transfer of land at cost, a pledge of money for our Literary Treasury. In my plan for taking up some 20,000 acres I was thwarted by my New York agent, who failed to purchase the Virginia land scrip, because it had gone up a few cents an acre after I left; he most stupidly wrote to me to know if "he should fill the order". It was then too late for the purpose, as on my location the land contiguous was at once taken up, and the great scheme was frustrated.

Mr. Farnum, of whom I have spoken, pleased with my choice, gave me courage by railway passes, and said he should counsel his sister and the Parks family of New York to be my neighbors, as they soon were. I received a complimentary check from him of a few hundred dollars three years after, when dollars covered the orb of a cart wheel, for attending and speaking on his behalf at a railroad meeting at Oskaloosa. I also was by him made a Director in his Iowa extension of the Rock Island Railroad, which office I held for several years. On our memorable tornado calamity he sent a large sum of money to the poor, and gave a thousand dollars toward our new college buildings.

When new surveys and intrigue threatened to change the line of the railway, he stood by me personally in words too complimentary for repetition, but not in too high praise of the people. Indeed, he was more than an incident in my unmerited good fortune, which I should be ungrateful not to acknowledge. His liberality in New Haven gives him great material fame. Personal favors will leave forever with me the impressions of a generous, noble gentleman, a wit, a Christian, the charm of any circle fortunate in his company. A most entertaining memoir has been written by his son, Professor Farnum of Yale College.

The critical epoch in our affairs was on my return from New York, in May. The new cabin was built, but I was strongly tempted by a large offer to part with the land; my throat was improved, the hoarseness lessened. New York friends had proposed with my aid to start a new Congregational Church by a removal to the fashionable Murray Hill. I have had good fortune in Iowa; New York is a possible maelstrom.

A LEGAL DISCOVERY.

George H. Norris of Illinois had bought the most desirable land, where West Grinnell now stands; and there was but one

opinion, that the school section, sixteen, could only be had at a regular sale and advertised; such was the judgment of Mr. Barnes, School Fund Commissioner. On a rainy day, looking up law points, I found a statute which allowed pre-emption of school land as under the old territorial law. The discovery I kept to myself until we could, by the letter of the law, begin as pre-emptors on the four quarter sections, and ask for an appraisal. Thereupon we crossed some poles and laid down a few boards for a camp on a chilly night, H. Hamlin on one, H. M. Hamilton and Dr. Holyoke on the others, and I by right of discovery slept on the north-west quarter, where nature had predetermined the railway station, there being a steep grade either way for miles.

Armed with affidavits according to law, Mr. Hamilton and myself found Mr. Barnes, the School Officer, who was surprised to read the law, but, long hesitating, made out an order for an appraisal; and, on the return of Squire Pierce, we gained the land for less than $2.00 an acre, for which as a town site I could have taken from a land syndicate many thousand dollars. Then came the new Plot, and my clear gift to the proposed university, after expenses of all kinds, as will be found in the recorded Genesis of our city. one hundred and sixty acres, divided into three hundred and forty-eight lots (not including the park) dedicated to the public. Next come the details of settlement.

CHAPTER VII.

Prohibition of Saloons-Pioneering Incidents-Rattlesnake Sermon Our Mail Service- First Law Suit

The Long HomeFoibles of an Enthusiast- First Fourth of July-First Cemetery Burial A Bell on the Prairie- The Church.

THAT the writer was an enthusiast, devoid of worldly-wise philosophy, was a common saying. He certainly did not choose the wisdom of returning to New York with great profits as a shrewd speculator.

It must be a confirmed fanatic, they said, that made, on sale of lots, a proviso against a saloon, namely, a reversion of the land to the maker of the deed, by the sale of strong drinks on a lot. The taunt was common, "You have laid out a one-horse town, but I will give three prices without the whisky proviso." Then judges, called very wise, caviled that "inhibition will not stand in law". I was immovable and confident that I had a right to make a sale with conditions not opposed to public policy and morals. Then a gift, virtually to trustees of education, made a stronger case. The sequel is well known. The supreme court of the United States decided a case arising in Greeley, Colorado, which made my heresy sound in morals and finance -even good law.

It was the knowledge of a young city without a saloon, which attracted eminently a class who are the best elements of society. They enhanced the value of property, while holding up more than a rush-light in darkness, where, in all the region, whiskey was plenty at twenty cents a gallon. We were a target for the sharp practice of a brood of revilers, up to the year of demonstration that we were not a "one horse city", but could support a college, and lead the way for a decisive prohibition majority in framing a state policy. Our radical plumes were honestly won, and are now proudly worn as the trophies of pioneers with conviction and

THE CABIN.

Look at that shanty. It provokes a "twice-told tale". Professional, educated gentlemen asleep on poles, covered with slats and straw ticks. A Nimrod bringing game, and the merchant a cook, as well as retailer of goods for the grove men. Food was never better relished, nor repose sweeter. We lived in anticipation of spring, the singing of birds, and removal to the prairie summit, where, without the fame of Romulus, or modern founders, we were to have home, city, school, church, and all accessible good with very little ready whiskey.

an

The house of Perry Matteson, Esq., near the grove where he now resides, was the rendezvous of the pioneer party until the erection of the first house-shelter, which was located in the grove near Sugar Creek. This deserves to be particularly noticedartist and an engineer, Mr. C. W. Irish, of Iowa City, having drawn it in correct outline, which is still preserved, as the home of the real spirits of an embryo town, preparatory to their removal to the noted house on the prairie called the "long home", which will be hereafter noticed.

This first cabin was built of dead logs which Hamlin chopped, Hamilton drew with oxen, and Dr. Holyoke as chief architect hewed into place; Griswold drawing the lumber for covering from a water-mill east of the present Brooklyn, of this county. Its dimensions were about fourteen by sixteen feet, and it served as cook-room, dining-room, land-office, hotel and sleeping-room for ten or twelve persons, the bed frames supported in tiers by pins, which were driven into the logs and covered by painfully gaunt straw beds. Amos Bixby, Esq., and Sumner Bixby, from Maine, Henry Lawrence, from Milan, Ohio, and A. F. Gillett, late of Western Reserve College, were soon added to the company. The next necessity was lumber, and a horse saw-mill was secured, which was set near by, on the land now owned by Mr. Marvin. This rude mill sawed out near 100,000 feet of lumber, owned by Mr. McDaniels. I was at this time acting commissary, and at Burlington, Iowa, bought the first bill of goods ever brought to the town, of Hon. W. F. Colbaugh, later President of the Union National Bank of Chicago, having been introduced by Geo. F. Magoun, late President of Iowa College. The full and heavy load was wagoned home by the purchaser and welcomed with a shout. It consisted of