Pocahontas star herald., 1924-05-09


the most noted places in the county as
community burial place for wide
scope Of country. This historic old
church was first built Of round logs,
sllelred down, an old fashioned fire
place, stick and clay chimney. Two
doors, one for the cntrance Of the men
and one for the ladies and the custom
of separating the men and women was
scarcely ever violated. The door shut
ters We're framed Of SPLIT timGers
and claphoards riven out by hand
Wooden hinges were provided to hang
the doors. The furniture was boards
and split timber made by hand for the
pulpit Logs ten feet long were split
open and legs put in the round side
with the split side up for pews. They
were pretty rough for thin muslms
and lawns but II was the best we could
do. Many an humble home was SINH
larly constructed and had only pun
cheons or mother earth for floors, clap
board doors, shutters and wooden
hinges. My first cabin home was thus
constructed except / secured a little
scrap lumber and made the front sec
tion of floor from these scraps, but the
back section was puncheon. / made
my first bedstead myself, hewed out the
post and framed il and then made
scaffold in one corner and covered it
with four foot clapboards-fo com
pany of course. Many similar homes
were thus constructed except many of
them the clapboards were held in place
by weight poles. The boards were con-
tinually getting out of place and in
rainy weather they did not leak-it
just poured through.
Many outbuildings were thus con
structed Barnyard gates We're often
made by splitting out timbers and
making the frames, then pinning the
pickets on with wooden pins. An
auger and hand saw were valuable as
sets in those days. Many did not
have gates at all, climbed the fence,
made slip gaps or better still had draw
harrows. Many will wonder why we
didn't use nails. Now the answer is
simple. This was in the good old
days of the long, long ago, money was
hat L 90 20.
procure for skins and deer pelts
enough to exchange for those things
that we so much needed
Many Of those old pioneers were
well-to-do. Many of them owned
slaves but did not have money
as they do now and did not know how
to spend It even as the poor classes
do now. They had no occasion to
spend it. Some of the well-to-do set
tiers would order from New orleans
or Memphis their molasses and sugar
by the barrel, their coffee by the sack
to supply them for the year. But only
the well-to-do could do that. The poor
classes could no more do that than l
could buy battleship. Those who
owned slaves were considered rich and
their greatest ambition was not so
much fur money as 10 own slaves. A
stso2r. negro man was worth from
siU0' 90 $1,000, women from 500 to
$1,000, children from S400 TO 500. Yes,
those were the good old days.
The roads in those days were the
Pocahontas and Doniphan road. the
old military road from st. Louis TO
Little Rock that passes through the
west of Pocahontas, the Poca- !
hontas TO Alton road. The country |
roads were blazed trails from one set
tlement TO the other, not Travelled |
enough to kill out the underbrush. !
There would be a path on each side
for the oxen and "A streak Of brush in !
the center so that it was difficult TO !
ride on the running gear of the wagon
And If one tried to walk behind a
wagon he had to keep good distance
back TO keep the brush from whipping |
back and wearing the filling out of a
fellows shirt. ON several occasions
when | was . or 6 years old and my
father wanted to go from one settle |
ment to another and there was no
wagon trail he would put me in the
wagon to keep the oxen up near him
and he with his axe would lead the
way and wind through the most open
places, cutting sapling here and
there and blazing a tree now and then
so when we returned to our little home
we had a wagon road TO our neighbor's.
The forest was open then, there being
no underbrush, it being kept down by
the forest fires in the spring time.
There were bride trails all over the
country for horsemen and stock but
the wagon roads were opened up as