USA > Iowa > Muscatine County > The History of Muscatine county, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 47
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" Be it enacted, that all contracts, promises, assumpsits. or undertakings, either written or verbal, which shall be made hereafter in good faith, and with- out fraud, collusion or circumvention, for sale, purchase or payment of improve- ments made on the lands owned by the Government of the United States, shall be deemed valid in law or equity, and may be sued for and recovered as in other contracts.
" That all deeds of quitclaim, or other conveyance of all improvements upon public lands, shall be as binding and effectual, in law and equity, between the parties for conveying the title of the grantor in and to the same, as in cases where the grantor has the fee-simple to the premises conveyed."
404
HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY.
Previous to lands being brought into market, each township, nearly, had its own organization throughout the Territory. This was to prevent unpleasant litigation and to keep up a spirit of harmony among neighbors. and the better to protect them in their equitable rights of "claim " purchase. A " call- meeting" was announced something after this fashion : " The citizens of Town- ship 76 north, Range 2 west. are requested to meet at 'Squire B-'s, at Oak Grove (or as the place or the time might be), to adopt the necessary measures for securing their homes, at the approaching land-sales at B -. " After a short preamble and set of resolutions, suited to the occasion. a " Register " was appointed, whose duty it was to record the name of each claimant to his respective " claim." A " bidder" was also appointed, whose duty it was on the day of sale, to bid off all the land previously registered, in the name of each respective claimant. Thus, everything moved along at the land sales with the harmony and regularity of clock-work ; but if any one present was found bidding over the minimum price ($1.25 per acre) on land registered in the township, woe be to him !
When any controversy arose between the neighbors relative to trespassing (or, in common parlance, "jumping a claim "), it was arbitrated by a committee appointed for that purpose, and their decision was considered final.
Newhall describes a land-sale, which may bring up to the minds of some of the old settlers a remembrance of one of those absorbing periods. He says :
"Many are the ominous indications of its approach among the settlers. Every dollar is sacredly treasured np. The precious 'mint-drops' take to themselves wings and fly away from the merchant's till to the farmer's cup- board. Times are dull in the towns, for the settler's home is dearer and sweeter than the merchant's sugar and coffee. At length the wished-for day arrives. The suburbs of the town present the scene of a military camp. The settlers have flocked from far and near. The hotels are thronged to overflowing. Bar-rooms, dining-rooms and wagons are metamorphosed into bedrooms. Dinners are eaten from a table or a stump, and thirst is quenched from a bar or a brook. The sale being announced from the land office, the township bidder stands near by, with the registry-book in hand. in which each settler's name is attached to his respective half or quarter section, and thus he bids off, in the name of the whole township, for each respective claimant. A thousand settlers are standing by. eagerly listening when their quarter shall be called off. The crier passes the well-known numbers ; his home is secure. He feels relieved ; the litigation of . claim-jumping' is over forever ; he is lord of the soil. With an independent step he walks into the land office, opens the time-worn saddle- bags and counts ont the $200 or $400, silver and gold, takes his certificate from the General Government and goes away rejoicing."
The meeting of claim-holders in each section usually adopted the order of procedure which follows : A Register was chosen for each township, whose duty it was to prepare a map, with the several claims indicated thercon ; a bidder and assistant bidder were chosen to attend the sale and make the pur- chases. Conflicts of claimants were submitted to a committee of three, who had the power to settle all disputes. In event of a refusal by both parties to arbitrate, the case was to be submitted to a committee of five. Claimants were authorized to take as much as 320 acres. An equable arrangement was made between adjoining claimants, where their claim-lines and the Government survey failed to coincide. All persons over eighteen years of age were entitled to the privileges of elaimants.
405
HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY.
The following is a statistical table of monthly receipts at the Burlington Land Office, during the first year and four months of its existence. Perhaps no safer criterion can be drawn of the pre-eminent character that Iowa had already attained than the receipts which this table exhibits of a country that, only so late as June, 1833, was first subject to occupancy by the white man. Of every hundred acres, it was estimated that ninety fell into the hands of the actual settlers :
November 19, 1838, sold by public sale.
$295,495 61
January,
1839, by private entries and pre-emption
60,751 14
February,
1839,
.6
66
23,047 31
March,
1839,
66
66
8,778 46
April,
1839,
66
..
15,675 93
June,
1889, ..
66
6.
14,356 52
July,
1839,
66
6.
8,216 32
September, 1839,
66
66
8,836 56
October,
1839, by public sales.
47,487 01
November,
1839, by private entries.
10,564 72
December,
1830, 66
3,868 11
January 1,
1840,
4,644 80
February,
1840,
66
5,420 56
March,
1840, by private entries and public sales inclusive.
332,222 42
April,
1840, by private entries and pre-emption.
29,834 22
June,
1840, by private sale and pre- emption ..
62,170 62
Total.
$968,987 14
HOW PIONEERS LIVED
In choosing his home, the pioneer usually had an eye mainly to its location, and for that reason settlers were oftener than not very solitary creatures, with- out neighbors and remote from even the common conveniences of life. A desir- able region was sure to have plenty of inhabitants in time, but it was the advance-guard that suffered the privation of isolation. People within a score of miles of each other were neighbors, and the natural social tendencies of man- kind asserted themselves even in the wilderness by efforts to keep up communi- cation with even these remote families.
The first business of a settler on reaching the place where he intended to fix his residence, was to select his claim and inark it off as nearly as he could without a compass. This was done by stepping and staking or blazing the lines as he went. The absence of section lines rendered it necessary to take the sun at noon and at evening as a guide by which to run these claim-lines. So many steps each way counted three hundred and twenty acres, more or less, the then legal area of a claim. It may be readily supposed that these lines were far from correct, but they answered all necessary claim purposes, for it was under- stood among the settlers that when the lands came to be surveyed and entered, all inequalities should be righted. Thus, if a surveyed line should happen to run between adjoining claims, cutting off more or less of the other, the fraction was to be added to whichever lot needed equalizing, yet without robbing the one from which it was taken, for an equal amount would be added to it in another place.
The next important business was to build a house. Until this was done, some had to camp on the ground or live in their wagons, perhaps the only shel- ter they had known for weeks. So the prospect for a house, which was also to be home, was one that gave courage to the rough toil, and added a zest to the heavy labors. The style of the home entered very little into their thoughts- it was shelter they wanted, an'l protection from stress of weather and wearing
66
24,909 16
August,
1839,
66
12,706 77
May,
1839,
406
HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY.
exposures. The poor settler had neither the money nor the mechanical appli- ances for building himself a house. He was content, in most instances, to have a mere cabin or hut. Some of the most primitive constructions of this kind were half-faced, or, as they were sometimes called, " cat-faced " sheds or " wike- ups," the Indian term for house or tent. It is true, a claim cabin was a little more in the shape of a human habitation, made, as it was, of round logs, light enough for two or three men to lay up, about fourteen feet square-perhaps a little larger or smaller-roofed with bark or clapboards, and sometimes with the sods of the prairie ; and floored with punchicons (logs split once in two, and the flat side laid up) or with earth. For a fire-place, a wall of stone and earth- frequently the latter only. when stone was not convenient-was made in the best practicable shape for the purpose. in an opening in one end of the build- ing, extending outward, and planked on the outside by bolts of wood notched together to stay it. Frequently, a fire-place of this kind was made so capacious as to occupy nearly the whole width of the house. In cold weather, when a great deal of fuel was needed to keep the atmosphere above freezing-point-for this wide-mouthed fire-place was a huge ventilator-large logs were piled into this yawning space. To protect the crumbling back wall against the effects of fire, two back logs were placed against it, one upon the other. Sometimes these back logs were so large that they could not be got in in any other way than to hitch a horse to them. drive him in at one door, unfasten the log before the fire-place, from whence it was put in proper position, and then drive him out at the other door. For a chimney, any contrivance that would conduct the smoke up the chimney would do. Some were made of sods, plastered upon the inside with clay : others-the more common, perhaps-were of the kind we occasionally see in use now, clay and sticks, or "cat in clay," as they were sometimes called. Imagine, of a winter's night, when the storm was having its own wild way over this almost uninhabited land, and when the wind was roar- ing like a cataract of cold over the broad wilderness, and the settler had to do his best to keep warm, what a royal fire this double-back-logged and well-filled fire-place would hold ! It must have been a cosy place to smoke, provided the settler had any tobacco; or for the wife to sit knitting before, provided she had needles and yarn. At any rate. it must have given something of cheer to the conversation, which very likely was upon the home and friends they had left behind when they started out on this bold venture of seeking fortunes in a new land.
For doors and windows, the most simple contrivances that would serve the purposes were brought into requisition. The door was not always immediately provided with a shutter, and a blanket often did duty in guarding the entrance. But as soon as convenient, some boards were split and put together, hung upon wooden hinges, and held shut by a wooden pin inserted in an auger-hole. As a substitute for window-glass, greased paper, pasted over sticks crossed in the shape of sash, was sometimes used. This admitted the light and excluded the air, but of course lacked transparency.
In regard to the furniture of such a cabin, of course it varied in proportion to the ingenuity of the occupants, unless it was where settlers brought with them their old household supply, which, owing to the distance most of them had come, was very seldom. It was easy enough to improvise tables and chairs ; the former could be made of split logs-and here were instances where the door would be taken from its hinges and used at meals, after which it would be rehung-and the latter were designed after the three-legged stool pattern, or benches served their purpose. A bedstead was a very important item in the
407
HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY.
domestic comfort of the family, and this was the fashion of improvising them : A forked stake was driven into the ground diagonally from the corner of the room, and at a proper distance, upon which poles reaching from each were laid. The wall ends of the pole either rested in the openings between the logs or were driven into auger-holes. Barks or boards were used as a substitute for cords. Upon this the tidy housewife spread her straw tick, and if she had a home-made feather bed, she piled it up into a luxurious mound and covered it with her whitest drapery. Some sheets hung behind it for tapestry added to the coziness of the resting-place. This was generally called a " prairie bed- stead," and by some the " prairie rascal." In design, it is surely quite equal to the famous Eastlake models, being about as primitive and severe, in an artistic sense, as one could wish.
The house thus far along, it was left to the deft devices of the wife to com- plete its comforts, and the father of the family was free to superintend out-of- door affairs. If it was in season, his first important duty was to prepare some ground for planting, and to plant what he could. This was generally done in the edge of the timber, where most of the very earliest settlers located. Here the sod was easily broken, not requiring the heavy teams and plows needed to break the prairie sod. Moreover, the nearness of timber offered greater con- veniences for fuel and building. And still another reason for this was, that the groves afforded protection from the terrible conflagrations that occasionally swept across the prairies. Though they passed through the patches of timber, yet it was not with the same destructive force with which they rushed over the prairies. Yet from these fires much of the young timber was killed from time to time, and the forest kept thin and shrubless.
The first year's farming consisted mainly of a " truck patch," planted in corn, potatoes, turnips, etc. Generally, the first year's crop fell far short of supplying even the most rigid economy of food. Many of the settlers brought with them small stores of such things as seemed indispensable to frugal living, such as flour. bacon, coffee and tea. But these supplies were not inexhaustible, and once used were not easily replaced. A long winter must come and go before another crop could be raised. If game was plentiful, it helped to eke out their limited supplies.
But even when corn was plentiful, the preparation of it was the next diffi- culty in the way. The mills for grinding it were at such long distances that every other device was resorted to for reducing it to meal. Some grated it on an implement made by punching small holes through a piece of tin or sheet- iron, and fastening it upon a board in concave shape, with the rough side out. Upon this the ear was rubbed to produce the meal. But grating could not be done when the corn became so dry as to shell off when rubbed. Some used a coffee-mill for grinding it. And a very common substitute for bread was hominy, a palatable and wholesome diet, made by boiling corn in a weak lye till the hull or bran peeled off, after which it was well washed, to cleanse it of the lye. It was then boiled again to soften it, when it was ready for use, as occasion required, by frying and seasoning it to the taste. Another mode of preparing hominy was by pestling.
A mortar was made by burning a bowl-shaped cavity in the end of an upright block of wood. After thoroughly cleaning it of the charcoal, the corn could be put in, hot water turned upon it. when it was subjected to a severe pestling by a club of sufficient length and thickness, in the large end of which was inserted an iron wedge, banded to keep it there. The hot water would soften the corn and loosen the hull, while the pestle would crush it.
F
408
HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY.
When breadstuffs were needed, they had to be obtained from long distances. Owing to the lack of proper means for threshing and cleaning wheat, it was more or less mixed with foreign substances, such as smut, dirt and oats. And as the time may come when the settlers' method of threshing and clearing may be forgotten, it may be well to preserve a brief account of them here. The plan was to clean off a space of ground of sufficient size, and if the earth was dry, to dampen it, and beat it so as to render it somewhat compact. Then the sheaves were unbound and spread in a circle. so that the heads would be upper- most, leaving room in the center for the person whose business it was to stir and turn the straw in the process of threshing. Then, as many horses or oxen were brought as could conveniently swing round the circle, and these were kept moving until the wheat was well trodden out. After several " floorings " or layers were threshed, the straw was carefully raked off, and the wheat shoveled into a heap to be cleaned. This cleaning was sometimes done by waving a sheet up and down to fan out the chaff as the grain was dropped before it ; but this trouble was frequently obviated when the strong winds of autumn were all that was needed to blow out the chaff from the grain.
This mode of preparing the grain for flouring was so imperfect that it is not to be wondered at that a considerable amount of black soil got mixed with it. and unavoidably got into the bread. This, with the addition of smut, often ren- dered it so dark as to have less the appearance of bread than mud; yet upon such diet the people were compelled to subsist for want of a better.
Not the least among the pioneers' tribulations, during the first few years of settlement, was the going to mill. The slow mode of travel by ox-teams was made still slower by the ahnost total absence of roads and bridges, while such a thing as a ferry was hardly even dreamed of. The distance to be traversed was often as far as sixty or ninety miles. In dry weather, common sloughs and creeks offered little impediment to the teamsters: but during floods and the breaking-up of winter. they proved exceedingly troublesome and dangerous. To get stuck in a slough, and thus be delayed for many hours, was no uncom- mon occurrence, and that, too, when time was an item of grave import to the comfort and sometimes even to the lives of the settlers' families. Often a swollen stream would blockade the way, seeming to threaten destruction to who- ever should attempt to ford it.
With regard to roads, there was nothing of the kind worthy of the name. Indian trails were common, but they were unfit to travel on with vehicles. They are described as mere paths about two feet wide-all that was required to accommodate the single-file manner of Indian traveling.
An interesting theory respecting the origin of the routes now pursued by many of our public highways is given in a speech by Thomas Benton many years ago. Ile says the buffaloes were the first road engineers, and the paths trodden by them were, as a matter of convenience, followed by the Indians, and lastly by the whites, with such improvements and changes as were found neces- sary for civilized modes of travel. It is but reasonable to suppose that the buffaloes would instinctively choose the most practicable routes and fords in their migrations from one pasture to another. Then, the Indians following, possessed of about the same instinct as the buffaloes, strove to make no improve- ments, aud were finally driven from the track by those who would.
When the early settlers were compelled to make these long and difficult trips to mill, if the country was prairie over which they passed. they found it comparatively easy to do in summer, when grass was plentiful. By travel- ing until night, and then camping out to feed the teams, they got along without
409
HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY.
much difficulty. But in winter such a journey was attended with no little dan- ger. The utmost economy of time was, of course, necessary. When the goal was reached, after a week or more of toilsome travel, with many exposures and risks, and the poor man was impatient to immediately return with the desired staff of life, he was often shocked and disheartened with the information that his turn would come in a week. Then he must look about for some means to pay expenses, and he was lucky who could find some employment by the day or. job. Then. when his turn came, he had to be on hand to bolt his own flour, as, in those days, the bolting machine was not an attached part of the other mill machinery. This done, the anxious soul was ready to endure the trials of a return trip, his heart.more or less concerned about the affairs of honie.
These milling trips often occupied from three weeks to more than a month each, and were attended with an expense, in one way or another, that rendered the cost of breadstuffs extremely high. If made in the winter, when more or less grain-feed was required for the team, the load would be found to be so con- siderably reduced on reaching home that the cost of what was left, adding other expenses, would make their 'grain reach the high cost figure of from $3 to $5 per bushel. And these trips could not always be made at the most favorable season for traveling. In spring and summer, so much time could hardly be spared from other essential labor ; yet, for a large family, it was almost impos- sible to avoid making three or four trips during the year.
This description of early milling applies rather to the pioneers west of this county than to those who settled near the Mississippi and Skunk Rivers, but it was not uncommon for people here to cross over into Illinois to get their grinding done.
Among other things calculated to annoy and distress the pioneer, was the prevalence of wild beasts of prey, the most numerous and troublesome of which was the wolf. While it was true, in a figurative sense, that it required the utmost care and exertion to " keep the wolf from the door," it was almost as true in a literal sense.
There were two species of these animals-the large, black, timber-wolf, and the smaller gray wolf, that usually inhabited the prairie. At first, it was next to impossible for a settler to keep small stock of any kind that would serve as a prey to these ravenous beasts. Sheep were not deemed safe property until years after, when their enemies were supposed to be nearly exterminated. Large numbers of wolves were destroyed during the early years of settlement -as many as fifty in a day in a regular wolf-hunt. When they were hungry, which was not uncommon, particularly during the winter, they were too indis- creet for their own safety, and would often approach within easy shot of the settlers' dwellings. At certain seasons, their wild, plaintive yelp or bark could be heard in all directions, at all hours of the night, creating intense excitement among the dogs, whose howling would add to the dismal melody.
It bas been found, by experiment, that but one of the canine species-the hound-has both the fleetness and courage to cope with his savage cousin, the wolf. Attempts were often made to capture him with the common cur, but this animal, as a rule, proved himself wholly unreliable for such a service. So long as the wolf would run, the enr would follow ; but the wolf, being apparently acquainted with the character of his pursuer, would either turn and place him- self in a combative attitude, or else act upon the principle that " discretion is the better part of valor," and throw himself upon his back, in token of sur- render. This strategic performance would make instant peace between these two scions of the same house; and, not infrequently, dogs and wolves have
410
HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY.
been seen playing together like puppies. But the hound was never known to recognize a flag of truce ; his baying seemed to signify "no quarter." or at least so the terrified wolf understood it.
Smaller animals, such as panthers, lynxes, wildcats, catamounts and polecats were also sufficiently numerous to be troublesome. And an exceeding source of annoyance was the swarms of mosquitoes which aggravated the trials of the settler in the most exasperating degree. Persons have been driven from the labors of the field by their unmerciful assaults.
The trials of the pioneers were innumerable, and the cases of actual suffer- ing might fill a volume of no ordinary size. Timid women became brave through combats with real dangers, and patient mothers grew sick at heart with the sight of beloved children failing in health from lack of commonest neces- saries of life. The struggle was not for case or luxury, but was a constant one for the sustaining means of life itself. Illustrative of those days, the following incident is related, which is but one of thousands of similar character which might be told :
A settler, in the northwest part of the county, had labored hard to improve the last fine days of autumn, preparing to shelter his wife and little ones from the approaching storms of winter. While thus employed, he had not noticed the rapidly decreasing store of provisions in his house, until his attention was finally forced to the subject. He then hastily provided himself with such an outfit as was required to make the journey into Illinois, and started with his team, expecting to be gone but three or four days. He reached his trading- place in safety, and started to return home, laden with the meager supplies which then served to sustain the lives of such brave men as himself, and to ren- der at least endurable the existence of the pioneer wives and children. No sooner had he turned his face toward home, than a terrific storm set in, from the northwest. Winter came down suddenly that year. The Mississippi froze over so rapidly, that boats were ice-bound, and stores, destined for the new localities above on the river, hid to be hauled for miles on sleds. When the pioneer reached the Mississippi, he found it filled with huge masses of floating ice. The ferry-boat was no longer in operation, and crossing was impossible. In vain he offered extravagant sums to the ferryman, if he would but land him upon the solid ice on the Iowa bank. No proposition that he could make, was tempting enough to induce the carrier to cross the stream. Meanwhile the storm continued, and the prospect of relief grew blacker. The pioneer realized the desperate strait into which his family had fallen, because of the limited store of provisions, and the lack of fuel to keep the cold from the miserable cabin he called home. For eight long days the river continued impassable, and by that time the man became desperate. He resolved to cross, even at the risk of life. During those days of waiting, other men had congregated at the ferry, and were also impatient to make the passage over. The hero of this sketch had vainly tried to induce those men to aid him in cutting the ferry-boat loose from the ice, and force a way to the open water; but they had laughed at the possibility of such a feat, and had refused to comply with his request. Unaided and alone, the man performed the laborious task, and was at last rewarded, by seeing a path made open to the unfrozen current. No sooner had this been accomplished, than one of the most indolent of the crowd hastened to harness his own team and drive upon the small boat, which would accommodate but one at a time. Our pioneer sprang forward, to prevent the outrage on his rights, and a scene ensued, which was most disastrous to the cowardly intruder. After a most tedious and perilous fight with the ice, the pioneer landed in Iowa,
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