Original Print-Good Way Print, College Mound, Missouri
I expect the young folks would like to know how the young people enjoyed
themselves in those days. We enjoyed ourselves the best kind. But had we
been as bashful and as shy about talking before the old folks as they are
now, I don’t know how they would have got along. When it came to sparking
there was no other show only to pick up courage and take your chair and sit
up to the girls and go to talking to her before the old folks. It appeared
that the girls used the corner next to the chimney when they boys were around.
There was always a place left for them next to where the girl set, and after
the young man came in he would take a seat among the family, and after he
had talked to the old folks a while, and they appeared to be in a good humor
and were friendly disposed, and the girl looked tolerably pleasing, and
everything appeared to be all right, he would pick up his chair and walk
around and sit up to her go to talking to her. After while the old folks
would get sleepy and go to bed, and then was your time to talk of courtship,
love and marriage. If the old folks got to sleep, and they generally did,
we often stayed till the chickens crowed for midnight. Time passed fast on
such occasions as that.
Of this part of my life I shall not give a full history I will tell you what
a fix some of us young folks got into once. Five of us boys got our girls
to go over the river to hunt strawberries. In crossing on our way there,
we crossed on a shoal, and by stepping from one rock to another, we could
cross without getting our feet wet, as the river was very low, and it was
about one hundred and fifty yards wide where we crossed. We crossed the river
and went out on the prairie, and roamed about gathering strawberries until
the sun eas one half hour high, when we started for home. When we got to
the river it was about waist deep and rising fast.. It had been raining up
in the mountains for some time and was just getting down, as was often the
case with that river. There we were all on the other side of the river and
the sun down and five girls with us and no boat or canoe to cross in. We
held a short consultation, and it was decided that each man should take his
girl over. It was a big undertaking, but the best we could do. There were
lots of wild animals in the woods, and it would have been dangerous to stay
out all night. We stooped down and the girls got on our backs, throwing their
arms around our necks, and we were soon crossing the river. I was the smallest
man in the lot, and it chanced to be that my girl was very large , I expected
she weighed one hundred seveny five or one hundred eighty pounds, and it
appeared to me before I got across that she weighed three hundred. There
was a tall fellow in the crowd, and it was decided that he was to take the
lead; as it was dangerous if we varied either way up or down the river ten
yards we would have got off the shoal and been in ten or twelve foot water.
I got above the tall fellow, so if I started to wash down he would catch
me. It was well I did, for when I got about half way across the river, my
head began to swim, and I stumbled over a rock, and down I come, girl and
all, and if the tall man had not caught us;, we would have washed over the
shoal and drowned. I know by the way she held my neck that she would not
have let go as long as she had breath. He raised me up and steadied me, and
I made another start. By laying out all my strength and being particular
as to how I set my feet down, I made it across. If ever I was glad to set
safely landed over a river, it was that river. They all took a good laugh
at my falling after we got across, but there was not much laughing until
we landed. I was not the only tired man in the crowd.
That has been about 97 years ago, and I remember it as well as if it had
been but yesterday, and I don’t think I should forget it in 97 years
more, if I should live that long. I never saw a side saddle until after I
was twenty one years old. There was no wagons, hacks, buggies nor anything
of that kind. When the women went to meeting or any place they had to ride
behind their fathers, brothers or beaus.
One time the young folks got a good joke on me. I had been talking to a girl
at preaching, and had agreed to take her home. I was a little slow, or her
father was a little fast, one, for just as I got nearly up to the stiles
she jumped up behind her father, I rode up and told her to get down and get
up behind me, but her father rode off, and the people began to laugh at me.
The boys laughed at me for a long time over it. I give these events merely
to show how different everything was in my raising, one hundred years and
over ago. We enjoyed life than a great deal more than they do now.
In those days the children had a poor chance to learn much. There were scarcely
any schools in the country, and you may think it strange, but hardly any
of the old folks could read or write, and they did not take any interest
in the education of their children. The first and only things that they thought
their children should learn was how to work on a farm and to fish, and to
hunt. The boys and girls of today know more at the age of twelve than the
men and women did then. The people were very ignorant in those days. If a
man could read or write, they considered him well educated.
Until I was about twenty years old, I had never been more than twenty miles
away from home. About that time I concluded that I would go with some drovers
to New Orleans to drive some cattle. I saw many strange things that excited
me. I would catch myself standing hollering at the cattle and looking at
something else until the cattle were nearly fifty yards ahead of me, and
several times the owner of the cattle had to call to me to come ahead. There
were men going around selling sweet potatoes, fresh oysters and so on. Little
boys with brooms crying chimney sweeping. For over one hundred yards there
were sheds with meat and vegetables of all kinds hung up and setting around.
This was all new to me and excited me considerably. We were six weeks on
the road. They paid my expenses and gave me five dollars for the trip. That
was more money than I had ever had at one time in my life. I started out
in town to see what I could buy. The first thing that I saw I wanted was
a lot of cheap jewelry. The man had a box of all sorts of finger rings, ear
rings, breast pins and so on, representing them to be gold and worth ten
times as much as he asked for them. He said he was bound to have some money
to go to a certain place to prove up an estate where he would get a million
dollars, and he did not stand on trifles in such a case, as he had to have
money to go on. I believed all he said and went to buying, and in a few minutes
he had my five dollars and I had a lot of cheap jewelry that was not worth
fifty cents, and on he went to find some other greenhorn. I was green in
them days, but I was not the only greenhorn.
I suppose you think strange of a great deal of my writings. When I look back
110 years and see how the people live it seems strange to me. There has been
vast improvements. In my boyhood there was no wagons in the country, and
there were lots of men and women that never saw one in their lives. I remember
well the first wagon I ever saw. It was as big a sight to me then as the
first rail road car was. I was about 15 years old when I saw the first wagon.
An old Dutchman had gone off to buy one. I remember of hearing an awful lumbering
a way up on a rocky hill not far from where we lived, and the whole family
going out to the yard fence and standing and listening at it, and of someone
asking what it was and father telling them that he expected it something
to haul on that run on wheels that they called a wagon; that he had heard
the old Dutchman had gone off to buy one. In a little while he came up riding
one horse and leading the other, that was the way they drove then. He drove
up and stopped and father asked him how he liked his wagon? “O very
well, very well!” he said. “I had rather have it than two sleds,
though it tries its best to run over my horses in going down hills.”
You can hardly imagine the excitement that wagon caused. People went for
miles to see it, and all I could hear for weeks was the Dutchman’s wagon
and what loads he could pull on it. In the course of a year there were several
in the country; though they came into use very slow. Not many farmers could
raise fifty dollars, that being the price asked for one. Fifty dollars was
as hard to get a hold of then as five hundred is now. There was but little
money in the country then, and people used skins and furs in the place of
it.
I remember the first fur hat I ever had. I gave ten dozen rabbit skins for
it, and I have no doubt but those skins passed through fifty different hands
before any money was paid on them. Once or twice during the year some one
went through the county and bought up all the skins and furs of all kinds,
and the people knew about what they were worth, so they were used as money.
You could buy any knid of stock and pay for them or part of them in furs
and rest in furs in six or twelve months from that time at whatever price
they were going at. Furs were in a great demand, and there was considerable
trapping done. Stock of all kinds was very low. A good horse was worth
twenty-five or thirty dollars and a plug horse from six to twelve dollars,
cows and calves seven to ten dollar, calves from seventy-five cents to a
dollar and a half. Hogs were almost given away they were so plentiful.
People were not so particular then as now. They never thought of selling
seed corn or potatoes or anything of the kind. If we had such things to spare
at all, we had them to give away to our neighbors, and always felt good over
it and thankful.
It appeared to me that people enjoyed life then better than they do now and
were not half so craving as they are now. If a man killed a fat hog or sheep
or anything of the kind, he would send for his neighbors to come and get
some, and did the same when they killed a bear or deer, and never thought
of charging a neighbor for anything of this kind. I do not know what has
brought about such a change in the people without it is pride. If the people
had the necessaries of life then, they were contented. There was fully as
much idle amusement than as now. Wrestling, fighting shooting matches, foot
races and horse races. There was no sport I was fonder of then wrestling.
Although I only weighed 135 pounds after I was a grown man, in fact that
is the most I ever weighed, there was but few men that could throw me down,
in fact I never found any that could. If all the men and boys were standing
in a row that I have thrown down it would surprise you to see them. I don’t
know whether you could stand at one end and see to he other or not. I never
gambled much on wrestling, but generally done it for fun and to show my skill.
The last man that I throwed was Alec Leathers, after I was one hundred years
old. We were working the roads and he began to boast about being such a wrestler.
He was a stout looking young man. Some of the men told him that Uncle Bobby
Gipson had seen the day he could throw him easy. He hooted at such talk.
I told him I had never seen the time yet but what I could throw him if I
was so amind. He put at me for a wrestle. I told him I did not want to throw
him down, and he said the reason was because I could not. I stepped aside
and told him to come on and I would show him I could. We took breeches holds,
and I asked him if he was ready. He said yes and not much quicker said then
done, for I knocked both of his feet from under him, and down he came. After
they all quit hollowing and laughing, I asked him if he wanted to try it
aain, and he said, ‘No’, that had had enough of the fun. He lives
now in the same neighborhood that I do,, and I never meet him but he has
something to say about our wrestle. Well, I can say that I threw the last
man that ever bantered me. I would have wrestled when I was over one hundred
years old if I had been bantered.
Fighting was another great amusement that was indulged in then. Men would
fight at musters and on other public days for no other purpose than to see
which was the best man. As soon as they would quit fighting they would
’make friends’ and that woud be the last of it. There hardly ever
was a public gathering when I was a young man, until I was twenty-five or
thirty years old, at which there was not from five to twenty-five fights;
at night they would go away as good friends as ever, and would not think
much more about than them there would be so many wrestles. I believe that
the hardest fight I remember of ever seeing was between one of my brothers
and a man whose name was Kerby. Eight or ten of us were rollig logs. Both
were considered the “bullies” of the country, as we called them
who were the best fighters. We had quit rolling logs to get a drink of water,
we saw Kerby and three other men leisurely walking toward us; one of them
had a jug in his hand; they came to us and spoke very politely and friendly,
and then passed the jug of whiskey around. Kerby then turned around and asked
my brother, John, if he was the “:bully”:of the neighborhood. John
told him that he was as far as he had been tried. Kerby told him that he
could not have said that and told the truth, if he had ever tried him. John
told him that he had not tried him, but if Kerby wanted to, it would not
take long to try it. Kerby told him that he had not come to try, but he came
to whip him, if he did not ’crawl under’ and not fight him. John
told him that he would have to whip him, for he never ’crawled under’,
nor ‘backed down’ unless he had to; so they chose their seconds.
John chose me, and Kerby chose one of his crowd. They made a ring, and appeared
to be as cool about it as they would have been if they intended to it as
a meal of victuals. They stripped themselves of all clothing except their
underclothes, and stepped into the ring, and went to knocking. They knocked
in good earnestness for a long time. It was “so good a man, and so good
a boy,” as the saying was, John’s friends hollowing for him, and
Kerby’s friends hollowing for him. After they had fought for quite a
while, both were as bloody as they could be about their faces and from their
waists up. I told those standing by to see that I showed no foul play as
I reached over the ring and took a clot of blood out of John’s nostrils.
This appeared to revive him very much, for his nose was so stopped that he
could not breathe through it. I saw that Kerby was beginning to weaken, and
some of his friends proposed that we part them, but I raised my handspike
and told them that I would ’brain’ the first man that interfered,
for they were fighting to decide which could whip, and that it had to be
decided. They fought a while longer, and at last Kerby told them to take
John off, that his wind was too long for him. Both were just about exhausted,
and consequently it was not a hard job to separate them. John tried to jump
up and hollow, but I don’t think he raised both feet off of the ground,
and said that he was the best man. They then passed the jug around, and went
to the spring and washed, and dressed. The jug was passed around again and
John and Kerby shook hands and parted as the best of friends. They went back,
and we commenced rolling logs again. We had to give up one good hand, for
John did not roll any more logs that day; but he had gained a great victory,
as he was then the acknowledged “bully” of the neighborhood, and
had no more fighting to do. I never took so much delight in fighting as some
men did, but I have had several fights in my time. The most of them originated
from wrestling. After I would throw men down, they would often say that I
could not whip them, and I convinced every one of them that they were mistaken.
Once, at a muster, there was a tall fellow came along by our company and
told the captain that he had the “scrun iest” company in the field
and commenced laughing at us. The captain told him that the least man in
his company could whip him. The fellow said that he would see him after the
muster. I thought no more about it until after the muster was over, when
I saw the captain and the large fellow coming into the store where I was
sitting on a keg. The captain pointed at me and said, “Yonder he sits
now,” and here he came in a run toward me. I jumped upon my feet just
in time to dodge his lick, and I struck him at the bur of the ear and knocked
him down. He had barely struck the floor before I was on him with both my
thumbs in his eyes, and he hollowing, “Take him off.” He hollowed
none too soon to save his eyes. He said that I whipped him before he had
time to get mad. It was several days before he could see very much. I saw
him several times after that, but he never took a “running shoot”
at me again.
Until I was about forty years old, there was nothing in which I took greater
delight than riding for horse races. I always thought when there was a horse
race anywhere in the country that I ought to be one of the riders. I only
weighed about one hundred and thirty-five pounds, so I was just about the
right size. I rode for many races in my life time. I was not afraid to mount
any horse and ’put’ him through the track although I have had many
narrow escapes from being killed or crippled. When there was a race to be
run it was generally followed by racing during the remainder of the day.
As soon as one race was run another would e made up. Sometimes six or eight
races would be made before the day of the race. Very often I rode ten or
fifteen races in one day. I hardly ever bet, but I earned plenty of money
riding races. I remember well the last race that I ever rode. The morning
of the race my wife was very much opposed to me going which was a very uncommon
thing, for usually, if she was opposed to it, she would not say anything;
but that morning she said, “Robert, I don’t want you to go to the
race today, but if you will go, I don’t want you to ride for a race,
for I never slept half of the time last night; every time that I would fall
asleep I was dreaming about you riding races and every time I dreamed that
you was thrown off and badly hurt; I was bothered about you all night. I
said I did not believe in dreams, but I promised her that I would not ride
a race that day. I did not think that I would, but I had not been on the
ground but a little while until a man came to me and wanted me to ride a
race for him, and said that he would give me one dollar to ride and five
dollars if I beat; but he said, The mare is somewhat hard to manage, but
if you can keep her in the track, she will be sure to beat. I told him that
I had thought of not riding that day, but I would ride for him; so I soon
had the mare in charge. I led her up and down the track once or twice and
jumped upon her. When the word was given to go, I started her and gave her
a lick; it seemed to me that she almost flew; I looked around and saw that
she was leaving the other animal for behind. Just then several who bet on
her began to hollow and throw up their hats. That scared her, and in spite
of me she flew the track. She ran through the woods with me, and it seemed
that I could pull just hard enough on the reins to held her steady. She ran
about a quarter of a mile with me and came to a stake and ridered fence and
ran along the side of it. I expected every time I passed a stake that my
head would strike it, so I dropped the reins and grabbed a stake. I think
it threw me five or six feet above the fence, and I fell upon the next panel
of fence. When I became conscious there was a crowd of men standing around
me, and some of them working with me. I was bruised very bad, but I soon
recovered. That was the last horse race that I ever rode. I have believed
in dreams ever since.
You may think that we had no law, as I have said nothing about it, and have
said so much about fighting. If men wanted to fight to decide which was the
best man, they went at it and the best man whipped and that was all there
was of it, but if a man was mad at another and beat him, and the other did
not want to fight, the one who beat the other could have been arrested and
tried by a jury, as such would be now. The fine, if it was money, went to
the man who was not in fault, after all expenses were paid. You seldom heard
of one man suing another for fighting, for if he did he was looked on as
being a coward. We had laws and severe penalties for violating them than
we do now. If a man used a knife, rock, stick or anything else on a man
unlawfully, he was whipped at a whipping post or branded A.C. for a coward,
the brand being held on until he said God bless the stare three times in
succession for stealing, all amounts of five dollars and over, he was branded
with the A.C., for a coward, and had to pay back the amount to the man he
stole it from in six months from the time of trial, or he was branded again,
and so on every six months until all was paid back with interest. For less
than five dollars he was whipped at the whipping post with from ten to
thirty-nine lashed on his bare back.
There was not much stealing in those days, and as for murder in the first
degree as a man was often taken up, tried and hung in less than a week after
the deed had been committed. They did not fool around with a murderer and
make it cost the state a thousand dollars or more, but made short work of
him. There was not near so much meanness done then as now.
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