from another list FYI ----- Original Message ----- From: Linda Roberts To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, October 21, 2005 3:15 PM Subject: [reeder] TRAVEL BEFORE 1800 AND RIGHT AFTER IN VA, WV, OH AREAS http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/wv/history/oldnew/chap10.txt Very interesting reading as to what it was like to live and travel before 1800 and right after in VA, WV, OH areas. It also makes you realize just how rugged the terrain was as well as how closely located/linked the communities are we have been doing genealogy on. ======== Exerpts (just to peak your interest) Saturday 2nd. Got to Kenawa C. H. this ev'g. Trav'd 20 miles-horse lame and unable to proceed-drenched him with a pint of salt dissolved in a halfpint whiskey. Sunday 3rd. Horse still unable to travel-bathed him with a decoction of smart weed, soft soap and vinegar, and applied the weed to his back. Monday, 4th July. Horse still lame and unable to travel; took off a shoe; appears to be gravelled; cleared the wound and filled it with hot tar and nailed leather over it. This day was celebrated here by the Gentlemen and ladies of the neighbourhood, about 20 of each. The dancing commenced at 12 o'cl'k; dined about 3, and con- tinued dancing etc., until after 12. The ladies were generally hansome; danced with great ease if not with elegance. The Gentl'n friendly in the extreme. The time was spent in the greatest harmony and sociability, no ceremonial rules im- pending a full enjoym 't of the ocasion; each, both male and female vying in producing the greatest quantity of satisfaction. The Gentl'n and their families of most note who attended were Mr. Reynolds and family, Mr. David and Jos. Ruffner and family, Mr. Buster and family, Col. Donalson the Clerk and family, Mr. Sparks and his family; some fine girls from Teaze's Valley. Note: Promised to write to D. Ruffner the acc't of my journey home. Thursday 7th July- The ague and fever prevalent here in the fall. I am informed by Mr. Reynolds and others that there is a leading valley from Clarksburgh near the head of Little Kannaway and down Poky, and into the Kentucky road in Teaze's valley. This route I am told is level for this country and has been traveled and is by far the nearest route from that part of the country to Kentucky etc. Charles Town is en- tirely built of log houses, except one not yet finished; they are in a string along the river bank, a street passing between. ********* 2. NARRATIVE OF REV. HENRY SMITH (1794). Rev. Henry Smith, an early Methodist minister, left an interesting narrative of his ob- servations along the Monongahela in 1794. The following abstracts pre- sent a concrete picture of local conditions at that time: From this place I pushed ahead through Clarksburg, and met my first appoint- ment at Joseph Bennett's, about fifteen miles above Clarksburg. The people came to this meeting from four or five miles around, and among them Joseph Chiveront, quite a respectable local preacher. They were all backwoods people and came to the meeting in backwoods style, all on foot, a considerable congregation. I looked around and saw one old man who had shoes on his feet. The preacher wore Indian mocca- sins. Every man, woman and child besides was barefooted. Two old women had on what we then called short gowns, and the rest had neither short nor long gowns. This was a novel sight to me for a Sunday congregation. Brother Chiveront, in his moccasins, could have preached all around me; but I was a stranger and withal the circuit preacher, and must preach of course. I did my best, and soon found if there were no shoes and fine dresses in the congregation, there were attentive hearers and feeling hearts. When I left Bennett's I went 25 or 30 miles higher up the Monongahela and preached at the house of Brother Stortze. Within a short distance of this house the Indians took a young woman prisoner, and murdered and scalped her. A messenger came and injudiciously announced that her remains had been found, and threw the whole congregation into consternation. Here I saw the men coming to meeting with their rifles on their shoulders, guarding their families, then setting their guns in a corner of the house till after the meeting, and returning in the same order. On his next preaching tour he wrote: They were all glad to see me, but I was rather sorry, and somewhat alarmed, to find the women alone, for there was not a man or even a gun about the place. The men were all in the woods, some hunting, some digging ginseng and snakeroot, and did not come home that night; so I had to guard and comfort the poor women and children. The house was crowded. Toward sunset we all went into the house and barred the doors as well as we could. The next day the men came home before preaching. In this place we had a pretty large society, and some very pious people. They lived, in the true sense of the word, in backwoods style. Their sugar they made out of the water from the sugar tree. Their tea they got out of the woods, or from their gardens. For coffee they had a substitute, namely rye or chestnuts. Money they had but little. They traded at Winchester and other places, with gin- seng, snakeroot, and skins, for salt, rifles, powder, lead, etc. All their produce was carried to market on packhorses. Their wearing apparel and bedding were mostly of their own manufacture. Religion certainly did exert a happy influence on the morals of this uncultivated people, and I was often delighted with their artless sim- plicity. In their way, they appeared to be as happy and contented as falls to the lot of most people. Taking all things into consideration, our congregations were good; for people made going to meeting a business, and trifles did not stop them. In the lower part of the circuit the people were more refined in their manners. ========= On his next preaching tour he wrote: They were all glad to see me, but I was rather sorry, and somewhat alarmed, to find the women alone, for there was not a man or even a gun about the place. The men were all in the woods, some hunting, some digging ginseng and snakeroot, and did not come home that night; so I had to guard and comfort the poor women and children. The house was crowded. Toward sunset we all went into the house and barred the doors as well as we could. The next day the men came home before preaching. In this place we had a pretty large society, and some very pious people. They lived, in the true sense of the word, in backwoods style. Their sugar they made out of the water from the sugar tree. Their tea they got out of the woods, or from their gardens. For coffee they had a substitute, namely rye or chestnuts. Money they had but little. They traded at Winchester and other places, with gin- seng, snakeroot, and skins, for salt, rifles, powder, lead, etc. ll their produce was carried to market on packhorses. Their wearing apparel and bedding were mostly of their own manufacture. Religion certainly did exert a happy influence on the morals of this uncultivated people, and I was often delighted with their artless sim- plicity. In their way, they appeared to be as happy and contented as falls to the lot of most people. Taking all things into consideration, our congregations were good; for people made going to meeting a business, and trifles did not stop them. In the lower part of the circuit the people were more refined in their manners. 4. EXTRACTS FROM LETTER OF ERIC BOLLMAN (1796). The follow- ing letter was written in 1796, twelve years after Washington's journey of 1784, by Eric Bollman, a traveler through Maryland and via Dun- kard's Bottom to Morgantown and thence to Pittsburgh via Uniontown, Brownsville and Washington (Pa.): From Cumberland we have journeyed over the Allegheny Mountains in company with General Irwin, of Baltimore, who owns some 50,000 acres in this vicinity. * * * We spent the first night at West Port. Up to this point, at the proper seasons, the Potomac is navigable and could be made so quite a distance further. But even in the present state the land journey to the Monongahela, which is navigable and flows into the Ohio, is but a distance of 60 miles. The road is not in a bad condition and could be made most excellent. This will, without doubt, be accomplished just as soon as the country is sufficiently in- habited, since there is no nearer way to reach the Western waters. The next day we dined with Mr. M. McCartin, still higher up in the mountains. There are many settlements in this vicinity. We were entertained in a beautiful, cool, roomy house, surrounded by oat fields and rich meadows, where the sound of the bells told that cattle were pasturing near by. We dined from delicate china, had good knives, good forks, spoons, and other utensils. Our hostess, a bright, hand- some, healthy woman, waited upon us. After dinner, a charming feminine guest arrived on horseback; a young girl from the neighboring farm, of perhaps 15 years of age, with such bashful eyes and such rosy cheeks, so lovely and attractive in manner that even Coopley, our good mathematician, could not restrain his admiration. This is the "backwoods" of America, which the Philadelphian is pleased to describe as a rough wilderness-while in many parts of Europe, in Westphalia, in the whole of Hungary and Poland, nowhere, is there a cottage to be found, which, taking all things together in consideration of the inhabitant, can be compared with the one of which I have just written. Four miles from this we reached the Glades, one of the most remarkable fea- tures of these mountains and this land.* * * Many hundred head of cattle are driven yearly, from the South Branch and other surrounding places, and entrusted to the care of the people who live here. * * * Only lately have the Indians ceased roving in this vicinity; which has done much to delay its cultivation, but now it is being cleared quite rapidly, and in a short time will, without doubt, become a fine place for pasturage. We spent the second night with one named Boyle, an old Hollander. Early the next morning we could hear the howling of a wolf in the forest. ============ There is lots more just like this Linda Roberts SPONSORED LINKS American family home insurance American family home insurance company American family home owner insurance Multi family home for sale Single family home for sale Family home finance -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS a.. Visit your group "reeder" on the web. b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------