The Marshall republican., 1910-08-19
Kentucky "reminiscences

| JonH w. Drown former c1tIZen
of this county and who with his
wife lived for several years in
Marshall, is writing a history of
his life for his grandchildren,
Mr.. Brown now lives in Campbell
Santa Clara Co., California. The
Campbell Press of that place re-
quested few of Mr.. Browns early
"reminiscences and we give them as
presented by that paper.
Milton Alison of Marshall, A. II.
Orr of Mt. Leonard and the chill
dren of Chas. Brown of Slater are
Mr.. Browns Saline county grand
children.
| was born September 20, 1925 in
Nicolas county, Kentucky, near
the town of Carlisle. At that time
this part of Kentucky was a green
forest made up mostly of sugar,
maple, ash, beech, oak with wal
nut and cherry growing on the
bottoms of the streams. Timber
from the two last were in great
demand for making the household
furniture then in use. This section
of the State was watered by num-
erous springs tributary to the
Licking River, which empties into
the Ohio opposite the City of Gin
cinnati. One of the most charac-
teristic plants of the forest under
ground was variety of cane
which lived through the winter
and which was the main food of
buffalo, then inhabiting the coun-
try. 1t grew most rankly about
the Blue Lick's section, and ther
was a trail anywhere from forty
to fifty miles in length made by
these animals in travelling to and
fro from their more western haunts
in search of salt licks ar d this csne
food
AT this time men built their
houses without nails and also with
out lumber as We now know it.
1 fancy it would puzzle some of
our modern carpenters to see what
substantial coverings could be
made with wood only. Floors were
laid, walls were built up, roofs
were covered, and doors were
were covered and doors were hun
without the sound of steel on
steel.These are some of the tools
used in making buildings; the fro
for splitting blocks; the scoring
line, With charcoal instead of
chalk for making; the foot-edge,
for smoothing down by taking off
small chips from the timber, and
the broad-axe, which was the main
tool for putting the timber in
shape, and which required much
skill in its use, an expert in this
line being always in demand.
Houses, out buildings, and barns,
were all made of hewn timber. 1t
was surprising, to, how quickly a
building sould be put upI it not
infrequently happening that new
ly married couple, in the neigh
borhood would have a house built
for them in day. At that time
the honey moon was mainly spent
in the new log cabin, and by the
way they were mostly happy ones.
One of the most wholesome GUS
toms. of that time was the house
or barn raising, in which the neigh
bors for miles around would gath
er at some particular place, and
with working, feasting, story-tell-
ing and a general good time
that in a day, which would have
taken weeks to do with meagre
help. This custom went on in
company with one known as log
rolling which was also neighbor-
ly affair and consisted of rolling
the fallen timber into huge piles |
for burning, 80 that soil might be
found for garden and field work.
What did men eat in those days? |
Well, at least, they didn't eat por-
terhouse steak for breakfast. The
did not get dyspepsia either from
eating bolted white flour bread |
made more white and fluffy with
the use of chemicals in the mixed |
dough. The main bread staff of !