JOHN WESLEY POWELL. 5 



continuously summer and winter : clearing the land, sodding, 

 ditching, ploughing, planting, building, adding an annex to the 

 house and making the barn larger, constituted only a small part of 

 the work planned or executed. He labored through the long days 

 and studied far into the night, eagerly perusing all the books he 

 could procure. 



Following the plough did not suit him. While he turned the 

 soil, his thoughts were far away amid the rocks and woods of his 

 old home, where Mr. Crookham first opened the volume of Nature 

 to his wondering eyes. Yet he toiled faithfully. His home was 

 fifty miles from what was then called Southport (now Kenosha), 

 and sixty miles from Racine, and these places were the markets 

 of the country. In the late fall and early winter months his time 

 was usually occupied in hauling wheat to one or the other of these 

 towns. With the money obtained from the sale of grain he had to 

 make the purchases for the family, groceries, clothing, lumber, 

 and such other things as were needed on the farm. It was a five 

 or six days' journey, and from twelve to fifteen trips were made 

 each year. Those were the pioneer days of our country, when 

 oxen drew the plough and hauled the produce of the farms to mar- 

 ket. Southern Wisconsin was at that time a great wheat-producing 

 region, and all farmers in the country were on the road during the 

 fall and winter. He did not then realise how perilous was the 

 promiscuous company of travellers in his goings to and from the 

 market towns in these years of his life. He was associated with 

 hardy, jovial, and often very hilarious frontiersmen, and there were 

 temptations on the road and in the city to which a country boy 

 might have readily yielded. But there were circumstances which 

 protected him from the bad influences by which he was surrounded. 

 He had a sense of great responsibility, especially so because the 

 family purse was in his custody. His father and mother so com- 

 pletely trusted him that they never asked him to account for his 

 transactions. 



In one of the earlier years of his pioneer life, he fell in com- 

 pany with one William Wheeler, several years his senior, who took 

 great interest in him, and whom the boy, recognising as a supe- 

 rior, soon came to regard with sincere esteem and affection. Mr. 

 Wheeler said nothing about morality, but his general conduct and 

 noble example were such as to make a deep impression on the lad. 

 He was far superior in education to his young companion, had at 

 one time been in college and now occupied himself very much in 

 reading, letting his team follow the others while he poured over 



