USA > Iowa > Marion County > The History of Marion County, Iowa: Containing a History of the County, Its Cities, Towns, & C. > Part 39
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As it neared midnight settler after settler took his place on the border of his claim with his bunch of sharpened stakes and a lantern or blazing torch, and when it was thought that midnight had arrived there was some lively surveying by amateur engineers in the dark. The claims were paced off, and strange as it may seem there were but few cases of dispute, the mat-
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een previously pretty well understood. Some of the claims large, more in fact than the law allowed the claimants to hold; ers were not unmindful of the wholesome advice of the Hoos- 'ho possibly lived in an earlier day, but whose council to "git le you're gittin" was followed to the letter and to which the ded "and git the best."
ns now reside in the county who took part in that memorable eedings and the story of one who was there is well worth re- e says: "Precisely at midnight there were heard loud reports which announced that the empire of the red man had ended
that of his master race had begun. Answering reports rang ne night air, in quick succession, till the signal was conveyed und, and all understood that civilization had commenced her tral Iowa. The moon was slowly sinking in the west and its ed a feeble and uncertain light for the measurement of claims, many were engaged.
the landscape was shrouded in darkness, save the wild and fit- of torches, carried by the claim-makers. Before the night had n away, the rough surveys were finished, and the Indian lands ew tenants. Throughout the country thousands of acres were aims before dawn. Settlers rushed in by hundreds and the re- o tranquil and silent, felt the impulse of the change and be- with sounds of industry and enterprise."
come at last the much desired day bringing to the pioneer the choose from all the goodly land before him his future home. ' days had passed the curling smoke was seen rising through from many a hopeful happy home; and within these homes thankful hearts, cheerful faces, welcome voices and liberal hos- : great work of the settlement and cultivation of this fertile tually begun all over the present territory of Marion county 88 assurance that this work of improvement and civilization rried on to the western territory beyond the Missouri.
ne to which we have just been referring that beautiful region of ounding the present site of Pleasantville, the most delightful y and a more productive than which there is none in the State, rown open for settlement. Among those who first located we mention the following: D. Halsey, L. Reynolds, T. Rey- Glenn, W. S. Glenn, Samuel Glenn, D. Vansel, L. Young, P. . Young, G. B. Greenwood, J. Lewis, Marion Clifton, James Miller, D. Shonkwiler, S. Tibbett, Robert Logan, H. Logan, Y. . Miles, W. Jordan and Daniel Davidson.
that Lewis Reynolds broke the first prairie in that region, and onnection with Jordan and Logan planted the first orchards. the first owner of the site of Pleasantville.
outh, Nathan Nichols, Peter Row, A. Hewland, William Fra- lark, D. F. Smith and J. W. Hightree settled.
er south beyond Whitebreast Creek, the following persons set- olas Helms, with his four sons, William Willis, Thomas Kirton, poner, J. Bauer, Hiram Teakle, A. Bauer, Henry Goring, H. Jacob Smith, Josiah Willey, John Asher, Wm. Clear, Wm. arkin, three persons named Pershall, Wm. and John Agan, ind Andrew Reed.
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
North of Pleasantville the following, among others, settled soon after the summer of 1845: C. W. Thomas, W. H. Palmer, Jesse Johnson, James Crabb, John Firman, Jesse Walker, H. Freel, Wm. Bundren, D. Huut, A. Schirner and John Butcher. Still further north beyond the river were the following: H. Gay, J. Linsey, Chas. Owen, Asa Hughes, R. Allison, J. Mc Williams, S. Waterman, Peter Brons, Mordecai Yearns, Alfred Vertrice, Thomas Carr and others.
CHAPTER V. PIONEER LIFE.
The Pioneer's Peculiarities-Conveniences and Inconveniences-The Historical Log Cabin- Agricultural Implements-Household Furniture-Pioneer Corn-bread-Hand-mills and Hominy-blocks-Going to Mill-Trading Points-The Pioneer Stock-dealer-Hunting and Trapping-The California Gold Excitement-The Western Stage Company-Claim- clubs and Club-laws-A Border Sketch-Surveys and Land Sales-The First Records- Growth of the County-Table of Events.
DURING the decade which comprehends the first ten years of its history the settlement of Marion county was in its earliest stage of pioneer life. All that can be known of this period must be drawn chiefly from tradition.
In those days the people took no care to preserve history-they were too busily engaged in making it. Historically speaking; those were the most important years of the county, for it was then the foundation and corner- stones of all the country's history and prosperity were laid. Yet this period was not remarkable for stirring events. It was, however, a time of self- reliance and brave, persevering toil; of privations, cheerfully endured through faith in a good time coming The experience of one settler was just about the same as that of others. They were almost invariably poor, they faced the same hardships and stood generally on an equal footing.
All the experience of the early pioneers of this county goes far to con- firm the theory that, after all, happiness is pretty evenly balanced in this world. They had their privations and hardships, but they had also their own peculiar joys. If they were. poor they were free from the burden of pride and vanity; free, also, from the anxiety and care that always attend the possession of wealth. Other people's eyes cost them nothing. If they bad few neighbors, they were on the best terms with those they had. Envy, jealously and strife had not crept in. A common interest and a com- mon sympathy bound them together with the strongest ties. They were s little world to themselves, and the good feeling that prevailed was all the stronger because they were so far removed from the great world of the East.
Among these pioneers there was realized such a community of interest that there existed a community of feeling. There were no castes, no aristoc- racy, except an aristocracy of benevolence, and no nobility, except a no- bility of generosity. They were bound together with such a strong bond of sympathy, inspired by the consciousness of common hardship, that they were practically communists.
Neighbors did not even wait for an invitation or request to help one an- other. Was a settler's cabin burned or blown down, no sooner was the fact known throughout the neighborhood than the settlers assembled to as- sist the unfortunate one to re-build his home. They came with as little
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
hesitation, and with as much alacrity, as though they were all members of the same family, and bound together by ties of blood. One man's interest was every other man's interest also. Now this general state of feeling among the pioneers was by no means peculiar to this country, although it was strongly illustrated here. It prevailed generally throughout the West during the time of the early settlement. The very nature of things taught the settlers the necessity of dwelling together in this spirit. It was their only protection. They had come far away from the well-established reign of law and entered a new country where the civil anthority was still feeble, and totally unable to afford protection and redress grievances. Here in Marion county the settlers lived for quite a time before there was a single officer of the law in the county. Each man's protection was in the good- will and friendship of those about him, and the thing any man might well dread was the ill-will of the community. It was more terrible than the law. It was no common thing in the early times for hardened men, who had no fears of jails or penitentiaries, to stand in great fear of the indigna- tion of a pioneer community. Such were some of the characteristics of the carly settlers of Marion county.
HOUSES AND HOME COMFORTS.
The first buildings in the county were not just like the log cabins that immediately succeeded them. These latter required some help and a good deal of labor to build. The very first buildings constructed were a cross between " hoop cabins " and Indian bark huts. As soon as enough men would be got together for a " cabin raising" then log cabins were in style. "Many a pioneer can remember the happiest time of his life as that when he lived in one of these homely but comfortable and profitable old cabins.
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A window with sash and glass was a rarity, and was an evidence of wealth and aristocracy which but few could support. They were often made with greased paper put over the window, which admitted a little light, but more often there was nothing whatever over it, or the cracks between the loga, withrout either chinking or danbing, was the dependence for light and air.
The doors were fastened with old-fashioned wooden latches, and for a friend or neighbor or traveler the string always hung out, for the pioneers of the West were hospitable, and entertained visitors to the best of their ability.
It is noticeable with what affection the pioneers speak of their old log cabins. It may be doubted whether palaces ever sheltered happier hearts than those homely cabins. The following is a good description of these old land-marks, but few of which now remain:
" These were of round logs notched together at the corners, ribbed with poles and covered with boards split from a tree. A puncheon floor was then laid down, a hole cut in the end and a stick chimney run up. A clap- board door was made, a window opened by cutting out a hole in the side or end about two feet square, and finished without glass or transparency. The house was then 'chinked' and 'daubed' with mud made of the top toil.
-- "The cabin was now ready to go into. The household and kitchen furni- tare adjusted, and life on the frontier begun in earnest.
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
"The one-legged bedstead, now a piece of furniture of the past, was made by cutting a stick the proper length, boring holes at one end one and a half inches in diameter, at right angles, and the same-sized holes corres- ponding with these in the logs of the cabin the length and breadth desired for the bed, in which were inserted poles.
" Upon these poles clapboards were laid, or lind bark interwoven con- secutively from pole to pole. Upon this primitive structure the bed was laid. The convenience of a cook-stove was not thought of then, but instead the cooking was done by the faithful housewife in pots, kettles and skillets, on and about the big fire-place, and very frequently over and around, too, the distended pedal extremeties of the legal sovereigns of the household, who were indulging in the luxuries of a cob-pipe, and discussing the probable results of a contemplated elk-hunt up and about Walled Lake." These log cabins were really not so bad, after all.
The people of to-day, familiarized with " Charter Oak cooking-stoves" and ranges, would be ill at home were they compelled to prepare a meal with no other conveniences than those provided in a pioneer cabin. Rude fire-places were built in chimneys composed of mud and sticks, or at best, of undressed stone. These fire-places served for heating and cooking purposes; also for ventilation. Around the cheerful blaze of this fire the meal was prepared, and these meals were not so bad either. As elsewhere remarked they were not such as would tempt the epicure, but such as afforded the most healthy nourishment for a race of people who were driven to the exposure and hard- ships which were their lot; we hear of few dyspeptics in those days. An- other advantage of these cooking arrangements was that the stove pipe never fell down and the pioneer was spared being subjected to the most try- ing of ordeals, and one probably more productive of profanity than any other.
Before the country became supplied with mills which were of easy access, and even in some instances afterward, hominy-blocks were used. These exist now only in the memory of the oldest settlers, but as relics of the "long ago" a description of them will not be uninteresting:
A tree of suitable size, say from eighteen inches to two feet in diameter, was selected in the forest and felled to the ground. If a cross-cut saw hap- pened to be convenient, the tree was " butted "-that is, the kerf end was sawed off so that it would stand steady when ready for use. If there were no cross-cut saw in the neighborhood, strong arms and sharp axes were ready to do the work. Then the proper length, from four to five feet, was measured off, and sawed or cut square. When this was done the block was raised on end, and the work of cutting out a hollow in one of the ends was commenced. This was generally done with a common chopping axe. Sometimes a smaller one was used. When the cavity was judged to be large enough, a fire was lighted in it and carefully watched till the ragged edges were burned away. When completed the hominy-block somewhat resembled a druggist's mortar. Then a pestle or something to crush .the corn was necessary. This was usually made from a suitably sized piece of timber with an iron wedge attached, the large end down. This completed the machinery, and the block was ready for use. Sometimes one hominy- block accommodated an entire neighborhood, and was the means of staying the hunger of many mouths.
During the first two or three years after the first settlements were made
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
the wheat crop was never good, smnt and rust being the chief cause of the failure. After the harvest, what there was of it, had been gathered, the question was how shall it be threshed and cleaned, as there were no thresh- ing-machines or wind-mills in the country. The following plan was usually adopted: A portion of ground near the house was cleared of all rubbish, and this answered for a threshing-floor, where the sheaves were placed and the grain was tramped out with horses or oxen. When the grain was tramped out the straw was raked off. The wheat was then separated from the chaff by throwing it up in the air and permitting the wind to blow the chaff away. If there was no wind going a fan was extemporized and a blast of wind made by artificial means. This was the good old Bible plan, and the settlers deserve no credit for inventing it. In resorting to this mode of threshing and cleaning wheat it frequently happened that a large quantity of black soil became mixed with the wheat and this unavoidably went into the composition of the bread together with the grain and the smut, as the mills were few in number and not provided with the modern appliances for cleansing the grain, such as smut-machines, etc. Loaves made from such flour were often so black as to resemble mund cakes made from the rich soil of the prairie, more than bread. Upon such diet those who pioneered their way to the home of the Sacs and Foxes were compelled to subsist, and it cannot be doubted that they received more than the usual peck of dirt which is currently reported to be the average allowance of each simple son of Adam.
In giving the bill of fare above we should have added meat, for of this they had plenty. Deer would be seen daily trooping over the prairie in droves of from twelve to twenty, and sometimes as many as fifty would be seen grazing together. Elk were also found, and wild turkeys and prairie chickens without number. Bears were not unknown. Music of the natural order was not wanting, and every night the pioneers were lulled to rest by the screeching of panthers and the howling of wolves. When the dogs ventured too far out from the cabins at night they would be driven back by the wolves chasing them up to the very cabin doors. Trapping wolves became quite a profitable business after the State began to pay a bounty for wolf scalps.
All the streams of water also abounded in fish, and a good supply of the very best could be procured by the expense of a little time and labor. Those who years ago improved the fishing advantages of the county never tire telling of the dainty meals which the streams afforded. Sometimes large parties would get together, and, having been provided with cooking utensils and facilities for camping out, would go off some distance and spend weeks together. No danger then of being ordered off a man's premises or arrested for trespass.
One of the peculiar circumstances that surrounded the early life of the pioneers was a strange loneliness. The solitude seemed almost to oppress them. Months would pass during which they would see scarcely a human face outside their own families. The isolation of these early days worked upon some of the settlers an effect that has never passed away. Some of them say that they lived in such a lonely way when they first came here that afterward, when the county began to fill up, they always found them- selves bashful and constrained in the presence of strangers. But when the people were once started in this way the long pent-up feelings of joviality and sociability fairly boiled over, and their meetings frequently became
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
enthusiastic and jovial in the highest degree. It seeins singular to note bashfulness as one of the characteristics of the strong, stalwart settlere, but we are assured by the old settlers themsives that this was a prominent characteristic of the pioneers. And some of them declare that this feeling became so strong during the early years of isolation and loneliness that they have never since been able to shake it off.
But there were certainly some occasions when the settlers were not in the least degree affected by anything in the nature of bashfulness. When their rights were threatened or invaded they had "muscles of iron and hearts of flint." It was only when brought together for merely social pur- poses that they seemed ill at ease. If any emergency arose, or any business was to be attended to, they were always equal to the occasion.
On occasions of special interest, such as elections, holiday celebrations or camp-meetings, it was nothing unusual for a few settlers who lived in the immediate neighborhood of the meeting to entertain scores of those who had come from a distance.
Rough and rude though the surroundings may have been, the pioneers were none the less honest, sincere, hospitable and kind in their relations. It is true as a rule, and of universal application, that there is a greater de- gree of real humanity among the pioneers of any country than there is when the country becomes older and richer. If there is an absence of re- finement that absence is more than compensated in the presence of gener- ous hearts and truthful lives. They are bold, courageous, industrious, en- terprising and energetic. Generally speaking, they are earnest thinkers and possessed of a diversified fund of useful, practical information. As a rule they do not arrive at a conclusion by means of a course of rational reasoning, but nevertheless have a queer way of getting at the facts. They hate cowards and shams of every kind, and above all things falsehood and deception, and cultivate an integrity which seldom permits them to prosti- tute themselves to a narrow policy of imposture.
Such were the characteristics of the men and women who pioneered the way to the country of the Sac and Fox Indians. Many of them yet remain and, although as a general thing they are among the wealthiest and most substantial of the people of the county, they have not forgotten their old- time hospitality and free and easy ways. In contrasting the present social affairs with pioneer times, one has well-said:
"Then, if a house was to be raised every man " turned ont," and often the women too, and while the men piled up the logs that fashioned the primitive dwelling-place the women prepared the dinner. Sometimes it was cooked by big log fires near the site where the cabin was building; in other cases it was prepared at the nearest cabin, and at the proper hour was carried to where the men were at work. If one man in the neighbor- hood killed a beef, a pig, or a dcer, every other family in the neighborhood was sure to receive a piece. We were all on an equality. Aristocratic feelings were unknown and would not have been tolerated. What one had we all had, and that was the happiest period of my life. But to-day, if you lean against a neighbor's shade-tree he will charge yon for it. If you are poor and fall sick you may lie and suffer almost unnoticed and unattended, and probably go the poor-house ; and just as like as not the man who would report you to the authorities as a subject of county care would charge the county for making the report."
Of the old settlers some are still living in the county, in the enjoyment
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HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY.
of the fortunes they founded in the early times, "having reaped an hundred- fold." Others have passed away, and many of them will not long survive Several of them have gone to the far West, and are still acting the part of pioneers. But wherever they may be, and whatever fate may betide them, it is but truth to say that they were excellent men, as a class, and have left a deep and enduring impression upon Marion county and the State. "They builded better than they knew."" They were, of course, men of activity and energy or they would never have decided to face the trials of pioneer life. They were almost invariably poor, but the lessons taught them in the early days were of such a character that few of them have remained so. They made their mistakes in business pursuits like other men. Scarcely one of them but allowed golden opportunities, for pecuniary profit at least, to pass by unheeded. What are now some of the choicest farms in Marion county were not taken up by the pioneers, who preferred land of much less value. They have seen many of their prophesies fulfilled, and others come to naught. Whether they have attained the success they desired their own hearts can tell.
To one looking over the situation then from the standpoint now, it cer- tainly does not seem very cheering, and yet from the testimony of some old pioneers it was a most enjoyable time, and we of the present time live in degenerate days.
At that time it certainly would have been much more difficult for those old settlers to understand how it could be possible that thirty-five years hence the citizens of the present age of the country's progress would be complaining of hard times and destitution, and that they themselves, per- haps, would be among that number, than it is now for us to appreciate how they could feel so cheerful and contented with their meager means and humble lot of hardships and deprivations during those early pioneer days.
The secret was, doubtless, that they lived within their means, however limited, not coveting more of luxury and comfort than their income would afford, and the natural result was prosperity and contentment, with always room for one more stranger at the fireside, and a cordial welcome to a place at their table for even the most hungry guest.
Humanity, with all its ills, is nevertheless fortunately characterized with remarkable flexibility, which enables it to accommodate itself to cironm- stances. Thus all the secret of happiness lies in one's ability to accommo- date himself to his surroundings.
It is sometimes remarked that there were no places for public entertain- ment till later years. The fact is there were many such places; in fact, every cabin was a place of entertainment, and these hotels were sometimes crowded to their utmost capacity. On such an occasion, when bed-time came, the first family would take the back part of the cabin, and so cou- tinue filling up by families until the limit was reached. The young men slept in the wagons outside. In the morning those nearest the door arose first and went outside to dress. Meals were served on the hind end of a wagon, and consisted of corn-bread, buttermilk and fat pork, and occasion- ally coffee to take away the morning chill. On Sundays, for a change, they had bread made of wheat " tread out " on the ground by horses, cleaned with a sheet, and pounded by hand. This was the best the most fastidious could obtain, and this only one day in seven.
Not a moment of time was lost. It was necessary that they should raise enough sod-corn to take them through the coming winter, and also get as
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much breaking done as possible. They brought with them enough corn to give the horses an occasional feed in order to keep them able for hard work, but in the main they had to live on prairie grass. The cattle got nothing else than grass.
Still farther about the living in those days. If the average family had corn-bread the boarders were all satisfied, and well they might be, for flour was at first very scarce and in many families was an unknown commodity, and they had corn-bread in those days " as was corn-bread," such as many a resident of the county of this day knows nothing of; and the pone made by the grandmothers of the young people of the present day was something for pride.
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