LOUISA COUNTY, IOWA

Pg 30

FREDONIA PIONEERS

Transcribed by Beverly Gerdts, submitted June 12, 2017

       The time has come in our “History of Fredonia” to relate a little of the history of the courageous pioneers who have made our progress possible and raised this country from its primitive state. Surely and steadily the great men, who in their prime entered the wilderness and claimed the virgin soil as their heritage, have passed on. The number remaining, who can relate the incidents of early days of settlement, are small indeed, so an actual necessity exists for the collection and preservation of events without delay.

       All will be forgotten soon enough, in spite of their best works and most earnest efforts. We are indebted to the system of local biography; by this system every man, though he has not achieved what the world calls greatness, has the means to perpetuate his life history, through the coming years. The scythe of time cuts down all; nothing if the physical man is left.

       To preserve the lineaments of our companions we collect the attainable facts of their history. Nor do we think it necessary, as we speak only truly of them, to wait until they are dead, or until those who knew them are gone.