Excerpt

from

Notes on the Settlement and Indian Wars

Of the Western Parts of Virginia and Pennsylvania from 1763 to 1783, inclusive together with a Review of the State of Society and Manners of the First Settlers of the Western Country.

By Joseph Doddridge

Dress of the Indians and First Settlers

            On the frontiers, and particularly amongst those who were much in the habit of hunting, and going on scouts and campaigns, the dress of the men was partly Indian and partly that of civilized nations.

            The hunting shirt was universally worn.  This was a kind of loose frock, reaching half way down the thighs, with large sleeves, open before, and so wide as to lap over a foot or more when belted.  The cap was large, and sometimes handsomely fringed with a raveled piece of cloth of a different color from that of the hunting shirt itself.  The bosom of this dress served as a wallet to hold a chunk of bread, cakes, jerk, tow for wiping the barrel of the rifle, or any other necessary for the hunter or warrior.  The belt, which was always tied behind, answered several purposes, besides that of holding the dress together.  In cold weather the mittens and sometimes the bullet bag, occupied the front part of it.  To the right side was suspended the tomahawk and to the left the scalping knife in its leathern sheath.  The hunting shirt was generally made of linsey, and sometimes of coarse linen, and a few of dressed deerskins.  These last were very cold and uncomfortable in wet weather.  The shirt and jacket were of the common fashion.  A pair of drawers or breeches and leggings were the dress of the thigh and legs; a pair of moccasins answered for the feet much better than shoes.  These were made of dressed deerskin.  They were mostly made of a single piece with a gathering seam along the top of the foot, and another from the bottom of the heel, without gathers as high as the ankle joint or a little higher.  Flaps were left on each side to reach some distance up the legs.  These were nicely adapted to the ankles and lower part of the leg by thongs of deerskin, so that no dust, gravel or snow could get within the moccasin.

            The moccasins in ordinary use cost but a few hours labor to make them.  This was done by an instrument denominated a moccasin awl, which was made of the backspring of an old clasp knife.  This awl with its buckhorn handle was an appendage of every shot pouch strap, together with a roll of buckskin for mending the moccasins.  This was the labor of almost every evening.  They were sewed together and patched with deerskin thongs, or whangs, as they were commonly called.

            In cold weather the moccasins were well stuffed with deer’s hair, or dry leaves, so as to keep the feet comfortably warm; but in wet weather it was usually said that wearing them was “a decent way of going bare footed;” and such was the fact, owing to the spongy texture of the leather of which they were made.

            Owing to this defective covering of the feet, more than to any other circumstance, the greater number of our hunters and warriors were afflicted with the rheumatism in their limbs.  Of this disease they were all apprehensive in cold or wet weather, and therefore always slept with their feet to the fire to prevent or cure it as well as they could.  This practice unquestionably had a very salutary effect, and prevented many of them from becoming confirmed cripples in early life.

            In the latter years of the Indian war our young men became more enamored of the Indian dress throughout, with the exception of the matchcoat.  The drawers were laid aside and the leggings made longer, so as to reach the upper part of the thigh.  The Indian breech clout was adopted.  This was a piece of linen or cloth nearly a yard long, and eight or nine inches broad.  This passed under the belt before and behind leaving the ends for flaps hanging before and behind over the belt.  These flaps were sometimes ornamented with some coarse kind of embroidery work.  To the same belts which secured the breech clout, strings which supported the long leggings were attached.  When this belt, as was often the case, passed over the hunting shirt the upper part of the thighs and part of the hips were naked.

            The young warrior instead of being abashed by this nudity was proud of his Indian like dress.  In some few instances I have seen them go into places of public worship in this dress.  Their appearance, however, did not add much to the devotion of the young ladies.

            The linsey petticoat and bed gown, which were the universal dress of our women in early times, would make a strange figure in our days.  A small home-made handkerchief, in point of elegance, would illy supply the place of that profusion of ruffles with which the necks of our ladies are now ornamented.

            They went barefooted in warm weather, and in cold their feet were covered with moccasins, coarse shoes, or shoepacks, which would make but a sorry figure beside the elegant morocco slippers often embossed with bullion which at present ornament the feet of their daughters and grand-daughters.

            The coats and bedgowns of the women, as well as the hunting shirts of the men, were hung in full display on wooden pegs round the walls of their cabins, so that while they answered in some degree the place of paper hangings or tapestry they announced to the stranger as well as neighbor the wealth or poverty of the family in the articles of clothing.  This practice has not yet been wholly laid aside amongst the backwoods families.

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