Chapter Five

PIONEER MANNER OF LIFE - HUNTING, AMUSEMENTS, DRESS.

When a settler reached the end of his long journey his first business was to select his claim and locate his residence. In the absence of section lines he determined the points of the compass by the sun at noon and in the evening. So many steps each way would measure three hundred and twenty acres more or less, which answered all necessary purposes for securing a claim. It was always understood that in the righting of irregularities by the final survey each settler would be absolutely sure to receive the full amount of his claim.

Having selected a location the most pressing business at hand was to construct a temporary house for the protection of the family. The style was not a thing to be considered. A shelter was the only thought in the minds of the first home builders. We do not read of many dugouts in Iowa, but thirty years ago the writer visited many such homes on the prairies of Nebraska. Even with dirt floors the average home was always kept neat and clean. The hardy settler usually had no means and but few appliances for home building. He was quite content with a cabin such as would afford shelter and protection from the winter storms and excessive weather. A one-room cabin fourteen or sixteen feet square, with a bark or clapboard roof and a roughly built stick chimney with a good big fireplace was joy and undisturbed contentment for years to come for the early settler. Doors and windows were not always immediately provided. A blanket often did good service in guarding the door until they found time to split the timbers, that when completed, would swing on its wooden hinges and fasten with a latch made of seasoned hickory. As for furniture, there was not room for much, and it was quite easy to improvise tables and chairs. Sometimes the door was taken from its hinges and used as a table on special occasions, and when needed no longer for that purpose, was lifted into its place again. In the earlier days, after the cabin was enclosed and made comfortable, the deft hand of the good housewife was generally equal to almost any emergency, and the father of the family was left free to look after outside affairs. How cheerful the old fashioned fireplace always seemed, with its huge back log and its crackling fire. The family sitting in a semi-circle around its wide mouth is it picture of contentment and unmeasured joy. No member of that circle can ever forget the scene or get away from the influence of its holy fellowship.

The site for the home of the early settler was usually on the edge of the timber, near a spring or running stream. The timber served as a protection from the storms of winter and the excessive heat of summer. Then the nearness to the timber afforded an immediate supply of fuel and logs for the cabin. Along the edge of the timber, also, the sod was more easily broken than on the prairie. A truck patch with the larger portion of it in corn was all that could be done the first year. These were the trying years for the early settlers. Mills were scarce and usually a distance of several days journey. In a number of instances in this county, we are told, that after a long winter which caused the scanty food supply to run very low, it required the time of one member of the family during the spring months to be on the road to and from the mill, which was often sixty to seventy-five miles distant. The trip was often made on horseback, as there were no ferries, and the swollen streams had to be crossed in a canoe or raft and the horse or oxen would swim. In making these long and difficult trips the pioneer would camp at night on or near the prairie, where his team could feed on the grass. After a week or more of exposure and toilsome travel, he would be disheartened to learn on arriving at the mill that his turn would come in a week. He was lucky if he found a job to pay expenses while waiting. When his turn came he was expected to be promptly on hand to claim it, or another would take his place. His grinding finally ready, he was delighted to turn his face homeward and meet the dangers of the return trip. These milling trips occupied so much valuable. time that it made the cost of breadstuffs extremely high.

Timber and prairie wolves were a great menace to the early settler. While it was quite true in a figurative sense that the pioneer had a hard time to "keep the wolf from the door," it was equally true in a literal sense: As the country became more settled wolf hunts were organized to rid the country of these pests. It is said that as many as fifty have been killed in a day at one of these regular wolf hunts.

There were times when it was impossible to obtain flour, and corn bread was all acceptable substitute. The ingenuity of the good mother was often taxed to supplement the supply of wild game. Corn was often ground on hand mills or a home-made grater and sifted through a piece of dressed deer skin which had been perforated by a hot wire or sharpened nail. Bread made from this contained all the healthful ingredients of the grain and could not fail to be sweet and nutritious.

This is no imaginative description of the difficulties to be overcome in settling the soil of Iowa and Mahaska county. There are persons yet living who participated in these hardships.

The necessities of life were not large during those first years. They had not yet learned the lesson of extravagance. Many a happy meal was eaten of corn bread and meat, prepared under the most humble circumstances by the cheerful and constant wife. No destitution was ever permitted in any neighborhood. What one had all were free to use while it lasted. The last pound of meat or peck of meal was generously divided with a needy neighbor. There was no selfishness. A cordial and generous life made all the days of the year happy days. The first settlers who came into this country thought themselves fortunate to get mail from their friends once in three or six months. After the days of post offices all news was several months old before it reached its destination. The postal authorities at that time allowed excess of postage to be paid by the person to whom the letter was addressed. Judge Seevers used to tell of a young pioneer who was unable to raise the twenty-five cents back postage for the want of which he was not permitted to lift the letter from the office. He made periodical trips to the office to have the satisfaction of inspecting it until such time as he could raise the price which enabled him to secure it.

The perils and suffering to be encountered by the pioneers did not prevent them from being a cheerful and light-hearted people. Frolics were frequent. Whenever anything was to be done requiring more help than the family could supply, a day in the future was selected on which to make a frolic. These occasions were widely advertised, and everybody was made welcome, and as a rule the whole neighborhood planned their work to attend the gathering. There were the house-raising, log-rolling wood-chopping and the like for the men and quilting and sewing for the women. On these occasions ample preparations were made to entertain the crowd with plenty of food and drink. With joking and a general merry-making time the work went on until the allotted task was done. In the evening the ftm-making began in earnest and continued far into the night, especially among the young people. A house-raising, which was always regarded great fun, would furnish a stimulus and excitement for a neighborhood for weeks previous and after the event.

The first cabins were built with the logs just as they came from the forests, round, with the bark on. A little later it was accounted an indication of good taste to chip off two sides of each log. Then came the more elegant home made of hewed logs, presenting a flat surface both inside and out. A good deal of preparation was necessary on the part of the host to have all in readiness for a house-raising. The timbers must all be prepared in proper lengths. then cut and notched and ready to be laid in place. Men who were specially skillful with an axe were placed on the cornets of the building to clip out just the right sized chip to allow the log to make a close fit.

Horse racing, foot racing and shooting matches "vere popular amusements. At these gatherings there were almost always tests of physical strength in some form and sometimes vicious fights were precipitated by an imagined insult or some boastful spirit whose superfluous vitality was chaffing to demonstrate that he was the best man in the crowd. He usually got what boasters deserve, a good "licking," from which time he ceased to be the champion of the neighborhood. A too free use of liquor generally brought on these pernicious contests. Most of these festivities wound up with dancing, which was always a favorite diversion with the early settlers.

There was but little attention paid to style in dress. During the first years the garments they brought with them were made to go as far as possible. A coon skin or a wolf skin cap was counted a luxury. The skin of the deer, known as "buckskin," was used by the men for the blouse, pantaloons and moccasins, and the women wore knit hoods and fabrics of their own weaving until the general store came into the settlement.