Transcribed by Ann Selvig, from:  Allerton, Iowa Centennial,
July 5-6 1874 -1974, 100 Years

 

OLD TIME NEWSPAPER CLIPPING TELLS OF EARLY LIFE IN WAYNE COUNTY

Times Republican – Feb. 27, 1969

  

     Dear Editor:  I noticed a request in your paper for some of the old settlers to write of their Pioneer life, so I will write a little of my experience.

     My husband, E. R. Higley, came from New Marlboro, Mass., to Iowa in 1851 and entered land from the Government in Decatur and Wayne Counties, stayed one year in the former then sold his improvements and went east again.  I was then teaching school near Williamstown, Berkshire county, Mass., the county in which we were both born, and Mr. Higley was working as surveyor.  In 1854 we were married and came to Iowa together with a brother-in-law, his wife and four children and settled in Jefferson township, Wayne County.  The brother-in-law bought out a man who with his family had been living in a log cabin without floor, door or window, said family then moved into a rail pen down near a creek.  The next morning after our arrival our men drove to Decatur county where they had heard was a saw mill, to get lumber for floor, etc., but were disappointed to find the mill had moved away, but as we were near the timber the men went to work and soon rived out boards for a floor and door and we could hang up a curtain for a window.

     We, all eight of us, lived in this one roomed cabin until we could put up a cabin on our own land about two miles away.  The main reason we settled where we did was on account of a famous spring located there, and good running water was quite an object then.  This spring is still known as the Higley spring.  We had shipped our goods before we left home, expecting to find them at Burlington when we arrived there as that would be our nearest railroad point, but shipping facilities were not as they are today and our goods were miscarried and we did not get them till several months later and even then some of them were lost, so in the meantime we had only our clothing and a few things such as we could bring in our trunks.  These same trunks, afterward, served as tables from which we served meals to our visitors.  How did we get along?  Of course there were no furniture stores near so our furniture consisted of blocks, boxes and stools which were rived out with a froe.  We built our cabin and spent there some very happy days.  Later we built a frame house but most of the lumber was hauled from Chariton.  Flour could not be bought here for love nor money, but had to be hauled from Burlington, usually with ox team but we always had good appetites for our venison and corn bread; game was quite plentiful in those days, such as deer, wild turkeys, prairie chickens, etc.

     There are a good many privations connected with the pioneer life but after all a good deal of pleasure mingled with it.  Mr. Higley started out one morning with his gun saying he was going to shoot a deer; in a few minutes he returned carrying the deer on his back.  We could hear the wolves howling near, almost every night, so for safety I soon learned to load and shoot a rifle without fear and trembling, could many times stand in the door and shoot wild turkeys, hawks, etc.  Indians were sometimes seen passing through the country but they were not hostile and never molested anyone.

     When we first went to house-keeping in our little log cabin we erected a family altar which we always kept, we found it was not necessary to live in a palace to serve the Lord.

     The country soon began to improve, school houses were being built which also served for church purposes, previous to this these services were held in the different cabins.  There were as yet no laid out roads, and nearly all travel was done with ox teams or on horseback.  It was quite amusing to see a man with his wife and two or three children all on one horse going to meeting perhaps two or six miles away.

     About the only social events in the early days was the ‘Wool-pickings’ when some of the earliest settlers who kept sheep invited all the neighbors in to pick the wool apart which had previously been washed.  It was then carded by hand then spun and woven into cloth from which their clothing was made.  This was the original Homespun.

     Of course, the War of the Sixties was a great hindrance to the settling up of the country.  Those were very strenuous times.  My husband was a Union man and was appointed one of the Home Guards, was expected to shoulder a rifle at a moment’s notice.  His life was threatened at different times.  When we came here Corydon had only one store which was store, hotel, post office and dwelling house combined.  Lineville about the same 12 and 14 miles away.  Allerton was not yet thought of.  It will no doubt shock the young mothers today when I say my first baby was rocked in a cradle made from the bark of a hickory tree; of course there were board ends and also rockers and it was fine.

     We lived on this same farm till we moved to Allerton, our present home, in 1899 and where Mr. Higley died in 1901, being nearly 76 years of age.

     I am now nearly 80 years of age, am the mother of six children, all living except our youngest and only son, Orlow, who died of diphtheria at the age of nine years.  In looking back over the years it is wonderful to note the changes, time has wrought.

     Now I had not intended writing such a long piece but see that it is time I should close.   

                             Mrs. Sarah L. Higley

 

(The above article was clipped from The Allerton News – no date and reprinted in the Times Republican 1969)

    

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