Iowa History
Project
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The MAKING of IOWA
Chapter XX
MAKING A LIVING IN EARLY IOWA
The settlers who lived in Iowa during the early
days mingled work with play, and although they had many hard experiences they also
had many good times. Everything was very rude and primitive, and a great
deal of what we to-day regard as necessities the pioneers considered as
luxuries.
As there were no railroads here then, the
settlers depended entirely upon horses and oxen to haul the household topped
wagons, on which were piled the possessions of the family. Often these
possessions were scanty enough, if we accept the children and the feeble adults
who rode on the load, and who were the most precious part of the property.
The men who were able trudged alongside, or were on horseback.
As soon as possible after a territory was opened
up the government established military and territorial roads, but before this
was done the settlers had made their own highways and byways. The first
roads followed the old Indian trails. As there were no fences the
settlers drove over the prairie in all directions, seeking a place where a
claim would be desirable. In the selection the good wife had a voice,
because a cabin with water convenient, and with other matters arranged
satisfactorily, meant much to her.
When an attractive spot was reached the claim
was paced off and staked out, or marked by blazing the trunks of trees.
The next thing to do was to erect a shelter. Until a rough cabin was
put up the settlers slept near the wagon. The women and children and the
weak or aged of the men had the privilege of using the wagon box for
protection. A little rain did not bother the strong and hearty.
Sometimes a "three faced" camp was put
up as temporary shelter. This consisted of merely three walls about seven
feet high, forming three sides of a rectangle. They were made of logs
laid one on another. Poles were stretched across, about three feet apart,
for the frame-work of the roof, and on them boards, split from logs, were laid.
On top of all were distributed other poles, to hold the roof down.
There was no floor, save dirt, no door, no
chimney, no window. The open side answered all purposes of ventilation.
Right across this side, where the fourth wall should be, was built a
roaring log fire.
Now the cabin was being completed. The
sides were of logs, the spaces between "chinked" with small sticks,
and the inside and outside daubed with clay. The roof, like the roof of
the "three-faced" camp, was of clapboards and poles.
A great fireplace, six feet or more long, was
cut in one side, or wall. The back and sides of it were logs covered with
clay and earth and stones. The flue was of split sticks like a
"corncob" pile, and plastered with clay. This was a "cat
and clay" chimney. The burning of a chimney was of frequent
occurrence.
The early settlers did not use nails.
Little metal of any kind was to be seen in the construction of the
cabins. The door was hung on wooden hinges. A wooden catch held the
door shut, and through a hole a buckskin string passed, hanging outside.
By this the catch was lifted by the person wishing to enter. No one
locked his cabin, except when an Indian scare made a bar necessary.
The furniture of the cabin was simple enough.
The first beds were "one legged" beds. A stake was driven
into the earth, or through the wooden floor, if there was a floor, three or
four feet from one wall and six or seven from one end of the cabin. This
was to be a corner of the bed. A strip extended from the stake to the
wall, and another strip from the stake to the end logs. On this framework
were laid other strips, and with a blanket added the bed was ready for
occupancy.
Over the door were suspended rifle and powder horn.
Maybe in a corner was a loom. A rude table and a stool or so, a
skillet or "Dutch oven", iron pot and coffee pot completed the list
of furnishings. The stove was the fireplace. Corn meal or
"Indian meal", as it was called, was an important article of food.
Mixed with water it was cooked in a variety of ways, to make
"pone", "corn dodger" and "hoe cake". The
grains of corn when bleached by lye formed "lye hominy".
Pumpkin added to the corn meal dough gave it rich yellow color and
improved the flavor. Honey was abundant, and game furnished a welcome
change from "hog meat."
Oiled paper was used instead of glass. If
the earth did not serve as a floor, a "puncheon" floor was laid,
consisting of slabs hewn from logs.
Before a crop was put in the prairie must be
broken. As the soil had not been disturbed for centuries the grass roots
constituted a tough mass not easily separated. When possible a great
"prairie plow" was used. This was operated by men who made such
work their business, charging so much an acre. The machine was ten feet
long, and cut a shallow furrow about twenty-four inches wide. Five or six
yoke of oxen drew the plow.
The earliest settlers did not have the services
of a prairie plow. Often they planted corn by driving an axe blade into
the earth, and dropping the seeds into the cleft thus made. The first
crop of corn was valuable chiefly because it prepared the ground for succeeding
crops.
Plowing in the days of the pioneer presented an
animated sight. Several yoke of oxen harnessed in a string were required.
The ox whip was thirty feet long, and hard to handle. The
unskillful driver would awkwardly wind the lash around the neck of one of his
astonished animals. The boy who from the plow could cut a fly from the
neck of the "off leader" was looked upon with much respect.
After the grain was harvested it must be ground.
Before mills were set up the settler did his own grinding. The corn
was pured into a hollow made by fire in the top of a stump, and was crushed by
a stick with a rounded end, as a druggist mixes his drugs. This was
"pestling" corn. Sometimes the ears were grated on a roughened
iron surface.
After the grain was harvested it must be ground.
Before mills were set up the settler did his own grinding. The corn
was pured into a hollow made by fire in the top of a stump, and was crushed by
a stick with a rounded end, as a druggist mixes his drugs. This was
"pestling" corn. Sometimes the ears were grated on a roughened
iron surface.
For a long time mills were far apart, and the
journey to them quite an undertaking for the settlers. Over the soft
prairie, through muddy creeks and up and down hills the settler took his corn
to mill, the stout oxen plodding along so slowly that the wife and family were
left alone for many days and nights.
When the mill was reached the settler was
obliged to wait his turn. It is related that one party of settlers, grown
tired of waiting, volunteered to run the mill at night while the miller slept.
They ground all night, but by morning were enabled to start for home,
with their corn reduced to meal.
Even this meal, obtained with so much trouble,
was apt to be dirty, full of unpalatable substances.
Wolves threatened the stock. Indians stole
horses, and prairie fires attacked the cabins. The winters were long and
cold. Rainfalls were terrific. The exposure of the ploughed-up soil
to the atmosphere caused weakening fever and ague, termed the
"shakes". The decomposition of the earth under the sun gave off
fumes which permeated the air, and in the fall of the first year of a community
everybody was afflicted. Not until the atmosphere cleared was relief
experienced. The settlers had little to make them comfortable.
Young married couples started life in their cabin when they had hardly a
chair or a table.
One settler who called on a newly married pair
found them sitting on the earthen floor of their little shack, eating mush out
of an iron pot between them, with only one spoon for the two. The pot and
the spoon were their sole household property.
Mails were few and far between. For some
time postage was twenty-five cents a letter. If a settler was too poor to
pay this, the good natured man who acted as postmaster would trust him until
the sum was available. The post office was at some store, and mail was
received at irregular intervals, according as the condition of the roads and of
navigation assisted or hindered. Settlers rode many miles to get their
letters.
Soon after Governor Lucas entered upon his
duties as chief executive of Iowa Territory, a letter was addressed to him, at
Burlington, Iowa, by the officials at Washington. Evidently the people
out East knew little of events on the Upper Mississippi, for the letter went to
Burlington, New Jersey, was returned to Washington, was sent out, this time to
Burlington, Vermont, and again came back to Washington.
The postmaster was disgusted. He wrote on
the letter:
"For heaven's sake let this letter go to
some other Burlington, wherever it may be!"
There were no envelopes in those days, and the
great wafer sealing the letter, with the writing of the postmaster under the
address, caused considerable comment. If the governor of Iowa had such
hard work to get a letter, the settlers stood poor show.
Mail came weekly to Burlington. It was
brought from the East to Indianapolis by stage coach; thence by two-horse hack
to Iowa. From Burlington mail was taken by hack to Davenport, and by
horseback riders to Dubuque.
Before Iowa was a Territory letters were
addressed:
"Iowa
Postoffice,
Black
Hawk Purchase,
Wisconsin
Territory."
The early settlers claimed land before the
ground was actually on sale. The first land sale did not occur until
1838. In the meantime, to protect their claims, the settlers in a community
banded together, drew up regulations, and maintained what was termed "club
law," or "claim law."
When the government opened land offices these
claim laws were recognized as valid.
The price of government land was $1.25 an acre.
Each township sent to the sale a representative, who had a list of the
claims settled upon in the area advertised. He bid in for each settler.
If a speculator or "land grabber" in
the crowd attempted to oppose the rightful claimant matters went hard with him,
and forced him to retire from the vicinity. A "land-grabber"
was hated, being looked upon as one who would rob the settlers of their hard
earned claims.
Money lenders, also, mingled with the settlers.
Capitalists saw a chance to do a fine business by lending to the settlers
cash with which land could be purchased. Fifty per cent interest was not
unusual; sometimes the rate was even higher that that. If the settler
could not pay the debt, and the interest, he lost his property. This
interest was outrageous, but the settlers were so hard-up that they were
obliged to accept the terms, or nothing.
When the first land sale occurred at Burlington
in 1838 silver coin was transferred across the river in row boats, loading them
to the gunwales, and was loaned to the settlers.
The money panic of 1837 told severely on the
settlers for several years following. It was difficult to dispose of
produce even after a good crop. Wheat was hauled one hundred miles and
sold for only 37 1/2 cents a bushel, corn and oats for only 6 cents, and the
best horses for $50.
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