OLD TIMES.
A TALK WITH CHAS. WILGUS.
HOW THEY LIVED IN THOSE DAYS.
SOURCE: Ironton Register, Thursday, September 8, 1887
We called on Mr. C. Wilgus, one of the oldest citizens in Quaker Bottom, Lawrence County, Ohio. He is a very pleasant, entertaining gentleman and took much pleasure in giving us anecdotes and incidents of early pioneer history.
Mr. Wilgus was born in New Jersey, about six miles above Trenton, on Dec. 3, 1801. His father was located in Guyandotte in 1812. At this time, there was but one house in the bottom above Proctorville, which was cleared about the one-half way to Paddy creek. Mr. Wilgus has in his possession facts about the early settlers dating back much further than the date of his arrival. He wrote out a short sketch which we give in his own language.
In 1796 John Phillips, Jesse Baldwin, and family members of the Friends from Westfall, North Carolina; Phineas Hunt and his family, all members of the society of Friends except himself (and he soon became a member), moved to the Virginia side of the Ohio River.
In the latter part of the year 1797, Jesse Baldwin, after raising some corn opposite Green Bottom, moved some eighteen miles down Ohio and settled in what is now called Quaker Bottom, in Lawrence county, Ohio, opposite the mouth of Guyandotte river and the present town of that name.
Nathaniel Pope and his family soon joined him in Grayson county, Va. His wife was a member of the Friends and himself sometime after. I note this place of more than usual interest, it being the spot where Friends in the Northwest Territory first settled down to hold a meeting for divine worship.
In the year 1799, Thomas Beals, who had visited this county twenty-four years before, now moved to Quaker Bottom with his family and sons, John and David and their families, and grandson Able Thornberry; Obediah Overman, Abigail, and his wife and family, all from Grayman Co., Va. On their arrival, they opened a meeting for worship at the residence of Jesse Baldwin, which was regularly held while they stayed there.
Jesse Baldwin got section twenty-five and part of twenty-six, on which he built a house and mill. He sold it to Thomas Worthington. Old man Buffington and Stephen Wilson bought out Worthington in 1800. This I learned from Mr. Baldwin’s son, who came from Little Miami to find the remains of the house and mill. He published a paper descriptive of the place soon after his visit.
Mr. Wilgus, after giving us the above clear sketch dropped into a pleasant conversation about his own experiences. We then considered three or four acres as a very large field. Buffington had fifteen acres under cultivation; this was called the big field and was the wonder of the neighborhood. It took five men to tend it, and they considered themselves working hard.
It was hard to get bread, but the meat could be obtained in abundance as the game was very plentiful. I have seen one hundred turkeys in a flock and have killed fifteen at one hunt. We often lived on meat alone, unable to get our corn ground. Opossums and raccoons were thick. We got all our powder and lead by trading their skins worth about 12 ½ cents each.
We cultivated flax, which the women spun for clothes. Many were buckskin pants and hunting shirts and also linen roundabouts for winter. We had coffee on Sunday morning and tea Sunday noon, and plenty of “johnny cakes.” Hogs weighing under 200 lbs. They were sold for 75 cents and over 200 lbs. for $1.00. Milch cows were sold for three to five dollars. Beeves used at shooting matches were obtained for $2.50. The great amusement was shooting matches in the fall when the corn was laid by. The regular distance was 40 yards off-hand or 100 yards with a rest.
The Miller brothers carried the mail from Maysville to Limestone for a year from Wheeling, Va. They would sometimes travel on one side of the river and sometimes on the other. If they noticed Indian trails on the Ohio side, they would return to the Virginia side. They camped in the woods and built fires in a hole dug in the earth so the blaze wouldn’t show. They would scrape the snow away and roll themselves in their blankets, and sleep. Joe was, at one time, returning on the Ohio side; he had shot a deer and was skinning it.
Hearing a slight noise on the hill above him, he looked up and saw what he supposed to be elk’s horns glistening in the sunlight. What was his surprise to see about thirty Indians appear on the bluff above his camp? He hastily tied his shot pouch to his head, grasped his rifle in his hand, and swam across the river. He reached the other shore, ascended the bank, and got behind a tree. The Indians called him to come to them, but he knew them too well, fired his gun at the crowd, and ran as fast as possible, leaving them to enjoy his hard-earned supper on the other side.
All the mail there was to carry at this time was information from one fort to another. We had a log schoolhouse with a large old-fashioned fireplace and benches without desks. For a window, a hole about a one-foot square was sawed in the logs, and a piece of greased paper served instead of glass. The teacher received $1.00 per scholar by subscription. I went three months to Bill Parker, who couldn’t cipher as far as long division. I also went to an old man whose name I had forgotten for one month. This was all the schooling I ever got.
There were no parties at this time. Anyone could run. At one time, we got a simple fellow by the name of Tom Jones to oppose the governor of Ohio. He worked all fall making looms and spent all his money buying votes. We all voted for him just for fun. This shows what little attention we paid to politics in those days.
Mr. Wilgus served as Sheriff for two terms and county assessor for one term. “The capital was then at Burlington. I could tell within twenty votes how the county would go. I had three men in every township except Decatur and Elizabeth; these men took down all the names and how they would vote. In my second race, I told the result within fifteen votes. This was when I defeated Judge Green.
No, the office didn’t pay as well then as it does now. I got one hundred and fifty dollars for two hundred days of hard riding. I never had to go after men. I sent for them, and they always came. I tell you, money was scarce in those days. I once rode one-half day trying to borrow twenty-five cents to get a letter from the post office. This was the amount of postage that had to be paid before receiving the letter.
We lived in one-story log houses with clapboard doors and floors of puncheon. Latches and hinges were made of wood. If the latch string was pulled in, you were not welcome. Whiskey was sold at twenty-five cents a gallon, and I never knew a case of delirium tremens.
Mr. Wilgus has a very pleasant home, is hale and hearty, and has a pleasant word for all. He tends to his business personally and bids fair to the end of the century.
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