By H. B. Allen

        In October, 1855, I left the law office of Judge Brown of Lowville, Lewis County, New York, to seek the health I had lost in leaving the farm where I was raised, at the age of seventeen, and devoting myself too assiduously at school as scholar and teacher, to fit myself and secure the means to enter upon the more congenial and profitable occupation of a lawyer.

        Naturally, I turned to the then far and fair West. After bidding relatives and friends a reluctant and, as they thought, a final farewell, I found myself on board of a steamer at Sackett=s Harbor on the east end of Lake Ontario, ticketed for Chicago; from Chicago by the Galena Union Railroad on its first passenger trip through to Dunleith, now East Dubuque, and over the Mississippi on a steam ferry to Dubuque, Iowa.

        Before leaving New York I had made and saved up enough to pay for an economical trip to Iowa and to enter at Government price, at $1.25 an acre, a quarter section of land, which I then hoped to find near the City of Dubuque. By working and improving it a year or so, I hoped to restore my health and enable myself to enter upon the practice of law.

        Instead of Government land, subject to private entry, near Dubuque, I found upon examination of the records in the land office that there was no desirable land short of Franklin and Cerro Gordo counties and also that land was selling in Dubuque and adjoining counties at $25 an acre and up.

        Not to be defeated in my purpose to obtain an Iowa farm, I made arrangements with a Hoosier emigrant who, with his family, was in pursuit of the same purpose, to make a trip of exploration together. Leaving his family in a camp a few miles west of Dubuque, and with all my earthly goods in a small trunk, a small package of currency in a belt secured tightly and safely around my waist, and with high hopes of regaining health and strength and an insatiable ambition to become rich in the ownership of an Iowa farm, we started on our journey westward in a light covered wagon which served both as a living and sleeping tent.

        Passing through Delhi (Manchester did not then exist), and Independence, in three days we reached the infant village of Waterloo, forded the Cedar River below the brush dam, and landed at the log house called the Sherman Hotel, situated where the old Central (Carpenter) House now stands. The house was full to overflowing, and we were sent adrift to seek lodging and shelter for the night. The Crittenden family that had just arrived from New York and had built their house on the block on which now stands the postoffice building, took us in, and although crowded for room, kindly gave us permission to sleep on the floor, which we gladly accepted and highly appreciated, as in the morning when we awoke, we found the ground covered with a carpet of snow.

        Not finding any Government land in Black Hawk County, we proceeded on our way through Cedar Falls over what seemed to be endless prairies, guiltless of inhabitants, and with only an occasional natural grove or timber, until we reached Cerro Gordo County.

        There we found and located each a quarter section of beautiful and fertile land on Lime Creek, about two miles from where Mason City, the county seat, now stands.

        We stayed over night in the cabin of a homesteader on a quarter section near the land we selected. The cabin consisted of but one room without a floor, and in the early morning we were awakened by the loud and exultant crowing of the proud rooster who, with his contented harem, occupied an exalted perch in the same room as a harbor of safety from the ravages of the wily coyote.

        When, after a three days= ride over the prairie, we reach Decorah, where the United States Land Office was located, we found that the land we selected had already been claimed or entered and then all my bright visions of an Iowan farm vanished.

        Disgusted and discouraged about the farming proposition, but invigorated and strengthened by the novel experiences and out-of-door life which the really enjoyable trip afforded, I returned to Dubuque by steamer on the Mississippi.

        To replenish my depleted purse I taught school in a log house in Dubuque County during the following winter, canvassed the county by horseback as deputy assessor in the spring, and in the summer, my health being restored, my ambition renewed and my purse refilled, and delighted with the climate and country, I entered the law office of Judge Pollock to prepare for the practice of law in Iowa.

        At this, my first visit to Waterloo in 1855, I found it a village of some three hundred inhabitants; no school or church buildings (a log house being used for school purposes), a few one-story wooden structures in which general merchandise was sold, but one of which was on the east side of the Cedar River, one log house hotel, a few scattered and incomplete dwellings of the pioneer sort, a sawmill, a brush dam but no bridge across the river, a one-story one-room building located on Commercial Street where the Russell Block afterwards stood, occupied by Hosford & Miller as a bank, real estate and general business office.

        The land surrounding the village, although taken up by private entry, was virtually unoccupied except here and there by a little shack, corral and stable, with one notable exception, a large house and outbuilding, built on the east side of Elk Run and occupied by Job Engle and family.

        Though at this time the village was so insignificant and unimportant, and Cedar Falls, the older town, was the county seat, yet its central situation in the county, the beauty of its location, the attractiveness of the Cedar River bordered on both sides by a belt of heavy timber, the fertility of the soil and the extent of the almost boundless prairie surrounding it, so impressed me with the natural advantages it possessed for a large, thriving and important city that afterwards, in casting about for a permanent location for the practice of my profession, I could not, however much I tried, discard Waterloo from my mind.

        After beginning the practice in Dubuque and finding that the bar of the Dubuque city and county consisted of about ninety older and experienced lawyers, I considered it the part of the wisdom to seek some newer field, and was naturally drawn toward Waterloo, so, in the first week of January, 1857, I started for Waterloo in a four-horse stage coach on runners, with the snow from two to three feet deep and the mercury down to 20° below zero. When, on the second day out, we arrived in Waterloo, the mercury stood at 26° below and did not rise above that point for the six days thereafter.

        The following is a business directory of Waterloo for the years 1857 and 1858:

        Attorneys- S. P. Brainard, Wm. M. Newton, C.D. Gray, J.E. Baker, James S. George, W. H. Curtiss, John Randall, S. W. Rawson, J. O. Williams, Sylvester Bagg and H. B. Allen.

        Bankers- Hosford & Miller and Hammond & Leavitt.

        Barbers- William Blowers and George Grabner.

        Carpenters- Nathan Bullock, Orra Alexander, John Forbus, Peter Hopkins and C. J. Maynard.

        Doctors- P. J. Barber, J. M. Harper, Peabody & Davidson, W. O. Richards, Drs. Rich, Bowen & McFatrich, and A. Middleditch.

        Dentist- A. B. Mason.

        Druggists- W. W. Forry and Parmenter & Davis.

        Furniture- O. W. Ellsworth and Esquire Fisk.

        Groceries- Raymond Bros., Williams Bros., B. J. Capwell, Mr. Jewell and William Evans.

        Hardware- Frank Strayer and Maverick & Siberling.

        Harness- J. H. Wilkins.

        Hotels- Henry Sherman, Seth Lake, Morris Case, Joe Henry, and Mrs. May.

        Liveries- Wm. Groves, O. E. Hardy, T. S. Leonard.

        Merchandise- J. M. McD. Benight, Henry Sherman, N. S. Hungerford, J. W. Hankinson and William Evans.

        Newspapers- William Haddock and Hartman & Ingersoll.

        Shoe Shop- Beck & Kruse.

        Sawmill- Hosford & Miller and Corson & Whitaker.

        Blacksmiths- Benjamin Stewart and Mr. Winne.

        Tailors- E. Ercanback and John Reddenback.

        Saloons- B. J. Capwell, J. J. Dunnwald, George Grabner, William Jewell, Captain Aldrich and Edward Scott.

        County Officers-J.C. Hubbard, judge; J.B. Severance, clerk; B.F. Thomas, sheriff; P.E. Fowler, deputy sheriff; Martin Baily, treasurer; John Ball, surveyor; S.R. Crittenden, justice; Esquire Fisk, justice; and George Stewart, constable.

        In 1857 there was one paper published in Black Hawk County, the State Register, of which William Haddock was the proprietor and editor, and W.H. Hartman the printer. Coming to Waterloo about the same time as I did, being about the same age, and somewhat ambitious, Hartman and I became quite chummy and conceived the idea of publishing a paper of our own that would be a great improvement on the Register. It was to be called the Black Hawk Chief. I wrote the prospectus and Hartman printed it. It portrayed in glowing terms and with editorial flourish and phraseology, its present plans and its future course and usefulness. I do not remember its contents fully, but I distinctly remember that it was to be AIndependent in Politics@ and ANeutral in Religion.@ The prospectus was its first and last issue. It ingloriously failed for lack of capital. The year following, however, Mr. Hartman succeeded Mr. Haddock, named the paper the Waterloo Courier, and by his executive ability, strict honesty and economy and persistent industry, and made of it one of the most permanent, interesting, useful, and influential publications in the state.

        During the administration of County Judge Pratt, the election was held by virtue of which the county seat was moved from Cedar Falls to Waterloo. Judge Randall, as successor to Judge Pratt, was endowed with authority to locate the courthouse in Waterloo. Prior to the election which changed the county seat, and when the then owners of the land on the east side of the river filed the original plat of that portion of Waterloo, the block that is now known as Lincoln Park was designated as ACourthouse Square@ and was so marked on the county record of the plat. The owner evidently generously intended to dedicate the block to the public for courthouse purposes when Waterloo, if it ever did, became the county seat. The owners, when platting the land on the west side of the river, with equal magnanimity, designated the block now known as Washington Park, APublic Square.@

        When the county seat was finally established by the voters of the county, in Waterloo, it was generally supposed that if the courthouse site was located by the county judge on the east side of the Cedar River, the place selected would be the block designated as Courthouse SquareCthat location being without cost, central, spacious and sightly. When the announcement was made that the site was permanently located on a quarter of a block facing the river on the east side, between Tenth and Eleventh streets, the surprise and indignation of the people of the county knew no bounds. Why was it located so far out of the way where it accommodated no one, and inconvenienced everybody? The construction of the courthouse on that site must be enjoined, but what was everybody=s business was no one=s, and while the public was fuming and swearing about it, the judge let the contract for its construction to one G. M. Tinker on the site selected and it was completed and occupied in 1857 and served as a courthouse until 1902.

        Not only did the people of that time wonder what were the reasons that impelled its location in such an out of the way place, but all the taxpayers, court and county officials, practicing lawyers and every class of citizens who have ever since been compelled to travel back and forth to and from that distant location to perform the official duties and transact their business have wondered and are wondering still. It may be true, and probably is, that I am the only living person that knows the real considerations that induced such unreasonable and unaccountable action on the part of the county judge. The facts were disclosed to me in the early 60=s. As the knowledge was imparted to me in the course of the discharge of my professional duties as an attorney, I have been reluctant and am still reluctant to publish them. However, as no secrecy was imposed when the facts were revealed, and as all the actors in this little drama have long since passed away, I have concluded as a matter of early history, to avail myself of this opportunity to make them known to the public.

        A few years after the foregoing events transpired, Lewis Hallock, who was then owner of and platted quite a large tract of land on the west side of the river and opposite the selected courthouse site and resided there, died, and his widow, Lady Hallock, was appointed administratrix of his estate. I was employed as attorney to aid in its settlement. In due time there was sent from some town in Wisconsin, to which place Judge Randall had previously removed, and filed as a claim against the estate a promissory note signed by Lewis Hallock, for $1,000, payable to the order of John Randall and indorsed by him. On inquiry of the administratrix as to the consideration for the note, I was informed by her that the note and quite a block of land, together with a like or larger amount in cash and land given by the owner or owners of the property on the east side of the river in the vicinity of the selected site, was the consideration given to Judge Randall to induce him to locate the courthouse where he did. I at once informed the party who filed the claim that the consideration for the note was unlawful and that it could not, for that reason, be paid. The claim was pressed no further, and I think the note was withdrawn; at least, it was not paid.

        I cannot refrain from contrasting the mental conduct of the county judge who located the courthouse site with the stand his successor, the Hon. J.C. Hubbard, took when solicited by the officers and agents of the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad Company to issue to it $200,000 of 10 per cent bonds voted by the people of Black Hawk County as a subsidy to said company that had not complied with the conditions imposed and had not built the road. He manfully and stubbornly resisted coaxing, flattery, threats and offers of bribery, and thus saved to the taxpayers of succeeding generations millions of dollars which they would have been compelled to pay by the courts if he had issued the bonds and they had passed into the hands of innocent purchasers.

        As I review the events of these pioneer days and recall the early residents, many of whom have gone to their reward, a great number of incidents, some sad and sorrowful, some funny and laughable, all stirring and interesting to its participants, come rushing upon the memory, one of which I beg leave to relate.

        In the early days prairie wolves and coyotes infested the country, preying upon the poultry yards of farmers and out-lying premises of the new towns, destroying young stock and making night hideous with their yelping howl. It occurred to a few of the public-spirited and enterprising citizens of Waterloo that it would be a wise and benevolent thing to do, to form a company of mounted men and devote a day or so out of each week to utterly annihilating the marauding pests. Accordingly, a meeting for organization was held, consisting of some forty or fifty of the picked and brave young men of the village. George Ordway was made captain. The plan of attack was to start out in full force early in the morning, start a flank movement and endeavor to envelop the enemy was entirely by gradually drawing in the lines of offense until the enemy was entirely surrounded and then by a sudden rush to the center, the whole brigade of frightened animals would surrender to be killed or captured. Guns of every description were taboo. Each soldier was to be armed with a club and when the attack was ordered by the captain, each private was to select his victim and go for him with the club until he was taken or vanquished. Mount Vernon Township, lying north between Waterloo and the Big Woods, was selected as the first field of battle.

        So, one bright and sunny morning in April or May, 1857, at a given signal, we assembled at the appointed place of rendezvous and marched in double file to the south line of Mount Vernon Township. Here half of the company deployed to the right, and half to the left, and started our enveloping movement by marching in single file, some distant apart, so as to encircle the whole township and envelop all of the arch enemy that was supposed to occupy the inner field. Slowly and cautiously the lines were drawn in, until the center field was reached, when, to our utter amazement, not a single coyote was in sight. Without the aid of aeroplane or wireless, their native cunnings and instinct for safety had enabled them to scent the attack. They had evacuated the field and tool to the tall timber in the Big Woods.

        Disappointed and chagrined at our failure, tired and hungry, we beat a hasty retreat to our homes, sadly reflecting on the vanity, uncertainty and folly of war.

EAST WATERLOO=S FIRST SETTLER

        The first settlement on the ground on which the modern and progressive City of Waterloo is now built was made in the year 1846 by Charles Mullan. One of the next white men to visit this region was James Virden, who passed through this section early in 1846 and went on to Cedar Falls, where a few settlers were then located and where Mr. Virden, then a young man, engaged in helping William Sturgis build a dam across the river.

        In the early spring of 1846 Mr. Virden left his home in Wayne County, Illinois, and went down to St. Louis, making the journey to a large extent on foot. When he started on the journey to St. Louis, Mr. Virden accepted a commission to collect for a neighbor a debt from a man who had left Wayne County and located near the Missouri city. He found the man who owed the money but in settlement was obliged to take a horse in payment. He rode the animal back to Illinois, but found the man who had given him the commission had in the meantime moved to Wisconsin. Mr. Virden continued the journey north until he found where his man was located and delivered the animal to him at a town named Fairplay. About this time, learning that his brother-in-law, Charles Mullan, and family, had decided to emigrate from Wayne County to Iowa to a point on the Red Cedar River, located about one hundred miles west of Dubuque, he decided to precede them and that same spring started for the new country alone and on foot. On arrival at Dubuque after some hard walking, he became acquainted with another adventurous spirit by the name of Flemuel Saunders and the two, encumbered only by their packs and guns, started out from the Key City on the stage road by way of Anamosa and Marion, crossing the Cedar River at Cedar Rapids and making the rest of the journey up the west bank of the river. The journey was accomplished during the last week in May and Mr. Virden says the weather was in good condition for walking.

        When they reached what is now the thriving little Town of Vinton these men found only a bleak stretch of prairie with a cross stuck in the ground at a certain point, on which had been scrawled in good-sized letters the name of the town. The only house in that vicinity then was a log cabin located on the bank of a creek. The travelers continued their journey without visiting the cabin and at a point four miles north of Vinton they stopped for the night at a cabin of a settler named Pratt, who was afterwards Judge Jonathon R. Pratt of this county.

        Mr. Virden and his companion continued their journey north along the bank of the river the next morning, but they did not find another house or habitation until they reached the cabin of George W. Hanna, about four miles southeast of Cedar Falls, a distance of fully thirty miles.

        Mr. Pratt accompanied the two a distance from his cabin and on parting with them asked where they were expecting to locate. Mr. Virden while in the cabin had noticed that Mr. Pratt was the possessor of a couple of daughters, young ladies of vivacity and good looks, and in reply to the question he said they intended to locate at Sturgis Falls, which is now Cedar Falls, and that when he had built a cabin for himself he intended to return to the hospitable cabin of his host and claim the hand of one of his winsome daughters in marriage. The remark was made in half jest, but in turned out that the young frontiersman was speaking the truth, for a few years afterward he was married to Miss Charlotte Pratt at Cedar City, the exact date being February 27, 1851.

        On the afternoon of the day the travelers left the Pratt cabin, June 1, 1846, they reached the point on Cedar River where Waterloo now stands. They found no signs of habitation anywhere excepting a well-worn Indian trail, which led to and crossed the river somewhere near the present Fourth Street Bridge. Passing over the site of Waterloo they found at the Black Hawk Creek an emigrant by the name of Taylor, who was traveling across the country with a covered wagon and several yoke of oxen, but who had been stopped by the high waters in the creek. They accepted Mr. Taylor=s hospitality for the night and the next morning, being anxious to finish their journey, the travelers swam the creek and soon came to the cabins of George W. Hanna and William Virden a few miles distant. The next day they took a canoe from Mr. Virden=s back to the creek and with it helped to get Taylor and his outfit across.

        After a short visit with his brother and with the Hannas, James Virden went on to Cedar Falls, where he found two white settlers located. They were Erastus Adams and William Sturgis. Adams had erected a cabin on the bank of what is now Dry Run Creek and Sturgis had built a habitation for himself near the river. Virden engaged to work for Sturgis, who was engaged in building across the Cedar at the point the first dam constructed in this part of the state. He worked for Sturgis the balance of the summer.

        In 1848 Mr. Virden preempted three fractional pieces of Government land, one part of which includes today the greater portion of the Third ward of Waterloo. On this land he erected a cabin near the river. Mr. Virden held the opinion with other early settlers that no one would ever reside on the prairie back from the river, and considered the prairie land practically valueless.

        Shortly after making this settlement Mr. Virden came into possession of two Indian canoes and utilized them for some time ferrying travelers across the river. These canoes were made by the native Indians and the largest and the best one had been hewn from a walnut tree and had considerable of a history. In the winter of 1847-48 a large party of Indians, of the Winnebago Tribe, camped between the present Mullan residence on the Cedar Falls Road and the Black Hawk Creek on Mr. Mullan=s claim. Two very large walnut trees then stood on the bank of the round pool in what is now known as Red Cedar Addition. One day when Mr. Mullan made a trip to the creek from his cabin he made the discovery that the Indians had cut down both the trees and were engaged in shaping the trunk of the largest of them into a canoe. He ordered the Indians to cease their work, informing them that the trees belonged to him. The Indians stopped their labors but the next morning a delegation from the camp visited the Mullan cabin and made overtures which resulted in their being allowed to proceed with their work of making the canoes. They informed Mr. Mullan that they would need the canoes badly when the spring hunting season opened and promised that after the season closed they would bring them back and present them to him. In the spring the Indians started out on their hunt and several days after they were gone Mr. Virden, who was exploring along the river near Cedar Falls, found one of the vessels turned over on the bank of the river. He saw no signs of the red men and, believing they had abandoned the boat, appropriated it to his own use. He says it was splendidly built, swift and safe.

        The nearest postoffice which Mr. Virden and other settlers in this section had then was located at Marion, about sixty miles distant. For their mill grists a drive to Cedar Rapids or to Quasqueton, both about the same distance away, was necessary.

        Mr. Virden remembers that the winter of 1847 was very severe, with the snow covering the ground to a great depth and forming in such massive drifts as to hide all sign of the roads and trails. The settlers were cooped in their cabins most of the winter and compelled to subsist principally on potatoes and meat, which was not so bad, but which became somewhat monotonous before the spring suns came up and liberated them.

        Mr. Virden remembers of making hay several seasons on the ground where East Waterloo is now built and recalls many times the shooting of wolves and other wild game which roamed over that section.

        Mr. Virden recalls that the early settlers, while they often looked and longed for a familiar white face, were not lacking in an abundance of company. He says the wandering Indian tribes, the Pottawattamies, Winnebagoes and Mesquakis, were almost constant neighbors of himself. They seemed peaceably inclined as a general thing and he visited them and received them at his cabin. He says on only one occasion did he have his fears aroused. One winter a large band of Indians encamped on what is now the old cemetery grounds above Cedar Falls. In the early spring they had crossed the river to an island, and had tapped a large number of maples in order to secure the syrup for sugar. To carry the syrup form the trees the Indians had constructed a number of rude troughs out of butter-nut trees. A settler named Barrick claimed to be the owner of the maple grove, and in order to be avenged on the Indians for taking possession of the trees, this settler one night visited the grove and with an ax destroyed all the troughs and spoiled the plans of the Indians. The next day Mr. Virden heard the Indians were holding a council of war and that they were on the verge of starting out on a massacring expedition. He fearlessly visited their camp and secured an audience with one of the influential men, a man he had known for some time and who could talk considerable English. From this brave Virden learned the true state of affairs. The Indians were greatly incensed and the younger members of the camp were anxious to start out on the warpath, but their old chieftain, after talking to them a long time, convinced them that the murder of the whites would do no good. The Government he said had many soldiers and a massacre would result in the soldiers coming and killing all the Indians. The chief=s counsel prevailed and the Indians broke camp and moved south toward the Iowa River.

        Mr. Virden tells another incident relative to the Indians which shows that the red man=s appetite for whiskey or Afire-water@ was acquired at an early day. He had been away from home for a load of provisions and on his way home he stopped near Miller=s Creek, below Washburn, to let his team rest. While there a couple of Indians came out of the woods, approached the wagon and asked if Awhite man got fire-water.@ Virden had a jug of good whiskey hid under some of the provisions, but he informed the Indians that he did not bring any with him. They refused to believe him and began a search. Not wishing to provoke the redskins and hoping they might fail in their search, Mr. Virden did not interfere. It turned out that one of them soon spied the jug. Then there was a series of grunts of satisfaction and the second Indian, who had been standing guard with a gun while his companion searched for the fire-water, dropped the weapon on the ground. Virden saw that the Indians would soon become intoxicated and prepared to get away from them. While he was hitching up his team he stepped around to where the gun was lying and without the Indian noticing the move, picked it up and drove away. He says the red buck followed him for some time, pleading for the return of his gun and threatening all kinds of vengeance, but that he paid no attention to him and never heard from him afterwards.

        Virden also tells of a visit to a big Indian camp at the forks of the Cedar, twelve miles north of Waterloo, in the fall of 1847. The Indians were feasting and dancing and holding a big pow-wow in preparation to starting out on the warpath for their old-time enemies, the Sioux. They were Winnebagoes, Sacs, Foxes and Pottawattamies, and there were fully one thousand Indians in the camp. Mr. Virden had, the spring before, lost a valuable pony and suspected some of the wondering bands of Indians of taking it. His visit to his camp was to see if he could locate the missing pony. He was unsuccessful. The Indians welcomed him in a hospitable manner and he partook of their feast with them, appreciating it heartily until he learned that one of the principal dishes of which he had eaten was boiled dog.

        He remembers a band of fugitive Winnebagoes who were fleeing from a war party of Sioux braves who had defeated them in a battle near Shell Rock in 1849, came down the river one night and camped near his cabin. They carried their wounded with them and among the latter was an old man who had been shot through the back and was near death. The Indians started on south the next morning but they had only got to Miller=s Creek when the old warrior died. They made a grave for him there and Mr. Virden thinks the Cicero Close house was built in later years directly over the mound. The Indian graves were then made by the placing of the body in a sitting position on the ground with a blanket around it and the warrior=s gun crossing the knees. Around the body a small palisade of hickory slabs was built to protect it from the beasts of the forest and then dirt was thrown over it until the body was covered and a large mound raised. Mr. Virden says he and Charles Mullan found one other grave of an Indian in Poyner Township buried in this manner and that they removed some of the palisade slats and saw the skeleton, the decayed gun stock and red blanket of the red man. This grave was near where Benjamin Winsett=s cabin was later built. Two more Indian graves were located in what is now Cedar River Park, north and east of where the amphitheatre is located. An Indian child, which died one winter, was lashed in a blanket to a limb of a tree and hung there for several years. This was on the bank of Dobson=s Lake, northwest of this city.

        In speaking of the scarcity of game here now, Mr. Virden recalled that this scarcity was not noticeable during the early years of his residence here. He remembers when he stood on the main street in Cedar Falls and shot wild turkeys in a jack oak thicket nearby. The game seasons of 1846 and 1847 were remarkable, especially for deer and wild turkeys, but during the winter of 1856 the Indians slaughtered the deer in great number and they were scarce ever after that. The wild turkey was plentiful for some time and furnished rare sport.

        These are but incidents in the life of Mr. Virden in the then new country. They are interesting to a certain extent because none of them have ever been published.

        Mr. Oscar Virden, a brother, who resided at Virden=s Grove in Waterloo Township, also has spoken about how the Indians each year would set forest fires which would go roaring, devouring everything in their way across the prairie and through the timber.

        He told many interesting incidents of visits by Indians. They were always peaceable and always quiet except when they happened to go to Cedar Falls and somebody there would sell them whiskey. AIt was not unusual,@ said Mr. Virden Ato have one or more big Indians visit our cabin each week. They would come and beg corn and food. My wife and I would always invite them in the house and be as friendly to them as we could because we did not want to arouse their displeasure in any way. One afternoon a big buck came to the cabin door and knocked. It was a cold, wintry day and the Indian carried a gun slung across his shoulder. He told us that he had been on a hunting trip. He could not talk English very plainly, but managed to tell us that he would like to come in and get warm, also stay all night. I took his gun and hung it up in the cabin and my wife hurried about to get supper ready. The Indian brought his appetite with him and after eating most everything there was in sight he shoved back from the table, sat a few moments, then arose and said, >Me eat, then Puckachee (go away).= I got his gun and he thanked us and was off in the night. He rejoined his companions who were camping about two miles southwest of us.@

        Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Virden recounted many other interesting incidents concerning the visits of Indians to their cabin or of their presence in the neighborhood. While about thirty or forty redskins were camping or trapping along the Black Hawk, they decided to take their furs, of which they had secured a large quantity, to Cedar Falls to sell. At that time somebody at the Falls was willing, it seemed, to sell whiskey to the Indians and judging from their hilarity and queer capers they were cutting, Mr. Virden said they evidently had had an excellent time. When they returned to camp they had a terrible pow-wow and their yells split the air and went resounding over a goodly section of Black Hawk County. One of the braves, who was pretty tipsy, came to the Virden cabin and made his wants known in the following language: AMe want ten corns (ten ears of corn) to feed pony on. Me Iowa chief.@

        AIt seems to me,@ replied Mr. Virden, Athat you are riding a pretty poor pony for an Iowa chief.@ At this the Indian grunted and tried to smile, but he couldn=t make it out very well. Virden gave him the corn and he galloped away in the direction of the rest of his tribe. Next morning Mr. Virden went over the same route and found the corn strung all along the way and he said he didn't believe that the Iowa chief had a single ear when he reached camp.

        Oscar Virden was born in Kentucky but was living in Illinois when he was married to Miss Love Charity Powell, a native of Massachusetts, February 12, 1846. The couple came here about five years after their marriage and passed through all the experiences of a couple who go to form a new home in a new land.