Moccasins and Hog on Hominy

The dress or clothing of the Midwest pioneer was a curious cross between the working white man and Indian grab.  The hunting shirt, made of linsey, course nettle bark, linen buffalo hair or dressed deerskin was universally worn by men.  Breeches, leggings, and moccasins completed the men's daily attire.  Women and children dressed in simple linsey garments.  Shoes were only worn in cold weather when moccasins served for the entire family.

There was seldom a lack of food on the frontier.  The soil was fertile, and the forests had plenty of game.   One of the popular dishes was "hog on hominy" which was pork served with Indian corn which was boiled in lye (yikes!) to remove the hulls, then soaked in clear water and cooked soft.  Breakfast and dinner included cornmeal mush and milk (if available).  Cattle were not numerous in the Midwest wilderness early on, so hominy was more common.  Mush was served with sweetened water, molasses, gravy from fried meat,  or bear fat.

Coffee and tea were unknown on the frontier and even thought to be "sissy" drinks, better suited to women and children.  Vegetable gardens next to the cabin, raised pumpkins, squashes, potatoes, beans, melons, and "roasting ears" (my family still called corn by that name in Indiana growing up).  The forest provided wild game like squirrel, rabbits, deer, bear and elk, and well as wild fruits, grapes.and honey used for sweetening.  The pioneers ate hardy and well!

Next time...Making a living
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Today in Pioneer History: "On April 15, 1865, President Lincoln is pronounced dead after being shot at Fords' Theater in Washington DC the night before by John Wilkes Booth.  Only six days before the Civil War had ended with General Robert E Lee surrendering."

Victory and Honors

Following Anthony Wayne's victory at Fallen Timbers, he marched his men back to Fort Defiance and then to the juncture of the St. Mary's and St. Joseph's rivers.  There he built a fort and gave it the name that stayed with the thriving frontier city that grew up around it - Fort Wayne.  Everywhere Wayne and his men went they burned crops and villages while the inhabitants fled. 

At last the Americans had the upper hand.  The British were no longer trusted to protect the native tribes and the Americans weapons were feared.  It was easy for Wayne to convince the chiefs that their best interest lay with the United States. 

In 1795, a treaty with the British finally gave up their remaining posts on United States soil.  Wayne announced that the Indians ceded all the land in southern Ohio and southeastern Indiana along with the posts at Fort Wayne, Detroit and Michilimackimac. The United States recognized the Indian title to all the lands not ceded and promised the tribes annual subsidies.  For 15 years both sides held faithfully to the treaty, while the pioneer and Indian lived in peace.

Meanwhile, General Wayne became a national hero.  He returned to Philadelphia in 1796 where he was hailed with ringing bells, a 15 gun salute and dazzling fireworks.  He had one last task - to receive the posts relinquished from the British.  Back to forest country and  that summer he took back Detroit.  On the return journey, Wayne suffered another attack of gout and died at Presquisle (Erie).  His final resting place is marked by a blockhouse modeled after the one he built at Fort Wayne and bears the flag he planted in the heart of the Old Northwest.

Next time...settling the Old Northwest
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York burns down killing 144 workers, most of them women.  The fire led to better laws and regulations regarding protection of the safety of factory workers.

A Lair of Beasts

The vastness of the acquired territory from the French in 1763 was pretty overwhelming for King George and his ministers!  His first attempt to deal with the problem was to issue a proclamation stating that "no loving subject" could purchase land or settle in the territory without special license.  Present residents in the territory were to remove themselves "forthwith."  Trade could be carried on only by permit and under close surveillance. Officers would be stationed among the Indian tribes to preserve friendly relations and apprehend fugitives from colonial justice.  He planned to make the entire territory one big Indian reserve. 

King George's reasons were never quite clear.  Franklin and Washington thought it was to conciliate the Indians.  Both men were land speculators in the territory and owned considerable tracts of land.  Others thought the King wanted to limit the boundary of the seaboard colonies to preserve his imperial rule over the colonists. Trade was easier as well as subordination to England if there was a limit to the area inhabited by colonists. 

It was planned to gradually open tracts of land secured from the Indians for settlement, but it would be controlled and only when England said so.  This restrictive policy was not popular in the colonies, obviously, and surprisingly not in Britain either.  Edmund Burke said it was "an attempt to keep as a lair of beasts that earth, which God by an express character, has given to the children of man." 

The colonists were ready to spread out.  The western lands were theirs by charter and by conquest, as they had fought the war against the French as well.  The farmers saw the land as an opportunity for prime farming land, and the Indians were just an unprogressive and unproductive people.  The tide of homesteaders became an enormous wave, and any attempt to stop it was like holding back the ocean with a broom!  Some colonies attempted to adhere to the King's policy - Pennsylvania decreed the death penalty for all who refused to remove themselves from the territory.  How they planned to carry out that law is unknown, but it soon died.

There were still French settlements in the territory by the thousands -  Kaskaskia, Illinois, and the Wabash regions for example.  Many French crossed the Mississippi River and settled on the opposite bank on land still in Spain's hands.  Many more did not.

Next time...The settlement of Kaskaskia
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On January 24, 1935, canned beer made its debut.  In partnership with the American Can Company, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivered 2,000 cans of Krueger's finest beer and cream ale to drinkers in Richmon, Virginia.  91% of the drinkers approved.

A Gift of Land

When the treaty was signed between the French and English in 1763, it gave vast lands in America to the British.  The British, however, hadn't the vaguest notion of the extent, appearance or resources they had gained.  Even though place names in the upper Ohio become household names during the war, little was actually known about them.

Translations from French writers about the regions were amazing misrepresentations of the actual lands.  The western lands were thought to be of little value as Dr. Samuel Johnson wrote, "only barren parts of the continent, the refuse of earlier adventures which the French had taken only as better than nothing."  It was a common belief held by such people as Franklin and Washington, that it would take centuries for the land to be settled and civilized.  No one believed that within 75 years the population of "these barren lands" would equal that of Great Britain herself!

The first order of business, nevertheless, was to provide government, solve the land tenure and trade issues, and conciliate the Indians.  The English were not pleased with vast quantities of wilderness swarming with "savages" as they referred to it.  Some folks believed the Indians were entitled to protection from the invading whites into their hunting grounds. Originally the new territories were to be left as one huge Indian reserve with no white settlements.

The King desired to keep the western lands separate as much as possible from the colonies and wanted to regulate both settlement and trade.  One way to do this was to limit white settlers to the seaboard colonies. 

In 1763 four new provinces were set up in the ceded territories...Quebec, East Florida, West Florida and Grenada.  The rectangle formed was bounded by the Alleghenies, the Mississippi, the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico.  The Mississippi Valley was not included in this territory. 

Next time...problems with settlement
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On January 21, 1855, gun designer John Browning is born.  Often referred to as the father of modern arms, Browning was born in Utah on this date.  Many of the guns manufactured by companies with names like Winchester, Colt and Remington were actually based on Browning's designs. 

Farewell Frontier

Theodore Roosevelt was an outdoors man, rancher, conservationist,  and on March 4, 1905, he became President of the United States.  His inauguration parade was all western - with cowboys,  Custer's 7th Cavalry (minus Custer), and a group of Indian Chiefs including the old Commanche Ouanah and the Apache, Geronimo.  The whole thing was a tribute to the American past, the frontier in which all Americans in one way or another had been a part.

Even a decade before, the great open spaces in the West were rapidly disappearing.  The frontier, ever shifting westward had run out of room and had no where else to go.  The 1980 Census stated that "there can hardly be said to be a frontier line."

After a century of settling the frontier, the many results of the lost of open space affected all.  For the Indian, it was defeat, destruction and despair.  For the everyone else who loved wide open space,  it was the vast spreading farms, big cities, and ribbons of rail track - all eliminating the wild frontier.  The colonization of the Great West was complete.

Many believed that the western settler was the world's first truly free man - not just because of the Constitution's rights, but free because of the earth the settler farmed, the life he led.  The poor escaped to the West, the oppressed, and those with no hope escaped to start over with land, opportunity and hope.  The frontier exerted influence all the way back to the East where old society rules and habits lessened and self-sufficiency seemed to take root once more.  Instead of East going West, the West came to the East.

Today the frontier is not forgotten almost a century and a half later.  Rodeos, television, movies, even blue jeans, once the uniform of the cowpoke, is now a fashion statement.  Optimism, orneriness, generosity, courage, innovation - all remind us that there once was a vast wilderness where men and women could go to dream great dreams and do great deeds. 

Next time...A Christmas Log Cabin Dinner
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On December 20, 1803, the French surrender at New Orleans without a shot fired and turn over the city to the United States.

Early George Washington Against the French

In 1754 colonials were wending their way west through the Cumberland Gap in the Appalachians.  Mostly traders, they were determined to challenge the French monopoly of the fur business. Other settlers were farmers who hoped to find in the western wilderness free land on which to start prosperous lives.  ALL were trespassing on territory that France claimed as its own.

In 1753, Virginia's governor, Robert Dinwiddie, with strong personal interest in the wilderness fur trading and land speculation, sent the young George Washington into the Ohio Valley to warn away the French.  Washington reported, "That it is their Absolute Design to take possession of the Ohio and by God, they would do it."

Dinwiddlie again sent Washington west, this second time in command of 150 militiamen to oust the French by force, if necessary.  The well-prepared French turned back Washington's troops. 

Again in 1755, on a far grander scale, an over confident General William Braddock, ignored
Washington's warnings and marched 1200 men directly into a French and Indian trap in a Pennsylvania forest clearing near Fort Duquesne (where Pittsburgh now stands). Washington was Braddock's aide and almost lost his life.  He recorded, "four bullets through my coat and two horses shot under me."

The British learned a valuable lesson.  Never again would they march blindly into an ambush.  Two-thirds of the British lost their lives.  Braddock died from his wounds. 

Three years later a new British commander, General John Forbes cautiously led a force of 1700 British regulars plus 5000 colonials against Fort Duquesne.  With Washington at his side, going down what became known as Forbes Road, they repelled a French and Indian assault on October 12, 1758.  The French abandoned Fort Duquesne, and on November 25, it was renamed Fort Pitt by the British.

Next time...meanwhile back in Mohawk country
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Today in Pioneer History: On September 10, 1776, General George Washington asks for a volunteer for an extremely dangerous mission: to gather intelligence behind enemy lines before the coming Battle of Harlem Heights. Captain Nathan Hale of the 19th Regiment of the Continental Army stepped forward and subsequently become one of the first known American spy of the Revolutionary War.

The Nancy Welch Story

In 1843, Nancy and James Welch along with their 3 year old son, went west from Iowa.  In the winter Nancy's 2nd son was born while they wintered in Independence, Missouri.  They started out again in the spring, following only notices posted on trees by previous travelers.  The season was rainy with the rain drenching the wagon tops, and the roads were muddy.  When they reached the Deschutes River in Oregon, they loaded everything they had onto rafts and let the Indians guide them across.  It was a cold, wet December.

When James and Nancy arrived in Oregon, they bought 300 acres of land.  They built the first wooden house and a lumber mill.  In 1849, James Welch went off after gold, leaving Nancy alone with the eventual 11 children to stave off the Indians.

Nancy's journals illustrate that child-bearing did not delay or deter travel west.  19th century men did not excuse women from daily responsibilities to prepare for children.  There was no maternity leave, few if any baby doctors and women were on their own in childbirth. 

I have shared these two women's stories because it amazed me that most settlers started out west with no maps, no plans of how to get there - and without even a compass to guide them!  By the Grace of God they arrived for the most part unharmed to build a new life in the unknown wilderness.  That would be comparable to us going to Antarctica or even Outer Space without  a compass or any idea of how to get there!  Simply amazing...

Next time...The Journey from a 13 year old's Eyes

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Today in Pioneer History:  On July 10, 1889, hotel owner, "Buckskin" Frank Leslie murders his lover, the Tombstone prostitute Blonde Mollie Williams in a drunken rage. 

The Nancy Kelsey Story

Nancy Kelsey was 15 years old, married with a baby when she wrote, "I can better endure the hardship of the journey than the anxieties for an absent husband." 

Kelsey was part of a small grouop of wagons that left in May 1841 with 35 men, 5 women, (3 married, 1 widowed, 1 of marriage age), and 10 children from Sapling Grove, 28 miles west  of Independence, Missouri.  It seems the group was totally ignorant of what lay ahead, as many early settlers were, following incorrect maps and untested ideas.  No one had a compass - they just went west along the Platte River. 

By July 23rd seven of the men had had enough "westering" and turned around to head back east.  On July 30th, they had traveled 1200  miles, and the widow had married one of the men in the party.  This was not uncommon as women traveling alone with children were in a dangerous position.

Nancy's  party followed the safest route to Oregon, but her party had no guide and so little information that one said they "smelled" their way west.  They knew there was a river they were to find, but they didn't know the name or exact location.  August 22nd found the food low, the animals tired, and all the party completely lost.  They abandoned some of their wagons, slaughtered their cattle and kept moving west.

By mid-September, they left all their wagons, and tied their possessions to the oxen.  They found St. Mary's River, but no road nearby.  They were actually traveling south now, not west, but they didn't realize that since they didn't have a compass.

In late October, they killed the last ox and were trapped in the treacherous canyons of the Sierra Nevada.  Mule meat was a delicacy along with rabbit and coyote.  Nancy Kelsey walked, carrying her year old baby on her hip.  On the last day of October 1841, they reached the San Joaquin Valley.

Nancy Kelsey gave one interview in later years about her journey west.  If she would have shared her experiences to other women in her time, she might have forewarned them of what lay ahead.  Instead she settled down, had more children and made a life in the new western country.

Next time...Nancy Welch's Story
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Today in Pioneer History:   On July 7, 1900,  Warren Earp, the youngest of the famous clan of gun fighting brothers, is murdered in an Arizona saloon.

Was Sitting Bull the Sioux that Killed Custer?

Sitting Bull, the great Sioux warrior chief and holy man, led his band, the Hunkpapa as the first chief to be elected to represent all the free roaming Sioux (Teton Sioux).  He was also America's whipping boy for the debacle at Little Big Horn when the American people needed to know how an "ignorant Indian defeated West Point's greatest general"...neve mind that Custer graduated last in his class at West Point...Maybe Sitting Bull attended West Point incognito and learned military tactics that allowed him to outwit the U.S. Army?  Or he may have been trained in Europe for heaven's sake!  Stories circulated that Sitting Bull even learned to not only read and write English, but French and Latin as well as people tried to justify the 7th Calvary's defeat at the hands of the Sioux Indians.

Other legends claim he never fought at all - that he was hung over, scared and hid out rather that fought.  Rumor was that he gathered his wife and children and was found hiding 10 miles away only to return when he was told "Long Hair" (Custer) was dead.  After 100+ years of fiction, exaggerations and lies, the facts about the great Sioux chief are coming forward, but it took 100 years to get past the hatred, prejudice and blame to get there...

Sitting Bull considered himself his people's shield and protector.  To be a warrior and chief to the degree that Sitting Bull was required bravery, fortitude, generosity and wisdom.  His battle records are legendary.  He cared for other tribes who were destitute and staving, providing food and shelter within his own tribe.  Sitting Bull fought unceasingly for his homeland and was dedicated to preserving traditional Sioux way of life.

At the time of the battle of Little Big Horn, the Indian nations were gathered for their annual celebrations and reunion, including the Sun Dance.  Over 7000 people, including 2000 warriors were gathered together - something the Calvary never counted on.  Sitting Bull knew the whites (wischus) were coming and prayed, fasted and submitted to traditional rituals appropriate for a Sioux chief/holy man. 

Was he actually the Sioux that killed Custer?  As a holy man and leader of his people, he would have been deemed to important to lose in battle.  Yes, he probably was at the forefront from time to time encouraging his warriors, but his duty was to pray, and protect the women and children.  After the battle it was his duty to remind his men that honorable warriors did not loot or mutilate bodies - but his words were never followed sadly.

So he most likely wasn't Custer's killer but he wasn't the "Villain of the Plains" as the American press made him out to be.  After being hounded and starved, after taking his people to Canada for four years, Sitting Bull was the last of the Sioux chiefs to surrender in 1881.  He was held as a prisoner at Fort Randall for two years before returning to a reservation. 

The white man never broke Sitting Bull the man.  He was still standing for his people until he was murdered just before Wounded Knee.  Sitting Bull remains a legend as one of the greatest chief's in the America's history.  Too bad we never gave him the respect he deserved.

Next time...Mountains Meadows Massacre

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On This History: 
On April 9, 1881, Billy the Kid is found guilty of murdering the Lincoln County, New Mexico sheriff and is sentenced to hang after a day long trial.