CHAPTER XIX.

When I begin writing about the friends I have known so long and so well I can hardly find a place to stop. I want to follow them up from generation to generation. When I began this story my purpose was to tell as true a story as I could of the days when all, or nearly all, of this beautiful and grand country was an unbroken wilderness; of its first settlers and their heroism. I wanted this generation to understand how people, some of them their ancestors, could live in log huts away from churches and schools and railroads, with little to wear and coarse food to eat, and yet be good and great. But I find myself wandering away from my first object and saying a good deal about a generation that was unborn when these scenes were being enacted. Some of Oskaloosa's most brilliant and prosperous business and professional men are sons of these pioneers, and many of her brightest, best, and most charming women are their daughters. Some of them I have known from their childhood, some I have held in my arms when they were babies. Their parents and grandparents were my friends, and friends of the husband of my youth. It will not be thought strange that I feel an interest and want to tell about their children. So few of the first settlers are left I have to depend on my own memory for nearly all I have to say about them. Some were seized with the gold fever and went across the plains to, California with ox teams late in the forties and early in the fifties. Some moved away to other new places and never came back. Some are sleeping in Forest cemetery, among them my own precious dead.

I love to think of the early days and people. I love to talk about them, and I am glad to have the privilege and inclination to write about them. I want these splendid young men and women in Oskaloosa and the country round about, who are descended from those courageous, self sacrificing early settlers to know that they are not altogether selfmade as they may possibly think they are. Book learning and polish, may be acquired, but brains, honor and cuurage have to be born in people. Nearly everyone of the people who first settled around here were endowed with brains, courage and honor. What they lacked was opportunity. The best part of their lives were spent in toiling to make the opportunity of which their descendants are reaping the benefit. But I see, if I dont mind Iwill fall into a habit I detest,
namely, "moralizing." It's too much like explaining a joke. To tell the story and let the reader do his or her own moralizing I think is better.

When I was a young girl my home was an the border of a neighborhood composed of people of German extraction, who had emigrated from Pennsylvania and settled there when Indiana was new. They were called Pennsylvania "Dutch." They were thrifty, honest, good neighbors and all round good citizens. As far as my knowledge goes the Pennsylvania Germans are good citizens anywhere.

The family I want to talk about now is of that old and respectable stock. Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Kalbach, with some of their older children came from Pennsylvania and located in Oskaloosa in 1851. They, like the majority of Oskaloosa's newcomers in that day, had but little means, and lived in houses of small dimensions at first. Their family increased until there were four sons and five daughters, who were brought up to be industrious, self-reliant and self-respecting. The children were all well educated, nearly, if not altogether in Oskaloosa's public schools. Although for several years Mr. Kalbach's means were limited, and his family numerous; by honest industry and good management, he not only maintained his family respectably, but laid by enough to enable him to embark in a lucrative business. Mr. and Mrs. Kalbach, had the great good sense to live within their means. They were rather quiet people, but their habits and manners were of the kind which command the respect of their neighbors. Mr. Kalbach engaged in the lumber business, arid was prosperous from the first. He has retired now from active business, but two of his sons, John and George Kalbach, are carrying on the lumber business extensively and profitably. John, the eldest of Mr. Kalbach's sons, married Miss Louise Patterson, an excellent young lady. Their home is one of the nicest in the city. Their son Warren is a fine looking young man, works in his fathers office and bids fair to become a fine business man, like his father and uncles. Their daughters, Helen and Annette, are charming girls.

A few years ago Mr. John Kalbach made the regular round of sightseeing in Europe. While on that trip he favored us with some charming and very interesting letters. When he came home somebody asked him what pleased him most of all the things he saw an that trip. His reply was: "The sight which delighted me most was the group standing on the lawn to greet me when I reached my home."

George Kalbach is the only unmarried one of the family. He has traveled much, and his letters from abroad, especially from South America, were entertaining, instructive and written in a pleasing style. John and George Kalbach certainly have always been looked upon as intelligent, levelheaded business men, but who was looking for the literary ability shown in the letters both of these gentlemen favored us with while traveling in foreign lands? William, another of the Kalbach brothers, in partnership with Mr. Chas. Huber (another of Oskaloosa's fine business men and good citizens), is doing an extensive business in hardware, both wholesale and retail. Mr. William Kalbach is also president of the Oskaloosa National Bank. He married one of Oskaloosas nicest girls, Miss Nellie Seevers, daughter of Judge and Mrs. W. H. Seevers.

Z. T. Kalbach, "Taylor," as we always called him, married Miss Rose Cole, a charming girl. Taylor located and launched out in business in the town of New Sharon, and like the rest of the Kalbach men, was not only very prosperous, but a valued citizen. But Taylor, in the pride of young manhood, was cut down by death. Mr. and Mrs. Kalbachs five daughters everyone grew to womanhood - honored, admired, and loved by all who knew them, especially by those who knew them best. The Kalbach lot is one of the prettiest in Forest Cemetery. There Taylor and Emma sleep, where a few months ago the beloved mother of that excellent family was laid to rest.

Though Isaac Kalbach's home is one of the most elegant and substantial in the city of Oskaloosa, and his sons and his daughters are so near, and pleasantly located, and are so kind and thoughtful of their fathers comfort, yet she who was the wife of his youth, the mother of his children, the one who shared his joys and griefs for more than half a century has gone out of that home, leaving a void nothing can ever fill; though Isaac Kalbach has had to drink of that bitter cup which nearly all must drink sooner or later, he has much to comfort him and to be thankful for in his declining years more than usually falls to the lot of man. His daughters and his daughters in law are all that he could desire in daughters; his sons and sonsnin law are honorable and prosperous men. Not long ago a gentleman who knows them well, said to me: "The Kalbachs can make money without resorting to questionable methods."

Christian Houtz, another of the Pennsylvania German stock, with his wife and only child Evaline, came and located in Oskaloosa in 1847. Mr. Houtz bought a tract of land adjoining the town On the east, where he built a comfortable home, surrounding it with fruit trees, vines and flowers. Mrs. Houtz had fine roses when fine roses were rare in this country; she had other fine flowers too. I think the Houtzes and the Fredericks were the first families anywhere about Oskaloosa to propagate and cultivate dahlias, geraniums and fine roses. Mr. Houtz built that home in 1848. It stands there yet, a good and respectable residence. Mrs. Houtz died early in the seventies, but Mr. Houtz lived to an advanced age. They both died in the house they built in '48. Mr. Houtz laid out an addition to Oskaloosa, which is known as Houtz's addition. His land increased in value as the town grew; he became quite wealthy, and when he died he left a considerable estate.

Evaline was a bright little girl, and grew up to be a bright young lady. She married John R. Needham, a popular young lawyer, who was elected to the State Senate in 1852. He was Lieutenant Governor during the war of the rebellion. By virtue of his office Mr. Needham was speaker of the house. When Ft. Donaldson fell, and a dispatch came telling of the same, it was handed to Mr. Needham. After glancing it over, he called the attention of the house and with joy beaming all over his face, he proceeded to read to that eager assembly: "OUR TROOPS VICTORIOUS! FT. DONALDSON HAS FALLEN!"

It is said that such a scene was never enacted in Iowas Legislature before nor since. One big shout went up. Tears of joy sprung to their eyes. They grasped each others hands. They embraced, they laughed, they wept.

John R. Needham was the first editor of the Oskaloosa Herald, which was the first newspaper published in Oskaloosa. Mr. Needham died of consumption, when comparatively a young man, leaving two children, Minnie and Willie. Mrs. Evaline Houtz Needham is still a citizen of Oskaloosa, and is considered one of the best informed women in the town. She is an inveterate reader, and, her knowledge of prominent people and events is something wonderful. Mrs.Needham spends much qf her time in one or another of the cities or watering places in the east. Her winters are usually spent in Washington, D. C. She sometimes favors her home papers with letters telling of the interesting places she has visited and the prominent and interesting people she has met. Mrs. Needham is a graceful writer. When she was Evaline Houtz and a little girl in school her essays were remarkably well written. Mrs. Needham is a fine looking woman, has a young face and not a gray hair, though she has granddaughters who are young ladies. Her daughter Minnie was a bright and studious child, was one of the first to graduate from Oskaloosa High School, and was quite proficient in music. She married Mr. W. R. Lacey, a prominent young attorney, and is now mistress of one of the finest homes in Oskaloosa, where she and her husband and daughters entertain their hosts of friends in the most delightful manner. Every room, nook and cornet is furnished in an elegant, comfortable and restful manner. The daughters charm one with music, and the choicest of literature greets the eye on every hand. Their conservatory is filled with the choicest plants and flowers, and their grounds are a bower of
beauty. Broad verandas festooned with graceful vines and surrounded with ferns, begonias and palms makenone almost imagine they are in the tropics. Their grounds reach from street to street, and are pretty on all sides, with no unsightly places at all.

W. R. Lacey is a successful attorney, a careful business man and is steadily adding to his possessions. Mrs. Needham's son, William Houtz Needham, was a bright and handsome boy, and when he reached young manhood, was tall, broadshouldered and handsome; was well educated, studied law, was admitted to the bar, began practicing his profession with bright prospects of success. He was courteous in his manners towards every body, and everybody was his friend. He married Miss Ella Moore, daughter and only child of Mr. and Mrs. H. C. Moore, one of Oskaloosa's most accomplished young ladies. Those worthy young people had just taken possession of their beautiful home when the young husband was stricken with typhoid fever. Its progress was rapid; in a few days William H. Needham was no more.

Colonel W. W. Chapman, who was a delegate to congress from Iowa when it was a territory, once resided in Oskaloosa. He with his family, came here in the spring of 1846. They occupied a rambling kind of log cabin on the south side of High street about where the Narrow Gauge depot stands. Some wag had given it the name of "Ft. Baker." An eccentric sort of man who was called "Colonel" Baker had built and occupied it when Oskaloosa was first a town. I don't know why he was called Colonel but he was. That was even before the Mexican war. Colonel Chapman was a brotherinlaw to Van B. Delashmutt. He was a lawyer, a devout Methodist and a very nice man. In the spring of 1847 Col. Chapman and family moved to Portland, Oregon. He crossed the plains, with ox teams. I am sure Col. Chapman owned the largest library of anybody in the county when they lived here. I know I gazed with wonder and astonishment to see so many books in a little dark cabin.

John Montgomery was one of the first to stake out a claim in Mahaska county on the first day of May, 1843. He with John White, Felix Gessford and W. D. Canfield were hidden somewhere on the night of April 30. They didn't go to sleep, but waited until the hands of somebody's watch pointed to the figure XII; then they grabbed their torches and sharpened sticks and flew around the land they had been secretly spying out. Mr. Montgomery had chosen about the nicest piece of land to be found anywhere right on the divide. The government reserves the privilege of taking a quarter section of land anywhere on the public domain if they want to locate a county seat, no matter who claims it. So the, commissioners who located Oskaloosa, liked Mr. Montgomery's claim and pounced on it, and laid out the town, with a public square not exactly in the center of the town, but exactly on top of the ridge, where the waters from the north side find their way to Skunk river, and the waters from the south side find their way to the Des Moines. Mr. Montgomery had land left after giving up that splendid quarter, and was allowed a claim at the south west corner of town besides; he had a splendid tract adjoining the town quarter on the south. On these lands Mr. Montgomery has laid out what is known as Montgomerys first and second additions to Oskaloosa. Mr. Montgomery has a comfortable home at the corner of First Street and Third Avenue. He is one of the very few persons who own and occupy a home on the claim they staked out on the first day of May, 1843. Mr. Montgomery has owned many valuable pieces of prop erty, and still owns a good deal in the town and country round about. He is now old and feeble and much broken, but keeps his lawn and garden in good order with his own hands. He has been twice married, and both wives were excellent women. They sleep in Old Cemetery. His three sons and one daughter are married and gone. His young lady daughters, Laura and Jessie" keep the inside of their home in as good order as the father does the outside. Mr. Montgomery is the oldest, settler of Oskaloosa now living in the town, and the only one, living of the men who drove stakes around, their claims in this region on May 1st, 1843. Mr. Montgomery has always. been an honest, liberal and kindhearted man.

After fhe Mexican war was over and terms of Peace; adjusted, there was a considerable scope of territory added to the United States. Our people didn't seem to think "expansion" a bad thing then, and when some new maps of the United States were made, with seven or eight hundred miles more of our domain bordering on the Pacific Ocean, and a vast territory to the southwest, our country assumed a better shape, was better proportioned, I always liked to study maps, and never look on a map of our country without a feeling of pride, nor without seeing with the minds eye the maps used when I went to school; that long stretch of Atlantic sea coast and the little strip on the Pacific. But after the Mexican war was over it was squared out to about the right shape.

In July, 1848, about the time matters were fairly adjusted between the United States and Mexico, gold in  that newly acquired country was discovered in great quantities. The news flew from one end of the land to the other. There was great excitement among the people, even here in Mahaska county and Oskaloosa. Nearly all of our young men, and some who were not very young, were ready to sacrifice all they possessed for a California outfit. A California outfit for three or four men consisted of three yoke of oxen, a wagon, loaded with flour, bacon, coffee, tea, sugar and dried apples, with the necessary condiments, enough to last five or six months; bedding and two suits of substantial clothes. Yes, and each man must have a gun and a supply of amunition. Some of our young, men were willing and glad to exchange a quarter section of good land for, such an out fit. What was a quarter section of land in Iowa compared with the bags of gold they were going to pick up in California? They could go out there and in a year or two come back with gold enough to buy a township. Such wonderful stories were told us of fortunes being picked up, sometimes in a day, that half the people, women as well as men, were crazy to go.

The agricultural and horticultural resources of that "grand country were scarcely thought of it was nothing but gold. In the Spring of 1849 a "large company of
Oskaloosa people and others from the country round, more or less comfortably fixed for the trip, started on that long and tedious journey across the plains. The end of civilizetion was "Kanesville," a small town or trading point on the Missouri River, since known by the name of Council Bluffs. Immediately on crossing that river the plains began, which stretched away off to the West for hundreds and hundreds of miles, a barren waste, only inhabited by Indians and buffalo, and nobody seemed to think it ever would be inhabited by anything else, nothing would grow there but buffalo grass. Some whole families, and many of our splendid young men were in that train which, left Oskaloosa for California in the Spring of '49, and on the spot where the great town of Omaha now stands, and that wonderful InterState Exposition is now being held, with tears in their eyes they looked across that mighty, muddy river and bade farewell to Iowa and to civilization. They then cracked their whips and started across the plains.

Some of the families went with the intention of staying and making California their home, among them John Cameron, the good old Cumberland Presbyterian preacher, with his wife, eight daughters, one son, six sons in law, one daughter in law and a host of grandchildren. Everyone of that numerous family, old enough to know what piety meant, were pious people, and I have heard, had worship every night and morning on that long and perilous journey. I think all that went in that first company from Oskaloosa lived to get through. But some of those strong young men who started with such glowing expectations, never came back. James and Thomas
McMurray; two excellent young men, were cut down by death in young manhood. Their bones are resting, perhaps, in lonely graves in California. Rolla Smith, a fine young man, tall and straight as an arrow, and Dr. Sampsell, a brilliant young physician, after working in the gold mines a year or two, with, no one knows what success, boarded a vessel at San Francisco to come home, but vessel nor young men were ever heard of after. Stephen Edwards went to California with the Camerons, worked in the mines a few years, then went to the Willamette Valley in Oregon, engaged in farming and, is now a wealthy retired old bachelor of Eugene City.

Some of those stalwart young men who went in that train of '49ers, lived to return to their friends and homes. Perhaps none of them brought a very great amount of gold, but they all brought with them a much greater amount of knowledge than they had when they started away. California was a good place to learn. Brilliant and scholarly men from all over the eastern states were digging gold along the creeks. Scholars, statesmen, poets, actors and politicians were mixed up with the unlearned prairie breaker from Iowa, or the hoop pole merchant from Illinois. The graduate from Yale washed out gold by the side of the champion cornhusker on the Wabash. The man who could recite every line of "Hamlet" from memory, had for his partner the man who could make more rails in a day than any man on Skunk river.

The Nantucket whale fisher who had sailed on every ocean and knew every seaport in the world, bunked with the young fellow whose ambition had been to carry up
the truest corner in a log cabin and hew a puncheon the smoothest. Not all of our boys who went in '49 were unlettered and unlearned. Some of them were as bright as a new silver dollar, and could hold their own anywhere, but others had not had the advantages of schools and knew little of what was in book. But most of them had been brought up in a school of honor and could be trusted with uncounted gold.

After their day a work had been done on the creek, this mixture of learned and unlearned would gather about the fire in their cabins, or shanties, and talk they would talk of the countries they had seen, the books they had read, the speeches they had heard delivered by great statesmen and orators, the sermons heard by this or that bishop, the acts of congress, the different peoples of different countries, with their different characteristics, and a hundred other things. Our unsophisticated prairie breakers, corn huskers and hoop pole cutters, listened, "caught on," and by that means and the known observation gained a store of knowledge. When they came home it was easy to be seen they had acquired, a self
possession and, easel of manner, could talk fluently of courts and laws, and empires and republics, and the different races inhabiting the different parts of the world, and so forth. They were as bright as the new gold coin in their pockets.

We lost many excellent citizens in the great exodus to California in 1849 and 1850, but their places were soon filled by other excellent people. While there was a rush to California to find gold, there was a rush to Iowa to find farms, and suitable locations for many other kinds of business. Many of our prominent people came and
settled here about that time, and among others, Judge J. A. L. Crookham, who came here a young man, and long before he was an old man he had acquired fortune and fame.

Early in the fifties Mr. and Mrs. Jerome M. White came from Ohio and, located in Oskaloosa. Mr. White opened out a store of general merchandise on the south side of the public square and did a good business. He was a many sided business man, and could make things go in whatever line he chose to direct his efforts. He could sell goods, he could deal in horses, he could buy and sell lots, could build a house, move in, could sell it  and move out again a little quicker than anybody I knew. Many of Oskaloosa's nice and valuable places were once the property of Mr. and Mrs. J. M. White. The lots upon which Mr. Hostetter's elegant residence now stands was once their home. Though the house Mr. White built and occupied on that ground in 1854 was thought to be quite pretentious, it was long since torn down and moved away. They once owned the ground and occupied a small frame house where Mr. McNeill's fine livery barn is now. That little frame house was moved away over on a hill on East C avenue and is standing there today.

I often drive by it, but never without thinking of the happy times my husband and myself have enjoyed in that little old house with those charming people. My husband and I became acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. J. M. White very soon after they came to Oskaloosa, and a strong friendship, such a friendship as only occurs between two families a few times in a whole lifetime, was formed between us. The kind of friendship which neither time, nor distance, nor prosperity, nor adversity, nor any other creature has ever broken.

We were all young away back in 1852; our hearts were light, the world looked bright, and everything had a charm. My husband would hitch his chestnut sorrels to his wagon in the Summer, and we would go out together on the Spring Creek hills and gather blackberries. In September we would drive over to the Des Moines and come home loaded down with wild grapes and plums. On the Fourth of July we would invite a few friends to join us and we would hie away to the banks of that beautiful river and have a "picnic" so full of incidents they are fresh in our memories today! On Winter nights our songs mingled with the jingle of sleighbells as we swiftly glided over the snowy prairies or on the streets of the little town of Oskaloosa. We sang, we joked, we laughed. Nobody could tell more funny stories than Jerome, and nobody could tell them better. "Jerome and Lizzie" seemed to be a part of ourselves. It was always a joy to see them come into our house, or for us to go to theirs. How much there was in a Summer or a Winter then!

The prairies with their native grasses and flowers, the groves scattered here and there with their borders of hazel bushes, crab apples and crimson sumach; the great feathery bunches of golden rod and purple chrysanthemums, those beauties just completed the border, purple and gold. Nature knows how to arrange colors; the river with banks at angle with trees and vines, made us joyous, yet we hardly knew why. But we were young then, and full of life and health and energy; little perplexities and annoyances were soon forgotten. The time when any of our little band would close their eyes forever on all that looked so bright, seemed vague and far away. Though we have been bereft of dear ones and had many a sorrow, we love to think and talk of the friends of long ago and of the bygone days. Our pleasure was not altogether in the frivolous; even if we were young, we enjoyed many a talk of the more serious and practical side of life.

Mr. and Mrs. White were bright, educated and cultured people, and were gifted with a high sense of honor. Mrs. White had the distinction of being the possessor of the first piano ever brought to Oskaloosa, which was in the Summer of 1853. At that time they owned the hotel where the Downing is now, and Hugh McNeely was its proprietor. Mr. and Mrs. White took their meals at the hotel, but had rooms at our house - we never stayed apart very long in those days. We owned and occupied a two story house at that time on the ground where the Bashaw Livery is now, Lot 5, Block 20, o. p., Oskaloosa. Mr. and Mrs. White occupied the east room upstairs, and when that piano came and was being taken up to that room, it created a sensation. A crowd gathered about the door and gazed in wonder. Many of them had never seen a piano.

Mrs. White was born and brought up in Brownsville Penn. She practiced on that piano when she was Lizzie Copeland. When Mrs. White was a little girl she went to school with James G. Blaine and his cousins, the Gillespie girls. Her father was prominent in that part of Pennsylvania as a journalist and politician, and was a member of the State Senate. He used to visit his daughter and her husband in Oskaloosa. Mr. Copeland was one of the finest looking men and most elegant gentlemen I ever met.

In 1854 or 1855 a town was laid out on the Missouri River and called Sioux City. Mr. White, conceiving the idea that Sioux City was going to be a great place, rushed out there and bought a large tract of land in and around the town. It wasn't long until those dear friends of ours hied them away over miles and miles of unbroken and uninhabited country, to the little village which it was expected was going to be the metropolis of the northwest. Sioux City was making a fair start toward greatness when the financial crash of 1857 gave it a backset. The war of the rebellion coming on soon after gave it another backset. Mr.. White abandoned his speculations in corner lots and went to the war. When the war was over, instead of going back to Sioux City, they located at Atchison, Kansas where they made for themselves a lovely home on the Missouri bluff just above that city. I thought that home a charming place. Every room was just the right size and shape. Their grounds were one mass of fine fruit and flowers, and there was the most delightful view up and, down the river from their broad veranda.

Mr. and Mrs. White have no children, so when they feel disposed to take a trip they take one. They spent the whole winter in New Orleans during the Exposition, and they spent another winter in Florida. She is a brilliant woman. Some five or six years ago they decided to spend a winter on the Pacific Coast. They went to Seattle, and made up their minds to spend the rest of their natural lives in a suburb of that city, as they had at last found the garden spot of the earth.

A lady asked me not long ago if I remembered an entertainment which was given here a long time ago, called the "bear party," or the "bear supper," "it was something with bear to it." To which I replied: "I should say I did remember it, for I was there and partook of a good sized piece of that bear." "Do tell me about it," she remarked. Then I proceeded to tell her the following story of that function:

Away back in the early fifties some old and very dear friends of ours, Mr. and Mrs. J. M. White, owned the old frame hotel where the Downing House now stands, and for a tenant and proprietor they had one Hugh McNeely, a gentleman possessing various gifts and accomplishments. He was one of the first proprietors of the "Oskaloosa Herald." His talents as a journalist were sometimes displayed in the editorial columns of that paper. Mr. McNeely was versatile; he was vivacious; he was full of  resources! After he had ceased to cater to the mental appetites of the resident public, he tried his hand at catering to the physical appetites of the traveling public. As a caterer Mr. McNeely was a success - for a while. His table fairly groaned with the weight of good things spread thereon. To sit down to a dinner at that hostelry, where roast pig, roast turkey, venison and peachcobbler
was served, was nothing unusual. Mr. McNeely was gifted with wonderful powers of conversation. There seemed to be no limit to his resources in that respect. He knew about all that was known in that day, and he seemed willing and anxious to give his guests the benefit of his knowledge. His logic was something wonderful; and he could argue on any side of a question with equal clearness. His guests gazed, and listened with astonishment:

"And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew,"
"How one small head could carryall be knew."

Our friend, Mr. Jerome White, had a wonderful liking for pets, in the way of wild animals. He bought a young deer and succeeded in making it very tame. It would come up to them and eat out of their hands. They allowed that deer great liberty, it was so tame. Everybody about town knew that deer, but to make sure no one would mistake it for a wild deer when it might chance to be grazing on the common, Mrs. White fastened a piece of red flannel around its neck. But with all that, someone was ruthless enough to shoot that deer.

Mr. White's next attempt at taming a wild animal for the solid pleasure of its society was with a badger. The badger was not a success; boys would come around and poke sticks at it, which didn't seem to be particularly enjoyed by the badger, however much it may have been enjoyed by the boys. So one day the badger becamedesperate, broke his chain, and escaped to parts unknown. These misfortunes happened to Mr. White in the year 1852. He was almost inconsolable when the badger made his escape, but in a few months after, some time in the
summer of 1853, he met a man somewhere who had for sale a large black bear, already sufficiently domesticated to be led by a chain. Mr. White purchased the bear and was happy. He had him taken around to the backyard of his hotel, had the chain made fast to a stake, and the bear was placed in Mr. McNeelys care. Mr. McNeely was delighted. His foresight was keen. A great feast and a great "hit" in the hotel business loomed up before his mental vision. Game of other kinds was quite plentiful, but a whole bear served at one meal was something unusual. And that was what Mr. McNeely mentally proposed to do, if Mr. White could be induced to have that bear slain. Mr. McNeely knew his powers of persuasion; he would manage it. That bear soon became so accustomed to seeing a crowd of men and boys around that he paid no attention to them, but just kept on eating. He fared sumptuously every day; devoured great quantities of food from Mr. McNeelys table, and waxed fatter and fatter. Mr. McNeely did not "reckon without his host," for in course of time, after many persuasions and logical arguments, Mr. White was led to see that a great bear feast would not only be a bonanza for Mr. McNeely in the hotel business, but would advertise the house and thereby bring him a purchaser. In those days everybody's property was for sale or trade. Speculation was rife in Oskaloosa; so Mr. White consented to have the bear sacrificed, but it was "stipulated in the bond" that Mrs. White should retain a considerable portion of the oil. Pure bears oil at that time was valuable. It was supposed to add greatly to the beauty of the hair, and was much used for that purpose. I remember seeing a
young man in church one day whose hair was so completely saturated with bears oil that it fairly dripped off.

Mr. McNeely did not swerve from his purpose: A week or two before Christmas he made known to the citizens of Oskaloosa and surrounding country, that a function such as had never, been witnessed nor enjoyed by society in this part of Iowa would be given at the Eagle Hotel, on December 24th, 1853. Dinner would be served at 3:30 p. m. The cuisine would surpass anything ever attempted in this comniunity. Many rare viands would be served at that banquet, but what was most unique, a large black bear would be slaughtered and the whole of it placed before the guests, prepared in every manner known to the cuisine art. After dinner the diningroom would be cleared and those who chose to do so could "trip the light fantastic toe."

When the afternoon of the 24th arrived, the elite of Oskaloosa and country round began to arrive, and soon the Eagle Hotel was filled to overflowing. Mr. McNeely did all, and more than he had led the people to think he would do; The bear was fine; the banquet was a grand success financially, and every other way. Everybody went away more than satisfied. They had had all the bear meat they wanted. As the bear, was the principal feature of the entertainment, some of the young men called it the "Bear party," and some were rude enough to call it the "Bear dance." That bear was large and fat, and when he come to be slaughtered and dressed, such quantities of "pure bears oil" I dont think had ever been seen by the "oldest inhabitant." It took a great big kettle to hold it. Mrs. White was an expert in what
ever she undertook, and she made a success in rendering that oil, as she did of everything else, and gallons of nice clear oil was the result. After she had given me a great big bottle full, and had shared liberally with her other friends, she had quantities of it left.

Mrs. White had a brother living here, a young gentleman, Mr. Tern Copeland. Though I have not mentioned him before in this story, he was one of us, and was generally, like Mr. and Mrs. White, mixed up in all our social affairs. Tern was engaged to a young lady in Brownsville, Penn. The ceremony was to take place in the Spring of 1854. There being an excellent tailor in Oskaloosa, and Mr. Copeland being fastidious in dress, employed this tailor to make his wedding suit, of black broadcloth; everything belonging to that suit was perfect. When he brought it home from the tailor, his sister; Mrs. White, assisted him in folding every individual piece and placing them in his trunk. After those wedding garments, and some other articles belonging to Mr. Copelands wardrobe were all neatly folded and placed in that trunk, there seemed to be a little space left, where something else might be put in. The packing was supposed to be done, and Tern went off down town, but as Mrs. White was putting on the finishing touches, she fell to soliloquizing: This trunk is not packed tight at all; it had just as well be as full as it will hold, as any other way in fact, I know it will be better to have things packed in as close as they can be wont be near so apt to jostle around an. get mussed. I'm going to send a lot of that bears oil to the folks at Brownsville. Won't it surprise them to get a bottle of bears oil from me and learn that I rendered that oil my own self? I imagine I hear their remarks about Lizzie frying out bears oil away in the wilds of Iowa. But they will be glad enough to get it.

Let me see! There's Aunt Charlotte, I'll send her a bottle. I imagine I see her trying to put some of it on Uncle Josie's hair, and Uncle Josie saying: "Ah, Charlotte, go away with that foolishness!" I'll send Jennie Seawright a bottle, and oh, there's Lib Gillespie! I'll send her a bottle; I believe I'll send her two bottles with a note saying: "You, can, if you choose, present this to that delectable cousin of yours, Jim Blaine, with the compliments of the chief manager of the Bears Oil Factory, situated near the mighty Skunk." I'll write a note and fasten it around each bottle, and be particular to in form each one that I know this oil to be absolutely pure. So she proceeded to fill up some bottles with bears oil and cork them, as she supposed, so tight that not a drop could escape. Then she slipped them down in the corners of the trunk. Then everything was packed and ready for Tern to start off to get married.

My husband frequently made trips to Keokuk with a two horse wagon and would haul back, a load of goods., There were no railroads. Sometimes several gentlemen having business in Keokuk would "go with him and return by stage. It was on one of thesetrips, as Mr. Copeland was starting on that momentous, journ(j:f, that he, witlt several other gentlemen, accompanied him to Keoknk. Mr. Phillips drove a spirited team and drove fast, paying little attention to ruts and rough places, regardless of the damage Which might accrue to Mr. C's trunk. They joked and told funny stories and had a lively time, and when they reached Keokuk Mr. Copeland found that his boat would not go down the river for a day or two. He and Mr. Phillips roomed together at a hotel. When they awoke in the morning Mr. Copeland looked out of the window and remarked, "Well, this is a fine morning, and as I am going to be in the city all day I think I will dress up and be somebody. I will run out and get shaved, and you just wait; I will be back directly and dress up and let you see how I, will look in my "standing up" suit. Mr. Phillips waited. Pretty soon Tern carne back looking the very picture of happiness. He went to his trunk, unlocked it, raised the lid, when Oh, horrors! The stoppers had come out, and that bears oil had run all over his wedding clothes. I think I will not record the remarks he made when he found utterance. He was fortunate in finding somebody in Keokuk who was skillful enough to remove the bears oil from that elegant wedding suit, so he went on to Brownsville and was married to Miss Libbie Duncan, and straightway brought her to Oskaloosa. We had many a laugh at his expense over that bears oil calamity.