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THE writer of this little book was born and raised in a log-cabin on Mitchell's creek, in Shelby county, Illinois, twelve miles south-west of Shelbyville, the county-seat. Date of birth, April 26, 1836. At that time there was a poor chance for a boy to get an education; but we love to think of those days, because nature in all her beauties was so near like the hand of God had formed it; the skill of man had changed it so little, and it was our school and our delight to roam over the wide unbroken prairies, where the lark was singing in his native home. Where the wild flowers, of all colors, were more beautiful than Solomon in all his glory. These scenes inspired a feeling in a boy's heart of awe and reverence for the God of nature more deep and sublime and true, than all the preaching could inspire. When a boy would get on a high piece of ground and look around he saw a more beautiful sight than he will ever see again on this earth, and his eyes would fill with tears and from the depths of his boyish heart he would give glory to God; and I don't know but that boy was better there and then than he ever will be again, until God shall call him home.

Men's or Women's Work.

IN early days, in Illinois, there was very little distinction made between man's work and woman's work; for the men could cook and wash and spin, and could do almost any kind of woman's work, and the women could do almost any kind of man's work. The girls could yoke up the cattle and go and cut and haul a load of wood, and sometimes when the girls were not in the field they would go and shoot a mess of squirrels and make a big pot-pie for their brother's dinner. Where there were large families, the parents did but little, the boys and girls done nearly all; and they looked forward to the time when the corn was to plant, or the flax to pull with pleasure, for then all the boys and girls would be together and have a good time; and in pulling flax they would take a swath four feet wide and see who could pull through first, and generally the girls would beat the boys, for it was not heavy work, but all depended on being quick.

Pioneers Making Lumber.

THEY would go to the woods and cut a walnut tree, which would square about a foot, and cut it off as long as it would make good lumber, then drag it to a pretty steep hill with the oxen, then score and hew it square, then line it on both sides; the lines an inch apart; then cut two long stout poles, and lay one end up the hill and prop the other end against trees down on the hillside, then run their square log out on them skids, then dig the dirt down so the under man would have level ground to walk on; then one man get above and one below with a whip-saw, which only cut as it went down; and they made real good lumber; and two good hands was supposed to cut two hundred feet per day.

Hunting Day.

NOTHING in the memory of the early settler remains more vivid than the chase. Fresh in our memory is our boyhood days, when "hunting day" would come, generally on Saturday unless that was "muster day". You may think that we hunted most of the time, but that is a mistake. We could not take the time, but one day in the week was regular "hunting day". All was stir and bustle very early in the morning, the Father and the two big boys would see that their guns were well loaded and in good fix and bullets in each pouch, and as soon as it was light enough the long ox-horn was taken down and taken outside the door, and then the excitement grew more intense, for as soon as the long blast "t-o-o-o-o-t" was given every hound would stand on his hind feet and see which could holler the loudest, and big, little, old and young would come to the door to take part in the jubilee, even the baby would slap his little hands and holler, for he knew there was something up. Then away to the woods and little glades they would go. Then we would stand out and listen with almost breathless silence, but we didn't have to listen very long, for directly, hark! the long-drawn-out "b-o-o" was heard. "Oh, they have struck a cold trail, that is 'old Pomp'" "Maybe a coon." But directly he would begin to warm up on his subject, and "Muse" and "Joler" would fall in, and directly, all at once, all would turn loose, pups and all. "Oh! its a deer, they have jumped it up." Then they would fairly make the woods ring for awhile; and when we would hear the crack of the faithful rifle we knew that meant fresh venison, for we knew that to miss a shot was not their style.

Peter Huffman.

PETER HUFFMAN was an orphan boy, and he had an odd, careless way that made people laugh. Almost every day Peter would do something so odd, and so droll, and so unexpected, that he kept up fun for the whole neighborhood; and he didn't seem to know or care what the people said. But Peter was so honest and so industrious, and so good-hearted, and so unpretending that they all liked him. When Peter was nearly grown, he worked for John Crocker all one summer for a nice yoke of work cattle, and by the time he had the cattle paid for winter was coming on, he had fallen in love with a real good girl by the name of Mima Brewer; and her folks were wealthy, but Peter did not know that that made any difference, and so he went to see Mima and found that he was very welcome. Now he goes to work to make a sled to take Mima sleigh-riding, but before he got his sled done Sunday came, and a good snow, and Mima wanted to go to her Uncle's, about four miles. Now Peter had no horse or sleigh; now what was to be done? Mima wanted to go and she must not be disappointed; and Peter borrowed a one-horse sleigh and went and yoked up his cattle, and got an old pair of harness and put them on "Tom" the near ox, and put him in the shafts, and "Jerry" had nothing to do but walk along at the side, and Peter and Mima got in the sleigh and they went there and back in good order. Peter soon got his sled done and he went and got license and he and Mima got in the sled and went and got married and went to work and soon they were raising more horses, more cattle, sheep and hogs than anybody around there, and soon they had a good farm, good house and barn, and next, they was riding in the finest carriage in that country, and the people that laughed at them when they took their first sleigh-ride had to walk.

Deer Driving.

WHEN the pioneers would go out deer driving, as we called it, in the morning and the hounds would start a deer, they had almost certain routes to run, and we knew pretty nearly where to stand to get a shot, but if it got through, it was very apt to go several miles and circle in the woods for several hours, but it would come back after awhile and cross the road within ten feet of where it crossed before, and now the thing to do was to all go home and go to work, only, leave the boy that was the surest shot and had the best gun and the hounds would follow it, and that boy would have almost a dead sure thing if he would stay there, when it would get nearly to the road it would stop to see if the coast was clear, then the boy would shoot it through the heart, then he would blow the signal for help on the horn, then a boy was sent with a gentle horse to help him fetch it home.

Pioneer Boy.

IT WOULD seem very strange to the people now to see the "pioneer boy" going to the "horse mill" long before daylight for fear some one would get in ahead of him. Then when he gets home he has to go around the field and scare the squirrels out; then go away down in the valley and shake down the wild plums for the hogs to eat; then carry water and put it in the ash-hopper to make the soap; then pick wool while he rests; then go and see if the deer-skins are ready to be taken out of the trough and rubbed dry; then help to put the "chain" through the "harness" to make the cloth; then go and look where is the best place to cut prairie hay; then carry up some pumpkins to dry. But the "pioneer boy" was a happy, rollicking lad; he had just what he expected, and he knew he was a good shot with the rifle, and was handy with the ox-whip, and had a good "coon dog", and that was enough for him.

The Third Boy.

Where Pana Stands.

WHEN the writer was a boy, where Pana now stands was an unbroken wilderness, and the land belonged to the government, and was subject to entry at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre; but that had to be paid in gold or silver, as the paper money of the country was so uncertain. But the people doubted whether the land would ever be worth the money. Tom. Bell lived at Bell's Grove, West, and the Abbot's and a few others lived on the head of Beck's Creek, East; but the prairie where Pana stands there was nothing to show that man had ever been there, not a tree or shrub was there; but the deer and wolves raised their young there, and the rattlesnake had his own way; only when the prairie burned over in warm weather, then thousands of them burned to death. When the men were first breaking up the prairie sod they would tell of killing twenty to thirty rattlesnakes in one day.

The Snake.

The Wild Cats.

IT WAS probably in 1837, my Mother went to see a sick woman, and stayed there until dark, but the moon rose soon after dark, and she started home, she had a pretty good road through the thick woods for about a mile, and when nearly half way home three animals crossed the road just a little ahead of her, and she thought they were panthers, and when they got across the road they stopped, and she thought the bravest way was the safest, and she gathered up a big dead limb and made at them and hollered; they ran up a big oak tree near the road, and she stood there and hollered until John Hall heard and answered, and she told him for him and the boys to fetch their guns and dogs and come quick, she had three panthers treed, and he told her to stay there and keep up all the noise she could, and they run and shot them, and they proved to be wildcats; John said one of them was the largest wildcat he ever saw. That stick was kept about the house for years and was known as "Mamma's Wildcat Club."

The Winters.

IN OUR boyhood we had cold winters, but they were not quite so long as now, we had very deep snows and sometimes there would come a sleet on top of the snow; and then if we could find a deer on the prairie, and sometimes they would stay in the valleys; and if we would get the dogs after them when they would break through the ice and the dogs could run on top, they would soon catch it.

At one time the Baptist people held their association near my Father's, and Jack Neal, Cornelius May and Andrew Hanson started on horseback from their homes North of Tower Hill, and in riding through the prairie where Tower Hill now stands they scared up a yearling deer, and run it on their horses and caught it and brought it to my father's and dressed it, and it was fat and we had fresh venison through the meeting.

How the Pioneers Made Meal.

THEY would cut down a pretty large oak tree and saw off a block about three feet long, square at both ends, set it upon end, build a hot little fire in the middle of the upper end and watch it to keep it from burning too far out, and by burning two or three days they would get a hole burned out in the shape of a basin, then hang a heavy maul to a spring-pole, so that the spring-pole would partly raise the maul; then shell some corn and put it in, and put in a little water to toughen the husk; then stand there and jerk the maul down on the corn and beat it into meal. And it took a good deal of jerking to make a little meal.

Our Native State.

ILLINOIS being our native State; the State of our cradle, and is to be of our grave. The State where our pathway has been strewn with beauties; where the God of Nature has been so plainly seen in every swelling bud and in every snowflake; where the very air has been laden with mercies. No one can be surprised if our feelings prompt us to speak pretty highly of our native home, Illinois, the great fertile prairie valley between the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, like a choice gem placed between the more hilly states on the East and the West. Illinois, the second and soon to be the first agricultural state in the Union; destined by her Creator to do a worthy share in feeding the world. Her merits and her charms have drawn on the intelligence and industry of every nation upon the globe.

Pioneer Work.

THE Author would like to picture to the reader the mold-board plow and the reap-hook, the flint-lock gun and shuck horse collar, the hominy mortar, the goose-quill pen, the fire-place and skillet, the deer-skin coat and pants, the whip-saw and the frow, the pot-rack, and the ox-yoke. We would like to show you the pioneer's tramping out wheat on the ground, with their six or eight horses going round and round; then we would like to show you the four or five big yoke of cattle breaking prairie, and the plow cutting about two feet and turning over every sod distinct to itself; then to see the three boys taking every alternate sod, the foremost boy striking over-handed cutting holes in the sod with an ax, the second boy dropping the seed corn in that hole, the third boy striking over-handed and with the back of the ax closing up that hole, keeping motion the while by the foremost boy repeating the word "now", "now", "now", and them three boys could plant five acres of sod corn in a day. Now we go and see the man riveing out clapboards to cover his cabin; and we would love to show you how the cabin is built and covered and not a nail used only in the door. Now we go and see the ten or twelve boys and girls pulling flax, but you must watch for snakes; see that little spider of a girl, she is ahead, because she is quick. See that field of corn, the crows and blackbirds have taken it nearly all. We would like to show you the smoke-rags hanging to the horses' harness, to drive away the greenhead flies.

Morals.

OUR Father and Mother was very careful to try and teach us to reverence God, and to love our country and our home, and to love our neighbors; and they tried to teach us that the people are not bad, but good; and until this day, we do not like to hear men talk that the people are so bad, for it is not true. The masses of the people aim to do right; they love righteousness, but they often make mistakes, and at an unguarded moment do things which they are sorry for; but they aim to be good. And when we speak of the pioneers being so good we would not dare to say that they were any better than the people are now, but we do not think there was quite so much temptation to do bad then as now.

The Changes.

THE writer has lived in Illinois more than three score and ten years, and in that time we have seen great changes. We have seen the change from the ox-team to the steam engine; we have seen the change from the wooden mold-board plow to the steam plow; we have seen the change from the reap-hook to the self-binder, and from the lizzard to the automobile; from the bull-tongue corn plow to the two-horse riding cultivator. We have witnessed the change from the business being carried on through the medium of trade and traffic to the time when most men have money in the bank. During the first half of our seventy years, Illinois was yet in its infancy and grew very slowly, but during the last half she has developed very rapidly, and has made rapid stride in the way of improvement, and other great changes are to come yet, and they will come pretty rapidly. The spirit of enterprise is on the wing and moving swiftly, and the outlook is flattering. The people are learning; they are laying down their party prejudice, and looking at the situation more wisely. We have had an era of extreme corruption, but that has nearly had its day, for the voters see that their prejudice is the only thing which made that corruption possible. We think we can see reasons to believe that the corruption and lawlessness will have to go; and the drunkenness will have to go. The few party leaders have kept the voters blinded as long as they can, and when the people get their eyes wide open they are mighty and the law-breakers and corruptionists will have to take a back seat.

The School in the Cabin.

IN early days there was an empty cabin in our neighborhood at one time, and a man came along and wanted to teach school, if he could get fifteen scholars he would teach three months for one dollar and fifty cents per scholar, and would take his pay in corn, wheat, pork, beans, honey, beeswax, or anything, and he boarded around among the families who sent pupils. All right; and the men went into the woods and cut some "linn" trees and split them open and hewed some of the worst splinters off the flat side and bored holes and put legs in the round side and made us some good benches; we took the oxen and hauled up some wood and Mr. Anderson set in to teach. He did not know much more than a goat, but that made no difference. Brady Phelps' children would fetch their little, speckled, bench-legged "fiste", and he would stay in the house, under their bench, and when we would stick our feet back under the bench and touch him he would bite us on the heel. Frank Perryman was just about my age and just about as mean; at the noon hour he and I would get a wild grape-vine, and one take hold of either end and get outside the door, then send a boy in to run him out, and when he jumped to go over the grape-vine we would fetch a yank and throw that dog twenty feet high; when we had sent him up a few times he quit the school of his own free will and accord.

Shelbyville in Early Days.

IN our early boyhood Shelbyville, our county seat, was a small place; General W. F. Thornton kept store just North of where the court house now stands; Roundy & Dexter kept store just West of the courthouse; Dan. Earp kept saloon on the South; Ben. Talman kept tavern on the East; Rand Higgins run the river mill; Burrel Roberts was county clerk; Ed. Shallenbarger was surveyor; E. A. Douthit was sheriff and collector. Joseph Oliver was there, also the Trembles, Tacketts, Cutler's, and C. Woodard. John D. Bruster run the tan-yard on the hill. Anthony Thornton was the leading lawyer; Sam'l W. Moulton came there when we were a boy. We remember hearing Abraham Lincoln plead a divorce case in the old court house sixty years ago. At that time the lawyers traveled from place to place on horseback, and carried their books in their saddle-bags.

Wild Animals.

IN our boyhood the bears and panthers were mostly killed out, but there was a great many wolves and wildcats, but we did not fear the wild animals half so much as we did the rattlesnake and spreading viper, both of which was very plentiful, especially the rattlesnake; while the other snakes would run away, they would coil up and make ready to strike. The timber rattlesnake grew to be very large, I have seen them at least four feet long and very thick to their length, but the spots on them were a bright copper color and they were easily seen; the prairie rattlesnake was much smaller, of a dirt color, and hard to see.

The Muley Steer.

WHEN the writer was a boy, maybe fourteen or fifteen years old, my Father owned a nice fat little steer that left home and took up at Enos Jones and my Father wanted him for beef and he told me to go and put a rope halter on him and fetch him home. I went and got him in the stable, made a halter and put it on him and when about half-way home he got unruly, the halter slipped off, and he broke to go back, but I was a good runner, was barefooted, and I headed him; then he took the road for William Sullivan's, and there was a race, he went straight for the house. Mr. Sullivan had four daughters and I was very bashful, and he also had two big dogs of whom I was afraid, but I could not afford to lose my steer; over the fence he went and I at his heels, one big dog came running around one corner of the house from one way and the other dog from the other way, and made at the steer, they had him between them; both doors of the house were open, the women were engaged in quilting and were not apprised of our arrival, and the first they knew we went in at the door, turned the table over on the cat, while as he went in at the door I caught him by the tail and as he went out at the other door, I fetched a yank to the North, which he was not expecting, thus throwing him flat against the wall, then he bellowed as loud as he could; then the women wanted to kill me and the steer too for scareing them so bad; I was hot and scared too, but I tied my steer to a tree, took off my hat, backed up in the shade of a tree, made a long speech upon the short-comings of steers and dogs, and that boys were no better; they all listened and when they got to laughing, we grew eloquent and used big words and lots of them, while they got to clapping their hands and laughing big and loud I left them in fine humor.

Chimney Construction.

MAYBE the reader would like to know how the pioneers made the chimneys to their cabins. They would build up with split logs to the arch, and rive out sticks about one and one-half inches thick and two inches wide; they would make mortar of clay and mix in some grass to hold it together; they would make a scaffold and throw the mortar on that scaffold, and one boy or man would stand there and roll that stiff mud into what was called "cats"; those "cats" were about three inches thick and eight inches long. The builder stayed up in the inside of the chimney, they would pitch the "cats" and the sticks up to him, he would put on a round of the "cats", then a round of the sticks, then pound the sticks down with a hand maul so that the mud was about one and one-half inches thick on both sides of the sticks; and that was a safe chimney for twenty years.

Where Things Grow.

Hospitality.

WHEN you would ride up to a pioneer's cabin the first thing was the hounds' "boo," "boo," then all would come to the door. "Come in," "come in." You go in, you see from one to three rifle guns in the rack, you also see deer-skins and turkey-wings all about the house. "Have you had your dinner?" "No." "Gals, get him some dinner." You find plenty of milk and butter, bread, venison, potatoes, and almost everything that grows on the farm or in the woods. You speak of going. "Oh, stay all night." You conclude to stay; then you must tell your name and where you live, and how long you have lived there, how many children you have, who you married, and where you come from, also how many deer you have killed this winter. You are expected to tell it all, and the children will size you up very carefully; and then by the time the man tells you all he knows, and the woman tells you all she knows, and all that her mother knew, and all that her grandmother knew, and all the children tell you all they know, you do not get much sleep.

Religion.

THE writer learned at an early age to have a great respect for the church, not for any one particular denomination, but for all who seek to serve their Creator with all their heart, according to their best understanding of His will. We was raised under the teaching and influence of the Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian and the Christian churches. John Hall and others was preaching the Methodist doctrine, Willis Whitfield the Baptist doctrine, McCreary Bone the Presbyterian and Bushrod Henry preached the Christian doctrine--all of them good, zealous Christian men. We loved them all. At that day a boy would not have been allowed to speak with disrespect of a preacher at all, it would have been considered almost like blasphemy to thus speak of a preacher with disrespect.

Making Hay.

IN our boyhood, we had little use for meadows, we could go out in the prairie and on the low land we could cut from three to four tons of good hay per acre. A big boy could cut five tons per day, which would now be worth at least fifty dollars. When we was a boy, we went out to mow some hay, and we found our good neighbor John Hall out there mowing, and he showed us where to mow, where the grass was very good, and he said there was all the grass in that place we would both cut. When it was near noon and pretty hot, we were wanting water very much John called us to come to him, we went, and he brought out a very large, long watermelon from under some green hay beneath his wagon, and we got in the shade of his wagon. I do not think I have ever enjoyed a melon with more relish than I did that one.

The Deer on the Ice.

THE Deer is the most beautiful of all animals, very timid and harmless, has no disposition to fight any thing, unless it is wounded or hemmed in, it aims to save itself by flight; but hunters say it kills every snake that it finds, by jumping on the reptile with all its feet placed close together, thus cutting it to pieces with its sharp hoofs.

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