CHAPTER X.

MODES OF TRAVELING.

The pleasures of ox-team and prairie-schooner traveling and pathfinding have been mentioned in an account of the long emigration-trip from Indiana. For shorter distances walking was the pioneer method of travel. My father and brothers, Major Brassfield, William Russell and others made many trips to Des Moines afoot.

Occasionally two men traveled together but more often one person made a solitary pedestrian journey except for those habitual companions, the dog and gun. The roundtrip to the capitol city was not made in a day as at present, but with favorable conditions about eight days were required.

Immediately after the land-office opened in Des Moines father made a footback pilgrimage on the settlers' sacred mission of entering land. While at the fort he purchased a second horse, and the return trip was made on horseback. The price paid for the animal was two hundred dollars. He was tall, rawboned, and today would be called a "corncrib" but his endurance was phenomenal. The horse was named Long Tom, and several years afterward he was traded to Reverend Skinner for a small racing mare. The circuit rider recognized the advantage of long legs for slough-wading while the corn-crib capabilities were tried out in the fields of the minister's parishioners. At this early day horse-racing or betting on races or elections did not discredit a preacher. He could accept a meal of victuals or a glass of toddy with equal propriety.

Borrowing and lending were so freely practiced it would have been difficult for a new arrival to determine to whom personal property belonged. Horses were no excep-

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tion to this rule, and these equine operators usually were kept busy on the up and down equestrian trail to Des Moines.

Horseback Visiting.

The number of horses increased, so both men and women made visiting trips on horseback; and not infrequently one poor beast carried the man, wife and baby. Over-Sunday visitors at our house, the mention of which always caused much merriment, were the five members of a family. On the horse were Mr. Foster and his wife and a baby in her arms; a small child rode in front of the father and another behind his mother. The patient old animal was followed by a six-weeks' old foal, a yearling colt and two greyhounds. It was not unusual for visitors to remain a week or more.

The way to number the horses in a neighborhood was to attend a Sunday service; if the owner of a horse was not there the beast was in evidence, borrowed and ridden by someone else. Stealing horses would have been unprofitable work during the early years of our residence, but as their numbers increased the community was harassed with horse-thieves.

Grist Carrying.

For a long time grists were carried to mill on horseback. The sacks loosely-filled were laid across the animal's back. If the grist was large, the attendant walked. I do not think our settlement was responsible for the man who, when unable to balance the grist across his horse's back, shook the grain to one end of the sack and put stones in the other end. Horses or oxen were pretty sure to be mired if wagon milling-trips were made during the spring or fall rains. At such times the grist--a sack at a time-- was packed out of the slough on the man's shoulder.

Our townsman, Jacob Bossert, admits that he started from Hook's Point with an ox-team and twenty bushels of

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corn, and that the oxen frequently stuck in the mud. He was compelled to carry the com to solid ground so many times that, for fifty years, it has been the standing joke among his friends that "Jake carried twenty bushels of corn fifteen miles on his back."

First Peddler; Saddlebags.

In the summer of 1852 the first peddler arrived. Jedediah Marks' pack was piled high on the back of his horse and the saddle-bags were bulging with the small and more valuable articles of his stock. He carried everything from jews-harps to andirons. Marks stayed at our house three or four days. When ready to depart he offered my mother a pair of stockings as payment for his board and lodging but they were refused. This peddler made periodical trips during the summer months. A few years later Cy. Smith came to us with the more pretentious peddler's-wagon. He was so well pleased with the country and the town's prospects that he decided to remain. As the town grew and business expanded "Cy" became one of our prosperous merchant-bankers.

The saddle-bags of sixty years ago were leathern side-pocket receptacles with a flap protection over the openings. A smaller pocket inside the larger one furnished a convenient place for money and small valuables. These bags either were fastened directly to the saddle or hung from the ends of a strap across the saddle's center.

Sledding.

The use of a "lizard" was an early method of transportation if snow was thin or sufficiently packed to prevent its pushing ahead of the contrivance. The lizard was made from the part of a tree where the branching of two boughs formed an acute angle resembling the letter "V." The prongs were about five feet long. The junction-end was dressed to an upward point and finished with a bolt and

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chain for hitching the oxen. Slabs were fastened across the body on which the load was placed.

This primitive contraption behaved very well as long as the snow surface was smooth and oxen furnished motive power; but to stay aboard a lizard when roads were rough or haste was required would have taxed the agility of the western bronco-buster. Like a living thing it would, without warning, rear its head into the air and the next moment plunge its nose into the snow in a seemingly studied attempt to turn a somersault; or, with untiring energy, it would slew sidewise and unexpectedly and completely discharge its load of live or dead freight.

The persistent effort of the lizard to travel on both sides of the road instead of in the middle was modified somewhat by arranging at the V-point a cross-slab from which the chain traces were attached in two places instead of one.

I often have heard my mother laughingly relate that one Christmas day, illness in the Lion household necessitated her presence to assist them. Uncle Peter came for her on his lizard. Anxiety for the sick family caused him to forget his usual caution in driving, and mother was dumped into the snow half a dozen times during the up-and-down-hill trip to the Lion home; but, being of the roly-poly build, she was not injured.

Land-Lookers.

More or less money was carried by the land-lookers for the purpose of making payments on land or for buying out a homesteader or squatter. At one time a prospector named Anderson stopped with us. He was on horseback and carried a carpet-satchel full of money.

While going about with my father to locate land this valise was left at our house and we women-folk were at home alone. Jackson, Williams and the Funk brothers also left money in our keeping but the charge did not cause us any fear. The carpet-bag was kicked under the bed and

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forgotten. Only for the changed present condition it would be superfluous to relate the circumstance.

Jake and Ben Funk came to us while the river was at its high mark. They had crossed the country afoot carrying their money for land purchase in a hand-satchel. Our Boone river boatmen ferried the boys across after Jake carefully had chained the satchel to the boat-stays for security.

The clothes of the Funk brothers needed immediate attention on account of the long journey through gumbo and sloughs, so they borrowed breeches from our boys and coats were worn in lieu of shirts while I expended my energy in the field of free mending and laundering.

Boat trips were not frequent. Traveling by water was a precarious method and, in addition, -usually meant some distance afoot to reach the destination. Sledding on the ice, however, was practiced extensively for long distances.

Teamsters from Iowa City, Dubuque and Des Moines often brought from one to three travelers. This arrangement was made more for their company than convenience of transportation for all bad portions of the routes were gone over afoot both by passengers and drivers.

Paymaster Without Guard.

Supplies were sent over four hundred and fifty miles to Fort Clark-named in honor of General Clark-from St. Louis by water to Keokuk, Ia., thence to their destination by wagons, as long as the fort was maintained-until 1853.

The army paymaster traveled from Jefferson Barracks, Mo., headquarters, to the various frontier forts with the money for soldiers. There were less than one hundred members of the garrison at Fort Dodge and the infantry received but seven dollars per month; so, the amount of cash carried was not large-when viewed in the light of money standards today-especially when the trips were

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made according to the army regulation of payment, every two months.

It was not always practicable, however, to observe the two months' rule even though it applied to military matters. The condition of weather and roads occasionally made it impossible to reach the forts except after some months delay. The army paymaster enroute to Fort Dodge stopped over night at our cabin. He made the trip without guard and did not seem in the least afraid. When he arrived, the saddle-bags with their burden of gold were removed from the horse's back and thrown on the floor as if they contained nothing more valuable than chips. Much more attention was shown to the horse than was bestowed on the money.

The paymaster resumed his journey the following day, seemingly unconscious of the fact that within a few decades civilization would be developed to the point that would make impossible such a trip without large numbers of armed guards, studied secrecy, the wakefulness of impending peril and the terror of being attacked. No man in our vicinity--to my knowledge--who carried money, ever was molested during the early days.

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Chapter 11