Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE FIRST SETTLERS By F. Q. Lee The Arrival Of Preston Bell Settlers In 1850 Settlers In 1851 Settlers In 1852 How "jas" Caught A Deer The First Store Other Settlers In 1852 The First Mill An Eccentric Character A Pioneer Prayer MeetIng Arrivals In 1853?Claim Jumpers The First Land Entry SloughIng Down Pioneer Hospitality Arrivals In 1854 Dave Beach Walks To Des Moines The First Bridge The Arrival Of W. J. Silvers Story Of M,r. Silvers' Trip To Hamilton County?Silvers Finds His Home?An Early Disaster Arrival Of The Willsons Mrs. Willson's Story Other '55 SetTlers Homer As A Pioneer City The' Second Store Arrival Of Benj. Millard First Settlement On Skunk River. Arrival Of Preston Bell Earlj' in the spring of 1849, a young man, born and raised in the state of Indiana, seeking a home on the frontier, and who had been stopping for some time near Des Moines, Iowa, loaded his few worldly possessions into a covered wagon and with an ox team, started northward in search of a location. He followed the course of the Des Moines river, passing through the small settlements on the way until, at Swedes Point in Boone county, he left all settlements behind him. When he came to where the Boone river empties into the Des Moines, he followed that stream a few miles, where he found a location to his liking. It was on the west bank of the Boone. What he found was from forty to sixty acres of what is called "weed bottom," which made it possible to plant a crop at once. A high bluff ran back of the cleared bottom lands and at the foot of this bluff, he built a pole cabin and blazed out a "claim" running from the river over the bluffs and back over the level lands to the west. All of the lands thus "blazed out" were wooded, except the weed bottom. Having broug...