James Monroe was the last of the quartet of Virginia Presidents which had begun with George Washington. He was elected after serving as Madison’s Secretary of State, but before that he had fought in the Revolution, sat in the Continental Congress, been a Senator, a governor, and a minister to France. His term as President is known as the Era of Good Feeling because of the absence of serious problems to divide the country. It was a period of rapid growth as settlers pushed west and the beginnings of the industrial revolution began to change the East.

During the early decades of the nineteenth century the wilderness across the Allegheny Mountains began to fill up with farmers. Throughout Jefferson’s administration there were occasional skirmishes with the Indians, but gradually the Indians were pushed out of their traditional hunting grounds. While Madison was President, the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, who had attempted to organize Indian resistance, was crushed by William Henry Harrison in the Battle of Tippecanoe. Meantime, Ohio had become a state in 1803, and in 1816, the year that James Monroe was elected President, Indiana was admitted to the Union. Two years later, Illinois joined the growing Union.

In the selections reprinted in this part of The Jeffersonians we have chosen four pieces that show various aspects of life in the Mississippi Valley. Here you will find examples of farm life, religion, and politics in the new states west of the mountains.

A Husking Bee in Ohio

William Cooper Howells, the author of the next selection, was the father of a famous magazine editor and novelist, William Dean Howells. The elder Howells was taken to Ohio from England as a child and grew up on a farm while Ohio was a new state. His memories come from Recollections of Life in Ohio from 1813 to 1840.

One of the gatherings for joint work, which has totally disappeared from the agriculture of modern times, and one that was always a jolly kind of affair, was the cornhusking. It was a sort of harvest home in its department, and it was the more jolly because it was a gathering with very little respect to persons, and embraced in the invitation men and big boys, with the understanding that no one would be unwelcome. There was always a good supper served at the husking, and as certainly a good appetite to eat it with. It came at a plentiful season, when the turkeys and chickens were fat, and a fat pig was at hand, to be flanked on the table with good bread in various forms, turnips and potatoes from the autumn stores, apple and pumpkin pies, good coffee and the like. And the cooking was always well done, and all in such bountiful abundance that no one feared to eat, while many a poor fellow was certain of a square meal by being present at a husking. You were sure to see the laboring men of the vicinity out, and the wives of a goodly number of farm hands would be on hand to help in the cooking and serving at the table. The cornhusking has been discontinued because the farmers found out that it was less trouble to husk it in the field, direct from the stalk, than to gather in the husk and go over it again. But in that day they did not know that much and therefore took the original method of managing their corn crop, which was this: as soon as the grain began to harden they would cut the stalks off just above the ears and save these tops for fodder, and if they had time they stripped all the blades off the stalks below the ears, which made very nice though costly feed. Then, as barn room was not usually over plenty, they made a kind of frame of poles, as for a tent, and thatched it, sides and top, with the corn tops placed with the tassel downward, so as to shed the rain and snow. This was called the fodder-house and was built in the barnyard. Inside they would store the blades in bundles, the husks, and the pumpkins that were saved for use in the winter. The fodder-house was commonly made ten feet high and as long as was necessary, and it was used up through the winter by feeding the fodder to the cattle, beginning at the back, which would be temporarily closed by a few bundles of the tops. It would thus serve as a protection for what might be stored in it till all was used up. The fodder-house was, of all things, a favorite place for the children to hide in and play. When the season for gathering the corn came the farmers went through the fields and pulled off the ears and husks together, throwing them upon the ground in heaps, whence they were hauled into the barnyard and there piled up in a neat pile of convenient length, according to the crop, and say four or five feet high, rising to a sharp peak from a base of about six feet. Care was taken to make this pile of equal width and height from end to end, so that it would be easily and fairly divided in the middle by a rail laid upon it.

When the husking party had assembled they were all called out into line, and two fellows, mostly ambitious boys, were chosen captains. These then chose their men, each calling out one of the crowd alternately, till all were chosen. Then the heap was divided, by two judicious chaps walking solemnly along the ridge of the heap of corn, and deciding where the dividing rail was to be laid, and, as this had to be done by starlight or moonlight at best, it took considerable deliberation, as the comparative solidity of the ends of the heap and the evenness of it had to be taken into account. This done, the captains placed a good steady man at each side of the rail, who made it a point to work through and cut the heap in two as soon as possible; and then the two parties fell to husking, all standing with the heap in front of them, and throwing the husked corn on to a clear place over the heap, and the husks behind them. From the time they began till the corn was all husked at one end, there would be steady work, each man husking all the corn he could, never stopping except to take a pull at the stone jug of inspiration that passed occasionally along the line; weak lovers of the stuff were sometimes overcome, though it was held to be a disgraceful thing to take too much. The captains would go up and down their lines and rally their men as if in a battle, and the whole was an exciting affair.

As soon as one party got done, they raised a shout, and hoisting their captain on their shoulders, carried him over to the other side with general cheering. Then would come a little bantering talk and explanation why the defeated party lost, and all would turn to and husk up the remnants of the heap. All hands would then join to carry the husks into the fodder-house. The shout at hoisting the captain was the signal for bringing the supper on the table, and the huskers and the supper met soon after. These gatherings often embraced forty or fifty men. If the farmhouse was small it would be crowded, and the supper would be managed by repeated sittings at the table. At a large house there was less crowding and more fun, and if, as was often the case, some occasion had been given for an assemblage of the girls of the neighborhood, and particularly if the man that played the fiddle should attend, after the older men had gone, there was very apt to be a good time. There was a tradition that the boys who accidentally husked a red ear and saved it would be entitled to a kiss from somebody. But I never knew it to be necessary to produce a red ear to secure a kiss where there was a disposition to give or take one.

Religion in Tennessee

Religion played an important part in the lives of frontier settlers. Instead of the stern Puritanism of colonial New England, the religion of the West in the early years of the last century was highly evangelistic. By this time, the Methodist movement had made a large number of converts and was particularly strong on the frontier. One tireless Methodist preacher was Lorenzo Dow, often known as “Crazy Dow,” who traveled throughout the United States during a long ministry. Though he lived until 1834, the selection that follows comes from his journal of 1804, when he visited Tennessee at the age of 27. He was then traveling about ten thousand miles a year by horse and on foot over trails and primitive roads. This selection is particularly interesting for its account of a backwoods religious fervor, almost a physical affliction, described by Dow as the jerks.

Next day I rode forty-five miles in company with Dr. Nelson across the dismal Allegheny mountains by the warm springs, and on the way a young man, a traveller, came in (where I breakfasted gratis at an inn) and said that he had but three sixteenths of a dollar left, having been robbed of seventy-one dollars on the way; and he being far from home, I gave him half of what I had with me.

My horse having a navel gall come on his back, I sold him with the saddle, bridle, cloak and blanket, etc., on credit for about three fourths of the value, with uncertainty whether I should ever be paid: thus I crossed the river French Broad in a canoe and set out for my appointment; but fearing I should be behind the time, I hired a man (whom I met on the road with two horses) to carry me five miles in haste for three shillings; which left me but one sixteenth of a dollar. In our speed he observed there was a nigh way by which I could clamber the rocks and cut off some miles: so we parted; he having not gone two thirds of the way yet insisted on the full sum.

I took to my feet the nigh way as fast as I could pull on, as intricate as it was, and came to a horrid ledge of rocks on the bank of the river where there was no such thing as going round; and to clamber over would be at the risk of my life, as there was danger of slipping into the river. However, being unwilling to disappoint the people, I pulled off my shoes, and with my handkerchief fastened them about my neck, and creeping upon my hands and feet with my fingers and toes in the cracks of the rocks with difficulty I got safe over. In about four miles I came to a house and hired a woman to take me over the river in a canoe, for my remaining money and a pair of scissors; the latter of which was the chief object with her: so our extremities are other’s opportunities. Thus with difficulty I got to my appointment in Newport in time.

I had heard about a singularity called the jerks or jerking exercise, which appeared first near Knoxville in August last, to the great alarm of the people; which reports at first I considered as vague and false. But at length, like the Queen of Sheba, I set out to go and see for myself and sent over these appointments into this country accordingly.

When I arrived in sight of this town, I saw hundreds of people collected in little bodies; and observing no place appointed for meeting, before I spoke to any, I got on a log and gave out an hymn; which caused them to assemble round, in solemn attentive silence. I observed several involuntary motions in the course of the meeting, which I considered as a specimen of the jerks. I rode seven miles behind a man across streams of water and held meeting in the evening, being ten miles on my way.

In the night I grew uneasy, being twenty-five miles from my appointment for next morning at eleven o’clock; I prevailed on a young man to attempt carrying me with horses until day, which he thought was impracticable, considering the darkness of the night and the thickness of the trees. Solitary shrieks were heard in these woods, which he told me were said to be the cries of murdered persons. At day we parted, being still seventeen miles from the spot, and the ground covered with a white frost. I had not proceeded far before I came to a stream of water from the springs of the mountain, which made it dreadful cold; in my heated state I had to wade this stream five times in the course of about an hour, which I perceived so affected my body that my strength began to fail. Fears began to arise that I must disappoint the people, till I observed some fresh tracks of horses which caused me to exert every nerve to overtake them in hopes of aid or assistance on my journey, and soon I saw them on an eminence. I shouted for them to stop, till I came up; they inquired what I wanted; I replied I had heard there was meeting at Seversville by a stranger and was going to it. They replied that they had heard that a crazy man was to hold forth there and were going also; and perceiving that I was weary, they invited me to ride, and soon our company was increased to forty or fifty who fell in with us on the road, from different plantations. At length I was interrogated, whether I knew anything about the preacher. I replied. “I have heard a good deal about him, and have heard him preach, but I have no great opinion of him.” And thus the conversation continued for some miles before they found me out, which caused some color and smiles in the company.

Thus I got on to meeting, and after taking a cup of tea gratis, I began to speak to a vast audience; and I observed about thirty to have the jerks. Though they strove to keep still as they could, these emotions were involuntary, and irresistible, as any unprejudiced eye might discern. Lawyer Porter (who had come a considerable distance) got his heart touched under the word and being informed how I came to meeting, voluntarily lent me a horse to ride near one hundred miles and gave me a dollar, though he had never seen me before.

Hence to Marysville, where I spoke to about one thousand five hundred; and many appeared to feel the word, but about fifty felt the jerks. At night I lodged with one of the Nicholites, a kind of Quakers who do not feel free to wear coloured clothes. I spoke to a number of people at his house that night. Whilst at tea I observed his daughter (who sat opposite to me at the table) to have the jerks; and dropped the tea cup from her hand in the violent agitation. I said to her, “Young woman, what is the matter?” She replied, “I have got the jerks.” I asked her how long she had it? She observed “a few days” and that it had been the means of the awakening and conversion of her soul by stirring her up to serious consideration about her careless state, etc.

Sunday, February 19th, I spoke in Knoxville to hundreds more than could get into the court house, the Governor being present. About one hundred and fifty appeared to have jerking exercise, among whom was a circuit preacher (Johnson) who had opposed them a little before, but he now had them powerfully; and I believe he would have fallen over three times had not the auditory been so crowded that he could not, unless he fell perpendicularly.

After meeting I rode eighteen miles to hold meeting at night. The people of this settlement were mostly Quakers; and they had said (as I was informed) the Methodists and Presbyterians have the jerks because they sing and pray so much, but we are a still peaceable people, wherefore we do not have them. However, about twenty of them came to meeting, to hear one, as was said, somewhat in a Quaker line, but their usual stillness and silence was interrupted; for about a dozen of them had the jerks as keen and as powerful as any I had seen, so as to have occasioned a kind of grunt or groan when they would jerk. It appears that many have undervalued the great revival, and attempted to account for it altogether on natural principles; therefore it seems to me (from the best judgment I can form) that God hath seen proper to take this method, to convince people, that he will work in a way to show his power; and sent the jerks as a sign of the times, partly in judgment for the people’s unbelief, and yet as a mercy to convict people of divine realities.

Davy Crockett Runs for Office

Davy Crockett, who describes himself as an “ignorant backwoods bearhunter,” was just another poor frontier boy until he got into politics. Then he served in the state legislature and later in Congress. He became the fair-haired boy of Whig politicians when he broke with Andrew Jackson, his fellow Tennessee Democrat. Subsequently, his backwoods humor, tall tales, and picturesque personality were exploited by Whig journalists, and Crockett became a sort of folklore hero.

But Tennessee Democrats would not tolerate his desertion of their party and turned him out of office. After that, he went to Texas and died, as everyone remembers, during the heroic defense of the Alamo. The following selection is taken from A Narrative of the Life of Davy Crockett, which passes for his autobiography but which undoubtedly was ghostwritten for him. This account describes with typical frontier exaggeration Crockett’s first campaign for office.

In a little time I was asked to offer for the Legislature in the counties of Lawrence and Heckman. I offered my name in the month of February, and started about the first of March with a drove of horses to the lower part of the State of North Carolina. This was in the year 1821, and I was gone upwards of three months. I returned, and set out electioneering, which was a brand-fire new business to me. It now became necessary that I should tell the people something about the government, and an eternal sight of other things that I knowed nothing more about than I did about Latin, and law, and such things as that. I have said before that in those days none of us called General Jackson the government [Jackson was not yet President, and Crockett was still a Democrat], nor did he seem in as fair a way to become so as I do now; but I knowed so little about it, that if any one had told me he was “the government,” I should have believed it, for I had never read even a newspaper in my life, or anything else, on the subject. But over all my difficulties, it seems to me I was born for luck, though it would be hard for any one to guess what sort. I will, however, explain that hereafter.

I went first into Heckman county, to see what I could do among the people as a candidate. Here they told me that they wanted to move their town nearer to the centre of the county, and I must come out in favor of it. There’s no devil if I knowed what this meant, or how the town was to be moved; and so I kept dark, going on the identical same plan that I now find is called “noncommittal.” About this time there was a great squirrel hunt on Duck River, which was among my people. They were to hunt two days; then to meet and count the scalps, and have a big barbecue, and what might be called a tip-top country frolic. The dinner, and a general treat, was all to be paid for by the party having taken the fewest scalps. I joined one side, taking the place of one of the hunters, and got a gun ready for the hunt. I killed a great many squirrels, and when we counted scalps, my party was victorious.

The company had every thing to eat and drink that could be furnished in so new a country, and much fun and good humor prevailed. But before the regular frolic commenced, I mean the dancing, I was called on to make a speech as a candidate; which was a business I was as ignorant of as an outlandish Negro.

A public document I had never seen, nor did I know there were such things; and how to begin I couldn’t tell. I made many apologies, and tried to get off, for I know’d I had a man to run against who could speak prime, and I know’d, too, that I wasn’t able to shuffle and cut with him. He was there, and knowing my ignorance as well as I did myself, he also urged me to make a speech. The truth is, he thought my being a candidate was a mere matter of sport; and didn’t think for a moment that he was in any danger from an ignorant backwoods bear hunter. But I found I couldn’t get off, and so I determined just to go ahead, and leave it to chance what I should say. I got up and told the people I reckoned they know’d what I come for, but if not, I could tell them. I had come for their votes, and if they didn’t watch mighty close I’d get them too. But the worst of all was, that I could not tell them anything about government. I tried to speak about something, and I cared very little what, until I choked up as bad as if my mouth had been jamm’d and cramm’d chock full of dry mush. There the people stood, listening all the while, with their eyes, mouths, and ears all open, to catch every word....

At last I told them I was like a fellow I had heard of not long before. He was beating on the head of an empty barrel near the road-side, when a traveler, who was passing along, asked him what he was doing that for? The fellow replied that there was some cider in that barrel a few days before, and he was trying to see if there was any then, but if there was he couldn’t get at it. I told them that there had been a little bit of speech in me a while ago, but I believed I couldn’t get it out. They all roared out in a mighty laugh, and I told some other anecdotes, equally amusing to them, and believing I had them in a first-rate way, I quit and got down, thanking the people for their attention. But I took care to remark that I was as dry as a powder-horn, and that I thought it was time for us all to wet our whistles a little; and so I put off to the liquor stand, and was followed by the greater part of the crowd.

I felt certain this was necessary, for I knowed my competitor could open government matters to them as easy as he pleased. He had, however, mighty few left to hear him, as I continued with the crowd, now and then taking a horn, and telling good-humored stories, till he was done speaking. I found I was good for the votes at the hunt, and when we broke up I went on to the town of Vernon, which was the same [town] they wanted me to move. Here they pressed me again on the subject, and I found I could get either party by agreeing with them. But I told them I didn’t know whether it would be right or not, and so couldn’t promise either way.

Their court commenced on the next Monday, as the barbecue was on a Saturday, and the candidates for Governor, and for Congress, as well as my competitor and myself, all attended.

The thought of having to make a speech made my knees feel mighty weak, and set my heart to fluttering almost as bad as my first love scrape with the Quaker’s niece. But as good luck would have it, these big candidates spoke nearly all day, and when they quit, the people were worn out with fatigue, which afforded me a good apology for not discussing the government. But I listened mighty close to them, and was learning pretty fast about political matters. When they were all done, I got up and told some laughable story, and quit. I found I was safe in those parts, and so I went home, and did not go back again till after the election was over. But to cut this matter short, I was elected, doubling my competitor, and nine votes over.

Early Days in Illinois

Morris Birkbeck was an Englishman who came to the United States and settled in southeastern Illinois where he founded the town of Albion. His account of the people and life in Illinois in 1817, just before it became a state, is good reporting. He has a sharp eye for detail, and because he was fresh from Europe, he sees and records the contrasts between the Midwestern backwoods and the Old World. The following selection comes from his book, Notes on a Journey in America, from the Coast of Virginia to the Territory of Illinois.

August 1. Dagley’s, twenty miles north of Shawnee Town. After viewing several beautiful prairies, so beautiful with their surrounding woods as to seem like the creation of fancy, gardens of delight in a dreary wilderness, and after losing our horses and spending two days in recovering them, we took a hunter as our guide and proceeded across the Little Wabash to explore the country between that river and the Skillet-fork.

Since we left the Fox settlement, about fifteen miles north of the Big Prairie, cultivation has been very scanty, many miles intervening between the little “clearings.” This may therefore be truly called a new country.

These lonely settlers are poorly off—their bread corn must be ground thirty miles off, requiring three days to carry to the mill and bring back the small horse-load of three bushels. Articles of family manufacture are very scanty, and what they purchase is of the meanest quality and excessively dear: yet they are friendly and willing to share their simple fare with you. It is surprising how comfortable they seem, wanting everything. To struggle with privations has now become the habit of their lives, most of them having made several successive plunges into the wilderness, and they begin already to talk of selling their “improvements” and getting still farther “back” on finding that emigrants of another description are thickening about them.

Our journey across the Little Wabash was a complete departure from all mark of civilization. We saw no bears, as they are now buried in the thickets, and seldom appear by day; but, at every few yards, we saw recent marks of their doings, “wallowing” in the long grass or turning over decayed logs in quest of beetles or worms, in which work the strength of this animal is equal to that of four men. Wandering without track, where even the sagacity of our hunter-guide had nearly failed us, we at length arrived at the cabin of another hunter, where we lodged.

This man and his family are remarkable instances of the effect on the complexion produced by the perpetual incarceration [imprisonment] of a thorough woodland life. Incarceration may seem to be a term less applicable to the condition of a roving backwoodsman than to any other, and especially unsuitable to the habits of this individual and his family; for the cabin in which he entertained us is the third dwelling he has built within the last twelve months, and a very slender motive would place him in a fourth before the ensuing winter. In his general habits the hunter ranges as freely as the beasts he pursues; labouring under no restraint, his activity is only bounded by his own physical powers: still he is incarcerated—“Shut from the common air.” Buried in the depth of a boundless forest, the breeze of health never reaches these poor wanderers; the bright prospect of distant hills fading away into the semblance of clouds, never cheered their sight. They are tall and pale, like vegetables that grow in a vault, pining for light....

Our stock of provisions being nearly exhausted, we were anxious to provide ourselves with a supper by means of our guns, but we could meet with neither deer nor turkey; however, in our utmost need, we shot three raccoons, an old one to be roasted for our dogs and the two young ones to be stewed up daintily for ourselves. We soon lighted a fire and cooked the old raccoon for the dogs; but famished as they were, they would not touch it, and their squeamishness so far abated our relish for the promised stew that we did not press our complaining landlady to prepare it; and thus our supper consisted of the residue of our “corn” bread and no raccoon. However, we laid our bear skins on the filthy earth (floor there was none), which they assured us was “too damp for fleas,” and wrapped in our blankets slept soundly enough; though the collops [slices] of venison hanging in comely rows in the smoky fireplace and even the shoulders put by for the dogs and which were suspended over our heads would have been an acceptable prelude to our night’s rest, had we been invited to partake of them; but our hunter and our host were too deeply engaged in conversation to think of supper. In the morning the latter kindly invited us to cook some of the collops, which we did by toasting them on a stick, and he also divided some shoulders among the dogs; so we all fared sumptuously.

The cabin, which may serve as a specimen of these rudiments of houses, was formed of round logs with apertures of three or four inches between. No chimney, but large intervals between the “clapboards” for the escape of the smoke. The roof was, however, a more effectual covering than we have generally experienced, as it protected us very tolerably from a drenching night. Two bedsteads of unhewn logs and cleft boards laid across; two chairs, one of them without a bottom, and a low stool were all the furniture required by this numerous family. A string of buffalo hide stretched across the hovel was a wardrobe for their rags; and their utensils, consisting of a large iron pot, some baskets, the effective rifle and two that were superannuated [too old to use], stood about in corners, and the fiddle, which was only silent when we were asleep, hung by them.