Uncategorized | pioneercousin

Aug. 1.

It rained a little in the night. We started at 8:40 and the road was level until noon but terribly hilly all th afternoon. We camped by Oak Creek in a little natural glade among the oaks, the best amp yet

Aug. 2.
Started late because of a lame horse, one of Mr. Cooley’s. They had to take care of her foot. We met a team of movers going to work out the railroad tax. ( I suppose this was a local or state tax to pay a subsidy to a railroad builder. Railroads were the fastest, most modern transportation. The Lincoln administration began to subside them from taxes in the 1860’s. States and localities, even small towns followed the example eagerly in the 1880’s -90’s.” Working out taxes” at $ 1 a day was usual).
Camped early, only a little way from Oak Creek.

Aug 3.
Started at 9. Good level road into Lincoln, the capital of Neb., and beautiful large city. It is two miles from the first hotel to the post office. The County Court House and the Capitol grand buildings, and so is the penitentiary. We saw two prisoners in their striped clothes standing outside the gate in the wall. A carload of new barrels was on a sidetrack beside them, I suppose made by the prisoners. A high stone wall surrounds several buildings and joins the back of the main building. Smaller buildings inside the all look like workshops,one like a foundry.
Eight emigrates wagons trailed our three through several streets of the city. There are motor street cars in LIncoln. Pet and Little Pet were not afraid of them but they scared Mrs. Cooley’s team so that they plunged up a bank and nearly upset her wagon. But it came out all right. ( Paul was not allowed to drive through cities and other dangerous places. His mother came back to their second wagon then and took the lines and the responsibly away from him. He was humiliated and I felt hotly ( in silence) this injustice to him. He drove the big team perfectly all the rest of the way. George rode with him but Paul was responsible for the second team wagon.)

We crossed 11 creeks today, or one creek 11 times, I don’t know which, and we passed Salt Lake north-west of Lincoln. We camped about a mile from the penitentiary. Temperature 74.

Aug. 4.
On the road at 7:45, a nice level road and good farms fenced with board fences. We are following the telegraph wires to Beatrice, then do not follow the railroad but go across country.
We have crossed Little Salt Creek and Big Salt Creek. Orchards are as common here as houses. Manly traded one fire mat for a whole bushel of large ripe apples. Plums are early ripe. Crops look splendid to us but everyone tells Manly that they ae very poor nd will make no grain to mention. We passed the best field of oats that Manly ever saw.
Made a hard long drive to get a good camp, and when we got there we found the creek dry and no grass but plenty of sand burs. camped in the edge of town. ( A sand bur is a weed that grows in inhospitable soil).

Aug. 5.
Same as last Sunday. Same five emigrant wagons. Lost the thermometer.

Aug 6.

Started at 8:30 and reached Beatrice at noon. Corn, all dried up and not ears on it. Oats and wheat threshed and a great deal of plowing done.
Beatrice is not as large as Lincoln ut a nice town, I think. We saw the courthouse, it is handsome.
Splendid roads all day. We crossed Blue River just south of Beatrice, dove through Blue Springs at 5 in the afternoon and crossed Blue River again.
Did not see much of the city because we drove along the north edge and down the east side ast a big mill run by water-power. The river runs east of the town, a very pretty river. I do not mention orchards any more because they are common here, there ares o many of them.
We saw 8 acres of seedling apple trees about 12 inches high near Blue Springs. Today has been quite cool, but with a little too much wind.

Aug. 7.

On the road at 7:30, e crossed the line into Kansas at 10:28, exactly. Judging from what we have seen and heard in Neb., the southeast corner is quite good country, but taken as whole it is “Nix Good”. I don’t like NE.
Crossed Deer Creek at 11 O’Clock. At 4 in the afternoon we came to Marysville, the county seat of Marshall County, n the Blue River. Here there is a watermill, capacity 00 barrels, a day. We saw many nice houses and two palatial residences in the town. Around one is a massive brick fence about feet high, thick and strong-looking. On each side of the front gate a large granite lion is crouching, and one each side of the side gate a large granite dog laying down.
Beyond Marysville we saw an acre of sweet potatoes, large dark green leaves on vines covering the ground.
We drove 27 miles today and camped near a house where there were two men drunk. They had lost the bars off their wagon, wanted to trade horses, etc. Manly had a time getting rid of them without offense.

Aug. 8.
Started at 8:30. Soon crossed Little Elm Creek and Big Elm Creek and drove through beautiful woods of elm, oak, ash, hickory, butternut and walnut. Wild plums, grapes and currants are abundant, and briars and wild flowers of all kinds. A rich sight.
Crossed Blue River again, a lovely river, so clean always, and fresh and cool. We crossed it on a bridge. This bridge is about 300 feet long. Irving in a tiny small town but it hs an Opera House with a round roof, it looks like an engine boiler.
Then we crossed the Blue again. Every time we cross it, it is lovelier than before. Improved land here is from $ 15 to 25 an acre. Could buy an 80 on the Blue bottoms, well improved , for $3,000. the bottom land is all good farms. The bluffs are stony.
We camped near Spring Side, well named. There are springs on every side. I got water from a spring that boils up out of solid rock, cool and clear.

Aug.9.
Started at 8:30.Awfully hilly roads, and stony. We saw a milk-house built of stone with a spring running through it, a splendid thing. Land in Pottawatomie County is $ 4. an acre up.
Camped in the edge of Westmoreland, the county seat. At supper time we had company some men , two women, and children. They are regular southerners, camped nearby, traveling north. To Neb., or maybe Dakota, looking for work.

Aug. 10.
Started at 8:30 and drove through the dries country we have seen since leaving Dakota. Went through Louisville, drove 3 miles farther and camped on the bank of the Vermille River ( Vermillion River),, some call it Stony Creek.

Aug. 12.
Today was not as monotonous as common. 3 emigrants wagons passed up going south, and one going north. Manly and Mr. Cooley took turns talking to the people Five wagons were going to Mo., or Ar., one to Ark., one to Indian Territory.
We had good camping place on a little head-land by the river. I rode little Pet awhile, bareback, not going anywhere she was turned loose to feed. Two emigrants talked to me, a young man and his mother in their wagon They used to live in Mo., went to Co., are now going back to Mo., to stay.

Aug. 13.
Drove through St Mary’s. A pleasant town but strange, it is altogether southern and Catholic There is a beautiful large church with a pure white marble Saint Mary above the wide doors and two marble statues of Mother and Child in the yard. The houses are neat and pretty. It is clean town.
We drove to the top of a little bluff to look over the Kansas River, and there on the bottom lands we saw cornfields stretching as far as the eye could reach. Manly said he should think there were a thousand acres insight.
On our way Manly went to a farmhouse to trade a firemat for some green corn for our supper, and we had an invitation to stay for dinner and put our horses in the barn and feed them. The woman came ut to make me welcome. Such nice people, and nie place, everything well-kept up. Of course we could not stay. We could not be neighborly to them in return and we must get to Mo., and settled before winter.
At noon we went through Rossville, a small place, but just as we going by the depot the train came in. The engine frightened Price and he went through a barb-wire fence. He struck it straight and went right through it, end over end, jumped up, ran against a clothesline and broke that and ran back to the fence. He stopped when Manly said, ” Whoa, Prince”, and Manly helped him through the wire. He had only one mark, a cut about an inch long where a barb had struck him. How he ever got through so well is a wonder.

Watermelons are ripe and plentiful.Manly and Mr. Cooley bought a big ones for 5 cents. We stopped by the road in the shade of trees and all of us had all the watermelon we could eat.
We passed Kingsley Station 80 miles west of Kansas City, Mo., and 558 miles east of Denver,Col. Went through Silver Lake. The lake itself is south of the town; it is 4 miles long and a half a mile wide, and trees are all around it. There is a place where a man rents boats.
We camped in a school-house yard. there was a hedge all around it and a pump by the house, besides a sycamore tree. Two families going by in covered wagons stopped for water. They had been to Mo., and were going back home to dispose of their property in Neb., then they are moving to Mo.
It is terribly dusty. We breathe dust all day and everything is covered thick with it.

Aug. 14.
Started at 8:30.Dust is 3 -5 inches deep on the road and the breeze is on our backs so all the time we are in a smother of dust.Along the roads are hedges of Osage Orange Trees, 20 or 30 feet high, set close together. They are thorny.Their fruit is like green oranges, but no good for eating nor for anything else.
We stopped to eat dinner about a mile from Topeka, then drove on through the city. There are great any colored people in and around it. In north Topeka the street cars are electric, in South Topeka they are tor cars.
The streets are asphaltum pavement and it is lovely to drive on, so soft and quiet that it doesn’t seem real. It goes like rubber to the horses’ feet. The caulk on their shoes make dents in it ans slowly the dents fill till the place is smooth again.
We drove a block out of our way to see the Capitol, where they had that war in the legislature. The building is handsome but the grounds are all unkempt, not finished at all.

We crossed the Kansas River on an iron bridge that must be 400 or 500 feet long. The river is like the Platte, not quite as wide but full of sand bars.
South of Topeka a man gave us some late daily papers. He had 240 acres here but his home is in Col. He has mining interests there. He told Manly that the fuss over silver in Sah., has made him lose $1,000,000. We camped by the side of the church , in dust.

August 15.
Started at 7:20. Found a little black and tan dog in the road lost. He is skin and bones, must have been starving, and afraid of us. We stopped at several houses to ask, but nobody knew where he belonged so we are taking him along. The children delight to feed him milk. We have named him Fido.
Today I saved a horse chestnut, and we came to hazelnuts for the first time.
Went through Richland at noon. We drove past the church. There was a Sunday School picnic on the church grounds.

We camped by a schoolhouse in the southwest corner of Douglas County. There was good grass for the teams and a pump gushed out delicious cold, clear water. This is the best farming country we have seen yet, prairie with natural groves here and there and timber along the creeks.
d to rent him a for a third and
As we came along the road Manly sold and traded a good many fire mates, and one farmer wanted t him a farm for a third of the crops. Another came to us at the schoolhouse where we camped, and wanted us to stay here and rent. We are going to Mo., but may come back here if we don like it there. Land here is worth $20 to $40 an acre.

August 16.
On our way at 7:25. Fido is quite friendly this morning. He still seems sad but he has stopped trembling and seems content to sit in my lap and look at there is a coal bank where men mine the coal and sell all they dig for $1.25 a ton.y seat of Franklin County.
At 5 in the afternoon we came through Ottawa. There is a North and South Ottawa, separated by the Maradegene ( Real name is Marais de Cygnes which means Marshland of the Swans) River. They are the county seat of Franklin County. The men of Ottawa stole the county seat in the night, from another town, and for some time they had to guard it with the militia, to keep it. The courthouse is quite an imposing building.
The Santa Fe Railroad hospital is in the north edge of North Ottawa, a large brick building. It looks very clean. In South Ottawa there is a handsome college building made of the native stone. In all the towns now there are many colored people.
We camped on the bank of Rock Creek in the suburbs of South Ottawa. Two men coming by stopped and looked at Prince for some time and as they went on the elderly one said to the other ” That is the nicest colt I have seen in years.” The hens are laying yet.

August 17.
Fido is a good watch dog. He growls at every stranger who comes to the wagon, and at night at everyone that passes.
We started at 7:30. The wild morning -glories are rioting everywhere, all colors like the tame ones. We passed a large field of castor beans. They are raised here as a crop, they run 10-15 a bushel to the acre and sell for $1.25 to $1.50 a bushel. They are picked every two weeks, piled up in the sun till they pop open, then run through a fanning mill and sacked.
We reached Lane at 4 o’clock and had old Pet shod. The blacksmith came from Kentucky two years ago and looks just like the pictures of a Kentucky man. He has 130 acres of bottom land running down the Pottawatomie River, and a stone house as large as any house in De Smet. It is very handsome and perfectly finished. The house stands on Main Street in Lane and the land and lies northwest from it. He is going back to Kentucky and wants to sell. Ask $4300 for shop , house and land.

South of Lane we stopped at a farmhouse to ask for water and the woman said she did not have enough to spare but we could get plenty over yon way.
Camped again by a schoolhouse and pump . Washed out some thins after supper, They dry overnight.

August 18.

Started at 7 this morning, went through Parker and came to Goodrich at noon. They are both small places and the country around them is not as good as we have been seeing. The people say they never have the rain here that the others get farther north.
Camped by Big Sugar Creek, up on its high bank in the woods besides the road.

Sunday, August 19.

Mr. Cooley’s stove had worked loose. He and Manly had to fi it so it will ride. Mrs. Cooley and I and children went down to the creek and found some mussels and some clam shells. A woman and 2 children came to see us. They come from Mo., and they are camping near by on their way to Ne.

August 20.
Got a good start at 7:30 but the roads are awfully stony. Crops are poor. everyone tells us they ever get rain when they need it. We went through Wall Street, it is nothing but a little country store. At noon we came to Mound City which is quite a city. WE bought bread and a cent pie and 2 cents worth of tomatoes. Tomatoes are 30 cents a bushel.
We stopped to eat dinner in the shade of a tree beside the road. Three emigrant wagons passed while we were eating. Two were going to Mo and one coming back. This afternoon we saw three more, one going to Mo., one coming back. Manly did ask the other.
Water has been scarce all day and what little we found tasted so bad we could not get a good drink. It is clear and clean but it feels slick and tastes bitter, it spoils the taste of tea.
Camped besides the road on the prairie. Bought a little hay and could get only a little water. Looks like rain.Horses have to very thirsty. Camped beside the road on the prairie. Bought a little hay and could only a little water. Looks like rain.

August 21.
It rained hard most of the night and was still pouring down when it came to get up. Manly put on his rubber coat, started the fire and put water on to heat, then fed our horses. By that time the rain was not more than a drizzle so I got out and made breakfast. We ate in the wagon, out of the wet.
Roads are muddy , but sky is clear overhead. We went through Prescott, only a little station. Meta family of emigrants who have spent the last two months in traveling in southwest Mo. They do not like it at all down there. The man said ” Right there is the place to go if man wants to bury himself live on hoecakes and clabber”, and the woman agreed with him. them. We
We passed another covered wagon stopped by the road, and. Fort Scott seemed to be crowded with e whole country is just full of emigrants, going and coming. Fort Scott seemed to be crowded with them. We reached Fort Scott at 6 o’clock and a man there said that 15 emigrant wagons went along that street yesterday.

Scott Fort is a bower of trees. The houses look clean and contented; the business buildings are handsome. The country around Fort Scott looks like it might be a very good country. Crops are good where there are any, but there is lots of idle land and many places are gone back. It seems that the people are shiftless; but you never can tell. A man said this country was worthless, and when Manly said that it looked to him like good land, he said, Oh yes, the land will raise anything that’s planted but if you can’t sell what you raise for enough to pay back the cost of raising it, what’s the land worth?

Coal is lying around on top of the ground and cropping out every bank. At the coal mines, or coal banks as they call them, the coal is worth $5 a bushel.
We received 3 letters at Fort Scott, 2 from home . A little way south of the city we camped beside the road.

August 22.
A good start at 7:15 and this morning we are driving through pretty country. Crops look good. Oats are running 30 – 60 bushels to the acre, wheat from 10-30ook good. All the wood you want can be had for the hauling and coal is delivered at the house for $1.25 a ton. Land is worth from $10 an acre up, unimproved, and $15 to 25, when well improved, 12 miles from Fort Scott.

Exactly at 2:24 1/4 p.m. we crossed the line into Mo. And the very first cornfield we saw beat even those in Kansas cornfields.

We met 7 emigrant wagons leaving Mo. One family had a red bird, a mockingbird, and a lot of canaries in cages hung under the canvas in the wagon with them. We had quite a chat and heard the mockingbird sing. WE camped by a house in the woods.

August 23.

Started out at 7:30.The country looks nice this morning. At 9:35 we came to Pedro, a little town on one side of the railroad tracks, and just across the tracks on the other side is the town of Liberal. A man in Pedro told us that one of the finest countries in the world will be around Mansfield.
In the late afternoon went through Lamar, the nicest small city we have seen, 2,60 inhabitants. It is all so clean and fresh, all the streets set out to shade trees.
We camped among oak trees, not far from a camp of emigrants from Kentucky. Beautiful sturdy oak trees on both sides of the road.

August 24.
On the road bright and early. &:20. Weather is cool and cloudy, looks like rain. Went through Canova in the morning. It is a little place. At noon we were going through Golden City, a nicer little place. The country looks good, but judging from weeds in the gardens and fields, the people are shiftless. This is a land of many springs and clear brooks. Some of the earth is yellow and some is red. The road is stony often.

Went through another little town, Lockwood, at 4 o’clock, and camped by a swift-running little creek of the clearest water. It is most delicious flavor, cool, snappy flavor.
Except in the towns, we have seen only one schoolhouse so far in Mo. We drove in the rain this afternoon for the first time since we left Dakota. It is a good pouring rain, but we kept dry in the wagon and the rain stopped before camping time.

August 25.
Left camp at 7:35. It rained again in the night and the road was muddy but after a few miles we came to country where it did not rain so the road was dry. The uplands are stony but there are good bottomland farms. Much timber is in sight, oaks, hickories, walnuts, and there are lots of wild crabapples, plums and thorn apples.
In South Greenfield two land agents came out and wanted us to stop here. One was C.C. Akin, the man located Mr. Sherwin. He said Mr. Sherwin was here only a week ago, he just gone.
Mr. Sherwin looked Wright County over thoroughly and came back to Cedar Count and located here. But finally Mr. Akin said there is just as good lane in Wright County as Mr. Sherwin bought.
Well, we are in the Ozarks at last, just in the beginning of them, and they are beautiful. WE passed along the foot of some hills and could look us their sides. The trees and rocks are lovely. Manly say we could almost live on the looks of them.
We stopped for dinner just before we cam to the prettiest part, by the side of a swiftly running shallow water all rippling and sparkling.
There was another clear stream to cross before we came to Everton at 5 o’clock. Here we stopped to get the horses shod but there was not time to shoe them all today, so we camped by a creek in the edge of town for over Sunday.

August 26, Sunday.
for writing, reading and sleeping. We let the children wade in the shallow creek, within our sight. I spent almost the whole time writing to the home folks about the country since Fort Scott and these hills and woods.

August 27.
Out of camp at 7:10. We like this country. A man tried to get us settle just across the road from him, said we could buy that 40 for $700. It was good land.
We forded Little Sock ( Little Sac) River and came through Ash Grove, a lively little town for its lime kiln. Two new brick blocks are going up on Main Street. Camped 12 miles from Springfield. Manly was unhitching the team when a man with his wife and daughter in a covered wagon drove up and wanted to know where he could water his mules. They lived 14 miles east of Springfield in Henderson County and were going to visit the woman’s brother in Ash Grove.
After we had talked awhile they said they would like to. camp by us if we could sell them a little meat to cook. They had not intended to camp and had brought nothing to eat. We let them use have some meat and they used our camp stove, so we got quite well acquainted. They are good, friendly folk. Their name was Davis. After the chores were done they brought over a large watermelon and we called the Cooley’s to come, and all of us at the whole big melon. You can buy a 20 pd watermelon here for 5 cents.

August 28. Left camp at 6:28. Good road from Ash Grove all the way to Springfield, not hilly nor very stony. This is the Ozark plateau and the country looks much like prairie country though there are groves and timber always along the streams.
Arrived in Springfield at 9:25. with fine houses and four business blocks stand around a town square. The stores are well stocked. Manly hitched the horses and we bought shoes for Rose and myself, a calico dress for me, and a new hat for Manly. It did not take much time and we drove right along through the city. We were out of it before noon. It has 21,850 inhabitants, and is the nicest city we have seen yet. It is simply grand.
We could see two straight miles down Walnut Street, a very little down grade, with large shade trees on each side, large handsome residences, and the pavement as smooth and clean as can be.

Five miles east of Springfield is Jones Spring. The water is clear as glass, and it comes pouring out of a cave in a ledge of rock. At its mouth the cave is 4 feet high and 10 feet wide, and nobody knows how far back it goes. Manly and Mr. Cooley went quite a distance back into and threw some stones as far as they could throw them, and the stones fell plunk into water far back in the dark.
The water pours out of the cave 14 inches deep and runs away over the stones among the trees, a lively little creek.
We were told that 7 miles southeast of Jones Spring a stream you can keep rowing a boat back into it for a half a day. After crossing Pierson’s Creek, we met, one right after another, 10 emigrants wagons leaving MO. We camped in the edge of Henderson, a little inland town, on the bank of a spring brook.

August 29.
Left camp at 7:10. We are driving along a lovely road through the woods, we are shaded by oak trees . The farther we go, the more we like this country. Parts of Ne., and Ks., are well enough but Mo., is simply glorious
There Manly interrupted me to say, ” this is beautiful country.”
The road goes uphill and down, and it is rutted and dusty and stony but every turn of the wheels changes our view of the woods and the hills. The sky seems lower here, and it is the softest blue. The distances and the valleys are blue whenever you can see them. It is a drowsy country that makes you feel wide awake and alive but somehow contented.

We went through a little station on the railroad and a few miles farther on we came to a fruit farm of 400 acres. A company owns it. There are 26,000 little young trees already set out in rows striping the curves of the , and the whole 400 acres will be planted as soon as possible. Acres of strawberries and other small fruit are in bearing. We stopped to look our fill of the sight and Manly fell into conversation with men. They told him of a 40 he can buy for $400, all cleared and into grass except five acres of woods, and with good ever flowing spring, a comfortable log house and a barn.
We drove through Seymour in the late afternoon. The main streets of towns here are built around open squares, with the hitching posts surrounding the square. In the office of the Seymour paper, the Enterprise, a girl was setting type. A man spoke to us, who had lived years in Dakota, near Sioux Falls, he has a brother living there now.. He said the climate here can’t be beat, we never will want to leave these hills, but it will take us some time to get used to the stones. Oh no, we are not out of the world nor behind the times here in the Ozarks. Why, even the cows know ” the latest”. Two of them feeding along the road were playing Ta-ra-ra Boom! de-ay! The little cow’s bell ran Ta-ra-ra, then a bigger cow’s bell clanged Boom! de-ay I said, What is that tune they are playing? and we listened. It was as plain as could be, tones and time and all, and so comical. We drove on singing Ta- ra ra Boom! de-ay along the road.

We passed several springs and crossed some little brooks. The fences are snake fences of split logs and all along them, in the corners, fruit grows wild. There are masses of blackberries, and seedling peaches and plums and cherries and luscious looking fruit ripening in little trees that I don’t know, a lavishness of fruit growing wild. It seems to be free for the taking.

We couldn’t reach Mansfield today. Camped by a spring 10 1/2 miles short of it. In no time at Rose and I filled a quart pail with big juicy blackberries. They are growing wild in big patches in the woods, ripening and falling off and wasting.
Si more emigrant wagons camped around the spring before dark. Seasoned oak wood, sawed, split and delivered and corded, brings $ 1. a cord here.

August 30. 1894
Hitched up and going at 7:10. The road is rough and rocky through the ravines but not so bad between them and there are trees all the way.
We are passing through the Memphis fruit farms, 1,500 acres, part of the way on both sides of the road. It is a young orchard, now upon row of little trees, apple and peach, curving over the plowed fields.
Some covered wagons came up behind us and we came up behind some ahead, all the teams going slowly, holding back down hill and pulling up hill. At 11:30 we came into Mansfield in along line of 10 emigrant wagons.
Mansfield is a good town of 300 or 400 inhabitants in a good central location where it should grow fast. The railroad runs on one side of the square and stagecoach lines go from the depot, one south to the country seat of Douglas County , the other north to the county seat of Wright County. There is everything here that one could want though we must do our worshipping without a Congregational church. There is a Methodist church and a Presbyterian. There is a good school. Around the square is tow general stores, tow drug stores, the bank, a Boston Racket store, livery stable, blacksmith shop near. There are several nice large houses in big yards with trees. south of the tracks is a good as north of them; tow or three big houses and a the flour mill is there by a mill pond. Camped in the woods on the western edge of town and this afternoon Manly looked over one place for sale but it was not exactly suited.

Laura record ends here.