Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1886-10-14
Louisville Courier-Jourpal.

Louisville Courier-JourDal.
was talking with an old farmer the
other day on various topics. writes
Noxville Tenn correspondent of The
\ Courier-J ournal, and after we had dis
cussed politics, tariff legislation, and
kindred subjects the conversation turned
to the good old days when my veneer
able friend was but barefoot farmer
! boy.
Il was BORN" he began, land partly
raised near Athens, Tenn, and my father
/ kept a stand or tavern, on one of the
/ great stock trails leading from Kentucky
and Indiana to Augusta and the south
east. There we're two of those trails
crossing east Tennessee in those Gays, be-
! fore we had ever dreamed of railroads
and did our travelling by stage, or ON
| horseback, One of the trails led from
central Kentucky, across the Tennessee
! line, near where the Cincinnati Southern
railroad now crosses, and crossed Walden's
ridge at Emory gap, and led on diagon-
| ally across the hills and valleys of east
! Tennessee to the Georgia line, and thence
| to Augusta. The other led through Cum
! berland gap to Wanna Springs and on, via
Ashville and Spartanburg, to Charles
| ton. l lived on the lower or Bllgh's fer
/ ry trail, as it was called. There were
/ drovers' stands every nine miles on the
trail My fathers stand was not unlike
many others. large two-story frame
| house with ample kitchen and sleeping
rooms on the first floor. A short dis
lance from the house were several large
| Enclosures for the use of stock stopping
over with us. Why, sir, I've seen as many
as fifteen thousand hogs in She pens at
one house at time and"
! How many?n
! "Fifteen thousand hogs. Yes, sir, and
most of them good big ones at that, and
/ fat as they could be-"
/ How would you manage then all ?"
"The drovers attend to that. Under
stand me, L don't mean that one droyer
would have as many as that, but they
would be in several different droves, pos
/ sibly seven or eight.
Every man knew his own hogs, and
the droyes were kept about a mile apart,
so there was no danger of their getting
mixed. Each drover would place his
smallest and thinnest hogs in front, and
the big fat fellows would waddle along
behind. So fifteen thousand hogs would
make a procession several miles long
How far would they drive IN day."
mine miles was the rule in driving
hogs. You sec il is long ways from
Kentucky to Augusta, and unless they
/ travelled slowly the choice of the porkers
would give out or die by the roadside.
Ten per cent. of the drove never reached
the destination at best, and when the
roads we've rough the loss vas even
greater"
How did the drovers get their money
back"
SWELL it didn't cost much to raise a
/ hog them days. They would turn them
out on the range and allow them to fat
| ten ON the mast. When the mast crop
was short a few bushels of corn at 20
cents per, bushel, would do the business
OF course the greatest cost was in mar
keting. They had to pay about % cents
for corn at the stands, you better believe
it took piles of corn to go round. Then
they had to employ drivers, paying them
about % cents per dag and expenses
They sold their hogs for three and -four
cents per pound in Augusta
"When did driving beging"
"Why, in October, or as soon as the
weather was cool enough. 1t would take
them over two months TO make the trip
Each driver carried his own blanket
and they always have their provisions
along by the wagon-load Tboy would &C
into the public kitchen and prepare their
meals. After supper they would builG
great log fires il the sleeping rooms
Two of them would sleep together, one
placing his blanket on the floor and the
other using his as covering. At daylight
they would rise aud in a short time be or
the road, whooping and yelling at theii
droves. They seemed to enjoy it, and the
boys would run away from home to joir
the drovers
"Later the horse and mule drover.
would come along. They generally
travelled thirty or forty miles per day, au(
put on more style than the hog-drovers
Those We're great old times, and the hours
/ spent with the drovers were among the
most pleasant of my life. l rode the big
fat hogs as well as the horses and mules
and was the pet of all the drovers
Things have changed, you see, and fifteer
thousand hogs in a drove would brighter
you young fellows
The old mans story reminded me Of
an occurrence which happenrd on tn,
Cumberland gap trail, near Warm SPRING
n. c., IN those good old days. There wa
Il SldHu SIX uueH dDONe lu6 springs, KEEP
by a man whom we shall call Smith, o.
course without a desire to cast slur OF
the honored and numerous family of tina
name. Smith was TO all appearance al
} ideal tavern keeper of the olden time
He was hospitable to an alarming degree
and his sideboard was always LIBERAL,
supplied with good cheer" wealthy stock
drovers from Kentucky and Indiana mad,
his stand a stopping place both going anC
coming. They always had large sums o
money on their return, and had no fea
as to its safety in journeying across the
mountains, until one winter, when rob
I berries became frequent in the neighbor
hood of Smiths stand. The droyer
would rise long before daylight and pro
coed on their journey. On several oc
casions they were held up short distance
from the stand by burly negro, WHIT
/ would suddenly emerge from a dens'
thicket of laurel and hemlock. He seizeC
, the bride reins with one hand using
formidable looking pistol with the othe
always coming out successful. The Negro
was never seen in the neighborhood a
} any other time and the robberies created
, ~, GtfIa aynftanent