Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1899-06-28

Plano and organ SO well today.
1t is all part of the common plan.
The perfect woman, the finished man.
II we have been led by the hand of God
To do this work. we can smile and nod.
At all the changes that come our way,
For we know right will 1t we'll surely pay.
Miss Mary Links Paper.
The memory loves to dwell on the
days Of yore. The heart beats quickly,
the imagination becomes vivid and the
soul grows fervid when we recall scenes
of early days in the new settlement,
and in our mind travel over the cher
ished places and mingle again with the
dear neighbOrs, who shared with us our
trials and struggles in building up new
homes In the far west, IS it was called
in those days. will not attempt to
speak of the settlement of Delaware
county, but will confine myself to q
small portion called Dixon Settlement
situated on the northeast corner of the
county. 1t derived Its name from
great traveller and hunter, Missouri Dix.
on, who was the first to bring his fam
lily and build his cabin on the edge of
the woods. He combined all Of the
qualities of pioneer, tall, strong and
fearless. The Indians, who were quite
numerous. never molested him.
We came by railroad from Pennsyl-
vania in the fall of 1856, as far as Du-
buque. where we were met by my bro
ther (wh0 had moved out in the spring.
and several neighbors with their teams,
who brought US the thirty miles to the
Settlement
When we left our eastern home and
friends mother wept at the parting and
dreaded the future of meeting strange
faces and strange places, but one dear
friend consoled her saying, "That the
same good God, that guarded and
watched over her here, would also be with
us In our new home," and we had every
reason to be assured that the Divine
Providence never forsook us. Every
body made US welcome and we found
ourselves among neighborly, kind
hearted, openhanded people, and the
friendly feelings established In those
days have never been broken. Even be-
yond the grave we love to speak sDf
them as they were among us In t1r
little kingdom.
It was q life of hard work still we
had our fun and amusements. We
kept in touch with the outside world
through the newspapers and as we
could only afford to subscribe for one
or two papers, we exchanged, and when
we met We would discuss the latest in
vention or the newest book. And that
reminds me. that we had one copy of
Uncle Toms Cabin owned by the
Young family. 1t was loaned to the
whole neighborhood, and when the
| first gun was fred at Fort Sumpter, we
were prepared for the coming bloody
strife. Those were serious days among
US. When the recruiting officers came
and one after another of our boys put
down their names, then we realized
that 1t was matter of life and death.
And when the names of the dead
were sent to the anxious ones at home
there was one common feeling of sor-
row and sympathy and our boys heing
aware of their peril would write asking
for the prayers of the loved ones al
home. have remarked that it was 8
life of hard work because we did not
have the machinery to tighten our
iabors. We cut our wheat and oats
with tho cradle and moved our grass
with the scythe and cultivated our corn
with one horse pillow, and whenever q
new machine made it's appearance such
as Q cornplsnter, two horse corn pillow
and self rake or binder it was quite q
curiosity and we were curious to see
them in operation. l became quite
familiar with 9 selfrake as cut acres
Of grain with one, driving four horses.
What q beautiful panorama beautiful
nature spread before US with its golden
fields of ripening grain set off with the
deep green of the promising corn and
and the seeming endless prairies beyond
where our cattle grszed without being
herded. l rode horseback several times
to the busy bustling town of Manches.
ter, hardly having any road but acattle
path with no Instructions, but some
very swampy sloughs, coming and re-
turning the same day the distance be-
ing twenty-four miles. On one occa-
sion had the pleasure of seeing and
hearing Walt Whitman recite some of
his quaint poetry. AS for amusemente
/ think we got as much enjoyment out
of life as any other community. The
older people would exchange neighbor.
~ visits staying for dinner or supper
and the time would pass only too quick
ly IN recalling past events and speculat-
ing on the future progress of the world,
while the younger members would have
evening parties where everybody came
to enjoy themselves and would end up
with real supper of fried chicken. cold
ham, several kinds of preserves and
cakes, pickles, pies and coffee. We had
no organs still we had some good sing
ing and managed to learn all the latest
hymns and popular songs. Then there
would be exhibitions at the school house
with Magic lantern views and instruct.
i've lectures. must not forget in our
Debating society which was composed
of some of our best orators, among
which will only mention Will Flynn
and Jake Plat, Pete and Jim Wickham
and the most unyielding of them all,
Mr.. Hogan, who debated on the most
interesting topics of the day. And now
while mention the school house can
recall the large attendance we had es-
pecially during the winter nearly all our
young men availed themselves of the
instructions by competent man
teacher. The school house was also
used for sunday school and preaching.
Like other communities we had our
characters and noted people such as
Uncle Billy Fowler, who split rails
with Abe Lincoln, he and his amiable
wife kept open house and many friend
ly gatherings assembled under their
roof.
Grand dad Lands. whose father was
miller during the Revolutionary War,
and who lived to be ninety.six years old,
always delighted to tell how when
Uncle Billy Smith first came, he
brought eight hundred dollars In gold
with him, and knowing Grand dads
honesty 10 lett It with him for safety.