Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.pdf/45

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COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES

p o ta to e s a n d r o a s tin g c a r s, a n d w h ile th e m e a t w a s t r y in g in tn e s k i Ilet th e c o ffe e p o t s im ­ m e re d a m o n g th e c o a ls. 1 $ th e r e a p ic t u r e o f c o m io r t m o r e a llu r in g in th e s e d a y s o f r e s t a u ­ ra n ts a n d fla ts r C o o k in g s to v e s d id n o t m a k e th e ir a p p e a r ­ a n c e u n til )8 35» th e o ld '*tc n -p la tc ' s t o v e scr*m g a s a h e a te r, i f su c h a lu x u r y c o u ld b e a f ­ fo r d e d.

The careful housewife Itad brought with her from their form er home the homespun bedtick$» a s well as bcdcloihing, and until the first crop o f com supplied the "shucks" the forest w as resorted lo for dried leaves for the bed­ ding. The simple methods o f transit precluded the carrying ot furniture, so this lack w as sup­ plied from the forest also. T he a x and the drawing-knife were all the tools at hand, but with these the pioneer fashioned the needed a n k le s. Rough benches with sapling legs sup­ plied the seats and tables, but the bedstead literally had but one leg to stand on. T he head and one side were the walls of the cabin, while the poles forming the other sides were supported by a post set into the ground at the proper distance. Cords or deerskin thongs were laccd across from the walls to the side pieces, supporting the shuck-filled tick. It was not an uncommon thing to find a fam ­ ily consisting of father, mother and six or more children living in a house about twenty-two feet square, with two rooms, and a loft reached by a ladder. In the bedroom were two beds (not counting the "trundle-bed/* which slid under the larger one), a "chest of draw ers," a table and a chair or two. In the kitchen were the beds of the older children, surrounded with boxes, barrels and the many bins o f grain and sacks o f necessaries. Y et limited as the space was, there was room fo r all. But little support could be expected from the land at first, so dependence w as had upon the surplus stores of the neighbors who had come previously, and in instances where the family were the pioneers there was much suffering until the fields had yielded their harvests. F o r­ tunately (he wild game and fish were abundant, and there w as never recorded a case o f actual starvation. There w as no opportunity for the {xonccrs, even had they the knowledge, to carry on "in ­ tensive" farm ing. T he land had to be cleared, and the newcomer devoted all o f his energies to (his end. T he more industrious families worked fa r into the night burning the logs and brush heaps. The soil w as filled with undecaycd roots of the herbage, so that the rude plows simply tickled the land; and it laughed

forth abundantly in response. Except fo r a tew simple vegetables, corn alone w as culti­ vated, and sujiplied all the wants o f man and beast. Ever)' part served some useful purpose. A s the resources of the land w'ere gradually developed the support of the family became a less serious problem. The stock found sup­ port in the forest and scarcely needed the fod­ der stored in the Ic^ barns. H ogs fattened in the forests upon the abundant mast. With milk, pork, meal, game, fish and wild berries there w as small chance o f famine in the house­ holds. A patch o f flax was sown after a time, spinning wheels and looms fashioned, and each home soon became a factory which turned out clothing for the w*hole family. Buckskin formed the wear of the men, but the women's chief de­ pendence w as upon "linscy-wooIscy," a combi­ nation of flax and woo), in the manufacture o f which much skill and taste were employed. In those days (here w as no thought of the "high cost o f living," neither w as there any struggle for the cost o f high living. Most of the wants of the household could be supplied from ma­ terials at hand, and the outside world w as almost a sealed book to tliem. In those days amusements were few and were allied closely to some useful occupation, the result o f a night's frolic being an addition to the store o f clothing or food. T he women organized woolpickiiigs, quilting and spinning bees, while the men reveled in log-rollings, house raisings and husking bees. T h e lack o f quick communication caused these affairs to strictly local, and the isolated settlements of the past were really farther apart than com­ munities now separated by thousands o f miles. T lie religious sects of the time formed their own communities and developed customs of their homes in the "old country" into many of the habits that are now‘ ingrained in their de­ scendants. T he influence of these customs was on the whole beneficial, and the religious en­ thusiasm of the immigrants was slowly modi­ fied by contact with others o f different views than those of the communities in which they had been bom. T his m ixture o f nationalities is one of the wonderful causes of the develop­ ment of the present great American nation— a nation without racial or religious prejudice. ADVENTUROVS PIONEERS OF T H E PAST

A s fa r as can be ascertained the first actual white settler in the territory comprised within Columbia and Montour counties w as Robert McW illiams, who with three sons, Hugh, John, and Robert, and a daughter, Jan e, w ife o f