by day, and the wife plied her evening care in the cheerful glow of the blazing hearth at night. Their simple fare and active exercise insured them robust health, and though their surroundings were quite different from those in the midst of which they had been reared, this was the home which they had made for themselves, and they were happy in the enjoyment of it. During the summer other settlers had come in, some singly, others with their families, and neighbors were more numerous and less distant, and the monotony of their life was varied by an occasional visit from or among these. This social intercourse among the pioneers had

none of the bad features which have characterized that of later times. There were among them no conventionalities, no unmeaning expressions of civility, no unkind criticisms of each other's dress and surroundings, no rivalries, no jealousies, and no hypocritical manifestation of interest in each other's welfare. Each rejoiced in his neighbor's prosperity, or sympathized with him in his adversity. These visits were anticipated with pleasure, and remembered without regret.

Another summer and winter had passed, and changes indicative of increasing prosperity were visible. The clearings had become enlarged and fenced, glass had replaced the greased paper in the window of the cabin, a plank door swung on wooden hinges where formerly had hung a blanket, and some flowering shrubbery was growing beside it. Everything wore an air of thrift. The solitude of the wife was enlivened by the prattle of her first born. Immigrants had continued to come, and what was a pioneer residence had become a part of a pioneer settlement. Faster and faster they came flocking in, ta king posession of the lands, or pushing into still unbroken tracts, brought new farms into cultivation.

Now pioneer life was lived on a larger scale. The settlers' log cabins more thickly dotted the wilderness, and the clearings about them encroached more rapidly upon the surrounding forests. Everywhere was heard the ring of the woodman's axe, and seen the smoke from the whirlwinds of flame that were consuming the trees earlier felled. A variety of work went on indoors as well as out, which long ago generally ceased to be done in private homes. Households of those days were in wide contrast with those of the present. Every good mother taught her daughters a broad range of domestic duties, from washing dishes and logcabin floors to weaving and making up fine linen. For the house was also the factory, and to none of the good wife's multifarious duties did her industrious spirit and proper ambition incline her more strongly than to the making from flax and wool of the fabrics which she and hers might need. For weeks and months the house resounded with the melody of the spinning-wheel and loom and other simple machinery, with which every family answered for itself the question wherewithal it should be clothed. Mother and daughter were proud to appear, even at meetings,

in homespun, if they had made it well, and father and son were not ashamed of the suits which loving hands had fashioned for them.

Twenty years rolled by, and brought with them still greater changes. The old house was only the wing of a new one that had been built of squared logs, covered with split-shingled roofs, lighted by glazed windows, and closed by a panel door. A lawn appeared in front, tastefully ornamented with flowers, and fruit trees were growing on the former site of the garden. An apiary stood at the margin of the lawn, which was bounded by a neat white fence. A commodious framed barn had been builded, and where the forest once stood were fields of waving grain. Beyond the scattered groves might be seen the homes of other farmers. The stream that ran by was spanned by a newer bridge, and the dingdonging of a saw-mill that had been builded on its bank could be heard in the distance. The first born was now a young man. At the well, which still had its primitive sweep, stood a somewhat portly matron, who seemed to look with motherly pride at her son as he strode sturdily along. A middle-aged man was seen walking down the road that came from the mill. It was he who came here years ago with his knapsack, rifle and ax. The woman at the well was the young wife who had come with him a year later. Their industry and economy had been rewarded. They had acquired an honorable competence. But their sky had not always been unclouded. They had followed the remains of two of their children to the grave.

Another interval of twenty years passes. 1880 is at hand-is here. An elegant mansion stands on the site of the old log cabin, and all its surroundings show that it is the abode of wealth and refinement. The stream passes under a new bridge, the old saw-mill has gone to decay, and the broad prairie is thickly dotted with the homes of new comers. Spacious fields and elegant farm-houses are seen upon the extended landscape. A train of cars speeds over the plain, and the tall spires of churches point skyward from amongst the houses of the county seat near by. A gray-haired man is busy with the cattle in the farm-yard; a portly woman sits by the stove-which has superceded the fire-place-busy with her knitting, while some of the grand-children are playing on the floor, and others eugaged in various kinds of work. Another of their children has been added to the group in the cemetery, another has settled in an adjoining town, and two have gone to seek their fortunes in the mountains. Thrice honored, thrice exalted family. The toil of years has brought a rich harvest; the consciousness of a well-spent life brings peace to your whitened locks; and the memory of the trials of other days adds zest to the enjoyment of the present.

EARLY SETTLERS AND SETTLEMENTS.

There is not a little truth in the trite adage "tall oaks from little acorns grow." Few enterprises have borne the marks of success at their inception, and still fewer reforms that succeeded in revolutionizing public sentiment or correcting glaring wrongs otherwise than by long and patient presentment. A single word has sometimes been fraught with the genius of change; a single man been able to direct; and a single nation the most important factor in directing the destinies of a world. It is never possible to foretell all the events, nor all the consequences that hinge upon a single action, or upon a single epoch. It seems, sometimes, that the sole element of success is the ability or will to do and to dare. At such times men of courage alone can succeed, alone can control. It is not always the righteous cause which triumphs nor the most justifiable ends that win; much depends on the character and mind behind these. In this respect Christianity presented the ideal character which, through all the changes of eighteen centuries, has inspired the heart of men with an impassioned love, has shown itself capable of acting on all ages, nations, temperaments, and conditions, has been not only the highest pattern of virtue, but the strongest incentive to its practice, and has exercised so deep an influence that it may be truly said that the simple record of three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers, and all the exhortations of moralists. The fact stands prominently forth that an activity born of disinterestedness and noble purposes, may and does draw within the pale of its influence kindred natures, while it may repress opposing tendencies in lives of the most. variant nature. New countries have the stamp of individual character impressed on them in a manner that older sections would not brook. This is due, perhaps, to the fact that the inhabitants are few and scattered, and in times of imminent peril or distress the most individualized personage assumes control. To him, then, ever after the people look, and his views become gradually to be public property. It is thus that the early history of any county becomes largely a component part of the history of its first men—the men who give character and coloring to all its early legislation.

"The pioneer settlers of 1836, when they first looked upon the broad acres and beautiful forests of Mills county, had in reality no compelling reason for believing that they were not created especially for them, and for the trial of the manhood that was soon to reclaim them. They came, not to scenes of pleasure, but to places of most arduous toil. The land was new, its advantages still unknown, its resources undetermined, its ancient owners still here. To enter a country so wild, and engage in

its settlement, implied not only a willing heart, but the ability to do and to dare, that in other and long settled lands, has made the monarch tremble on his throne, or placed in peril a nation's life. Pioneers are always brave; and the exigencies continually arising demand a quality of manhood that ensures the success of plans of colonization. It is, therefore, useless to eulogize the early settlers of this county. All were brave, but all were not good men.

What was done and how is merely the office of our task to described. In the hearts of many still surviving the memories of these men live, and that they live to fame and to history is the object of this sketch.

About the year 1844 a series of disturbances occurred in the State of Illinois, which were not only the forerunners of more serious embarrassments to the general government in later years, but were also of great moment in the settlement of this county. A new religious sect had been called into existence in 1827, in western New York, founded by a young named Joseph Smith, who professed to have received a special revelation from heaven, giving him knowledge of a book which had been buried many centuries before, in a hill near the village of Palmyra, whose leaves were of gold, and upon which were engraved the records of the ancient people of America, and a new gospel for man.

The east was an extremely unfavorable locality for the growth or reception of these doctrines; hence, those who espoused the new faith removed at an early day to the west. They settled principally at first, in the State of Missouri, but they were soon driven out, without good reason and without the semblance of authority. Crossing the Mississippi, they settled in Hancock county, Illinois, founding the city which they called Nauvoo, and where they built a stately temple. Their number increased rapidly by immigration from nearly every country in Europe; the new comers unfortunately being mainly though not entirely, persons of low position and without education. Conscious of their strength they raised troops and set out at defiance the authority of the State of Illinois. In the endeavor to reduce them to obedience public opinion turned, as it had previously done in Missouri, against them. They were unpopular because of their religious tenets, but for no other reason whatever. They were prosperous when others were needy, and diligent when others were idle. Opposition developed itself at the polls in denying to them the privileges of citizens and the rights of suffrage. Matters at length reached the point of open resistance to the authorities of the state. Public attacks were made upon the city, and in one of these Joseph Smith, the celebrated founder of the sect, was captured, as was also his brother Hiram, and incarcerated in the jail at Carthage the county seat, and while lying there were murdered by the mob in July of 1844. Joseph was in the act of getting out of the window when he was fired upon and fatally wounded. He

was taken into the yard of the jail, placed against the well-curb and riddled with bullets in a most brutal and fiendish manner. This attack upon Nauvoo* brought matters to a crisis, and the people of Illinois determined to drive the murderers across the Mississippi.

In 1845 an attack was made upon the city, and its many residents compelled to leave the state. The Mormon exodus was one of the most wonderful events on record, when considered in all its phases. The celebrated historian, Lossing, thus alludes to it.

"In September 1846, the last lingering Mormons at Nauvoo, Illinois, where they had built a splendid temple, were driven away at the point of the bayonet, by 1,600 troops. In February, preceding, some sixteen hundred men, women, and children, fearful of the wrath of the people around them, had crossed the Mississippi on the ice, and traveling with ox-teams and on foot, they penetrated the wilderness to the Indian country, near Council Bluffs, on the Missouri. The remnant who started in autumn, many of whom were rich men, feeble women, and delicate girls, were compelled to traverse the same dreary region. The united host, under the guidance of Brigham Young, then temporal and spiritual leader, halted on the broad prairies of Missouri the following summer, turned up the virgin soil, and planted. Here leaving a few to cultivate and gather for wanderers who might come after them, the host moved on, making the wilderness vocal with preaching and singing. Order marked every step of their progress, for the voice of Young, whom they regarded as a seer, was to them as the voice of God. On they went forming Tabernacle Camps, or temporary resting places in the wilderness. No obstacles impeded their progress. They forded swift-running streams, and bridged the deeper floods; crept up the great eastern slopes of the Rocky mountains, and from the summits of the Wasatch range, they beheld on the 20th of July, 1847, the valley where they were to rest and build a city, and the placid waters of the Great Salt Lake, glittering in the beams of the setting sun. To those weary wanderers, this mountain top was a Pisgah. From it they saw the promised land-to them a scene of wondrous interest. Westward, lofty peaks, bathed in purple air, pierced the sky; and as far as the eye could reach, north and south, stretched the fertile Valley of Promise, and here and there the vapors of hot springs, gushing from rocky coverts, curled above the hills, like smoke from the hearth fires of home."

The pilgrims entered the valley on the 21st of July, and on the 24th the president and high council arrived. There they planted a city, the new Jerusalem-the Holy City-of the Mormon people.

*The temple at this place was subsequently blown down. The site of old Nauvoo was settled by a French population, after its desertion by the Mormons, who used the material of the temple for new buildings, and for flagging, some of the finest stone being used for that purpose.

R. E. C.