Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1860-11-01
A Picture of Ohio in Isas.

George W. Kendall writes to the New
Orleans P;cayune an account of an expe-
rience in Ohio, as follows:
The month of October, 1928, found me
at Sandusky City, Ohio, still boy but
man grown, with less than five dollars in
my pocket, and with no friend save good
constitution-and good constitution, let
me here say, is one of the best friends a
young man ever possessed. During the
summer l had travelled the whole length
Erie Canal, and had run the gauntlet of
chills, fevers, and all the ills with which
Western New York was then afflicted. l
was now on my way to Cincinnati, short
of money, but full Of hope. But how 20
get TO Cincinnati? l do not recollect that
there was at that time any regular convey
ance in the shame of stage coach, and
even had there been, my pockets were not
sufficiently plethoric to permit me to in
dulge in any such extravaganza. Thus
situated, l resorted to the first and most
primitive mode of locomotive mentioned
in ancient history-I "footed it every step
of the way to Cincinnati"
We passed on through The
little town of Bucyrus, Tiffin, and others,
then just spriDging into existence, and
everywhere it was sickness, wretchedness
and want. In some families half were
down with bilious attacks or chills and
fevers; in others, every soul was unable to
rise. Third rate saddle bag doctors, with
fourth rate medicines, were riding about
from place to place-young men learning
their trade-killing more than they cured
Corn meal, cracked in rude iron mills at
tached to trees, afforded all the Breadstuff,
RANGED pork and many did not even have
that, was all the meat; coffee and sugar
were luxuries rarely seen; the milk from
the few poor cows we saw, looked as though
it had been SKINNED both at the top and
the bottom. Much of the time while we
were on the journey, we encountered cold,
raw rains, and roads knee deep in mud; in
clear days the sun would come out at noon
day, dry and scorching hot; while the
nights would be damp and cherries, and
the mornings foggy-a dense miasma, in
to which you could drive peg, seemed to
brood over the land. You could see chills
and fever every where. Despair sat upon
every countenance, and l saw but few peo-
pie on the route who would not have left
the country at once, had possessed those
important essentials-strength and the
means. Corn they could raise, yes; but
every acre of land reclaimed from the dense
forests, cost world of labor, of suffering,
of sickness, and of death.
Such is hastily drawn picture of what
1 saw in Ohio during the fall of 1928. l
have not half told my story, for l have no
time and space.
I the year 1929 1 was in portions of In
diana-went up 10 Tere Haute, and saw
not little of the country; in many parts
it was even worse than in Ohio, for there
the dreaded milk sickness obtained to such |
an extent that one was just as much afraid
of bowl of milk as a bite of rattle
snake-either would kill in twenty four
hours. And besides the chills and fe,ers
and bilious diseases seemed to be the rule,
while thoroughly sound and healthy per-
son the exception. And discouragement,
too, was plainly marked on half the faces
1 saw, and thousands would have gone
back to their homes in the older States
had they possessed the means. Again, a
few yers after, l travelled pretty much all
over Illinois, Wisconsin and parts of Miss
ouri and Iowa, and almost everywhere l
saw suffering, sickness and discontent.-
Good crops were made-there is no deny
ing it; but after they were made they
were valueless-it cost more to get them
to market than they were worth. In fall
and winter raw piercing rains, coldand cut
ting winds, and deep sticky mud were
everywhere, while in summer the sun beat
down upon the unprotected prairies with
blistering force.