Chapter 9 cont. CUSTOMS OF THE PIONEERS For the first horseshoeing, done early in December, 1833, the writer went a long distance.  He rode one horse and led another.  The first day he made Monmouth, Illinois, forty miles; the next day, reached Macomb, Illinois, forty miles further; the third day, by noon, twenty miles further; in all, 100 miles to Crooked Creek, where lived and worked one Elijah Bristow, a blacksmith.  Bristow himself made all shoes and nails used by him, as all the smiths did at that time.  The calks were of cast steel, the hind calks were made square where they joined the shoe, then drawn to a point.  The smith must have been an unusually efficient workman, or took extra pains with my horses, since every shoe remained firm until the following spring.  On the return trip I procured a wagon and harness and drove back, bringing with me John Bristow, Michael Shelly, William Shelly, Orian Moss and W. H. Gabbert to split rails for my father.  Three of these men took up claims and settled near us, one taking the now H. C. Morehead farm, one the now Theodore Kautz farm and one the upper end of the now Miller farm. 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