Chapter Sixteen

RECOLLECTIONS OF PIONEER DAYS.

In the happy hunting days of the pioneers there were those who spent much of their time about the camp fires in the forest. On their return from these hunting excursions it was the great delight of these jolly sons of Nature to sit around the home grocery - (every grocery had a barrel of whiskey) and relate their adventures and experiences. S. L. Pomeroy relates one which he knew to be true. Two of these old lovers of the trail whom the boys had nicknamed Fox and Kangaroo, were over across Skunk for an outing. One day around the camp fire Fox says: "I am a braver man than you are." Kangaroo replied: "I will not believe it until you prove it." Whereupon Fox threw his hat into the fire. Not to be outdone his partner did the same. Coats, jackets and every thread of wearing apparel followed until their blankets were the only covering they had left. Gathering up their traps they managed some way to get across the river and started homeward. Passing a large pool of water, Fox again challenged his companion's bravery, saying: "I can stay longer under the water than you can." The words were no sooner uttered than both men made the dive. Fox, who came up first, chanced to find himself under the spreading roots of a near-by tree on the shore. He could breathe comfortably and awaited developments. In a short time Kangaroo came up, panting at a furious rate. When he could collect himself he looked around for his friend. Then climbed out on,the bank, and becoming more serious, took a long pole and prodded about in the water. Fox now thought it was about time for him to appear, and diving out into deeper water came to the surface. Kangaroo was prompt in according to his companion as being the braver man of the two.

All the pioneers agree in the incredible number of wolves in the country in the early days. They were the scavengers of the land, devouring whatever they could find, both living and dead. S. L. Pomeroy, who came in 1847, is full of reminiscences of those beginning years in Mahaska county. He was himself quite a hunter. He kept two greyhounds for fleetness on the trail, and a large, savage dog of mixed breed to do the killing, when the hounds had overtaken the wolf and had it pretty well worried out. All were well trained, and even if the wolf was in sight would invariably follow it at the horses heels until the word of command was given for the attack. Mr. Pomeroy says when he chanced to take one alive he would sometimes bring the hunting outfit to town and have the boys form a circle in the public square, where the animal was let loose and compelled to run in the circle until it would break through and make for its life. Then the dogs of the town were let loose and the race began.

Hunting was the chief excitement of the times, and when a settler started to mill or on a journey, if his dogs chased up a wolf or deer he would often unhitch his fleetest horse and give chase. Jordan. Whitacre, an old hunter who lived across Skunk river in Madison township, at one time shot seven deer without moving from his hiding place. A heavy sleet covered all nature and while hunting in the forest he came unexpectedly upon a group of seven who had not noticed his approach because of the cracking and crashing of falling branches everywhere. They took no notice of the report of his gun until the last one had fallen.

In 1848, James Woods, who lived on Middle creek came over to Samuel Coffin's to borrow some money. He found Mr. Coffin some miles from home breaking prairie. Mr. Coffin told him he did not have time to go to the house to get him the money, but if he would go over to the house he would find a package of money in a particular corner of the smokehouse. Take from the package the sum he wanted and put the rest back where he got it. No note or obligation whatever was given. S. L. Pomeroy was administrator of the Coffin estate and says this was a fair sample of the business methods of this large-hearted man. He aimed to deal in that way only with men of veracity and his losses were not overly large.

Back in the 40s when E. W. Eastman was practicing law in Oskaloosa, one spring he chanced to own a calf which he was quite desirous to dispose of at almost any price. So he bantered one of his constituents, a Major Neeley, for a trade. Said he would take anything. The Major said he had nothing to trade but chickens and turkeys. If he wanted that kind of a trade he should take until he was satisfied if he would catch them himself. "Very good," says young Eastman, congratulating himself. "You take the calf and if we can't get the fowls any other way I am a good shot with my rifle." The Major cautioned him to come quite early in the morning or late in the evening, as they were off to the woods during the day. Early one morning Eastman drove out to the Neeley home, some miles southeast of town, to bring in a buggy load of toothsome chickens and turkeys. The Major told him he had come a little late for the turkeys, as they were off for the day. Taking him out into a piece of deadened timber he showed him a prairie chicken here and there in the tree-tops. "Are these the fowls you promised I should have for the catching?" said Eastman. "0, yes," said Neeley; "our chickens and turkeys are all of the wild variety." The young attorney was too badly unnerved to try his skill as a marksman, but drove back home, making the mental record of defeat number one.

Perhaps the first pork packing done in this county was done by Leeper Smith in the winter of 1847-48 at the lower end of Six Mile bottom on the Des Moines river. It was an open winter and favorable to the business. The hogs were brought into Oskaloosa already dressed and hauled down to the packing house. The work was superintended by Henry Leister. Toward spring a large flatboat some fifty feet long and half as wide, was built of heavy native lumber with the expectation of floating the cargo down to some southern market when the spring rains should bring water enough in the river channel to make the trip with safety. That year, however, proved to be a very dry year, and the spring went by without the usual freshet. A Dr. Lee had a similar packing house and boat further up the river. When these gentlemen saw in the early summer that the river route would not be available to them, they secured teams and moved their pork products overland to Keokuk, where it was sold or sent down the Mississippi on boats. A few years later they loaded their flatboats with corn which brought them a good price down the river because of the large demand for it by the emigrants on their westward march.

We examined with much interest several primitive articles owned by S. L. Pomeroy. Among them was a hand-made hammer made seventy-five years ago and used in the family for three quarters of a century. A door with wooden hinges, having all its fastenings with pegs instead of nails, was made by John Morgan, north of Fremont, in 1848. An oak clapboard four feet by eight inches rived out by his father in 1855. A huge prairie plow made by Nichols & Tolbert in 1851, in their blacksmith shop, which stood on High avenue one block west of the square, where Lewis Brothers' implement store now stands. Mr. Prine says they kept the old servant pretty busy in those early years. It was drawn by six yoke of oxen and sometimes ten. This larger number, however, were only used when they were breaking young cattle to work in the yoke. A yoke of cattle broke to work were worth much more than those who had yet to be initiated.

An old-fashioned lantern carried by our fathers sixty or more years ago. It consisted of a perforated sheet of tin welded in circular form, with a conical top, into which a ring of convenient size was inserted for carrying it. A door of the same material hung on hinges and allowed a candle to be inserted on the inside.

John R. Baer showed us a receipt given by his father, G. W. Baer, to Thomas Fancher in 1848, when the former was county treasurer o£ Mahaska county. The receipt is written in a plain hand on a scrap of fool's-cap paper of a blue tint, and reads as follows: "Received of Thomas Fancher his taxes in full for the year 1847. January 7, 1848. G. W. Baer, T. M. C." Mr. Baer was a tailor by trade, his residence and shop being located on the west side of the square. In the year 1845 fire destroyed both shop and residence. It was quite a notable fire at the time, being the first that had occurred in the village of Oskaloosa. Mr. Baer recalls the visit to Oskaloosa of a company of Musquakee Indians in the spring of 1848. They were led by their chief who was widely known as Old John Green. His father was quite well acquainted with the tribe, having in the year previous purchased from them their furs. Because of an acquaintance formed in this way they called him the White Chief. The Indians were met on North Market street and they said to Mr. Baer by signs and scraps of broken English that they had been without food for three days. He told the chief to come down to the house and he would give him something to eat. Whereupon the whole company accepted the invitation and marched after their leader. Mr. Baer persisted in vain that it would be impossible for him to feed so many. They replied that they were hungry and must be fed. After they had devoured all of the eatables, in the neighborhood, the villagers loaned them a supply of pots and kettles and they were directed to a grove over on the hill on what is now North Third street. Here they camped over Sunday. On Monday the warriors went to Mr. Baer's residence, a half block north of the Christian church, and left in the care of Mrs. Baer all of their implements of war while they went up to the old courthouse and repaid the villagers for their hospitality by giving them a genuine war dance with all of its confusion, pow wow and frenzied gesticulation. It was always their custom to place their war equipment out of their reach before going into these war dances, lest in frenzied excitement when the war spirit had taken full possession of them, some violence might follow. After a visit of less than a week they departed toward the northwest into their wilderness home. J. R. Gentry relates that one cold wintry night a loud rap was heard at the door of his father's frontier cabin in Jasper county which was then the home of the family. His father had gone to mill some days journey away and his resolute mother demanded to know who was there. The answer came "John Green." As everybody knew Old John Green, chief of the Musquakee Indians, he was invited in. Asking for something to eat, Mrs. Gentry told him that her husband was away and she could not keep him for the night, but he should sit by the fire and warm himself, and she would share with him her scanty supply of food. She set before him a pot containing about a gallon of hominy in its crude state. To him it was a veritable feast, nor did he turn away until the last grain had disappeared into his capacious stomach. Then he silently wrapped his blankets and furs around him and disappeared into the night. Curiosity led the boys to watch which way he went. The old son of nature went to the hog pen, and driving them out of their warm nests, he lay down covering himself head and feet with his wrappings. The hogs piled up around him, and notwithstanding the relentless cold, with a full stomach to give heat within and the nearness of his not far remote relatives, he slept like a roach until the morning dawned, when he shook himself and went on his journey.

All the old settlers of this county with whom we have conversed, shake their heads when speaking of the annual prairie fires which swept the western prairies every fall after the frost had killed the grass and left a bed of dry straw covering the whole face of nature. The cautious settler always surveyed the landscape far and near before retiring at night. If there was an unusual light anywhere in the horizon some one of the household remained on guard throughout the night to give warning in case of its approach toward the cabin. In case of its approach a counter fire was started. Much damage was done in the early years by these fires. Mrs. G. B. McFall states that in their early home in Cedar township when one of these resistless fires was rolling across the prairie toward their home a sudden change in the wind reversed its course and saved their property from destruction.