Collection of Nebraska Pioneer ReminiscencesDaughters of the American Revolution. Nebraska
History
Collection of Nebraska Pioneer Reminiscences
Daughters of the American Revolution. Nebraska
Frontier and pioneer life -- Nebraska; Nebraska -- History
With an ox team and a few ragged articles of clothing they started east.
When he reached Rock Bluffs, one of the early river towns of Cass
county, father succeeded in obtaining work. His wages were seventy-five
cents a day with the privilege of living in a small log cabin. There was
practically no furniture for the cabin, corn husks and the few quilts
that had been given them were placed on the floor in the corner to serve
as a place to sleep. Father worked until after Christmas time without
having a coat. At about this time, he was told to take his team and make
a trip into Iowa. Just as he was about to start, his employer said to
him: "Hunter, where's your coat?" The reply was, "I haven't any." "Well,
that won't do; you can't make that trip without a coat; come with me to
the store." Father came out of the store with a new under coat and
overcoat, the first coat of any kind he had had since his home was
invaded by the red men.
An explanation of the purpose of the trip into Iowa will be of interest.
The man father worked for was a flour and meat freighter with a route to
Denver, Colorado. In the winter he would go over into Iowa, buy hogs and
drive them across the river on the ice, to Rock Bluffs, where they were
slaughtered and salted down in large freight wagons. In the spring, from
eight to ten yoke of oxen would be hitched to the wagon, and the meat,
and often times an accompanying cargo of flour, would be started across
the plains to attractive markets in Denver.
Father made a number of these trips to Denver as ox driver.
The writer was born at Rock Bluffs in 1860. We moved to Weeping Water in
1862 when four or five dwellings and the little old mill that stood near
the falls, comprised what is now our beautiful little city of over 1,000
population.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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