Grade 4, Kentucky Unit, Lesson 6
Primary Source Documents
Resource 6D, 1
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 pegs 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.
First school in Kentucky at Fort Harrod
My fourth and last session, making in all twelve months, 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 reading-book 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 6
Primary Source Documents
Resource 6D, 2
A Frontier School (simplified)
The following is a rewording of the original work by Susannah Johnson in Recollections of the Rev. John
Johnson and His Home: An Autobiography (Nashville: Southern Methodist Printing House, 1869).
My first teacher was a man we called Brother Elijah, and
my first school was made from an old corncrib. That’s a
building that is used to store and dry corn. The school
was built out of logs, and it measured about 12-by-16
feet. They filled in the cracks between the logs to help
keep things warm, and they built a big fireplace and
chimney at one end.
First school in Kentucky at Fort Harrod
Logs were used for almost everything. There were two long bench seats made from split logs. We sat on the flat
side, which had been smoothed down. Four rough pegs served as the legs. There was no back, but you could
lean against the wall. There were stools on wooden legs made in the same way. A large slab of wood provided
the one big writing desk that everyone used.
Brother Elijah had agreed to teach three months. Each child was supposed to bring him a dollar in silver on the
last day of the school.
This school, like all the schools I ever attended, was noisy. Each student seemed to try to be the loudest.
Sometimes people would hear us from half a mile away. But I soon got used to the confusion. By the end of our
first term, I had learned the alphabet and how to spell. I could read a little in the Bible.
By the time I was in my fourth term—I think it was the year 1809—the settlement had grown. We had a
different teacher and a new, bigger school with lots of space. It was very nice, even though it was made from
logs.
I was nearly grown by then, and I finished my education by learning how to write. It was almost unheard of for
a girl like me to study arithmetic, grammar, or geography. The last two were rare even even for boys to study.
The New Testament was the only reading book for schools that I had ever heard of. I studied from the same
spelling book that had served all the family before me.
I got most of my education at home. That’s where I learned to spin cotton and wool into thread and to weave
cloth. I learned to make all kinds of fabrics, such as material for shirts and sheets, as well as cotton cloth for
dresses and tablecloths. I could knit even in the dark and while walking quickly from place to place. I knew all
about milking and making butter and cheese. I knew about washing, ironing, and bleaching. In short, I was
skilled in all the kinds of work that were important to early life in our area of the country, which we called the
West.
Grade 4, Kentucky Unit, Lesson 6
Primary Source Documents
Resource 6D, 3
A Frontier School
Choice Board
Directions: Choose two of the activities below and complete them 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 6
Primary Source Documents
Resource 6D, 4
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
sinecure. 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 the fire, take care of the children, and assist in
hanging out the clothes, which, for want of line was
Grade 4, Kentucky Unit, Lesson 6
Primary Source Documents
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
Resource 6D, 5
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 "galish" 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
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 Cincinnati to his Children. (Cincinnati: Clark & Co.,
1870).
Grade 4, Kentucky Unit, Lesson 6
Resource 6D, 6
A Letter from Daniel Drake (simplified)
The following is a rewording of the original work by Daniel Drake, Pioneer Life in Kentucky, 1785-1800: A
Series of Reminiscential Letters from Daniel Drake, MD of Cincinnati to his Children. (Cincinnati: Clark &
Co., 1870).
Father and 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 dawn.
After making a fire, the first job was feeding the
horses, hogs, sheep, and cattle. Many times, I have
done this by the light of the moon reflected on the
snow.
I enjoyed hunting, but was never great at this sport.
Among the pleasant recollections of those mornings
are the red birds, robins, and snow birds. They came
to pick up leftover grains of corn where the cattle
had been fed. I sometimes tried to capture them
with traps, but I never caught many.
For several years our fences were low and open, and
our livestock couldn’t resist the corn field. The
horses and sheep would jump the fence; the cows
would throw it down with their horns; and the hogs
would creep between the rails. The cry would go
out, “Run, Daniel! Run!” and away went our two
dogs, Daniel and old Lion, to chase them out.
To get a new field ready for farming, we first
cleared brush and trees with an axe, a
digging/chopping tool called a mattock. Next the
land was broken up with different types of plows
pulled by a horse. Small boys would sometimes ride
and guide the animal. That’s a job I did for many
years.
Friday was Mother's wash day. We made a trough
out of the trunk of a tree and left it out in the rain to
catch rain water for washing. However, I often had
to carry water back from a spring. Mother's rule was
to begin early and finish by noon.
My other wash day duties were to keep up the fire,
take care of the children, and help hang out the
clothes to dry.
Scrubbing and scouring were generally done on
Saturday, and I often helped with the scrubbing. We
never had a scrubbing brush. We always used a
“split” broom that we carved with a knife from a
hickory sapling.
I had lots of other jobs. I would chop, split, and
bring in wood; keep the fire burning, and pick up
wood chips for kindling fires. I would slop (feed)
the cows, and, when wild, drive them into a corner
of the fence, and stand over them with a stick while
mother milked them.
Sometimes I helped to milk, but neighbors thought
that was too “galish” for a boy. My sister Lizy was
taught how to milk as soon as possible. My mother
and I would have been mortified if any neighboring
boy or man had caught me at it.
I also learned to shear (trim the fur from) animals.
In shearing, the animal is thrown upon the ground
and tied. At 11 or 12, I could handle the shears very
well and felt proud of this.
Then came the very different task of “picking.”
That meant removing cockle and other prickly burs
from the fur. That had to be done with fingers, and
it was very hard. I have toiled through many a long
rainy day, with my sisters and sometimes father or
mother around the same coat of wool. There is no
boyhood job that I look back upon with less
satisfaction than this.
Grade 4, Kentucky Unit, Lesson 6
Resource 6D, 7
A Letter from Daniel Drake
Choice Board
Directions: Choose two activities below and complete them in your “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
were different from
children’s activities
today.
Write a paragraph
about your
responsibilities and
those of other
family members.
How does your life
compare to the life
of Daniel and his
family?
Choose one of
Daniel’s activities
and draw a picture
of how that would
have looked.
Write a paragraph
explaining whether
or not children today
have more time for
fun than children of
Daniel’s time
period.
Grade 4, Kentucky Unit, Lesson 6
Resource 6D, 8
Primary Source Analysis
1.
When was this document written?
2. Who is the author or creator of the document?
3. What are three things the author wrote that you think are important?
A.
B.
C.
4. List two things the document tells you about life in Kentucky at the time it
was written.
A.
B.
5. Write a question to the author that is left unanswered by the document.
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________