I agreed to their terms. They thought the most of my patrons would pay me in cornmeal, and would agree to deliver the same to any mercantile house that I might designate in the town of Mt. Pleasant.

The Brazeltons, Corks, McMillens, Moores, Smiths, Alexanders and others were patrons of my school. They all owned big tracts of land, horses, cattle, sheep, swine and long rows of rail pens filled and heaped up with great big ears of yellow corn.

When my school closed I traded my produce to Mr. Alvin Sanders for such articles as I could wear. I remember with what fear and trembling I approached Mr. Sanders when it became necessary for me to dispose of my cornmeal.

He hesitated a little at first, and intimated that the supply might be greater than the demand. He seemed to think the amount of cornmeal I had to dispose of would exceed the requirements of the citizens of Mt. Pleasant. I think he noticed my embarrassment, and the kindness of his heart prompted him to take the whole lot and risk the chances of disposing of it. I have always felt grateful to Mr. Sanders for that act of kindness.

Mr. Sanders had the reputation of being a superior young man, both intellectually and morally. I was not surprised in after years to hear that he had "gone on to fortune and to fame." A sensation was created in the region of Mt. Pleasant that summer by the tragic death of the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith.

In August, 1844, I came with my uncle and aunt to Mahaska county, which has been my home more than half a century. We came in a big wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen. We traveled miles and miles without seeing a house. Oskaloosa was located on the eleventh day of May, 1844, in the center of the region called the "Narrows."

The Des Moines and Skunk rivers in their meanderings toward the great "Father of Waters" approached nearer each other at this place than at any other, they are not more than nine miles apart here, and that is the reason this place is called

the "Narrows." The country all about here was charming to behold when seen in its native state. When I first beheld it the prairies and sloughs were covered with yellow and purple blossoms. Groves were fringed around with sumach and hazel which were beginning to take on their red and yellow color. Deer skipped from grove to grove and there were prairie chickens by the thousands.

My first view of Oskaloosa was on September 14, 1844. When within half a mile of the town it suddenly loomed up in view, I stopped and counted the houses. There were just fifteen little log cabins, whose clap board roofs were not much higher than the "blue stem" grass in which they were nestled. Judge Joseph Williams held court in Oskaloosa when the grand jury held their deliberations in one slough and the petit jury in another.

Judge Williams was a character. Possessed of many talents, he was not only judge, but ventriloquist, musician and temperance lecturer. He played on the violin, composed his music and sang his songs. At the time of which I am speaking everybody lived in little log cabins. I can't think of a family who had more than one room, and yet they would have thought it very inhospitable to refuse shelter to strangers.

Most of these early settlers had made claims of half a section, and had brought with them a little bag of silver coin which they kept buried under their puncheon floors awaiting the land sales. They were self-denying, self-respecting, Godfearing men and women. In nearly every rude cabin was erected an altar to the living God. They ate their coarse food with thankfulness. I taught Mahaska's first school in the fall of 1844. That same fall, on October 13, was the first organization of the M. E. Church in Oskaloosa. I was present at that meeting and one of the charter members.

Many things I would like to say will have to go unsaid, this letter is so long I am ashamed of it.

for

Wishing the great Semi-Centennial Celebration may be a success from first to last, I am very truly your friend,

SEMIRA A. PHILLIPS.

EARLY STEAMBOATING ON THE IOWA RIVER.

BY H. W. LATHROP.

N the 20th of June, 1841, but five years after the first white settlers had located in this county, and when the population of Iowa City was but a few hundred, our citizens were startled by an unusual sound coming from the timber south of the city. The noise was not the howl of the wolf, the screech of the panther, nor the whoop of the wild Indian. It was oft repeated, and seemed approaching the city, and the listeners did not have long to wait to learn that the unusual noise was the puffing and whistling of the steamboat Ripple, Capt. D. Jones master, that had spent the night tied up to the bank four miles below, but was then on its way from Burlington to the Port of Iowa City.

The next day after its arrival the joy of our citizens found expression in a public dinner given to Capt. Jones and his officers and crew, which was supplemented by toasts and speeches suitable to the occasion.

Among the citizens most active in the matter were Jesse Williams, Territorial Auditor, Chauncey Swan, Commissioner to locate the capital, J. B. Newhall, author of "Sketches of Iowa," Jesse Bowen, afterwards Adjutant General on Governor Kirkwood's staff, Capt. F. M. Irish, and others but little less prominent.

Among the passengers on board were Wesley Jones, Moses Cramer, Jas. W. Neally, D. W. C. Barron and James Herron.

The Ripple returned with "five cases Iowa City marble, weight 20,000." Thus it reads on the original bill of lading now in the Historical Society's collections.

The next steamboat to reach Iowa City was Rock River, Captain Thayer, which came up April 21, 1842. At one o'clock the next day an excursion was taken by the boat, some fifteen miles above the city to what is now known as the "Old Capitol Quarry," from which was obtained the stone for build

ing the old capitol at Iowa City, and stone from it was used in the new capitol at Des Moines. A hundred or more merrymakers composed this excursion, including husbands and wives, and swains and sweethearts.

The boat made a second trip on the 9th of April with freight from Muscatine and Burlington.

On the 2nd day of March, 1844, Wesley Jones as agent, advertised that the light draught steamer, Agatha, James Laferty, master, would leave Burlington on the 7th for Iowa City. The trip was made as avdertised, and she took in tow a couple of keel boats as far as the mouth of the Cedar River, which were to be loaded there and taken back on her return.

On the 6th of June, the Maid of Iowa, Captain Repshen, reached Iowa City with a keel boat and both left in a few days loaded with freight, mostly corn and produce. Before leaving the Iowa River the keel boat grounded, swung around broadside to the current, broke in two and her 1,000 bushels of corn was lost.

The steamer Agatha, Captain Thomas, on the 22nd came up and took out a load of freight.

July 11th the Maid of Iowa made her second voyage, which she repeated in September, taking out 1,000 bushels of wheat, she was looked for to return in October and take out 3,000 bushels more, but a process in the hands of the sheriff at St. Louis prevented that return.

In the spring of the year, 1845, Charles A. Robbins built the hull of a steamboat on the bank of the Iowa south of the city, which was launched and taken to St. Louis to be completed, but it never came back.

During the first forty years of Iowa history every seventh year was a very wet one when all our creeks and rivers were bank full during the whole season and 1844 being the second in this septennial period may be counted as the steamboat year.

There was no more steamboating on the Iowa as far up as Iowa City till the high water year of 1851, when in the month.

of June a large steamboat came up from St. Louis, loaded with merchandise and tied up on what is now the Athletic Park. She made a second trip and brought up 300 barrels of flour for Harvey W. Fyffe, one of our leading merchants.

The next steamboat project here was the building of the steamboat Iowa City, by Capt. Wm. Reninger, Col. Harvey Graham, and Henry Sporleder in the year 1865. The wood work was built by Capt. Reninger and the boiler and engine by Col. Graham. She was one hundred and ten feet long, sixteen feet beam and was intended mostly for Iowa City trade, and during the three years that Capt. Reninger was master, Col. Graham engineer, and Mr. Sporleder clerk, she plied between Missisippi and Iowa River towns with headquarters at Wapello, often finding it difficult or impossible to get over the Buttermilk Falls in the Iowa in the south part of Johnson County. She was finally sold to parties in Davenport and used exclusively on the Mississippi.

In the late forties and early fifties, before the iron horse made his advent here, our merchants were in the habit of building flat boats and keel boats in the winter, and sending out in them on the flood tide in the spring to St. Lous, the pork they bought from the farmers at one dollar and a half to two dollars and a half per hundred, and the corn and wheat at ten to fifteen cents, and thirty-five to fifty cents per bushel. These boats were never returned, but were sold to be used in the Mississippi River trade. In this trade a boat was occasionally sunk with its cargo before reaching the Father of Waters.

WHO MADE IOWA?

HE most elaborate address of all delivered at the
Semi-Centennial Celebration was that of Hon. T.

S. Parvin, which, with the above title has since

been published in a pamphlet of fifty-two pages with twelve illustrations.