Today is March 31 2008.  It's been raining off and on all day....thought it would be a good time to post an update on our research project of Lyman Dillon. 

     I got the picture of Lyman Dillon (above) from our friends Larry and Kathy.  Along with his photo, I also got one of his wife  Charlotte, who are both buried in the Protestant section of the Cascade Iowa Cemetery.  There will be more photo's in my book...this one is just a teaser so there will be a photo on the Internet of Lyman Dillon.  As far as I know, this is the only one you will find on-line (I've looked)

     Through a chance conversation with Pam  at her antique store, I was able to look through her dad (Gus Norlin's )  research on Lyman Dillon which as far as I know was never formally published.   Gus was the president of the local Historical society for several years...he had several pieces of research I had not seen before.  Pam was gracious enough to let me take everything home and scan and make copies before I returned it to her...THANK YOU PAM!!!  

     Gus had tracked down a  Granddaughter believe it or not of Lyman Dillon in California in the 1980's....She (Florence Cordelia Parrott Lippert) was born 7/3/1885 in Cascade Iowa daughter of Lima Dillon (Parrott)

     Florence Lippert eventually donated a highchair to the Jones County Historical Society in Edinburg Iowa where it resides today.  The chair was built by Lyman Dillon himself from lumber from his sawmill which used to exist North of Cascade Iowa on the North Fork of the Maquoketa River.   The sawmill was located West of Lyman's home.  We have been out there to take pictures..nothing remains of the sawmill which was owned by several people...originally the Delong Brothers, then Dillon,  at some point was a paper mill, still later converted into a flouring mill known as Myer's.

       I have additional material from the Norlin papers, which  I am hoping to include in my book if the family gives me permission to include it....stay tuned!

      Saturday February 16th 2008 I headed to Mt Vernon Iowa with L. and K. P. to interview R. P.  a local historian.  He had agreed to let me bring my camcorder .  He's 87 yrs old - sharp as a tack.  Names of people and places rolled off his tongue.   We talked about a horse thief ring that had operated in the 1800's out of some caves West of Mt.Vernon.   We talked about he and his dad paving Hwy 1 for $.50 an hour.   I came home with 2 hrs of conversation  and an old photo of the first bridge over the Cedar River by Ivanhoe.    We tried to go to Sutliff for lunch but it was standing room only- ( a snowmobile convention had beat us there). 

     It was at this point, I remembered something L.P.'s mother-in-law D had mentioned about possibly  making us lunch...we'd turned her down thinking we were going to be in Sutliff....Well, it was 1:15, no place to go except Hardees and her offer sounded awesome. A cell phone call later and we were making a bee line for Mt. Vernon.... we sat down to home made soup, fresh bread and cheese, black coffee and German Chocolate cake.    Boy did that taste good!!!!!

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   Painting depicting Scottish emigrants coming to Scotch Grove Iowa...from the collection of Bill and Jane Corbin

     The second big thing that happened this week was receiving Iowa Sketches- John Newton Hughes -edited by Michele Shover in the mail.  It is a limited edition... talks about the Hughes Family in Rural Nineteenth Century Scotch Grove, Jones County Iowa.  Here's an excerpt from the book describing what it was like in the winter:

        " In the dead of winter, when skies were clear and snow deep, farmers were then getting their year's supply of wood for fuel, their timber for posts and rails, their dimension timbers for framing of farm buildings....A procession of bobsleds with axes for cutting and chains for binding the logs, and poles and timbers tied securely to the bobsleds for the journey homeward.  With well-matched teams of spirited horses, trim and slick and glossy from good feed and early winter's rest.  Here, a pair of dapple greys, their check-reins taut, their silver mane and tail waving in the morning breezes.  Next a team of blaze-faced, white-footed sorrels; then a span of blacks, each girdled with his string of bells that made sweet music, or so we thought, at every move of those nimble limbs.  Witness the scene as the procession moved gently and firmly on.  No roar of engine or blur of gear or clash of clutch or honk of horn; only the hoof of horses and steel of sled runner on the noiseless snow, and the bells always jingling and pealing in the crisp, frost air;  only these and their merry jingle, jingle, jingle.  A thousand notes medlied, mixed and confused, yet always in harmony, always sweet; always stirring...often a half-dozen bobsleds might be seen approaching our highway from the west; sometimes even more, all in one silent company and driving as close as comfort and safety would permit....

     In the afternoon or early evening the whole picture was changed.  The journey reversed.  They were bound homeward.  Then the woods empty themselves as by magic and from narrow trails, the teams appeared, moving, seemingly from nowhere, into the prairie.  They were headed homeward.  The sleds were heavily loaded.  there were groaning now, and screeching and barking as the iron runners sank into the hard packed snow, and crunched and smoothed out every hummock or irregular surface.   Some were loaded with logs, others with cord wood, still others with long poles suitable for dimension timbers.  Others laden with wood of many lengths and when suitably dried from the summer's sun would find its way in the cook-stove.  The men were tired after a long day at work in the woods.  There is not much gaiety and little thought for the pipes.  The horses are tired too.  But they have pep and courage; they lean forward in their collars, the harness creaks under the strain- you feel that the traces must surely snap.  Their hoofs dig into the snow, though by much travel it is as hard as ice.  Their fine legs twist and tremble as they feel for footing in the ice and snow.  The whole picture was that of rugged individualism that has made its mark on he economy of our age."

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Note:  A special thank you to  Michele Shover for helping us get a copy of this  book...and for the Corbin's for letting us see their picture.  DM

      Several good things have been happening the past two weeks as far as research.  We conducted (2) additional Oral history interviews, have a 3rd on the calendar for Saturday, received a new book called A Prairie Almanac 1839-1919  by Jean Strong(picked up on Amazon off the internet).  It is the journal of Isaac N.Kramer who came to Iowa in 1839 and settled in the Linn Grove area (which is right between Cedar Rapids and Mt. Vernon). 

     I also got a call from a local woman whose dad had been researching Lyman Dillon and Old Military road for several years before he died.  She offered to let me look through her dad's research...now that completely blew my socks off.

     This past Friday, we made a spur of the moment trip to Iowa City to check out the State  Historical Society  Original Manuscripts section.    We have been making regular "sleuthing" trips with a friend J.A. and this trip was one we had talked about and are still planning on making again....I only mention this here because if you J. A. are reading this :-) we need to make several more trips.  One of the highlights of our trip this past Friday (1/25/08) was to see some original photo's from the Brigg and Hansen  trip taken in 1920 . They wrote about their trip here.  On Friday, I was able to see photos of both men as well as some of the things they saw when they walked.

     I came across several old newspaper articles about Lyman Dillon.  Here is a poem from one of them I'll share with you on the blog

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Lyman Dillon And His Plow
Lyman Dillon is plowing tonight.  And he bends Far out into the ridgy Silence. Where the known world ends;  Far out into the weary wash of broken winds he goes a plowing  a black long furrow-  Over the hill, past the thicket  Or the burrow of foxes and wolves.  The prairie is bowing before the sight of Lyman Dillon.  Thin hands that never felt the air.  Since they were buried there before the civil war.  Are parting the sod in front of the plow;  Like ghostly knives they cut.  They have been reaping  for their God until now.....Someone else is weeping- but Dillon goes on ahead  Cleaving the prairie, instead  On to the place where the dark river shows....High out on the road that was made for the soldiers.  Lyman Dillon goes plowing  With a sway of his shoulders  and shadowy hips....the wind sings above,  and the breath of it's unnoticed lips  Is sighing and soughing.

     It was December 3, 1856, and it was to be a day of tragedy, long to be remembered in Jones County.  On that day a killer blizzard struck Iowa, moving into the state from the northwest....

     A pioneer family by the name of Wade, consisting of Mother, Father and 10 children had homesteaded on a piece of ground some two years before slightly south and west of the then small village of Monticello.  The military trail passed directly in front of their cabin.

     The cabin, of more than average proportion had been constructed with a large rock fireplace at one end of the combination kitchen and eating area, and two large bedrooms, narrow but long at the other end.  The bedrooms were separated from the eating area and one another by log partitions.

    Crude bunks for beds had been fashioned against the outer walls, then covered with prairie grass "ticks" and in these two bedrooms, children of the family slept- boys in one room , girls in the other.  Brothers and sisters were almost evenly divided in number.

     Mr. and Mrs. Wade retired nightly to a made up "tick" in the kitchen area, so they might keep the fireplace stoked, especially in damp or cold weather....

      This early homestead was the first place on the left-hand  side of the "Lower Prairieburg Road," from it's intersection with today's highway 151.  In 1856, this portion of the road.....was still part of the original military trail from Dubuque to Iowa City.

      Mr and Mrs Wade had business in Langworthy on that ill-fated day.  All of the children except the very youngest, a baby girl less than one year old, were left at home to fend for themselves, which for pioneer children wasn't too difficult, and seldom was cause for anxiety to the parents.."

      The day had dawned bright, clear and relatively mild.  Not a great deal of snow lay on the ground; In fact, not enough to warrant taking the "bobsled", rather than the farm wagon.  Very little traffic at that time assured that there would be bare spots which would require an exertion on the pulling ability of the team, should the sled be used.

     Heading out of the driveway, they turned left at the Military Road and progressed westward about a mile, where the trail then followed the land contour into a small gully, where the trail crossed a clear running stream.

     Mrs. Wade was probably in high spirits, for she was going to Langworthy, and it would give her an opportunity to bargain for a few of the simple niceties at the "Buckhorn," a combination provisions store and tavern."

     (Editor's note:  At this particular time the settlement was not officially known as Langworthy, but was most often referred to as  "Spencers Place" due to the fact James Spencer had been the first to build a long cabin on the north bank of the stream.  It was also referred to as "Buckhorn," although there were many other "Buckhorns" scattered throughout the area.)

(Editors note:  Evidence of the original route can still be found in this section for almost three-fourths of a mile, and is perhaps the ONLY clear cut portion of the "old military trail" still in existence between Dubuque and Iowa City)  (and as I DM type this account January of 2008 it is still there, having visited it myself this past Summer)  This portion is not only part of the military trail but is part of "Dillon's Furrow" which pre-dated the military trail some six months, and which the Military engineers, under command of Jefferson Davis, later President of the Confederacy, followed in large part.)

       I'm going to stop there with the account.  In addition to this material there is additional information in the two volume Jones County History set which tells about what happened after it was discovered the parents had in fact died.  I'm intending to include all of the information from both of these sources in my book On The Trail Of Lyman Dillon  hopefully to  be published sometime in 2009.  Drop me a note if you have any specific questions or suggestions on anything you read on this blog.  Sincerely,  DM

     It's been a while since I posted anything.      This Fall, I acquired 4 original maps from the 1879 Andreas Atlas of Iowa.  They are the counties of Dubuque, Jones, Linn and Johnson Counties.  Why?  Because they show  what Iowa looked like in 1879, including vast portions of native timber, towns that no longer exist and the route of Old  Military Road.

       Earlier this Fall I wrote on my "I Also Live On A Farm Blog " about a cross stitch project I was working on.  You know how one thing leads to another...well I finished the project,  and decided I would  do a cross stitch of these original maps....they measure 12 inches by 18 inches .  I started working on the first map this past weekend (see photo above).    It is causing me to slowly memorize the map of Jones County as it looked in 1879.   If you were to ask me at this moment to describe the layout of Jones county I would have to say "I'm not sure" ...but as I'm working my way North on the cross stitch project, I getting  an awesome grasp of the details.  I anticipate by the time I finish I will know the map of our county like the back of my hand...

     This morning when I woke up, I   the  map on my brain,   probably because  I was working on it right before I went to bed.  Martelle...what's East of Martelle..I thought to myself...way to the East (and South) is Oxford Junction....then Hale.  Actually it's called Hale City on the  map.   And the town of Olin, is not on the map...but there is a town called "Rome".   The towns of both Oxford Junction and Center Junction  which both exist today were towns where the rail lines crossed.  A  North and South track intersecting with an East and West Track...hence... the term "Junction."I know this is not rocket science, but for someone who has lived most of his life in this area and is just discovering these things about local history it has been enjoyable.  My goal is to finish as much of these for maps before the actual time I do my "walk about."

       Saturday August 25th we sat down with MH  and his wife to do our first oral history interview.    As I read History Of Jones County Iowa 1910 the best part of the book is the "stories" from people's lives.  MH is a retired farmer, in his early 80's, sharp as a tack,  he agreed to  sit down with us, let us bring our camcorder, a list of questions, and be our first "guinea pig".  8:30 AM found us sitting in his living room doing our first interview.  Here are some of the stories he shared with us:

    The birth of the H  triplet's (at home, before ultrasound) so everyone was expecting (1) baby/ not three...and what Grandma did with them as they were born.

     A house fire, home to widow and 5 children, making due in a railroad car until their new home was built.

     House concerts, barn dances, Lawrence  Welk and his band playing the local music circuit, and how the horse  would take you home (even if you fell asleep in the saddle) after a long night in town.

     What it was like during the depression when you were a little kid.

       Threshing crews, farming w/ horses, and attending Country School stories.

     What  I would like to do is include some of these accounts, and others (as we hopefully get to interview others) in my yet to be published book On The Trail Of Lyman Dillon .    The last time a local history book was updated (new material./ not just reprinted) was in 1910.  I'm thinking, it's about time someone  captures these accounts in writing.   

    On a totally different note, I decided to submit this photo of an old stone house I took to a local photography contest. This is the first time I've submitted a  picture to photography contest.  Who knows, maybe I'll win something! :-)

     I titled the photo "Ravaged By The Tooth Of Time"   I wrote a piece on another blog about it here:

http://hearttoheart.wordpress.com/2007/08/05/tell-me-why-you-are-passionate-about-local-history-or-your-family-tree/

     I better wrap it up for now!   Sincerely, DM

Update as of 12/1/07

    Regarding the photo I submitted to Silos and Smokestacks...I won 3rd place in the Historical Category!  Look for it next year in some of their publications (maybe)

      Saturday August 18th found us heading to the Marion HY VEE coffee area to meet w/ C.P.  from the Iowa Office of Archaeology to hear about the "dig" @ Bowen's Prairie before Hwy 151 went through the area.    She had e-mailed me several great documents on the project, plus another one pertaining to a dig they'd done over by Langworthy during the same time.  I was just as interested in meeting her as any information she might share.  I wanted to get a sense of her passion for history.  We had a great visit over coffee, with an offer to show us around the Historical archives in Iowa City maybe later this winter. 

      During our car trip to Marion J. A.   and I were talking about the account she'd told me about the family that had been  lost in the winter storm over by Langworthy Iowa.  She told me she'd read the story in a two volume set called   History Of Jones County Iowa  (Illustrated)  published in 1910.  "What" I said, you mean it has additional information the History of Jones County 1879   Doesn't have???  "Oh yes" J.A.  said.  I'm thinking to myself...II have to get a copy of that set !!!!  I'd also heard from someone who'd purchased  A Centennial History Of Mount Vernon, Iowa 1847-1947   on e-bay.  After I'd heard there was such a book in existance, I wanted to get a copy of that as well.  I"m sure I could check some of these books out @ the local library, but it is such a hassle, and you never know when the "urge" (or free block of time) will happen to do some reading, so a personal copy is a priority for me.

      After we left HY Vee, we stopped @ an old book store/coffee shop called  The Sanctuary  in Marion Iowa.  Two hours later, we left w/ the book on Mt Vernon, plus A Glimpse of Iowa In 1846 (The Emigrant's Guide),  and Iowa City an Illustrated History  by Gerald Mansheim.    I called an antique store in Anamosa called "The Gathering" , asking about the two volume Jones County History 1910.  She had it!!!  $160.00 later, it was mine.  (she only had the original set, and I'm hoping, I can recoop some of this after I publish a book my adventure)

    Here is an excerpt from History Of Jones County Iowa 1910 talking about that family who died near Langworthy I'd written about in post # 7":
    

     " I think it was the winter of 56 and 57 that we had a big blizzard.  Sunday morning was fair and warm for the time of the year.  The day turned out to be beautiful until about four o'clock in the afternoon.  Nearly every one that didn't have company went some wheree.  We were at a neighbor's that day, but got home just as the storm broke in its fury.  It was all my father could do to get from the stable to the house.  On what is now the Hosford farm on the main road, lived an Englishman by the name of Wade.  The farm was then owned by Mr. Walworth.  They were our neighbors to the South.  They had a family of ten children, the eldest a boy of nineteen and the youngest about a year old.  In the morning the father and mother drove out near Langworthy, taking the baby with them, to a Mr. Scriven's to spend the day and also to bring one of the daughters home with them to do some sewing.  They started back while the sun was yet shining.  The storm came up so suddenly that in a few minutes it was impossible to see anything before  them.   Before they reached home they lost their way.  The horses couldn't face the storm. ...."

     The account continues....but I need to wrap this up. 

     I'd like to include the complete account  in my yet to be published  book  On The Trail Of Lyman Dillon  

  Alison Kraus sings a haunting song on her new album A Hundred Miles from Home  titled "Jacob's Dream"    It's about two little boys who wander away from their cabin  in 1856 and get lost.    As I'm researching local history, I came across a similiar true story from Bowen's Prairie Iowa.

          "On the 24th of April following, the most melancholy event transpired on the prairie, filling the whole community with gloom, and the famly immediately interested with unspeakable anguish.  The circumstances were these:  We had finished our out door work and chores, glad to enter the house to sit down and enjoy the cheerful fire blazing upon the hearth, which the cold, bleak northeast wind and rain rendered peculiarly grateful to our chilled bodies.  Darkness had set in, rendering the out door desolation doubly so.  Suddenly we were aroused by a knock at the door, and the entrance of two of our neighbors, who informed us that a boy was lost.  Alfred Denson, a amiable lad of six year and the light of the household, had wandered from the house and was lost, either on the cold, bleak prairie, or in the sill more dismal forest.  The instant the information was communicated, we felt that the poor boys fate was sealed.  If he had wandered into the thick woods, he might possibly survivie until morning, but if, as we feared, he had strayed out into the wide, unprotected prairie, we felt that his sleep that night would be " the sleep from which there is no awakening."

     "Dark and dreary and uncomfortable as was the night, the citizens were aroused, and started out with the resolution to do what they could.  But the night was intensely dark;  we were destitute of lanterns, and were obliged to depend on torches to guide us in our travels, and these were comparatively useless on account of the strong wind and rain.  We expected to get lost ourselves but this did not deter us.  Our first design was to search the forest in the vicinity of the child's home, and to build fires in different places, if possibly the child might discover some of them;  they also might be guilding-stars to the searchers.

    There was a timber road leading into the forest, which we thought possibly the boy might have taken, and examining it particularly with the light of our torches, we discovered his track leading into the forest.  This encouraged us to proceed, thinking now we had ascertained the direction he had taken.  We were also the more encouraged in regard to the safety of the boy, as, if we should not find him that night, he might obtain a shelter which would save him fro perishing.  Soon, however, we found another track of his retracing steps, and leading back into the prairie....For two succeeding days, the whole community, including Cascade and Monticello, comprising some thirty persons, made a systematic search through the timber, north and south of the settlement, and the prairie between, but without success, and it was not until the fourth day afterward that the lifeless body of the boy was discovered nearly covered up with tall slough-grass, some eighty rods north of the present reesidence of T.W. Littl,e and nearly two miles distant from his home....."  From History Of Jones County Iowa 1879  pages 528,529

    Today (August 5th 2007)  my wife and I made another stop @ the Bowens Prairie Cemetary and took a photo of the marker for Alfred Denson.  As I continue my research on Bowen's Prairie,  several names  keep surfacing...Moses Collins,Barrett and Otis Whittemore,  Steven Palmer to mention just a few.  Today at the Cemetary, we found both Otis and Barrett Whittemore's gravestone markers, as well as the memorial marker for Alfred Denson.

     I'm going to repost it here because this is what this new blog is devoted to

Old Military Road Field Research Begins In Earnest

Jul 1st, 2007 by DM Edit |

    What an awesome day we had today.  I literally felt like I  stepped back in time.  We spent the day  looking for traces of the 160 yr old Military road route  that I hope to retrace by foot in 2008.  

          Today we hit paydirt.  We discovered a plaque on a tavern wall that said “Site of Tim Fanning’s Log Tavern  Terminus of the Old Military Road from Dubuque to the Northern Boundary of Missouri”   From there we followed an old map that led us out of town.  Something caught my eye as we made our way through the back streets so I turned the car around.  There along side the road was a very old horse hitching post and set of stone steps used to unload stagecoaches. (see attached photo).    I have 1 year to  identify as much of the original 100 mile route as I can.  I plan to write a book about my adventure, pulling together both  stories  of life in  Iowa from 1839 to 1939 and what went into  researching my trip in 2008.  A former teacher of mine is as passionate about this slice of Iowa history as I so she has agreed to join us on some  monthly field trips as we research high and low for clues.  I  felt today like I was reliving  Journey To The Center Of The Earth , instead of following in the foot steps of A.S.  we are following in the footsteps of people who walked where we walked 150 yrs ago, when stage coaches and pioneer wagons were the mode of transporation, when Elk and buffalo still roamed our area. 

     Here again is part of my reason for doing this:  

     The older I get, the more I recognize the value of a balanced life.  There is more to life than $.   This walkabout combines  local history, exercise, adventure, intrigue,  the opportunity to meet new people, and a wealth of research to work on over the Winter months as I would prepare for September 2008. 

     Today definitely had elements of intrigue, history, adventure, and a chance to spend some quality time with a former teacher .    As always, thanks for reading.  DM

Posted in life in the country, My Walk about, old military road, Dillon's furrow, country living, Iowa History, personal, life