A (FUNNY) STORY OF EARLY PIONEER DAYS

I love a funny story, don’t you?  I came across the following article that was published in the Friday, March 18, 1903 edition of the Algona Courier and have to confess that it really tickled my funny bone.  The story clearly illustrates how much our ancestors loved pulling pranks and tricks on each other.  So sit back and enjoy a tale of marriage proposals and high jinks.

A STORY OF EARLY PIONEER DAYS

It is one that Should be Preserved in the Archives with those

Of Little Crow and Inkpadutah

Many interesting stories of the early days of Kossuth have been written and published, for which the people generally are grateful to the historians and no doubt future generations will also pay the tribute of gratitude to them.  They will read with consuming interest the stories of Little Crow and Inkpadutah, the Spirit Lake massacre, the hardships of early settlers from the inclemency of the weather, and their hair-breadth escapes from the scalping knives of the savages and the fangs and claws of wild animals.  But we think historians are too much inclined to magnify battles and warriors and to overlook the social side of history.  They should not neglect the growth of society and social life of the people, for in those features their history consists as well as in their struggles with human and animal enemies.  It is, then, to fill in between the sanguine chapters of Kossuth county that have been written, a short chapter of social life, that we essay this truthful and unvarnished tale.

From History of Kossuth County

published in 1913

Among the sturdy early settlers of Kossuth county there was none more sturdy or better fitted to grapple with the condition of frontier life than Samuel Reed who in early day moved from Illinois to Kossuth county and settled in Irvington township on the “Ridge” about six miles south-east of Algona.  He came to get good cheap land for himself and his several boys who were then quite young, some of them but children.  Mr. Reed was strong of body and of mind and being industrious and frugal he soon established one of the best country homes in the county.  He was known to all the settlers in the county at that early time and to many far outside its borders, and at about the time of which we write he was the sheriff of the county.  At that time there was but a small settlement about Irvington and Algona, one at Emmetsburg, at Estherville, and a few perhaps at Armstrong Grove.  Aside from those dots of civilization the country to the west and northwest was an unoccupied prairie.

As is the case in all new countries marriageable women were then very scarce in Kossuth, and distance was not as much of a barrier between neighbors and settlements as it is now.  Neighbors who lived ten or fifteen miles apart were quite intimate with each other, and some persons in the Algona settlement knew every person in the Emmetsburg settlement, and vice versa.  Under such conditions it is not surprising that Sam Reed was known far and near, and it is not surprising either that a good looking young marriageable woman was heard of a long distance from home.  And when the marriageable young woman was in the home of Sam Reed it is easy to understand how she was heard of even at Estherville.  The young lady that we refer to was a school teacher who was then teaching on the “Ridge” and was boarding at Mr. Reed’s.  It is not necessary for the purpose of this story to mention her name nor the name of the gallant who came all the way from Estherville, or somewhere in that neighborhood, to propose marriage to her.

It was one evening in midwinter in the year 18~ that a team with a lone man holding the reins drove up to Sam Reed's, and the man made enquiry as to whether he was at the right place, and being assured that he was he asked if he could stay overnight.  The Reed home was a hospitable one at which no traveler was refused food and shelter, and the man was made welcome.  When he had an opportunity he confided the object of his visit to Mr. Reed.  He said he was a widower and well-to-do for those times, and that he heard of the lady teacher and came there to propose marriage to her, though he had never seen her before.  Mr. Reed, always good-natured and willing to assist to every worthy enterprise, assured him that he would put no impediment in his way and wished him success.

The traveler was ushered into the house and introduced all around and presented with a little more formality to the school ma'am then to the others.  By some sort of mind-reading or mental telegraphy it was soon understood by the whole family what the object of the stranger's visit was, and no doubt the school ma'am's mind was as acute to the prevailing impressions as any one.  The family had supper as usual and after it matters and things in general were discussed, and the visitor being quite an intelligent man sustained his share of the conversation very creditably.

Among the very interested observers of all that was going on was the hero of this tale, B. F. Reed, a son of the old gentleman, then a promising youth in his teens, late editor of the Advance and not unknown to fame in other ways, and a hired man who was then working for Mr. Reed. They sized up the situation and enjoyed it.  Finally when the usual bed time arrived, Mr. Reed, after showing the stranger where he might retire when he got ready, quietly motioned all the others off to bed, leaving the stranger and the school ma’am sole occupants of the sitting room.  Ben and the hired man slept upstairs, and in order to utilize space the stairway intersected the partition or the partition intersected the stairway, so that the three lower steps projected into the sitting room. When Ben and the hired man were going to bed they left the door on the stairway a little bit ajar, and retired to bed in good order.  They listened intently to catch the thread of the conversation that they knew was going on below, but could not.  Finally the hired man suggested that they get out of bed and sneak down the stairway to the door and listen and peek there.  So out of bed they sneaked and down the stairway, Ben in the lead.  They did not bother to dress, and be it remembered that farmer boys in those times did not wear the long night robe that is so popular with some gentlemen now-a-days, nor did they even wear drawers.  Ben got his eye to the opening to see and his ear alert to hear, while the hired man stood above him and peeked also or obtained the situation second handed from Ben.  Ben saw the anxious and business-like suitor hitch his chair over nearer and nearer to the coy maiden, and he caught snatches of the story that he was pouring into her ear.  They maintained their position on the stairs several minutes, Ben all eyes and ears to what was going on below, but it seems that the hired man was beginning to feel cold or that Satan tempted him to pay a trick on his unsuspecting confederate, for while Ben was stooped over to catch every syllable that was spoken, he put his foot on Ben’s back and gave him a shove that sent him through the doorway and sprawling on the floor at the feet of the astonished couple. Their surprise and indignation may be imagined as may Ben’s shame and discomfiture.  He sprang to run upstairs, but lo, that fiend of a hired man was holding the door closed on the inside and he could not get upstairs or out of sight.  He looked in every direction for a place to hide as he tugged frantically at the door, but saw none and wished the ground would swallow him, when his friend finally took pity on him and let him up.

Benjamin F. Reed in a later, more dignified pose

What might have been the fate of the gallant widower’s suit had not this unexpected incident occurred at the crucial moment cannot be told, but certain it is that he utterly failed, and it is not improbable that to this day he is cursing the fellow who so unexpectedly and in such undress uniform broke in upon his eloquent and pressing plea to the object of his devotions.  The suit was all off for that night and the suitor went to bed in no very pleasant mood.  But he was not a man to retreat at the first repulse, and the next day he visited the school and took part in the recitations.  The class in arithmetic was reciting in mensuration, and he talked learnedly of acute and obtuse angles and of perimeters and diagonals, but all to no avail, for the fair teacher was obdurate and would give him no countenance.  He gave up the siege and returned to whence he came, and has since been lost to Kossuth people.  The young lady got married to another and lives not a thousand miles away, having reared a fine family.

When the news of this incident reached Algona it set the little town roaring with laughter, and so tickled was the last O. E. Palmer that he hitched up his team and took his friend W. H. Nycum, now also deceased, down with him to see the stairway from which Ben was shot as from a catapult into the presence of the lovers, and laugh it out on the spot.  

The writer of the article is not identified, but I agree with his observation that when we look back at the early pioneer days, we sometimes dwell on the obstacles faced rather than contemplate the humorous situations encountered.  All the photos I have ever seen of Ben Reed show him as an adult in a very dignified pose.  It is delightful to think of him as a teenage boy caught up in such a shenanigan. 

If you want to learn more about the Reeds and others who are buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Irvington, I cordially invite you to attend the monthly meeting of the Kossuth County Historical Society on September 4^th.  We will be conducting a mini cemetery walk during which you will hear some of the stories of the residents who rest there.  It all starts at 6 pm at the cemetery which is located on the south side of Irvington.  So bring your lawn chair and join us for a walk through Laurel Hill.

Until next time,

Jean

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