The Buck Family (Part 5)

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]

Continued from Part 4

...Ben would get up and make the rounds of the camp. He would first visit the horses and then walk to the tongue of the wagon to the box and putting his forefeet on the dash board would stand there for a time until satisfied that all were there. He would return to his bed. One night my father was awakened by Ben pulling at his arm and knowing that something was wrong, arose and went to the horses to find that one of them had slipped its halter and was started on the back track. My father securely tied the horse and was very grateful to Ben for saving him much trouble.

There were no road maps in those days and the folks only knew in a general way the directions they were to travel. They knew that at Bloomington, Illinois they were to turn north and follow the Illinois Central Railroad to Rutland, and then turn west and keep going until they were in the neighborhood of Lacon. They made camp one night a few miles north of Bloomington surrounded by clumps of hazel bushes. The fall had been a very mild one and many bunches of hazel nuts remained on the bushes. The first that my folks had ever seen. All my life, believe it or not, I have a dim remembrance of that camp, of sitting in an older sister's lap, with a bright fire blazing in the open air and all about were dark shadows, when a younger sister came and placed two round things in my hand, which long afterwards I was to learn were hazelnuts.

We traveled north from Bloomington for a day or so and inquired of a man how far it was to Lacon? This person said he had never heard of such a place. This was not very good news, but the next day we met with better luck. The next day we met a man who had not only heard of Lacon, but had helped drive a drove of hogs to the pork house there, some fifteen years before. He did not know how far it was, but it was a very long way. He could tell us how to go a much shorter way than we were traveling. Go to a town called Metamora, it was an important town because the Court House was located there. Any body can tell you how to get to Metamora. When you get there go west, and keep going until you reach the river, turn to your right and keep going and you will run right into the town. The advice was good and we followed it. In time we reached Metamora and met with the only unpleasant incident of the journey.

Continued in Part 6