Baden's First 100 YearsPage Fourteen
Among the antiques in the old home, not of course, including myself, which it understood, is an old meal mill-It is fastened to the wall in our kitchen and was used, when I was a boy to grind coffee. That was long before coffee had to get on the radio amateur hour to become famous. This old mill went to California to the gold fields in '49. It was used to grind corn, for meal, by a man by the name of Jonathan Hide, who made his home with my people, and went to California along with others in the gold rush. He went with a caravan, and returned the same way. He did not find gold, but rather was made a deputy sheriff and served in that capacity until his return trip. While a deputy sheriff, he armed himself with two large Colt revolvers, for wchich he paid $25.00 in gold for each. Upon his return the old meal mill was fastened to the kitchen wall where it now resides, and one of the revolvers he gave to my father, of whom he was very fond, and it is now one of my proud possessions. Mr. Hide was an educated man, and a great reader. During the excitement of the Civil War, he sometimes got into arguments with other men. Being unbiased and fair in these discussions, believing the South had grievances as well as the North, he made some enemies, and was branded as a "Copperhead." The single track of the railroad was being built at that time, and a band of the men employed on the railroad decided to tar and feather this so-called "Copperhead." Being a band of very brave men, they selected a night for this frolic, when my grandfather was absent. He had driven to Pittsburgh with produce from the farm, there being no railroads at this time, as that was the only means of transportation. He would drive in one day, sell his products, and return the next night. This evening, grandmother was sitting by the fire spinning yarn and Mr. Hyde, the book-worm, was reading. Old "Shep," the farm do who fairly worshipped my grandmother, was lying back of the stove. A rap came at the door- upon investigation my grandmother discovered some men in the yard with torches and the spokesman for the men informed her they were after this man Hyde, "the Copperhead." She replied, "I will call him." She stepped to the wood box, secured a generous stick of wood, and speaking to the dog, went to the door-the dog at her side, and invited the men to come and get Mr. Hyde. The first move that was made, the dog leaped, an put the whole band at rout. Mr. Hyde was ribbed about hiding behind a woman's skirts, and he in turned praised their bravery in allowing a woman to put them to flight. I never knew my grandmother, but I have been told she was large and raw-boned, about six feet tall, and up until her death was seldom ill. A stron robust frontier woman, as they were in those days. She
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