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Notes amd Items of Early Tines*From the Pharos.Haying noticed that most, if not all, of the articles published lately in reference to the. early settlement of this part of (lie country, have reference to some lawsuit that took place at that time, and thinking that your readers would be interested ia reading Rome other items about how, the early settlers lived, etc., I-have concluded to run you oif a few disconnected remarks. So here goes:' We settled in the forksof Blue Grass and Indian creeks, northwest of Lo tan-sport, iii 1830. The country was wild and unsettled for miles around, with but a very few settlers. Our cabin was built out of round logs, clap-board roof, puncheon'floor with mud and stick chimuey.I and perhaps not a nail about the whole ! | institution. The first year was very hard ] ! on us, as we raised but little, and it was ! j nip and tuck to keep soul and j body together, as we 'liyed almost entirely on corn bread, lye hominy wild lioney and game. We often rt tired at night and went to sleep under the influence of ; the music of the howling wolves;’who serenaded us almost nightly, and often in the night the .snow would blow in on our faces, through the. chinks in our cabin. The first winter was very severe; and we had been out of meat, for a month or so. One cold morning in February, a deep snow on the; ground, my father got up early and opened the lop part of the door (as it was in halves, like a mill door, and' made out of claprboards with big wooden hinges), and lo, behold! there was two deer eating the buds or twigs of a white oak tree that we had cut down near the house for wood. Father took the rifle down from the wooden rack and rested it beBidc the door jam, and drew a bead, pulled trigger, tired,and down went one of the deer. He threw down the gun and broke barefooted for the deer, grabbed it and called for me to bring a knife.1 jumped up, drew on mv breeches and ran with a knife. I stuck the deer and held on to it for some time, fearing that it might jump up and run away. Well, we had meat in our family, au 1 we were the happiest family in that neck of woods. The next day 1 took some of , the meat to a settler about three inilcs off, who had a large family, and had been out of meat for some time and, made a lot more souls happy. You may make a note of it that in those days the body wanted more food than the soul. After that I was more of a believer in special providence than I had been before, but I never could understand why the the good Lord sent that poor deer around for us to murder. But we ate the deer, gave thanks, and asked no. questions, and concluded that we, hud been fed like Elijah had in the wilderness.I was a gr.eat bee hunter and, kept the family in honey theipoatof the time, and looking up into the trees so much for bees affected my neck and eyes ever since. We made mauy a meal of coou, ground, hog, game, honey, corn bread, and hominy, and we, were happy, and that is more than a good many of us can say now-a*days. . There., was an Indian burying ground a short distance below our cabin. The dead had been placed in a sitting posture against trees, with a pen around them, and the hogs often rooted up their bones and skulls. There had been.an Indian woman burled in the body of a tree that had fallen down. They had cut ou* a trough with their tom ahawks, and placed her, in and covered her over. I found some very nice brooches, beads and Indian relics* It was supposed that she was the wife of the chief Winamac,; after whom the towu (of Win-amac was named. There were also near us several comical shaped holes in the ground about three feet deep and four
Newspaper Details
Logansport Evening News
Logansport, Indiana, US
Fri, Apr 06, 1877
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Roberta H.
IN, USA 26 Jan 2020
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