Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1901-07-03

were partial to the children Of we'll to
do parents because of the presents
which such youngsters bought them.
OLD SETTLERS MEETING.
Continued from 4th page.
r. NJ. Marvin.
For six years past have been asking
and pleading with person from all parts
of the county to come up here to our
Old Settlers annual gathering and tell
us some of the incidents of early pio-
neer life in Iowa. Now that | have
been superseded, the executive commit
tee or you secretary has thought that
"turn about was fair play" SO ne called
upon me to prepare an article for TO day.
1 tried to excuse myself, that l was not
q public speaker, ETC., but knowing Of
the trials and perplexities of therespon-
sible position of your secretary l con-
sented to write up little history of the
past 1t came under my personal OBJ
servation.
In the fall Of 1854 my father was
land seeker in the. wild west of Iowa.
He came from northeastern Ohio to find
farm in this new state. lie travelled
over quite portion of this and Jones
counties and perhaps some other parts
of the state, and purchased partly i'm
proved farm three miles west Of Month
cello.
AS nearly all the early settlements
were made in or near the timber the
farm bought was partly timber and
partly prairie with plenty of good
spring water and brook near by.
About February 20, 1856, my two
brothers were fitted out with horse
teams, wagon and buggy and they
started on the long drive from Orwell,
Ashtabula county, Ohio, for Monticello,
Iowa.
A few weeks later my father and
mother with their other children left
the friends and associates Of a quarter
century and my mother the home of her
birth and childhood and went by teams
to the railway station of the only rail-
road then in northern Ohio, the Lake
Shore, at Plainsville. 1t will not be
out of place for me to mention an incl
dent which came under my observation
just after we had left our old home. My
brother and myself were sent on foot
to the next town south of us, about
three miles, to pay some money to q
man father was owing. Soon after
starting we met three negroes travelling
north upon the highway. When we
reached Bloomfield we learned these ne
groes were slaves from the south on
their way to Canada; that they had
stayed the preceding night at Charles
Browns in Bloomfield. That night they
stopped at 10 Trusn's in Rome town
ship, from there they were to go through
to Joshua Giddings', one of the champ
ions for freedom, then q republican,
and 30 on to the lake and cross over to
Canada. / might say here, that that
turnpike road from Warren to Ashta-
bula harbor was one line of the great
underground railway" from the south
to the land of freedom. and that many
black men travelled over it prior to 1856
remember Of hearing my neither,
now living at Monticello in her eighty
eighth year, tell of companies of slaves
passing over this road in her childhood,
and at one time several of them who
were travelling towards the north star
for freedom slept in the barn at one of
the station houses and their pursuers
slept in the house wholly ignorant that
their valuable property was sleeping SO
near them. We have no record that
they ever knew the fact. One thing is
certain they did not get their property.
After stopping to visit relatives in
Huron county, Ohio, and Michigan we
reached Chicago April 2nd, and were
transferred to the Chicago and Gslena
railroad and arrived at Freeport in the
evening. We could not leave until the
morning. Early on April Bird we were
on the move and took the train for Ga
lena where we arrived before noon
This was the end Of the railroad When
passing through Warren we CHANGED to
look out the window and saw one of my
brothers, who was with the team We
signaled him SO he knew we were on
the train. In the evening my brother
drove into the city. The next day af-
ter getting cook stove, pillow and
some other articles we started for Du.
buque, where we crossed the river and
out on the Iowa City military road.
We arrived at our farm, three miles
west of Monticello, April 9th, 1856. We
had comfortable house to occupy, but
nothing but cookstove to furnish it
with. No chairs, tables or besdsteads,
and no bedding, except what had been
put into the wagon six week before.
We found near neighbors who gladly
assisted us by loaning us some neces-
sary articles for house keeping. 1t was
several weeks before we were able to
get our goods which we had shipped
from Ohio. They had to be transferred
from Galena to Dubuque by boat from
where we hauled them ly teams. fl
had the experience and eloquence of
our honorable president or of many 9TH
or of the old settlers before me, might
tell of bear stories, terrible Indian en-
counters, OF whopping fish stories, but
not having had such experience and
wholly lacking in the gift of CAB and
eloquence, 1 will leave that part for our
story tellers and call your attention to
the educational side of the early history
of this section Of Iowa.
After we were settled down in our
new home, as was natural, we COM
menced to look around the country and
find x1yhn o,,r poYub hora xxrara ,rd 10 49,.