USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa; a record of organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 19
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This illustrates in a measure the trials of the pioneer who, going west blazes the road for other to follow, depriving himself and family of the comforts of life in hope of making a home for them. The pioneer who braved the blasts of the winter and the scalping knife of the Indian, paid dearly for his land in vitality if not in dollars. It took nerve, de- termination and staying qualities to hold out until more people joined the
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little bands that were scattered over the vast prairies here and there. miles apart. In 1857, the present Norwegian settlement was started by Paul Thompson. James Duea, Erick Sheldahl, and a few others, and now that vast prairie is all converted into farms, excepting the town of Roland. The change seems more like a dream than a reality when I look back.
MORE NEIGHBORS
In 1859 came more neighbors making homes. Hiram Ferguson and family came and settled near Mr. Boyes. Mathew Bates was soon there, Samuel Bates and others too numerous to mention dropped down and helped to build up a community that soon created demand for school houses and other things to change the wild nature of the country. Numerous families of Norwegians soon came and their industry soon made the wild prairie blossom like a rose, and yield up gold that was used to build the fine houses and barns which stand where the wolf used to burrow and roam unmolested. What a blessing foreigners have been to the country! They have made good loyal citizens, have subdued the earth and are bene- factors because they have made two blades of grass and grain grow, where there was before only one or none. They soon imbibed the spirit of the republic and helped to make it great by civilizing and bringing forth from the carth something that benefits all nations as well as our own. The fruits of their patient, persistent labor, they now enjoy as they could never have hoped to, had it not been for the American republic. The rich soil they made better and dug out of its storehouse the things that make life worth living. It is the foreigners from all nations that make us great, for we have the spirit of every clime and the talent making a cross that the high- est individual can spring from, and possessing the vitality needed to battle successfully with life. When the war of 1861 came, families who had sons were distressed to see their boys, husband. father or uncles, shoulder the musket and go to the front to do battle for the life of this republic. It was then that our foreign born population showed their loyalty to the country of their adoption. It cemented the whole as one family, with one purpose, under the same flag. making this republic stronger than it ever was before. Long may they live to enjoy it.
The county of Story at the time we came to the state was strongly democratic, and all of its officers were democrats 1 remember ; and after my brother Deville and 1 .. Q. Iloggatt located in the county, politics waxed hot between them, Judge Kellogg. James Frazier, Webb, Lockridge and others. We used to have long night sessions at school houses over the county, and joint discussions were had between the parties above named. causing much amusement as well as excitement that was interesting. The school house campaigns in those days were popular. At that time we had county judges and Judge Evans of Bloomington was judge before Kellogg.
The families of Sowers. Arrasmith. Hughes, Eaglebarger, Mclain, Young. Rich, and many others lived down the river from us, all considered
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neighbors even though several miles away. Jonah Griffith, being quite a biblical student, used to do much of the preaching for us in school houses, until a minister who had nerve enough to brave deprivations and poor pay of the itinerants of those times came out and took up the work in 1859, after which there were quite regular services held at different places, and after George Sowers moved to "Pleasant Grove," he was instrumental in having a large school house built, and preaching was had there quite reg- ularly near his home until a plain building was erected for the work, and it was known after as the "Pleasant Grove church."
Even though we were in what eastern people called the wild west, people did not forget the Ruler of all things; and poor as they were, con- tributed of their small means to help the ministers live, although they had to work as well as pray, which was good I guess for their physical health and satisfaction, although then as now the preacher was looked at as a gentleman of leisure who did not need much to live on. The absolute necessities of life were all that could be had in those times and we had no daily papers, just weeklies, and they came around in about one week after publication, if they came any distance. Editors then begged for money as now, and always had a poor mouth until people got so used to it that they paid little attention to such things. We had no telegraph. telephone, express, railroads nor automobiles to get over the country. People paid their subscriptions to the editor when they got ready, and considered that he should be satisfied that he got it in time to pay his deferred bills that depended upon these just claims for liquidation. Editors with great pa- tience held out and did much advertising free that people want, but do not want to pay for, then as now, and felt thankful like the rest that they were alive.
The years of 1859 and 1860 were marked for the rapid emigration to this state and the prairie breaker could be seen in almost any direction as we traveled across the great prairies. Then was the advent of the mower and reaper that discharged the grain by main strength at the end of a big square rake that was almost a man killer, but it was more rapid than the hand cradle or hand scythe, and was considered a great advancement and highly appreciated. Our corn plows were a single shovel plow, until some man tried a double shovel walking plow that was considered much better. In those days, boys rode a horse generally, while a man held the plow until it was found out that a man could drive as well as plow at the same time. Finally the cultivator with two beams and four shovels came, and we could plow one row every time we crossed the field, which was a marvel in those days. Now men plow two rows at a time making four rows at one bout. We did not live at as rapid a pace as now.
In 1858 and 1859. many Norwegians came to the county, part of them settling in the southwest part of the county and others in the north part of the county. These families, many of them, could hardly speak the English language; but they soon learned and it used to be said the first
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word they learned was "scour," a word always used when a man went to buy a plow, it being very important that a plow scoured, so that it would turn the soil over and properly cover up the grass and weeds. In this, as many other things, the foreigner was apt, and with his persistent industry he soon improved his farm by building a house, barn, and other buildings that were a great improvement over the pioneers' huts that could be seen along the streams or among the earlier settlements of the prairie. The soil of Story County has some gumbo in it, hence the necessity of having a very hard plow that the muck would not stick to so as to do the farming properly.
We found the Primes, Brackens, Hardings, Andersons and Wilkin- sons there, and they lived up the river toward Story City, and some, a little ways out on the prairie. At that time the prairie land was not con- sidered quite as good as the land near the streams; hence settlements were mostly along the streams, and partly because the only fuel we had was wood, it being before the discovery of coal in the county or along the Des Moines at Boone. People at that time used wood stoves only, not know- ing much about soft coal as fuel; but when it was discovered and came into use, coal was a boon to the small boy who had had to chop the wood mornings, evenings and Saturdays during school days. I noticed it was also appreciated by the older ones in the community who had no boy to send out after an armful of wood.
Soft coal and barb wire were a great thing in the way of making it possible to settle and improve the great prairies of Jowa at that time, and it cost four or five times as much per pound then as now. The posts used then were the native oak mostly, for no cedar was then to be had. Our desires were simple and few, and our happiness, I believe, fraught with more contentment than in this day of rapid transit and hurricane move- ments for more and more. Many of the people went to town many miles with an ox team, taking all day and often into the night to make the trip for something the family needed. In those days the wife often milked the cows, fed the pigs and had all the chores done, when the weary husband arrived at home from the day's journey, and her deft hands had also prepared a warm meal that the husband or brother ate with a relish which can only be understood by those who have experienced the trials. No "bullyon" or oyster stews were to be had then.
The wages of the pedagogue in those times would insult a teacher now, and I think some may turn up their nose when I say teachers in those times got the munificent sum of $14 to $20 per month as a rule in the district school. I taught my first school in 1860, south of where the college farm is now, near where the Wiltse family lived, and boarded with them and received $17 per month, paying two dollars per week for my board. I felt that I was getting fair wages because at that time I had worked for Amon Hipsher for 50c per day at farm work and four days of the time I helped to deepen his well 28 feet down ; but I got my board
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while there. Harvest wages varied from $1.50 to $2 per day, according to how badly rushed a man was to secure his grain. Teaching was easier than physical exertion in those days and it was appreciated by those who worked at it sometimes. I hear people talk now days about hard times. What would they consider the experiences of the early pioneer? I often say the present generation know nothing about hard times and would know less if they would curtail their desires to their necessities and save the dif- ference in wages that exist between the two periods.
H. D. BALLARD.
Primghar, Iowa.
MR. AND MRS. H. H. BOYES-1854-7 AND LATER.
Mr. and Mrs. Harry H. Boyes, lately of Howard Township, are very notable among Story County pioneers in that they came to the county as children or youths in the days of the first occupation of the land, grew up and married here, and have spent the most of their lives in the township where they were reared. Mr. Boyes was absent for four years in the army, and the family lived in Nevada for six years, while he was county recorder, and were in eastern Colorado for four years; but with these ex- ceptions they have been almost always in Howard Township. Mr. Boyes was one of the boys who were off to school when the civil war broke out, and he succeeded in getting into the First Iowa Infantry which fought at Wilson's Creek, was mustered out after three months' service and a large part of whose members afterward held commissions in other regiments. Mr. Boyes was typical of the regiment, and he had his long service and ultimately his commission in the Second Iowa Cavalry. Mrs. Boyes was a member of one of the best known families of Story County pioneers, being a daughter of Dr. Ballard, and a sister of H. D. Ballard, whose reminiscences are also in this chapter. Since the following letters were written, it may be added that Mr. and Mrs. Boyes have moved again from their farm to Nevada, and that they now have the coveted automobile. Their letters follow :
BY H. H. BOYES.
I have been requested to contribute some of my early experiences and recollections, as one of the early settlers of Story County. I find it rather difficult to go back, over so many years, and recall incidents as they actually occurred. I will state, however, that I was born quite early in my career in Cattaraugus County, New York, and when four years old, my parents moved to southern Michigan and took me along.
In the fall of 1853, the star of empire lit the way toward the land of prom- ise, which was said to be beyond the Mississippi river, and had been named Iowa. A loaded wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen, a few head of cows
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trailing after, slowly and steadily moved onward straight toward the setting sun, until late in the fall a resting place was found in a little vacant cabin. surrounded by heavy timber down on Clear creek in Jasper County, about two miles south of Clyde. Here the winter was passed and in April, the following spring, the journey was resumed, headed for the vacant govern- ment lands along "Bear creek." in the northern part of Story County. . 1 cabin and a few acres of land were rented and a beginning made for a home. Logs were cut and hauled for a house ; corn was planted, the prairie sod torn up by the plow. and the cause was on trial between limited means and adverse circumstances on one hand and vast opportunity on the other.
Our experiences in those early days were the same as those of others who came, when all was new and wild. Far from mill and market, little to sell and much to buy, money scarce and often worthless; but through it all there was the spirit of enterprise and hopefulness. There were some hardships or rather privations. Game was plenty and there was never any lack of pork and beef, but the bread supply of those first years was sometimes a problem. I think it was in the winter of 1855 that the whole country was covered with a thick sheet of ice so it was impossible for oxen to travel, and at our home, the meal sack was about empty, and seven of us youngsters to feed, and there had to be something doing. So father sawed off a block about two feet long from a large oak log and with his carpenter tools hollowed out one end until it would hold about a peck of corn ; then he took a hickory pole about six feet long. put iron rings on one end and drove in the iron wedge, and the problem was solved for the time being. It did not take long to pound out enough corn for a big johnny- cake in mother's dripping pan.
My brother and I would shoulder our axes and with our cold lunch of "hog and hominy" go to the timber, a mile away. and swing our axes and heavy mauls, all day, chop a hole in the ice on the river to drink, and think it no hardship. We were well and strong and hearty. And so those carly pioneers fared and toiled, realizing they were making homes, and that more prosperous times would follow.
Perhaps they did not fully realize that they were also building up a commonwealth which would in the future be a potent factor and power in the affairs of the nation and the world. Could those pioneers have lived to the present day, they might have realized to a great extent the fulfill- ment of their anticipations. But nearly all have folded their toil worn, calloused hands across their breasts in surcease of care.
Socially the carly settlers probably enjoyed themselves as much of more than do people at the present day. All were neighbors far and near, and often met and passed the hours in pleasant intercourse. No doubt the older members felt the responsibilities resting on them in their efforts to combat adverse circumstances; but here they had come, and here were their hopes for establishing a new home, and bravely and earnestly they persevered.
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To the younger members of society the conditions did not present so serious an aspect. Usually a sermon somewhere on Sunday, or singing school, and often in the summer time a mowing bee, when the younger men took their scythes on their shoulders and went to help some neigh- bor with his haying, and at the same time the young ladies were busy at a quilting in the little cabin. Then when supper was over and the stars came out, they all most diligently proceeded to polish down the puncheon floor to the time of "Uncle" Jonathan Smith's fiddle.
As an automobile was passing the other day, I asked Mrs. B. if she remembered the first buggy ride we ever took together. It was in the long ago when we were young ; long before gray hair silvered our temples, when the world looked good and full of bright prospects. She readily recalled the incident. I remember how I yoked up old Buck and Browny, hitched them to the wagon, put a board across the box for a seat, and with my head up and a long whip over my shoulder, I walked beside the oxen and drove the outfit. The day was pleasant and all went "merry as a marriage bell." but the bells did not ring until long years afterwards. And now, with the shed full of buggies and the barn full of horses, she is insistent on another joy ride ; but the carriage must have brass mountings and red wheels, and the horn at the side. I only mention the foregoing incident to show that in the methods of locomotion, with the exception of speed and a whole lot of ostentatious style, the world has not made such wonderful advancement as we are inclined to believe. Old Buck and Browny always got there.
The pioneer brought with him two cherished institutions, the church and the school. I believe the first sermons were given by Uncle Jonah Griffith and then followed Rev. Miller, and later Rev. Cadwalader and Rev. Swearingen. These services were held in the little cabins until the building of the first school house, which was in the year 1856, and was known as "Old Poverty." It was constructed of logs, plastered with clay, with split shakes for the roof, and benches for seats, and desks arranged along the sides.
The first school taught in the settlement was in a little house located on the hill just south of Long Dick creek, during the winter of 1855. This school was largely attended and was taught by Charley Haslett.
The first death in the settlement that I can chronicle was that of old Mrs. Smith, wife of Uncle Jimmy Smith. On this occasion, there being no lumber to make a coffin, my father and Mr. Brown and Mr. Griffith, split out of a walnut tree, the necessary material, hewed and planed it down and made a very respectable coffin.
In the wet season our roads became in places bottomless quagmires. However, as the necessity rose, they were gradually improved. Instead of calling a good roads convention and doing a lot of lamenting over con- ditions with no result, we yoked up the oxen, went to the timber and hauled
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out logs for culverts, and with brush and sod for filling, we did a pretty good job, with no thought of recompense further than our own convenience.
In those days there was a lot of volunteer work done on the roads, and that without the tools and conveniences we now have; and that work has gone steadily on until now we have roads quite satisfactory to everyone except the automobile driver. The first public road located was the old state road running from Newton to Ft. Dodge. This road went wander- ing around the ponds and over the hills and was marked by a furrow. The first work on the road was done where it now crosses the big slough in section 17, and so the years went by.
A great awkward youth I was in summer swinging the grain cradle from morning till night over many broad acres at 50 cents a day ; in winter wielding the ax and maul and driving the wedge with strokes that made the forest ring ; standing by the home and homestead until of age. I had long cherished an ambition for a better education and in accordance with desire, had slowly accumulated the magnificent amount of eighteen dollars. Therefore, when father had sewed up a rip in my boot, and mother had done some repairing to my coat, I left home and turned my face toward Cornell college at Mount Vernon. There I struck a different atmosphere and found all the various kinds of aristocracy-the true moral worth, and the cheaply snobbish. I need not tell that these were strenuous days for the raw country boy, much more at home hunting coon up and down Skunk river at midnight. than poring beside the student lamp. Since these days } have passed through many trying ordeals, that tried the nerves, but I can truthfully say, that never have I been so scared as when I was called up to the rostrum in the old college chapel to deliver my first declamation.
The natural sequence came. The war came on,-and on the 14th of April. 1861, I volunteered as a soldier, and my "diploma" was won on the Brentwood Hills at Nashville, and was signed by Governor Kirkwood.
H. H. BOYES.
MRS. H. H. HOYES.
By request I will attempt to recall a few incidents of pioneering.
On the 9th day of May, the year 1844, in Alleghany County, New York, I first saw the light, and when I was four months old, my father, Dr. M. R. Ballard, with his family migrated westward as far as Ohio. He re- mained in that state one year ; then removed to Will County, Illinois, where he settled on a farm to provide employment for his sons, while he fol- lowed his profession as a practicing physician. Again, when } was thir- teen years old. the family took up its westward course, coming to Story County, Iowa, and arriving May 20, 1857, in what is now Howard Town- ship. I have resided here continuously, with the exception of six years I lived in Nevada and four years in the west.
While journeying on our way from Illinois, the experiences were novel at times, but the most vivid recollections were when we came to cross the
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Mississippi river at Davenport, and drove the covered wagon on to the ferry boat. At Iowa City, my sister, Mrs. Ferguson, stayed with a brother's family, who lived there, until the brother came along with the stock, then she came with brother Russell and family, and arrived in Story County, July 4, 1857. The weather, while we were jogging along from day to day was ideal, and all went well, until, approaching Nevada, we mired down in a slough and required assistance to get started again. Stopping at Nevada, we were supplied with necessaries at Major Hawthorn's store, before leav- ing for our destination. Between here and Nevada, there were no dwell- ings until we reached the log cabin of H. L. Boyes, near where we now live.
My father settled on the Isaac Blade farm, by the timber near Skunk river, which overflowed often in spring time. The building was a cabin, with one room for eight in the family to occupy. I well remember how homesick my mother was to be obliged to get along with so little room, in a log cabin ; with "bunks," one above another, for the family to sleep in ; cooking by a fireplace, etc., until different arrangements could be made.
The following winter of 1857-8, the first school, in our immediate neighborhood was near my father's dwelling, and was taught by Lois E. Ballard, brother Russell's first wife, in their own dwelling. We had a good school, numbering fifteen or twenty pupils. The year 1856-7, the first school was taught by Charley Haslett, on Long Dick creek. The sec- ond school was the one above mentioned, and the third school was in "Old Poverty" taught by Rollin C. McOmber, in the summer of 1858. The winter of 1858-9 my brother, D. P. Ballard, taught the first school in the "Sheffield" school house, and I taught the summer school and the follow- ing winter of 1859 and 1860. H. H. Rood of Mt. Vernon, taught the same school. The winter of 1858-9, I attended the Nevada school taught by Rollin C. McOmber. Madams F. D. Thompson, Lockridge and Waldron were my classmates, as were also Gardner Price, J. D. Ferguson, H. H. Rood and many others. F. D. Thompson taught the Nevada schools the years of 1860-1 and 1861-2, and I had the pleasure of being one of his pupils.
In pioneer days, wheat bread was a luxury, as we lived principally on corn bread, but with plenty of vegetables, and all the wild fruit necessary, sweetened with sorghum. Molasses was relished then. We all enjoyed good health and life was full of pleasure to the younger members of society, who could adapt themselves to conditions and circumstances. I often con- trast the present prosperity with those days, and imagine it would be a hardship for the younger generation now to be brought to such conditions. This is an era of extravagance and wastefulness. I pity the children who are not taught the value of money, or what it means to make a living. I was taught that a penny saved was two earned. I am not a pessimist, but I predict this extravagance cannot always continue, and that those who do not garner and live within their income, may realize somewhat the strenuous conditions of the pioneer.
S. E. BOYES.
CHAPTER XVII.
TALES OF EARLY DAYS.
MR. AND MRS. J. F. BROWN-LAFAYETTE IN 1854.
I came to Iowa the first time in 1854. In June, 1855, a younger brother and I walked from Cedar County, Iowa, to the county of Story, a distance of about 150 miles. The country was new and neighbors lived scattered in the pioneer houses of small dimensions but cheerful and happy. At that time but few families lived on Story's fertile prairies with a carpet of heavy prairie grass, in spots mingled with acres of white and blue and pink flowers which gracefully nodded when the winds blew. With the exception of the many ponds at that time it was a land of promise to a wide-awake newcomer, which ponds tiling is so nicely overcoming at the present day, though then the tiling was not dreamed of. In June, 1855, I entered the southeast quarter of section 26, Lafayette Township, Story County, lowa. Went back to Pennsylvania and got married New Year's day, 1856. On March 5. 1856, we started for our new home in Lafayette Township, where we have lived ever since and raised our children, four boys and one girl, trained to honesty and industry. Our traveling outfit was a team of horses and muslin covered wagon, with plenty of warm wraps. We ar- rived on our plot of land April 13th, without a shack for shelter.
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