Pictures of early Methodism in Ohio

Contents

I. Pioneer Life and Manners, - 9

II. Introduction of Methodism

Into Ohio, - 33

Preface

The author of these Pictures has endeavored to make them true to life. They are a record of actual facts; and if the reader shall find any new information concerning the Church in the wilderness, or any new inspiration for Christian work, it is what the writer has himself sought for and has striven to present. It has been to him no unpleasant task to bring together and offer these memorials of a by-gone generation. Many of the old pioneers of Ohio Methodism he knew personally when a child, and loved. To their reminiscences, and especially to the papers left by his father, he is indebted for much of the information contained in these pages. S. W. W.

Cincinnati.

PICTURES OF EARLY METHODISM IN OHIO

I

The tide of emigration began to flow westward from the Atlantic provinces across the Alleghenies and over the Cumberland range of mountains as early as 1770. By treaty with and purchase from the Indians, the government became possessed of all the lands south of the Ohio, including Kentucky, Western Virginia, and Western Pennsylvania, in 1768; and many of the rich lands of the Upper Ohio were parceled out for bounties to the officers and soldiers who had served in the French and English wars. Settlements began to be made on the Kanawha and in Kentucky; a few were established along the waters of the Monongahela. In the Indian country there were two or three missionary stations planted by the

Moravian brethren, and one or two trading posts; but it was not until after the Revolutionary War and the cession of Virginia's claims to the general government of the territory northwest of the Ohio River that the first colony was planted in that part of the country. This was effected at Marietta, April 7, 1788. The next year Cincinnati was founded; and before the end of the century a large part of Southern Ohio was occupied by settlers.

Fortunately the Scioto country began to attract emigrants, especially from the South, as a large portion of it was covered with military warrants, located and surveyed for the owners residing in that part of the Union. The inroads of hostile Indians were now less to be feared. Though scouting parties and surveyors had partially explored the territory, very few clearings had been made, and there were still dangers to be encountered nearly the entire length of the river voyage from Wheeling down. Still the in-

PIONEEE LIFE AND MANNEES

trepid pioneers pushed on. By midsummer of 1794 the attacks of the Indians became less frequent, and were made by smaller bands than heretofore, owing to the fact that General "Wayne had invaded the hostile country with an overwhelming force. In August, 1795, the glad tidings came to the East that peace was made with the red man by the treaty of Greenville. At once an immense area was thrown open to settlement. Thousands of families poured in to take possession. Nearly all of them were from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the adjoining States on the East.

Most of the goods transported from the older settlements and the manufacturing towns were brought across the mountains on pack-horses, though some came by wagons. Very few roads were laid out, and none farther west than Pittsburgh. From thence goods and household wares and implements could be carried on flatboats or in canoes to the nearest river landing. As the first settlements were on the larger streams, very few teams were used, and carriage by pack-horses was not required for long distances. As the country opened up, roads were laid out and a few log bridges built for neighborhood accommodation. Trading posts were ere long established and many articles of household necessity were kept on sale. Domestic goods of flax and wool were soon manufactured — the women doing the carding and spinning by hand, and often working at the loom. Hats, boots, shoes, harness, and some kinds of hardware and machinery, and many other articles were in process of time made in the pioneer towns; while mills and blacksmith shops were set up as soon as there was population enough to require them.

The first habitations erected by the settlers were cabins of round logs, well chinked and daubed with clay, roofed with split clapboards held in place by cross-poles fastened with pins, and floored, if floored at all, with puncheons or hewed pieces of timber notched into huge sleepers laid on the ground at the sides. The windows were simply openings made by sawing out a portion of one of the logs, and covering the space in cold weather with greased paper. This was often pecked into holes, when snow covered the ground, by the half-starved birds. Glass sash, with lights eight by ten inches, were after a while introduced in the settlements along the generally traveled thoroughfares or the navigable streams. The cabin doors were made of split boards, hung on wooden hinges, and fastened with a wooden latch lifted from the outside by a leather thong or string. The capacious fireplace, occupying nearly the entire width of one end of the cabin, was built of stone (bricks were an article then unknown in the West), and the chimney was constructed of split fagots or sticks piled in alternate courses in a stack, and plastered with mud to prevent their burning. The hearthstones, where any were laid, were large and afforded sufficient protection against the sparks which from the ample logs were apt to snap out.

As there were no friction matches known until many years of the century had flown by, the primitive fathers had to depend on the flint and steel to start their fires. Light tinder was used to receive the spark, which was soon fanned into a flame to kindle dry wood. Most housekeepers kept fire alive in their fireplaces by covering the coals with ashes in the evening when cooking was done, or when bed-time came. It was important, too, to have great back-logs that would not burn out rapidly. Green buckeye was a favorite timber for this purpose, as it is a close grained, soft wood, and retains the moisture of the sap for a long while. It also makes good coals for broiling or baking. Where the flint and steel were lacking, or the tinder was not prepared, it was necessary to borrow a shovelful of coals from the nearest neighbor. Sometimes fire could be carried with a piece of spunk or rotten wood.

The cabins had no cellars, though a hole was sometimes dug in front of the fireplace and covered with split or hewed boards, for the storage of potatoes and other roots. Milk and butter were preserved in springhouses or in outside vaults beneath sodded mounds of earth. Sometimes there were garrets floored with boards, and reached by a ladder set up in one corner of the cabin. Here were spread beds for the children and occasional visitors — at first upon the floor itself, the ticks being filled with straw or shredded corn husks, and afterwards upon bedsteads or canvas cots. These garrets seldom contained windows, but sufficient light and air came through the wide chinks between the logs and rafters. Through these also the rain sometimes beat during storms, and the snow frequently drifted. But thick skin robes and heavy blankets sufficiently protected the sleepers at night from the cold.

The ordinary dress of the people was of domestic manufacture, from linsey-wool-

* sey or cotton cloth, and tow linen. The women wore short gowns, gathered loosely in the waist, and reaching below the hips, with a quilted skirt or petticoat. The men wore buckskin small-clothes or trousers and linen hunting-shirts; sometimes entire suits of domestic woolen goods, drab, gray, or brown — their coats having brass or whitemetal buttons about the size of a silver halfdollar. Both sexes at home went barefoot in summer; abroad, they had moccasins or coarse shoes, with or without stockings, according to the weather.

The bread-stuffs of the pioneers were wheat and maize — both transported across the mountains until they began to raise grain for themselves. Of meat they had abundance in the wild game, much of which was cured by "jerking," as dry-salting was too expensive. Salt was scarce and dear, and what little was to be had was often dark and bitter. The grain was pounded in wooden mortars, usually the scooped-out stump of a tree, or ground in a "tub-mill;" but in either case the meal was coarse and was commonly used without sifting. Of native fruits there was a great variety, and some of an excellent quality. The flavor of the strawberry has not been improved by cultivation, though its size has been greatly increased ; but the wild blackberry and raspberry are equal to any grown in the gardens. Orchards of apples and cherries were early set out, many of them seedlings; but grafted fruit was occasionally introduced from the East.

If their fare was coarse, it was wholesome and good, and there was generally no lack. A few days' hunting at the proper season was sufficient to provide flesh-food for several months. There was abundance of venison in the forests, and wild turkeys were often seen in large flocks. Upon the latter it was unnecessary to spend ammunition, as they were usually caught in traps, or covered pens, with the lower part of one side left open. Corn was strewed around, 2 17 and the foolish birds entered; but not discovering a way of escape at the top, they never thought to retreat by the entrance at the bottom. Pride with them knew no fall, until they were slaughtered for food. If the turkey was young and tender, it might be prepared for the table by skinning it, instead of plucking, and roasting it on a spit before an open fire, catching the gravy in a dripping-pan. Stoves were, of course, unknown, and all the cooking was done at the open fire on the hearth, or out of doors. In the scarcity of other game, opossums were occasionally used for food. The flesh is juicy and has a taste resembling pork, and it is still a great favorite among our colored people. Quails were not then numerous, as they seem to follow civilization rather than precede it. The streams abounded in fish of a good quality, and they were caught by the trot-line, the single hook, or the gig. This was the work of the boys.

The skins of the wild beasts that were 18 shot were brought to the cabins by the hunters, and there prepared for use. Deer skins were tanned, and from this material were manufactured moccasins, and clothing for the men. The hair was removed by covering them for a while with ashes and water; they were then rubbed with soft soap, lye, and the brains of the deer. All of these substances are alkaline, and were of use in removing whatever fat or tissue might have adhered to the skin. Then, after lying for two or three days in a steeping-vat or trough, the skins were stretched over a smooth, round log, from which the bark had been removed, and scraped with a graining-knife. Dressing with the brains of the animal rendered the skin soft and pliable, and many of the settlers became skillful curriers. Bear skins were dried and used for robes, and often spread on the cabin floors and lofts for beds. Very few buffaloes were met with in Ohio, though when Daniel Boone and his companions entered Kentucky they found them there in large numbers. Wolves were quite common in some localities, and occasionally the panther's scream terrified the inhabitants of the wilderness; but domestic animals were seldom disturbed by them.

Swine were after a while introduced among the pioneers and were fattened chiefly on wild mast. The whole Ohio Valley was covered with forests, and the oak, hickory, bitter-nut, and beech furnished all that the swine needed in the fall. In spring and summer there was sufficient grazing, with other fodder, so that there was no necessity for feeding. In winter the shoats were slaughtered, and the meat not required for immediate consumption was cured for use in the hot weather, when venison was not in condition, or not easily obtained. The heads and feet of the hogs were used to make 6 6 souse I 9 or "head-cheese ; ? ' and the jelly obtained from the water in which they were boiled was sometimes used in cooking.

At the table hot drinks were made with 20 sassafras root, spice-wood, sage, or sycamore bark. In rare instances genuine tea and coffee were to be bad; bnt to be sure of one or tbe otber, it was necessary for travelers to carry it witb tbem. Tbus Bisbop Asbury, being fond of tea, always carried a little caddy of it in bis saddle-bags, tbat be migbt bave a drawing of it after a bard day's ride. Parcbed grains of corn or rye were pounded up as a substitute for coffee; and tbe late venerable John F. Wright on one of bis early circuits was served with a decoction of roasted "nubbins." He preferred the sweet milk, of which his hostess had abundance, though the other had been prepared especially for him.

Of corn-meal, bread was prepared in various ways. The simplest method, perhaps, was to mix the meal with salt and water into a stiff dough, and to bake it on the hot stones of the hearth swept clean — in which case it was called "johnny-cake." If thinly spread on a board or in an iron pan and set upright before the fire to bake, it was "hoe-cake;" and if mixed with eggs and baked in a Dutch oven, or covered skillet, it was "pone." -"Corn dodgers" were thick cakes, like wheaten rolls, in which hog's-fat or lard had been first mixed with the meal. Hominy was prepared by soaking the corn in a strong lye of wood-ashes to loosen the outside bran, and then washing it thoroughly in clear water. The meal was often made into mush and was then eaten with milk from wooden bowls or noggins. If fried with the jelly of meatliquor, it was called by the Pennsylvania Dutch "suppawn," and was regarded as a toothsome and nourishing diet.

The Ohio Valley being generally heavily timbered, the hardest work of the pioneer settlers was clearing the ground. The trees were cut down, the brush trimmed off, the trunks cut into lengths, and the logs rolled together and burned. "Log rolling" was an occasion of busy concern, and in this labor the neighbors joined together and assisted one another. Girdling the trees was sometimes practiced, especially where the ground was not required to be cleared immediately, and in the course of two or three years they would be dry enough to fire without chopping. Grass often sprang up in these deadenings, and afforded pasturage for the stock.

For planting, the ground was broken up with a wooden plow, the mold-board of which was edged with an iron plate. This was drawn by a team of horses, though occasionally oxen were used for the purpose, especially in stiff sod land. Harrowing was effected by drawing brush across the field, or by drags armed with wooden teeth. Grain was sown broadcast, and when ready for harvest was cut with the sickle or scythe, and threshed in small quantities with a flail. Hand-made fanning-mills separated the chaff from the grain. Corn was shelled out with the hand, and "husking parties' ' for stripping the husks from the ears were scenes of hilarity and good cheer. The bottle on such occasions was freely passed among the workers, but very few drank to excess. The festivities, especially where persons of both sexes were engaged, were often prolonged to a late hour, and, after supper, concluded with a dance.

Farmers' wives cultivated few flowers in their door-yards, though hollyhocks, sunflowers, the tall mallow, morning-glories, and marygolds were frequently found. Ornamental shrubs, like lilacs, rose-bushes, and snowballs, were sometimes planted near the dwellings, but these were introduced later, and when better roads made transportation from the older settlements easier. Vegetables of the common varieties were raised, but tomatoes, rhubarb, egg-plant, sweet-corn, cauliflower, and head-lettuce, now so common, were then unknown. Cabbage, beans, peas, kale, and mustard, and a few sweet herbs, were the staple of the house garden, while turnips, potatoes, beets, and other roots were planted in the new clearings. Pumpkins or

PIONEER LIFE AND MANNEKS squashes were grown in the corn-fields, and a few melons and encumbers raised in the fence corners.

The prevailing diseases in the new country were of a bilious character. Tertian ague was universal. Consumption was common, and eruptive fevers were at times epidemic. In the treatment of these disorders the most heroic method was pursued. Letting blood and dosing heavily with calomel was followed with a regimen of ground barks for the severer cases, as quinine was not then in use. For lighter diseases, rhubarb, jalap, or salts and senna were favorite remedies. Palliatives were exhibited when necessary; but usually the fevers had a regular course, and in some localities they returned as punctually every year as the hay-fever does now — almost to a day. The earlier practitioners of physic kept constantly on hand a supply of the drugs most in use, which they took with them in their saddle-bags, as they always rode horseback, for administering to their patients. The circuits of the physicians were large, and in one round of visits they would often ride forty or fifty miles. There was, and is, a belief that the blood needs purifying every spring; and for this purpose sulphur and treacle, or a decoction of sassafras bark was commonly used. If these weakened the system, an infusion of camomile flowers or wild cherry bark was taken as a tonic. Distilled liquors, either pure or mixed, were continually in use for the same purpose, even among those who were otherwise strictly temperate or abstemious. In the harvest fields, at log-rollings, burning brush, clearing forests and erecting cabins, and especially when the men were exposed to cold and wet and inclement weather, liquor was freely used, both as a prophylactic against disease and as a stimulant in work. We are accustomed to think that the hardy life of the pioneers was conducive to health and to longevity; but those who survived to an advanced age were really the exceptions. Many, perhaps most, of the pioneer fathers died in middle life.

Education was not neglected, and both the general government and the territorial and State governments made provisions for schools. At first these were of a private character, where the teacher collected small fees for each scholar. When the common school system was introduced, the schools were open only during the winter months, when farm work was less pressing. The branches taught were the elementary ones, and rarely extended beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic. In a few instances, where the teacher was competent and the boys were ambitious, Latin was taught; and many a backwoods boy became a thorough scholar through the training he received in the rude log schoolhouses of the early days. It was in such schools that John P. Durbin of Kentucky, James B. Finley of Ohio, and Henry Ruffner of Virginia, obtained the rudiments of knowledge that made them masters over men. And the schools have grown into institutions of refinement and culture that rival the universities of the Old World. The opportunities of acquiring knowledge have increased as the conditions of society demanded; "for whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance."

Newspapers and books had a limited circulation. The first newspaper established west of the Allegheny Mountains was the Commercial Gazette of Pittsburgh, in 1786. At that time there were no mail facilities extended to Pittsburgh by the United States government, and it was not until the fall of the same year that a postoffice was there established. A post was put on the route from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and another from Virginia to Bedford, the two to meet at Bedford. Subscribers to the paper, not on the line of the post, had to depend on the kindly offices of friends for the weekly budget of news, and there was no regularity in the delivery. As late as 1795 the contract for carrying the mail required it to leave Philadelphia every Saturday at 11.30 A. M., to be delivered in Pittsburgh the following Friday at noon. Returning, it left Pittsburgh every Friday at 5 P. M., to be delivered in Philadelphia the next Friday at noon. Before the end of the century weekly papers were established at Cincinnati, Lexington, and elsewhere. They were small in size and were not overflowing with news as the great dailies of the present day are. The liberal style of writing, in personalities and criminations, was in vogue then as now.

Statistics kept at signal stations and by individuals from the earlier years of the century show that the average rain-fall and temperature remain nearly the same ; yet the alternations of extreme heat and cold are more frequent and severe now than formerly. The denuding of the hills and plains of their timber, and the opening of a larger area to tillage, seem to make the droughts of summer and the floods of winter more protracted and destructive; yet in pioneer times the river bottoms were often submerged and the summer rivulets were dried up. Still the winters were never severe, and the temperature rarely sank as low as zero. A nieterological record kept at Marietta, Ohio, and at Ludlow's Station near Cincinnati, between the years 1804 and 1809 shows the maximum temperature for those years to be 89° Fahr., and the minimum — 2°. Such late springs as we experience now at times were then unknown, and corn was planted and sprouting by the first of April, and scarcely ever later than the first of May. Snow seldom lay longer than three days at a time, and the valleys were all winter long covered with an excellent quality of grass, so that it was unnecessary to provide much fodder for cattle.

At first the wild grasses were used for hay, but meadows were afterward seeded down to timothy or herd's-grass and red clover. Blue-grass sprang up spontaneously. In moist fields red-top was abundant; but these grasses were better adapted for grazing than for curing as hay. Farming as a business was a routine of hard labor, as everything had to be done by hand; but the temptation to slip-shod agriculture was no greater then than now. Farm-pests were less numerous, and the crops of fruit were more certain. The peach and plum produced abundantly, being neither killed with frost nor destroyed by the weevil. The apple-moth left bushels of fruit in every orchard untouched. The beetle that destroys our vines was easily subdued, and the Colorado potatobug is a newcomer in the Middle and Eastern States. But, upon the whole, we have gained more and better products of the soil than we have lost. If our fruit crops are not so certain, we have them of a greater variety and a greater excellence. Our railroads and steam vessels bring to our marts the products of all climes, and we get the abundance of other regions to supply our lack. We send our orders by telegraph, and steeds of steam and lightning do our bidding. With all these modern achievements and appliances, let us not forget the beginnings of our history, and the work achieved by the pioneers to render these things possible. They builded and we occupy.

II Introduction Of Methodism Into Ohio

When the great Carthaginian general had crossed the Alps and sat down with his forces before the gates of Rome, the very ground upon which his camp was located was offered in the city for sale; and so confident were the Romans of final victory and success that the bids made on the property were none the less because of the occupation of the enemy. With a like undaunted faith in the future, and with like confidence of ultimate success, the Colonial Congress of the United States in 1787 organized the great Northwestern Territory, and invited settlers to come and occupy it. Up to this date the only white residents on the Northern side of the Ohio River 3 33 were a few transient traders who had established trading-posts, perhaps half a dozen Moravian missionaries, and a score or two of struggling squatters. But now, in the face of hostile tribes of Indians, the pioneers began to pour in. Heretofore nearly all the armed expeditions against the savages had resulted disastrously, or had failed to put a stop to their outrages; but the immigrants to the Western soil paused not. If one perished, ten advanced to take his place. In the years 1788-89, settlements were effected at Marietta, at the mouth of the Little Miami, and where Cincinnati now stands. These colonies grew rapidly; but it was not until after the subjugation of the Indians by Anthony Wayne, in 1794, that settlements were made in the interior. In that year Hamilton was laid out by Israel Ludlow; Franklin and Dayton were laid out in 1795, and in 1796 Chillicothe was founded. Before the year 1800, there was a chain of settlements in Southern Ohio up the Miami Valleys as far north as Dayton and Xenia, and up the Scioto to Franklinton.

Hard after the pioneer settlers trod the pioneer Methodist preachers. Almost before clearings were made or cabins were erected, and long before the whoop of the red man and the scream of the panther and wild-cat had ceased, the faithful preacher was tracking his way from settlement to settlement, hunting after the scattered sheep of his Master's fold. A few families belonging to the Methodist societies had settled here and there throughout the West, and in some instances they were organized into classes by zealous local preachers ; but no effort at keeping up the worship and usages of the Church regularly was made until they were visited by the itinerant ministers. Our people were mostly poor, and though they raised enough on their farms to eat and to wear, they were seldom blessed with means to afford anything better than the most meager support to their preachers ; yet they kindly received and entertained them in their houses, and often supplied them with food and fuel when they could not dispense to them of their hardearned money.

The first preacher in the great West was Jeremiah Lambert, who traveled the Holston Circuit in 1783. Four years later the work was extended, comprehending the Nollichucky Circuit and the entire State of Kentucky and the Cumberland region. At the same time two new circuits were formed near the headwaters of the Ohio: the Clarksburg and the Ohio, the latter lying in Virginia between Wheeling and Pittsburgh. Of these, the one was manned by Kobert Cann and Eichard Pearson, the other by Charles Connaway and George Callanhan. A few families had crossed the Ohio Eiver into what was then generally called "the Indian Country,' ' but now to be known as "the Northwestern Territory, ' ' and for protection had built a block-house on the river at "Carpenter's Station." For some time the frontiers had been without alarm; but in September, 1787, the Indians made an inroad upon the settlement, and killed part of the family of Mr. McCoy. Some of the settlers made their escape and fled to the block-house, where all the families were soon collected for safety. In four or five days one of the preachers on the Ohio Circuit preached at the cabin of Rezin Pumphrey, in Beech Bottom, Virginia, about a mile and a half from the station. Some eight or ten persons had crossed over the river from that place to attend the service, and at its conclusion earnestly besought the young preacher to come to the station and preach for them that afternoon. A council was immediately held on the subject, and it was deemed by the majority unsafe for him to go. After a few moments of deliberation, however, he determined for himself, and turning to the applicants he said: "Return, and make what arrangements you can; and if Providence permit, I will visit you at 4 o 'clock. " "When the preacher (George Callanhan) reached the station — a place about a mile above the present village of Warrenton, Jefferson County, Ohio — he found a congregation already assembled, including some of his hearers in the forenoon. Fifteen or twenty hardy backwoodsmen armed with rifles, tomahawks, and scalping-knives stood on the outside of the assembly as protectors. After service was ended, a pressing invitation was given the preacher to visit Carpenter's Fort again, and he cheerfully acceded to the request. During his stay on the circuit, which was about four months longer, a number from the Ohio side of the river applied for admission into the society, and they were enrolled in a class. This was perhaps the first Methodist preaching in Ohio — certainly the first of which we have any definite account, though it is claimed that Joseph Hill had preached on Ohio soil a year or two previously.

In the southwestern part of the State the earliest Methodist sermon was preached by

Francis Clark, a local preacher from Danville, Kentucky, and the pioneer of Methodism in that place. He visited Fort Washington in 1793 ; and, like St. Paul at Athens, "his spirit was stirred within him" when he beheld the godlessness of the troops and the wickedness of the citizens. Through the intervention of a friend he obtained the privilege of preaching in the fort, where he delivered his message from God faithfully and fearlessly. Two years later James Smith, likewise a local preacher, from Richmond, Virginia, crossed the Ohio Eiver at Cincinnati (November 15, 1795), and the next day preached at the house of Mr. Talbert, about seven miles from the city on the road to Hamilton. Mr. Smith was a kinsman of the venerable Philip Gatch, and came to Ohio on a prospecting tour. Mr. Talbert met him, and with genuine hospitality insisted on his staying over night at his cabin, where Mrs. Talbert baked him provisions for his journey. In the evening his host gathered a few of his neighbors, and Mr. Smith spoke to them from Luke ii, 10 — the angelic announcement to the shepherds of Bethlehem. To these hearers his words were indeed ' 1 good tidings of great