Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910 edition. Excerpt: ... A PIONEER OR Pioneer's LIFE. A Pioneer, as defined by Webster is, "One who goes before and prepares a way for others to follow by removing obstructions; one who goes before to remove obstructions or to prepare a way for another; hence, --a backwoodman; a first settler." The definition given by the learned Webster is certainly brief, and, if taken to cover the whole duties that a pioneer usually has to perform, is liable to deceive some, who may have engaged in the business of Pioneering in the early settling of this Northwestern county, under that definition of the word "Pioneer" or "Pioneering." A Pioneer or Pioneers, in its true sense, means a man or several men, and sometimes includes women and children, who leave a civilized community of people, and go out into the unsettled frontier country; where the white man has never settled; where there is no civilization, no laws, no permanent settlement; where the country is inhabited by wild roving bands of savage Indians and wild animals, with no improvements save the temporary wickiups, erected by the Indians, which may be hauled down and moved away before the next sun or moon; where there are no roads except the small Indian trails, no bridges or ferries across the streams, none of the soil in cultivation, nothing raised except what grows wild without the assistance of man; where the native wild Indian lives by hunting, fishing, picking wild berries, and depredating on every white man that may chance to come into the country where he roams. Imagine yourself in a new country, with your little tent pitched among such surroundings, three, four or five hundred miles from any white settlement or military post, from which you could get any protection, with frequent yelps of coyotes and large...