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The character of the pioneers of Cass county falls properly within the range of the historian. They lived in a region of exuberance and fertility,where Nature had scattered herblessings with a liberal hand. The fair supply of timber, the fertile prairie, and the many improvements constantly going forward, with the bright prospect for a glorious future in everything that renders life pleasant, combined to deeply impress their character, to give them a spirit of enterprise, an independence of feeling, and a joyousness of hope. They were a thorough admixture of many nations, characters, languages, conditions and opinions. There was scarely a State in the Union that was not represented among the early settlers. All the various religions had their advolcates. All now form one society. Says an early writer: "Men must cleave to their kind, and must be dependent upon each other. Pride and jealousy give way to the natural yearnings of the human heart for society. They begin to rub off the neutral prejudices; one takes a step and then the other; they meet half way and embrace; and the society thus newly organized and constituted is more liberal, enlarged, unprejudiced, and, of course, more affectionate than a society of people of like birth and character, who bring all their early prejudices as a common stock, to be transmitted as an inheritance to posterity."

They were bound together by a feeling that all were equal and were laboring and striving for a common end. They bad all left more or less comfortable homes in the eastern States, and cast their lot in a country where there was nothing save the intrinsic merit of the location. Here they were all on equal footing; riches could give no advantage, even had they existed, and the absence of the aristocratic element that is now so painfully apparent in society, must alone have been a great source of comfort to the pioneers. They all felt an equal interest in the improvement and development of the country, and to the softening and smoothing over of the rough edged disadvantages against which they had to contend. Everyone was thought of and treated as a brother. Their public gatherings were like the reunion of a parted family, and the fact that there was no rivalry, made the occasions doubly joyous. Their hospitality knew no bounds. If a traveler pulled a latch string, it was considered that, as a matter of course, he should receive an equal share with the rest of the household, be it much or little.

In this respect the settlers differed considerably, but were dressed as a rule as plain and simple, as their houses were built. Necessity compelled it to be in conformity to the strictest economy. The clothes which the early settlers brought with them were worn smooth, and darned until it was impossible to tell from what material the garment was originally made sometimes, and in fact in the cases of squatters, almost always, the men were dressed as much in skins as anything else. In summer, nearly all persons, both male and female, went barefooted. Boys and most men, never thought of wearing anything on their feet, except during months of the coldest weather, when buckskin moccasins were worn. These useful articles were made by taking a tanned piece of skin, cutting it after a pattern to the right size, then it would be stitched and puckered with deer sinew. The latter came from the neck of the deer, and was small enough to run through a darning needle, yet strong enongh to "hang a man." The moccasins were very common until the settlement was quite well advanced.

Clothing was but one of the many things in which the pioneers stinted themselves. Every move they made was hindered by some disadvantage, which constantly reminded them of labor to be performed and time which must pass to evolve comfort and convenience from the former condition of affairs. It is well for "young America" to look back on those early days. It involved a life of toil and hardship, but it was the life that made men of character. Cass county to-day has no better men than the immediate descendants of those who labored thus, and the actors themselves have not yet all passed away. One who had passed through pioneer life in the eastern portion of the State, wrote that "the boys were required to do their share of the hard labor of the cleaning up the farm, for much of the country now under the plow was at one time heavily timbered, or was covered with a dense thicket of hazel and young timber. Our visits were made with ox teams, and we walked, or rode on horseback or in wagons, to meeting. The boys pulled, broke and hackled flax, wore tow shirts and indulged aristocratic feelings in fringed hunting shirts and coonskin caps, picked and carded wool by hand, and spooled and quilled yarn for the weaving till the back ached."

Industry such as this, supported by an economy and fungality from which there was then no escape necessarily brought its own reward. Change and alterations were to be expected, but the reality has distanced the wildest conjecture; and stranger still, mullitiides are still living who witnessed not only the face of nature undergoing a change about them, but the manners, customs and industries of a whole people almost wholly changed. Many an old pioneer sits by his fireside in his easy chair with closed eyes, and dreams of the long ago, in sympathy with the poet dexcribinbg eastern pioneer life, and seeing here and there strains that are parallel to his own experience.

"The voice of Nature's very self drops low,
As though she whispered of the long ago,
When down the wandering stream the rude canoe
Of some lone trapper glided into view,
And loitered down the watery path that led
Thro' forest depths, that only knew the tread
Of savage beasts and wild barbarians,
That skulked about with blood upon their hands,
And murder in their hearts. The light of day
Might barely pierce the gloominess that lay
Like some dark pall across the water's face,
And folded all the land in its embrace,
The panther's screaming, and the bear's low growl.
The snake's sharp rattle, and the wolf's wild howl.
The owl's grim chuckle, as it rose and fell
In alternation wilh the Indian's yell.
Made fitting prelude for the gory plays
That were enacted in the early days.
Now, o'er the vision, like a miracle, falls
The old log cabin with its dingy walls,
And crippled chimney, with the crutch-like prop
Beneath, a sagging shoulder at the top.
The coon skin battened fast on either side,
The wisps of leaf tobacco, cut and dried;
The yellow strands of quartered apples hung
In rich festoons that tangle in among
The morning glory vines that clamber o'er
The little clapboard roof above the door;
Again, thro' mists of memory arise
The simple scenes of home before the eyes;
The happy mother humming with her wheel;
The dear old melodies that used to steal
So drowsily upon the summer air,
The house dog hid his bone, forgot his care
And nestled at her feet, to dream, perchance,
Some cooling dream of summer-time romance.
The square of sunshine through the open door
That notched its edge across the puncheon floor,
And made the golden coverlet whereon
The god of slumber had, a picture drawn
Of babyhood, in all the loveliness
Of dimpled check and limb and linsey dress.
The bough filled fire-place and the mantle wide,
Its fire-scorched ankles stretched on either side,
Where, perchance upon its shoulders 'neath the joist.
The old clock hiccoughed, harsh and husky voiced;
Tomatoes, red and yellow, in a row,
Preserved not them for diet, but for show;
The jars of jelly, with their dainty tops;
Bunches of pennyroyal and cordial drops,
The flask of camphor and vial of squill,
The box of buttons, garden seeds and pills.
And thus the pioneer and helpsome aged wife
Reflectively views the scenes of early life."

In early days more mischief was done by wolves than by any other wild animal, and no small part of their mischief consisted in their almost constant barking at night which always seemed menacing and frightful to the settlers. Like mosquitos the noise they made appeared to be about as dreadful as the depredations they committed. The most effectual, as well as the most exciting, method of ridding the country of these hateful pests, was that known as the circular wolf hunt, by which all the men and boys would turn out on an appointed day, in a kind of circle comprising many square miles of territory, with horses and dogs, and then close up toward the center field of operation, gathering, not only wolves, but also deer and many smaller "varmint." Five, ten or more wolves, by this means, would be killed in a single day. The men would be organized with as much system as a small army, every one being posted in the meaning of every signal and the application of every rule. Guns were scarcely ever allowed to be brought on such occasions, as their use would be unavoidably dangerous. The dogs were depended upon for the final slaughter. The dogs, by the way, had all to be held in check by a cord in the hands of their keepers until the final signal was given to let them loose, when away they would go to the center of battle, and a more exciting scene would follow than can be easily described.

This plan was frequently adopted in most of the neighboring counties; but a single instance of such a hunt has been found in Cass county by the historian.

Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, January, 2025 from: "History of Cass County, Together with Sketches of Its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens", published in 1884, Springfield, Ill: Continental Historical Co., pp. 267-270.