The Squirrel Hunters of Ohio; or, Glimpses of Pioneer LifeJones, N. E. (Nelson Edward)
History
The Squirrel Hunters of Ohio; or, Glimpses of Pioneer Life
Jones, N. E. (Nelson Edward)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Ohio; Ohio -- History -- 1787-1865; Ohio -- Social life and customs
In looking back upon the records made by Squirrel Hunters in early
days there may be seen a most wonderful faith in the providences of
practical religion--that religion which stays with the individual
throughout his daily occupations of life. A simple instance of this
old-fashioned piety is sufficient to illustrate its meaning and spirit
of the times, taken from the biography of one born in the Quaker
Church, written by himself:
“I owned two hundred acres of choice land, heavily timbered and
well watered with springs and brooks. Of this, only five acres were
cleared for cultivation. My family consisted of wife and two small
children. Of domestic animals, I had two horses, a cow and a dog. One
evening, in the spring of 1813, the cow failed to come home. Her
pasture was an unfenced wilderness. The bell could not be heard, and
search beyond its sounds was impractical after night. Three days were
ineffectually spent without obtaining the least clue to her location;
and bodings of bad luck seemed standing in the high way to prosperity.
[Illustration: Man of Special Providences.]
“I gave the cow up for lost and resumed the work of grubbing and
burning brush to enlarge the five acres a little. In the afternoon,
while busily engaged with my thoughts in smoke and brush, my wife and
two children appeared on the ground. She came to tell me there was a
man at the house with a sad story. He had been burned out, and lost
everything, and wanted help to start again. I told her we were too
poor to help any body; that the half dollar in the house was all the
money we had, and I did not think it best to part with the last cent;
that he should go to work and earn something and not spend his time
begging of people who have nothing. My good nature had got around on
the north side.
“As my wife turned toward the cabin, she observed, ‘The man looks
much distressed.’ And either her words, spirit, or something else,
brought before my eyes in large capital letters the creed or motto
of my life, ‘Do right and all will come right.’ And I called her,
saying, ‘Give the unfortunate man the half dollar, and tell him we
feel for him.’ The beggar left rejoicing. And while at supper the
sound of the cow-bell was at the door--the lost had returned, and we
were all happy again.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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