Roads and Road-Working

    The highways of Monroe County are at present mostly located on established lines. The first roads, like the "trail" of the Indians, ran straight, regardless of divisional lines.

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The main design was to "get there," and with this very laudable end in view, the people traveled in as straight lines as the character of the surface would permit. At one time the settler respected the course of those pioneer highways, and did not deign to set the road out on the line, as long as all his land was not fenced. Later, when he found it necessary to do this, the changing of the road was attended by bitter remonstrances from his neighbors. Every man wanted the road to remain just where it was first located, except when it cut through his own farm, when he assumed the right to "throw it out" on the line. If the new route was rough and crossed a stream, the farmer making the change was expected by an unwritten code of honor to put in the bridge partly himself, and, with the friends of the new road, work gratis the route to render it passable for teams. Many of the highways throughout the country are but 40 feet in width, but of later years 60 feet has been prescribed as the proper width, and the Board of Supervisors will not establish a highway of less width.

    The highways are kept in repair by means of public labor levied in form of a tax. Every able-bodied citizen between the age of 21 and 45 years is required to perform two days' labor in payment of a poll-tax of $3.00; in addition to this poll-tax, he pays a property tax in labor, levied on his taxable property; and in addition to these, he is liable to a small cash levy, which tax must be paid in cash, with which to purchase material, implements, etc., for highway purposes. Of course he has the privilege to pay his poll and property tax in cash, or of employing a substitute to do the work.

    Formerly the poll-tax was fixed at $1.50, but it was doubled with the expectation that more labor would be expended. Notwithstanding the doubling of the time required, about the same amount of actual labor was bestowed upon the roads, until the advent of the grader. Under the old method, the roads were worked twice in a season, usually in May and September. The farmer was "warned" out on a fixed date, to appear with a team or some suitable implement at 8 o'clock. He put in his appearance anywhere between 8 and 12. Sometimes he came with an old hoe, an ax, hatchet, or anything that might be construed as coming under the head of an "implement." Sometimes he did not bring anything, and beguiled the time in holding the handle of a plow for a few moments between

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long intervals, or in loading scrapers and sitting on the ground to await the return of the empty scraper. The squad was under the direction of the Road Supervisor, but whenever his official's back was turned, the men repaired to a shady fence-corner to crack jokes, argue politics or religion, or talk horse; on the reappearance of the Supervisor, they resumed work. If a tree were to be chopped down, a grub removed, or a culvert to mend, the Supervisor had to do the work, while the men dropped their tools and gathered around to inspect the work and offer suggestions as to the proper mode of doing it.

    If a man has any bodily infirmities, he is exempt from the poll-tax, but not from the property tax. He appears promptly on the date set to work the roads, armed with a physician's certificate of disability. Being an invalid, he escapes the poll-tax, but labors day after day until he has "worked out" his property tax at the customary rate of $1.50 per day, or $3.00 with a team.

    Of late years road-working as a diversion or source of social rural enjoyment has been greatly improved on by the introduction of the grader. Everybody now rides on the grader. The seat alone is wide enough to accommodate three men, and each may hold a pair of lines attached to his own team. Six horses pull the grader, and the Supervisor stands behind the drivers and operates the levers and otherwise commands the machine. One or two men usually act as grooms or footmen to accompany the equipage in case the teams do not act nicely, and two or three men with a road plow do a little plowing at the roadside at certain intervals during the day. One man holds the plow handles, another drives the team, and if there is a third one who could be accommodated on the grader, he "beams" the plow—i.e., sits on the beam to force the nose of the plow deeper into the ground.

    Then the man with the hoe is supposed to get in his work. He traverses the entire length of the road district, and chops up noxious weeds, such as burdock, "bull" thistles, and cockle-burs. If he runs out of these before quitting time, he chops dog-fennel or anything he comes across, because his job is considered a "soft" one, and he may be assigned to something less congenial.

    The job next in degree of "softness" to that enjoyed by the man with the hoe is the hunting up of the road scraper

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or plow. These are always at the other end of the district when the men want to work, and some man has to go after them with a team and wagon. It takes at least a half-day to find them, as they have to be tracked from house to house, and, when found, usually have to go to the blacksmith shop for repairs, at the public expense, as they have been passed around among the farmers to serve in scooping out ponds, scraping up manure, etc., until some fellow breaks them, when they are left on the spot to be hunted up by the Supervisor in road-working time. The Road Supervisor is forbidden to loan these implements, but the order is seldom, if ever, strictly obeyed. If, however, the Supervisor declines to allow his neighbors the use of them, his refusal is looked upon as a high-handed usurpation of official power.

    Within recent years there has been considerable talk of improving the public roads, but there is no feasible way of doing so, other than by the efficient use of the grader and proper drainage. Paving is out of the question, as there is no available supply of material within easy reach.

    The iron bridge has not yet been introduced, but doubtless will be ere long.

Fashions, Dress, and Love-Making.

    Monroe County was never so far outside the pale of civilization as to render wearing apparel superfluous, although it is said that man of the children of the "Hairy Nation" ran naked in the summer time and barefooted all the year round. Every one who was not afraid of the rattlesnakes went barefoot in the summer. The young ladies turned their feet out to grass, say the last of May, and kept them on it until about the middle of September or the first of October, and from then on throughout the winter wore their Sunday shoes. When they walked for miles to "meeting" on Sundays, those who were most careful and prudent took off their shoes and stockings and cooled their shapely white feet in the dust until nearing the meeting-house, when they would slip to the roadside, give their feet a few "swipes" in the tall grass to remove the dust, and replace their shoes. Many a stately dame in the county to-day could testify to this from experience if she would—and why should she not? It was no discredit.

    The men and boys began to go barefooted a little earlier in the season, say as soon as grass came. Shoes were

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not worn by the men at that time, nor for years later, as articles of dress. The coarse boot was worn throughout the week, and the more fastidious young men indulged in light calfskin boots, with high, narrow heels, for sunday wear. If these boots had attractive fancy tops, the dude of those days wore his pants stuffed inside of them, and sat on the front row of "puncheons" at meeting, with his legs crossed at a conspicuous height, much to the admiration of the fair sex.

    Among the "mashers" of those days were Colonel Dan Anderson, Anson Rowles, Wm. Webb, Jake Webb, Bob Gordon and others. Gordon finally became insane, and one day disappeared and was never again seen.

    Colonel Dan Anderson lived to attain considerable distinction in after years as a public man, in both civil and military capacities, as well as a successful attorney, and at one time he was favorably mentioned in the local papers as a gubernatorial candidate. But with all the gallant Colonel's fame and prowess in later years, he was not "in touch" with the good graces of his sweetheart's parents, at the time when, like Daniel of old, he began to receive visions (visions of the matrimonial state). The girl was willing, but the old folks were not. In Missouri they could get married without a license, and without the expenditure of the unavoidable license fee, which in all cases had to be paid in advance. The young Adonis procured a "covered" buggy, at that time a rare luxury, and his sweetheart rolled up her "Sunday-go-to-meetin' dress" in a bundle, together with her "hoops," and doubtless other bleached muslin articles of female apparel essential to a bridal trousseau. The bundle was concealed in the prairie grass near the roadside, on the outskirts of the village, and the lovelorn swain drove round, ostensibly to give the girl a short buggy-ride. They then made "lickety-split" for the Missouri line, were married, and had the license fee saved with which to go to housekeeping.

    While the prevailing fashions in dress, in those days, would appear quaint now, they were nor more outlandish than at present. While the dame of thirty years ago incased her lower limbs in a prodigious hoopskirt, the belle of the present day lavishes this same superabundance of material on her arms, and lets her legs get along as best they can, with nothing of greater consequence than a mere skirt. Like inflammatory rheumatism sometimes does, the style has simply

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shifted from legs to the arms, and it cannot very well be helped. The big sleeves of to-day do not appear to be sustained by means of hoops or a wire frame-work; neither are they stuffed. The material is starched stiffly, and their puff is preserved by means known only to the wearer.

    The "sky-scraper" bonnet was an institution of a little earlier antiquity, but was worn by some as late as the pioneer period of Monroe County. Then came the "shaker" made of straw or palm-leaf. It somewhat resembled a calico sunbonnet in form, except that it was narrower. It looked a little like a sugar-scoop. They did not have any tails on them when purchased, and the first thing the purchaser had to do, on buying one, was to sew a tail to it, composed of cloth. Its beauty was ephemeral, as it soon lost its whiteness. The ladies kept it pretty well bleached by frequent baptism in a jar of buttermilk. Another way to bleach it was to place it near the top, inside an inverted barrel; then they smoked it all day with sulphur fumes. The odor of the sulphur remained with the "shaker," but this was not objected to in society, as sulphur and the odor from it was reckoned a safeguard against the prairie itch in those days. From that day to this, the bonnets, both great and small, have come and gone, each year witnessing some strange mutation in style, and bringing with the change fresh joys and gladsome smiles to the wearer.

    After the linsey period, came the woolen mill, which enabled the settlers to exchange their wool for cloth manufactured at the factory and of a little handsomer appearance. Casinet was a heavy cloth for masculine wear, composed partly of wool and partly of cotton. It wore like buckskin.

    A calico dress was the one thing altogether lovely in the eyes of the pioneer maiden. It cost from 25 to 50 cents per yard, but most of the well-to-do ladies managed to secure one for Sunday wear, or in which to array herself when circus day came. Many a poor girl, as noble and handsome as the fairest queen of earth, has wept until her eyes were red because she did not have a nice calico dress to wear to meeting, or in which to entertain her beau on Sunday night.

    The acquirement of a pair of hoops was not so difficult a matter. If her father refused to invest in a pair of "store" hoops, the maiden went into the forest and selected a graceful grape-vine, and improvised a pair of hoops, which, to all external appearances, were fully up to the highest pinnacle of the fashion.

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    About a dozen years ago the hoopskirt again made its appearance, but it had lost its old-time rotundity, and was but the shadow of its former self. It soon disappeared; but some day it will rise again, to fly in the face of providence and tempt fate.

    About twenty years ago the ladies conceived an infatuation for dress-goods of a flaming color and marked in large figures like bed-spread calico. It was called "Dolly Varden" dress-goods. At another period, some years later, every girl wore spotted calico, called "polka dot," and a bevy of chattering, rollicking young ladies would look like a flock of guineas.

    The "Mother Hubbard" is the greatest monstrosity of all. It haunts, like a specter, every lady's closet, but seldom walks forth in the broad light of day. For a while it made a bold, defiant effort to gain the street, but was soon relegated to the back yard, where it is occasionally seen scampering stealthily between the kitchen door and the wood-pile or pump, but instantly vanishing within doors on the approach of an intruder. In appearance it resembles a bag of table salt of prodigious size, the gathering-string at the top corresponding to the collar. Unhappily, the Mother Hubbard differs in one respect: it has no bottom in it, like the salt-bag.

    Courtship in those days was conducted under about the same underlying principles as now—i. e., the object to be obtained was marriage. The science was in a much more rudimentary state then, but the end seemed to justify the means. The process was sufficient unto the day, and every couple who were in the right frame of mind managed to strike up a match. They did it without buggy-riding (there were no buggies then), without lawn tennis parties, without sipping lemonade through rye-straws, or spooning at the ice cream table. They did not even have a sofa on which to sit on the veranda at late hours, when Cupid is supposed to lurk in the vicinity. The swain courted his sweetheart in the presence of her folks, because the cabin had but one room; and when the other members of the family wished to retire for the night, the lovers had to hold up a bed-quilt between themselves and the beds, until the old folks were safely tucked in bed. The swain then told his story of love in the faint, wavering light of the tallow-dip, and had to be brief about it, for the light was liable to go out at any moment. When they went to singing-school, they rode horseback, if he had two

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horses; if he had only one, and it carried double, he took her on behind and she hooked her arms around his waist to stick on. If they had to ride bareback, and encountered a steep hill to descend, they drew "Old Fan's" tail up over their shoulders, and, by holding on to it, avoided slipping forward over the animal's withers.

    Thomas Smith, of Urbana Township, who died some years ago, used to relate his love-making experience. He was fat and jolly, and it seems that the incident did not permanently blight his heart. He went by the irreverent appellation of "old Bean Smith."

    He and old Sam Daal were rivals for the hand of the widow Vandever, who lived over the line in Missouri. It took a day or two to make the trip, and it was vitally important that both suitors should not make their calls on the same night, because there was but one room in the house, and the widow and her lover were obliged to sit up all night. There was neither straw-stack nor a dwelling-house near the widow Vandever's, and if both beaus called on the same date, one would have to go home, as there was no other place to lodge.

    One night, a short time after "old Bean" had called, Daal shuffled in, not knowing that his rival was present. He was attired in his bare feet, as it was his custom to go barefooted on all occasions. There was a big rain that night, and the creek was up so high that the lover could not recross to return home. Both suitors sat up with the widow all night, but, as Smith arrived first, he held the "right-of-way," and did all the wooing, while Daal had to remain a silent spectator with his chin resting in his hands and his elbows supported on his knees. He was a "Pennsylvania Dutchman." About daylight he slowly raised his head and observed: "I like snapper better as c-o-o-n."

    This confession seems to have been in conformity with the widow's own epicurean tastes, and as snapping-turtles were abundant on the creek, the declaration went straight to her heart; for she married Dall shortly afterwards and the two subsisted happily on "snapper" for many years.

    While in some respects the methods employed in pioneer courtship were of a tendency calculated to discourage the candidate, there were other phases of the process which in turn greatly facilitated the practitioners in ascertaining the "lay of the land," so far as any opposition from the girl's parents and brothers was concerned.

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    If the girl's father or brother put the young man's horse up and fed it, it was a tacit understanding all round that the matrimonial negotiations between the lovers had the hearty approval of the family; but if the poor animal was left hitched to the fence to shiver and freeze with cold, the young man took the hint, and either gave up the enterprise, or, in company with the girl, ran off to Missouri and got married in defiance of the old folks. Thus a young man did not have to encounter the modern disadvantages of uncertainty, and was able to lavish his affections and good money on the girl in an intelligent and definite manner. Nowadays he does not know which way "the cat is going to jump," until the invitation cards are out. He simply invests his money and affections and takes his chances, the same as when dallying with the wheel-of-fortune spindle.

    After the young folks got married, the bride, if of a well-to-do family, furnished the feather-tick and a quilted "comfort" or two, and usually one cow, which every girl on contemplating marriage "claimed" from her pa's herd as her property. The cow was usually well paid for by the young lady in the way of services rendered her pa by "dropping" corn, or hoeing sod-corn, or performing some other field labor. The bridegroom usually supplied a horse, or, under more auspicious circumstances, a mare and colt. His mother usually gave him a pair of blankets, a straw-tick, and sometimes a bedstead. These, together with a cook-stove, a few dishes, and a pig or two, were about all a young married couple needed in the way of furniture for the first year; but invariably at or near the end of the year the young couple added to their collection of household utensils a rectangular box, mounted on the two semicircular halves of a barrel-head, each placed transversely near either end of the box and nailed edgewise on the bottom.

    The "wool-picking" was a social event corresponding in some respects to the tea-party of the present day, only the hostess did not resort to the preliminary formality of issuing invitation cards; she did not receiver her guests in a satin gown, and the hour and minute when the guest were expected to depart were not stated, as on an invitation card.

    When the guests had all assembled, the wool was placed in bunches upon the chairs. Chairs were usually of the "split-bottom" variety—i. e., the bottoms were formed of strips of hickory or lind bark interwoven. (There was

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always a handy man in every neighborhood who bottomed chairs.) Then the wool was beaten with sticks until it was loosened up, and the grit and dirt dropped down through the chair bottom. The guests then took it by small bunches and "picked" it with their fingers until the fibers were all loosely intermixed. While doing this, they chatted and gossiped just as ladies now do over their tea.

    After being "picked" the wool was ready to be washed. It was usually taken to some clear pool of water of some neighboring stream, and, when placed in tubs of hot water, was tramped by barefooted boys until of a snowy white color, when it was taken to the carding machine, greased, and run into "rolls," or long loose ropes about the diameter of one's finger. These were then ready for the big spinning-wheel, which was to be found in every well-regulated family.

    This wheel was a wooden circle, about five feet in diameter, and in the center of its periphery was a groove, in which ran a band or cord, which, acting as a belt in connection with the spindle, caused the latter to revolve with great rapidity when the wheel was put in motion. The housewife would moisten the end of the "roll" with her thumb and finger, place it in contact with the spindle, start the wheel by means of a short stick held in the hand, with which she struck a spoke of the wheel with a propelling movement. The wheel was made to revolve with great rapidity. The spindle, humming cheerfully, would twist the "roll" into a strand of yarn the length of the roll, when another roll was splice on, and a continuous thread was thus spun.

The "Hairy Nation."

    When the Lord confused the tongues at the building of the tower of Babel, a small colony, finding that they could not babble with and degree of satisfaction, concluded they would follow Horace Greeley's advice and "go west and grow up with the country." They departed in eight small vessels, which were "tight like unto a dish," as the report says. They finally landed on the New England coast, in the State of New York, where they grew into a great nation. They inhabited America for about fifteen hundred years, and were finally all destroyed for their wickedness about six hundred years before Christ. The prophet Esther wrote

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their history. He lived to witness their entire destruction, and deposited his record where it was afterwards found by a colony of Jews, who came from Jerusalem six hundred years before Christ, to repeople America. This last colony were descendants of the tribe of Joseph. They increased rapidly, and finally became divided into two might nations. One of these nations was called the Nephites and the other the Lamanites, Nephi being the leader of one branch and Laman of the other.

    The Lamanites were dark-skinned, and did not take much to civil pursuits. They wore feathers down their backs, and bear-claws as ornaments around their necks. They were coppery-colored, and became skilled with the bow. The Nephites were fair-complected, and received enlightenment. They were highly favored of the Lord, and received visions and the gift of prophecy,a nd finally were favored with a personal appearance of the Lord.

    The two tribes got along nicely for a while, and by close application to study soon learned to talk in a language of their own. The children of these pioneer families learned the A B C's rapidly, and multiplied on the face of the earth. The two tribes finally drew the color line, and fell out. They began a war of extermination.

    The Nephites occupied the lower portion of North America and Central America. Here they built the cities of Ottulum, Gadiandi, Gimgimno, and others, in the reign of King Jacobuggath the Second.

    The old sunken city of Port Royal, on the Nicaragua coast, submerged far beneath the surface of the blue depths of the ocean, was one of these ancient cities; for, as the prophet Coriantimer said: "Behold, the great city of Zarahemla have I burned with fire, and the inhabitants thereof. And behold, that great city of Moroni have I caused to be sunk into the depths of the sea, and the inhabitants thereof to be drowned. And behold, the great city of Moronihah have I covered with earth, and the inhabitants thereof, to hide their iniquities and their abominations from before my face. The city of Gilgal have I caused to be sunk; yea, and the city of Onihah and the inhabitants thereof, and the city of Mocum and the inhabitants thereof; and waters have I caused to come up in the stead thereof."

    Mormon was a gentlemen who lived at that time and

wrote a history of his people. When he died, his son Moroni continued the records down to A. D. 1820, and then deposited them in a vault on a hillside, called Cumorah, in what is now Oneida County, Manchester Township, New York.

    Here the records remained until Joseph Smith, in 1824, was directed to the spot by an angel of the Lord. The angel showed Smith the locality, but would not let him take them up until he has spent four years in prayer and fasting. Then in 1827 the angel escorted Joe to the spot and told him he might dig. Joe dug, and pried open the vault, and found two tablets of beaten gold containing Hebrew characters. "And lo! the angel of the Lord, who had previously visited him, again stood in his presence, and he was filled with the Holy Spirit, and the glory of the Lord shone around him."

    Smith claimed further, that with the tablets he found two clear stones, corresponding to the urim and thummim of the Bible. These he looked through and translated the inscriptions from which he devised the "Book of Mormon," which contains the foregoing narrative.

    The Nephites were all exterminated by the Lamanites. The Lamanites were the American Indians. Smith had previously found a pair of very clear pebbles, and the thought occurred to him to turn them into some account.

    At about that time a gentleman named Spaulding, having visited the country of the Montezumas and made a study of Aztec and Toltec archeology, wrote a fictitious sketch, purporting to be a history of the early settlements of America, prior to the times of Columbus. Joe Smith stole the manuscript before Spaulding got it printed, and as soon as the latter died, he, with the aid of Sidney Rigdon, dressed it up into what they called the "Book of Mormon," on which is based the religion of the Mormon Church.

    Later, the Mormons, under the leadership of Smith, were driven from place to place; and when they were expelled from Nauvoo, Ill., after the assassination of their prophet in the Carthage jail in 1846, they, under the leadership of their new prophet, Brigham Young, began their long march for the Salt Lake basin. While en route many stopped along the way to rest and raise a crop before continuing their wearisome journey. Some settled in Davis County, Iowa, while others settled in Monroe County and at Garden Grove, Lucas County, and other places in the West.

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    Those who settled in Davis County were called the "Hairy Nation," and the same appellation was applied to those who settled in Monroe County, in Mantua Township. While they had been Mormons, they apostatized when Young, the new leader and prophet, began to inculcate the doctrine of polygamy. It will be remembered that polygamy was not instituted in the church until Brigham Young was selected as their leader. Hence the "Hairy Nation" were never polygamous Mormons.

Chapter XIII