stentorian voice. Perhaps the dancing was more vigorous than graceful as the one man orchestra brought forth from his fiddle such tunes as "Money Musk," "Turkey in the Straw," the "Devil's Dream" or the "Wind that Shakes the Barley Fields." But it is quite probable that the guests at a presidential inaugural ball never derived more pleasure from the event than did these people of the frontier, clad in homespun clothing and calling each other by their first names, at a house-warming. If the settler who owned the cabin had scruples against dancing, the house would be warmed by a frolic of some other nature, but it had to be "warmed" in some way before the family took possession.

After the cabin was ready for occupancy, the next thing for the settler to do was to make preparations for raising a crop. Most of the early settlers located upon the edge of a prairie, where they would be convenient to a supply of timber and where the sod was more easily broken than on the open prairie. The first year's farming generally consisted of a small field of corn, a few potatoes and some other vegetables, and the entire crop was often insufficient to provide for the wants of the family until another could be raised. Many of the pioneers brought with them a supply of such things as flour, bacon, salt, coffee, etc., but even with the most frugal use of these articles the supply gave out in time and long trips to Burlington or some other distant point would have to be made to replenish the larder.

It is an easy matter for persons of the present generation to step to the telephone and order the grocer to send up a sack of flour, or the other necessary things for the household, but in the early days of Marion County's history both the grocer and the telephone were missing. When the first corn crop was raised and harvested the work of converting it into corn meal-the principal breadstuff of the first settlers was no light affair. Mills were few and far between, the nearest ones being located at Brighton, Washington County, or at Keosauqua and Bonaparte, in Van Buren County. Sometimes a week would be required to make the trip. There were no roads, the streams were not bridged, there were but few ferries, and the ox team was a slow mode of travel. To overcome the necessity for these long jour neys various methods were invented for making corn meal at home. Before the corn became dry enough to shell off easily the grater was used. This was made by punching holes through a sheet of tin and then fastening it upon a board with the rough side of the tin outward, the sheet being bent so as to be somewhat convex on the outer surface. Over this rough surface the ear of corn would be rubbed, the meal

Vol. I-5

passing through the holes in the tin and sliding down the board into a vessel placed to receive it. Manufacturing meal with a grater was a slow and tedious process, but the result well repaid for the labor. A bowl of mush made from grated corn meal and accompanied by a generous supply of milk, formed a repast that was not to be criticized in those days, and one which no pioneer blushed to set before a visitor. Another way of reducing the corn to meal was by means of the mortar, or "hominy block." To make a mortar a section of some hardwood tree-maple or hickory preferred from three to four feet in length and about two feet in diameter was selected. In one end of this block a slight hollow or depression was made with a common chopping ax and a fire was then built in it to burn away the rough places. Then the charcoal was carefully cleaned out and the mortar was ready for use. Into this crude mill the corn was poured in small quantities and beaten into a coarse meal with a "pestle" of hard wood or an iron wedge attached to a handle. Sometimes the mortar would be burned in the top of a suitable stump near the cabin, and quite often one hominy block would be used by several families.

The work of obtaining wheat bread was beset by even more difficulties. But little wheat was raised by the early settlers, and that little was of inferior quality. There were no threshing machines and to clean the wheat a spot of ground was cleaned off for a threshing floor. Upon this floor the sheaves were spread in a circle, after being unbound, and then all the oxen and horses upon the place were made to walk round upon the wheat to tramp out the grain. In the center stood a man whose business it was to stir the straw, while probably two or three others kept the animals moving around the circle. After all the grain was tramped out, the straw was carefully raked off and the wheat piled up ready for cleaning. Sometimes this was done by waving a sheet up and down to fan out the chaff as the wheat was dropped in a small stream before it, but in a majority of cases a day was selected when there was a good breeze blowing, the wheat was cast into the air, the chaff carried away by the breeze and the grain fell upon a sheet spread to receive it. By this imperfect method some of the black soil remained with the wheat and ultimately got into the bread, but it was the best to be had and the pioneers ate it and thrived on it until better ways of cleaning and milling the wheat were introduced.

A very common substitute for bread was lye hominy, which was made by boiling the corn in wood ashes or weak lye until the bran or hull peeled off. It was then carefully washed, to remove the ashes or

lye, and then boiled in pure water to soften it, when it could be fried and seasoned to suit the taste.

About a year after the first settlers came into the county, a man named Duncan built a flour mill on the Skunk River, above Oskaloosa, 'which was the most convenient place for getting wheat milled for several years. In 1844 Andrew Foster built a saw mill on English Creek, not far from the present Town of Harvey, and a little later added a small mill for grinding corn. Babcock's Mill, in what is now Polk Township; Burch's Mill, on the White Breast Creek in the northern part of Knoxville Township; and Haymaker's Mill, on Cedar Creek near where the town of Bussey now stands, were all in operation by 1846 and the labor of going to mill was materially lessened.

Matches were a luxury and difficult to obtain. A little fire was therefore always kept about the premises "for seed." During the fall, winter and early spring the fire was kept in the fireplace, but when summer came a fire was built against some old log near the cabin. If a heavy rain, or some other mishap, extinguished the fire, one of the family would be sent to the nearest neighbor's to "borrow" a new supply.

How easy it is now for one to enter a room after dark, turn a switch and flood the whole place with electric light! It was not so during the early days in Marion County. Here indeed necessity was the mother of invention. The thrifty housewife constructed a lamp consisting of a shallow dish partially filled with lard or some other kind of grease, in which was immersed a loosely twisted rag for a wick. One end of the rag wick was allowed to project slightly over one side of the dish and this projecting end was lighted. The lamp emitted an unpleasant odor, a good deal of smoke, and light enough for distinguishing articles about the cabin. Next came the tallow candle. The candle moulds were cylinders of tin, the size and shape. of a candle, usually fastened together in groups of six or eight. Through each cylinder would be drawn a wick and then the moulds would be filled with melted tallow and set in a cool place. One set of candle moulds often supplied a whole neighborhood, passing from house to house until all had enough candles laid away in a cool, dry place to last for many weeks. Through the winter the family would often spend the evening with no light except that which came from the great fireplace.

In those days no one wore "store clothes." The housewife would card her wool by hand with a pair of hand cards-broad-backed wire brushes with the teeth all slightly bent in one direction. After the "rolls" were carded they would be spun into yarn upon an old