The Bark Covered House: Or, Back In the Woods Again; Being a Graphic and Thrilling Description of Real Pioneer Life in the Wilderness of MichiganNowlin, William
History
The Bark Covered House: Or, Back In the Woods Again; Being a Graphic and Thrilling Description of Real Pioneer Life in the Wilderness of Michigan
Nowlin, William
Dearborn (Mich.); Frontier and pioneer life -- Michigan -- Dearborn
The nomination of General Harrison raised quite an excitement throughout
the entire country. Even in Dearborn, what few Whigs there were in the
town united as one man, entered upon the campaign and banded themselves
together to work for the good of the Whig party. Alonzo T. Mather was one
who stood at the head of the party in Dearborn. He was a man noted for
his good religious principles, and was one of the most prominent and
influential citizens of the town. He was sent to the Legislature, at
Detroit, for Wayne county, one term and held other offices of trust and
honor. He was the chieftain of his party and one of the prime movers in
getting up a log cabin in Dearborn. This log cabin was built on large
truck wheels. When finished it appeared somewhat the shape of a log car.
It was thought necessary to have something on board to eat and drink. It
was desired to make all typical and commemorative of the veteran,
pioneer, farmer and general who had escaped the bullets of the savages at
Tippecanoe, although he was a special mark for them, without a scar and
the loss only of a lock of hair, which was clipped off by a bullet. This,
too, was the man who shared his own supplies with his soldiers when they
were reduced to the necessity of eating horse flesh. Now, in honor to
such a man, the Whig bakers of Dearborn made a "Johnny cake" at least ten
feet long and the width of it was in proportion to the length. They
patted it with care, smoothed it over nicely and baked it before the
fire. It was a good, plump cake, and nothing like it was ever seen in
Dearborn, before or since. Careful hands put it on board the log cabin,
also a barrel of hard cider was put on board.
At this time, although the country was new, politics ran high in
Dearborn. A friendly invitation was sent around to the farmers to come,
at a certain time, with their ox-teams and help draw the log cabin to its
destination and accompany the Whig delegation with it to Detroit. I knew
one Democrat who, when invited, refused to go. He appeared to be rather
eccentric. He said, "I allow that my oxen are not broke to work on
either side, and they are too Democratic to pull on both sides of the
fence at one and the same time." He considered the excitement of the
people, their building log cabins and baking such "Johnny cakes" boyish
and foolish. He said, in fact, that those who were doing it were "on the
wrong side." Many of the Democratic frontier men admired General Harrison
for his great worth as a man and liked his having a national reputation
for bravery. They said he was an honor to America as an American citizen
and soldier, but that he was on the wrong side.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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