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Having noticed that most, if not all, of the articles published lately in reference to the. early settlement of this part of the country, have reference to some lawsuit that took place at that time, and thinking that your readers would be interested ia reading some other items about how, the early settlers lived, etc., I-have concluded to run you off a few disconnected remarks. tJo here goes:' We settled in the forks of B! ue Grass and Indian creeks, northwest of Lolt;an-sport, id 1889. The country wac 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 aud stick chimney, and perhaps not a nail about the whole institution. The first year was very hard on us, us we raised but little, aud it was nip and tuck to keep soul and body together, as we ' lived almost entirely on corn bread, lye hominy wild lioney and game. We often rlt; 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, myfather got up early and opened the top part of the door (as it was in halves, like u mill door, and ' made out of claprboards with big wooden hinges), and Jo, behold! there was two deer eating the buds or twigs of a white oak tree that we had cut dow n near the house for wood. Father took the rifle down from the wooden rack and rested it beBidc the door jam, and drew a brad, 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. I 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 iuilcs 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 1 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, had been fed like Elijah had in the wilderness.I was a great bee hunter andkept the family in honey the :ipost of the time, and looking up into the trees so much for bees affected my neck and eyes ever since. We made many a meal of coon, 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 buried in the body of a tree that had ^fallen down. They had cut out a trough with their tom ahawks, and piuccd 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 Winamacv ; after whom the towu (of Win-amc 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.
USA 25 Sep 2019
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