Schoolcraft's Journal

Henry R. Schoolcraft

On the Ozarks Frontiersmen

[The following are selections from Schoolcraft’s description of the people he met in the Ozarks frontier in his Journal of a Tour into the Interior of Missouri and Arkansaw ... in the Years 1818 and 1819]

Our approach was announced by the loud and long continued barking of dogs, who required repeated bidding before they could be pacified; and the first object worthy of remark which presented itself on emerging from the forest, was the innumerable quantity of deer, bear, and other skins, which had been from time to time stretched out, and hung up to dry on poles and trees around the house. These trophies of skill and prowess in the chase were regarded [highly. We were told] that the house we were about to visit belonged to a person by the name of Wells, who was ... a great hunter. He had several acres of ground in a state of cultivation, and a substantial new-built log-house, consisting of one room, which had been lately exchanged for one less calculated to accommodate a growing family. Its interior would disappoint any person who has never had an opportunity of witnessing the abode of man beyond the pale of the civilized world. Nothing could be more remote from the ideas we have attached to domestic comfort, neatness, or convenience, without allusion to cleanliness, order, and the concomitant train of household attributes, which make up the sum of human felicity in refined society.

The dress of the children attracted our attention. The boys were clothed in a particular kind of garment made of deer skin, which served the double purposes of shirt and jacket. The girls had buck-skin frocks, which it was evident, by the careless manner in which they were clothed, were intended to combine the utility both of linen and calico, and all were abundantly greasy and dirty. Around the walls of the room hung the horns of deer and buffaloes, rifles, shot-pouches, leather-coats, dried meat, and other articles, composing the ward-robe, smoke-house, and magazine of our host and family, while the floor displayed great evidence of his own skill in the fabrication of household furniture.

In the course of the evening I tried to engage our hostess and her daughters in small-talk, such as passes current in every social corner; but, for the first time, found I should not recommend myself in that way. They could only talk of bears, hunting, and the like. The rude pursuits, and the coarse enjoyments of the hunter state, were all they knew.

[O]ur host and his sons early busied in equipping themselves for a bear hunt up the Great North Fork... [We could travel part of the way together, and were] determined not to lose so good an opportunity of being safely piloted.... [But,] he refused to conduct us, unless we would pay a certain sum of money, which he stipulated. He had already found we had money, for we had paid him very liberal, if not exorbitant prices, for every thing we had received, and it had only served to inflame his avarice. There was no alternative in our present situation, and we agreed to his demand, provided he would kill us a deer, either on the way, or before he left our camp. [We] set forward toward the northwest, accompanied by our host, his sons, and a neighbor, seven men in all, armed and equipped for a bear hunt, and followed by a troop of hungry dogs, who made the woods echo with their cries. They were all on horseback.... [They killed a couple turkeys. The first was for supper, the second was for breakfast.] Early this morning... several of the party went out in quest of game, but all returned... completely unsuccessful, and... suddenly mounted their horses and bid us adieu. So abrupt a movement took us rather by surprise, and as they trotted off through an adjoining forest, we stood surveying the singular procession, and the singular beings of whom it was composed, and which, taken altogether, bore no comparison with anything human or divine, savage or civilized, which we had ever before witnessed, but was rather characterized in partaking of whatever was disgusting, terrific, [and] rude…. It was, indeed, a novel and striking spectacle, such as we had never before experienced, and when they had passed out of sight we could not forbear an expression of joy at the departure of men, in whose presence we felt rather like prisoners than associates. From their generosity we had received nothing; they had neglected to fulfill one of the most essential engagements [killing a deer], and departed without even an apology for it; their manner and conversation were altogether rough and obscene, and their conduct such as to make us every moment feel that we were in their power.

[A Frontiersman we met told us] our journey toward the head of the White River [w]as extremely hazardous, on account of the Osage Indians, whose hunting grounds embraced the whole region in which this river, and its upper tributaries, originate, and who never failed to rob white hunters, and travelers who were so unfortunate as to fall in their way, and sometimes carried them into captivity. He related the particulars of a robbery they had some time before committed upon him in the very house we were then sitting, when they took away horses, clothes, and such other articles about the house as they took a fancy to. They had visited him in this way twice, and very recently had stolen eight beaver traps, with all his firs, from a neighboring hunter, and detained him a considerable time a prisoner in their camp. Numerous other instances were related, all tending to prove that the Osage Indians felt hostile to the white settlements along that river, and that they were habitual robbers and plunderers, not only of them, but of every person who happened to fall defenseless into their hands.

[W]e found a family who had two weeks before emigrated from the lower parts of White River. They had brought their furniture and effects, such as it was, partly in a canoe up the river, and partly on pack horses through the woods. Nothing could present a more striking picture of the hardships encountered by the back wood's settler, than this poor, friendless, and forlorn family. The woman and her little children were a touching group of human distress, and in contemplating their forlorn situation we for a while forgot our own deprivations and fatigues. They were short of provisions, the husband being out in search of game, and after obtaining such information as the woman was able to give, respecting the next settlement, we continued our journey....

These people subsist partly by agriculture, and partly by hunting. They raise corn for bread, and for feeding their horses previous to the commencement of long journeys in the woods, but none for exportation. No cabbages, beets, onions, potatoes, turnips, or other garden vegetables, are raised. Gardens are unknown. Corn and wild meats, chiefly bear's meat, are the staple articles of food.

In manners, morals, customs, dress, contempt of labor and hospitality, the state of society is not essentially different from that which exists among the savages. Schools, religion, and learning are alike unknown. Hunting is the principal, the most honorable, and the most profitable employment. To excel in the chase procures fame, and a man's reputation is measured by his skill as a marksman, his agility and strength, his boldness and dexterity in killing game, and his patient endurance and contempt of the hardships of the hunter's life. They are, consequently, a hardy, brave, independent people, rude in appearance, frank and generous, travel without baggage, and can subsist any where in the woods….

Their habitations are not always permanent, having little which is valuable, or loved, to rivet their affections to any one spot; and nothing which is venerated, but what they can carry with them; they frequently change residence, traveling where game is more abundant. Vast quantities of beaver, otter, raccoon, deer, and bear-skins, are annually caught. These skins are carefully collected and preserved during the summer and fall, and taken down the river in canoes, to the mouth of the Great North Fork of White River, or to the mouth of Black River, where traders regularly come up with large boats to receive them. They also take down some wild honey, bear's bacon, and buffalo-beef, and receive in return, salt, iron-pots, axes, blankets, knives, rifles, and other articles of first importance in their mode of life.

Our approach to the house was, as usual, announced by the barking of dogs, whose incessant yells plainly told us, that all who approached that domain, of which they were the natural guardians, and whether moving upon two, or upon four legs, were considered as enemies, and it was not until they were peremptorily, and repeatedly recalled, that they could be pacified. Dried skins, stretched out with small rods, and hung up to dry on trees and poles around the house, served to give the scene the most novel appearance. [At every cabin] this custom has been observed…. [G]reat pride is taken in the display, the number and size of the bear-skins serving as a credential of the hunter's skill and prowess in the chase.

Justice, which in civilized society is administered through all the formalities of the law, is here obtained in a more summary way. Two [frontiersmen] having a dispute respecting a horse, which one had been instrumental in stealing from the other, the person aggrieved meeting the other, some days afterwards, in the woods, shot him through the body. [The person doing the shooting] immediately fled, keeping in the woods for several weeks…. [Several outraged neighbors] assembled and set out in quest of him. Being an expert woodsman, he eluded them for some time, but at last they got a glimpse of him as he passed through a thicket, and one of the party fired upon him. The ball passed through his shoulder, but did not kill him. This event happened a few days before our arrival, but I know not how it has terminated. In all probability several lives will be lost before a pacification takes place, as both parties have their friends, and all are hot for revenge.

[A]lthough habitually lazy, and holding in contempt the pursuits of agriculture, so far, at least, as is not necessary to his own subsistence, [he] is nevertheless a slave to his dog, the only object around him to which he appears really devoted. His horse, cow, and hogs, if he have any, living upon vegetable food, can subsist themselves in the woods; but the dog requires animal food…. It is no easy task to provide a pack of hungry dogs, [usually] from six to twelve … with meat….

[Sunday is no different from other days] in this region. [A]ll days are equally unhallowed, and the first and the last day of the week find him alike sunk in unconcerned sloth, and stupid ignorance. He neither thinks for himself, nor reads the thoughts of others, and if he ever acknowledges his dependence upon the Supreme Being, it must be in that silent awe produced by the furious tempest, when the earth trembles with concussive thunders, and lightening shatters the oaks around his cottage, that cottage which certainly never echoed the voice of human prayer. [We were told] that itinerant preachers sometimes visited the lower parts of White River, and had penetrated within 300 miles of the place where we then sat, but had not found much encouragement.

Schools are also unknown, and no species of learning cultivated, children are wholly ignorant of the knowledge of books, and have not learned even the rudiments of their own tongue. Thus situated, without moral restraint, brought up in the uncontrolled indulgence of every passion and without a regard of religion, the state of society among the rising generation in this region is truly deplorable.

In their childish disputes, boys frequently stab each other with knives, two instances of which have occurred since our residence here. No correction was administered in either case, the act being rather looked upon as a promising trait of character.

[The boys] begin to assert their independence as soon as they can walk, and by the time they reach the age of fourteen, have completely learned the use of the rifle, the arts of trapping beaver and otter, killing the bear, deer, and buffalo, and dressing skins and making moccasins and leather clothes. They are then accomplished in all customary things, and are, therefore, capable of supporting themselves and a family....

The girls are brought up with little care, and inured to servile employment. They have ruddy complexions, but, in other respects, are rather gross, as they live chiefly on animal food. Being deprived of all the advantages of dress, possessed by our fair country-women in the east, they are by no means calculated to inspire admiration, but on the contrary disgust; their whole wardrobe, until the age of twelve, consisting of one greasy buckskin frock, which is renewed whenever worn out.

[Boys and girls] enter into marriage early in life.

The women are observed to have few children, and of those, being deprived of the benefit of medical aid, an unusual number die in their infancy. This is probably owing wholly to adventitious causes, and may be explained on the same principles as a similar circumstance in savage life, the female being frequently exposed to the inclemency of the weather, always to unusual hardships and fatigues, doing in many instances the man's work, living in camps on the wet ground, without shoes, etc. Mrs. H. tells me, she has not lived in a cabin which had a floor to it for several years; that during that time they have changed their abode several times, and that she has lost four children, who all died before they reached their second year.

[W]e met a petty trader coming up stream with a large canoe, in which he had the remains of a barrel of whiskey, and a few other articles intended to be bartered off for skins.... Of him, anxious to hear how the civilized world was progressing, we inquired the news, but were disappointed to learn that he himself resided at no great distance below, where he had purchased his articles from another trader, and knew nothing of those political occurrences in our own country, about which we felt solicitous to be informed. He evinced, indeed, a perfect indifference to those things, and hardly comprehended the import of such inquiries. He knew, forsooth, that he was living under the United States government, and had some indefinite ideas about St. Louis, New Orleans, and Washington; but who filled the presidential chair, what Congress were deliberating upon, whether the people of Missouri had been admitted to form a state, constitution, and government, and other analogous matters, these were subjects which, to use his own phraseology, "he had never troubled his head about." Such a total ignorance of the affairs of his own country, and indifference to passing events, in one who possessed enterprise enough to become a river peddler, surprised us, even here, in this benighted corner of the union.

There is now a boat lying here, which ascended a few weeks ago on a trading voyage…. The articles brought in it, for the purposes of exchange, were chiefly flour, salt, and whiskey, with some coffee, calico, and a few smaller articles. In return, beaver, deer, otter, bear, and raccoon skins, bears' bacon, fresh pork, and beef, in the gross, venison, bees' wax, honey, and buffalo beef, are taken. From the rates of exchange noticed, I concluded a trading-voyage on this stream is attended with immense profit.

[Y]esterday... arrived ... several neighbors and friends in their canoes, who came down to trade, making a party of twelve or fourteen in all. Whisky soon began to circulate freely, and by the time they had unloaded their canoes, we began plainly to discover that a scene of riot and drinking was to follow. Of all this, we were destined to be unwilling witnesses; for as there was but one house, and that a very small one, necessity compelled us to pass the night together; but sleep was not to be obtained. Every mouth, hand, and foot, were in motion. Some drank, some sang, some danced, a considerable proportion attempted all three together, and a scene of undistinguishable bawling and riot ensued. An occasional quarrel gave variety to the scene, and now and then, one drunker than the rest, fell sprawling upon the floor, and for a while remained quiet. We alone remained listeners to this grand exhibition of human noises, beastly intoxication, and mental and physical nastiness. We did not lie down to sleep, for that was dangerous. Thus the night rolled heavily on, and as soon as light could be discerned in the morning we joyfully embarked in our canoe, happy in having escaped bodily disfiguration, and leaving such as could yet stand, vociferating with all their might like some delirious man upon his dying bed, who makes one desperate effort to arise, and then falls back in death.

[W]e entered upon a … village [with] fifteen buildings, scattered along the banks of the stream, including a small grist mill turned by water, a whisky distillery, a blacksmith's shop, and a tavern.

[The following selection from Schoolcraft's Journal is a comparison of the Indians and the Ozarks frontiersmen:]

The white ... on encamping in his journeys, cuts down green-trees, and builds a large fire of long logs, sitting at some distance from it. The Indian hunts up a few dry limbs, cracks them into little pieces a foot in length, builds a small fire, and sits close by it. He gets as much warmth as the [frontiersman] without half the labour, and does not burn more than a fiftieth part of the wood. The Indian considers the forest his own, and is careful in using and preserving every thing which it affords. He never kills more meat than he has occasion for. The white ... destroys all before him, and cannot resist the opportunity of killing game, although he neither wants the meat, nor can carry the skins. I was particularly struck with an instance of this wanton practice, which lately occurred on White River. A hunter returning from the woods heavy laden with the flesh and skins of five bears, unexpectedly arrived in the midst of a drove of buffalo, and wantonly shot down three, having no other object than the sport of killing them. This is one of the causes of the enmity existing between the white[s] and the [Indians] of Missouri.

(Excerpts from Henry R. Schoolcraft, Journal of a Tour into the Interior of Missouri and Arkansaw, from Potosi, or Mine a Burton, in Missouri Territory, in a South-West Direction, toward the Rocky Mountains, Performed in the Years 1818 and 1819. London: Richard Phillips and Company, 1821. Selections edited by F. Thornton Miller.)