USA > Iowa > Delaware County > History of Delaware County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 23
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EARLY CORN CROPS UNCERTAIN
The corn crop was not sure when we first broke up the land, as the corn was not arelimated. It did not get ripe, hence at one time we thought that the season was too short to ever make this a reliable corn district. The only corn we had that would get ripe and made a sure crop was a small flint, eight-row corn. the seed of which we obtained from the Indians. We called it Squaw Corn. However, as soon as we got home grown seed and the corn became acclimated we had no further trouble raising a erop.
FINE GRADE OF WHEAT PRODUCED HIERE
Wheat for many years was our main crop and when the virgin soil of Dela- ware County was first broken up we produced as fine a grade of wheat as ever grew in any country. However, the price was very low for some years. The yield per acre ranged from twenty-five to forty bushels, according to the way it was planted and the care it had. We continued raising this erop year after year until the eineritions element in our soil had been exhausted by the annual prairie fires, so that we could not produce straw strong enough to hear the head of the grain. Ilence, we changed our taeties and turned our attention to the dairy business.
DAIRY COWS LIFTED FARM MORTGAGES
The cows lifted the mortgage from our farms that the failure in the wheat crop had placed upon them. We knew nothing about the creamery business as
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it is managed today. Every man ran his own dairy. The milk was set in pans and crocks and when the eream raised, it was skimmed and agitated by hand in a dash churn. Lifting the dasher and churning the cream up and down brought the butter and when reaching a proper consisteney it was separated from the buttermilk. The product was packed in large tubs or firkins, these holding about one hundred and twenty pounds, and in the fall and winter was sold in the markets on the Mississippi River.
DELAWARE COUNTY HAD THE FIRST COOPERATIVE CREAMERY IN THE WORLD
From this primitive beginning the creamery sprang into existence at Spring Branch, Delaware County. This was the first established creamery in the world. where the patrons owned and operated the business and struck their dividend according to the amount of milk each person had. Other creameries were built in different parts of the county and we soon became the banner county of the state in dairy products. At the Centennial Exposition, held at Philadelphia in 1876, Delaware County was awarded the first premium on butter, which set us on the highest pinnacle in the world as a butter producing county.
NATIVE GRASSES NUTRITIONS
The native grasses that grew in Delaware County became very nutritious. The blue joint which grew upon our prairies provided us with an abundance of pastore and in the antimn, when it was out, supplied stock with hay during the winter. The mowing was done with a common seythe. A man would mow about one aere per day. The hay was raked into windrows by hand, then shocked in small stacks, then hauled to the main stack yard. where it was put in large stacks. A seythe, hand rake and pitchfork were the haying tools in use. all the work being done by the very hardest of exertion. Two men now with modern machinery will put as much hay in the barn as ten men would then in the same amount of time. The tame grasses were slow in getting started. Timothy was first set along the edges and at the head of sloughs in the cultivated lands. On higher lands it grew very thin on the ground, and was very tall and coarse. Blue grass began to set, where the land was trampled hard in and around cattle yards and along old roads, appearing also in small spots where the wild grasses were pastured too close. Clover first made its appearance along rattle paths and abandoned roads, where the ground had become hard by the trampling of cattle and other animals. Red clover came nearer being a failure than any of the other tame grasses ; some farmers became discouraged with the trials and failures and concluded that this territory never would be a grass producing locality, as it was in the states east of us. However, those who persevered in their efforts were erowned with success. The seed would come up and make quite a growth the first season. In autumn the leaves would blight and turn a whitish yellow and by the next spring the whole erop would be dead, both root and branch. It first began to produce a erop on the clay points in the timber lands, where they had begun to lose their fertility by a succession of crops of corn and other grain: the growing of elover was successful on the timber farms but not on the prairie farms. The soil on the prairie was too loose
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and porous and was not packed solid enough, to support the clover during the winter until it had been farmed a number of years and the soil was more compaet. Then the land was not inoculated for the elover plant and it took years for it to inoeulate itself. The condition with elover at that time was similar to the condition with alfalfa here today. If our farmers persist in sowing alfalfa the time will come when our lands will be inoculated and our county will produce the alfalfa plant to perfection. Had the early settler stopped sowing and experi- menting with elover and no seed been sown, our condition would have been the same today with the elover as it is with the alfalfa, as it is only a different variety of the same family and can be produced under like conditions. But the alfalfa. like the elover. must be inoculated by seience or by itself.
THE PRAIRIES GARDENS OF FLOWERS
Wild flowers grew to perfection both on the prairies and in the timber. One of the most beautiful sights to the human eye was our prairie flowers. In the fall of year the prairies were literally covered with the different varieties of wild flowers. Violets. Indian pinks, jaek in the pulpit, lady slippers and many other varieties, with the different varieties of the fern family, grew in profusion in the woodlands. Native birds of many varieties visited ns during the summer months. where they reared their young, and at the approach of winter gathered in large flocks and departed for a southern climate to spend the winter. Quite a number of the different kinds of birds come no more to our denuded forests to rear their young.
WILD DUCKS AND GEESE IN LARGE NUMBERS
The migrating fowls-ducks, geese and eranes-came in unnumbered quanti- ties during the spring, going north to their breeding grounds. and in the early autumn returning to our grain fields, where they remained until the cold of winter drove them to the south land. The wild pigeons, which have become extinet, were so numerous that they would sometimes take fields of wheat after it was sown in the spring. We had to keep up a constant warfare against them, with both dog and gun, to keep them from taking the seed from the ground before the wheat came up. The air would be so full of these pigeons that they would larken the sun similar to a cloud in the sky. They remained with us umtil about 1867, when they disappeared to places nuknown. At their roost in the woods they would alight so thick on a tree that their weight would break off the limbs.
STREAMS STOCKED WITH FISH
Our streams were well stocked with the different varieties of fish. except the brook trout, and that had to be put into our waters. But of other kinds we had an abundant supply and as the water in the streams has become less and less in quantity as the county and surrounding country has been brought under cultivation, our fishes have followed the natural law. The majority of our springs of water have ceased to flow and streams cannot support the number of
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fish that they did when they contained twice the amount of water. The fur- bearing animals remain with ns yet, except the otter, which, Arab like, has folded his tent and silently departed to more congenial waters, where he will not be disturbed by man. The black squirrel also disappeared from our forest after the fox squirrel put in an appearance.
SETTLERS A LAW UNTO THEMSELVES
The early settlers were a law unto themselves. As courts of law had not become established among us it was very difficult to enforce the laws we had. which were principally of the old English common law and that, on account of the primitive condition of our courts, was very difficult to enforce. Difficulties between persons were either settled by a council of their neighbors or by listi- cuffs. the latter being mostly resorted to. However, we had organized bands of men that were called regulators, who put to fight the horse thieves and counter- feiters that infested our settled colonies. When the regulators got after a horse thief they made short work of the job, and if the thief was lucky enough to get away he gave this county a wide berth. In this manner law and order was established among the settlers.
MORMONS AND HORSE TIHEVES
There were not many horses stolen in Delaware County but they were stolen on the east side of the Mississippi River and were crossed to this side for hiding in the groves and timber along our streams, until there was a favorable opportunity to sell them. This condition prevailed until about the year 1845. when the whole state was aronsed by the murder of Colonel Davenport. on the island of Rock Island in the river opposite the City of Davenport. The citizens of Illinois also became ineensed at the Mormon outrages, at and in the vicinity of Nanvoo. They were so enraged that they gathered enmasse and hanged both Joseph and Ilyrum Smith, perforating their bodies with bullets and driving the Mormons across the State of lowa to the Missouri River. Some of the refugees. who abandoned the Mormon doctrine, settled in our neighborhood and their descendants are respectable citizens of the county today.
RESURVEY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
Claim meetings were held where disputes over the right to certain lands were settled and where there was controversy over boundary lines and disputes as to corners of claims and townships. As the survey in the north part of Colony Township was not properly marked, many disputes arose, one of which was hotly contested for a number of years. In order to obtain a correct deei- sion in the Supreme Court of the United States, the Government ordered a resurvey of Delaware County. This was called the James Survey. In the northeastern part of Colony Township no Government corners were found and the lines and corners were established by this later survey, which settled many disputes.
MURDER OVER DISPUTED LAND CLAIM
Many of these claim meetings ended in general fights. There was one case of murder in the southeast part of the township where the contest over a elaim
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became so bitter that a man by the name of Button killed a man by the name of Collins. In the general melee the former struek the latter a blow upon the head with a club, from the effects of which he died. That evening Mr. Button took to the timber and escaped across the Mississippi River into the wilds of Wisconsin and was never again heard of. This was the first murder in the county. Some years later a man by the name of D. Nelson was murdered and his body was found in Elk Creek between Colesburg and Greeley. There was a foot log upon which a person crossed the stream. The body lay near the log in the water. Some investigation was made at the time but as no proof against any person could be established, his murderer went free. The bones were exhumed some thirty years afterward and an examination of dents in the skull showed that he had been killed with a elb from behind. Punishment for crime was unknown until the settlers took the law into their own hands and meted out justice to offenders.
Sometimes a man would make claim to a piece of land, erect a cabin, break a part of the land and fence it with rails, expecting to enter the land in the near future. When he would get to the land office at Dubuque he would find the land had been entered by some one else, then, as he could not remove his improve- ments, they were burned at night, or his friends would get together and move all improvements to another piece of land.
I know of but one instance where the lash was resorted to for punishment and that was a case where a thief had stolen a rifle. Ile was followed and captured near the Town of Colesburg and a jury of regulators was summoned to adjust the punishment that was to be intlieted upon him. This jury consisted of three persons. They decided he was guilty, for he had the stolen gun when he was captured. llis punishment was fixed at thirty-nine lashes with a black snake whip but, if at the administration of twenty lashes he would promise to leave the territory, the other nineteen would not be administered unless he returned. About the third blow of the executioner's whip, the fellow began to curse and swear vengeance against the parties to the proceeding, when the judge called a halt and informed the executioner that the strokes were too light and that they must be laid on without merey, or the executioner would be liable to a like punishment for disobedience of orders, in not inflicting a severe enough punishment, in accordance with the finding of the jury. The consequence was, that long before the twentieth stroke the fellow began to beg for merey and declare he would be glad to leave lowa never more to return. He was given a thorough bathing with bear's oil and departed for parts unknown. While this may seem a severe punishment. it was about the only way for the settlers to protect themselves from the outlaw and renegade element, that had been obliged to leave their homes in the East on account of being undesirable citizens and not fit subjects to live in civilized communities.
HORSE THIEF SHOT BY REGULATOR
Three horses were stolen not far from Bellevue, in Jackson County. They were followed by the Jackson County regulators into the Dickson Settlement and the man who had possession of the stolen horses claimed he had bought them. He had received information from some of his partners that he was being
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pursued. He turned the stolen property over to another one of the gang and left our neighborhood. The man who got the horses left the same night with them, going in a southwest direction across the prairie. He was overtaken near Central City and while cooking his breakfast was shot. Without any trial or proceeding, whatsoever, the regulators took the horses, returned and delivered them to their owners. These proceedings soon broke up horse stealing and outlawry, with which we had been annoyed, and one could turn a horse out on the commons to graze without fear of it being stolen.
Another murder was committed in the southern part of the county. A man by the name of Dance was found dead in the timber, supposed to have been killed by some of his neighbors. The guilty parties kept the matter so quiet that no proof could be obtained whereby any one could be convicted, so that the murderer was not apprehended and brought to a just punishment of his erime. Thus the guilty parties of the first three murders in our county were not punished, consequently it was the only remedy, for the law-abiding citizens to organize for their mutual protection.
MURDERER EXECUTED AT DELHI IN 1860
The first and only man that was publicly executed in this county was hung in the year 1860, and that ovenrred in the Town of Delhi, it being at that time the county seat. This man, Johnson by name and a Swede by birth, killed a man near the mouth of Cat Fish Creek in Dubuque County, where he was first tried and found guilty. A new trial was granted, with a change of venue to this county. Ile had a l'air trial and was again found guilty and sentenee and execution followed.
A murder was committed in 1863 in North Fork Township. One man stabbed another in a hand to hand fight, from the effects of which he died. The guilty party was convicted of manslaughter, a small fine was imposed and he was sentenced to a short term in the penitentiary.
LONG AND SEVERE WINTERS
The first settlers had longer and harder winters io contend with than at the present time. Winters for many years would begin early. We generally had good sleighing at Thanksgiving, which would last until about the 15th of March. The winter of 1856 was very severe, abont 216 feet of snow having fallen. On this there was a hard crust of ice, thick enough to bear the weight of a man. Where the snow was drifted it was packed so closely and frozen so hard that it would bear up a team of horses or cattle. Our rail fences were regular snow catchers and the snow was frozen so hard that a team could go over the fences anywhere. The small game, especially quails, were almost exterminated. When the snow melted these birds were found in groups frozen, where the snow had drifted over them and they had perished. Many deer also perished and were caught by dogs and wolves. When the deer would jump and run. his weight upon his small sharp hoofs would eut through the crust of ice on top of the snow. The wolf or dog could run on top of the ice. consequently the deer was soon overtaken and killed. A deer running in a broken path or
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road would not leave the track, for as soon as he left the beaten track and jumped into the snow, he was powerless to run.
Climatie conditions have changed very perceptibly in the last fifty years. The winters are not so cold, nor is the snow as deep, and a cold wave does not continue so long. There are quite a number of theories advanced as to what has brought about this change. There was an unbroken wilderness where now there is cultivation. The country is settled to the coast and heat is going up out of millions of chimneys. Besides this railroad engines and furnaces send up volumes of heated air. These and many other minor things have brought about the change.
The year of 1851 was a very wet season. Our rail fences were washed away by the flood of waters wherever there was a small depression on the high ridge lands. Our sloughs were swollen into rivers and low grounds were lakes of water. Little creeks were so filled with water that they could not be crossed. Everything along the ereeks and sloughs were destroyed : mill and other dams were washed away. There was but one mill that escaped and that was situated on high ground and was run by an overshot wheel. The water that run the mill came from a couple of large springs near by. The flood of waters passed below the mill in the valley. This mill was about three miles from Colesburg and was known as the Bailey Mill.
SHOOTING MATCHES AND OTHER AMUSEMENTS
The settlers had many means of amusements which were participated in by the whole population. One of these forms of amusement was a shooting match. The men would get together and shoot for turkeys and other things. The best shot being declared the winner. carried off the prize. One method of shooting for turkeys was where the bird was put behind a block of wood, so that only the head could be seen. The marksman stood at a distance of fifty yards and shot at the head of the turkey, off-hand. with an open-sighted gun. No globe or peep sights were used and one had to be a good marksman to hit the turkey's head.
At husking bees, wood choppings and house or barn raisings. everybody turned out and after the work was done a general good time was had. In the evening daneing and other forms of amusements were participated in by both old and young.
ILU'NTING WOLVES FINE SPORT
Ilunting wolves was another fine sport. As there were no fenees on the boundless prairie the hunting party went on horseback, carrying a smooth hickory club about three-fourths of an inch in diameter and about five feet in length. There was a heavy knob on the outer end of the stiek, with which he could strike the wolf a heavy blow and not have to dismount from his horse. Greyhounds were used and when a wolf was started ont of his lair the chase began. This was very exciting, as often when the dogs caught up with the wolf he would turn and show fight. The wolf was often too much for the dogs but while engaged in the confliet the hunter would ride up and with one stroke of his long hickory club upon the wolf would soon place him at his mercy. The
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dogs would then soon dispatch his wolf'ship. A large full grown timber wolf would sometimes come off victorious.
HORSE RACING FREQUENTLY INDULGED
Horse racing was another amusement often indulged in. Quite frequently betting and gambling produced some that were called jockey races. One of these jockey races was pulled off on a half mile track near the Town of Coles- burg. That created great excitement in our settlement. This was called the old Bruce race. A horse by the name was brought from Galena, Illinois, and matched with an animal that was owned at Colony. There were present a large number of persons of the sporting fraternity from Dubuque, Galena, Plattville, Lancaster and other towns. Excitement ran so high that men even went so far as to bet their coat, the losers going home in their shirt sleeves. All kinds of property, horses, cattle, sheep. hogs, as well as money, was wagered on this race. The Colesburg mare won the race by a distance of six feet.
FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION IN 1845
In the year 1845 we held the first Fourth of July celebration. which at the time was quite an event. People came from far and near to hear the eagle scream. Quite a number came from (at that time) a distance, camped out and waited until it was over. The next day they broke camp and departed for their homes. This celebration at C'olesburg was the first held in the county of which the writer has any knowledge.
AN AMUSING INCIDENT
Various were the ways in which amusements were indulged in by different persons, one of which I will relate. A man had a hog that he wanted to kill for his own use and he asked a couple of his neighbors to assist him. They came and got ready to butcher the hog by putting the hot water into a barrel that had ice in the bottom of it. The water was thus rendered too cold to seald the hair off the hog. They put some more water in a kettle near by to get hot and while this was heating they went into the house to get another drink, leaving the hog in the barrel, partly filled with water. One drink called for another and in the meantime the men proposed a game of cards. They played and drank until late in the night, and the owner of the hog got so far along he had to go to bed ; the two neighbors went to their homes. During the night the weather turned very cold and the next morning, when the man went out. he found the hog frozen fast in the barrel. Intemperance among our pioneer people was not any worse than it is today, although we had several distilleries and one brewery that I remember of.
TWO GLASSES OF BEER AND A CHEROOT FOR A NICKEL
Two glasses of beer were sold for a nickel and a cheroot cigar given in the bargain. Whisky sold for 20 cents a gallon and a barrel of whisky could be
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bought for $5. There was no tax on it for revenue until the Civil war began. Corn. from which it was made, was very cheap-8 and 10 cents per bushel .. When our first prohibitory law was passed we supposed it would stop the traffic, but litigation followed and a saloon keeper at Colesburg defended himself for five years, sold liquor all the time and finally beat the county at an expense of about eight hundred dollars, which the county had to pay. But in recent years the conflict has been decided in favor of temperance and there is not a saloon in the county. While the early advocates of temperance had a majority against them they are entitled to credit for the tenacity with which they hung to the canse. The first lowa Legislature, although democratie, passed a law that a dram shop was a nuisance and could be abated as such, but the offieer of the law. being in favor of the sale of liquor. the law was not enforced.
CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS SOON FOLLOWED SETTLEMENTS
Our schools were not of the most desirable class, but, under the existing circumstances, they were the best that could be secured. Where there were enough children in a settlement a school was organized and. as our school laws were about in aceord with the conditions under which the settler labored. our schools were very primitive affairs. Each school was independent, controlled by three directors and the teachers' wages were raised by subscription. The teachers were examined by one of the directors if he was competent to discharge that duty. if not, some person was selected by the board who was competent to examine the teacher in the three Rs, namely : Reading, writing and arithmetic. This was the standard ; and a teacher was considered competent to teach the young ideas how to shoot if versed in the three branches. Very little was taught in orthography-simply spelling the word, naming cach letter and pronouncing each syllable as you spelled the word. The instructions in reading were given by the teachers and the main rule was to read a subject as though you were talking to one or more persons, according to the subject you were trying to read. The New Testament was the standard book for the first reading class. which was read twice each day-morning and evening. Arithmetic was taught mentally, until you had learned the tables of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Then the scholar was given a slate and pencil, taught to work out his problems in figures, and exhibit the same to the teacher. Blackboards had not been adopted. but we heard that they were used in the East.
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