During April, in the year 1835, great-grandfather Ezra Hawley and his wife
and two sons, Anson and Truman, started west from Bennington county, Vermont, in
quest of a new home. They made the long tedious trip in their covered wagon and
settled on eighty acres of land, namely, the east half of the southwest quarter,
section twenty, township 32 north, range two east, in Vermillion township, La
Salle county, Illinois. He later owned about four hundred acres of land in the
same vicinity.
When they arrived here the country was full of malaria,
but they had the true pioneer spirit and were not to be turned back. Prairie
grass grew so high that a man on horseback could not be seen in many places.
The only way they made fences at first was with great chunks of sod piled
one upon another, for lack of rocks. A little later they made rail fences.
At that time rattlesnakes were extremely large and plentiful. When plowing
they used to kill a snake every few rounds.
After settling here four
more sons were born to them — Franklin, Myron, Arthur and Hiram. Myron, my
grandfather, was born June 16, 1837. Arthur died of malaria when a young man
about twenty. Franklin died in infancy.
While they were still quite
young my great-grandmother would help shear the sheep, then card and dye the
wool. After washing it, she would then get busy with her spinning wheel. She
made all the socks and mittens they wore from this wool and even made some
comforter tops with it.
When Myron was about ten years of age he was
sent to Todd's mill at Lowell on horseback for some medicine for his mother.
While he was gone a terrific snow storm came upon him and he could not see the
way. He gave the faithful old nag the reins and thought she would take care of
him. After a while he discovered a light. Calling "Whoa!" to his horse, he
yelled, "Hello! Anyone home?"
The door opened, and imagine his
astonishment when he heard his father say, "What's wanted? Come in."
Myron and Hiram are both represented with families now growing up.
Sometimes as we sit and listen to the times gone by it almost makes us feel as
if we'd like to spend a vacation back in the days of old.
While the beef
was salted and hung up behind the stove to dry; the geese and ducks were roasted
and placed upon the table beside some of great-grandmother's apple butter, or
perhaps the apples were baked on a hearth, or when great-grandmother got out her
best dress, with its hoops and bustle and little white collar, or made some of
her best cookies, because company was coming, I believe I would have liked to
have been her company.
Great-grandmother brought with her some asparagus
roots and set out a bed on the place where they settled, and a small amount is
still growing there.
Fruit was not so plentiful as it is now, though
there were wild gooseberries, crab apples, wild grapes and wild plums. If anyone
found or raised a tree in those days, any friend that came along was welcome to
a sprig to start one, too.
Another queer thing to us are a few of the
expressions used in those olden days, such as "Tote the horse to water," "Hang
him up to hay," "The Yankee guessed," "The sucker reckoned." One called it a
"homely face," the other an "ugly face." In answer to the old-time greetings one
answered, "Quite well," the other "Nothing to complain of," or that he was
"Quite pert," the last word was pronounced with a long "e." An extra meal gotten
up for company was called "chicken fixings," while the ordinary meal was called
"common doin's." The Yankee "finished cultivating his corn," while the western
man "laid it away."
In 1837 they got about as much for their wheat as we
do now, as wheat went down to fifty cents, and no cash at that. Pork was one
dollar per hundred, and corn was 10c. Furs, hides, tallow and skins were the
only articles that would bring cash.
It is on record that Ezra Hawley
was a Democrat until the fugitive slave law was passed in Illinois, after which
he declared that he would give his support to the Whigs, and afterward to the
Republican party. He was a member of the state militia in Vermont, and was an
energetic and active man up to the time of his last illness, which was
pleuro-pneumonia.
Little did the pioneers realize how much the future
generations were going to cherish the memory of their many experiences. Neither
did they know that within a few score years the trail of the covered wagon would
be retraced with automobiles and aeroplanes; nor did they know that they were
laying so firm a foundation for La Salle county, that it would at this early
date, in many projects, be placed second to none.
Extracted 08 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from Stories of Pioneer Days in La Salle County, Illinois, by Grammar Grade Pupils, published in 1932, page 51.
| Lee | DeKalb | Kane |
| Bureau |
 |
Kendall |
| Putnam | Grundy | |
| Marshall | Woodford | Livingston |
