Noble Deeds of American Women: With Biographical Sketches of Some of the More Prominent
History
Noble Deeds of American Women: With Biographical Sketches of Some of the More Prominent
Women -- United States -- Biography
"How did our hearts and eyes overflow with love to them, and thanks to
our Heavenly Father for such seasonable supplies! May we never forget
it! Being now so rich, we thought it our duty to hand out a little to
the poor around us, who were mourning for want of salt; so we divided
the bushel, and gave a pint to every poor person who came for it--having
abundance left for our own use. Indeed, it seemed to us as if our little
store was increased by distribution, like the bread broken by our
Saviour to the multitude."
NOBLE EXAMPLE OF PIONEERS.
In every rank, or great or small,
'Tis industry supports us all.
GAY.
Count life by virtues--these will last
When life's lame-footed race is o'er.
MRS. HALE.
In the year 1843, the Hon. Samuel Wilkeson, of Buffalo--since
deceased--communicated to the American Pioneer, a series of papers
entitled "Early Recollections of the West." They present a graphic, yet
painful picture of the perils, hardships and sufferings attendant on
back-woods life in the midst of the aboriginal foresters. His father's
family was one of twenty that removed from Carlisle and the adjacent
towns, to the western part of Pennsylvania, in the spring of 1784. He
pays the following tribute to the industry, perseverance and pious
efforts of the mothers of the band:
The labor of all the settlers was greatly interrupted by the Indian war.
Although the older settlers had some sheep, yet their increase was slow,
as the country abounded in wolves. It was therefore the work of time to
secure a supply of wool. Deerskin was a substitute for cloth for men and
boys, but not for women and girls, although they were sometimes
compelled to resort to it. The women spun, and generally wove all the
cloth for their families, and when the wife was feeble, and had a large
family, her utmost efforts could not enable her to provide them with
anything like comfortable clothing. The wonder is, and I shall never
cease to wonder, that they did not sink under their burthens. Their
patient endurance of these accumulated hardships did not arise from a
slavish servility, or insensibility to their rights and comforts. They
justly appreciated their situation, and nobly encountered the
difficulties which could not be avoided.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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