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Sickness and death, in their varied forms, were constant visitors to the early settlers. This flat, wet country was full of the germs of miasma. But one of the most dreaded of the diseases of that day wa the "trembles, or milk sickness," which carried off many of the first settlers. Of those who died of this disease, we mention William Adair and wife, Mrs. Samuel Adair, Mrs. Joseph Adair, Samuel Bowdry, Aaron Delano, and five persons of the Cady family. But, as the country became improved, this terrible disease disappeared. The mode of burying the dead was to get a four-horse wagon and team, if they could be had, to go after the coffin and to haul the corpse to the grave. In the early fays, farming was carried on in a very limited manner; utensils were scarce, and of the most rude kinds. They had the "bar-shear and shovel-plow," and wooden-toothed harrows; wagons were very scarce; horses were worth $35 to #50; cows, from $7 to $11, three-year-old steers (fat), $8 to $11 per head; fat hogs, $1 to $1.50 per hundred weight; potatoes, 10 to 15 cents per bushel; hay, $2 to $3 per ton; salt, $6 per barrel, and no coffee was kept for sale in the country.
The greater part of the barrens and much of the timbered land was lying out, and the wild animlas roamed at will over this domain. Deer and turkeys were plentiful; forty to fifty deer could be seen ina day, and often seventy-five to one hundred turkeys in a flock. There were gray and black wolves, wild cats, foxes, coons, polecats, minks, porcupines, opossums, and wild hogs. The latter wintered out and grew fat on nuts, acorns, and plums, which were in abundance. Preachers received from $75 to $85 per year; school-teachers from $10 to $15 per month; and laboring hands from $7 to $10 per month; and all the above generally paid in trade.
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