JAMES GATES, oldest son of Wm. J. and Emily P. Gates, was so unwell at the time of their landing that they remained with him for a few days at Lester W. Platt's, hoping he might recover. But instead of improving, he grew worse, died five days after their landing, and was brought to Tabor for burial. There was no burying ground then agreed upon, and he was buried, temporarily, near where Mrs. Kempton's house now stands. The loss of a loved child is always trying to parents' hearts, but circumstances often add greatly to trial. If sickness must come, who would not choose to be sick at home? But this came when they were without a home - strangers in a strange land! They were not without friends, but necessarily without many of the comforts they had left behind. their prospects were shrouded in gloom by this bereavement. They came first to Tabor to bury their first-born son.

WORTH OF HALF A DOLLAR

Escape from the overflowed bottom to the highlands around the sources of Plum Creek, leaving all the improvement of years behind, necessarily curtailed the resources of escaping families, so that during the ensuing summer the parson's larder grew lean, and his barrel of flour failed, and the bill of fare became brief and simple - fried mush and cream for breakfast, Johnny cake and butter for dinner, and mush and milk for supper. This all went very well. Sleep was sweet and refreshing, digestion was good, parents were well, and children hearty and strong. but the meal sack became exhausted, and this were a trivial matter, had not the money failed first. Brother Gaston had so often befriended the parson that he was very reluctant to trouble him farther, or let him know his strait. Had he known, he would, if necessary, have generously shared his last flapjack. but the petition was offered with increased fervor, "Give us this day our daily bread," nor was there any disposition to spiritualize it either.

Just at this crisis, God sent along (the now sainted) Abbie Walston, who without any earthly reason, gave Brother Gaston for the parson. She owed him nothing, but he accepted it as a real godsend, as it was; and jumping astride Old Queen, with an empty sack but replenished purse, he hasted to Squire Wright's - a mile or two south of Thurman - bought two bushels of corn, shelled it with his own hands, got it ground at Leeka's mill on his return, and he and his went in the strength of that meal many days. No other fifty cents ever proved so valuable to the parson as that fifty. Never was there a half dollar to him like that. It drove the howling wolf from the door. It bridged the yawning chasm, and all passed safely on their way.

OLD QUEEN

Since I have mentioned "Old Queen," let me explain. For some time after coming to Iowa the parson was dependent on his brethren for a horse to get to his appointments. Brother Gaston sent a letter to some friends in Oberlin informing them of the parson's need of a horse. They, in the true Oberlin spirit, circulated a subscription paper, raised and sent about seventy dollars to enable him to obtain a horse. With that money, Queen, a clay-bank colored mare, better to ride than to do hard work, was bought of Lester W. Platt.

Brothers Gaston and Adams built and moved into their houses in the village of Tabor during the summer of 1852. The parson, whose house was the third one built, occupied his in August, 1853. Jas. L. Smith visited Tabor in June, 1853, and came with his family across the state in the autumn of the same year, bringing with them Loren Hume and Wm. L. Clark. During the same season Darius P. Matthews and family removed from Percival to Tabor.

From August, 1853, until November, 1854, public religious services were held in Brother Gaston's (Henry M. Starrett's) house, on the southeast corner of Orange and Park streets. From November 24th, 1854, till the autumn of 1860 the place of meeting was the school house on the northeast corner of Center and Elm streets (now forming part of Mr. Webb's residence.) From 1860 to 1865 the College chapel, in its original size and form,on the northwest corner of Center and Elm streets, furnished the place of meeting; and from 1865 for ten years, the chapel in its present size afforded the place of worship.

INCIDENTS OF 1854

The year 1854 opened Nebraska for settlement, and many crossed the river from Iowa and took claims there. there were a number of accessions to the people of Tabor that year. In the spring came Jonas Jones and family, Wm. Madison and family, Isaac Townsend and family, Mrs. Ruth B. Webster and family, and Judge Q. F. Atkins, of Cleveland, Ohio, father of the parson's wife, came along to visit his daughter and family. He returned in a few weeks to Ohio. Egbert Avery and Marcus T. Spees came on foot across the state in the fall of 1853, and the former returned to Ohio and brought his wife with him in October, 1854, but stopped for a time at Percival. There were here early in 1854 John West, M. P. Clark, L. A. Matthews, L. T. Matthews, O. B. Clark, Merrick W. Thayer and J. L. Hunter. Wm. R. Sheherdson was among us as carpenter and joiner. Jonas Jones, as requested, brought with him our present bell - the first that ever on this western slope summoned human beings to the place of worship, or called redeemed sinners to the work of praise and prayer. It was soon suspended on a temporary frame at the corner of Orange and Park streets and at once brought into service. To those from Oberlin it seemed the duplicate of the Oberlin College bell, and its familiar tones unlocked the cells of memory, and waked the echoes of other days. But when the novel sound began to penetrate the neighborhood, fears were expressed that it would frighten all the chickens in the vicinity of their roosts.

In those days our community was about as near a pure democracy as is ever found. Whenever any project was up of public concern, a public meeting was called, and the matter deliberated upon in open assembly. Conclusions reached were usually unanimous or nearly s, and each one seemed eager to do his part toward the general welfare. The work of 1854 was to build a school house. The people, therefore, were called together in February and a subscription paper started. Nineteen, nearly or quite all the men in the place at that time, subscribed cash or work. The subscriptions ranged from five to fifty dollars, and footed up four hundred dollars and eighty cents - that to begin with. the house was built on the northeast corner of Center and Elm streets, where it stood for about twenty-five years. On its roof hung our bell, on a little frame, for many a day, ready to summon the citizens to worship, which a jolly York state cousin coming along assured us looked like a turkey on a sawbuck. During the winter of 1853-54 Jas. L. Smith taught the first school ever taught in Tabor in the northwest room in Mr. Starrett's house (then Mr. Gaston's). As the school house was completed in the autumn of 1854, a school was taught in it the following winter by the parson. When in 1852, Deacon Cummings came to Tabor, he brought for the parson a trunk of clothing from friends in Clarksfield, Ohio, as far as Tipton, and for want of public conveyances across the state, it was left there. In November of 1854 the parson crossed the state with his buggy and procured the trunk; and although absent but about a fortnight, his nine months old son, supposed to be as well as usual when his father started, was in his grave when he returned. Little David had sickened and died in so brief a time! Yet who will say that our heavenly Father, in whose hands our breath is, and whose are all our ways, is any less a God of love?

A committee was appointed in May of this year to plat the village of Tabor, but other things engaged public attention,a nd the survey was deferred till 1857.

In June of this year the parson's wife revisited friends in Ohio. The parson attended the state association at Burlington for the first time. He and his wife crossed the state in an open buggy, she going on to Ohio, while he attended association. He there met Robert H. Hurlbutt on his way to Tabor to "look" and brought him home with him. L. B. Hill and L. E. Webb came out the same season on the same errand. Hill and Hurlbutt both went back to Ohio, and returned again in the following year, bringing their families and goods across the state. Mrs. Esther Hill and family accompanied her son, L. B. Hill, and Chas. Lawrence drove one of Mr. Hurlbutt's teams. B. F. Gardner and family came in the fall of 1855, and B. F. Ladd and family about the same time. I. Hollister joined us in January, 1856, and I.C. Lyman the same year. H. D. Ingraham appeared among us not far from this time, also M. C. Pearse and J. L. Hunter.

At this time our connection with the outside world was mainly through a stage coach, which ran between Council Bluffs, and St. Joe regularly, passing through Tabor daily each way, carrying the mail and passengers.

Our place obtained its name in this way. When we asked the department at Washington for a postoffice, not knowing what names were already appropriated in our state, we sent on several, arranged in the order in which we preferred them. Osceola was placed first, and some others before Tabor. But when the office was granted it was called "Tabor." We afterward learned that Osceola was the county seat of Clarke county. so our little "burg" was named Tabor. the postoffice was granted, and Jesse West was the first postmaster.

At first our prairie country was so open and the wind so strong that it was not deemed safe to build a higher than a story and a half house, and Jonas Jones erected the first two-story house in Tabor, on the northeast corner of Center and Orange streets, now the residence of President Brooks; and the posts of that were shortened after the timbers had been procured.

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