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         Rough and rude though their surroundings may have been, the pioneers were none the less honest, sincere, hospitable and kind in their social relations. It is true, as a rule, that there is a greater degree of real humanity among pioneers of any country than there is when the country becomes older and richer. If there is an absence of refinement, that absence is more than compensated for in the presence of generous hearts and truthful lives. They are bold, courageous, industrious, enterprising and energetic. Generally speaking, they are earnest thinkers and possessed of a diversified fund of useful, practical information. They are void of hypocrisy themselves and despise it in others. They hate cowardice and shams of every kind, and above all things, . . .

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. . . falsehood and deception, and maintain and cultivate a sterling integrity and fixedness of purpose that seldom permits them to prostitute themselves to any narrow policy of imposture or artifice.

         Such were the characteristics of the men and women who pioneered the way to the country of Cedar. Those who visited them in their cabins, in a social capacity, or settled among them as real occupants of the soil, were always welcome as long as they proved themselves true men or women. The stranger who came among them and claimed shelter, food and a place to sleep, was made as welcome as one of the household. To tender them pay in return for their hospitality, was only to insult the better feelings of their nature. If a neighbor fell sick and needed care and attention, the whole neighborhood was interested. If a cabin was to be raised, every man “turned out,” and oftentimes 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 camp fires at the site where the cabin was building. In other cases, the meal was prepared at a cabin near by, and at the proper hour was carried to where the men were at work. If one neighbor killed a beef, a pig, or a deer, every other family in the neighborhood was sure to receive a piece of it, and a welcome remembrance it often proved. One of the few remaining pioneer settlers of 1846-7 remarked: “In those days we were neighborly in a true sense. 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 you for it. If you are poor and happen to fall sick, you may lie and suffer almost unattended or go to 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.” This declaration was made, not because the facts exist as he put them, but to show the contrast between the feeling and practices of the pioneers of forty years ago, and the people of the present.