CHAPTER III.
SETTLERS PRIOR TO COUNTY ORGANIZATION (CONT'D).

THE EARLY SETTLEMENT OF CASS COUNTY

(CONT'D)
BY R. D. MCGEEHON.

A TYPICAL PIONEER'S HOUSE.

"It might be of interest to some to know how our house was furnished, and ours was a fair example of all at that time. The cooking was all done on the fireplace in a Dutch oven. A skillet, frying pan, tin coffee pot, an iron pot (called a stew pot), tin cups, pans and buckets, a half dozen knives and forks, a few iron spoons, and some plates and saucers, completed the count, so far as the cook's tools were concerned.

"All the furniture we had in our house the first four or five years I made myself--bedsteads, chairs and tables. These were made by splitting out lumber from basswood and walnut logs and putting it in shape with axe, draw-knife, hand-saw, jack-plane, auger and brace and bits. Our house was furnished as well as any in the country.

"Our supply of fruit was generally plentiful in its season. In the timber was to be found a great abundance of gooseberries and wild plums, of fine quality. Then we had crabapples, and, if we could secure the necessary sugar, our wives could make excellent butter, sauce and preserves from them.

"For recreation, or a good time, we would get as many neighbors together as we could haul in a sled--if we had snow, if not, in a wagon--and visit some neighbor, who perhaps lived at a distance of eight or ten miles; and it would be early in the morning when we got back home.

WINTER OF 1856.

"The winter of 1856 and 1857 was one of the most severe I ever experienced. The weather was fine until Deceember 2, 1856, when it began snowing, and continued for three days and nights, in the meantime getting colder and colder. When it ceased the snow was three feet deep in the timber, and of various depths on the prairie, and the cold was intense. The stage coaches were put on runners, and kept on runners for thirteen weeks, making their regular trips from Des Moines to Council Bluffs. The snow in the timber was from eighteen inches to three feet deep all winter, and the fences were completely hidden. Deer came into my hay lot and ate hay with the cattle. They were so poor that they looked like skeletons with a hide drawn over them.

"Two men undertook to go from Doc. Morrison's place to a settlement on Middle river, distant about eighteen miles. They were overtaken by a blizzard, and perished before they could reach shelter. There were many such instances of death and suffering that winter.

FREMONT VOTERS OF TURKEY GROVE.

"From the time the county was organized until the fall of 1856 there was but one voting precinct, first at Indiantown and then at Lewis. During that fall Turkey Grove township was organized. It took in what is now Grove, Franklin, Grant and Benton. That fall Turkey Grove polled twenty-seven votes--a majority of them for Fremont. Most of these have passed away. Following are the names of those that I now remember: Geo. and Albert Wakefield, William and Robert Jameson, John F. and Wm. Humerich, Philip Queen, Morris Hoblit, Clark Hoblit, Frederick Stoodt, Frank Nordman, Fred Both, Henry Michaels, Phil Michaels, Joseph Northgraves, Dr. G. S. Morrison and Peter Kanawyer.

"At this time (1856) we had a very comfortable neighborhood about us. There were some fifteen families living within a radius of three miles of our house, which made it convenient to visit, borrow and lend. A man who would not borrow or lend was hardly known in our community, so dependent were we upon each other; and such a one would have had scant welcome.

HARD TIMES OF THE CIVIL WAR.

"We were all engaged in subduing the prairie as fast as possible, raising grain, cattle, horses, hogs, and everything that could make life more comfortable. We all felt that we were getting along very well, but in 1861 the war commenced, and everything seemed to stop. The most of our able-bodied men went into the army. There was no money in circulation, as nearly all the banks failed and the paper money was worthless. Immigration ceased. So many men being away to the war, left most of the farming to be done by their wives, children, and the cripples who were unfit for service; consequently many of the farms grew up in weeds. The rebels got possession of the Missouri below St. Joseph, and we could get nothing from St. Louis. What little we did get to eat, drink or wear, except what we raised, had to be hauled from the Mississippi river. Corn was worth nothing in money. At one time (the summer of 1862) I hauled two loads of wheat to Council Bluffs, and sold it for thirty-seven and one-half cents per bushel (store pay), and took a 200-lb. sack of coarse salt as part payment. One of my neighbors took a load of dressed hogs to Des Moines and sold them for one and one-half cents per pound.

WAR PRICES OF '63.

"During 1863 I started a small store in Grove City, and following are a few of the prices paid for some of my goods, bought in Des Moines: One caddy of Young Hyson tea, $2.00 per pound; one sack rice, 18 cents per pound; one barrel dried apples, 20 cents per pound; one box dried blackberries, 35 cents per pound; one-half barrel mackerel, $13.50; one dozen two-pound cans peaches, $6.00; one box soda, 12 1/2 cents per pound; one barrel Northern Ohio sugar, 27 cents per pound; one keg eight-penny nails, $10.50; one box granulated sugar, 35 cents per pound; one barrel salt, $7.50; one pound nutmegs, $1.90.

"Calico was from 45 to 50 cents per yard; Atlantic sheeting, coarse unbleached muslin, 65 cents per yard; blue denims, 90 cents to $1.00 per yard, and other goods in proportion. It cost $1.00 per 100 pounds to freight goods from Des Moines to Grove City; hence you can estimate the price at which I would have to sell them to make a living.

"In 1864 times began to improve. The Missouri river came into possession of the Union troops, and boats could bring goods to Council Bluffs. Greenbacks got plenty and the price of farm products rose rapidly. I bought hogs that fall, to be driven to Iowa City and there shipped to Chicago. I paid six cents per pound and some of the farmers got as high as $1,000 in greenbacks for their hog crop. Cattle were driven into the country and fed, which made a market for our corn at from 25 to 30 cents per bushel, which made the farmers think that they were going to live again. By 1867 the Rock Island Railroad had reached Des Moines, in 1868 it was built to Atlantic--the first cars arriving January 1, 1869. By spring it was completed to Council Bluffs. The country then settled up very fast. Land that could be bought during the war for a mere song advanced to $7, and as high as $10 per acre, without improvements. In a few years the great expanse of prairie was converted into fields of waving wheat, oats and corn.

A PIONEER'S RETROSPECT.

"In looking back over the fifty-four years I have spent in Cass county, many things came to my mind which might be of interest to the younger generation. But this article is now getting too long; yet there are a few words more that I must say. Each year, as it rolls along the pathway of time, is fast thinning the ranks of the old pioneers who first broke the pathway of civilization on the prairies of Cass county. The icy hand of death is pushing its ceaseless vocation in cutting down, one by one, the hardy and brave men and women who first established the guide posts of progress in this wilderness, whose only inhabitants were wild beasts.

"No pen of mine can tell the hardships and vicissitudes of many of those hardy pioneers, who had left their homes in older lands and turned their faces to the West, there to hew out for themselves new homes in this vast wilderness. The weather beaten form, the furrowed brow and hoary locks, the unsteady step, shows that theirs was no holiday task, while weathering the storms and troubles of pioneer life. Penury, hardship and often absolute want, were their lot, while trying to conquer Dame Nature and make a home for themselves and children.

"Heroism is not always surrounded with blood and smoke. It took men and women of a heroic and obstinate courage to live here over half a century and more ago. Yet, notwithstanding all the hardships and vicissitudes of these pioneers they lived a happy life. Here all were free and equal. The absence of wealth and position was not felt. The rough hospitality, the hearty feeling of brotherhood among those vanguards of civilization were the spontaneous overflow of hearts full of regard for humanity, and were practiced more as the natural promptings of their nature than from any teachings of duty. Fashionable clothing was not known, and the good wives cut and made our clothes as best they could. Each made her own apparel, fashioning her dress, hat or bonnet to suit her taste. If a garment was warm and comfortable for winter, and cool and comfortable for summer, it was satisfactory. Fine clothes and fashion cut little figure in those days.

"I have lived to see Cass county, which was a howling wilderness, inhabited by wolves, deer, wild cats and occasionally a panther, converted into almost one solid farm, or series of farms; such a condition as could not be realized by even the most sanguine, fifty years ago. But such are the wonderful results of our busy American life."

"Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 62-65.
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, August, 2018.