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---Chapter 3: The Return to Illinois---
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During these two years father's mother had steadily declined in health and the physicians advised a change of scene for her health. She decided to go to Illinois with father and see his new home. Her farm was leased and all preparation made for the journey as we were to start as soon as school closed. Two responsible men were sent on with two wagons loaded with goods for their needs. We took a final farewell of Great Grandmother and all the relatives. I attended school regularly to the last and with regret parted from my kind teacher and schoolmates, many of whom were related to my father or mother.
On a beautiful morning in June we started for home. The road was fine as pavement for most of the way and we were feasted on the beauties of nature from morn till night. Stopping in pleasant farm homes each night we were comfortable and the journey was very much like a visit among acquaintances. Grandmother and Aunt were delighted and improved very much in health so our anxieties were for the time relieved. Along the way we saw many species of wild birds and not a few deer and other wild game. All this was a new experience to me and little did I think that the most important and exciting events of my life were to be experienced in a land where scenes were new and regions wild, but so are our lives meted out to us. "New every morning is the love our waking and uprising prove," and daily we are led through paths "we had not trod," but our home was not far distant and one beautiful day we drove to our own door.
Farmer Price had proved himself worthy of our trust and we were soon settled in our own home. Grandmother and Aunt were as pleased as could be and expressed a desire to remain with us for their remaining days.
A Miss Slade from New York applied for the school and cousin Sarah Baker and myself were soon in school. There were now over twenty pupils in the district and Miss Slade proved herself a very competent teacher. This was a hewn-log school house with long seats or pews across the room and a wide shelf around the room on three sides for a writing desk. A large fireplace in the far end of the room kept us comfortable when the days began to grow cool. Among the schoolmates were the eight older children of neighbor Price. Their names were David, John, Michael, Jonas, James, Henry, Phoebe, Deborah. Sarah and Nancy were too young for school. These children were carefully instructed at home in regard to all the higher ideals of honesty and truth. Such home instruction always results well to the parents, and for the future of the child instructed. Many were the happy days we spent in that primitive looking school house. Miss Slade would have nothing except the best effort of each and a healthy spirit of rivalry kept each one working our best efforts. There were no favorites and each was esteemed for his or her own merits. The school was governed by the teacher very much as schools are conducted at this time, but the parents were very particular in regard to the conduct of their children and several impromptu "school meetings" were held to assist the teacher in securing prompt obedience without which no school can prosper. These kindly aids were well received by the teacher and all was harmonious. I have heard in later years many accounts of the doings of the "old time"school masters, but I am thankful to say that I do not see so great a difference in any respect, except in the matter of branches of study. We were required to look up the meaning of words in each assignment and much care was bestowed on the spelling of words and we were required to use those words in original sentences.
Dear father would often come with his old bob-sled to take us home. He was sure to drive up just as the school was about to close and as we filed out of the room he would call out, "All get in before the sled gets cold," and such a scramble there would be. Children clambering to ger in lest the team should start. Just as though dear father could have been hired to leave one behind. A halt was made at each home as we passed along, and ours being the last one on the line, most of the school had been dropped ere we reached home. When we were landed at home we were sure to have a good fire to greet us, and sitting down to visit with t he dear grandmother and aunt wasa joy that not every child can have, and I feel there are some that would not appreciate it so much as we else there would not be so many lone women out away from their own kith and kin trying to make their way in the world while there are so many people of wealth who would never miss the amount it would take to make these lone ones comfortable. To be sure our grandmother and aunt had abundant means but that was not considered. It would have been just the same with them if not anything was theirs.
The comforts of this prairie home were simple, as the world now reckons comfort but we enjoyed the great fireplace where father built the great fires of hardwood that burned with a steady glow for hours together, and where the burnished brass "and irons" gleamed in the brightness of the glow. In the great "ell" kitchen we partook of the best of suppers--domestic meats, venison, vegetables and fruits were now abundant. For the long winter evenings we had many kinds of nuts stored away, which, with baked sweet potatoes and other old time luxuries, we made many a temperate repast after the work and study of the evening were done.
The school year closed and once more vacation was on.
Dear Grandmother passed to the Great Beyond and once more we were to experience great changes in our home circle. Dear Aunt desired to remain with us. All was done that was possible to make her comfortable and happy but the loss of mer mother bore heavily on her delicate health and she soon faded away as a flower that blooms for but a short season. Grandmother had taken care of a grand-daughter, an entire orphan, and to be sure she had been with us all these years, but soon as those who had exercised parental care were taken from her she grieved for the old home in Ohio and father took her home, and, after the property was settled in accordance with grandmother's will, he returned home.
But such great griefs usually work great changes of feeling and the home seemed quite different. We soon moved to Beardstown where I was placed in a school and kept by a lady governess who came from the far East to instruct Mr. Beard's family and such other children as they might choose to admit into the school. I was now twelve years of age and the winters work was very different from any former school life. We were drilled in regard to practice many times each day on certain set phrases suited to the occasion of entertaining company, and one especial duty was to assume the proper facial contortions as though one had just completed the word "persimmons." I studied with more than usual diligence for I dreaded the thought of ignorance, but no amount of effort could atone for the lack of my former good teachers, but I somehow had the sort of natural idea that people are reckoned in this life mostly for their integrity, industry, and unselfish honesty, than for any amount of formalities they may practice. I remember, however, that my parents often told me of a man who went many miles to procure a coat for a certain occasion, saying that a person fitted to hold a position of honor would make himself presentable for the occasion and the occupation.
On Friday evenings I returned home and always found the house still, and dear mother lonely. How I dreaded to go away on Monday morning, but the year was drawing to a close and other changes awaited us. I came in one evening to see a look on dear mother's face that I had never seen before. I walked away after the usual greeting and sat silent. After a time her voice strengthened and she said, "What do you think father has done."
I answered, "I do not know."
"He has sold the farm and soon as school closes we are to move to Missouri."
What a shock these words gave me, but like most active children the curious and the adventurous spirit soon predominated, and, from that time on, the days in school were all too long.
Our plans were soon completed and we soon were on the way. My adieus were spoken formally but with less feeling than I am able to express here, although I was much attached to a dear school mate, Miss Caroline Beard, and all my associations in that school were commendable. But it was while there that I learned that children were not all so carefully trained in regard to speaking the truth as I had been, and somehow it brought dear mother so often to mind as I observed their habits of insincerity. I think that much of the conduct of early life is the result of the training which a child receives. I do not think the pupils were so very different from ot hers with whom I had been associated, but I was now awakening to habits of observing things as never before.
Among our neighbors here were Mr. and Mrs. Llinos Brooks and family, Samuel, Henry, Seldon and Maria. These people came from Massachusetts and were acquainted with mother's relatives there. Many years later they were our neighbors in Marion county, Oregon, and the name is familiar in the history of Oregon.