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Shelby County |
HISTORICALCHAPTER VI. - PIONEERSCurious to know about the relative numbers of Shelby county pioneers born in the different states or sections of the country, the author went through the biographical sketches of several hundred residents of the county, as published in a history of Shelby county of 1889. The results are interesting. Of the names found in this work, four hundred and eleven in number, but thirteen belonged to persons born in New England, and of these thirteen, more than half were from Connecticut. Natives of Southern states numbered twenty-two, chiefly from Kentucky and Virginia. Taking up the individual states, it appears from this local history that of the persons then residing in Shelby county, fifty-nine were natives of Pennsylvania, fifty of Ohio, thirty-four of New York, and thirty-four of Indiana. There were, of course, a number of persons of that time who were born in Illinois, but the number did not compare with the number from each of the foregoing states, probably for the reason that Illinois was in many respects herself a pioneer state when Shelby county was first settled. The first pioneers of the county were, of course, those who settled in the groves of the county. Here was material for cabin, fuel and shelter. These brave, hardy, adventurous men and women came into the county with ox teams, some of them with horses, but all of them traveled over an expanse of prairie unmarked by roads or even trails. They, indeed, blazed the way. Self-reliant, they were accustomed to the use of the ax, skillful in woodcraft, cheerful and optimistic, ready to make the most of an environment full of hardships and privation. When these pioneers built their log cabins in Galland's Grove, Hacktown, Cuppy's Grove and Bowman's Grove, not a single Iowa railroad had come to Council Bluffs, and none was to arrive in western Iowa for fifteen or twenty years. What an isolation this was in view of what we have today--daily trains, daily delivery of mail far out into the country districts, the telephone and telegraph! When sickness came, there was no telephone to call a physician and no automobile to bring him quickly when summoned. When blizzards came and other winter storms, making journeys to Kanesville impossible, women were sometimes obliged to grind buckwheat or other grain in coffee mills. These pioneers, like the first-comers to every new country, had comparatively no means. They were obliged to make their living literally from the locality in which they erected their humble log cabins. In spite of the fact that they had little of this world's goods, they were hospitable, and neighbor shared with neighbor what was left in time of need. These men were obliged, while struggling to make a living, to institute county and township government, levy taxes, build school houses, work roads, and construct bridges. All honor to these men and women who led the way.
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