Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1916-04-18
Last Vest;ge Of Early
Day Hardships in
Iol0a Disappearing
Special to Times Republican.

Buffalo Center. April 1S.-Twenty-
year residents Of western Winnebago
county are already telling the visitor
here about early day" hardships and
are pointing out valuable farm lands
that were considered worthless a
quarter Of a century ago. The ex-
perienced listener of today Is able to
realize conditions as they are de-
scribed to him by the men and women
who have been instrumental in the
wonderful transformation that has
been brought about in so short time ::
the observer of tomorrow will never
be able to do so for the last vestige Of
early day wildness and waste will
have disappeared before the ceaseless
activity of the landholders who very
soon will have made cultivable prac-
tically every acre of every farm. It
was an interesting story that the "old
settler" man still on the sunny side
of so, told one night last week. He be-
gan with the day of S. to $40 land. Told
how it rose to $25 and $40 an acre.
How he sometimes swan his team Of
mules across the water-covered space
that lay between his buildings and the
road, so-called. For whatever may
be said Of Winnebago roads at this
time they are indeed roads when COM
pared with the trails that skirted the
innumerable ponds Of other days.
Getting stuck" was an every day oc-
currence for all except the most care
full and least venturesome. On the
spring mornings the little herd Of
cattle stuck up their tails" and waded
thru three feet Of water to the point
beyond, where green grass had started
to grow and when this had been
finished the navigation performance
must needs be repeated. Mosquitoes
thrived and pestered stock and owner
alike. Husbands became discouraged
and wives homesick. A few dry years
improved matters, immigration filled
up the country, then came a period Of
abnormal moisture, a recession Of land
prices and more discouragement and
for the later arrivals.
Many Of the now prosperous farm
owners in the vicinity Of Buffalo Cen
ter would not be there today had they
been able to get their money back"
in those years of depression, but no
buyers came. Something better ar
rived in due time, however, the drain
age ditch, and with it's advent oc-
CURED the disappearance of the pond
and slough and today men are refusing
offers well up toward the 5000 mark
for farms several miles from the
nearest town. When the ditch system
is completed here and the thing that
will follow in consequence is finished
this region will doubtless rank among
the most productive of the state.
AHH
AS an illustration of the rapid rise
in farm land values Mr.. A. Bolsinger
bought a 120-acre tract about twenty
five years ago. 1t is situated between
Buffalo Center and Thompson and
cost the present owner 1925. A team
of old horses was traded in at $275,
and horses were not high priced in
those days either. The place is worth
$500 per acre now.
remarkable feature of the settle
nent of this locality is the fact that
alton came here from three lower"
and Hardin. Many Of the re-
immigrants came in from
Wright and Hamilton so that this is.
really oil 1OWd SSIIleu NY
Iowa people. A. B. Russ, who owns
one Of the finest farms north of town.
improved with a modern cement block
house and other up-to-date buildings
came here when the region was. wild,
from the vicinity of Iowa Falls Three
If the Brass brothers came several
years later from the same place. Two
Or three Van Gerpen families formerly
lived near Alden. The Nelson brothers
Ind two farmers named Hauskins
moved here from near Jewell. From
he Ellsworth neighborhood came
Oscar Hill and H. o. Lunning, south
IF town. King Howe and his son, C.
g. Howe, used to live on g rural route
from the town of Greene. J. J.. Griffin
says he operated the first steam
.hresher around Iowa Falls and
for the Hamiltons and other
big farmers there. B. F. Drake tells
about setting up binders one year for
an Iowa Falls implement house He
now owns a farm near Buffalo Center,
modern in all respects. Wallace
brothers, extensive breeders Of fine
horses once lived few miles north
east of Reinbeck. William Brummond
and :. F. Engstrom came from the.
Of Kanawha. Hans Morten-5
son, once a renter near Goldfield, Is
one of the prosperous landowners here.
B H. West and his brother, J. c. West,
moved here from Marshall county. l.
g. Stanfeld, r. HI. Davis and Joe
Smith are also former Marshall county
farmers. Ed Smith Is a former FL.
dora man, and Ben Steinberg, who
owns one of the show places of this
section is another. Lynn. johnson
would have lived on a New Providence
rural route IL he hadn't moved away,
before the days Of rural mail delivery.
Heiko Bruins, g farmer living near
Ackley came here during the settle.
ment period and started an exodus of
= -