The AGE'S Cyclist - Folletts Trip

(SOURCE: Clinton Morning Age, 22 Aug 1895.)

RURALITIES. THE AGE'S CYCLIST WRITES OF PEOPLE HE SEES.  He Makes a Trip to Folletts and North of There -- Big Crops of Corn -- Etc.

Aug. 20 the AGE began a movement it trusts will result in profit and pleasure as well, and tend to make the whole county better aquainted.  For years some of us have lived within a few miles of each other, and yet we are not acquainted, but, still further, we do not know each others' names.

Town people's name are frequently in print.  Country people learn these names, but those in the city, or those in adjacent townships, do not know who owns that grand farm, or who is prospering.

It in the intention to visit every farm house in the county, and send a semi-weekly AGE into every home.

The AGE has many friends through the county who are regular readers of the paper.  It believes that it can make the paper more interesting to them, so, endeavoring to do so, has secured, in addition to that of other agents, the services of Leon Burdick, a bright young man, who will give his whole attention, mounted on his Belvidere, to the good people who breath the pure air of the broad farm lands of Clinton county.  Treat him kindly.

AGE PUBLISHING CO.

THE FOLLETTS TRIP TUESDAY.

Leaving Clinton wheels rolled to Camanche, where J. L. ABBEY, the well known merchant, kindly gave route instructions and then away, past the government's second hand distillery.

The first person met at home was WM. WELCH.  He was digging "taters," early ones.  Near him in the garden was a pecularly formed bush, on which was a strange cluster of berries.  He said it was the gargle, or "poke root," know among cattle breeders as a valuable herb for some kinds of sickness.  It grows luxuriantly in souther Illinois, and in an ancient presidential campaign was spoken of in song. MR. WELSH has disposed of all his running horses, finding no use for them as this kind of sport has become a back number, no more popular like in the days Bruce LEFFINGWELL speaks of in his book of "Manulito."  Happy days gone by.  Passing on tho the next houses they were found closed, excepting one where the lady could not speak United States yet.

Then on to Asal TYLER's farm, about a mile and a half west of Camanche.  Gravel and careful work has made this road for some distance a remarkably fine one, but of late the old system of scraping dirt into the center, bids fair to change some of the good places into poor road.  Mr. Tyler was not at home.  He was over at Low Moor helping move a house.  He has built new barns and cribs in the side hill in the rear of his residence, back of the orchard, and is letting the old barn across the road go into ruins.  Between his farm and his brother's south, along side the hill, is a stretch of native trees which migh be transformed into a pretty wood-lawn, with a little trouble.

Henry TYLER was at his barn, getting ready to mow away some 15 tons of tame hay.  He found his tame hay crop at the usual time of cutting so short that he could not cut it, but recent rains brought it out, so that way long here in August he is making tame hay and getting fifteen tons of timothy and clover from twelve acres.  His oats he threshed from the field and got 28 bushels to the acre.  One 25 acre piece he had considered not extra good land until this year, because of a pond on it.  He plowed it up and planted to corn, and fully expects to get 80 bushels to the acre, while the pond the whole neighborhood wonders at and expects to yeild 100 bushels to the acre.  People drive for miles to see the field.  It is well worth it.  Mr. Tyler had a piece of boggy land which he broke up and sowed to rye.  His pasture was short in the spring, so he turned 12 head of horses and cows in on the five acres of rye and kept them there until the 6th of May.  From that same piece he got 27 bushels of rye to the acre.

Beyond Mr. TYLER's, in the pastures, where the small stone quarries have been, are cords of fine building rock quarried out and piled up.  It was taken from the ledge to use on the Clinton and Davenport railway in building culverts.

Mr. STORM lives on the next farm, which contains 450 acres, and is owned by Mrs. Smith.  He says his corn will average 40 bushels to the acre.  His oats will average about 23.  Last year he got 4000 bushels of oats where this year he gets only 1700.  He raises considerable stock, having 80 head ofcattle, 16 horses, 181 young hogs and 40 old ones.  Mr. Storm tells us that they had a good heavy rain last Saturday.  It fell quite hard for about half an hour, and did much good to his corn crop.  He has 140 acres to corn.  Mr. Storm keeps two men the year round and in the busy season runs five teams.

Adjoining this farm is the 658 acre farm of Alden VanEPPS.  He says his corn will yield about 40 bushels to the acre, and his oats 25.  He has 100 head of cattle, 80 hogs and 5 horses.  He has one of the finest farm houses in the state.  The house rests on an elevation above the road, is quite modern, while west of it, and south across the road, are large barns, stables, etc., showing the prosperous farmer.

"Nine miles to the C. C. C." is a big sign on the Folletts road, as a cycleometer shows it is just nine miles out.  Evidently the road to the Chicago Clothing Co.'s is a popular one, for it seems well traveled.

Between the home of Mr. Van Epps and that of John SHAFT, next west, is a pretty little school house, which C. C. Kirk, the popular Camanche carpenter, is reshingling and repairing for winter.

The farm of John Shaft is probably the largest one in this section.  When asked how many acres he had, Mr. Shaft said, "I'll be durned if I know.  The river keeps washing some away occasionally."  His neighbors say he must have 900 acres.  He has a lot of hay land and has not attempted to cut, and says the chinch bugs are after his corn.  He says his fields have suffered considerably from dry weather; but a beautiful home, of spacious dimensions, a piano sending sweet tones out on the summer air, fields full of stock, large barns, and a complacent look on the owner's face, showed the prosperity that had come to the man not past middle life.

Beyond is the home of G. R. BLAKELY, and then on across the railway is one of the Shaft farms, on which lives John Trainer.  He was threshing Tuesday, Follett's threshers doing the work.  A thresher from another machine, who had been working around Low Moor and Elvira, said he had seen but one field of oats this year that had gone 40 bushels to the acre, the smalles yield being 23 bushels.

Edward ARP's farm adjoins on the west, and then comes W. W. Wiley's, both of whom are farming about as their neighbors.  H. A. FARNSWORTH's home is a neat one, and near by is the school house, nearer to town being the "Village Blacksmith," L. G. ACKLEY, whose anvil rings almost continously, doing jobs for the farmers, rich and poor.

The village of Folletts is rather a lively trade center.  Mr. HOWSON was busy Tuesday shipping two fine cars of hogs to Chicago.  He says he gets considerable stock near by to ship.

Campbell & Wilkes, the merchants, Gust CAMPBELL being postmaster also, are prospering.  They have a fine trade and keep a neat stock of goods.  They seem to be enjoying life, as does the elder Mr. Campbell, who has just had his seventhieth birthday, and he feels himself quite young.

E. S. SLEIGHTER is agent of the B. C. R., and resides with his wife over the depot.

Going from Folletts west you come to Humphrey BOWER'S place which is occupied by Fred BICKEL.  This farm contains 300 acres.  Mr. Bickel got 25 bushels of oats to the acre and thinks he will get about 40 bushels of corn to the acre.  He also says that he has some wild hay that will do pretty fair.  He keeps 25 head of cattle and 14 head of horses, and also has about 200 chickens.  He comes to Clinton frequently and does his trading with the firm of Hayes & Murphy and says he considers them a very good firm to deal with.  He also purchases a couple of suits recently at the Blue Front, one of Clinton's popular clothing establishments.  Mr. Bickel owns a farm of 260 acres near DeWitt and thinks he will go there next spring and work it.

Adjoining Mr. Bickel's farm on the west is C. L. Pierce's place.  He owns a farm of 80 acres.  His corn will average about 50 or 60 bushels to the acre and his oats 25.  He keeps 15 head of cattle and three head of horses.  He also has about 200 chickens. He does a great deal of traing at Hays & Murphy's grocery store and brings in about 30 dozen eggs, on an average, a week.  He likes them very well to trade with, as they treat him right.  He also trades at Fred Rixon's place.  It is not necessary to say that Fred serves everybody right, as it is well known throughout the county.

G. I. HANKE, who formerly lived west of Clinton, now resides on the Jameson farm of 65 acres, northwest of Folletts.  He reports his corn is good, hay light, and a nice crop of sorghum.  He has a mill and will make sorghum molasses.  Mr. Hanke's father and mother of Camanche, were visiting on the farm Tuesday.

On the same ridge, just across the lane, is the Dannette farm, on which lives Wm. Carstensen.  He farms 100 acres, the balance of the big farm being pasture.

Northwest farther is the home of P. Benham.  He is working the homestead of 80 acres, and has 50 acres on the bottom to pasture.  He has a house in Folletts which he rents.  Mr. Benham will have a good crop of corn.  He had no small grain, and his hay was light, but he does not see much to worry over.  He talks of tiling a low place on the farm.

Harry White is located about three miles from Folletts and has a farm of 240 acres.  He says that a rain would fix crops nicely.  His potatoes are going to do fairly well.  He had 35 acres of oats which yielded him 20 bushels to the acre.  His corn will be about 50 bushels to the acre.  He has 25 head of cattle and 8 head of horses.  He says he will have 10 tons of hay this year where he had 50 last.

H. D. Hall has an 80 adjoining his father's farm.  It is a fine piece of land and he is keeping it up in good shape.  He has two fine wells, windmill, plenty of small friuit, and seems quite contented.  He is not complaining of his crops, either.

At Eric Campbell's, at the Hall homestead, the pilgrims took dinner, with a city appetite transplanted in the country, eating until it gave Mrs. Campbell a headache.  Eric has been having some bad luck with his stock.  He lost a fat steer the other day and three or four head of hogs, and is fearing he is going to have a run of cholera.  His crops, however, are good.  He has thirty-five stands of bees, making some fine buckwheat honey now.  He has been running his well drill successfully for three months this season.  Take matters all round, Mr. and Mrs. Campbell are meeting many good things in life's journey.

WEDNESDAY'S TRIP

Going up to the top of the hill where the road leads to Folletts, just west of Camanch, is found Chas. Francisco on the right.  He has a farm of 40 acres.  He says that his oats will yield him about 25 bushel to the acre.  His potatoes are fair.  He has 3 horses, five cows and 150 young chickens.  He sells 8 dozen eggs a week.  He does most of his trading in Clinton with J. E. Mooney.

The next place west on the left, is Ebbe Hansen's home.  He devotes his time to working on ditches for the surrounding farmers, his neighbors giving him the name of an hones, industrious man.

Another home visited was that of W. P. Bristol.  The upland Bristol farm consists of 40 acres.  Crops are good on it, but down on the river bottom they have a corn field which will run 70 to 75 bushels to the acre, the upland yielding 40 to 50 bushels.  Their oat yield was 32 1/2 bushels.  Mr. Bristol, the elder, has been ill for about two weeks, but is improving now, and was trying to be comfortable.  He has between 20 and 30 head of cattle and 18 head of horses.  He has 50 chickens having lately sold 50; also 18 hives of bees which are doing fair at the present time.  His son, E. E. Bristol, has two horses, Dick Revenge and Billy McCarthy, which were to run at Anamosa this week.

Leonard Smith has a fine farm of 200 acres.  Mr. Smith has a very fine looking siberian crab apple tree on the east side of the house.  The tree is loaded with the luscious fruit and looks very tempting.  Mr. Smith thinks his corn will yield him about 50 bushels to the acre.  He has 60 head of cattle and eight head of horses, two of which are not broken.  He also has 100 chickens.  Besides these he has 15 or 20 turkeys.  By the way the Thanksgiving and Christmas turkey will be plenty this year, as several fine flocks of them were seen.

Leaving Leonard Smith's place we find William Everett on the right with 120 acres.  He says he will have a fair corn crop.  His potatoes are good, but he did not put in very many.  From 13 acres he got 300 bushels of oats.  He has about 75 chickens, 6 cows and 10 horses.

The next house on the left was unoccupied.  On the right, west of here, was a very large cornfield and near the road and as far in the road as you can see the morning glories have entwined themselves around the stalks, making a very pretty appearance.

A. Peterson comes next in order and has 160 acres under cultivation.  He says his corn will be fair.  His oats average 17 bushels to the acre.  His hay did not do well at all, having taken one ton from twenty-five acres.  He has 100 chickens, 8 milk cows and 7 horses; also 125 hogs.  Mr. Peterson was grinding corn and oats for his hogs, as he says that he thinks it better for them than that he buys already ground.

(Clinton Morning Age: Aug 23, 1895)

A Trip Between Folletts and Low Moor -- Wednesday's Trip Continued

Around the corner on the left is the home of John Hutson, on the Wessel and Rizer farm, which contains in all 240 acres.  His oats averaged about 17 bushels to the acre.  He also has four acres of rye which averages 25 bushels to the acre.  He says his potato crop is going to be very poor.  He has 13 head of cattle and 12 head of horses, including two young colts; also over 50 turkeys.

Coming back on the next road running east and west, is found the 40 acre farm of John Fatchet.  He says he will not have over two thirds of a corn corp.  He has three cows and two horses.  The cholera has taken a good many of his chickens.  He has a number of Chickesaw plumb trees which are loaded with the lucious fruit and are beginning to look very tempting.

A short distance from here, on the left, was found C. A. Tobey on his 200 acre farm.  He says his corn will average about 40 bushel to the acre.  From 115 acres he got but 5 tons of hay.  He has 5 cows and 7 horses.

Chas. Cress greeted the AGE's cyclist at the next farm, which consists of 80 acres.  He says his corn crop will be fair.  His oats averaged but 17 bushels to the acre.  He has 500 chickens and sells Stuedeman & Smith a good many eggs.

The 160 acre farm of S. F. Moor now comes in view, on which there are 14 cows and 6 horses.  His oats averaged 20 bushel to the acre, but his corn was burned pretty badly.  He has 300 or 400 chickens and does a great deal of trading with the popular grocery firm of Mooney & Dolly.

John Hammond's farm of 240 acres is next in order.  He says his corn crop is poor this year and his oats yielded 20 bushel to the acre.  He has 25 cows and 6 horses.  He also has some chickens, turkeys and geese.

Beyond here, and quite a distance back from the road, on the left, is the home of Will Porter.  He has 120 acres under cultivation.  Will says his corn is nother extra and that his oats will average but about 20 bushel to the acre.  He has6 cows and 4 horses; also 62 hogs.

A short distance down the road and across it, is the 160 acre farm of U J. Howson.  Mr. Howson is also director of the Union school.  He has 6 cows and 5 horses; also 80 hots and 100 chickens.  He says his corn will average about 40 bushels to the acre.

Farther east is the home of John Anderson, who rents 160 acres of Mr. Childs.  John says his corn crop is pretty fair.  He has no hay to speak of and his oats did not do any too well.  He has 30 cows, 100 hogs and 8 horses; also 200 chickens.

Now the turn is reached and the AGE's cyclist begins his homeward trip by the road south of the one he took out.  F. A. Russell is on the road running north and south.  He has a 205 acre farm and thinks he will have about two-thirds of a crop of corn this season.  His oats will average 17 1/2 bushels to the acre.  He has 16 horses, 41 cows and 188 hogs.

Fred Garitz' home, with 120 acres, is now reached and Fred says that his corn did not do very well this year.  His oats will average 20 bushels to the acre.  He has 40 cows and two teams; also 100 hogs.

W. E. Etlin's home was the first place on the backward track.  Mr. ETLIN has been sick, but is now getting a great deal better.  His corn will average 35 bushels to the acre and his oats 20.  He has 4 cows, 5 horses, 25 hogs and 200 chickens.

On this side is found the Union school house.

W. R. HILL, who has lately purchased Mr. ETLIN's farm, has been working his father's for the last two years.  He says his corn will average 50 bushels and his oats 27.  He has 7 horses, 17 cows and about 80 hogs.  He recently took 50 to town and sold them.

Will ANSON is next in order.  Will is not a farmer but is very useful to the farmers, as he drills a good many wells for them.  That he is a good man and understands his business is shown by his being employed all the time.

Across the road is the farm of E. J. HARLIMAN.  He cultivates 120 acres.  Says his corn will be about 45 bushels to the acre and that he had an extra good crop of oats.  His potatoes did fairly well and he has 200 chickens.  He has 12 cows and 8 horses.  He does some trading with S. C. Seaman and some with Jas. Leslie & Co.

E. R. FRALICK is on a 160 acre farm just around the corner.  He says his corn is doing nicely now, but that his potatoes are not extra good.  His oats yeilded him a little over 20 bushels to the acre.  He has a number of fine looking hogs.

Coming back to the road running east is found Henry NELSON installed on 160 acres.  He says his corn will yield about 35 bushels to the acre and his oats averaged 24.  He has 14 cows, 8 horses and 60 hogs.

On the east side of Mr. NELSON's place a new bridge has been built.  There is about a quarter of a mile of gravel just this side of the bridge, which is going to make a good road after it is well packed.

Lewis VanEPPS is on the next 160 acre farm.  His corn and potatoes are doing fairly well.  He has 13 cows and 8 horses.

J. ANSON is on the next farm, which contains 80 acres.  He has 8 horses, 14 cows and 21 hogs.  He says he has no hay at all.

Adjoing this farm is the 315 acre farm of S. T. HILEMAN, who rents it to B. J. BENSON.  Mr. Benson says he thinks he will have a pretty fair corn crop.  His potatoes did not do very well.  He has 100 chickens and 215 hogs.  He sells most of his hogs to Chicago shippers.