rowdy would manage to steal the horn and about the time the congregation had gotten well located in their tents and wagons for the night, the horn would be blown vigorously and arouse them from their slumbers. Many other pranks, too numerous to mention, were imposed upon the worshiping people. I will refer the reader to the autobiography of Peter Cartwright, who has very elaborately written of the acts of this rowdy element during his services in the Rock River Conference.

PIONEER PREACHERS CHURCH A “SHACK" COVERED WITH LEAVES

After a few years, resident preachers were established among our people, but we did not have any church building. Our log schoolhouses were pressed into service and our religious meetings were held in them and sometimes they were held in private homes. There was an appointment where a minister was to hold service in a private house in our settlement, the hour being 10 o'clock in the morning. The people had assembled and the hour for worship was drawing near. The man at whose home the service was to be held saw a wolf chasing his sheep in the pasture near by. He took down his gun, went out into the pasture and succeeded in killing the wolf. Just as he came back to the house, dragging the dead wolf, and with gun on shoulder, the preacher rode up and thus the good man was caught in a dilemma on Sunday morning. After shaking hands with the minister, he remarked that he had been trying for two weeks to get a shot at that wolf and, seeing a good opportunity that Sunday morning, he could not resist the temptation, for if he did not kill the wolf it would kill his sheep. The minister replied: "Brother D, work of necessity must be done, and if there are any more wolves show up, we will kill them if it is Sunday.” The first religious service that the writer remembers attending was held under a shanty covered with brush and leaves. A large stump near the, shanty was used as a Bible stand. Logs, about 12 feet in diameter, were used for seats. The preacher, a large and powerful man, preached an old-fashioned hell-fire-andbrimstone sermon that caused the children, who were old enough to understand, to refrain from doing anything wrong for fear the devil would carry them off.

PREACHED FIRE AND BRIMSTONE

The love of God for humanity was not mentioned in his sermon; neither were the familiar quotations from the lips of the Savior, such as "Suffer little children to come unto Me and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." "Except ye become as little children ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." The only inducement held out to us, which our young minds grasped, was that we would have to be good boys and girls in order to escape hell fire. The love of the Divine Teacher was not taken into consideration. And yet Christianity, education, temperance and reform seemed to travel hand in hand. Starting out among the early settlers in a very small beginning, the guiding hand of God seemed to crown their feeble efforts with success; for the schoolhouses and churches within our county are strong evidences of the fact today.

The pay of the ministers was quite an object. Often they took the larger share of their stipend in such products as the settlers had, as little money was in circulation among the people and they were willing to take the inconveniences of a new country along with the rest. As our county grew in population the different church organizations became established among our people. Even Mormonism was preached among the settlers after the votaries of that sect were driven from Nauvoo, Illinois. Sabbath desecration was never practiced among the people. We generally had a Sunday school and class meeting, and some member would lead the meetings in the absence of a minister; hence the young people received religious instruction that became the foundation of character in after life.

A FREE VOTE AND A FAIR COUNT

Political parties were run on the lines of a free vote and a fair count, our county being principally democratic. The republican party had not been born. The old whig party was in existence as late as 1860. Previous to 1856 the two principal parties were whig and democratic, with the latter in power. Occasionally a whig candidate would be elected. Elections in that day were not as well guarded as they now are. Reports on the votes from back townships in the county and back counties in the state were very often meddled with before the returns were all handed in. Sometimes more votes were returned than there were people living in the precincts. The offices not being being very remunerative were not looked after very closely and a defeated candidate did not care to spend much time in a campaign or contest.

The campaign of 1860 was one of the most exciting ever witnessed in this county, not so much on local, as on national affairs. The paramount question of the non-extension of slavery had been espoused by the republican party, which had been defeated in 1856. The election of James Buchanan to the presidency of the United States had given the southern democracy an opportunity to get hold of the property of the United States. Our army was placed mostly in the southern states and our munitions of war were sent south, so that when the war actually began in the spring of 1861 we were almost destitute of anything with which to defend ourselves. The slavery question had been agitated among the Northern people and had been thoroughly discussed by our statesmen, as well as the victory of the republican party, in the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. In 1860 there were five candidates for the presidency of the United States. This was the first victory for the young republican party, with its platform so well defined on the slavery question. The Southern Confederacy was organized. The southern members of Congress withdrew, to meet at Montgomery, Alabama, and there assembled, defied the authority of the general Government. War was then declared against the United States and the great rebellion came on. Delaware County was not lacking in patriotism. After the firing on Fort Sumter, which was the beginning of hostilities, her young men answered to the first call for troops, and men and means were furnished by our citizens to every call made by the President, and their watchword was, the Union of these states must be preserved at all hazards!

CLOUDS ON THE POLITICAL HORIZON-THE CIVIL WAR

Not only our county but the whole country from East to West and North to South was awakened to the fact that our political difficulties could not be settled but by the arbitrament of war. Argument had lost its force, compromise had failed, and as a last resort the call to arms had come and our county was in a turmoil. The appeal of orators, the beating of drums, the booming of guns were heard in every town, village and hamlet within its border. The young men of Delaware County responded to the call to arms, shouting the Battle Cry of Freedom and singing one of the familiar songs of that day, "We Are Coming, Father Abraham, Six Hundred Thousand More"; and for nearly two long, weary years the people had misgivings as to the result of the great struggle, as first one side would gain a victory and then the other. Also, foreign nations, looking to the cotton trade of the southern states, were debating the question of recognizing the southern Confederacy as an independent nation and compelling us to raise the blockade of the southern ports. The opening of the Mississippi River in July, 1863, by the northern forces, seemed to put a quietus on foreign interference and the situation viewed from a foreign standpoint was decidedly in favor of the United States. Thus in this gigantic struggle we had enemies without as well as armed foes within. During the four years of hostilities, the army and navy were the embodiment of the Republic. All eyes, both at home and from foreign shores, were trained upon the advance or the retreat of the United States armies. If we were successful and gained a victory, our stocks and bonds advanced in price. When the northern army suffered a defeat, the stocks and bonds of every description went down in price. Congress of the United States paid little attention to any legislation that was not a war measure, as our existence as a nation depended on the victory of our army which, after a four years' struggle, was victorious, and the angel of peace spread his wings over our devastated country. Peace was declared, the army disbanded and the soldier boys of Delaware County, like those of other places that had survived the death dealing contest, returned to their homes. While to some, it would seem, the home coming soldier's heart would be leaping with joy over his safe return to his home and friends, yet with many of them this was not the case. There were many changes in the old homestead since he went away. The Death Angel had left a vacant chair at the family board, the familiar faces that sat with him at the table were not all there. Then the thought of comrade, brother, friend that he left in the Southland to molder away into that silent, voiceless, dreamless dust, from which there is no waking until the trump of God shall arouse him from his slumbers; the toilsome march, the siege, the conflict and the scenes of carnage and blood; the burial place of comrades and the whole panorama of his military life seems to pass before him in a moment of time and with tears dimming his eyes, he excuses himself by saying his appetite is gone. Hence, with many the home coming was as sad as the departure for the field of strife. The great struggle required nearly every able-bodied man subject to military duty to enlist in the cause of his country; consequently, the women in many instances took their places both in the shops and on the farms, doing the work of the men in the fields.

PAYS GLOWING TRIBUTE TO THE WOMEN

While the husband, father or brother was absent, the noble women of Delaware County were organized into aid societies. They held their meetings at each others' homes and there made various articles of convenience, stockings, handkerchiefs, pin and needle cushions, and also forwarded to the hospitals many useful articles of general use for the sick and wounded, confined in those. places. And as they scraped the lint and rolled the bandages, they did not stop to think whose wounds those bandages would bind up, nor did they know what soldier might be benefited by them. But the hospital and other supplies were sent forward for the benefit of any person who might need them. No women were more patriotic or more self-sacrificing than the noble women of Delaware County in the effort to alleviate the suffering of the boys in blue.

As the history of the many daring deeds and brilliant achievements of the boys in blue have been written up in the history of our state and nation, I will refer the reader to them. Although much has been written and the stories of those dark and gloomy days have been told by fathers to sons, there yet remains an untold history that would fill many a volume were it all written out. Many of the soldiers who went from Delaware County were sons of the early settlers. They were not only skilled in the use of firearms but were more used to an outdoor life. To be deprived of the comforts of civil life and to endure the hardships and hunger incident to army life, they were better prepared to stand the privations to which they were subjected than they would have been had their boyhood days been spent in luxury. They were physically prepared for the conflict by the manner of life in which they had grown to manhood. History cannot tell, language cannot describe, nor words picture the mental suffering endured by the fathers, mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts of the boys in blue, while the dark clouds of grim visaged war hung over our country. The mails were watched and waited for. If one person got a letter the rest of the anxious inquirers were informed of its contents. The telegrams announce a great battle has been fought; a week or ten days intervene before the papers can give a detailed report as to who has fallen in the conflict. The anxious wife and mother lives between hope and despair, not knowing what the news may be as to the safety of her loved ones, but in anxiety and grief waits patiently, trusting in God that all is well.

RETURN OF THE GRAND ARMY

The volunteer soldiers at the close of the war returned to their homes, taking up the duties of life and citizenship where they had laid them down. They dropped into civil life without a ripple upon the surface and took an active part in the duties of rebuilding both our state and nation.

CHAPTER XVII

DELHI TOWNSHIP

Delhi Township was one of the first to be accorded political importance, having been organized March 24, 1847, and is congressional township 88, range 4. It lies in the second tier from the south and is bounded on the north by Oneida, on the east by North Fork, on the south by Union and on the west by Milo. The locality has contributed largely to the county's early history, which makes it of special interest not only to the people living within its confines, but to the county generally.

The land here is highly cultivated and the homes of the husbandmen are of the best. The same may be said of all improvements, that go to make the surroundings comfortable and a happy, contented people. The land is traversed by the Maquoketa, its tributaries and Plum Creek, which afford ample drainage and water. This section of the county is well adapted to general farming and stock-raising.

The first settler, John W. Penn, came as early as the spring of 1838. He was a Virginian by birth, and in 1833, left the Old Dominion for the almost unknown west, stopping at Dubuque. Coming to Delaware County, he took up a claim in this township, on section 9, in a beautiful grove, which afterward became generally known and designated as Penn's Grove. In 1846, Mr. Penn married the widow of Drury R. Dance. The latter was treasurer of the county and in February, 1845, before the expiration of his term of office, was foully murdered. Penn was one of the prominent figures in Delaware's history, was one of her first county collectors, served ten years as sheriff and held other positions of trust.

John Corbin and wife came from Ohio over the trackless prairies to Delaware County in 1839, and settled in Delhi Township. At the time of his locating here, there were no actual settlements in this part of the county. He was an active, industrious man, and was highly respected. He died in 1883 and his widow survived him many years. A son, Doran S. Corbin, was born in his father's log cabin in 1850, and his farm, adjoining the Village of Delhi, was one of the finest in the county. John W. Corbin, another son of John Corbin, was born in January, 1841. His is credited as the third birth in the county. He served in the Civil war, married Augusta Plash in 1866, and served the county as sheriff from 1875 to 1877.

William H. Baker was a native of New York. His parents came to Delaware County in a very early day. The father was an able lawyer and died at his son's house in Delhi, in 1856.

Rheinard Kahmer left his adopted state of Illinois in 1839 and settled in Delhi Township when it was but a wilderness. At the age of forty-five years