Recollections of A Busy Life

(Transcribed by Peggy Barriskill Perazzo, December 2005)

"Recollections of A Busy Life,"
By Eli Fayette Ruggles

H. L. Ruggles & Co., Publishers, (published circa 1904)

Chapter V.

Part of a New Country Song.

This wilderness was our abode some fifty years ago,
and if good meat we used to eat we caught the buck or doe;
For fish we used the hook and line, we pounded corn to make it fine;
On Johnny cake our ladies dined, in this new country.
The Indians sometimes made us fear that there was danger nigh,
And the shaggy bear was often where the pig was in the sty;
The rattlesnake our children dread, and oft some fearful mother said.
Some beast of prey will take my babe in this new country.

At the time of which I write the Indians were still hunting in these woods
and had settlements in Silver Creek Township, south of us, and in the north
part of Hartford Township, where there is now quite a colony of Indian
farmers. Simon Pokagon was their chief when I moved from there, and it is
that same tribe that yet lay claim to some land on which Chicago is built.

One day four Indians came to our house and made signs that they were
hungry. The pot was soon on the crane and they soon were motioned to our
home-made table, where milk and the steaming mush was ready. Chinese made a
terrible supping noise when eating any liquid. But these Indians made no
noise, and with bows for thanks and in their moccasins they moved away to
the woods as still as though they were but embodied spirits.

Marriage of Fernando.

Fernando had bought the eighty acres joining ours west and Freman the next
west of that. Fernando has cleared some of his and is building a house, and
that looks suspicious, and is the cause of many a joke, for there is yet to
be the first wedding among seven boys. But he took the horse one day and
four days later he drove up to the door with a tall lady that he introduced
as his wife, and showed his certificate, that stated that Fernando Cortez
Ruggles was married to Leonna Ringleton* at Niles, Mich., January 14, 1842.

[Please note: The name she was known by was Leanna not Leonna Also, her
last name is known to be Kinkle rather than Ringleton. Peggy B. Perazzo.]

Conscience Not Always Obeyed.

You have heard the story how the enraged Quaker took off his coat and laid
it on the ground, saying, "Lay there, Quaker, while I lick this man." 'Twas
Sunday morning, but the sound of the church-going bell these natives and
woods never heard; but Lewis heard the quack of turkeys near the field that
Freman had cleared. Lewis hesitated a moment. Father can't see much, and
mother is upstairs making beds, and somehow the gun got into his hands and
we shied around the house till on the west side, where the stick chimney is
built outside; there is no window. Now we are safe, and away we run. We
near the lot and can hear the turkeys call; that is well. Lewis creeps low
and as still as possible comes up behind a window and I keep back a little.
Lewis raises slowly and brings the gun to his face. Bang goes the gun, and
away fly turkeys.

Lewis is all excitement, and said, "I just believe I killed three turkeys
that shot, for they were sitting on the fence and one rail was just in line
with me, and a lot of turkeys on it." Here is one, anyway, and a minute
later here is another, and I believe there is another somewhere, and we
kept hunting. I heard a little stir in the leaves under a bush and there
was the third turkey, not yet dead. "Ain't those nice fellows, though, and
won't we have a big feast?"

"Here, Eli, you carry the smallest and the gun and I'll carry the two.
Jolly, but ain't they heavy, though? But what will pa and ma say? I don't
know, we'll have to run the risk. I don't think it's awful bad; we didn't
disturb anybody, and I guess nobody heard the gun." The gun was stood near
the chimney outside and we laid the turkeys near the door and mother saw
us. "Why, why my boys, what have you done, this is Sunday?" Lewis eagerly
presents his arguments - that he heard the turkeys call and thought we
might better have one to eat than have them scratch up the wheat that had
just been sown.

Well, lucky for our hides we didn't get tanned that time.

Sister Melvina.

I have mentioned the little sister that came to our house. She was named
Sylvia Mariah; the second, Alvira Melvina; the third, Lucretia Ardilla.

Mrs. Williamson, living some five miles east of us, often came to our house
to visit, and had a great liking for Melvina, and often took her home with
her, but said Melvina will not live to womanhood; she is too mature for her
years, or, in other words, too good for this world. She was the red-head of
the family, though all except Fernando and Lyman had more or less the red
shade. But it was nearer right than to call it auburn. Red hair is now the
desideratum; then it was brown of black.

Melvina was near seven years old when taken sick. Doctor Sikes came from
four miles south with his pills and herb medicine bag strapped to the back
of his saddle. Took a bowl of blood from her arm and poured out on half a
dozen papers a pile of medicine and another pile of pills, telling mother,
one side, that she might have to hold her nose to compel her to take the
medicine, and he would come in two days, and continued to come for a week.
Mother had watched with a mother's care as she saw her darling growing
worse and weaker every day. She said, "Doctor, I fear you have made a
mistake in diagnosing her case," and explained wherein. The next day the
doctor came and after watching the little on in her fever and delirium
said, "I guess you are right about her case."

It was a sad home then as we saw life ebbing away, and knew that those
beautiful eyes would soon be closed to this world and to us forever, the
gentle sister that captured all our hearts would soon be gone. Her eyes
were fixed and the expression that speaks when the voice cannot tell us
that she saw something, a somebody just out of her reach, and all were
sobbing as though hearts would break, and I took a pail and went to the
spring for water, for I didn't want to see sister die. As I started back I
thought of what I had read and heard, that spirits left the body and went
up to heaven and I kept my eyes on the housetop, hoping that I might get a
glimpse of Melvina as she took her upward flight. On entering the house I
found that the spirit had flown, and I had not seen it.

The New House.

About the time of which I now write father and Freman had built a new frame
house near the center of the farm, and a little later, after Melvina's
death, they had a well dug twenty-two feet deep and stoned with a thick
stone wall from bottom to top. Father could do but little now, for he was
getting quite blind.

One thing connected with living in the log house you may think a little chilly.

A shake roof may be water-proof, but not snow-proof at all. The wind will
drive the snow up under the shakes, and we boys got accustomed to sleeping
with the bed quilt over the head, except the nose and mouth, and in the
morning be careful to roll the quilt back so the snow would not get into
the bed. Then the floor was all very white and nice, with snow to stand in
while we put on our pants.

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