| CLIMBING THE BROWN
FAMILY TREE
by: Brenda Brown Lasko Chapter 6 Life in Ohio It is during this time period I was able to gain a little more actual knowledge of what life was like for Abel and the other settlers. The land was covered with heavy forests and dotted with small clearings where the land had been turned into farms. Huge tree had been cut and rolled into the hollows to rot as the land was cleared. Removing the stumps was backbreaking labor and was one of the ways many early settlers obtained land of their own. They cleared land belonging to rich men, who allowed them to live on their land and harvest a crop or two before they had to move. In time they were able to save enough money to buy a parcel of land for themselves. The soil was very rich, especially in the bottom land along Captina Creek, but the settlers built on higher ground because of floods in the spring. Life was hard but good and food plentiful if a man had a mind to work. The difference between success and failure in this new territory was often found in the man's ability to farm, hunt and trap. The waters were teeming with fish and the forests filled with game. The wood bison, once plentiful, were all but gone but deer were abundant, as were black bear and wild turkey. Panthers and wolves were in the area in fairly large numbers and when they began killing the settlers' livestock the county placed a bounty on their scalps. From 1802 to 1812, a bounty ranging from one to four dollars was paid for each wolf or panther scalp. We find a record in 1807 of Abel being paid $2.00 for "one wolf over six months old" and of a Matthew Brown, who killed a panther in 1803 and another in 1804. I have often wondered if this Matthew Brown was a relative of Abel. Young George Lemley and his brother Peter had land near Abel. The Goetz, now called Gates, had settled nearby on Gatz Run or Cat's Run, as it would eventually be called. George Gates built a grist mill on the run and it is thought to be the first one in the township. Peter Lemley, George Gates and Abel Brown had several children by this time and eventually several marriages would take place between these families. Most early families got everything they needed from the land. They raised cash crops like wheat, corn and tobacco. I remember as a child, seeing old log buildings standing abandoned in fields and was told they were old tobacco barns. They also had vegetable gardens and orchards to provide their families with food needed for winter. It is a good bet that Abel raised pigs, chickens, a few sheep and probably owned a milk cow or two. They needed to buy very few things other than sugar and coffee. Even those items could be done without if necessary. Natural honey and sorghum molasses provided sweeteners and certain grains could be roasted and ground to make a coffee-like drink. It wouldn't be unusual for the family to have several barrels of wine or other alcoholic brews on hand for medicinal purposes. Their lives were spent planting, tending and preserving the food they needed to survive. The men had to be skilled at hunting and fishing to provide fresh meat during the winter. The meat they raised had to be salted or smoked to keep it from spoiling so fresh meat provided by deer or rabbit was a welcome change. They got their cash income from selling crops and furs. In the winter, while they had a break from farm work, they trapped the fur bearing animals that were in the area in large numbers. The creek was filled with muskrat, mink, and beaver. Fox, raccoon and other land animals were plentiful. White men had been fur trapping in the region for nearly a hundred years. Furs brought a good price back in the East and in Europe and provided money needed to purchase essentials. We may never totally understand the hardships that these early settlers endured. When I went through old records and walked through cemeteries I was made aware of the price they paid to live in this new land. Death records and tombstones left behind the evidence of the different plagues that overtook many families. Often an entire family was wiped out by diphtheria, cholera, typhoid fever, small pox or even measles. It is not unusual to find several members of the same family, mostly children, who all died just days apart. There were no miracle drugs or even doctors to turn to when illness hit. Something as simple as boiling their drinking water could have saved many lives if they had the knowledge we now have about microbiology. An old saying said that "if you lived through March you would make it through the year," and it makes a lot of sense. After a long winter with no fresh fruits or vegetables and less than ideal conditions, a person had to be the most vulnerable during that time of year. Childbirth took a tremendous toll. Any complication at all was likely to result in the death of both mother and child. If the mother died and the infant survived it wasn't apt to live very long unless another nursing mother could be found to wet nurse it. The old cemeteries are filled with tombstones bearing the names of young mothers and their newborn infants. It took hardy stock to survive the life of our ancestors and it makes you appreciate the wit and strength of our family. One of interesting item I found in old land records showed coal was discovered early in the history of Belmont County. In the record of the lease of a piece of property to John Brown (Abel's brother) by William Williams, is found the following statement. "John is to have without charge or pay any and all timber for his use of said tract of ground and for fire use and coal for fire use." This lease was recorded on 27 March 1844. (You can view a transcript of the lease here.) Coal would play a major part in the history of the Ohio Valley and in our family as the industrial age developed. By the late 1800's the mining of coal became a major industry in itself. Many of the descendants of Abel Brown would make their living from mining and many of them would end their lives in the mines. The Ohio River that brought many of the early settlers would become a major shipping artery for the same coal that John Brown was given the right to use for fire so long ago. Index 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Epilogue
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