11/25/07 VERSION: BEDSOLE HISTORY FROM 1673 ... - NCGenWeb

of the inability of their owners to control and recover them. Sometimes they broke
out of their pens during the night, causing a major uproar when they were found to
be missing. If they wandered off and were captured by someone else, the rightful
owner had the problem of proving ownership and resulting arguments over this,
frequently erupted into fights, killings and feuds between, by, and among, the parties
involved, because the livelihood and very survival of the owner and his family
depended to a very great extent, if not totally, on these animals.
I remember one case in my own life, back in the 1930’s, when a fifteen year old
neighbor of our’s was riding their mule from the field to the barn one late afternoon,
when the mule suddenly went into a fit of rage, bucking and kicking and threw the
boy head over heels up in the air. He landed on his back on top of a stump about
thirty inches high. It broke his back in several places and there was nothing at all the
doctors could do for that kind of injury in the 1930's. He was bedridden and his
parents had the difficult job of turning him every few hours, all day and all night, until
he finaly died, almost two weeks later. I can still hear him screaming every time they
tried to move him. I cannot imagine the suffering and torture he and his parents had
to live through, during that time.
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Planting Time
In early spring, the cleared land had to be plowed under with a plow pulled by two
mules, or oxen which were more plentiful than mules. These plows had a kind of
steel “wing” on them, which turned a strip of dirt about 6 inches wide, upside down
and when a field was finished, it was ready for planting. Imagine plowing a field of
200 acres, 6 inches at a time, taking about 20 minutes for one pass, or from one end
of the field to the other. The amount of time and the walking and handling of the plow
and team was very demanding, difficult and time-consuming.
Once the field was prepared for planting, if not already on hand, the corn, cotton or
other seeds had to be somehow acquired, either through purchase or some kind of
trade. Corn was planted with two kernels every 30 inches. An extra kernel, in case
the first didn’t sprout. We now know that corn planters in modern day Nebraska and
Kansas, successfully plant 90 or more seeds in the same 30 inch strip, producing 30
to 50 times as much corn on the same piece of land. Nevertheless, the old way of
planting persisted until about 1950.
So the harvest back then was pitifully small for all crops, due to the ignorance of the
settlers, further worsening their already pathetically deprived lives, due to small crop
yields. Low production also meant they had less to eat and to trade, for things they
desperately needed all year long. The reason they planted so few seeds was the
belief that they would “overplant” and “Burn out” the land. At a time when their very
survival depended upon their ability to produce, their actual knowledge, beliefs and