Bentonsport, Wisconsin Territory ca 1837

MINEAR, PEARSON, KELLEY, ROBERTS

Posted By: Mike Dooley (email)
Date: 12/6/2001 at 21:45:17

The following article contains a description of Bentonsport provided in an 1837 letter from Benjamin Franklin Pearson to his cousin in Philadelphia. The letter was provided to the newspaper by A.C. Minear of Kilbourne and was published in Keosauqua as part of the "Roberts' Rambles" column in 1950.

"ROBERTS' RAMBLES
Much has been told lately of the early history of the town of Bentonsport, Van Buren County, Iowa. Probably antedating all these reminiscences is a letter brought to light, by A. C. Minear of Kilbourne, Iowa.

This letter was written one hundred and thirteen years ago, by Benjamin F. Pearson, Mr. Minear's grandfather. He had come west and located at "Bentons Port, Van Buren County, Wisconsin Territory," and the letter was addressed to a cousin, Maria Kelley, who lived near Philadelphia.

This branch of the Pearson family came over with the Penn Quaker colony, and the farm in Bucks county, Pa., which was a Wm. Penn land grant, is still in the family.

The grandfather Benjamin F. Pearson who wrote the letter was a mason by trade, and built the historic landmark the stone and brick house on the west edge of Keosauqua where he located. Now for a part of the letter relating to Bentonsport:

Bentons Port, Van Buren County, Wisconsin Territory, Dec. 23, 1837.

Beloved and much respected cousin,

I am glad to inform you that I have the pleasure of welcoming my brother Augustus to the West and since that we have taken several days travel to view the country, though the weather was very cold. We were fortunate enough to find cabins each night where we were comfortably entertained in backwoods fashion.

We were much pleased with the country, though it is but thinly settled at present. But the country is fast settling by emigrants from almost every state in the union and they all give this the praise of any other that they ever seen both for beauty of country and richness of soil. The country is sufficiently supplied with good water.

This is prairie country and some of them of great length though they are not generally more than one to three miles in width, and it is said to be sufficiently timbered but the timber joining to the end of the Prairies is generally of small growth and there is some danger of traveling on the prairies, when the grass is dead and dry. There has been many instances of people being burned to death in the prairies. It is said by the people of the west that the speed of the fire on these prairies is faster than the best of their horses and the only way to escape at all is to set it on fire and follow on as it will soon make bare the way.

This country abounds with limestone, stone, coal and game of various kinds such as bears, wolves, deer, turkey, wildcats and some few panthers and the woods are abundantly supplied with honey. I have known sixteen gallon of strained honey to be taken from one tree.

I will mention that I am at Bentonsport, a flourishing little town on the Des Moines river about forty miles from its junction with the Mississippi. This is a healthy country, a fine place for poor people to make a living by industry.

I will mention the prices of labor, grain, etc.: A common laborer gets from one to one and a half dollars per day and boarded. Tradesmen from $1.50 to $3 per day and boarded. Girls wages are $2 per week and scarce at that. Boarding is from $3 to $4 per week, and washing from $1 to $1.50 per dozen.
The prices of grain are as follows: Corn from fifty cents to a dollar per bushel. Wheat from $1 to $1.50 per bushel. Potatoes from 50c to 75c per bushel. Pork from $5 to $6 per hundred weight and beef from $4 to $5 per 100 wt.

I will now give you a small sketch of my speculation. It is a common thing in this country for people to try to get along without working therefore the principal part go to speculation of some kind or other. I will try working and speculating both. I have bought one forty-eighth of the town of Bentonsport containing upward of six hundred acres of land. The town is about one year old and there is upward of six thousand dollars worth of lots sold which is yet undivided. The money and notes are in the treasurer's hands. I paid four hundred dollars for the forty-eighth and have been offered one hundred dollars [profit] for my bargain.

I must mention that this country is very deficient for grafted fruit, but the scarcest article is Girls. There are some fine girls in this country but they are very scarce, while young men and bachelors are very numerous. This is the best country for girls to get married off that I ever seen but they are such an object that they are not slighted as many are in the east. They are just taken as they come without any picking about it.

I have one errand to the east Of which I will make known;

To seeke myselfe a wedding feast
Of which I'll be the groom.
I never have selected yet
a maid to be my bride.
But often when I'm all alone
I wish she was by my side.

No more at present. Write soon. Direct your letter to Lexington Post Office, Van Buren county, Wisconsin Territory. I remain your affectionate but Rambling Cousin, fare ye well,

Benjamin F. Pearson.

The above letter was postmarked - "Troy, Mo." which goes to prove that Troy in Davis County, Iowa was considered to be in Missouri at that time.

The true and proper boundary 1ine between Iowa and Missouri was a long and vexed dispute, not definitely decided until about 1848. The details of that altercation make interesting reading even now for folks living along the dividing line in northern Missouri or southern Iowa.
-A.G.R."