USA > Iowa > Monroe County > An illustrated history of Monroe County, Iowa > Part 17
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Methods of Farming.
When the early settlers began to till the virgin soil of Monroe County, each farmer adopted the methods of his own particular State. The "Pennsylvania Dutchman," accus- tomed to the rocky, loose soil of Pennsylvania, brought with him his monster cast-iron plow. It would not "scour" in our Western soil, so he discarded it with many a sigh.
The New England Yankee's methods were quite unique, and greatly amused the "Hoosier," the "Sucker," and the Kentuckian. The prairie soil was decidedly different from that of the Eastern States, and it required several years' ex- perience for the husbandman to get started on the right track.
In the earlier period flax was a staple crop. It was
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cultivated exclusively for the fiber. About the time the plant was in bloom, the farmer's wives and daughters would go into the fields and pull up the flax by the roots. It was then soaked in water for awhile, to bleach. Then it was hauled in and placed in larger bunches, where it was allowed to "rot"-i. e., the woody part beneath the bark or fiber was allowed to decay. Then the farmer would "break" it. A "flax-break" was a rudely constructed appliance for breaking the woody portion of the flax. It consisted of an oak frame five or six feet in length and about two feet wide, and supported on four legs. Within this frame, and placed parallel and extending the long way of the frame, were a series of wooden bars, an inch or two apart, with sharpened edges. Then upon the upper side of this frame, and hinged to it, was another frame constructed the same as the lower one, the edges of its bars mashing into the space between the lower bars when the upper frame was shut down against the latter. The farmer would then raise the upper frame with one hand, place a bunch of flax crosswise on the lower frame of the "break," and then thrust the upper frame or hinged lid down upon the flax. This movement was re- peated until the stalk of the flax was crushed and broken in small particles, the fiber or bark remaining uninjured by the operation.
In this state it was passed to the housewife, who ran it through the "hackle" to remove the bits of woody material. The "hackle" was a board about ten inches wide and about fifteen inches long. Sharp-pointed nails were driven through this board about half an inch from each other over the entire surface. The wife would draw the flax through this "hackle," handful by handful, when it was finally ready to be spun into thread or "filling." It was then ready for the loom. Every dutiful housewife could operate a loom in those days, and a young lady who was not accomplished in spinning and weaving was shunned by the matrimonially inclined young men, and usually lived an old maid.
Weaving was always a medium of exchange, and it was no uncommon thing for the young wife, in embarking on life's voyage, to do weaving for a yoke of oxen for her young husband. The writer's mother did weaving for a quantity of corn, at ten cents per bushel. She wove at the rate of about fifteen cents a yard. We are not quite certain but that she wove the cloth for her prospective husband's flax
LIE. OF THE
UNIVERSITY
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wedding-breeches, for the fabric showed that especial care had been expended on it. The cloth thus made was very coarse, and of a greenish gray color. The greatest objection to it was that it never wore out. If we mistake not, our first pants were constructed out of a discarded pair of parental trousers, doubtless those which did such excellent service on the marriage occasion already spoken of.
After the lapse of a few years, the settlers began to raise sheep, and to convert the wool into cloth. If the cloth was constructed solely of wool, it was called "jeans"; but if the "chain" was composed of cotton or flax, it was called "linsey." The ladies preferred linsey for their wearing apparel, as it was of a little finer texture, say 700 threads of warp to the yard.
In 1860 John Young (father of Josiah T. Young) and sons started a woolen factory at Albia. A short time later they put in "carding" machinery, which was a great convenience to the settlers. The factory burned in 1862, but in 1866 it was rebuilt and operated by Wallace & Rambo for several years.
Some of the prominent families of early days affected certain colors in homespun flannel. These family colors were a sort of "coat of arms" in the family. For instance, the flannel and jeans worn by the family of Elias Fisher in Urbana Township was a dark walnut brown interspersed with streaks of yellow, something like a tiger's skin. The house of Noland was represented by a butternut brown. All old-timers will remember the long-tailed butternut coat of Doster Noland, garnished with large white bone buttons. When this eminent veterinary surgeon moved to Missouri, he wore the big coat, and is doubtless wearing it yet, if alive. The Hayes, Baldwins, and Whites, all being related, had one common family color. It was a kind of checked arrangement, broad bands of red and narrow streaks of the same color, with a blue background. "Rich" Hayes still clings to this color. He is still alive, and some years ago sold his farm in Monroe Township, and moved to Missouri and got religion. The family color of the Haller family was a sky-blue jeans marked with still lighter colored bars or streaks. Moses Haller, the patriarch of the family, still lives at Selection, in Monroe Township. He has lost his eyesight, but can hear distinctly, and recognizes everybody by their voices. He keeps well posted on all that transpires in the neighborhood.
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Probably the very first implement for tilling the soil was the heavy hoe. Many of the early settlers, as we have before stated, emigrated from Indiana, and Indiana was largely settled by Kentuckians; hence many of the early settlers of Monroe County were of Kentucky stock. They were proficient in the the use of the hoe, and had to be, perforce of necessity, as they were dependent upon it for their "Johnny-cake." The Southern pioneer could not "go wheat bread," and if placed on a diet of wheat bread, he got all out of sorts, and lost faith in the country, and had no desire to work.
The early farmers did not produce anything for market except hogs, and these had to be driven to Keokuk or Alexandria to market. The pioneer hog was vastly superior to the modern porker in intellect and correspondingly in- ferior in all other points. He was called the "hazel-splitter," and was a long-legged, big-headed, sharp-backed animal, that could run like a race-horse and hold his own among wolves and wild cats. He was usually of a "sandy" color, and spent his time in the woods from May to December, and not unfrequently shifting for himself all winter. He sub- sisted mainly on roots and nuts, and late in the fall he fattened on burr-oak acorns. All the farmer had to do, when his hogs grew fat enough for market, was to capture them. and this was sometimes as thrilling an experience as a wolf-hunt in Siberia. One fall the writer's grandfather sold an old sow to Captain Wilson, who drove her, with several hundred others, to Burlington. a distance of one hundred miles. The next spring or summer the identical sow came home to see her pigs from which she had been heartlessly separated the fall before. She walked all the distance, and was lean and haggard when she arrived. She made her escape at Burlington. She was again delivered to Mr. Wilson, the drover.
Every farmer had his "ear-marks" registered in the County JJudge's office, and by means of ear-marks every person was enabled to identify his own hogs from those of his neighbors. The "ear-marks" of no two persons could be alike, and he whose ear-marks had been registered took precedence over others in a dispute.
The forests contained herds of wild hogs which had straxed from their owners or succeeded in evading capture.
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These were hunted with dogs, and were exterminated in a few years.
Among the first plows used for breaking wild sod were the "bar-share" plow and the Carey plow. The latter seemed to be the favorite. The "bar-share" plow consisted of an iron plate lying flat on the ground with a wooden mold-board slanting slightly from its middle. In the Carey plow the rear end of this iron plate turned up behind and formed a part of the mold-board.
Then came the long-beamed break-plow, already de- seribed in a previous chapter, and which every person who has passed the residence of John Massey, south of Albia, during the last twenty-five years, has noticed leaning against the front-yard fence. Some months ago the writer, in pass- ing, had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Massey's son, Ressie, plowing with this relic of a past generation. He was scouring it along the right-of-way of the railroad by way of preparing it for farming purposes.
After the ground had first been broken with the big prairie plow, the ground in later years was turned over by the "diamond" plow or "stirring" plow; and when the corn was planted and ready for cultivation, a small one-horse "diamond" plow was at first used; then came the "single- shovel," and next the "double-shovel," and along about 1870 the modern "cultivator" was introduced. £ This plow re- quired two horses, and actually plowed a row of corn in one trip, instead of going up on one side of the row and returning on the other side, as was done with the "double- shovel." The farmer doubted the utility of the "cultivator," it professed to do too much-plowed a row of corn in just half the time required by the "double-shovel"; and when some fellow devised one on which the plowman could ride, the inventor was regarded as a wild dreamer or lunatic.
Reaping implements went through the same gradual transition. First came the small semicircular "reap-hook." This was the implement of the mountains and hills of the South and of the East, where there were but small patches of grass or grain, growing among rocks and in narrow valleys.
As the Western farmer's field of grass became larger, a speedier implement was evolved, in the form of a scythe, and for grain the "cradle" was invented. These, too, were at length superseded by the two-horse mower for grass, and
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the old-fashioned Manna and MeCormick hand-rake reapers for grain; these were considered miracles of inventive genius. Finally the "self-rake" reaper and mower combined was brought out, and it was thought that perfection was attained. A machine cost $175 or $200.
In about the year 1870 the Marsh harvester was in- vented. It was a ponderous machine, requiring four horses and three men to run it. It had a platform, on which two men rode and bound the grain as it was delivered from a canvas carrier, something similar to those now used on self-binders. The machine proved a failure. It was too heavy, and if the ground was soft, it would not work at all. It was the antecedent of the self-binder of the present day. ·
To see the modern self-binder as it lightly sails around through the grain-fields, doing its work to perfection in grain in all conditions, one naturally wonders if it, too, will in time be supplanted by a machine of higher perfection. It does not seem susceptible of further improvement. It is light-running. and is constructed of steel, to insure strength and a reduction of weight.
The development of the live-stock industry, and the consequent increase in the acreage of tame grass, has led to the adoption of superior machinery for the handling of hay. Most of the hay in the county is stacked and handled by means of stackers and loaders.
There is an alternating law in agriculture by which prices of farm products rise and fall periodically, and the careful study of which enables the shrewd farmer to make money, even in times of financial depression. It cannot be better demonstrated than by a citation to the live-stock industry. About the year 1892 the bottom suddenly dropped out of the cattle market. For some years a surplus of cattle had been gradually accumulating. The famine of that time precipitated a crisis in prices, and the country was gorged with an overplus of unmarketable cattle.
Prices ranged so low that everybody grew discouraged and hastened to get rid of their stock at ruinously low prices. People quit raising cattle, and very few had the foresight to realize that at that particular time the farmer should be using his utmost efforts to replenish his herds in anticipation of a shortage. The shortage at length came, and prices went up, and are up at the present date. Just at the time when the cattle market had gone to pieces, horses com-
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manded a fair price. The cowman then turned his attention to raising horses, with the result that at present the horse market is as greatly depressed as the cattle market was some years ago. The farmers have quit raising horses, and . in a few years there will be a brisk demand for good horses at fair prices. Thus the markets are subject to a rise and fall as certain in their recurrence as the ebb and flow of tides.
The farmers of Monroe County are in a reasonable degree prosperous. None are so poor but that they know where the next meal is to come from. None are so hard pressed that they have not the means to clothe themselves and their families and have a change of apparel for Sunday wear. Many are growing wealthy, and the vast majority of them live in comfort and enjoy the envious reputation of being honest, intelligent, and respected above all other vocations in life.
The farmer of the country constitutes the keystone in the arch of local prosperity. The dweller of the town feels an unfeigned admiration for him and his family. and although his exterior polish may not be so dazzling, or his wife's and daughter's dress so stylish as that of the city lady, his and their general esteem weighs as much as the attainments of the other in the social scale.
The farmer-boy has outgrown those rural distinctions which once built a brush-fence between himself and the social world. Better roads, the bicycle, the "covered buggy" and fast team, increased population, railroads, rural churches, the increase of country villages, and the later improvements in the common school system have all com- bined to bring him out into the open "clearing." When once out, and he gets his bearings, he forges to the front. It is a curious fact that most of our county officers were from the country. The same is true of the Monroe County bar. The country offers better encouragement to the growth and development of the mind. No checks are placed on its growth through idleness, social abstractions, or through the still more pernicious effect of evil associations and intemperance.
Roads and Road-Working.
The highways of Monroe County are at present mostly located on established lines. The first roads, like the "trail" of the Indians, ran straight, regardless of divisional lines.
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The main design was to "get there," and with this very laud- able end in view, the people traveled in as straight lines as the character of the surface would permit. At one time the settler respected the course of those pioneer highways, and did not deign to set the road out on the line, as long as all his land was not fenced. Later, when he found it necessary to do this, the changing of the road was attended by bitter re- monstrances from his neighbors. Every man wanted the road to remain just where it was first located, except when it cut through his own farm, when he assumed the right to "throw it out" on the line. If the new route was rough and crossed a stream, the farmer making the change was ex- pected by an unwritten code of honor to put in the bridge partly himself, and, with the friends of the new road, work gratis the route to render it passable for teams. Many of the highways throughout the country are but 40 feet in width, but of later years 60 feet has been prescribed as the proper width, and the Board of Supervisors will not establish a highway of less width.
The highways are kept in repair by means of public labor levied in form of a tax. Every able-bodied citizen between the age of 21 and 45 years is required to perform two days' labor in payment of a poll-tax of $3.00; in addition to this poll-tax, he pays a property tax in labor, levied on his tax- able property; and in addition to these, he is liable to a small cash levy, which tax must be paid in cash, with which to pur- chase material, implements, etc., for highway purposes. Of course he has the privilege to pay his poll and property tax in cash, or of employing a substitute to do the work.
Formerly the poll-tax was fixed at $1.50, but it was doubled with the expectation that more labor would be ex- pended. Notwithstanding the doubling of the time required. about the same amount of actual labor was bestowed upon the roads, until the advent of the grader. Under the old method, the roads were worked twice in a season, usu- ally in May and September. The farmer was "warned" out on a fixed date, to appear with a team or some suit- able implement, at 8 o'clock. He put in his appearance anywhere between 8 and 12. Sometimes he came with an old hoe, an ax, hatchet, or anything that might be construed as coming under the head of an "implement." Sometimes he did not bring anything. and beguiled the time in holding the handle of a plow for a few moments between
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long intervals, or in loading scrapers and sitting on the ground to await the return of the empty scraper. The squad was under the direction of the Road Supervisor, but when- ever his official's back was turned, the men repaired to a shady fence-corner to crack jokes, argue politics or religion, or talk horse; on the reappearance of the Supervisor, they re- sumed work. If a tree were to be chopped down, a grub re- moved, or a culvert to mend, the Supervisor had to do the work, while the men dropped their tools and gathered around to inspect the work and offer suggestions as to the proper mode of doing it.
If a man has any bodily infirmities, he is exempt from the poll-tax, but not from the property tax. He appears promptly on the date set to work the roads, armed with a physician's certificate of disability. Being an invalid, he escapes the poll-tax, but labors day after day until he has "worked out" his property tax at the customary rate of $1.50 per day, or $3.00 with a team.
Of late years road-working as a diversion or source of social rural enjoyment has been greatly improved on by the introduction of the grader. Everybody now rides on the grader. The seat alone is wide enough to accommodate three men, and each may hold a pair of lines attached to his own team. Six horses pull the grader, and the Supervisor stands behind the drivers and operates the levers and otherwise commands the machine. One or two men usually act as grooms or footmen to accompany the equipage in case the teams do not act nicely, and two or three men with a road plow do a little plowing at the roadside at certain intervals during the day. One man holds the plow handles, another drives the team, and if there is a third one who could not be accommodated on the grader, he "beams" the plow-i. e., sits on the beam to force the nose of the plow deeper into the ground.
Then the man with the hoe is supposed to get in his work. He traverses the entire length of the road district, and chops up noxious weeds, such as burdock, "bull" thistles, and cockle-burs. If he runs out of these before quitting time, he chops dog-fennel or anything he comes across, be- cause his job is considered a "soft" one, and he may be as- signed to something less congenial.
The job next in degree of "softness" to that enjoyed by the man with the hoe is the hunting up of the road scraper
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or plow. These are always at the other end of the district when the men went to work, and some man has to go after them with a team and wagon. It takes at least a half-day to find them, as they have to be tracked from house to house, and, when found, usually have to go to the blacksmith shop for repairs, at the public expense, as they have been passed around among the farmers to serve in scooping out ponds, scraping up manure, etc., until some fellow breaks them, when they are left on the spot to be hunted up by the Super- visor in road-working time. The Road Supervisor is for- bidden to loan these implements, but the order is seldom. if ever, strictly obeyed. If, however, the Supervisor declines to allow his neighbors the use of them, his refusal is looked upon as a high-handed usurpation of official power.
Within recent years there has been considerable talk of improving the public roads, but there is no feasible way of doing so, other than by the efficient use of the grader and proper drainage. Paving is ont of the question, as there is no available supply of material within easy reach.
The iron bridge has not yet been introduced, but doubt- less will be ere long.
Fashions, Dress, and Lore-Making.
Monroe County was never so far outside the pale of civilization as to render wearing apparel superfluous, al- though it is said that many of the children of the "Hairy Nation" ran naked in the summer time and barefooted all the year round. Every one who was not afraid of the rattle- snakes went barefooted in summer. The young ladies turned their feet out to grass, say the last of May, and kept them on it until about the middle of September or the first of October, and from then on throughout the winter wore their Sunday shoes. When they walked for miles to "meet- ing" on Sundays, those who were most careful and prudent took off their shoes and stockings and cooled their shapely white feet in the dust until nearing the meeting-house, when they would slip to the roadside, give their feet a few "swipes" in the tall grass to remove the dust, and replace their shoes. Many a stately dame in the county to-day could testify to this from experience if she would-and why should she not? It was no discredit.
The men and boys began to go barefooted a little ear- lier in the season, say as soon as grass came. Shoes were
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not worn by the men at that time, nor for years later, as articles of dress. The coarse boot was worn throughout the week, and the more fastidious young men indulged in light calfskin boots, with high, narrow heels, for Sunday wear. If these boots had attractive fancy tops, the dude of those days wore his pants stuffed inside of them, and sat on the front row of "puncheons" at meeting, with his legs crossed at a conspicuous height, much to the admiration of the fair sex.
Among the "mashers" of those days were Colonel Dan Anderson, Anson Rowles, Win. Webb, Jake Webb, Bob Gor- don. and others. Gordon finally became insane, and one day disappeared and was never again seen.
Colonel Dan Anderson lived to attain considerable dis- tinction in after years as a public man, in both civil and mili- tary capacities, as well as a successful attorney, and at one time he was favorably mentioned in the local papers as a gub- ernatorial candidate. But with all the gallant Colonel's fame and prowess in later years, he was not "in touch" with the good graces of his sweetheart's parents, at the time when, like Daniel of old, he began to receive visions (visions of the matrimonial state). The girl was willing, but the old folks were not. In Missouri they could get married without a license, and without the expenditure of the unavoidable license fee, which in all cases had to be paid in advance. The young Adonis procured a "covered" buggy, at that time a rare luxury, and his sweetheart rolled up her "Sunday-go-to- meetin' dress" in a bundle, together with her "hoops," and doubtless other bleached muslin articles of female apparel essential to a bridal trousseau. The bundle was concealed in the prairie grass near the roadside, on the outskirts of the village, and the lovelorn swain drove round, ostensibly to give the girl a short buggy-ride. They then made "lickety- split" for the Missouri line, were married, and had the license fre saved with which to go to housekeeping.
While the prevailing fashions in dress, in those days, would appear quaint now, they were no more outlandish than at present. While the dame of thirty years ago incased her lower limbs in a prodigious hoopskirt, the belle of the present day lavishes this same superabundance of material on her arms, and lets her legs get along as best they can, with nothing of greater consequence than a mere skirt. Like in- flammatory rheumatism sometimes does, the style has simply
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shifted from the legs to the arms, and it cannot very well be helped. The big sleeves of to-day do not appear to be sus- tained by means of hoops or a wire frame-work; neither are they stuffed. The material is starched stiffly, and their puff is preserved by means known only to the wearer.
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