Condition of the early settlers as it respects the
mechanic arts--Want of skilled mechanics--Hominy block and
hand-mill--Sweeps--Gunpowder--Water mills Clothing--Leather--Farm
tools--Wooden ware--Sports--Imitating birds--Throwing the
tomahawk--Athletic sports--Dancing--Shooting at marks--Emigration of
the present time compared with that of the early settlers--Scarcity
of iron--Costume--Dwellings--Furniture--Employments--The women--Their
character--Diet--Indian corn--The great improvements in facilitating
the early settlement of the West--Amusements.
Before having the subject of the actual condition of the early
settlers in the West, we take another extract from "Doddridge's Notes,"
comprising his observations on the state of the mechanic arts among
them, and an account of some of their favorite sports.
"MECHANIC ARTS.--In giving the history of the state of the mechanic
arts as they were exercised at an early period of the settlement of this
country, I shall present a people, driven by necessity to perform works
of mechanical skill, far beyond what a person enjoying all the advantages
of civilization would expect from a population placed in such destitute
circumstances.
"My reader will naturally ask, where were their mills for grinding
grain? Where their tanners for making leather? Where their smiths'
shops for making and repairing their farming utensils? Who were their
carpenters, tailors, cabinet-workmen, shoemakers, and weavers? The
answer is, those manufacturers did not exist; nor had they any
tradesmen, who were professedly such. Every family were under the
necessity of doing every thing for themselves as well as they could.
The hominy block and hand-mills were in use in most of our houses.
The first was made of a large block of wood about three feet long, with
an excavation burned in one end, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom,
so that the action of the pestle on the bottom threw the corn up to the
sides toward the top of it, from whence it continually fell down into
the centre.
"In consequence of this movement, the whole mass of the grain was pretty
equally subjected to the strokes of the pestle. In the fall of the year,
while the Indian corn was soft, the block and pestle did very well for
making meal for johnny-cake and mush; but were rather slow when the corn
became hard.
"The sweep was sometimes used to lessen the toil of pounding grain into
meal. This was a pole of some springy, elastic wood, thirty feet long
or more; the butt end was placed under the side of a house, or a large
stump; this pole was supported by two forks, placed about one-third
of its length from the butt end, so as to elevate the small end about
fifteen feet from the ground; to this was attached, by a large mortise
a piece of sapling about five or six inches in diameter, and eight or
ten feet long. The lower end of this was shaped so as to answer for a
pestle. A pin of wood was put through it, at a proper height, so that
two persons could work at the sweep at once. This simple machine very
much lessened the labor and expedited the work.
"I remember that when a boy I put up an excellent sweep at my father's.
It was made of a sugar-tree sapling. It was kept going almost constantly
from morning till night by our neighbors for a period of several weeks."
In the Greenbriar country, where they had a number of saltpeter caves,
the first settlers made plenty of excellent gunpowder by the means of
those sweeps and mortars.
"A machine, still more simple than the mortar and pestle, was used for
making meal while the corn was too soft to be beaten. It was called a
grater. This was a half-circular piece of tin, perforated with a punch
from the concave side, and nailed by its edges to a block of wood. The
ears of corn were rubbed on the rough edge of the holes, while the meal
fell through them on the board or block, to which the grater was nailed,
which, being in a slanting direction, discharged the meal into a cloth
or bowl placed for its reception. This, to be sure, was a slow way of
making meal; but necessity has no law.
"The hand-mill was better than the mortar and grater. It was made of
two circular stones, the lowest of which was called the bed-stone,
the upper one the runner. These were placed in a hoop, with a spout for
discharging the meal. A staff was let into a hole in the upper surface
of the runner, near the outer edge, and its upper end through a hole in
a board fastened to a joist above, so that two persons could be employed
in turning the mill at the same time. The grain was put into the opening
in the runner by hand. The mills are still in use in Palestine, the
ancient country of the Jews. To a mill of this sort our Saviour alluded
when, with reference to the destruction of Jerusalem, he said: 'Two
women shall be grinding at a mill, the one shall be taken and the other
left.'
"This mill is much preferable to that used at present in upper Egypt for
making the dhourra bread. It is a smooth stone, placed on an inclined
plane, upon which the grain is spread, which is made into meal by
rubbing another stone up and down upon it.
"Our first water mills were of that description denominated tub-mills.
It consists of a perpendicular shaft, to the lower end of which an
horizontal wheel of about four or five feet diameter is attached, the
upper end passes through the bedstone and carries the runner after the
manner of a trundlehead. These mills were built with very little expense,
and many of them answered the purpose very well.
"Instead of bolting cloths, sifters were in general use. These were made
of deer skins in the state of parchment, stretched over a hoop and
perforated with a hot wire.
"Our clothing was all of domestic manufacture. We had no other resource
for clothing, and this, indeed, was a poor one. The crops of flax often
failed, and the sheep were destroyed by the wolves. Linsey, which is
made of flax and wool, the former the chain and the latter the filling,
was the warmest and most substantial cloth we could make. Almost every
house contained a loom, and almost every woman was a weaver.
"Every family tanned their own leather. The tan vat was a large trough
sunk to the upper edge in the ground. A quantity of bark was easily
obtained every spring in clearing and fencing land. This, after drying,
was brought in, and in wet days was shaved and pounded on a block of
wood with an axe or mallet. Ashes were used in place of lime for taking
off the hair. Bears' oil, hogs' lard, and tallow answered the place of
fish oil. The leather, to be sure, was coarse; but it was substantially
good. The operation of currying was performed by a drawing-knife with
its edge turned, after the manner of a currying-knife. The blocking for
the leather was made of soot and hogs' lard.
"Almost every family contained its own tailors and shoemakers. Those who
could not make shoes, could make shoepacks. These, like moccasins, were
made of a single piece on the top of the foot. This was about two inches
broad, and circular at the lower end. To this the main piece of leather
was sewed, with a gathering stitch. The seam behind was like that of a
moccasin. To the shoepack a sole was sometimes added. The women did the
tailor-work. They could all cut-out, and make hunting-shirts, leggins,
and drawers.
"The state of society which exists in every country at an early period
of its settlements, is well calculated to call into action every native
mechanical genius. So it happened in this country. There was in almost
every neighborhood, some one whose natural ingenuity enabled him to do
many things for himself and his neighbors, far above what could have
been reasonably expected. With the few tools which they brought with
them into the country, they certainly performed wonders. Their plows,
harrows with their wooden teeth, and sleds, were in many instances well
made. Their cooper-ware, which comprehended every thing for holding milk
and water, was generally pretty well executed. The cedar-ware, by having
alternately a white and red stave, was then thought beautiful; many of
their puncheon floors were very neat, their joints close, and the top
even and smooth. Their looms, although heavy, did very well. Those who
could not exercise these mechanic arts, were under the necessity of
giving labor or barter to their neighbors, in exchange for the use of
them, so far as their necessities required.
"Sports.--One important pastime of our boys, was that of imitating the
noise of every bird and beast in the woods. This faculty was not merely
a pastime, but a very necessary part of education, on account of its
utility in certain circumstances. The imitations of the gobbling,
and other sounds of wild turkeys, often brought those keen-eyed, and
ever-watchful tenants of the forest within the reach of their rifle.
The bleating of the fawn, brought its dam to her death in the same way.
The hunter often collected a company of mopish owls to the trees about
his camp, and amused himself with their hoarse screaming; his howl would
raise and obtain responses from a pack of wolves, so as to inform him of
their neighborhood, as well as guard him against their depredations.
"This imitative faculty was sometimes requisite as a measure of
precaution in war. The Indians, when scattered about in a neighborhood,
often collected together, by imitating turkeys by day, and wolves or
owls by night. In similar situations, our people did the same. I have
often witnessed the consternation of a whole settlement, in consequence
of a few screeches of owls. An early and correct use of this imitative
faculty was considered as an indication that its possessor would become,
in due time, a good hunter and valiant warrior. Throwing the tomahawk
was another boyish sport, in which many acquired considerable skill.
The tomahawk, with its handle of a certain length, will make a given
number of turns in a given distance. Say in five steps, it will strike
with the edge, the handle downward; at the distance of seven and a half,
it will strike with the edge, the handle upward, and so on. A little
experience enabled the boy to measure the distance with his eye, when
walking through the woods, and strike a tree with his tomahawk in any
way he chose.
"The athletic sports of running, jumping, and wrestling, were the
pastimes of boys, in common with the men.
"A well-grown boy, at the age of twelve or thirteen years, was furnished
with a small rifle and shot-pouch. He then became a fort-soldier, and
had his port hole assigned him. Hunting squirrels, turkeys, and
raccoons, soon made him expert in the use of his gun.
"Dancing was the principal amusement of our young people of both sexes.
Their dances, to be sure, were of the simplest form. Three and
four-handed reels and jigs. Country dances, cotillions, and minuets,
were unknown. I remember to have seen, once or twice, a dance which was
called 'The Irish Trot,' but I have long since forgotten its figure."
"Shooting at marks was a common diversion among the men, when their
stock of ammunition would allow it; this, however, was far from being
always the case. The present mode of shooting off-hand was not then in
practice. This mode was not considered as any trial of the value of a
gun, nor indeed, as much of a test of the skill of a marksman. Their
shooting was from a rest, and at as great a distance as the length and
weight of the barrel of the gun would throw a ball on a horizontal
level. Such was their regard to accuracy, in those sportive trials of
their rifles, and of their own skill in the use of them, that they often
put moss, or some other soft substance on the log or stump from which
they shot, for fear of having the bullet thrown from the mark, by the
spring of the barrel. When the rifle was held to the side of a tree for
a rest, it was pressed against it as lightly as possible, for the same
reason.
"Rifles of former times were different from those of modern date; few
of them carried more than forty five bullets to the pound. Bullets of
a less size were not thought sufficiently heavy for hunting or war."
Our readers will pardon the length of these extracts from Doddridge,
as they convey accurate pictures of many scenes of Western life in the
times of Daniel Boone. We add to them a single extract from "Ramsay's
Annals of Tennessee." The early settlement of that State took place
about the same time with that of Kentucky, and was made by emigrants
from the same region. The following remarks are therefore perfectly
applicable to the pioneers of Kentucky.
"The settlement of Tennessee was unlike that of the present new country
of the United States. Emigrants from the Atlantic cities, and from most
points in the Western interior, now embark upon steamboats or other
craft, and carrying with them all the conveniences and comforts of
civilized life--indeed, many of its luxuries--are, in a few days,
without toil, danger, or exposure, transported to their new abodes,
and in a few months are surrounded with the appendages of home, of
civilization, and the blessings of law and of society. The wilds of
Minnesota and Nebraska by the agency of steam, or the stalwart arms
of Western boatmen, are at once transformed into the settlements of a
commercial and civilized people. Independence and St. Paul, six months
after they are laid off, have their stores and their workshops, their
artisans, and their mechanics. The mantua-maker and the tailor arrive
in the same boat with the carpenter and mason. The professional man
and the printer quickly follow. In the succeeding year the piano, the
drawing-room, the restaurant, the billiard-table, the church bell, the
village and the city in miniature, are all found, while the neighboring
interior is yet a wilderness and a desert. The town and comfort, taste
and urbanity are first; the clearing, the farm-house, the wagon-road and
the improved country, second. It was far different on the frontier in
Tennessee. At first a single Indian trail was the only entrance to the
eastern border of it and for many years admitted only of the hunter and
the pack-horse It was not till the year 1776 that a wagon was seen in
Tennessee. In consequence of the want of roads--as well as of the great
distance from sources of supply--the first inhabitants were without
tools, and, of course, without mechanics--much more, without the
conveniences of living and the comforts of house-keeping. Luxuries were
absolutely unknown. Salt was brought on pack-horses from Augusta and
Richmond, and readily commanded ten dollars a bushel. The salt gourd, in
every cabin, was considered as a treasure. The sugar-maple furnished the
only article of luxury on the frontier; coffee and tea being unknown, or
beyond the reach of the settlers, sugar was seldom made, and was only
used for the sick, or in the preparation of a _sweetened dram_ at a
wedding, or the arrival of a new-comer. The appendages of the kitchen,
the cupboard, and the table were scanty and simple.
"Iron was brought, at great expense, from the forges east of the
mountain, on pack-horses, and was sold at an enormous price. Its use
was, for this reason, confined to the construction and repair of plows
and other farming utensils. Hinges, nails, and fastenings of that
material, were seldom seen.
"The costume of the first settlers corresponded well with the style of
their buildings and the quality of their furniture. The hunting-shirt
of the militiaman and the hunter was in general use. The rest of their
apparel was in keeping with it--plain, substantial, and well adapted for
comfort, use, and economy. The apparel of the pioneer's family was all
home-made, and in a whole neighborhood there would not be seen, at the
first settlement of the country, a single article of dress of foreign
growth or manufacture. Half the year, in many families, shoes were not
worn. Boots, a fur hat, and a coat with buttons on each side, attracted
the gaze of the beholder, and sometimes received censure and rebuke. A
stranger from the old States chose to doff his ruffles, his broadcloth,
and his queue, rather than endure the scoff and ridicule of the
backwoodsmen."
The dwelling-house, on every frontier in Tennessee, was the log-cabin.
A carpenter and a mason were not needed to build them--much less the
painter, the glazier, or the upholsterer. Every settler had, besides his
rifle, no other instrument but an axe, a hatchet, and a butcher-knife. A
saw, an auger, a froe, and a broad-axe would supply a whole settlement,
and were used as common property in the erection of the log-cabin. The
floor of the cabin was sometimes the earth. No saw-mill was yet erected;
and, if the means or leisure of the occupant authorized it, he split
out puncheons for the floor and for the shutter of the entrance to his
cabin. The door was hung with wooden hinges and fastened by a wooden
latch.
"Such was the habitation of the pioneer Tennessean. Scarcely can one of
these structures, venerable for their years and the associations which
cluster around them, be now seen, in Tennessee. Time and improvement
have displaced them. Here and there in the older counties, may yet
be seen the old log house, which sixty years ago sheltered the first
emigrant, or gave, for the time, protection to a neighborhood, assembled
within its strong and bullet-proof walls. Such an one is the east end of
Mr. Martin's house, at Campbell's Station, and the centre part of the
mansion of this writer, at Mecklenburg, once Gilliam's Station, changed
somewhat, it is true, in some of its aspects, but preserving even yet,
in the height of the story and in its old-fashioned and capacious
fire-place, some of the features of primitive architecture on the
frontier. Such, too, is the present dwelling-house of Mr. Tipton, on
Ellejoy, in Blount County, and that of Mr. Glasgow Snoddy, in Sevier
County. But these old buildings are becoming exceedingly rare, and soon
not one of them will be seen. Their unsightly proportions and rude
architecture will not much longer offend modern taste, nor provoke the
idle and irreverent sneer of the fastidious and the fashionable. When
the last one of these pioneer houses shall have fallen into decay and
ruins, the memory of their first occupants will still be immortal and
indestructible.
"The interior of the cabin was no less unpretending and simple. The
whole furniture, of the one apartment--answering in these primitive
times the purposes of the kitchen, the dining-room, the nursery
and the dormitory--were a plain home-made bedstead or two, some
split-bottomed chairs and stools; a large puncheon, supported on four
legs, used, as occasion required, for a bench or a table, a water shelf
and a bucket; a spinning-wheel, and sometimes a loom, finished the
catalogue. The wardrobe of the family was equally plain and simple.
The walls of the house were hung round with the dresses of the females,
the hunting-shirts, clothes, and the arms and shot-pouches of the men.
"The labor and employment of a pioneer family were distributed in
accordance with surrounding circumstances. To the men was assigned the
duty of procuring subsistence and materials for clothing, erecting the
cabin and the station, opening and cultivating the farm, hunting the
wild beasts, and repelling and pursuing the Indians. The women spun
the flax, the cotton and wool, wove the cloth, made them up, milked,
churned, and prepared the food, and did their full share of the duties
of house-keeping. Another thus describes them: 'There we behold woman
in her true glory; not a doll to carry silks and jewels; not a puppet
to be dandled by fops, an idol of profane adoration, reverenced to-day,
discarded to-morrow; admired, but not respected; desired, but not
esteemed; ruling by passion, not affection; imparting her weakness,
not her constancy, to the sex she should exalt; the source and mirror
of vanity. We see her as a wife, partaking of the cares, and guiding
the labors of her husband, and by her domestic diligence spreading
cheerfulness all around; for his sake, sharing the decent refinements
of the world, without being fond of them; placing all her joy, all her
happiness, in the merited approbation of the man she loves. As a mother,
we find her the affectionate, the ardent instructress of the children
she has reared from infancy, and trained them up to thought and virtue,
to meditation and benevolence; addressing them as rational beings, and
preparing them to become men and women in their turn.
"'Could there be happiness or comfort in such dwellings and such a state
of society? To those who are accustomed to modern refinements, the truth
appears like fable. The early occupants of log-cabins were among the
most happy of mankind. Exercise and excitement gave them health; they
were practically equal; common danger made them mutually dependant;
brilliant hopes of future wealth and distinction led them on; and as
there was ample room for all, and as each new-comer increased individual
and general security, there was little room for that envy, jealousy,
and hatred which constitute a large portion of human misery in older
societies. Never were the story, the joke, the song, and the laugh
better enjoyed than upon the hewed blocks, or puncheon stools, around
the roaring log fire of the early Western settler. The lyre of Apollo
was not hailed with more delight in primitive Greece than the advent of
the first fiddler among the dwellers of the wilderness; and the polished
daughters of the East never enjoyed themselves half so well, moving to
the music of a full band, upon the elastic floor of their ornamented
ball-room, as did the daughters of the emigrants, keeping time to a
self-taught fiddler, on the bare earth or puncheon floor of the
primitive log-cabin. The smile of the polished beauty is the wave of the
lake, where the breeze plays gently over it, and her movement is the
gentle stream which drains it; but the laugh of the log-cabin is the
gush of nature's fountain, and its movement, its leaping water.'"[51]
"On the frontier the diet was necessarily plain and homely, but
exceedingly abundant and nutritive. The Goshen of America[52] furnished
the richest milk, the finest butter, and the most savory and delicious
meats. In their rude cabins, with their scanty and inartificial
furniture, no people ever enjoyed in wholesome food a greater variety,
or a superior quality of the necessaries of life. For bread, the Indian
corn was exclusively used. It was not till 1790 that the settlers on the
rich bottoms of Cumberland and Nollichucky discovered the remarkable
adaptation of the soil and climate of Tennessee to the production of
this grain. Emigrants from James River, the Catawba, and the Santee,
were surprised at the amount and quality of the corn crops, surpassing
greatly the best results of agricultural labor and care in the Atlantic
States. This superiority still exists, and Tennessee, by the census of
1850, was _the_ corn State. Of all the farinacea, corn is best adapted
to the condition of a pioneer people; and if idolatry is at all
justifiable, Ceres, or certainly the Goddess of Indian corn, should have
had a temple and a worshipers among the pioneers of Tennessee. Without
that grain, the frontier settlements could not have been formed and
maintained. It is the most certain crop--requires the least preparation
of the ground--is most congenial to a virgin soil--needs not only the
least amount of labor in its culture, but comes to maturity in the
shortest time. The pith of the matured stalk of the corn is esculent
and nutritious; and the stalk itself, compressed between rollers,
furnishes what is known as corn-stalk molasses."
"This grain requires, also, the least care and trouble in preserving
it. It may safely stand all winter upon the stalk without injury from
the weather or apprehension of damage by disease, or the accidents to
which other grains are subject. Neither smut nor rust, nor weavil nor
snow-storm, will hurt it. After its maturity, it is also prepared for
use or the granary with little labor. The husking is a short process,
and is even advantageously delayed till the moment arrives for using
the corn. The machinery for converting it into food is also exceedingly
simple and cheap. As soon as the ear is fully formed, it may be roasted
or boiled, and forms thus an excellent and nourishing diet. At a later
period it may be grated, and furnishes, in this form, the sweetest
bread. The grains boiled in a variety of modes, either whole or broken
in a mortar, or roasted in the ashes, or popped in an oven, are well
relished. If the grain is to be converted into meal, a simple tub-mill
answers the purpose best, as the meal _least perfectly ground_ is
always preferred. A bolting-cloth is not needed, as it diminishes the
sweetness and value of the flour. The catalogue of the advantages of
this meal might be extended further. Boiled in water, it forms the
frontier dish called _mush_, which was eaten with milk, with honey,
molasses, butter or gravy. Mixed with cold water, it is, at once, ready
for the cook; covered with hot ashes, the preparation is called the ash
cake; placed upon a piece of clapboard, and set near the coals, it forms
the journey-cake; or managed in the same way, upon a helveless hoe,
it forms the hoe-cake; put in an oven, and covered over with a heated
lid, it is called, if in a large mass, a pone or loaf; if in smaller
quantities, dodgers. It has the further advantage, over all other flour,
that it requires in its preparation few culinary utensils, and neither
sugar, yeast, eggs, spices, soda, potash, or other _et ceteras_, to
qualify or perfect the bread. To all this, it may be added, that it
is not only cheap and well tasted, but it is unquestionably the most
wholesome and nutritive food. The largest and healthiest people in the
world have lived upon it exclusively. It formed the principal bread of
that robust race of men--giants in miniature--which, half a century
since, was seen on the frontier.
"The dignity of history is not lowered by this enumeration of the
pre-eminent qualities of Indian corn. The rifle and the axe have
had their influence in subduing the wilderness to the purposes of
civilization, and they deserve their eulogists and trumpeters. Let
paeans be sung all over the mighty West to Indian corn--without it,
the West would have still been a wilderness. Was the frontier suddenly
invaded? Without commissary or quartermaster, or other sources of
supply, each soldier parched a peck of corn; a portion of it was put
into his pockets, the remainder in his wallet, and, throwing it upon his
saddle, with his rifle on his shoulder, he was ready, in half an hour,
for the campaign. Did a flood of emigration inundate the frontier with
an amount of consumers disproportioned to the supply of grain? The
facility of raising the Indian corn, and its early maturity, gave
promise and guaranty that the scarcity would be temporary and tolerable.
Did the safety of the frontier demand the services of every adult
militiaman? The boys and women could, themselves, raise corn and furnish
ample supplies of bread. The crop could be gathered next year. Did an
autumnal intermittent confine the whole family or the entire population
to the sick bed? This certain concomitant of the clearing, and
cultivating the new soil, mercifully withholds its paroxysms till the
crop of corn is made. It requires no further labor or care afterward.
Paeans, say we, and a temple and worshipers, to the Creator of Indian
corn. The frontier man could gratefully say: 'He maketh me to lie down
in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. Thou
_preparest a table before me in presence of mine enemies_.'
"The sports of the frontier men were manly, athletic, or warlike--the
chase, the bear hunt, the deer drive, shooting at the target, throwing
the tomahawk, jumping, boxing and wrestling, foot and horse-racing.
Playing marbles and pitching dollars, cards and backgammon, were little
known, and were considered base or effeminate. The bugle, the violin,
the fife and drum, furnished all the musical entertainments. These were
much used and passionately admired. Weddings, military trainings,
house-raisings, chopping frolics, were often followed with the fiddle,
and dancing, and rural sports."
[Footnote 51: Kendall.]
[Footnote 52: Butler.]