USA > Iowa > Chickasaw County > History of Chickasaw and Howard counties, Iowa, Volume I > Part 34
USA > Iowa > Howard County > History of Chickasaw and Howard counties, Iowa, Volume I > Part 34
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When all were assembled, four men would be selected to "carry up the cor- ners," and took their stations at the four corners of the cabin. Skilled in the use of the ax, as the logs were lifted up to them they shaped a "saddle" on the top and cut a notch in the under side of the next log to fit upon the saddle. By cutting the notches a little deeper in the "butt end" of the logs, and alternating the butt and top ends, the walls were carried up approximately level. No plumb lines were used, the walls being kept perpendicular by the eyes of the corner men. Doors and windows were sawed out after the walls were up. An opening was also made at one end for a fireplace. Outside of this opening would be built a chimney of small logs, lined inside with clay, to prevent its catching fire. If stone was convenient, a stone chimney would be constructed, and sometimes a chimney would be built of squares of sod, laid up as a mason lays a wall of bricks. The roof of the cabin was of clapboards, split or rived with an implement called a frow, and the floor, if there was one, was puncheons, that is, thin slabs of timber split as nearly the same thickness as possible, the upper surface being smoothed off with an adz, after the floor was laid.
Hardware was a luxury in the new country, and many of the pioneer cabins were completed without a single article of iron being used in their construction. The clapboards of the roof were held in place by "weight poles," which ran the full length of the cabin and were fastened to the end logs with wooden pins. The door was made of thin puncheons, fastened together with wooden pins, hung on wooden hinges and provided with a wooden latch. A thong of deerskin attached to the latch was passed through a small hole in the door and furnished the means of lifting the latch from the outside. At night the thong could be drawn inside and the door was locked. This custom gave rise to the expression "the latch string is out," signifying that a visitor would be welcome at any time. The cracks between the logs were chinked with pieces of timber and plastered over with clay to keep out the cold.
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The furniture was in keeping with the house, being usually of the home-made variety and of the simplest character. In one corner was the bedstead, which was constructed in the following manner: A small sapling with two forks as nearly at right angles as they could be found, was cut the proper length to reach from the floor to the joists overhead, the forks being about two feet from the floor. The sapling was placed about the width of an ordinary bed from one wall and the length of the bed from the other. Poles were then laid in the two forks, the other ends of the poles resting in a crack between the logs, or in large auger holes. Across the poles were then laid clapboards, upon which the housewife placed her straw tick or a feather bed, if the family possessed one. Such a bedstead was called a "prairie rascal." Springs there were none, but "honest toil brought sweet repose" to the tired pioneer, and he slept as soundly upon his prairie rascal as do many persons now upon more sumptuous couches.
Holes bored in the logs and fitted with strong pins served to support clap- boards for a china closet, the front of which was a curtain of some cheap cotton cloth, though in many homes the curtain was lacking. Stools and benches took the place of chairs. A table was made by battening together some clapboards to form a top, which was placed upon a pair of trestles. When not in use, the trestles were placed one upon the other and the top leaned against the wall to make more room in the cabin. Stoves were almost unknown and the cooking was done at the great fireplace, an iron teakettle, a long-handled skillet, a big copper- bottomed coffee pot and a large iron kettle being the principal cooking utensils. Bread was baked in the skillet, which was set upon a bed of live coals and more coals heaped upon the iron lid, so that the bread would bake at both top and bottom. The large iron kettle was used for preparing the "boiled dinner," which con- sisted of meat, and two or three kinds of vegetables, cooked together. Johnny- cake was made by spreading a stiff dough of cornmeal upon one side of a smooth board and propping it up in front of the fire. When one side of the cake was baked sufficiently, the dough would be turned over to give the other side its inning. Many times a generous supply of Johnny-cake and the bowl of fresh milk constituted the only supper of- the pioneer, but it was a supper which no early pioneer would blush to set before an unexpected guest. While preparing the meals, the housewife would nearly always wear a large sunbonnet to protect her face from the heat.
Somewhere in the cabin was the gun-rack, which was formed of two hooks fashioned from the forks of small trees. In these forks reposed the long, heavy rifle of the settler, while suspended from the muzzle of the gun or from one of the forks were the bullet pouch and the powder horn. The rifle was depended upon in many instances to furnish the meat supply of the family, as game of all kinds abounded. Deer were especially plentiful. Animals were killed for their skins and the carcasses were left to the wolves.
SWAPPING WORK
In these early years of the Twentieth Century, with plenty of currency in cir- culation, when any one needs assistance he hires some one to help him. It was not so in the '50s when the first white settlements were established in Howard County. Money then was exceedingly scarce, but the pioneers overcame this diffi-
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culty by helping each other. As soon as the cabin was built, the next step was to clear a piece of ground (unless a prairie formed part of the claim) upon which to raise a crop. The trees were felled and the logs cut into lengths that could be handled, when the neighbors would be invited to a "log rolling." An invitation of this kind was rarely declined, because each man in the community realized his dependence upon his neighbors and knew that the time would come when he would be compelled by force of circumstances to invite them to a similar function. Every pioneer provided himself with a "handspike"-a small sapling of some tough wood, from which the bark had been removed and pointed at the ends -- and armed with his handspike he repaired to the "clearing," where the logs were to be piled in heaps so they could be burned. Two men who boasted of their physical strength were chosen to "make daylight," that is place a handspike under one end of the log and lift it high enough for the others to get their spikes under it, six, eight, and sometimes more men being required to carry a large log to the "heap."
While the men were rolling the logs, the women folks would get together and prepare dinner, each bringing from her own store some little delicacy that she thought the others might not be able to supply. Bear meat and venison were common on such occasions, with a bountiful share of vegetables, corn bread and lye hominy, dried fruits, etc., to round out the bill of fare. By the time the meal was ready the men had a good appetite, and when they arose from the table it "looked like a cyclone had struck it." If the weather was warm, the dinner was often served out of doors, under the shade of the trees, and while the men ate, one of the women would wave a small green bough over the table to "shoo off the flies." But each family had its turn and by the time the work of the neighborhood was all done, no one was at any disadvantage in the amount of pro- visions consumed.
The same system prevailed in harvest time. After wheat fields made their appearance it was no unusual sight to see ten or a dozen men in a field, some swinging their cradles, the others binding and shocking the sheaves. When one field was cared for, the whole crowd would move on to the next one where the wheat was ripest, and so on until the crop of the entire community was made ready for threshing. No threshing machines had as yet come to the frontier and the first wheat was threshed with the flail or trampled out by horses or cattle on a smooth piece of ground, or upon a barn floor, provided the settler was fortunate enough to have a barn with a floor suitable for the purpose. After the grain was separated from the straw by the flail or the tramping process, it was winnowed by throwing it up into the air on a day when there was a good breeze, which carried away the chaff. A few years later came the "ground-hog" thresher and the fanning mill. Many a boy has grumbled because he had to turn the crank of the fanning mill at a time "when the fish were biting good."
OBTAINING SUPPLIES
Many of the early settlers brought with them small stores of flour, bacon, salt, sugar, and such other things as they deemed necessary, but even by the practice of the most rigid frugality these supplies were in time exhausted. The first year's farming was mainly the cultivation of a "truck patch," where a few
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bushels of corn, potatoes, turnips, etc., were raised and stored for winter use. Often the first crop proved insufficient for the needs of the family until another could be raised. Game was plentiful in the surrounding forests, and the trusty rifle was depended upon to furnish the supply of meat.
Just now it is an easy matter to telephone the grocer to "send up a sack of flour and a bushel of potatoes," but then there were neither, grocer, flour, potatoes nor telephone .. Mills were few and far apart and, if the settler had plenty of corn, he would frequently have to go such a distance to get it ground into meal that the greater part of a week would be required to make the trip. To avoid these long, arduous journeys to mill, various methods of making corn meal-the principal bread stuff-were introduced at home. One of these was to build a fire upon a large stump of some hard wood and keep it burning until a depression was made, thus forming a "mortar." The charred wood was then carefully removed, a small quantity of corn poured into the mortar and beaten with a hard wood "pestle" until it was reduced to a coarse meal. This was a slow process, but it was often resorted to instead of a trip of forty or fifty miles to the nearest mill.
In the fall of the year, before the corn was fully hardened, the "grater" was frequently used. The grater was an implement made by punching holes close together through a sheet of tin and then fastening the sheet on a board, with the rough side outward, so that the tin was slightly convex on the outer surface. Then the ear of corn would be rubbed back and forth over the rough surface, the meal would pass through the holes and slide down the board into a vessel placed to receive it. Another slow and tedious process was this, but a bowl of mush made from grated corn, with a bountiful supply of good milk, formed a common repast in those days, and one which was not to be despised.
Matches were hardly ever seen on the frontier and the settlers were careful not to waste the few that found their way into the neighborhood. Somewhere about the cabin a little fire was always kept "for seed." In the fall, winter and early spring the fire was kept in the fireplace, but when summer came and the weather grew so warm that a fire in the house would be uncomfortable, one was kept burning out of doors. If a heavy rain extinguished it or through negligence it was allowed to die out, one of the family would have to go to the nearest neigh- bor's for a blazing brand or a shovelful of coals to renew the supply.
What a simple matter it is at the present time to enter a room, push a button and flood the whole place with electric light. But when the first settlers came to Howard County even the kerosene lamp had not been invented. The housewife devised a lamp by using a shallow dish partially filled with lard or some other kind of grease. Into this grease was dropped a loosely twisted cotton rag, one end of which was allowed to project a little way over the side of the dish. The projecting end was then lighted, and while it gave light enough to enable the woman of the frontier to attend to her duties, such a lamp emitted both smoke and odor that would cause fastidious persons now to "turn up their noses." Next came the tallow candle, made in moulds of tin, usually consisting of six or eight fastened together. Occasionally only one family in a settlement owned a set of candle moulds, but they were freely loaned and passed from house to house until all had a supply of candles laid away in a cool dry place for future use. During the long winter evenings, the family would often have no light except that which came from the roaring fire in the great fireplace.
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No one wore "store clothes" in those days. The housewife carded her wool by hand with a pair of broad-backed brushes, the wire teeth of which were all slightly bent in one direction; then spin it into yarn on the old-fashioned spinning wheel; weave it into cloth on the old hand loom, and make it into garments for the members of the family with a needle. A girl sixteen years of age who could not spin her "six cuts" a day or make her own dresses was rarely seen in a frontier settlement. Yet how many girls of that age now can make their own gowns, or how many young ladies who graduated from our high schools in 1918 know what "six cuts" means ?
All scraps of grease and the ashes from the fireplace were saved for the soap- making season, which was generally in the early spring. Then the good man would build an "ash-hopper" of clapboards sloping downward to a trough. Into this hopper the ashes would be placed, water poured on and the lye drained into pails. Then the lye and grease would be boiled together in a huge kettle until converted into soft soap. The soap thus manufactured might be lacking in per- fume, but it would take the dirt out of the clothes, and that was the main consideration.
PASTIMES
But if the pioneers had their hardships, they also had their amusements and entertainments. Too busy to visit during the day, one family would often go to a neighbor's to "sit until bedtime." On such occasions the women would either knit or sew while they gossiped, the men would discuss crops, church affairs or politics, and the children would crack nuts or pop corn. And bedtime did not mean a late hour, for all must rise early the next morning for another day's work.
Old settlers can recall the shooting matches, when the men met to try their skill with the rifle, the prize for the best marksman being a turkey or a haunch of venison. At these matches some wonderful scores were made, and there was hardly a settler who could not have qualified for a sharpshooter in the army.
On grinding days at the old mill a number of men, while waiting for their grists, would pass the time in athletic contests, such as running foot races, wrest- ling, or pitching horse shoes. Then there was the husking bee, in which pleasure was combined with profit. On such occasions, the corn to be husked was divided into two piles as nearly equal as possible; two of the guests would "choose up" and divide the assembled company into two sides. The winner would then select his pile of corn and the contest was on, the object being to see which side would finish first. Men and women alike took part and the young man who found a red ear was permitted to kiss the lassie next to him in the circle. "Many a merry laugh went round" when some one found a red ear and the lassie objected to being kissed. The young men sometimes did not play fair, for they passed a red ear covertly from one to another.
When the orchards grew old enough to bear fruit the "apple cutting" became a popular form of amusement, when a number would gather at the house of some settler to pare and slice enough apples to dry for the winter's supply. The husk- ing bee and the apple cutting were frequently followed by a dance, the orchestra consisting of the one lone fiddler in the settlement. He might not have been a classic musician, but he could make his old fiddle bring forth such tunes as "Money
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Musk," "Turkey in the Straw," "The Irish Washerwoman," or "The Wind That Shakes the Barley Fields," and he never grew tired in furnishing the melody while others tripped the light fantastic toe.
After the public school system was introduced, the evening spelling school offered both entertainment and instruction. At the close of the exercises the young men could "see the girls home"-provided they did not "get the mitten"- and if these acquaintances ripened into an intimacy that ended in a wedding, it was usually followed by a charivari, or, as it was pronounced on the frontier, a shivaree, which was a serenade in which noise took the place of harmony. The serenade was nearly always kept up until the bride and groom showed themselves, and the affair ended all the more pleasantly if the members of the shivareeing party each received a slice of wedding cake and a glass of cider.
One would naturally suppose that the early settlers, after they had toiled to build up a home in the wilds, would be content to remain in that community and enjoy the fruits of their labors. This, however, was not always the case. Some men were pioneers by nature and disposition. Like it has been said of Daniel Boone, they wanted to live where they could hear the crack of no man's rifle except their own. They preferred the freedom of the frontier to the older community, with its conventionalities and oftimes burdensome taxation. Such men are well described in Brininstool's beautiful poem :
THE OLD TRAPPER'S SOLILOQUY
"I've taken toll from ev'ry stream that held a furry prize, But now my traps are rustin' in the sun ; Where once the broad, free ranges, wild, unbroken, met my eyes, Their acres have been civilized and won.
The deer have left the bottom lands; the antelope the plain, And the howlin' of the wolf no more I hear,
But the busy sounds of commerce warn me of an alien reign, As the saw and hammer echo in my ear.
"I've lived to see the prairie soil a-sproutin' schools and stores, And wire fences stretch on every hand;
I've seen the nesters crowdin' in from distant foreign shores, And the hated railroads creep across the land.
My heart has burned within me, and my eyes have misty grown, As Progress came, unbidden, to my shack ; My streams have all been harnessed and my conquest overthrown, And I've been pushed aside and crowded back.
"I've seen men come with manners and with customs new and strange, To take the land which I have fought to hold;
I've watched the white-topped wagons joltin' on across the range With those who sought to lure the hidden gold. I've seen the red man vanquished and the buffalo depart, And cowmen take the land which they possessed,
And now there's somethin' tuggin' and a pullin' at my heart, And biddin' me move on to'rds the West.
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"There ain't no elbow room no more to circulate around, Since Civil'zation stopped beside my door ;
I'll pack my kit and rifle and I'll find new stompin' ground, Where things is like they was in days of yore.
I've heard the Great West whisper, and the old, free wild life calls, Where men and Progress never yet have trod;
And I'll go back and worship in my rugged canyon walls,
Where the pine trees croon and Nature is my God."
CHAPTER II
HOWARD COUNTY GOVERNMENT
IOWA BEFORE ORGANIZATION AS TERRITORY-TERRITORY OF IOWA-STATEHOOD-THE ORGANIC ACT-FIRST ELECTION- OF HOWARD COUNTY-THE COUNTY COURT -- CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT-BOARD OF SUPERVISORS-TREASURER'S FIRST RE- PORTS-A ROBBERY-COURTHOUSE FIRE-COUNTY SEATS AND COURTHOUSES- JAIL-POOR FARM-ROSTER OF COUNTY OFFICIALS.
Before noting the manner in which Howard County was organized it is well to consider briefly some of the events preceding its organization. When President Jefferson, on March 1, 1804, approved the act of Congress providing for the exercise of sovereignty over Louisiana, the territory now comprising the County of Howard came for the first time under the jurisdiction of the United States. That act provided that from and after October 1, 1804, all that part of the Province of Louisiana lying south of the thirty-fist parallel of north latitude should be known as the Territory of Orleans, and that portion north of that parallel as the District of Louisiana. In the latter was included the present State of Iowa. The District of Louisiana was placed under the jurisdiction of the Territory of Indi- ana, of which Gen. William H. Harrison was then governor.
On July 4, 1805, the District of Louisiana was organized as a separate terri- tory and given a government of its own. When the Territory of Orleans was admitted into the Union in 1812 as the State of Louisiana, the name of the northern district was changed to the Territory of Missouri. In 1821 Missouri was ad- mitted into the Union with its present boundaries and all north of that state was left without any form of civil government whatever. No one seems to have given the matter any thought at that time, probably for the reason that the only white people in that region were a few wandering hunters and trappers, or the agents of the different fur companies, all of whom were more interested in the profits of their occupations than they were in establishing permanent settlements and pay- ing taxes to support a government.
On June 28, 1834, President Jackson approved an act of Congress attaching the present State of Iowa to the Territory of Michigan, which then included all the country between Lake Huron westward to the Missouri River. By this act Iowa came under the jurisdiction of Michigan and the Legislature of that terri- tory divided Iowa into two counties, as stated in the preceding chapter.
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Iowa continued as a part of Michigan for less than two years. On April 20, 1836, President Jackson approved the act creating the Territory of Wisconsin, to take effect on July 4, 1836. Gen. Henry Dodge was appointed governor of the new territory, which embraced the present State of Wisconsin and all the territory west of the Mississippi River formerly included in or attached to Michigan. Pur- suant to Governor Dodge's proclamation, the first election ever held on Iowa soil was held on October 3, 1836, for members of the Wisconsin Territorial Legisla- ture.
TERRITORY OF IOWA
A census of Wisconsin, taken in 1836, showed that there were then 10,531 white people living in what is now the State of Iowa. During the twelve months following the taking of that census there was a rapid increase in the population, and early in the fall of 1837 the question of dividing the territory and establishing a new one west of the Mississippi became a subject of engrossing interest to the people living west of the great river. The sentiment in favor of a new territory found definite expression in a convention held at Burlington on November 3, 1837, which adopted a memorial to Congress asking for the erection of a new territory west of the Mississippi. In response to this expression of the popular sentiment, Congress passed an act dividing Wisconsin and establishing the Territory of Iowa. The act was approved by President Van Buren on June 12, 1838, and it became effective on the 3d of July following. The boundaries of Iowa as fixed by the act included "All that part of the Territory of Wisconsin which lies west of the Mississippi River and west of a line drawn due north from the headwater or sources of the Mississippi to the northern boundary of the Territory of the United States."
President Van Buren appointed Robert Lucas, of Ohio, as the first territorial governor of Iowa: William B. Conway, of Pennsylvania, secretary; Charles Mason, of Burlington, chief justice ; Thomas S. Wilson, of Dubuque, and Joseph Williams, of Pennsylvania, associate justices ; Isaac Van Allen, of New York, district attorney ; Francis Gehon, of Dubuque, United States marshal. The white people living west of the Mississippi now had a government of their own, though by far the greater part of the new territory was still in the hands of the Indians.
STATEHOOD
On February 12, 1844, the Iowa Legislature, acting under the authority of and with the consent of the Federal Government, passed an act providing for the election of delegates to a constitutional convention. The convention met at Iowa City on October 7, 1844, and finished its work on the first day of November. The constitution framed by this convention was rejected by the people at an election held on August 4, 1845, by a vote of 7,656 to 7,235.
A second constitutional convention assembled at Iowa City on May 4, 1846, and remained in session for two weeks. The constitution adopted by this con- vention was submitted to the voters of the territory at the general election on August 3. 1846, and was ratified by a vote of 9,492 to 9,036. It was also approved by Congress and on December 28, 1846, President Polk affixed his signature to
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