"Pollack and Stewart were the blacksmiths, and the carpenters and wagon makers were represented, but I can not recall their names. There was also a saloon kept by James Leverich, a brother of Joe, a respectable man and a good Mason. The inhabitants were mostly young people, John Weare, Sr., Deacon Kennedy and Porter Earl being the exceptions. I found three doctors already located, Dr. Mansfield, Dr. Traer and Dr. Larabee, the latter being what was called a 'steam doctor.' Isaac Cook and Henry Harmon represented the law.
"The town was by no means dull; emigrants were coming daily, and the saw mill operated by John Weare, Jr., was kept busy cutting lumber for the new houses that were going up. There was no church building, but Parson Jones preached in the school house, as did preachers of other denominations, and Sunday schools and Bible classes were in full blast.
"On the Fourth of July a grand ball was given at the Coffman Hotel, to which flocked young people from Marion and all the surrounding country; there were at least fifty couples. The beds were removed from our common sleeping quarters, which, decorated with green boughs, became a ball room. Every part of the house was crowded and the fun was fast and furious. Only one mishap slightly marred the festivities; near a stove pipe hole at one end of the room the floor was defective, and a husky reveler of more than ordinary weight while executing the double shuffle broke through and fell upon the heads below; no injury was done and the dance went on.
"Dr. Mansfield took me as a partner and in company with Judge Cook we had a room 10×16 in a small one-story building opposite the mill, the other part being occupied by S. L. Pollock and family; his blacksmith shop was nearby. Our medicines were kept on a shelf and a store box made a table; our bunks occupied one side and a few stools and two split bottom chairs made up our furniture. We took our meals at the Coffman Hotel; our field of practice embraced the settlers, not numerous, in the valleys of the Cedar and Iowa rivers and their tributaries; we made very long rides. I was called to see a patient two miles above the present town of Vinton not yet begun; I got lost in the night and waited for daylight under a tree on the bank of the river at the very place where Vinton now stands. Bilious fever and ague were the prevailing diseases, all the newcomers having to undergo one or both....
"We had mail three times a week from Dubuque and Iowa City; the Higley brothers did the service in a two-horse hack; I think Joseph Greene was postmaster. John Weare, Sr., was justice of the peace; he was a very original character, fond of company and full of interesting reminiscences extending back to the war of 1812 in which he had lost a leg. His small office was in the rear of Mrs. Ely's residence which stood on the ground where the Dows and Ely block now is. He gave 'nicknames' to many people and places which stuck to them like burrs; the First Presbyterian church building was begun that summer and as the walls were built of cement, Old Mr. Weare named it 'The Muddy,' which it retained to the last day of its existence."
Dr. Carpenter states how they tried to promote a railway from Cascade to Fairfield, held meetings concerning railway extensions, and appointed delegates from various counties to these conventions to discuss the matter fully and to authorize the government to donate land and have eastern people furnish the money. He says:
"Dr. J. F. Ely and myself were selected to go to Fairfield; we left Cedar Rapids on December 3 and after a three days' hard and cold travel reached Fairfield; Marion sent Col. I. M. Preston and Dr. Ristine. The convention met in a small school house; all the counties were represented; the Hon. C. W. Slagle, of Fairfield, then a very young man, was chosen president, and I was chosen secretary....
"We departed for our various homes thinking the work half done, but sad to relate Cedar Rapids had to wait ten years longer for a locomotive. These two meetings were, I think, the first railroad conventions held in the interior of the state. Soon opposition claims were started for east and west lines and our project was ignominiously called the 'Ram's Horn.' The next year was quite a stirring one; new people were coming in great numbers and many were leaving, for the California gold fever had broken out. Several outfits left Cedar Rapids, with one of them Dr. Mansfield, my partner, whose place was taken by Dr. S. C. Koontz, a cousin of mine, well known to the old citizens.
"That year the first brick buildings were erected; a dwelling on Iowa avenue, near Greene's opera house, and a three-story building on Commercial street by Judge Greene, which for a long time was the show building of the town; we began to put on airs.