University of Virginia Library

The first houses erected by the primitive settlers were log-cabins, with covers of split
clapboards, and weight-poles to keep them in place. They were frequently seen with
earthen floors; or if wooden floors were used, they were made of split puncheons, a
little smoothed with the broadaxe. These houses were pretty generally in use since
the author's recollection. There were, however, a few framed and stone buildings erected
previous to the war of the revolution. As the country improved in population and
wealth, there was a corresponding improvement in the erection of buildings.

When this improvement commenced, the most general mode of building was with
hewn logs, a shingle roof, and plank floor, the plank cut out with the whipsaw. Before
the erection of saw-mills, all the plank used in the construction of houses was worked
out in this way. As it is probable some of my young readers have never seen a whipsaw,
a short description of it may not be uninteresting. It was about the length of the
common mill-saw, with a handle at each end transversely fixed to it. The timber intended
to be sawed was first squared with the broadaxe, and then raised on a scaffold
six or seven feet high. Two able-bodied men then took hold of the saw, one standing
on the top of the log and the other under it, and commenced sawing. The labor was
excessively fatiguing, and about one hundred feet of plank or scantling was considered
a good day's work for the two hands. The introduction of saw-mills, however, soon
superseded the use of the whipsaw, but they were not entirely laid aside until several
years after the war of the revolution.

The dress of the early settlers was of the plainest materials—generally of their own
manufacture; and if a modern "belle" or "beau" were now to witness the extreme
plainness and simplicity of their fashions, the one would be almost thrown into a fit of the
hysterics, and the other frightened at the odd and grotesque appearance of their progenitors.

Previous to the war of the revolution, the married men generally shaved their heads,
and either wore wigs or white linen caps. When the war commenced, this fashion was
laid aside, partly from patriotic considerations, and partly from necessity. Owing to the
entire interruption of the intercourse with England, wigs could not easily be obtained,
nor white linen for caps.

The men's coats were generally made with broad backs, and straight short skirts, with
pockets on the outside having large flaps. The waistcoats had skirts nearly half way
down to the knees, and very broad pocket flaps. The breeches were so short as barely to
reach the knee, with a band surrounding the knee, fastened with either brass or silver
buckles. The stocking was drawn up under the knee-band, and tied with a garter
(generally red or blue) below the knee, so as to be seen. The shoes were of coarse
leather, with straps to the quarters, and fastened with either brass or silver buckles.
The hat was either of wool or fur, with a round crown not exceeding three or four inches
high, with a broad brim.[1] The dress for the neck was usually a narrow collar to the
shirt, with a white linen stock drawn together at the ends, on the back of the neck, with
a broad metal buckle. The more wealthy and fashionable were sometimes seen with
their stock, knee, and shoe buckles, set either in gold or silver with brilliant stones. The
author can recollect, when a child, if he happened to see any of those finely-dressed
"great folk," as they were then termed, he felt awed in their presence, and viewed them
as something more than man.

The female dress was generally the shortgown and petticoat, made of the plainest
materials. The German women mostly wore tight calico caps on their heads, and in
the summer season they were generally seen with no other clothing than a linen shift
and petticoat—the feet, hands, and arms bare. In hay and harvest-time they joined the
men in the labor of the meadow and grain-fields. This custom of the females laboring
in the time of harvest, was not exclusively a German practice, but was common to all
the northern people. Many females were most expert mowers and reapers. Within the

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The natural result of this kind of rural life was, to produce a hardy and vigorous race
of people. It was this race of people who had to meet and breast the various Indian
wars, and the storms of the revolution.

The Dutchman's barn was usually the best building on his farm. He was sure to
erect a fine large barn before he built any other dwelling-house than his rude log-cabin.
There were none of our primitive immigrants more uniform in the form of their buildings
than the Germans. Their dwelling-houses were seldom raised more than a single
story in height, with a large cellar beneath; the chimney in the middle, with a very
wide fireplace in one end for the kitchen, in the other end a stove-room. Their furniture
was of the simplest and plainest kind; and there was always a long pine table
fixed in one corner of the stove-room, with permanent benches on one side. On the
upper floor, garners for holding grain were very common. Their beds were generally
filled with straw or chaff, with a fine feather-bed for covering in the winter. The author
has several times slept in this kind of bed; and to a person unaccustomed to it, it
is attended not unfrequently with danger to the health. The thick covering of the
feathers is pretty certain to produce a profuse perspiration, which an exposure to cold,
on rising in the morning, is apt to check suddenly, causing chilliness and obstinate
cough. The author, a few years ago, caught in this way the most severe cold, which
was followed by a long and distressing cough, he ever was afflicted with.

Many of the Germans have what they call a drum, through which the stove-pipe
passes in their upper rooms. It is made of sheet iron, something in the shape of the
military drum. It soon fills with heat from the pipe, by which the rooms become
agreeably warm in the coldest weather. A piazza is a very common appendage to a
Dutchman's dwelling-house, in which his saddles, bridles, and very frequently his wagon
or plough harness, are hung up.

The Germans erect stables for their domestic animals of every species: even their
swine are housed in the winter season. Their barns and stables are well stored with
provender, particularly fine hay: hence their quadrupeds of all kinds are kept throughout
the year in the finest possible order. This practice of housing stock in the winter
season is unquestionably great economy in husbandry. Much less food is required to
sustain them, and the animals come out in the spring in fine health and condition. It is
a rare occurrence to hear of a Dutchman's losing any part of his stock with poverty.
The practice of housing stock in the winter is not exclusively a German custom, but is
common to most of the northern people, and those descended from immigrants from the
north. The author recollects once seeing the cow-stalls adjoining a farmer's dwelling.

The German women, many of them, are remarkably neat housekeepers. There are
some of them, however, extremely slovenly, and their dwellings are kept in the worst
possible condition. The effluvium arising from this want of cleanliness is in the highest
degree disgusting and offensive to persons unaccustomed to such fare. The same remarks
are applicable to the Irish; nay, to some native Virginians. The Germans are
remarkable for their fine bread, milk, and butter. They consume in their diet less animal
flesh, and of course more vegetables, milk, and butter, than most other people.
Their "sour krout"[2] in the winter constitutes a considerable part of their living. They
generally consume less, and sell more of the product of their labor, than any other class
of citizens. A Dutchman is proverbial for his patient perseverance in his domestic labors.
Their farms are generally small, and nicely cultivated. In all his agricultural
pursuits his meadows demand his greatest care and attention. His little farm is laid off
in fields not exceeding ten or twelve acres each. It is rarely seen that a Dutchman will
cultivate more than about ten or twelve acres in Indian corn any one year. They are
of opinion that the corn crop is a great exhauster of the soil, and they make but little
use of corn for any other purpose than feeding and fattening their swine.

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Previous to the war of the revolution, and for several years after, considerable quantities
of tobacco were raised in the lower counties of the valley. The cultivation of this
crop was first introduced and pursued by immigrants from the eastern counties of Virginia.
From the newly cleared lands, two crops of tobacco in succession were generally
taken, and it was then appropriated to the culture of other crops. The crop of tobacco
left the soil in the finest possible state for the production of other crops. Corn, wheat,
rye, flax, oats, potatoes, and every thing else, were almost certain to produce abundant
crops, after the crop of tobacco.

In the year 1789 the French revolution broke out, when bread-stuffs of every kind
suddenly became enormously high; in consequence of which, the farmers in the valley
abandoned the cultivation of tobacco and turned their attention to wheat, which they
raised in vast quantities for several years. It was no uncommon thing for the farmer,
for several years after the commencement of the French revolution, to sell his crops of
wheat from one to two, and sometimes at two and a half dollars per bushel, and his flour
from ten to fourteen dollars per barrel in our seaport towns.