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Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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A Memoir of the Late William Hodge, Sen.
Bigelow Bros., Buffalo, N.Y. - 1885


   (146-147)
                            SUNDRY OLD-TIME NOTES
                                   --------

        "Splint brooms" were the only sort used by the first settlers on
     the Holland Purchase; the only exception being that some made their
     sweeping apparatus by tying fine branches or twigs from the tops of
     young trees together in bunches. The splints "were made of blue beach,
     birch and hickory woods. Broom-corn was not in use here until about
     1820. To make a nice splint broom required an expert in the art, one
     well used to the process; and in my early life I made many brooms of
     both the primitive kinds, though only for our own family use.
        The "trammel-pole, with trammel-bar and hooks" which I have des-
     cribed in my account of "Our Log Tavern," were the necessary accom-
     paniments of the log houses and stick chimneys over fire-places
     without jambs, which were then universal here. The "crane" hung to
     swing within a fire-place, came into use about 1812. The first I ever
     saw was when our family moved into the " Brick Tavern on the Hill," in
     December of that year.
        The tin-oven came into use a few years after the War of 1812-15.
     The roasting of spare-ribs was accomplished by hanging them on a
     string before a rousing fire, with a dripping-pan beneath, and a spoon
     at hand with which to "baste" them.
        Yokes used to be put on the necks of our hogs and geese to prevent
     them from getting into our fields and destroying the grain; but for
     many years I have not seen any of these yokes. In breed and manners
     the hog has been much improved; but the goose, I think, has not.
        When I was a boy we raised our calves, and I used to yoke two
     calves together, with an ox-yoke of suitable size which one of my
     uncles made me, and hitch them as a team to my hand-sled, in the
     winter. I used to make my own ox-bows by bending a young growing
     hickory of the right size, into the shape I wanted, and tying it with
     moose-wood bark. After one summer's growth it would be fit to cut and
     use in finishing a yoke.
        A mysterious relic.  Two summers ago I found while digging
     potatoes on my premises, an old rusty piece of iron. I carried it into
     the house, but none of the family, or of the neighbors could tell me
     what it had been made or used for. It was the remnant of an ox-shoe,
     now in these regions a thing of the faraway past. Ignorant indeed are
     multitudes of the people of to-day about the things in use in former
     times in the daily life of "The Pioneers."

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