Mexico weekly ledger., 1902-06-26
A Piker Seventy Years.

All his long life Of II years Frank
Barnett, now Of Vandalia, has been a
resident Of Missouri. He is a native
Of Pike county, and in a recent letter
to the Yandalia Leader, he tells inter-
estingly Of life more than three score
years ago and afterward In that famed
section Of the State. "Our cabin. built
in 1880, in the western wilderness Of
historic old Pike county, was surround
ed by woodland and thickets Of hazel
brush and grapevines almost impene-
trable and interspersed with boggy
places and ponds; infested with all
sorts Of insects, such as flies, mosqui-
toes, ticks, hornets, 'yaller' jackets and
b~umblebees, also frogs and snakes in
innumerable quantities. Then there
were wolves, panthers and wildcats,
'coons, minks and weasels, surroundings,
skunks and 'possums,d deer, turkeys and
qualls, prairie chickens BY the thous-
and and wild pigeons by then ten
thousand; also owls, ghosts and
witches enough TO make the night
hideous. These were my surroundings.
AT 8 years old my father died; he was
a blacksmith by trade and worked
most Of his time In the shop, conse-
qgently be opened up little ground for
cultivation,so we we're left In strait
ened circumstances; but fortunately !
had a half brother II years older than
l was, who stayed with us until ! was
IA years old. When he married and
left US to make our own living / was
boss Of the farm. / planted a corn
crop Of 2Oacres;in c~ultiyating / plowed
and mother hoed and we raised lots
Of corn. All these years my mother
paid for what We had to buy by spin
ming and weaving fax and wooden
cloths to sell. All our summer cloth
ing was made at home from flax or
cotton cloth, and our winter wear
from wool. / never had a store coat
until l was 20 years old. In those
days we had no public school money,
but the aim was TO have a3 months
subscription school every year II we
could get a teacher. The country was
filing up with Virginians and Ken
tuckians and very few Of them were
qualified TO teach though they all had
to know was how to spell, read, write
and cipher as far as the single rule Of
three. The year before my father
died there were two or three Mormon
missionary preachers came to our
neighborhood and preached at the pri-
Yate houses. They didn't teach and
practice polygamy then, but claimed
to have direct revelations from heaven
and would humble out something and
call 1t speaking in an unknown tongue.
John Daniel and wife, Andrew Bar
nett and wife, Melcher Duncan and
wife, my mother and a good many
Others Joined them and were baptized
In a pond nea u house. These we're
the first, the last and the only preach
ers Of any description / saw until I
was Il or Is years old. My Sundays in
summer were spent In fishing, playing
marbles, handy, bull-pen, ~rolly-hole,
or just any old game, and hunting and
destroying birds eggs. The last OF
which was a necessity at that time. II
right on that old scheduled
place for 81 consecutive years, never
tempted by the devil OF anybody
else. / then moved 70 Audrain county
in 1888, 3 miles southeast Of yandalia;
then to Yandalia In the spring Of 1896.
| often wished that ! had been born
20 years later, but / WASN'T