Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1895-04-25
Old Times.


Ed. RegiSter-If you were to let me
write sermon for the REGISTER,
should take the 1st verse of the 9Th
chapter of Proverbs, to wit: ..Boas'
not thyself of tomorrow, for thou
knowest not what a day may bring
forth" We all can guess what to-
morrow will be, but we are very apt to
be mistaken. We have evidence every
day of the uncertainty of all things on
this earth. To illustrate: A few days
ago, the sun shone out clear and warm.
The birds sang sweetly. Everything
looked and felt as though the summer
drew near. and the weather so warm.
it seemed as though it would never be
cold again. But the next day, how,
as I lay behind the stove with wraps
over me, and it just showing like
blazes, looked and felt as though it
would never get warm again. Such a
change!
AS lay wrapped up my thoughts
went way back to a time when I was
just big enough to drive the sheep to
and from the pasture. l think it must
have been about the year 1880. Spring
had come, and my father had sheared
his sheep. planted his corn, potatoes
and garden stuff, and the corn had
come up and he had set the hired men
and my two eldest brothers to hoeing
the corn, whilst he would go to Ohio
TO look after some land he owned in
that State, where also number of our
relatives, and good many of our
neighbors owned land. Ohio was way
out on the frontier at tnat time-about
as far as white men had made any set
Elements. But a good many were
moving out to that country to make
homes for themselves. Amongst those
that went were two of my mothers
brothers, and one or two of my cous-
ins. How they came in possession OF
that land never learned. as was too
young to take any interest in such mat
ters. 1t seemed that tina State of Con-
necticut owned large part of the ter
ritory called the Western Reserve.
How the State of Connecticut come by
that territory don't know. AS l was
thinking of these things got up and
went over the early history of our
country. found when the State of
Connecticut ceded all of her right to
Ohio back to the United States; /
found when Ohio was admitted as
State. Now, / would like to have
some of our wise Normalites tell
me through the REGISTER, how the
State of Connecticut came by that ter
ritory, and how our town folk got pos
session of their lands. Perhaps the
present generation forget that at that
time there were no railroads. no steam
boats, and that when father took his
trip it took him month to go to Ohio
and back home again. There was
stage line from past our house as far as
Albany, New York State; but most of
the way on further west was by COM
mon wagons or horseback, or on foot.
1 remember one of our neighbors took
it afoot, and he made the trip there
and back almost as soon as those that
went by stage. You readers may not
believe it, but it is no less the truth,
that a good walker can beat any COM
mon horse in travelling long Journey
say thousand miles.
Well, what was going to tell you
was, that although our folks had got
the sheep sheared and corn was up,
and the weather had been like sum-
mer, there came one of those storms
that are always coming just when NO
one wants them. Tt rained, then
showed and turned as cold as ice-and
such time! That morning l went to
drive the sheep to pasture. My father
always kept from one hundred to two
hundred sheep on the farm. As ]
drove those sheep found in the hedge
and fence-corners all kinds of little
birds dead-frozen to death. When /
got home had Erehongbirds, orioles,
little yellow birds, and all sorts of
those birds that come after the hot
weather comes. When father got
home he was no farther ahead with
his crops than if he had not planted SO
soon. No. sir. No man can tell what
the morrow may bring forth. We can
all guess and sometimes hit it pretty
good. Old Uncle Kich Inman could
beat all OF our signal service station in
guessing what the weather would be
on the morrow all to smash. And how
often we see small cloud, not longer
than a mans hand; as you watch that
cloud swell out, and begin to roll and
twist, and spread out on every side,