and the most up to date citizen was obliged to tote a tublar. The telephone had not been invented and the telegraph was still a crude and expensive means of reaching the outside world.

For news, the weekly Burlington "Hawkeye" was mainly relied on. Daily papers were such a luxury that I doubt if a single one reached Murray regularly, and the papers of those days, were filled with stories of famine and of grasshopper and Indian deprivations in the adjoining territories to the west.

The moral atmosphere of early Murray was not on the whole good. True there were sterling citizens and families who did their best to purify it, but like all pioneer towns there was a large element which had but little liking for upright living or any of the refinements of life. Boisterous, rough men gathered at the saloons and often carried their brawling into the streets. Many of them who were of the slouch hat, half desperado variety who carried weapons, after the approved fashion of the real wild west, but ill concealed in hip pockets. I remember of more than once being terrified by the yelling and shooting of drunken horsemen galloping through the streets in the dead of the night and on at least one occasion saw such a gang chased out of town by determined citizens.
There was little or no wealth; the struggle for mere existance was so hard as to preclude much thought of things aesthetic. Higher education and professional training were not held up to the youth of that day. The college and university were myths that few believed in. Family visitin', Sunday and day school entertainments that were afforded worldly amusements in the first few years. But by 1876 the population had increased (Population of 1875

for Troy Township was 626) that occasional "shows" of one sort or another were attracted to the town. But better yet there came on, or grew up, a decidedly clever set of young people who kept something going most of the time. They presented some excellent amateur theatricals, prepared delightful Christmas programs, organized lycium societies and made Murray tarot's for her fourth of July celebrations.

One of the earliest needs of the little community as a place of worship. No single denomination being strong enough to undertake it alone, a union church was erected on the site of the present Baptist Church. Methodists and Baptists bridged over their doctrinal differences on the water question and Christians freely gave the liberal tendencies of the Congregationalists. All entered heartily into the common cause. This continued until 1873 when the Methodist contingent, having erected the comparatively pretentious edifice began the holding of seperate sessions.

The word "comparatively" is used advisedly, for the old Baptist Church was truly a barn-like structure. The seats were straight backed benches, the walls and ceiling covered with brown builder's paper held to the framework by long strips. The few coal oil lamps in wall brackets gave just enough light to prevent a man making the awful mistake of sitting down on the womens side—or vice-versa. The sheet iron stoves had a habit of diffussing the heat so unequally that nearby sinners could well imagine themselves already consigned to the "unquenchable fire" while the more distant ones might have been pardoned for rejecting such a doctrine in toto.