Page images
PDF
EPUB

stood, not less than a quarter-section could be entered. The price of the public land was $2 an acre, and the purchaser was required to pay $80, or one-fourth, down, one-fourth in two years, and the balance in two equal annual installments, with interest; altogether, $320. If not paid within the time specified, the lands, with whatever had been paid of the installments, were forfeited, and a great many were unable to pay for their lands as required, and so, being placed at the mercy of the Government, they remained as occupants by sufferance. Forfeiture was not declared, and, in March, 1820, an act was passed by Congress, extending the time for payments to entries until March 31, 1821. This legislation simply allowed the settler to reside on his land another year, but this gave no aid. He was as unable to pay at the end of the year as at the beginning. At length, a bill was introduced which provided that the holder of any legal certificate of purchase might file a relinquishment in writing, at the land office, on or before September 30, 1821; and if such person had paid but one-fourth of the first cost of the entry, he could pay the rest in eight equal annual installments; if he had paid one-half, the balance could be paid in six annual payments; if three-fourths, the rest could have four equal yearly installments; and if the whole amount could be paid by the last of September, 1822, a deduction of three-eighths would be made on payments yet to be made. March 21, 1821, the bill passed, but Darke County was remote, and news of this relief measure came when it was too late to make it available. The time, too, had nearly gone by before the district land officers had received orders from the proper department, and few had any benefit from the enactment. An act was passed March 3, 1823, continuing the provisions of the law of 1821 to September 30, 1823. Congress, however, contained many men who felt a deep interest in the development of the West, and who were earnest in their efforts to aid the moneyless settler. Soon an act was passed, authorizing the sale of public lands in one-eighth sections, and reducing the price to $1.25 per acre. Still another law was passed, legalizing land sales in one-sixteenth of a section, or forty-acre tracts, and permitting such as had entered lands under the first act to relinquish them, and to apply whatever they had paid to the payment of one-half the lands entered, or any other tract they might choose. The beneficial influence of this legislation was apparent, in securing as permanent settlers a number of families that otherwise would have been deprived of their homes, after losing both payments and labor. The land was low, wet, wooded and hard to clear up. About each cabin were a few acres in crop, and these pioneers raised no surplus. They were satisfied to bide their time if they had sufficient food to take them through to the next harvest. When supplies were necessitated, hauling had to be done great distances, upon roads almost impassable for wagons, and the greater part of such provisions was mainly corn meal and bacon, which were placed, generally, upon horses, and so brought home. Journeys through the woods on foot were as little regarded, at such times, as trips equal distances now are by the railway.

Clearing was the labor of the day, and its method is little known by the favored descendants of the present. In 1820, intelligence directing physical strength was excellent, but courage and bodily power were imperative, and the weakly were out of place, while idlers were held in contempt. Opprobious epithets were freely applied to him who shunned labor, and his punishment came home with force when neighbors refused to attend his calls.

The settler, ax in hand, prepared to commence a spot of clearing, felled his trees with scientific skill in double windrows inward, piling and interlacing limbs and tops; then, when the summer's heat had evaporated the moisture and all was dry as tinder, a chosen time found favorable winds which drove the fires enkindied with waves of flame and furnace heat from end to end, and left the charred and blackened trunks for future disposal. The practice of girdling was frequently a resort, and a tract whereon the trees stood leafless and decaying was aptly termed a deadening. These trees were cut in time, and used for fencing and for firewood, the latter use from readiness to burn, not disposition to economize the

timber. The choicest timber found no exemption, the walnut, cherry and poplar, with the beech, the ash and the maple, were alike " in one red burial blent.'

It was customary to cut logs in lengths, and then give notice of a logging bee, when all turned out to roll the logs in heaps ready for burning. Changing works was the rule, which had no exception. Many a settler, having risen early, traveled miles through the woods to take part in a logging, and has, on his return home, passed much of the night in kindling and keeping up his log-heap fires. There being a small spot cleared for home site and truck patch, it was customary to chop during winter for a spring crop of corn. The brush was burned where it lay, and if there was rank vegetation and the fire swept the field, it was in all the better condition for the crop. The matted roots of vegetable growth and the layers of decaying leaves contributed to fertilize the ground. In the early spring days, the busy settlers fired their log heaps or their windrows, and the woods were darkened and travelers confused and blinded by the dense clouds of smoke. The darkness of night was intensified by the fires. Lurid flames, casting strange shadows upon the surrounding forest, lent a weird, uncanny aspect to this midnight holocaust of noble timber-the wreck and ruin of unchecked centuries of growth. There were pillars, too, of fire in these clearings where the flames had crept as if in stealth insidiously upward along the hollow of some tall dead tree, till, issuing fiercely exultant at the top, they waved their victory from this woodwalled furnace. And on these clearings were seen the many fires burning, as if the night had come again after the massacre of November 4, and the savages were repeating in pantomime their infernal tortures on their hapless captives. Here is seen a heap just lighted, where burns a lively flame, there red embers, glowing in heat, mark the sites of piles of logs consumed. Those who were without team and plow, or all, if the season was far advanced, planted their corn, pumpkins, turnips and potatoes irregularly among the stumps, amid the moldmingled ashes. The pest of weeds, which came later to strive for dominance was unknown, and settlers had need only to guard their crops from depredation, and to go through the fields to pull or cut the fire-wood, which grew rank and luxuriant from questioned germ, upon these newly cleared fields. It was soon exterminated, to be succeeded by others less thrifty and more obnoxious. In cropping, each settler followed his own desire; some sowed wheat and rye upon the g round after cutting the corn, in wide rows of stooks, while others sowed a piece of ground prepared for the purpose during the summer, and, one way with another, managed to harrow it under.

The farmer of sixty years ago was poorly supplied with poor tools. There was no kind of machinery used in agriculture, as then there was none to use. Hoes, drags and brush were used to cover seed. A broken tool was not easily

For

repaired, for the blacksmith's shop was generally some distance away, and, in consequence, tools were made strong and unwieldy. The drag was made by the settler or his more handy neighbor. Two round or hewed sticks were joined; the one was longer than the other, and, projecting, was made the place for attachment for the chain, and both were braced apart by a cross-piece. Seven heavy iron teeth were set in, four upon the longer piece, three on the other. Not unfrequently, necessity supplied the harrows with wooden teeth. Fields were cultivated several seasons mainly with the hoe, to allow time for the decay of roots. breaking up land, two kinds of plows were used-the bar shear, which had a long, flat shear, a coulter or cutter placed on the point of the shear, and extending up through the beam, and a wooden mold-board. The beam and handle extended about ten feet. The other was known as the "Bull plow," and was brought into the country by immigrants from New York and New Jersey. One of the first employed in breaking in Darke County had but one handle and a wooden moldboard. The first improvement made upon this plow was the addition of another handle. It was the best plow then in use, clumsy and heavy to handle as it was. The earliest introduced patented plow was known as the "Peacock." The great

[ocr errors]

improvement on the old bar shear consisted in the change of the material of the moldboard from wood to cast iron. These served to stir up the surface of the soil, but the plowman of to-day, throwing the soil clean from the furrow, has little thought of the effort made to drag one of those plows through the land, the adherence of soil to the plow, the failure to "scour," and the poor work possible with such a tool.

CLIMATE.

A powerful element of no slight importance, relating to the past and present of Darke County, and one beyond the considerations of fertility and prospective or actual capacity, was that of climate. It was generally believed, with good show of reason, the land being cleared, this county would excel in the salubrity of its climate. Since the early settlement of Darke County, occurring changes have greatly modified the climate, and to a less extent this is still in progress. The original forest, together with the undergrowth, shut out the sun from the soil and impeded atmospheric circulation. The almost monotonous level of the surface receiving the winter snows and spring rains retained the water through the summer on account of driftwood, vegetation and other obstructions. Evaporation proceeded slowly during summer, and thereby caused a moist, cool air. The forests broke the sweep of the cold northwest winds of winter, and the freezing of large, partially submerged tracts, gave off a sufficient amount of heat to sensibly mitigate the cold incident to the season. The soil, bedded in leaves and vegetation, was greatly protected from the frost, and the warm air of spring speedily awakened the dormant germs of vegetation. It also happened that the surface protected by overhanging foliage from the heat of summer, more readily experienced the influences of wind and frosts, and hastened winter. The forests being gradually cut down to make room for cultivation, the land being thoroughly drained, these conditions have correspondingly changed. The earth now receives the sun-rays unobstructed; the air has free circulation. The tilled lands have been underdrained with tile and open ditches, thereby carrying away at once the melting snows of winter and the rains of spring, leaving little moisture to affect the climate by evaporation. The effect of this denuding and draining of the soil is seen in the great depth to which the summer's sun-rays penetrate, and as these rays are given off, the arrival of winter is proportionally delayed. But when the reserve of heat is exhausted, the unprotected earth is deeply frozen, and from these conditions come later springs, warmer summers and delayed but more severe winters. An analysis of the climate of Darke, according to the previous description, requires a consideration, also, of the situation of its land and the direction and character of its winds. Located about midway between the Alleghany Mountains and the Mississippi River, there is observable a prevalence of westerly winds. This is explained by the enormous area of level lowlands whereon the atmosphere is influenced by the earth's rotary motion, causing it to move in westerly currents toward or from the equator. The west and northwest winds are mainly dry-air currents, so that although the annual rainfall is considerable, yet under their action the moisture is rapidly absorbed. Such conditions would inure to the productiveness of most soils, but in a good, rich soil such as Darke County occupies, there is almost a certainty of ample and abundant crops.

The averages in the various seasons are, approximately, 31° for winter, 57° for spring, 74° for summer and 52° for autumn. The winter is long, and there are sudden changes from the mildness of spring to the most intense cold. These cold spells are rarely more than seven or eight days' duration, and are generally preceded by storms of rain or snow. Rain falls almost nightly and for a day or so at a time during spring, and the temperature fluctuates from the chill of winter to the warmth of summer. Following one of these changes, summer comes and is throughout of a tropical character. As fall draws near, the atmospheric conditions approach uniformity, and at this period Darke County is seen to the greatest

[ocr errors][graphic][subsumed][subsumed]
« PreviousContinue »