Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-06-28

ing was not yet completed, the rooms
being partitioned off by blankets,
sheets, etc. From Muscatine they went
by stage to Rochester in Cedar county
and then drove in wagon to the I'M
broken prairie homestead on the east /
ern edge of Johnson county ten miles
from Iowa City which had been en-
tered for them the year. previous by
a relative. This land cost Mr.. Lee
$1.25 an acre and is worth today from
$75 to 500 per acre. Mr.. Lee after.
wards entered considerable govern
ment land among which was the last
piece of government land left In John
son county, consisting Of forty acres.
Mr. Lee broke the virgin soil
on this prairie home and en-
dured all the hardships Of
pioneer farmer At that time the
construction of the Mississippi and
Missouri railroad west from Chicago
had been commenced and about ffty
miles of the road built. The road WAS
afterwards built on to Rock Island.
where 1t stopped for several years.
Muscatine was their nearest market.
but he and his neighbors often hauled
their produce to Dubuque, sleeping un.
der the wagons at night in order to
save lodging expenses. In 1858 he
raised corn, cribbed 1t in the fall haul
| ed 1t to Iowa City In the spring, paid
ferryage across the Iowa river and
sold it at Clark's mill at 1211a cents
| per bushel. Ten cents per bushel was
| the highest price he could get for IT.
In Iowa City. Coming back to Iowa
City he bought shirt pattern, fifty
cents worth of sugar, a little coffee and
a few other small items and drove,
home ten miles, realizing that he was
| fifty cents in debt. He states that he
also raised and fattened hogs, BUTCH
cred them, hauled them to Iowa City
and sold the dressed pork at $1.50 per
| 100 pounds. Those were hard times
of which the present day and genera
ton know nothing.
Mr.. Lee belonged to the southern
branch of the Lee family and his faith
err was slave holder, owning twenty
slaves at the time of his death In 1928,
but 1t Is notable fact that these
slaves were all given their freedom
by the will left by the deceased.
Though he had numerous relatives in
the confederate army, Mr.. Lee was
a strong union man and an abolition
list. At the breaking out OF the war.
he went to Iowa City to the recruiting
office to enlist but was rejected
on account of physical disability
Being determined to serve his
country during that trying period
he went to Cincinnati, Ohio
and entered the government transpor
service on the steamboats, plying tn
Ohio, Wabash, Cumberland. scspd Tel
nessee rivers. He passed tnfuHti sgs
some dangerous and exciting expef
ences in this service and was absen
3 from home about three years. Hi
. brother DR.. Alfred B. Lee, whose
t daughter. Mrs. Blanche Lee Kimbal
t is in attendance at the wedding ami
: versary. went out as assistant sur
geon of the Twentysecond Iowa Vol
7 unteer infantry and afterwards was
! promoted to surgeon He died OF few
! err contracted in the service during the
: Banks expedition up the Red river
e His widow, Mrs. Martha A. Lee still
n resides at Iowa City, sAfter the wal
n Mr.. Lee removed from the farm tt
/ Iowa City having been elected as re
4 corder of Johnson county in 1855. HI
0 afterwards went into business ant
/ moved to Muscatine about twenty-sev
). en- years ago, where he has lived eve,
Y since. Mr.. and Mrs. Lee are now AMI
e have for many years been conslsten
n members Of the Methodist Episcopa
l. church.