THE PIONEERS.
A New England Village--Hardships of Emigrants--The Widow Ballou and her
Daughter Eliza--The Humble Dwelling of Abram Garfield--The Garfields
and the Boyntons--The Removal to a New Home--The Wonderful Baby-Boy.
The early settlers from the Old World first peopled the eastern shores
of the Atlantic, and founded the New England States, New York State,
and the whole seaboard from Maine to Florida.
A New England village was a collection of log houses on the edge of a
deep forest. Snow drifted into the room through the cracks in the
walls, and the howling of wolves made night hideous around them. The
children were taught in log schoolhouses, and the people worshipped in
log churches.
Savage Indians kept the settlers in a state of continual fear.
Sometimes they would suddenly surround a solitary house, kill all the
inmates, and set fire to the dwelling. Again and again have the
children been aroused from their sleep by the fearful Indian war-whoop,
which was more dreaded than the howling of the wolves. Even women
learned to use guns and other weapons, that they might be able to
defend their homes from these savage assaults.
The log house villages grew into populous places, and the descendants
of the "Pilgrims" were not always satisfied to remain in the cities
founded by their forefathers. Wonderful stories were told in the towns
of the amazing fruitfulness of the forest and prairie land out West,
which induced large numbers to sell their property and set out on the
tedious and adventurous journey.
Before the great lines of railway were constructed, which now stretch
across the North American continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
there was a constant stream of emigration from the East to the West.
Large waggons carried the women and children, and the stores of
necessary articles, which must be conveyed at all cost, for they could
not be obtained in the localities to which the pioneers bent their
steps.
Slowly the emigrant trains made their way through roadless regions.
They had to ford rivers, wade through swamps, and cut paths through
thick forests. Weeks, and even months, were spent on journeys which
are now accomplished in less than twenty-four hours.
Numerous difficulties and manifold dangers beset the wanderers' path;
yet, regardless of both, they pushed on with infinite courage and
patience. Nor was the journey through the wilds without a tinge of
romance to the younger and more adventurous spirits, who enjoyed the
freedom they could not have in the towns and cities.
About eighty years ago, a widow and her family--a son and a
daughter--packed up all their worldly possessions in an emigrant
waggon, and started for the West. Widow Ballou made her home in the
State of Ohio, which at that time was only peopled by a few scattered
settlers. Five years afterwards, a young man named Abram Garfield
started on the same journey. It is said that he was more anxious to
renew his acquaintance with the Ballou family than to make his fortune.
The widow's daughter Eliza was the attraction that drew him into the
Western wilds.
On the third of February 1821, Abram Garfield and Eliza Ballou became
man and wife, and their first home was a log cabin, which the young
husband erected at Newburg, near Cleveland. It was an isolated spot,
for Cleveland, the larger place, then consisted of a few log cabins,
containing a population of about one hundred persons.
The humble dwelling of Abram Garfield and his young wife had but one
large room. The three windows were of greased paper, a substitute for
glass, and the furniture was home made and of the rudest description.
Wood was the chief material used. There were wooden stools, a wooden
bed, and wooden plates and dishes. A frying-pan, an iron pot, and a
kettle, made up the list of utensils which were absolutely necessary.
Nine years passed away, during which the young couple were very happy
in each other's love, and three children were added to their little
family circle. Abram worked on the land, and was for a time employed
in the construction of the Ohio and Pennsylvanian Canal. To provide
for his growing family, the young husband then bought fifty acres of
land, a few miles away from his first home. At the same time, Amos
Boynton, who had married Mrs. Garfield's sister, also bought a tract of
land in the same locality.
The two families removed to the new scene of their labours at the same
time, and lived together in one log cabin, until they had erected a
second dwelling. When this was done, the Garfields and the Boyntons
settled down to reclaim the wilderness. They had to depend on each
other for society, as their nearest neighbour lived seven miles away.
Garfield's new home was built of unhewn logs, notched and laid one upon
another, to the height of twelve feet in front and eight feet behind.
The spaces between the logs were filled with clay and mud, to keep out
the wind and the rain. The roof was covered with boards, and the floor
was made of logs, each split into two parts and laid the flat side up.
A plank door and three small windows completed the primitive dwelling.
There was but one large room on the ground floor, twenty by thirty
feet, and a loft above, to which access was obtained by a ladder. In
the loft were the straw beds on which the children slept.
The land which the pioneers had bought was part of the forest, and was
therefore covered with timber. This had to be cleared away before the
land could be brought into cultivation. Much hard work and steady
application were needed to accomplish this purpose. Abram Garfield was
a strong, well-made man, who shrank from no labour, however hard, and
boldly faced every difficulty with a stout heart and a determined will.
Early and late he toiled on his farm, cheered by the presence of his
wife and children, who were all the world to him. The trees fell
before his axe, and ere long he had room to sow his first crop. With a
thankful heart he saw the grain ripen, and his first harvest was safely
gathered in before the winter storms came on.
[Illustration: The trees fell before his axe.]
In January 1830 he removed to his new home, and in November 1831 his
fourth child was born. This baby boy received the name of James Abram
Garfield. Little did the humble backwoodsman dream that the name he
lovingly gave his child would one day be on the lips of millions of his
fellow-countrymen; that it would rank with those of princes, kings, and
emperors; and that it would be linked for ever with the history of the
United States of America.