CHAPTER VI.

REMINISCENSES, INCIDENTS, AND PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS

The following accounts of personal matters is given to show the mode of life, the disadvantages under which the new settlers labored, and the incidents and stories of early life in the county of Cass during the embryoic stage of its growth. Whatever of romance adhered to the lives of the hardy colonists, was abundantly compensated for by hard work. Contrast the journey of that devoted party through the roadless and bridgeless tract between civilization and their future home, with a company on a like journey to-day. Instead of weeks of labor and toil, privation and suffering, with cold and hunger, a seat is taken in a palace car, in Chicago, an unexceptional supper is partaken of without leaving the train, the passenger retires upon a downy couch, and in the morning wakes to find himself at his point of destination in central or western Iowa, having only lost half a day on his journey. Those who enjoy these blessings, would be less than human if they were not filled with gratitude to these early settlers, who paved the way, and actually made the present state of things possible. At that time the confines of civilization was on the Mississippi river. Davenport had but a few hundreds over a thousand, and Burlington just beginning to be a tolerable village, and Des Moines was a mere vidette, an outpost of civilization. There was little in the now great State of Iowa, except the intrinsic merit of the location, to attract people from their more or less comfortable homes in the east, or on the other side of the water. The hope as to the future, which "springs eternal in the human breast," lured them on, and although those that came were usually regarded by the friends they left, as soldiers of fortunate, who, if they ever returned at all, would indeed be fortunate. They were a sturdy race, who realized the struggles in the older States or countries, and resolved to plant themselves where merit would not be suppressed by traditions. The men who came were, as a rule, enterprising, openhearted and sympathizing; they were good neighbors, and so, good neighborhoods were created, and they illustrated the idea of the true brotherhood of man more by example than by quoting creeds, with a bravery that never blanched before the most appalling danger; they were, nevertheless, tender, kind and considerate, in the presence of misfortune, and their deficiency in outward manifestations of pity was more than compensated by their love and regard for humanity. And if this meed of praise is justly due to the men, and it certainly is, what shall be said of the heroic women who braved the vicissitudes of frontier life endured the absence of home, friends and old associations, the severing of whose tender ties must have wrung all hearts. The devotion which would lead to such a breaking away, to follow a father, a husband or son into the trackless waste beyond the Mississippi, where gloomy apprehensions must have arisen in the mind, causing hope to waver and the heart to sink with dread, is above all praise. The value of the part taken by the noble women who first came to this uninhabited region cannot be over-estimated. Although by nature liberal, they practiced economy, and often at critical times preserved order, reclaiming the men from despair during gloomy periods; and their example of industry constantly admonished them to renewed and strenuous efforts to save the west from a relapse into barbarism. This tendency was supposed to result from the disruption of social and religious ties, the mingling of heterogeneous elements, and the removal of the external restraints, so common, and supposed to be so patent in older communities. Dr. Bushnell did not have a sufficiently extended view of the subject, for, in looking over the history of the past, it is found that in a nomadic condition there is never any real progress in refinement. Institutions for the elevation of the race must be planted deep in the soil before they can raise their heads in beauty and majesty towards heaven, and bear fruit for the enlightenment of nations. The evils of which Dr. Bushnell was so afraid are merely temporary in their character, and will have no lasting impression. What actually happens is this: At first there is an obvious increase in human freedom, but the element of self-government everywhere largely predominates, and the fusion of the races, which is inevitable, will in due time create a composite nationality, or a race as unlike as it must be superior to those that have preceded it. Even now, before the first generation has passed away, society in the west has outgrown the irritation of transplanting, and there are no more vicious elements in society here than in the east, as the criminal statues will abundantly show. In this connection are given the personal experiences of the pioneers of Cass county. These articles are written or related by the pioneers, and when written, the complier has in no case attempted to change or vary the style of the writer, it being the design to show the peculiarity of the writer, as well as to record the facts narrated. These reminiscences are interesting and well worthy of perusal.

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Transcribed by Deb Lightcap-Wagner, March, 2014 from:"History of Cass County, Together with Sketches of Its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens", published in 1884, Springfield, Ill: Continental Historical Co., pp. 272-274.