Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1908-02-12
FROM A BUCKEYE SETTLER.
Mrs. David StrSwn Tells of Experiences
Of Trip TO Wisconsin in 1857.

EDITOR CENSOR: On the first Of
September, 1859, my husband and
with our ten months old baby, Mrs. l..
w. Ady) started for Wisconsin. We
had two fine large horses and a big
covered wagon, in which we were tC
live for the next four weeks, for il
took that time to make the journey.
No one else came at that time and il
was long lonesome journey, but we
were young and ambitions and felt that
we could endure the trouble and hard.
ships of pioneer life, and we did The
first night after we started it began ia
rain and kept it up good share of the
time for ten days. You can imagine
by this time it was pretty muddy,
especially in the state of Indiana, which
at that time. was nothing but swamps
and corduroy" bridges. These bridges
were made by placing big logs parallel
to each other across the road and you
may be sure | got pretty tired of riding
over them, for some of them were sew.
eral rods in length. My little girl be-
came sick, for the jolting of the wagon
was too much for a grown person. One
day while it was raining hard and | was
walking with my baby | got so dis
couraged, | sat down on a big stump to
rest. There sat, with my big UNI
brella over me, till my husband put his
head out of the wagon and told me ]
had better "come on. He came back
and took the little girl so l concluded
| had better go along for it was very
lonesome place, not house in sight,
but lots Of big trees and still more
hrstd In nA nd sAtal llxg
we came to a small house that proved
to be the home of an old Buckeye"
friend. Here we stayed from Saturday
till Monday for they were much pleased
to have us with them. Then the sun
goods that were in the wagon, we
started on our way once more and dur
ing the rest of our journey the weather
was very good. We came on through
Fort Wayne, Valparaiso, Elgin, Lam
caster, and on to Prairie du Chen,
where we crossed the Wisconsin river
on the new bridge. | walked across
the bridge and carried my little girl.
Finally, came to big cable chain
and wondered what it meant and what
my husband would do when he came to
it, but as he came near the chain began
to rise and then knew il was the toll
gate. / had often seen toll gates on
the pike roads in Ohio, but never one
of this kind before. Wepast on through
Prairie du Chen, and there | saw the
old fort, but did not know before what
kind of building it was. But green
Buckeyes" have many things to learn
when they go away from home. AS
we went on we overlook two men with
oxen hitched to their wagons. They
stopped and were drinking something
from jug and as my husband came up,
offered him drink which he refused,
so they let us pass on with no more
trouble. We next ascended a hill and
there found little log house where we
stopped for he night, but slept in our
wagon. IN the morning we went to the
house and found the woman putting 0
large piece of meat, some cabbage,
and few rutabagas lnto very large
kettle. She said she would put her
coffee to steep and when cher guide
mon" got up and made the fire she
would soon get breakfast. We learned
that they were to have a festival OF
some sort the next day and she was
preparing for it, but we were anxious
to get here SO we came on. Then the
next day as we came along we met a
man on horse back. AS he rode up near
us the horse wheeled suddenly and
started back up the road leaving the
man sitting on his saddle by our wagon.
| said, ''sir are you hurt?" He rose up
slowly from his saddle and said, ''no
madam, guess not!"
That night we landed at Viroqua and
stayed at Mr. William Carter's until we
rented house from MIR. Ady, in the
northern part of the town. Here we
lived until we built a small house on
our farm, one mile north of Viroqua.
The day Of our arrival in Viroqua, al
most the first people to greet us were
Mr.. Isaac Pennell and son Frank, who
at that time kept store at the place
which is today occupied by Lindemanns
store. At that time the country was
new, plenty of wild animals and Indians,
of which | was very much afraid. The
Vernon county asylum is built on a
part of our old farm. / will stop here
and not weary my readers with too
much pioneer experiences. Hoping to
hear from some Of my Buckeye friends
soon, | remain,
Yours truly,
MRS. DAVID STRAwN.