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Recollections of George W. Gibson
COMMUNICATIONS FROM GEORGE W. GIBSON.
In writing a reminiscence in relation to
pioneer life in Boone County, it requires a person of better
memory and education than I am in possession of to do the
subject justice. But having lived here longer than any voter
in Jackson Township, and on account of my pioneer life, by
request, I am inducing to add something to the old settler’s
history (there being no correct rule for such writing and as
many others that write on the same subject labor under the
same ill-convenience), if my homily is not as scholastic as
others, or my aphorism is at fault. My parents were natives
of North Carolina. My mother, at the age of sixteen years,
made the journey on foot to Kentucky, having the idea that
as the sun rises in the Oriental country and makes the
journey to the Occidental lands, where it is hidden by the
shades of night, the people learned to travel in like
direction until lost in obscurity by the shades of death.
After wandering around in the mountainous regions and
forming some acquaintances she met a man, and after
traveling four miles up the rocky branch, over the mountains
and down the creek, in a lonely ravine hard by a spring that
gushed from among the stones of a mountain which, with its
sparkling, cooling looks, gave inducement to the wearied
wanderers to quaff a portion and satiate their thirst, they
rested. The sweet songs of the many-hued birds, and the
breeze that played upon the boughs of the cedar and pine
trees, awakened that feeling in them that was created in
Adam when God said, “It is not good for man to be alone,”
and made woman for him. They sat down on a log far away from
any inhabitants, and in old pioneer style talked business.
They came to the conclusion as neither of them were
incumbered [sic] with worldly goods they had better for a
co-partnership. While in that mood an old man came along,
and in conversation with him they were put in the possession
of the agreeable news that he was a justice of the peace,
and he was asked if he could unite them in marriage. He
replied that if they wished it he could, and the ceremony
was soon said, when they went on their way rejoicing. After
struggling together, barely having a competency on which to
subsist, and being the parents of five children, they held a
consultation and decided that twelve years was long enough
to sojourn in this out of the way mountainous country, where
a wagon could get no nearer than five miles to their
habitation, and where those who owned slaves were the only
persons of worth or fit associates. They were firm in the
faith that God directs the acts of men and kingdoms as well
as the channels of the great waters. At that time no wagon
roads were open to emigrants from their place of abode, so
gathering up their worldly possessions and placing them in
skin sacks, each secured to a horse on which was a
pack-saddle, and being provided with a tent for camping out,
father, mother and five children mounted the horses and
drove before them twelve head of cattle. We journeyed 350
miles over hills and mountains, through valleys and swamps,
and through a wilderness the greater part of the distance,
grazing our animals, we subsisting on game. It took us four
weeks to make the trip, being frequently lost from the
trace. Reader, I opine that the use of a small amount of
superfluity, not pertinent to the epistle, will not be
amiss. The augmentation is to show that there can be no new
faculties made in a person – only a change can be wrought.
When I made my debut in the Hoosier State I was a comely
looking lad of about four years of age, and of light weight.
I had an old mare called “High-flyer.” The leather sack of
pot-ware was lashed to her and I was the monitor on the
sack. My raiment consisted of copperas colored muslin pants,
tow-linen shirt, butternut wammus, and a striped cotton
bonnet. The first few days of the trip everything went off
lovely, until the day we were passing over the
Rough-and-Tough Mountain, when Highflyer cast her pedestals
into a hornet’s nest and, having no hair where the hair
ought to gow [grow?], could not switch off her tormentors.
Here trouble began, for she sought relief in a thicket, and
rid herself of hornets, pot-ware, leather bag and
pack-saddle, putting the monitor’s head in juxtaposition
with a stone, and from the demoralization and injury or some
other cause, it has never since been just right. My father
only skirmished on the picket, having a brother of mine not
three years old, who was imported on the rear department of
the horse that he rode. My mother did not fare so well,
having an infant three months old, which she carried in her
arms the whole distance, and in the trouble had to cast
anchor with him, but coming in contact with a soft spot of
earth prevented serious damage from being done. That evening
we bagged a fine wild turkey, which as a viand was quite
recuperating. We roosted high that night. Next morning we
pursued our journey with great anticipations.
As poor wanderers seeking a home,
Traveling among savages, with their tribe alone;
Longing to see the western, vine-clad hills,
The rich lands and bright, gushing rills,
With her forests and valleys so fair,
With her flowers that scent the morning air.
I am almost persuaded to desist writing any
more for fear my rough manuscript, being void of excellency,
will be a mar-a-natha to the reader.
While on the trace there was a circumstance which gave me
much uneasiness about how I was to meet emergencies, and the
pressure on my young mind marred my peace during the
remainder of the journey. The occurrence took place on
Indiana soil hard by Blue River. The night that we were on
bivouac to keep our cattle and horses from straying away,
change of country, atmosphere and water, and being the
monitor of the pot-ware, had brought about an unhealthy
condition in my internal department. Every mother knew how
to administer to the ills of her children, for there were no
regular physicians where we lived, and after depositing the
litter in the tent she thought the immersion of my copperas
in Blue River would result beneficially, so she gave them
many dips and hung them on a spice brush near unto the
camp-fire to have them dry and healthy next morning. The
recollection yet torments me. When I made a dive in the
morning for my pants, I found that purification had been
entirely effectual, for the camp-fire had consumed them. I
wept, and refused to be comforted; but I had a long tow
linen undergarment, wammus and bonnet, and made the
remainder of the journey with as much comfort as could be
expected under the circumstances. The next pair of pants
that I was heir to was after we were domiciled in Indiana.
Father killed a deer, dressed its skin, and mother made me a
pair from the skin. Shawnee prairie was the intended place
for our future home, but after pitching our tent here we
came to the conclusion that we would remain, thinking the
winters were too cold in a prairie country where there was
no fuel.
In 1828 John Gibson entered the land where Jamestown is now
situated, which was entirely in the wilderness. We lived in
a tent until a small log cabin was erected. The sheepskin
certificate of entry was signed by President Jackson. Not a
nail was used in putting up and finishing the edifice. In
the midst of a dense, untamed forest, no neighbors were
near, the chief inhabitants being wolves, bears, panthers,
raccoons and tribes of the Miami and Pottaawattami Indians.
Quite a number of wigwams were on the land where Jamestown
now stands. Eel River took its name from the tribe that
occupied the lands along the creek; Straps-brauck from a
chief by the name of Strap, Raccoon from the Raccoon tribe.
While referring to Indians in this narrative, it brings up
incidents very vivid to the mind of the author of the many
sleepless nights and fearful days that were worn away in
expectation of loosing [sic] a scalp by it being snatched
off by those savage Indians. My fear of Indians was greater
at that time than it was when serving an enlistment in the
regular army forty years ago in the Rocky Mountain country,
having many engagements and my comrades at various times
being scalped in plain view and no way of giving them
succor.
I was then bordering on five years old and my raiment
consisted of a tow linen shirt, dressed buckskin pants, one
large pewter button at waist, home made hog skin moccasins,
butternut wammus, and the only thing that was bought to make
me a full dress was an imported seal skin cap. I was as well
dressed as any of the inhabitants.
You can readily see the proverbs that
are wrote,
From a treacherous memory I had to quote;
In my writing all these acts,
I am not certain that all are facts.
Nearly all the pioneers were Kentuckians and
Virginians, who had settled where water could be had without
digging wells, coming from a country where there could be no
wells dug on account of the rocks. They knew nothing of
wells, and pumps did not come in use here for many years
after a portion of the country was peopled.
There seems to be a mistake made by those who have given a
treatise heretofore, for the person’s names given as the
oldest settlers are not those that came here first. The
Davises, Calhouns, Mallets, Hughes, Scammerhorns, Turners,
Smiths, Walterases, Johnses, Lewises, Penningtons, Coveys,
Trotters, Taulbees, Youngs and several families of the
Gibsons were those that made the first settlement in this
immediate neighborhood. At that time, and for several years
after, there was not a church, school house, mill of any
kind, wagon shop, or any improvement of that kind nearer
than Danville, in Hendricks County. My father soon started a
tannery in a large trough for sole leather, and dressed
skins for uppers, and with a leather whang made the
moccasins. Without going into detail for years, what we used
was gotten like unto the production and utilization of
leather. Being a neophyte in writing history, and not in
possession of a neologist, what I might indite would be
monotonous, therefore, I leave the subject of what we wore
and how procured.
At that time there were scarcely any cereals produced.
Crawfordsville, sixteen miles distant, then contained about
fifty souls, who dwelt in cabins. This was the nearest point
at which a grist mill and bread stuff could be found. I hope
that the ladies of to-day will not think it incredible when
I tell them that it was a common thing in that day for a
married woman to go several miles into the woods (for
neither stables nor pastures had an existence), hunt a
horse, bring him in, lash a pack-saddle on him, mount him,
travel the trace to Crawfordsville and return the same day
with a half barrel of meal. Many a trip have I made with my
mother to Crawfordsville for meal, each having a horse, and
at times having to wait for our turn, we would be out until
midnight in the dense forest, while thunder and lightning,
the war-whoop of the savages, the howling of wolves and
screaming of catamounts, panthers and other wild animals was
anything but agreeable. Few to-day would like to go through
the ordeal, but many have, in times of yore, traveled the
same trace. I can not, on paper, dissemble all their acts,
but from what is written the reader can judge other acts.
Our nearest postoffice was Danville, Hendricks County. It
then took thirty days to get news from Washington City;
twenty-five cents was the postage on a letter. The territory
that now composes Boone County belonged to Hendricks, and
all our county business was transacted there until an act of
the legislature to organize Boone County was passed in 1829.
In 1830 the county was organized, and in 1832 Jamestown was
laid off by James Matlock and John Gibson. The first inn was
run by John Gibson; Jacob Tipton was the first blacksmith;
Sayres & Burk engaged first in the dry goods business;
Ephraim Rudisille, eight years later, was the first
physician, and was also a Lutheran preacher. By the sale of
lots and other means my father bought the first wagon he
ever owned. We then had a State Road, town and mail route,
and procured the establishment of a postoffice here. Samuel
Hughs and Jacob Tipton were both wanting the honor of being
appointed postmaster. They agreed that the legal voters
interested should decide by a vote who should be the one. A
vote was taken, which resulted in a tie. I, then being quite
a big, good-looking boy, beginning to notice, they agreed
that they would impose the onerous task on me to settle the
manner. Tipton, with evil intent, put about my person a
beautiful six-pence handkerchief of many colors, which was
enticing, and I voted for him. Perhaps it was the vote sold
in Boone County, but there was no trouble made about it, and
very little has been made since for selling votes, for I
verily believe that when the votes of the parties are nearly
evenly balanced votes are bought yet.
The following Sabbath, a mile distant, over the way, on the
creek, was a small cabin that had been evacuated by a
family, who, for fear Black Hawk and his warriors would
pounce upon them and relieve them of that portion of their
normal inheritance where the hair took root, had skedaddled
for old Virginia. The divine who was to preach talked on the
subject of “Simon Peter, feed my sheep.” The chorus of the
hymn that was sung was “Fare you well, my dear brothers;
fare you well, my dear sisters – though I go, I will come
again,” and then there was shaking of hands. It is easy to
tell what were their tenets of faith. I was very anxious for
the time to arrive, and when it came around, I had soap used
on me, my new tow-linen shirt, cottonade pants, with
buckskin suspenders and a straw hat, all of which were made
at home – not any store goods to complete my dress, except
my handkerchief of many bright colors, for which I sold my
vote. When I hid one half of it in my cottonades and left
the other portion floating in the breeze, I came to the
conclusion that I was dressed to my entire satisfaction and
had a better outfit than any boy in the country, and I
looked in the mirror and found it so. At the proper time,
off I went to the first meeting house that I ever was at,
with all the boys following, to behold that lovely annex
beyond what was common to the dress in those days. The
dignity in my strut excelled and cast a penumbraical shadow
on all former displays. Going into the church, I walked
directly to the center, elevating my important self upon the
log seat, taking my hat off, standing erect in order to make
a display, so every person could see my handsome rig. I
remained in that position until the preacher arose to take
his text, and he said aloud: “The young man standing on the
seat will please sit down, then the people’s attention will
be directed to what the preacher says, and not to him.” The
ordeal wilted me.
Oh, the contraction that it worked in my
frame!
All my elongation never made me the same;
My outcome was as Zachariah that climbed the tree
To get above the multitude his Savior to see.
But it is not thought to be becoming for one of my age,
In telling such stories for me to engage;
Still there are many who love to hear us tell
Of the time we came to this country to dwell –
Their journey on horseback many a mile,
Traveling the lonely trace like Indians in single file.
Perhaps it will not be out of place to treat
of the knowledge that some of our officials had at that time
of jurisprudence, and what I may say is without malice to
any and with the most cordial feelings to all. About
fifty-four years ago, at a gathering of the people here, two
men had a fight, and the old justice of the peace, being
prepared for the emergency, had brought his docket with him.
There being no constable, he made the arrest. He preached
the doctrine, what is to be will come to pass, so he aided
in making the violation of law a terror to evil-doers. Near
by was a rail pen, which was utilized as a pound after the
milk cow had been brought in at night, to have her safe
until morning. There was where he held court. It was the
first court I was ever in, and, after hearing the evidence,
he found them guilty and assessed a fine of fifty cents
against each, and ruled that they should remain in his
custody until satisfaction be rendered. Then sallied forth
to the lady, who was a physician at times, engaged in the
sale of ginger-cakes and matheglem. This beverage was a
decoction of wild honey and rain water, made in the old
cedar church, and she carried the churn, full of the fluid,
with one arm, and the cakes in her apron with the other, to
get to the place of rendezvous. The price of a cake and a
gourd full of the drink was a fourpence-hapenny, and the old
lady had heard that two of her neighbors were in duress,
which awakened a feeling of sympathy. She told the old man
she would graciously give him one of her cakes and a gourd
of matheglem if he would release those men. It being the
time of day that men’s bread-baskets need filling to prevent
contraction, he agreed, and quaffed the filling, then
stretched forth his arm and said, “By the authority invested
in me by the great state of Indiana, I remit the fine and
give you liberty.” Tearing the leaves out of the docket, all
was over.
Many years ago a practicing physician, a justice of the
peace in Jamestown, was an important witness for one of the
parties in the first case brought in his court, and the
attorney convinced him that it was legal to give his
evidence to himself. He therefore arose, facing his chair,
gave the evidence, sat down and decided the case on his own
evidence. The attorney for the other party declared it was
not necessary to elect men and pay them to go to the
metropolis to enact laws, for it would be done more
expeditiously and cheaper at home. The ’squire afterwards
was nominated and made the race for representative to the
State Legislature. He was a brother of a man who was elected
to congress from one of the most important districts in the
state, and made the race for Governor afterward. Another
’squire was a theologaster, who having a note for the
payment of money due him, sued in his court, took judgment
for the amount in favor of himself, taxed cost on case,
issued an execution and had the money collected; in a few
years made the race for representative. About the same date
an aspiring young man who afterward soldiered with me during
the Mexican War, wearing a grego as I did, was elected
constable, and having to make a levy on a steer thought it
would not be legal unless he laid his hand upon him;
therefore he took off his coat, shoes and socks and ran down
the animal to make the matter lawful. He, in after years,
was elected and filled with good capacity one of the most
important offices in Boone County, serving with honor as
colonel of one of the regiments during the late rebellion.
If ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wise. Imperfections
are often hidden from others eyes. A ’squire and preacher
who among the first that settled here, not very able in
ethics but skilled with his gun – a good old man and the
grandfather of a gentleman who was asking the nomination
from the Democratic party in 1886 to make the race for
representatives – concluded, as meat was getting low in the
trough, he would take his gun and dog, go into the woods and
secure a wild hog. He was dressed fashionably for this
country, wearing a coon-skin cap, hogskin moccasins, no
socks, wammus, flax-shirt, and having only one large pewter
button at the waist which was to do the substantial business
of keeping the pants in their proper place. The dog was also
an annex to that button by being looped to it by a long
leather whang. After scanning the woods for about two miles
distant, he hove in close proximity to a gang of hogs. He
shot and wounded one, ran to it in order to dispatch it with
his butcher-knife. The other hogs rallied and were in the
act of taking him in. Trees being plenty he utilized one for
safety, but his ascension was not very high for a time, for
his dog was hanging to his pewter button with hogs cutting
at his narrative, so that he did not make much progress in
getting up there. Things were becoming ugly, and for quite a
while the ’squire could not decide the case, whether he
would be able to eat the hog or the hogs eat him and the
dog, but to his great relief, he became so much contracted
from fight that the great effort the dog was making to get
released, he snaked the pants off of the man in the fork of
the tree, making for a log of a fallen tree, which he
reached in safety, climbing up to where the hogs could not
molest him. Imagine the dog over there tied to those pants,
the ’squire up in a tree surrounded by wild hogs which would
devour him if he came down without his leather trousers. It
being a very cold, snowy day in mid winter it soon caused
the old gentleman to catch an opportunity to make a drive
for a warmer climate, and it soon was favorable. He leaped
from the tree as nimble as a catamount, made good time
reaching home, did not check up but ran against the door,
breaking it open and landing in the middle of the floor in
the presence of wife, family and two neighbor women who were
visiting there. Being nearly exhausted and out of wind his
voice was warbling like that of the nightingale when
charming the forest with her tale. The good wife could not
comprehend what he said, but being a lady of large
conception she soon clothed him as Jeff Davis was when taken
a prisoner, until his wardrobe was replenished.
My gossip about men is wearisome, I
fear;
I’ll give an essay about ladies that were here.
Ginseng roots dug by women of the land,
Beeswax extracted from wild honey were in demand.
About fifty-five years ago an old man and
wife occupied a lonely cabin four miles from any neighbors.
Their estate consisted principally in a numerous offspring,
and among the number were two young ladies aged eighteen and
twenty. In autumn their time was employed digging ginseng,
procuring beeswax and getting their products ready for the
market. Their facility was two bovines of the male kind in a
natural state, having a bodily make up similar to the bison
of the western plains, except the lack of horns. Those girls
would go into the woods, hunt the animals, put halters on
their heads to guide them, ride them home, throw a sack of
one hundred pounds of beeswax and ’sang onto them, mount and
ride them to the store, alight, hitch the transportation
train to a tree, take their exchange, each enter the store
with a load and trade it to the merchant for coloring
materials and cotton yarn to be manufactured into a web of
cloth to clothe the family, proceed home and turn loose
their steeds in nature’s great pasture until wanted for use
again.
In those days women did not think of
voting,
Not politicians belonging to the ring;
For Paul said many years ago,
It was not right for ladies to do so.
But development has had a wide range,
And in the mind of people wrought a change;
Fifty years more in the calendar may tell
Of the many changes to those who may dwell.
In 1832 the Black Hawk war was to be right
here in a very short time. The many accounts given of the
success of the savages produced a big scare among the
settlers, for as there was a greater amount of F. F. V.’s
and Kentucky blood in their system than patriotism and
bravery, caused many to give away what they had and save
themselves by flight to the mountains of their native state.
One man gave eighty acres of good land for an old horse to
carry his pack, he and his wife walking. Another gave a good
cow for a new wool hat, and many others did likewise with
their property, making the trip, women, children and all
that were able to walk, back to the old country, for they
verily believed that all who remained here would be murdered
by the Indians. After the war was over the most of them
returned, and many of their children are living here yet.
Fifty-six years ago I have a vivid recollection of a family
that domiciled near the creek, and in the most frigid winter
weather, when there was ice on the creek, I have known their
boys to be out skating on the ice one mile from fire, with
but little clothing to keep them warm and entirely
barefooted.
The first church that I have any recollection of being
erected here was built by the Regular Baptists, and was used
by their flock exclusively. Shortly after the house was
completed a Methodist minister, in passing through the
country, applied to those of the church that had taken the
bishopric of the Apostles for the use of the house in which
to deliver one sermon. After a consultation, they informed
him that the heresies that he might preach would so
adulterate the walls that the people who were the chosen of
God never could do any good by preaching in it, therefore
they refused to let him have their house.
May no walls be erected in the way,
To prevent truth from having its full sway.
On the sin qua non they certainly stood,
And in preaching the tenets had to be the same to do
good.
When talent becomes universal this country
will be a good place to stay in; but it is not born in all.
The first three distillers who engaged in the business of
making what is known now as sod corn whisky, at an early day
were all in the manufacture about the same time, and leading
members of churches would go to meeting on Sunday, and put
on their sanctimonious harness, take a seat near the sanctum
sanctorum, and their reverential appearance excelled that of
the meek old Patriarch Moses; but during the sickly season –
and that was all the year with some – they would take a few
bushels of meal to the distiller and exchange the meal, one
bushel for one gallon of whisky, take it home, put roots and
barks into it, and have all the family to exercise their
imbibation functions in order to drive off the noxious and
pestilential vapors that might engender disease in the
system. More persons, according to the number that used
alcoholic drink excessively at that time, died from the
effects than at this time. It was a good remedy for snake
bites, and an overdose got up many fights.
The preachers then taught that it was a
blessing from God,
Yet the blessing put many under the sod.
Over half a century ago we were very much in
dread of the many large and poisonous snakes that were here,
but it would be too tedious to give a detail of the persons
that suffered from their bites. The largest were the yellow
rattlesnakes, many of them measuring six feet, and when
killed and cut open, inside of them one had a fawn, another
a rabbit and another a grown grey squirrel. A species of the
black racer were still longer than the former, and would
follow cows that were giving milk and suck them, and the
owners of the cows had to watch them with a gun and kill the
snakes to keep from being robbed of the milk.
I will of necessity have to epitomize my essay and pass by
what transpired in many years and let others tell it or
remain in oblivion. In the presidential campaign of 1844 the
issue between the parties was annexation and war with Mexico
and those who opposed that policy. I then had arrived at
years of majority and was entitled to give my first vote. I
was zealous in the support of the annexation party, and made
a firm pledge if war was the result to be one that would go
and help fight the Mexicans, to sustain what we thought was
for the best interests of our country. James K. Polk was
elected, and in 1846 a call was made for soldiers to go over
to Mexico, as a war was in progress between the two powers.
In my juvenile days and up to the time I arrived at the age
of twenty-one years I had been energetic and industrious and
had accumulated one thousand dollars, quite a fortune in
early times. I had taken the money and gone to Cincinnati
and invested in dry goods – just had set up in business with
bright prospects; but those persons who were opposed to
annexation began to chide me by saying, “He will not go to
Mexico to fight the Greasers,” and many other opprobrious
epithets, mingled with reproach, were heaped upon me. Then
my Kentucky blood became warmed up, developing my
patriotism, and I sold my goods on one year’s time, only
taking seven dollars in purse (and the debt is on time yet,
for the man to whom I sold failed and never paid any part of
it). I have expunged the obligation, as I have been in the
habit of doing all my business, at given periods wiping out
all that was not settled, for fear the settlement would be
too big in the great judgmen [sic] day. Walking through mud
to Indianapolis, I enlisted in the United States Army to
serve as a cavalry soldier for five years or during the war.
The company being organized at Fort Leavenworth, that being
the time the Mormons were emigrating to Utah, and a number
of the men volunteering to go to Mexico, there was not a
sufficient number of Mormon men left to guard their families
across the plains through the many dangerous tribes of
Indians that then occupied the country, and I was one of the
detail to do that service. It was the most dangerous and
hardest soldiering that I did during the war, for we had
many engagements with the Indians, but in due time got rid
of the emigrants. I say to their credit that a better class
of people than the women were for charity, virtue and good
behavior I have not found since. Capturing Santa Fe and the
most of New Mexico, after several engagements, Gen. Fremont
crossed the Rocky Mountains, went south, subduing the
Mexicans and Indians in all the region of the country known
as the Eastern Slope of the Rocky Mountains; crossed the Rio
Grande at El Paso, marched to the city of Chihuahua,
conquering the people of that state, thence westward through
the states of Sonora and Durango to Lower California.
At that place, after being in many engagements from the
commencement of the war, on the 26th of June, 1848, we
received the news of peace being concluded between the two
countries. If I were writing relative to those states,
perhaps I could give a description that would be
interesting, also, of the customs of the people. Orders with
the news of peace were that we march back to Santa Fe and
there be discharged. After being mustered out of the
service, I lost no time in traveling home, being on the road
all the time until a short time before the presidential
election of 1848. Having received an injury to my breast
that caused hemorrhage of the left lung, and other diseases
contracted while in that country which caused me to be
confined to bed nearly an entire year, I have never enjoyed
good health one month since without being unable to go
about. For my meritorious service I was commissioned
captain, but have never been able to find any utility in the
commission. A pension was granted me shortly after the close
of the war, the number of it a fraction over 8,000, and that
included all that had been pensioned from the commencement
of the government. I am, perhaps, the oldest pensioner in
Boone County, unless there is some person of the war of 1812
drawing a pension. After recovering somewhat from my broken
down condition, I was a cosmopolite for several years, very
dubious what course to pursue and ductile, not keeping a
vade mecum, therefore could not give a correct history of
affairs.
We tell of traders long time ago,
With ox teams we guarded to Mexico;
They of toil and danger were not afraid,
While helping build up the Santa Fe trade;
But those large wagons and Santa Fe teams,
And all those mule and ox drivers it seems,
In the history of pioneer life hath passed,
By the introduction of the iron horse are displaced.
A small number of those old veterans still live,
But congress a pension to them would not give;
Its no falta de corage esta sombre,
Quiero desdoro union comparacion expense.
The vegetation in autumn may wither and fade,
Many pioneers of yore in their graves are laid.
But few of the old settlers now live,
The many stories to others to give.
Traveling from here five miles each way
along Eel River there is not one person remaining of the
first settlers. Only one near relative here now. Grandfather
and mother Gibson died at about the age of ninety-five
years, after living together as man and wife seventy-five
years. Grandmother, on my mother’s side, died shortly after
coming out here. Both my parents are dead and are all at
rest with many others in the cemetery on the old homestead,
donated for a place of rest by the veteran pioneer who
entered the land.
Many pioneers in this neglected spot are
laid,
By their hardships the improvements here were made.
An addenda concludes the injucundity of the
writer, and as has been the case before, and may be again,
to know how the old settlers acquired any education, there
being no facilities for schools in those early times. Many,
like myself, graduated in one of the best institutions of
the country, in which to gain a thorough education. The
great Northwestern Institute, where hundreds of the most
useful persons in the country graduated, using their
functions with practical sense, looking over the broad
surface of the earth at the mountains, rivers, continents
and manner of people, and then guided their views to the
aborial region, contemplating the firmament with all the
luminaries, imbibing ideas from nature’s pure fountain which
are correct and utilizing them in a way that will give a
development of correct principles. Onnisoi it quimalopence.
Source Citation:
Boone County History [database online] Boone County
INGenWeb. 2007. <http://www.rootsweb.com/~inboone>
Original data: Harden & Spahr. "Early life and times in
Boone County, Indiana." Lebanon, Indiana. May, 1887, pp.
80-96.
Transcribed by: Julie S. Townsend - July 8, 2007
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