My father and family came from Ohio, arriving in Mount Ayr in the old stage coach at sunrise on Saturday morning, May 10, 1864, a worn-out father, mother and six children, the youngest, one month old.

The nearest railraod was at Eddyville, Iowa, where we took the stage coach for Mount Ayr. Mother's brother lived near where Benton is now. He came for us, then the next day went with father to hunt a farm for sale, or rent, but it being so late in the spring, they could not find nothing but a tumble-down log house with three or four acres of land which father had to rent. Here in this old log house we were visted by a whole drove of Indians. They asked mother for a drink. She told them we had had no water as whe had no well. They said, "You have no water long." Mother was scared as she thought they meant they would kill us. A man came by after they left and mother went out and told him. He said, "They will not harm you, they meant it would be dry with no rain." In a few days they went back. We counted them and we counted forty of them. They always walked or rode in single file, one behind the other.

A few weeks after this, father and mother went to Mount Ayr and left me and the two younger brothers at home. About 11 o'clock three Indians walked in and threw down a pile of guns, tomahawks, knives and ammunition in the middle of the floor. They never knocked.

One was an old chief, one an interpreter, and one a plain Indian. They wanted dinner. I was afraid to refuse them so made biscuits and fried meat the best I could as I was only eleven-years-old. They roamed around hunting to see what they could find all the time I was cooking. When they got done eating, the old chief picked up the meat platter and licked the grease all off. Then they offered to pay for their dinner. They showed me thirty-cents in money and a great wide ribbon, plaid in flashy colors. They asked me which I would take. I said either would do, so they gave me the thirty-cents and picked up their arms and went away.

Oh! How glad we children were.

There were two neighbor women who saw them come. one took her baby and ran to the field where the men were. The other pulled in her latch string and hid where she could watch what they did to us, as she expected we would be dragged out and killed.

The schools at that time in Ringgold County were very poor. Teachers had very little education. We would start in at addition, limp through subraction, multiplication and division in Ray's Practical Arithmatic, then swamp in cancellation. Then turn back to addition and go over it again. The teachers could go no father.

In the early 70's, the Mount Ayr schools were changed from a two-room school to a three-room school under the very able management of E. J. TURNER as principal. From that time on, Mount Ayr schools flourished. I attended the Mount Ayr school the winter of 1871-72.

In 1865, father bought 80 acres of land in Benton Township and 80 acres in Grant Township. Forty acres was timber so he had lumber sawed at old Marshalltown, Ringgold County, and built a house, doing the carpenter work himself. In the spring of 1866 he bought two yoke of oxen and broke it up himself. He sold one yoke when he got the breaking done and kept the other. They were fine and sleek and took first premium at the Mount Ayr fair two years in succession. They were very gentle and the boys broke them to ride with saddle and bridle. They were ten-years-old when in the spring of 1872 I heard of a school six miles from home at a good wage and wanted very much to try for it. Father's only horses were a team of mares and they had young colts so I could not have either of them. I worried the whole family for a couuple of days and myself too. So my ten-year-old brother, Sanford, said, "Why don't you ride an ox?" I said, "I will if you will ride the other and go with me." But he refused to go, and I teased, coaxed and at last hired him to go. He at last said he would go. So he sadled and bridled my ox and strapped a blanket on his and we moved forth to hunt my first school.

A mile of more from home a rabbit jummped up along the road and Sanford's ox jumped to one side and threw him off. There was no fence or anything to pull himself on by, and what a time we had. After much working he finally succeeded in getting on the ox and we went on. When we arrived near John D. CARTER'S farm near Maloy, the road followed along the east side and partly across the south side of his farm. There were two young men plowing about a half-quarter of a mile up the field and parallel to the road and a boy breaking stalks. The young men sent the boy down to the fence to identify the ox riders. I pulled a heavy veil over my face and thought he would not know me or my brother, but he knew Sanford. He went back and told the young men and they laughed and yelled and whooped and waved their hats at us. We went on to a Mr. PROCTOR'S and stopped for a drink. I knew Mrs. PROCTOR and told her my troubles, and she said, "I will help you out. I have a good saddle horse and riding habit and you shall use them and Sanford can stay here with the oxen."

Oh, was I happy! I went on 1 1/2 miles to the director's house and got the school. On the way back, I stopped and engaged my board near the schoolhouse. I went back and delivered the horse and habit, got on my ox and Sanford on his, and went home thinking my troubles were over.

In about two weeks, there appeared in the Mount Ayr Record a description of a girl who rode an ox to hunt her first school. That peeved me very much. The father of one of those young men had written it. Then In about two weeks there appeared among other sketches from other papers a girl riding an ox. The girl and ox was running a race with the county superintendent on a horse and the girl and the ox won the race. Then still later an article that said the girl would ride the ox to school every day and stake him out for pasture. Now, I was so mad at that editor who was none other than E. J. TURNER, my old instructor in Mount Ayr only the winter before.

The last day of school, the mothers came with well filled baskets and we had a picnic dinner. Now, about noon, who should walk in but E. J. TURNER, and another Mount Ayr man, and they stayed and ate dinner with us. After dinner, when I got a good chance, I said, "I thought you were my friend but now I know you are not. Now, why did you write those things about me? You knew it would grieve me." He laughed as hard as he could and said, "Why, I was very proud of you, it showed your grit and I was giving you some free advertising." That, of course, was very comforting but advertising, grit, or what not, That was the only school I ever had to hunt. They always hunted me.

The next year I went to Garden Grove to Professor HARKNESS' school and boarded in his home. While there, I met Mrs. HARKNESS' cousin, D. P. NORTHRUP who I married in 1879. Having attended normal [school] under Professor HARKNESS and taught school in Ringgold County for 1872 to 1879.

.I have one brother living in Diagonal, Iowa, A. L. BARCHUS, and my brother Frank lived for years in and near Mount Ayr, but moved to North Dakota some years ago and from there he went to Kentucky, where he died. My parents had twelve children. My father and mother lived a while inMount Ayr after they sold their Benton home. In 1904 my father had a stroke and we had to take him and mother to our home in Humeston. He lived a year after and mother lived ten years longer.

I had one son and one daughter. The son is in the real estate and insurance business here and my daughter died at the end of the World War with the flue (sic) and double pneumonia in 1917. My husband died 12 years ago. J. E. DOZE lives across the street from me. Walter BERKEY lets me read his Record-News. Maybe you will be interested in knowing Professor HARKNESS had two daughters and one son. The last daughter was a teacher in a college in New Orleans, La., for 26 years, but died a couple of years ago of cancer. His only son is a great ear, eye and throat specialist in Chicago. He is the only member of the family now living.

The town of Humeston was named for Mrs. HARKNESS'S father. Three of her brothers live here now. Their names are HUMESTON.

SOURCE:
LESAN, Mrs. B. M. Early History of Ringgold County: 1844 - 1937 Pp. 90-92. Blair Pub. House. Lamoni IA. 1937.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, May of 2010