The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1867-02-21

ing with. His sole earthly possessions were
wife, dog, gun and axe. His rife, how
ever, procured them meat in abundance,
but bread was difficult to procure. He re-
lates that on one occasion he went to the
New Market neighborhood, and cut and
split hundred rails for bushel of pota.
toes, which he carried home on his back a
distance of six miles. cat the same place
he worked a day for hen and three chick
ems, which he put in his hunting-shirt
bosom and carried home. Having neither
horse nor plow, he went into plum bot
tom near his cabin, and with his axe grub
bed and cleared off about an acre and a
half, in which he dug holes and planted
corn, without any fence around it. This
patch he cultivated as well as he could,
and was rewarded with crop Of near a
hundred bushels. During the summer he
with the help Of his wife, put up a neat
cabin and made it close and warm for win
ter quarters, In order to give additional
warmth to it, when he gathered and husk-
ed out his corn, he carried it and put it on
the loft. Thus comfortably fixed, he marked
the approach of winter with indifference.
for although he had no meal for bread,
hotniny, bears meat and venison were
abundant, and he says no couple on earth
lived happier or more contented than he
and his wife in their snug little cabin in
the midst of the woods, far away from the
noise and relations of the busy world
Indians often called on him and stayed all
night.
ain the fall Robert w, Finley and his
family, consisting of John, William, Sam
uel and Robert, jr., moved up and settled
near James, and shortly afler, John David
son, with his family, weary Of the sicklv
valley of the scioto, left the neighborhood
Of Chillicothe and settled on Whiteoak in
the vicinity of the Finleys. Mr.. Davidson
had removed from Fayette county, KY, to
ChillicOthe in 1897,
"The settlement on Whiteoak iiow mum.
bered some fifteen persons. The generous
hospitality, characteristic of pioneer days,
was common to all, and when any one
wanted help all were ready to aid him to
the utmost extent of their power. The
greater part of the winter was spent N
hunting, and store Of summer provi-
sions was thus laid up. The bear was the
most valuable and therefore the most gen.
orally hunted. This fall there was a good
mast, and bears were so plentiful that it
was not necessary to go far from the set
tlement to find them. About Christmas
they made their turkey hunt, and killed
large numbers of them. They found them
very fat. To preserve them for summer
use, they cleaned them, cut them in two,
and after sailing them in troughs hung
them up to dry. In summer they cooked
them in bears oil. The dry breasts, stew
ed in bears oil, became good substitute
for bread, which was then rarity, the
nearest mill being 80 miles distant.
"AnOther great difficulty experienced by
all early settlers in Southern Ohio at that
day and for many years after, was to pro-
cure salt, which sold enormously high, at
the rate of four dollars for fifty pounds
In backwoods currency, this would require
four buck-skins, a large bear-sllin, or six
teen coon-skins, to pay for it. Often it
could not be procured at any price, and
the only mode by which the needy settlers
could obtain it was, by packing kettles on
horses to the Scioto Salt Licks, and boiling
the salt water emselves-otherwis they
had to dispense with it entirely. In such
cases they used strong hickory ashes to
cure their meats.
"The opening spring found the Finleys
and their neighbors in good spirits, and
the summers work was entered upon un-
der rather more favorable circumstances
than was that of the preceding year by
James B. They had procured plows suf-
ficient for the wants of the little commune
ty. An abundant crop of corn rewarded
their toll in the fall. The following win
ter was extremely severe, and the bears
all hOled up in the large poplar trees which
abounded in that vicinity, so that this very
important source of summer and winter
supplies was almost out of the question:
The Finleys, however, were bold and per-
severing hunters, and after considerable
search they at length discovered a tree in
which they supposed bear was holed.-
They reported, and they and the David
sons went to work and cut the tree, and
sure enough there was the bear, which
they killed. They continued on searching
the timber and cutting trees, till in the
course of week they found and killed
eleven bears, four of which were old, the
young ones. The largest of the
old ones weighed over 400 lbs. Thus sup
piled, the winter passed, quite. pleasantly
in the settlement on the banks Of White
oak. No people on earth possessed more
of the true elements Of happiness. They
spun and wove their own flax for shifting,
&c, and dressed skins for moccasins,
Dreeches and hunting shirts, and had to
pay no tribute to Cesar. They had no
masters, no courts, no road working, no
tax collector, no squires, constables, doe
tors or lawyers. Their social life was gov
erned by the law OF kindness, and if a
quarrel did occur the parties interested
fought it out, fist and skull, aud made
friends when their wounds healed. Itwas
not often that they had preaohiug-the
Finleys at that time not being in the