ied past

A MOUNTAIN BOYHOOD

CHAPTER ONE

GOING WEST

Father and mother settled on the Kansas prairie in the early fifties.
At that time Kansas was the frontier. Near neighbors were twenty miles
or more apart. There was no railroad; no stages supplied the vast
unsettled region. A few supplies were freighted by wagon. However,
little was needed from civilized sources, for the frontier teemed with
game. Myriads of prairie chickens were almost as tame as domestic
fowls. Deer stared in wide-eyed amazement at the early settlers.
Bands of buffalo snorted in surprise as the first dark lines of sod
were broken up. Droves of wild turkey skirted the fringes of timber.
Indians roamed freely; halting in wonder at the first log cabins of the
pioneers.

In my father's old diary I found the following:

June, 1854.

Drove through from Iowa to Kansas by ox team. Located four days' drive
south of Portsmouth.* Not much timber here.

* Later Kansas City.

October, 1854.

Just returned from visit to our nearest neighbor, John Seeright, a
day's drive away. Took the chickens and cow along and stayed several
days.

Father told me that the early settlers did not like a region after it
got "settled up." He laughed heartily when he said this. It is quite
true nevertheless; as soon as a region became "settled up," the
pioneers were ready to push on again into the unknown. They loved the
frontier--it held adventure, hazard always, mystery, ofttimes, romance,
life. They moved ahead of and beyond civilization--even the long arm
of the law did not penetrate their wilderness fastnesses. Their
experience--so numerous books cannot hold them all--have become history.

It is not strange that my parents welcomed the gold rush of '59. It
called them once more into the farther wilderness, the vaster unknown.
When news of the finding of gold in the Rockies came across the plains,
legions of adventurers trailed westward. The few roads that led across
the rolling prairies to the Rockies were soon deep-cut. Wagons trains
strung out across the treeless land like huge, creeping serpents moving
lazily in the sun. Joyfully the adventurers went--happy, courageous.
They were the vanguards of civilization, pushing ever to the West.

To my lifelong regret, my boyhood came after the gold rushes were over;
the buffalo bands had passed for the last time; the Indian fighting
ended. However, these exciting events were still fre