Early History & Pioneer Life

The Dickenson County area was used by early Indians as a hunting grounds and as a buffer between the northern and southern tribes. The earliest white men also used the area as a hunting grounds and did not begin permanent settlement until the early 1800's. Life in the Cumberland mountains was very primitive. Homes were built of hewn logs with a roof of boards and dirt or puncheon floors (hewn logs) and were chinked with either clay or a mixture of moss and mud. In the earliest construction, wooden pegs were used in place of nails. A large fireplace was built at one end of the cabin and was often used for cooking. Cabins often consisted of a single open room for living, cooking, and sleeping. The older children in the family often used a loft area as sleeping areas. Pine torches were used for light later on candles and lanterns were used.

Early furniture, often made by the men during the winter months, was crude. A typical cabin was furnished with a homemade bed or two, a table, and chairs. Early beds were mattresses on the floor. Later on, poles were attached to the wall to form a bedframe. As skills increased, freestanding bedframes were built and strung with rope or platted hickory withes to support the mattress. The first mattresses were cloth sacks filled with broomsage later when farming became more widespread women plucked chickens, ducks, and geese for feathers to fill mattresses called ticks and pillows. The first chairs were simple stools (blocks of wood with legs pegged into them) later on skill levels increased and more tools were available chairs became more refined and were built with cane bottoms. Spoons and other utensils and bowls were fashioned from wood. Baskets were often woven from native bark. Gourds were dried to use as dippers or storage containers. Walls were often ornamented with red peppers and other dried vegetables and fruits, wild turkey feathers, and newspapers.

The pioneer women made most of the family's clothes by hand. Men's everyday clothes were made from flax due to the strength of the material. Skins of deer and other animals were used to make trousers and moccasins. Yarn was spun for all of the other clothes. Shoes were made from tanned hides. Later on, children looked forward to a new pair of "store bought" shoes each year usually mail ordered around Christmas time. Women made soap and candles from animal fat. Most women were very skilled in quilting which was often a social event where women gathered and helped each other complete quilts. Sometimes these quilting bees were held while the men helped each other clear land or do other chores. These "workings" were often followed by a party where neighbors could continue to socialize.

The early settlers' diet mainly consisted of wild game meat and bread. Corn bread and bacon were also a staple foods along with milk and butter. Beans, molasses, cabbage, turnips, onions, greens, berries and fruits made up the summer diet. Fruits, which grew in the area, included peaches, pears, apples, plums, cherries, grapes, huckleberries, and blackberries. In winter, people ate dried beans (called shucky beans or leatherbritches), molasses, dried pumpkin, turnips, dried fruits and sauerkraut. Cornmeal was often hand ground. After the population increased, enterprising men started water-powered mills. Settlers would carry their corn and wheat to the mill either on foot or by horseback and spend a day getting the meal and flour for the family. Sugar was very scarce and was one of the main items bought by the family along with coffee. Trees were often tapped for their sugar water. Honey was gathered and cane was grown to be made into molasses, which were also used, as sweeteners. In hard times, the settlers used local herbs such as chicory or parched bran as coffee substitutes. Salt was obtained at the forks of the Big Sandy or in Washington County on the Holston River. Early settler's traded dried peaches, snake root and ginseng for necessary goods. John Chase of Clintwood owned the first store in Dickenson County.

The early settlers did not farm much but relied on hunting and fishing to provide most of their food. After land was cleared, corn became the staple crop, however, wheat, oats, flax, irish potatoes, cabbage and parsnips were also grown. Livestock usually consisted of a cow, a horse or work oxen, a few hogs and chickens, and enough sheep to provide wool for the family's clothes. Fish was plentiful in the many rivers and creeks that covered the area. Hogs were usually turned out to eat the mast from the vast forests in the area.

Farm tools were very primitive and usually consisted of whip saws, pole axes, broadaxes, hoes and rakes made of either wood or metal, spades, mattocks, and plows. Oats and wheat were cut with a reaper or scythe. Sometimes there was a crosscut saw in the neighborhood.

Neighbors helped each other out by having community workings to clear land, build houses or barns, prepare meat, hoe and cut corn, and quilt. After a working, the host usually treated the men with whiskey and had dancing. A banjo or a fiddle usually provided music. A crude banjo was often fashioned out of a wooden hoop with a wild cat hide over it with horse hair strings. Fiddles were made of wood and bows were furnished with horse hair to make a sound. Horse races were popular and many local "tracks" sprung up. Men were proud of their marksmanship and often challenged each other to shooting matches.

The people were sociable on the occasions that they had to get together (workings, corn huskings, fencings, log rollings, church, weddings, etc.). Games such as fox and goose, checkers, pitching horseshoes, wrestling Boston, Snap, figure eight, thimble, puss in the corner, pleased or displeased and steal away Liza Jane were played by the adults. Square dances were occasionally held and were called "plays." Young and old loved to hear good stories and good storytellers were highly prized in the community.

Hospitality was readily extended to travelers. Nobody charged for room and board and always made room for a stranger or a friend and shared what food was available. After the meal, stories were often told and news of the outside world was exchanged.

Lack of transportation has long isolated the region, the earliest roads were paths through the woods that usually followed the animal traces. The oldest man-made roads in the county were built around Cranes Nest River and McClure. In order to improve the roads, a road tax whereby all able-bodied men over 16 years old had to work ten days on county roads each year was instituted.

The first recorded murder in the area occurred in 1817 near Abner's Gap. Sylvanus Brewer, Samuel Indicut, and other were hunting and Brewer and Indicut had an argument over Brewer's wife. Brewer shot and killed Indicut in the woods and left his body propped against a tree. When Indicut was missed by the others in the party, Brewer claimed not to know what happened and even accompanied the search party looking for him. Indicut's body was found and Brewer was arrested, tried, and convicted of the killing. Brewer was hung for the crime on May 22, 1818 in Lebanon, Virginia being the first person to be hanged in Russell County, Virginia.

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