From Canada to Iowa – The Outfit.
Our outfit
consisted of two spans of horses and two covered wagons, one of which
was rather small and designed for the conveyance of the women and
children. We had besides four cows of our own, and Mr. Brooks
accompanied us with two more, making altogether quite a little caravan
– ten persons, four horses, six cows, two wagons, and last of all, our
old dog “Watch.”
We had a good
tent which we could pitch when occasion required, and this, with our
covered wagons, afforded very good shelter when out of the reach of
better accommodations.
Our first day’s journey terminated at
St. Thomas, a town twelve miles distant from our old home. Here we
spent the nigh with a half sister, Mrs. Harriet Kennedy. On
resuming our journey the next day it was a hard struggle for mother to
part with her daughter whom she never expected to see again on earth.
Taking Leave of the Last Friend.
Our sister walked
out with us through the town, and on the banks of a little stream we
took our final leave of her, and as we slowly wound our way up the
opposite hill, mother kept looking back and weeping as though her
heart would break. It seemed as though her grief was more than she
could bear, and I remember well how lovingly Sarah approached her and
with soothing words besought mother not to give way to her sorrow.
And so we passed on over the hill, and this proved to the last meeting
of mother and daughter in this world, although some of us children
were permitted to meet her many years after in her new home in
Michigan whither she had moved with her husband.
Crossing the Line.
Of the rest of
our journey of ninety or a hundred miles through Canada, I can recall
nothing of interest at this late date, but I remember very well that
when we reached the shore of the United States at Detroit father
appeared very happy, and I am sure mother shared the happiness with
him, for the love of the old flag under which she was born had never
forsaken her.”
From Detroit we passed on forty miles
west to Ypsilanti, a part of the way along the line of the Michigan
Central railroad, then in process of construction. This was impressed
upon my mind as it was our first view of a locomotive and a train of
construction cars.”
At Ypsilanti we took a few days’ rest
and visit with an uncle, a half brother of my mother, who resided
there at the time.”
Father seemed delighted with the
appearance of the rich, mellow soil o the new country, which my uncle
showed off to good advantage by turning up its surface with the toe of
his boot. But when father saw the corn which was the product of this
rich soil, he appeared to be a good deal disappointed, for, although
the ears were much larger and more thrifty in appearance than the
little, smooth, round ears of the Yankee corn to which he had always
been accustomed, yet the uneven, indented kernels of this new variety,
was suggestive to him of early frosts, and he reported to the family
in a private and half despondent way that the corn was frost bitten.
In after years, when he had discovered the soundness and superiority
of this corn over the old, he often laughed at his own early and
erroneous impression concerning it.”
And this reminds me of the fact that our
horses, too, had to become accustomed to this new corn as well as we,
for they knew of no other kind of grain except oats, for although they
seemed to know that corn was good to eat, they did not know how to get
it off from the cob. Instead of leaving the ears of corn in the
trough and biting the kernels from the cob, they would lift them up in
their teeth and scatter them upon the ground. However, they soon
learned how to manipulate it, and throve nicely on the new provender.
The “Father of Waters.
After a short visit at Ypsilanti we
passed on slowly, taking a day or two’s rest now and then as occasion
seemed to require. It was in Michigan that we had our first view of
the prairie. In St. Joseph county we passed through White Pigeon
prairie, a most charming country, but as yet sparsely settled. Of
course, we were delighted with the new scenery, the long stretches of
billowy landscapes, with their carpets of green, bedecked with
flowers, and only here and there a grove to break the monotony and to
serve as landmarks to guide us on our westward journey. Reaching
Michigan City, with its sand hills, we bore to the south, passing by
the lake and out on to the immense prairies of Illinois, so level and
monotonous and dreary as to make us long to see some of the old
familiar forests of Canada again. But on, on we went through
bridgeless streams and bottomless sloughs, till at last we reached the
bank of the “Father of Waters” and the eastern boundary of the
Territory of our future home.”
As we stood upon the banks of the
majestic Mississippi, we descried far away on the opposite bank a few
log huts. This was our first glimpse of Iowa homes. The inhabitants
of this little hamlet were ambitious to be known as a town, and they
had assumed the historic name of Wyoming. The location was a short
distance above what is now known as Muscatine. How the ears of those
ambitious pioneers must have tingled, when in later years their proud
rival profanely designated them as “Jug-town,” and all because their
chief industry happened to be that of manufacturing stone-ware.”
We crossed the great river in a somewhat
rickety scow or flat-boat, whose only means of locomotion was a couple
of oars which were manipulated by two stalwart men, who afterwards
became residents of Linn county, one of whom, Mr. Dyer Usher,
recently died at his home a few miles west of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The
other, Mr. Joel Howard, died a few years ago in the same
neighborhood.”
The rapid current of the river carried
us down, of course, a long distance below the point where we started
in on the Illinois side; but we at last reached the western shore in
good condition, thankful that no accident had befallen us in making
the perilous passage that we had so long dreaded.”
Landing safely on Iowa soil, we
proceeded westward twelve miles to a log cabin, where we received a
cordial welcome from its inmates. It was the home of the parents of
our fellow-traveler, Mr. Brooks.
The Rest At Moscow.
Here we obtained permission to occupy a
log cabin for ten days, until father and mother could go on to the
“New Purchase” and explore the ground and locate our claim. The
aforesaid cabin had neither doors, floors nor windows, but it had a
roof which was an important consideration in the season when heavy
rains were liable at any hour to overtake us.
Return of the Explorers.
After an absence
of eight or ten days, father and mother returned from the “New
Purchase” with favorable reports, having selected their claim, marking
out its boundaries and choosing the site for our house. Father had
been subject to severe attacks of sick headache fro many years, and
while absent on this exploring tour, one of these distressing turns
overtook him. I am quite sure that those who know what the sick
headache is, either from actual experience or from close observation
of its effects, will not think it strange, nor will they think the
less of my father, if, under these circumstances and environments, he
did manifest a slight tendency to homesickness. ”
But the
unflinching energy, the unfailing courage, and the skillful
ministrations of the woman at his side, brought him through all right,
and both returned in apparently good spirits and with high hopes fro
the future. It may, perhaps, be as well to say here, as anywhere, that
amid all the hardships and trials incident to a new country, which
only those who have experienced them can appreciate, mother’s courage
and hopefulness never failed her, and she never would admit that she
regretted for a moment the step she took in coming to Iowa.”
Mr. John Brooks accompanied
father and mother on this exploring expedition and rendered valuable
assistance, as he had been over the ground previously and had located
his own claim a few miles north of the county seat, or where the
county seat was to be. |
