friday's almost forgotten frontier fact

This picture is entitled, "Dreaming of a hunt." These frontier hunters, trappers, and scouts were such an interesting sort. They were rugged men who had a healthy respect for the wilderness and the dangers within but weren't afraid of much. Solitude was second nature though they sometimes took Indian wives. They weren't at home penned up in a cabin or fort. Farming was almost women's work to them. Some hated the Indians and some, like Boone, found them tolerable, even admirable. A great many of them were multi-lingual. I have one of these fluent, wandering, fearless men in book 2, Red River Daughter. And that, dear reader, is my short but sweet frontier fact.

I'm reading the most amazing book. Love's Pursuit by Siri Mitchell, a fellow Baker Books author. It's been a long time since I've read anything I've liked so much, other than James Thom. When I need a break from my book, I pick up hers. Nothing like writing a good book or reading one!

Happy Friday!

friday's frontier fact

This picture brings up a favorite topic of mine - babies. Sadly, the frontier was hard on children, hence this Friday's fact. If you were a woman living in the 18th-century, you usually had at least 8 children. One woman I've been reading about gave birth to 24 children and only 2 lived. Can you imagine? Cradles were rarely empty. The healthiest places to live were rural farms. Towns and cities bred diseases. I was amazed to read that only 3 mothers in 100 died as a result of childbirth. This was better than I expected.

Because so many babies died, there was often some delay in naming infants as this touching letter attests to: "But how long we shall be allowed to keep him," wrote a colonial couple announcing the birth of their son, "is unknown to us."

This crib looks quite uncomfortable and tippy! I prefer the low cradles I've seen in frontier forts and cabins. This one is also pretty elaborate for the time period. Children must have brightened up the lives of those early settlers considerably. I have several in Red River Daughter. They add spice to the book:)

Only 2 more Fridays till The Frontiersman's Daughter is on shelves! What a countdown the past 1 1/2 years has been:) I've learned so much and have much still to learn. Can't wait to turn in book 2 and return to book 3. Then who knows what's next?! I'm already praying about book 4 which is really book 9! Maybe I'll recycle some of those old novels someday.

Two more books on order:
The Ransom of Mercy Carter by Caroline Cooney
Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison by Lois Lenski

Happy Friday!

Sources: http://www.oldsturbridgevillage.org
"No Force Can Resist Death": Reflections on Child and Infant Mortality in American History: Jack Larkin

friday's frontier fact

As I look out on my vegetable and flower garden in full bloom I think of those Kentucky settlers who had the same after they settled themselves and the land. Ever heard of blue marigolds? They were a favorite old flower. Also cockscomb and phlox and roses. Herbs were always treasured. Thyme tea could take away a headache. Ginseng root was chewed to revive oneself. The list goes on and on.

In The Frontiersman's Daughter Lael's garden is the woods. You'll find she keeps quite busy tending it:) One thing she doesn't like is snakes. "A man hoeing a small patch in the spring often killed a dozen rattlesnakes or copperheads in a morning." (Frontier Living; Tunis).

This bit of reading says so much about those first settlers, "The preferred yard around a cabin was bare ground. Weeds and grass were cut away. Snakes were easier to spot and children were safer. Women tied switches together to make rough brooms called besoms with which to sweep the ground and scoured away chicken piles and other stains with kettles of hot water splashed on the dirt. A swept yard sparkled and when flowers and shrubs were planted at the edges became a thing of beauty and order in the threatening wilderness." (Boone; Robert Morgan).

Only 4 more Fridays till the book is on shelves! Have a wonderful weekend!

friday's frontier fact

At first glance you may wonder what on earth men in kilts have to do with colonial days, much less the Kentucky frontier. Well, at one time one sixth of the colonial American population were Scots. Ten thousand landed in a single year. And they came in droves to the frontier because they heard land was free there. Some of these sturdy Scotsmen began making whiskey in the mountains of Kentucky and their descendants still carry on the tradition. (Tunis: Frontier Living).

I placed a Scotsman right in the heart of The Frontiersman's Daughter but he didn't come to Kentucky because of free land or whiskey. His calling was a bit more unusual. Since I don't want to spoil the novel for you, I'll just say I think he's a very appealing hero. I fell in love with him sooner than Lael and had a hard time giving him a quirk. He was too perfect, so I made him hate collard greens and the Kentucky heat:) He has a few more faults as well but you'll just have to discover them for yourself when you read the novel. And I hope you will! Only 6 more Friday's till the book is on shelves.

Happy Friday!

friday's frontier fact

Would you like some
bear meat, wild turkey, deer or buffalo? Maybe some fresh green corn, hominy soaked in lye water, or Johnnycake? Sometimes settlers ate panther which is said to taste like veal or rattlesnake. I suppose if you drank enough of the beverage of the day, whiskey-and-water, you'd be able to stomach some of the above. According to one source, everyone on the 18th-century frontier "drank whiskey-and-water as an ordinary beverage. It was also drunk without water and was a constant source of trouble when it relaxed the inhibitions of people who had all too few of them to start with." (Tunis, Frontier Living).

If this wasn't enough, perhaps you'd like a little pewter poisoning with your plate? This malady wasn't uncommon and led to a host of physical complaints, even madness. Life in the 18th-century was never dull - dangerous and deadly, but not dull!

May you have a safe, palatable, lead-free weekend:) Happy Friday!

friday's frontier fact

Here's a short and sweet frontier fact about a weapon that was neither. The Kentucky rifle was known across 18th-century America as a formidable weapon. Most were generally five feet long or a bit less. Loading the gun took about a minute though some could perform this feat faster. Imagine loading under fire! Daniel Boone was one of the very few who could actually reload his rifle on the run. He also became an expert on repairing these guns which earned him great favor with the Indians.

Sometimes men were shamed by women who could out shoot them. At Fort Boonesborough, two women in particular would dress as men in hats, shirts, and breeches and take positions at the loopholes in times of attack. I'm afraid I would have still been wearing a skirt, melting pewter plates for bullets in the back room. No bravado here.

According to one source, "Kentucky rifles had more personality than any guns ever made; they were loved by the men who used them and were given feminine pet names." I'm not sure if I'd like my husband naming his firearm "Laura" but there you have it. Some did. I suppose it was a high compliment. I've read that some men, given the choice, would have picked their rifles over their wives!

Only 9 more Fridays till The Frontiersman's Daughter is on shelves.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Sources:
Frontier Living, Edwin Tunis

friday's almost forgotten frontier fact

I must confess that I've been so buried in the 18th-century that I nearly forgot it was a Friday in May, 2009. But Paul just came in wearing a coonskin cap he'd found for 25 cents at a church sale and I was catapulted back into the present. So here's my fiddle-playin', coonskin cap-wearin' 9 year old son reminding me of our Kentucky kin of long ago.

Back then, my mother's family (paternal side) resided in Virginia. The oldest records we have of them are around 1730 when the head of the clan was a magistrate and lived in a stone house known as 'the Blanton house'. At some point they moved to Botetourt County on Virginia's western frontier, a very dangerous place at that time period. We're not sure when they crossed the mountains into Kentucky, or more interestingly, why they moved, but they appear on the tax rolls there in 1790. Even at this late date "the woods were alive with Indians," as one settler said. Yet they and many other Virginians moved west. They settled an area known as 'Blanton Flats' which still exists. Shortly before she passed away, my almost century-old granny visited there with her son and my mom, who live in nearby Berea and Lexington.

Kentucky was known as a daughter of Virginia until Kentucky achieved statehood in 1792. Interestingly, West Virginia didn't separate from Virginia until 1863.

Happy Friday. Have a sunny Memorial Day!

friday's frontier fact

Ever wonder what those first Kentucky settlers read on long winter nights by the fire? I do know some burned double-wick candles to better see by. Deep in the wilderness, the standard reading fare, if you could read at all, included the Bible, history books, Robinson Crusoe, and Gulliver's Travels. Daniel Boone had a fondness for all of the above, and even read the latter to his hunting cronies around the fire. He even christened a Kentucky creek, "Lulbegrud," after a town in Swift's book.

The Virginia Gazette was also circulated through the settlements and this newspaper provided more than the goings-on in England and the Colonies, runaway slaves, horses for sale, etc. I had fun researching some very old editions bound to have made those first settlers cackle (or tsk in dismay). Here are two very common notices printed in the Virginia Gazette, February 4, 1779:

Whereas my Wife Lucy hath behaved in a very unfriendly manner to me, this is to forewarn all Persons from trusting her on my Account, as I will not pay any Debts she may contract, I intend to leave the Colony soon, and return in a few months. James Atherton

Poor James. Suffice it to say, I couldn't find a single notice by a wife complaining about her wayward husband! Here's another:

Whereas my Wife Delphia hath been a naughty, furious Housewife for some Years past, and hath invented, and reported certain slanders, to the Prejudice of my Character, and have often threatened to ruin me...

Wonder what old Boone thought when reading that?

Only 11 more Friday's till The Frontiersman's Daughter is on shelves.
Happy Friday!

Sources:
www.history.org
Boone: A Biography, Robert Morgan

friday's frontier fact

Welcome to Lael's Kentucky cabin. This is how I pictured her homeplace when I wrote the novel. I like all the historic details shown here. The hand-hewn hutch and pewter dishes. The woven baskets. The huge hearth that you can't really see - you just have to imagine. There would be a bed in the corner with a cornhusk tick and quilt and a little key to tighten the rope springs. Hence the old saying, sleep tight but don't let the bed bugs bite. And then above would be a loft.

But as cozy as this cabin looks, it was in fact quite uncomfortable. Austere in the extreme. Cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Dark. Few people could afford glass windows and they were very difficult to transport, thus oiled paper and wooden shutters sufficed if you had windows at all. Many didn't because of the danger. Indians were good at climbing in openings and so settlers opted for safety over light and fresh air. Loopholes just large enough to ram a rifle barrel through were good enough.

Often furniture had multi-purposes. See the table? It folded due to cabins being cramped. Sixteen by twenty feet was the standard cabin size. Simplicity reigned on the frontier, at least in 1777 Kentucky. Those big houses with the cavernous front porches came much later. Floors were mostly dirt at first, then puncheon logs. Folks had no use for frew-frew-raw, as one frontiersman called extravagances. They were simply concerned with staying alive.

How far we have fallen! Wonder what old Boone would think of central air and flushable toilets and microwaved meals? Personally I think he'd run for the hills as fast as his arthritic legs could carry him:) I hardly blame him.

Happy Friday!