Letters of John and Sarah Kenyon

Farm Letters [Home]

Correspondence of Ephraim G. Fairchild
Subject Index

Delaware County
1857-1865

Table of Contents

              1.  Aug 29 (1856)
              2.  Sep 25 1856
              3.  Oct 1st 1856
              4.  Dec 1st 1856
              5.  July 5 1857
              6.  Aug 8th 1857
              7.  Oct 1st 1857
              8.  Dec 5 1857
              9.  Jan 23d 1858
            10.  June 20 1859
            11.  Aug 1st 1859
            12.  Oct 15th 1859
            13.  Nov (n.d.) 1859
            14.  January 28th 1860

Plum Creek¹² Aug 29 (1856)

1.1

   ....Our goods have all arrived. the last that were sent came on the same time as our others. The stove hearth was broken into and the slide pretty well smashed. we can have the hearth mended I think but the slide is past pancakes. everything else came safe and sound....

1.2

   Our folks went after plums yesterday and I went a week ago.  we travel in ox teams here over the prairies. It was the first time I had been in the woods since we came here. it was really refreshing to get in the shade and hear the birds sing. When I buy my farm I shall be near my timber....

1.3

   Mr Parsons sold his farm a week ago for 27 hundred part prairie and part timber joining and is going farther west about two hundred miles. his wife feels very bad about it. I dont blame her. I have always looked at their place and thought it the prettiest place about here. there house stands near to the grove of timber. but any of the Westers are ready to sell anytime to make money. Mr Parsons paid six hundred for his two years ago so he thinks he will sell and go and make another good farm and sell again. I warrant all he has done to this one was to break and fence 20 or 30 acres. there was an old log hut on it that they have lived in since he came here without a window and so cold in Winter they have to go to bed to keep from freesing. that is what one of his boys told here. isnt it a shame a man worth between three and four thousand to live so but its the way of the world here.

Land Sales

Housing

1.4

   We get along and do without things here that would be impossible in the East.  I should dread for our neighbors to come and see us if they were not going to stay and settle.  if so well and good for they would soon see the way of Western life...

1.5

   Wednesday forenoon I must try to steal a few minutes to write so as to get my letter finished to send to the office the first time any one goes that way.  it is not here as it was to Ashaway. you have to write and wait an opportunity to get it to the office. five miles over those prairies is quite a piece. Tomorrow there will be ten dozen men here to thresh wheat so I shall get but previous little time to write then.

Neighbors

1.6

   Our freight bill was enormous on our goods but I dont see what we could have spared very well. we get along with what we brought. all that I have bought is half dozen cups & saucers. we have to snub it but that is what I knew we should have to do but as long as we have enough to eat I shall feel pretty well satisfied. We dont have nay dainties but we shall live just as long and perhaps be the healthier.

1.7

   Molasses is eighty five cts per gallon sugar you can get 6, 8 and 9 pounds for a dollar. I did want to do up some plums but I cannot this year. great ones most as big as peaches.

1.8

   green tea such as we get there for forty cts is one dollar. We shall have to go on credit for a year then if John has his health I hope we can do pretty well.  He has got his cow most paid for. I feel very thinkful for that and (he) has bought two more heifers. I dont know how he will manage to pay for them but if he cant why he must sell them.  it is not like buying Livestock clothing or any such thing for they will sell and keep gaining too. I really want to keep them through the winter if possible as he has got his hay cut and they would sell then for a great deal more than what he gave. He bought them to a sale on three months credit last month for eighteen dollars of the same man he bought his cow of....

Livestock

1.9

   a mink killed (Clara s) old white hen and part of the chickens so I had to take six of the chickens into the house...Mrs.  Robberts gave she and Bub¹³ a Shangai rooster and pullet. their names are Tom & Bet. I expect every night will  be their last for the roost is not good for any thing and the owls minks and hawks are ready to help themselves the first opportunity. If they will keep off untill John can build a roost I will thank them very kindly...

Wild Animals

1.10

   I begin to dread the Winter. they tell such cold stories about here. they said last Winter was awful by generally the Winters are very mild so much so that the ground dont freese untill about January but last Winter their floors would ice when they mopped and the tables when they washed dishes. Mr Barnard froze his great toe one night. it happened to get out of bed when he was asleep...people as a general thing clothe the west with to much romance I take it. its not all gold that shines...

1.11

   ...we have dug a well since we have been here and I finished stoneing it up yesterday. I have been a thrashing this week. Harvesting we had 1,00. 15 (sic.  115) bushels wheat. they use thrashing machines here. it requires 8 horses and ten men to tend them and will thrash from 3 to 5 hundred bus (bushels) a day. they put me in mind of a cotton hopper but make a heap more noise and its a right smart machine. that is a hoosier expression out here.  you can use if for a by word...

Sep 25 1856

2.1

   ....Such a snake as John killed in the garden I never saw nor you either I guess. it was as large round as my arm and very  long. Ann saw it first.  it was as large round as my arm and very long. Ann saw it first.  it was crossing the path right  ahead of her and the way she hollered some. John and I was digging potatoes close by and Mary¹⁴ she came post haste with a stick with Clara and Bub at her heels from the house and John ran from where he was opposite and rapped him with his toe. Mother and the girls went after hazlenuts last week. she saw a great yellow rattlesnake as large as this one but she did not dare to strike it. the bushes was so thick. Wolves carry off the neighbors pigs here every few nights. I should not dare to go far after dark here but Mary and John dont mind it or any of the rest of the folks around here.

2.2

   we have got no hen roost yet and I expect every night I shall lose my hens. Eggs are from 15 to 20 cts per dozen wheat  last week was down to fifty cts per bushel. rather of a hard look for the farmers but all that have sold around here get 75 cts. I wish you could get some for fifty cts which would bring your flour at 3.00 a barrell....Molasses here is 90 cts a gallon. we cant afford to use it. I have not seen a peice of gingerbread this long while and dont expect to for a year to come.... 

2.3

   I have been anxious for John to get a peice of land but he dont seem to feel in a hurry.  its rising every day but he thinks  because he has no money he cant buy. I think that those that have no money can make money by buying and improving. He says he likes here the best of any where he has ever been in the West.  It appears very healthy here...

2.4

   There has been a report that there was a colony coming from the East to settle within a mile of us in sight. there will be four Presbyterian ministers. there will be seven or eight ministers...then as there is four now.

2.5

   We dont have any new clothes. I will tell you when we do. John has had a pair of boots and shoes and bubby has got  to have some shoes. Clara and I will have to have some before Winter is over, and that I hope will carry us through.

2.6

   John has been sued since we have been here. I was outrageously mad to see him so imposed upon and he paid the costs like a dunce when he was not a obliged to as they did not go according to the law but he is so mighty good...  It was about his not working on the road.¹⁵ It rained one day so he did not go and the next time he was not warned of it untill ten oclock  in the forenoon and the thrashers were all here and he could not leave. The law allows them ten days notice and not less than three at any rate and that by the man that sees to the road and he did not come near John...

Plum Creek Oct 1st 1856

3.1

   ..I sometimes wish we had a tract of land here so as to sell it in a year or two but whether John will or not I dont know. I think he can do well raising stock if he dont buy any land around here but land is raising and the country is filling up in here so that he wont be able to pasture and cut hay for any great length of time...

3.2

3.3

   We went down and offered Mr Robberts fifteen dollars per acre for his farm cash down to fetch on his Mother and sisters.¹⁶ he likes Land Sales (it) here better than any place 5that he has see out West.  he has been in Wisconsin & Minnesota.  is going to put up a lumber  mill at Stillwater Minnesota.  Mr Robberts asked him twenty so they did not trade.

3.4

   Mary has worn out those new shoes that you and she bought out there and has got her a pair of calf skin ones. I wish I had some buck thorn berries to make some syrup “for to take” now and then. I wish you would ask Cpt Bills wife if she has not got some and if she has I would like two or three seeds in a letter and I will plant them in a box and grow them. The children make a terrible fuss over senna.¹⁷ Soon as John geta a minute (to) spare I want him to get me some butternut bark and I will try that. I dont know of anything else to prepare for physic...

Homr Remedies

Delhi Dec 1st 1856

4.1

   ..I am well as usual for me and have enjoyed good health here on the prairie. I think more so than it is around the timber and towns. it is quite sickly at Delhi at present.  there was three funerals there to day and one to morrow and there is several more cases that is doubtful.  they die with the typhoid fever. I have been to Delhi to (a) funeral to day.  went as bearer. they could not get enough in town and had to come out of Plum Creek for me and John Bernard...

4.2

Food - Diet

4.3

   We are all quite smart now.  I made me a new hood out of Anges old dress skirt and have to wear it nights for a night cap. with the remainder I made Clara a quilt.  Daytimes I wear Bubs sunbonnet...You spoke about knitting stockings. I really wish we did have some for I guess I shall friz here. Mary swept off a keeping dust pan of frost off one window this afternoon.

4.4

   ...Monday night a weasel came in our chicken roost and killed two pullets. They killed all of Mr. Jones. thirteen for Mr Bob and quite a number for Barnards folks.  I fear we are going to have a harder winter than we did last. The people around here say they had no such storm here last Winter. That money you sent was very acceptable for Clara and I are about barfoot. just as soon as the roads get clared if they ever do John will go to Dyerville. We have not had any molasses for two months... Our light consists of a saucer filled with coons oil with a rag in it. still we are as chipper as birds and I have never seen  the day what I wished myself East to live...

Money

Housing

4.5

   ...Monday night it commenced snowing and blowing and it lasted fro forty hours.  such a storm I never saw since I can remember.  the snow is about twenty inches deep in the woods where it is not drifted and on the prairie it is from one inch to 16 feet deep.  you could not see two rods some part of the day.  tuesday John Barnard went to hickery grove to drive his cattle and he got lost in the prairie and did not get back untill the next morning.  his folks was woried about him so his father in the course of the evening started to look for him and he got lost before he got ten rods from the house and the first thing he knew he brought up all standing at his own house and concluded not to try it again untill morning...

Iowa July 5 1857

5.1

   I am all alone excepting Clara and the day is as long as the moral law. I have to write with one eye in the garden and  if the cattle was up the other would be in the wheat feild...John has gone to see if he can get a dog. its nothing but a puppy but perhaps it will bark and do a little good...

5.2

   its hot as blases here in the middle of the day so I had begun to get dinner. I must tell you what it was. well pusly (sic. pussley: purslane or purtulaca) I was picking. I butter and sweeten (it) a little and play its string beans. try some. the first I cooked I stewed in that little tin cup you sent to John. it pleased our folks...but I was half starved and it was all that I could get that had got large enough and I was fairly surfeited with greasy pork and white bread. we have no potatoes now.  let me see I was picking pusly looked and the wheat was full of cattle so I started off on the full canter. when I came in hailing distance I clapped my hands and screamed...and all went out like fun but Fathers white steer. Steere by name.  he would go one way and tother way and every way even to the right way but would not go far enough to do any good.  after all I chased him up stream and let down all the pair of bars there was in the feild rapped him on the rump and bid him begone. I had to keep my eye on them till John was here to fix that and one of the calves was in by the time he was back to the house again.

Livestock

5.3

   But the cattle dont begin (to compare) with our hens. they are eating up every thing in the garden and we have to chase them the whole time trying to save pea & bean. they will pick and eat bean leaves as fast as they would pick up corn. dont
lay an egg.  we made a soup with one (of) then the other day and I will make
another.

5.4

   Lewis Box was here yesterday to change some eggs to set. I hadnt any so he wanted to know if I could lend him a rooster. Barter yes says I here is one. Bill was that minute coming for the beans. says I catch him he cant run very fast. I had tied his legs up so he could not get around so fast and I could give him a whack now and then so he soon ca(t)ched him.  the boy wanted  to know when we should want him.  I told him we would let him know. that wont be till beans are out of the way and thats some time.  Now Clara will have to watch for me...

5.5

   Hay is going to be very light this year. we shant get more than enough for the cattle. the railroad contractor has great droves of fatting cattle which ear up all the grass besides its very light. I am dreadful sorry I was in hopes John could get enough to buy him a team...

Oneida Aug 8th 1857

6.1

   …My health is rather worse than usual now. I have had a dreadful misery in my side a week or two back but its some better now. I put on a plaster and am taking Blackmans balsam…

6.2

   It seems like Fall it really scares me. Every body is prophesying that the corn will be cut down with frost. I hope not for I have promised my family that they shall have a nubbin of corn one of those days to make up for their poor fare now. My pig looks first rate considering the fare she has is sour mild and pusly. I want a Johnny cake myself too. anything but living where you dont have no meal. Our folks are trying to get up some hay. there has been so much rain that they dont  get along a bit...We have commenced making pickles this morning...

6.3

   I see by the Westerly Echo that Missouri is sopken of out East. its all Missouri here no going to Minnesota scarce once in a while one to Kansas but all seem to think the most of Missouri.  I think its peoples duty to go there and try to make a free state of it as much so yes I think more so than to go off and pay money to foreign missions...

6.4

   Monday afternoon...Aunt Delby...took home my nipperkin (half pint) pail.  is going to make me some vinegar with a vinegar plant she has. it springs out a new one from the old one. then they take it off put it in a gallon of water with a tea cup of mollasses and in eight days you have vinegar...

Thursday eve 7 Oclock
Plumb Creek Oct 1st 1857

7.1

   ...I am rather tired to night. I have been helping Mr. Segar this afternoon draw corn. he helped me thrash. that is the way we have to manage out here. change work with one another. to morrow I have got to help Mr Box next day Mr Cruse then I shall be square with them all round. our wheat crop was rather light this year. only about 15 bushels to the acre. the season was rather wet. it run to straw mostly. we have had frost on the 28th and 30th but the corn is out of the way mostly with the exception of some that had to be planted one 2 or three times. I had about 3 acres of sod corn that was not quite out of the way but I cut it up yesterday and this fore noon. my sugar cane just begins to top out. it looks like broom corn. it grows so high that you have to look twice to se the top of it. the folks think a good deal of it out here. good many has little patches of it out here this year experamenting on it. Mary has seen some of the sugar and molases. she thinks it is very nice. Mr Cummings out towards Delhi has made him a mill to crush it with. it is made like a cider mill only the roollers are smooth. they crush it and get the juice out then boil down for molasses then boil it little harder for sugar...¹⁸

Neighbors

Harvesting

Crop Yields

7.2

   The mice and cattle plagued us very bad. they are possessed to get in to the corn fields. you have to keep one eye on your work and the other on the cattle. last week Mr Stephens cattle got into his corn and one of them died.  one of his cows and two others they dont think will live. our cattle was over there the same night.  Mr Jones went over after them. I met him down to Cruses and help(ed) him drive them home. I did not get to bed untill half past eleven...

7.3

   Friday noon...I went to digging potatoes. the gophers are eating them in the worst way. I shant get more than half crop say 75 or 80 bushels. I shall have plenty of corn and potatoes if nothing hapens and some to sell. I have onions turnips cabbage pumpkins croocknecks beets carrots and a fat pig in the pen that will weight pretty close to 2,00 lbs now and I have plenty of stuff to give him so you see that I shall have something to ear this winter if I am lucky.  I am going to get me two or three pigs this fall so I can raise my own pigs and have some to sell providing I am lucky.

7.4

   Sunday afternoon. I am going to Delhi to morrow to carry some wheat to mill and sell some chickens to buy bub some shoes. Prices we have over one hundred (chickens) all together and all we can get for them is 15 cts a piece. they sell chickens by the pair out west. so much a pair...pork is going to be high out there this fall. folks think it will be ten dollars a per hundred fresh by the hog.  corn is 30 cts now and it will be down to 25 in less that 4 weeks. molases 80 cts beef 5 and 6 Dolls per hundred lbs. flour is 2.25 to 2.50 per hundred eggs 20 cts butter 25 cheese 16 cts...

Produce

Dec 5 1857

8.1

  ...How I wish it was possible for us to help you but I dont see as we can now.¹⁹  hard times reaches Iowa. that is as far as money is concerned. money is out of the question here. if people are obliged to raise money they have to sacrifice the whole nearly. If we should sell every thing that is saleable that we own we could not raise fifty dollars and then how we should ever get started on life through the winter I could not tell. If I live to see another Summer and have my health at all we shall try to help you a little at a time...

8.2

   I have never written to you how we lived for I knew it would worry Mother but we have snubbed it in true Western style. last Winter I came very near giving up but we received that money from home...and I do think it saved my life but only for one year. perhaps was it gain, who can tell. We had a cold Winter and a cold house without plastering of Clapboards with but very little meat no butter no sweetning. white bread and potatoes and stewed pumpkins was our living. I was so that my appetite was all gone at least for such things. our milk was gone but John bought Browny and he used to bring me in a cup full of the strippings when he milked and I began to recruit right away. the warm days came and I staid in my garden all the time I could and I was the strongest this summer I ever was since Clara was born...

8.3

   This fall I went and gathered hasle nuts so last night John Clara and me sat up untill ten oclock getting them out. what do you think of (sic. for). well to sell to buy me some lasses (molasses). I havnt tasted any since last Spring and some dried apples. we have no souring or sweetning of any kind use no tea or coffee no spices no grease of any kind except butter but I shall have a doughnut when the pig is killed and all the pork ham sausage &c I wish. once John went to Dyersville this week to get him a pair of boots but they wont trust such hard times. he bought the children two doughnuts and you never saw how well pleased they were. I have made butter enough so far to buy what little we do have. I have the sage for my sausage paid twenty cts for quarter of a pound. if I was going to be at liberty next Summer I would raise sage and red pepers for sale as well as for my own use....

Food-Preservation & Processing

Jan 23d 1858

9.1

   ....I am sitting by my own fireside to day and very pleasant it seems to me. havnt got settled as yet but hope to by Spring. havnt a chair or teacup in the world but I dont mind that if I can only be by myself... . 

9.2

   the times grow harder and lighter here every day. produce sells for mere nothing. wheat 30 corn & oats 15 butter 15 eggs 10 but groceries and dry goods high as ever..

9.3

   Sunday eve, Jan 31 1858...I never saw such time since I can remember as we are having out west. I have not had a dime of my own for the last six months and do not expect to have one for the next six to come.

9.4

   We are having beautiful weather as any one could wish for. no snow to speak of...some difference from last Winter...

9.5

   we have had two great wolf hunts²⁰ out here about 70 to 1,00 turned out. the first hunt on horse back with guns and other  weapons. on the second there (were) only about 40. they got 6 in the ring and drive them in to roughes grove and left them. they start from diferent places and come in a circle out center about mile and half from us where they have a flag raised so  they can see it for miles. they have drove them in from off the prairie so they are quite thick about here. Mr Roberts one of our neighbors got up night before last in his shirt he said an(d) chased them away from the house. pon my soul he days the beggars followed me right bang up to the house...

Saturday June 20 1859

10.1

   ...I have planted about twenty acres of corn and 7 or 8 of small grain. I finished planting corn yesterday rather late to plant on the sod.

10.2

   there is quite an excitement here now about horse thiefs. there is (a) regular band of them all through this state and Minnesota. Crime they are stealing horses all round us and the inhabitans are geting very desperate. they lynched a man about four miles from us last week. they had suspicion of him. some one lost two horses.  they went and told him he must produce the horses in so long a time and he did so and that was enough to satisfy them. he was one of them.  eight men seized (him) carried (him) about two milles to a little grove and strung him up by his neck and held him there to make him confes where and who the rest of the gange (was).   then they would let him down to breath.  they served him so several times but could not get any thing out (of) him.  they was so mad that they hung him up and left (him) to die but two of the men felt a little conscience smiten and went back and cut him down. he had about gone up. they think he will die any how. The sherif have arrested part of them...

10.3

   Paul I did not tell you about my going to Pikes Peak. well I did not go but I have seen men that has been and they give hard account of (the) country. they say there (are) thousands on their way back and some have actuly starved to death. it is the greatest humbug that ever was known in the west. hundreds have gone from around here sold out everything and come back with nothing. there will be a good deal of suffering amongst the emigrants. It cant be avoided. they are sending provisions on to them but afraid it will be to late for some...

Aug 1st 1859

11.1

   ....Well our wheat is pretty good this year so we shant have to buy flour I hope.  oats good barley good taters one and two in a hill sorghum good garden sass good all but the beans...

11.2

   when I have a new dress I will send you a piece. I have not decided which to get a red one or a yaller one. I think as I cant afford but one I shall get the two colors combined. havent bought a yard of calico or any other dress material since we came to Iowa. I have made over patched and repatched untill every thing in used up...

11.3

   I must go and help John pull some pusly for the hogs. I guess between us they will not starve. I forgot to tell you what bad luck I had with my poultry. I have not a single young duck and but two hogs killed and Johns red one has gone up or down. I guess he ate some corn that was strychnined for gophers.

11.4

   Friday, July that last I do not know what date but that does not make any difference in Iowa. I know one thing that is it is the height of harvesting and haying and I am flat as a pancake. been tied up in the house a week ago to day with a sore foot. they call it a carbuncle. . .last night I put on a soap and sugar plaster and that seems to bringit to focus. . .all the way I can get round is with a crutch I made myself

Home Remedies

11.5

   I have my wheat all down but the question is when shall I get it up. I will trust in providence for that. I have about ¾ of an acre of oats to cut then comes my haying but I will not wory you with my croaking...

Sunday Oct 15th 1859

12.1

   ...the cars leave Nottingham for Manchester to morrow 8 or 9 miles west then a week from to morrow they go farther west.²¹

12.2

   we are going to buy a mate to fred and we have got a yoke of oxen named bob and tom. now for the frost. we had one every month but one that was July. We had one 4th of June killed every thing then we had one the last of august caped the climax killed every thing dead as door nail. I had about 20 acres of corn mostly sod corn. I shant have twenty bushels. wheat crop good 60 bushels. oats I sowed one bushel and had 20.  barely 1 ½ and had 7. potatoes 90 bushels and the best I ever saw...Sorghum little over ¼ acre 30 gallons splendid better than the sale molasses.  we have cabbage beets carrets turnips &c and some for our own use. 4 hogs fattening and 7 shoats to keep through winter if we dont eat them all up. if I could have 2 or 3 hundred dollars 2 months ago to bought oats with I could have mad a spee (?) in the operation. they could (have) been bought then for ten cts a bushel.  next spring they will bring 75 cts quick.

Livestock

12.3

   now for the market  prices. wheat 52 cts and flour $1,60 to $2,00 per hundred.  corn none in market. heard of one or two loads of poor soft stuff sold for 25 ct. oats 22 cts. beans white $1,30 cts onions 50 cts Sorghum 50 ct per gallon potatoes 20 ct per bu beets 35 tomatoes $1,00 per bush crab apples $1,00 butter 12 ½ cts cheese 9 and 10 cts eggs 8 cts per doz pickels 4 Dolls per bbl. I must stop for the present for prairie fire is comeing down on us full split and the wind is blowing a perfect gale.

Prairie Fire

12.4

   Monday eve Oct 23d...and now for the prairie fire we had week ago yesterday.  I went to window and looked out and it was about 1 ½ miles of(f). I could (see) nothing but smoke and it looked awful dark. I  grabed the hoe and scythe and started for our south road about 20 rods from the house. when I got there the fire had just reached the road. it came in the shape of a V and the flames roled higher (than) the waves on the ocean. it looked awfull to me. I was so frightened that I shook like a dog...it had crossed th road. I run for life and put it out and followed it up the road ten rods or so untill it was past our land. I hurried back but it had crossed the road in another place and was within ten feet of the fence. Father Ellis and Mother and Ann was fighting of it like mad (as the english say) with foot mats rag rugs old pieces of carpet coats and petticoats &c.  we fought  it to the corn field then it had to side burn about 20 rods then it had a clean sweep for the hay.  stables and house chicken coops hog sties all made of hay and poles but the house. Father and me stayed and fought it and the women folks cut it for the stacks and raked up all the old stalks they could. Mary she come just as the fire was comeing round the fields. she grabed bed close of(f) the bed carpeting any thing she could lay her hands on...had all wet ready for action. on cane the fire and how they kept if of(f) the stock the Lord only knows. I was (so) frightened that I dare not look that way. if it had not (been) for the female department everything would burn. they fought like heroes. Beaches and Joneses folks had fought so hard they would come out of the fire and smoke and throw them selfs on the ground. they thought they was going up. I did not fight hard as that but I fought hard enoughf to burn of(f) my whiskers and hair so I had to have them cut. I looked rather red around the jaws...

Neighbors

12.5

   Mr. Campbell one of our nearest neighbors south of us killed a bear last week in his corn field. he rode up to him (on) horse back (and) fired one barrel. his horse throwed him of(f). the bear closed in with him. he beat him with his gun until he broke the breech of(f). then he used the barrel untill he killed him. the bear hurt him some on the arm and leg so he had to have a Doct. the bear weighted 200 lbs and he sold him to Esq Gillman at Notingham for the sum of twenty Dolls. I would not mind being scratched a little for that amount. there was a bear seen on hickery grove a few weeks ago...The Almoral folks have seen signs of one up their. he carried of(f) Mr Harsons beehive...

Sunday Nov (n.d.) 1859

13.1

   ...John works like a nigger and its all to no purpose. there is something to drag us down the whole time...the frosts have set us down from where we began. John has to work out to get corn to feed his hogs for they must be fatted to pay our fencing and breaking bills and I do his work. I have dug nearly all the potatoes between 30 and 40 bushels worked in the sugar cane patch one week pulled white beans carrots &c gathered all the seeds and husked a load of frosted corn cobs every day. There was no corn to it for the hogs 11 of them that just kept them from squealing while they was eating and that was all the good it did them and I am so glad that I can work that I wont change the West for the East yet. Its nothing to work if one has the strength to do it and I have been tough as a pitch knot untill I had this hard cold that laid me up for three weeks so I just kept the family from starving. there was two days Mary had to cook and then Clara did the rest. I had the sick headache once toothache once and the cholera morbus one day. that was all the time that I have lain by from my work that I can remember since sis was born...

Health

13.2

   ...I have to work like a niger this fall and seems rather hard to farm it and then work out to buy corn to fat your pork on. I get four bushells of corn for a days work and the hogs will eat about one and a half a day but I have got a little on the start of them now about twenty bushels...

13.3

   Bears are quite plenty here now. I hear of one being killed every few days. they have burnt over the prarie and timber so much in Minesota that they have left and the Indians have followed them to(o). there is about 60 or 70 out two miles from Delhi come down a hunting the bears. they are only five or six miles from us.

13.4

   the Nottingham folks dedicated their new school house last tuesday. they had a grand time. the Governors Greys a military company from Dubuque was out also the Buffalo Band. the ladies had a fair the proceeds to go toward buying a bell and in the evening they had a ball and supper also extra oyster supper. they also had a grab bag full of little trinkets 10cts a grab...

Seventh Day Eve
January 28th 1860

14.1

   ...Sally says she cant have time to write to night she has so many dishes to wash. she has four plates one bowl one tumbler and two tea cups and saucers. we have five in all now but we have only one tea cup and saucer for months and months and months but we enoughf to eat and drink thank the lord so wee dont mind about the other fixings. wee have about half a barell of Sorghum yet and wheat enoughf to do us as the hoosiers say. potatoes and vegetables of various kinds...

14.2

   I have been drawing wood this winter. I bought a lot of dead and downed wood just as it stood and lay on the woods for six dollars. I have sold nine dollars worth and have enoughf  left to last me two years. I made a ten strike that time but it is the first time since I have been in the west. I have lost a two year old steer and a yearling heifer this winter and come pretty near looseing another. it got caut in the manger. I happened to go out early that morning so I saved him. I lost one the morning before in the same place. we have a very good school this winter. Clara and Ellis goes every day. we have a female teacher Miss Lease...

14.3

   I have been to Nottingham to day. brought home lots of things. I suppose you would like to know what I bought...3yds of overhall cloth 20 cts worth stocking yearn 25cts worth sugar a pen holder and pencil for C(lara) and a pencil for Ellis. I stopped and cut Mary some wood and she give me some sausage and doughnuts to eat and candy for the babies.

14.4

   they have a splendid school over a hundred scholars. it has been quite sickly in and around Notingham this winter. putred sore throat and typoid fever. some six or seven deaths...

14.5

   they talk of starting a union store out here. they have their meeting the fourth of next month. the farmers want to get the highest market price for their grain and pork and so on and get their groceries at the wholesale prices at St. Louis and Chickago. Father Ellis sold his minks skin last week 13 of them for $19,50 cts. He has been to his traps to day and brought home 2 more. that is office seekers salary 3 dollars per day...

14.6

   now for Markets prices. wheat 81 to 85 cts per bu. oats 28 to 30 Corn 25 to 30 cts beans 80cts to $1,00 potatoes 30 beets 30 turnips 25 carrots 25 flour 2.50 per hundred pork 3 ¼ to 4 ¾ cts by the hog. 8cts tried 12 cts candles 15cts lb lard 9 or 10 cts eggs 12 ½ butter 12 ½ coffee 8 lbs to dollar sugar 11 to 14 lbs for !1,00 dried apples 12 cts per lb peaches do (ditto) mackerel 10 cts lb codfish 9cts whitefish 15 cts caught in Lake Erie. wood $2,50 cord lumber common fencing and sheeting fine 15to 17 dolls per M. flooring and siding 28 to 32 laths 25 per hundred shingles $2,50 bunch...

14.7

   We have subscribed for the New York Tribune. Mary pays 50 cts and Father and me 25 cts each. it is a company concern.

Sunday Jan 30 1860

15.1

   ...John need not make game about my washing dishes for he got in a bowl and I dont own any such article. I have six plates too. we are the poorest folks you ever say but I would not own it to any body but you...if we should sell every thing we could not pay our debts. Renselleer is very kind to us. I dont know where we should have been if it had not been for him. he let John have his oxen last spring. John was going to fat them to pay for them last fall but the frost took the fat things away so R told John he would wait another year. he sent us 26 papers they were of all kinds. some pictorials Frank Leslies New York weeklys &c. they are directed to Clara. she felt pretty Big. Mary paid our breaking bill. she holds us up by the seat of the breeches so we have not come down yet. she has let John have money a good many times. we should have straightened ourselves out if we have had a good corn crop but we are waiting for our good luck to come all at one time now, and when it does rain porridge our basin will be right side up I hope. Now with all our perplexities we cant be what the world calls very good. I am glad we have some one to pray for us for prayer is something rare in the West. I heard one last 4th of July and two besides that the year before but...dont despair about         us. the angels have their hooks in us and we shall be drawed in yet I trust. Why John does more in keeping from drinking gambling &c than Paul would to preach the gospel pray and all the rest of the good things 50 years. John dont chew tobacco now either. He laid off the first of January and we drink tea and coffee now in its stead, quite a good exchange for me for we have to go without milk...

Money

Newspapers

Religion & Churches

15.2

   my hens lay. I sold 2 dz. yesterday. now if I could have your price for them I should be well off for rations. John brought me home a big rooster last week but it took as much to keep him as one of the hogs so I sent off one of my ducks and changed for a little white one and took off the big ones head. John paid twelve and a half cents for him. he weighed six pounds.

Earlville March 12 1860

16.1

   ...John has been quite well but the poor fellow met with a sad accident yesterday. he was in the woods splitting rails with another man—he went to take an iron wedge out of the log and the man with him accidentally struck his hand. broke the middle finder so that it lay upon the back of his hand. the others were badly mashed...

16.2

   ...I went (to a party) last Friday night. there were over 150 present. had a very pleasant time. It was a leap year party. I took a  married man for my partner and his wife took for her partner the very one I should have taken under other circumstances...out west young and old married & single all go together—dancing, whist & chess playing charades &c is generally the program of the evening. It is fashinable so no wrong done...

(n.d., but evidently written between
letters of March 12 and 18 1860)

17.1

17.2

17.3

17.4

Earlville March 18 1860

18.1

   You cannot think how pleased I was to receive a letter from you so soon. I feel very grateful to you for what you have done for John. It was great as well as a very glad surprise to them. You will never lose anything by it, for if the time ever comes when they can you will be rewarded.

18.2

   I know them both well enough for that—they knew nothing of my writing until the letter came. 

18.3

   John’s hand gains but slowly. The neighbors are very kind and have promised to come and put in his wheat for him... 

18.4

   John set down and cried like a child when he got your letter. Mother said when he came home after he hurt his hand when he came in the children run up to him and he burst out crying and said my poor children what will become of them. I’m so poor. he did not seem to think of it till he saw them...

Oneida Monday March 18 1860

19.1

   Saturday we received a letter from you and was very much surprised at the contents. I did not know which it was best to do laugh or cry but as John took to the latter I made up my mind to do neither as I could not laugh with very good grace on account of a big bunch in my throat and stomach and if I should cry there would be no one to keep order.

19.2

   Now you want to hear from Johns paw. it is bad yet—he cant use it at all but as he dont faint when I dress it now of course it is better. the one that had the end cut off when he was a youngster is worse than the one which was broken short off. his hand is much swollen yet. how long before he will use it I cant tell. My health has been very poor ever since he was disabled which makes it very bad. but I am better now. soon as I get my strength if I ever do I shall make things whiz. I have had the tormenteded (sic) cold or horses distemper that I ever had. first I was taken with an awful headache and cough. it seemed as if my stomach was raw. then I hoarsed up so I could not speak aloud.. the time I employed in blowing my nose & sneezing. Then I had a second seige of earache. Clara and sis was sick with colds at the same time. sis would cry half the night with earache and Clara groan the rest while John would have roared if I had not quelled him with morphene. Ellis was quite decent. he had his earache in the daytime. Mother had had the lung fever but it is better now. I think if she had doctered in season she might have thrown it off but I was taken before she was and was not able to do anything for her. as for me I am used to doctering myself. John was taken with the cold after me. I just put the physic and hoarhound tea to him nice and kept him on water porridge the next day and he came out bright as a new dollar.

Home Remedies

19.3

   Last Friday we were blessed with two little calves a steer and a heifer. Saturday John and Ellis went to mill so I had to keep pretty busy so much  I forgot to eat any dinner. our cows did not do well but I doctored them all day. one I think is doing well but Brownie is bad yet. father has a heifer that is the same. she is poor as a snake. I cant bear to think Brownie will get so poor but I expect she will and perhaps die. we feed her with boiled wheat oats roots flaxseed &c to save her if possible. the greatest of it all the cows changed calves. Brownie was the master cow she had her calf first. when the other one come she took to that and made her own go with the other cow. the other cow seemed perfectly satisfied.

19.4

   About that note. well we thought we could have paid it before now but it seemed as if we were fated or cursed or something very like it. every (thing) has gone tother end too. early frosts in the fall and late frosts in the Spring chints bugs wet weather sore feet sore hands dead cattle &c but I told John as long as our health was good and our lives spared we would try not to fret too much but I have seen days when the house could not hold me. I would go out and work and something not very much akin to gratitude swelled in my bussum for of all things in the world it is hard to see everything laid to waste by the frost that was growing and likely to make an abundant harvest—just like catching a bird. get your hand on it but it would get away in spite of you. but I am going to try one more year that is if John can work and we have our health. all the hope I have is that the bitter is all in one place and by and bye we shall have a little sweet but if we all live I hope we may see better days so we can repay you for your many deeds of kindness...

19.5

   About sending money, I dont want you too. you need it yourself. We can grub through I will warrant. I should think we could return it in the fall but we have had such luck I dont dare think of any thing now. our crops have been so uncertain. any Eastern money is good here but Western money wont go at the East. Checks are the safest. No discount. sometimes people get a premium. how it is now I dont know. John had a check cashed for Uncle Otis when he was going home and got half a cent premium which Uncle Ootis gave him for his trouble making 50 cts...

Oneida Oct 10th 1860

20.1

   ...We are pretty well and enjoying life the best we have since we came out West—she is shaking off her shackles and with it I hope we shall...John has threshed his grain had 125 bus of wheat 10 of rye 93 of oats and we have lots of corn, and 4 old hogs to fat and 13 shoats to eat. pork is selling first rate and they think it will all the fall. 4 cts live weight and generally it hasnt  fetched that dressed. Beef is quite low. we are fatting the oxen and one cow. some wheat & oats to sell which I hope will make our debts look small if we have good luck.

Harvesting

20.2

   I am awful tired to night. been digging potatoes with John this afternoon. when the taters & carrots are all out of the ground & the sugar cane made up I quit for the season. I have worked well this Summer. this is the first help John has hired. had a reaper to cut six acres of wheat—all the rest he has got through with my help and the childrens. what do you think of that. He has put in 25 acres of sod corn and 10 of old ground...and such lots of pumpkins & squashes. and before I forget it we dont see any signs of  fall yet. when the frost come I guess it will be snow. We have some (of) the best lasses you ever saw I will bet a goose.

Weather

20.3

   Have we ever wrote you that we were going to move. John has took another farm of 40 acres. its about half of it broke. we shall have a house with two rooms kitchen and bed room. I wish their was a garret and pantry. I should be very grand then but I dont sport many dishes so their is some gain in that. We shall have to go without clothes one more year—then I hope we can have some but we have got along so much better than we ever have before I feel real thankful...Mary declares she will never marry a farmer—their lives are so hard...

20.4

   ...my fingers are so stiff yet I cant make much hand at writeing...the neighbors helped me get in 6 acres of wheat and I hired a reaper to cut 6 acres and I have did all the rest myself with Sally and the children untill now I have hired me a man for a month at ten Dollars a month. the prospects look bright now. We have good crops and good prices for this country. I am going to farm about 60 acres next year...

Wages

20.5

   business is picking up in the far west. the cars pass four times a day at Nottingham now and seems kinder old fashion...

20.6

   now for the market prices. pork 4cts live weight beef 4 ½ dressed wheat 60 to 70 cts oats 23 Corn none in market butter 10 cts eggs 6 a doz chickens 10 to 12 cts a piece beef hides green 5ct...

20.7

   Oct 29 we have frost but the weather is warm yet. we have 60 gallons of mollasses. I am cutting carrot tops of(f) now. when I get  them done I shall be glad. there will be over 100 bushels...

Oneida Feb 23 1861

21.1

   ...I have the headache about as much as ever this Winter but it seldom floors me nowadays. I have been making soap to day out of concentrated lye and it did not help my head any by a long chalk...

21.2

   Such a winter as we have had so far would make any body weep. cold as Greenland. snow...in the timber and banks to Johns neck on the prairie. the snow blowed so Saturday you could not see 3 rod and it has blowed just so much every snow storm. this winter is dreadful for our poor cattle with nothing but a shed and that made of hay and straw. John says he shall sell out before winter but I guess he will forget it next July. Some were sowing wheat this time last year and now there is such a body of snow I fear & tremble for if wheat is not in early here it is a perfect failure. You spoke of our getting rich. we get enough to eat now that we could not always boast of. the clothes we have not come to yet. when we do I will let you know.

21.3

   You spoke of politics. dont talk to me of that for I get enough of that here...its all war here. they are drilling companies for sarvices right smart. Oh dear the tarnal  lection (election made awful work here. brought produce flat and what you did sell and get the money for perhaps the money would be worthless before you were home. I presume you heard of the banks suspending and smashing. they begin to talk of another smash but I hope not. we have had hard diggins long enough. John has hired a man to work for him this Summer. hope I shall not have to do quite as much out doors. will work about 50 acres this year and break some I hope. we are on our hired place. it is quite a comfortable place for out West. Johns cattle have not been out of the yard since last Nov. their drink is in the yard quite an item for the west...

21.4

   Tuesday morning or noon it is now...Perhaps we shall come East to live after a while. my health improves every year and when we get a little start I think farming would pay a great deal better East than here. the more you raise the worse you are off for it takes so much to pay for getting it. John will write you the prices then you just consider what a small (one word illegible) for a great deal of care and labor. Sometimes I wish he would stop farming but he likes it and so do I. Produce is so cheap it would cost nothing to live but there is nothing to do here but work on the railroad and I dont fancy that. If we only had a farm East we would show you the way it was done. if we had the money for what we raised last year at Eastern prices we should be independent...It seems like a great deal to an Eastern person but its merely nothing in value here. O dear my soap and emptyings plague me beyond measure. the soap wont mix and the yeast sours. all the way I have to make bread is out of water salt & flour. Did you ever make any salt risings bread. if not I wish you would try one loaf...

21.5

   I have two rooms here no pantry or chamber. its a stone house the dampest frostiest hole I ever saw...My hens have laid 12 eggs to day and I expect to get a cent a peice for them. I feel well I tell you. it wont be a week if this weather holds before they will be down to 7 or 8 cts per doz. last fall they would not sell at any price. 5 cts through the Summer was all you could get...

Prices - Produce

March the 3rd 1861

22.1

    ...the snow is fast disappearing and the ground is quite bare, we have had a thaw for about a week rain a little and fog all the rest of the time but it has clared of(f) quite pleasant and warm. the snow has been from two to three feet deep since the first of January and cold most severest weather I ever saw. the snow would blow enoughf to suffocate one to be out in it. all I have did this winter is my chores and I could not half do them some of the time it blowed and snowed so. I have 17 head and expect 4 more soon. 12 shoats 8 barrows and 4 sows. I lost the best one I had. I carried it to Randels (he keeps blooded stock) and his hogs fought it so it frose to death one cold night.

22.2

   I shall farm from fifty to sixty acres this season. have a hired man half the time Father Ellis is the other. we sowed wheat last year about this time. I dont think we shall this year until after the first of April. I intend to put in about 35 acres of small grain this year so as to have some to sell another year if nothing happens and it is the Lords will. I have about one hundred bushels of wheat and 300 of Corn 40 or 50 of potatoes and lots of vegetables and about 30 gallons of Soghum and one whiskey barrel of Pickles. we have enoughf to eat and that is good as our neighbors but things are low here. that is farmers produce...

22.3

   you must excuse my poor writeing for since I hurt my hand I cant shut my two middle fingers. they are in the way I find in a great many instances. if I grab a pig by the ear all I can hold by with my right hand is my thumb and fore finger...

22.4

   Old Abe will take reins in his hands I suppose if they do not kill him. I hope he will bring some of those hot headed southerners to Limerick. this is getting to be a great country. I should think the way they are acting at the south but I hope it will come out all right after a little as the hoosiers say...

22.5

   now for the market prices. wheat 55 to 60 per bu oats 16 cash 18 store pay barley 45 rye about the same as wheat. white beans 75 cts  potatoes 15 cts carrots 15 corn 18 to 20 per bu 4 ½ to 5 by the hog beef 3 ½ to 4 ½ hay $2,00 per ton. grocerys and dry good up to the top notch. good cows 16 to 20 Doll yearlings 5 to 6 two year olds 9 to 10 3 year olds 14 to 16, four year old steers well broke 45 to 60 according to quality old oxen 65 to 80 scarce at that. corn is so cheap and plenty farmers have fatted everything that will sell...

Oneida Oct 11 1861

23.1

   ...Our hired man left just as corn planting commenced so I shouldered my hoe and have worked out ever since and I guess my services are just as acceptable as his or will be in time to come to the country. He writes very humbly to us. says if God spares his life he will make it up to John for leaving him for he dont think he did right. for my part I am glad he went. we shant have him to pay. all he went for he thought his one dollar a month more than we paid him was worth risking his head for and he thought he was going for 3 months²³ only but when they arrived to their camp they wanted 3 year volunteers. he refused to take his oath but they hissed him so he ponied up.

23.2

   We had a very dry summer but a wet spring & fall. our wheat was about half a crop but we did not hire but 5 acres reap(ed) and a boy 1 day and a half. John cradled the children raked and I bound 20 acres the hottest weather I have ever seen. thermometer 110 in the shade. men quit in other fields some worked in the night but we stood it every few minutes and my dress wet also. this was all the clothing Clara and I wore. aint I coming into niggerdom fast. we are getting into the fall work pretty well. to day we were going down to Mark Earls stripping sugar cane for him to pay his mill and horse to work ours.

23.3

   I never thought to tell you about our health. John is pretty well I am ditto to day. Yesterday I was tired out so staid in the house and washed till pitch dark. Clara and I have pulled beans for 3 ½ days and dug taters half a day...

23.4

   A great many are in a perfect stew thinking they (the Confederates) will go through here burning and plundering but I dont fear any thing but the red skins. they are pretty saucy out West...

23.5

   I am sorry Paul has the Neuralgia for I know how to pitty him. if that dont break it put the mustard poultices strong to neck arms and feet. if that dont do put a blister²⁴ on the arm. if not very hard I have put one behind my ear and made that answer the purpose...

23.6

   There is no Seccession about me or rank abolitionism. still now is the time to rid the country of the curse of Slavery I do hope & pray.

Sunday eve Nov 24th 1861

24.1

   ...we have about finished our falls work. we have only 60 or 70 bushels of corn to husk and shant I be glad. we shall have about 300 bushels. Sally and the children help farm it. they are equal to two men. Sally and Clara will husk about as fast as I can. they will take  two ears and Ellis and me two and we make every thing snap. I dont know what I should did with out them. help was so scarce and high $1,50, $2,00 per day and board. every thing we raise is very low and things we have to buy is dear. cotton cloth 15cts per yd and every thing else to match it. wheat is worth 50 cts per bushel corn 10cts oats 1 ½  rye 35 barley 25 buckwheat 40 flour $1,50 per hundred potatoes 12 ½ to 20 cts bus turnips 10 carrots 10 butter 10 cts lb eggs 8 chickens 10cts a peice beef  $2,00 per hundred live weight hogs the same. sugar cane molasses 65 cts a gallon.

Crop Yields

Prices - Purchases

24.2

   ...we are going to have a roasted turkey and plum pudding thanksgiving day...our school commences the first Monday in Dec. I  hired Frances Dunham. he is an old teacher. pay $25 Dollars per month...

Oneida Oct 9/62

25.1

   ...yesterday I had the sick headache. worked too hard the day & night before. stripped sugar cane all day untill I could not stand up straight. then went out in the evening and cut it up as we were going to have a frost and a hill of it is pretty heavy to lift and it rather upset my foundations pins.

25.2

   John talks of coming East this winter. says he us going to take his pork and start if he can. he (is) sure of work when he gets there. I hate to be left with the cattle we have such awful snow storms. I am afraid they would all die. but if he can go and make enough to pay his way I think he had better for he has been a long time away...He says he dont want to leave on account of the Secesh and Indians. precious deal of good he would do. merely get his own head cracked or neck stretched...

25.3

   the way they do grind us Westerners is awful. cant sell any thing, have to give it away to get the cars to carry it. eggs wont sell at all. I made out to sell a chicken to buy this paper with to a lumber dealer. dont expect I could have done that but he is selling out and I guess he was mighty hungry. butter I did not make any to sell this summer. let the calves run on the prairie with the cows. I was not going  to bother with milking feeding calves skimming milk churning &c when butter wont fetch a cent part of the time and but 6 or 8 the other. If I did not have to work out all the time I would not mind it but its more than I can do to get victuals for five in a family without fussing with milk. If John comes East I shall wish I had made some to send to you but as it is we shall have to buy through thrashing. Our wheat was a very poor yeild on account of the bugs. John did not pay out but 3 dollars for help on 18 acres of wheat and it was just as much trouble to harvest as though it was good. When we get the lasses made taters dug and roots pulled I hope I can come in and patch up and wash of...I am heartily tired of laboring so for nothing and I am going to make a rumpus soon if things cant be squeezed out...

25.4

   Johns hand dont exempt him from draft still no recruiting officers will have him. we had perillous times here for a while when they were talking of drafting. men that had been down and tried to enlist last Spring had their papers from the army surgeon as exempt did not get clear in the draft. At the same time four and five hundred Indians were camped about 10 or 12 miles from here armed to the teeth without a single squaw or pappoose with them.  people thought that if there was any drafting done they (the Indians) would pitch in and burn and kill headed by our own citizens but the draft passed over and they departed...

25.5

   Thursday eve Nov 6 or something like it...John is ploughing as yet. Ellis and me dug the taters and we all dug carrots. we have 75 bushel & 30 or 40 of taters. the rutabagas & round turnips me and they children have pulled. now if the corn was husked & cribbed I should feel as if I could sew a little...

25.6

   I went visiting to Earlville last Friday. was sick so I could not do much to home so went to see one of my neighbors that moved down there this Fall. came home on foot & alone after dark so you must know I was pretty feeble. It was the first time I ever set foot in town and seeing and hearing the cars made me feel real homesick. I guess I would have sat down and cried if I had not been nearly in town when the train went along in the morning but I got quite used to it before night seeing them pass (its two miles to town).

25.7

   John has sold 2 hogs at 2cts per pound salt is 5 dollars and still rising cottong cloth ¾ very thin 20 cts sheeting 30 calico 20 but going to be 25 the next that is opened tobacco 1.50 tea 1.50 coffee 4 ½ lb for a dollar thread 10cts a spool cottong 25 cts. that makes me think where is the skirts coming from this winter. a calico quilt will cost a dollar and a half sure. needles is almost impossible to get, you can get crowbars and little short fine ones. I sent to Sarah for some but those she sent were too large. I want you to send me two or three. I will send you one the sise I want. I sewed with it ever since a year ago this time untill I wore the eye through as you can see...

25.8

   John will go looking (for) land when the ground freezes so he cannot plow and then after he gets straightened up perhaps he will come East by Christmas. that is if he can get work out there enough to pay his fare back...I wish you would write me how much cotton yarn is a pound. sometimes I think I will send and get me a warp and weave me some cotton cloth myself. I can get rolls of woll (wool) here for 40 cts. I would like to make up some cotton and woll cloth for sheets &c if I could make it pay.

Earlville Jan 11th 1863

26.1

   ...it is very sickly in this section of the country this winter. typhoyd fevers measles hooping coughf diptheria. Clara Ellis and Sis have the hooping Coughf. some had it about six weeks...Father he is trapping. caught 12 minks and about 50 muskrats. sold 9 of his mink for $2,25 a piece. the rats are worth 25 cts a piece. produce is doing better than last fall and winter but that does nor effect me any for I have none to sell. I only had 90 bushels of wheat 30 of oats and between 3 and 4 hundred of corn. I have not killed my pork yet. have 6 hogs to kill average 250. sold 2 in the fall weighed 798 at 2 cts per lb live weight and had one dollar for driving them to     Nottingham...I am going to butcher wednesday then I shall be lousy with money. I bought 11 shoats saturday give $1,00 a piece. I have 16 more all together...

Wild Animals

Livestock

26.2

   ...I suppose you are anxious for the Potomace and I for the Mississippi. we  heard here once that Vicksburg was taken. one fellow went to speculating in oats and lost 25 dollars in one afternoon. pork took a rise and there was quite a commotion for one day but the next days report contradicted it and things went on again as usual. If they only would open it (the Mississippi River) and not draft nor kill anybody they might keep their armies till doomsday and pay those big officers all they like. I would pay the losses and not murmur either if I could get but half enough to eat. we expected a draft in this state this month but we heard that Kirkwood (Samuel J. Kirkwood, Governor of Iowa) has given it up. thinks it would be worse than nothing. I think he is a man of sense for once. glad there is one in the programme. that fellow that left us for the war has skedadled. I always knew what a patriotism there was in him lay not exactly in the seat of his breeches...

Politics

26.3

   Its nothing to joke about the way the wounded and dead are coming home here every day. a fellow was brought in to this folks dead a few weeks ago. the first they knew of it. I guess the young men will be scarce in the West the way they are slaughtered. John has been over to Beaches and they give him a pan of onions and he is eating them raw. its all the apples westerners have. I made dried squash pies soured with vinegar and call them dried apple pie...

26.4

   When they get the Mississippi open I shall write every week. I shall be so pleased but now every thing is so dull that I am all used up. Eggs are six cents now so I feel quite elated but store goods are awful. a spool of thread costs ten cents, calico, 18 cts. per yd salt more than  pork a pound by half a cent. I never though I should live where it would bother me to earn salt for my porridge. Pork 2 salt 2½...

Jan 17th 64

27.1

   ...I do not feel much like writing to night. I am so full I can scarcely stir without pain. we have been over to Father Ellises to day to eat our Christmas dinner. it was so cold that we could not get to it before and the way I played the knife and fork would did you good if you had not been to hungry your self that is if you had been there to see me. we had turkey boiled ham stufing potatoes onions pickle tomatoes green apple pie mince pie and lots of Doughnuts...we are going to have new years some time this week...

27.2

   ...times are pretty good here now. evry thing brings a good price. pork that weighs 200 – 6 ½ cts 150 lbs $5,75 under 100 lbs 4.75 beef 4 and 5 cts lb wheat No. 1, 85 to 90 cts per bush oats 50 to 55 butter 16 to 20 eggs 23 for fresh and 17 to 20 for packed. my pork was light. the frost cut my corn and it would not fat pork. I have sold 18 hogs or pigs in size brought $109. they weighed from 75 lbs to two hundred. I have sold a yoke of steers for 60 Dolls and 2 cows for 16 Dolls a piece...

Earlville March 2nd 1865

28.1

   ...we have a very pleasant winter here just snow enoughf to get around good. I have been in the timber what time I could get a cutting and hauling wood and post and rail timber. Ellis has been with me two trips. he drives the oxen and I the horses and we make it count two load a day. we have two or three snow storms for the last two or three weeks then turned to rain. we had two big freshets as we very often have here carrying away bridges and mill dams &c. It cut the race out twice on our mill dam. we have a mill about a mile from us (that) we call ours. built this summer and winter and just ready to start when this first freshet came. I suppose they are grinding by this time. it makes it quite handy for us or it will if the water dont take the dam away every day. we formerly went to Manchester Dyersville Hartwick or Bensons mills. it is some ten or twelve miles quite an item in distance.

Food Processing

28.2

   there is quite an emigration West this winter and spring. they have ben a moving all winter most evry day. you will see them with their covered wagons oxen cows and young stock going West & north west some to the Missouri river some to Kansas and Nebraska territory and a great many of them stop in this state out in the western part were the coal & evry thing else is found that is valuable. I suppose you have read of it on your paper as the English say. I will send you some Iowa papers if (I) can get them that has got the coal and petroleum Company in Earlville. it is all you can hear now a days...there is a good many that is going to Idaho this spring from around here. they will go with oxen mostly from here. some go with mules and horses. I have not had the fever much yet but think I should if Uncle Sam makes another call for half a million or less. we are out of  the last draft and thousands ahead for the next if they make one.

28.3

   the market prices is rather on a decline. wheat $1.00 per bus Oats 45 cts barley $1.25 corn 45 to 59 in the ear 76 lbs to bushel. rye none in market pork 12 ½ cts dressed beef 5 ½ ct on the foot butter 25 cts eggs 15 cts Doz beans $1.50 cts bus sorghum $1.25 to $1.40 per gall. working oxen $100 to $150 pair cows 25 to 40 dolls each Horses from 2 to 400 Dollars a pair hay tame 15 Dolls per ton prairie hay 6 or 7 Dolls per ton.

Prices

Produce & Purchases

SUBJECT INDEX

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Explorations in Iowa History Project
Malcolm Price Laboratory School
University Of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, Iowa
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