The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1930-01-02
MESEIACH BROWNING AS A BOY
AND PIONEER E1UNTER-TRAPPER



prevailed upon to assist Mrs. Brown
ing in reaching her sister, where she
stayed until Meshach recovered, then
went to her fathers home on the
headwaters of the Flintstone. The
following spring she took up twenty
acres of land; her friends built her a
cabin; she and the children cleared
four acres of land that was planted
in corn by the primitive method in
use by the Indians: merely digging
holes and dropping in the corn. How
ever they raised nearly one hundred
bushels of corn, besides various kinds
of vegetables.
Work For Pioneer Women
In our day and age the anXieties
and hardships of these pioneers,
where virtually everything they used
and consumed was made by hand, is
unbelievable. There were no mills to
grind their wheat and corn that was
pounded into coarse meal in stone
mortars. Tallow from cattle and deer
was nodded into candles. A little
flax, an acre or two of cotton and a
few sheep furnished the raw materi-
ais for spinning wheels and looms,
where a coarse but durable cloth,
called homespun, was woven Yarn
was made from wool that after shear
ing had to be washed, dried and
picked or pulled into fluffy balls that
were carded into long slender rolls.
When spun into yarn it was knitted
into gloves and stockings or woven
into heavy flannel.
Imagine clothing large families at
such an expenditure of energy that
had to be supplied by the woman. No
wonder she wore out when she lived,
moved and had her being in such a
daily grind. AS this includes but one
phase of the situation, others were as
proportionately difficult. And strange
to say, romance still fourished!
I Forest Furnished Meat in Abundance
But they never had to worry about
meat, for the woods swarmed with
wild animals, edible and otherwise
deer, bear, wolves, panthers, the lat
ter the most formidable beasts of
prey. Many kinds of smaller ami
mails were in abundance, besides quail,
pheasants, turkeys and wild bees. The
turkeys were a wary bird and difficult
to shoot. Fresh and dried venison,
the latter called "jerk", was especi-
ally priced, while the skins, crudely
tanned, furnished moccasins and leath-
er coats.
Dread of Indians Always Present
! But wherever these people went or
settled, they could not escape the sin
lister shadow of marauding Indian.
1t rested like pail on the mind and
heart of the pioneer woman and
stepped her whole existence in anever-
ending dread. There was uncertainty
when men went into the trackless for
est for meat. Many never returned,
their disappearance forever remain
ing a mystery. A hundred things
other than being scalped by the In
dams, could happen.
Meshach Comes To Garrett County
Meshach had an aunt living near
them, and having no children of her
own wanted the boy to make his home
with her She became SO importunate
that Mrs. Browning finally yielded,
and Meshach came under that subtle
influence that weaned him from his
mother and home.
In September, these people had
every plan completed to move, with
out Mrs. Browning's knowledge, into
the glade country, then hunters and
trapper's paradise. Meshach readily
acquiesced, being promised gun as
soon as he could use one. They start
ed long before day, and when the
suns first rays touched the summit