The mill stream crossing the lot is below the general surface from sixty to one hundred feet. The stream runs on a bed of blue limestone. The broken banks of the bluffs, where the stream washes them, show the formation above the limestone. On the limestone lies potter's clay, say six feet thick. Upon the clay lies a stratum of coal from three to six feet thick, and in one place where the coal crops out it is six feet above the surface of the bottom, and how far below we have not yet ascertained. At this place the coal and clay alternate to the height of fifty feet above the bed of the stream. One time I saw cropping out of the bank, at least fifty feet above the stream, four feet thick, and of the best quality. The coal is usually a stratum of coal, slate two feet thick lying on it. I am satisfied that this place indicates about the general appearance of the bluffs elsewhere when you uncover them; in fact, we have seen coal in other places on the lot, cropping out as high above the stream as that. The blacksmiths here are working coal from these beds, and say it is the best they find here, and of the quality of the best Ohio coal.

"2. The dip is from one to three degrees southerly, and will be drained with little trouble. The coal burns freely in the ordinary cooking stove, making flame and a hot fire, and generating steam much more rapidly than wood.

"3. It is about one-half mile from the river, with good county road list. In the spring arks can be floated down the river, say two or three months in the year.

"4. The market now, of course, is very limited. But taking into consideration the immense quantity that will be required for steam purposes for railroads, mills, factories, and fuel as the county fills up, we can hardly imagine the immense demand for it in a few years. It must be of great resource here; and then who can imaging the value of these coal beds? I think sandstone overlays the whole. I see it cropping out over the coal usually, but I have not satisfied myself of that yet.

"5.

There has never been any salt yet found in the State. I do not know that anybody has ever bored for salt. The idea is new to me. I think that it is possible that by boring through the limestone salt water may be reached, and if so, it would be worth more than the Mariposa grant of Col. Fremont.

“6. Salt is retailing here at $2 per bushel, and is worth that in most parts of the interior of the State. From what examination I have had of the country, I think the best route for the Central Railroad to cross the Des Moines is down Honey creek to the river, and if they go that route they must cut these coal beds for the road, and I think these beds will furnish one of the strongest inducements to lay the road there, for they must use coal for their engines; it is their only resource, and they may not find another place for supply short of one hundred miles either way. If they do so, you see we then have an inexhaustible market for coal. The cars can be loaded from the bed. My opinion is that these coal beds will, one day, and that not far distant, be worth $50,000; such I now regard it. We think the clay and lime valuable. The stone, when burnt, is worth forty cents per bushel now, and we have nothing to do but pile up the stone and coal in alternate layers, and burn it down. The stone will have to be quarried out, and then it is immensely valuable for building stone; it is just two miles distant from town, with good road to it, and is, at present, the only good quarry of stone found so near town. It is of the blue Penn

sylvania species, and must be in great demand, as well for building as for lime. The stoneware manufacturers in town are working from a bed of the clay. It is a vein between the limestone and coal, about five feet thick, clear from grit, and makes very good soap to wash with. They have made about 15,000 fire-proof bricks from it, and have built their kiln with them without burning, and they are hard enough to build a four-story house if kept from the rains. They say they can do a good business making these bricks at $2 per thousand there. I have specimens of block marble, beautifully variegated, which, by rubbing together, immediately take as fine a polish and finish as I ever saw. I never saw any Italian marble superior to it. An Ohio man, a recent settler here, who is acquainted with the different kinds of coal, was with me to-day, for the purpose of looking at the premises, and picked up a stone from the bed of the stream which he said was cannel coal. If so, there is a bed in there of the marble and cannel coal. Further examination is to determine. Now, if this 140 acre tract of it lay in Connecticut, Massachusetts, or New York, sir, its coal and clay beds would be worth one-half million of dollars. Here they are considered hardly worth anything. Time will tell. At any rate, they look rich to an Eastern man. We are about putting two men in there digging coal, burning limestone, etc., and see whether they will yield anything or not. They are now the most available coal beds of any yet found here."

These statements made at that early time afford a good idea of what were the expectations of the early settlers and as prophecies recorded almost a decade before the railroad was built, seem almost miraculous. We shall have occasion at another place to quote from this correspondence.

CHAPTER V.

PIONEER LIFE.

Characteristics of the First Settlers-Conveniences and Inconveniences-The Historical Log Cabin-Agricultural Implements-Household Furniture Pioneer Corn BreadHand Mills and Hominy-blocks-Going to Mill-Trading Points-Hunting and Traping-Claim Clubs and Club Laws-A Border Sketch-Surveys and Land Sales-Western Stage Company-First Records-Growth of the County-Table of Events.

DURING the decade which comprehended the first ten years of its history, the settlement of Boone county was in its earliest stage of pioneer life. All that can be known of this period must be drawn chiefly from tra

dition.

In those days the people took no care to preserve history-they were too busily engaged in making it. Historically speaking, those were the most important years of the county, for it was then the foundation and cornerstone of all the country's history and prosperity were laid. Yet this period was not remarkable for stirring events. It was, however, a time of selfreliance and brave, persevering toil; of privations cheerfully endured through faith in a good time coming. The experience of one settler was just about the same as that of others. They were almost invariably poor, they faced the same hardships and stood generally on an equal footing.

All the experience of the early pioneers of this county goes far to confirm the theory that, after all, happiness is pretty evenly balanced in this world. They had their privations and hardships, but they had also their own peculiar joys. If they were poor they were free from the burden of

pride and vanity; free, also, from the anxiety and care that always attend the possession of wealth. Other people's eyes cost them nothing. If they had few neighbors, they were on the best of terms with those they had. Envy, jealousy and strife had not crept in. A common interest and a common sympathy bound them together with the strongest ties. They were a little world to themselves, and the good feeling that prevailed was all the stronger because they were so far removed from the great world of the East.

There was a peculiar sort of free-masonry among the pioneers. Newcomers were made welcome, and ready hands assisted them in building their homes. Neighbors did not even wait for an invitation or request to help one another. Was a settler's cabin burned or blown down? No sooner was the fact known throughout the neighborhood than the settlers assembled to assist the unfortunate one to re-build his home. They came with as little hesitation, and with as much alacrity, as though they were all members of the same family, and bound together by ties of blood. One man's interest was every other man's interest also. Now this general state of feeling among the pioneers was by no means peculiar to this country, although it was strongly illustrated here. It prevailed generally throughout the West during the time of the early settlement. The very nature of things taught the settlers the necessity of dwelling together in this spirit. It was their only protection. They had come far away from the well-established reign of law and entered a new country where the civil authority was still feeble, and totally unable to afford protection and redress grievances. Here in Boone county the settlers lived for quite a time before there was a single officer of the law in the county. Each man's protection was in the good will and friendship of those about him, and the thing any man might well dread was the ill will of the community. It was more terrible than the law. It was no uncommon thing in the early times for hardened men, who had no fears of jails or penitentiaries, to stand in great fear of the indignation of a pioneer community.

Owing to the fact that some of the early settlers were energetic millwrights, who employed all their energy and what means they possessed in erecting mills at a few of the favorable mill-sites which abound in the county, yet going to mill in those days, when there were no roads, no bridges, no ferry-boats, and scarcely any conveniences for traveling, was no small task, where so many rivers and treacherous streams were to be crossed, and such a trip was often attended with great danger to the traveler when these streams were swollen beyond their banks. But even under these circumstances some of the more adventurous and ingenious ones, in cases of emergency, found the way and means by which to cross the swollen streams and succeed in making the trip. At other times, again, all attempts failed them, and they were compelled to remain at home until the waters subsided, and depend on the generosity of their fortunate neighbors.

An interesting comparison might be drawn between the conveniences. which now make the life of the farmer a comparatively easy one, and the almost total lack of such conveniences in early days. A brief description of the accommodations possessed by the first tillers of this soil will be now given. Let the children of such illustrious sires draw their own comparisons, and may the results of these comparisons silence the voice of complaint which so often is heard in the land.

The only plows they had at first were what they styled "bull plows."

The mould-boards were generally of wood, but in some cases they were half wood and half iron. The man who had one of the latter description was looked upon as something of an aristocrat. But these old "bull plows" did good service, and they must be awarded the honor of first stirring the soil of Boone county.

It was quite a time after the first settlement before there was a single store in the county. Rude fire-places were built in the cabin chimneys, and they served for warmth, cooking and ventilation.

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The first buildings in the county were not just like the log cabins that immediately succeeded them. These latter required some help and a good deal of labor to build. The very first buildings constructed were a cross between hoop cabins" and Indian bark huts. As soon as enough men could be got together for a "cabin raising" then log cabins were in style. Many a pioneer can remember the happiest time of his life as that when he lived in one of these homely but comfortable and profitable old cabins.

A window with sash and glass was a rarity, and was an evidence of wealth and aristocracy which but few could support. They were often made with greased paper put over the window, which admitted a little light, but more often there was nothing whatever over it, or the cracks between the logs, without either chinking or daubing, was the dependence for light and air.

The doors were fastened with old-fashioned wooden latches, and for a friend or neighbor or traveler the string always hung out, for the pioneers of the West were hospitable, and entertained visitors to the best of their ability.

It is noticeable with what affection the pioneers speak of their old log cabins. It may be doubted whether palaces ever sheltered happier hearts than those homely cabins. The following is a good description of these old land-marks, but few of which now remain:

"These were of round logs notched together at the corners, ribbed with poles and covered with boards split from a tree. A puncheon floor was then laid down, a hole cut in the end and a stick chimney run up. A clapboard door is made, a window is opened by cutting out a hole in the side or end about two feet square, and it is finished without glass or transparency. The house is then chinked' and 'daubed with mud made of the top soil.

"The cabin is now ready to go into. The household and kitchen furniture is adjusted, and life on the frontier is begun in earnest.

"The one-legged bedstead, now a piece of furniture of the past, was made by cutting a stick the proper length, boring holes at one end one and a half inches in diameter, at right angles, and the same-sized holes corresponding with these in the logs of the cabin the length and breadth desired for the bed, in which are inserted poles.

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Upon these poles clapboards are laid, or lind bark is interwoven consecutively from pole to pole. Upon this primitive structure the bed is laid. The convenience of a cook stove was not thought of then, but instead the cooking was done by the faithful housewife in pots, kettles and skillets, on and about the big fireplace, and very frequently over and around, too, the distended pedal extremities of the legal sovereigns of the household, while the latter were indulging in the luxuries of a cob pipe, and discussing the probable results of a contemplated elk hunt up and about Walled Lake." These log cabins were really not so bad, after all.

+1

The living in those days was not such as to tempt the epicure to leave his comfortable luxuries, or even necessities, in the East in order to add to the population of the country. Flour was at first unknown, and meal was

scarce.

They had corn bread in those days "as was corn bread," such as many a resident of the county of this day knows nothing of; and the pone made by the grandmothers of the young people of the present day was something for pride.

Before the country became supplied with mills which were of easy access, and even in some instances afterward, hominy-blocks were used. These exist now only in the memory of the oldest settlers, but as relics of the "long ago" a description of them will not be uninteresting:

A tree of suitable size, say from eighteen inches to two feet in diameter, was selected in the forest and felled to the ground. If a cross-cut saw happened to be convenient, the tree was "butted"—that is, the kerf end was sawed off so that it would stand steady when ready for use. If there were

no cross-cut saw in the neighborhood, strong arms and sharp axes were ready to do the work. Then the proper length, from four to five feet, was measured off, and sawed or cut square. When this was done the block was raised on end, and the work of cutting out a hollow in one of the ends was commenced. This was generally done with a common chopping ax. Sometimes a smaller one was used. When the cavity was judged to be large enough, a fire was built in it and carefully watched till the ragged edges were burned away. When completed the hominy-block somewhat resembled a druggist's mortar. Then a pestle or something to crush the corn was necessary. This was usually made from a suitably sized piece of timber with an iron wedge attached, the large end down. This completed the machinery, and the block was ready for use. Sometimes one hominyblock accommodated an entire neighborhood, and was the means of staying the hunger of many mouths.

It is sometimes remarked that there were no places for public entertainment till later years. The fact is there were many such places; in fact, every cabin was a place of entertainment, and these hotels were sometimes crowded to their utmost capacity. On such an occasion, when bed time came, the first family would take the back part of the cabin, and so continue filling up by families until the limit was reached. The young men slept in the wagons outside. In the morning those nearest the door arose first and went outside to dress. Meals were served on the hind end of a wagon, and consisted of corn bread, buttermilk, and fat pork, and occasionally coffee to take away the morning chill. On Sundays, for a change, they had bread made of wheat "treed out" on the ground by horses, cleaned with a sheet, and pounded by hand. This was the best the most fastidious could obtain, and this only one day in seven.

Not a moment of time was lost. It was necessary that they should raise enough sod corn to take them through the coming winter, and also get as much breaking done as possible. They brought with them enough corn to give the horses an occasional feed in order to keep them able for hard work, but in the main they had to live on prairie grass. The cattle got nothing else than grass.

In giving the bill of fare above we should have added meat, for of this they had plenty. Deer would be seen daily trooping over the prairie in droves of from twelve to twenty, and sometimes as many as fifty would be