When Jacob CASE came to Ringgold in 1854 the county was without roads or even a cow path. He had lived in Decatur county a year, coming from Missouri in 1853. He had only lived in Decatur for a short time before he heard of the settlement at Ringgold County, Iowa. He decided to make a trip to Ringgold county, but before starting he cut a load of small poles, and sharpened them and he and the family tied rags on the end of the poles. Then he started with the poles for Ringgold county. When he ran out of road he stuck a pole in the ground and drove on until he could just see the rag on the pole behind, then he stuck another pole in the ground, then drove on with his ox wagon, setting a pole far enough apart to see from one to the other. He succeeded in blazing the trail to Ringgold county. After deciding to locate in Ringgold he went back and forth moving his goods from Decatur county by the aid of these rags and poles until he had established a very fair road.

CASES were so hard up at that early day that one day they beat out a bushel of wheat with a flail, went 35 miles to Missouri to mill to get in ground. When he got home, a half-dozen men were there to borrow a little flour to feed their sick children. The corn bread diet was very hard on little children and aged people these days.

SOURCE:  LESAN, Mrs. Early History of Ringgold County, Iowa 1937