In the fall of 1845, after navigation was closed on the river, I found it would be necessary for me to go to St. Louis.  Prettyman said our sales had been large and we would be out of many leading articles before spring, and if I could mannage to get them here he wished I would buy some.  I told him to make up a list of dry goods such as he needed, about a wagon load, and I would bring them up.  I went over to Beardstown, on the Illinois river, by stage, and down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers by steamboat, to St. Louis.  In St. Louis, after my buuiness was transacted, I purchased Mr. Prettyman's bill of goods and shipped them by the river to Keokuk, as the boat was to go no farther.  We did not get there on account of ice, but the boat landed us four miles below, at a small town called Warsaw, on the Illinois shore.  When we left St. Louis it was dark and I did not see any one I knew on the boat.  The first thing I did in the morning, after breakfast, was to take a walk on the guards to get fresh air.  I soon heard familiar voices on the deck below and on going down saw seven young men from Pleasant Valley, customers of ours, among whom I can only remember George Hawley and two of the Fenno boys.  They had been down to St. Louis with two flat-boats loaded with onions, and were then in a delemma as to how they were to get home.  They wanted to know what I was going to do.  I told them I should hire a team to haul my goods, and would ride on the wagon.  When the boat landed us I found and hired a team.  The boys wanted me to let them put on their baggage.  The teamster said it would overload us; but they were so anxious, and being good customers or ours.  I told the teamster if he would carry their baggage I would walk with the men. We reached Carthage, the county seat, at noon, and stopped and got dinner, by which time a heavy storm of rain and sleet set in.  The men wanted to lay over until the next day, but I insisted upon pushing on; so we all put out during the afternoon and traveled until dark, when we put up at a farm house.  I overheard the boys, in the afternoon, saying I could not stand it long - that they would soon have "my hide on the fence."  I thought to myself, "We shall see."  We started out next morning in a snow-storm, calculating to make Monmouth that night.  When we got within five or six miles of that place the men began to give out, saying they could travel no farther.  George Hawley and myself were the only ones to get through, which we did about 9 o'clock that night.  I hired the landlord to send out a two-horse wagon and pick up the other men and bring them in.  He found them scattered along the road for miles, completely exhausted.  I said nothing but wondered whose hides ornamented the fence.  The next day we arrived home safely, having walked the whole distance in a heavy storm, all travel-worn, sore and weary.  It was about as hard a trip as the one I made form Prairie du Chien to Dubuque some years before. I had been packing considerable pork for a few years and I sold it mostly to the Fur Company and to parties filling Indian contracts.  The wheat I handled, from 1840 to 1845, that I did not get made into flour, I bought on commission for a large mill in Cincinnati - C. S. Bradbury & Company.  Our business had now (1847) become well established, large amounts of produce coming in from the counties of Cedar, Linn, Jones, Clinton and Jackson.  Our store was well patronized and we hardly ever closed until midnight.  In the forenoons the farmers in our county, from the Groves and points within a circuit of ten or fifteen miles, would come in with their grain, etc., and by the time they had unloaded and done their trading, another section would begin to arrive from Clinton and Cedar counties and the territory still farther distant - a big day's travel - and would not all get in until near bedtime.  They wanted to unload and do their trading, so as to start home early next morning, that they might reach home the same day.  This made our business very laborious. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Debbie Clough G-erischer G-erischer Family Web Site http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/ Assistant CC, Iowa Gen Web, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ List Manager for: IASCOTT-L * G-erischer-L * D-encker-L Fitzpatirck-L * V-lerebome-L * Huntington-L * Otis-L * Algar-L EIGS-L * Pickens-L * McNab-L * Patris-L - Rankin-L