The horses
were used as draft animals. They wore heavy leather harnesses that Ignatz
made by hand. The horses were hooked up to many different implements, depending
on the work to be done: the wooden rock sledge, a plow for tilling the garden
plots; the wagon which carried the vegetables to market, even to the massive
trees which had to be hauled over the farm’s steep hills. The horsepower
supplied by these draft animals allowed one person to do the work of many.
Crops were grown on the rich, flat bottomland by the creek. Mary Ursula and Ignatz tended the gardens with the help of the children, raising enough for the family to eat, sell at market, and stock the root cellar under the home with vegetables for the winter. Some of the newly cleared land was replanted with fruit trees and grape vines. These permanent plantings supplemented the wild fruits like raspberries, “fox” grapes, and paw paws which already grew in the wooded ravines around the farm and along the creek.
Shaving horse and draw knife.
Other kinds of “fruits” were gathered from the
woods: buckets of hickory nuts and black walnuts went into the root cellar,
safe from squirrels, until the nuts could be hulled and shelled on winter
evenings. Some families gathered edible mushrooms that were eaten fresh or
dried. It was important to always plan ahead for lean times. Surplus food
was preserved during the growing season so that the family would have enough
to eat during the lean months when the gardens were dormant.
Sugar was a luxury,
but honey was collected from wild “bee trees” if one was lucky enough
to find one. Pioneers learned to tap sugar maple trees as the Native Americans
first did. The sap was collected from the trees in very early spring by tapping
a metal spout into the tree trunk just through the outer bark and into the
light-colored sapwood. The sap was boiled down over a fire to yield delicious
brown maple syrup. It took many buckets of sap to make maple syrup, usually
40-60 to make one gallon!
Metal items, like the tree taps, were often made by the local blacksmith. Plow heads, hatchet and axe blades, horseshoes, nails, hooks, latches…the list of useful items made by the blacksmith was endless. Using a few simple tools (anvil, heavy hammer, tongs) a fire which burned almost continuously, and a large bucket of water, the blacksmith could create one-of-a-kind items as well as dozens of nearly identical nails in a short amount of time. Everyone worked hard. Even the youngest children had important chores to do. Sunday was the one day when the focus was not on work, but on God. Community life revolved around the church, which is why it was often one of the first buildings to be erected in a new settlement. Life in the new land was not easy.
