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Pioneer Life 2003-1803: A journey back in time celebrates Ohio’s 200 years of statehood Brought to you by Newspapers In Education Dayton Daily News • Springfield News-Sun • The Middletown Journal • JournalNews 2 | NEWSPAPERS IN EDUCATION | PIONEER LIFE | COX OHIO PUBLISHING “We often don’t appreciate how hard- working and devoted these pioneers were,” Ohio Wilderness said John Zimkus, historian for the Warren County Historical Society. “These people were just as important as Daniel Boone. They just Quickly Tamed didn’t have the publicity.” Thriving communities appeared In 1787, the Continental Congress declared the land bounded by the Ohio River, within generation of first settlers Mississippi River, the Great Lakes and Pennsylvania to be the Northwest Territory, By Joanne Huist Smith muskets, broad axes and cook pots. Forests with Gen. Arthur St. Clair as governor. The area Cox Ohio Publishing rich in white oak, wild cherry and black would later be divided into five states: Ohio, They traveled down the banks of the Ohio walnut trees yielded plentiful building Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. River and up the Great Miami in long, narrow materials for homes, furniture, even dishes, It was the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 that boats propelled by muscle and grit and long but created huge obstacles in a seasonal race cleared a path for white settlers in Ohio by wooden poles. Others traversed overland in to plant crops. ending hostilities between the United States creaky-wheeled, springless wagons, on Rivers slithered with leeches. Bobcats and and American Indians who lived in the horseback or on foot. wolves hid in dense undergrowth. Cholera, territory. Development started in Southern Pioneers, just before 1800, made the scarlet fever and diphtheria ravaged small Ohio and in the areas now known as treacherous journey from the Eastern settlements. Winter brought weeks of isolation. Cleveland, Steubenville and Chillicothe, the seaboard to the Miami Valley laden with But Ohio’s heartiest persevered. state’s first capital. The Hipples of Sidney are your normal 21st century family. They use computers, microwaves, watch television and enjoy the creature comforts many of us have at home. But for one week the Hipples were willing to give it all up to experience history.They walked in the shoes of Ohio’s pioneers, experiencing what life was like back when the state was founded in 1803. Members of the For a week, the family of five abandoned Hipple family gather outside their suburban life to live at Caesar’s Creek Pioneer Pioneer Village cabin. From left: Village in Warren County, where they had no Mark (father), electricity, battled frigid temperatures and killed Sarah (front), Carol (mother), Leah their own food. and Aaron. SHILOH CRAWFORD III/COX OHIO PUBLISHING Sidney family experiences life in 1803, gains respect for state’s earliest settlers By Joanne Huist Smith and Amelia Robinson family’s monthly schedule of soccer games, chess club, Girl Scout Cox Ohio Publishing meetings and church activities on a spreadsheet. As dad Mark Hipple descends the basement steps to his wood shop, Gunfire booms from the 23-inch computer monitor in the basement a mechanical voice announces the time on his watch. of the Hipple household, in sync with the beat of Aaron’s index finger But the family’s lifestyle is about to change. on a mouse. A headset connects him to the Internet, where he talks to Really change. friends online. Earlier this year, as part of an Ohio Bicentennial history project, 25 Seated beside the 14-year-old, his sister Sarah, 11, builds an Miami Valley families answered a call from the Dayton Daily News for imaginary amusement park on another computer, playing Roller volunteers willing to shuck fast-paced, fast-food lifestyles to live for a Coaster Tycoon. A third computer monitor sleeps as sister Leah, 13, week at Caesar’s Creek Pioneer Village as people did in 1803. reheats pizza in one of two microwaves upstairs in the kitchen. No cars, grocery stores or power tools — just a rough log cabin and In the family room of their home in Sidney, mom Carol Hipple back-breaking work. watches the evening news on a 27-inch Phillips flat-screen television Carol, 43, a substitute teacher, is an experienced Girl Scout leader set, balancing a laptop computer on her thighs. She’s plotting the COX OHIO PUBLISHING | PIONEER LIFE | NEWSPAPERS IN EDUCATION | 3 “In 1795, if you could see smoke from the cracks between the logs were chinked with were ready to become a state,” said Stewart cabin of your neighbor, for some people that wood and daubed with mud. Paper soaked in Hobbs, a historian with the Ohio Historical was too close,” Zimkus said. “Within 15 years, bear grease allowed light to filter through Society. “He thought that the well-educated we had thriving communities. The frontier in windows until glass was affordable. and the well-born should run things. He Ohio, really, was gone in one generation.” By 1800, about 45,000 white settlers had didn’t think Ohioans were ready for the A census of white males in 1798 showed the made their way to the Ohio territory. African responsibilities that came with becoming a Northwest Territory’s population exceeded Americans also came, but in smaller state, like voting.” the 5,000 required to select its own legislators. numbers, according to Andrew R.L. Clayton in President Thomas Jefferson had signed an The next year, the General Assembly met for Ohio: the History of a People. There were act in April 1802 empowering the Ohio the first time to establish a militia, a tax about 337 blacks living in Ohio at the turn of Territory to form a constitution. The following system and to reaffirm a Northwest Territory the 19th century; that number reached 1,890 November, 35 delegates traveled to Chillicothe ordinance that banned slavery. by 1810. The American Indian population, to attend the Ohio Constitutional Convention. Early settlers spent much of their time already small by 1800, waned further after the When St. Clair preached anti-statehood “clearing vast stretches of forests and War of 1812. sentiments during the convention, Jefferson attempting to provide the necessities for their By 1803, the population of Ohio had removed him from office. On Feb. 19, 1803, families.” Children toiled beside their parents grown to 60,000, making the territory eligible Ohio became the 17th state. as soon as they were able, according to the to join the Union on an equal basis with Ohio Memory Online Scrapbook. existing states. But political rumblings by This Pioneer Life supplement is a partial reprint of a Cabins were generally built of round logs Gov. St. Clair and the Federalist Party nearly series that ran last April in the Dayton Daily News.The series was developed as part of a bicentennial project with the frames of windows and doors delayed statehood. to celebrate Ohio’s 200 years of statehood. The series fastened to the house by wooden pins. The “St. Clair didn’t think the people of Ohio can be found online at DaytonDailyNews.com. seasoned in camping and Dutch-oven cooking. Before they trek from the parking lot to the nearby Bullskin Inn, their Mark agreed to participate in the pioneer project, with reservations. socks and shoes are soaked. They’re greeted by village volunteers, who “I have a family to watch out for, and it’s a whole week,” he said. will become their guides to 19th century life. Theresa Muterspaw will “The cold is my biggest fear.” coordinate the women’s work — cooking, sewing and education. Aaron The Hipples’ sojourn to Caesar Creek falls in the last week of will be apprenticed to Mike Thompson, a Pioneer Village resident and February, during one of the coldest Ohio woodwright. Keith Hankey, a member of winters in two decades. Temperatures Capt. Logan’s Kentucky County Militia, hover between lows of 8 degrees at night will teach the men survival skills. to highs of 30 during daylight hours. The family dresses in layers of Mark, 46, an engineer, has the added petticoats, shifts and bed jackets or hindrance of poor eyesight. Since the age britches, waistcoats and shirts. of 17, he’s endured more than a dozen eye The Hipples are transformed into a surgeries (he stopped counting after 11), family moving to Ohio from South the result of his family’s car being hit by Carolina in 1801, seeking a new an alleged drunken driver. beginning on the frontier. As Ohioans The basement is Dad’s domain, with celebrate statehood in 1803, the family three networked computers Mark faces a harsh winter. customized for the family. His woodshop, When the Hipples get the first view of filled with presses, punches and saws of their cabin home, the temperature is all sorts, is his pride and a refuge. around 10 degrees. Aaron isn’t as gung-ho about the project A fire blazes inside the Mills-Taylor as his mom. He’s not happy about giving TY GREENLEES/COX OHIO PUBLISHING saddlebag cabin, built between up time with friends and video games. Sarah and Aaron enjoy one more computer game before abandoning the 21st century. 1795-1800. Even though logs crackle in But he’s not totally opposed. After the fireplace and the door is firmly learning to hunt and shoot in the virtual realm of his favorite closed, the Hipples can see their breath in the air. computer game, Counter-Strike, Aaron is looking forward to testing his The log cabin, built in two sections with a common chimney and a skills in real life. fireplace in each part, worries the parents from the start.