The Newtown bee., 1906-03-02
PIONEER DAYS.
A SHERMAN MANS EARLY FIX.
 PERlENCES AND PRlVATlONS
IN PIONEER DAYS IN IOWA.

Iowa was nine years Olu dS a SlAte' Horace Greeley advised young men to go West. My father had seven ooys and like others of his day anxious to De large land owner. He sent my oldest brother, John, with an uncle to Iowa in June, 1855, to buy 1900 acres of land. They bought in Chickasaw county, be- tween the Wapsiepincon river and the Cedar river, two miles west Of the former, broad sea of prairie 12 miles wide and 100 miles or more long, with not a tree, bush or shrub to be seen ex' cept as the eye scanned the scrub oak thickets two miles distant along the river bank. I was then Is years old. September 15, 1855, Brother John, myself and hired man named, George Ackly, as a sort of protector, packed never saw after. We started overflow ing with youthful pride and great future prosperity. We drove to Pough- keepsie, N. Y., thence to Newburgh by boat, where we took the Erie railroad and stopped in LOganSpOrt, Ind, 600 miles from our destination. Here, on our westward march on foot, we pur- chased two pairs of horses, two sets of harness, and lumber wagon. LOgans- port was small town then and the country we travelled through was most- ly wooded and very level and wet.
 THEY HAD CORDUROY ROADS,
 built of logs and sticks crosswise, and not pleasant riding in a lumber wagon. Right here let me say among our traps carried from home small single barrel shot gun. Although had never shot gun before or since 1 felt secure for my expectation of capturing big game was at high pitch. As we woods west of Logansport the first deer l had ever seen ran across the road in front of Us, but before could get my little gun in position the pretty animal had gone. To bring it down was not very probable if 1 had tried. Our first dreadful experience which nearly cost us our lives, was m trying to ford the Tippacanoe river on our third days drive. There were no bridges, all travel was by fording the rivers. There were no houses near that we might inquire: The river was higher than usual. What could we do but proceed? We started in driving one team and leading the other. The horses went all under but their heads, laundering and swimming for 20 rods or more when we landed on an island in the middle of the river many rods below the direct course. Here wet and nearly crazed with fright, we com menced to scream for help. Fortunate ly two woodchoppers on the opposite side heard us mile away, and came to our assistance. We were then 10 rods or more from them on the opposite shore. The only alternative they said was to try again and they would render what assistance they could. We did so and met worse fate. The water was deeper, current stronger and all came near being drowned. l cut the lead ing horses loose and they swan across. 1 took of my boots preparatory to swimming ashore. The SatchelS ana every thing we possessed including 12OO acres of land warranty sailed forth Ob the restless bosom of the ever to be re. membered Tippacanoe river. We lost harness, blankets, my boots and cloth ing and finally landed several rods be- low the proper place, still in deep water. The horses front feet touched bottom and held the wagon, which the current had carried to the bank. These away the bank and dragged the last O1 l us up after two hours in the water. Thence we travelled through western Indiana, across the state of Illinois to Dubuque, Iowa. We had heard some where about the land of milk and honey, and here we had our first glimpse of the beautiful prairie ana thought we must be there. We stopped over night in St Charles, then a small town and in sparsely settled country Here we took our primer course in trading horses. A wiley old dealer there convinced us that one of our teams was too young to plough the prairie and he had the right thing fol us. His were older and proved very old, but larger. We lacked the tutor ing now to be obtained from the honest old professor near South Kent Several days were consumed in crossing this beautiful Prairie state. Finally
 we reached Dubuque and the then un'
 bridged Mississippi on very pleasant
 afternoon, and ferried across. We stayed in Dubuque that night. Tha city was not large but quite pretty one street above the other on natura
 terraced banks made 1t picturesque
 Overlooking the mighty river. Ihi
 was then the largest city in Iowa, a it's transportation facilities by wate
 were fine.
 THERE WAS NOT A RAILROAD IN TH1
 STATE.
 The next day we started northwest t Chickasaw county, passing throug } Independence on our way, distance . 100 miles. It was all prairie lant wild in the extreme, with only th } last named town. On this long jou ney we skirted, at times, the wes ! @P Nc rfV