Hill Country column from MONROE JOURNAL, March 3, 2010

[Note: Hill Country is a column from the Monroe Journal, Amory, Mississippi. My articles appear there every other week. After the column appears in MOJO it is then published here on the blog. I am happy to be writing in the newspaper of the Hill Country, the Monroe Journal. Below is the column from March 3, 2010.

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AREA ONCE HAD PLENTY OF PIG YOKES

by Terry Thornton

George Spikes, age 25, born in South Carolina, lived in the Richmond area of old Itawamba County in 1860. He was a pig-yoke maker according to the census report of that year.

A pig-yoke is usually defined as three pieces of wood fastened in a triangle round a pig's neck to prevent trespassing through hedges and fences. Cows were also yoked to keep them inside a fence and there are reports of goose-yokes being used to keep geese inside a hedge, fence, or pen.

In the early years of Hill Country before barbed-, hog-, and chicken- wires were available, flocks of cattle, pigs and fowl ran loose. These free-ranging animals were identified by brand or by ear notches or by bells. Foraging on mast in the forest or grazing in open dells and hollows, the animals ran free. When hogs were rounded up and corralled for fattening just before the onset of hog-killing weather, they were often yoked to keep them in their sties

Around most barns were split rail, wattle, or hedge fences (bodock hedges were popular in some locations). Penned animals have a tendency to think the grass is greener on the other side and push through any fence or hedge to start free ranging again.

The loss of animals from fattening pens, sties, or from feed lots around barns was discouraged by using yokes. The Y-shaped yokes of wood about the necks of animals hell-bend on getting out prevented their escape but did not impede their eating or drinking.

Geese and other barnyard fowl wore small, light-weight yokes on their necks to prevent them from pushing through the fence and, of course, clipping their wing-feathers would prevent them flying over it.

In more recent times, I remember cows at Parham wearing yokes to prevent their escape from fenced pastures. Rita Cauthern Thompson of Hatley remembers pig yokes at her grandfather's farm near Pearce Chapel. She says the yokes were "Y" shaped similar to the ones cows wore only smaller. The cow yokes I saw at Parham were fashioned from a sapling which formed a sturdy "Y" shaped growth; the yoke, a single piece of wood, was strapped about the cows head and its shape prevented them from pushing through the fence.

Pig-yokes were not an American invention --- the earlier settlers brought the design to the Colonies. One of the best discussions of the use of pig-yokes is from Manchester, England, circa 1730s as reported at Page 468, The Athenaeum, Number 3024, October 10, 1885:

Pigs must have been a constant source of annoyance, for probably nearly every householder had one or more, and they were frequently not in their sties, but wandering at large in the streets. It was the duty of the swineherd to drive them to feed on the common during the day and bring them home at night. He must have been a man of superhuman patience and tact if he could accomplish his work without impeding the traffic. No pigs were to be driven to Collyhurste --- the common where they grazed --- 'unless they be both yoked and ringed.' We doubt if any of our readers have ever seen a pig wearing a yoke. The practice of using them is fast dying out. The pig yoke was a wooden frame which was fastened around the necks of pigs to hinder them from forcing a way through hedges. They seem to have been object of every-day use. . .

It is not known how many pig-yokes George Spikes made and sold (or bartered) to his neighbors in Itawamba or Monroe County --- but if you have an old animal yoke that is hog-sized, you just might have a Spikes' Pig-Yoke from 1860.

It is believed that Hill Country pig-yoke maker George Spikes, CSA, was killed in 1864 at the battle of Port Hudson, Louisiana.

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Terry Thornton is a retired university professor/administrator living in Fulton. Readers may contact him the blog Hill Country HOGS WebPress or email hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com or at his FaceBook account.

Jobs reported on the 1860 Census

[Note: Below is the Hill Country column from the Monroe Journal, Amory, Mississippi, for January 20, 2010. I am happy to be writing in the newspaper of the Hill Country, the Monroe Journal.

This article was based upon an examination of copies of the 1860 Monroe County Census field reports --- the occupation for each person over age 15 was recorded. Below is an image of the top of one of those pages captured from a screen image at Heritage Quest Online available through the Lee-Itawamba County Public Libraries. Click to enlarge image.

Job Reported on the 1860 Census

by Terry Thornton

The 1860 Census of Monroe County Mississippi provides an analysis of the county and its people just prior to the ravages of the Civil War. For the purposes of the census, the county was divided into two districts, the eastern and the western divisions. The eastern division included the "Hill Country" of Monroe County, that portion east of the Tombigbee River. The western division included the city of Aberdeen and the farming country west of the river.

Further, the 1860 census is interesting because, in addition to the names and ages of individuals, it lists the profession, occupation, or trade for each Hill Country resident over the age of 15 years.

Not surprising, the rural nature of 1860s Hill Country is reflected in the reported occupations of its residents: farmers were identified most frequently (718), laborers (115 --- but remember that slaves were not included on the census), and overseers (40).

The enumerators listed 54 individuals having the profession of "student."

Other major categories of workers included 24 mechanics, 22 physicians, 15 teachers, 11 merchants, 9 blacksmiths, 8 preachers, 5 prostitutes, 5 carpenters, and 5 grocers as residing in Hill Country.

The names of all these individuals are available on the 1860 census. I’ve extracted a few names for this report beginning with the nine blacksmiths. They were J. Ashcraft, W.J. Dugger, Thomas Gilleylen, B.H. McClain, Moses Nix, H.H. Roberts, Hiram Skelton, W. Springfield, and William West.

Helping the blacksmiths to keep things running in the Hill Country of eastern Monroe County were these twenty-four mechanics: William B. Anders, Amos Bridges, James Chism, H. Danner, James Duger, Ed T. Eddy, W.W. Ezel, F.M. Force, H.L. Harnell, William Harnell, J.G. Hendrick, M.P. Lee, D.W. McClinton, John McCoy, Williford McLeroy, Samuel Mitchell, Thomas J. Patterson, Anthony Pearson from France, William A. Pope, Reuben Taylor, Felix Trainhous, J.N. Underwood, Leroy Whitehead, and W.C. Whitehead.

The 1860 census of eastern Monroe County also included an artist (W.H. Ware), a boatsman (John Lowery), a bootmaker from Ireland (J. Ritchie), two brick masons (Joel Butler and Thomas Hunt), a cabinet maker (J. Bush), four clerks, a collector, three ditchers (A.J. Cantrell, Henry Osborne, and Holbert Pearce), a druggist, an exchange dealer, a fisherman (Andy Miller), three hatters, two lawyers, one medical student, an officer, two scholars, a pump maker (A. Stith), a servant, a shingle maker (John Young), a seamstress (Elizabeth McKown), four weavers, (sisters ? Adaline, Eliza, Mary, and Nancy Whitehead), two millers (J.J. Miller and William Sanders), two teamsters (Thomas Cheek and Leek Trapp), four wagon makers (J.G. Barten, W.T. Harris, Jesse McKinney, and Henry Sullivan), a wheelwright (C.C. Messinger), and a gentleman. William Gay was listed as an ostler but it is not known if he was a stableman or a steam-engine tender as the word ostler had different meanings.

The Western Division of the county in 1860, however, had the most interesting occupation listed for one individual --- that of Vantoon Dealer. In an Aberdeen household including four prostitutes and three children was a 63-year-old male designated as a Vantoon dealer. Turns out that vantoon was the 1860s name for a card game much like the one we today call Blackjack or Twenty-one. It is thought that "vantoon" is the Americanized word for the French card game, Vingt-et-une. During the Civil War, Vingt-et-une or Vantoon was one of the most popular game of chance played with cards. So when you play Twenty-one you are playing Vantoon.

There were no Vantoon Dealers listed in the Hill Country on the 1860 census --- one had to go across the river to Aberdeen to find such.

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Terry Thornton is a retired college administrator and former Amory Middle School principal who resides in Fulton. He can be contacted at hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com.

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