Yolo County CA Archives History - Books .....Chapter VI. 1904 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Peggy Perazzo pbperazzo@comcast.net January 4, 2006, 1:11 pm Book Title: Recollections Of A Busy Life Hurrah For the Railroad. One day surveyors were crossing our farm and driving stakes. Yes, a railroad is to be built from Detroit to Chicago via St. Joe, and a depot will be built not far from our farm. Hurrah! won't we be rich? But weeks later we learned that St. Joe was so sure the railroad would come there that they wouldn't give favors or money. Niles did both, and got the Michigan Central, and St. Joe was left with bleak winds of Lake Michigan for company for many years later. Then Dowagiac and Decatur came into being, among oak stumps, trees and brush. Log Houses Go Up in Flames. Very soon after moving part of the goods from the log houses I was partly awakened in my sleep and looked out the window just enough to see great flashes of light and heard what I thought to be distant thunder. I covered my head with the bedding, in hopes to get to sleep again before the great storm reached us. Westley was the first one outdoors in the morning, but soon came running, all excited, saying, "Oh, mamma, the log houses are all burned down." The lightning was the flames, leaping high; the thunder was the falling of the logs. Soon we were all at the scene of our desolation, for but little had been moved out, and there was the loom, and wound around the beam with the cloth that was to make our wearing apparel for the whole family the coming winter, that was near at hand - fifty bushels of potatoes in the cellar half burned, tallow, lard, butter, all gone. But father says, "Westley, there is a potato pile out near the barn, that will keep us from starving," and says, "Mother, let's bring water and save some of that barrel of pork." First Stoves. Well do I remember when stoves were first talked of. Some believed they were safe and some believed they would burst. About this time horses began to take the place of oxen on the road. Lyman took a load of wheat to Dowagiac (eighteen miles), and brought home a cook stove. Most of us stood well back when the match was applied, and we almost held our breath, but - but it didn't burst. The Eagle's Upward Flight. An eagle one day attracted Lewis' attention by sailing round and round and going up, up. He called my attention to it, and we both declared we had never seen the like before, but it was hard on our necks. So we lay flat on our backs, and still he circles round and up, up, as if he had bidden good-bye to the earth and thought to soon be to the sun. He passed beyond my vision. "Lewis, can you see him yet?" He answered, "I can almost see him." The Building and Growth of A New Country. You have perhaps read "The Building of a Nation." And that was done by an accumulation of the littles. So has it been in this great forest. Families have bought land and made their beginning here and there. The roads have been chopped four rods wide and cleared two rods wide. School houses have been built here and there, and ministers or messengers of the Gospel have come to us and taught us of the God that created and the Savior who redeems. Brothers and sisters have attended school here, where at first was the log school house with but one room and a row of seats around three sides, the door and blackboard occupying one end. Back of the door was usually three beech gads. Scholars sit on a high seat made out of a log with stakes driven into a bored hole for legs; all small scholars could not touch the floor, their feet left to swing like the clock pendulum. Bench runs whole length of one side of the room. Scholars sit with back to the center of the room and teacher face to the logs and in front, and fastened to a log is a long board, on which the books are placed. This log house has had its day and given place to the frame schoolhouse and its improvements. As we grew older we took our turns in being sent out to Paw Paw or Niles or Ann Arbor, not only to get what the schools could do for us, but to rub off some of our woods' habits and put on a little refinement as well. Wealth in 1848 Versus Wealth in 1902. One Sabbath day at a meeting at the school house a stranger was present, large, portly and attractive in appearance. Who can he be? For we knew every man for ten miles round. Why, that is a Mr. McNitt, and they say he has got ten hundred dollars in cash. "Oh, he can buy everything he wants to, can't he?" Ten millions now would attract no - not so much attention. The Pretty Cub. The table was surrounded by the men who were clearing land. I was helping mother and was sent out to get wood and chips (chips were a great feeder to a fire in those days). I heard a man hollering with all his might far away in the woods; the evening was then approaching, and what little air was stirring came from the same direction of the calling. I reported at once, and out came the men and listened - yes, yes, that man is certainly in great trouble and a long way off. Martin, Lyman and Rus Parker took dog, gun and axe and away they ran. There was a wagon road in that direction to Waterford. About twenty minutes later the hollering stopped and an hour later the men returned, saying they could not find him, that they got near to his calling, then the calling stopped, and they called and hunted, but to no avail. Next day from school we got the report and later got this statement from Gilbert Conkling: "I was returning home from Waterford on foot with a bundle of groceries tied in my bandanna (silk handkerchief) when a smallish animal came into the road in front of me, and I said to myself, what kind of a chap are you, anyway? It's a little cub, sure as you are born, and a pretty cub you are, too. I believe I will catch you and take you home with me. So as I grabbed him he ran, took a short circle in the bush and just crossing the road again when I grabbed him. He squealed, and then I heard a rustling of the brush and leaves a few rods ahead, and there sprang into the road the mother bear, coming with mouth open, showing two rows of sharp teeth. Now, it's fight or die with me, and no club at hand and not a second to lose I sprang up a sapling; climbed with vengeance, and a bear climbing for vengeance was tight at my heels. I thought to kick her head, but she might grab my foot in her mouth; then I broke off a limb and pounded her head, but she only climbed a little closer to me. I yelled a long time, but only echo answered. Finally the bear tired of hanging to so small sapling and climbed down, went two or three rods distant, stood up on her haunches, opened her mouth, reached out her fore paws as if to say, 'I'd just like to hug you.' Her eyes shone like balls of fire, for it was then getting dark. She then climbed a maple tree that rent right over the road where the cubs had preceded her. Then I climbed down, but dare not go that way home, but took to my heels for Waterford; every moment would look back to see if that black brute was on the chase. Next morning men with guns and dogs returned with me to the scene of battle. There was the much scarred sapling, there was shreds of my red bandanna handkerchief, but where are the groceries? The dogs took trail and the bear was killed not far from Coloma. I arrived at home a tired man, with stiff and sore legs." A New Country Fourth of July. It was agreed that the Fourth of July should be celebrated in our neighborhood. Ground was selected in Thomas Conkling's woods near the road. We all met there and cleared away the brush and rubbish and built the platform for orator and singers. The farmer men and boys and girls, some mated and some mis-mated, in four-horse and two-horse wagons; occasionally a gentry with his best gal in a buggy, some afoot and cross lots, but they came, and the cannon came clear from Paw Paw. Philotus Haydn (sic) was orator, and he orated as well as it is done even in this enlightened age. The cannon had announced the rising sun, the coming of the orator, and now salutes the thirteen states. On the stand, attuning their voices to "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," and "Hail, Columbia," are three Conklings, two McNitts, five Ruggles' and five others. Sisters Mariah and Lucretia are there. P. J. Adams leads with his clarinet. The orator had got down to earth again from his flights of fancy, and again bang goes the cannon, and a cry is raised, some one is groaning, and it proves to be the gunner, the tallest man in the crowd, George Washington Williams; his thumb is gone and hand badly mangled. But in a little while all is glee again, so long as it is not me or my son John. Freman and Our Blind Father. When Freman came home from his carpenter work in Hamilton Township he would occasionally bring one or two apples in his pocket; these were paired very thin and divided to each his or her share, and soon there will be apples in abundance here, for large orchards are set. But father is in total darkness - cannot tell daylight from the darkest night. There is a noted oculist in Rochester - Dr. Munn - and Freman takes father to him. Father is seated in a common dining chair. The doctor sits astride his lap, so they face each other, then takes a needle, inserts it in the side of the eyeball till it reaches the center, then works the needle up and down till the cataract is cut away from the retina, then withdraws the needle and the work is done. In two weeks they return, and Freman is not leading father, but has to walk lively to keep up with him. "Oh, father can see us; the Lord be praised," and hugs and kisses and tears intermingled. And father says that Sylvia looks natural, but these, my girls, have grown so fast. It has been over a year since he could see them to tell much how they looked. By the aid of an eyeglass father read his Bible through and the Morning Star paper once a week. About a year later father took a severe cold that affected his head, then settled in his eyes, for many days his eyes were so inflamed that dark bandages had to be used, and when the inflammation subsided and dark bandages removed sight was again a blind man for eighteen years. The Breaking Team and Plow. Fernando sold his farm west of ours and bought a new farm in Keeler Township, and I want you to see him among oak grubs and trees and how a farm is cleared there. We drive eight miles, and what kind of panorama is this approaching us on the left? "Well, I declare, that is the longest string of oxen that ever I did see," you exclaim. Yes, or probably ever will see again. You count till you find there are sixteen yoke of oxen attached to that one plow. Oh, such a monster plow, some twelve feet long, and cuts a furrow two feet wide and seven inches deep. The sharp steel shier will cut off a grub four inches in diameter and not stop the onward march of that string of oxen at all. It has been said that grubs six inches in diameter have been cut with that team and plow. But I question the statement. These oxen belong to the farmers surrounding, and each take their turn to break, as they call it. The Result of a Fever. Martin has been working at Waterford (now Watervliet), and has come home with a severe fever. Martin was the boss man to drive the piling for the grist and saw mills and two bridges at Watervliet, and built the bridge. But now he is sick and needs attention all the time. So Lewis is sent to find some girl to help through his sickness. He brings a girl home and introduces her as Miss Sarah Ann Taylor. But mother wants to know whether she is called Sarah or Ann. "Oh, they call me Ann." Then mother explained that it was all she could do to care for the men and the housework, and that Martin was very sick. By what followed I am able to give you this recipe for love and match-making: let a young man have a fever; it will be violent for nine days. In that time the head must be cooled by cold cloths dampened, the hands and writs the same, the room darkened, little dainty bits of food fed to him, when the fever is off for a rest. The hair slightly dampened by wetting he hand and rubbing over the hair, and as he improves he can be braced up in bed a little while; an egg on toast is given, then his hair can be combed, and after washing the face and hands and rubbing the arms till dry and a good circulation of blood is obtained. Yes, Yes, they were married later, and that recipe is sure. Additional Comments: "Recollections of A Busy Life," By Eli Fayette Ruggles, H. L. Ruggles & Co., Publishers, (published circa 1904) Transcribed by Peggy Barriskill Perazzo, December 2005 Transcription submitted to California Archives by Kellie Crnkovich with approval from Peggy Perazzo on 12/27/2005 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/yolo/history/1904/recollec/chapterv266ms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/cafiles/ File size: 13.3 Kb