Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1851-01-09
ADDRESS.

| yOoASs
ADDRESS.
Ladies and gentlemen: rise before
you this evening to respond to call
lately made on me, by the managers
Of this society, to give you my re.
collections Of the Western, or what
is called the Whiskey Insurrection, in
the year 1874. In doing so, shall
have TO depend almost entirely on
my own memory, having no docu-
ments to which to refer. l have,
however, lately had a conference on
the subject with Casper Tarr and
Philip Reagan, EsqrS., of this neigh
borhood, whose recollections aided
me considerably in some of the &C.
currences. Before | proceed with
my narrative, will give you a short
account of the first settlement OF
this part of Pennsylvania, with ihe
manners, customs and habits which
the settlers acquired under the pecu-
liar circumstances in which they
were placed. The settlement COM
menced about the year 1869. The
whole country at that<ime was an
entire wilderness. covered by a heavy
growth of timber. The settlement
progressed and improved till the year
l776, when the revolutionary war
broke out, and which continued till
the year 1888. During that period,
many Of the frontier inhabitants were
driven from their dwellings by the
hostile, savage Indians. Some lost
their lives, and some returned to the
other side of the mountains, from
whence they had come. Others,
not willing to give up their settle
ments, erected temporary forts and
block houses, into which they occa-
sionally fed, when apprehensive Of
danger. The men went out in COM
panies to work their little fields Of
corn, with their guns on their shoul-
ders, placing part oil themselves as
sentinels round the fields, whilst the
other part was at work, for fear Of
an attack from the Indians. In this
periIous situation, they suffered many
privations, until peace was restored
in 1888. After that period many of
the old inhabitants returned, with in
creased numbers Of immigrants, and
the country improved SO rapidly as
soon to supply the inhabitants with
abundance Of every kind OF provi-
sions. Unfortunately about this
time, or a little before, they began to
convert their surplus grain into whis.
KEY; this was the more an evil, as they
used the whiskey principally amongst
themselves, From the great demand
for it, it was the principal article of
trade, and became a kind of STAN
dard Of value, for other articles; and
the man that had plenty Of whiskey
in those times, was regarded by his
fellow citizens by nearly in the same
light as a man is now, who has more
money than his neighbors. | am as
tonished when look back, and reflect
on the quantities OF it that we're con-
sumed, and how profusely, and how
universally it was used. II was the
medicine for almost every disease,
and was constant beverage wher-
ever people met together, whether
to assist each other in labor or amuse-
ment At military trainings, at cleo
tons, funerals and weddings; at rais-
ing log buildings, at log rollings,
grubbing frolicks, chopping frolicks,
in harvest fields and at corn huskings,
IN short, wherever the people met,
and whatever they met to do, they
must have whiskey. Owing TO the
perilous times through which thew
had passed, and from the very nature
Of the employments in a new coun-
try, the people had got into the habit
Of doing almost all their ordinary
labor, accompanies; and these were
a kind Of convivial meetings, that
greatly fostered whiskey drinking: