by Harvey Lee Ross

Pages 21-25

As stated in my first letter, my father moved his family from New York to Fulton county, Illinois, in 1821, locating on his farm just north of the city of Lewistown. The country was at the time a vast wild wilderness, covered by majestic trees, and Indian wigwams were scattered thickly all over the wilderness. The only indications that white men had ever before penetrated the country were the marks and numbers on occasional trees, the handiwork of a company of surveyors who had surveyed the land some two or three years earlier. Our nearest white neighbors were six miles away on Spoon river; the next nearest at Rushville, and thirty miles south; and on the north the nearest white inhabitants were at Fort Clark, now Peoria, fifty miles distant.

The first thing to be done on our arrival at our wilderness home, was to build a log house. The younger people will be interested to know how it was built, and how we commenced life in the wilderness. The first house my father built was 20 x 24 feet in size and one story high. We cut trees of uniform size for the logs, and the ends of each log were "saddled," or notched, so as to bring the logs as near together as possible. The cracks between them were "chinked," or filled with small slabs, and then daubed with mud inside and out. It made as solid a wall as

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brick and mortar. The gables were made of logs gradually shortened to the comb. The roof was made of small logs laid from gable to gable; on these were laid clapboards, and these were fastened down by logs laid upon each row, there being no nails. These outside logs were held in place by laying pieces of timber between them. A wide chimney-place was cut out of one end of the cabin, and the chimney built outside of the house. It was built of rived sticks put up cob-house fashion and plastered inside and out with clay mortar. The fire-place was made large enough to take in a four-foot back-log. The floors were made of puncheons hewed smooth on one side; the doors made of split boards, shaved with a drawing-knife, and hung with wooden hinges. The door was opened by pulling a leather latch-string which raised a wooden latch inside the door. For security at night the latch-string was pulled in, then there was no way to open the door from the outside. After the house was built the first thing that was done was to break up twenty acres of land, and fence it, and plant it in corn, and vegetables, and in the fall we put in ten acres of wheat. As soon as the corn got hard enough to grate, a grater was prepared by taking a piece of tin and piercing it with a great number of holes, and then bending it over a piece of short board. With this simple instrument the corn was rubbed into meal. It made very good bread and was most excellent for mush. As soon as the corn got hard enough to pound, a hominy mortar was made. This was done by burning a hole in one end of a log or in the top of a stump large enough to hold a peck of corn. Then we had a wooden pestle which was suspended by a spring-pole to lessen the labor; and with this pestle and mortar the grains of corn were crushed into excellent meal. Another way we had of preparing our corn was by scalding it with strong lye made from wood ashes until the husk was eaten off by the alkali, and then washing the corn in clean water until all traces of the husk and taste of the lye were removed. This was the old-fashioned hominy, and made a very good substitute for bread. When our wheat was ripe we cut it with a sickle, or a reap-hook, and then thrashed it out with a flail or tramped it out with horses, winnowed it with a sheet, ground it

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in a horse-mill, bolted it with a hand-bolt and then baked it in a Dutch oven.

After we had lived in the county about a year, John Eveland, who lived on Spoon river six miles south of us, built a horse-mill, which was the first mill built in Fulton county. I remember very well of riding on a horse behind my brother Lewis when he took a grist of corn to Eveland’s mill to be ground into meal. The fact of riding twelve miles on a bare-back, hard-trotting horse made an impression not only on my mind, but also on my legs, that I did not soon forget, for I was so sore that I could scarcely walk for two days. So I am not mistaken about where the first mill was built, although Chapman’s History of Fulton County says the first mill was built in Fulton county by O. M. Ross at Lewistown. About a year after that time my father did build a horse-mill, which was the second mill built in the county. It was located about half way between my father’s house and Lewistown. The county road from Lewistown to Canton at that time ran on the east side of Spudaway creek and a few rods west of where the C. B. & Q. railroad now runs, and ran by my father’s house, located about eighty rods northeast of Major Walker’s present residence. In about four years my father moved to the spot where Major Walker’s house now stands and the road (Main street) was changed to its present location. When my father built the mill he also erected a blacksmith shop under the same roof which was carried on by Jacob Niman, who came from Edwardsville, Illinois, with my father. I shall have more to say of him and his wife as I proceed with my story.

As I have already said, the country was full of Indians. One could not travel in any direction without coming across Indian wigwams. Six or eight families would congregate together near some creek or spring of water, and the squaws would fence three or four acres of land, and dig up the ground, and plant it in corn and beans. Those were the principal crops that they raised. The Indian men seldom did anything but hunt. The squaws did all the hard work. The corn they raised was of a dark blue color and the beans a dark red. The kernels were large and plump, and both corn and beans were of a very early variety. Our people

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procured some of the seed to plant in our garden for early use and raised both corn and beans for several years. We named the corn "Squaw Corn." The squaws fenced in their ground by setting small posts about ten feet apart and tying to them small poles with hickory bark or strings cut from deer-skin. They would have only two or three poles to the panel, for the Indian ponies were the only kind of stock they had to fear. But when the white people came in with their cattle and hogs the Indians would either move further out in the wilderness or would build better fences. When we came and settled amongst them the Indians were very friendly, and I think they were pleased to have us come. When they were kindly treated they showed no disposition to molest or hurt the white people. They had a strong propensity to steal and pilfer, and would pick up any thing they could find and carry it away, so we had to be constantly on our guard when they were around. About eighteen months after we moved on our farm an Indian and two squaws came to our house to trade some maple sugar for some flour. The Indians at that time made considerable maple sugar, and we were in the habit of getting our sugar from them. The men of our family were all out in the field at work, and there was no one at home but my mother and old Mrs. Niman, my sister Harriet, myself and our little sister Lucinda, who was then about a year old. While mother was measuring out the sugar and flour one of the Indian squaws stole her brass kettle and secreted it under the skirts of her dress. My mother brought the kettle from New York and prized it very highly. She had been using it just before the Indians came in, and as there had been no other person in the house, she knew very well that one of them had stolen it. So she told the Indians that they must give her back her kettle. They positively denied knowing anything about it, and were starting to go out of the house when my mother seized our long-handled iron shovel, sprang to the door and closed it, and told them they could not go until they gave up the kettle. They still denied having it. My mother then ordered them to take off their blankets, for they all wore blankets. The Indian took off his blanket and showed that he did not have the kettle; then one of the squaws took off her

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blanket, and showed that she was innocent; when the other squaw took off her blanket mother could plainly see the outline of the kettle under her skirt. Mother pointed to it and told her to take it out, so the squaw unhooked the kettle from under her dress and gave it to mother, when the Indians were permitted to depart. Mother very well knew that if they got out of the house with the kettle she would never see it again. Her intention was if the Indians did not give up the kettle to hold the Indians there with the big iron shovel until she could send one of the children to the field for the men. The pioneer fire-shovel was a very heavy and formidable weapon. The women had to do all their cooking in a fire-place, as cooking-stoves were then unknown; and the iron shovel they used to stir up the log fire and to put coals of fire on their bake oven had an iron handle three feet long and the shovel part was maybe six inches square, weighing a pound or so. It would have been a serious thing coming in contact with an Indian’s head. We had many other little conflicts with the Indians, arising usually out of their tendency to steal, and I may mention some of them as I proceed with my narrative.

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