|
FOREWORD.
(DICTATED BY SARAH BREWER-BONEBRIGHT.)
These reminiscences are recorded in the
first person, because I believe the bond
of personal interest may be strengthened
and the touch of human sympathy sustained
by pursuing that course.
Except in a few instances which touch
our family life, I restrict the record
to the years immediately following our
advent into Iowa, in 1848, before the
fuller flow of immigration had begun.
I confine myself to the activities and
incidents which have not been related
in other records of our city, for later
historians are numerous and their work
has been voluminous and painstaking.
I make no claim for absolute accuracy
in dates. Periods marking life epochs
such as moving, building, births, weddings
or deaths always were vividly impressed,
and other incidents arrange themselves
approximately in order. The first few
years were the best memory markers. I
was young, active, alert, and anything
of importance was mentally recorded without
effort. Exceptional happenings were not
numerous, when compared with the present,
but many of the events of early years
are clearer to me today than those of
the past decade.
There is, in this account at least, the
advantage of first hand narrative which
eliminates hearsay evidence and obviates,
in a large degree, the possibility of
inaccuracy which easily may creep into
often-related second-hand statements.
These reminiscences may savor somewhat
of family history, but such early recital
could not be otherwise; for our family
alone, made the initial journey to what
now is Webster City, and the home of Wilson
Brewer furnished the objective point for
a community nucleus. My father was the
moving spirit in securing and locating
additional settlers during the first few
years after our arrival.
The pioneer privations of one family
were duplicated by all others for more
than a decade, and there was no
xv
social preferment. The few hunting and
trapping exploits recounted herein, with
the members of my own family as the star
actors, are related because I am more
familiar with these particular ones than
with the many others, which perhaps were
quite as picturesque or as perilous.
I shall not endeavor to follow the details
of the settlement of Homer and Fort Dodge.
I made only occasional trips to those
hamlets, and during the intervals of absence
there was the usual shifting of scenes
which I cannot accurately record.
The population of a town was not numbered
by its group of residents, but the families
throughout the country were listed to
the different towns. In referring to Newcastle,
now Webster City; Fort Clark, now Fort
Dodge; Liberty, now Goldfield; or to Homer,
Hook's Point, Boonsboro or Batch Grove,
the names simply are to designate parts
of the country occupied, for these settlements
were not officially named until some time
after our arrival.
The land office was opened in Des Moines
in 1852. Prior to that time it was necessary
to file claims at Washington, D. C. My
father's first entry -- according to advice
from the Department of the Interior --
was the southwest quarter of the northwest
quarter of section 7, township 88, north,
range 25, west of the fifth P. M. Entry
number 6131, July 1, 1851. The early settlers,
however, frequently staked claims which
were sold for ridiculously small amounts,
and these squatters' names do not appear
on the papers patent.
Many land seekers came west, located
claims, and returned to the east for one
or two years, perhaps longer. There was
very little claim jumping, however. For
a long time many of our neighbors were
from one to twenty miles apart. They were
more or less dependent on each other,
and many were quite as friendly and jovially
familiar as members of the same family;
hence, I express no discourtesy in designating
them as: "Jack," "Bill,"
"Alec,"
xvi
"Rube," "Walt,"
or "Bob" instead of by their
longer and more euphoneous [euphonious]
appellations.
The details of the pioneer days of Newcastle-the
early comers and their habitations, the
hardships and privations of isolation,
the primitive inadequacy of house and
farm implements, the exposure in rigorous
weather during hunting, trapping and travel
trips -- are almost unbelievable by a
generation moving along modern lines.
Accounts of the generosity and helpful
spirit of pioneers have become proverbial;
although one now may doubt the wisdom
of such open-handedness especially after
the taverns were ready for business. Foodstuffs
were scarce and difficult to procure,
but they were dispensed freely by us.
Whether it be a credit to business judgment
or not, I have followed our family custom
and never have charged a single cent for
meals or lodging during my lifetime.
I shall have to admit, after taking a
retrospective view, that much of our work
could have been made easier by the practical
use of brains instead of brute strength.
The hardest, most grueling, grinding toil,
the most laborious and, unceasing methods
were always and everywhere in favor, when
viewed from the present outlook. It appears
to have been necessary that we receive
at first hand an application of the principle
that: nothing is effective as an educator
except it be sufficiently difficult to
impress itself upon the mind; no local
or larger constructive agency can be made
available except through the growing pains
which expand and make possible the new
order of things.
Looking at the past through the glasses
of the present it may be somewhat difficult
to understand the pioneers who gazed undaunted
upon the uncompromising visage of nature,
and braved the angry, inhospitable elements.
The humorist may dispose of the subject
by declaring: "They were possessed
of more courage than common sense";
but the pathfinders, the empire builders
must have lifted the
xvii
veil of future events and viewed the scene
of opulence and opportunity which their
privation and penury were to make possible.
My only regret is: in leaving the East,
we practically closed schoolhouse doors
for the children.
Many of the surroundings and happenings
of seventy years ago were painfully commonplace,
when compared with the scientific concepts
of today; and but for the fact that we
have more than three-score years perspective,
these reminiscences would have been unworthy
the work of preparation.
Sarah
Brewer-Bonebright
|
