USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization. > Part 15
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JAMES C. LOVELL-AS TOLD BY HIS GRAND-DAUGHTER.
Of the young fellows who came to Nevada in its first year none was better qualified to make himself remembered. Also few of his time have stayed around so long. Mr. Lovell now lives at Seattle, where his home is kept by his grand-daughter, Mrs. Libbie Balliet Hoag. The latter has written most entertainingly some of her grandfather's stories, as follows :
When my grandfather, James C. Lovell, came to Nevada in the fall of 1854, he was twenty years old and in appearance, judging from an old daguerreotype of that time, a slim and beardless boy.
When he was ten years of age, he with the rest of his father's family, made the long journey from his birthplace in Vermont, by way of the Great Lakes, to Wisconsin. . He was therefore somewhat experienced at pioneer- ing when he came to Iowa, and considered the summer time drive with horse and buggy from Wisconsin across country a simple matter.
His father had died two years after the family reached Wisconsin, and from that time the young James had been dependent very largely upon his own resources. He had accumulated a little money by working at various things, but conditions in Wisconsin were not satisfactory, and tales from the west stirring unrest, he determined to strike out for a new location.
Late in July of 1854, in company with Dr. and Mrs. M. D. Sheldon and Dr. Fenn, (Mrs. Sheldon's cousin), the start was made from Hartland. The
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little party was bound for Omaha, at that time a thriving "out fitting station" for the plains, and they did not know that such a place as Nevada existed.
Dr. Sheldon and his brave, rosy cheeked bride of a year, led the way with their horse and light buggy. Dr. Fenn and my grandfather, each in a similar rig, followed, grandfather driving a big raw boned, spotted horse, which he traded for a gray one before he reached the boundary line of Wisconsin.
The roads over the prairie were level and good, but very dusty. The party drove early in the morning and late in the evening, and rested in the middle of the day, thus avoiding the extreme heat. The way was treeless, excepting along the banks of streams, and they were without bridges, and had to be forded. Houses were far apart. Often they traveled twenty miles at a stretch without sight of man's habitation. Then there would be a little "neighborhood" or settlement,-several farm houses close together,-and then unbroken, undulating prairie again, until the horizon shut off the view. At one time, while still in Wisconsin, they crossed fifty-one miles of prairie without coming to a house or stream of water. Food in plenty they carried with them, and a small quantity of water, but it was not sufficient for the long day. The poor horses had no water at all, and there was great rejoicing when, long after dusk, the travelers saw the lights of Fairplay, Wisconsin.
The long drives were enlivened by songs and "speech making," and many were the practical jokes that were played by the youngest member of the company.
The Mississippi river was crossed at Dubuque, by ferry, and the party proceeded to Knoxville, Marion county, Iowa, where relatives of the Shel- dons lived. There, Dwight Sheldon, eldest child of Dr. and Mrs. Sheldon, was born. After remaining in Knoxville for a month, the journey was resumed.
At "Twin River," south of Des Moines, where the party stopped to "water" and to rest, they met Henry French, who had come there, bringing a load of grain from his farm on East Indian Creek, to have it milled. Mr. French told them in glowing terms of the richness of Story County lands, and the splendid prospects of that part of the country. So forceful was his argument, that the little party changed plans and started northward.
Reaching lowa Center, then quite a village (compared with Nevada,) the travelers stopped at Jerry Corey's log hotel, which consisted of two rooms, in size about 12x16 each, with an attic or loft above. The floors were of "puncheons," or split logs, and the beds in this hotel were what were called "catamounts," made of poles with the bark on, with holes bored in them, through which they were roped together. Most of the beds were in the loft, which was reached by a ladder. When all were in bed the ladder was set aside, out of the way, until needed again. Across the street was the log house where Jerry Corey kept store and post-office. The town also boasted a log school house, where on Sundays religious service was held whenever a minister happened along.
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The little village, sheltered as it was by the trees bordering East Indian Creek, presented a much more attractive appearance than the average prairie town of that time. The Sheldons decided to locate permanently in Iowa Center, but Dr. Fenn and Grandfather Lovell went to Nevada, where they boarded at John McLain's.
Among the sixteen boarders who lived at McLain's at that time, or came in the next few months, were Charlie Berry, Wm. Berry, Nathan Pardee, Wm. Bennet, Col. John Scott, George and Henry Staley, (land buyers), Richard Jenness and Isaac Walker, besides Dr. Fenn, and Grandfather Lovell.
The McLain Hotel was about the size of the one at Iowa Center, and likewise possessed a loft where the boarders slept. This loft was "two logs high beneath the eaves," had a window in one end, and was reached by a permanent ladder from the general room below. The beds consisted mostly of ticks filled with hay and laid on the floor, side by side. Many a traveler during times of land rush, lacking even this sort of a bed, slept rolled in his blanket, and was thankful for shelter.
Nevada at that time consisted of five or six houses, clustered together on the bare prairie. There was not a tree nearer than those which fringed West Indian Creek. The little hamlet was exposed alike to the blizzards of winter and the glare of summer. But the pioneers gathered there could see possibilities in the unbroken prairie that surrounded them, and they took first steps toward developing it.
Grandfather's capital by the time he was established as one of the board- ers at "Mac's," was reduced to $17.00 and his horse and buggy. Board for himself was $2.50 per week, and there was the additional cost of grain for the horse, which was stabled in an old straw shed.
Chiefly to reduce expenses, he traded the horse, buggy and harness for forty acres of land which now constitutes a part of the Frank McLain farm. His money was getting low and the problem of getting a start in the new land looked the young pioneer square in the face.
There was not a variety of employments in that locality and he welcomed an opportunity to split rails at $1.00 per thousand for Alexander Densmore who lived on East Indian. Buying a new ax and wedges, he started at the job; but by the time the first tree was cut down and split into rails, his hands were blistered. He stopped to rest and to think awhile, and he made up his mind he wouldn't start that way. To emphasize his decision he threw his new ax and wedges as far as he could send them.
Then he went to Iowa Center and, taking advantage of the limited educa- tion he had received at Merton, Wisconsin, and the lack of school opportun- ities which had been the lot of most of the settlers, he engaged the school at Iowa Center at $1.00 per day and board. But Dr. Fenn, who had not been very fortunate in finding employment, begged grandfather to let him have the position and offered him $10.00 for it; so it was arranged with Jerry Corey, the school director, that Dr. Fenn should teach the district school and
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that grandfather should open a writing school in the school house, at night. The writing school proved popular, forty-two pupils attending it, and the school director being one of them. It was also a success financially, as the charge was $2.00 per pupil for fifteen lessons, and $84 looked larger in those days than the sum does now.
At the same time grandfather started a writing school at Nevada with about thirty pupils in attendance, and another at George Dyes, at East Indian Creek.
In the writing school at George Dye's there were about twenty-five pupils. The writing school in Nevada was held in Alderman's store. Boards laid across salt barrels served as desks. Here, by the light of flar- ing candles, old and young gathered twice a week, during the long winter evenings. Without doubt any occasion that would draw people together was welcomed as a break in monotony, and the social side of the writing school was as much appreciated as was the instructive :
The next spring, 1855, grandfather in company with Dick Jennes, bought eleven yoke of oxen, plows, chains and entire outfit for breaking prairie, and paid for the oxen with work, breaking a certain number of acres for each yoke of cattle. Five yoke of the oxen were bought from Henry French and breaking was done on his farm accordingly.
Breaking on Major Hawthorn's land occupied considerable time, during which time the men lived entirely out of doors, sleeping in their wagons and eating what the major carried them, as it was some distance to the house.
So the first summer passed with considerable profit, various trades being negotiated for land, horses, lumber or almost anything that was exchangable .:
When fall came, the partners sold the cattle which they had worked dur- ing the season, and grandfather took up writing school again.
In November of that year, Isaac Romaine and his family reached Nevada, and built the seventh cabin in the town, on the corner where the Dr. Winsett (C. T. Swartz) residence now stands. Four or five members of the family attended the writing school, and one of them was Mary Romaine, whose ac- quaintance with the writing teacher, thus begun, ended in the marriage of the two the next year, October 11th, 1856.
The young couple lived at first with the Romaine family, but after a few weeks a new home was started on one of several lots belonging to the bride- groom. The new house was located where Boyd's Meat Market used to be, which would bring it about two doors south of the present Patrick hard- ware store. The house was small, consisting of two rooms and a pantry and as it was built in the edge of winter, when the men of the community were not busy, nearly all of the young men of the town helped in construct- ing it. In front of the house was a pond, which extended across the street to the eastward of where the White and Bamberger store is now, and was quite deep in places. The front door of the house was reached by means of a long plank supported by chunks of wood. The furnishings of the new
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home were scanty. Furniture was hard to get, even if one had the means, inasmuch as it all had to be hauled from Keokuk.
So the first meal in the new home was eaten off a dry goods box, and the chairs were nail kegs, each having a square piece of board nailed across its top. Mr. Alderman carried a small stock of hardware in connection with his general store, and from that stock a stove had been selected, which proved to be a good one, for it lasted thirty years or more. That stove and a bedstead constituted the store furnishings. The dishes were mostly odd pieces which had been accumulated during the girlhood of the bride, and carefully packed when the family came out from Illinois. Of pieced quilts and similar bedding there was plenty, but feather pillows and a feather bed (then considered necessities) were lacking and straw pillows and straw bed served as substitutes for some time.
In the course of a month or so, grandfather made a trip to Keokuk after a load of furniture for the store, and took his pay for the hauling in articles for the home. Among the pieces thus acquired were six chairs and a cane- seated rocker, and also a square topped light stand having two drawers, which continued a part of the furnishings of the Lovell home as long as that home existed. This light stand served as a dining table for some time. So proud were the owners of their new furniture that they invited a number of their friends to an oyster supper. The guests were Mr. and Mrs. Alderman, Julia Romaine, Isaac Walker, Wm. Lockeridge, Dick Jennes, and others whose names are confused in the shadows of time. The little light stand did its part nobly as a social board, though its top was only about two and a half feet square. Thus the newly married couple of over fifty years ago, entertained and were contented with their little home.
By this time, 1856, a good many changes had taken place in Nevada. The town was growing rapidly. Sawed lumber and weather boarding from the new saw mill at Ballard Grove had taken the place of logs for building purposes, and many families whose names were afterward identified with the town for many years, had arrived. Among the neighbors whose names were often mentioned in connection with that first housekeeping of the Lov- ells, were the Kelloggs-Dr. and Mrs. Kellogg and Judge G. A. Kellogg- the families of Uncle David Child, S. S. Webb, and E. G. Day.
In the spring of 1858, grandfather made arrangements for moving onto eighty acres of land which he owned three miles northeast of Nevada. The contract for building the house was let to Charles Schoonover, for $1,100. The house was built with solid oak frame and black walnut siding, and it stands today, with but few alterations. When the family, which at this time included the baby Carrie, moved into this new home, there were but three houses between that place and Eldora. However, there were neighbors only a mile and a half to the westward, where the family of Thomas Turtle lived in a log house on the farm which in a few years the Turtles sold to George Moore. Those two houses were the only ones in sight on the prairie. The work of planting trees-little cottonwoods and locusts which were Vol. 1-9
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transplanted from the timber along East Indian Creek, and preparing a permanent home, was soon under way.
Prairie fires were a constant menace in summer, and many times the property was safe only after its owners had fought fire until far into the night. The blizzards of winter, were, in their way, as hard to contend with as the fires of summer and autumn. Once, at least, when grandfather had gone to Muscatine after a load of goods for Nevada merchants, a storm began to rage, after he had been gone a few days. Grandmother and the three little children might have perished had not Mr. Dana insisted that John Romaine, then a lad of sixteen, be sent out to see how they were faring. The storm came on suddenly at night, and the snow fell to great depth, cov- ering the pile of unprotected green wood and the ax. Some wood was cut, but not sufficient to meet the demands of the extreme cold and the enforced prolonged absence of the man of the house. For two days, grandmother worked with the hatchet, facing the storm to dig the wood from the snow, then cutting the smaller pieces which she could manage with the hatchet and drying them in the oven. She did not dare let the fire go out at night, be- cause she could not start it again with the material she had. Newspapers were not common then and every dry bit of wood had been burned. Finally no wood remained except great chunks which she could not possibly handle and another night was approaching. But grandmother was seldom without some resource, and in this instance it was a bedstead with great high posts. These posts she cut off, pausing every few minutes to look out of the win- dow. At last she gave a little cry and ran to the door. Someone was com- ing. It proved to be her brother, muffled in wraps, and with a blessed ax across his shoulder. He was much exhausted and that night he had a high fever, but he staid until grandfather returned, which was nearly a week, as it was impossible to make the trip with a load from Muscatine through the drifts. So the pioneers all through Iowa, fought the elements and the hard- ships and the poverty incident to beginnings in a new coutry, and later en- dured the trials brought by the Civil War, and succeeded in making good homes and a country to be proud of.
The home which my grandparents established on the prairie, remained the home of the family for thirty-four years, or until it was sold in 1892 to George C. White, who is still its owner.
LIBBIE BALLIET HOAG.
TALES OF HER GRANDMOTHER.
Mrs. Libbie Balliet Hoag has also preserved from earlier narration two delightful stories of Mrs. Lovell:
THE PIONEER WOMAN IN AN EMERGENCY.
"It does seem as though the equilibrium of the pioneer woman was more secure than is that of the woman of the present day. The prospect of two
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or three unexpected guests for a meal, is enough to upset the average house- keeper now and to fire her nerves with anxiety. Yet she is, most likely, provided with conveniences for doing her work, and an abundance of nice china and linen, such as her grandmother never dreamed of. Besides, she may have good stores within a few blocks, perhaps she can even reach them by telephone, and can order from them almost any thing, from soup to des- sert, already prepared.
"Contrast the housewife's resources today with those general in the primitive days of Nevada when, in one instance I know of, one woman pre- pared the dinner, served it and washed the dishes for fifty unexpected guests. It was in the second year of the growth of this city; and the woman, now a great-grandmother, was then barely twenty-one. Groceries, like other sup- plies, were brought by wagon from Rock Island, Keokuk or Muscatine, usually twice a year. The variety was consequently somewhat limited and the housekeeper was restricted to just what it was possible to get. Perhaps such limited range was less confusing to choose from than is the present-day great variety.
"The McLain hotel was then the only hostelry for strangers in the town. The spring of '55 brought such a flood of land-seekers that Mrs. McLain felt unable to cope with the tide alone, and she called on a daughter of one of the neighbors to help her-at first, occasionally, and then steadily for some time. Mrs. McLain felt free to trust the new assistant; and, on wash days, she herself did the big washing, leaving the rest of the feminine respon- sibility to Mary. Also, when the garden which had been planted south of town needed attention, she would mount her steed and, with lunch basket and hoe, ride away to spend as much time as necessary in conquering the weeds springing abundantly from our fertile soil.
"It was on one of these occasions of the landlady's absence that the rush of which I speak occurred. There was not even a supply of bread baked. Mary's first step on noticing quite a number of strangers in town was to set a big patch of 'sponge.' With the homemade yeast kept in store, bread could be prepared for the table in a few hours. A lot of pies and a large pudding were next made and hurried into the elevated oven and out again as soon as possible. The pies were vinegar and custard, the only kinds within her resources at that season.
"By the time dinner was ready, the long table was filled with men. Tablefull after tablefull followed. Guests were served, table changed, dishes washed, more food prepared, etc., etc., until over fifty persons had been waited upon. Fortunately the supply of bread held out and there were potatoes and meat and like plain foods in plenty; but the dessert which had been provided soon vanished, and minute pudding had to supply the de- ficiency. The long, low, shed room which served as both dining room and kitchen, was crowded to the uttermost, and one can imagine the noise and confusion, the talking and laughing and rattling of dishes, as those men were served or stood about waiting their turn.
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"The housekeeper who is easily confused by the presence in the kitchen of an extra person or two will doubtless have to stretch imagination in order to picture herself preparing and serving a meal under the circumstances which surrounded the pioneer woman. The latter does not claim, however, that she was not nervous or tired. She was simply in one of those straits in which one has to march straight ahead, no matter how weary the limb or aching the brow."
DR. ADAMSON'S COW.
"In outward appearance, there was nothing in particular to distinguish Dr. Adamson's cow from the other cows which grazed at pleasure on the Nevada Commons in '55; but for tenacity of purpose, and extraordinary will power this animal acquired quite a reputation. Instead of feeding quietly with her companions, she preferred to roam by herself, and, none of the house lots being fenced, she had ample opportunity to explore all back yards, examine slop buckets, etc.
"One place in particular was her favorite haunt, and no amount of per- suasion (gentle or otherwise), could induce her to change her feeding ground. From early morn until milking time in the evening, she lingered about that door yard. To add to the natural inconvenience resulting from her tramping around and upsetting things, she indulged her great appetite for dry goods. Promptly at every opportunity, she proceeded to chew up any sort of cloth that she came across.
"One day when she had reduced some new shirts to a slimy pulp, the house mother resolved on extreme tactics. Saying nothing to anyone, she tied a good bunch of red pepper pods in a cloth and put the package where she was sure the offending ruminant would find it. According to expecta- tion, the cow found and began to chew the deceptive bundle. However, contrary to said expectation, she did not drop the cud and run off in con- sternation, but remained on the spot, and chewed, and chewed, and chewed, until the foam which dripped from her mouth made a heap almost as large as a washtub. The mother was in agony of mind, for she had intended no one should know of her little ruse. At last, fortunately, the cow could endure the peppers no longer, and, dropping them, with a loud bellow she ran for home. The cure was permanent. She never more annoyed that housewife."
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CHAPTER XIV. MRS. HANNAH KELLOGG-1855 AND LATER. (STORY AS TOLD TO MRS. A. M. PAYNE.)
Mrs. Hannah Kellogg is the earliest surviving resident of the city of Nevada; her husband was the first adult person buried here; her little boy was the fourth child buried here, and her daughter, Mrs. George W. Dyer, is the oldest native of the city. Of the still living persons who live here or have lived here, none other has been so closely identified with the city from its very beginnings, and none other is so competent now to speak of those beginnings. Her coming here with her husband and little family was wholly characteristic of the coming of those who were to upbuild the county, while the bereavements she suffered and the trials she endured were more than ordinarily significant of the pathos of pioneer life. She was the wife of Dr. N. Alonzo Kellogg, a young physician, well educated and capable, and their home had been in Casstown, Ohio. Reasons characteris- tic of young people hoping to get on in the world, started them west when they had been married less than three years, and after vicissitudes of a jour- ney unusually trying they reached Nevada on the 17th of June, 1855, Dr. Kellogg, Mrs. Kellogg and son Willie. Of the coming of the Kelloggs, the conditions they found here, the people who came and lived here and the experiences they had, Mrs. Kellogg has furnished a very luminous record in a series of interviews compiled by Mrs. A. M. Payne. Much of this story is here reproduced as follows:
BOUND FOR IOWA.
Two families from Casstown who had moved to Henry County, Illi- nois, had written back glowing accounts of the "beautiful land" on the other side of the Mississippi, where Uncle Sam was giving away farms. Burlington was the known gateway of that country; hence to Burlington the Kelloggs would go and thence where fortune should dictate. For Burlington they accordingly took passage at Cincinnati with all of their belongings, including $1,700 in gold, on a river steamer. The trip down the Ohio was uneventful and made small impression on the young mother,
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deeply absorbed in the care of an ailing babe. At St. Louis there was change of boats, and the confusion and bustle attendant upon the transfer of passenger and lading; and they had little more than started northward when cholera broke out aboard. Several cases appeared almost simul- taneously. A member of the ship's company died of the fell disease after a few hours, and in the night Mrs. Kellogg, watching from the cabin window when the boat had stopped at an island, saw the quick, sad burial. A child belonging to a family of emigrants died just before Keokuk was reached, and the precious clay was hustled off for burial somewhere-the stricken parents knew not where or how-and the boat would not wait to allow them any sad privileges. There was panic and everybody who could, abandoned the vessel. The Kelloggs were of this number. Dr. Kellogg had had volunteer practice during a siege of cholera near Cincinnati, and he reasoned that Baby Willie would be an easy victim. Mrs. Kellogg's terror of this destroyer dated from her childhood, when it had robbed her of both of her parents in a single night. It was unspeakable relief to be on land again and able to put distance between themselves and the infection.
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