e rude and simple people in the back country
of the Old Southwest--the deliberate and self-controlled English,
the aggressive, landmongering Scotch-Irish, the buoyant Welsh,
the thrifty Germans, the debonair French, the impetuous Irish,
and the calculating Scotch. The lives they led were marked by
independence of spirit, democratic instincts, and a forthright
simplicity. In describing the condition of the English settlers
in the backwoods of Virginia, one of their number, Doddridge,
says: "Most of the articles were of domestic manufacture. There
might have been incidentally a few things brought to the country
for sale in a primitive way, but there was no store for general
supply. The table furniture usually consisted of wooden vessels,
either turned or coopered. Iron forks, tin cups, etc., were
articles of rare and delicate luxury. The food was of the most
wholesome and primitive kind. The richest meat, the finest
butter, and best meal that ever delighted man's palate were here
eaten with a relish which health and labor only know. The
hospitality of the people was profuse and proverbial."

The circumstances of their lives compelled the pioneers to become
self-sustaining. Every immigrant was an adept at many trades. He
built his own house, forged his own tools, and made his own
clothes. At a very early date rifles were manufactured at the
High Shoals of the Yadkin; Squire Boone, Daniel's brother, was an
expert gunsmith. The difficulty of securing food for the
settlements forced every man to become a hunter and to scour the
forest for wild game. Thus the pioneer, through force of sheer
necessity, became a dead shot--which stood him in good stead in
the days of Indian incursions and bloody retaliatory raids.
Primitive in their games, recreations, and amusements, which not
infrequently degenerated into contests of savage brutality, the
pioneers always set the highest premium upon personal bravery,
physical prowess, and skill in manly sports. At all public
gatherings, general musters, "vendues" or auctions, and even
funerals, whisky flowed with extraordinary freedom. It is worthy
of record that among the effects of the Rev. Alexander Craighead,
the famous teacher and organizer of Presbyterianism in
Mecklenburg and the adjoining region prior to the Revolution,
were found a punch bowl and glasses.

The frontier life, with its purifying and hardening influence,
bred in these pioneers intellectual traits which constitute the