Audubon County journal., 1911-05-11
B0YHOOD DAYS
How Dear to Ny Heart are the Scenes
Of My Childhood, When Fond Rec
objection Presents Them to View

Last week it was our pleasure to re-
turn to the home of our childhood days,
and was thinking on our way what
woald most interest us while there.
while most eager to look over the scenes
OF days gone by, was just as glad to
get away from them-there being so
many changes, and many whom |
knew in those days had gone west, and
many gone to rest that knows no
awakening until the great judgment
day. felt partly at home and partly
lost in the quaint old scenes of the days
gone by, never to return to us again.
1t almost made me think after looking
over the names in the old graveyard
at Irving, Iowa, that SO many had
gone to the other world it seemed to
us 1t was about time we would soon be
numbered among the "has beens" on
this old earth. If you should ever
make trip to your boyhood play
grounds there will come over your
mind many thoughts that would never
come to you on any other visit in your
life. Try it once and see if am not
right.
l came from Greenville, Ohio, to
Iowa with my parents in 1855. l was
two years old when I arrived at Irwin.
Ny father used to team and haul freight
from Iowa City, thirty miles away, in
those years. The winters very cold
and many snow storms and billiards
occurred on the then bleak prairies Of
this great State Of Iowa. In . few
years the railroad was completed to
Marengo, Iowa. Then it was that all
freight was hauled from Marengo, un.
til the g. & N. W. was built to Belle
Plaine. just east of Belle Plaine there
is one of the deepest cuts through
large hill of any railroad crossing Iowa.
1t took about two years to finish this
cut and it furnished ready market for
the farmers for miles around for their
grain, hay and feed, and all the pro-
dace and provisions the farmers had to
sell at good prices.
i saw the first school house ever
attended, and the building is the same
size now as then, having been kept
we'll repaired all these years, and also
saw the school house I attended and
where I learned the old multiplication
table of A Frazell-got it down pat, and
it has been of valuable assistance to me
ever since. 1t was at this same school
I learned to spell. was only small
slender, white headed boy of frail
health at that time, for i hardly saw
well dayunti after was thirteen years
old. 1t was there that used to help
keep large boy by the name of Sam
Killer at the foot of the spelling class,
much to his displeasure, and he want
ed to pulverize us into pulp; but the
old teacher Mr.. G. D. Fanton wouldn't
allow him to hurt us. met some of
my old school chums with whom I
used to play marbles and trade jack
knives. They all have gray hair and
gray boards now, which reminds us
that in thirty years there are many
changes. Saw the old stream called
Salt Creek where we used to get up at
4:00a. m. and 60 fishing. Some fish
were caught that weighed ten and
twelve pounds catfish, bass and pick
ersl.
1t was here recollect the beginning
of the war of 1851 to 1865. There was
great excitement and l we'll remember
the meetings for signing of recruits to
go to the front. at these meetings
there was generally a martial band and
most stirring tunes were played. Many
men walked up and signed their names
who never returned to their families.
Some wanted to sign and go to war who
had large families and were poor and
stayed to help take care of families
whose husbands went to the front. I
fecoliect when my fathers neighbor
signed father wanted to go but mother
clung to him and talked him out of the
the notion. There were eight little
children in our home to care for and
mother thought the responsibility too
great for her. l resollect the pictures
sent to father by his brother, DR.. }. M.
Patty, pictures of great battles. One
Mr. Kruson sent home some army
blankets, and small pox broke out in
the neighborhood and at one time there
were fifty cases and many deaths. The
principal of our high school and his
wife died of small pox.
Here it was that | recollect the total
eclipse of the sun occurred. A lot of we
boys had been to the creek about four
p. m. swimming, and on our return
home we noticed the chickens going to
roost and it seemed night for some
time, but the sun soon shown again.