Did you know that the Earnest Fort house is one of the oldest houses in Tennessee?
The Earnest Fort house, located on the banks of the Nolichucky River in Greene County, Tennessee, was built in about 1782.
The house was built to be used as a fort since, during that time, Native American attacks were a harsh reality of everyday life here. The presence of so many white females on the Appalachian frontiers is probably the best evidence of how Native American violence was exaggerated.
From 1780 to 1800, white women were no less represented in the population in Cherokee frontiers than they were in the rest of the country. The women were usually home alone, tending to their children, garden, and livestock, as their husbands were hunting Game, Trapping, etc.
What work, then, did white settler women do on farms? The frequent biased comments of visitors and travelers provide powerful clues that white Appalachian women worked in the fields and at various outdoor tasks. Consider these early commentaries about women’s farm work in western North Carolina.
One European visitor observed that “the ordinary women take care of cows, hogs, and other small cattle, make butter and cheese, spin cotton and flax, help to sow and reap corn. . . gather fruit, and look after the house.”
A second European was shocked that the wives of poor and middling farmers were “ready to assist their husbands in any servile work, such as planting when the season of the year requires expedition.”
When he saw so many white women and their children working in the fields in upper east Tennessee and in western North Carolina, another traveling elite commented that these settler females had “become schquaws, very pretty ones, but schquaws notwithstanding.” In other words, they were taking responsibility for what he considered to be men’s agricultural tasks, just as Cherokee women did.
Moreover, many of these settler females lived “uncomen poor” in small log huts similar to the dwellings of indigenous Appalachians. In most frontier Appalachian households, “the women hoed the corn, cooked the dinner, or plied the loom, or even. . . took up the ax and cut wood with which to cook the dinner.” Even in some middling, non-slaveholding households, women and girls assisted in the fields.
The log fort had to offer a deep sense of security.
If only walls could talk…
MENU OF AN 1800’s APPALACHIAN THANKSGIVING
Appalachian women worked like a man most days. They were the center of the family and of their homes. They tended to many chores, including chopping wood, cooking, spinning wool, and making all the family’s clothes. In addition, they managed the gardens and livestock, and they raised their children.
In other words, the first Appalachian women were a strong, hearty, and joyful bunch of women. They took no time for themselves. They endured many hardships and adversity, but somehow, they succeeded in carving out a life in the wilderness of the beautiful but harsh Appalachian Mountains.
I think that all Spring and Summer, an early Appalachian woman might have thought– as she tended to her chores and harvested her crops– to pick and choose what to save for her special Thanksgiving feast.
People had seasonal diets during these times. They ate many more fruits and vegetables in the spring and summer months than they did in the fall and winter. In the fall, a popular dish was squirrel & gravy.
The squirrel heads with brains intact were also eaten. They would cook them with the eyes, ears, and nose tip removed. In eating squirrel heads, you take the head in your fingers and hold it on the plate while you eat the facial muscles. Then, you remove the lower jaw and eat the tongue.
But the piece of resistance is the brain, which is removed by cracking the top of the skull with the handle of a butter knife. Then, you pick the bone fragments off and suck the brain out. It is rich, sweet, buttery-tasting, and cannot be equaled by most other foods.
Squirrel brain has only one drawback. It is too small. Brains from nearly any edible animal are wonderfully tasty food. Whether it is squirrel, cow, or hog, the brain is one of the best-tasting portions. I can remember my Papaw Gass eating Scrambled Brains.
If the weather was cold enough, it was also common to kill a hog during Thanksgiving week. Fresh pork, especially organ meats, are good, especially at a holiday dinner. They often sent the heart, lungs or “lights,” liver, kidneys, spleen or “melt” to the house as soon as the hog was gutted, and that would be their supper.
There might be a large pot of fresh pork and potatoes at Thanksgiving dinner. They also flavored vegetables with small amounts of pork. The favorite for this use was smoked jowl, but salt pork was also often used.
In the days when refrigeration was not always available or electricity was unpredictable, salting was often the most effective way to preserve home-killed meats. Many households had what were called “smokehouses,” where they smoked and stored their meat for preservation.
They had their leatherbritches too, or big pots of shucked beans. Other vegetables might include sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes, squash, beets, turnips, carrots, and various greens such as kale, collards, mustard, and turnip greens.
They might have also laid out fresh whole milk and home churned butter. After the butter was removed from the churn, warm fresh buttermilk had to be a treat!
Desserts were jams, jellies, and Pies.
You know, I find it funny that in all this writing, I have not mentioned Turkey. Yes, they did have wild turkey at their feasts, but more likely, they enjoyed Venison stews, steaks and roasts, chicken (with maybe some dumplings), fish, beef, and– more than likely– Pork.
And to end the celebration, they might have pulled out Pa’s personal crock of corn likker and spread the spirit in giving thanks to all, including the children.
I can almost feel the love and warmth the families shared during their time of giving thanks. I can’t say that I smell the aroma from the food, though. And guess what, the women were still working and smiling and having a joyful time. You know what they say– “a woman’s work is never done.”
I hope you enjoy reading, and as always, drop a comment or two!
I hope your Thanksgiving table is full of your favorite food and surrounded by your favorite people. Happy Thanksgiving!
