Daviess County, Missouri - Chapter 2: The Trials and Tribulations, Cabins and Comforts, Prairies and Prices of Early Days, 1882

Chapter 2: The Trials and Tribulations, Cabins and Comforts, Prairies and Prices of Early Days

Pioneer Life - Their Homes and Clothing - Breaking Prairie - Enterprise - More Arrivals - Snakes, and Other Wild Game - T he Heatherly War--After the Ewcitement - Market Prices - '* Store Goods "' - - Women Pioneers.

Pioneer Life

The life of the settlers of 1830 to 1836 (the last month ot which year, and nearly the last day of the month, Daviess county first saw the light of an independent municipal corporation) was not a bed of roses, but a season of many privations and hardships, yet all was borne uncomplainingly and with unflinching courage. Up to the month and year this county was a part of Ray county and under its civil jurisdiction, the pioneer preémpted and staked his claim, but the county was not surveyed until the winter of 1836-87, and was not open to entry until 1839.

The pioneer erected his cabin upon his claim and the neighbors came from miles around to help him. They gave bim the right hand of fellowship and a warm welcome, and the new settler felt at home at once. The latch-string hung on the outside and what the cabin had was at the command of the traveler or neighbor. Corn was their principal article of food, and the wild game furnished the meat for the family. .\ cow was generally secured, and the pioneer then was happy as well as rich. Store goods were not often seen. Dressed deer skins served for the men's clothing, and muoccasins for their feet. The pioneer's wife did the making, and spun and wove the home-made cotton for herself and daughters. Eight yards were sutticient, and a dress would last for a year or two. Sometimes a piece'of gingham found its way West, but few had the wealth to purchase such costly matevial, An extra quality and color of homespun was the general Sunday meeting dress of the women of that day, and when the men wanted to put on style, they purchased an article of cloth called Kentucky jeans. But the dress of deer skin and a coon skin cap was all the rage in those early days for solid wear. The cabin, with either a puncheon or earthen floor, and chairs and table, was the regulation style. The fire-place took up nearly one end of the cabin, and the chimney was made of sticks and the best Da- viess county mud. Now and then a cup of coffee, sweetened with honey, the product of a lucky find in the shape of a bee-tree; a juicy venison steak, or a piece of turkey; and corn-bread made ot eracked or mashed corn, composed the steady week-day and Sunday diet of the old pioneer.

The first few years, before Millport had either a habitation ora name, it was 2 pretty serious affair to " go to store." The store was situated down on the river, at either Richmond, Liberty, Platte City, or St. Joseph, and the customers came from the northern wilds of Ray county. The old pioneer loaded his ox-wagon and with a little honey, a few venison hams, deer, mink, and coon skins, and "sich kind of truck,' started in the fall for one of these far distant towns to lay in his winter supply. To go and return, the distance was from one hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty miles to travel and part of the way the roads were not all a traveler could wish for. There were * slow" places found and here and there a hole without a bottom, but when they couldn't go around them they took their chances and went through some way. The purchases consisted of a little coffee and tea, perhaps a calico dress, some flour for company, and a jug to meet the spirit ot any joyful occasion that might arise, or for a medicinal dose to benefit a deranged system. The historian will mention right here that the latter article was not used in those days for intoxicating purposes. The old pioneer was the advance-guard of civilization, but he left it to a later, and by some called a more cultured era, to introduce whisky as a beverage, and to furnish to this higher type of civilization the "common drunkard."

A tew years later these trips paid a little something beside expenses. Merchants made their wholesale purchases at the same towns, and the settlers hauled these goods back at the rate of sixty cents per one hundred pounds. Thus loading both ways and paying them something for the trip.

Settlers flowed in and the year 1834 found many new-comers. Those who came in 1831 felt as though they were living in a populous country. Miles between cabins had been greatly reduced, and * raising-bees " were becoming common and were greatly enjoyed. A new-comer cut the logs for his cabin, hanled them to the ground ready to put up, and then the neighbors came from miles around, and the way that cabin went up in a square shape, capped with weight-poles, was a" caution to slow coaches." And they sang at their work:

'Our cabins are made of logs of wood, The floors are made of puncheon, The roof is held by weight- poles, And then we ' hang off' for luncheon.'

This was followed by a "swig from the little brown jug" kept especially for the oceasion, and then with a hearty shake of the hand and a "wish you well" the neighbors left the new-comer to put on the finishing touches to his cabin himself. And this was a " raising bee" in the olden times.

Breaking Prairie

The first settlers in Daviess county " took to the woods," yet the prairies opened an inviting field. Still the new settlers seemed to avoid them and preferred the timber-land. It could not always be thus, and the first man to break prairie or to help break it was William Prewett. They had a blacksmith shop over near Millpurt, and Prewett and others had a plow made at this shop, and when completed they proposed to try its quality, and also to see what the prairies amounted to in the way of raising a crop. This trial caine off in the spring of 1834, and the land broken to that plow was the prairie between the present residences of Mrs. Hamilton and Captain Woodruff, three-fourths of a mile southwest of Gallatin. They had raised crops in the timber, but the sod of the prairie they did not believe could be plowed up and worked to advantage. Somewhat of a change las taken place in regard to prairie land in the minds of the people since those days. Mr. Prewett's plow was a success, and not long after that the open land was not altogether shunned for the prairie.

Enterprise

The citizens of the county soon began to take an interest in home affairs. Going to Liberty, Clay county, to get the meal, or to pour the corn in a hole burned into a log and pound it, was rather up-hill work, so that the enterprise of Robert P. Peniston in putting up a corn-mill was viewed with delight. When that mill was finished it changed the whole aspect of the country. The cars of this day were not hailed with more joy or looked upon as advancing the interests of the people more than that corm-mill. Not only that, but the town of Millport came into life when that mill was completed: Josiah Morin and his brother opened the first general store. John A. Williams is reported to have opened the first grocery store. He received the first license for a grocery store when Gallatin had been located, and he probably moved from Millport to the new county seat. That expert rifle shot and mechanic, Milford Donaho, had his blacksmith shop there, the first in the county, and this was the way Millport, the first town within the limits of Daviess county, started. It became noted for miles around. The old settlers who lived nearly as far east as the line of Sullivan county came to this mill to grind their corn and do their trading, and Millport flourished. Lomax & Jacobs kept a general store. So did Worthington & Co., and Josiah Morin & Bro., afterward Morin & Compton. Wor thington, by the way, opened the first dram-shop in Gallatin, and Jacob Stollings put up the first house and made it the first boarding-house in Gallatin. While Elisha B. Creekmore boarded the court and lawyers, Stollings took eare of the grand jury and those who came to court.

in the most convenient places to get at. Boxes were utilized as counters, and while there was little display in those good old times, little was desired. It the goods they wanted were there it didn't make much difference to the people how they were fixed on the shelves or whether they had shelves. The ladies in those days had a good deal more sense than style about them, and did not go to show off a "gilt edge make-up," or chat with a perfumed clerk with an oreide watch and plated chain.

Lomax & Jacobs came from Richmond. Lomax went to California in 1849, but transacted business prior to that date in Trenton, Grundy county, having moved there in 1838, and with Jacobs opened the first store there. He was still living some two years since. Jacobs was circuit and county clerk of Grundy county from 1841 to 1848. He died several years ago.

In speaking of the business of Millport and that point becoming a place of trade, McGee's History says that "prior to this time the settlers had to depend upon the Mississippi River towns for their supplies of the necessaries of life, and especially for powder and lead." And in speaking of the stocks kept in the stores, said that " they were simple, but met the demands of the early settlers, and consisted of salt, coffee, tea, tobacco, cotton, yarns, bar iron for horse-shoes, ete., powder, lead, and steel points for plows." Added to these, which were considered staple articles, there was kept a moderate supply: of calico, ginghams, domestic cottons, Kentucky jeans, boots and shoes, ete., with a fair article of whisky. This was also considered a staple article, and was of a kind not too weak to be insipid and not so strong as to make you fighting drunk, but of that mild, exhilarating quality that made a man feel just comfortable on taking "a good square drink." There was nothing in this line of goods to make the people extravagant. The Indians were peaceable here and drew a government annuity, and received powder and lead from the government as a part of the annual payment. Betore stores had became a part of the progressive civilization of Daviess county, many of the old pioneers procured their powder and lead from the Indians. They had become quite expert traders and would take the settlers' supplies of skins and give them powder and lead in return and many other necessaries received from the government. The red men carried these skins and furs to the settlements on the river and there sold them. It was thus that many settlers, who could not go away from home or had not a load to take for traveling purposes, saved a trip by trading with the friendly Indians, who were peaceable, but, if not watched, had no seruples whatever against appropriating to their own use any little thing that might be lying around loose. The settlers were, however, aware of this slight eccentricity of character in their dusky neighbors or visitors, and were careful to keep articles needing only light transportation out of their way.

Mori Arrivals

In 1834-°35-"36-37-'38, there was a steady flow of settlers. Jolin Smith settled in Liberty township in 1834. He came trom Clay county. W. M. Pruett and T. P. Gilreath, who came from Lafayette county, but originally from Kentucky, also settled in Liberty township, locating their houses on section five of township tifty-nine, range twenty-eight. H. N. Creekmore, also rom Kentucky, settled in the saine township. James Collison, Richard Hill, John McClung and Robert Miller all came from Virginia and settled in what is now called Jamesport township, in 1838. John Williams, who came from North Carolina and James Munn, who came trom Tennessee, settled on section thirty-three, in the year 1836, in what is now known as Washington township. William Hardin and Nelson Foster came the same or the following year, as didalso William Taylor, of Kentucky, and settled in the same township. Then D. N. Foster, from Franklin county, Indiana, came in 1839.

The first man who built a cabin in Union township was John Splawn and he built it near the blutt, not far from where the Rock Island depot now stands, and, as before mentioned, was moved to what is yet called Splawn's Ridge, and put upas the first house there. William C. Atkinson came in 1835, and was a great hunter and somewhat of a fisherman. He lived on the bluff - what is called The Rocks, and continued to reside there several years.

Union township was the first settled in the county and most of the early settlers - the Devauls and their neighbors - were within the limits of this township, as were also the Peniston and Morin settlement and Millport.

it was in the summer of 1837, when Millport had received its death-blow by the location of the county seat south of the river, that Jacob Stollings, who had opened what he called a " boarding-house ranche," contracted with William C. Atkinson to furnish the meat department of his ranche. The contract was made in July, 1837, and continued until March, 1838. Stollings was to pay ten cents apiece for chicken turkeys and twenty-five cents for grown ones. Deer was to be paid a fair price for, and ditto fish. Mr. Atkinson, from July to March, received pay for 180 turkeys, and a cousiderable sum more for venison and fish. Mr. Atkinson being a somewhat noted hunter, the record of his deeds in that line for some three or four years are well worthy of record. He killed three hundred and _ thirty-six deer, sixty-two wild cats, and at one time killed nine wolves and at» another, seven, the last being both old ones and five' cubs. Ile paid, one year, the taxes of himself and seven of his neighbors by the use of his trusty rifle. Just how imany turkeys fell betore his unerring aim, he could not tell. They were too numerous to count. Among the other things he looked after were the rattlesnakes. These were his especial pets, and he generally marked all he came across - located them - and they never left the spot. A rattlesnake den was found on the bluffs, at the crossing near Gallatin, and the men got out and killed a trifle over 300. There were plenty of them in the woods of the variety known as moceasins, from eighteen inches to three or four feet long and with six to fifteen rattles. There was music and a fight when the settlérs came across the big spotted fellows, with yellow bellies, and from fifteen to twenty rattles. They stood no foolishness, and on curling up, when preparing for battle, had an India-rubber spring about them that cost several people their lives. They were not given credit for their springing abilities. Wolf skins, in those days, were about as good currency as was then afloat.

The Heatherly War

There were no scares taking place arter the close of the Blacx Hawk War in *21 and °32. until what is known as the Heatherly War. The Heatherlys settled in the east and southeast part of what is now Grundy county, on Medicine River and their headquarters were in the southeast corner of what is now Marion township. They had not been there long before they became pretty wild - known as hard cases. They had with them four men, named, respectively, Thomas, Hawkins, Watson, and a colored man, who was as biga scoundrel as the whites, but was a great coward unless backed up. He was invaluable to the gang for his knack of taking care of their horses and hiding stolen property. In 1836, the Heatherlys, who had become known as hard cases, had organized into a regular band of horse-thieves, and, becoming bolder, were making raids wherever they would most likely meet with success. In the fall of 1836 aman by the name of Dunbar,and a companion, were robbed of their horses, and in defense of their property, were both killed, and their bodies thrown into the Medicine River. For fear of the consequence of the discovery of the terrible crime, which was traced to them, they gave out that the Indians, the Iowas and Saes, were on the warpath, killing and sealping, and their way lighted by the burning cabins of the settlers whom they had murdered. This report caused the wildest excitement, for the people, having no detenses, were powerless against the supposed army of savages so near, The settlers at Moore's and Thompson's settlements assembled and those at Mvore's hastily cut logs and raised a sort of a block-house for protection. Gen. Thompson ordered out the militia, two companies having been ordered from Ray county and two from Clay, while a number joined from this and Livingston. A reconnoisance in force soon dispelled the fears of the people, and the settlers determined to investigate the cause of this false alarm, which was traced to the Heatherly gang, who had stated men had been murdered. The bodies of the two men were found in Medicine River and the Heatherlys, the man Hawkins, and the negro were arrested. They had murdered these men, stolen their horses and outfit, stripped them of their valuables and consigned the bodies to the river, and to cover up the crime charged it to a party of Indians, on a hunting expedition, composed of the above named tribes. These facts were gathered trom one of the gang, Hawkins, who turned on his companions in crime as State's evidence. The gang was sent to the penitentiary. The four militia captains who commanded the companies under General Thompson all became men of note in the political history of the State, Captain David R. Atchison, one of the four, becoming a United States Senator in 1844.

Thus ended what was called the Heatherly War, and by which name it is known to this day. The gang was ettectually broken up, and they were the only desperadoes who ever had a foothold in this section of the country.

After The Excitement

And so peace reigned once more. The sluggish blood of the old pioneer had been sent coursing through his veins tor a few days, but now the quiet came. Farmers had begun to increase their stock and to cultivate more land. Everything appeared in a prosperous condition and the pioneer began to believe there was a pleasant future in store for those who had settled in the beantiful valley of the Grand River. The year 1836 closed auspiciously for the settlers. They had worked hard and reaped a bountiful harvest and the year 1837 not only seemed a hopeful one, but quite a number of new settlers came with the incoming year. The financial crash which had been pending broke over the country, but the hardy settler in the Western wilds hardly knew of the monetary storm that was driving thousands into bankruptey and many to a suicide's grave. The East suffered. The commercial marts and money centers gave fortha wail of agony and despair. Houses, wealthy one day, tottered the next, and on the third were carried down the rapids and engulfed in the maelstrom of insolvency. While the commercial and financial worid suffered, and those around them and immediately under their influence, the West suffered but little. In the towns the crash was felt slightly but only in those of a size that had been able to carry their eredit to the Eastern markets. This had the eftect of cheapening all kinds of produce and stock, and it also cheapened every class of goods for sale. Bankrupt goods flooded the market. They had to be sold, no matter how great the sacrifice, and the result was that in the West the people prospered in the aggregate. Their wants were few and could now be supplied at nominal prices, which will be found in succeeding pages.

Market Prices

In one respect the early settler had a few advantages not possessed by the poor mortals of to-day, or of those even of a generation back. While they

160 HISTORY OF DAVIESS COUNTYendured the privations with which they were encompassed with heroic fortitude and a patience which exalted them, these old-time heroes and heroines could get the necessaries of life at a good deal less cost than their favored children and vrandehildren of this day. They did not purchase any silks or satins, in fact a calico or gingham was considered fine enough tor church wear, or visiting, and even these would give way to the enduring, durable homespun, when an extra quality of yarn or coloring had been secured for weaving. But it is not of this alone we would speak. There was any quantity of good land lying around loose at government price, $1.25 per acre, anxious to be tickled with a hoe that it might laugh with a harvest. The tinancial crash of 1837 had completely Gnicslived values. Property shrank to such amazing smallness that many people were in doubt as to whether they possessed anything except their lives and their families. The necessaries of life were cheap, and they who suffered most in those days were of the class called wealthy. The farmer and mechanic had little to complain of. Their wants were few and the supplies cheap; if corn was at a low figure, tea, coffee, sugar, and whisky were also cheap.

We quote the following in regard to the prices of the times: * The situation as regards general business had, up to 1842, been depressed for several years. The monetary crisis of 1837 still hovered over the land. For nearly tive years prices of goods and products of every description had ruled very low and the prospect for a raise still seemed far from encouraging, and the time somewhat distant. In 1842 I paid five dollars for the first cow I ever owned, and $7.50 tor a good cow and calf, in trade. Horses were also cheap; while the best could be had for $40, others could be purchased at from $25 to $35. Working cattle were down to what they called in those days alinost nothing, $22 buying a good yoke. Hogs, dressed, without much regard to weight, were held at the enormous price of $1.25 to $1.50 each, and they were not full of trichina either. Garnered wheat brought from thirtyfive to forty cents a bushel; corn fifty cents per barrel, delivered; and a good veal calf, seventy-five cents. You could go out into the woods and eut down a hee-tree, gather the honey and bring it to market,and you got twenty-tive cents a gallon for it; it was thought the bees were well paid for their honey. And such honey, so clear and transparent that even the bee-keeper of to-day with his patent hive and Italian swarms would have had a look of, envy covering his face from ear to ear on beholding it. The wild deer came forward and gave us their hams at twenty-five cents each, and the settlers generally clinched the bargain by taking the skin also, which, when not ent up into strings or used for patches, brought another quarter, cash or trade, as demmanded. Tt was also a habit in those days for farmers to help each other, and of their sons to work in the harvest field or help to du the logging to prepare for a new seeding. This was a source of wealth to the early settler and to his rising family, They raked in from twenty-five to fifty cents a day and board. That was wealth. It was the foundation of their future prosperity. It was the first egg laid to hatch them a farm, and it was guarded with scrupulous care. Economy was often whittled down to a very fine point before they could be induced to take or touch that nest-egg, the incipient acre of the first farm. And then again, a day's work meant something besides getting on the shady side of a tree and three hours for nooning. It meant Jabor in all its length, and breadth, and thickness, from holding the breaking-plow behind two yoke of oxen, to mauling rails. tight here I will mention that rails were made at twenty-five cents a hundred. Just think of splitting rails at twenty-five cents a hundred ! It is enough to take the breath away from every effeminate counter-jumper in the State. This covers a good deal of what the old pioneer had or received for labor and farm products."

In some respects the merchants held a better hand in the game of life, and in others they didn't. They wanted from fifteen to twenty-five cents a yard for calico, and from twenty-five to seventy-five cents for gingham, but, as said before, those early settlers were a self-sacrificing people, and they not only let the merchants ask these prices, bnt allowed them to keep their goods upon the shelves to give the stores the appearance of carrving a large stock. The fact is, the merchants of those days didn't coin money from their calico and gingham departments. Trade and barter were their 'best holt." Here is where they got in their best work, growing up and thriving, like a veritable Yankee, by what they called "dicker." Ten pounds of good Rio coffee for a dollar, and from sixteen to twenty pounds of sugar tor the same sum of money, were standard prices. When they sold a calico or gingham dress pattern, they threw in their profit by giving a spool of thread (200 yards), hooks and eyes, and lining. In the thread business, however, if was only a few years after before thirty and fifty yard spools took the place of the former 200 yards. Tea could be bought for from twenty to fifty cents a pound; soap was " powerful" cheap, either by the gallon or by the bar; saleratus took the place of baking-powder and was as low as from five to eight cents; and whisky, good old whisky, one drink of which would make a man love his neighbor as himself, was eighteen cents a gallon by the barrel, and from twenty to twenty-five cents per gallon retail. It is questionable, to the writer, whether the extravagances and the high prices of the present age, with all its boasted improvements, taken in connection with its varied and high taxes, the increased cost of living, are a fair equivalent for the good old days of hog and hominy, of venison and honey, of jeans and linseys, of low prices, and of peace, plenty, and happiness. In those days of log houses and log churches and schools, with puncheon floors, and puncheon stools their softest seats; when a skillet and a kettle with a big fire-place did duty for a modern $75. stove with its new-fangled hot water arrangement and extra ovens, and wagons without springs served as carriages, the people were as happy as today and far more contented. That these improvements are desirable, all will grant. It must be borne in mind that the increased wants and extravugances of the present era, and the accumulated wealth of the country, is what has made these things not only a pleasure, but a necessity.

Women Pioneers

Thus far the pioneer has been reterred to as of the sterner sex, but were they the only pioneers in these Western wilds? Was man the only one who suttered privation and want, who worked that a generation, then verging on manhood, might find the way "blazed" to the light of a higher civilization, and that a generation yet unborn might find the fruits of their struggle in well-tilled fields, a full yranary and a home blessed with all the arts and progress that a new era gave them? Was it in the culture and refinement of the people of a later day, who had received not only wealth descended from their forefathers, but those benefits which seience had discovered hidden in the deep and dark mysteries of nature, and were they to thank men alone for the blessings around them ¢

No: but high on the scroll of tame should the pioneer women of our land have their names einblazoned that generations yet to come, and for all time, may honor and bless the memory of the heroic women who gave their lives to the duties of a pioneer's life, and who proudly and uncomplainingly did the work which caine before them, as only women could do it, smoothing their rugged lives with the light of an undying love, and proving in every way the equal of man in carrying forward the work of making a wilderness take upon itself the garb of civilization, and barren plains the wealth of fruitful fields and abundant harvests. Thus have the pioneer women worked and struggled, and the rnde cabin to them was a home of love and happiness. Rude and primitive as that cabin might be, with a floor of mother earth, simple and unadorned, there was found within its walls many a heroine of early days. Not in the palaces of the rich, of what is called this enlightened era, was more true life-like happiness found than in those lowly cabins. There was no waiting in those days for a home of splendor before man found his mate, but the heroes and heroines ot those days joined hand and _ hearts and helped each other down the rugged pathway of life. He went into the field to work that he might supply the food necessary for life, while she worked on in her owa sphere, furnishing her husband's cabin with the smiles of a loving heart, greeting her partner with the evident work of willing hands, keeping her true and womanly talents in full play, not only in preparing the food for the family meal, but in weaving and spinning, cutting and making, not only her own clothing, but the garments of those who were of her household and under her loving care. Much has been written of the «Old Pioneer" and his struggle in the early years of his life, heavy trials, misfortune, and ultimately his success, but little has been recorded of his noble companion, the light of his cabin, who cheered him in his misfortune, nursed him in- sickness, and in health gave her whole strength to labor for their future welfare and happiness. There was little luxury or ease for the pioneer's wife of those early days, but whatever her destiny might be, it was met with a firm faith and a willingness to do her whole duty, living in the love of her husband and children, and trusting in Providence to receive her final reward for the nneeasing labor of years, well and nobly pertormed. :

Yes, there was something decidedly primitive in the building and furniture of those cabins of old. They were built one-and-a-half stories high, in many cases, that they might have a' loft" to store away things, and sometimes to sleep in. The windows were covered by a light quilt to keep the wind and rain out, the puncheon floor was laid, the stick and mud chimney set up, a table and a chair or two, or stools made of a split log, with augerholes bored to put in the legs. Some shelves made of the same material, holes bored and pins put in, to hang up their clothes or other things, and that pioneer heroine was ready to meet her friends and neighbors, and the world at large in a roomy and comfortable home. A housekeeping outfit of that style in these days wonld send a young woman into hysterics, make

And then the wite milked the cow, and cooked, and sewed, wove and spun, and went to mill, thus doing her part and keeping her end of the line taut. They made their bread literally by the sweat of their brows and led happy and contented lives.

A ealico or a gingham dress was good enough to visit im or go to church, but oftener a homespun dress did duty on the same occasions; then the calico or gingham would last a year or two, and it only took eight yards for adress. Hoop-skirts had not yet put in an appearance, and pin-backs were of another day and generation. So with a multiplicity of duties the young wife kept on her way. By and by, when a family had grown up around them, cares began to increase; the wife and mother was often compelled to sit up night after night that the husband's and the children's clothes might be mended, their stockings darned, and the preparations for the coming morning's work made re eady. Then it was discovered that a woman's work is never done. The household was asleep. The tired husband and father was resting his weary limbs in dreamland, the children were tossing here and there on their beds as restless children always do. Nature itself had gone to rest and the outer world was w rapped in darkness and gloom, but thé nearly exhausted mother sewed on and on, and the midnight candle was still shedding its pale light over the work or the vigils of the loved and loving mother. And this is the record of the thousands of noble women, the temale pioneers, whose daily presence, loving hearts, earnest work, and keen judgment, made the work of civilization and progress one of success. And the question has oftentimes been asked, ** What would the men of the olden times have done if the women of the olden times had not been with them?" and the reply comes back, "Ah! yes: what would they have done?"

These were the kind of women who made civilization a success, and brightened the pathway of material progress with the promise of a glorious. future. There are a few yet living of that glorious pioneer band of women who gave their lives to the hard tate of a pioneer's wife. They bore their share of the troubles, trials, and labor of the times. They are deserving the love and veneration of all, and may their pathway to the unknown river be brightened by kind words and loving hearts. Let them glide softly and pleasantly down the river of time, and let no regrets come trom them of neglect or coldness. Their young days were days of hardship; let the evening of their lite be bereft of care, peaceful and joyous. Of those who are now sleeping the sleep that knows no waking they did their duty nobly and well, and while their allottec time on earth has passed they have gone to a better world, a reward to all those whose life's pilgrimage has been worthily performed. And thus the women pioneer passes away. May they be ever blessed while living. One and all, living or dead, deserve a high and honored place in the history of our country, and the compiler of Daviess county's history gives this short tribute to their memory. Not that it is much, but that the lives of those who have done so much to bring the Wild West to a land of civilization and Christianity, has the veneration of the writer, aud of those he has met and those who have gone before, will he hold a cherished memory until he, too, joins the throng on the golden shore, when time ceases and eternity begins its endless round.