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This wild recreation was a peculiar one and many a sturdy pioneer gloried in excelling in this art. He would carefully watch a bee as it filled itself with the product of some sweet flower or leaf bud or water and notice particularly the direction taken by it as it struck a "bee-line" for its home, which, when found, would generally be high up in the hollow of some tree. The tree would be marked, and in the fall a party would go and cut down the tree and capture the honey as quick as they could before it wasted away through the broken walls in which it had been so carefully stowed by the busy little bee. Several gallons would often be taken from a single tree, and by a very little work, and pleasant at that, the early settlers could keep themselves in honey the year round. By the time the honey was a year old it would turn white and granulate, yet be as good and healthful as when fresh. This was called by some "candied" honey. Another plan of finding the nest was to take a little honey in a box, and burn it a little, so that it would scent the air. This never failed to draw bees if there were aay [any] near. Then the box would be put away and the bee followed. Every now and then the hunter would make some mark with his foot so that if he lost the bee he could "take a sight," and by following exactly the direction of the bee could find the honey, for the bees fly as straight as a bullet.

In pioneer times snakes were numerous, such as the rattlesnake, massasauga, many varieties of large blue snake, garter, water snake and others. A few rattlesnakes were found in this region, and some very large ones, but they were not very numerous. The massasauga, which is often confused with the rattlesnake, were very plenty. They are an ugly looking snake, from eighteen inches to two feet in length, clumsy, and of a dirty brown color. They have three or four rattles, which they use as a warning. They are poisonous, but it was very seldom, if ever, that their bites prove fatal, or even resulted in much inconvenience to the unfortunate. A weed called "Indigo Weed,", which grows in this country, was much used for the bites, the recipe having been learned from an old Indian. Others found it just as effectual a cure to bury the foot--if that was the part bitten--in the cold mud for half an hour, pouring water upon it to keep up the moisture.

The religious element in the life of the pioneer, was such as to attract the attention of those living in more favored places. The pioneer was no hypocrite. If he believed in horse-racing, whisky drinking, card-playing, or anything of like character, he practiced them openly and above board. If he was of a religious turn of mind, he was not ashamed to own it. He could truthfully sing,

"I'm not ashamed to own my Lord,
Or blush to speak His name."

But the pioneer clung to the faith of his fathers, for a time, at least. If he was a Presbyterian he was not ashamed of it, but rather prided himself on being one of the elect. If a Methodist, he was one to the fullest extent. He prayed long and loud, if the spirit moved him, and cared nothing for the empty form of religion.

In the earlier settlement of this section, ponds, marshes and swamps abounded, where to-day are found cultivated and fertile fields, the low and flat places were avoided for the higher grounds, not only on account of the wetness, but for sanitary reasons. Agricultural implements and the mode of tilling the soil were necessarily much more rude than at the present day.

In the cultivation of wheat the land was planted the same as to-day, then it was often harrowed with a wooden-toothed harrow, or smoothed by dragging over the ground a heavy brush, weighed down, with a stick of timber. It was then sown broadcast by hand, at the rate of about a bushel and a quarter to the acre, and harrowed in with the brush. The implement used to cut the wheat was either the sickle or the cradle. The sickle was almost identical with the "grass hook" in use, and the cradle was a scythe fastened to a frame of wood, with long, bending teeth, or strips of wood, for cutting and laying the grain in swaths. There were few farmers who did not know how to swing the scythe or cradle, and there was no more pleasant picture on a farm than a gang of workmen in the harvest field, nor a more hilarious crowd. Three cradles would cut about ten acres a day. One binder was expected to keep up with the cradle. Barns for the storage of the unthreshed grain are comparatively a "modern invention," and as soon as the shock was supposed to be sufficiently cured, it was hauled to some place on the farm convenient for threshing, and there put in stack. The threshing was performed in one of the two ways, by flail or tramping with horses. The flail was used in stormy weather, on the sheltered floor, or when the farm work was not pressing; the threshing by tramping commonly in clear weather, on a level and well tramped clay floor. The bundles were piled in a circle of about fifteen to twenty feet in diameter, and four to six horses driven over the straw. One or two hands turned over and kept the straw in place. When sufficiently tramped the straw was turned into a rick or stack, and the wheat cleared by a "fanning mill," and before fanning mills were introduced, by letting it fall from the height of ten or twelve feet, subjected to the action of the wind, when it was supposed to be ready for the mill or market.

Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, January, 2025 from: "History of Cass County, Together with Sketches of Its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens", published in 1884, Springfield, Ill: Continental Historical Co., pp. 270-272.