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Reminiscences of early settlers, published weekly in this column, have been the incentive for a number of letters received from other 'first' families. Last week we received a letter from Mr. M. C. Barkley, who now lives at Sioux Falls, S. D., telling of his arrival in Sac county and of the conditions at that time.
Mr. Barkley lived for thirty two years on a farm in Clinton township and had, before he bought this farm, spent a number of years in this vicinity. It was in 1887, the same year that the Reporter ceased to exist and the Chronicle came into being, that Mr. Barkley bought his farm. He also bought the sixth issue of the Chronicle and has been a subscriber ever since. His letter follows.
Editor, the Chronicle:
We have seen so many reports from old settlers in Sac county that I thought we should send you a few recollections of early days. On August the 28th, 1875 we reached West Side, Crawford county, about six o'clock in the morning and in the midst of a terrific rainstorm. The sidewalks were covered, in places, with eighteen inches of water. The hotel keeper's wife was sick and there was no help so none of the crowd that had come in on the train could get breakfast. After hunting around for a couple of hours we found a private home where they would feed 35 or 40 of us. We were all done by nine-thirty when it stopped raining. By this time my brother-in-law, L. Draper, had come to town for us and we left for Sac county in a farm wagon.
The rain had filled to overflowing all of the streams and sloughs. I think that we passed just five houses before we crossed the Boyer river near the Frank Weed home. I remember that old Dr. Stevens had a nice grove set out. The river was at least eighty rods wide and north of the bridge the water came up to the wagon box. The big slough south of Mr. Zeigmann's farm was also full--it seemed to be about the same width as the river and two and a half feet deep.
We had planned on staying about a week but so much rain fell that a half mile of track was washed out and not a train could go east for two weeks. Joseph Mummy [Mummey] and his uncle, B. H. Mummy, had moved in the spring and built small homes; they had a good deal of small grain[,] and rain every couple of days made it very difficult to stack. The mill at West Side was shut down for repairs and nearly all the neighbors were short, or entirely out, of flour. Bread was a scarce article for several days but everyone had plenty of potatoes and roasting ears. Prairie chickens were thick and the young ones made good eating.
Odebolt and Wall Lake were not in existence at that time as the railroad had not come up the valley as yet. My father had moved to Boone county in 1856, when it was as thinly settled as Sac was in 1875, but we liked this country so well that we drove a team and wagon out from Boone county. Later we purchased eighty acres in Section 34 of Clinton township and moved onto it in February of 1887.
We think that no better neighborhood, or better land, is to be found in Iowa than in the west half of Sac county. No better class of people ever lived than those sturdy pioneers who came to the, then, outskirts of civilization, building their homes, the school houses and the churches. Most of them have gone and the younger generation remain, enjoying a life in which they have better homes, better roads and a more convenient and rapid means of travel. We still love to meet, and talk to, those old friends who helped to make Iowa the splendid place it is and has been for many years.
We have been a reader of the Chronicle since it started--or nearly so, because we commenced taking it when just six copies had been printed--and we still read it.
M. C. Barkley
Mr. Barkley returns nearly every year to visit relatives in this vicinity. It has not been many years since Mr. Barkley moved to South Dakota and no doubt everyone will remember him well.
We will be very glad to receive letters from other pioneer settlers of this community. Do not hesitate but sit right down and write to us of your interesting
experiences and observations.
transcribed by B. Ekse from microfilm