Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1881-10-27

Il
man what works for Legislaturemau Hunt
upon the mountain, is l06 years oldI" said
Uncle Zeke Holland this morning in res
ponse to question. "Yes, l do, cause
I'm nigh onto 20 myself, and / know he
was quite an old man when was boy.
But talkin' bout old men, you ought to
nave seen my father. He walked away
with anythin' for age I've ever seen or
hearn tell of. Why, John Sickle will tell
you that he used to do Chores for my father
when he was young darkey, and my
father gave him all the schooling he ever
had. When he first moved into these parts
there wasn't bit of cleared land worth
speakin' of. Twas nothin but woods all
round, and the bears and ers were thick
as could be. Now, when say that, Pm
ssyln' good deal, for you know German
Valley is one of the oldest places in Jersey.
That old Lutheran church you see yonder
was built long before the Revolution, and
my father helped put it up. He was quite
young then, It's true, but it was powerful
long while ago.
II want you to think of it a little spell.
Pm the youngest of the family, and as
said bit ago, Pm nigh onto seventy.
I've got grandchildren, and my oldest
brother Twin over in Orange County, New
York, who is just ninety has great-grand-
children. Well, my father died just as
the war ended, and my oldest brother was
his first child bv his second wife, he having
lost all the children born by his first wife.
Do you get onto that? I've hearn him say
he was over 1875, and l believe he was
oil l., al
young chap he had heard the news of
Braddock's defeat by the Indians, and how
excited they all got in this region. 1t was
over month after the battle before they
got the news, but they made Just as much
fuss as they had got it by telegraph the
same day it happened He had cleared
away a couple of hundred acres, and was
married and keepin' house when the tea
was chucked into Boston har6or. Think
of that, will you? He jined a party of
volunteers who went from here, and il took
'em six days to git to New York. He was
with Washington all through the war. and
had two of his toes frozen that night when
they crossed the Delaware.
why, talking bout your old settlers,
my father not only was one of the first 10
open up this part of Jersey, but. he was
the first to Gu. down tree on Schooley's
Mountain, as We now call 1t. One day
while he was telling trees he struck q
spring, the same spring which folks now
drink for their health.
''1t's wonder he didn't get killed those
days, for he worked by himself, the near
est chap bein' quarter of a mile away.
Pve hearn him say that the sound OF the
axes through the trees would fetch the
bears and wolves cut, who would come
around seeInln to be afraid to show fight
when they saw the axe and heard the
crashiu' of the limbs. But once ina while
one of 'em would grow vely bold aud come
growlin' toward the old man. He knew
how to fix 'em. however. de just threw
a couplJ of branches at 'em, and then
Ihirled his axe around his head few
times, at the same time mounting a trunk
ard Yelling. They always turned and dug
back into the thickets-"
but the queerest thing [ ever heard
him tell was bout the way in which the
snakes a: i owls acted when they were
cutting down the trees. You see the var
mlnts had never listened to srch noise as
was made by the chopin and the felin'
of the woods, and they didn't know what
TO make of it. At first they used to gather
in the bushes and along the ground several
hundred feet away from the place where
the men were workin' and watch 'em.
never movln' for hours at time. After
few days they changed their plans and
climbed up trees near by, curlin' them
selves around the limbs and watchin' the
trees go down as though their lives de-
pended on 1t. That must have been q
sorter curious sight.
'Just think Of workin' a quarter of a
mile from any one, with hundred snakes
or so lOokin' down at you from the boughs
of one tree, and dozen or two owls
perched on another. You see, the owls
were blind as bats during the day. but they
heard the noises, and got as close as they
could. I've hearn the old man say that
sometimes an owl and snake would get
on the same limb, and then there was a
circus. He said that you'd suppose the
snake would have it all his own way, but
that amt so. The cussed sarpint would
crawl around the OWLS legs. but before 1t
could give its three calls and bite the owl
would make that queer noise it's so fond of
and fly away. The rattler hadn't a show
when they were goir' through the air, for
it got scared right off, and then the flap
ping of the OWLS wings would kinder dis
turb it, and so it generally forgot all about
bItin'. Often the owl would shake the
reptile loose, and it would go tumblln' to
the ground, cracking its rattles all to
pieces on the stones.
''Yes, them We're great days, and don't
see how my old man ever lived through
'em. Between the bears, snakes, ana cold
l should think he'd tuckered out. But he
didn't, and any time you're mind to drop
in for an hour 70 watch the twin snakes
I'll tell you some more about my father,
who was the oldest man I've ever hearn of
since Scripture times"