Little Egypt Heritage Article Stories of Southern Illinois Bill Oliver 2 March 2003 Vol 2 Issue: #9 ISBN: pending Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, "A people without a history is like wind on the buffalo grass." --Crazy Horse, Oglala Sioux This has been an eventful week. I'll bet Mr Rogers likes his new Neighborhood! Crayola Crayons are 100 years old, as is the Ford Motor Company. Yesterday, March 1st, Singer Harry Belafonte and Actor-Director Ron Howard celebrated birth dates; with twenty-seven years difference in their ages. In 1781, the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation on March 1st. Also, on March 1st, in 1872, Congress authorized the creation of Yellowstone National Park. On the first of March, 1845, President John Tyler signed a congressional resolution to annex the Republic of Texas; while in 1953 a President finally signed the admittance of Ohio as the eighteenth state of the Union. Beginning yesterday, Ohio officially began its yearlong celebration of the 200th year anniversary of statehood by moving the state capital back to Chillicothe. But, only for the day. Some of my ancestors, grandfathers and great grandfathers, just felt that farming was not their calling. My maternal Grandfather was a printer in the days when type was set by hand and printing machines needed an operator. His father was a Carny Barker with traveling shows. And, his Grandfather, I've been told, was a mason, and laid some of the streets of Reading, Pennsylvania. Great Grandpa tried farming for awhile after meeting and marrying Great Grandma. He supplemented his income as a potato farmer with brick laying, like his father. He then turned to "buggie" striping and finally to house painting. My paternal Grandpa tried farming but just didn't like it. He tried mining coal and working for the railroad. For awhile, with his brother, he operated a street car in Cincinnati, Ohio. He eventually operated cranes which loaded railroad ties onto flat cars. Farming east of the Mississippi River and farming west of it was much different. In the west the differences in soil and availability of water have greatly influenced crops grown. When Great Grandpa farmed with his in-laws in Nebraska, corn was the big crop. Vegetable farming was not more than for domestic use. His potato crops were not very successful. Economic factors, including the decline in Federal Support for cereal grains and oilseeds, farmers looked for additional and alternative crops to grow. They looked for high value crops with long term market value. Sugar beets and potatoes produced higher returns per acre than small grains which produced only marginal returns for the work invested. Since root crops were good for a long term market value, other root crops such as onions, red beets, carrots, parsnips, and even rutabagas could be mechanized in both production and harvesting. So, with irrigation and the ever adventurous plains farmer, these crops are being added to the high value crops being grown today. As these words flow onto my word processing software, it is once again snowing. And, this reminds me that ‘tis the season. It all started with Native Peoples. One of the common threads of the peoples of America is the concept of ‘spirit'. Meaning was divined from things they experienced. They got meaning from the rivers, the mountains and valleys, particular rock formations, trees and all the animals that inhabited their lands. The Peoples each had a ‘spirit', so it was natural for them to summarize that each thing that they encountered also had a ‘spirit', and to each, its own spirit. This was passed from generation to generation from very ancient times. The Sioux danced the Buffalo Dance in the spring to thank the buffalo spirits that would give up their lives for the use of the Peoples. The Iraquois and other eastern Woodland Natives performed their ceremonies to thank the spirits of the deer before they were hunted and killed. At this time of year, when the weather warms for short periods of time, the saps run ... tree water. Sinzibuckwud, or maple sugar, was discovered long ago in antiquity. The ‘tree water' comprised about 15% of the woodland Natives' diet. After collecting the ‘tree water' they cooked the sap down by the arduous task of heating hot rocks in an open fire, then placing them into a wooden bowl filled with sap. The rocks, of course, had to make steam in order to cook down the sap. No one knows when a process was developed. However, the Native Peoples were very observant of their surroundings. As forest dwellers, they had developed a very sophisticated forest technology. An Iroquois' legend simply says that one of their youths watched a squirrel run up a maple tree and bite off a twig. The squirrel licked the sap off the twig. When the Iroquois youth tried the same, he found that the sap was sweet. Canadians have observed red squirrels running around from maple tree to maple tree nipping and creating deep wounds. After the wounds have exuded some sap, the squirrels return for lunch by eating the sugar crystals. If squirrels could do it, the Indians could definitely build on the squirrels' tactics. In selling America to potential immigrants, the benefits and practice of maple sugar making was exploited in the travel brochures of the day. The "barkers" for both the north and the south touted that one could grow one's own sugar in one's own back yard. So like the Native Americans, from whom they learned the how, the first settlers to this country gashed the trees, collected and boiled the sap, making maple sugar in their own "back yards". Yankees that they were, they nigh immediately improved on the process by using metal pots to collect the ‘tree water' and kettles in which to boil down the sap. Civil War buffs know that the use of maple sugar was regarded as an act of protest during the War Between the States. Cane sugar was an exclusive item from the Southern States, as was most of the molasses. Prior to and during that war, Northerners used maple sugar to sweeten their foods, thus, protesting against products from the South. Wado, Bill -=- http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html