_the_ Pioneer Home
[Illustration: Dedicatory plaque above fireplace in Pioneer Home]
THIS HOME OF AN OHIO PIONEER IS DEDICATED TO THE EARLY SETTLERS OF THE
MIAMI VALLEY. THROUGH COURAGE, TOIL AND PERSEVERANCE, THEY OVERCAME
HARDSHIP AND DANGER, AND BROUGHT CIVILIZATION TO THE WILDERNESS.
[Illustration: Fireplace in pioneer home]
The Pioneer Home, which serves as an Information Center for Carillon
Park, is believed to have been built about 1815.
It was originally located in Washington Township about five miles
southwest of Centerville on Social Row Road, about halfway between
Sheehan Road and Yankee Street. In the spring of 1953 it was torn down
and moved to Carillon Park, where it was rebuilt, using the original
stones and timbers.
Abstract records in the Court House show that the 20-acre plot on which
this house was originally located was sold by Abner and Patsy Garrard on
February 14, 1815, to William Morris and his wife. The purchase price
was $140. Later records show that the Morrises sold the property on
September 18, 1838, for $753. The difference in the purchase and selling
prices was the largest in over 50 years and indicates that the house was
built sometime during that 23-year period.
Since 1858 the property has had a number of owners, including an
Elizabeth Morris, who bought it in 1856 and lived there for 30 years.
Whether she was related to the builder of the house is not known. In
1896 the property was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Hugh E. Brunk, who lived
in the house until 1907.
Most houses built in the early 1800’s were made of logs and chinked with
plaster made of lime and sand. This house was built of a good quality
white limestone, the reason probably being that stone was easier to
obtain than logs in this particular location, because a stone quarry was
located scarcely a quarter-mile away. The old quarry, near Sheehan Road,
long since has been abandoned.
[Illustration: Pioneers and Conestoga wagon]
The stone walls of the house were about 18 inches thick and the inside
surface of these walls was plastered. The whole interior of the
downstairs rooms, except the floors, was whitewashed. The interior
dimensions of the lower floor are 15 by 23 feet.
Floor joists, rafters, and shingle laths were all hand hewn from white
oak. Examination of the floor joists disclosed that four of them had
been split from the same log. All wooden trim and the door and window
frames were of black walnut. In the period when this house was built,
the use of this kind of wood was not at all uncommon even in barns.
The floor boards were about one and a quarter inches thick and were of
beech and walnut. There is no ridge pole to support the roof, but the
rafters are notched and put together with wooden pins. The split
shingles were of oak. In the work of reconstruction, all of the stone
used is the original stone except the floor, which formerly was of wood.
The ceiling beams, attic flooring, rafters and most of the shingle laths
are originals. The remaining woodwork which was in bad condition has
been replaced but the original details of design and construction have
been carefully reproduced.
The fireplace chimneys are a part of the end walls. This style of
architecture shows the Moravian influence, the Moravians being a
religious sect who came to Ohio mostly from North Carolina,
Pennsylvania, and Georgia.
Wooden partitions at one time divided the lower floor into three rooms:
two tiny bedrooms and the living room. Because they made the rooms so
small, these partitions were not included when the house was rebuilt.
Each room had its own fireplace. The large one was used for cooking and
for heating the combination kitchen and living room. The two smaller
fireplaces were in the bedrooms. They were connected to a single chimney
and have been omitted.
The large fireplace was the center of activity for the household. Every
morning a large log would be brought in and placed on the embers left
from the fire of the night before. This log would be big enough to last
the day, and smaller sticks and logs would be put in front of it. If no
coals survived from the night before, the fire had to be lighted by
sparks from flint and steel, which was always a tedious task, or coals
might be borrowed from a neighbor. This was seldom necessary because
most families took care not to let their fires go out.
Hinged to the side of the big fireplace was a crane with pot hooks or
“trammels” on which cooking utensils were hung. Its deep pit provided
storage for wood ashes so necessary to the pioneer for the making of lye
used in making soap and hominy. Nearby was the inevitable bellows—known
in those days as “belluses”—and the hearth brush.
Cooking over an open fireplace was difficult, but many housewives became
very proficient at it, and meat cooked in this way had a flavor
unexcelled by any mode of cooking today.
The big fireplace also had its disadvantages. With the first frost,
flies were likely to swarm down through the chimney and into the room.
On one side of the fireplace was a built-in cupboard where cooking
utensils and dishes were kept. The plates and bowls usually were made of
wood or pewter, and the knives, forks and spoons of horn. Also in the
cupboard might be found a bread basket, dough trough, candle-stick
molds, a bootjack, and a box of sand used to polish the pewter ware.
On the other side of the fireplace was a steep staircase leading to the
attic and typical of those found in small houses of the period.
Nearby, perhaps over the fireplace, were suspended a flint-lock musket
and powder horn. Hanging from the ceiling of the room might be a warming
pan, raccoon skins, fox pelts, slabs of bacon and venison, chains of
sausages, and strings of dried apples and red peppers. And on a
convenient shelf was the family Bible, the leather cover of which was
used—without any disrespect intended—by the man of the house for
stropping his straight-edge razor.
[Illustration: Flatboat on river]
The attic of the house was floored with rough boards but was otherwise
unfurnished. It had been used as a bedroom, and imagination can conjure
the image of a small, wide-eyed boy lying on a pallet of rustling corn
husks, listening to the wind rattle the shingles and dodging an
occasional drop of rain which seeped through. Perhaps it wasn’t always
imagination when he heard the howl of wolves or the yell of a passing
Indian. A portion of the attic floor has been cut away so visitors may
see the original rafters and shingle strips.
[Illustration: Fireplace]
About the time the Pioneer Home was built, carpenter work was relatively
expensive. Dormer windows containing 12 panes of glass cost $12; door
frames were 8c a linear foot and window frames 16c. Panel doors were
priced at 75c per panel. This partially explains why the windows were
few and small. Another reason, of course, was the difficulty of heating
the house adequately in the winter. It was also very difficult to
transport large panes of glass over rough roads from the East.
The house at one time had a partial basement with dirt floor, but it had
no porches. At a later date a wooden lean-to was added at the rear but
it has long since disappeared. This addition housed a bedroom and
kitchen.
In the yard behind the house there was probably an outdoor fire pit with
a large iron kettle suspended above it. This kettle was used for making
soap, lard, and apple butter, and on wash days for boiling clothes.
There was also a smokehouse and tobacco-drying and stripping shed.
Also just outside the back door was a rough wooden water bench on which
were a wooden basin, a gourd dipper, and soap made of grease, ashes and
sand.
As was the practice in those days, the house was located on the bank of
a small stream, a tributary of Hole’s Creek. Near this stream, a well
was dug and a well-sweep erected for lowering the oaken bucket into the
well.
This Pioneer Home was placed in Carillon Park to show the people of this
generation how their forefathers lived. The purpose of this book, too,
is to describe the hardships overcome by the pioneers who braved the
unknown wilderness to help carve the destiny that we, as Americans,
enjoy today.
Of William Morris and his wife, little is known. But much is known of
the era in which they lived.
Most of the early pioneers who came to the Miami Valley trekked westward
over the rough mountain trails to Pittsburgh and then sailed down the
Ohio River. A few more hardy souls came overland all the way.
These settlers were attracted to the Valley by descriptions of this
“fabulous” land where the earth needed “only to be tickled with the hoe
to laugh with the harvest.”
The trip westward was both expensive and uncomfortable. Household goods
and supplies were loaded in “road wagons” and the wife and children
clambered on top of the load. The man of the family and the larger boys
usually rode horses.
As many as six horses were used to pull the lumbering wagons over the
steep mountain trails, and often it was necessary to stop during the
ascent to rest the horses. At these times large rocks were placed behind
the wheels to keep the wagons from rolling backward. The deep mud of the
valleys was almost as difficult to overcome.
It was a relief indeed when the Alleghenies had been crossed and the
family safely transferred to the “broad horn” river boat. The journey
downstream was more serene, but was long and tiring. However, there was
always something new to be seen around the next bend of the river and
always stories to listen to ... stories of singing fish, of wild Indian
raids, and of the fine town of Losantiville, the early name for
Cincinnati. The entire journey from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati required
about six weeks. The trip from Cincinnati to Dayton was usually made by
wagon, although some boats were “poled” up the Miami River at a speed of
about eight miles a day.
[Illustration: Essential to the pioneer of the early American
frontier was a dependable rifle to provide food and protection for
his family. This “Kentucky Rifle,” a muzzle loader which used
percussion caps, was fashioned about 1830 by a Pennsylvania gunsmith
for Jacob Deeds, great-grandfather of Colonel E. A. Deeds whose
grandfather, Andrew Deeds, brought it to Ohio in 1850. This rifle is
a later version of the flintlock rifle which made possible
settlement of the dark, lonely and often dangerous forests that once
covered most of Ohio. It now is mounted on the wall of the Pioneer
Home.]
It was in February, 1796, that the first surveying party came to what is
now Washington Township—the township in which the old stone house was
located. That was less than a year after Daniel Cooper came from
Cincinnati and laid out the town of Dayton.
The surveying group was made up of Aaron Nutt, Benjamin Robbins, and
Benjamin Archer. They pitched camp near what is now Centerville, but
were quick to move a couple of miles northeast when they discovered
signs of recent occupation of the site by Indians.
Although there were a few Indian raids in Montgomery County during its
earliest years, most of the Indians were peaceful except when drunk. The
major losses caused by them were through thievery of horses and other
livestock.
The three surveyors drew cuts for choice of lands and then returned to
Kentucky. The next spring Robbins returned with his wife and children.
They built a log cabin on a half-section of land west of the site of
Centerville. Nutt and Archer returned two years later.
[Illustration: Sewing and Spinning]
One of the best-known early settlers was Dr. John Hole, who moved to the
area from New Jersey in 1797. He located three and a half miles
northwest of the site of Centerville on a stream which he named Silver
Creek. Because of his prominence in the community, the stream became
known as Hole’s Creek, and so it is named today. Dr. Hole erected a log
cabin with a clapboard roof and a “cat and clay chimney,” made of sticks
and clay. He later put up two sawmills. Being the only doctor in that
part of the Valley, Dr. Hole served patients ten and twelve miles away.
[Illustration: Raising a Cabin]
Washington Township was organized in 1803, the same year Ohio became a
state and two years before Dayton was incorporated. It was named in
honor of General George Washington, for many of the early settlers were
formerly Revolutionary War soldiers. In the first election in that year
the township—then considerably larger than it is now—cast 95 votes for
governor.
The first church meeting in the area was held in 1799, but the first
church building was not occupied until four years later. It was called
the Sugar Creek Baptist Church. One of its early members and workers was
Abner Garrard, owner of the land on which the stone house later was
built. The first minister of the church was the Rev. Charles McDaniel,
who sometimes rode 30 miles to preach at some remote settlement. He was
paid only what his congregations desired to give him.
Because there were no traveled roads through the forests, trails leading
to the church were blazed on trees extending as far as five miles.
There were three small settlements in the township in those early days:
Centerville, near the center of the township; Woodburn to the northwest,
and Stringtown to the southeast.
No one was very rich or very poor in those days, and everyone worked. Of
all living creatures, wrote Benjamin Franklin, quoting an old Negro
saying, only the hog doesn’t work: “He eat, he drink, he walk about, he
go to sleep when he please, he live like a gentleman.”
[Illustration: Schoolhouse]
It was true. The hogs roamed the forests at will, fattening on nuts, but
the horses and oxen and humans worked!
There was grain to be planted, but there were none except hand-wrought
plows, made from jack-oak sticks shaped and sharpened as best they could
be and more than often drawn by a team of slow-moving oxen broken to the
yoke. A few years later this primitive plow was improved by being tipped
with an iron point. The axe was often used to break the ground for
planting, and seed was dropped in by hand. There were no barns, so the
newly cut unthreshed grain was stacked in the fields. It was threshed
with flails or tramped out under animals’ hooves. Corn was gathered,
husked, and shelled by hand, and potatoes were dug with a sturdy pointed
stick.
The tilled land was used as much as possible. It was not unusual for a
flax patch to be sowed in March, harvested in June, and then planted
with potatoes.
Life in the early 1800’s was not all work, however, and sometimes
pleasure was combined with the chores that had to be done.
Erecting a cabin called for a log rolling or house raising party. The
men of the community assembled and then divided into small groups: one
group to fell the trees, another to drive the horses and drag the logs
to the site, another to shape the logs, another to saddle and notch the
corner logs and put them in place, and another to chink the cracks
between the logs. Thus, a cabin usually was erected in a single day, and
the work was accompanied by much merriment, usually ending with a party
in the new house that night.
Husking bees also enabled the young people to combine work with
pleasure. The work was accompanied by songs and stories, and occasional
squeals of laughter when one of the boys husked a red ear of corn, for
that entitled him to kiss the nearest girl. In the evening, supper was
served and it was followed by a dance and perhaps an opportunity for
couples to walk home by moonlight.
Bees or “frolics” also were held for reaping, sewing, quilting,
flax-scutching, and many other occasions.
There also was the more enjoyable work of making cider or maple sugar,
and the excitement of smoking a bee tree to obtain the honey inside.
Sleighing was a popular pastime in the winter. The young people bundled
themselves in warm clothing, placed bags of hot sand at their feet,
pulled bear skin robes over their knees and then set out with many a
laugh and song. On a crisp, clear night the sleighbells and the singing
could be heard from several miles distant.
The biggest social events of the day were the weddings. Often they
occurred at noon, to be followed by an afternoon of merry-making, a big
supper for the whole wedding party, and a dance in the evening. The most
popular dances were jigs, four-handed reels, double shuffles, and
scamper-downs.
The parents often helped their children start married life by giving
them a cow, ewe, or sow, a saddle, spinning wheel, kitchen utensils, or
a feather bed.
[Illustration: Plowing with a yoke of oxen]
[Illustration: Dancing]
A bride with an embroidered muslin gown for the wedding was considered
fortunate, indeed. Usually the women of the day wore clothing made of
“linsey.” This was made of linen and wool, often in plaids and stripes.
The men wore buckskin breeches, coonskin caps, and crude leather shoes,
boots, or moccasins. In summer they sometimes went barefoot, except when
they went into the forests. Men, women, boys and girls often wore a
loose outer jacket called a “wamus.”
Much of the cloth for clothing was made from flax or wool grown by the
settlers. Most of the housewives had spinning wheels, but only a few had
looms, for they were expensive and skill was required to operate them.
The weaving would be done for a fee by those who owned looms. Walnut
hulls were crushed and used for dye. Buttons were often made of thread,
and needles and pins were scarce and expensive.
The first store in Washington Township was established by Aaron Nutt,
Sr., in what is now Centerville. He took a flatboat load of produce to
Baltimore, sold it, and invested the money in a horse, a cart, and a
load of drygoods, which he brought overland to Ohio.
Cash was scarce and much of the trading was on a barter basis. To buy
items such as tea, coffee, leather, lead, powder, and iron, required
either money or certain items which were considered of cash value—linen
cloth, feathers, beeswax, and deerskins.
Here are some examples of prices charged in 1815: linsey $1 per yard;
cambric $2.25 per yard; darning needles 6¼c each; lead pencils 31c;
nutmegs 18c each; pewter dish $2.25; tea $2.50 per pound; 8-penny nails
21c per pound; calico 87½c per yard; salt $13 per 100 pounds; flour
$1.50 per barrel; wheat 25c per bushel; oats 10c per bushel.
Because of the high prices of coffee and tea, many housewives served
“flour chocolate,” a beverage made from corn, wheat and rye, or tea made
from spices, sassafras or sage. The housewife had to pulverize her own
spices, powder the salt, roast and grind the coffee, and make her own
yeast and soap.
Although some of the non-essentials were high in price, no one lacked
for food. Nearly every household had at least one cow, some chickens,
and some pigs. In 1810, records show that beef could be bought for 3c a
pound and pork for 3½c. Chickens were worth 75c a dozen and potatoes 25c
a bushel.
Wild turkeys, pheasants, rabbits, squirrels, ducks, geese, and deer
abounded in the forests. There was plenty of corn for hoe cakes, hominy
and mush; beans; blackberries; grapes; nuts; honey; and maple sap for
sugar.
[Illustration: Pioneer home and yard]
For breakfast the man of the house might find on his table ham, eggs,
corn pone and fried potatoes, in addition to the standard dish, mush and
milk. For a variation, or if meats were not handy, hominy and mush might
be cooked in sweetened water with bear oil or grease from fried meat
added. For supper he might have wild turkey, smoked sausage or venison,
cheese, peaches or pears, and vegetables. Once a week in most households
the supper consisted of “pot luck,” made of meat and various vegetables,
cooked together in one big pot.
In almost every house there was a store of cider, brandy, rum or
whiskey, but the men seldom overindulged except at weddings and
funerals. It was not uncommon at such affairs for an argument to ensue
and end in a fist fight.
Schools followed the establishment of churches in the township. The
school building was a log cabin with a fireplace at one end, and it
often was erected in a single day. Desks were made of puncheons and
seats of flattened saplings. The children usually wrote with pens made
of goose quills, for pencils were too scarce and too expensive. Ink was
made from maple bark and copperas.
The school curriculum was confined to the “three R’s”: reading, ’riting,
and ’rithmetic, and no high standards were required of the teachers.
More often than not, the teacher was selected because of his or her
physical inability to do other work rather than an ability to teach.
Each patron paid his proportionate share of the cost of operating the
school, even to the point of boarding the teacher for a certain length
of time. The unfortunate teacher, like the pauper, was looked upon as a
person merely to be tolerated. All that was expected of the pupils was
the ability to write legibly, to read the Bible or an almanac, and to
compute the value of a load of produce.
Mail deliveries in the rural areas were unknown, but a post office was
established in Dayton in 1804, and by 1810 mail was being brought from
Cincinnati by horseback once a week.
The township people seldom had an opportunity to see a newspaper, and it
was a treat, indeed, when a copy of “The Ohio Watchman,” a 12- x 20-inch
paper printed in Dayton, fell into their hands. Often the paper would be
passed along from home to home many weeks after its date of printing.
In these crude surroundings our forefathers lived. They built their
cabins amid mud, stumps, poison ivy, mosquitoes, rattlesnakes, wolves,
and wildcats.
It was in this environment that babies were born and grew to healthy
adulthood, although they entered this world without benefit of sanitary
facilities and hospitals, and often even without the presence of a
doctor or midwife.
To imagine that wilderness civilization—without telephones, electricity,
bathrooms, furnaces, automobiles, trains, airplanes, radio, and
television—is difficult. But it is even more difficult to comprehend
that these improvements date back only a few short years to the
lifetimes of our own grandparents.
But amid the physical changes, one thing has not changed: the spirit
that conquered the wilderness. Thanks to that spirit, even greater
advancements, no doubt, are ahead.
And through those years to come, the Pioneer Home in Carillon Park will
remain as a symbol of hardships overcome, of progress through work, of
the strength of character that has built our America.
[Illustration: Pioneer Newspaper]
_The Ohio Watchman._
“_Truth, Equality and Literary Knowledge, are the three Grand Pillars
of Republican Liberty._”
VOL. II. NO. 2.
DAYTON, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, (OHIO,) THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1817.
PUBLISHED BY
_ROBERT J. SKINNER_,
EVERY THURSDAY MORNING, IN MAIN
STREET, TWO DOORS BELOW COL.
DAVID REID’S TAVERN.
THE TERMS OF THIS PAPER ARE.
_Two dollars per annum paid in advance—two dollars and fifty cents if
paid within the year, or three dollars if not paid until the expiration
of the year._
_No subscription taken for less than one year unless paid in advance._
_A failure to give notice of a discontinuance, will be considered a new
engagement._
☞_Letters addressed to the Editor must be post paid._
_Vendue._
Will be sold at public sale on the 25th of Dec. next on the plantation
of the subscriber, in Randolph township, 3 miles south of Daniel Rasor’s
Mill, near the Franklin road, the following property, viz: 9000 young
apple trees, a large number of which will be of good size to plant out
next spring, a young horse, a cow, a calf, a number of sheep, one
feather bed, &c. &c. Sale to commence at 10 o’clock. A credit will be
given to purchasers of ninety days, by giving notes with approved
security.
Jesse Farmer.
Nov. 9, 1817 1,3t
N. B. The apple trees may stand where they are until the spring of
1819—they will sold by the row, 56 in number.
_Notice._
_AGREEABLE_ to the 19th sec. of the Constitution of this state, the
people have a right to assemble together in a peaceable manner to
consult for their common good—to instruct their representatives, and to
apply to the Legislature for redress of grievances; therefore, for that
purpose the people of Montgomery county, (especially those residing in
the bounds of the corporation of the town of Dayton) are respectfully
invited to meet at the house of Col. David Reid, innkeeper, in the town
of Dayton, on Saturday the 13th inst. at early candle light.
MANY.
_Dayton Dec. 4, 1817._ _1,3t_
_TAKEN UP_
ON the 15th of October last by Jacob Yants of German township,
Montgomery county.
A BLACK MARE supposed to be 4 years old, 14 hands high, newly shod
before, a small white spot in her forehead, and the hair taken off on
each side of the neck by the collar: no other marks perceivable.
Appraised to 30 dollars by John Worland and Michael Gunckle.
A true copy,
GEO. MILLER, J P.
Nov. 8, 1817. 1,3t
_TAKEN UP_
BY Elisha M’Coole of Newton township, Miami county, a sorrel mare with a
small star in her forehead and snip on her nose, light mane and tail,
some saddle marks, shod all round, supposed to be six years old last
spring, fifteen hands one inch high, no other marks
perceivable—appraised to sixty dollars by Noah Hanks and James Hanks.
JAMES HAWORTH, P. P.
Nov. 7, 1817. 1,3t
_LOTS_
IN DAYTON, FOR SALE.
I WILL sell the half of Lot No. 164, lying on Main Cross street, on
which is a small brick house.
I will also sell Lots Nos. 5, and 12, lying west of Wilkinson
street,—They are all corner lots, and pleasantly situated. I will give a
credit to the purchaser.
_JAMES WILLISON._
Dayton, Nov. 13, 1817. 51,5t