Back When Weather Meant Something

AQQ

"Medieval man had to live by daylight. At night he could travel only by the intermittent moon. Few trades could be carried on by artificial light. Winter in the north was the time of repose, of fireside diversions, of song and storytelling. It was also the time of hardship, perpetual chill, scanty, monotonous, vitaminless food, further restricted by Lenten fast. So when spring came, it roused people to a pagan frenzy. After the harshness of winter, the sun shone blessedly down, sap flowed, as did the lusty blood. Most love poems were timed with the spring. Weather really meant something in those days."

Morris Bishop, The Middle Ages (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1968), p. 126-127.

The Destiny of the West: A Prophecy by Owen Barfield

AQQ

"I believe it lies in the destiny of the West, not to abandon but rather to intensify its concern with history; not to abandon its interest in the past of mankind, and of the world, but to deepen its understanding of both."

Owen Barfield, "Dream, Myth, and Philosophical Double Vision," in J. Campbell, Myths, Dreams, and Religion (Dallas: Spring Publications, 1970), p. 217.

The Music of the Present & the Past

AQQ

"The music of the present explains that of the past, and not the other way round."

Alfred Einstein, Geschichte der Musik (1934).

AQQ: On Memory

Beryl Markham writes in her remarkable memoirs, West With the Night (1942):

"How is it possible to bring order out of memory? I should like to begin at the beginning, patiently, like a weaver at his loom. I should like to say, 'This is the place to start; there can be no other.' "

The very process of remembering distorts memory. What ever you focus on, even for a moment, rips the thread, like a fly entangled. To dip into the pool at all is to start an agitation on its surface that alters the vision, but also makes it alive. Memory raised to its highest power, by the assistance of systematic thought and analysis, that is, bringing order out of memory, is the process we call history. We never begin at the beginning. We start with what we have and work back, peeling away the layers, using evidence to reconstruct what happened earlier. There is always something earlier, and for humans the process is never complete.

Statistics of Ye Olden Time

A few days since the County Clerk, in moving old books and papers in his office for the purpose of having some repairing done, brought from their long hiding place a bundle purporting to be the Commissioners' books for Boone County during the early part of its history. These books contain about two quires of heavy paper each, about the size of foolscap. The Binding and all the ruling in them was done by hand, in fact, they are purely homemade, and have somewhat an antediluvian look, having grown yellow with age. The oldest one we could find was for the year 1802. Upon examining this, we found that in those days the property was listed without the valuation being appended. Real estate was given in by classes, there being three classes, first, second and third, and a man living in Boone gave in all the land he owned in other counties, always giving the name of the county in which the land was located, and in whose name it was entered.

In 1802 there was 39,998 acres of land listed. Of this there were 516 acres first class, 17,551 acres second class, and 21,901 acres third class. All the first rate land listed this year was situated in Franklin and Fayette counties. John H. Craig owned 1,650 acres of second-rate land, being the largest amount listed by anyone at the time. James Marshall was the largest owner of third class land his list being 1,462 acres. This year there were 232 whites over twenty-one years of age, 137 blacks and 599 horses and mares. There was no agricultural list given. There was but one carriage in the county at the time, and this belonged to Jeremiah Kirtley.

During the next decade the first class land increased to 2,776 acres. All of this class except 33 acres was in Boone County. Of this amount Cave Johnson, Peter Gregory and William Willis each owned 600 acres; Jeremiah Kirtley, 153 acres; Thomas Noble, 150 acres; and Paddy Wallace, 120 acres. The remainder was owned in lots of 100 acres and less. In this year, 1812, there were 536 whites over the age of 21; 332 blacks over the age of 10, and the whole number of blacks in the county was 755. 1,962 made up the list of horses and mares. In 1802 there was no store in the county, but since that time Zerah Tousey had embarked in the mercantile business at what was then called Touseytown. This is the first store of which the records of our county give any account. Abner Gaines and Joseph Davis each were returned as tavern keepers. It seems that taste for pleasure was being cultivated and rapidly developed in these youthful days of county. The owners of pleasure carriages were becoming more numerous, and during the ten years from 1802 to 1812 the number of these conveyances was increased to three, Peter Gregory, Samuel Hedges and William Willis each owning one.

It was our purpose to enter into a more minute account of these early days, but when we commenced our investigation we found the records upon which we relied were not perfect, there being several links of the chain for a considerable period gone. The gleanings, which we present, are sufficient to give some idea of the wealth and population of our county at the early date. To look upon the wealth, improvement at the present date, and then compare it with the state of affairs those ancient records develop, we are compelled to rejoice that we enjoy the advantage of the improvements upon the foundation laid by the early settlers for our prosperity.

Boone County Recorder 30 Nov 1876

The Historian and the Specialist

Jacob Burckhardt, Force and Freedom: An Interpretation of History said:

The word "amateur" owes its evil reputation to the arts. An artist must be a master or nothing, and must dedicate his life to his art, for the arts, of their very nature, demand perfection.

In learning, on the other hand, a man can only be a master in one particular field, namely as a specialist, and in some field he should be a specialist. But if he is not to forfeit his capacity for taking a general view, or even his respect for general views, he should be an amateur at as many points as possible, privately at any rate, for the increase of his own knowledge and the enrichment of his possible standpoints. Otherwise he will remain ignorant in any field lying outside his own speciality and perhaps, as a man, a barbarian.

But the amateur, because he loves things, may, in the course of his life, find points at which to dig deep.

Jacob Burckhardt, Force and Freedom: An Interpretation of History, was originally delivered as a series of lectures at Basel in 1868-1871. This Archival Quality Quotation appears in the Meridian Books edition, J. H. Nichols, ed., 1955, p. 89.