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Introduction

Preface

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Being asked to write, I here set out, but what shall I write? How shall I avoid being tediously minute on the one had, or so general as to be uninteresting on the other? Farther, readers are not all interested in the same things. Mental constitution, mode of thought, and degree of information, respecting matters and persons treated of, greatly affect the interest of the reader. As time rolls on, and the prominent actors in the early settlement of our country are passing away, it seems fitting that any events in the past worthy of remembrance should be placed on record, and who so suitable to record them as one who has himself been an actor in the events recorded?

The settlement known as Tabor has sometimes been spoken of as a Colony, but this appellation is appropriate, if at all, only in a very general sense. While there was interest in a common object expressed and understood, there were no writings drawn, no covenant or agreement formally entered into between the parties, binding them to any specific course of conduct. There was union and concert, but it was the union of faith in a common gospel, and concerted action in promoting Christian education. They aimed to erect the Church and the Hall of Science side by side - each to sustain the other, and both to flourish under their mutually refreshing shadow.

George Belcher Gaston, older son of Dea. Alex Gaston, of Amherst, Ohio, eager to be about his Master's work, went, with his family, as government farmer to the Pawnee Indians, in 1840. In a few years, the failure of the health of his family occasioned his return to his farm near Oberlin, Ohio. But the vision of the great West, with its possibilities and and destinies, still lingered in his mind. the question, "How can it be secured for Christ? What can be done to lay foundations in the broad and fertile land, so soon to teem with a numerous people?" was an ever recurring one. With the work of Oberlin for more than a decade of years spread out before him, he conceived the idea of repeating the experiment in southwestern Iowa. He thought of it - he prayed over it - he conferred with others on the subject - others became interested - they met weekly, and prayed and conferred together for more than a year, before any were ready to start. Sometime during the summer of 1848, Brother Gaston visited the writer in Clarksfield (15 or more miles distant), to talk over the matter. He wanted to secure a minister of the gospel for the settlement. Wife and I became interested in the project and consented to go, but thought it best that I should first go and see. At length in October or November, 1848, the way was prepared, and a few of the first emigrants from northern Ohio set out for southwestern Iowa, viz.,: G.B. Gaston and family, S.H. Adams, and wife, Darius P. Matthews, attended by Deacon Josiah B. Hall, and Rev. J. Todd, who went out to see the country. Railroads were scarcely known in those days. One had recently been opened from Sandusky to Cincinnati. We went forty miles to take the cars at Belleview. The writer's sister, Mrs. Margaret Harrison, of Springfield, Ohio, accompanied us as far as Cincinnati, where we took boat for St. Louis, and thence by steamer for St. Joe, no boats running higher up the river, except a few that carried government stores to the forts on the upper Missouri, and brought down furs from the trappers. There were no railroads at Chicago and not a foot of one in all Iowa. It required a month to send a letter to Ohio and receive a reply, and when it came, the postage on it was twenty-five cents. Twenty-five cents, eighteen and three-fourths, and twelve and a half cents were the rates of postage, according to distance. Neither envelopes nor stamps were then in use. Who would return to primitive simplicity?

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