Statewide County OhArchives News.....Tid-Bits -- Part 108 B: Western Reserve Pioneers May 2, 2008 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/oh/ohfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 May 11, 2008, 1:04 am Historical Collections Of Ohio, And Then They Went West, Know Your Ohio May 2, 2008 Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 May 2, 2008 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know Your Ohio Tid-Bits -- Part 108 B Western Reserve Pioneers ( Con't ) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Part 108 B The Reserve Pioneers of Ohio, for the most part, were God-fearing, Christ fearing, serious minded men; their courage was a Christian courage, rooted and grounded in the hope of a life that lied beyond. Wherever log cabins were gathered, there was a meeting house and the school house. Hogs and sheep were the most prized animals a settler could keep. Pork filled the larder and made a most savory change from the dry wild meats that the forest furnished. The wool of the sheep made his warmest and finest clothing and kept the spinning wheel of the house wife spining all the winter through. But as dearly as these were prized, yet the bear and the wolf loved them. Hogs were always marked by bears for their prey. Bears dearly loved pork, and would take any risk to obtain a savory meal of hog meat. They would enter a pig stye close to the cabin, in broad daylight, and if not prevented, carry off the inmates of the stye. Pork was not only a much relished change for the Reserve Pioneer, but its fat furnished him lard for the houehold and its skin made him sole leather, while the animal itself was a protection for him and his family against venomous snakes. The hog dearly loved rattlesnakes and was its most deadly enemy. These animals would spend hours to secure a rattler, and as soon as killed, eat him. While the bite of the rattler was death to all other animals, it did not seem to affect the hogs in the least. Wolves were only troublesome and somewhat dangerous when the settlements were few and far between. Their special delicacy was sheep, or when they could not get them, young pigs; often killing them in preference to the older hogs. At first it was almost impossible to keep either hogs or sheep, although both were almost indispensible to the poneer who had to procure his own provisions, and manufacture his own clothing. The settlers kept as many males among his stock as possible, as they defended the younger and weaker animals. An old boar with his long tusks was no mean antagonist as many found out to their cost. Even than constant watchfulness, day or night, was necessary to preserve them from the bears and wolves. This required a bear proof and wolf proof pen or enclosure for their preservation. Hogs running wild in the woods hunting nuts and tender roots and had become wild, were always very ferocious, and have been known to attack persons. Luckily, though this was rare. There was a class of men, who were not settlers in the Western Reserve, who were found occupying lonely cabins, and in some cases, in caves. They were called squatters. They made no improvements and lived by hunting and trapping. These were unruly fellows who cared more for hunting and trapping than for tilling the soil and growing things. As soon as an area became to crowded, these men would move on to a newer locality where neighbors did not exsist. Snakes were the terror of the women and a pest to all, so plenty were the rattlesnakes that they threatened the lives of all. The original surveyors used to kill them, roast them over their fires at night, and eat them when short of provisions. It was one of these surveyors that gave the common yellow rattlesnake its scientific name, which it bears today. General snake hunts were organized quite frequently by the settlers in order to kill off the pests. They many times would get into the cabin, and sometimes in the beds. Women had need to be as good with the rifle as their husbands, to defend her life and those of her children, or to obtain food when the husband was absent from home. The rifles of those days were of different bores, not carrying balls of the same size. They ranged all the way from a Queen Anne arm carrying an ounce ball, to the light squirrel rifle taking a " thirty two." Every settler knew the size of the bore of his neighbor's rifle, and in finding a bullet in the carcass of game not belonging to him, they could usually tell from whose rifle it came from. The simple hut of the Reserve pioneer in which they called home required little of woman's care, except for cooking,, and so her slighter strength took the lighter field work. While a man chopped and grubbed, woman planted the seed and coaxed the tender blades of the corn and all the garden gowth. It was not a lack of affection, but a life of devotion to a common purpose, in which there was no room for squeamish sentiment. When flax could be pulled and wool to be shorn, woman returned to her ancient lot of spinning, weaving, knitting, and sewing for all. The first yield from their tilling added to household cares, for all that could be fitted for winter use must be fixed, and of this, long garlands of dried pumpkin were not the least. Without fish from the stream and game from the hills, civilization would have lagged; and thus, perforce, the first farmers were hunters, with double motive of providing meat for the table and securing fur for currency. A consideration of the possible results of such severly isolated living suggests a lapse of refinement. Instead the traditions of their descendants and the recorded observations of competent writers agree that none were more gracious than those who survived the ordeal of making the first settlements, and of wearing the lindsy wollsey and tow cloth dress or wamus. The early journels and ledgers of a business manager, were usually neat and orderly kept, which I have had the pleasure to see some of them. They were faithfully recorded by a thoroughly competent hand. From those laconic lines we learn that the pioneers had the simplest needs and what they lacked they either did without or improvised. We must remember that money was scarce. The first cash transactions of the first two years on the Reserve amounted to just $ 2.08. At first, the umcumbersome fractions of the antiquated English currency were used and values were often stated in thirds of a cent. But the lack of specie was filled by a substitute not easily counterfeited. There was plenty of fur. Amid all the scarcity, there was an abundance of the life that bore fur, without which fashion was miserable and royalty unhappy. For that frivolous badge of wealth, the rude voyageurs and hazardous traders penetrated the wilds and adventured the caprice of the savegery many years and many leagues in advance of the tillers and gleaners. Of all things destructive to animal life, gunpowder has been the worst. The first purchase included two pounds of gunpowder at $1.50 per pound and four pounds of lead at 27 cents per pound. Twelve pounds of coffee was sold to Zeisberger at 50 cents per pound and 4 quarts of peeled barley at 40 cents per quart, appears to have been the first sale of breakfast food in the Reserve, and at an appalling price. Salt brought 25 cents a quart. Sugar was charged at 27 cents a pound. Swanskin-- a thick flannel went at $ 1.00 per yard. Chintz and Muslin were booked at 50 cents per yard, but purple plains was $ 3.00 per yard. Calicoes was 67 cents per yard A silk handkerchief was $1.36 A wool hat brought $ 1.36. Scarlet cloth cost $ 5.33 per yard Green cloth cost $ 3.00 per yard 3 flints for gunlocks were sold for 10 cents. One rifle gun was sold for $ 20.00, but $24.00 was paid for another. A candle mold for 6 candles was listed at 50 cents, for which the wick yarn was 11 cents per ounce, and tallow 13 cents per pound. Bears fat was 7 cents a pound Pint tin cups were 20 cents each. A dozen needles sold for 13 cents, and 13 cents bought a dozen skeins of thread. A quire of writing paper cost 33 cents. Two dozen shoe tacks cost 12 cents. An ink cake was 13 cenrs. Pins brought 22 cents a paper. A few nutmegs were taken for 16 and 20 cents apiece. A horse bell was sold at 90 cents. The tell-tale bell, now disowned and forgotten was the largest prime factor in the care of stock, when cattle were feced out, instead of in. The small purchases of calicoe often included a sheet of pasteboard at 13 cents, which was used to shape the bewitching sunbonnet, sometimes adorned with a bright ribbon at 24 cents. That alone was the beginning and end of the millinery department. Leather, awls, shoe knives and shoe thread first appeared in 1803, and in the next year some brides wore white cotten stockings at $ 1.40 per pair. The most extravagant account in the earliest years was for " a pewter dish, a smaller pewter dish, 6 pewter plates, 6 metal table spoons, 6 knives and forks, a Jaconnett muslin handkerchief, and a pair of white cotten stockings ( the first ). " It is only fair to add for the better half of that house, that the account was squared with linen, beeswax and sugar. No other article can be named, more expressive of housewifely thrift and pioneer simplicity. The crustiest curmudgeon that gives a grimance at woman's aesthtic nature, must concede that the master did not spin that linen, or try out that beeswax, or stit off that sugar. And, if kept till now, that linen and wax and home-made sugar would amost buy silver, instead of pewter The pages of the journels not only showed causes for pleasure in the widely scattered cabins, where purchases were compared and envied or emulated, but they reveal much sickness and sorrow. The accounts of some families prove that their land of promise must have seemed a desert of disappointment. The remedies relied upon were; Golden Tincture, Balsom De Maltha, Bateman's Drops, Mercurial Ointment, Peruvian Bark, Cream of Tartar, Tartar Emetic, Spanish Flies, Salts, Glauber's Salts, Saltpetre, Anderson's Pills, Van Sweiten's Pills, British Oil, Camphor, Aloes, Senna, Rhubarb, Saifron, Jalap, Pink Root, Bark, Ammonia, Mannah, Magnesia, Peppermint, Alum, Allspice, Ginger, Cinnamon, Sulphur, Madder, Copperas and Indigo. The three later, contrasted or combind with strains from the forest, dyed their fabrics, and tinged their lives. The drug department, however short of the myriad cures for modern ills, was much ahead of the bookshelf. In and after 1805, the Columbian speller was bought for 17 cents and Testaments cost 35 cents. Several dozen almanacs were sold, but no other books were mentioned. Until something could be spared from the fields, all this was paid for with wild life ; and the deer paid the larger part at prices that varied, and were stated both by the piece and by the pound. At first doeskins were 50 cents and fawn skins 30 cents apiece. Credit for $ 1.00 was given for a deer carcass, and 20 cents a pound for beeswax. One pound of butter bought 12 cents, and $ 2.52 was paid for a day with wagon and team. Racoon skins were rated at 25 cents and $ 3.00 was the worth of an otter skin. Bear skins ranged from $ 1.00 to $ 3.00 for the finest. A full grown buck skin was current at $ 1.00. In four trips, traders took away the skins of 114 bears, 289 racoons, 15 wildcats, about 1000 deer, 16 foxes, 4 otter, 10 beaver, and 2 panthers. Much of this was used for clothing. Corn fell in three years from a $ 1.00 a bushel to 33 cents. All thsi ws not in specie, but in barter. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid-Bits con't in Part 109 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/oh/statewide/newspapers/tidbitsp104nw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ohfiles/ File size: 12.1 Kb