96 HAMILTON COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 



January, 1818. I was born on the place in 1821, and with the 

 exception of about two years have resided thereon my whole 

 life. My father was a stock grower principally. Hogs and 

 cattle were raised in the woods, except for a few months in the 

 Winter, when they were fed and cared for. When there was 

 no market for hogs, we raised corn, rye, oats and wheat. After 

 clearing, we generally raised two or three crops of corn, 

 broadcasting rye among the corn for pasturage, feeding the sheaf 

 to cattle followed with hogs, and raising only a sufficient 

 quantity of wheat to supply the local demand for flour or 

 seed. We cut with the sickle at first, and afterwards 

 with scythe and cradle, mowing our small meadows with the 

 scythe and gathering the hay with the fork and rake. 



This country at that time was almost a wilderness, inhabi- 

 ted by squatters who settled in the timber near the creeks 

 and large branches, and cultivated generally a few acres of corn. 

 They beat their corn in a mortar, or a hole in the ground, or a 

 hole in some solid stump near their dwellings (made frequently 

 by btlrning). They used a spring pole with the butt end staked 

 to tlie ground, the center resting in a high fork like an old-fash- 

 ioned well-sweep, the pestle an upright pole taking the place of 

 the rope and bucket and having a pin through the lower end to 

 serve as a hand hold for working up and down. The corn in 

 the mortar was thus reduced to meal ; or when soft enough 

 was grated. Bear, deer, turkeys and squirrels were found in 

 abundance in their various haunts as game. Panthers, wolves, 

 catamounts, foxes and wildcats were abundant enough 

 to destroy pigs, sheep, geese, and occasionally a calf. Our 

 clothing was then made from cotton, wool and flax and 

 from the skins of wild animals fashioned according to the 

 ability, industry or fancy of the wearer. Most families 

 lived on corn bread, hominy, venison and bear meat, 

 sweetened with honey found in trees in the woods. Very little 

 money in circulation until about 1 834-&. My father by indus- 

 try saved sufficient money by 1831 to build the house I now 

 live in, probably the second brick house built south of the Ohio 

 and Mississippi railway, and east of the Illinois Central. The 



