(This article is taken from an article published in the "Old Times", written by Mr. and Mrs. Harry H. Boyes, pioneers of Howard Township. Mrs. Boyes was a granddaughter of Dr. Moses Ballard. )
In the fall of 1833, Mr. Boyes, then four years old, left Cattaraugus County, New York and with his parents moved to southern Michigan.
In the fall of 1853, he with his parents started for the Promised Land, said to be beyond the Mississippi River, named "Iowa". A loaded wagon drawn by two oxen, with a few head of cattle trailing after, slowly and steadily moved on westward, straight into the setting sun, until late fall when a resting place was found in a vacant cabin in Jasper County, Iowa. Here the winter passed, and in April the following spring, the journey was resumed, heading for vacant government land along Bear Creek in the northern part of Story County. A cabin and a few acres of land were rented, and a beginning made for a home.
The Boyes' experiences were much the same as the other early settlers when all was new and wild. Far from mill and market, little to sell and much to buy, money scarce and often worthless. The pioneers raised plenty of vegetables, and there was plenty of wild fruit, sweetened with sorghum. Molasses was relished on corn bread. There was plenty of wild game and never a lack of beef and pork, but the bread supply was sometimes a problem. I think it was the year of 1855 or 56 that the whole country was covered by a thick sheet of ice, so it was impossible for oxen to travel, and at the Boyes' home the meal sack was about empty. Father sawed off a block about two feet long from an oak log and, with his carpenter tools, hollowed out one end until it held a peck of corn. Then he took a hickory pole about six feet long, put an iron ring on one end, and drove in an iron wedge. Our problem was solved. It didn't take long to pound out enough meal for a jonnycake.
The early pioneer brought with him two cherished institutions, the church and the school. The first school taught in the settlement was in a little house located on a hill just south of Long John Creek, during the winter of 1855-56. This school largly attended was taught by Charly Haslett. The second school house, which was built in 1856, was constructed of logs, plastered with clay, with split shakes for a roof (a shake is a shingle split from a piece of log usually three or four feet long), and benches for seats and desks arranged along the sides. The church services were held in cabins until the completion of this school.
In the wet season the roads became places of bottomless quagmires, we yoked up the oxen, went to the timber and hauled out logs for culverts, and with brush and sod for filling, we did a pretty good job making roads for our convenience.
The first public road located was the old state road running from Newton to Ft. Dodge. The road went wandering around ponds and over the hills and was marked by a furrow. The first work on the road was done where it crosses the big slough in section 17. And so the years went by.
(Section 17 is where Ward Tjelmeland and Wm. Waddingham live.)
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