Jay County IN Archives History - Books .....Chapter VI A Leaf Of Early History 1896 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/in/infiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com September 22, 2007, 7:01 pm Book Title: Reminiscences Of Adams, Jay And Randolph Counties CHAPTER VI. A LEAF OF EARLY HISTORY. Forty-nine years ago this day (August 28, 1838,) Jason Whipple and Henry Moore with their families set foot upon the soil of Jay County, which ended a journey of eight days. Delaware County, Ohio, had been our former home for nine years, as my father lived in that county before he came west in 1835. Father built the acqueduct across Painter creek at Chillicothe, and in the fall of 1836 he and his brother, Noah Whipple, and Aaron Grant came to Jay County and entered land. Father engaged what is known now as the Wiggs farm, north of Liber. Grant entered what forms the northwest corner of Bluffpoint, and Noah Whipple entered what is known as the James Wilson farm. We landed,at the house of Whipple Cook and was compelled to remain there for several weeks, by reason that Phillip Brown had squatted upon the land, sometime in 1835, and to all land hunters that came through that part of the country, Brown always conveyed the idea that the land belonged to him, but father got some one to show him such and such tracts that were still vacant, and he selected the one that Brown lived upon, and when he was request to vacate the old hut he absolutely refused to go, and a suit was threatened to be instituted against him, which he paid but little attention to at first, but finally moved out. In the latter part of October we took possession of the old hut. As the fall of 1838 was a very late and dry fall, late corn matured and made a very fair crop for this county. Many times there was not much of it left after the coons and other "varmints" took their share. Brown had the small patch about the house planted m corn and pumpkins, and father sent word to Brown to come and cut up the corn, as he wanted to sow wheat and it was already to sow; he refused to cut the corn, and finally we cut what little there was left, and on the 29th of November, John Spade sowed the wheat and plowed it in with a two-horse plow and it soon turned cold and did not come up that fall, but in the spring it was very favorable, and the wheat came up and there was a splendid crop for this country at that date. Father did not thrash but a part of the crop in the fall after it was harvested, and the next winter we hauled it to a pond that was frozen over and the entire crop was put down at one flooring on the ice and was tramped out with the old oxen and cleaned upon the ice. I then set a quail trap where the chaff and straw was, and caught all that come there, and sold them to old Bill Brandon for $1.00 a dozen. In the winter and spring of '38 and '39, Edward Kikendall, Butler Kikendall, (of your city) and Jason Knapp, made 4,000 rails for father and boarded with us, and in Heaven's name I cannot tell how we lived in that old hut 16x20, only one room and an outside chimney six feet in the back. I know mother would make the children stand in the corners of the fire place while she got breakfast in the morning. Along about the last of November when meat was scarce, as it usually is at that time in the year, father went out hunting and was unfortunate and did not see any deer. As he came home nearly dark there was a coon coming on a log towards him, he made a slight noise and the coon stopped and raised his head and father shot him in the end of the nose. He was so awful fat father concluded to skin him and save the oil, so mother rendered out the fat. About that date old Joshua Penock brought out a barred of flour from old New Port, and sold it to Ammon Cook and father, and of course each one wanted his part of the flour, and there was not a pair of steel yards or scales to the ten miles square, so they measured and got the center of the barrel and sawed it in two with a hand saw, each one took his end, and out of the flour mother made fried cakes or doughnuts and they were fried in that coon fat. They were the first fried cakes I ever ate in Jay County and was cooked in coon fat. Fur at that date brought price, was plenty and about all the money the early settlers got hold of was by the sale of hides and pelts. In the latter part of the winter of '38 and '39 father bought from Henry Welch, an old pioneer citizen, one hundred pounds of bacon and it had been fattened on beech nuts and was about two inches thick and about sixteen inches square, when it was fried the meat was gone, but there was a lake of oil and there was nothing remained of the meat but the hide or rind and I could not think of anything but an old fashioned hame string floating around in the skillet. Of course it came very handy, as it took a good deal of sop to get some of the corn pones to migrate down a fellow's neck. Allow me to mention a little incident that happened in the fall of 1839. About the 1st of November, Caleb Penock, the son of Joshua Penock, came over to our house to get a gun to shoot a fat hog. Father sent me along to bring the gun home. Well, the road came out into the state road just where the hot house is south of Portland, and the hog was in the cornfield that forms the southeast corner of John R. Perdieu's land. Cale, of course, shot the hog as soon as he seen it. Well, the hog was more than 200 yards from the house and had to be drawn through the corn down to the house, which stood in the field southeast of J. R. Perdieu's residence; however, we hauled it down, there was a large kettle on a log fire, and boiling. But the hog had not been stuck and there was not a formed thing to bleed the hog with, and old Josh wanted Cole to stick him with the drawing knife, and finally old Josh brought out the spoke gimlet and undertook to draw the crimson fluid by boring into the dead porker's neck. As the gimlet did not bring the answer, old Josh says, "bring me the broad-ax," and-amputation of the head came next, but what followed was worse than all. They each one took a hold on a leg, and went to the kettle and gave the pig a circumbendebus souse. The water was boiling and, of course, not a hair could be pulled out, as the water was too hot. I did not stay until the hair was off, but left them using the drawing knife in getting oft the most of the hair. It seems more like a dream than reality, when our minds travel back over the many and varied scenes of our early childhood. But nevertheless they are all realities, and those that figured at that date are among the blessed, and we are spared to buffet the storms of life, and hand down to our children the early traditions of our boyhood days. Most respectfully. OLNEY WHIPPLE. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Reminiscences of Adams, Jay and Randolph Counties Compiled by Martha C. M. Lynch Ft. Wayne, IN: Lipes, Nelson & Singmaster Circa 1896 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/in/jay/history/1896/reminisc/chapterv542gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/infiles/ File size: 7.4 Kb