"The town was by no means dull; emigrants were coming daily, and the saw mill operated by John Weare, Jr., was kept busy cutting lumber for the new houses that were going up. There was no church building, but Parson Jones preached in the school house, as did preachers of other denominations, and Sunday schools and Bible classes were in full blast. "On the Fourth of July a grand ball was given at the Coffman Hotel, to which flocked young people from Marion and all the surrounding country; there were at least fifty couples. The beds were removed from our common sleeping quarters, which, decorated with green boughs, became a ball room. Every part of the house was crowded and the fun was fast and furious. Only one mishap slightly marred the festivities; near a stove pipe hole at one end of the room the floor was defective, and a husky reveler of more than ordinary weight while executing the double shuffle broke through and fell upon the heads below; no injury was done and the dance went on. "Dr. Mansfield took me as a partner and in company with Judge Cook we had a room 10×16 in a small one-story building opposite the mill, the other part being occupied by S. L. Pollock and family; his blacksmith shop was nearby. Our medicines were kept on a shelf and a store box made a table; our bunks occupied one side and a few stools and two split bottom chairs made up our furniture. We took our meals at the Coffman Hotel; our field of practice embraced the settlers, not numerous, in the valleys of the Cedar and Iowa rivers and their tributaries; we made very long rides. I was called to see a patient two miles above the present town of Vinton not yet begun; I got lost in the night and waited for daylight under a tree on the bank of the river at the very place where Vinton now stands. Bilious fever and ague were the prevailing diseases, all the newcomers having to undergo one or both.... "We had mail three times a week from Dubuque and Iowa City; the Higley brothers did the service in a two-horse hack; I think Joseph Greene was postmaster. John Weare, Sr., was justice of the peace; he was a very original character, fond of company and full of interesting reminiscences extending back to the war of 1812 in which he had lost a leg. His small office was in the rear of Mrs. Ely's residence which stood on the ground where the Dows and Ely block now is. He gave 'nicknames' to many people and places which stuck to them like burrs; the First Presbyterian church building was begun that summer and as the walls were built of cement, Old Mr. Weare named it 'The Muddy,' which it retained to the last day of its existence."