The herald. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1905-1953, 1922-06-29

says Oh ludl NlclhSi'uouS bSh'
Here we went oxen cows mules. horses. coaches.
carriages: blue jeans corduroys; tatters. silks.
sans caps. tall hats poverty, riches; criminals
Gaping justice, couples fleeing from the law:
god-seekers bearing southwest to the Overland Trail;
politicians looking for places in which win fame
and fortune adventures their way everywhere;
Aboltonists going the Border War; nnocent-look-
ing outfits carrying fugitive slaves and most numer-
Gus Of ALL homeseekers hunting country"-a nation
on wheels, empire in the commouon and panSs OF
birth.
There were many, very many, interesting in
Cidents that went to make up the history Of
these pioneer days in Iowa that covered by
Mr.. quick in "NandemarkS Folly but one OF the
most interesting is that dealing with the treat
ment OF "caim-jumpers" The local newspaper
in an effort to secure an advantage for its polit
zeal clique had in those early days referred TO
'Cow" Vandemark a man with criminal
record" and in later days in refutng the state
ment ne tells the story of the "clam- Jumpers" as
follows in part:
The story grew out of my joining the Settlers
club in 1856 The rage for land speculation was
sweeping Iowa like a prairie fire, getting
things ready for the great panic of 1857 that
j have read OF since. but of which l never heard
until long after 1t was over. All knew was
that there was a great fever for buying and sell.
ing land and laying out and booming town-sites
the sites, not the towns-and that afterward
times were very hard The Spectators had
bought up a good part of Monterey county by the
end or 1906, ana had run the price up as high
three dollars and half acre
This made it hard for men who came In ex-
pecting to get it for dollar and a quarter and
number of settlers in the township, as they did
all the state, went on their land relying on
the right to buy it when they could get the money
what called the pre-emptiOn right. l could
see the houses of William Tricky, Ebenezer Jun
kns and AbsalOm Frost from my house; and |
knew that Peter and Amos Bemisdarfer and
Flavius Bohn, Dunkards from Pennsylvania had
located farther south. All these settlers were
located south of He'll Slew, which was coming
20 be known now. and was afterward put down
on the map as "Nandemark's Folly Marsh"
And now there came into the county and state
class of men called "claim-jumpers" who pushed
in on the claims of the first corners, and stood
ready to buy their homes right out from
a<mder them. II was pretty hard US who had
pushed on ahead of the railways, and soaked in the
/ran and frozen in the billiards., and lived on
moldy bacon and hulled corn TO lose our chance
10 get title to the lands we had broken up and
built on
My land was paid for such as it was; but when
the people who, like me, had trailed out across
the prairies with the last years rush, came and
asked me 20 join the Settlers club to run these
intruders off, it appeared to me that il was only
a mans part in me to stand to it and take hold
and do.
did not look forward TO all the doingy of the
Settlers club but l joined it, and have never
been ashamed of ii, even when Dick McGiu was
slangwhanging me about what did. | neve,
knew, and l cont know now, just what the law
was but / Thought them and think now that thu
Settlers club lad the right of it. thought so III,
night we went over TO run the caim-iumper of
Absalom Frosts land, within a week II my join
ing.
IL was over on Section Twenty-seven, that tn,
claim Jumper had built a hut about where tn
SchOobouse now is with a stable in one end o.
it, and den in which TO live in the other. II
was young man. with dependents. and w
felt no coIppunctions of conscience that darl
night, when two waGon-loads Of US, one of which
came from the direction of Monterey Center
drove quietly up and knocked at the door.
Who's thereY he said, with culver in hi
COce