Mr. Frank Ehrnthaller, who is my grandfather, is an old pioneer. He told me
quite a few interesting things of pioneer life.
In about 1865 he came to
central Illinois and with his parents started farming on fifty acres, with five
hoes, two rakes, two oxen, one plow with a wooden moldboard, and an A-shaped
harrow.
The plows had iron shares, which were obtained at the nearest
village. They then cut down a tree and hewed out a wooden moldboard with ax and
knife.
When this prairie was unbroken they called it "raw prairie." When
they wanted to cultivate a part of it they would have to "sub-soil," or, that
is, to take a large plow drawn by two or three yoke of oxen and this way plow
the ground about two or three inches deep and let the ground dry out, then come
along later in the same furrow and plow up the rich soil, which was now visible.
This made it more easy to cultivate. They also had a two-shovel plow with wooden
moldboards, which they used in plowing in the fall after the wheat was
harvested.
In the timber-land, after a few trees had been cut down and
used as fire wood and other things, they would have several yoke of oxen there
and then would pull stumps to clear the land. Where it was too rolling and
hilly, after the trees were cut down, blue grass would become so thick that it
looked like a carpet.
When it was time to sow wheat or oats they would
get out with their wooden plows and an A-shaped harrow. These harrows were made
by nailing wood, six inches square, together and then nailing cross pieces on
them to hold them in shape. The teeth were made of wood and were easily broken.
He mentioned that at one time he ran over a stone and broke the teeth out of the
harrow. His father made him stay up all night to fix the harrow. He had to
whittle out teeth and put them in place. They had regular augers to bore holes,
but the "beginners," as he called them, had to heat iron and burn them through
the wood to put the teeth in.
The two-shovel plow was drawn by one horse
or an ox. When they sowed wheat the whole family got out, with sacks tied over
their shoulders, and then scattered the grain with their hands. Such a thing as
a seeder was unknown.
When planting corn, the soil was prepared and
furrows were made, then they would measure off so that each hill would be even
lengthwise and crosswise. After dropping the kernels in a hole they would cover
the kernels with a hoe.
They only plowed their corn twice, and the way
it was plowed was that the plow was drawn by one horse or an ox. They went down
one side of the row and came up on the other side. This way having one row of
corn plowed in one round, or once up and once down the row.
Grandfather
said that when the flies were bad the oxen would throw up their tails and run
with plow and all to "buffalo yalls" or ponds of water, which were deepened by
buffaloes standing and lying in them. Some of these ponds covered from three to
five acres of ground.
The only kind of fences were made of boards. To
keep the chickens and swine in they put the boards closer together at the bottom
than at the top. Most fences were about four and a half feet high. In order to
get the boards, they had to cut trees and haul them to the saw-mill, which was
turned by water power in some large creek or small river. The fences were put up
in pieces called "two-post panels;" that is, two posts were nailed on to the
boards and then set into the ground. It takes three posts to make a panel, but
two are all that are required, because one end was nailed to the other panel.
My grandfather worked hard many, many days farming in this manner. But
in later years he was financially able to buy a farm for himself near Toluca. He
now lives in Toluca and his farm he has placed in the hands of his children.
From my grandfather's story of early life I learn that "hardships and trials
make an honest and successful.
Extracted 08 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from Stories of Pioneer Days in La Salle County, Illinois, by Grammar Grade Pupils, published in 1932, page 91.
| Lee | DeKalb | Kane |
| Bureau |
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Kendall |
| Putnam | Grundy | |
| Marshall | Woodford | Livingston |
