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lurKey.The first cow that we could call our own in Iowa father paid $12.50 for and .split rails at 25c per hundred to pay for her and was glad to get the work at that. No one had a cook stove. Everything was cooked by the fireplace and a buggy would have been as much of a curiosity as a Hy-' ing machine would be at the present time. The only conveyance was by ox teams. It was common to see people going to church with their ox team hitched to a lumber wagon. All the farming was done with them. It r was a common thing to see from six to eight yoke of oxen hitched to one large plow breaking prairie and turn-. ing a 26-inch sod. The teams would be turned out 011 the range at night and in the morning the one that drove them up would be wet to his neck wading the prairie grass. Father had to do his marketing at Keokuk or Ft. Madison, that being the nearest trading point, and it would require from four to six days to make the trip. Every thing was hauled by ox teams as far west as Des Moines and Council Fluffs. The state road was lined with teams, many of them crossing the great American desert to Oregon and California. In those times when friends started over the plains we had scarcely any hope of ever seeing them again.Our school house was built of rough logs and was 16x20 feet. I he :eats were of slabs and the floor was made of puncheons split from large logs and the flat side smoothed witn 1 the broadax. On one side of the ' house a log was left out and idled by 8x10 glass for a window and here was a wide board placed for our writing desk. This was the only window in the house and here is where we learned our letters. Our studies were reading, writing and spelling and as we advanced we thought we were doing well when we could get up and repeat: “Mary had a little lamb,” or “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” Our teachers would receive from $150 to $200 per scholar for a term of three months, one term each year. I11 those days a woman would have been considered very much out of place to ask for a school. 1 he teacher always boarded around with the patrons of the school, one week at each place.
Newspaper Details
Fairfield Tribune
Fairfield, Iowa, US
Wed, Apr 28, 1909
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Susan G.
TX, USA 12 Feb 2024
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