|
Hustisford was the future place selected by my father John Pieper
and mother when it was definitely decided to leave
Germany
. We arrived here on June 7,
1862, with my wife, our son Albert Pieper, my brother-in-law Carl Dallman
and children. My brother Wm.
Pieper had immigrated five years before us, and we made our home with him
in the southeast of Hustisford. My
age was 28 years and our earthly possession were beds and clothes.
No buggies were know, while our supplies were ea…., for at
Milwaukee
, the nearest city. A small
wooden bridge was constructed over
Rock River
where the present iron bridge now stands.
I mingled freely with the descendants of the men
and women that erected the first log cabins in the wild forest, from whom
I imbibed the spirit of their simple pioneer life.
My information has been secured from original documents and from
interviews I had with old pioneer settlers of Hustisford, all of which
have since passed away. These
reminiscences, therefore, date back about a hundred years.
Nothing of course was known of Hustisford at that time.
Wisconsin
was not admitted to the
Union
in those days. In fact,
Michigan
and
Wisconsin
were one state, known as the state of
Michigan
. Indians made their
headquarters in this neighborhood in wintertime, but otherwise they were
mostly absent. I produce these
series of reminiscences of a century ago for the special benefit of the
readers of the News and hope they will be received with favor.
This rich territory was a great wilderness to which the white
settlers attached little worth. The
only practical value that it possessed was the fur-producing tracts.
One could travel in this territory for weeks without seeing a human
being, only perhaps an occasional solitary trapper with peltries bundled
upon his back. Today,
well-equipped farms, thriving villages, busy towns flourish throughout it
instead. The fur trade had
held first place for almost two centuries.
A few hardy emigrants opened up the new settlements, to which new
ones were added from year to year. Their
first fortune was to hew out a home in the dense forest, and to better
their previous conditions, which existed in
England
,
Franc
,
Ireland
or
Germany
. The settlers soon
forgot their past differences of their native countries and actively
worked together for the common good, bent toward a peaceful mission.
The newcomers had experience in farming, and soon their flocks and
herds pastured upon cleared lands. The
companionship of the water also played an important part in their daily
life. To them a weird
loneliness appeared about a desert, an appealing mystery about a prairie,
a sublime majesty about a mountain, while a small body of navigable water
comported with all their moods.
Our
sainted and pious grandmothers could not have been convinced that our
bays, rivers and lakes had no moral effect upon people living near their
shores. Certainly the
boisterous waves breaking with an angry roar upon the shore influence a
bystander. After one wave has
exerted all its energy, another rushes madly forward with a fury as
relentless, followed by others; still no power is apparently lost.
Again, take a moonlight night; cast the sight upon the silver sheen
on the placid bosom of the water.
“Peace! Perfect Peace!” is the inspiring feeling that the
presence of that grand object lesson suggests.
These evidences of the Creator’s power and omnipotence were a
part of His divine plan in molding the characters of the first settlers of
pre-historic Hustisford.
May 19, 1916
The strips of land along the shores of what is now
Rock River
had not been marked out by the surveyors when the first settlers landed at
the different points next to its shores.
Military tents which had been in service of the Revolutionary War
were used in camping until the surveyors had completed their work.
A few days rations were obtained from the government supplies to be
used in the lonely forest. Swamps
were not drained, no bridges stretched over rivers and creeks, forest
debris lay rotting and the only roads were the trails blazed in the
surveying parties. Draining
and clearing up of the farms constitutes a wonderful change in the low
portions of lands. Swamps
which were unsafe to cross, are now firm, while impassable creeks are
changed to be used with ease.
When the little family group reached its future homestead place, the
housewife proceeded to prepare selected favorable conditions for erecting
a permanent house, and for making the first clearing.
The excellent natural surroundings of the old homesteads today are
evidence that the selection was wisely made in most cases.
While partaking of their first meal in their wilderness home, they
compared their primitive circumstances with surrounding that existed
across the water, but no signs of regret came forth for the change.
The next
day the father, sons, and often the mother, too, began to battle with the
forest by clearing a space to build the log cabin.
Their principal weapon was the short handled ship axe, something
like our modern hatchet. No
foundation or cellar was made, as for our buildings of the present age.
A boulder was placed under the ends of the base logs at each corner
of the cabin to support its walls while a small excavation served as a
cellar which was worked by means of a trap door in the floor, and a short
ladder led the way down. Huge
pines were felled, cut into proper lengths, hewed into shape and laid into
position for erection the cabin, which slowly rose to nine feet in height.
Next the rafters were set up, then the chimney.
A hearth was built on a stone foundation, and above it was erected
a chimney from small sticks laid tier upon tier in the shape of a hollow
rectangle, plastered over on both sides with clay.
In many cabins there was no chimney, as the smoke was allowed to
escape from a hole in the tope of the roof.
The floor in most of the early cabins was of earth.
Large timbers squared on the sides and hewed smooth on the upper
surface were sometimes used as wood floors.
A painted floor was considered a luxury, as very few settlers could
afford it. Nothing was of
greater pride to the mistress of the house than a clean floor.
This was obtained by the use of coarse, clean sand and hot water,
applied with a mop and a heavy splint broom.
Thick slabs were used in the roof of the cabin.
An opening was left, but no door, and a quilt hung over the open
entrance. Two small windows
admitted light to the dwelling, and the settler had to content himself
with oiled paper instead of glass panes in the windows.
His pocketknife was used to whittle out the sash.
Moss and sticks filled the interstices between the logs; plastered
over with clay. Not a screw or
nail was used in the construction of the settlers house.
A thick board or plank door was substituted for the
quilt in the doorway after lumber could be obtained, fastened by a wooden
latch on the inside. By means
of a leather string the latch could be lifted from without.
This string was pulled inside when the inmates of the cabin retired
over night. “The latch
string is out,” was a way of expressing a welcome, or saying “the door
is not barred against you.” It
was seldom that the latchstring was pulled in.
There was not very much furniture in the settlers
home. Sometimes there was
favorite bedstead, a chest of drawers, a grandfather’s chair, brought
along from former homes were the few pieces of furniture, while some hewed
out furniture with the axe, whittled into shape and ornamented with their
picket knife. A platform of
poles across one end of the room, some two feet from the floor, the ends
inserted between the logs in the wall, was the bedstead, while rough
benches served as seats and a table was of similar construction.
In large families, the younger members stood up a t the table at
mealtime or occupied a seat upon the floor, because not enough seats could
be afforded to accommodate all. A
four poster bedstead with tester (cloth canopy supported by four tail
bedposts) and side curtains came into use.
Bunks against the walls served as seats, but as beds when opened
out. Corn husks, feather,
boughs, or straw served as mattresses resting on wooden slats.
A crane swung over the fireplace, and the iron ten
kettle and the griddle suspended. The
bake kettle, about eighteen inches in diameter, standing on short legs,
was an indispensable household article.
This was superseded by the reflector, an oblong box of bright tin,
enclosed on all sides but one; later it gave way to the bake over which
was building in the wall by the fireplace.
A roaster, similar to the reflector, was kept for roasting meat.
Matches were unknown, and fire was made by striking sparks from a
flint upon a dry combustible substance or by revolving a dry piece of pine
against another, which was the method used by the Indians.
Blazing logs in the fireplace furnished light during the winter
evenings. The kerosene lamp,
gas, electricity, acetylene and other illuminates have since been produced
by the inventive genius of man. The
tallow dip was also used in later times.
Dishes were as unknown as cooking utensils, as a few bowls,
earthenware plates, and a platter were all the house could boast of.
A corner cupboard used to produce stores of cookies, tarts,
doughnuts and pies, completed the equipment of the first house of the
Hustisford pioneer.
June 2. 1916
The readers of the News will perhaps delight in reading about the
early pioneers’ struggle with the wild forest in which the first
homestead was established. One
of the first requirements of the settler was a well, unless the homestead
site was conveniently situated near a spring or similar supply of fresh
water. A divining rod of
with-hazel was the method by which the presence of water was ascertained.
The well was dug and stoned up, covered with heavy poles for
protecting it. A crotch pole
was planted near the well; another pole, called a “sweep” rested in
the crotch, and a bucket hung from the small end over the center of the
well. The sweep was arranged
so the bucket of water could easily be lifted from the well.
Barns and stables were not needed the first season as there was no
stock or crop of grain to be sheltered.
When these buildings were required, logs were the material to erect
them in the same way as the home was built.
During the first year, a small clearing about the house was made,
in which turnip seed was planted. A
small crop of roots was realized, which were stored away for future use in
a root cellar, and covered with earth.
It was impossible to make much further progress in the new home
until more clearing was done, stock obtained and farming begun in earnest.
As the land was densely wooded and work with the cross-cut saw and
the oxen was slow, it took many years to get the land ready for the plow.
The farmer worked early and late in the forest, single-handed, and
with “bees,” cutting and burning the timber.
The stumps were most unyielding and various means were devised to
uproot them. Stump machines
and blasting powder were employed, while sometimes they were burned out,
or the roots were severed and a logging chain hitched to one side and let
the oxen tip over the stump by sheer brute force.
The pine stumps caused the most difficulty but they furnished
excellent fuel and were also used as fences.
Potash made from the ashes of the burned timber was in great demand
for bleaching purposes and was used in making soap.
Ashes were poured into a leach, a large V-shaped vat; water
filtered through, dissolved, and trickled out at the bottom as lye.
Some animal fat was added to the lye and boiled down for several
hours, which process constituted the manufacture of soft soap for the
farmer’s own use. The
country storekeeper received it in exchange for his merchandise, and often
purchased the ashes himself to manufacture soap himself upon a large
scale. Convenient to the store
was a large ash yard, with a number of leaches in operation, where farmers
brought and unloaded their ashes.
When the first crop of grain was ripe, it was gathered with the
crude implements of the day and removed to the threshing floor, a bare
piece of ground, where a flail was used to pound out the grain.
Nature supplied the fanning mill as the mixed grain and chaff was
tossed into the air while a stiff breeze blew away the chaff.
It was a difficult matter to convert the wheat into flour with the
few little hand mills provided by the government, as they were not adapted
to the purpose. Indians burned
a large hole in the tope of an oak stump in which they pounded the wheat
to a powder with a pestle or a cannon ball operated from the end of a
sweep. This lesson was
followed by the settler. In
later years government mills began to operate a different points where
waterpower was sufficiently supplied.
Within fifteen or twenty years, small clearings appeared
everywhere; houses had been enlarged, barns had been erected, the
melodious tinkling of bells announced the presence of cattle, sheep and
swine were found on every farm, but the marauding bears and wolves had to
be guarded against. Of horses
there were but very few. The
ox found a sure footing among the logs, fallen timbers, and stumps, in
spite of his awkward appearance. A
tedious enterprise of the farmer was the breaking in of “Buck and
Bright” to subdue under the yoke and to follow the “gee” and
“haw” and the whip’s snap.
Soon the general store appeared, but the independent pioneer still
supplied most of his own wants. The
farmer raised and prepared his own flax for thread; raised and sheared his
own sheep and carded the wool.
Our maidens, every one of them, served an apprenticeship at the
spinning wheel, and unless she had learned how to spin the yarn and
prepare it for the loom, her education was incomplete.
The flannel, full cloth, and linen for the whole family were made
at home. Service, particularly
in “everyday clothes” was aimed at more than style.
Boots and shoes were made at home in the days of 1800 to 1820.
A cowhide immersed for three weeks in a weak solution of lye in a
tanning trough and then soaked in a solution of oak bark for several
months was used in making footwear. Corns
and bunions had their origin in those days, obtained from a poor fitting
pair of boots, which have afflicted the human race every since first worn.
In every home a kit of shoemaker’s tools, (a hammer, needles,
awls, and last) were to be found, used in applying a patch, adding a half
sole or making boots. As years
advanced, every neighborhood had its tannery and every village its
shoemaker.
Bear, fox and raccoon skins furnished fur caps for the winter,
while rye straw supplied straw hats for summer time.
Usually in every house some one produced these raw materials into
the finished articles. Our
milliner of today would have a hard time in making a living in 1800, as
headgear to protect the head was worn.
Not all the work and drudgery marked the life of the early pioneer.
There were hours of recreation, and most important of all they
possessed the happy faculty, in many instances, to make play out of work.
The accomplished this by means of “bees,” such as raising bees,
stumping bees, logging bees, husking bees for the men; while the women
held paring and quilting bees. You
may safely guess that the whole neighborhood would be invited to these
gatherings. Man is a
gregarious animal and loves to associate with his fellow men, which was
plainly evidenced in those good old days.
Lectures, fairs, concerts, public entertainment, churches, schools
or political meetings were unknown, so the gatherings were devised for
work – and work they did, but, Oh, for the joy of it!
News from all quarters were discussed, note on progress made in the
clearings were compared, the latest jokes passed and the good things
brought forth from the corner cupboard were joyfully disposed of.
The women regarded the logging bee as a necessary evil.
After the burning of the fallow, the workers handled the charred
trunks by which they soon became black as Negroes.
The nature of this work seemed to demand an extra consumption of
whiskey. Anyway, the liquor
was consumed – the men often became disorderly and ended the bee with
one or more drunken fights.
As a clearinghouse for gossip, the quilting bee far excelled the
modern afternoon tea. We
should add to the credit of the fair sex that they rarely made use of
intoxicants; however, the old grannies did enjoy a few puffs from a
blackened clay pipe after their meals.
Both men and women used snuff more or less.
The drinking of whiskey was not looked upon with such horror or
such disastrous consequences as today.
Whiskey did not appear to have as fierce a serpent in it as the
highly advertised brands of our day. If
a member of a company received an overdose and glided under the table, it
created no more sensation than if he had fallen asleep.
The principal articles of food used by the settlers in 1816 were
similar to those of our present day. Pork
was the main item of meat. The
carcass was preserved in a strong brine, while the hams and shoulders were
smoked. Four was coarser than
what we get from our modern roller mills.
The use of corn meal was more extensive than today.
After boiling it, it was used as porridge for breakfast, sprinkled
over with brown sugar. What
remained became quite firm and was used for supper, cut into slices and
fried. Griddlecakes prepared
from corn meal were of great demand, while Johnnycake was unpopular,
because of being a Yankee dish.
Wild strawberries, plums, raspberries and gooseberries could easily
be picked and the industrious housewife always provided a good supply.
The plums and raspberries were dried in the hot sun and kept for
future use or made into jam, as were the strawberries and gooseberries.
Most of the sugar was furnished by the maple and later cane sugar
was imported. It was not the
white lump or granulated sugar that is bought today, but an unrefined
product that was dark brown and moist, known then as “Musebvado.”
Not until after the middle of the nineteenth century were tomatoes
thought fit for human food. The
fruit was merely used for ornamentation purposes while suspended from
strings in windows. There were
termed “love apples.” The
popular belief was that they caused cancer and the notion perhaps still
prevails among some people.
Although plenty of fish abounded in out waters, most of the
settlers did not care to accept fish as a steady diet for meat.
The outdoor life of hard work and the climate called for something
more sustaining. A mess of
pike could be secured at any time in the spring because every creek and
inlet appeared to be alive with them.
When we look at a map of any of the first townships, we discover
the road allowances are in straight lines, intersected at right angles by
cross roads which are also in straight lines, except the roads along the
waterfront which must necessarily conform to the irregular shores.
Very few of the roads in actual us are straight.
A path through the forest was all that was necessary the first
couple years of the settlement. Once
a path was laid out, it was looked at and selected as a regular highway.
Many of the prominent highways in
Dodge
County
seem to be the shortest practical lines between certain towns and
villages, and undoubtedly were laid out for convenience sake, with total
disregard for the road allowances reserved by government surveyors.
The matter to regulate the laying out, amending and keeping in
repair of the public highways and roads was left in the hands of the
Justices of the Peace, who were declared to be commissioners of highways
within their respective divisions. They
were also given power to alter any road already laid out or to construct
new ones. Men of little or no
qualifications for the position were appointed path masters to act as
foreman over their friends and neighbors.
Every year they turned out in full force to do a good deal of
visiting and some work, while often they left the road supposed to be
repaired in a worse condition than they found it.
Overcoming the accumulation of snow in the roads was by a very
simple remedy as follows: In case any highways are obstructed by snow at
any time, the overseers are hereby ordered to direct as many of the
householders on the road as many be necessary to drive through the
highway.
June 16, 1916
A hundred years ago there were no judges, no regular
courts, and no lawyers in the new settlements of early Hustisford.
People had little time to devote to matters of litigation. They
wisely endeavored to avoid using the legal machinery.
Frequently minor differences were decided by officers appointed to
look after the bands of emigrants who left their former home.
These officers were not versed in law, but had distributed supplies
and located families committed to their care.
It followed naturally that they should be appealed to by parties to
locate. Their common sense in
applying the Golden Rule brought substantial justice to the people as no
hair splitting precedents of adjudged cases or lengthy forms of court
procedure were resorted to. Justices
of the Peace had jurisdiction in civil actions up to $50. but their
informal courts were seldom busy. An
act on the statute book soon declared that “in all matters of
controversy relative to property and civil rights, resort shall be had by
the laws of
England
.”
Two or more
Justices of the Peace were appointed in a given district, who were
compelled to hold courts in private residences, taverns, or in whatever
room that could be obtained, because there were no court houses at the
disposal of the justices. Soon
merchants began to discover that by taking promissory notes from their
customers in settlement of their accounts, they could sue for the amount
of the debt thus acknowledged in writing.
This was greatly to their advantage.
An incident is related that capital punishment was imposed upon a
convict once who was hanged on a basswood tree near the roadside.
Afterwards it was discovered that the poor victim of the judgment
was innocent of the charge of which he was found guilty.
Parties in early
courts were occasionally represented by counsel.
No requirements called for any educational tests or professional
experience in the practice of law and attorneys were liberally admitted to
the bar.
Many of the
communities began to organize town meetings and appointed local officers,
like constables, clerks and overseers of highways.
The legislature later legalized and made general throughout the
entire territory the holding of such town meetings as had been established
in some of the older townships.
Today a
Justice of the Peace is not looked upon with a mark of superiority as in
1816, as the humblest citizen of Hustisford may now be addressed as
“Esquire.” A hundred years
ago every hat was doffed when the “Squire” passed through the village
streets, as he was a man of high importance.
The laws
enacted in those days regulated such matters as the running at large of
certain animals, the height of fences, and the extermination of noxious
weds. The town meeting was
very popular with the people for the reason that it was their own making.
It is noticeable that they constituted the beginning of a
democratic government by and for the people.
Later our present municipal system introduced and only the judicial
power was left to the justices.
In
the good old days of our grandfathers, whiskey and the open vote at
election were two very potent factors in creating big excitement.
Only one booth was set up in a country tavern in the district’s
main village. A platform known
as the “hustings” in the district was the assembling place of the
candidates and their henchmen. The
poll was kept open every day from Monday morning until the following
Saturday night. Heated
discussions among the voters often terminated in a rough and tumble fight
in which a score or more participated.
Drunken men reeled about the village until stowed away by a friend
in some tent or in a stall of the tavern stable.
Free lunches and fee whiskey afforded a golden opportunity for the
indifferent voters who needed encouragement.
June 30, 1916
In concluding my reminiscences in the News at this time, I take
pleasure today to recall that physical ailments existed among our
forefathers as well as among us, but their suffering from disease seemed
less than ours of today. Operations
were not known and surgeons were seldom called unless amputation was
necessary. Bacteria had not
been discovered in the human body, at least no attention was paid to it.
People feared epidemics like smallpox, as these swept over the
whole country at times and instituted sorrow among our forefathers.
Men were too busy with work to take notice of microbes of which
modern scientists are speaking so much.
But few licensed medical practitioners were known, as people served
themselves as good as they could. Nothing
was known of skilled specialists, but before long the quack doctor with
his vile decoctions came into existence among the settlers.
Laws against him were enacted, but he still survives up to this
day. Mothers or grandmothers
in a family acted as apothecary, nurse and doctor.
Every fall of the year she gathered a supply of herbs to be sued as
medicine for almost every ache and pain that might arise.
She stored away her collection in an attic for future use.
Mad desire for wealth and excitement was unknown and the average
family enjoyed better days because they consumed more plain and wholesome
food, respected the different organs of their body more and made less
demands upon them than some of the high livers of 1916.
Perhaps too, mother’s simple home remedies did much to check the
extravagances of the weak and careless and cure the sickly.
At any rate the mortality of the settlers was not greater than at
present. Syrup for coughs and
colds was made from spignet roots, while catnip weed afforded the tea for
stomachache or troubles of the throat.
"“Tansy tea” was popular for all such ailments.
Cherry bark tea was used for regulation of the blood, and hop tea
for indigestion. Black alder,
resin, beeswax and lard were used for a healing and soothing salve or for
treating severe burns and scalds of children who fell into the tub of hot
water used at scrubbing the unpainted floor or who toppled into the open
fireplace. Bruises and
swellings were treated with smartweed steeped in vinegar.
It reduced the pain and swelling instantly.
Wormwood was applied to the use of dumb animals.
Lame feet were soothed with the leaves of plantain, and open sores
or abrasions were treated with a healing ointment produced from leaves of
common garden beans. Roots of
the troublesome and persistent wee, the burdock, were prepared and
administered to regulate the blood and cure indigestion.
Since the days of King Solomon, the mandrake, mandragora, or
mayapple has figured from a death-dealing factor to a love potion and our
forefathers made a tea from its roots to gargle sore throats.
To quiet the nerves, roots of neve-rine were chewed, while a cold
was broken up with spearmint tea.
Frequently a plain and simple farmer, without knowledge of medicine
or surgery, set a broken limb. With
the little experience thus gotten, he soon became an expert in this line
and his services would be requisitioned in similar cases.
Extraction was the only safety first treatment for troublesome
teeth for the reason that dentists were unknown.
Very likely you never heard of a turnkey, except in connection with
the keeper of the common jail of
Dodge
County
. Well, some settler would own
one of these instruments of torture, which was then visited by the owner
of a troublesome molar. Of
course the unprofessional did not practice sterilization and anesthetics
were unheard of. The kitchen
chair was the seat of the victim who grasped the rungs on both sides.
The gum was loosened from the unruly tooth by the operator with his
pocketknife, after which the turnkey was attached.
While the two men faced each other with grim determination, one
clung doggedly to the chair; the other jerked and twisted the key.
I better draw a curtain over further details of the operation, as
brute strength prevailed in the end. These services were rendered free and
naturally people were tickled to accept them because there was no choice
as no others could be had.
A common practice was bleeding as a remedial measure and often a
patient was relieved of a quart or two of blood at one time.
The grim reaper did his work in due season as doctors and medicine
were then unnecessary. The
undertaker and the plumed hearse were unknown and the main features of the
last sad rites were economy and simplicity.
A rough sketch of the outlines of the deceased were furnished to a
nearby carpenter, who, with plane and saw, fitted up a coffin from
basswood boards. The outside
was covered with cheap cloth or was stained and plain iron handles forded
its only adornment. Funeral
services were conducted at the home of the deceased.
A silent procession accompanied the remains to the grave and the
regret over the loss of the deceased was judged by its length.
A sandy knoll on the homestead was selected for the place of the
grave, where the remains of many of our ancestors were laid, with a wooden
slab at its head. A brief
epitaph was painted on this slab, together with a quotation from Holy
Writ. The weather ravaged the
lettering and in time the reservation was destroyed by cattle.
Posterity failed to renew the wooden marker, until respect for the
memory of the dead ceased. The
plow and harrow then removed all trace of the last resting-place of the
settlers who shaped the destiny of what became later known as Hustisford.
Top of Page
|
|
bravenet.com