Wagon train from about 1980
This will be a short post. I’ve completed my first goal of walking Old Military Road/ Lyman Dillon’s furrow on foot, my next step is to write a book titled “On The Trail Of Lyman Dillon”.
People love stories, so this book will be filled with stories….
One section of the book will be devoted to stories/ accounts of early life along the route from Iowa City to Dubuque before 1900. My thought is, if someone else wants to follow this route, they can read this book ahead of time, or as they are traveling, and hear about the various things that have taken place here so many years ago…the horse thieves along the Cedar River, the 3 Brodie brothers who were caught and hanged within an hour, the Wade Family from Monticello, caught in a freak blizzard, leaving behind 9 children, the bears, wolves, elk, trading posts, grain mills, ghost towns along the way..people and places that no longer exist except in out of print books…I think you get the idea….so if you happen to have photos/ stories along the route you’d be willing to copy/scan/ loan so I can include them in the book, I would love to hear from you…leave me a comment and I will get back to you.
I’m looking forward to your book! I’m reserching my Great Grandmother, Ursula Fleury and her first husband Rudy Lemm Marugg whose family came to Bowen’s Prairie in 1887 to farm. They both moved to Saskatchewan in 1908 when they married, but their childhood would have been in Jones County before that. His parents, Solomon and Christina Lemm Marugg, came from Switzerland in 1887 and established what must have been a dairy. Solomon died in 1904 in Bowen’s Prairie and Christina then joined my great grandparents in Saskatchewan. Is Bowens Prairie still a town? Sounds like it’s a highway now.
If you have any info on the Fleury family from that era, it would be greatly appreciated.
Please feel free to email me.
Best of luck, I’ve enjoyed your web postings on the history of the area.
Chris Caplette
British Columbia, Canada