Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/563



have, within the memory of the older citizens, crowded out the Indian’s wigwam and the pioneer’s log cabin and sod house.

Looking back upon a picture of pioneer life as it was in the years beginning with the early “30s,” “40s” and “50s,” we find a land where the Indians, buffalo, deer and elk were reluctantly retiring before the invasion of the hunter, trapper and pioneer farmer. The well-worn paths of these early inhabitants of the wild groves and boundless prairies were found along the wooded banks of the rivers and creeks.

Before the deadly rifle of the hunters and the snares of the stealthy trappers the red men and wild animals rapidly but most reluctantly retreated. Next came the resounding echoes of the wood-chopper’s axe as the lofty walnut, oak and hickory trees were converted into cabins and fences for new homes of the pioneer and his family.

Toil had no terrors for the early settlers; all were workers. There was a charm in choosing a home in the wild, unsettled country, as the family journeyed on day after day in the solitude of the vast rolling prairies, fording the streams, winding along the trackless ridges, exploring the fringe of woodland that bordered the creeks and rivers; passing beautiful groves that in the distance slowly loomed up like islands in the ocean, where earlier immigrants had camped and staked off their claims. The finding of a spring in an unoccupied grove and taking possession for a home; getting acquainted with the neighbors who had preceded them; exploring the thickets for wild plums, grapes, crab-apples, hazel and hickory nuts. Choosing the site for the cabin, cutting the logs which the neighbors helped to raise into a rude house, hunting the deer, elk, wild turkeys, prairie chickens, ducks and geese for subsistence until sod corn could be raised; going two or three days’ journey to mill or market and camping out nights on the way; constructing tables, bedsteads, stools and shelves; breaking the prairie with five or six