Rafting Days in Pennsylvania, written in 1922, contains stories from the men who traveled the Susquehanna River when Pennsylvania’s lumber boom was in its heyday. It was a dangerous job and among those who followed the tales of the raftmen was John H Chatham, described in his 1923 obituary “as a lover of the great outdoors, and few men were more familiar with woodcraft and the habits of birds and animals of which he made a close study during his entire life.” Chatham shares some of the rafting terms used by those who eked out a living in northern Pennsylvania.

Glossary of Rafting Terms, by Former Active Raftmen

By JOHN H. CHATHAM

Raftsmen was not the term used by the men engaged in the business of rafting. We were raftmen, and one of us was a raftman, the same as a boatman was a boatman, not a boatsman. In the earlier days, back from the river, where they traveled on foot to their respective homes, they were called ''watermen. “They were all up-river men above Lock Haven, whether they came off the river at Clearfield or the Sinnemahoning, Moshannon, or any of the creeks that emptied into the river or even its branches.

Lock Haven was the first lumber town on the river as the rafts came down, hence everything in the shape of a raft stopped to sell at that point. Failing to sell their rafts there, they were started again on the run to Marietta. As soon as a raft was sold, it went into the hands of some jobber's pilot, who was following the merchant for whom he "ran" rafts. One hundred, one hundred and ten, one hundred and fifteen, and, in some instances, one hundred and twenty-five dollars, was the jobber's price from Lock Haven to Marietta, so a pair of rafts, or a fleet, as it was called when hauled side by side, gave the jobber anywhere from two hundred and thirty to two hundred and fifty dollars for his trip.

He hired three men for about twenty dollars per trip to Marietta, and if he had moonlight to see out of the ''Branch"—that is, as far as Northumberland, where the North and West Branches meet—he would be in Marietta on the evening of the third day or the morning of the fourth. There was no extra pay for all-night running. It was to the interest of the men who ran the rafts to get their twenty dollars as quickly as possible.

Sometimes two pilots would start for a buyer at the same time, and one crew would be back home before the other got to Marietta. It must be remembered that any and all rafts ran faster than the water. If you throw a chip off a raft thirty or forty feet from it, you will be surprised to see the chip losing ground and finally be far in the rear of the raft. The same condition exists with all rafts. A pine raft having five or six sticks of oak rafted into each platform will be one-half deeper in the water than if it is made entirely of all pine. Hence, a raft of that build will run ten to twenty times faster a day than another one. This would often give the crew a chance to get through the chute in the evening when a slower raft would have to wait until daylight.

There were many peculiar terms in rafting parlance that are not known to the generation of today and nearly forgotten by those of us who followed the river in the heyday of lumbering and rafting. I have tried to give a number of these rafting terms and explain them to the lay (mans) mind.

A small glossary of rafting terms here follows:

Headblock—The headblock consisted of a pine stick of timber hewn on the bottom side and the other two sides, with the top side round. This block was eight or ten feet in length and the top side to the right and left of the oar were chipped down to about the center of the stick, leaving about two feet on each side of the thole pin full height of the stick. This was bored through and down into the timber four or five inches with a two-inch auger bit and the thole-pin usually dressed out of white oak to two inches and inserted into the headblock, driven through it, and down into the hole in the timber stick. The halved part of the headblock to the right and left of the pin were also bored through and down into the timber and securely pinned. The oar stem was bored with a two-inch auger and mortised back from the pin to allow it to be moved upward and downward with ease.

Snubbing Posts—Snubbing posts were of two kinds, those along the landing places, put in by the landlords and anchored with a pin through an auger hole at the bottom to prevent them from being pulled out. They were anchored posts. The other was a post with a square bottom fitted into a mortised timber stick on the raft and were much in use after raftmen began to use two hundred feet of rope or "line." The old ropes were only from seventy-five to eighty feet in length, and could not be used to as great an advantage as the longer ropes.

Grouser Hole—The grouser hole was made by putting in a shorter stick than the others in the platform by dropping the stick that butted against it and leaving it projected at the other end. The hole generally was from eighteen inches to two feet upward. The grouser was a large skid ten or twelve feet in length and all one man could handle alone and placed in the hole and shoved to the bottom, where it bit on the gravelly bottom and helped to retard the progress of the raft.

Hearth—On all rafts that came down the river that did not have shanties built on them and a place for a sheet iron stove—there was no place to cook on unless the raftmen built a hearth. This was used by all jobbers who did not have a sheet iron stove, which was carried back on the train along with extra snubbing rope, which all jobbers of any account owned and used in connection with the one on the raft. Every raft was equipped with a line. The hearth consisted of five or six boards or slabs laid at on the timber on the most level spot and about eight or ten inches of mud and sand was placed over them. When completed the fireplace was about five feet square. On this the fire was built, the tea made, the ham and eggs fried—which usually constituted the menu. Coffee was not used perhaps on account of it not being roasted and ground at the stores, as we find it today. Plenty of sugar was in use for the tea. No spreads or jellies of any kind were used. The "shanty rafts" had a better supply of provisions, and the men lived better.

Top Loading—When a raft was completed, whatever number of sticks were left over were rolled onto the raft or floated alongside of it and a rope tied to the lash pole, the other end slipped under the timber stick and a skid rammed under the stick and the stick held in place by the rope with two or three men holding it. The man with the skid pried it with his "purchase" on the edge of the raft, and lifted it out of the water enough that the man on the rope could roll it in the rope and thus place it on the raft. Skids reaching nearly across the raft were laid and the timber on the skids apportioned, thus making the weight on the raft uniform on the entire platform. If it was a board raft or scantling raft, the lumber was simply piled on top. with skid bottoms sometimes.

Halyards—Halyards were large hickory withes twisted out of poles and were used in stopping rafts which were made smaller than in the days of ropes. They would be thrown out on the shores where the ends were grabbed, stood upon, and dragged along. With the aid of the grouser the rafts were stopped.

Bows—Bows were made out of white oak, split after quartering and splitting the heart out of the blocks. After being hearted, they were split open from the center until the last split could be done with the hands, after starting it at the end with an axe. The last split was manipulated by the hand so that it did not split off at the side, and was done by pressing on the stronger piece in a bowed manner, letting the weaker one run in, and, if too much, then the other side was bent, thus making it come out at the other end of uniform thickness, which was about one-fourth of an inch. Platform—A platform was one length of timber or boards. In timber, it ran from twenty-five feet in length to eighty or ninety, according to the lengths of the trees cut. These lengths were looked after in the woods by the hewer, who saw to it that he did not make more than a platform, or enough for three or four platforms, all of the same length.

Pup—A pup was a creek raft. These rafts were constructed in the creeks where there were too many turns for a large raft, or where the obstructions were too great for large timbers. They were run out to the larger streams, butted together at the end, and lashed, thus making a full-length raft, with two useless oars in the center, hanging over and riding each other's raft. These sometimes were rigged up on the side of the raft and used to pull "headway" in the wind. This was resorted to only on special occasions.

A Pair of Pups—A "pair of pups" made up a full- raft. A raft was one lot of timber put into the usual form of rafting and equipped with oars, fore and aft.

Fleet—A fleet consisted of two rafts lashed side by side and had therefore four oars on the fleet. Rafts were run double after coming through the Lock Haven chute and were not necessarily separated until they got to Shamokin, which was a single chute, the same as at Lock Haven. From there on they were run double to Marietta. From Marietta to Tidewater, they were all run single.

Whiskey Boats—Whiskey boats were simply skiffs used through the entire length of the river by what we might call "whiskey runners." Operatives of these skiffs found a good eddy where they could sit in their boats without mooring them, and each boat was provided with whiskey, bread, pies, cakes, and eggs. If the operative was onto his job, he carried these provisions; if he wasn't, he only carried the whiskey. Sober men would buy a tiny cup of whiskey, place it on the rafts, and drink at leisure; drunks bought their whiskey by the coffee pot full. There was much hilarity at times.