Frank Mathews remembers Mike See - August 1899 - No. 4

MATHEWS, SEE, BOX, JOHNSON

Posted By: Deb (email)
Date: 10/2/2007 at 07:57:19

Mt. Pleasant Weekly News
August 9, 1899

KNEW MICHAEL SEE

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Frank Mathews Remembers the Famous Preacher as a Boy

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Would Swear Like a Pirate and had rather Fight Than Eat – How they Built the Dam at Lowell

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[For THE NEWS BY FRANK MATHEWS]

[continued from last week]

During the spring and summer of 1838 several men were cutting and hewing timbers for the mill at Lowell. That summer was never less than three feet of water in channel, and they waited until the first of August before putting in the dam.
The dam was started by putting in pieces of logs about four feet long and about three feet through. With a long five quarter auger they bored a hole clear through the log. Then they drilled a corresponding hole in the rocky bottom of the river. They then took a piece of round iron, about two feet long, with the lower end split and a small iron wedge inserted and drove it through the log and about ten inches into the drilled hole in the rock. Being driven with a sledge it spread the lower end of the iron so that it could not pull out. These pieces of logs were about sixteen feet apart, and laid lengthways up and down the river. On these, crossways of the river, were put logs about one foot through, and notched and pinned with wooden pins. This was the foundation of the dam.

I should have said the first thing done was to build a flat boat about twenty or twenty-five feet long and about ten feet wide, which was used for a ferry boat and for bringing material to the dam. A large amount of logs, brush and stone were used along the shore, particularly on the south side was plenty of stone and among them many of the Geodes, such as are found on Mud creek.

I saw the first stick go in the dam. The water was as clear as crystal, teeming with fish of all shapes and colors. The red horse was a beauty, with red tail and fins. At that time black and white bass were plenty; pike and pickerel, were considered best. Once in a while eels were caught. Myself and brother Jesse used to build a stone wall around in the water and catch catfish and put in and keep them to sell. We would some times get a picayune, 6 ¼ cents, for from 100 to 150 pounds. The first five cent silver piece I ever saw I got for about seventy-five pounds of cat fish.

The first time I ever saw Mike See, the celebrated preacher, I went to his fathers place to get some seed corn. His father had just commenced to plough for corn. He had a strip about a rod wide, ploughed and on this near end, next to the road, laid Michael apparently asleep. I told Mr. See what my errand was and he said, “Michael, my son, get up here and keep this team going while I get the corn for the boy.” Michael raised up to a sitting posture and stretched himself and said, “God d__m it, father, I am to d__m lazy.” “Get up,” says his father. “It is time to put in crops, and it won’t do to stop the plough.” Mike very reluctantly took hold of the plow and started on. His father said to me, “ he has been out all night on a spree and he aint worth a d__m.” In those days corn, when gathered for seed or bread was not shucked. We went shucking and shelling a half bushel, and when Mike got the first round he sat down on the plow bear, and sat there until his father came back. Mike when he did work would do as much as two or three common man. He liked to jump or run races, wrestle or fight, and if there was a chance for devilment or mischief he was, as used to say, “thar.” One day, soon after I was at his father’s, he and a cousin of his by the name of Charley See, came down to the river where my brother and I were fishing. He first tried to get up a fight between his cousin and my brother. My brother would not fight, and he then pretended that he would buy our fish. We had over 200 pounds for which we asked a “bit”, 12 ½ cents. He swore we were trying to cheat him, and he would have none of it. So he kicked the wall down and all the fish went into the river. He then started off up the bank in a high glee. By this time we were throwing stones at them as hard as we could. Mike says to quit throwing stones and come up and his cousin would fight it out with my brother. He said he was too big to fight me, and I was too big to fight his cousin. But when we got up there he had pulled his cousin in between his legs, and when by brother would try to strike his cousin, he would spread out his hands and feet and shield him, and kept up a continual laughing until we got over our pet.

At that time where Lowell now stands the ground was covered with hickory sapling, scarcely any large timber. But on the lower bottom next to river were large red oaks, sugar trees, and elms. Close to the bank of the river was the remains of six wickey ups. Some of the poles were yet standing, while many were rotting on the ground. Game was plenty. One day while we were at dinner a covey of turkeys that had been scared ran right past the door. We all ran out and commenced to yell at them, and they flew up in a tree which stood where now a stands one of the stores. My father and I played dog to draw their attention, while Henry Johnson shot two of them.

Squirrels were so plenty that a good shot could get all any family would want in an hour’s time. When we first came there were no rabbits, rats, or quails. The first winter I only saw one rabbit track. It was two years before I saw any quail and it was five years before I saw any rats. The rats were brought up on the steam boats and got off at the towns along the rivers, soon spreading to the settlements. Bees were very plenty. Almost every hollow tree had bees in it.

Benjamin Box was the most noted bee hunter near Lowell and Wm. Manley, who lived northwest of New London, the next best. The hunters when they found a tree would put their initials on it, and all others would leave it alone.

One day father and Box and I went with a yoke of oxen and a large cart to cut bee trees. We took a barrel, two wash tubs and a big and little bucket. We felled seven trees, got all out vessels full as we dared haul them. We got nearly a barrel of strained honey. It was worth a bit a gallon, 12 ½ cents. My mother made a drink called “mathiglin”. It tasted good but was like hard cider and would make some drunk.

The first spring we cut the trees and brush and burned it to the ground then plowed it and planted, and with very little work had a very good garden. In the summer we had dewberries, gooseberries, wild currants, raspberries, blackberries, plums in abundance. In the fall, came grapes, wild cherries, crab apples, haws, acorns, hickory nuts and walnuts. Some of the acorns when roasted are sweet and good tasting. So plenty were they that the children of a family would gather a bushel or more of hulled hazel nuts. Wild crab apples then were about as large as tame ones are now and so plenty that but a small part of them could be used. Along the edges of the timber I have seen the plums so thick that they showed a streak of red at considerable distance. Wild raspberries, blackberries, currants, and strawberries were abundant in their season. We used to keep plums for winter use by putting them in a barrel of water and covering it tight. All that were kept under the water were tolerably good to make sauce of. Young people and children did have fine times gathering shack as all these things were called.

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