Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1896-07-02
Early Days In Illinois.

Ws@"a was sSauS Atah uus
in Mclean County, Ill. - said FL
nathan Rockwell. and octogenarian
of this city, t'I walked four miles
through deep snow to see my girl
one night, and more snow began
falling 80 heavily that | couldn't
get back home across the prairie.
and had to stay at her folks house
all night. There was nothing
strange in that, as settlers were few
and far between, and it was com.
mon for nelghbors to stay all night
with one another. There was moth
ing strange, either, in my having
on pair of buckskin breeches. for
cloth was scarce article with us in
those days, and what we had was
homemade. Deer were plentiful,
and buckskin clothing was common
wearing apparel in the winter.
"The breeches l went sparkling
in that night were made from a
skin that hadn't been properly
dried. and were little green yet.
My girls folks had moved from
their first log house into new one,
and as their new house, like all
dwellings of the prairie, had but one
apartment, they made q shake
down for me in the vacant log
house. There wasn't any door to
the old house. l laid my buekskin
breeches on the floor by the side of
my bed. Some time during the
night either the family dog or
wolf or two, scenting that green
buckskin, came into the cabin and
stole my breeches, and took them
away somewhere and ate them.
saw the tracks in the snow inside
the log house, but the falling snow
had covered them up on the out
side.
at was terribly cold, and all |
could do was to lie in bed and wait
for Developments. I should have
been up and eating breakfast long
before daylight. and, daylight COM
ing, and | not having put in an ap-
pearance yet, my girls mother came
out to see what was the matter.
There was great commotion when
she found out, for there wasn't en-
other pair of breeches within four
miles, except her husbands, and he
wanted his himself. The conse-
quence was that had to lie covered
up in the old log house until he
could go all the way through the
snow four miles to our house, get
my fathers breeches, and come
back with them 70 my relief. In
the condition Of the prairie. the
snow being 2 feet deep, this trip
took nearly all the rest of the aay.
and my father had to go to bed un-
til / got home with his breeches.
BY the tine | got there mother had
a new pair of buckskins nearly
ready, and everything was ali right.
"Not long after that / fixed it 50
there would be no danger OF my
getting into the scrape again. I
married my girl, and we went TO
keeping house right away. Our
house was log cabin | had built.
"Our nearest neighbor was five
miles away, and the frst winter We
lived on our place all the company
we had was wolves that came bold
ly into the yard and picked up what
they could find, wild turkeys the.
came and ate the crumbs that were
swept out, and deer that came from
the timber and tried to sneak q
share of the corn fodder we fed our
cows and oxen on. That winter
my wife walked five miles and back,
morning and evening, for three
days, to do weaving for a neighbor,
her pay being pair of chickens
that we wanted to start O flock
with.
"When our baby was months
old my wife used to leave it on the
bed while she drove the oxen as |
plowed mp the stiff prairie sod. We
had good dog, which always stayed
in the cabin at such times. Nv