Fayette County WV Archives History - Books .....Chapter VII Life Of The Pioneer 1926
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Book Title: History Of Fayette County West Virginia

CHAPTER VII
LIFE OF THE PIONEER

  It is a well known fact that most of the early pioneers were tillers of the
soil, though they farmed on a small scale and tilled in a way that would be
strangely out of place now. Though farmers most of the year, many of them were
jacks of all trades part of the time. They could turn their hands to pretty much
anything that might come up in the course of their daily affairs. Trades were
not so many or the requisites for their mastery so numerous as in this day; but
many things needed doing even in the simple lives of our ancestors who lived
among these hills and valleys. The average man was competent to do several kinds
of work and he thought nothing strange of it. He tilled his few acres. He tanned
leather for the winter shoes and made the shoes, after having manufactured the
thread and the wax for sewing. He prepared the flax and the wool for the loom,
and frequently wove the cloth. He did simple blacksmithing and rude
carpentering; carved dishes and bowls from blocks of cucumber wood and yellow
poplar; laid out roads such as they were, and built them; served as juryman,
constable, or justice of the peace. In short, he shirked no duty that presented
itself, and he generally acquitted himself in a worthy manner. He was versatile
as far as demands were made upon him. His culture was limited, but in all-round
citizenship he would not suffer in comparison with the average man of today. It
would be a perversion of historic truth to say that he was more moral, more
temperate, more honorable, or more religious than men are now. The truth is,
most of the frontier men fell a little short of modern standards in some of
these matters, but they seldom failed to acquit themselves like men in daily
affairs and in extraordinary emergencies.

THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT

  West of the Alleghenies were many level and fertile valleys which were easily
accessible to those who had the hardihood to endure long journeys and the usual
privations of pioneering. Land was to be had for "taking up," as the old saying
went, or for building and planting. Sometimes early settlers claimed land by the
"tomahawk right," an inferior kind of land-title secured by deadening a few
trees near a spring or by cutting on them the initials of the claimant. Such
vague registry of property rights, even if assured by a warrant, naturally
provoked many quarrels, as "tomahawk rights" were often coveted and could be
transferred. One pioneer, it is said, sold two hundred choice acres for "a cow
and a calf and a wool hat."

  Pioneers who joined western campaigns for the purpose of fighting the
Cherokees, Delawares, and other Indian tribes, returned home and began to talk
of the abundance of game, and of the rich land lying beyond their settlements,
which they claimed was most desirable to possess. Following the march of General
Lewis' army and the battle of Point Pleasant in 1774, eastern settlers began to
move westward, stimulated by a natural desire to hunt, explore, and find more
suitable locations for homes. Some of the first journeys were purely hunting
expeditions. Groups of frontiersmen, who were ever eager to be on the trail, and
now doubly awakened to the charm of adventure, formed parties which journeyed
westward. As they traveled from place to place, some of the pioneers would find
a certain location which appeared to them very suitable for the building of new
homes. They would then return to their old home and bring their families, and
soon a new settlement would be established.

BUILDING THE HOME

  Sometimes a family would leave the settled portions east of the mountains,
cross the same, and journey through the forest or along the river, until a
suitable place for a home was found. The family usually had to walk the entire
distance across the mountains, using packhorses to transport their goods. Only a
few simple tools were taken along. The axe was one of the most necessary tools;
the mattock was needed for grubbing; a hoe was essential for cultivating, and a
small plow point for stirring the ground. A tool called a "frow" was used to
split the trunk of trees into slabs, or clapboards. This frow was shaped
something like a butcher's cleaver, and a wooden mallet was used to drive it
into the log until the splint was forced off. The auger was used for boring
holes for pins to fasten various parts of the house together. If nails were
used, they were hammered out in a blacksmith shop. The kitchen furniture
consisted of an oven, a few pots, pans, spoons, and skillets. Usually a spinning
wheel and a pair of wool cards were taken along. A supply of salt, some
ammunition, seeds of various kinds, corn for bread, and a supply of bacon were
necessary things to be included for the journey.

  When the settler found a suitable location for liis future home, he began to
make preparations for the building of a cabin which was usually located near a
spring of water. After cutting down the nearby trees, they were cut into the
proper lengths for the side and end walls of the cabin. The first dwelling was
somewhat rude and usually constructed hurriedly. The logs were then collected at
the spot which had been chosen, and after being notched at the ends were roughly
fitted together. Clapboards were split with the frow and placed on the rib-poles
of the house, and then weight-poles were laid on to hold the boards in place.
Slabs, called "puncheons," were then split and after being partially smoothed
with the axe were laid down for a floor. The spaces between the logs were
blocked up with slabs or short pieces of rails, and the wall was made tight by
daubing all the crevices with a mortar made of clay. A huge fireplace occupied
one end of the structure, and over it was erected a chimney made of sticks and
clay. The fireplace and chimney were built of rough stones which extended half
way up the end of the house, and for the remainder of the distance was the crib
of sticks. Both stones and sticks were cemented together with clay mortar. This
was called a "cat-and clay" chimney. At first the chimney was built at the end
of the house on the outside. In the course of a few years the settler would
usually erect a much better house which would be built of logs that were nicely
squared so that there were only small crevices to be filled up. Later the
settlers had the chimneys placed on the inside of the house to prevent the
Indians tearing away the stones, from the mortar which held them, and thus gain
an entrance through the fireplace, which afforded a far larger opening in the
log wall than the door. With the chimney on the inside of the house, the
inhabitants were protected on all sides by a wall of logs which the Indians
could destroy only by burning. Sometimes a second floor was added, which was
made to project about a foot beyond the walls of the lower rooms. The residents
were thus enabled to gain a wider field of fire, and at the same time shoot down
upon any Indian who might attempt to force an entrance through the doorway or
set fire to the house. The door of the cabin was composed of two thicknesses of
heavy boards hewn out and fastened together diagonally with wooden pins, and
hung on large iron hinges. A door thus strongly built would offer great
resistance in case of an attempt to force it open. Space was sometimes allotted
for windows, but these were protected by heavy shutters.

  In such houses as we have described were born our ancestors who helped to make
Fayette county what it is today.

FURNITURE AND FOOD

  The furniture of the early settlers was very simple. Chairs were quite
frequently only blocks of wood which had been hewn into shape. Beds usually
occupied a corner of the cabin, being constructed of poles laid upon a
framework, one end being supported by a block or post. Deerskins were used for
coverings. The table consisted of slabs having the upper surface smooth, one end
of which was stuck into the crack between two logs, and the other end supported
on two legs. The table usually extended from one wall to the middle of the
cabin. Wooden plates, platters and bowls, and drinking vessels made of gourds
were used in lieu of dishes. Pewter ware was considered unusually elegant. Most
early blacksmith shops, however, had copper moulds for making pewter spoons. It
was many years before china ware was introduced and came into general use.
Cooking utensils were very few. Meat was prepared in a frying pan, or roasted by
placing a piece of meat on a sharp stick and holding it over the coals. A
cooking pot was used for boiling meat and vegetables. A covered oven, consisting
of a large pan with an iron cover, and a teakettle completed the list of kitchen
utensils found in most pioneer homes.

  Food was usually well cooked and the housewife delighted in having the
reputation of setting a good table. Corn and game were the chief articles of
food. Venison was cured for emergency use during the winter by a process called
"jerking," which consisted of cutting it into narrow strips and drying it before
the fire. It was carried on every journey and was eaten raw. Corn pone and
johnny-cake were about the only kinds of bread used. One of the staple dishes
was mush. It was served with milk when it was possible to procure same. Mush was
also eaten with maple syrup or gravy. Hog and hominy was a substantial dish.
Fruits and vegetables were used in the summer, fall and early winter. Greens
furnished a portion of their food during the spring. Tea was made from the
leaves of wintergreen or pennyroyal and from the roots of sassafras. In the
early spring when the sap in the maple trees was running, the settlers would
bore a hole in a sugar maple tree, inserting a short length of sumac bush
hollowed out for a spile, and setting a wooden trough under it, would thus
obtain the sugar water from which they made maple sugar.

  The houses were lighted by candles made from tallow either by dipping a string
several times in melted fat or by pouring the fat in candle moulds. Soft soap
was made from waste pieces of fat which was reduced with the aid of crude potash
leached from wood ashes. Fire was made by striking steel against flint and
catching the sparks on a piece of "punk," or half-burned rag. Sometimes the
housewife would send one of the children to a neighbor's house to borrow a few
blazing chunks or hot coals. The family medicine chest consisted of a great
variety of herbs and roots.

  As time went on conveniences and comforts in the wilderness homes increased.
Most of the cabins were provided with a feather bed or a buffalo one, hickory
chairs with deerskin seats, and other articles of furniture which were more
attractive and comfortable. Bucks' antlers and wooden pegs held rifles,
powderhorns and fishing poles, sunbonnets and saddlebags, bundles of dried
herbs, strings of red pepper, and "hands" of tobacco. A shelf over the fireplace
was reserved for medicine, tinder box, ink bottle, quill pens, the Bible, an
almanac and a few other books, which in some cabins included "Pilgrim's
Progress" and "Aesop's Fables."

DUTIES ABOUT THE HOME

  Early in the morning the border people rose. No eight-hour day was theirs;
their work lasted from sunrise to sunset, day in and day out, alike in good
times and bad. The house wife stepped briskly about the cabin, busy at her many
tasks. In summer she probably went barefooted, but in cold weather moccasins
were worn. The usual dress of border women consisted of a petticoat and a gown
or dressing sack made of linsey, a warm substantial cloth made of flax and wool;
a kerchief neatly crossed about the neck, and a sunbonnet of linen. After the
cows had been milked and sent to the pasture, and after breakfast had been eaten
and the morning chores done, the men farmed, hunted, or pursued a trade in a
small way. The woman cooked and minded the dairy; mended, spun and wove; made
clothes and moccasins; weeded and hoed in the vegetable patch, and all the day
had an eye to the children who were quite as lively and mischievous in those
times as now. A frontier child was given border fare and brought up in border
ways, and as he grew older was probably left largely to amuse himself and to
follow the example of his older brothers and sisters. Truly the pioneer's cabin
was an absorbing place in which to be a boy. The children sat on three-legged
stools, slept in wooden bunks, and ate at a split-slab table, set with wooden
bowls, trenchers, and noggins, with gourds and hard-shelled squashes for extra
dishes. In some households, food was served in a large trencher, or platter, in
the center of the table, from which all the family ate; in others, the head of
the house served the other members. And how good the food tasted seasoned with
woodland appetites! At breakfast there was johnny-cake and perhaps pone; at
dinner, "hog and hominy" or wild meat and vegetables; at supper, milk and mush.
The cooking was done in the fireplace. The great fire there, furnishing heat and
ventilation, was never expected to go out. The fire kept up a merry blaze, which
at night flickered on the hunting arms and garments of the men and on the
clothes of the family hanging from wooden pegs around the walls. An early
historian says that such open wardrobes "announced to the stranger as well as to
the neighbor the wealth or poverty of a family in their articles of clothing."
Whenever the occasional traveler requested the privilege of staying over for the
night, the settlers in a most hospitable manner provided food and a place to
sleep in return for the news of the frontier or of the regions east of the
mountains whence all had come.

COSTUME OF THE PIONEER

  The pioneer's attire was patterned somewhat after Indian fashion—a long
hunting shirt of linsey, coarse linen, or of dressed deerskins; trousers and
leggins of cloth or skin, and deerskin moccasins. The latter were little
protection in cold or wet weather, when "wearing them," it was said, "was only a
decent way of going barefooted." The belt, which was always tied behind,
answered several purposes besides that of holding clothing together. In winter
the mittens and sometimes the bullet-pouch occupied the front part of it. At the
right side was hung the tomahawk and to the left the scalping knife in a leather
sheath. In the bosom of his shirt a hunter stowed his luncheon of bread, cake,
and "jerk," as well as tow for wiping the rifle barrel. A coon-skin cap
completed the costume. No doubt the pioneer boy, as he watched his father don
his crude garments, longed for the day to come when he, too, might be a hunter
and go forth clad like his father.

  The pioneer adopted the weapons of the Indian. As afore mentioned, the
tomahawk and the scalping knife hung from the belt of every ranger, who
understood thoroughly the use of both weapons in combat with the savages. The
chief reliance of course, was on the rifle, with which every pioneer had had
long practice, both in the hunt and in fighting Indians. Their guns were
principally smooth-bore firelocks of rather large caliber, the bullets weighing
about forty to the pound. Some, however, were of smaller caliber, like those
sometimes found now among the old hunters who have become accustomed to the
muzzle-loader and refuse to give it up for breech loading rifle or shot gun.
Most of the Indians were owners of guns, these having been furnished by traders,
by the French at the time of the French and Indian wars, or by the English
throughout the Revolution, from the time of the "bloody year of the three
sevens" onward. The guns in the hands of the settlers were more accurate than
those of the savages on account of the fact that the settlers regularly cleaned
and oiled them, and the Indians only cleaned theirs by discharging them every
few days. The firing arrangement of all flintlock guns was imperfect. Many on
both sides met death because of the failure of their guns to discharge when the
enemy was almost upon them. Sometimes the guns would "flash in the pan," and
whenever there was a rain or a thick fog the priming was likely to be dampened,
in which case the guns refused to work.

  The pioneers who braved the dangers of the forests were men of the hardiest
stamp. They were rude and ignorant for the most part, caring nothing for their
finer sentiments, and having little regard for anything which did not add to
their physical well-being. Ability to draw a fine bead along the barrel of a gun
was more highly regarded by them than any other accomplishment.

TRAINING OF THE PIONEER BOY

  The pioneer hunted from the necessity of obtaining meat as food for his
family. As aforementioned each family was obliged to do everything for
themselves as well as they could. They were their own carpenters, tailors,
cobblers, weavers, servants, butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers. The
settler must spend considerable time attending to the work of the farm. It was
generally necessary, also, to keep several looms busy weaving "homespun." Now
and then the pioneer made the welkin ring with the clink of anvil and hammer,
for he must of necessity be his own blacksmith. In odd moments he mended and
tinkered about the place, filled his powderhorn, and cleaned and polished his
rifle,—tasks which all boys must have longed to do, if the saying is true that
"childhood shows the man as morning shows the day."

  The pioneer boy at an early age began to do his small share of a backwoodman's
work. He was taught to build a fire on the hearth, with a huge "back log" and a
"fore stick," and to save the ashes for making soft soap, a task which every
housewife understood. He helped in the "truck patch" to raise corn, pumpkins,
squashes, beans, and potatoes, which in the late summer and autumn were cooked
with pork, venison, and bear meat. He learned the knack of grinding Indian corn
for johnny-cake and mush, and of pounding grain into meal. He learned that
firewood was generally cut in the early part of winter and that by the first of
December it should be hauled, chopped, and piled. Yet best of all were the
lessons taught in the woods where he became familiar with trees, birds, and
animals, and was shown how to set traps, to follow trails, and, above all, to
conceal his own. He learned to walk through underbrush and thicket as silently
as an Indian; to imitate the notes and calls of birds and animals; to tell the
time of day by the sun's position in the sky; to find the points of the compass
by moss and bark, always thicker on the north side of the tree trunks; to
distinguish storm clouds, and predict weather from the wind.

  The pioneer boy, when not needed on the farm, was usually apt to be found
fishing for trout in the cool streams, or roaming the woods in search of game,
which was abundant in early times— bears, deer, and elk; wild cats, foxes,
panthers, and wolves; otters, muskrats, and beavers; even wild turkeys and, in
the "little winter" as the late fall was called, wild geese and ducks were
abundant. Was it not indeed a hunter's paradise? The pioneer soon learned that
considerable money could be earned as a hunter, sometimes more than could be
earned as a farmer or a blacksmith, because there was constant demand for skins
in the frontier market places which carried on trade with towns on the coast.
The buying and selling of fur was so lucrative a business that many engaged in it.

  In the early days boys and girls received little training from school
teachers. When they did attend school they sat upon wooden benches in a little
log hut, and had lessons in the spelling book and Psalter, also in writing and
arithmetic. The boy gained most of his knowledge, however, from his father as he
followed him about the farm or went with him on hunting expeditions. The girl,
in like manner, while helping her mother with the manifold duties of the
household gained an experimental knowledge of home economics.

HUNTING EXPEDITIONS

  As settlements began to move westward and the population began to increase,
the game sought new haunts, and the hunters followed after, tramping the hills
and valleys for miles around until they knew every nook and cranny.

  Many a time on an autumn morning, after the leaves were well bedded, and rain
or light snow had fallen, the settler would step out early to look at the
weather and to sniff the wind. He was debating with himself as to whether he and
his neighbors should set off that day for the woods. Deer were hunted during the
fall and early winter, but the season for bears and fur-skinned animals lasted
through the winter and well into the spring. There is an old saying that fur is
good during every month having the letter R in its name.

  In addition to their arms, hunters usually took with them such supplies as
flour, salt, Indian meal, and blankets. In a spot sheltered from the north and
west winds, they built a "half-faced" cabin. This was a rude shelter having the
back made of logs, the roofing of skins, blankets, strips of wood, or bark,
while the front was left open. Before this opening the men built their camp
fire, cooked their meals, and told their evening stories. When bedtime came,
they crept into the shelter to beds of dry leaves or evergren boughs, and lay
with their feet toward the fire.

  The pioneer's skill and calculation in hunting rarely failed. A glance at the
weather, and he reckoned where he should find his game during the day. He knew
that deer seek sheltered places under the lee of the hills in stormy weather,
but that during rainy days with slight wind they keep in the open woods on the
highest ground. To be sure that his game might not scent him, he ascertained the
direction of the wind—perhaps by holding a moistened finger above his head—and
then kept to the leeward of the animal he was trying to outwit. He seldom fired
at random, but took his aim with deliberation and accuracy, as powder and lead
were scarce and costly in the secluded settlements.

  Sometimes the pioneer would take one of his sons along with him on a hunting
expedition, and begin to teach the lad to be a hunter. He would take him on long
tramps and tell him hunters' secrets. Often they were absent from home for
several days, hitting the trail together like old "pals." When a deer had been
killed, the lad watched his father skin it and hang it high up on some tree out
of reach of wolves and bears. When the day's chase was over, he helped him
shoulder the kill and carry it to the camp. After supper was over, they would
sit before the camp fire and the father would narrate some of his best stories
concerning thrilling experiences on hunting expeditions or in campaigns against
the Indians. The moccasins were placed before the fire and when dry were hung on
the rifles, ready at any instant, in case of a probable surprise attack of the
Indians—and then the lad and his father fell asleep. When the boy grew older,
these hunting expeditions lasted longer, sometimes for two or three weeks. Thus
the companionship between father and son deepened as they suffered together the
dangers and privations of the woods and enjoyed its spoils.

MAKING SALT

  Some of the early settlers of this region made their own salt at the Kanawha
Salines. One thing necessary was a suitable kettle in which to evaporate the
salty water. A few of these great iron receptacles were obtained at a distant
market. Winter time was usually chosen for this work because the Indians seldom
raided during this cold season. The making of salt, with their crude
arrangements and in cold weather, was a long task. Several settlers would
generally go together on a trip of this kind. The men fastened the kettles on
the horses, together with fodder, meal, and axes, and set out on this
undertaking. When they arrived at the Salines, special work was assigned to each
man. Some built and tended the fires; some drew water from the salt springs;
others watched the boiling process and the salt crystals appearing in the
bottoms of the kettles, and still others scoured the woods for game. From five
hundred to eight hundred gallons of the salt water had to be evaporated to make
a bushel of salt. When the water had boiled away, the salt crystals were emptied
into sacks and stored in a dry place. When a sufficient supply had been obtained
it was taken on pack horses to the settlement and divided among the members of
the party.

SLAVES

  The conditions of the wilderness did not suit the institution of negro
slavery, which flourished east of the mountains. All the settlers were obliged
to labor in clearing the fields, raising their crops, and making all the
improvements on their farms. There was little other work the slaves could do.
The settlers naturally objected to having slaves working in the fields, because
their own work was the same, and they did not wish to be considered on the same
level with them. The institution of slavery could not be profitable unless it
was possible to export great quantities of agricultural produce; and this was
impossible both because of the lack of adequate transportation facilities and
the absence of large tracts of comparatively level land for tillage. Only a few
slaves were brought with any of the early settlers.

SOCIAL OCCASIONS

  The young folks had many happy times when they met together for some social
occasion, for border folks were by no means stupid. There were weddings,
housewarmings, husking bees, excursions for nuts and berries, picnics, and
gatherings on long winter evenings, when stories were told and songs were sung
around the fire. For the boys there were sports in plenty—shooting, running,
wrestling, jumping, throwing the tomahawk, and feats of strength and skill— and
for all there was dancing to the music of a fiddle.

  Unless a pioneer lived at a great distance from all other human
habitations—something which rarely occurred—it cannot be said that he was
lonely. There was always a community of interest in warding off Indian attacks,
in helping to perform labor on different farms which could not be done by one
man, and on numerous other occasions the settlers of a neighborhood were
continually being thrown together.

  During the spring some farmer would hold a grubbing bee to which all the
neighbors were invited for a day. Large numbers came because they knew that the
housewife would have a fine dinner for the occasion, and that there would be
games and a dance after the day's work was finished.

  In the autumn there were corn huskings, which were always occasions of great
gayety. Neighbors came for miles around, particularly young men and women.
Preparations had previously been made for the husking by pulling off all the
ears of corn from the stalks, and hauling them to the appointed place where they
were piled in a long row. Husking usually began just after dark, by the light of
the full moon, and the huskers managed to make the job last until nearly
morning. Sometimes a contest was arranged in which two, good huskers chose sides
and divided the pile in half. Then followed a good natured race to see which
side could finish first. The work was likely to be interrupted quite frequently
whenever a young man found a "red ear," because immemorial custom of the
frontier gave him the right to "kiss the prettiest girl present."

A PIONEER WEDDING

  Frontier weddings were prolonged and boisterous. On the nuptial morning the
bridegroom's attendants gathered early at his house in order that they might
reach the bride by noon, the usual time for celebrating the ceremony, which,
according to custom, took place before dinner.

  The men, dressed in linsey hunting-shirts, leather breeches, leggings, and
moccasins, all homemade, accompanied the young women of the wedding party. The
ladies also wore homemade clothes, linsey petticoats, linsey or linen gowns,
with coarse shoes and stockings. All rode on horseback, generally in double
file, although the narrowness of the trails often made this difficult. Sometimes
disgruntled neighbors, vexed perhaps, because they were not invited to the
marriage, increased the difficulties of the march by draping grapevines or
felling trees across the way or by startling the horses and riders with shots
from ambush. Border young people were accustomed to obstacles; from infancy they
were trained to expect them and to surmount them. The wedding party, having
quieted the horses and calmed any of the girls who chanced to become excited,
usually cleared the path and proceeded merrily.

  At the close of the ceremony, solemnity vanished; the young couple was
congratulated and feted; and the frolic, long anticipated in the neighborhood,
was joined in by all except the bride's relatives who were busy with the
cooking. No wedding without a dinner in those days! The feast followed the
ceremony as soon as it could be placed upon the table, which often was merely a
large slab of rough timber set for the occasion with pewter plates and spoons,
wooden trenchers and bowls, and knives and forks of bone. It was a substantial
meal—beef, pork, fowl, and sometimes bear meat and venison, roasted and boiled,
with potatoes, cabbage and other vegetables. Appetites were keen and spirits
merry, and all ate heartily—all, perhaps, save the bride and groom who probably
felt the seriousness of the occasion more deeply than their hilarious guests.

  Soon after the substantial dinner, the musicians tuned up their fiddles and
banjos, and couples laughingly took their places on the floor, the elders
applauded, and dancing began. It was not the stately dancing of the colonial
period as often pictured, but a far more rollicking amusement. The figures were
three-handed and four-handed reels or square sets and jigs. Generally the dance
began with a "square four" which was followed by jig or "jigging it off." Two of
the four dancers of the square set "singled out" for a jig, and the remaining
pair followed them. When either couple became tired, their places were taken by
others, the dance thus sweeping on and on without interruption, until the
fiddlers longed to rest. After this vigorous fashion the dancing continued until
the following day.

THE HOUSEWARMING

  Soon after the wedding day, a party of choppers felled trees and cut them into
logs of proper lengths for the sides and ends of a building. Other woodsmen
searched for straight-grained trees from three to four feet in diameter which
could be split for clap-boards for the roof. Smaller trees were hewn and their
faces smoothed for puncheons for the floor. As a rule this lumber was prepared
on the first day, and sometimes by that evening the foundation was laid. On the
next day the "raising" took place. The neighbors gathered early in the morning
and at once chose four "corner men" whose business it was to notch and place the
logs. The others handed them the timbers. Boards and puncheons were put in place
for floor and roof, and generally by sunset a cabin stood in the clearing. A
third day made it habitable. Masons daubed the chimney cracks with mortar, and
carpenters made a door and a window, a table and stools, shelves for the dishes,
wooden beds and wooden pegs. Then, before the young couple was allowed to move
in, a "housewarming" was held at the new home; this closed with an all-night
dance attended by the relatives of the bride and groom and their neighbors.

  The young couple began their married life in pioneer times with only the
barest necessities. Yet there was comfort in having their own cabin, however
primitive it might appear, with its unhewn timbers chinked closely with moss and
clay to keep out the frost, and suggesting the woodland even within the little
house. There was pleasure in kindling their own fire on their own hearth, and in
arranging their few possessions—the plain furniture, the dishes, the drinking
mugs of gourds and hardshelled squashes, the candlesticks, the skins and hunting
trophies of the groom, his fowling piece and scalping-knives, also the clothing
and bedding, the scant sewing materials, the farming implements, the flitches of
bacon, venison and bear's meat. The young wife entered upon her housekeeping
duties with diligence and thrift, while the husband sowed and reaped, raised
cattle and swine, hunted, served as smith and weaver, and occasionally drove to
the market towns to exchange furs for such indispensable articles as salt, iron,
steel, castings, cloth, and manufactured goods. In these simple, industrious
ways, and with few wants, a newly wedded couple made a meager living during
their early married years.

  We are indebted to Thomas C. Miller and Hu Maxwell's "History of West Virginia
and Its People" for the following descriptions and accounts of the spinning
wheels, the reel, the loom, tan-yards, and the grist mill.

SPINNING WHEELS

  Two kinds of spinning wheels prepared the yarn and thread for cloth on the
frontiers, the large and the small. Flax and wool were the chief materials, and
cotton came later. A few efforts were made to produce silk, but if any silk was
woven in this section during any period of its early history, record of it has
not been found. Flax was abundant and was the basis of most products of the
loom; that is, some part of nearly all cloth was linen. In very early years,
sheep could not be kept because of wolves; but when these animals had been
killed or driven away, sheep raising was more profitable and woolen cloth came
into use. Linen clothes were coarse, yellowish white, and not warm in winter.
Flax went through several operations before it reached the wheel that spun it.
After being "pulled," as the gathering of the stalks in the field was called, it
was placed in heaps where the coarse, woody fiber of the stalk rotted. That
softened it and prepared it for removal from the tough bark which later was the
part spun into thread. A machine known as the break was manipulated by hand, and
with this machine, under repeated strokes, the stalks of flax were broken into
short pieces which were held together by the strong bark. Then the swingle came
into play. That was a dull, wooden knife, shaped like a broad sword, with blade
eighteen inches long. The operator held a bundle of broken stalks in one hand,
and with the other basted them with the swingle until most of the broken stems
were beaten free from the bark and fell to the ground in pieces from a quarter
of an inch to two inches long. The remaining mass was tow, but other processes
awaited it before it was ready to spin. The hackle was a tool consisting of many
sharp metal spikes like long, slender nails, set in a board. The rows of such
spikes resembled the teeth of combs. Two or three grades of hackles were used,
the terms coarse and fine referring to the distance apart of the teeth. The tow
was combed with this tool. Remaining fragments of stalk were removed, and the
fiber was drawn out in smooth bundles. The tow was then ready to spin. It was of
light yellow color, and soft to the touch. "Towhead," when the word refers to a
person's hair, means that the color and appearance resemble unspun flax. The
word "flaxen-hair" is a little more poetical, but means the same thing. The
small spinning wheel found in most pioneer homes reduced tow to linen thread.
The operator sat, gave motion to the wheel by means of a treadle, and drew the
tow from a distaff attached to the wheel frame. The distaff was usually of
dogwood or of sourwood, because these grew with a central stem, and several
branches coming out of the stem at one place in a whorl. The branches were the
size of a lead pencil, the central stem twice as large. The branches and stem
were cut to a length of eighteen inches, and were brought together and tied at
the top, and on this the tow was placed for spinning.

  Wool was sometimes spun on the small wheel, but the large wheel was preferred.
The operator paced to and fro across the room, turning the wheel by means of a
wooden peg, called a finger, which was carried in one hand, while the yarn in
process of spinning was worked with the other. Wool was carded by hand before
machinery was brought in for doing it. The cards were flat pieces of wood, about
four by eight inches, fitted with handles and equipped with many rows of small
metal teeth, half inch long, made of pieces of wire. By rubbing wool between
their toothed surfaces, it was reduced to rolls for spinning.

THE REEL

  The reel wound the thread from the spindle and converted it into skeins. A
skein consisted of a number of "cuts," and the reel was geared to count the cuts
as they were wound. A contrivance raised a wooden spring slowly as the reel went
round. At the proper time the spring was released, and a sounding whack against
a thin board announced that a cut was done. The contrivance was remarkable only
because it was one of the few instances where machinery was made to do the
thinking for an operator—it counted and recorded the number of threads that went
on the reel.

THE LOOM

  Looms were more common in the homes of the pioneers than pianos and organs in
those of their descendants. Factories for weaving cloth were few anywhere at
that time. The family that did not weave its own cloth bought from some one who
had a surplus. It was all homemade. The best wool fabrics of the period of the
Revolution were strong and serviceable, but specimens exhibited in museums show
that they were far less handsome than machine-made cloth of the present time. A
dress suit worn by President Washington, and preserved in the National Museum in
the city of Washington, is of cloth that would now be unsaleable because of
coarseness. If that was the best of that day. it may be imagined what the
common; people wore in the distant mountains. The most that can be said for it
is that it lasted well. The loom which wove it was crude, and was the handiwork
of some versatile mechanic of the time who could do a little of everything.

  A good many of these old looms, some dating a century back, have come down to
the present time. Great difference is observable in their workmanship. Some are
of cherry or black walnut, well made, and in pleasing proportions. Others are
clumsily constructed of wood selected neither for beauty nor strength, and
showing workmanship much inferior to that of some savages whose only tool is a
flint hatchet. The loom from Kentucky which was exhibited at the Columbian
World's Fair, and is now preserved in the Field Museum, Chicago, is one of that
kind, and that in the State Museum at Madison, Wisconsin, is another. Such do
not do justice to the pioneer loom makers in general, though they represent a
certain part of them. Many of the old time looms were of better design and
workmanship.

  The weaving was usually done by the women of the household, though men
frequently took a hand in it. The thread and yarn for the cloth was sometimes
dyed before it was converted into cloth, and sometimes the finished cloth was
dyed. It was deemed a little better to dye the wool before spinning it, for it
held its color better. The phrase "dyed in the wool" is traced back to that
custom. The dyes were manufactured at home from bark and roots of trees.
Sometimes logwood from Central America, and sulphates of iron, copper or zinc
were purchased and used in dyeing wool or cloth. The bark dyes in early days
were many, but the most common were butternut and yellow oak. The bark of almost
every tree affords more or less dyeing matter. The colors produced with barks
were not as brilliant or as many as the chemical dyes of today afford. They were
subdued, soft, and pleasing, rather than striking, and in that respect resembled
the colors now so much admired in Persian rugs. Coal tar dyes practically
rendered the bark dyes obsolete.

  Clothes were made at home in most cases. A few tailors plied their trade, but
in the early years they could not have been numerous, and their earnings must
have been moderate. A paper recorded in the court of a county of this state in
1786 bears witness that one dollar paid a tailor for making an overcoat, after
the cloth was furnished.

TANYARDS

  The first tanneries consisted of one or more wooden troughs, a little hemlock
or chestnut oak bark, ashes in place of lime, and one or two tools, and other
materials as they could be had. It was not unusual for each family to do its own
tanning, and a trough hewed from a log was the vat. Bark was whittled and
pounded by hand, and this was one of the evening and rainy day jobs in the
cabin. In early times buckskin and bearskin clothes were worn, but they went out
of general use as soon as other materials were procurable. The moccasin was worn
very early, but shoes took its place later. The shoes were made at home or in
the neighborhood. The shoemaker often went from house to house working a week or
so at each, the length of time depending upon the size of the family.

THE GRIST MILL

  The grinding of grain by waterpower was not usual in the earliest years west
of the Allegheny mountains. The grist mill which did work of that kind came
later than the hominy block and the grater. A little capital was required to
build and equip such a mill, even of the simplest kind and smallest size. The
stones which did the crushing of the grain were not shaped by novices, but their
making required the hand of a man who knew that business. A coarse grained, very
hard rock was needed, and a pair of stones was necessary, the upper and the
nether. The coarse formation known to geologists as the Pottsville conglomerate
was so well suited for millstones that one of its names still is "millstone
grit." The formation extends north and south along the mountain ranges in the
eastern part of the state, and the people within reach of it generally made
their millstones of that material. Many parts of the state were too far away
from that supply, and they used something else. A set or pair of old-fashioned
millstones weighed from 600 to 1,000 pounds. The two were about of the same
weight. The upper turned upon the fixed one, and the grain between them was
crushed.

  The miller regulated the coarseness and fineness of the meal or flour by
raising or lowering the upper stone. All customers did not like meal of the same
fineness, and the accommodating miller learned what pleased each, and sought to
give satisfaction. The mills were generally simple and primitive in the extreme,
and often were scarcely fifteen feet square. They were almost destitute of
machinery, the principal items, aside from the millstones, being a barrel or box
for the miller's share of the grain, a measure with which to determine how much
there was, and what was his portion of it; and a meal chest.

  The laws of Virginia made ample provision for the regulation of mills. The
amount of toll which might be lawfully extracted from a person's grist was
nicely regulated, and appropriate penalties were provided for the miller who
took too much. The statutes were plain enough, and no one questioned their
justness; but there was a lame place in the law's machinery. No adequate
provision was made, or at least none was enforced in the western part of
Virginia, for inspecting the weights and measures which the miller used. There
was sometimes a county officer who inspected measures brought into the county,
but not those made in the county. The "bushel measure," was generally a half
bushel capacity, as nearly as the miller could guess its size. Twice full made a
bushel, and all the customers understood it; but did any of them know, or did
the miller know how much the measure really held? It was the handiwork of some
neighboring cooper, and he made it, as he supposed, the proper size to hold a
half bushel. If it fell short or went beyond that measure, no one was ever the
wiser. The miller's honesty was proverbial, and few of their customers ever gave
a thought to the desirability of having some impartial and competent inspector
pass on the size of the measure the miller was using.

  The toll dish was in the same class. The bushel vessel measured the customer's
grist, and the toll dish measured the miller's part of it; for the custom was to
take a certain part of the grain as pay for grinding the other part—usually
one-eighth or one-tenth. The toll dish seldom or never passed beneath the eye of
an inspector. If it was too large, either by accident or design, the miller went
on year after year, overpaying himself without any of his customers being the
wiser. The old-time arithmetics which the schoolmasters of that day taught in
their schools contained a high ratio of problems for pupils to work, in which
the chief factors were a dishonest miller, a toll dish too large, and ill-gotten
gain. That perpetual reminder should have suggested to the people the
desirability of having millers' measures inspected, but it never seemed to work
that way.

  Millers were exempt from jury duty and militia service, under Virginia law.
The popular opinion was that they were forbidden to act as jurors because
constantly liable to indictment for dishonest practices, and were not, for that
reason, fit persons to sit in judgment on others. That, however, was not the
basis of their exemption from jury service. They were not required to serve
because they were needed at their mills to grind the people's grain. They were
exempt from militia duty for the same reason.

  Some of the early mills ground thirty or forty bushels of grain a day, others
only four or five. The mill that ground corn did not necessarily grind wheat.
Additional apparatus was required for the latter. A silk cloth separated the
flour from the bran, but with corn, no such separation was required.

  In early pioneer times grain was generally carried to mill on horses. The boy
rode on top of his grist, and waited at the mill until it was ground and rode
the meal sack home. The family that had no horse, and there were many such,
carried the grain to the mill on their backs. It was not unusual for a man to
carry fifty or sixty pounds of corn several miles to mill, and carry the meal home.

  The mill was often the social center of the neighborhood, or rather the news
center. The people all visited that place, and each man told what news he knew
and listened to others tell theirs. By that method the people were kept posted
on whatever happened in the surrounding territory. Newspapers were few, if any,
and of small circulation on the frontiers, and people depended for information
upon word of mouth. The weekly or fortnightly visits to the mill, and the yearly
attendance at court, and the occasional gathering at the militia musters, were
the best opportunities to learn what was going on.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY
WEST VIRGINIA
BY
J. T. PETERS AND H. B. CARDEN

1926
JARRETT PRINTING COMPANY
CHARLESTON, W. VA.


Copyright, 1926. 
BY THE FAYETTE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, INC.
All Rights Reserved.


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