20 EARLY DAY STORIES. 



the country well settled and quite well improved until we 

 crossed the Iowa line, when the settlements became new 

 and thin and the improvements small. At Sidney, Iowa, 

 as I remember it there was one house only, in which the 

 Sidney post office was kept. At Glenwood there was a 

 small collection of houses and another post office. 



Rather an amusing thing occurred a day or so after 

 leaving St. Joseph. As we went into camp at night, I 

 found an old farmer camped about a quarter of a mile from 

 us with a whole wagon load of smoked hams, shoulders, 

 and bacon, on his way to St. Joseph to market. Reporting 

 the fact to Mr. Knapp he directed me to buy from the old 

 farmer a half dozen or so of hams, and handed me a little 

 pasteboard box containing, I should say, from seventy-five 

 to a hundred gold dollars. This was before the era of 

 greenbacks or national currency. Our money consisted at 

 that time principally of bills issued by state or private banks, 

 much of which was at a discount, and most of it unsafe. 

 There was however much gold and silver in circulation. 

 Mr. Knapp had saved up expressly for this journey all the 

 gold dollars he could get. Probably most of my readers 

 have never seen a gold dollar it is somewhat less in size 

 and thinner than a dime. I wish they were in circulation 

 now it was the prettiest money I ever .saw. I selected the 

 hams, the farmer weighing them with his steelyards we 

 figured up the amount, and I counted out the sum in gold 

 dollars, making the small change in silver. He looked at 

 the money and said: "I 'low it mought be good all right, 

 but I never seed sich money afore. I reckon I'll take my 

 pay in bills." I had to go back and get paper money for 

 him. 



On arriving at Traders' Point I inquired for Council 

 Bluffs post office and was directed to a little one story 

 frame house about a mile away on the prairie. Here I got 

 letters from home, the first we had received, and a good 



