By Patricia Harris ,
President, DC Historical Society
LIFE BEFORE DODDRIDGE
WAS A COUNTY-PART 2
THE FAMILY
I’d like to take a line or two in order to thank all the well-wishers that contacted me to wish me a quick recovery from COVID. Your warmth and kindness made my down time more bearable, and I am so grateful. God bless all of you for that.
This week I want to cover the family homelife on the northwestern frontier of VA (now WV) during the late 18th century. To do so by including all the pioneer families into one cultural category would be an injustice and would create a distorted image of those brave individuals who tamed our county and the entire area of Appalachia. In truth, those early pioneers hailed from a diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic stratification. They held a wide range of attitudes and views in regard to the Indians with whom they came into contact. Unfortunately, there is little actual documentation on this subject, and we are largely left with a series of lengthy narrated anecdotal sketches to shine light on their trials and triumphs for survival.
We do know that some of our county’s first settlers were here prior to the recorded deed dates, and we may never be able to affirm their actual “squatted” date. They may have held a contract for their land and had not bothered to record it simply because they were too busy trying to defend their very existence against Indian attacks, and keeping enough provisions gathered to survive the constant threat of starvation. They would have been the first to tell you that the wolf was always at the door. Make no mistake, these were strong, rough, and independent individuals. Fear wasn’t tolerated and weakness wasn’t even reserved for the women or the children. Those who didn’t measure up were either killed or they went back east after a short stay.
If you descend from these brave souls, hold them in great esteem, they have earned their spot in your family tree.
You might ask, “Was it really that bad?”
The short answer would be, “No… It was worse, but let’s get on with our story.”
While in some cases, the women did travel with the men to the location of their future homestead, for the purposes of our story today, we are referring to the frontiersmen who were carving out a stake of land that would become the farm and home of his family who would be coming as soon as he had prepared a place for them.
First, in many cases, he would build a little larger one-room cabin than the small windowless one he had been living in for a year and sometimes longer. Often the second one-room cabin had a small loft for the children. While still small, it had at least a window or two in it.
As soon as that was done he would have to build shelter for his future livestock, chickens, a horse for plowing the garden for which he still needed to clear a spot. There was so much to do. How did he ever get it all done?
The day finally arrived. Our frontiersman started east to retrieve this family. It was a long arduous journey filled with hazards, both the animal kind and the man kind. He was on foot and his food supply would be made up of wild game, fish, and whatever else he found along the way. Ammo for his muzzleloader was scarce by then. He would probably have to use it very sparingly, as he always did anyway. He would resupply before his return. His hair was probably long, as was his beard. Would she even recognize him when she saw him again? A bath in one of the many streams would have probably helped a lot.
After a great reunion and visits to family members who had chosen to stay in east, the frontier family began their slow trip across the mountains to what was about to be their new way of life. The wife and children could not have imagined what they were getting into at the end of their travels.
The trip was filled with dangers and strife from beginning to end. Travel would be on foot because their wagon had limited capacity, only for absolute necessities that had been tightly packed for the journey. Sentimental objects, like family heirlooms, fine dinnerware, and most furniture, often had to be left behind. Even so, the wagon still sometimes became high-centered on tree stumps that were too high to drive over. This gave rise to the phrase of ‘being stumped’.
The family oftentimes found themselves in an unforgiving climate plagued with annoying insects, wolves, mountain lions, bears, and other vicious threats under the most primitive of conditions. There were no lanterns, no candles, no soap, and the only new clothing was the clothing she made herself, woven on the weave or animal skins sewed together by hand with strips of latigo. Candles were made from string and beeswax. Lye soap was the choice of the day, made from scratch, of course. Homemade clothes were usually made and presented in late fall. Shoes were handmade moccasins. Summers usually found the small children (male & female) barefoot and only a long shirt reaching their knees for clothing. Schools for the children did not exist. Frontier women taught their children everything that they learned, many times the Bible was the only textbook in their possession
Loneliness was the frontier woman’s constant companion. She would have left her friends, parents, and lifelong neighbors behind to follow her husband only to find that her husband had to spent long hours in the field and doing farm work.
It was the women who provided the hospitality when strangers showed up on their doorstep. There were no hotels or taverns nearby. She was expected to cook on the open hearth and using the famous Dutch oven. In so doing, she would make some of the finest biscuits or cornbread known to man with great hearty meals of venison, bear, or elk and potatoes for which the water was carried from a nearby creek by, you guessed it, the woman (a child, if they were old enough).
The male guests were offered a place to sleep in the loft of the nearby barn. She was happy to do so because she didn’t know how many months would go by before she would encounter another visitor. Conversation was often steered toward any news from across the mountains or possible knowledge of another soul who ventured to the frontier as they had done.
A woman’s life on the frontier was extremely hard and dangerous. Many died from complications of childbirth. Others from work accidents doing the kind of work not designed for women but was necessary. They learned to operate sawmills and gristmills. They worked long hours in the vegetable gardens, and in their spare time in the evening, they weaved and did sewing.
Pioneer gardens were often planted among the remaining stumps.
Most often, women on the frontier did not have a very long-life expectancy. It was not unusual for most frontier women to die by the time they reached their fortieth year.
