Warren County IN Archives History - Books .....Old Time Customs 1883
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com March 9, 2007, 5:15 pm

Book Title: Counties Of Warren, Benton, Jasper And Newton, Indiana

OLD TIME CUSTOMS.

   The first thing for the family to do was to erect the little log cabin; and
while this was being done by the men. often assisted by the neighbors, who came
for that purpose often four or five miles, the families were obliged to live in
the wagon, or in a tent of boughs, bark and blankets, or in the cabin of some
near neighbor. The cabin, such as it was, often without floor or permanent roof,
and destitute of door or windows, was very often ready for occupancy at night of
the day it was begun. Blankets served for doors, greased paper for windows,
while the floor was, perhaps, the bare earth. The next few days were passed in
getting comfortable. The chinks must be daubed with mud; the chimney and
fire-place must be made serviceable and reliable; puncheon floors and doors must
be split out, and the latter hung on wooden hinges, with a huge wooden latch on
the inside provided with a string which extended outside through a small hole in
the door. To draw in the string was to prevent entrance, and hence the old
saying that "the latch-string is out" is tantamount to an invitation to all in
need of hospitality to enter the humble cabin home. After the family had been
made comfortable, active work was begun to clear a spot of ground for the first
crop. The men would cut down trees all day and far into favorable nights, while
the women would often pile and burn the brush. Mrs. William Robb said she did
that many a time and enjoyed it. Her husband, William Robb, said he would rather
live in a log cabin on the frontier with the family he loved and with all the
surrounding hardships and privations than to live in a palace amid the gilt and
pride of to-day. Many of the old settlers think likewise. Those were active,
happy times for them-the sunshine in their long lives, and now, when the
twilight of age comes swiftly on, it is happiness to see the old times again,
even in a momentary vision. How nice it was some crisp, bright moonlight night
in winter, when the snow lay thick upon the ground, to close the house and all
take a brisk walk through the sharp air a mile or two to the house of a neighbor
to spend. the long evening! There is inspiration in the thought of old times. We
see the pioneers building their log cabins and cutting down the great trees; we
hear the echoing axes and the thunder of falling timber; we see the blazing
brush and the sky is filled with the glare of burning heaps of logs, and the sun
is darkened with blinding smoke; we hear the sturdy pioneers shouting to their
oxen as they roll the logs or turn the soil for the expected crop; we hear the
sound of mauls as the rails for the little .fields are split; we see men and
women planting corn with hoes and weeding pumpkins and potatoes among the roots
and stamps. The autumn comes and the corn is husked and the potatoes dug. The
evening comes and we hear the ding-dong of the cow-bells-for the cows have
returned from the prairie and are standing down by the bars, with distended
sides, waiting to be milked. The chores are done and night has thrown her
curtain upon the earth, and the long-drawn mournful howl of the wolf and the
weird hootings of the owl are heard down by the swamp. Now the scene is changed.
The crops are gathered, the corn is cribbed, the potatoes are buried, the great
yellow pumpkins are covered with hay and vines to protect them from the frost,
the prairie hay is cut and stacked and great heaps of logs have been hauled into
the door-yard for winter use. The boys and" girls have bright new suits of
home-made linsey, or the faded old ones have been patched; and each with a new
pair of cow-hide shoes (which must last a year), is getting ready for the winter
school in the new log schoolhouse, with a great open fire-place and windows of
greased paper, and long benches hewed out of split logs. There is the old
schoolmaster. What an important personage he is! How stately he looks, as, with
whip in hand, he marches up and down the room, hearing the little ones saying
their A B C's and showing the older ones how to cipher. Occasionally he touches
up some of the boys who are caught whispering to the girls. How they jump and
scratch! for their pants are thin, and the whip is hickory, well seasoned in the
hot embers of the glowing fire. There is the school standing in a long row with
folded arms, ready to spell-yes, ready to spell every word in the old spelling
book. How hungry the scholars are at noon, and what dinners they have!
Johnny-cake, venison, and sometimes a big piece of pumpkin pie, and once in a
great while a slice of wheat bread with butter and a little sugar sprinkled on
the butter. Now they are at home, gathered around the blazing fire-place. What
fires! How they roared and snapped those cold winter nights! There sits father,
smoking his wooden pipe, and mother with her knitting, while the girls are
making the old spinning-wheel hum as they spin into yarn the rolls which have
been carded by hand, and there are the boys working their sums, cracking hickory
nuts or whittling puzzles out of little wooden blocks, while the great fire
throws out a cheering heat and gleam, and comfort pervades the whole house. Now
it is the fall of the year. The poison of the undrained swamps has made all to
shake and shiver with the ague, or lay for weeks burning with fever, without
well ones enough to wait on the sick. There comes the old doctor, picking his
way among the logs arid swamps, on horseback, with blazed trees for his guide
and an old Indian trail for his road. "What doses of medicine he doles out!
Calomel, jalap, ipecac, Dover's powders, Peruvian bark, pink and senna and snake
root, and pills as big as peas. How the patient is vomited, purged and bled, and
how, after weeks of shaking and burning fever, he pulls through, a mere
skeleton, a yellow, bilious-looking wreck.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

PART II.
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
Geology and Settlement

========================

COUNTIES OF 
Warren, Benton, Jasper and Newton,
INDIANA

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL
ILLUSTRATED.

CHICAGO: F. A. BATTEY & CO., PUBLISHERS.
1883.


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