Clarinda Herald-Journal, Clarinda, Iowa, April 13, 1916

STORY OF MRS DULY ANN GRIFFEY
Came to Page County in 1852-Saw Clarinda Started.
Merze Marvin, in Shenandoah Sentinel-Post of April 8, 1912:

Sixty years of continuous residence on one farm is a record few Page county citizens can equal. That a woman should achieve this record adds to its interest. To Mrs Duly Ann Griffey of Tarkio township can be accorded this honor, along with numerous other achievements of pioneer life and experiences extraordinary. Hearing Mr Griffey tell of her adventures in by-gone days is as exciting as reading the latest "thriller."
The earliest recollections of Mrs Griffey are of the mountainous districts of Tennessee, where she was born and spent her early childhood days. Once, when she was a very little girl, several families had moved to Indiana, then a wild frontier, but they did not like the country and returned to Tennessee. They set up a little furnace near Cross Mountain, for the smelting of ore and earned a comfortable livelihood until again smitten by the western fever.
When it was decided to move out to the new west, several families joined forces and built a big flat boat. Two immense poplar tree trunks, 75 to 100 feet long were placed on each side, and the flooring double thickness, securely nailed down. When the boat was finally completed it was with great difficulty transported in the river and launched. That was in the spring of 1844, when Duly Ann Loy was thirteen years of age.
The party loaded their household goods on the flatboat and floated down the Tennessee and Ohio rivers to Paducah, Ky., and thence to Cairo, Ill. There they abandoned their unwieldly raft and embarked on a steamboat, which carried them north to Weston, Platte county, Mo. The settlers came in wagons to meet them and made them welcome.
The Loys built a crude home in Platte county and lived there eight years, during which time Duly Ann was married to Peter A. Griffey. She was seventeen years old at the time of her marriage.
In the winter of 1851-2, the spirit of unrest assailed the little colony. Mr Griffey purchased timber rights on the claim in Tarkio township [Page County, Iowa] and paid almost his entire capital for the rights, which were valued at $314. The payment for the timber included two horses and one mule from their little bunch of stock.
Then they came north to settled on their claim. they started on the first day of April and arrived on the seventh, having been held up one day by a severe snow storm. They took refuge in a little log school house during the storm. After settling they filed on this claim, which was government land. Eighty acres were in the original claim and they filed on adjoining lands as fast as they could save money to pay the fees until they owned a total of 293 acres.
One of their team of mares had died, so that when the Griffeys arrived in Page county their stock consisted of seven cattle, nine sheep and one mare. That year the wolves broke into their little flock and killed several animals.
The Griffeys built for themselves a little one room shack, about 12 by 14 feet. It was built of rough hewn logs and had only one window. "Windows were not much needed," said Mrs Griffey, "for the cracks between the logs were big enough to throw a cat through." The shack had a smooth puncheon floor, held in place by wooden pins. Doors were made of solid boards with a peg screwed in. When the family were at home the latch string hung out. When they left home they pulled it in. Lumber used in those days was good. It did not decay on the slightest provocation. When, years after, houses, barns, sheds, fences, et cetera were to be rebuilt or remodeled, the same old lumber was used again and again, and some of it is still giving good service today after sixty years of use. The oak and poplar were most commonly used.
Their nearest neighbor, and in fact, the early settler in all the community to the north was a man named Phillips, who had a houseful of children. He owned the largest team of oxen Mrs Griffey ever saw, and these were sometimes hired by the neighbors.
Clarinda was surveyed soon after the Griffeys came to Tarkio township. Soon a little store was started and two or three houses or shacks were built. Then Mr and Mrs Griffey left the children at home and went from their house on horseback to seek out a road to Clarinda. They crossed the creek about a half mile from the sight of the present Griffey house, and then again forded Snake Creek near the present Snake Creek school house, just south of the bridge. Thus they picked the trail to Clarinda. Next day Mr Griffey and Mr Phillips took the latter's team of mammoth oxen and dragged a furrow path, to mark the road for future travelers.
Other settlers followed soon after the Griffeys and Loys. The Snodderlys and the Harrells were among the first. Mr Harrell secured land a short distance south of the Griffeys. He and his boys boarded with the Griffeys for some time and much of the work on both farms was done on reciprocity principles. Between meals, Mrs Griffey used to help the boys hoe corn. Those boys were every bit as full of mischief as boys of today, and they played many amusing pranks and had thrilling adventures after the fashion of boys the world over since time began.
One of the boys jumped in the well bucket one time, plunged to the bottom of the well, and with difficulty fished out. Luckily the wells were not deep in those days.
Another time-it was in the fall and a frozen layer of sleet and ice made the roadway as smooth as glass-it occurred to Master Harrell that skating would be more fun if some motive power other than his own sturdy legs could be provided. So he tied himself to the tail of the brindle cow, prodded her in the ribs, and away she went. The witnesses vowed they would have bet cold cash on that cow as Derby winner that afternoon. She tore down the road with the frightened youngster banging along behind, unable to loosen himself. Then the brindle racer adopted new tactics. She jumped the gate. The boy staid on one side clutching a convenient sapling with the strength of desperation, while the cow struggled madly on the other side. Finally something gave way. The boy was never quite sure whether the cow's tail pulled out or the knot came untied, but at any rate when he picked himself up from a heap on the ground, he said, "Oh Lord, that blamed cow pretty nigh cut me in two in the middle."
Church was held at the various homes of the settlers. Circuit riders who visited Page county conducted the services. At first most of the meetings were held at the home of Mrs Griffey's parents, the Loys. After the Griffey home was enlarged, services were sometimes held there. The boys used to fasten two logs together with a cross log, hitch the oxen or mares, and piling onto the log as many children as it would hold, would drive to church. The young folks went barefooted, and the girls wore sunbonnets. On special occasions the girls would carry shoes and put them on when they reached their destination.
The first school was taught near the site of the old Shaw place. That was two or three years after the Griffeys came, and the settlers were becoming more numerous. Dan Chesshire was the first school teacher. The school was held in a little log shanty, and two or three months in the winter comprised the school year. There were no free schools then and the teachers were paid by subscription.
Shortly after the Griffeys came, Tarkio City was laid off on the right of the road leading south from Griffeys. Its youthful promise was never fulfilled and few present day residents are aware that such a city was ever planned.
The stage line from Sidney to Clarinda ran past the Griffey farm. Uncle George Miller first kept the stage station. He sold out to a Mr McDonald, and after McDonald left the country Griffeys moved their house up to the stage road and kept the station. Their house was known as "The Old Tavern." They entertained many travelers in those days, having sometimes sixteen to twenty for dinner, and at night the beds were filled, and travelers slept on the floor, or were assigned to a soft berth in the barn loft. Even in that event they considered themselves fortunate.
It took lively work to find enough to feed the crowds some days. But one could always fall back on venison. It was the commonest meat obtainable, and represented no outlay of money, save the price of a bullet. Uncle Snodderly was a famous shot and frequently would supply the neighborhood with fruits of his gun.
Sixteen men came one morning about 11 o'clock and proclaimed that they were hungry enough to eat a horse. They had walked all the way from John F.M. Porter's north of Shenandoah since morning. They could not wait for Mrs Griffey to prepare a meal, but went tot he cupboard, seized some cold bread and venison, and commenced eating it ravenously.
A great deal of the California traffic passed over this road, Grandma Griffey remembers seeing a caravan of covered wagons that reached from the creek on the east o the top of the hill west of their house. Usually the caravans stopped at the Griffey home to restock with provisions and frequently offered fabulous prices for some of the delicacies or necessities that Mrs Griffey could provide.
The first circus came to Clarinda while the Griffeys were keeping the stage station. The circus traveled overland, and included twenty-three wagons in its train. They camped overnight in the Griffey front yard, and secured their meals and provisions of Mrs Griffey. A family of albinos were among the star attractions, and as befitted their rank, had a wagon to themselves. There was the usual array of elephant, camels, and a few forlorn old worn out jungle beasts, which scared the farmers' horses into spasms.
Speaking of wild animals, Mrs Griffey and her children had some amazing pets. They tamed two or three coons and a couple of badgers, which followed them about and bobbed under their feet whenever they ventured out of the house. One of the children one day brought home an apron full of tiny skunks that she had found and was heartbroken because her mother would not allow her to bring them in the house and keep them. They were pretty little fellows, those skunks, but--! Mrs Griffey had a pet deer of which she was very fond. It would come and nibble goodies from her hand. But when the orchard was started the deer would nibble the frsh shoots, and so had to be shot. Mrs Griffey mourned the loss of her pet for months.
The first marriage int he community was that of Mrs Griffey's sister and Lige Miller, who was for many years county superintendent. They were married on one fourth of July in the 50's. They could not procure a license in Page county. The clerk drove to Sidney to get it, while the bride and groom sat by the roadside near the county line and waited. They were married by Dan Chessire, who was the first squire.
Several years later, Rev Farlow, who was the circuit rider then covering this territory, was married in Clarinda, and bride and groom and minister hiked out to the griffey station for their wedding breakfast. Their coming was unexpected, and Mrs Griffey had no opportunity to prepare a big wedding feast, but she set before them some venison, potatoes and bread, and they ate it with relish as great as we display at a six course banquet served by imported chef.
Grandma Griffey recalls attending a Fourth of July celebration near Manti, where there was speacking and shooting of firecrackers and abundant jollification. The fire crackers were made by stuffing powder into goose quills. Mr Phillips had no wagon at that time, so he hitched his big team of oxen to a sled, piled his children onto the sled, and drove to Manti.
Camp & Kahn ran the first store in Clarinda to the best of Grandma Griffey's recollection. Court was held in a little shanty. Lawyers Pelham and Ferguson once walked from Sidney to Clarinda to attend court and staid all night at the Griffey station enroute.
Parties were often held in the little log houses, and the guests enjoyed themselves hugely. A taffy pull was the usual form of amusement.
Mother Griffey made all the clothes for her family and the children watched the fleecy wool from their pet sheep transformed step by step into warm serviceable clothing for their own backs. Great ingeniousness was exercises in the manufacture of our commonest commodities today. Boxes, for instance. For a hen's nest, Mrs Griffey nailed boards around the bottom part of a broken down chair, and turned it wrong side up.
Mrs Griffey attended the first fair in Clarinda and the first fair in Shenandoah, and she has seldom missed a year at either place.
Besides her family of ten children, Mrs Griffey has raised, all told, twenty other children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren and little neighbors-she has been a mother to them all, and has trained them to be good sturdy young men and women. Her own children now living are Lorenzo, Charles, Hulen, James and Mrs May Borland. Lorenzo is living at Riverton, Wyo., the others are all residents of this vicinity. Since the death of Mr Griffey, twelve years ago Hulen Griffey has lived on the home place, and his mother has kept house for him. Although she is eight-two years of age, she is active and spry, and besides keeping the little house in order, she finds time to piece quilts of intricate design, and heartily enjoys having the neighbors come in for an afternoon chat.