My grandparents Smith who lived on a farm near Eddyville had a scutcher hanging in their home after they moved to South Bethlehem for retirement. On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 20:01:39 -0800 "Tom" <tomchapman@adelphia.net> writes: > Our shoes or boots were made by Wagoner, who lived in an > old log house on the back of the farm. His son afterwards preached > in the Reformed Church at South Bend. The clothing was mostly > homemade. I recall scutching the flax, and the women helped prepare > it ready for tow. The break was the first thing. We broke the raw > flax, the wood part fell out, and the flax part was gathered up and > we had to flail that with a "scutcher." We had something that stood > up almost straight and we whipped the flax against it. That was > called "scotching." We whipped that with a thing made of wood with > a sharp edge something like a paddle. We knocked the extra wood off > the flax and made it ready for the heckle. It was then pulled > through the heckle, which had many sharp points, and it made it > ready for the spinning wheel, and then it was ready for spinning > into yarn. Mother was a great spinner. She spun the flax into > balls of linen thread, which was taken to the weavers. M! > other made many quilts. > > > > We used candles made out of tallow. We had a candle mold > and poured tallow into them. When oil was discovered in Butler > County it was first used in and around our section. > > > > For amusement we had log-rollings, barn raisings, apple > parings, and sausage-cuttings. To cut the sausage we used two > choppers and cut it on a table. > > > > A coal bank was opened on the lower farm, and coal was > taken out almost every winter. One winter we took it out of the run > next to the Thompson line. > > > > Squire Wherry's boys, my brother Elwood and I used to go > swimming a couple times a week through the summer at "Hickory Hole." > > > > > Not many people owned buggies when I was a young man. > They cost from $200 to $250. Father bought a two-seated surrey from > Hale Clark of Saltsburg. > > > > ==== PAARMSTR Mailing List ==== > > > >