The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-09-05
FURTHER EXPERIENCES OF A
PIONEER.

O0SAa
l will try to write. I don't think that
Tom is so careless-that is, judging by
the way he writes. I enjoy all the let
ters in the Chat.
It was to R andolph county, Missouri,
that father carried us. The land was
rich and the neighbors were good and
kind, and game was plentiful. NY
brother killed thirty one turkeys in q
month in the mornings before break
fast. There were many wild hogs in
the woods and plenty of mast so they
would make their beds in the hazel
thickets, and at times the neighbors
would get together and catch them. Tt
took a dog that was "Well up to it " to
manage one. Father had a dog we
called True that we had brought from
North Carolina with us. The neigh.
bors would come and get him. At one
time he was set on a very large hog.
and as the hog would keep turning
round and round to cut the dog with
his tusks, it was exciting. He finally
got True 30 close to q fallen tree that
he could not get around him and the
hog cut his entrails out. My two old.
est brothers carried him home, sewed
him up and he got we'll. The neigh
bors gave father one hog for helping
them catch them. He brought it home,
put it in a pen, and if you never saw a
large wild hog with his big white
tusks and wattles under his neck, and
him mad, you don't know how ugly a
hog can be.
I have seen the sun almost darkened
by fowls flying over in the fall and
spring, but where are they now9 It
was very cold out there in the winter
and we could hear the timber pop. I
saw one man so cold that he could not
get off his horse. My brothers would
trap in the winter, cut ice and catch
fish.
In the ummer it was hot and the
streams would almost dry up. Some
OF the neighbors had to haul drinking
water six or eight miles from muddy
creeks and pour it into their wells.
VIZ had to go to horse mills to get
our grain ground and put our horse in
to work while it was being ground.
There we're no other mills in the coun.
try, but things have changed. I would
like to hear from Randolph county,
Missouri.
But the climate was unhealthy.
Father had two congestive chills, and
then said he was going back to North
Carolina. He sold corn at seventy. five
cents q barrel and wheat at twenty five
cents a bushel, and off we started.
They told US that it was thirty miles
over the Grand Prairie, and if the
wind was right we could make it in q
day, otherwise we could not, and as
luck would have it the wind was right
and almost rolled the wagon for US.
What a vast plain of grass it vast I
should like to see it again. We could
see deer jump up Nand run until they
would look no larger than rabbits. In
the evening we could see the timber in
the distance, so we got through in q
day, and on we went, and when we
reached St. Louis it was getting late.
Father intended to cross the river be-
fore dark but a man told him that If
he crossed it the buffalo gnats would
eat his stock up and for him to drive
into his lot and stay until morning.
AS we went into the lot we saw a man
in a trough with Stats nailed over him.
Along one side of the lot there was a
long house and they we're playing ten
pins, 80 they kept up a lot of fuss. A
fire and asked if they could lie by it
until morning. Father told them that
they could, and by 8 o'clock the watch
men cried flights out" and every.
thing was dark and still. Next morn
ing the man in the trough was gone
and the pockets of the two men who
lay by our fire were cut and our old
True dog was stolen. We never saw
him any more. We could tell there
was something wrong by the way tho
horses acted. I didn't want to stay in
ST. Louis any longer.
Now as my letter ia getting too long
to get through to North Carolina, I
had better stop for fear it will find the
waste basket, and if requested, l will
furnish another letter some other time.
With best wishes to The Progressive
Farmer, Aunt Jennie and the Chstters.
SXTY.
Jackson county, N. Q.