The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1907-09-19
Necessity the Mother of Invention.

< Sllllluk i'll lllC WOoNHj OlCdiIhS thN
spot wnere the house was built,
with plenty Of territory for all ideal
farm, covered thickly with heavy
timber and a thick growth of uu-
and some parts well spat-
tered with stones, all of which had
to be cleared away before the soil
could be titled. All Of this requir.
ed bone and muscle as no machin
cry could in any wise do this work.
The "Arm Strong" and horse pow
er were the only available means
then i'll vogue to prepare the land
for cultivation. Now then, the pi-
oneer felled his trees, cut his logs,
built him au house and barn with
out carpenter or mason, often not
even fatten his logs, but put them
up in the round, and often to thatch
the roofs with straw. We renem-
Der seeing straw roofs on barns and
sheds, as manv had no shingle tim
Der, they used straw. We have
seen many barns covered with slabs
of wood. After building a large
chimney as an appendage to the
log house Of one or two rooms, and
a few splint bottom chairs and sev-
eral benches, the outfit for sitting
was complete. The floors, upper
and lower, in a story and half build
ing, were the only means of divid-
ing the upper and lower apartments
and the upper was reached by
winding stairs, or ladders, as the
upper apartment was only an attic
at best. There were 10 plastered
ceilings as SO few of them were
plastered at all.
The joists were usually hewed
square, but we often saw them in
the round. A few beds equipped
with feather ticks, straw ticks, boil
sters and pillows were the comfort
able protection against the wintry
blasts and piercing cold. Trundle
beds were much used for children
to sleep in. These were low beds
on rollers, that would be pushed
under the bed at day and drawn out
from under the bed when children
retired for the night. A bureau,
and few cutlery articles, iron pots
and griddle were an essential ne
cessity. And as the people had no
carpets, and Of necessity the floors
had to be regularly scrubbed and
rubbed once or twice each week.
Water was thrown over the floor,
then sand scattered over it, then
scrubbed and rubbed with splint
hickory brooms, after which it was
mopped up with hou secloth. The
houses were thus aired, cleansed
and sweetened by this terrible back
breaking ordeal of the faithful and
dutiful housewife. Now then the
tobacco chewer again had a nice,
clean place to squirt his filthy to-
bacco juice.
During fly time the people did
not have screen doors, mosquito
bar nor other house-fy preventives
to keep these pests out. But they
had their fly traps, such as pair
of boards conveniently joiued to-
gether as to stand apart, the inside
of which was thinly spread with
molasses, and suspended from a
joist by a string. AS soon as these
boards were black with flies some
one would step up and bang these
boards together when thousands of
these flies would be mashed by
striking together these boards.
Another trap was contrived in this
manner. A glass vessel was partly
filled with soap suds, and piece OF
bread, spread on the under side in
which was a small hole cut, and
this bread was placed over the YES
sci containing the suds with the
spread side underneath, and when
the flies crawled in to sip the mo-
lasses, some one would strike the
bread gentle blow and the flies
would drop into the vessel contain
ing the suds.
Then again, think of plowing the
ground with wooden boards and
wooden plows with mere iion
shire. The burrows did not slicken
down as they now do with our
modern chilled plows.
There is too much to be told OF
primeval life that we scarcely know
where to begin. But occasionally
will try to give glimpses of it.
Corn brooms were thing unknown
and hickory splint brooms were
used for sweeping by everybody.