HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                  233

    “Having now told you something about what we had to eat and how
we procured it, I must next tell you something about how we clothed
ourselves. We learned from the Indians how to dress buckskins, out
of which we made our breeches. We made jackets of the buckskin, too;
but when the beautiful fawnskin was cut bias it made a really aristocratic
jacket. When shirts were wanted something else had to be done. There
was no muslin nor cotton fabric of any kind to be had. But there grew
a rank nettle in the bottoms having a fibrous surface covering resembling
that of flax and when this weed ripened and broke down in the fall, we
gathered it, then broke, hackled and scutched it as we would flax. This
was then spun and afterwards woven into cloth out of which we made
our shirts. Next came socks and shoes. There was no wool nor leather
to be had. We took the fur of the possum and the coon, mixed, carded
and spun it, and then knit it into socks; and they were good ones, too.
As a necessary resort in the absence of leather, we took the dressed skin
of the ground hog and the neck of the buckskin for moccasins, and they
were stitched together by means of buckskin thongs. As the soles were
worn down we repaired them with bacon skins. These shoes made a
track unlike any worn to-day. We were known by our tracks in the
snow. The old man Vanmeter’s track was nearly round, almost as round
as a bear’s. The greatest inconvenience in wearing such shoes was the
want of a brake in the way of a heel. In going up and down hill we
had to be very careful how we stepped, or one of the other ends would
be almost certain to strike the ground.
    “In those days we had no schools, no society, no civil institutions,
but with all this we were brought up to be honest, honorable and hospitable.
We stood upon honor in the backwoods days. We brought about recon-
ciliations by neighborly arbitrations. We were glad to have strangers
come among us and, as a rule, we gave them the best of everything we
had, if we even deprived ourselves. Fusses, quarrels, broils and fights
were uncommon occurrences in those days. None of us entertained
malice toward our neighbors, nor carried any weapons. True, some of
us would drink a little, but not as a business as liquor is now drank. We
took a dram in friendship and then went about our usual business.
Children were then taught that most troubles among neighbors grow
out of one’s trespassing on another’s rights and privileges, therefore,
we must respect the rights of all others as we would have them respect
our own.
    “The first money I ever had was a 6 1/4 cent piece paid me for a
day’s dropping corn. Money was scarce then, and I had but little in the
way of property. All my effects, including my wife, so far as bulk was
concerned, I could have carried upon my shoulders, as all together
would not have weighed three hundred pounds. But with an aim in
view I went to work. My wife and I worked together many a day on
the clearing, and many a night until 10 and 11 o'clock After our first
child, Jackson, was born, we had to take the baby out with us and cradle
him in a sugar trough while we grubbed and burned brush.”

    Saturday evening, January 12, 1884, he delivered the following:

    “Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am thankful to meet you
on this occasion. While you were engaged in your preliminaries I was
thinking back to former times and scenes witnessed by our forefathers