Frontier – The Orendorffs

For Mary Walker Orendorff, life on the frontier included few refinements or comforts.

With limited resources, setting up and maintaining a home, and raising children were her biggest challenges.

Mary arrived in Blooming Grove with her family in 1824. That fall she married Thomas Orendorff and moved into his crude log cabin. 

See a vignette portraying their home life in our exhibit here!

Frontier settlers like the Orendorffs relied on hunting and gathering to feed themselves.

Furs were tanned and used for clothing, hats, and gloves, or traded for needed supplies.

Frontiersmen like brothers Thomas and John Orendorff would have worn buckskin clothing for hunting. The leather was waterproof and protected the hunter’s arms and legs from thorns and brambles.

Facing the difficulties of basic survival was the Orendorffs' first course of action.

The brothers relied on hunting and trapping of deer, turkey, and smaller birds and animals to feed themselves.

Good hunters had all the necessary equipment. This included a bullet mold for making rifle balls (bullets); a powder horn; a skinning knife for removing the hide of the game; and a hide scraper for scraping the hide. This equipment was stowed in their saddle bags.