Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/258

 250 WILLIAM BARLOW "Nonsense," said Uncle John. "Do you think any man of common sense would live where it takes two men to hold his hat on?" Just then a big puff of wind from the Lake lifted my fath- er's hat high in the air. When he had recovered it, he said, "Well, John, I don't know but that you are about right. We will go south where there is more timber." They had already been down about Peoria, Fulton and Knox counties ; now they could go back that way and select a place to move the family. Father was well pleased without going any further. Uncle John said he did not care to go over into Iowa then, as he had not sold out and did not know when he could. So father selected Farmington for his rendezvous until he could look up vacant land with timber and prairie land joining. After being gone just six weeks he came back to Indiana. We were soon on the road, as we had our teams and wagons all ready ; three yokes of oxen to one wagon and a good span of horses to another. It was at this time that I first saw a friction match. Father went up to Indianapolis to buy a little outfit for the trip; the storekeeper said here is something you should have, as you are going to camp out all the way, and this box will beat your old flintsteel and punk a hundred times. They are something new, but they will all go and never miss fire. They are worth twenty-five cents a box and there are over a hundred in a box. They will start you a hundred fires and so much quicker. So father took them, as they only came to one coon skin anyway. In a few days we were on the road to Farmington, Illinois. We crossed the Illinois river at Peoria, twenty-five miles from Farmington. We moved into an old log house close to town that cost us nothing for the use of it ; bought a cow or two and we herded the horses and cow on the commons. Father struck out for the land office at Quincy to get field notes of certain townships where he might select the land that he wanted to buy. But he could not find any prairie and tim- ber land joining, but selected three 80-acre lots of smooth