Early settlers in northern Pennsylvania used clumsy axes and hoes to clear land and prepare the soil for farming. Thrashing was done with a flail or trampled by oxen or horses. Men usually worked at lumbering, clearing land, building fences, and raising field crops, while women and children tended livestock, made dairy products, and preserved food.
August 26, 2026
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Terry Diener
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Additional Credits:
A paper presented at the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Historical Association, Reading, October 20-21, 1950 by Stevenson Fletcher History of the Counties of McKean, Elk and Forest, Pennsylvania and Biographical Selections J. H. Beers & Company Publishers, 1890 p. 589 Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission: Agricultural Resources of Pennsylvania, c. 1700-1960 Agriculture in the Settlement Period, c. 1800 - c. 1840 Additional attribution in the PHMC research study: George Dunkelberger, The story of Snyder County from its earliest times to the present day (Snyder County Historical Society, 1948), p. 299. 1939 Picture of Lycoming County. Pa Writers’ Project of the WPA, supervised by Frank H. Painter, 67. “Structures and Occupations in two Central Pennsylvania Townships in 1796,” no author, Material Culture vol 27 (1995), no. 1, pp. 32-42. The anonymous author speculates that “scutched” meant that the bark had been peeled, and that “chipped” meant that the log had been hewn thinner than usual; Image created by ChatGPT AI
