Ice was not stored for summer use, fruits were few and not choice, and the vegetables limited; our ancestors, at that time, having no acquaintance with the tomato, cauliflower, egg-plant, red-pepper, okra, and certain other staple vegetables of today. The Indians had schooled them in the preparation of succotash with the beans grown among the corn, and they raised melons, squashes, and pumpkins in abundance.
Corn for bread was broken in a mortar and ground in a grater or hand-mill. Mills, in the early days, were few and far apart, some of the back-settlers being compelled to travel many miles for their grist. This condition gave origin to the adage "first come first served," and frequently carried the late arrivals over night and, at times, prolonged the trip to procure a few bushels of meal three or four days. "Band-mills," run by horses, and small water mills, where the situation permitted, came into use to supply the demand of larger ones. The building of a good mill, it must be confessed, was hailed with greater satisfaction than the erection of a church.
The more primitive of these peoples ate from wooden trenchers and platters; sat upon three-legged stools or wooden blocks; used bear's grease in lieu of lard and butter, and cut their foods with the same sheath-knives used in disembowelling and skinning the deer killed by their rifles. They had no money and their scant furniture was essentially crude, sometimes including a few pewter dishes and plates and spoons, but usually nothing beyond wooden bowls, trenchers, and noggins, with gourds and squashes daintily cut. The horse trough served as a wash-basin, and water buckets were seldom seen. The family owning an iron pot and a kitchen table were esteemed rich and extravagant, and china and crockery ware were at once practically unknown and uncraved. Feather-beds and bedsteads were equally eschewed, these hardy men who had conquered the wilderness not disdaining, when night came, to sleep upon a dirt floor with a bear-skin for covering.
With muscles of iron and hearts of oak, they united a tenderness for the weak and a capability for self-sacrifice worthy of an ideal knight of chivalry; and their indomitable will, which recognized no obstacle as insuperable, was equalled only by their rugged integrity which regarded dishonesty as an offense as contemptible as cowardice. For many years they dwelt beyond the pale of governmental restraint, nor did they need the presence of either courts or constables. Crimes against person, property, or public order were of so infrequent occurrence as to be practically unheard of. In moral endowments—even if not in mental attainments—these sturdy pioneers of Loudoun were, it must be admitted, vastly superior to many of those who followed them when better facilities for transportation rendered the County more accessible.
Society before and for many years after the Revolution was easy, agreeable, and somewhat refined. Traveling was slow, difficult, and expensive. For society, the inhabitants were mainly dependent upon themselves; the ties of social life were closely drawn. Books, newspapers, and magazines were rare; men and women read less, but talked more, and wrote longer and more elaborate letters than now. "Cheap postage has spoiled letter writing." Much time was spent in social visits; tea parties, and supper parties were common. The gentlemen had their clubs and exclusive social gatherings, sometimes too convivial in their character, and occasionally a youth of promise fell a victim to the temptations of a mistaken hospitality. "Gaming was more common among respectable people than at the present day."
Of leisure, all classes at all times had a superabundance, and it was cheerfully devoted to mutual assistance without thought of recompense, except in kind. If anyone fell behind through sickness or other misfortune, his neighbors would cheerfully proffer their services, often making of the occasion a frolic and mingling labor with amusement.
On days set apart for the pulling of flax and wheat-cutting, the neighbors and their children assembled in happy mood and as cheerfully applied themselves to their gratuitous tasks. While the men were pulling the flax or reaping and shocking the wheat, the women at the house were preparing the harvest-noon feast. The rough table, for which the side and bottom boards of a wagon were frequently used, was placed when practicable under the shade of a spreading tree in the yard. The visitors contributed from their meagre store such additional dishes, knives, forks, and spoons as were needed. Around the table, seated on benches, stools, or splint-bottom chairs, with such appetites as could only be gained from honest toil in the open field, the company partook of the bounties set before them. These consisted, in addition to the never-failing corn-bread and bacon, of bear and deer meat, turkey, or other game in season, and an abundance of vegetables which they called "roughness." The bread, styled "jonny-cake," was baked on journey or "jonny" boards, about two feet long and eight inches wide. The dough was spread over the boards which were then placed before the fire; after one side was browned, the cake was reversed and the unbaked side turned toward the flames.
However strictly it might be abstained from at other times, a harvest without whisky was like a dance without a fiddle. It was partaken of by all—each one, male and female, drinking from the bottle and passing it to his or her nearest neighbor. Drinking vessels were dispensed with as mere idle superfluities.
Dinner over, the company scattered, the elders withdrawing in a body and seating or stretching themselves upon the ground.