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Transcribed
by
Ann Selvig, from:
Allerton, Iowa Centennial,
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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