1878 Pioneer Sketch - Part 4

The first of June, 1837, Mr. Chas. Bush, Richard P. Bush and John Bush came from Panby, Tompkins county, New York. Charles P. Bush settled on the northwest quarter of Sec. 11, Rich. Bush on the southwest quarter of Sec. 1 and John Bush on the north part of Sec. 2, Handy.

During the summer, several other families came to town among whom were Alson Church, Alanson Knickerbocker, Seymour Norton and Samuel Conklin. Mr. Conklin was also from the state of New York and he and his wife on their arrival here stopped with Mr. Calvin Handy. They owned land on Sec. 18, in the west part of our town, and as we considered it no task to go five or six miles to a log house raising, and Mr. Conklin having followed the section line from the Cedar river to his land, and cut the logs for a house.

We started -- nine of us in number -- with two pairs of oxen, to draw the logs and raise the house. We followed the section line, which crossed the river where the railroad bridge now is. In going around some wet places on the section line, we missed our direction and got our oxen into the big swamp on section 17, got our oxen mired in the mud, got tired out -- especially the oxen.

We got back to the section line the best we could, not reaching his land. After the lapse of three or four weeks, we tried it again, and succeeded in reaching his house.

Tomorrow we will continue with the experiences with Mr. Conklin.