Reminiscences of John H. Charles. 45 



subsequent date till 1865, the last year of the war. Of 

 the population, anywhere from two-thirds to three- 

 fourths were transients, many of whom were frightened 

 away by the hard times following the panic of 1857 and 

 by Indian scares during the war. The population came 

 largely to make money out of the sale of Northwestern 

 Iowa lands. One-fourth of the state was for sale at the 

 Sioux City land offices. 



The inhabitants came from all parts of the U. S., 

 but in largest numbers from Virginia, Kentucky, Indi- 

 ana and Illinois. Pennsylvania and Ohio were not so 

 numerously represented, i I was called a Pennsylvanian 

 because I was born there, but, as I had lived most of my 

 life in Ohio, I was more truly an Ohioan. 



Everything needed in a frontier town came up the 

 river by steamboat from St. Louis or Council Bluffs. 

 The regular mail came in this way. 



I remember I came into Sioux City from Ft. Dodge 

 in an open wagon, called a stage by courtesy, which car- 

 ried mail. This was one of the first overland mails 

 to come to Sioux City. 



During my first year of residence in Sioux City 

 [1857] a number of boats ran regularly in the Sioux City 

 trade. Coming up from St. Louis about once a month 

 they brought us almost everything. I remember espe- 

 cially the Omaha, Captain Wineland, as being one of the 

 most regular. 



The American Fur Company's boats for the upper 

 river made but one trip a year, it was so long and peri- 

 lous. Going up in the spring, loaded with merchandise, 

 they did not return till fall, full of valuable furs. These 

 boats all stopped at Sioux City both going and coming. 



1. A study by the editor of the nativity of seventy of the old 

 settlers of Woodbury County showed that the largest number was 

 born in New York. Other states ranked in the following order: 

 Vermont, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, etc. These old settlers 

 did not all come to Woodbury County directly from the states of 

 their birth. The states from which most of them came were in 

 this order: Illinois, New York, Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana and Penn- 

 sylvania. 



