made a soft bed. Most of the men, if they had come overland, had often slept under the stars or under the wagons, so these new beds would be a luxury.

As soon as possible the men would dig a well and clear the land. To have ten acres cleared the first year was doing very well, for it was slow and tiring hand work, a far cry from the giant bulldozers that today wreck a timber so quickly and push it into piles. The pioneers had to split the logs, some for rail fencing and shelters for their stock, the rest was chopped into firewood and stacked into cords for the winter supply of fuel. If they arrived early enough, they planted some hills of corn, a process which was done entirely by hand after trees or prairie grass had been cleared from the ground. After the roots of the native grass were deep in the fall season it was usually burned off rather than cleared. The stem often grew nine feet high, and the grass itself to three feet, with strong, long and matted roots. For some years the pioneers preferred clearing timber ground upon which to plant their crops. They held to an old belief that "ground that won't grow trees isn't rich enough to grow crops." The prairie was believed to be no good; besides, it was wet, hard to drain, and remote from the other settlers.

The accidental prairie fire was a fearsome danger, but the plow was useless until the grass was cleared. Fires were sometimes set by lightning, and the flames would race over the ground many feet high with a roaring noise and rapidity that called for quick and forceful action. Usually the settlers set another fire which they could control to clear an area before the great fire would reach it. This was called "setting a back fire" or a "fire to meet a fire." Travelers often wrote of the fearful prairie electrical storms; the earliest such report in our area is the French account of a terrible evening and night storm that ended the thirty-six day siege of the Fox Indians at Arrowsmith on September 8, 1730. The winter blizzard, with no roads or fences to mark the way often meant a lost traveler in very great danger. Snakes abounded, with the one most feared the powerful prairie rattler. With cabins not too securely constructed and with no screens or netting for doors or windows, the possibility of an unwelcome visitor always existed.

Some settlers constructed wooden plows which could be used after the ground was cleared but these plows only cut two or three inches deep. Corn was planted by hand; when it was twelve inches high each hill had to be cultivated with the hoe. Everything had to be done the slow, hard and tiring way.

The mother of the family worked against every kind of difficulty and inconvenience, lifting armfuls of wood, pails of water and heavy cooking utensils. She had to climb fences, climb ladders to the attic or loft, and hang strings of fruit over the rafters to dry, or strings of pumpkin and herbs. As soon as the young sons and daughters could help they had often to perform tasks too heavy for youngsters. Pioneer mothers

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