The fact that the Government did so little for the individual and left so much to be done by him rendered it necessary for the individuals voluntarily to combine.  Huskings and house-raisings were times when all joined freely to work for the man whose corn men was to be shucked or whose log cabin was to be built, and turned their labor into a frolic and merrymaking, where the men drank much whiskey and the young people danced vigorously to the sound of the fiddle.  Such merry-makings were attended from far and near, offering a most welcome break to the dreariness of life on the lonely clearings in the midst of the forest.  Ordinarily the frontiersman at his home only drank milk or water; but at the taverns and social gatherings there was much drunkenness, for the men craved whiskey, drinking the fiery liquor in huge draughts.  Often the orgies ended with brutal brawls.  To outsiders the craving of the backwoodsman for whiskey was one of his least attractive traits. [Footnote:  Perrin Du Lac, p. 131; Michaux, 95, etc.] It must always be remembered, however, that even the most friendly outsider is apt to apply to others his own standards in matters of judgment.  The average traveller overstated the drunkenness of the backwoodsman, exactly as he overstated his misery.

    Roughness and Poverty of the Life. 
    Its Attractiveness.

The frontiersman was very poor.  He worked hard and lived roughly, and he and his family had little beyond coarse food, coarse clothing, and a rude shelter.  In the severe winters they suffered both from cold and hunger.  In the summers there was sickness everywhere, fevers of various kinds scourging all the new settlements.  The difficulty of communication was so great that it took three months for the emigrants to travel from Connecticut to the Western Reserve near Cleveland, and a journey from a clearing, over the forest roads, to a little town not fifty miles off was an affair of moment to be undertaken but once a year. [Footnote:  “Historical Collections of Ohio,” p. 120; Perrin Du Lac, p. 143.] Yet to the frontiersmen themselves the life was far from unattractive.  It gratified their intense love of independence; the lack of refinement did not grate on their rough, bold natures; and they prized the entire equality of a life where there were no social distinctions, and few social restraints.  Game was still a staple, being sought after for the flesh and the hide, and of course all the men and boys were enthralled by the delights of the chase.  The life was as free as it was rude, and it possessed great fascinations, not only for the wilder spirits, but even for many men who, when they had the chance, showed that they possessed ability to acquire cultivation.

One old pioneer has left a pleasant account of the beginning of an ordinary day’s work in a log cabin [Footnote:  Drake’s “Pioneer Life in Kentucky.”  This gives an excellent description of life in a family of pioneers, representing what might be called the average frontiersman of the best type.  Drake’s father and mother were poor and illiterate, but hardworking, honest, God-fearing folk, with an earnest desire to do their duty by their neighbors and to see their children rise in the world.]: