The history of the settlements in Linn county has been a history of struggle, of privation and of endurance. It was not an easy matter to have to go to Muscatine or Dubuque to mill and market; to travel by night on horseback some fifty miles for a doctor, and equally far to find a drug store. There were no roads passable for a greater part of the year; the rivers were not bridged, and the streams oftentimes were swollen so that the only means of crossing was by swimming or by making some temporary raft. The pioneer settler who wandered out over the prairie in a winter blizzard no doubt many times looked for the "smoke that so gracefully curls above the green elms" to indicate that a cabin was near.
The new settlers found Iowa as they had so often heard of it as "a wilderness of prairie land." It was well watered, and along the streams could be found enough timber to erect fences and furnish fuel and rails. They generally located in the edge of the timber and along the streams, and hesitated about locating on the prairie till much later. There they found richer land than along the timber. These first settlers came from the far east and south, Ohio, Indiana, New York, Virginia, South Carolina, and the New England states. They came from Maryland, from Kentucky, and Tennessee. Some walked, like Ellis and Crow. Still others came in canvas covered wagons, in which the family were housed. They brought enough utensils to cook their scanty meals. The wagon was drawn by horses or oxen, followed by a few cows, an extra horse or two, and several dogs. At night they would camp by the side of some stream or near an oak tree.
Not till the fifties and sixties did the foreigners arrive in any large numbers. As soon as they had been here a short time they wrote home their first impressions, and from that time a steady stream of foreign immigration poured into Iowa. These early pioneers waited long for railroads, for steamboats, and for good roads. Their produce was cheap and money was scarce, while interest was high. But they held on to their claims, ever looking for the brighter day. They possessed courage, hope, and the ability to wait and struggle till the times would change for the better. While many of the first settlers did not live to see their plans realized, later descendants sing their praises and embalm the memories of those who made the county, the cities, and the towns what they are today.
Truly it can be said of the settlers of Linn county that they were a sturdy class of men and women, of whom their descendants may be justly proud. And the old pioneers who remain—when they reflect on the past and recall the days of old lang syne—cannot refrain from shedding affectionate tears for those who have gone hence. They call to mind the lines of the poet:
"Two dreams came down to earth one night
From the realms of mist and dew,
One was a dream of the old, old days,
And one was a dream of the new."
Pioneer days in Linn county were days of hardships, often of exposure, but their trials only served to develop the manhood and womanhood of the early settlers who never thought of returning, whose "only aim was to wait and see."
Certainly Kipling's lines apply to conditions as they existed in Linn county in pioneer days:
"To the far flung fenceless prairie
Where the quick cloud shadows trail,
To the barn in the neighbor's offing,
To the land of the new cut rail,
To the plough in the league long furrow,
To the gray lake gulls behind,
To the weight of half a year's winter,
To the warm, wet western wind."