Wildermuth Family - Tradition and Family History - David Clinton Wildermuth - page 4

 -4-

Father jumped out of the wagon saying, "This is a good place to camp and there will be a city here. I am going to be the first to commence to clear the ground." Then he took his tomahawk and cut out a small tree. This was the first tree cut by a white man where now stands the capital city of Springsfield Illinois.
   I do not wish to pass over my grandfather's history without relating one incident and perhaps this will be as good a place as any to put it in: Away back in Pennsylvania when grandfather and grandmother were first married, they lived in a little log shanty in the wilderness, their only possession being a pig which was kept in a stound log pen close to the house.
   The only arms the old settler in those days had was a flintlock rifle and an ax. The rifle was always carried by the man where ever he went to protect himself against wild animals. The ax was kept close to the door and at night the latch string was pulled inside.
   One day grandfather had to go to the settlement for supplies and being a long way off necessitated him being gone over-night. The rifle went with him. When night came grandmother set the ax inside the door and carefully pulled the latch string inside and went to bed without fear. Sometime during the night she heard the pig squeal and seizing the ax she rushed to the pen where she found a big black bear with the pig in his arms trying to scramble out of the pen. With one blow of the ax she split the bear's head and when grandfather returned next day he found a find bear skin, the larder well 
[continued on page 5]

©All rights reserved by Pathways in Genealogy. 2018 - 2021. No part of this website/blog may be reproduced without the express written permission from the owner.