www.pioneergirl.com - When Is a Settler An Old Settler?

When Is a Settler An Old Settler?

by Mrs. A. J. Wilder.

"Why you are an old settler," said a new comer to us recently. "Yess," I replied proudly, "we consider ourselves natives," yet when we drove into the Ozarks 20 years ago, with a covered hack and a pony team, we found the "old settler" already here. In conversation with us he made the remark: "My father was an old settler here. He came up from Tennessee before the war." Since then, in working the fields, we have found now and then a stone arrow or spear head made by a settler older still.

When we came to the Ozarks a team of fairly good horses would trade for 40 acres of land. The fences were all rail fences and a great many of the houses were built of logs. The country was a queer mixture of an old and a new country. A great many of the fields had been cropped continually since the war and were so worn out that as one of the neighbors said, "You can't hardly raise an umbrella over it." Aside from these old fields the land was covered with timber and used for range. The "old settlers" told us that the thick growth of timber was comparatively a new thing: that before the country was so thickly settled there were only a few scattering large trees. The fires were allowed to run and they kept down the young growth of timber. Wild grass grew rankly over the hills and cattle pastured free.

It has always been a great pleasure to hear the tales of earlier days. A neighbor, Mrs. Cleaver, told us stories, of her experience in war times and the days equally as bad which immediately followed. Her husband did not go to the war but one night a band of men came and took him away. She never knew what became of him. Then came hard days for her and her young son. They raised a little crop and a hog or two for their living but whenever they had stored a little corn or meat some of the lawless bands of raiders that infested the Ozark hills would come and take it from them. When the war ended, some of the leaders of these lawless bands continued such depredations, only in a little different fashion. Thru the machinations of age of them, Mrs. Cleaver's step-son was taken from her, by the process of law, and bound out to him until the boy should be of age to work without wages, of course. When Mrs. Cleaver protested, I suppose in rather a frantic way, she was driven from the court house, with a horse whip by the sheriff.

Not all the old timers' stories were so serious. There is the story of the green country boy who never had seen a carpeted floor. A new family moved in from the North somewhere and this boy went to the house one day. As he started to enter the door he saw the carpet on the floor. Standing in the door he swung his long arms and jumped clear across the small room, landing on the hearth before the fireplace. Turning to the astonished woman of the house he exclaimed: "Whoa Mam! I mighty nigh stepped on your kiverled!" Coverlet or bedspread in telling this story, our friend always ended with: "I never could make out whether that boy was as big a fool as he pretended to be or not. He made a mighty smart man when he was older and made the business men of Kansas City and St. Louis hustle to keep up with him," which is a way the hill boys have.

One old lady who has lived here since the war, says that when she came the "old settlers" told her of the time when a band of Spanish adventurers came up the Mississippi river and wandered thru the Ozarks. Somewhere among the hills they hid their treasure in a cave and it has never been discovered to this day.

But how old must a settler be to be an "old settler" or if you prefer the famous question, "How old is Ann?"

Mrs. A. J. Wilder. "When Is a Settler An Old Settler?." Missouri Ruralist, (June 5, 1916), page 15.

CLICK HERE to return to the list of articles from the Missouri Ruralist.