As late as forty years ago Ozark hillfolks were solving their economic problems in a satisfactory manner without outside aid. The farmer made his land supply not only food for the table but material for making shoes, clothing, and various other household and farm necessities. He usually raised a few sheep and cultivated a patch of cotton, hemp, or flax. This supplied necessary raw materials for the women who were expert in making various kinds of cloth.
Sheep-shearing time was in early spring but quite often the wool would be tied into bundles and stored until winter. Then it was brought out to be cleaned and carded. The wool was washed thoroughly with soap and water and sometimes greased to make it handle better. Carding is the separating and straightening of the fibers of the wool or cotton in preparation for spinning. The fibers, thoroughly dry after washing, are drawn between two brushes called cards which are made of fine wire set into leather with a wooden background and provided with wooden handles. Carding was pretty much of a chore for the womenfolks in the old days. The expert carder knew how to test the material between her fingers and when she found the fibers smooth and straight, gave the upper card a skillful movement that turned out a small roll of the wool or cotton ready for the spinning wheel.
The spinning was done on a homemade wheel which produced a coarse yarn for the loom. An expert spinner sits by her wheel, foot on the treadle, the carded wool in her lap. She feeds the wool or cotton slowly to the wheel with her hands, twisting each bit with a deft movement of her fingers as it is drawn into the mechanism. The material must be supplied evenly to get best results. The thread of yarn is wrapped around a spindle and later tied up in bundles called skeins. It is used for knitting socks, mittens, and sweaters and for weaving into cloth.
The cloth called linsey-woolsey was in much demand by the old settlers, who fashioned it into winter clothing for the women. The material was woven on handmade looms and consisted of woof or filler of wool. The warp or cross-threads were of linen or cotton, depending upon the material available. The clothing popular with menfolks was a garment called jeans. It was of wool with a cotton chain.
Thread was made from cotton because the woolen yarn was too coarse for ordinary sewing. It required an immense amount of labor to produce the same amount of thread that can now be purchased at five cents a spool. First, the cotton had to be picked and hand-seeded, if no gin was available. Then it was cleaned and carded for the wheel. The fibers were twisted into threads and wound on wooden spindles.
Myrtle Lain of Camden County, Missouri, tells me that when the country stores began to carry unbleached muslin at a price not altogether prohibitive, the hill women would buy the material, tear it lengthwise, and use the warp for thread. The ravelings were twisted to give them sewing strength.
“We sometimes criticize elderly women for being ‘stingy’ with sewing thread,” said Miss Lain, “but, when we consider the scarcity of the article in the early days, we can hardly blame them for conserving the short lengths that we would toss into the wastebasket.
“My grandmother used to save the basting threads from a finished garment,” continued Miss Lain. “She would use scraps of thread to piece quilts or to patch torn garments. She had learned the value of the thread ‘when thread was thread.’”
An important step in the process of cloth making was that of adding the color. Some of the homespun cloth was not dyed, because it was used in making towels and blankets and did not need color. But cloth to be made into wearing apparel was colored to suit the whim of the wearer. The dyeing art is passing rapidly with the older generation. Cheap synthetic dyes are now available at every country store and the use of natural products is almost a lost art. Pioneer Ozark women had few manufactured dyes, but they knew how to get the colors they wanted from leaves and bark. Woolen yarn laid in a kettle between layers of walnut leaves and soaked with water produced a beautiful shade of brown. Sometimes walnut hulls were used. Peach leaves—if pulled in midsummer—or the inner bark of the peach tree made a brilliant yellow. Sumac berries provided black. A few articles such as indigo, alum, and copperas were bought at the store. Green was produced by dipping yellow cloth into weak indigo. The root of the madder produced a red dye of a different hue from that of pokeberry. It was more permanent and would not wash out. Faint blue could be produced from cedar but it took store-bought indigo to make a really worthwhile blue. The colors were set into the cloth with alum or copperas and many of them have held their brilliancy for more than a century.
Sometimes the color was dyed in the wool, that is, put in before the wool was carded. This was especially true in making blue jeans. But in most cases the yarn was dyed after the spinning and sometimes the cloth was colored after it came from the loom.
“Warping the chain” is an old-time phrase that means getting the warp threads into shape for the loom. It is important that these fibers be straight in order to run smoothly through the harness eyes of the loom. This was done by stringing the fibers on wooden pegs usually driven into the logs of a building.
Looms for weaving cloth, carpets, and rugs in the old days were hewn from white oak or other durable wood and were made with such care that some of them are still usable after a century of service. Weaving nomenclature, including such words as woof, warp, shuttle, harness, and sley, is almost unknown to the younger generation. Pioneer women really worked at their looms. A good weaver could do four yards of cloth in a day and experts have done as much as fifteen yards of carpet.
A pioneer achievement recorded in the memory of an aged woman in the Arkansas Ozarks is worth telling. The father of the family made a sudden decision one Saturday evening to take a trip to a distant state the following Monday. His wardrobe did not contain a suitable pair of trousers for the trip. On the following morning, before the sun was up, the womenfolks began carding and spinning wool. By noon it was ready for the loom and the weaving began. Late Sunday night, the work was completed, everything done by hand, even to the buttons which were whittled from wood and covered with cloth to match the jeans.
The weaving art is not lost in the Ozarks. With the coming of tourists it has been revived and carried on as an important fireside industry. But the weaving is not of cloth for homespun garments for general wear. Attention is now given to rugs, coverlets, and counterpanes. Some Ozark women have become expert in copying designs from postcards, newspaper clippings, and other sources, and produce artistic articles of rare beauty. One design called Turkey Tracks has an interesting superstition connected with it. It is said that brides-to-be hesitate to put such quilts into their hope chests as they instill a desire to wander. And Ozark girls do not fancy husbands who stray away from home.
In the old days rags were saved and washed and cut into narrow strips called carpet rags. These were sewed or “tacked” together and woven into colorful rag carpets. Coral Almy Wilson of Boone County, Arkansas, gives the following version of a rag-tacking bee in a backhill home.
“Lorene, ye kin git th’ rags out an’ start sortin’ ’em over. We’ll start on that rag carpet this mornin’. We got t’ color a lot o’ tham old things fer we ain’t got no red hardly. Bud, yo’ ketch ol’ Beck an’ go t’ th’ store an’ git th’ red colorin’. I kin make all th’ yaller I need ’ith copperas, an’ walnut hulls ’ill do a purty brown. Sumac makes a good black an’ Sis Bolen done promised me all her ol’ green linsey. I aim t’ pay her fer hit by cardin’ cottin this winter. Tham dutch shirts an’ dresses ’ill be blue enough.
“Arizony, yo’ can cut th’ buttons an’ seams an’ rip th’ hems. Be keerful an’ don’t waste a scrap that’ll do t’ make strings. Be shore t’ cut ’em even, jist about a half inch wide. I do hate a bumpy carpet. Don’t use that thar store thread. Hyar’s plenty o’ homespun. Save th’ backs o’ all them skirts fer quilt pieces. Bud, stop an’ borry Emmelett’s shears so I can help cut.
“Jist a pound t’ a ball an’ a ball an’ a half t’ a yard, that’s th’ way I figger. Twenty-five yards ’ill cover th’ big room. Make haste now
, chillen, an’ don’t waste a thing.”
Homecrafts in the old days included the tanning of leather and the making of shoes for the family. Women made bonnets from gingham or calico for everyday wear and fancy high-backed ones of chambray for Sunday and special occasions. There were slat, poke, and dude bonnets, with and without ruffles, and colored to match the dress. Men shod their horses and repaired harness and farm implements. They molded bullets and made sights for their guns. Local blacksmiths and gunsmiths did special repair work that could not be done at home.
Women were skillful in many kinds of needlework. “Lamp mats were crocheted in a double treble,” says Mary Elizabeth Mahnkey, “going in with your needle again and again in one place, until a very ruffly effect was achieved.”
Girls wore charm strings around the neck, with buttons substituted for beads. Buttons were collected and traded and each girl tried to outdo her friends in this pastime. When a girl secured 999 buttons she stopped collecting as the thousandth button was to be given her by the man she married.
Woodcarving is both an art and a pastime in the Ozarks. Mountain men are expert whittlers and always keep their pocketknives sharp and shiny. A dull knife is a disgrace in hillbilly circles. Carving in wood has always been associated with folk life. As early as 4000 B.C. men enjoyed cutting designs with sharp instruments, and excavations in Egypt and Babylon show that the people of that age were skillful in the art. Whittling and loafing go well together and the hillsman is proficient in both. A whittler, sitting on a nail keg at the country store, creates a tranquil atmosphere that defies all disrupting tendencies. Whittling has its place as a psychological buffer. Watch the shavings fall as Tobe maneuvers his wits in a horse trade. He whittles so nonchalantly that all motives of concern are blotted out. Anxiety needs a legitimate shield and whittling does the trick.
Woodcarving talent is turned to good account on long winter evenings. Ax handles are carved from white oak which grew on the north side of a rocky hill. Churns are made from cedar, perfectly joined, and finished with sandpaper. Boats and paddles, furniture for the home, and many other wooden products are manufactured by isolated hillsmen. Baskets are made from hickory, willow, and buckbrush. Cedar is a popular wood with carvers because it is easy to work and the supply is plentiful. In pioneer times farmers made harness hames from crooked limbs of elm trees, wooden rakes and pitchforks, moldboards for plows; solid wagon wheels were sawed from the ends of large logs. But that type of farm equipment was discarded long ago and supplanted with factory-made products.
The manufacture of homemade dolls is a new industry in the Ozarks, and a promising one. Naoma Clark of Winslow, Arkansas, originated the Hillbilly Doll which is now widely known throughout the country. She carves her dolls from native cedar and dresses them in hillbilly fashion with Mother Hubbards or jeans as the sex decrees. Flour sack is used for underclothing and a slat bonnet or perhaps a “duck nest” stiff hat covers the head. Other popular Arkansas dolls are the Bob Burns’ Kinsfolks group designed by Anne Park of Van Buren and the homemade products of Lulu Scott (Aunt Boo) at Mountainburg. Two of Aunt Boo’s famous character dolls are Uncle Matt and Aunt Mollie of Shepherd of the Hills fame. First honors in doll artistry, of course, go to that eminent Ozarkian Rose O’Neill, designer of the famous Kewpie doll. Her art has been widely acclaimed throughout the world. The hillbilly types are not so elegant as the distinguished Kewpie, but they are cleverly done and attract much attention. They are popular with visitors to the region.
The art crafts of the Ozarks were at their best when necessity set strict requirements. With the necessities of life dependent upon the dexterity of fingers, there was an urge for completeness that made artisans into artists. The handicraft age is a colorful chapter in the book of Ozarkian life and worthy of highest consideration and due respect.
Socialized Labor
The average Ozark hillsman has never made the acquaintance of socialism as a political doctrine but he is quite adept in cooperating with his neighbors in “socialized” labor. Certain activities of the hill country such as logrollings, house- and barn raisings, cornhuskings, quiltings, and various other “workings,” are managed in a way to reduce the cost to the minimum, and to enrich the social life of the community. It is an old mountain custom to work together in enterprises which require mass labor to get the thing done.
In pioneer times, logrolling was one of the best examples of fraternal assistance and economic interdependence. When the first settlers entered the Ozarks, most of the land suited to farming was covered with a heavy growth of virgin timber. The land had to be cleared and made ready for the plow. The trees were felled with ax or saw and the wood cut into lengths varying from eight to twelve feet. Then word was given out that a rolling would take place on a certain date. Early on the morning of the appointed day, the men went into action. Each worker was equipped with a stick or pole called a handspike. This tool was shaved from hickory saplings or split hickory trees, slightly tapered, and sharpened at both ends. It was five or six feet long and two or three inches in diameter at the center.
Two of the strongest men in the group were selected to “make daylight” by running their handspikes under a log and lifting it high enough for other workers to shove their sticks under. Two by two the men took their places alongside the log until a sufficient number was present to “tote” it to the heap. Seven large logs comprised a heap. Smaller limbs and branches were usually placed in separate piles. The farmer would do his own burning and “chunking up” until the wood was reduced to ashes. Millions of feet of high-grade timber were destroyed in this manner. Sawmills were few in the sparsely settled country and it was imperative that the logs be removed in order to till the land. Sometimes the trees were “deadened” with the ax and let stand a year or two before removal. In recent years poison chemicals have been introduced for use in killing the trees.
While the men rolled logs, the womenfolks were busy preparing dinner. At the sound of horn or bell, the workers assembled at the house, washed the dirt and grime from their hands and faces in wooden tubs provided for that purpose, and seated themselves at the long table. The festive board was laden with boiled ham, fried chicken, and perhaps plates of beef and mutton, or venison and wild turkey if in the early days, for the Ozarkers are meat eaters like their English forebears. There were boiled potatoes, corn bread, turnip greens, lye hominy, and biscuits so soft and fluffy that, when they were pulled apart, one thought of picking cotton in Dixie. The feasters tapered off with cake, custards, and half-moon dried-apple pies. The meal was washed down with black coffee or buttermilk.
When the day’s work was over, a dance-frolic was sometimes held to complete the occasion. The dancers stepped to the rollicking music of fiddle, guitar, and banjo until they were near exhaustion before returning to their respective homes. The farmer’s farewell to his guests usually took the form of “Much obliged until you’re better paid.”
Barn- and house-raisings were conducted in much the same manner as the logrolling. The preparatory work was done by the owner, assisted by members of his family or hired hands. Then the neighbors came in for the raising and the work was usually accomplished in one day.
The old hewed-log houses of the Ozarks are fast tumbling down and will soon exist only in the land of memory. They were the first houses of the pioneers and the only kind that could be built at that time. Few sawmills had been opened in the back country and lumberyards were unknown. But these log structures were real castles to the early settlers. The country was covered with the finest of timber, and about all the tools the pioneer brought with him from his native country were a chopping ax, broadax, a handsaw, crosscut saw, hammer, hatchet, and a few augers. With these tools and a few dull-pointed cut nails, he built his first house. W. S. White of Polk County, Missouri, explained to me how the building was done.
The first step in the housing program was to go to the forest with axes, crosscut saw, and a chalk line, fell the trees, and hew the logs. Straight tree
s, usually oak or walnut, that carried a good size for fifteen or twenty feet, were selected. After the tree was felled and the limbs cleared away, the saw was used to square the trunk at the butt. Then the trunk was sawed into logs of proper length for the building. The woodsman then took his chopping ax and scaled the bark off a narrow strip the full length of the log. The chalk line snapped a straight line down the place that had been scaled as a guide for the hewing. The man then mounted the log with his chopping ax and scored it from one end to the other, sinking the blade to the depth of the chalk line. He did the hewing with his broadax which is a short-handled tool with a blade ten or twelve inches in width and the handle bent slightly away from the center to keep from skinning the hands.
The hewing of timbers is an art almost as old as the human race. The Ozark pioneers were skillful workers in wood. They hewed to the line from one end of the log to the other. The process was repeated on the other side and the log was ready for the building.
With oxen or horses the logs were dragged, or loaded on the running gears of a linchpin wagon and hauled, to the building site. Then the neighbors came in for the raising. A definite procedure was followed in erecting the building.
The corners of the house were properly squared and the walls raised by an improvised plumb line of twine string weighted with a piece of lead. Four “corner men” carried up the corners and the balance of the workers were left on the ground to lift the logs into place. The first two logs were flattened to rest on the foundation stones and “saddle notches” cut near the ends of each of them. The top logs were notched to fit the saddles of the lower ones. This process was continued as the walls of logs rose higher and higher, carried up by the plumb line to the height desired. If the wall became too high for the men on the ground to push the logs into place, ropes and push-poles were used to elevate the timbers.
Ozark Country Page 9
