OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - HISTORY: Chapter 12b (Abbott, John S. C., 1875)
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for united effort, produced in him habitual charity, almost unknown in 
these days of luxury. We have now but little time left to think of good
and still less to practice it." (American Pioneers, Vol. II, p. 449)
   The spot chosen by our settlers was covered with forest, principally
beech, with a sprinkling of elm and ash. Although the land was very rich, 
the roots of the beech were very troublesome in the endeavor to cultivate
it. Turnips they scraped and used wth hickory nuts as fruit, and the tim-
othy grass which they sowed produced a good crop. Corn meal made into mush, 
with milk, formed a staple article of food. But there was a serious trouble
in getting corn in meal. Every expedient was resorted to; sometimes pound-
ing, sometimes grating it. The hard, laborious work of the hand-mill was 
welcomed, and when a mill turned by a horse was invented they were indeed
happy.
   Salt at five dollars a bushel was a luxury not often used. Candles were
never seen in these rude log cabins, and the poor substitute of shelly
hickory, only served to make darkness visible. The raising of flax soon 
became a very important branch of industry as the strong virgin soil could
bear the drain caused by this plant.
   Schools were infrequent in the new settlements, but we question if the
boys of Ohio then did not apply their minds as vigorously to the study of
books when they had the opportunity, as they had to the hard work of the 
pioneer's life, in the earliest days. One of them writes in his memorandum
book, "I have in the last three days calculated, plotted, and written down 
fourteen pages of Gibson's Conveying, besided plowing ten acres of corn. 
This I counted good work."