Autobiography of Catherine Joss

Front matter

LIBRAfjY OF CONGRESS.

Shelf ./i^r^ ^

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Chapter I. The Years Of MV Childhood

T^\/'hex I was a little girl, my parents thought it necessary for me to learn to dance, in order to appear graceful in society. So I was sent to a dancing-school when very young, and about all I can remember of that school is, that if our feet were not in a right position, the dancing-master would use his fiddle-bow over our toes or over our backs to straighten us up. I went to an infant school, to a lady friend of my parents. She taught us to paint on velvet and work lace, and to read from the primer then in use. She read to us from the Gospel, and prayed with us every day. taught us how to pra)', and to go to our Heavenly Father as we would to our mother to ask for anything we wanted, and if it was best for us to have it, for Jesus' sake God would grant it, and if we were overtaken in a fault, to ask to be forgiven, as God kept a white and a black book, wherein our good and evil deeds were lo Autobiography of

marked, and when I felt guilty of anything, it was not the punishment my parents would inflict, but the fear of having- a mark in the black book that gave me pain.

It must have been on such an occasion that I prayed in my sleep, pleading not to have my name in the black book, that my mother spoke of in the family next day, and my uncle, a German Lutheran minister, not long from Germany, said he was astonished at father letting a child go to school to such a Presbyterian fool that preached hell-fire to the children.

Father said, "You will get over your prejudice when you are in this country awhile." But it must have ended my school-going, as I can think of none afterwards. However, I learned enough of her to continue to learn at the Saviour's feet^ as all she taught left a lasting impression on my young mind, never to be forgotten. I will give from memory some of the pieces which she taught me to speak when I was so young as to be placed on a chair in the parlor to speak them to company.

Come, my love, and do not spurn,

From a little flower to learn ;

See the lily on its bed,

Hanging down its modest head.

While it scarcely can be seen,

Folded on its leaf of green,

And would rather call it ours, Than many other gayer flowers.

Prett}' lily seems to be An emblem of humility ; Be as gentle, be as mild, Simply be a modest child, As the Saviour from above Views the humble child in love.

It was my privilege to visit the city and her, at the Presbyterian Home for Old Ladies, when she was ninety- one years old. She was in good health, enjoying the comforts of the beautiful home she had in this world, and the bright prospects of the brighter one she was looking forward to, not made with hands, eternal in heaven.

After a pleasant and profitable visit, when I told her that under God she was the only one who had instructed me in early youth in the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, to lead me to repentance, peace and happiness here, with the hope of heaven hereafter, she threw her loving arms around me, saying, "Thank God, you are not the first one of my scholars that has come to me in this way. I have no children on earth, but will have them in heaven." We joined in prayer, with grateful hearts for the blessed privilege of being once more permitted to meet on earth to join in praising the Lord, and to commit ourselves to

His care, till we meet where we will brino- Him better praise for ever. She reached the age of one hundred and four years, when she fell asleep in Jesus.

My father was a strong- abolitionist, and in those days the slave-trade was great. She taught me to speak for him, which pleased him very much. It is the following :

Help, oil help, thou God of Christians,

Save a mother from despair, Cruel white man steals my children.

God of Christians, hear my prayer.

From these arms am forced to render,

Sailors drag them to the sea ; Yonder ship, at anchor riding,

Swift will carry them awa}-.

There my son lies, pale and bleeding, Fast with chains his hands are bound;

Stiff with beating, through fear silent. Save a single death-like groan.

See his little sister by him,

Quaking, trembling now she lies, Drops of blood her face besprinkled.

Tears of anguish fill her eyes.

Hear the little sister begging,

" Take me, white man, for your own,

Spare, oh spare my darling brother. He's my mother's only son.

^< I am young and strong and heart}', He a sick and feeble boy ; Take me, whip me, chain me, starve me, All my life I toil with joy.

^' Ah, my poor distracted mother, How she raves upon the sands, Now she tears her flesh with madness. Now she prays with lifted hands.

" Christian, who's the God you worship ? Is he cruel, fierce or good ?

Does he take delight in mercy.

Or in spilling human blood ? "

Down the savage captain struck her

Lifeless on the vessel's floor, Up the sails he quickly hoisted,

To the ocean bent his way.

Head-long plunged the raving mother

From a rock into the sea.

Dr. Scheurer and my uncle, with some other literary young men, were contemplating how to use their talents best in this country, where they ■expected to make their future homes as well as their fortunes. They already had in their minds an ideal place for pleasure seekers, with huntinggrounds, parks, fish-ponds, and a hotel with good accommodations, that in time would attract the people from the cities to spend the Summer months. As uncle stayed with us in the city, one and another of the young men would come with their discoveries of great prospects for wealth and fame. But uncle and Dr. Scheurer, who had read and kept good books on the subject, made agriculture a study previous to their going forth to seek a place in a new country entirely uncultivated, so as to have the credit all to themselves, as they expected to make a grand place of it, as their books showed them how to establish such a place as they imagined it should be.

Feeling satisfied they understood what they were going to do, they started out in 1827 in search of a place to suit them, and found it in the State of Ohio, Holmes County, Payne Township. Thinking nature had prepared a location for them, it suited them so well, the hills, the dales, rivulets, rocks and ravines, great forests, with all kinds of timber, as well as many kinds of wild fruit. Seeing that choice fruit would grow when planted, especially wine, as immense wild grape-vines had grown around the trees, and when a German village would be established, where their countrymen could do business in their mother-tongue, they would flock there, as mechanics would irnprove the village, and make it lively, as well as the co-operation of the industrious and zealous farmers to cultivate the forests into productive fields with all sorts of produce, orchards and vineyards. Dr. Scheurer and uncle bought land, came to the city and made arrangements to move out.

Dr. Scheurer returned to New York, went from there by water, uncle and the rest of the bachelors, as they called themselves, took teams, loaded with what they needed to begin with. Uncle got a little orphan boy to take along, which was thought unnecessary, as he could not travel on foot he had to have a place in the wagon. After a long and tedious journey they arrived there safe, built a log cabin to live in, and an oven to bake bread. The first time the dough ran all over the hearth of the oven into one loaf. When the oven was cool, the boy had to crawl in, and with a hatchet cut it apart to take it out. They got a cow, but not intending to make butter, they could milk the cow as they used the milk. They kept the cow near, and milked what they needed as they used it. This, they wrote, to show the usefulness of the boy. He could wash dishes. At one time he washed the dishes, poured out the water, wrung out the cloth, put it in the dish, which was a brown earthen one, the rag also colored, the same dish was used for soup. It was their custom to cook turn-about for one week each, and that time the near-sighted man was cook, cut the bread, put it in the dish.

and poured the hot milk on it. When it was served the dish-cloth made its appearance, uncle raised it up on the table, saying in German :

In English : —

" Miss, shall I think to marr}- thee, When I such piggishness now see ? Would like to have you for my wife. Not for a cow or hoggish life."

Jokes like this were written from time to time, and no doubt the bachelors found, to study and get the theory of the life they anticipated, and to practice it, were two things.

I will here tell of an interesting couple that were going to start with the place, and grow with the country; it strikes me just now that had they carried out their plans, there would be no record for me to write, — it would all be written in a philosophical way, so as to attract the learned, as they were highly educated, both being teachers of languages and music. A gentleman from Allentown, Pa., put his little son in their care to be educated. They often came to our house, the gentleman would be with uncle in his room, the lady would visit with mother, while the little boy would play with us. They became quite intimate with us, and we liked their company. One Sunday evening, it was the first of July, the weather being very warm, the gentleman came with the little boy, and asked uncle if he would not go bathing with him. Uncle said it would not do for him to go bathing on Sunday, and besides, his sister-in-law was very sick, and not expected to live. So the man and boy went. I had been moved from my bed in mother's room to a bed made on a sofa in the front parlor, where I heard the conversation of the men, but hearing of mother not being expected to live, wakened me, so I don't know if I slept any more that night. Some time in the night the watchman came with the boy and some of the man's clothes and boots, saying he found the boy asleep on a raft at the wharf of a lumberyard, lying on the clothes, and that the boy told him to take him to our house, he could tell him of no other. Some of our men were wakened to get up, the boy was put to bed, uncle and the men went in search of the drowned man. Things gradually quieted down, when -at once a loud knock was heard at the door, and when the door was opened a cabman ushered Mrs. Gamble in, who asked for her husband. When the affair was made known to her, she became frantic, and had to be taken to another friend's house, because mother was quite ill.

The lady was cared for, but remained frantic and was an object of pity. They had many respectable friends, who showed them their sympathy. But the man was not found, the search continued from day to day. All was done to encourage the lady, liberal offers were made her to enter elegant homes to take charge of teaching private or public, but all in vain. She appeared to be melancholy. Many valuable presents and donations of money were made, but nothing roused her.

At last they thought as the search for the man had stopped, they better have a funeral sermon preached. It was announced. The ladies got her a mourning suit at great expense, the time came, the church was crowded; when the funeral sermon began, the lady fainted and had to be carried out. After a while she went out more, the young lady in the house noticed silently her actions changed, but knew not what would be the outcome of it all. At a time when all were out except the young lady, Mrs. Gamble came in, hurried up stairs and down again. The young lady went up to her room, the key left in the stand drawer gave her access to it. A recent letter stated for hei* to come to Baltimore to a certain hotel. She returned with a conveyance, took out her trunks and was off. The younglady came to our house, uncle and her aunt went to the wharf and got there just in time to see the boat go out.

Father at once went to Baltimore and found they were stopping at the hotel, but the man had been waitinof for his wife who was detained at the bedside of her father who had died, leaving them an immense fortune. He had been looking at plantations and was now going to close the bargain, was taking it, slaves and all. But they were looking for him every day. Father hired a negro to watch his coming. He waited a few days and then had to leave without seeing him. Uncle published them, but in those days news did not fly as quick as now, and we heard no more of them until we had been in Ohio for some time.

My uncle, who imported and supplied the watchmakers with jewelry and watch materials, came to see us and said, when he was in Cincinnati a rich Jew was in trouble about his lady leaving him while he was away on business. On hearino- the name uncle asked him where he got acquainted with her. He told uncle the couple came to the hotel, soon she became sad, he felt sorry for her, thought she was lonely, the man was a^ay. So when she found the Jew sympathized with her she told him her trouble, that her man cared not for her. He spoke to the man, told him it was not gentlemanly thus to treat her. But he said he wished he was rid of her, he could not raise enough to keep her the way she wanted to be kept. The Jew and the lady became fast friends. She agreed to stay with him if he could send her man off to parts unknown. The man aoreed for two hundred dollars to leave. He received the money and went.

The Jew and the lady appeared to be very happy together, she had all and everything she wanted in money, diamonds and a rich wardrobe. She too had gone to parts unknown. He said all she had she was welcome to; it was not what she had that troubled him, it was what she was to him as a companion. She was not only lovely in person, but could converse of the whole civilized world, which she had traveled as a stage actress.

May be I could not remember it so well, but often heard father tell it in the bar-room, and that grand couple never graced our town of Weinsberg.

Chapter II. Settling In The State Of Ohio

My father's first visit to the bachelors resulted in movine. He visited them in 1828, and was much pleased with the country, thinking the location of the place was such a one as they needed to carry out their plans, and if completed according- to their desires and plans, could not but attract pleasure-seekers to spend the hot Summer season there in preference to many other places, and tried to persuade mother to move out here. She said, *'And what will you, a jeweler, do in the backwoods ?" He said he could lay out the village, keep store and tavern, and then the great advantage would be to their children to grow up with the country. It was no easy matter for mother, after living twelve years in gay, respectable society in the city, a business established for twelve years at manufacturing spectacles and jewelry, surrounded by old and tried friends. It was hard to part with all for a life of toil and hardship in the backwoods, but for the sake of her children she consented.

Father was soon on his way to Ohio again, and when he got there he purchased the land intended for the village, made an agreement to raise the house, have it under roof, doors and windows sawed out, by the next May, when he expected to be there. He also hired men to get out saw-logs and to the saw-mills around on the creeks while snow was on the ground, as they dragged them with oxen. Then he returned to arrange things in the city. The business was turned over to his youngest brother; the best furniture was to stay in the house till we had a place to put it; the goods for the store were selected, such things as they thought would be needed by the new settlers. We needed much for ourselves, as we expected to keep tavern, but first had to board many work-hands, to get the houses built.

There were many public and private parties, balls, concerts and theatres attended that Winter. I can remember seeing mother dressed, when she looked to us children like the fairy we saw in pictures and toys. I also remember of her letting a Jew have a satin dress all spangled and trimmed, for which she got a paper, I supposed an order on a store. When he was gone she sat down and wept. In March, long as I can remember, we had a punch party on father's and grandfather's birthdays, as they came at the same time. This, the last March, was to be an extra large one.

The doors were flung wide open, the two parlors thrown in one, and the table set the leneth of the room. Besides the chandeliers with wax candles we had branch wax candles placed on silver candlesticks, which, when lit, looked like crowns alonof the middle of the table between the large china punch bowls, which in due time were filled with hot water sweetened with loaf sugar, to be dipped out into the heavy cut glass punch mugs, to be flavored to taste out of the elegant cut glass decanters, filled with fine wines and liquors of the best kind, as well as the table spread with luscious eatables.

At the appointed time the guests were seated at the table. There were gentlemen and ladies of rank, even clergymen. There was eating and drinking and merry chatting, such as becometh the great politeness of German nobility, healthdrinking, toasts and singing. As time went on, one couple after another were excused, took the carriages employed for the occasion and were driven to their respective homes, until only gentlemen remained. They took their seats together, had a cork blackened with lamp-black, laid it on a snuffer tray, then lit a splinter in the candle to a blaze, held it up and said in German

(I will give the English of it): "If the fox dies, what will the hide be worth ? if it lives long it will be old;" each one had to say that and pass it on to the next, so on until it would die out; the one that held it then got a black mark on the face with the black cork. So they went on jolly laughing at others, when they were perhaps the worst blacked. It was lots of fun, but drinking all the time, at last all were helped to and into the carriage, all more or less drunk. Father went to bed without washing his face, and mother did some scolding, which he took all good-naturedly. After that we got ready to bid friends and city life farewell, packed up all to be ready.

As soon as navigation had opened we started, going by way of New York and Buffalo. Two weeks or more tedious journeying landed us in Massillon. I shall never forget it, all looked so strange. It was a bright Sabbath morning, a death-like stillness prevailed. At last father got a team to take us to where we had to go. The wagon-bed was made of rough lumber, boards laid on the bottom, each side a board with a hole through the ends with a stick through to hold them together; there was straw in the bottom for us children to sit on. Father and mother sat on the trunk, the teamster sat in front on his feed sack. We drove on, as we thought, a long while, when we came to a clearing in the woods, a new log cabin, with a young couple living there. We tried to get something to eat, but could get nothing save a loaf of dutch-oven bread; it looked like a nice large cake, and it was so sour we could hardly eat it, especially without anything with it, as they had neither milk nor butter. We drove on, after the horses were fed for a while, when a thunder-storm came upon us without us noticing it in the dense forest; the rain poured down and our loose boards came good to let the water out.

We got to our destination on a high hill, our house was raised, but not under roof, no doors nor windows sawed out. We stopped at the potters', who had setded there from Germany; they had a one-story, double, round log-house with clapboard roof ; on one side was the pottery, on the other they lived. They had a stove built of tile, the fire was put in from the outside; it was heated and our clothes were hung up on poles above the stove to dry, while we stayed in their beds. As soon as possible we were dressed and on our road to uncle's cabin. We passed a cabin called Napold's Rest. We came to a foot-path where we met uncle coming from Salt Creek, where he had preached that day. He 3 took a child on each arm and we soon reached the bachelors' hall, where we got all the bread and milk we could eat; climb up the ladder to the loft where the beds were, and soon were fast asleep. In the morning after breakfast all was astir ; father went back to Massillon with the team, to take the stage for Pittsburgh to get building material, and store the goods until we could have a place to put them. There were only two teams that went to Pittsburgh from our country, and not near us. Uncle went to hunt them up, the other men all went out to get men to work and provisions to feed them. These backwoods- men could do all the work there was to do there, for they were jacks-of-all-trades, and their work soon showed on the house and woods around it. We had a girl from among the people that lived here before we came, she could manage as well as work; she built a cave that did w^ell for a cellar, and a place to cook by planting large forks into the ground, laid poles on them and pealed the bark off some saw-logs to cover the top, placed stones around where the fire-place was to be, a fork at each side with a bar of iron on, with iron hooks to hang kettles and pots on for cooking. Then she made a baking oven, and told me I must help, as no one else had time. I was with her when she cut saplings down and into the length she wanted them, carried them to the spot, laid them up like the cabins were built. When high enough thick poles were laid over it for the bottom of the oven, got a flat stone for the front of the hearth, two for the sides, one for the top of the mouth of the oven, then put a thick coat of the mortar on, which they used for daubing the house, leveled it and smoothed it, and kept it so while drying, and when dried put good bake wood on the shape it was to be,' and lay bark over nicely to have the top smooth with a twisted bunch of straw where the draught was to be, and daubed it like the bottom, also kept it solid by filling every flaw and smoothing it over till dried, then burned it out and baked in it. All I could do was to pad the mud, in which I delighted, and I am glad I was present when the first oven on that hill was built.

We used of the mortar they made at the rear of our house to daub all the houses with, and also used it to make our oven with. It was made by clearing off" the top ground where we intended to put another house to ours, and there was to be the cellar. When they got to the clayey ground they dug it deep, put straw and water in, then drove several yoke of oxen in and round and round, until mixed. The buildings were chinked between the logs with the chips chopped off in hewing the logs, then filled up even with the clay mortar till smooth, inside and outside; that was all the finishing the walls got for years, only we soaked white clay and white-washed the inside with home-made brushes, made of hog-bristles saved in butchering-time. All the brooms we used were made of hickory, some of them split very fine, but the coarse ones were good to scrub the rough floors; we bought them from the country people and sold them in the store to the new comers, who had to learn how to make them. We traded anything in for goods that the Ohio people made. Most of the Germans had to get what they could not do without, so we could sell what we did not use. The room intended to be the bar-room was fitted up for the store, till the store-house could be built. The other side of the house was laid with loose boards and long rough tables and benches, made for the many men to eat at; up stairs the same kind of floor was laid to put the men's beds on to sleep in. Rough stairs were put up in the hall. The store-house was being built, and as soon as it was under roof we had the lower story filled with tobacco, which the Ohio people raised in large quantities to take to the canal, as traders in tobacco came along and bought it. In the upper story we put hay like in a hay-mow, and put the men's beds on the hay. Then we could get the carpenters' benches up stairs, where they could work, and soon had the other side above the store partitioned and windows put in, so we could get our beds put up in one, and the other we used for a sitting-room, or rather lying-room, as chairs were scarce, only long benches were around the room. The working men used to sit on them, and our gentlemen lay on the floor smoking their long pipes in the evening and talk of improvements of all kinds, while many more of the work-hands stayed outside, as every evening the log fire was built up fresh, which illuminated the place. It was a grand sight, such a fire light shining into the thick forest. This fire was kept up partly to burn up the wood, as also to keep the gnats out of the house, so they that wished, amused themselves out doors until bed-time, or would engage in conversation about speculation and improvements.

The name was given to the place by Dr. Scheurer, who first purchased the land, in honor of the women, saying at the time Weinsberg in Germany was besieged, only the women and children were permitted to go out. They waited on the emperor with the plea for as much as they could carry out at one time on their backs, which was granted them; they went as soldiers and carried out the men. Up to this day the place is called Women's Fidelity. But another cause why some considered it the right name, was, because our hill was covered with wild grape vines and chestnuts. Surely it would be a fruitful hill, and before grapes could be planted an arbor was built in the middle of our garden, covered with the grape vines of the forest, twined around the large chestnut tree cut down on the spot. As soon as supper was over we children were put to bed to get us out of the way, and the child-nurse had to help do kitchen work.

There was no door between the rooms, the room in which the men were was above the store and our bed-room. I could lie and hear their talk, though I was young, I knew it was all speculation, and think I got lessons of building castles in the air, as father often made the remark that he did not expect to live to see and enjoy the things, but his children may. I was one of them, and the plan was for me and my younger sister to go back to Bethlehem, Pa., to school, which plan was frustrated by the fire. So I got big ideas. Dr. Scheurer brought his family from Shanesville, where they stayed until a place could be built to go into. Like all others, their house had only two rooms, unfinished, to go in. The family consisted of a hired girl, a Spanish nurse, the mother of Mrs. Scheurer, and the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Van Steenbere. She was born on the Island of Curacoa in the West Indies, her father died when she was eleven years old, her mother, in poor health then, returned to her native home in this country, Brooklyn, New York. After her education, qualified for city life and very young, she was married to Dr. Scheurer and came to the backwoods ; though they were all of most noble nobility, a blessing to all, and everything to us, yet they had to share with us the hardships of pioneer life. Mrs. Scheurer is one of the surviving ones that settled there first. May we all three be kept to see this finished, to bear testimony to the truth of it, as they are both older than myself, and their last days be their best ones, until we all be called to join the throng of those that have come up. out of great tribulation, washed and made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb.