Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-04-29
OLD TIMES.
A Trip from Connecticut to Missouri in

| a mo rom connecticut MISSOURI IN 40
Ed. ReqisteT-On Monday morning, Apri
sd, 1888, my father and all his family sal,
goodbye to the dear friends, relatives, ant
the dear old New England home, and started
on that long journey to the setting sun. How
distant and how little was known of that lane
beyond the Mississippi 1T that time, 1t wa.
looked upon as beyond the reach of civiliza.
ton. the unknown land. Well do / remem.
Der, at the meeting the night before, what q
sorrowful time it was. a sort of farewell
meeting. 1 remember the house was full OF
townspeople, and good many talked and
wept for the separation that was TO take
place; and now after all these years 1 look
| back at that Sabbath and Sabbath evening
meeting with pleasure: for how little we
knew of the far west, and what vast changes
have taken place in tina: great west in the
! years since that time.
Now let us 20 back and see what sort of a
home ] or we, were leaving. Our farm con-
sisted Of two hundred and ten acres OF land ::
| part on the lower lands and part on the side
| of the mountain. Our house, which was
one of the old English style houses: square,
two stories high, with two large square
| rooms above and below. In the front a very
| large sitting room, bedroom and pantry,
| with fire-p places in each room above and be-
| low, with great brick oven in the side of
| the fireplace in the living room. What
| enormous quantities of brick it took to build
| those chimneys and what an amount of room
| they occupied: and such timbers IN the con-
| struction of the houses, | remember in
| that did .haapS farcr Z H,,,
| they put in for stills of the largest houses
now. Those houses were made to last for
ever. All the rooms were ceiled with nice
panels and moudings. The front entrance
was large enough for room, with wide halls
and stairs.
The barns, to hold all the stock, made
three sides of the yard With stable room for
four pair Of horses, fifty or sixty head of
cattle, two or three hundred sheep, and 9TH
er stock. And the dairy house, with a lead
pipe to carry the water to the house and
yard and dairy house. We did not have to
carry water in buckets. There was good
stream of cold spring water always running
right into the sink in the kitchen. That was
the kind of home we left.
As there were no railroads running farther
HC>l lAtiu NUN new iOIh u
Pa, all movers had to take their own teams.
We had sent our furniture and farm tools
by ship to New Orleans to be shipped 10y
boat up the Mississippi: so we took our
trunks in our wagons. We had one wagon
made expressly for the family, with springs,
cushioned seats, and would hold six large
persons, or eight or more, mixed crowd.
Our baggage wagon carried all the trunks
and a cOmmisSary chest, and a bed on top
OF the trunks. Each wagon had a good
cover and had pair of gray horses htched
to it. After all the good-byes were said, we
started for Hartford where we dined with
cousin. Among the many good things for
dinner, was 4 clam stew, for our cousin
said, You will see no CLAIMS in the west"
After dinner we, with the horses and wagons,
went abord the steamer, Chief Justice Mar |
shall, for New York. You who have never
seen an ocean steamer must not compare |
them with the western steamers. The east |
ern steamers are made to sail in deep water: |
they have deep huIs: their cabins are down |
below: when in your berth, if it is on the !
side of the vessel, you can hear the water |
rush past within few inches of your ear; |
you feel that there is bnt plank between |
you and the water. And what beautiful |
towns and cities we passed. and every now
and then we would meet ships under full |
canvass ploughing through the water. There
is something very fascinating, to me, to see a
ship or steamboat poughing its way through
the water like thing of life. Every mile or
two we would see men in boats dropping
out those great long seines to catch fish; and |
some would be drawing them in. One end |
is made fast to a big post in the ground.
After the men have made the circle around |
with the net and reached the shore again,
the end of the net is made fast to capstan,
to which a horse is hitched, and as he goes
round the net is brought in--sOmetimes with /
large quantities of fish of all sorts and sizes,
and sometimes none. And SO the scene
changes, like a panorama, until darkness
sends you down to the cabin. After sup
per, the evening is spent in reading, games,
mot cards), etc., until bed time. Your bed
is a hammock against the side of the ship,
and you feel every now and then as if YOUR
bed was trying to get out from undsr you.
AT daylight the next morning we were in
sight of New York, and as we sailed along
we passed great ships from all parts of the
world, going and coming. As [ looked at
the ships along the wharf I could think of
nothing but forest of old dead trees-the |
masts with the yard arms and rapez; 1T
seemed wonderful to - boy Just from the
quiet New England hills. When our boat
made her slip, we hitched up our teams.
drove through the city to Jersey City, and
put up at a hotel, had our horses fed and
our own breakfasts. As I sat, or stood, I
could not keep my eyes from off the ocean
and the ships. There IS alwag2 :. peculiar
feeling comes over Me at sight of a ship,
boat, or even a canoe, that nothing else on
earth gives me. After we were all refresh
ed, and our teams hitched up and bills set
tied, we set our faces westward ho.,
The road from New York to Philadelphia
and Pittsburgh is, or vas, tha oest in tn.
[ nited otaIes at that time-the national
roads. thought about every
mile, there was a great heavy gate across
the road for which we paid fee to 90
through, and all along the road were great
water troughs where thev watcca{, tbs seams
which wcra cons tsutiy Passing and repass-
ing. And such teams! from tour to six great
horses to a wagon, some of them of enor-
nous size. The wagon would take a ear
load at time; such numbers of them there
were that you were never out OF sight of
them; they looked Ike great white ships.
All along the sides of the road were little
houses AMI big houses, with the sign out by
t64a>6 OF md !. -. !