The name of Abraham Thomas has appeared here in several recent notes. He was a son of Michael Thomas and he helped drive the family's sheep from Culpeper Co., Virginia, to the farm Michael had brought near Fort Redstone on the Monongehela River, in present day Pennsylvania. The certificate for the land of Michael was issued by Virginia, which thought that its jurisdiction extended this far. Abraham lived here for about thirteen years. When he arrived, it was very much the frontier. In 1780 he moved to Kentucky where he had relatives. Some of the stories which he told were written down by others. (It is to be doubted whether Abraham was ever inside a classroom.) A paragraph from him tells a bit about what a "station" was like. These stations were a way of life in Kentucky:
"A station was an area inclosing from a half to an acre of ground built around on the four sides with cabins of logs fronting the center. [T]here was no floor or window on the outer or back wall. These cabins were connected together on their outer side by pickets or stockades of split timber, set firmly in the earth and rising from ten to twelve feet above it. There was usually one large gate, sometimes two, occasionally small sally gates for the passage of a single man. All the inhabitants lived within this enclosure or retreated to it on the approach of danger and sometimes cattle were driven into it. Our household establishments were on the most simple footage, all had good beds but puncheons and benches served us for chairs. [We used] trenches or plates, wooden noggins or gourd shells for drinking and milk vessels and cane fashioned to a point for forks. Usually these were of each man's manufacturer or fabricated by some genius within the station. Our diet was parched or bruised corn, fashioned into the shape of a hoe cake, dodge or ash bread, or sometimes the more luxurious hominy. This with milk and forest game, garnished at the proper season with a dish of nettles or other salads, furnished our repasts. There were eaten without the ordinary condiments of the kitchen and sometimes without salt but our supply of the latter article was tolerably well furnished from the natural salt licks in the country. Our sugar was from the forest. Coffee, tea and chocolate and the spices of India were never thought of or scarcely known. Yet, we were healthy and contented."
For twenty-six years, Abraham lived in Kentucky and then, as he relates:
"In 1806, a small party of my neighbors removed to Ohio and we were again in the midst of Indians, who daily visited our cabins, but I felt no other sentiment toward them than pity for subdued and dejected foes. We lived harmoniously together until they followed the game to more remote forests. In our new residence, fat turkeys every where abounded, and at all seasons of the year, venison and bear meat were for a long time our common fare. We raised houses full of healthy children, our stock gave us no trouble. We enjoyed the best state of social intercourse with our neighbors and newcomers. We knew none happier than ourselves; and I have yet to learn if any enjoy a higher state of substantial comfort, then the frontier back woods men."
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.