Pioneer Privations.-In October, 1819, there was not a single white family in the limits of the county. The following winter they occupied their first cabin. The physical privations of many of the early families is hard to realize. When the Nortons arrived in 1819 the nearest flouring-mills were at Lexington, Richland county, and the Herron mills near Fredericksburg. The man or boy who visited the mills walked the entire distance and led a horse loaded with two or three sacks of wheat.

When the Norton family could not visit these mills they secured flour or meal by 'pounding the wheat or corn in a mortar with a wooden pestle. The mortar used was a log, hollowed out by burning a hole with fire until the cavity was large enough to hold a half bushel of grain. The meal was sifted with sieves of three different sizes and three grades of flour were obtained. The finest was baked into bread; the coarsest was boiled, and it sometimes required a whole day over the fire to soften it. When the wheat-flour was all gone the family subsisted on food prepared from corn-meal, but frequently there was none of this in the cabin, and the mother of the family, busy with other household duties, was expected to provide a supper without even flour, corn-meal, vegetables or meat. The father is away at work and will shortly appear tired and hungry. The pioneer women were full of resources; they had an instrument called a grater made by taking one side of an old tin bucket, punching small holes close together all over it, and nailing it on a board in such a manner that the middle curved upward two or three inches from the board. Meal could be made by industriously rubbing ears of corn along its surface; and this must be done until sufficient meal is obtained to furnish food for supper and breakfast next morning. The mother, then, having nothing in the house for supper, says to her children: Here, Louisa, you and Warren take this basket and go out to the corn-patch and bring in enough corn to grate for supper and breakfast. When the children return the grater is taken down, and after considerable hard labor the meal was provided. If the corn-meal was mixed and baked in a Dutch oven it was called 'pone," if baked on a board near or over the fire it was called "Johnny cake," and if it was made into round balls and baked in the oven they then called these balls corndodgers. A very common way was to boil the meal into mush and eat it with milk. But sometimes flour and corn-meal could not be either pounded with a pestle or grated with their rude instrument, for the reason that no grains of this description were in the cabin, and the Nortons could not secure of their few neighbors either grain, flour or meal.

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Wild Game.-It is reported by Norton's

daughters that they frequently lived for weeks without bread, during which time the family subsisted on honey, pork, potatoes and game from the woods. Wild turkeys were frequently shot; they were cooked on a hook in the fireplace with a pan underneath to catch the drippings, and these were poured over the suspended carcass with a spoon. The forests were for many years full of smaller game upon which a meal could be made when other expedients failed. One winter Mr. Norton killed five deer near the present site of T. C. Hall's barn. A deerfick was situated near the river in this vicinity, and when these animals visited this lick they fell victims to the unerring shot of the first pioneer settler. Deer continued plenty in the vicinity of Bucyrus until after 1830. In consequence of the industry of many swarms of bees at Crawford at an early day it was literally a land of honey, if not milk. The Indians, depending on nature to provide food, never wasted what they found in the forest, and, in obtaining honey, never secured at one time more than they wished to supply their temporal wants. Norton found in one day twenty-three bee trees, and the honey secured from the woods was always a rich treat for the children, and more especially when the family larder was not filled with those articles which, at this day, every family considers a necessity. Norton also secured his first swarm of bees from the wild bees found in the woods.

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Spinning and Weaving. The hardships suffered by the Norton family were not only in consequence of a scarcity of food. Nortons brought from Pennsylvania both looms and spinning-wheels. In those early days every young lady was taught to spin, and many added weaving to their skill as industrious and expert housekeepers. Mothers frequently were expected to cook, wash, scrub, bake, sew, spin and weave for a large family of small children without any assistance. Mrs. Norton's elder children were valuable aid in providing clothing for their younger brothers and sisters.

Norton purchased forty sheep from settlers in Marion county, and brought these valuable domestic animals to his pioneer home, but in a few weeks they were all devoured by wolves. For many years the settlers were not able to keep sheep in consequence of these same mutton-loving beasts. The early settlers were not fond of these ravenous animals. Their howling and yelping made many a night hideous, and for this and many other reasons it was soon decided that in order to civilize the county the wolves should be exterminated. A bounty was paid by the State for the scalp of each wolf, not that these scalps were valuable, but because each new scalp secured furnished additional proof that the mutton crop of the future looked more promising.

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Ferer and Ague.-Sickness.-The first settlers suffered greatly from fever and ague and a few additional privations in consequence of extreme poverty. One case of privation has been graphically described by Mrs. Lucy Rogers, who says: My husband took sick on one occasion and was bedfast. He could neither eat nor drink a part of the time. Meanwhile our scanty store of food was consumed, until not a particle was left in the house for our subsistence. The last crust was gone. My prayer to God was that all of us, my young babe, my helpless husband, and my starving self might die together before the sun should set. That night was one of sleepless agony. Next morning I went through an Indian trail, unfit as I was to go through the tall, wet grass, which was then as high as a man's head, to William Langdon's near Young's grist-mill, and between sobs told my pitiful story to him and begged for some flour to keep my little family from starving to death. He did not know me and refused, but his wife, God bless her, spoke up and said: You shall not starve if it takes all there is in the house.' Her husband relented and weighed me out nineteen pounds of flour, and then, blessing them for their charity, I returned home through the tall grass with the bird of hope' again singing in my bosom.

How sweet the short cake without meat, butter or anything else tasted that day! In the afternoon Aunt Lois Kent, learning of our destitution, brought us a pan of meal. I got some milk of Mrs. Schultz, and then made some mush. Believe me, the tears of joy and sorrow rained down my cheeks when this meal was eaten. I then told Louisa Norton, who afterward married Harris Garton, how terribly we were distressed by want and hunger. She went home and told her father, Samuel Norton, who said: This will not do; these folks have come to a new country and must be helped. They shall not starve in Bucyrus.' So every evening he sent us new milk fresh from the cow, and as we needed it a ham of meat. One day he sent Louisa over to us with a dressed pig. I never had a present that did me so much good. In a few weeks my husband recovered, and then we fared better." But very few of the early citizens were reduced to such extremes, although most families were many times without the necessaries of life.

The Knisely Springs, gas and medicinal, are in the township of Sandusky, on the farm of Mr. Joseph Knisely, about seven miles northeast of Bucyrus. Within an area of four rods are eleven springs and the owner maintains that chemical analysis shows that each one possesses a virtue not found in either of the others. They are located in a small basin on a little rill that flows into the Sandusky river. Scattered along the creek above them are about a dozen others, some of which contain no traces of sulphur. while the Knisely springs are highly impregnated with it. From one of them inflammable gas is continually issuing. Many years ago Mr.

Knisely put a large funnel over the surface of the water, and collecting the gas, led it to his house, about 100 feet distant, through an India rubber tube and burned it steadily over two years. One of the springs is very valuable and interesting on account of its medicinal properties. A stone box four feet deep, with the same length and width, is sunk over it almost to the top of the box, and up through an orifice in the bottom the spring water bubbles as clear as crystal. The water is four feet deep and seemingly possesses a magnifying power, as objects at the bottom can be seen as plainly as in the open air. The bottom of the box is covered with a beautiful purple sediment of a chalybeate character. The water is a mild cathartic and possesses valuable diuretic and diaphoretic properties. It is asserted by the owner that animals live but a few minutes in this water. Its properties are not fully known, but several very obstinate cases of skin diseases have been cured.

Cranberry-picking and Rattlesnakes.— Cranberry is the name of a township in this county which derives its name from an extensive cranberry marsh within it, containing about 2,000 acres. It was known far and near by the hunters and trappers in early years, who came when the water was covered with ice to trap wolves, foxes, minx and other fur-bearing animals. Prior to 1820 a large variety of animals abounded, and the enterprising hunter, if he had the necessary skill, could penetrate the marsh and kill a panther or a bear whenever he wished. About the year 1830 a large emigration arrived from Germany and located in different parts of the township. The county history gives some interesting items in regard to these people, their cranberry-picking and annoyances while so engaged from rattlesnakes.

As far as possible they chose the higher lands, but many of them built their cabins on the ridges that rose almost like islands from the swamp. They seemed to have a reckless disregard for ague and the various types of malarial diseases. With no hope of seeing the land drained for twenty or thirty years, they went to work to let in the sunlight and to let out the stagnant water. After many years this course brought the desired result, but not without all the accompanying hardships and self-denials. The settlers were quite unobtrusive and industrious. cranberry marsh furnished an abundant harvest of berries, and it also furnished to those of sufficient skill valuable returns in the way of furs. The cranberries grew on short stems on the under side of the long, wiry vines that crept over the mosses and sedges growing in profusion in the marsh. vines did not grow on the dry ridges, but sought the wet grounds, often growing out of the mud, which was covered with several inches of water.

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Cranberry-picking was extensively engaged in by all the neighboring settlers, many of whom made no little money in the business. In 1824 the berries sold for twenty and