HISTORY
of
EMMET COUNTY
and
DICKINSON COUNTY
IOWA

A Record of Settlement, Organization,
Progress and Achievement
Volume 1
Chicago, Illinois
The Pioneer Publishing Company
1917


CHAPTER VI

PIONEERS AND THEIR WORK

THEN AND NOW

Looking back over a period of a little more than three score years, to that 27th day of June, 1856, when William Granger, D. W. Hoyt and Henry and Adolphus Jenkins began the settlement of Emmet County, it may be interesting to the young people of the present generation to know how these first settlers in a new country managed to exist. Imagine a vast, unbroken tract of rolling prairie, stretching away in all directions beyond the range of human vision, with little groves of timber here and there along the streams or bordering the lakes. Such was the appearance of Emmet County when the first white men came to establish their homes within its borders. At numerous places in the broad prairie were swamps and ponds, where muskrats and waterfowl abounded. Beaver, otter, mink and other fur-bearing animals inhabited certain localities. Big game Was plentiful, especially elk and deer. Prairie wolves were also plentiful and their howling at night sometimes caused little children to shudder with fear, as they cuddled closer together in their beds and wished for daylight to come. Roving bands of Indians occasionally made their appearance in the settlements and their movements were watched with interest and suspicion. There was neither railroad nor public highway to facilitate travel ‐ nothing but the great unbroken plain, "fresh from the hand of Nature."

Now all is changed. In this year 1916 of the Christian era, when a citizen of Emmet County finds it necessary to pay a visit to the market town or the county seat, he can step into his automobile ‐ or, if he has not yet become the possessor of a motor car, he can hitch a horse to a buggy and drive over a well established public highway to his destination. Should occasion require a longer journey, he can take his seat in a coach on one of the great railway systems of the country and be transported across the country at the rate of forty or fifty miles an hour. If he

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happens to live in the City of Estherville, or any of the incorporated towns of the county, upon entering a room at night all he has to do is to push a button or turn a switch and the room is immediately flooded with electric light. He turns a faucet and receives a supply of pure, wholesome water in any quantity he may desire. A mail carrier brings him his letters and newspapers daily. When household supplies are needed, it is an easy matter to telephone to the grocer, the butcher or the coal man. His children attend a modern graded school. He and his family worship in a church heated by steam and lighted by electricity, and listen to the music of a pipe organ that cost hundreds ‐ perhaps thousands ‐ of dollars.

But does he ever pause to consider how all these comforts and conveniences were brought about for him to enjoy? Let him read the opening paragraph of this chapter and then draw upon his imagination for the conditions that existed in what is now Emmet County when the first white men came to establish a settlement.

PIONEER LIFE AND CUSTOMS

Compared with the conditions of the present day, the pioneer encountered some actual hardships and a great many inconveniences. One of the first problems with which he was confronted was to provide shelter for himself and family. Most of the early settlers selected claims where there was timber to be obtained and the first houses erected by them were log cabins. The first settler in a community, who had to build his cabin unassisted, selected small logs or poles that he could raise to the walls. Such a dwelling could not be called a "mansion" but it sheltered its inmates from the inclemencies of the weather. Sometimes, when two or more families came together, one cabin would be built, in which all would live until each settler could erect a cabin of his own. As the population grew, the "house raising" became a social as well as an industrial event. After the logs were cut into proper lengths and dragged to the site of the proposed cabin, the settler would send invitations to his neighbors, some of whom probably lived several miles away, to attend the "raising." Such invitations were seldom declined, for the pioneers felt their dependence upon each other and were always ready and willing to lend a helping hand.

When all were assembled four men would be selected to "carry up the corners," and took their stations at the four corners of the cabin. These men were chosen because they were skilled in the use of the ax. As the logs were lifted up to them they shaped a "saddle" on the top and cut a notch in the underside to fit upon the saddle of the log below. By cutting the notches a little deeper in the "but end" of logs, and alter-

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nating the butt and top ends, the walls of the cabin were carried up approximately level. No plumb line was used, the walls being adjusted in this respect entirely by the eye of the cornermen. Doors and windows were sawed out after the walls were up. An opening was also made at one end for the fireplace. Outside of this opening would be constructed a chimney of small logs, lined inside with clay to prevent its catching fire. Sometimes the chimney would be built of squares of sod, laid up as a mason lays up a wall of bricks. The roof of the cabin was made of clapboards, and the floor, if there was one, was of puncheons ‐ that is, thin slabs of timber split as nearly as possible of the same thickness ‐ the upper surface being smoothed off with an adz after the floor was laid.

HARDWARE A LUXURY

Hardware was a luxury in a new country, and not infrequently a cabin would be completed without a single article of iron being used in its construction. The clapboards of the roof were held in place by poles running the full length of the cabin and fastened to the end logs with wooden pins. The door was made of thin puncheons, fastened together with small wooden pins, hung on wooden hinges and provided with a wooden latch. A thong of deerskin fastened to the latch was passed through a small hole in the door, to provide a means of opening the door from the outside. At night the thong could be drawn inside and the door was locked. This custom gave rise to the expression: "The latchstring is always out," signifying that a visitor would be welcome at any time.

The furniture was in keeping with the house itself, being usually of the "home-made" variety and of the simplest character. In one comer was constructed a bedstead in the following manner: A small sapling, with two forks as nearly at right angles as possible, was selected and a section of it long enough to reach from the floor to the joists overhead was cut and placed about the width of an ordinary bed from one wall and the length of the bed from the other. Poles were then laid in the two forks, the other end resting in one of the cracks between the logs of the cabin wall, or in a large auger hole bored in one of the logs. Across the poles were then laid clapboards, upon which the straw tick, or feather bed, if the family possessed one, was spread. Such a contrivance was sometimes called a "prairie rascal." Springs, there were none, but "honest toil brought sweet repose" to the tired husbandman. Holes bored in the logs were fitted with strong pins, upon which were laid clapboards to form the "china closet," the front of which was a curtain of some cheap cotton cloth, though in many homes the curtain was lacking. Stools and benches took the place of chairs. A

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table was made by "battening" some clapboards together to form the top, which was placed upon a pair of trestles when in use. When not in use the trestles were placed one upon the other and the top leaned against the wall to make more room in the house. Stoves were almost unknown and the cooking was done at the huge fireplace, an iron tea‐ kettle, a long-handled skillet, a big copper-bottomed coffee pot, and a large iron pot being the principal cooking utensils. Bread was baked in the skillet, which was set upon a bed of live coals and more coals heaped upon the lid, so the bread would bake at both top and bottom. The iron pot was used for preparing the boiled dinner, in which two or three kinds of vegetables were often cooked together. "Johnny cake" was made by spreading a stiff dough of corn meal upon one side of a smooth board and propping it up in front of the fire. When one side was baked sufficiently, the dough would be turned over, to give the other side its inning. Many times a generous supply of "johnny cake" and a mug of fresh milk constituted the only supper of the pioneer. While preparing the meals the housewife would nearly always wear a large "sun-bonnet" to protect her face from the heat.

Somewhere in the cabin was the "gun-rack," which was formed of two hooks, made from the forks of small trees. In this rack rested the long, heavy rifle of the settler, while suspended from the muzzle of the gun or one of the hooks were the bullet-pouch and powder-horn. The rifle was depended upon in many instances to furnish the family with a supply of meat.

In the early days there were no sawmills to furnish lumber, and there were no brick yards, hence, frame or brick houses were out of the question. The log cabin was therefore the universal type of dwelling on the frontier. A little later, when the settlement of the prairies commenced, some of the pioneers built sod houses by cutting squares of the native turf and laying them up in a wall of the required height. Occasionally a frame house of rough boards would be built, around which would be laid a wall of sod for greater protection from the cold. If lumber could be obtained, the roof of these sod houses was laid of boards eight or ten inches wide, running from the peak to the eaves, the joints being covered with narrower boards to keep out the rain. Where no lumber was to be had, the roof was formed of a framework of small poles covered with a thatch of prairie grass. From an architectural standpoint, the house was not a "thing of beauty," but it constituted the only residence of some of the early settlers of Emmet County.

In these days, with banks in every town of any consequence and money in circulation, when any one needs assistance he can hire some one to come and help him. When the first settlers came to Emmet County, money was exceedingly scarce and they overcame the difficulty

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by "swapping work." They assisted each other to build cabins; frequently ten or a dozen men would gather in a neighbor's wheatfield, and while some would swing the cradle the others would bind the sheaves and place them in shocks. When one field was finished the entire party would move on to the next, where the wheat was ripest, until the wheat crop of the neighborhood was made ready for the thresher.

While the men were engaged in the harvest field, the women folks would get together and prepare dinner, each one bringing from her own store some little delicacy which she thought the others might not be able to furnish. Elk meat and venison were common at such dinners, and, as each man had acquired a good appetite by the time the meal was ready, when they arose from the table it "looked like a cyclone had struck it."

Matches were rare in the new settlements and a little fire was always kept burning somewhere on the premises "for seed." During cold weather the fire was kept in the fireplace without trouble, but when the summer months came and the weather grew warm enough to render the house uncomfortable with a fire in it, a pile of chunks were kept burning out of doors. If, by some mishap, such as negligence or a heavy rainfall, the fire was extinguished, one of the family would have to make a pilgrimage to the nearest neighbor's to "borrow" a fresh supply.

There were no electric lights when the first settlers came to Emmet County sixty years ago. Even the kerosene lamp had not then been invented and the housewife improvised a lamp by using a shallow dish, partially filled with lard, or some other kind of grease. Into this dish was placed a loosely twisted cotton rag, one end of which projected over the side of the dish. The projecting end was then lighted, and although such a lamp emitted smoke and odor that could hardly be tolerated by fastidious persons now, it answered the purpose then and afforded enough light to enable the good woman to attend to her duties. Next came the tallow candle, which was made by pouring molten tallow into moulds of tin, a cotton wick having previously been drawn through the center of the mould. A set of candle moulds consisted of six or eight candle forms soldered together in a frame. Often there was but one set of candle moulds in a settlement, but they were willingly loaned by the owner and passed from house to house until all had a supply of candles laid away in a cool, dry place for future use. In the winter season the family would often sit around the fireplace with no light in the cabin except that which came from the roaring fire.

With well stocked general stores in every village, it is now a comparatively easy matter to replenish the household larder. But in the days prior to the Civil war going to market was no light affair. Fort Dodge and Mankato were the nearest trading points, and to visit either,

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required two or three days to go and return. No roads were as yet opened, the streams were not bridged, and traveling was a matter attended by many drawbacks. Once the settler made the trip and brought back to his cabin a supply of the barest necessities, economy was the watchword, for waste meant another long, dreary journey through the wilderness to the trading post. Breadstuffs were obtained by taking a "turn of corn" or a few bushels of wheat to the nearest mill, often miles away, and waiting until the grain could be ground. While thus waiting the settlers would while away the time running foot-races, wrestling, shooting at a mark or pitching horseshoes. Civilization gradually brought the trading posts and mills closer to Emmet County and the long trips to Fort Dodge, Mankato and the far away mills were abandoned.

NONE WORE STORE CLOTHES

No one wore "store clothes" then. The housewife would card her wool by hand with a pair of broad-backed wire brushes, the teeth of which were slightly bent all in one direction; then the rolls were spun into yarn upon the old-fashioned spinning wheel and woven into cloth upon the old hand loom. Garments were then cut and made with the needle, the sewing machine having not yet been invented. A girl of sixteen years of age who could not manage a spinning wheel, turning out her "six cuts" a day, or make her own dresses was a rarity in a new settlement. How many of the girls who graduated from the various high schools of Emmet County in 1916 know what "six cuts" means? Or how many of them can make their own gowns unassisted?

AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES

Although the pioneers had their hardships and privations, it must not be imagined for a moment that their lives were utterly devoid of relaxation and entertainment. A popular social function in a new settlement was the "house-warming." A new cabin was hardly considered fit to live in until it had been properly dedicated. In almost every frontier settlement there was at least one man who could play the violin. When the new house was ready for occupancy the "fiddler" was called into requisition and within the cabin there would be a "sound of revelry by night." On these occasions no fox-trot, tango or classic two-step was seen, but the Virginia reel, the stately minuet or the old-fashioned cotillion, in which some one "called the figures" in a strentorian voice, were very much in evidence. And it is quite probable that the guests at a presidential inaugural ball never derived more genuine pleasure from the event than did these people of the frontier at a house-warming. If

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the settler who owned the cabin had scruples against dancing, some other form of amusement was substituted, but the house had to be "warmed" by some sort of frolic before the family took possession.

Another form of amusement was the "husking bee" (commonly called a corn shucking), in which pleasure and profit were combined. After the invitations to the "shucking" were sent out, the farmer divided his com into two piles, as nearly equal in size as possible. When the guests arrived two of them would "choose up" and divide those present into two companies, the contest being to see which side would first finish its pile of com. Both men and women took part in the "bee" and one of the rules was that the young man who found a red ear was permitted to kiss the young woman next to him in the circle. "Many a merry laugh went round" when some one found a red ear and the lassie objected to being kissed. Quite often the young men would play an underhand game by passing a red ear surreptitiously from one to the other.

Women's clubs, such as exist at the present day, were unknown, but the women had their quilting parties, when a number would take their needles and thimbles and gather at some house to join in making a quilt. Then there would be a friendly rivalry to see who could run the straightest line or make the neatest stitches.

Corn huskings and quiltings were frequently followed by a dance and the guests would spend an hour or two in "tripping the light fantastic toe," though it must be admitted that the toes were many times neither light nor fantastic. The old-time fiddler, who furnished the melody for the dancers may not have been a scientific musician, but he could make his old violin respond to such tunes as "The Irish Washer‐ woman," "Money Musk," "The Wind that Shakes the Barley Fields," or "Turkey in the Straw" and what he lacked in classic training he made up in the vigor of his execution.

Then there was the spelling-bee (or match) that came in with the introduction of the public school system. Upon the appointed evening the entire community ‐ men, women and children ‐ would gather at the schoolhouse to engage in a spelling contest. As at the husking bee, two captains would "choose up," the winner choosing the best speller first, and so on alternately until all who cared to take part were arranged upon two opposing sides. The teacher, or some other person agreed upon, would then "give out" the words, first to one side and then to the other. If a speller missed a word he took his seat and the contest went on until only one, the victor, was left standing. To "spell down" a whole school district was considered quite an achievement.

At the close of the exercises the young men, with quickened pulse for fear of "getting thie mitten," would approach the young women with the stereotyped formula: "May I see you home?" Sometimes an acquaint‐

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ance thus begun ripened into an intimacy that ended in a wedding, which was followed by a charivari, or, as it was pronounced on the frontier, a "shivaree" ‐ a serenade in which noise took the place of harmony. The charivari was generally kept up until the bride and groom showed themselves, and the affair terminated all the more pleasantly if each of the serenaders was given a piece of the wedding cake. Probably the young men of that day were no more superstitious than those of the present, but it is certain that many of them placed the morsel of wedding cake beneath their pillows upon retiring, in the belief that it would bring pleasant dreams that were destined to come true.

PERSONAL MENTION

Such was the manner in which the first settlers of Emmet County lived. All things considered, the pioneer is entitled to a place of honor in the memories of the present generation. He braved the dangers of the frontier, brought the raw prairie under cultivation, drained the swamps, conquered the prowling wolf and savage Indian, and amid adverse conditions overcame all obstacles, building up an empire in the wilderness. His life was hard and his reward meager, when compared to present day advantages, but his work was well done. Following is a brief personal mention of a few of the men who were active in building up Emmet County in the early days. It would be impossible to give an account of every one who contributed to the development of the county's resources, but those named are fair representatives of the real pioneer type ‐ men who were not afraid to break away from old established communities and, buoyed up by the hope of a brighter future, carry the banner of civilization into hitherto unknown places.

Adolphus Jenkins, who was one of the first four white men to settle in the county, was born in Steuben County, New York, in 1826. He received a good education in the common schools and a local academy, after which he went to Michigan, where he taught school for a few years. He then went to Lake Pepin, Minnesota, where he entered land and engaged in farming. Upon coming to Emmet County he preempted 160 acres of land in what is now Estherville Township, built a log house and began the work of developing a farm. A year or so later he formed a partnership with Robert E. Ridley and built the Estherville Mills, with which he was connected until about 1877. When the county was organized in February, 1859, he was elected county judge and held the office until it was abolished by an act of the Legislature in 1860. He also served as justice of the peace, postmaster of Estherville and as a member of the board of county supervisors. When the county seat was removed to Swan Lake he went to that place and opened a hotel. He died

EMMET AND DICKINSON COUNTIES 103

at Swan Lake on October 3, 1886. His son, James E. Jenkins, who was born in Esthervilie in 1864, afterward became a member of the firm of Woods & Jenkins, publishers of the Emmet County RepubHcan.

Among those who came to Emmet County in 1860 was Howard Graves, a native of the State of New York. In 1855 he came to Iowa, locating first in Winneshiek County, where he remained for about five years. He then came to Emmet County and engaged in farming and merchandising until 1876, when he established a private bank, the first bank in the county. In the fall of 1886 this bank was incorporated under the laws of Iowa as the Esthervilie State Bank and Mr. Graves was made the first president. Mr. Graves served for several years as auditor of Emmet County and was all his life recognized as a public spirited citizen.

Lewis Paulson, another pioneer of 1860, was born in Norway on October 7, 1811, and in his native land was employed as a farmer and cattle herder. In 1844 he married and soon afterward came to America. In the fall of 1859 he first came to Emmet County and selected 160 acres of land in Section 36, in what is now the southeast corner of Estherville Township. To this claim he brought his family from Wisconsin the following June. He was accompanied by his son-in-law, 0. K. Flatland and 0. 0. Ranum, who settled near him. In 1861 he removed to Estherville, where he opened a general store. In the preceding chapter is even an acocunt of Mr. Paulson's trip to Algona in the winter of 1860-61 for the mail.

Charles W. Jarvis came to Emmet County with his father in 1861, when he was about sixteen years of age. He was born at Ridgefield, Connecticut, in 1845, where his father was engaged in business as a hatter. In 1856 the family removed to Iowa and located in Winneshiek County, where young Jarvis completed his education in the public schools. When the family came to Emmet County in 1861, the father purchased 400 acres of land in Emmet Township and later opened a store. Charles W. Jarvis clerked in his father's store until 1862, when he enlisted in Company A, Northern Border Brigade, as a private. His name appears upon the muster rolls as Willis C. Jarvis. After his term of enlistment expired he lived with his parents upon the farm until 1874, when he purchased the Northern Vindicator, but conducted the paper only a short time when he sold out and returned to farming. From 1878 to 1882 he was a bookkeeper in the banking house of Graves, Burdick & Company. He then again purchased an interest in the Northern Vin- dicator and continued in the newspaper business for a number of years. From 1880 to 1885 he was a member of the board of supervisors, and he was always active in promoting efforts to improve the conditions in Estherville and Emmet County.

104 EMMET AND DICKINSON COUNTIES

Simeon E. Bemis came to Estherville in 1866. He was born in Franklin County, New York, November 3, 1839; was reared on a farm, and received his education in the Malone Academy. The presidential election of 1860 occurred on the 6th of November, just three days after he had reached his majority, and he cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln. When the call for troops came in April, 1861, he enlisted in the Sixteenth New York Infantry and served about two years, when he was discharged on account of the condition of his health. Upon receiving his discharge he decided to try his fortune in the West and went to Minnesota. Three years later he came to Estherville, bringing with him a small stock of goods. Finding no suitable room in which to open a store he had one erected in two days. It was not much of a building, being only 12 by 20 feet in dimensions and one story high, but this was the beginning of "Bemis' Store." His trade grew to such an extent that he soon built and occupied a room 20 by 40 feet and for many years thereafter he was one of Estherville's leading merchants. In 1885 he was elected mayor of the city and he also served for some time as president of the school board. He was at one time commander of Isaac Mattson Post, No. 365, Grand Army of the Republic.

Capt. Lyman S. Williams was born in Vermont in 1839. He was educated in his native state and at the breaking out of the Civil war in 1861 he enlisted in Company I, Sixth Vermont Infantry, and served until June 26, 1865. In 1867 he came to Emmet County and located on a farm of 160 acres in Ellsworth Township. When John M. Barker resigned the office of derk of the District Court in 1878, Captain Williams was appointed to the vacancy and continued to hold the office by election until 1882. He was then engaged in business as a contractor and builder in Estherville until 1885, when he "took the road" for the American Investment Company and during the next four years traveled over Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. In May, 1889, he was appointed postmaster of Estherville by President Benjamin Harrison and held that position during Harrison's administration. Captain Williams was a prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and of the Grand Army of the Republic.

E. R. Littell, one of the early merchants of Estherville, came from Alpena County, Michigan, where he was one of the pioneers and carried the chain in surveying the land where the City of Alpena now stands. About 1867 or 1868 he "hitched up his oxen" and drove all the way to Estherville, where he engaged in the general merchandise business soon after his arrival. Careful in the selection of his stock and always courteous to his customers, he built up a good trade, taking his son L. G. Littell into partnership under the firm name of E. R. Littell

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& Son. L. G. Littell was at one time chief of the Estherville fire department.

A few of those who came to Emmet County during the pioneer days are still living. Among them may be mentioned Robert E. Ridley, the founder of Estherville; Amos Ketchum, one of the early blacksmiths and a veteran of the Civil war; Amos A. Pingrey, who served as sergeant in Company A of the Northern Border Brigade; Matthew Richmond, who was a member of the board of supervisors for a number of years and is now connected with one of the Armstrong banks; W. H. Davis, one of the early shoe merchants of Estherville, and a number of others, sketches of whom appear in the second volume of this work.

TRAPPING IN EARLY DAYS

Trapping fur-bearing animals and disposing of the skins formed one of the occupations, and a profitable one, of the Emmet County pioneers. Indian trappers and employees of the great fur companies had been operating off and on in the upper Des Moines Valley for many years, but the animals multiplied more rapidly than these irregular trapping excursions could kill them off. When the first white men settled in the county the swamps were full of muskrats, while mink, otter and beaver were found in considerable numbers along the Des Moines River and about the lakes. There was once an otter trail from the river just above Emmet Grove to Eagle Lake, thence to Grass Lake and Tremont or (Birge) Lake, where it turned southward and passed Swan and High lakes and again struck the river about a mile below the present village of Wallingford. Over a large part of this course the trail was a well worn path, indicating that it was used by large numbers of otter.

Every pioneer brought with him, or acquired soon after his arrival, from half a dozen to forty steel traps. During the fall and winter months, when the fur was at its best, one could see men making their daily round of traps, taking out the catch and removing the pelts, then rebaiting and setting the trap for their next visit. Early numbers of the Northern Vindicator gave quotations of fur values that were of far more interest to the settlers of Enmiet County than would have been quotations from the New York Stock Exchange. An old market report in the Vindicator quotes muskrat skins at from 15c to 18c; mink skins, $2.00; beaver skins, $3.50 to $5.00; otter skins, $5.00 to $7.00. As late as the fall of 1886 an otter weighing nearly forty pounds was caught. So far as known only one otter has been caught in the county since that date. It was caught by Richard Dundas.

During the hard times of 1868-69, when work was scarce and money still scarcer, trapping was the principal business of many of the resi‐ 106 EMMET AND DICKINSON BOUNTIES

dents of Emmet County. A number of the early settlers made the money in this way to pay for the lands they entered. At the period mentioned those living in the county discouraged immigration all they could, because new comers had a tendency to frighten away the fur‐ bearing animals, especially the mink and beaver, and thus decrease their revenues.

One would naturally suppose that men and women who suffered the privations incident to frontier life would be glad to remain in the country after it was developed and enjoy the fruits of their labors. But some persons are pioneers by nature. They seem to prefer the new‐ country, with its labor and freedom, to the older civilization, with its luxuries and conventionalities. A few of those who came into Emmet County in the early days, and contributed in no small degree to its development, afterward crossed the Missouri River and became pioneers a second time, aiding in building up the states in that section of the country. Such persons are well described in Brininstoors beautiful poem

THE OLD trapper's SOLILOQUY

"I've taken toll from every stream that held a furry prize.

But now my traps are rustin' in the sun;

Where once the broad, free ranges, wild, unbroken, met my eyes,

Their acres have been civilized and won.

The deer have left the bottom lands, the antelope the plain,

And the howlin' of the wolf no more I hear;

But the busy sound of commerce warn me of an alien reign.

As the saw and hammer echo in my ear.

"I've lived to see the prairie soil a-sproutin' schools and stores.

And wire fences stretch on every hand;

I've seen the nesters crowdin' in from distant foreign shores.

And the hated railroads creep across the land.

My heart has burned within me and my eyes have misty grown.

As Progress came unbidden to my shack;

My streams have all been harnessed and my conquest overthrown.

And I've been pushed aside and crowded back.

"I've seen men come with manners and with customs new and strange.

To take the land which I have fought to hold;

I've watched the white-topped wagons joltin' on across the range

With those who sought to lure the hidden gold.

I've seen the red man vanquished and the buffalo depart.

And the cowmen take the land which they possessed;

And now there's somethin' tuggin' and a-pullin' at my heart.

And biddin' me move on to'rds the West.

EMMET AND DICpNSON COUNTIES 107

"There ain't no elbow room no more to circulate around,

Since Civ''lization stopped beside my door;

I'll pack my kit and rifle and I'll find new stompin' ground,

Where things is like they was in days of yore.

I've heard the mountains whisper, and the old, free wild life calls,

Where men and Progress never yet have trod;

And I'll go back and worship in my rugged canyon walls,

Where the pine trees croon and Nature is my God."

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