In order to get in crops, it was necessary to have the reapers guarded and sentinels posted at each corner of a field, while half-grown boys followed in the very footsteps of the laborers, carrying their rifles loaded and primed for defence. By such means they managed to get a scant supply of grain.
The cattle were suffered to graze at large, for seldom, if ever, any of them were molested. Hogs, too, were suffered to run at large in the woods, feeding upon roots and acorns. When meat was wanted, a party ran down a hog or heifer, butchered it, and took it to the fort. As for such luxuries as coffee, tea, sugar, &c., they were among the missing, and little cared for.
It is not, we hope, to the discredit of any of the best men in the Juniata Valley now, to say that their fathers were born in forts and rocked in sugar-troughs, and their grandfathers wore entire suits, including shoes, made of buckskin, lived sometimes on poor fare, and short allowance at that. They were the men whose sinewy arms hewed down the monarchs of the forest, and, with shovel, hoe, plough, and pick, that we might enjoy the bounties of mother earth when they were mouldering in the bosom thereof, made "waste places glad" and the wilderness to blossom like the rose. Hallowed be their names! But, while we raise the tuneful lay to sing psalms of praise to the glorious old pioneers who by hardship and toil have entailed such blessings upon us, is it not a melancholy reflection to think that in but a few succeeding generations the scanty pages of ancient histories alone will be the monuments to chronicle their deeds?
CHAPTER XVI.
THE EARLY SETTLERS — OLD HART, THE INDIAN TRADER, ETC.
We have been unable to procure any thing like a full and complete list of the early settlers of the entire valley; yet we deem it necessary to give what we have procured, as a necessary adjunct to our work. It will be perceived that many of the names are familiar, and the descendants are still scattered profusely over this section of the country, as well as the Union.
Mr. Bell, in his Memoir, states that, at the time of his earliest recollection, between the Stone (Huntingdon) and the mountain, the pioneers had principally settled along the streams. The prevailing religion was the Presbyterian, although there were Lutherans and Roman Catholics, "and probably as many who professed no religion at all as all the other denominations put together."
In addition to those whose names have already appeared, or will appear hereafter, we may incidentally mention, as early settlers about Lewistown, the McClays, McNitts, and Millikin; west of Lewistown, along the river, the Junkins, Wilsons, Bratton, and Stackpoles.
HART'S WATERING PLACE.