have seen nothing in human form so profligate as they are. Accomplished
in depravity, their habits and education seem to comprehend every vice.
They make few pretensions to moral character; and their swearing is
excessive, and perfectly disgusting. Although earning good wages, they
are in the most abject poverty; many of them being without any thing
like clean or comfortable clothing. I have seen several whose trousers
formed the whole of their wardrobe, and whose bodies were scorched to
a brown colour by the rays of the sun. They are extremely addicted to
drinking. Indeed I have frequently seen them borrowing of one another a
few cents to quench their insatiable thirst, and in several instances
refusing to repay them. The Scotsman recently alluded to missed a
knife. On his accusing them of the theft, a degraded wretch offered to
buy the fork.
My next letter will contain the particulars of a journey in the States
of Ohio and Kentucky.
FOOTNOTES:
[48] For notes on the following persons and places mentioned in this
chapter, see Croghan’s _Journals_, volume i of our series: Yellow
Creek, note 93; Kanawha River, note 101. A. Michaux’s _Travels_,
volume iii of our series: Wheeling, note 15; Marietta, note 16. F. A.
Michaux’s _Travels_, volume iii of our series: Pennsylvania-Virginia
boundary line, note 31; Gallipolis, note 34. Harris’s _Journal_, volume
iii of our series: Putnam, note 1. Cuming’s _Tour_, volume iv of our
series: Georgetown, note 59; Steubenville, note 67; Wellsburg, note 67;
Grave Creek, note 78.--ED.
[49] As early as 1786 a few pioneers had established themselves at
the mouth of Indian Short Creek; but in 1805 the town was surveyed, a
public sale of lots held, and the name Warren given to it.--ED.
[50] It is interesting to note that, according to the Moravian
missionary John Heckewelder, the Ohio River received its name
from the white caps which often made canoe-travelling temporarily
impossible. When it was covered with white caps the Indians would say
“Kitschi ohio-peekhaune,” which means “verily this is a deep white
river.” See “Names which the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians ... had
given to Rivers, Streams, etc.,” in American Philosophical Society
_Transactions_, new series, iv, pp. 369, 370. The commonly accepted
derivation, that given by La Salle and the early French explorers, is
that “Ohio” is an Iroquois word, meaning “beautiful river.”--ED.
[51] The Cumberland National Road was completed to the Ohio (Wheeling,
West Virginia) in this year (1818).--ED.
[52] Being a national highway no tolls were originally levied on the
Cumberland Road; this being, however, a most logical method of raising
money for the necessary repairs, the road was ceded to the states
through which it ran (1830-35), and the latter erected toll-gates and
levied tolls.--ED.
[53] See list of Americanisms, _post_, pp. 289-290; also Croghan’s
_Journals_, volume i of our series, note 96.--ED.
[54] Letart’s Rapids, at a bend in the Ohio about twenty-five
miles above Gallipolis, are but a slight hindrance to navigation.
See Thwaites, _On the Storied Ohio_, pp. 113-117, for a recent
description.--ED.
{90} LETTER VIII
Leave Portsmouth--Digression on economical
Travelling--Salt-springs--Piketon--Chillicothe--Progress
of a Scotch Family--Game--Forest Trees and
Shrubs--Rolled pieces of Primitive Rocks dispersed over
a Country of the Secondary Formation--Agricultural
Implements--Antiquities--Bainbridge--Middletown--Organic
Remains--Town of Limestone--Washington--Mayé Lick--Licking
River--Millersburg--Paris--Notice of the Missouri and Illinois
Countries--Paper Currency--Cut Coin--Remarks interspersed.
_Lexington, Kentucky, Nov. 29, 1818._
On the 18th current I left Portsmouth, on the north bank of the
Ohio, for Chillicothe, which is situated on the Great Scioto river,
forty-five miles from Portsmouth by land, and about seventy by
following the meanders of the Scioto.
The Scotsman twice alluded to in my last letter, was also bound for
Chillicothe, and we set out together. He gave me the following account
of his economy in travelling. The owner of the boat which we had just
left, engaged him to work his passage from Pittsburg to Portsmouth
without wages, except having his trunk carried to the latter place,
artfully telling, that the passage would be completed in nine days. It
turned out that twenty-one days elapsed, before the boat reached her
destination. Had he, in the first place, hired himself as a boatman,
he might have got seventy-five cents per day, and might have had his
trunk carried for a dollar; and thus a profit of fourteen dollars and
{91} seventy-five cents would have been made. On his journey from
Philadelphia to Pittsburg, he managed better. He travelled along
with the waggon that carried his trunk; the waggon also carrying his
provisions. In this way he was never obliged to enter a tavern except
at night, when he slept in his own bed-clothes. His bed was a low one,
but he had always the satisfaction of knowing that it was clean, and
that he was exempted from having a bed-fellow intruded upon him. It is
true that by travelling alone, he might have reached Pittsburg about a
week sooner; but he would have arrived there without clean clothes, and
incurred the payment of a week’s board, while waiting the arrival of
his trunk.
Having made a digression on economical travelling, I am led to
make some further remarks on it. The subject is highly interesting
to emigrants whose funds are scanty, as every dollar parted with
may be, in effect, giving up half an acre of uncultivated land. A
steerage passenger pays only about half the freight that is charged
for a passage in the cabin of a ship; and, when he lays in his own
provisions, he has it in his power to be nearly as comfortable as
a sea voyage can permit. In the American port, the cabin passenger
is sometimes subjected to delay in entering his baggage at the
custom-house, and getting the taxable part valued, whereas the steerage
passenger has his goods entered by the captain, and is allowed to
proceed on his journey without loss of time. Baltimore being the
most convenient landing place for Europeans who intend to settle in
the western country, those who arrive at New York, Boston, or other
northern ports, will have a saving by re-shipping for the Chesapeake.
Strangers ought to be careful in ascertaining what sloop is to sail
first. By putting goods aboard of a wrong vessel, a delay for a {92}
week or so may be occasioned. Having sent my own baggage round the
Capes, from New York to Philadelphia, I had an opportunity of observing
that several skippers, at the same time, affirmed, that his own vessel
would sail first. Liverpool is the principal resort, in Britain, of
ships for Baltimore. I conceive that it is unimportant to the emigrant,
whether he reaches the latter place in an American coasting vessel, or
by sailing an equal distance to Liverpool, along the coast of Britain.
We stopped at a tavern, four miles from Portsmouth, and had breakfast.
The landlord told us, that bears and wolves are still numerous in the
uncleared hills; that they devour many hogs and sheep; and that he
heard wolves howling within a few yards of his house, on the preceding
night. His sheep had run off, and he did not know in which direction to
search for them.
About nine miles from Portsmouth, the saline nature of a spring is
indicated by the ground being much trodden by the feet of cattle.
The water is slightly brackish, and is not worth the expense of
evaporation. Salt is manufactured, in considerable quantity, a few
miles to the eastward.
Salt springs are called _licks_, from cattle and deer resorting to them
to drink of the water, or to lick the concrete salt deposited on the
rocks or stones, by the evaporation of the atmosphere. Riflemen also
resort to the licks, in the night, to shoot the deer, which are so
numerous in this neighbourhood, that they are sold at a dollar each.
The lower and richer lands are all entered, (appropriated by
individuals,) but the higher and poorer, a considerable portion of
which is too steep for the plough, remains as public property in the
market. The time for cultivating them is not yet come. I must remark
that the hilly, or what is here called {93} broken land, has many
fertile spots, and that the comparative salubrity of such parts of the
country forms a very strong recommendation to them. Coal and limestone
are not known within eight or nine miles of this part of Scioto river.
We lodged at Piketon,[55] the head town of the new county Pike,
so called in memory of General Pike, who, to the character of the
enterprizing explorer of Mexico, added that of the brave soldier. Three
years ago there were five houses here, now there are about a hundred.
_November 19._ We could not procure a breakfast at a tavern where we
called, because the family had a sick child.
At the next tavern, breakfast was prepared for some labourers on the
farm; but there was not enough of bread baked, to admit of our taking
breakfast _along with them_. We were told that if we chose to wait for
two hours, we might eat.--We went onward.
After travelling several miles, we arrived at a third tavern; here,
too, the bread was not prepared; but the people were obliging, and made
it ready for us in a short time. The landlord was a farmer. He told us
that Indian corn sells at twenty-five cents (1s. 1¹⁄₂d. English) per
bushel, and that he could procure twenty thousand bushels of it within
three miles of his house. This appeared to be somewhat surprising, on
considering that the cleared grounds form only small detached parcels,
when compared with the intervening woods.--Wheat sells at seventy-five
cents (3s. 4¹⁄₂d. English) per bushel. This sort of crop is, at
present, more profitable than Indian corn, as in most cases it yields
more than a third part by measure; it does not require to be cleared
of weeds; and is more easily carried to market. The predominance of
crops of {94} Indian corn is occasioned by the ease with which it is
disposed of in feeding hogs and other stock, and, perhaps, in some
degree, by prejudice. The bottoms are wide, and their soil rich. They
are often inundated by the Scioto and its numerous branches, the water
leaving great quantities of logs, and other vegetable matter, to be
decomposed on the surface of the ground. These facts convince us that
the situation is not healthy, notwithstanding the affirmations we heard
to the contrary; and we were the more fully persuaded of this, as we
saw a young man pale and meagre, in consequence of an attack of the
ague.
We came to a saw-mill near Paint Creek.[56] A woman asked us how we
proposed to get across the run. She told us that there was neither
bridge nor boat; and that the water would reach up to our middle. She
told us further, that travellers commonly hire a creature (a horse) at
her house. We ordered one, and her husband followed us with it. At the
Creek, we discovered that the water was shallow. Some of our party,
(now increased to five,) indignant at the hoax, waded the stream. The
water did not reach to the knee.
Chillicothe,[57] (formerly the seat of government, in the State of
Ohio, now transferred to Columbus,) is situated on an extensive high
plain, in a great bend of the Scioto, which here varies from one
hundred to one hundred and fifty yards in breadth. The town has a
court-house, an academy, two places of worship, two printing offices,
that publish a weekly newspaper each, a woollen manufactory, a cotton
manufactory, a grist-mill wrought by steam, a brewery, a tannery, a
variety of merchants’ shops, several taverns, and three banks. One of
the last establishments has its door {95} shut. There is a good wooden
bridge across the river, near the town.
_November 20._ I crossed Paint Creek, by the road toward Limestone.[58]
The bottoms are rich, but the greater part of them uncleared. The
cattle of this neighbourhood are better than those I have seen by the
river Ohio, and in the western parts of Pennsylvania. It is not here,
however, that the fine droves formerly noticed are reared. These must
have come from the more northerly part of the State, where the grass
on the prairies (lands without timber) is said to be abundant. All
accounts that I have heard of these prairies, say, that they are wet,
and unfavourable to health. The ease with which settlements are formed
on them, and the facility for rearing cattle, are, however, attracting
many settlers.
Visited a Scotch family about thirteen miles from Chillicothe. They
settled here twelve years ago. Their farm consists of three hundred
acres of first and second rate land; of which seventy acres are cleared
and fenced. They have met with two misfortunes; either of which, they
think, would have finally arrested their progress in Scotland. They
bought a bad title to their land; it being part of an old military
grant,[59] and omitted to see it traced back to the government. In
addition to this, their house, with most of their moveables, was
burnt. They have now surmounted these losses; and are in better
circumstances than at any former period. It is astonishing to see how
much this family have adopted the manners and customs of the Americans.
The father, who is seventy-five years of age, has almost entirely laid
aside the peculiarities of his native provincial dialect. Nothing
but the broad pronunciation of the vowel A remains. The son {96} has
acquired the dialect of the country perfectly; and has adopted the
American modes of farming; is a good axeman, and is in every respect
identified with the people. During the late war, he was out on a
campaign, on the frontier of Canada. This absence must have been
extremely painful to the father, who lost an amiable son in the fight
with the Indians, at Tippecanoe, in 1811.[60]
Religious and patriotic views seem to have supported this worthy old
man under every discouragement.
_November 21._ I made an excursion into the woods. A few deer and wild
turkeys remain. Squirrels are very numerous. They are of the grey and
black varieties: also of the striped or ground species. The two former
are much larger than the English squirrel, and are ate in America. Some
people esteem them as equal to chickens. Quails are abundant: they are
smaller than partridges, and are so tame that the report of a gun, and
the destruction of a part of the covey, do not always make them take
flight. It is a common practice to drive whole families of them into
nets. Rabbits are not plentiful; they lodge in the hollows of fallen
trees; and are not understood to burrow in the ground. The only fox
that I have seen, was of a small size, and of a light grey colour. It
does not require a thick population to exterminate bears, deer, and
turkeys. The beaver is destroyed by the first hunters who invade the
forests; and the buffalo retreats into more remote solitudes, almost on
the first approach of white men.
The woods are principally composed of _Quercus_, (Alba,) _White Oak_;
(Tinctoria,) _Black Oak_; (Coccinea,) _Red Oak_; (Primus accuminata,)
_Chesnut Oak_; _Platanus_, (Occidentalis,) _Sycamore_; _Fagus_,
(Ferruginea,) _Beech_; _Acer_, (Saccharinum,) {97} _Maple_, (sugar
tree;) _Fraxinus_, (Americana,) _Ash_; _Juglans_, (Nigra,) _Walnut_,
(black;) (Alba ovata,) _Hickory_; _Laurus_, (Sassafras,) _Sassafras_;
_Cornus_ (Florida,) _Dogwood_; _Fagus_, (Castanea,) _Chesnut_;
_Liriodendron_, (Tulipefera,) _Poplar_; _Ulmus_, (Americana,) _Slippery
Elm_; (Mollifolia,) _White Elm_; _Vitus_, (Labrusea,) _Fall Grape_;
(Serotina,) _Winter Grape_.
Amongst the shrubs, or underwood, the following may be noticed as
prevalent:
_Rhus_, (Glabrum,) _Sumach_; _Laurus_, (Benzoin,) _Spicewood_; _Rubus_,
(Fructicosus,) _Blackberry_; (Hispidus,) _Running do._; _Annona_,
(Glabra,) _Papaw_.
The prevalent strata are of slate clay, bituminous shale, and
sandstone. Coal is not known, and probably has not been sought after.
Rolled pieces of the latter mineral, and of granite, gneiss, quartz,
and flint slate, are mixed with the sandy gravel of the streams. Dr.
Drake[61] has pointed out a situation in this State, where large
detached masses of granite lie over strata of secondary limestone; and
has conjectured that they have been brought from the primitive country
north of the lakes, by the agency of water passing from north to south.
This hypothesis is countenanced by the vast quantities of alluvial
soil which lie far above the level of the present river, and by the
almost total absence of primitive rocks, between the eastern side of
the Allegany ridge, and the sources of the Missouri. The only exception
known is the tract between Lakes Ontario and Champlain,--a field so
narrow that we cannot view it as the probable source of fragments
profusely scattered over the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and
Kentucky.
In this part of Ohio State, first and second rate lands sell at four
or five dollars per acre. The richest ground is in bottoms: the hilly
has many {98} parts not accessible to the plough. Buildings are most
commonly erected on rising grounds. Such situations are believed to be
most salubrious, and abound most in good springs.
Farming establishments are small. Most cultivators do every thing for
themselves, even to the fabrication of their agricultural implements.
Few hire others permanently, it being difficult and expensive to keep
labourers for any great length of time. They are not _servants_, all
are _hired hands_: Females are averse to dairy, or menial employments.
The daughters of the most numerous families continue with their
parents. There is only one way of removing them. This disposition
is said to prevail over almost the whole of the United States. A
manufacturer at Philadelphia told me, that he had no difficulty in
finding females to be employed in his work-shop; but a girl for
house-work he could not procure for less than twice the manufacturing
wages. Some of the children of the more necessitous families are bound
out to labour for other people. The Scotch family, recently mentioned,
have a boy and a girl living with them in this way. The indenture of
the boy expires when he is twenty-one years of age; that of the girl at
eighteen. They are clothed and educated at the expense of the employer.
The boy, at the expiry of his contract, is to have a horse and
saddle, of value at least 100 dollars; and the girl at the end of her
engagement, is to have a bedding of clothes. It is said, that a law of
the State of Ohio, forbids females to live in the houses of unmarried
men.
The utensils used in agriculture are not numerous. The plough is short,
clumsy, and not calculated to make either deep or neat furrows. The
harrow is triangular; and is yoked with one of its angles forward, that
it may be less apt to take hold {99} of the stumps of trees in the way.
Light articles are carried on horseback, heavy ones by a coarse sledge,
by a cart, or by a waggon. The smaller implements are the axe, the
pick-axe, and the cradle-scythe; by far the most commendable of back
wood apparatus.
The figure [page 125] is descriptive of the cradle scythe. AEGB is the
shaft. In working, it is held by the left hand with the thumb upward,
near A; while the right hand holds the cross handle at H. BD is a post,
making an angle of about 78 degrees with the straight line AB. Into
this post the five wooden ribs, or fingers, MN, OP, QR, ST, and UV, are
fixed. These are round pieces of tough wood, of a curvature resembling
that of the back of the blade, as nearly as possible. They are upwards
of half an inch in diameter; and are pointed at the extremities MOQSU.
FG is another post, fixed in the shaft, parallel to BD, and about
seven inches distant from it. ED is a thin piece of wood, let into
the shaft at E, for retaining the posts BD, FG, in their positions. IK
is a small round post that passes through the fingers at the distance
of ten inches from the post BD. This small post passes through broad
parts of the fingers, which are left so for the sake of strength, and
its lower ends stands on the blade at K. The blade is such as is used
in cutting hay; but the point is allowed to stand about nine inches
farther out from the handle than the grass scythe. At L is a small iron
bolt, rivetted into the blade, near its back; the top of this bolt
passes through the lower finger, and is furnished with a hand-screw,
which holds the finger down, so that its point shall remain within
about half an inch of the blade. The points of the fingers MOQSU are
in a straight line, but recline backward, so that the upper finger is
about five inches shorter than the under one. Between {100} the posts
IK, and FG, are five small connecting stays of iron. Figure 2 is a
separate plan of one of the iron stays, shewing the manner in which it
is fixed to the upright bars or posts. AB is a part of the finger; C
the hole through which the small post (IK of the former figure) passes;
and D is the post FG of the former figure. EF is the iron stay; it is
about one-sixth of an inch in diameter; and it is thin and crooked near
the end E, where it is fastened to the finger by two small nails. From
G to F the stay is a small screw. At K, is a female hand-screw that
bears against D. At H, is a nut, also bearing against the post D. By
this screw the finger is firmly kept in its proper place. The fingers
are five inches apart, measuring from the centre of the one to that of
the other. The shaft of the scythe is five feet long, and the whole of
the parts are as light as is consistent with strength.
{101} _November 22._ About a mile distant from the house where I
lodged, the woods were on fire. It was supposed that the conflagration
had been begun by some mischievous person, who had kindled the dry
leaves, now strewed over the ground. In the evening, the glare of light
extending along a ridge for a mile and a half, was astonishingly grand.
Large decayed trees were converted into luminous columns of fire; when
these fell the crashing noise was heard within doors. Fires in the
woods usually excite alarm in their neighbourhood. People watch them by
night, their rail fences and wooden habitations being in danger.
[Illustration]
Some parts of this neighbourhood were purchased twelve or fourteen
years ago. Then proximity to Chillicothe was little regarded. The
increased population and trade of the town has now made it the market
of almost every disposable product. The lands near that place are
consequently much increased in value, and town lots sell at high prices.
_November 23._ I again resumed my way for Limestone. By the road side
are many conical mounds of earth, called Indian graves. About a mile
east of Bainbridge is a large camp.[62] The ditch is in every part
visible. One side is inclosed by a bend of Paint Creek, where the
opposite bank forms high and strong ground. I conjectured that the
fort contained nearly one hundred acres. It is not understood that
the aborigines have constructed any such works since Europeans became
acquainted with them. It is therefore a natural inference, that the
country must have been antecedently inhabited by a more civilized and
more powerful people.
From Bainbridge to Middletown the land is hilly; a small portion of it
is cleared, and it is much less {102} fertile than the grounds by the
river Scioto, and Paint Creek.
_November 24._ The ground west of Middletown is of clay, with a mixture
of siliceous particles, and the oxide of iron. Wheat is the most
prevalent crop. The health enjoyed on these high lands, is an ample
compensation for the lack of a few bushels. Wheat sells at a dollar per
bushel; Indian corn at thirty-three one-third cents; beef and pork at
four cents a-pound; labourer’s wages, fifty cents; joiners, a dollar,
with provisions.
_25th._ At ten miles from Limestone, the soil is good, but broken with
irregularities of surface. There was a little frost in the morning, but
the forenoon was warm. I observed several insects of the genus Vanessa,
(painted butterflies,) flying about in full vigour. The autumn is said
to be fine, almost beyond former example.