TEACHER'S GUIDE TO

History and Folklife of the Kentucky Frontier

Lesson 7: Work and Play

 Father & Mother were early risers, and I was drilled into the same habit before I was 10 years old. In winter 
we were generally up before the dawn of day. After making a fire, the first thing was feeding and foddering 
the horses, hogs, sheep & cattle. Corn husks, blades & tops had to be distributed, & times without number, 
I have done this by the light of the moon reflected on the snow. This done at an earlier hour than common, 
old Lion and I sometimes took a little hunt in the woods; but were never very successful. I had a taste for 
hunting, but neither the time nor genius for any great achievement in that way. Among the pleasant recollections 
of those mornings are the red birds, robins and snow birds, which made their appearance to pick up the 
scattering grains of corn where the cattle had been fed. I well remember my anxiety to get some fresh salt to 
throw on their tails. Ioften made conical lattice traps, and set them; but not, I believe, with any great tact, for my 
captures were not numerous.

Our stock required attention in other seasons of the year than the winter. For several years our fences were low
& open, and the corn field was a place of irresistible attractions. The horses & sheep would jump the fence, the 
cows would throw it down with their horns, and the hogs would creep between the rails--when the cry would be, 
"Run, Dannel! Run!" and away went Daniel with his fellow labourer, old Lion......

It was a custom with father and some of his neighbors in those days, to take their mares and colts & the horses 
which were not yet broke into what they called the range. Within 3 miles of where we lived, on Johnson's fork of 
Licking, there were no settlements, and consequently, there was a luxuriant herbage consisting largely of what 
was named pea vine, with a full growth of Buffalo grass. The months of May, June & July were selected for this 
resort to the untrodden wilderness. Some salt was tied up in a rag (for paper was scarcer than the raw materials), 
and when we reached a wild and unfrequented spot where there was water, the salt was placed on the ground to 
be licked up.

To prepare the new field for cultivation required only the axe & mattock, but the cultivation itself called for the 
plow & hoe, both of which I recollect were abundantly rude and simple in their construction. Deep plowing was 
not as necessary as in soils long cultivated, and if demanded would have been impracticable, for the ground was 
full of roots. After a first "breaking up"with the coultered plow, the shovel plow was often difficult to hold the 
plow and drive the horse. It was the employment of small boys, therefore, to ride and guide the animal--a function 
which I performed in plowing time for many years; and it was, I can assure you, no sincecure. To sit bare-back on 
a lean & lazy horse for several successive hours, under a broiling sun, and every now and then, when you were              
gazing at a pretty bird, or listening to its notes, or watching the frolic of a couple of squirrels on the neighbouring 
trees, to have the plow suddenly brought to a dead halt by running under a root, and the top of the long hames to 
give you a hard and unlooked for punch in the pit of the stomach, is no laughing matter, try it who may!.........

Friday was mother's wash day, and then, when the duties of the field were not urgent, I left it for the house, A long 
trough dug out of the trunk of a tree stood under the back eaves to catch rain water for washing, and during times 
of drought, when a shower came "up," all the wash tubs & buckets of the house were set out. Still, it often happened, 
that much had to be brought from the spring and "broke" with ashes. Mother's rule was to begin early and finish by 
noon. My additional duties were, to keep up th efire, take care of the children, and assist in hanging out the clothes, 
which, for want of line was often done on the fences. To bring them in at night, when they were generally frozen in 
winter, was still more my business.

Scrubbing & scouring were generally done on Saturday, and to the former I often lent a "helping hand." Till I went 
to Cincinnati to study medicine, I had never seen a scrubbing brush. We always used a "split" broom, in the 
manufacture of which I have worked many a rainy day & winter night. A small hickory sapling was the raw material. 
The "splits" were stripped up with a jack-knife and the right thumb, for 8 or 10 inches, bent back & held down with 
the left hand. When the "heart" was reached and the wood became too brittle to strip, it was cut or sawed off, & the 
"splits" turned forward, and tied with a tow string made for the purpose on the spot. It only remained then to reduce 
the pole above to the size of a handle.

I have already spoken of grating and pounding corn, toting water from a distant spring, holding the calf by the ears 
at milking time, going to the pond on wash days, and divers other labours with which mother was intimately 
connected. But my domestic occupations were far more extensive than these. To chop, split and bring in wood;              
keep up the fire, pick up chips in the corn basket for kindlings in the morning, and for light, through the long winter 
evenings when "taller" was too scarce to afford sufficient candles, and "fat" so necessary for cooking, that the 
boat-lamp, stuck into one of the logs of the cabin over the hearth, could not always be supplied, were regular labours. 
To bring water from the spring, which was but a short distance from the house, was another. To slop the cows, and, 
when wild, drive them into a corner of the fence, and stand over them with a stick while mother milked them, was 
another.  Occasionally I assisted her in milking, but sister Lizy was taught that accomplishment as early as possible, 
seeing that it was held by the whole neighbourhood to be quite too "gaalish" for a boy to milk; and mother, quite as 
much as myself, would have been mortified, if any neighbouring boy or man had caught me at it.

In the shearing I could do something more, for then the animal is thrown upon the ground and tied. At 11 or 12 I 
could handle the shears very well, and felt proud of the accomplishment. The shearing and weighing done, then 
came the very different task of "picking." At that time, our little fields were badly cultivated, and whether the sheep 
were kept up or suffered to run at large in the woods, their wool became matted with cockle & other burs, which 
could only be disentangled with the fingers. In this wearisome labour, I have toiled through many a long rainy day, 
with my sisters and sometimes and sometimes father or mother around the same fleece. There is no labour of 
boyhood that I look back upon with less satisfaction than this.            

from Daniel Drake, Pioneer Life in Kentucky, 1785-1800: A Series of Reminiscential Letters from Daniel Drake, MD of Cincinnat to his Children. (Cincinnati: Clark & Co., 1870).

After reading Daniel Drake's letter

1. Make two lists of Daniel's activities, one for work and one for play. Lead a discussion on the role of children in Daniel's generation and today.

2. What farm and home chores are considered "proper" for boys and for girls today? Discuss the reasons and attitudes behind gender-related duties and why certain skills have traditionally been considered proper for males or females. Are these attitudes necessarily good or bad? Have these attitudes changed since Daniel's day or not?

3. Ask the students to write an essay or short story about their responsibilities and those of their other family members. Ask them to consider how their lives compare to that of Daniel Drake and his family.

4. Lead a discussion on the changes that have taken place in the type of work that people do and the time it takes to do daily chores. Do we really have more time for fun today or do people work just as much?