AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



681 



Stephen D. Hambaugh was united in 

 marriage to Miss Elmina Stone on the 

 eve of Dec. 28, 1830, being the night 

 of the commencement of the fall of the 

 celebrated deep snow, so historical and 

 memorable in the minds of the old set- 

 tlers, the snow having fallen to a depth 

 of 4: feet on the level, and remaining 

 upon the ground until near the first of 

 April, ere the face of mother earth was 

 again revealed, and the anecdotes and 

 stories told of the trials and sufferings 

 of the early-day pioneers would fill 

 volumes. 



Nestling among the trees in the 

 somber recesses of the forest, where 

 scarcely a ray of sunshine could pene- 

 trate, Mr. Hambaugh had built his hut, 

 which was in keeping with its rude sur- 

 roundings — a cabin of logs, with a fire- 

 place and chimney built of mud, punch- 

 eons and sticks — and it was to this rude 

 structure that Mr. Hambaugh intro- 

 duced his newly-wedded wife, to share 

 his lot in the miseries and pleasures 

 coincident with a truly pioneer life. 



They were the advance guards of the 

 on-coming tide of civilization. The 

 screams and howls of the wild beasts 

 were made to give way to the sound of 

 the woodman's ax, and in place of a 

 harbor for wolves, wild cats, and legions 

 of other varmints, the forests melted 

 into fields of waving grain, and the 

 rudely constructed log cabins gave way 

 to more spacious frame structures. 



With nerves of steel they liave en- 

 dured privations and sufferings, to clean 

 up the rubbish, that the coming genera- 

 tions might live to enjoy the " promised 

 land," that should "flow with milk and 

 honey." 



They have caused the land to "blos- 

 som as the rose," and " made possible 

 the deeds of to-day." Would it not be a 

 meritorious idea to build a monument to 

 their memory ? 



It was during the Winters of the first 

 years of liis pioneer experience that Mr. 

 Hambaugh obtained a few colonies of 

 bees from hollow trees, by felling them, 

 and sawing above and below the colony, 

 covering one end with boards, and 

 mounting them upon platforms or 

 puncheons, prepared for the purpose, 

 and then transporting them to his cabin 

 on a sled. In this way the first bees 

 were obtained, from wliich he increased 

 their numbers year by year, until they 

 reached as many as 50 or 60 colonies. 



The hive used was very primitive, and 

 the method of talviiig the honey was 

 with the brimstone match, but queer as 

 this may seem the wax and honey pro- 

 duct entered largely as a financial factor 



into the success of the early settlers, 

 and many a hearthstone has been made 

 happy by the timely exchange of their 

 product for Linsey, jeans, and other 

 timely commodities. One settler in that 

 community states that he paid for 80 

 acres of land in early times with money 

 obtained from beeswax and honey. 



Mr. and Mrs. Hambaugh had seven 

 children born to them, four of whom are 

 still living, Joseph M. being the young- 

 est, and in the changing vicissitudes of 

 life, it has fallen to his lot to remain 

 upon the old homestead, to look after 

 the fences and the bees. 



Having inherited a passionate fond- 

 ness for the wonderful little insect, like 

 his father, he declares that the old 

 homestead will never be deprived of 

 their merry hum ; but it was not until 

 about the year 1881, that he began to 

 study modern methods, and prepare for 

 a new era in bee-culture. Up to that 

 time he had never seen the inside of a 

 bee-book, and while he had been taught 

 that bees had a queen, which was the 

 "mother of the flock," that was the full 

 extent of his knowledge of the parathe- 

 nogenesis of the honey-bee. 



He had also learned to produce honey 

 in small boxes, and a little circumstance 

 led him to an investigation, and that 

 investigation was a ray of light shed 

 upon a new field of labor, grand and 

 beautiful beyond description. 



It was in the Fall of 1881, that, 

 chancing to step into the grocery house 

 of J. A. Givins, in Mt. Sterling, he dis- 

 covered a huge pyramid of beautiful 

 white clover honey, put up in one and 

 two-pound sections, and upon inquiry he 

 found they had been produced by a 

 citizen of his own county, by the name 

 of Dunbar. This was an eye-opener to 

 him. He immediately sought an inter- 

 view with Mr. Dunbar, and learned 

 something of his methods, but soon 

 found that in order to be a successful 

 honey-producer one must study the art. 



About this time he read A. I. Root's 

 advertisement in an agricultural paper, 

 and sent for his catalogue of bee-sup- 

 plies, and this led to a purchase of his 

 A, B, C in Bee-Culture, followed by 

 Cook's Manual of the Apiary, Dzierzon's 

 Rational Bee-Keeping, and many other 

 works of note, and it was after a care- 

 ful perusal of these works that he ven- 

 tured on modern improved methods. 



The following Spring found him trans- 

 ferring his bees from the box-hives to 

 8-frame hives of an original simplicity 

 pattern. This proved quite an expen- 

 sive experiment to him. That season 

 the increase was from 8 colonies, Spring 



