11/02/2024
In 1820, Darke County was still covered by a dense and but little broken forest. The northern townships were extended areas of swamp, rich in elements of production, useless until the clearing and drainage could make cultivation practicable. Cabins were built upon the higher grounds, and clearings made down the inclinations. Here grew the oak, whitewood, beech, maple, basswood. ash, hickory and other kinds of timber in boundless profusion, and the finest trees were regarded rather as an incubus to tillage than as valuable adjuncts of a farm. Those woods are mainly leveled now, and their grove screens of trees but vail the open fields beyond. Still the trees, while in one sense a bar to cropping land, were useful as containing the material for home and winter fires. When a settler had selected the site of his intended habitation, he felled the timber upon it and cut the logs suitable in proper lengths. The material for the cabin being prepared, he traverses the woods far and near and announces his intended raising. The settlers leave their work and gather in at the appointed hour. In some localities, teams were used, but here in Darke, cattle were scarce and the horses were spared as much as possible for other work. Logs were carried to the sides and ends of the building.
Now four corner-men are chosen, on whom devolves the duty of notching and placing the logs. The rest of those assembled roll up the logs as wanted until the desired height is reached and the work of co-operation ceases. The settler now selects a large-sized straight-grained tree and, felling it, cuts off four-feet lengths. These are split with a large Frow, and as wide as the timber will allow. These are used without planing or shaving for clapboards for the roof, which is formed by making the end logs shorter each row until a single log forms the comb of the roof ; on these logs the clapboards were placed, the ranges of them lapping some distance over those next below them, and kept in their places by logs placed at proper distances upon them. Puncheons for the floor were made by splitting logs of a foot and a half in diameter, and hewing the face of them with a broad-ax, when this tool could be obtained. The length of the puncheons was half that of the floor. The door was made by sawing or cutting the logs in on one side, so as to make an opening about three feet wide. The opening was secured by upright pieces of timber, about three inches thick, through which holes were bored into the ends of the logs for the purpose of pinning them fast. A similar, but wider, opening was made at the end for the chimney. This was built of logs and made large to admit of a back and jambs of stone. At the square, two end logs were made to project a foot or more beyond the wall, to receive what were called the butting poles, against which the ends of the first row of clapboards was supported. A clapboard door and a table were then made. Sometimes, a quilt was made to do duty for the former for a time, and the latter was constructed of a split slab, placed upon four round legs set in auger holes. Stools having three legs were made in the same way. Some pins inserted in holes bored in the log sat the back of the room, served as support for some clapboards, designed as shelves for the dishes. A single fork, placed with its lower end in a hole in the floor, and the upper end fastened to a joint, served as a bedstead, by placing a pole in the fork with one end through a crack between the logs of the wall. This front pole was crossed by a shorter one within the fork, with its outer end through another crack. From the' front pole, through a crack between the logs of the end of the house, the boards forming the bottom of the bed were put in place. Sometimes this was varied by pinning other poles to the fork, a little distance above these, for the purpose of supporting the front and foot of the bed, while the walls were the support of its back and head. A few pegs around the walls for the garments of the women and hunting shirts of the men, and two small forks or buck's horns fixed to a joint for the rifle and shot-pouch, completed the carpenter work.
Chips are now taken and driven in between the logs and the open spaces of the chimney and a bed of clay mortar having been prepared, the cracks were daubed, and the work is done. In houses thus built, and unplastered within and entirely devoid of adornment, our ancestors lived with a comfort unknown to the opulent occupant of many a palatial residence of to-day. Coal stoves or wood stoves were unknown, but in the wide fireplace were found hooks and trammel, and andirons. Near by were the bake-pan and the kettle ; and as homes varied there were to be seen in many a log house the plain deal table, the flag-bottom chair, and the easy, straight, high-backed rocker. Carpets there were none. The beds contained no mattress, springs, or even bed-cord, the couch was often spread upon the floor, and sleeping apartments were separated by hanging blankets. Not. infrequently, the emigrant neighbor, and occasional Indian visitor, lay upon blankets or robes before the huge open fireplace; with stockinged or moccasined feet before the constant, fire. Wooden vessels, either turned or coopered, were commonly used for the table. A tin cup was an article of luxury almost as rare as an iron fork. Gourds were used at the water bucket, and there were not always knives enough to go around the family. The immigrant brought with him. packed upon the horse, or later on the wagon, some articles of better sort.
Upon the kitchen drawers were set forth a shiny row of pewter plates, buck-handled knives, iron or pewter spoons, or there were seen a row of blue-edged earthen ware, with corresponding cups and saucers, with teapot —articles then to grace the table at the quilting, social afternoon visit, or preacher's call; but advancing civilization has sent the plates and spoons to the melting pot, while knives and forks have taken less substance but more shapely form. Perchance a corner of the room was occupied by a tall Dutch clock, such as ticks with measured stroke the minutes by in the kitchen of John Spayd, of Greenville, today.
In another corner, the ruder furniture had given place to an old-fashioned high-post and corded bedstead, covered with quilts, a owner of patchwork ingenuity and laborious sewing. Then the ubiquitous spinning-wheel, and not unfrequently a loom.
A settler of Darke in 1820, thus describes the dwellings of that date: "They were of round logs about ten inches through; they were properly notched at the corners, and well chinked and plastered up with clay mortar, and provided in some instances with front and back door; basswood logs, split in two, flat side up, made a very substantial floor; the fireplace reached nearly across one end; a stone wall from the foundation was carried up about six feet, two sticks of the proper crook rested one on either end of the wall, and against a beam overhead, forming the jams, and upon these rested the chimney, made of sticks and clay mortar, very wide at the bottom, tapering to the top, and serving the purpose of both chimney and smoke-house ; the hearth was of flat stones of various sizes, and occupied a considerable portion of the room. To build a winter fire, there first was bi-ought in a large piece of log which was placed next the chimney-back, and known as the back-log; next came a somewhat smaller log, which was placed on the other and called the back-stick; then came two round sticks, green and less combustible than the others ; these were placed endwise against the back-log, and served in place of the more modern andirons. Upon them was laid the fore-stick, and between this and the back-log, dry limbs were piled in and the fire applied; when this was fairly started more wood was put on and a pile to keep it up lay near by. The fire thus built, which was done about 4 o'clock of a winter day's afternoon, would last a long time with little attention, keeping the family, clothed in good, warm home-spun, comfortably warm."
If, by mischance, the fire went out on the hearth, it was rekindled by a coal or burning brand from a neighbor, or by flint, steel and tinder. In many cabins, the fire described gave out but partial warmth, and the group which sat around it were roasting on one side while freezing on the other. Few, indeed, were the books to be found with the settlers, and newspapers were rarer still. Upon the shelf, there may have lain the few books used at school, the Bible and the almanac, and the paper, when one could be had, was read at evening hours by the light of a tallow dip, or before the glowing hearth- fire.
Only the well to do (and these were few in Darke) could afford a clock. The hour of noon was guessed or may be ascertained by the noon-mark cut upon the threshold, and in place of the bell to call the chopper from the clearing, a cheery shout was given, or tin horn blown. Few were the households where any pictures adorned the wall, and the reed organ had not been invented.
Today, even the children carry watches. Prints, engraving, chromo and lithograph are found in more or less profusion in most houses, and the piano and organ are in the country as well as in every village.
The habits of the settlers were influenced and controlled by their mode of life. Tasks almost impossible as thought of now, were undertaken spiritedly with no thoughts of time or labor. Chopping in the clearings for days alone, and preparing a home to which to bring his family, many a settler became accustomed to the silence, and himself grew taciturn.
�Journeys on foot for many miles were made with little more of preparation than the traveler makes at present. Women and children rode on horseback hundred of miles. It was a delight to the settlers to assemble at some of the log cabins of a winter evening to relate stories of escapes and wild adventures (lining the sanguinary scenes of 1794 and later years. Prominent ideas survive the lapse of time, and the conversation of the aged backwoodsmen, referring to the pioneer period, is of deer, wolf and bear; of trapping, hunting and fishing; of prevailing diseases and makeshifts during sickness; of cutting roads, clearing lands, and journeys to distant mills and markets.
�The subject of food was all important with the settler, and hard labor in the open air created a keen appetite which made of much account the feasts of merry-makings, parties and public meetings. Quality was not so much regarded as quantity. Fish from the creek, venison and bear meat, bacon, and even the raccoon's carcass, were made available for food. Enormous potpies were baked containing fowls, squirrels and due proportions of other meats. The food was generally most wholesome and nutritive. There was a bounteous supply of the richest milk, the finest butter and most palatable meat that could be imagined, and meals were eaten with all the relish which healthful vigor, backed by labor, could bestow.
The clothing worn in early days was generally the same in all seasons. The settler, standing upon the prostrate trunk of a huge tree, stroke following stroke of his keen ax, and chip after chip whirring out upon the snow, little regarded the winter temperature, and coatless and barefooted, the summer heat was not oppressive. The garments worn were mainly the product of home manufacture, where necessity insured effort, and practice gave skill.
HOWE'S HISTORY OF DARKE COUNTY.
