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rejoiced in their hearts, and the small boy of Connersville marveled and stood on his head in the midst f his mother’s onion-bed as the long lines of carriages passed through toward the Fair grounds.The particulars of the days exercises are given here more for the purpose of preserving them in pri.it as a part of the history of Fayette county, than for any present interest they may have for the readers of the Examiner. Twenty-five or fifty years hence, when this paper upon which the details are printed shall have grownyellow and brittle with age, they will be read bv the descendants of those whose names are here given, and it is for their benefit, in great measure, that the accountis lengthened.The procession which formed in front of the court house shortly after teu o’clock and under the management of Marshal George L. Fear is, and led by the Conners-ville Cornet Band, proceeded up Central avenue to the Fail ground,contained only a fraction of the oeople who had come in even at that early hour. Many had gone directly to the grounds and a good crowd was thus formed before the procession arrived. The exercises at the stand were inaugurated with “Praise God from whom all blessings flow,” sung in a hearty, old fashioned way i y the entire audience gathered under the oak trees, after which prayer was offered by the venerable Elder Jameson, of Iiid anapolis. The band led off in “Old Hundred/’ and the time until the hour of dinner was then occupied by the lion. B. F. Clay pool, in a historical address. In the afternoon the speakers' stand was occupied by Dr. Jefferson Helm, of llufthville; Gcore Harlan, Sr., W. H. Beck, who read the essay forwarded by Samuel Little, aid published below*; Hon. A. B. Line, of Biookville; Judge Gilmore, of the Ohio Supreme Court; B. F. Clay-my memory is at fault. We cot but little money, and we spent little. Oor food grew on our farms and our clothing was mostly home-made, growing in the flax patch or on the sheep’s back, and its manu-factnre was mostly domestic. The rtax-pulliug and wool-picking were frequently done by combination or neighborhood frolica, and were occasions of great social pleasure. There are mothers present who could tell how they used to race with their sweethearts at the flax-pulllngs, and some of them recollect how the points of their fingers ached after pulling the bur* and stick-tigbts out of the wool. Yes, ana bow they enjoyed their trip on foot to the spelUug match or singing school with their beaux by their side, just to help them over the fences and mud holes; or, perchance, they rode behind on the same horse, so that if the horse stumbled they could hold on! I can answer for the other sex that a girl behind me on a stumbiig horse was rather awkward, but not at all unpleasant.Don’t you, grand-dames, recollect bow the flyers of the flax wheel hummed whilst your gent sat by you, or how lightly your bare feet tripped over ,he pauch-eon floor to the sound of the big wheel a* yon drew out those long threads of yarn which were to beconverted into the winter’s wear. I assure yon it was a pleasure to sit by whilst the shuttle flew from hand to bad as that yarn grew into cloth. The wheel and loom did not sound so refined as the organ and the pinno, but their product was far more useful. Most families were thus clothed. We used but little tea or coffee, and the sugar camp furnished oar sweets. Our ’og-rollings nouse-raisings and harvesting cultivated a social spirit and placed us ali on an equality, as we were mutually dependent. Men and women did their own work With but little hired help. Wages were low (from teu to twelve dollars per month) but inoucy was scarce. X reaped with a reaping-hook in the harvest of I $34 for 62*4 cents per day, and cradled the following harvest for one dollar per day. Our farm tools were quite simple’ but cost us but little money. We used the plow with wooden mouldboard and iron shear for turning the soil, and the single shovel plow for cultivating the crop. This, with swingle-tree and harness, trace-cbains and back-baud finished out our rig. We had no cultivators, single or don hie, nor riding plows. We had never seen a reaper or mower nor could wo have used them among the stumps. Nor had we :gjy threshing machines. Our small gram was threshed out by flail or tramped out by horses on an earthen floor prepared far the purpose and cleaned by a fanning-inill with yoodmj r.Qge. The fall season was mostly occupied iu burning off the rubbish of our deadening*?, and keeping our “niggers” busy iu preparing the logs for rolling in the spring. Our logs were rolled into heaps and burned In the spring, the rails for fencing having been made during the intervening winter. Stormy day* and winter nights were used to make and repair the family shoes from leather tanned in our county, and largely made by the farmers at their own firesides, which were wide and warmed by a bountiful supply of fuel. If some of you old folks wifi mentally take an ipveutory of an average dwelling of those daya you would tied a a part of its appendages a shoe bench with needed tools, spinning-wheels for flax and wool. The band loom and warping-bars, the wash-tub in.whtch the clothes were cleansed without even a washboard, the Dutch oven in which the corn }one and chicken pie were haked, and by its side a dinner pot, skillet and teakettle, but no cook stove. A bible and some school books, added to some furniture of home make, almost completes the picture. The active men and womeu here to-day were borjj and reared in just this kind of place. Our streams were bridgeless, our commerce had neither turnpikes or railroads, purhriiinfMM uraa wilhnnt tfMPrrrnnh nn
Newspaper Details
Connersville Examiner
Connersville, Indiana, US
Thu, Aug 21, 1879
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 06 Jun 2019
Other Publications Near Connersville, Indiana
Connersville Times
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