Licking County, Ohio Pioneers

From The History of Licking County:

The pioneers of Licking were largely from New England, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, who sought to better their condition by making permanent homes in the wilderness west of the Ohio river. They came largely on foot over the Alleghany mountains, many of them having a single horse and wagon; or a two-horse wagon, in which their worldly possessions were carried, and in which the very old or very young, only, were allowed to ride.
When once settled and his cabin erected, it was not only a home and shelter for himself and family, but for every stranger who passed that way, "without money and without price." The latch string was always out, for these pioneers were great hearted people, and no man, be he white, black or red, was turned away empty.
Their cabins, often not more than fifteen or twenty feet square, made of rough beech logs, with the bark still adhering to them, were frequently occupied by a dozen or even a score of people for a night, and no complaints made for want of room; genuine hospitality always finds room enough and never apologizes for lack of more; and when breakfast time came there was no apology for the scarcity of knives, forks and spoons, for "fingers were made before any of these." The fare was homely, but generally abundant. What to eat drink and wear were questions not, perhaps, difficult of solution in those days.
The first was the easiest to solve. The deer, the bear, the wild turkey, the rabbit, the squirrel, all started up and said, or seemed to say "eat me." These had been prepared for the red men of the forest, and were equally abundant for the pioneer. The forest was full of game, the streams full of fish, and wild fruits were abundant. To get bread required both patience and labor ; the staff of life was one of the articles that must be earned "by the sweat of the brow;" it could not be gathered from the bushes, fished from the streams, or brought down with the rifle. Every backwoodsman once a year added to his clearing, at least, a "truck patch." This was the hope and stay of the family; the receptacle of corn, beans, melons, potatoes, squashes, pumpkins, turnips, etc., each variety more perfectly developed and delicious because it grew in virgin soil. The corn and beans planted in May brought roasting ears and succotash in August. Potatoes came with the corn, and the cellar, built in the side of a convenient cliff or hill, and filled with the contents of the truck patch, secured the family against want. When the corn grew too hard for roasting ears, and was yet too soft to grind in the mill, it was reduced to meal by a grater, and whether stirred into mush or baked into Johnny-cake, it made, for people with keen appetites and good stomachs, excellent food. Place before one of those brawny backwoodsmen a square foot of Johnny-cake and a venison steak broiled on hickory coals, and no art of civilization could produce a more satisfactory meal.