Continental line of the. army, by the officers named in the act and authorized to snake such appointment as they saw fit. He opened his office at Louisville for entries the Kentucky lands, on the 20th of July, 1781. When the Kentucky grant was exhausted, he opened another office, for entries in the Ohio tract. He held his position up to the time of the death, in October, 1826, and during the long period faithfully discharged the onerous duties devolving upon him. His son-in-law, Allen Latham, Esq., was appointed Surveyor some time after Col. Anderson's death, and opened his office in Chillicothe in July, 1829.

Any soldier who held a warrant, or the heir or assignee of any soldier who held a warrant, was at liberty to locate his lands wherever he pleased within the Virginia Military District, and in consequence of the irregularities with which many locations were made, and the encroachments of some locations upon others, far more litigations have arisen relative to lines and titles in this district than in those which were regularly surveyed and laid off in sections. The Virginia Military Tract was never surveyed into ranges or townships until it was done in the different counties, by order of the County Commissioners, when it became desirable to organize the townships for civil purposes. Hence their irregular shape and size. All of the e lands in Hardin County lying south of the Scioto River are in the Virginia Military District, and are highly prized for their richness of soil and productiveness.

CONGRESS LANDS.

The territory embraced in Hardin County lying north of the Scioto River comprises what is known as Congress Lands. To facilitate the settlement of lands acquired by treaty from the Indians, Congress, on May 20, 1785, passed an act for disposing of lands in the Northwest Territory. Its main provisions were-a surveyor or surveyors should be appointed by the General Government, and a geographer and his assistants to act with them. The surveyors were to divide the Territory into to townships

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of six miles square, by lines running due north and south and east and west. The starting place was to be on the Ohio River, at a point where the western boundary of Pennsylvania crossed it. This would give the first range and the first township. As soon as seven townships were surveyed, the maps and plats of the same were to be sent to the Board of the Treasury, who would record them and proceed to place the land in the market; and so on with all the townships, as fast as they could be prepared ready for sale.

Each township was divided into thirty-six sections. of 640 acres each, out of which Sections 8, 11, 26 and 29 were reserved for the use of the Government, and Section 16 for the establishment of a common school fund. One-third of all mines and minerals was also reserved for the United States. Liberal amounts were reserved for the use of Revolutionary officers, men and others who suffered in the cause of liberty. Refugees from the British Provinces were entitled to grants of land. The Moravian Indians were also exempt from molestations and guaranteed in their homes. Soldiers' claims, and all others of a like nature, were also recognized, and land reserved for them. Congress lands are socalled because they are sold to purchasers by the immediate officers of the General Government, conformably to such laws as have been, or may be, from time to time, enacted by Congress.

This county contains a portion of the Ohio Canal lands, which were granted by Congress to the State of Ohio, to aid in constructing her extensive canals. This grant comprises over one million acres, a large proportion of which was in the market as late as 1847. Those located in Hardin County are principally in the northwest townships, with scattering tracts as far east as the Wyandot County line, and north of the Scioto River.

EARLY SURVEYS.

The original survey of the majority of the lands lying in the Scioto Valley was attended with great difficulties, and oft times danger from prowling bands of Indians that infested this whole region of country, and who were bitterly hostile to those intrepid men who, with compass and chain, were the savant couriers of civilization in this portion of the State. The Virginia Military Land office, for the tract north of the Ohio River, was opened at Louisville, Ky., in 1787, and soon after, Massie, McArthur, Sullivant and others commenced the adventurous undertaking of surveying it. All of the locations of land warrants prior to 1790 were made by stealth. "Every creek which was explored, every line that was run, was at the risk of life from the savage Indians, whose courage and perseverance were only equaled by the perseverance of the whites to push forward their settlements." Col. R. C. Anderson, Surveyor General of the Virginia Military District, placed a large number of the warrants in the hands of :Nathaniel Massie, in 1790, when Congress removed the last obstruction to the taking of the lands, and he immediately proceeded to enter and survey on such terms as he could make with the owners. The risk being great, and as the holders of claims were anxious to have them located as soon as possible, in order that they might obtain the best selections, they were willing to pay liberally for the labor and danger of the survey. One-fourth, one-third, and sometimes as much as one-half of the lands acquired by entry were given by the proprietors to the surveyors. If the owners preferred paying

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in money, the usual terms were ten pounds, in Virginia currency, for each 1,000 acres surveyed, exclusive of chainman's wages. Massie continued to survey during the winter of 1792-93, and in the fall of the latter year he pushed his way far up the Scioto. He employed about thirty men to accompany him on his dangerous expedition. The greater part of Ross and Pickaway Counties west of the river was well explored, and partly surveyed. The party returned without having met with any harm. and delighted with the richness of the valley. Massie resumed his labors in the winter of 1793-94, and braved many hardships and dangers.

Prior to the treaty of 1817, surveying parties had extended their labors as far north as the Greenville treaty line, and as far west as the eastern boundary of Seneca County. All of the territory north and west of these lines was, up to that time, in possession of the Indians. As soon as the lands acquired by said treaty were opened for settlers, a Government land office, for the disposal of Congress lands. was established at Bucyrus, Ohio, and thither flocked the hardy pioneers, to secure homes in Hardin County, which had previously been surveyed by the Government. The office for the Virginia Military Lands was at Chillicothe, and that portion of the county lying south of the Scioto was soon alive with surveyors and speculatiors locating land warrants. A great deal of these lands were "taken up" in large tracts, the titles to which were often doubtful: or worthless, and held by speculators at such a high figure, that many of the pioneers crossed the Scioto and bought Congress land, thus securing a cheap home and a good title. The office for the canal lands scattered through this portion of the State, was located at Fort Ball, across the Sandusky River from Tiffin, Ohio, and now a part of that city.

PIONEER DAYS AND TRIALS.

In nearly all great and thoroughly organized armies, there is a corps of active, brave men, usually volunteers, whose self-imposed duty is to go ahead and prepare the way with ax, mattock and pick for the advancement of the army-the fighting rank and file. They are called pioneers, and are armed with guns as well as implements of labor, for their position and their work is a dangerous one. They are obliged to keep a constant lookout for an ambush, in momentary fear of a sudden attack, for the enemy, with a full knowledge of the country, which to the advancing corps of pioneers is a terra incognita, is liable, any instant to send a sudden volley of arrows or rifle balls into their midst, or to hem them in and overpower them with a superior force.

The men who pushed their way into the wilderness along the Scioto and its tributaries, and all those earliest settlers of Ohio from the river to the lake, were the pioneers of one of the grandest armies that earth ever knew; an army whose hosts are still sweeping irresistibly ahead, and which now, after more than eighty years, has not fully occupied the country it has won. It was the army of peace and civilization that came, not to conquer an enemy by blood, carnage and ruin, but to subdue a wilderness by patient toil; to make the wild valley blossom as the rose; to sweep away the forest. till the soil, make fertile fields out of the prairie lands and build houses

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which were to become the abodes of happiness and plenty. The pioneers were the reliant vanguard of such an army as this.

The first hardy and resolute men who penetrated the valley of the Scioto, coming up the stream from "la belle rivere," found a land fertile as heart could wish, fair to look upon, and .fragrant with the thousand fresh odors of the woods in early spring. The long, cool aisles of the forest led away into mazes of vernal green, where the swift deer bounded by unmolested, and as yet unscared by the sound of the woodman's ax or the sharp ring of his rifle. They looked upon the wooded slopes and the tall grass of the plains, jeweled with strange and brilliant flowers, where once the red man had his fields of corn. All about them were displayed the lavish bounties of nature. The luxuriant growth of the oak, walnut, sycamore, maple, beech, hickory, elm, chestnut and the tulip tree, with the lesser shrub, such as the dogwood, wild plum and crab-apple, the red bud, the papaw, the heavyhanging grape-vines, the blueberry and raspberry gave evidence of the strength of the virgin soil and the kindness of the climate. The forest covered the land with an abundance of food for the smaller animals, and the deer, as common as the cattle of to-day, grazed upon the rich grass of the prairies and browsed upon the verdure in the little glades. Other animals were abundant. The opossum, raccoon, rabbit and ground-hog existed in great numbers. The wild hogs roamed the woods in droves, and fattened upon the abundant mast, or "shack." The bear was occasionally seen. Wild turkeys appeared in vast flocks, and in the season came the migratory fowls and tarried by the streams. The streams had their share of life, and fairly swarmed with fish.

But the pioneers came not to enjoy a life of lotus-eating and ease. They could admire the pristine beauty of the scenes that unveiled before them; they could enjoy the vernal green of the great forest, and the loveliness of all the works of nature. They could look forward with happy anticipation to the life they were to lead in the midst of all this beauty, and to the rich reward that would be theirs from the cultivation of the mellow, fertile soil; but they had first to work. The seed-time comes before the harvest in other fields, too, than that of agriculture.

The dangers, also, that these pioneers were exposed to, were serious ones. The Indians could not be trusted, and the many stories of their outrages in the earlier eastern settlements made the pioneers of the Scioto country apprehensive of trouble. The larger wild beasts were a cause of much dread, and the smaller ones were a source of great annoyance. Added to this was the liability to sickness which always exists in a new country. In the midst of all the loveliness of the surroundings, there was a sense of loneliness that could not be dispelled, and this was a far greater trial to the men and women who first dwelt in the western country than is generally imagined. The deep-seated, constantly-recurring feeling of isolation made many stout hearts turn back to the older settlements and the abodes of comfort, the companionship and sociability they had abandoned in Virginia, Pennsylvania and the Southern and Eastern States, to take up a new life in the wilderness.

The pioneers, coming first down the Ohio and then making their way up the Scioto, and later making the tedious journey from the East and South by the rude trails, arrived at the places of their destination with but very

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little with which to begin the battle of life. They had brave hearts and strong arms, however, and they were possessed of invincible determination. Frequently they came on without their families to make a beginning, and this having been accomplished, would return to their old homes for their wives and children. The first thing done after a temporary shelter from the rain had been provided, was to prepare a little spot of ground for some crop, usually corn. This was done by girdling the trees, clearing away the underbrush, if there chanced to be any, and sweeping the surface with fire. Ten, fifteen, twenty, or even thirty acres of land might thus be prepared and planted the first season. In the autumn the crop would be carefully gathered and garnered with the least possible waste, for it was the food supply of the pioneer and his family, and life itself depended, in part, upon its safe preservation.

While the first crop was growing the pioneer has busied himself with the building of his cabin, which must answer as a shelter from the storms of the coming winter, a protection from the ravages of wild animals, and, possibly, a place of refuge from the red man.

PIONEER CABIN.

If a pioneer was completely isolated from his fellow-men, his position was certainly a hard one ; for without assistance he could construct only a poor habitation. In such cases the cabin was generally made of light logs or poles, and was laid up roughly, only to answer the temporary purpose of shelter, until other settlers had come into the vicinity, by whose help a more solid structure could be built. Usually a number of men came into the country together, and located within such distance of each other as enabled them to perform many friendly and neighborly offices. Assistance was always readily given one pioneer by all the scattered residents of the forest within a radius of several miles. The commonly followed plan of erecting a log cabin was through a union of labor. The site of the cabin home was generally selected with reference to a good water supply, often by a neverfailing spring of pure water, or if such could not be found, it was not uncommon to first dig a well. When the cabin was to be built the few neighbors gathered at the site, and first cut down, within as close proximity as possible, a number of trees, as nearly of a size as could be found, but ranging from a foot to twenty inches in diameter. Logs were chopped from these and rolled to a common center. This work, and that of preparing the foundation, would consume the greater part of the day, in most cases, and the entire labor would most commonly occupy two or three days-sometimes four. The logs were raised to their places with handspikes and "skid poles," and men standing at the corners with axes notched them as fast as they were laid in position. Soon the cabin would be built several logs high, and the work would become more difficult. The gables were formed by leveling the logs, and making them shorter and shorter, as each additional one was laid in place. These logs in the gables were held in place by poles, which extended across the cabin from end to end, and which served also as rafters upon which to lay the rived "clapboard" roof. The so-called "clapboards " were five or six feet in length, and were split from oak or ash logs, and made as smooth and flat as possible. They were laid side by side, and other pieces of split stuff laid over the cracks so as to effectually keep out

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the rain. Upon these, logs were laid to hold them in place, and the logs were held by blocks of wood placed between them.

The chimney was an important part of the structure, and taxed the builders, with their poor tools, to their utmost. In rare cases it was made of stone, but most commonly of logs and sticks laid up in the manner similar to those which formed the cabin. It was, in nearly all cases, built outside of the cabin, and at its base a huge opening was cut through the wall to answer as a fire-place. The sticks in the chimney were held in place, and protected from fire, by mortar, formed by kneading and working clay and straw. Flat stones were procured for back and jambs of the fire-place. An opening was chopped or sawed in the logs on one side of the cabin for a doorway. Pieces of hewed timber, three or four inches thick, were fastened on each side, by wooden pins, to the ends of the logs, and the door (if there was any) was fastened to one of these by wooden hinges. The door itself was a clumsy piece of wood-work. It was made of boards, rived from an oak log, and held together by heavy cross-pieces. There was a wooden latch upon the inside, raised by a string which passed .through a gimlet-hole, and hung upon the outside. From this mode of construction arose the old and well-known hospitable saying, "You will find the latch-string always out." It was only pulled in at night, and the door was thus fastened. Very many of the cabins of the pioneers had no doors of the kind here described, and the entrance was only protected by a blanket, or skin of some wild beast, suspended above it. The window was a small opening, often devoid of any thing resembling a sash, and very seldom having glass. Greased paper was sometimes used in lieu of the latter, but more commonly some old Garment constituted a curtain, which was the only protection from sun, rain, or snow. The floor of the cabin was made of puncheons-pieces of timber split from trees, about eighteen inches in diameter, and hewed smooth with the broad-axe. They were half the length of the floor. Many of the cabins first erected in this part of the country had nothing but the earthen floor. Sometimes the cabins had cellars, which were simply small excavations in the ground, for the storage of a few articles of food. or, perbaps, cooking utensils. Access to the cellar was readily gained by lifting a loose puncheon. There was sometimes a loft, used for various purposes, among others as the "guest chamber " of the house. It was reached by a ladder, the sides of which were split pieces of a sapling, put together, like everything else in the house, without nails.

FURNITURE, FOOD AND MEDICINE.

The furniture of the log cabin was as simple and primitive as the structure itself. A forked stick set in the floor and supporting two poles, the other ends of which were allowed to rest upon the logs at the end and side of the cabin, formed a bedstead. A common form of table was a slit slab, supported by four rustic legs, set in auger holes. Three legged stools were made in a similar simple manner. Pegs, driven into auger holes in the logs of the wall, supported shelves, and others displayed the limited wardrobe of the family not in use. A few other pegs, or perhaps a pair of deer horns, formed a rack where hung the rifle and powder-horn, which no cabin was without. These, and perhaps a few other simple articles, brought from the "old home," formed the furniture and furnishings of the pioneer cabin. The

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utensils for cooking and the dishes for table use were few. The best were of pewter, which the careful housewife of the olden time kept shining as brightly as the most pretentious plate of our later day fine houses. It was by no means uncommon that wooden vessels, either coopered or turned, were used upon the table. Knives and forks were few; crockery very scarce, and tin-ware not abundant. Food was simply cooked and served, but it was of the best and most wholesome kind. The hunter kept the larder supplied with venison, bear meat, squirrels, wild turkeys and the many varieties of smaller game. Plain corn bread, baked in a kettle, in the ashes, or upon a board in front of the great open fire-place, answered the purpose of all kinds of pastry. The corn was, among the earlier pioneers, pounded or grated, there being no mills for grinding it for some time, and then only small ones at a considerable distance away. The wild fruits, in their season, were made use of, and afforded a pleasant variety. Sometimes especial effort was made to prepare a delicacy, its, for instance, when a woman experimented in mince pies, by pounding wheat for the flour to make the crust, and used crab apples for fruit. In the lofts of the cabins was usually to be found a collection of articles that made up the pioneer's materia medica, the herb medicines and spices-catnip, sage, tansy, fennel, boneset, pennyroyal and wormwood, each gathered in its season: and there were also stores of nuts. and strings of dried pumpkin, with bags of berries and fruit.

HABITS AND LABOR.

The habits of the pioneers were of a simplicity and purity in conformance to their surroundings and belongings. The men were engaged in the herculean labor day after day, of enlarging the little patch of sunshine about their homes, cutting away the forest, burning off the brush and debris, preparing the soil, planting, tending, harvesting, caring for the few animals, which they brought with them, or soon procured, and in hunting. While they were engaged in the heavy labor of the field and forest, or following the deer, or seeking other game, their helpmeets were busied with their household duties-providing for the day and for the winter coming on, cooking, making clothes, spinning and weaving. They were fitted, by nature and experience, to be the consorts of the brave men who first came into the Western wilderness. They were heroic in their endurance of hardship and privation, and loneliness. Their industry was well directed and unceasing. Woman's work then, like man's, was performed under disadvantages, which have been removed in later years. She had not only the common house hold duties to perform, but many other.. She not only made the clothing but the fabric for it. That old, old occupation of spinning and of weaving, with which woman's name has been associated in all history, and of which the modern world know nothing, except through the stories of those who are grandmothers now-that old occupation of spinning and of weaving, which seems surrounded with a glamour of romance as we look back to it through tradition and poetry, and which always conjures up thoughts of the graces and virtues of the dames and damsels of the generation that is gone that old, old occupation of spinning and of weaving, was the chief industry of the pioneer women. Every cabin sounded with the softly whirring wheel and the rythmic thud of the loom. The woman of pioneer times was like the woman described by Solomon: "She seeketh wool and flax, and work-

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eth willingly with her hands ; she layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff."

CLOTHING AND BOOKS.

Almost every article of clothing. all of the cloth in use in the old log cabins, was the product of the patient woman-weaver's toil. She spun the flax and wove the cloth for shirts, pantaloons, frocks, sheets and blankets. The linen and the wool, the "linseywoolsey" woven by the housewife, formed all of the material for the clothing of both men and women, except such articles as were made of skins. The men commonly wore the hunting shirt, a kind of loose frock reaching half way down the figure, open before, and so wide as to lap over a foot or more upon the chest. This generally had a cape, which was often fringed with a raveled piece of cloth of a different color from that which composed the garment. The boom of the hunting shirt answered as a pouch, in which could be carried the various articles that the hunter or woodsman would need. It was always worn belted, and made out of coarse linen, of linsey or of dressed deer skin, according to the fancy of the wearer. Breeches were made of heavy cloth or of deer skin, and were often worn with leggings of the same material, or of some kind of leather, while the feet were most usually encased in moccasins, which were easily and quickly made, though they needed frequent mending. The deer-skin breeches or drawers, were very comfortable when dry, but when they became wet were very cold to the limb, and the next time they were put on were almost as stiff as if made of wood. Hats or caps were made of the various native furs. The women were clothed in linsey petticoats, coarse shoes and stockings, and wore buckskin gloves or mittens when any protection was required for the hands. All of the wearing apparel, like that of the men was made with a view to being serviceable and comfortable, and all was of home manufacture. Other articles and finer ones, were sometimes worn, but they had been brought from former homes, and were usually the relies handed down from parents to children. Jewelry was not common, but occasionally some ornament was displayed.

In the cabins of the more cultivated pioneers were usually a few books, such as the Bible and hymn-book, Pilgrim's Progress, Baxter's Saints' Rest, prayer-book, Harney's Meditations, Aesop's Fables, Gulliver's Travels and Robinson Crusoe. The long winter evenings were spent in poring over a few well-thumbed volumes by the light of the great log fire, in knitting, mending, curing furs, etc.

EARLY PLANNERS AND CUSTOMS, FTC.

Hospitality was simple, unaffected, hearty, unbounded. Whisky was in common use, and was furnished on all occasions of sociality. Nearly every settler had his barrel stored away. It was the universal drink at merry-makings, bees, house-warmings, weddings, and was always set before the traveler who chanced to spend the night or take a meal in the log cabin. It was the good old-fashioned whisky-"clear as amber, sweet as musk, smooth as oil "-that the few octogenarians and nonogenarians of to-day recall to memory with an unctuous gusto and a suggestive smack of the lips. The whisky came from the Monongahela district, and was floated down the Ohio, and thence boatel up the Scioto, or hauled in wagons across the country. A few years later, stills began to make their appearance, and an article

310 - HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY.

of peach brandy and corn whisky manufactured; the latter was not held in such high esteem as the peach brandy, though used in greater quantities.

As the settlement increased, the sense of loneliness and isolation was dispelled, the asperities of life were softened and its amenities multiplied ; social gathering became more numerous and more enjoyable. The logrollings, harvestings and husking-bees for the men; and the applebutter making and the quilting parties for the women, furnished frequent occasions for social intercourse. The early settlers took much pleasure and pride in rifleshooting, and as they were accustomed to the use of the gun as a means, often, of obtaining a subsistence, and relied upon it as a weapon of defense, they exhibited considerable skill. A welding was the event of most importance in the sparsely settled new country. The young people had every inducement to marry, and generally did so as soon as able to provide for themselves. When a marriage was to be celebrated, all the neighborhood turned out. It was customary to have the ceremony performed before dinner, and, in order to be on time, the groom and his attendants usually started from his father's home in the morning for that of the bride. All went on horseback. riding in single file along the narrow trail. Arriving at the cabin of the bride's parents. the ceremony would be performed. and after that, dinner served. This would be a substantial backwoods feast of beef. pork, fowls and bear or deer meat, with such vegetables as could be procured. The greatest hilarity prevailed during the meal. After it was over, the dancing began, and was usually kept up till the next morning, though the newly-made husband and wife were, as a general thing. put to bed in the most approved fashion, and with considerable formality, in the middle of the evening's hilarity. The tall young men, when they went on to the floor to dance, had to take their places with care between the logs that supported the loft floor, or they were in danger of bumping their heads. The figures of the dances were three and four land reels, or square sets and jigs. The commencement was always a square four, which was followed by "jigging it off," or what is sometimes called a "cut out jig." The "settlement " of a young couple was thought to be thoroughly and generously made when the neighbors assembled and raised a cabin for them.

During all the early years of the settlement, varied with occasional pleasures and excitements, the great work of increasing the tillable ground went slowly on. The implements and tools were few and of the most primitive kind, but the soil, that had long held in reserve the accumulated richness of centuries, produced splendid harvests, and the husbandman was well rewarded for his labor. The soil was warmer then than now, and the season earlier. The prairie fields were often, by the 1st of March as green as fields of grain now are by the 1st of April. The wheat was pastured in the spring to keep it from growing up so early and so fast as to become lodged. The harvest came early, and the yield was often from thirty-five to forty, or more, bushels per acre. Corn grew fast, and roasting ears were to be had by the 4th of July in some seasons.

MILLS, TEAMSTERS, AND STORE GOODS.

When the corn grew too hard for roasting ears and was yet too soft to grind in the mill, it was reduced to meal by a grater. Next to the grater came the hominy-block, an article in common use among the pioneers. It

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consisted simply of a block of wood-a section of a tree, perhaps-with a hole burned or dug into it a foot deep, in which corn was pulverized with a pestle. Sometimes this block was inside the cabin, where it served as a seat for the bashful young backwoodsman while "sparking" his girl; sometimes a convenient stump in front of the cabin door was prepared for and made one of the best of hominy blocks. These blocks did not last long, for mills came quite early and superseded them, yet these mills were often so far apart that, in stormy weather or for want of transportation, the pioneer was compelled to resort to his hominy-block, or go without bread. In winter, the mills were frozen up nearly all the time, and when a thaw came and the ice broke, if the mill was not swept away entirely by the floods, it was so thronged with pioneers, each with his sack of corn, that some of them were often compelled to camp out near the mill and wait several days for their turn. When the grist was ground, if they were so fortunate as to possess an ox, a horse or mule, for the purpose of transportation. they were happy. It was not unusual to go ten or twelve miles to mill, through the pathless, unbroken forest, and to be benighted on the journey and chased by wolves. As a majority of the pioneers settled in the vicinity of some ;cream, mills soon made their appearance in every settlement. These mills, however, were very primitive affairs-mere " corn crackers " --but they were a big improvement on the hominy--block. They merely ground the corn: the pioneer must do his own bolting. The meal was sifted through a wire sieve by hand, and the finest used for bread. A road cut through the forest to the mill, and a wagon for hauling the grist, were great advantages. The latter, especially, was often a seven days' wonder to the children of the settlement, and the happy owner of one often did for years the milling of a whole neighborhood. About once a month, this good neighbor, who was in exceptionally good circumstances because able to own a wagon. would go around through the settlement, gather up the grists and take them to mill, often spending several days in the operation, and never think of charging for his time and trouble. Among the mills frequented prior to the erection of any in Hardin County, was Moots' Mill, on Mad River, about night miles southeast of Bellefontaine; Moore's Mill, on Stoney Creek, in Logan County and Cherokee Mills, located in the same county, about twenty-five miles from Kenton. There was a small mill located near the site of Marseilles, Wyandot County, that was often frequented by the settlers who lived in the eastern part County, Hardin. The first water grist mill erected in this county was built by John Houser, in 1832. It was a rude structure of round logs, contained one run of buhrs and stood on the site of the old Gary Mill, on the Scioto River, about a mile and a half southeast, of Kenton. In the course of time, other small mills made their appearance in different portions of the county, which, though rude, supplied the pioneers with corn meal and flour.

The latter ingredient. however, was principally wagoned from the older settlements or the towns upon Lake Erie. Rev. T. H. Wilson. who died at Fremont, Ohio, March 26, 1883, and whose interment took place at Kenton. was one of those pioneer teamsters upon whom the early settlers of Hardin County depended for much of their breadstuffs. He was engaged in the business for about five years after his settlement in this county. Another of the early teamsters was Hiram Furney, son of William Furney, the pioneer tavern-keeper of Kenton; while "Uncle Harvey" Buckmister, who now resides in Kenton, at the age of eighty-three years, was one of the pioneer stage-drivers upon the Cincinnati & Sandusky stage line,

312 - HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY.

his route being from Bellefontaine to Upper Sandusky, over what is known as the old State road. The hardships incident to such a life cannot easily be realized in this age of gravel pikes and railroads: but the self-reliance, energy and perseverance of these men were equal to the obstacles to be overcome, and never paled before their arduous task. They knew that provisions must be obtained at a distance, until forests could be transformed into tillable fields, and, although often under the necessity of prying out their wagons from the deep mud-holes. swimming streams and spending the night in the lonely forest, yet they saw their duty, and they did it. Few of these pioneer teamsters had had the advantages of an early schooling, but a keen knowledge of human nature, and a broad experience of pioneer life, largely compensated for a limited education.

Only the commonest goods were brought into the country, and they sold at enormous prices, being wagoned from Sanduskv City or Detroit, and often as far east as Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Baltimore. There was no market, for several years beyond the wants of the settlers. which was sufficient to swallow up all the surplus products of the farmers but when such an outlet was wanted, it was found at Sandusky, Detroit or other settlements upon the lake. The first exports of produce from Hardin County were carried to Sandusky City, whence the wagons returned with such goods as were needed in a pioneer settlement. Flour brought from $6 to $10 per barrel, and was a poor article at that: salt from $5 to $8 per barrel, calico from 40 to 75 cents per yard: satinets. $2 to $3 per yard; teas, $1.50 to $2.50 per pound; brown sugar, 25 to 30 cents per pound; coffee was cheap, in comparison with other goods: butter was sold as low as 25 cents per pound, while corn was $1 her bushel. As to wheat, there was scarcely a price known for some years: the inhabitants; mostly depended upon buying flour by the barrel. On account of the scarcity of mills. All kinds of trade was carried on by barter. Money was so scarce that even those who had their farms paid for were in the habit of laying up six-pence and shillings for many months to meet their taxes when due.

Long journeys upon foot were often made by the pioneers. to obtain the necessities of life or some article, then a luxury, for the sick. Hardships were cheerfully borne, privations stoutly endured: the best was made of what they had by the pioneers and their families, and they toiled patiently on, industrious and frugal, simple in their tastes and pleasures, happy in an independence, however hardly gained, and looking forward hopefully to a future of plenty which should reward them for the toils of their earliest years, and a rest from the struggle amidst the benefits gained by it. Without an iron will and indomitable resolution. they could never have accomplished what they did. Their heroism deserves the highest tribute of praise that can be awarded.

In the course of time, the fear of the Indians, which had filled many a mother's heart, proved to be groundless. There was a greater feeling of security than ever before, and a new impetus was given to immigration. The country rapidly filled up with settlers, and the era of peace and prosperity was fairly begun. Progress was slowly, surely made; the log houses became more numerous in the clearings; the forest shrank away before the woodman's ax; frame houses began to appear. The pioneers, assured of safety, laid better plans for the future, resorted to new industries, enlarged their possessions and improved the means of cultivation. Stock was brought in from the older settlements on the south and east. Every settler had his horses, oxen, cattle, sheep and hogs. More commodious structures

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took the place of the old ones; the large, double log cabin of hewed logs took the place of the smaller hut; log and frame barns were built for the protection of stock and the housing of the crops. Then society began to form itself; the schoolhouse and the church appeared. and the advancement was noticeable in a score of ways. Still there remained a vast work to perform, for as yet only a beginning had been made in the Western woods. The brunt of the struggle. however, was past, and the way made in the wilderness for the army that was to come.