Hide Article Text (OCR)
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5,1952♦ .. _____ .This Changing WorldPART 207, . Cass County Historical SocietyBy WILL BALt,Last week we tried to draw comparison of the living conditions of the first settlers ‘ of' the ’Wabash Valley with those of the people who lived in what we now are apt to think of as prehistoric times; at least as far back as the introduction of the use of metals.We used for illustration a man who actually Jived in Miami Township, east of Log3nsport; a man who reared a family under conditions th2t would, seem unbearable to most of us today; a man whose descendants still live in Logansport. Peter Berry, -greatgrandfather of Glenn Obenchsin, was the man, and we used for text a manuscript %v'ritten by his son, Israel, who, born in 1839 came on the scene when life, was still lived under conditions that were extant when Columbus began to think about sailing on his strange voyage.WE WATCHED PETER Berry plant his crops. We saw him broadcast hig small grains, his wheat and rye and barley; We followed Min across his nearly plowed field as he laboriously planted bis corn, a hill- at a time. He did the same with his other crops; everything was done by hand. There were no mcchanical aids. :While Peter Berry was in his prime a full century ago,- some of the methods he used-then have been used within the memory pf men not so old. The writer has planted corn-with a hoe in “new ground’’; fields recently cleared of the forest, so full of stumps and roots that a mechanical planter couldn’t be worked in them. He has seen wheat broadcast in the maimer we tried to describe last week.By the way, how many who read this have ever heard the term “broadcast” used to. describe anything but the act of speaking or singing over the air by means of the radio?When Peter Berry’s wheat was ready to harvest he didn’t run his combine out of the shed, oil it, andbarn floor was swept clean “if tb farmer was lucky encugh to ow one”; the grain was spread on th floor .and horses or oxen turnc loose to tramp the heads until--th wheat was shattered from th beads. If the farmer didn’t bav a barn with a solid floor he swei a level piece of ground outside an used that for a threshing floor.IF YOU’LL TURN to the 03 Testament you’ll find mention c threshing-floors, and admonition t the Hebrews that they should nc muzzle the oxen that trod out th grain.You’ll also find mention c threshing implements. Israel Berr also mentions such by name whic the sacred writers do not. The f!a: Was the instrument. It'consisted c two slicks, probably three feet Ion by an inch or so' in diameter, th two connected - by a short straj: In use one piece was held in th hands by one end; the other, th free end, was. swung over th shoulder and brought down on th grain lying on the floor, and thu loosened it from the headsIn ancient times the chaff wa removed from the grain by throw all into the air, when the chaf would blow away and the heavie grain fall back to the floor.However,. Mr, Berry says tha most of the wheat was cleaned b: the fanning mill. That was one de vice of the early nineteenth centur; that the ancients probably didn’ have, There were many kinds Every community had its marker or two, more than likely, beinj alike.Stephen Grove .grandfather of Mis. Lei and Grove, used to make fan tiing mills when he'lived at Liberty in Union county, south of Rich mond.THESE MACHINES were rathe: =;mali affairs, operated by a eras] that was piaeed at about the righ height to be instruments of tor Lure for small boys; at least that*, the way it looked to one youngste: whose job it was to turn or.e orun it through his grain to cut and! them when several bushels othresh it in one operation. He didn’t have any combine. He didn’t even ■have what used to be considered the last word in farm machinery, —a self-binder, which cut the standing grain, bound it into sheaves of a size convenient for handling, and dropped them in little piles so they could be picked up and stood in shocks” with awheat bad to be cleaned. The bod; o£ the device was a square box perhaps two feet each way, b; about four feet long, with 3 hoppe on top into which the wheat wouli be poured. When the crank wa turned the wheat fed downward past a fan, which was supposed t blow out chaff, dirt, weed seeds clc, while the cleaned whea dropped into another hopper beminimum of trouble CYRUS NicCORMlCK, the first! low. man. to produce such a machine, j The writer has acted as ehieengineer for one of the machinesdidn’t start his Chicago factory to making those labor-saving contraptions until about the middle of the Iasi century, and it was a long time before they became common., The writer's father was the first i man to have one of them in his ■ Illinois community about seventy years ago.We recall clearly the excitement when the new machine arrived in the little prairie tew?, and the eagerness with which the small boy of the family followed the noisy thing around the field until it ran over a bumble-bee’s nest. The small fcoy came along inbut they went out of style due probably to improvement in clean ing fans attached to threshing sep arators.Mr. Berry mentions'one item tha the writer had forgotten; that wa: the wheat sickness.” At time; Hour made from wheat grown in : certain locality would produce. 2 nauseating illness when made in It bread and eaten. No one then un derslood the reason, blaming the soil- However, he gives what wa; probably the true reason. Cockte and other seed ground with the poorly cleaned wheat was thetime lo receive a lot of unapprecait-j cause, in his opinion, for when better cleaning devices were intro-ed attention from the angry' bees. We lost all interest ir. the new reaper.NO, PETER BERRY harvested his grain just zs did the patriarchs of Biblical times; he took a sickle and went over the field step by step, just as he did when he sowed the seed. Instead of the little one-har.ded tool with which we now sometimes cut weeds he might have had a “cradle,” a tool very like a scythe, hut with Jong fingers above and parallel to the slightly curved blade. It was an awkward tooi to use. requiring quite a knack and considerable strength to swing so the standing grain would be held upright until the cradler reversed the direction of swing and l3id the severed straws in a neat row.However, Israel Berry says the pioneers used a sickle, 3nd we’re inclined to believe he meant just what he said, for he goes on to tell how the grain was threshed, Aduced. the sickness disappeared.PETER BERRY'S SON, born ir. 3839, began his life under conditions closely akin in many respects, to those existing in Biblical times. Before his death, eighty-odd years later, a new era of progress had begun, and he was witness to the greatest improvement in living conditions ever occurring in the life span of any man since time began.The telegraph; the telephone and all the other meaDS of communication: the use of electricity in all its many forms; rapid transit; all these and the hundreds of other developments that have transformed life for multitudes: all these took shape during the life span of one man.EX-MAYOR DEAD MISHAWAKA, Ind- tSV-Ralph W. Gaylor, 78-ye ar-o3d former Republican mayor of Mishawaka, died Friday. He was mayor in 1914-21.
Newspaper Details
Logansport Press
Logansport, Indiana, US
Sun, Oct 05, 1952
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Roberta H.
USA 31 Jan 2020
Other Publications Near Logansport, Indiana
Logansport Daily Reporter
Logansport Weekly Star
Logansport Daily Star
Logansport Democratic Pharos
Logansport Morning Journal
