Pioneer Stock Farm
and
Late 19th Century
Agriculture
Compiled by Doris Bingham of the
Dunlap Historical Society, Inc.
primarily from memoirs of the Dunham family
This is an invaluable collection of Dunham family history! I apologize, also - I had to take the illustrations out for now because I just didn't have enough memory. Please note that I also put some of the stories I found particularly interesting in italics, so they'd be easier to find.
Dunlap Historical Society Inc. primarily from memoirs by members of the Dunham family. See Bibliography (at end of text).
Cover sketch by Barbara Culver
The Beginning
The Z.T. Dunham Pioneer Stock Farm barn stands as a monument to the "Golden Age of Agriculture" in the Midwest when family farms reached their zenith and the social and cultural patterns of the great middle regions of our country were being formulated.
The barn, a landmark guiding travelers in western Iowa for well over a hundred years, stands on a slope up from IowaÕs Boyer River in the southwest comer of Crawford County and just across the river from Dunlap in Harrison County. It was built to house the working horses of the Dunham farm.
The horse, which replaced the oxen of the sod-breaking pioneers, was the primary source of power during the last half of the 19th Century. It remained central to the farm operation until the introduction of the tractor around the turn of the century. The tractor and its accompanying acceleration in mechanized farm equipment would forever change the direction of agriculture in Iowa and across the country.
The barn was built in 1870 by Z.T. (for Zachary Taylor) Dunham, son of Cornelius Dunham, the first white settler in Crawford County. Z.T. was, at the time the barn was built, in partnership with his brother Sam to grow crops and raise and breed cattle and hogs.
Cornelius Dunham, who first came to the site in 1852, was born and raised at Martha's Vineyard on Cape Cod, Mass. As an adult he had moved progressively westward, a frontiersman accumulating cattle, hogs and know-how along the way. Z.T. was born in Jackson County, Iowa, where Cornelius had come to be known as "Hog Dunham" for his accumulation of that domestic animal which would one day be a prime agricultural product of Iowa.
In 1849, the summer before Z.T. was born in December, Cornelius set out across Iowa to stake out new land farther west. He filed his claim in what was one day to be Crawford County near what would be the town of Vail. This was virgin territory with no one but Indians in the area at that time. His wife, Margretta, followed the next year coming by prairie schooner with her five youngest children including the infant Z.T. and the family's hogs and cattle. Cornelius has been credited with introducing hogs to western Iowa.
Two years later, in the summer of 1852, Cornelius set out again to travel down the Boyer River Valley. He took some equipment, a few oxen and a helper and continued until he came to a wide expanse between woods where the grass was knee deep, water and timber were plentiful and the countryside "was pleasing to look upon." He found springs that fed the streams so water supplies were abundant. He found fertile soil which would be easy to till.
Again he staked his claim and, in preparation for returning the next spring, he cut some grass which was stacked for hay. Familiar as he had become with the hazards of the frontier, he plowed around it to prevent damage from prairie fires and he cut some logs and left them there to be ready to build a cabin on his return. The site was across the Boyer from where the town of Dunlap would be platted 15 years later.
Cornelius returned to the site in the spring with Margretta and the five youngest children. He left the Vail claim in the hands of an older son John. This would be the last move for the restless pioneer. Z.T. was then three years old.
At the new site, Cornelius built a log cabin in the timber patch with two rooms and two lofts. In each lower room was an open fireplace with sod chimney. A Dutch oven was hung on a wooden crane over the fire. Fresh venison, wild turkey or prairie chicken was available for those first meals in the new location. Once produce began to come in from the newly planted garden there would be potatoes and a variety of vegetables. Z.T. at the age of 91, recalled those early days of his childhood when he dictated his memoirs to his daughter, Carrie Dunham Widney.
The first claim of Cornelius Dunham at the new site was for 660 acres. Before his death in 1865, Cornelius would accumulate a total of 3300 acres through the Preemption Act, the Mexican Soldiers Bounty Act, and the Swamp Land Act.
Under the Preemption Act the land claimed was limited to enough land to provide a home for the claimant. The usual price was $1.25 an acre. Good land and bad sold for the same price and the "squatter" could stake a claim and pay later.
Under the Mexican Soldiers' Act the lands received by the soldiers at the close of the war with Mexico were placed on sale by them or their heirs and could be purchased for the price agreed upon by the holder.
Under the Swamp Act the settler was required to drain the lowlands by digging drainage ditches. For this work he received county script which could be exchanged for title of land as each odd section was set aside to be used for payment of drainage.
Cornelius used his surplus funds, after selling his produce, to buy as much land as he could at the land office in Kanesville, now Council Bluffs.
Squatter sovereignty prevailed from 1847 to 1853 and for a long time afterward because, as Z.T. reported, "a country without laws and courts becomes such unto themselves." It was necessary, he contended, for the settlers to defend the rights of each other in order to exist. So there was very little trouble with the "claim jumper." If anyone attempted to jump a claim, said Z.T., a written notice was sent by messenger or a note was tacked on the door of the cabin notifying him that if he remained in the neighborhood for more than a week "transportation to the pearly gates of Paradise would be given him without any expense on his part." This warning always received immediate attention and he usually left soon afterward.
When a new settler wished to enter lands at the government land office at Kanesville, a certain number of men who had a reputation for honesty would accompany the "squatter" or settler in a trip to the land office and see that his home was secured for him. There would be no charge to the settler but, according to Z.T. 's memoirs, the settler was expected to "set 'em up for the boys, once or twice, you know."
Much of Iowa's early farming practices stemmed from the availability of an abundance of cheap, tillable, fertile land. Extra time, effort and expense devoted to deep plowing, application of manure, and careful seeding and cultivation seemed wasteful when good farm land was so plentiful and cheap. Therefore a primary goal was purchase of additional land.
Building a Brick Barn
Brick has been part of man's history since prehistoric man began experimenting with dried mud and trying to solve the problems inherent in the material. The technique of making sun-dried brick or adobe dates from around 5000 B.C. It was known in Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, India, Africa and Asia, and is still used in some regions of the world where wood and other materials are not available for firing bricks.
The ancient Egyptians had knowledge of brick in some of their early pyramids and houses. They combined the use of sun-dried and kiln-dried brick. In America brick was a major building material from the start of settlement in the 17th century. Brickmakers and bricklayers brought bricks with them as well as ready-made designs for homes and fortifications as they moved westward.
Anywhere there was a shortage of trees, bricks of some sort would be used and thus it is not hard to understand the use of brick in early buildings in Iowa for trees were often scarce. On the frontier there were other advantages to the use of brick. With prairie fires always a threat, brick proved to be an effective safeguard.
Clay for bricks was usually dug near the site of the Proposed building. Leases on land containing good clay were sought after by brickmakers and increasingly, building speculators who were keen to cash in on the boom. Brick fields sprang up all over the country, in towns and villages as well as around major cities. Improved digging machinery and kilns were developed in the 19th century.
There were several brick kilns in Harrison and Crawford Counties in Iowa. One of the kilns was located on the hillside west and north of the Dunham barn on the Dunham farmstead. It was from this kiln that the bricks were made to build the barn as well as the home of Sam Dunham, brother of Z.T., who helped build the barn. The barn, built in 1870, is one of the earliest brick barns built in western Iowa.
Another kiln, located in Dunlap, was the source for the bricks used to build the church, which is now the McLean Museum in Dunlap. The bricks produced by these early kilns were softer than the machine-made bricks used today.
The clay was formed in wooden molds and air-dried before being carried by wheelbarrow to the kiln. A demonstration at the Living History Farms in Des Moines shows how early bricks were made in wooden molds.
The walls of the Dunham barn are four bricks thick at the lower level and three bricks thick at the upper level. The walnut hand-hewn beams inside the barn are witness to the craftsmanship of the Dunham brothers and family members who created the structure. A 40-foot walnut beam on the lower floor is testimony to the existence of at least some large walnut trees in the area along the Boyer. Due to the difficulty in getting nails, all joints were secured with pegs in a mortise and tenon construction.
The barn has other unique features. A trap door was built in the floor above each of ten horse stalls so that the farmer could drop hay or grain from the upper level to the mangers below. On the lower level a pulley and cable construction allowed a large manure bucket to be pulled along at the rear of the stalls and carried to a waiting wagon outside the- barn. From there it could be taken to the fields for an early fertilization practice.
To Market To Market
The challenge for the settler on the frontier in his desire to increase his holdings was to sell enough produce to buy more land. Many settlers had to depend on crops alone when they first arrived but Cornelius brought both hogs and cattle with him from his previous pioneering sites.
Twice a year a load carrying a wide variety of produce would be prepared to go to Kanesville (now Council Bluffs). The hogs, which would run wild all summer, would be rounded up in the fall and butchered. Meat was cured and piled in great tiers ready for market. Cornelius and his family made butter in big crocks, covered it with cloths and salt, gathered honey and made it ready, rendered lard and made many cakes of cheese. This was an art, as it required careful work. It must be rubbed every day and watched carefully for mold. Surfaces were greased and covered by thin cloth. Produce sold in Kanesville included ham, jowl, bacon, honey, cheese, butter, beeswax, tallow, maple sugar, wild and tame turkeys, geese for feathers, cow hides, hides from beaver, mink, deer, elk, wolf, coon.
The wagon would be full to overflowing. The roads were poor and the streams had to be forded. How to cross the swollen streams challenged the pioneer. He would fasten a large dry log, one to each side of the wagon, and force the oxen to swim across. The driver would swim by the side of the team to guide it. sometimes part of the cargo would float off down the stream. One time, Z.T. reported, the wagon became so mired in the muddy bank of the stream that Cornelius had to take the cargo out and the wagon to pieces and pull it out in sections, then assemble it on the higher ground and go on his way again.
The story is told in the history of Pottawattamie County that Honey Creek was so named because "Mr. and Mrs. Dunham became stuck in the stream and had to unload their produce and some of the honey floated down the stream."
In spite of all the effort, the produce sold by the settlers in the earliest days didn't bring much and the manufactured goods they wished to buy were often high in price and low in quality. They were lucky to get $7.50 per hundred pounds for their hogs, for instance, and coal oil was $1.40 a gallon. Later when the Mormons settled for a period of time in the Kanesville area, there was an increased demand for the produce of the settlers and prices went up.
Z.T. tells of his father's first shipment of hogs and cattle from Crawford County to Chicago in October of 1863. With a covered wagon and a team of horses, camping equipment and feed, Cornelius started out from the Pioneer Stock Farm with 40 steers and 200 head of hogs to drive them to Marshalltown, which was at that time at the west end of the C & NW railroad. The steers had been fattened on the native pasture and the hogs on rye mash and cornfields. Several fat hogs gave out and were allowed to return as they pleased to the home place and most of them made it back.
Cornelius and his crew made time of about 15 miles a day arriving at Marshalltown in about 10 days. The cattle and hogs were loaded on the train headed for the Chicago stockyards where they were sold on a favorable market.
Z.T. reports that Father Dunham was questioned about how the cattle were fitted. "Father, being very droll in his manner," said Z.T., "gave the following speech at a banquet the commission men gave in his honor."
"Gentlemen, the secret of fitting these cattle in Western Iowa is this: They are turned out to pasture early in the spring, the native blue stem grass being very nutritious with no disturbing insects. With deep cool springs and deep shade for resting, they continue to fatten until fall when frost kills the grass. Then we put a pair of green goggles on each steer and he continues to eat the grass just the same and continues to fatten."
On the following Valentine's Day Cornelius received a Valentine from the same commission men-a picture of an ox wearing a pair of green goggles. Cornelius loved to tell this story, his son reported, and it brought many a chuckle each time.
In 1864 the railroad was continued to Boone and Cornelius made another shipment from there to Chicago. Later in the decade the railroad came through to the growing settlement which in 1867 would be platted as Dunlap. The coming of the railroad each step along the way would change forever the frontier scene.
Cornelius died in 1865 and the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad reached Dunlap about the time of the administration of Cornelius Dunham's estate. It was agreed at that time that in consideration of a donation of a 20-acre town tract, a division round house, a large railroad eating house and railroad station would be built.
The arrival of the railroad to and across Iowa was, of course, a part of the extension of the railroad across the country eventually to lead to the Pacific coast. The railroad changed the marketing strategy for the farmer. He could now ship farm produce to towns and cities across Iowa and into other states. Therefore he could sell more produce and thus make more money. He could then buy more land to raise more crops and more machinery to farm that land. There would be an increasing need for communities and small towns would begin to grow. It also meant bringing in more manufactured products from cast iron stoves for the kitchen to McCormick reapers for the field. By 1880, Iowa had over 5,235 miles of rails, making it the fifth highest in the country.
The trains brought not only goods but people. Many came from Europe and many were farmers bringing their farming practices with them.
Life on the Farmstead
The early settler had to be self-sufficient. He had to depend on what he found in his new environment. The streams were full of fish. Nuts and berries were plentiful and prairie chickens and quail were abundant. Deer and elk roamed the prairie and there were still many buffalo. For a long time several low wet spots were commonly known as buffalo wallows-two of them not very far from the present town of Dunlap. Wild turkeys were plentiful and in nesting time they would come close to habitation for protection. When the broods were hatched and ready to look out for themselves they went back into the timber, coming back again close to food and water as cold weather set in. Many of the wild turkeys were tamed and Cornelius even had a herd of tame elk. A turkey dinner was common in the early days but like the wild fruits, the wild game disappeared to a great extent with the growing number of white settlers.
There was wild honey in the bee trees, maple sap was boiled down and made into sugar or syrup. Cane was planted and sorghum was a staple product for sweetening. The pioneers made a butter by cooking the sorghum and spices and pumpkin together. It made a palatable spread for cornbread or salt rising white bread. White sugar was so hard to obtain that it was seldom used except when company came.
Rings of dried pumpkins, apples and other fruits were strung and hung high from the rafters of the cabin for drying. The bread sponge was wrapped in blankets and tucked into the foot of the bed to be kept warm. There was no fast working yeast available so the pioneer women made their own by using hops and corn meal. If one needed soda, white ashes were taken from the firebox or hearth and dissolved in hot water. It made feathery biscuits or cake.
Milk cans were set in the spring so the water would keep them cool. Later on when the new house was built, a room in the basement was fixed just for milk. The milk was poured in rows of shining pans which were set on the cool cement floor. They were skimmed the second day. It was always cool in the basement even on the hottest day. Then came the water separator which saved much work as the milk was strained into a tall can set up on legs and an equal amount of water added and left for several hours for the cream to rise. A faucet at the bottom allowed the liquid to be drawn out until the cream came down to the glass gauge near the bottom.
In the early years bedding and clothing were a particular challenge. Dress was plain and simple. Men often wore clothing made of buckskin. Sheep were raised on many farms including the Dunham farm. The women would card and spin the wool and weave the fabric for warm winter garments. Other fabric was purchased in Kanesville. The women wore calico or muslin that had been colored.
The family menu consisted of corn bread, milk and butter, plenty of venison and pork, some wild game, vegetables which were tended diligently. A special meal might consist of roast wild turkey, gooseberry pie, plum pudding, vegetable, milk, honey, maple sugar, fried cakes, butter and cream.
The pioneer woman made candles from tallow by pouring it warm into molds into which a string of wicking had been dropped. This was a regular task each spring and fall after the butchering was done. Many would be needed for the long evenings, particularly in the winter. If they had no candles a rag in a dish of fat would be lit to give a fair light. Every scrap of paper was saved and twisted into tapers to be used to save matches which were hard to obtain and not of good quality. Starch was made by boiling potatoes and saving and straining the water. Some women used flour starch but it was not easy to get.
Lye was made by pouring water into a barrel of wood ashes and letting it seep through into a pan underneath. This made a strong lye solution and the soap made from it was hard on hands and clothes as there was no way to control the strength.
The four seasons determined the farm wife's responsibilities. In the cold weather months, she sewed and mended. Butchering was a task for the whole family. Each part of the hog was used, brains, liver, head, heart, feet and backbones. In the winter families also spent more time visiting relatives and socializing.
Springtime activities began with soap making. Kerosene eventually replaced candles and purchased yard goods replaced hand weaving as soon as it became available, but soap making was done at home almost until the turn of the century.
Spring also marked the time to clean and set hens in preparation for hatching chicks. Eggs were important to the family, both as food, and as a source of income. In most cases, the sale of eggs and cream in the new towns which were forming was the only regular source of money for the farm family. In spring women and children planted large vegetable gardens. Many families also maintained fruit trees.
The spring washing was a heavy task. Blankets were washed near the spring. Water was heated in a huge iron kettle. The blankets were washed through several waters by using a "stomper." This was a long handled tin funnel making a suction when pressed firmly. The blankets were then hung to dry on the rails of the footbridge or on the rail fence.
Summer and fall meant endless hours of weeding the garden and canning fruits and vegetables. Women also prepared meals for the farm workers during harvest. Women were required to prepare a large noon meal as well as a mid-afternoon snack. Eventually farmers formed "threshing rings" in which five to six families went together. to purchase a threshing machine and then worked together to thresh each family's grain.
The Children
The children shared in the work but, of course, found time to play. Z.T. tells of herding the sheep during the lambing season with his sister Martha when he was about eight years old. They took the sheep out into the woods and were to keep them from straying too far away. "We would carry our lunch and stay all day," he recalled. They would return the sheep to the corral at night, both carrying newborn lambs which were too weak to walk.
The song of the whippoorwill announced when it was time to go barefoot because spring had come. Z.T.'s daughter, Carrie Dunham Widney, recalled at a later date, "One little brown bird used to come nearly every night just at dusk, often so late we couldn't see him distinctly. He would sing his little throat out under the kitchen window. We would softly tiptoe out in our bare feet to catch a glimpse of him one by one they must have been preyed upon by larger birds or the timber may have become thinner for they gradually disappeared."
Carrie and her brothers and sisters often went into the edge of the timber to play but as it was very large and the underbrush was heavy they never ventured far. "We had been told many times about little Sammy being lost all night in the woods and we were afraid."
Z.T. 's brother Sammy had followed the men who were rounding up the hogs and cattle in the fall. He had been unnoticed by them and soon became lost. He was only nine years old but he didn't panic. He wandered on and on so sure that he would soon come upon some of the men. It grew dark, however, and he called and called but no one answered. The birds had been flying about until late and the squirrels and rabbits ran out of his path so he didn't feel alone but he knew there were wild animals in the forest and he needed shelter. He gathered sticks and brush, built himself a shelter and crawled inside. In the morning he ate berries for his breakfast and started out again to find his way home. Soon he heard his name called long and loudly and ran at full speed to meet the men he had tried to follow. They had been hunting all night for him while he slept peacefully in his shelter.
In the spring and early summer, the wild flowers were everywhere in the timber, Carrie recalled. The children climbed the hills and roamed along the creeks to see who could find the most kinds. Ferns were on the shady sides of the ravines, long fronded ones, dainty maiden hair and fine feather leaved ones. There were blood root, Dutchmen's breeches, white, blue and purple violets, jack-in-the-pulpits, Mayapples, Indian pipes, sweet Williams and lady's slippers. "That was truly the climax, to find a lady's slipper!"
Sometimes they would stand on a high hill and sing, yodel and wait for the echo to answer them. If it happened to be an owl that answered they would hurry home for they never felt that an owl was a friend.
The timber also provided a special picnic place. There were Sunday school picnics, school picnics, family picnics. Swings were put in the big trees, long makeshift tables were spread until they groaned with food. There were huge jars of lemonade and if it were late enough in the season there would be boilers full of roasting ears and piles of melons. The children sat on the ground and ate until they could eat no more. They rode to the grounds on hayracks and tumbled off in their haste to start games of horseshoes or baseball. They found the creeks with cool sandy beds and built dams and threw stones into the water and waded in the stream. Their elders had to watch that they didn't follow the creek and get too far away.
Games they played included hide and seek, drop the handkerchief, checkers, and horseshoes. In the summer they would swing and in the winter go sleigh riding. But there was no card playing. The older generation didn't approve of cards. [Emma hated cards because of her experiences at the army fort in Utah, when she was a girl.]
Carrie recalled they had a double swing on the maple tree in the yard. It had a platform about four feet long for a board. This had cleats on the bottom to hold the ropes in place. Two or three could swing at once if someone was good enough to push. They would shinny up the rope and slide down to the platform again. One day, she recalled, the boys gave their cousin a big push. She wasn't very adept at hanging on and she lost her balance and fell and broke her arm. That, said Carrie, was the end of the double swing. Still, she said, they had a big swing in another tree for many years.
Carrie, who was born in 1880, was the only daughter among the Dunham children until Jennie Margretta was born in 1891. Carrie said she learned to play with the boys. She didn't like to be called a sissy so she walked the beams of the big brick barn with the boys. They were 20 or 30 feet from the floor and she swung from one platform to another on the hay rope, "but I was careful not to look down and was always glad when my feet settled firmly on the other side. "
They found other kinds of fun in the brick barn. They poked bats out from between the brick walls and the rafters under the platforms to see them try to fly in the daytime. They built caves in the clay hills near the house and dams in the creeks and played Pirates and Indians. They always had one or two ponies which they rode to school and on which they did circus tricks. They would slide off when they were running, or stand up on their backs to ride "if no one stopped us." They were also adept at walking on stilts.
There was a large orchard so they spent a lot of time there during the fruit season. There were several kinds of apples, plums, and cherries. Huge bins were filled in the cellar every winter after canning had been done a good part of the summer. The winter evenings were spent about the big fireplace, popping corn, roasting apples and onions in the fire.
Carrie was taught to sew by her mother, first to overcast and then to make short stitches for hand hemming. If the stitches weren't neat they were ripped out and had to be done over.
Everyone shared in the work, said Carrie, and during the winter months they attended school every day at the country school nearby.
In the early years the Dunham children were taught by tutors at home. A designated number of hours was set aside for study and recitation. A few years later a log school was built on the second bench of land near the creek and placed so it was accessible to as many children as possible. Many of the early settlers' children were too busy to attend school regularly, but Cornelius and later Z.T. had strong commitments to education and found a way to get their children to school.
The rural school house often was the center of social activity for the community such as lyceums, literary societies, debates, exhibitions.
The schools were not graded for many years so the work was not uniform. There were few high schools until in the 1870s. Then they began to spring up in the town. With better school buildings and pleasanter surroundings came better teachers.
Hazards
The frontier was fraught with hazards. Grasshoppers would come in droves so thick that they hid the sun and after they had passed, the crops would be eaten to the ground. There were prairie fires, storms, blizzards, and the Indians to plague the settler.
The weather was always a challenge. Extensive preparations for winter included getting simple things like wood and water for the family which might be snowed in for days miles away from anyone else.
The landmark year for many pioneers was the winter of 1856-57 when the great snowstorm swept over this region. It began to snow on Dec. 7 and continued steadily for three days and three nights. The ravines were full, however deep they might be, and the snow lay several feet deep on the level. Then a crust froze on top and the deer, elk and wild game became entrapped by breaking through the crust. That made them easy prey for wolves and other preying animals. The winter was so hard on them that some became almost extinct in a few years. The settlers suffered because of their lean provisions and the scarcity of wood. They were ill-prepared for such weather.
The absence of doctors in the locality for many years added an additional hazard. The pioneers had to trust in home remedies which often failed. In 1854, Jasper, a boy of 8, the second son of Cornelius and Margretta, became ill and died "from eating too many dried apples." This was the first death in the Dunham family in the new location. It was necessary to determine a burying ground. Mother Dunham wanted to carry him to the top of the hill south of the cabin and this became the first burial in the new Valley View Cemetery.
The prairie fire was one of the most dramatic of the frontier hazards. The blue stem prairie hay often grew higher than "a man's head on horseback" and covered great stretches. Other vegetation also grew high and in the fall of the year fires would sweep across the country and destroy everything in their path. Fences, crops, hay stacks and cabins would be swept away unless the farmer could call help in time or had made proper precautions.
It was an exciting time, Z.T. later recalled, to have a fire get started in the great hay fields or the meadows before the river was dredged and the land converted to fertile farm lands. Barrels of water were loaded on wagons and sacks piled in beside them. All the men available hurried to fight the fire to save the many stacks of hay in its path. They would fight furiously for many hours. The men would be black and dirty and exhausted. It would be worse if the fire were at night. There was always fear of being trapped in a fire pocket but Z.T. said no lives were lost in this manner at the Dunham farm.
Cornelius learned to control damage from the fires by plowing fire breaks with his 36" breaking plow. In 1865 he started a project to thus encircle all his acreage. The plan was to break a head land 20 feet wide enclosing up to 1,000 acres and continue until several thousand acres were encircled. He would seed the plowed fire break to Kentucky blue grass for late pasture.
The project, which was started in May of 1865, resulted in a break between father and son. The camp for the men creating the fire break was a movable corral which was used for the 20 oxen that pulled the plow. There was also a covered wagon with cooking utensils and water containers. The rule was that the oxen were to be yoked and hitched to the plow ready for action by sun-up, the circle made by 11 a.m., and then the oxen unyoked and turned out to pasture.
After dinner was eaten they rested until sundown when the oxen were corralled and supper eaten. Z.T. Dunham, then about 15 years old, with Frank Dudley, a hired hand about 20 years old, were to do the plowing. Cornelius led the breaking circuit riding a horse. One morning in the course of the project, Z.T. was ordered to an early morning task and replied disrespectfully to his father. "Obey or leave home," Cornelius said. Z.T. chose to do the latter and went to live with a half brother in Woodbury County.
He never saw his father again for Cornelius died on Oct. 5 of that year. But he had continued the firebreak, put up some 500 tons of hay and bought an additional 241 cattle. Z.T. was called home at the request of his dying father but he arrived too late.
Native Americans
The mound builders in the Midwest of America have confounded archaeologists for centuries. [Just joking on that last link - click here instead!] Many theories have been advanced but their origin remains a mystery. Some authorities believe the mounds were created by the ancestors of the American Indians. Others feel they were put there by a race of men preceding the American Indian. Several groups of these mounds have been found in the Crawford County area along the Boyer River. A few were opened and remains of human beings were found indicating that they were burial places. Z.T. reports that there were three of these mounds on a hill at the home place. Cornelius would never allow them to be opened, however.
It was a known fact that the site where the farmhouse stands was once an Indian campground. The Indians had hunted over the land for many years before the white men settled here but there is no evidence they ever established villages in this area. They continued to use these campsites for a long time even after the cabins of white settlers were scattered over the prairies and roving bands of Sioux would return to the old hunting grounds along the river. They could not like to see white men hunting and trapping along the streams which had belonged to them and their forefathers for untold centuries.
The Native Americans had no concept of ownership of land. The land was free to all like the air and the water and ownership rights were not involved. It was some time before they recognized that the oncoming white men were going to displace them but when they did there was inevitable retaliation.
Settlers, of course, looked on the Indians from a different perspective. They were annoyed by the Indians, whose campgrounds had been taken over, because they begged for food when the hunting became too slim to support their families. Sometimes the Indians would try to trade furs or blankets for corn meal, sugar or tobacco.
When Cornelius first arrived the settlers were few and there was little trouble but the Indians grew increasingly bitter as more and more white men came and the freedom of movement the Indians had enjoyed was severely hampered. Indian raids alarmed the settlers, who were so scattered that adequate protection from them was impossible.
Z.T. reports that they sometimes entered the cabins in bands of ten or 12 eating or carrying off whatever they wished. If they found the door fastened they broke it down and took whatever pleased their fancy. One time, Z.T. recalled, they took a huge feather bed. Outside they ripped it open scattering the feathers to the wind and carried off the empty tick.
They stole pigs and chickens, which they roasted for feasts at their campsites. One time, when they were celebrating, a group of 20 settlers, who were angry because the Indians had stolen a pony, decided to surprise the revelers. They had intended to wait until morning to surprise the Indians but one man conceived the idea of surrounding the camp and shooting their guns simultaneously not merely to surprise the Indians but to arouse and warn other settlers.
The Sioux, hearing the volley, broke camp and fled into the grove north of the Dunham farm. The settlers waited until daylight to follow and attack but found the Indians had plundered cabins during the night and had fled eastward. They tracked them by the footprints of the pony and pursued them as far as Des Moines. They regained the pony at last by bribing one of the Indians to bring it out of the camp after dark.
Another time the Indians stole several head of horses which were scarce and valuable to the settlers. They were quite sure which Indians were responsible. The settlers formed a posse of 15 well-armed men and set out to regain their horses.
The Indians, feeling quite secure after a day or so, stopped to rest and eat near a creek at Primghar. The men caught up with them and decided to attack at once although they were outnumbered two to one. The Indians leaped for their guns and returned the fire but were soon routed out by the heavy firing of the posse. No one was killed but several Indians were injured. They were helped to their ponies and taken away. The settlers followed them clear into Minnesota, getting aid from some soldiers stationed at Cherokee. But the horses were never recovered.
In her memoirs, Carrie Widney quoted the Rev. William Salter who described the Native Americans of Iowa as the settlers perceived them in a book entitled Iowa, the First Free State of the Louisiana Purchase. He wrote: "Rivers were the Indian's highways of transportation in
canoes of birch bark. They were of graceful construction, built without hammer or nail but strong, of large carrying capacity, yet so light they could easily be carried over a portage from one river to another. Their tools or implements were shells, fish bones, bones of wild animals, clubs and spears of wood. They have no idea of construction with sand and stone or how even to build a chimney. Their tents were put up with poles and sticks covered with skins or mats made of bark and rushes. Their clothing was made of skins. At feasts and on show occasions they smeared themselves with paint and put feathers on their heads, strung bear claws about their neck. They made fire by rubbing bricks together. Their subsistence was from hunting and fishing in which they were expert, and from little cornfields and melon patches cultivated by the squaw. The men hated labor. When they moved, the women carried the packs. To hunt, fish and pursue the enemy was the life of the men. They dressed the skins, jerked the buffalo meat, and put up lodges at night."
The Indians frightened the settlers with their curdling war whoops and robbed them of much of their belongings before they could recover from their fright. Many settlers were so afraid of the Indians that they returned to their old homes. Of course, said Z.T., some settlers were homesick and needed but little to give them the incentive. Many times the Indians were friendly and only came to ask where the trails were that led to Kanesville where there was an Indian settlement. But the women were very afraid and often they spent much of the day, when the men were away, in the woods where they felt safer.
In 1857 a "massacre" of settlers in Spirit Lake, Iowa, by a group of renegade Indians, created a lot of fear and there was serious trouble as far south as Smithland and Mapleton but no serious trouble in this area.
The Indians were fearful of the white man and retaliated against his appropriation of Indian lands but they also continued their long-standing hostility to members of other tribes. Cornelius told the story of meeting some friendly Indians when he was returning from St. Louis after delivering a boat load of dressed cattle in 1860. The river was frozen over so he had to return over land. He bought a pony and started back sleeping out when it was necessary. He bought some moccasins from the friendly Indians. Later he met another band from a tribe unfriendly to the first. They noticed the moccasins (and recognized the handiwork of an enemy). Cornelius pulled them off and handed them to the leader who tore the moccasins into shreds. These Indians then gave him another pair from their own tribesmen.
The hostility between the tribes continued long after they had been banished to reservations. There were three separate tribes in this part of the country, the Omahas, Winnebagos and Sioux, who were not friendly to each other. The first two tribes combined their forces against the Sioux and drove them eastward and north.
Z.T. reports that the Indians often visited the cabin of his parents and sat by the fire. A few times they attempted to carry away some of the dried pumpkins or apples hanging in sight. Margretta would remonstrate with them and make them put the food down but, being very kind and feeling sorry for them, she gave them some flour and side meat instead.
Z.T. 's daughter Carrie remembers one time when she was a young girl her mother left her to care for the younger children while she went into town. They were sitting on the front porch cutting and pasting pictures when she looked up and saw a renegade Indian and a few braves coming up the front steps into the yard. He looked as "huge as a giant from a fairy story," she reported.
"I was petrified at first, but knew we must do something very quickly so I grabbed my little sister and told my brothers to follow. I hurried into the house with them, fastening the screen securely, and hid them in the outside cellarway. Then I braved the Indians and went to the door, nearly scared to death. They made their wants known by saying 'Good mudder, good meat.' Mother had followed the example set by Grandmother and had always insisted that if they were treated kindly they would never hurt anyone and had always given them something. I tried to give them corn meal but they couldn't accept and said they wished meat and flour. I called to my brother to sneak out to the smoke house and get a piece of cured meat while I held them on the porch by saying I would get some flour for them. We were exceedingly generous with both meat and flour and were much relieved when they took their departure thanking us heartily for our gifts.
"They came to our house many times later and sat by the fires silently but it was always an unpleasant experience for the children. The older folks seemed to have no fear."
One renegade Indian called Yellow Smoke was involved in a barroom brawl on Smoky Row in Dunlap. That's about where Cogdill Farm Supply is today. Yellow Smoke was murdered by a white man who was never tried for the incident. His tribesmen carried his body to a site near Manteno where it was buried. It was a tribal custom to visit the grave at least once a year and for years afterward followers came and camped along the river.
It should be pointed out that the Yellow Smoke who was murdered in Dunlap is not the same Chief Yellow Smoke who passed on the "sacred pole" and after whom Yellow Smoke Park in Denison is named. That Yellow Smoke died after the turn of the century and his grave is in Macy, Nebraska.
Dennis Hastings of the Omaha tribe in Walt Hill, Nebr., reports that Yellow Smoke was a common name in the Omaha tribe. Hastings told a reporter from the Dunlap Reporter in 1992 that he had heard of the Yellow Smoke who was killed by an unknown assailant in a Dunlap bar. That Yellow Smoke was a gambler and something of a renegade, said Hastings, which fits the description of the man which has come through many sources from individuals who have told stories about him. Hastings said white men often called an Indian off the reservation Chief, particularly if he seemed to be leading a group of his fellow tribesmen.
Emma Lane and the Mormon Migration
One bright April day in 1861, several wagons filled with house wares moved along the creek and came to a halt in front of the Dunham cabin. Children clambered out. Almost immediately a stone zipped past the ear of one of the young girls so close she could feel the breeze. She looked around and saw a gawky tall thin black-haired boy near the creek bank grinning at her. She returned the grin, accepted the strange welcome, and a friendship began that would later ripen into something greater. The young girl was Emma Lane and the boy was Z.T. Dunham.
Emma Lane was the orphaned daughter of Mormon migrants. She had arrived with Jason and Margaret O'Banion. Margaret was Z.T.'s sister. Jason's brother, Jim, had included her with his children on the long trek from Salt Lake City back to Iowa.
Emma Lane was born on May 11, 1850, at Kanesville where the Mormons stayed for several years after leaving Nauvoo and on their way to Salt Lake. Her parents were of English descent. Her father, William W. Lane, was an elder in the church and a leader in the planning of the pilgrimage across the plains to the "promised land" as it was called. She was still a very young girl when she left Kanesville in one of the many caravans to cross the trackless frontier. All classes of people were included among the followers of Brigham Young and all sorts of vehicles were used to carry their belongings. Emma Lane's people were in some ways fortunate as they had a covered wagon pulled by horses which was quite complete as to conveniences.
But conveniences didn't protect the migrants from cholera which struck the band and took away many of all ages and ranks. One of the first to die was William Lane, Emma's father and leader of the band. The grief-stricken travelers rallied their forces, cut a tree, peeled the bark and made a casket. They buried him on the trail, planted a tree at his head and were again on their way. After four more days on the journey Emma Lane's mother also got cholera and died and again they cut a tree and buried her in the same manner. Hundreds of the group died. Some despaired and turned back.
Emma followed on with the rest of the band until they reached Denver. There she was left in the home of her half sister whose husband, Jim O'Banion, was a freighter from Denver to Omaha and back and whose family were settlers on the Boyer In Iowa. There were three children in the Denver family and Emma helped with their care and went to school. Two years later tragedy struck again. The mother, Flora, died while the father, Jim, was on a trip to Kanesville. When he returned the grief-stricken father took his family along with Emma to his wife's relatives in Salt Lake City.
There were some problems at the Salt Lake City settlement and some of the younger generation decided they couldn't agree to many of the decrees of the church. Jim O'Banion was one of these. After a year in Salt Lake he decided to go back to his own people In Iowa. He sought help from the U. S. Army at a fort [probably Camp Floyd], as it was not easy to break away from the Mormon community. He and his family including Emma stayed with the Army for a short time until there were enough "backsliders" for a caravan the Army would protect. Emma hated playing cards ever after from watching the soldiers play and fight over the cards and sometimes shoot one another.
They arrived at the home of Jim's brother, Jasper O'Banion, in the fall of 1861 and spent the winter near Woodbine. They moved to the Dunham vicinity the next spring. Jasper's wife was the oldest daughter of Cornelius and Margretta Dunham.
It was on their arrival at the Dunham place that the meeting occurred with Z.T. From here on their paths crossed and recrossed. Emma continued to live with Jasper and Margaret O'Banion and their family in a cabin on the slope above the Dunham cabin. She spent a few months when about 15 years old helping Margretta Dunham and then was sent to school, working for her board and room for a few years. She attended the first high school in Dunlap and spent one winter at Little Sioux in the home of an old tutor of the Dunham children. She became very lonely and homesick there.
One of the highlights of her school life was when she was able to attend a boarding school at Ames. When she returned to the home community, she taught school in a new log building until the friendship begun in childhood culminated in marriage with Z.T. on Sept. 12, 1871, and she became mistress of the big white house on the hill.
Z.T. and Emma had seven children including Artz, Clifford, Frederick, Carrie (who would one day be Carrie Widney to whom Z.T. dictated his memoirs), Ralph, Clark and Jennie Margretta. They were married 71 years. Emma died in 1942 at the age of 92. Z.T. died in 1945 at the age of 95.
In addition to Emma Lane, there were numerous Mormons who found their way to this area from Council Bluffs. Some of them were members of a dissenting group which rejected some of the ideas of Brigham Young. They were followers of Joseph Smith, however, and formed under the name Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints.
The Golden Years - The Bull and the Bear
When Z.T. was 20 years old, his father's estate was settled. He received 900 acres of land. After building the house and settling with all the heirs there was not much cash left. The lands were mainly unimproved and money was scarce. The legal interest rate was 10%. The McHenry Bank at Denison and the Dunlap State Bank were loaning short time loans at 2% a month, taking interest from the principal - you got $86 in cash for a $100 loan and gave a note for $100 drawing 10% interest, making the actual interest rate 24%.
Z.T. formed a partnership with his brother Samuel and together they built the Dunham barn for working horses. The partnership was not long-lived, however, as they had differing interests. Samuel got married and pulled out of the partnership. Sam took an interest in the breeding of horses and Angus cattle and Z.T. was interested in Shorthorn cattle and Poland China hogs. Z.T. traded a timber tract for a Teeswater Shorthorn cow and began the breeding of purebred Shorthorns.
With the open country filling up with new residents and the cattle pastures receding, he began buying more land, adding about 2,400 acres to his original 900 acres. He started a cattle ranch about five miles west of his home and located a herdsman and 300 cattle on this land, crossing Herefords with Shorthorns. He contracted the bulls with the western ranchmen of Texas, Colorado, Nebraska and Montana, selling breeding bulls at $100 per head. In 1883 a new breeding program was started. Z.T. had some cows of the Shorthorn type on his farm which were hornless. Cornelius had brought their precedents from Jackson County in 1850. They were excellent beef and milk cows. While riding through the pasture he found one of these cows with a fine red bull calf. The calf's sire was a choice purebred Shorthorn bull. With this newborn Polled Shorthorn bull he decided to start a new herd of Polled Shorthorn cattle. He began with the bull, Zacharia, his mother, and several of his sisters and several of the best Shorthorn cows and developed the Polled Shorthorn breed.
A 1939 Polled Shorthorn sale catalog reviews the history of the Polled Shorthorn herd developed by Z.T. over 50 years previously.
Although the last half of the 19th century is sometimes called the "Golden Age of Agriculture," farming then, as it is today, was fraught with hazards not only from unpredictable weather but from a shifting and undependable market.
In the late 1880s Z.T. ran into difficulty. His market for bulls in the western states collapsed and he was deeply in debt. Depressed farm prices during that decade contributed to this economic problem. He sold his cattle Oct. 27, 1867, closing out the Herefords and Angus, the main part of the Shorthorn herd and part of the Polled Shorthorn herd. He settled with the Dunlap bank but the land was mortgaged. The resources from the farm would not meet the interest and taxes so part of the land was sold under foreclosure.
A friend, Lorenzo Kellogg, a businessman in Dunlap, redeemed part of the land and leased it to Z.T. with the understanding that he would deed it back to him within ten years on payment of the principal and interest. With the help of his brother, Z.T. was able to retain a good foundation for a herd of Polled Shorthorn cattle, some hogs and farm utensils and begin farming again. There were still some other debts that had to be met and creditors were waiting to collect. To protect the foundation for a new farming operation he voluntarily took bankruptcy with the full purpose of paying all honest claims. "This was finally accomplished with much privation and hard labor. He gave much of the credit for this to his wife, children and friends," Carrie Widney reported.
The Tractor and the New Century
The introduction of the gasoline powered tractor marked the beginning of a vast change in agriculture. It marked the beginning of the end of the self-sufficient farmer. The first tractor was marketed in 1896 but it took some time to catch on. Farmers' attitudes changed slowly. Smaller farms were often sold to larger farm operators because the smaller operators could not afford the cost of the big machinery. From 1900 to 1920, of the 99 counties in Iowa, the population of 71 went down, while 28, mostly with larger cities, made gains. By 1920, Iowa had over 60,000 tractors, the second highest number in the U.S.
Eventually this would become a threat to the family farm of the "Golden Age of Agriculture." It would affect the small towns of the plains because there would be fewer farmers to support businesses and fewer laborers needed during the harvest season. Many farmers would seek jobs elsewhere as a second source of income. Wives too would work off the farm.
Today the Dunham farm land is farmed by renters. Ken L. Dunham, great grandson of Z.T., and his son, Ken T. "Bud" Dunham earn their living by operating the Dunham Hardwoods company which ships in fine lumber from the east, cuts it, dries it, and sells it throughout the west for cabinet making and craft and hobby products. Dunham Hardwoods is located where the original cabin was built by Cornelius Dunham.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Archer, Doug, Agriculture, Fargo, OJ., 1985. Dunham Centennial Farm Questionnaire.
Dunham, Emma Lane, Aunt Emma's Trip West, as told to Jessie M. Rannells. Dunham, Jean, Dunham Family History, unpublished manuscript.
Dunham, Z.T. and Sons, "History of Z.T. Dunham & Sons' Polled Shorthorn Herd," Polled Shorthorns, sale catalog, 1939.
Dunham, Z.T., Life Story of Zachariah Taylor Dunham, as told to Carrie Widney, hand-written manuscript.
Dunlap Reporter, 125th Anniversary Edition, "Many Versions on Death of Old Yellow Smoke," July 2, 1992.
Plumridge, Andrew, and Wm. Meulenkamp, Brickwork-Architectural Design. Widney, Carrie Dunham, hand-written manuscript from stories told by her father, Z.T., and from her own memories and research.