© 2001, 2002 Leona
L. Gustafson (previous Arapahoe County GenWeb Coordinator)
& The Arapahoe County COGenWeb Project
I Milton Bell Case, was born in Wayne Co. OH. eight miles
southwest of Wooster, on July 25 1818. I was the oldest child
of my parents. My father was raised a Presbyterian in faith, my
mother a Lutheran, until she was sixteen years old, when she got
religion and joined the M.E. Church, for which she was driven
from home. But she stood by her hope and soon her brothers
and sisters, eighteen in number, began to turn in the same course.
She married Samuel Youngs Case in 1817. He was not a religious,
but a good moral man. She was a strong willed woman and
stood by her faith. My memory reaches back to forth and
fifth year, when my mother took me by the hand and went to the
silent grove, knelt down and prayed. In her prayer would
say "Oh Lord make a man of my boy after thine own heart.
The impressions, on such occasions, never left me. When
I was twelve to fifteen I would go with my mother, three miles
on foot, when the team had been at work all week, to Milbrook
to church, and help her carry the baby. When I was fifteen,
the ME preacher found our neighborhood, found a few old methodists
and organized a society of seven members. Here Bishop Thompson
preached his first sermon. I have heard him say, afterward,
he was so frightened that he almost made up his mind never to
try again. A young man that had been to college and had
learned a smattering of short hand writing, sat up on a stand
in the corner of the room and was trying his hand at reporting.
It alarmed the afterward Bishop. When I was sixteen, there
had come in a few more Methodists and a few new recruits, two
of whom were my father's brothers, one of whom became a leader.
The society and the neighbors sat to and builded a hewed log meeting
house on father's place, 24x24. Some brought in two, three
or half a dozen hewed logs, some shingles, others lumber for floor,
etc., a couple of carpanters made the window and door frames,
one double door and three windows, so they were fixed. It always
went by the name of Case's Meeting House. When I was seventeen,
at a revival, I joined the church. Built fires, swept and cared
for the old house a good portion of the time until I was twenty,
and that summer I went to Ceneca Co. Took my church letter with
me. Here I subscribed for the Western Christian, had it follow
me for twenty-five years, wherever I located. In the fall of 1840
I started West Stopped twenty-five miles west of Cincinnati. Taught
school six months. In the spring, started on west, my certificate
in pocket and the paper to follow. Taught school in Illinois,
six months. 1842 went back home. Taught school the next winter
near enough to the old meeting house to get there nearly every
Sunday. In 1843 married Catherine Wolph, the daughter of a Methodist
Class Leader. At a camp meeting that summer had a solicitation
to go to Texas, as a teacher, but declined. In the fall moved
west to Iowa, in Des Moines Co. In the fall of 1844 moved to Fairfield,
Jefferson Co. , Here I made the window and door frames for the
first ME Church erected in the town. I moved to Libertyville in
the fall of 1849, where I plastered the little frick church, and
was appointed one of the class leaders and steward. Here I made
up my mind never ask a member for a quarter, that the preacher
didn't visit, as they would say "the preacher in so stiff
to see us, he can look for his pay some other place". As
that is not Methodism, I have paid it out of my own pocket, rather
than be answered that way. Elder Hayden days "that is right,
report such preachers to me, will you?" I was always used,
in my young days to see the preacher visit every member once a
quarter, at least. From Libertyville I moved to Glenwood, Mills
Co., Iowa a new ex-morman town. A Mr Mann came on as preacher,
formed a class and appointed me Leader. Soon formed a Sunday School
and put me in as Superintendent. It appeared to me that they saddled
all on me. The next year Wm. Armstrong came on the circuit (stationed
preachers were as yet scarce, especially in the West). He was
a man of vim and get up and do. He went to work to build a church,
got up a subscription, let a contract to John Carter, he got out
the timbers for the frame and some lumber. Times took a change,
everything got high in price, he made up his mind that he was
going to lose money on the contract, so he said he would be obliged
to have more money for the job, and got mulish and would not stir
a peg. I was contracting then. He was a member of the church.
Armstrong said to me "Brother Case you will be obliged to
take that job off Carter's hands, or it will not be built, and
these fellows around here will say we are failures, and took a
larger bite than we were able to chew". and said he would
see that I was made whole, for the house must be built. So I undertook
to finish it. Had from six to ten men employed all the time on
the church and other buildings, done all my own superintending
and worked too, and sometimes went, after supper, and plastered
until 10-12 o'clock and then up and at it in the morning. We finally
got through with it, but it left me two hundred and fifty dollares
behind, which I had to stand, and was not able to do it either,
as I was financially broke when I got to Glenwood. I was a man,
at that time, Father Minard said I could do more carpenter work
than any two men in Mills Co., and when in 1855 I was getting
ready to go to Nebraska, He said he could not see how Glenwood
would get along without me, as everything of a religious character
and the same of temperance, had to have Case, even the Know-nothings,
se said. He was an old fashioned ME preacher and was in the Methodist(preacher
was)in Missouri. Father Minard came to my house one day, says
he, there is a young woman that has come from Missouri, we must
go and see her. So we went, made our business known. She had not
brought her letter, so he sent for it for her. After that she
became very well acquainted with my wife. She was raised a Quaker
in North Carolina. In May 1855 I moved over to Cass Co. Nebraska
and settled on a claim.The first thing was to see about a preacher.
Old Father Good, the first superintendent of Colorado, was superintendent
of missions in Nebraska then, so he sent us Father Gage to preach.
He preached at our place that summer, mostly in the grove by the
shanty, organized a society of about ten members, had a Sunday
School a few times. The latter part of the summer things began
to move smoothly. The third day of October my wife died. That
broke me all up. I had six little children, I scattered them among
my friends. Went to the legislature at Omaha, got a clerkship
in the council. When I came back I said I was going to sell out
and go back to father in Ohio, but my friends strongly objected,
said I had a good place, that I better get me a house-keeper that
would take care of my children, if I left they would too. So I
went over to Glenwood and married Elizabeth Hobson. That Daddy
Minard went to see about her letter. I could not think of having
a partner that was not a Methodist. I fixed up my house and got
all my children together again. They all felt at home once more.
That summer, 1854, my wife had a brother-in-law (Ruel B Davis)
come from North Carolina, with his family. We sold him our claim
and went four miles south on the weeping Water, took up another,
built a house, got things to going. The second summer, the whole
family took the fever and ague and were so worn out with it that
only got onehalf of our potatoes dug before it froze up, dug four
hundred bushels.Here our two girls were born, Martha C and Eliza
Anne, and the children had four miles to go to school or board
away, so in the fall of 1857, the time of the financial crash,
we moved to Nebraska City. I went into cabinet work, built a shop
with another man, but times were so hard, it was hard to make
anything. Sold our land to my first wife's father, bought a place
eight miles south of Platismouth. This was the time of the Pikes
Peak excitement. We fixed up the place, fenced the land, got in
a crop. The next spring 1860, a brother-in-law of my first wife
came one evening and said "I am going to Pikes Peak with
a load of flour, and I want you to go along, it will cost you
nothing". Times were hard and no money in the country,so
I said yes. On the 28th day of May we started across the plains,
had a pleasent time, met returning pilgrims, by the hundred, some
jovial, some morose, glum, and some mad and swearing. It was amusing
to see the different dispositions of mankind. We arrived at Boulder,
Colorado on June 28. Went up to Gold Hill, where five thousand
men and thirteen women celebrated the forth of July. The most
pleasent, harmonious celebration ever attended. No whiskey was
allowed on the Hill, consequently, no drunk men or quarrels. Thirty-nine
lashes on the bare back for the man who would take another man's
pick or shovel out of his prospect hole. I prospected around for
some time, found nothing that suited me. Went to the big Tompson,
where Loveland is now, and cut hay for a month. Then to Gold Dirt
on South Boulder Creek to work on a new mill at carpenter work.
Knocked around until the next June. Struck out on a wild goose
chase to find a six dollar to the pan gulch on the western slope.
Did not find it. Found five thousand men hunting for it. Returned
to California Gulch, now Leadville, bought a claim, went to work,
done no good here. We met Elder Chivington, afterward Colonel,
organizing churches and Father Dyer, the Snow Shoe Itinerant.
Father Good had been over the ground the year before as Superintendent
of Missions. Now comes the rebellion. A great many men that had
spent their last dollar, had eaten up their last grub and worn
out their clothes, joined the army. Elder Chivington joined as
Major. My oldest son, John W came out in the fall of 1860. He
was with me all summer, Our claim at California Gulch did not
pan out, so then we went across the Continental Divide to Kent
Gulch on the Taylor River, bought a claim, made nothing, then
returned to Denver. Here I went into I.I. Walley's cabinet shop,
went to turning wood for him. John went to Boulder to work on
a farm. The last of December an old neighbor from Nebraska came
out with a load of grub, said my wife wanted to see me, said I
had better go with him home. The object was to do the cooking
on the road. So I went, had thirty days of fearful cold weather,
got home the 27 day of Janurary in a foot of snow, found my family
all OK. I rested and recruited until warm weather came, put in
a crop of wheat and corn then cast around to get a job to make
a little money. There was no money in the country then except
what came Colorado, by men that took a load of supplies to Denver
or the mining camps. No one could get sugar and coffee on the
Missouri River for produce, corn was 10 cts per bushel in trade,
sugar and coffee was cash. While I was away the merchants took
pity on my wife, as she was a widow, and would let her have coffee
and sugar for butter and eggs. Butter 8cnt per lbs. eggs 4cnt
per doz, but when I got home, that would not work. I found no
work unless I went to the Missouri bottom, where it was wet. I
went to Wm. Davis, a shoemaker, told him I wanted a pair of heavy
hip boots, but I had no money. I would be obleged to pay for them
in corn. I said "how many bushels of corn will pay for them".
After quite a parley, he said "fifty bushels", but would
not do it for anyone else for that. Well, I said "that setteles
it, I am going back to Pikes Peak, I can get a good pair of boots
in Denver for two days work". I went home, says to my wife
"I am going back to the mountains can you and the children
make it through?" She says "we will try" So I went
to Wm Spratland who was going out with some teams, told him I
had a boy 14, he and I wanted to drive a team to Denver for him
said what is the show? Well, he says "I can get all the drivers
I want for their board through, but seeing it is you, I have a
fine team of four yoke of cattle, if you and your boy will drive
them through I will board you and give your wife twenty-five dollars
out of the store" I said "all right we will go"
So we struck out, with five other teams, were forty-five days
to Denver, arrived on the fourth day of July. I went into the
cabinet shop of I.I.Walley. The boy into a printing office. I
could make two to three dollars per day, he got one dollar and
board ourselves. We got a room and batched. After we had worked
some time, Benjamin Dunagan of Bolder came into town on his way
to Iowa for a load of flour, etc., from his farm, had three teams.
I said "if you will bring my family out with you I will give
you one hundred". He was going to drive some loose stock.
I said " I have two boys able to drive stock". He thought
a little, says, "if you will git a wagon that is down there,
for thirty five dollars, I have a large yoke of cattle I will
put to it and bring your family and one thousand lbs of their
goods" So I said "alright", I will do it".
Dunagan was not a man that hurried through life. When he got to
the Missouri River, he dallied around and did not get started
back until the twentieth of September, and then was sixty-five
days on the plains in reaching Boulder. I had a house to receive
my family, Had plenty of work that winter and the children went
to school to a K. Brown, who started a school in summer before.
I made for him the desks to start with, the first desks ever made
in Denver, for school. The next spring, 1863, I bought a place
on the old Arappaho townsite, below Golden City, went to making
a farm, got things in tolerably good shape. In the fall, moved
back to Denver so that the children could go to school. I went
to work in the cabinet shop. The oldest son in a commission store,
the third son was still in the store with Noteware & Pease.
That winter my oldest son J W fell into an open cut in the sidewalk
on Larimer Street and broke his kneecap, which laid him up for
three months. I had to stay with him most of the time. I got discouraged
about our farm, a homestead, and sold it, about the worst mistake
I ever made. Had a good 160 acre lot, a good well of water. I
then bought a place between the hogback and the main mountains,
2miles from Golden, moved to it directly after the Cherry Creek
flood, which was in June 1864. Had a crop in before we moved.
In the fall moved down to Golden City for the children to go to
school. This summer, W.H. Harrison, my youngest brother came.
He lived with us. In the fall he and I went to the Laramie Plains
on a hunt and trapping expedition. In the spring of 1865 we moved
back to the ranch, got a good crop of vegetables, ect, but in
September the grasshoppers cme by the millions and ate nearly
all we had not marketed. We milked forty cows, made chees and
butter. I went to Central City that winter, sold butter at $1.50
per lbs and eggs three dollars per dozen. There was plenty of
money in this country then. In the spring, sold the place and
said "Ho for California", but fefore we got ready to
start the Indians blocked that game. Then we went back to Denver,
I went again to work in the cabinet shop. In the spring of 66
we rented a place on the hill, where Elitch's Gardens are now,
and put in a crop, sowed one hundred fushels of oats which cost
eleven cents per ls and thirty bushels of wheat which cost eighteen
cents per lb. failed in a crop for want of water. The sixteenth
day of May came a foot of snow, and cold enough to freeze our
corn, therefore, we were discouraged. We sold what crop we had,
our teams, wagons, ect. to pay our debts and then were fifteen
hundred dollars in debt, which we paid afterward, by working,
at five to seven dollars per day, building mills, houses etc.,
at Georgetown. My oldest son was married and had a team of ponies
and wagon, and we one pony, so we gathered some traps, old guns,etc.,
and the three oldest boys and I started for the Laramie Plains,
on a hunt and trap, on the head of the big Laramie River. We caught
seventy-two beaver, some martin, cats, fox, lynx, large gray wolves
and about seventy-five deer and antelope hides and one elk that
weighed over five hundred lbs. We captured six stray horses that
had run there until they were about as wild as deer. When we came
back to Denver, I succeeded in persuading the three boy, Samuel,
Scott and Arthur, that we had enough grub, and I could get five
dollars per day to work at carpenter work, so we would get through
the winter and they should go to the Denver Seminary to school.
Mary J., my oldest daughter, had been going before, and by a good
deal of persuasion, they consented. After they got to going they
outstripped everything in school. Came out late in the spring
well pleased with their venture. On the first of July, the two
boys and I went to Georgetown on a contract to build a house,
found good times, plenty of work at five dollars per day, so the
first of September, one of the boys went down with the team, for
we had earned a pair of ponies before we left Denver, and moved
the family up. We got some lots. Arthur, the sixteen year old
boy, cut the timber and slid it down the miountian, and by odd
times, we had up a house 16x30 feet, 1 1/2 story. So we were once
more getting on our feet. Then we got a job on a mill on the other
side of the Continental Divide, to work on a mill and other houses,
staid at it, the three boys and I, until we earned twenty-seven
hundred dollars, and then built the Suckey and Shenango Mills,
paid our old debts and put six thousand dollars in digging holes
for silver and gold, but never struck it rich. When Colonel John
M. Chivington and Govefnor Evans conceived and inaugurated the
plan of building an M. E. Church, the Lawrence Street First M.E.
Church of Denver, We put in one hundred and thirty dollars of
our hard work. So when they put up the First M.E. Church in Georgetown,
we put in thirty five dollars. I.H. Beardsley was the preacher
at Georgetown, after Murry and Amsberry. When he came, the first
thing was to fimd his members. He came to our house, knocked,
came in, the baby was sitting on the floor, he went to it, took
its hand, said howdy, your mamma does not know who I am, then
turned to her and said "I an the Methodist Preacher sent
to your town". I said to my wife "that is the kind of
preacher I like to hear of and see," so we became fast friends.
When the conference came, the next year, I took the team, took
him and wife to Pueblo to conference. When conference was over,
we went up the Arkansas to Canyon City, Fourtyfive miles, then
across to Colorado City, 45 miles and then back to Georgetown,
175 miles. When at the examination at conference, the Bishop said,
Who is here to represent Brother Beardsly? Beardsly replied, "Brother
Case is here,he is one of the stewards at Georgetown, hear him".
By the way, Beardsly said he used to preach to A.B. Case near
Adler Lake in Wayne Co.,Ohio. On our way back, we stopped over
at Colorado City a few days to attened the fourth of July celebration,
and while there I was shown a piece of land, vacant, two miles
from where Colorado Springs now is, which I filed on and moved
to the next January, 1871. Builded a house on this land, 18x30
feet, two rooms below and two above, afterward added 20x24 for
kitchen, dining room, etc,. In June Colorado Springs was located
and surveyed, then there was a boom, everything ran well for three
years when, all of a sudden, everything stopped. I had went into
deep, got in debt, borrowed money, and the boys and I lost all.
Then a big gold excitement, at Sunshine in Bolder Co., occurred.
Gathered up and went there, in '76. The boys went to the Black
Hills, dug holes hunting for gold, and found nothing In the fall
of '78 moved down to Boulder. The boys came back from the Black
Hills that fall. So in January '79 we went with the team to Leadville,
in the time of the big excitement, and went to work, as carpenters,
at four dollars per day, and digging holes to find that big nugget.
John W. and Samuel Y. were burning lime below Pueblo, and doing
well, furnished us a portion of the money to work with. Spent
six or seven thousand dollars in digging holes, but never struck
it rich. Would go up every spring, stay until winter set in. In
1881 I moved the family on a piece of land that I had taken up
near Loveland, on the Big Thompson Creek. Builded a shanty and
a good cistern, fenced the land and got things to going at home,
would put in a crop and then leave for Leadville. In the fall
of 1883, when I went home, a company was formed to build a big
ditch from the Tompson for errigation purposes. Had borrowed thirty
thousamd dollars from the Hartford Insurance Company, through
F.C. Henry of Denver. The farmers were building the ditch. There
were three tunnels to cut through ridges of rock or hogbacks,
as they were called. In bidding for the work on the tunnels, I
got two of them, one, seven, the other twenty-one hundred feer
long. Was to have thirty-seven thousand dollars. One half cash,
the other half, stock in the ditch. So on the second day of January,
1884, all things in order, went to work. On that day my wife went
to one of the neighbors to his sick wife, got into the buggy to
return home and before the team started, sh dropped over dead.
Ten days before W.S. Case was married, and eight days before Martha
C. was married. We had siven minor children and Eliza Anne, who
was twenty-six year old then, the youngest Ralph E. was three
years and nine months, therefore Eliza was elected to take care
of them. She done it like a heroine. They are all gone, now eleven
years, except Alveria May and Ralph Emerson, the two youngest.
Charles M. died the others are scattered. In June following, Arthur
L. died and was buried beside her. I sublet the shorter tunnel
and half of the long one, got in on the longer four hundred feet,and
sublet it to our workman, so that I would have had seven thousand
dollars for my trouble and work. Now Mr. Henry gets in trouble
with the Hartford Company and puts twenty-one thousand dollars
of our money in his pocket, which breaks the whole thing up. So
five of us closed liens on it, bought in and own it yet, with
thirty-two thousand dollars worth of work done on it, after fothering
with it for five years. Eliza rented her place, where we then
lived, as we had lost all our property, and started on a three
year tramp. Had two wagons, five horses and a cow. Spent there
months about Leadville and then brought up at Grand Junction on
the first day of October,1888. Here concluded to stay the winter,
as they had a good school. On the last of March I concluded o
go to San Diego California, as W.S. was there, and there was an
excitement in Lower California about rich gold mines, so I made
up my mind I would like to see the country, so Ernest and I packed
our duds and went. Spent the summer and made nothing, as a white
man has no business in Mexico among Indians and Mexicans. I came
back to San Diego and staid there two months, came back to Grand
Junction, went to work building a house of eleven rooms, done
most of the work myself, hired nothing only top the chimney. The
two boys done some of the work. Was not content with that, bought
two more lots, built a six room house, borrowed more money, spent
Eliza's home, a thousand dollars, and then the bottom fell out
of the boom, and we lost all. And now , 1895 and am seventy-seven
years old and am worn out and have no money or property to go
on, but such is life. My foys and I have spent twenty-five thousand
dollars of our hard work digging holes to find that gold nugget,
but have failed so far. The boys are all at it yet, still think
they will find it. My Grandfather, Isaac Akright, was born in
England in 1724. When he was fourteen years of age he was apprenticed
to a carpenter to learn the trade, all boys were required to learn
a trade in thos days, in England, whether rich or poor. He was
dissatisfied with his boss, became acquainted with a sea captian
who persuaded him to go on the sea and be a sailor, so he skipped
with him, came to America and concluded he had enough of sea life
and skipped again. When the revolutionary war commenced he enlisted
and served through it. When the second war with England commenced,
he enlisted again and served through it. He drew his pension until
his death, which occurred in 1831. He was worn out and troubled
with rheumatism before he died. Lived around among his children.
Was obliged to use a crutchand cane to walk, sometimes had to
be helped up out of his chair. I have, many times, gave him his
cane when it got out of his reach, and helped him up, when I was
a little tad, and would say "Mother, think I will ever get
that way?", and the old man would laugh and say , you may.
He was always cheerful, humming some kind of a tune. He married
a Dutch women, the name I have forgotten, by whom he had nineteen
children. I never saw all of them. There were Benjamin, Isaac,
Abraham, John, Samuel, Jacob, William, Polly, Hannah, Jane, my
mother, Elezabeth, Margret, Rachel, Libbie, that I have saw. He
raised them in Beaver Co. Penn., where several of them lived and
died. The oldest started to go to England, and was ot heard of
by the others again.. The others nearly all settled in Wayne County,
Ohio, afterward, the most of thenm went to Indiana. John went
to Michigan. I have heard the old man sit and cry and say "My
sister Jenny goes in her silk every day, with a boy to hold up
her tail, as he called it and I am here poor, I would like to
see her. I have nothing but myu pension of eight dollars per month".
My mother, Jane Case nee Akright, was raised in Beaver Co., Pa
joined the M.E. Church when she was sixteen years of age. Her
father and mother were Lutherans and did not like these noisy
Methodists, who threw a little fall into the people's mouths to
make them shout and make a noise. They said toher "you must
leave home if you go with them". She said "they love
Jesus and so do I". So she left, but before a year, others
began to go the same road, and the old folks concluded they were
in error, so said to her "Jand come back home and forgive
us". So nearly the whole family became Methodists. Mother
had a strong mind of her own, and was not easily swerved by any
one, and had the conviction to do right. She took an interest
in her children's future welfare. I have a very vivid recollection
of my early days when I was four and five years old when she would
take me with her to the silent grove, kneel down and pray and
say "O Lord, make a man of my boy after thine own will".
Such thing never lost their impressions on me in after life.
M.B.Case
Lucinda Johnson,
Onstead, Lenawee Co.
Michigan.
Elizabeth King.
Haw Patch, Lagrange Co.
Indiana
Cyrus Culbertson.
Sumner, Lawarence Co.
Illinois.
Our Great, Great, Grandfather, Augustus Case, was born on Long
Island, wher he lived and died. He had one son, Joshua, who died
in Sussex Co., New Jersey, who had five sons and one daughter
of whom Aguatus Case, our grandfather, was one. A chronological
and genealogical sketch of Augustus Case, and family, who was
born in the State of New Jersey, of Scotch descent and of Celt
origin. At the time of the Scotch Rebellion the Case tribe were
divided, some held to the English power, the others Dissenters,
who were banished from their country, so became scattered. Augustus
Case enlisted and served through the Revelutionary War. I have
heard him say "my feet have oft left their mark in blood
on the frozen ground", and the sweetest morsel he ever tasted
was the fried insole of his old shoe, all for liberty. He drew
a pension, until his death, of eight dollars per month. He was
born July 17, 1759. He had four brothers nd one sister, Samuel
, Joshua, Caleb, the other I lost his name, After the war he and
Samuel went to Washington Co., Penn., where he married Elizabeth
Bell and raised six children, Amnar, Samuel, John, Elizabeth,
Onesimus and Joshua. His brother, Samuel died without children.
One brother went to Canada in time of the war. The other two enlisted,
and he lost track of them. His sister married a Mr Broadrick and
setteled in Bartholomew Co. Indiana. She raised a family, of whom
Case Broadrick, the Jurist of Kansas is a grandson. J.I. Case,
the farm implement man, was a grandson of one of his brothers,
as near as can be ascertained. When the second war with England
occured, he again enlisted to serve his country. And when it was
over, he, in 1816 moved to Wayne Co. Ohio, where he lived and
died in 1852, March 12. His wife Elizabeth, died Sept 12 1817.
She belonged to the Presbyterian Church. That part of Ohio was
sparsely settled , at that time. Neighbors were few and far between.
Game was plenty, such as bear, deer, turkey, pheasants, quail,
coon, ect. About the first thing was a log distillery to supply
the whiskey. Every man is supposed to keep a jug in his house,
to have his tansy fitters, and treat his neighbors when they dropped
in to see him. But seldom see a man drunk. Would get his gallon
jug filled for twenty-five cts. or a bushel of corn or rye, and
that sometimes would last a year. At that time it took three gallons
each for every man, woman and child in the United States, but
now, 1890, it takes fifteen gallons each, according to the statistics,
and that at four to five dollars per gallon. There was no coffee,
in those days except wheat or rye coffee. Tea was red root, sassafras
or some other herb. I never saw a grain of modern coffee until
1827, and that was packed across the Alleghenies from Philadelphia,
and cost one dollar per lb. and a man got thirty one cts. per
day and board for a day's work, or a bushel of wheat. There was
no Cleveland or Chicago then. Salt was packed or hauled from the
Kanawha. And those were the days when people enjoyed themselves.
They were not afraid to go to meeeting on Sunday, fbarefooted.
I have saw good, christian men at church barefooted. In 1839 grandfather
setr him out an orchard, builded himself a good, log house and
double log barn, shingle roof, bored holes in his lap shingles
with his gimlet, to drive the nails in. Some of the neighbors
did not have nails, instead made wooden pins, bored holes with
the gimlet and fastened on the shimgles by that means. In 1831
grandfather went to a house raising, when he came home in the
evening he felt his whiskey so much that he stumbled when he undertook
to make a fire. His youngest son, Joshua, took hold of him and
said "what is the matter, father?" He says "guess
I took to much whiskey today. He studied over it all night. The
next morn he sent Joshua over to father's to tell him to come
over "I wish to see him". So when father dot there,
he says "I was a little boozy last night and I think it is
time this was played out, and if you all say so, we will get into
the wagon and go to Milbrook and sign the temperance pledge".
This was the time when moral sentiment began to revolt against
the use of whiskey. So they went and signed. Said the Whjiskeyites,
"we will not help you harvest, or raise a house". But
the temperance cause progreessed and they waded through whithout
whiskey. After grandmother's death, Elizabeth took charge of the
house affairs at the age of fourteen, for fourteen years, until
she married Wm. Kean in 1831. Then Onesimus married Sarah Williams
and took charge of everything, which relieved grandfather much
toil. But would do the chores, feed the pigs, ect. But when he
was 80 years olf would take his grub hoe and go quarter of a mile
and grub a few rods of ground of large saplings. So he enjoyed
life until he died in 1852, three years after Onesimus died. Onesimus
had nine children when he died. They and their mother took care
of grandfather until he died. On his funeral day, one hundred
and fifty people ate dinner at the old home. They laid him away
in the graveyard at the old Case Meeting House on father's place,
where the most of the old ones lie. There are but two Cases left
in the old neighborhood, where there was thirty or forty. It was
never said that Augustus Case used profane language> In politics,
he was a Whig. A millwright and carpenter by trade.
M.B. Case
Samuel Youngs Case , son of Augustus Case was born and brought
up in Washington Co., Penn born Sept 22 1796. Was frought up on
a farm. In 1816 came to Wayne Co., Ohio with his parents. In1817,
Aug 20, married Jane Akrignt, in twenty three days after his mother
died. He fuilt a house on the South end of his father's place,
lived there five and half years, where I and my two oldest brothers
were forn. Then he moved North sixteen miles to a new place en
heavy timber, Oak, Beach, Walnut, Hickory, Sugar maple, ect.,
where he commenced to make a farm, which was a hard task in that
country. Raised a little wheat and corn, etc., took his wheat
and corn to Rover's or Pettenger's mill, hitched his two horses
in the whimwheel and I would drive them around and grind the grain.
If the horses did not get too tired, would bolt the wheat, but
the corn never, we shifted it through a hand sifter made of raw
hide deer skin with holes punched through it. It was seldom they
called a doctor in those days. He raised nine children, and when
I left home at 23 he had never paid ten cents for medicine for
a doctor for one of them. Wh lived on this place fiyr years, When
I was 7,8,and 9, in the spring I would gather the sugar water
from the troughs and carry it to camp to make the sugar and molasses,
of which they always had plenty. I have went to the barrels oft
took out a lump or handful. In the spring of 1828, he went back
adjoining his father GFot eighty acres of land with a cabin and
four acres cleared and fenced where now lives my brother Reason,
a well nine feet deep, which is there yet, 1895. The land was
covered with brush, such as white oak, red oak, jack oak, hickory,
sassafras, hazed, etc., which all had to be grubbed out ready
for the plow. I have grubbed many a day and only got over 8 or
10 rods, where it was the thickest. In those days every family
made their own clothing and bedding, raised their own sheep and
flax, spun and wove it themselves, and made it up into clothes.
Those that were able would get a talor or tailoress to make up
the coats, vests and such. In those days, money was scarce in
Ohio, and commerce was scarce. Cleveland had started, which was
when the N.Y. and Erie Canal was finished. And then a man's wages
came up to fifty cents per day and wheat to fifty cents per bushel,
before that it was 31 1/4 cents per day, or bushel. I recollect
once, father went to his Uncle John Lorance, 26 miles and worked
for 37 1/2 cents per day to get money to pay his tsx, which was
two dollars and sixty cents. He had his place, two horses, ten
head of cattle, twelve sheep, hogs, ect., that was his tax. In
1834 the Methodists undertook to build a church, or meeting house
as it was called then, father gave them an acre of ground for
it and a graveyard afterward was added to for school house and
more graveyard. Here Biship Harris done his first preaching, and
near, at Sammy Clark's Bishop Tompson preached his first sermon.
Here father lived until he died in 1870 April 7. Jane Akright,
wife of Samuel Y. Case, was forn and brought up in Beaver Co.,
Penn. Came to Ohio in 1816. Was of rather small stature, dark
red hair. Was a rustler, worked day and night to see her children
provided for, with clothes, ect., spun the wool and flax, wove
the cloth, spun the yarn, knit the socks, and made butter, raised
the chickens, ect. Father was a man that never got excited at
anything, even steady temperament. Always looked out for the year's
provisions for the family. Kill his beef in the fall take the
hide to the tanner, so as to get his leather for the next year.
Made his own and family's shoes, until the older children were
grown.
M.B. Case
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