The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1881-10-14
A Big Load Of Wood.

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peared lately in some of the newspapers
about load of wood long ago in Con-
necticut, said to be the largest on rec
ord, and to have been gotten up by one
of that Mcclellan family, which In later
days held the great punctatorship. The
wish has been expressed that should
recall the great load at Templeton,
which Outdid Connecticut.
The Rev. DR.. Wellington was the old
Templeton minister from early in the
eighteen hundreds, and Colonel Leon
ard Stone was one of his Pensioners.
1t was the custom to supplement the
minister's moderate salary with pres
ents from the products of the farms,
and especially with wood. Now. Colonel
Leonard, one day in January, 1922, was
drawing to the parsonage some of his
nice hard wood. It was good OK load;
two cords or 80. As he was going
across the common with it, his brother,
Colonel Ephraim. caught sight of him
from the store, and was surprised at
such great load.
'Hellor' said he, "why don't you
take your minister load of wood while
you're about it!'
"Now, look here" says Colonel
Leonard, i've been saving out lum-
Der down't the mill and there's any
quantity of slabs. I'll give the minis
ter as big load as you can take"
Col. Ephriam was q man for fun.
He instigated the townspeople to take
hold with him and accept his brothers
challenge. First, they made the sled.
Long trees were cut for the runners.
These were made thirty odd feet long.
and set eight feet apart. The body of
the sled projected two feet over the
runner on each side. Thus the sled
would hold twelve regular cords at one
layer. There were two tongues, one
in front of each runner. On the ap-
pointed day, the men and the oxen
from all over town came to the meet
ing place. The sled was taken to the
saw-mill and backed up against the
great pile. On went the slabs with q
will. Col. Leonard Stone stood by,
laughing, cheering, urging them along.
When they got on as much as they
thought would do, they hitched up the
team. One hundred and sixty oxen,
four abreast, found it easy enough to
pull. They had to 60 through Baldwin
vile, because there was not room
at the Otter River bridge for the sled
to turn in. When they had got upon
the level ground above Baldwinville,
they stopped and unhitched. Then
with their every day sleds they went
back to the mill to bring more slabs
and pile them onto the big load. This
they kept up until there were no more
slabs. Forty cords lay piled on that
sled. And the evening and the morn
ing were the first day.
The next day came the rest of the
journey sup in town. The school
children were let out to see the great
sight 60 by. One of them, to whose
house it was going, says it looked as
big as house. 1t lay loaded for quite a
while out by the parsonage; and peo-
pie came from near and from far to
see. 1t kept Mr.. Wellington in slabs
for years to come. When the great
sled was taken to pieces some of the
timbers were used in building Mr..
Winch's barn, and may be seen there
in the framework to this day. The
Rev. DR.. Wellington was one of my
grandfathers. and Col. Leonard Stone
was the other. All this did not come
so, however, for generation after the
great load of wood Charles W Stone,
IN Boston Advertiser.