How often do we watch movies or television about the frontier days and see it pictured as a romantic, cozy, loving group of families? The ladies are all dressed in their perky sun bonnets and long flowing skirts; the men dashing in their clean hunting clothes, carrying polished guns. Children gleefully playing around the fort or settlement; dogs barking, cattle grazing nearby. Well, I hate to tell you, that's not the way it was! Life in a fort was far from glamorous; in fact it was pretty well the most inhumane and unsanitary place in the world. Let's take a look at the life of those brave and most of the times, rough-hewn men and women who came into Kentucky in the early days before statehood and shortly thereafter. When settlers attempted to come into Kentucky, it was still a time of Indian raids. Many never made it to the safety of a fort (old forts have been shown in previous tips) because of Indian attacks, drowning, exhaustion, illness - danger waited around every bend of the buffalo trail. Those that were survivors went immediately, or shortly thereafter, to the relative safety of a fort. Kentuckians had to learn how to build the forts for the maximum safety from attack and they were at best crude structures. Most forts had attached homes, if so they could be called, built together on three sides of a square. The fourth side was open and fenced so the settler could go for water, salt making or hunting. In some forts, there were houses, or rooms rather, on the fourth side with a narrow gate. Normally the corner house was two story where lookouts could watch for attack. Thus each side of a settler's house had an attached wall, there were no windows in the back and of course, none of either side. A narrow front door and likely a window faced the interior of the fort. Most if not all had dirt floors and upwards of a dozen family members would be crammed into a one room cabin. As more settlers came, families had to double-up; privacy there wasn't! Inside the cabins were only the basics. The settlers could only bring what their wagons or pack animals could carry, and much of this had been tossed along side the trail on the way when the wagons mired down or the pack animals lacked the strength to pull such a heavy load - many animals dying along the way. Sleeping was done on straw mats, cooking down over fires, and the dishware many times hand carved after arrival. Wooden bowls and utensils replaced the cherished silverware. Hand carved chairs and tables were hastily made if the family had lost or tossed way bureaus, chests and dining tables. Most windows were not paned and the "housewife" and other residents were constantly infested with mosquitoes and other flying nasties - which also spread disease rapidly. Cloth, old clothes, furs or anything handy was hung over the windows in the rainy and winter seasons with much of the elements coming inside to chill or drench the occupants. It has been said by many authors that it was often difficult to tell the American men from the Indians. After a time at the fort, they adapted their clothes to the elements, the terrain and the conditions. This was not a place for silver buckled shoes, short pants and white shirts. Bodies tanned and hardened, injuries were endured and the settler took on the look of the native Americans. Many of the men wore moccasins and found that the breeches of the Indian protected them from the brambles and briars of the virgin forest. The women's clothes soon became frayed and worn from repeated washings on a rock by a nearby river bank; hair which might have been beautifully styled in the past now would hang around the face or pulled back into a bun to keep it out of their way. The children ran barefoot and toys were fairly well unknown at this time with the exception of stick horses, fashioned balls and sticks. In the field area with the cabins surrounding it, all of the activities of the fort took place. Horses grazed, chickens ran, children played, meetings held ... it was the common area. With the close proximity of the livestock, flies and vermin bred unhampered. The only livestock allowed most frequently outside of the compound were the hogs. These hogs were nothing more than wild boars who fed and became often quite ferocious. The meat was often inedible. The men were the hunters. They would venture out in search of the wild turkey, deer, buffalo, coyote, anything that could put meat on the table. They also tried to make salt. If the fort planners had been wise, they had built the fort on a higher elevation and near a stream. Indians could never figure out why the white man craved so much salt, but it was necessary not only for the diet but in the preservation of food. Fishing was done in the nearby streams by the men and boys when no reports of Indians had been received. When the Indians were in far away camps, the men attempted to start crops of Indian corn. Vegetable gardens were grown in and outside of the fort, but most of the early settlers were better hunters than they were garden growers. Sometimes the men at the fort would be gone for months and years while out hunting, trapping or Indian fighting. During these times the women had to take over the man's job and on numerous occasions, the wife remarried, thinking her husband long dead. He might come home a year later to find his beloved wife married to another man and with another child. The women were a mixed crowd too. Weary, likely pre-maturely gray and often sharp tongued. They did the cooking, the gardening inside the fort, patched up the wounds of the men, tried to mend clothes for not only their only family but the bachelors among the fort residents. As there were normally more single men then young ladies, they found time for courting rapidly and marriages took place among the fort's occupants. Some young ladies gained a rather questionable reputation and there were a goodly number of out of wedlock children born. A man needed a woman to look after him and he sought the first girl of marrying age (sometimes as young as 13 and 14) he could. The language was often as salty as that which they gathered from the streams. Church wasn't much thought of at the time. This isn't to say that all the settlers were heathen and uncivilized .... but the tremendous pressure on the people to even stay alive pressed hard upon all people. The life expectancy was low. Many dangers faced them daily including: Diseases: Caused by improperly prepared meats, bug infestations, unsanitary living conditions, epidemics. Indians: Always a threat; they were able to come up to the fort without being heard. The women had to gather the water for drinking, cooking and washing, and the men sat at the fort and watched from the corner watchtowers. Many tribes roamed Kentucky and the white man was taking their land and their food. When there was an attack, every able-bodied man, woman and child was handed a gun; slaves included. The Indians were cruel during this time frame and attempted to kill and scalp the white man and kidnap the women and children to be raised with the tribe. They were often entranced with the delicate beauty of the white woman and a captive woman or child became someone to be fought over as a warrior's squaw to do his cooking and cleaning. Men were sometimes taken alive and used as work horses for the tribe; Daniel Boone's capture is an example of this. Accidents: People drowned, had felled trees fall on them, were attacked by the wild animals, cut themselves critically with axes and hand made tools. It was an extremely dangerous life for man and beast. Starvation: When the Indians were camped around, they often ran out of food. If the crops had been destroyed by the Indians, or there had been a particularly harsh winter or summer and the crops didn't produce, hunger was a constant factor. Sometimes the men were forced to go deeper and deeper into the woods to try to capture the wild pigs, or to stalk large game. It has been written that many of the people who survived the fort alive or escaped to go back home, were sickly and walking skeletons. But, somehow, by the providence of God, men, women and children survived. They battled the weather, the native Americans, the dangers and the diseases and cleared the land. As treaties were signed and the Indian moved his tribes west or north, more settlers came rushing in. Eventually, it was safer for the family to move out of the confines of his little room the fort and settle the land they had paid for or squatted upon. More and more individual dwellings dotted the landscape - often to be burned to the ground by a renegade tribe; but those that survived evolved into more of a normal family in their own quarters. Militia still patrolled the areas, skirmishes still occurred, illness still ravaged the land, but those who had made it knew that it had been worth it all. Could we have had the courage, the strength, the determination to have done as they? (c) Copyright 1 August 2002, Sandra K. Gorin, All Rights Reserved. sgorin@glasgow-ky.com Col. Sandi Gorin, 205 Clements, Glasgow, KY 42141 (270) 651-9114 Publishing: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/ SCKY resource links: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/Gorin.html < >< God Bless America ><>