Statewide County OhArchives News.....Tid-Bits -- Part 112C:  The Role of Women in the settlement  of the Western Reserve ( 1796-1815 ) May 12, 2008
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Historical Collections Of Ohio, And Then They Went West, Know Your Ohio May 10, 2008 May 12, 2008

Contributed for use in 
USGenWeb Archives
by Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
May 13, 2008

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Historical Collections of Ohio
And Then They Went West
Know Your Ohio
Tid-Bits -- part 112 C
The Role of Women in the Settlement of
The Western Reserve - 1796-1815.
Maintenance

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Part 112 C

           Maintenance

The earliest women settlers of the Western Reserve, no doubt, lacked any
dominating interest in fashionable wearing apparel, but rather economic
needs were outstanding, shelter and food being their first requirements
upon their arrival. Some of the very earliest pioneer women in the
Reserve were given land grants by the Board of Directors of the Land
Company as in the case of Tabitha Cumi, the wife of Job Stiles. She and
her husband had accompanied the Moses Cleaveland expedition which
arrived in 1796 and Job worked for the company of surveyors while
Tabitha made herself useful in the preparation of their meals. When the
couple announced their intention of becoming permanent settlers of the
Reserve, Tabitha won the gift offered by the Connecticut Land Company to
the first women settlers.

" Whereas, the Directors have given to Tabitha Cumi Stiles, one city
lot, one ten acre lot, and one one-hundred acre lot; to Anna Gun. wife
of Elijah Gun, on One-hundred acre lot; to James Kingsbury ad wife, one
one-hundred acre lot .....Allin the city and town of Clevland. Voted,
that these grants be approved. "

The first women settlers also joined in the work of erecting the
earliest cabins and frequently made repairs and adjustments within the
cabins as well as beautifying the immediate outdoor enviorment by the
planting of gardens and walks. Many a women set to work and built a new
oven. With an ingenuity all her own, she fashioned the bricks and laid
them. It was an oven that endured for years. And since the cooking was
done over the hearth, it was necessary to guard the fire because there
were no matches and a few settlers possessed a tinder box or sun glass
with which to kindle the fire. Mrs. Asa Dille who came to East Cleveland
in 1802, told of weary walks she had to take three miles to her nearest
neighbor, Doane, to get a pan of coals when hers, unfortunately, went
out, and starting back through the woods, had to stop frequently to keep
the coals glowing by feeding them with pieces of hickory bark and
blowing on them.

Dishes used by the earliest Reserve pioneers were few, heavy and homely,
often only trunceons hewn from logs. Blue Ware was brought from
Pittsburg as warly as the twenties. One woman desiring a set of Blue
Ware, therefore carried twenty pounds of butter on horseback to the
general store to exchange it for the coveted dishes.

Women carried the family clothes to te creek to wash them, laying them
on the grass to dry. The well was often far from the house. If there
chanced to be a sping
the stable was invariably put nearer to it then the house.

The cares of the earliest housekeepers were also increased by the coming
of travelers and new settlers because, there being no hotels or boarding
houses, the few resident families had to receive all newcomers.

Yet in spite of the fact these first women in the Reserve were kept so
busy from morning till night, the isolation of their homes must have
left an impression on their characters. Rachel Dailey came to the
Reserve in 1806 with an older brother and her father who returned to New
Jersey for the remainder of his family after seeing that his two
children were settled. For the next year, the girl of fifteen remained
alone with her brother; miles from any neighbor and often alone for the
night. Her fear of the Indians was second only to the anxiety for their
one cow which was kept for safety in an enclosure near the cabin. Often,
when alarmed by some unusual noise, she would venture out into the
darkness to assure the safety of the cow from wolves and bears tat
frequented the vicinity. In addition, Leonard Case has mentioned a
family in Trumbull County, by the name of Stevens who had been there
three years or more. The wife's name was Hannah. "With her," he said
"our family had been acquainted. She siad she had been there three years
without seeing the face of a white woman."

The obtaining and preparation o food was also more difficult in the
Western Reserve
than it had been in the East. During the War of 1812, the scarcity and
expense of tea was exceptionally irritating. One woman sent money by
carrier to bring her " a small quarter pound from Erie. To make the tea
last as ong as pssible, she would alternate a cup with a good smell from
the canister."

The great distance of the grist mills also contributed to the
difficulties of supplying food. Mrs. Nehimiah Porter of Dover who, when
her husband had gone on a two days' trip on foot to the nearest mill,
made her remaining one-half teacup of cornmeal into gruel for the
children, siply by tying a handkerchief about her own waist to appease
hunger until her husband would return.

During the war of 1812, war prices had to be paid for everything. The
only flour they could get had become musty in shipping and was so
disgusting to the taste that no one could eat it unless compelled by
extreme hunger. The bread made from this flour was hard and loathsome.
They were in need of meat, beef was an article never spoken of. A man at
Doane's Corners had a barrel of por to sell, valued at $25.51.

The general food supply consisted of rye and Indian bread with cornmeal
in various forms. Vegetables were mainly potatoes, cabbage, and turnips.
While venison was the favorite meat and wild turkey and bear meat were
common. The favorite preserves were made of wild crabapples, wild plums,
huckleberries, and cranberries. Soda was lacking and therefore, hot
water was poured over the ashes of burned corn cobs and the resulting
fluid bottled. With this they made biscuits equal to any made in modern
ways. The first cheese on the Western Reserve was made in Ridgeville,
Lorain County, in 1813 by Mrs. Belinda Beebe
who pressed the cheese with a fence rail, one end of which was stuck
between logs of the cabin, while the other end was hung in a basket made
of bark and filled with stones.

Because food was by no means plentiful and in defense of her life and
those of her children, especially in the absence of her husband, it was
necessary that a woman be a good rifle shot. But a majority of the women
could no more fire a rifle accurately than a modern woman could throw a
stone. In absence of her husband,
Mrs. Stephen Moulton, the first white woman settler in Monroe, Ashtabula
County, discovered that some wolves had eaten one of her precious pigs.
She built a pen of poles. left the remains of te pig for bait. loaded a
gun and waited the return of the wolves, which soon occurred. Her first
discharge killed one wolf and nearly so the huntress. Her little son
brought water which revived her, and undismayed, she reloaded the musket
and finished off the remaining wolf.

One day in May, 1799, the family of Joel Thorp became short of
provisions and Thorp left for his earest neighbor, twenty miles away to
ask for aid. Mrs. Thorp and her three children were reduced to extremes
for want of food before her husband's return. However, when all means
for procuring food was exhausted, she saw a wild turkey flying near her
doorway. Under the excitement of her feelings she came near defeating
her object, by frigtening the turkey. On her second attempt, she acted
with great caution and coolness. It was now a trying moment and a crowd
of emotions that passed though her mind as she lifted the rifle to a
level with her eyes, and she fired. The result was fortunate, as the
turkey was killed and she had preserved her family from death by her
skill.

Absences on part of the husband and father in such instances were
comparable to the hardships and privations that accompanied the death of
the family breadwinner and protector. In one case in Ashtabula County,
when the husband perished in the snow while returning home with
provisions. His wife supported herself and her children by helping
treavelers across the river in her canoe. When the death of Col. John
Garrett of Garrettsville, Portage County, occurred in 1806, his wife
assumed the cares and responsibility
devolving upon a enterprising colonist. With a family of small children,
the charge of the mill, as settlers came, the disposal
of lots for the new city, these duties were discharged in a mammer to
indicate her a woman of marked administrative ability and character.

As an additional example, in 1798, Elizabeth Harper with her husband and
seven children settles at Harpersfield, Ashtabula County. Harper was a
Revolutionary War veteran, with health and strength broken, and died
within three months after settlement. The folowing winter proved
difficult. Wild game and corn on hand furnished food and fodder.   
Elizabeth planted apple seeds and raised enough plants to set out two
orchards.

Not only death, but war as well, frequently took the men folk from their
homes. Particularly during the war of 1812, many women were faced with
the care of their families alone. The women wre compelled to keep up the
businesses and farming as well as make home improvements in the absences
of their male relatives. On the surrender of William Hull, fear was
aroused among the women of the Western Reserve when false rumors were
spread of the approach of the British. Most women and children fled to
the interior settlements, speading the appalling news as they went......
The alarm proved to be a false one.

During the course of the war, many ill and wounded soldiers were brought
to te cabins on the Western Reserve and the nursing ability of women
settlers was brought into play. Of a necessity all the pioneer women
were good nurses. Their knowledge of roots and herbs were extremely
valuable to the community. The women every season, gathered their stock
of medicines and tied them to the refters of their cabins to dry until
needed. Often, when women went to spend the day with each other, herbs
were exchanged with uch valuable information regarding their uses.
Frequently, the women were forced to ride alone through the oods, night
or day to aid te sick and needy. Mrs. Gun who with her husband
accompanied the first surveying party to the Western Reserve, and was
known as a competent nurse and in addition to her household duties,
administered to the sick and the dying and at births and deaths without
pay. Juliana Long, wife of Dr. David Long
who administered to the needs of the wounded during the War of 1812,
supplimented her husband's  efforts for "through her husband she had
learned much of the needs of the sick"

Thus, it is obvious that honor is due thee  brave early women settlers,
whom no dangers could appall, no disaster turn aside, no conditions make
afraid. They fought death and the dangers of a new country. they endured
want, hunger and illness without a murmur. They played a prominent part
in building up a people whose cleverness and conscience, skill and
intelligence and whose qualities of heart and mind eventually became of
great influence in the United States as well as the rest of the world.
In the glory of the westward movement, women should be allowed to share
the honor of achievement in the triumph of physical and moral endurance.
The thousand trials and perils which surrounded them, in order to obtain
the generalities of the true life or the women pioneers in the Western
Reserve. We do them Honor !!!

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Tid-bits con't in part 113.


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