Grade 4, Kentucky Unit, Lesson 4
Resource 4D
A Frontier School
Our first school in the Eddy Grove was taught by Brother Elijah in an old corn-crib. The crib was of logs, about
twelve by sixteen feet in size; and it had improved by having another log or two sawed out to enlarge the door,
having the cracks “chinked and pointed,” and having a spacious wooden
chimney, with a fire-place about ten feet long, built at one end. Here Elijah agreed to teach three months; and
every child was to bring him a dollar in silver on the last day of the school. There were two seats, each running
the whole length of the room, and both being formed of a log split open, the flat side being hewn or trimmed to
something like a smooth surface, and the round side having rough pedgs stuck in for legs. Of course they were
without backs, except that they were placed against the wall. There were two or three stools also, constructed in
the same style. A large hewn slab, about two feet wide by six in length, supported on huge pegs about two feet
and a half in length, served as general writing-desk for all.
This school, like, in fact, all that I ever attended, was what
they denominated “loud.” And loud it undoubtedly was.
Every scholar studied at the very top of his voice, each one
seeming intent to excel his neighbor; and the result was, a
noise “as of many waters” that might at times be heard at
the distance of half a mile. But I soon became accustomed
to the confusion, and progressed so rapidly as to learn the
alphabet, to spell pretty well, and to read a little in the
Testament, before the close of the session.
My fourth and last session, making in all twelve months,
First school in Kentucky at Fort Harrod.
was a school taught by John Ford.... His school was very large; for by this time quite a neat and spacious
school-house had been built, albeit it was made of logs, and the settlement had become comparatively strong in
numbers. This, I suppose, was in the year 1809, as I was nearly grown. Here I completed my education by
learning how to write. For a girl to study arithmetic, grammar, or geography, was a thing we never thought of.
The two latter studies were scarcely known even among the boys. The New Testament was the only readingbook for schools that I had ever heard of; and I studied the same spelling-book that had served all the family
before me....
Most of my education was obtained at home. Here I learned to card and spin both cotton and wool, and to
weave in all the fashions of the day. I could lay out my patterns with various-colored threads upon a stick, and
calculate how many cuts of each color I should want for a piece of cloth. I learned to make shirting, sheeting,
cotton for dresses, counterpanes, table-clothes, jean, linsey, and every other fabric that was used in the country;
and as for knitting, I could do that in the dark as well as in daylight, and even when in full trot from place to
place. I knew all about milking, and making butter and cheese; washing, ironing, and bleaching; and in short,
was skilled in all the labors that pertained to early life in the West.
Susannah Johnson, Recollections of the Rev. John Johnson and His Home: An Autobiography (Nashville: Southern Methodist Printing House, 1869)
Grade 4, Kentucky Unit, Lesson 4
Resource 4D
A Frontier School
Choice Board
Directions: Choose two of the activities below and complete in your Discovering Kentucky Notebook
Draw the classroom at
Eddy Grove.
Write a paragraph that
compares Susannah’s
classes with the kinds
of classes your school
teaches.
Write a paragraph
comparing Susannah’s
classroom with yours.
Write a paragraph that
compares the skills
that Susannah learned
with those you have
learned. Do you have
any of the skills that
her parents thought
were important?
Grade 4, Kentucky Unit, Lesson 4
Resource 4D
A Letter from Daniel Drake
Father & Mother were early risers, and I was drilled into the same habit before I was 10 years old. In winter we
were generally up before the dawn of day. After making a fire, the first thing was feeding and foddering the
horses, hogs, sheep & cattle. Corn husks, blades & tops had to be distributed, & times without number, I have
done this by the light of the moon reflected on the snow. This done at an earlier hour than common, old Lion
and I sometimes took a little hunt in the woods; but were never very successful. I had a taste for hunting, but
neither the time nor genius for any great achievement in that way. Among the pleasant recollections of those
mornings are the red birds, robins and snow birds, which made their appearance to pick up the cattering grains
of corn where the cattle had been fed. I well remember my anxiety to get some fresh salt to throw on their tails.
I often made conical lattice traps, and set them; but not, I believe, with any great tact, for my captures were not
numerous.
Our stock required attention in other seasons of the year than the winter. For several years our fences were low
& open, and the corn field was a place of irresistible attractions. The horses & sheep would jump the fence, the
cows would throw it down with their horns, and the hogs would creep between the rails--when the cry would
be, "Run, Dannel! Run!" and away went Daniel with his fellow labourer, old Lion......
It was a custom with father and some of his neighbors in those
days, to take their mares and colts & the horses which were not
yet broke into what they called the range. Within 3 miles of
where we lived, on Johnson's fork of Licking, there were no
settlements, and consequently, there was a luxuriant herbage
consisting largely of what was named pea vine, with a full
growth of Buffalo grass. The months of May, June & July were
selected for this resort to the untrodden wilderness. Some salt
was tied up in a rag (for paper was scarcer than the raw
materials), and when we reached a wild and unfrequented spot
where there was water, the salt was placed on the ground to be
licked up.
To prepare the new field for cultivation required only the axe & mattock, but the cultivation itself called for the
plow & hoe, both of which I recollect were abundantly rude and simple in their construction. Deep plowing was
not as necessary as in soils long cultivated, and if demanded would have been impracticable, for the ground was
full of roots. After a first "breaking up"with the coultered plow, the shovel plow was often difficult to hold the
plow and drive the horse. It was the employment of small boys, therefore, to ride and guide the animal--a
function which I performed in plowing time for many years; and it was, I can assure you, no sincecure. To sit
bare-back on a lean & lazy horse for several successive hours, under a broiling sun, and every now and then,
when you were
gazing at a pretty bird, or listening to its notes, or watching the frolic of a couple of squirrels on the
neighbouring trees, to have the plow suddenly brought to a dead halt by running under a root, and the top of the
long hames to give you a hard and unlooked for punch in the pit of the stomach, is no laughing matter, try it
who may!.........
Friday was mother's wash day, and then, when the duties of the field were not urgent, I left it for the house, A
long trough dug out of the trunk of a tree stood under the back eaves to catch rain water for washing, and during
times of drought, when a shower came "up," all the wash tubs & buckets of the house were set out. Still, it often
happened, that much had to be brought from the spring and "broke" with ashes. Mother's rule was to begin early
and finish by noon. My additional duties were, to keep up th efire, take care of the children, and assist in
Grade 4, Kentucky Unit, Lesson 4
Resource 4D
hanging out the clothes, which, for want of line was often done on the fences. To bring them in at night, when
they were generally frozen in winter, was still more my business.
Scrubbing & scouring were generally done on Saturday, and to the former I often lent a "helping hand." Till I
went to Cincinnati to study medicine, I had never seen a scrubbing brush. We always used a "split" broom, in
the manufacture of which I have worked many a rainy day & winter night. A small hickory sapling was the raw
material. The "splits" were stripped up with a jack-knife and the right thumb, for 8 or 10 inches, bent back &
held down with the left hand. When the "heart" was reached and the wood became too brittle to strip, it was cut
or sawed off, & the "splits" turned forward, and tied with a tow string made for the purpose on the spot. It only
remained then to reduce the pole above to the size of a handle.
I have already spoken of grating and pounding corn, toting water from a distant spring, holding the calf by the
ears at milking time, going to the pond on wash days, and divers other labours with which mother was
intimately connected. But my domestic occupations were far more extensive than these. To chop, split and bring
in wood; keep up the fire, pick up chips in the corn basket for kindlings in the morning, and for light, through
the long winter evenings when "taller" was too scarce to afford sufficient candles, and "fat" so necessary for
cooking, that the boat-lamp, stuck into one of the logs of the cabin over the hearth, could not always be
supplied, were regular labours. To bring water from the spring, which was but a short distance from the house,
was another. To slop the cows, and, when wild, drive them into a corner of the fence, and stand over them with
a stick while mother milked them, was another. Occasionally I assisted her in milking, but sister Lizy was
taught that accomplishment as early as possible, seeing that it was held by the whole neighbourhood to be quite
too "gaalish" for a boy to milk; and mother, quite as much as myself, would have been mortified, if any
neighbouring boy or man had caught me at it.
In the shearing I could do something more, for then the animal is thrown upon the ground and tied. At 11 or 12 I
could handle the shears very well, and felt proud of the accomplishment. The shearing and weighing done, then
came the very different task of "picking." At that time, our little fields were badly cultivated, and whether the
sheep were kept up or suffered to run at large in the woods, their wool became matted with cockle & other burs,
which could only be disentangled with the fingers. In this wearisome labour, I have toiled through many a long
rainy day, with my sisters and sometimes and sometimes father or mother around the same fleece. There is no
labour of boyhood that I look back upon with less satisfaction than this.
Daniel Drake, Pioneer Life in Kentucky, 1785-1800: A Series of Reminiscential Letters from Daniel Drake, MD of Cincinnat to his Children. (Cincinnati: Clark & Co.,
1870).
Grade 4, Kentucky Unit, Lesson 4
Resource 4D
A Letter from Daniel Drake
Choice Board
Directions: Choose two activities below and complete in you Discovering Kentucky Notebook.
Make two lists of
Daniel’s activities,
one for work and
one for play. Write
a paragraph to
describe how his
daily activities
different from
children today?
Write a paragraph
about your
responsibilities and
those of other
family members.
How does your life
compare to that of
Daniel and his
family?
Choose one of
Daniel’s activities
and draw a picture
of what that would
have looked.
Write a paragraph
explaining if
children today have
more time for fun
than children when
Daniel lived.