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From: Bill <>
Subject: Little Egypt Heritage, 2 May 2004, Vol 3 #18
Date: Sun, 02 May 2004 18:25:16 -0400


Egypt Heritage Articles
Stories of Southern Illinois
(c) Bill Oliver

2 May 2004
Vol 3 Issue: #18
ISBN: pending

Osiyo, Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt,

In "America" we have grown with the idea that this was the land of
opportunity and that anyone could rise above his birth station in
society. It has to be recognized that there are few social systems that
are so rigid that the possibility of rising to higher classes is
impossible. In the feudal systems of the past, if ambition drove a
youth he might attend a university if he could find the means. Thus, he
could prepare himself for a position in the state or the church. Also,
he could, by moving to "town" earn and save enough money to become a
burgher and thus elevate himself into the gentry class. It is true,
however, that these avenues from one's inherited status or position were
arduous paths and few at that.

I pondered this during the week, in aa effort to discover what country
life was like in the 1600s for my ancestry in the lowlands of Scotland
and what it was like after they arrived in this country during the same
1600s. They both apparently liked rural isolated lifestyles. It is
most difficult to imagine either lifestyle stripped of romanticism, but
not impossible from the facts.

Country life was mean and is difficult to conceive in this twenty-first
century. In our early history pioneers clustered close for mutual
protection. In the lowlands, a cluster of hovels supported the tenants
and their helpers. A home most likely was constructed with field
stones, banked with turf. No mortar was used but straw, heather or moss
was stuffed into the "cracks" to keep out the "blasts" [of wind]. The
roof was thatch or turf and the floor was earth. There was no chimney,
but rather a hole in the peak of the roof to let smoke escape. Because
the roof eventually became smoke clotted the room was often filled with
clouds of smoke.

As in very ancient of days, animals were tethered in one section of the
room at night while the family slept at the other end. Not the most
sanitary of situations. Yet, with the animals and vermin thus occupying
the room, it was "warm" [so to speak].

Disease was propagated since the people had no knowledge of germs or the
spread of disease or sanitary precautions or quarantine. It was a
practice on the Sabbath for neighbors to gather at the hut of the sick
to extend sympathy. The hovels would become stifling with heat and the
visitors would walk away as carriers of disease. Small pox was a
particularly devastating recurrent illness.

Much like our western plains, the Scottish Lowlands were nearly
treeless; unlike our Black Swamp of northwestern Ohio or the swamps of
Southern Illinois. Thus, wood was valuable enough to salvage from one
abode to another. However, like our swamp areas, the Lowland swamps,
bogs and morasses were breeding grounds for mosquitoes and Malaria was
common. Rheumatism was also a constant companion of these folks. The
work had to be done in wet weather as in fair. Clothes were seldom
changed, thus wet clothing was worn indoors and the Rheumatis' a common
complaint.

Houses had little furniture. Beds were bundles of straw and heather
laid out on the floor. Often seats were flat boulders. Although plaid
and bonnet [types of material] were the usual dress, some folk were
forced to wear animal skins for clothing. From what I can discern,
plaid was at first the crisscrossing of the natural white and black
wool yarns to form a pattern. Black being the less available it was
used intermittently. Flax was grown in some places, but the preferred
means for material making was wool made into yarn.

April 26th, 1607 marks the expedition of English colonists coming ashore
at Cape Henry, Va., to establish the first permanent English settlement
in the Western Hemisphere. Also in 1785 naturalist and artist John
James Audubon was born in Haiti. In 1900, Seismologist Charles Richter
was born in Hamilton, Ohio.

On 27 April 1865, the steamer Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River
near Memphis, Tenn., killing more than 1,400 Union prisoners of war and
in 1822, Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of the United States, was
born in Point Pleasant, Ohio.

The only woman that I know that could really sing the National Anthem
was born on the first of May 1907. However, that National Anthem was
not the Star Spangled Banner, it was "God Bless America". When
President Roosevelt introduced her to King George VI of England, he did
so by saying, "Miss Smith is America". Would you believe she lived with
her real name her entire life? She was born Kathryn Elizabeth Smith.
Though she did not talk until she was aged four years, she was singing
in her church at age five. On November 11, 1938, Kate Smith sang the
song written especially for her by Irving Berlin .... "God Bless
America". From that time forward she was associated with patriotism and
patriotic themes. In one 18-hour session or broadcasting marathon, she
inspired Americans to buy $107 million dollars worth of War Bonds for
World War II.

e-la-di-e-das-di ha-wi nv-wa-do-hi-ya nv-wa-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk
in peace and harmony)

Wado,


Bill
-=-

PostScript:

Other sites worth visiting:

http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/SOIL
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ILMASSAC
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ne/state/BillsArticles/LittleEgypt/intro.html


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