The Newtown bee., 1894-11-30
NEWTON ~, CONN, BEi i. X klijIr..DHF seI,.,4ifI l
 CIRCULATION:
 JANUARY 1, 1882, 6fo LAST WEEK, 3400
' -7fVTT f@f VFVf fTTTf
 Around the Preside.
A PpNEER's THANKSGIVING.

" father and mother, with five children, bade good4by tofriends and neighbors in New York State, and, with all our oasehold effFcEs loaded on wagons, drove to Ithaca and embarked on a canal
 boat for Illinois, then the frontier of civilzations Phe Illinois fever was epi- -demics Passing through the great locks
 at Lockpolts overwhelmed, h.ssllymqe with it's won-
 ders, we were obliged to wait a whole
 dayfcr oaa turn to pass sshroughl The
 the locks were busy dey and night pass
 ing through boatloads of Illinois home
 seekers. At Buffalo we. took passage on board tbe propeileT Re puble fos South bort tnow keneskaJ, MiA hts was
 stormy voyage, everybody seasick, the boat loadedI to it's full eapacisY with in-
 telligent, pioneers.
 An uncle who had preceded us the au-
 tnmn before met us rat !Squthp9gt with lis horses. and wagon Ito take us to his home, p amiles southwest. in the itownaef
 LibertsviIle,. Ill., We sfouud ounr uncle and this wife, (. wilma family of four
 young, sons, diving on the, .prairiea in a
 log shanty l2xl4. My, aunt was in the
 midst of al real aguei ichill and shake
 when we arrived ai.ida hbl,, IlnI
 It was close quarters for the two fam
 flies in this little log cabin-nine chil- dren ana foul .ddaltss tMother set about
 the homework while my aunt was too ill to get about. Daring supper | chill came on mother, and she shook nearly
 half ejpightI Thet day following it
 rained and we ali had chills, except father and uncle. They went to the vii.
 lage ,three piles,aWay to try and find doctor and some medicine. They re- turned with alarge package of thorough ,worb, better known as "boneset," a
 weed that grows abundantly on the
 edges of marshes throughout the Vest
 the best ague medicine kpownr at, that time. Boneset tea was the order of the
 day. No family was without it in all
 the settleu,ent rpund. 4 pot ofit twas
 on eyery@Dve add freplaca lkAk
 It was too late for father to secure a
 farm the; first summer of our residence in Illinois, He obtained work in black
 smith-shop in Libertyville, and the only
 home obtainable consisted of two rooms
 in the frame courthouse, which was a half-finished building on high spot of ground. It was neither sided nor plas7 tered, with oH!y rough boAfds nailed otl the frame, and when it rained and the
 winds blew we would have been just a. comfortableous of doorsy Here puF pirst summer ahdMihtar inIlGh6isMeFe lyeAt. Father was unable to work half the time on account of ehipslapddI teyer. He had A chill every other day My sister and invariably shook every. alternate day. Mothers and fathers fa5Sh shakes came simul- taneously. l have known the whole family to be shaking at the same time. None of the neighbors escaped. It was epidemic, When my morning shake ,ar. rived I used to lie down on the floor be- hind the eook-stove and almost hug the old salamander .feven on, the, warmest summer day, with my4sister, on, the op- posite side, my young brothers hugging close tonne, mother sitting asaclose as possible to the fire, and our, teeth, all chattering at the same time. This was the first1dng, dreary, rainy, iaguey sum mer and , wet,I nasty, bitter, ewinser my parents had ever known. The spring came early that year, and father rented a farm. Hereiwe lived for two years, on a public, ,thoropghfare, where thousands of emigrants passed on their way to take aew homes in Wisconsin,, them the ex- treme outskirts of civilization inH the IN Northwest. Living so near the road, it was the custom for everybody to stop either for drink of fresh water or to purshsse milk, tbdtters isarden-stdff or, anything we could spare.
 Father saw the enterprising home-seek- CTS and heard their glowing descriptions of the country, the healthy climate and it's freedom from ague, and the Wiscon- sin fever took him. Mother looked dis on the reports brought back, and with pity on those moving north. Her three years experience had been considerably different from the ideal prospects to be enjoyed by this vast host. Father had provided a fair living for his family-a sumptuous living compared to our first year in, the West. We now had and friends and schools. The dwperaYapted father to rent the farm two years more, but he argued that now was the opportunity, lfof his boys. He could make nothing on rented land.
 It was February, ls47, when father. started for Wisconsin to look for a home of our own. He had nowibecome land locker. Mother had entered into the spir- it of the new prospects, and during the evenings of fathers absence she would tell us of our owning a farm, and that when we boys grew to be" men we 'coufd be farmers and own homes. too; that the country was free from agae;;- that there woultf' be villages and churches and. built, and that we would be the. pioneers, which meant the first ,setsi tiers on the land, Her father had been pioneer in New York. .a. Father had been gone three weeks when letter came tell. ing us that he had located d farm in the. town of Alto, Wisconsin, and. that he should return at once. with his oxen and wagons for his family. It was. late in March when we lefs for our new home.in, Father had hired neighbor who owned horse-team to take mother and the younger children, with house hold goods, to the new claim 50miles in the wilderness. It was an .eventful day, In all that aeighborhood. Work was sus- pended on adjoining farms. and every;