Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-02-06
|"BILLY" CALDWELL WRITES LETTER
s a.~ . INSPIRED BY COURIER ARTICLES
Death of Mrs Squires in Old Home He Helped Build
When Boy, and Major Haniton's Birthday Draw
s Comment from Former Ottumwan

Billy" Caldwell, the former OF
tumwan and pioneer Courier publish
er, whose series of articles recently
published in the Courier brought
pleasure to SO many of tho old set
tiers, has written the following let
ter recalling few incidents OF tn.
old days: '..'' so
In hastily glancing through thu
Daily Courier, three items struck nt
with more than superficial thought
One Of them was the notice Of the
death of Mrs. Squires, which occur
red in the house (remodeled by the
Squires) that was built by my
father and in which most of my
youthful days we're spent. Father sold
that property, corner Fourth and
Marion, to tho Squires's, who started
and ran select school therein, which
my oldest daughter and son attended.
My brother Robert and l sawed ev-
cry board and squared every timber
and rived every shingls of which the
house was built. Father kiln dried al!
the humber, after being sawed out.
the kiln being in tho street (Mariou)
and near to the southwest corner Of
the lot. Tho lumber was all oak, the
trees being felled On the slope back
Of the premises and "snaked" to the
kiln with yoke OF oxen that was
reys, on bobs10&s made by my father.
think it toe6 over year to build
that house. The si1s were one foot
square and to ktudding were each
one tenoned and set in mortises in
the ellis, each stud being braced like
wise. Such . thing as putting up a
house with nails and spikes was not
yet, nor for years afterward, thought
OF, as every joint was spiked with
wooden pegs. o, my! I can yet feel
the monotony Of that whiting out
with chisels the great piles of wood
en- spikes that went into that house.
do not believe that pound of nails
went into the building, excepting in
the shingles, and these were cut
nails-nothing like the wire nails OF
this later day. So, you see. that iten,
recording the death of Mrs. Sq,lir:s
woke up floods Of memory. Little
did I think when working out the
lumber that should become the
father of two children who would be
pupils in a school in that premises.
We had to take turns, my brother and
J. in keeping the fire going constant
ly in that kiln, from dark Of an even
ing till midnight, then relieved b:
the other until early morning, when
father would come on and attend all
day. 1t was usually a picnic for the
one on from dark to midnight, as the
boys congregated there in crowds
sometimes, each one having some.
thing good to eat, and nearly every
night we roasted a rabbit or chicken
in the red-hot Goals of hickory fire,
and fried or baked eggs and potatoes,
always leaving generous portion for
the one who came on at midnight;
but l want to tell you that the hours
between midnight and dawn were
terrors. because of the awful still
ness and loneliness, only relieved
when the cattle and hogs began to
stir and move about, for in those days
animals of all kinds were turned out
and left to wander and stroll where
they might 1t was indeed rare to find
even human baings sleeping after