Lyman Truman Barringer Homesteader Diary
Page 2

Some of the expences for 1880:--

Railroad fare to Spencer and return 45 cents.
Cost of making 39 1/2 gallons of sorghum syrup $9.88
Paid for herding cattle $8.25
1 spade 1.25
1 codfish .14
3 pair of blankets 7.50
1 bbl. salt 1.90
one overcoat 3.50
fair tickets .50
readymade clothing 24.90
1 paresuspenders .15
one wash dish .15
1 dish pan .90
4 pounds tallow .20
1 necktie .40
cuff pins .50
4 hankerchief .40
3 lamp burners .15
14 thimbols .05
1 hammer .80
2 boxes butter color .70
1 Jewsharp .05
dishes .60
1 potatoe 'smasher' .10
raisins .10
1 third grade reader, book .50
2 dozen milk pans 4.75
1 dinner pail .28
10 butter tubs 4.35
three lemons .10
Gave Preacher 4.00
12 pair of boots, shoes, and slippers and repairs on same for year, $21.50
Green apples 3.00
Drugs and Doctor bills 6.60
Dried Apples .72
231 1/4 yards of cloth 36.66
(8 pounds prunes).50
Crackers .05
1 pound pepper .40
4 pails .85
1 broom .20
1 GeorgeWashington hatchet .90
6 paper saleratus.75
Lamps for school house 1.00
11hats and caps 4.40
36 spools of thread 1.80
(unknown) coffee .50
14 dozen buttons 1.32

1881

JAN. 1: We spend the day with cousin William Henry Barringer.

JAN. 13: It has been very cold. A blizzard today.

FEB. 3: It was very cold all of last month. We make Spauldings folks a visit.

4: A dreadful storm, snow and high wind

5: Snowing and blizzarding

6: Snowing and drifting bad

7: Rain

9: Snow. The snow is drifted so bad we can not get out to the road. The drifts are 8 to 12 feet deep in many places.
11: Go to Ruthven. Stormy

12: Blizzard.

23: Go to Emmetsburg. Sell 3 hogs for $50. in gold.

24: Blizzard.

25: Blustering.

26: Warmer, thaws a little. I find that my last 2 swarms of bees are dead.

27: Blustering.

28: Same.


March 1: Go to Ruthven.

2: Drifting snow

3: Snow is drifting very badly today.

4: Blizzard. The snow is drifted around the house and in the trees from four to ten feet deep averaging about 5 feet deep I think in my yard.

11: Snow and blowing. A dreadful storm.

12: Blizzard.

13 & 14: Blizzard.

15: Blustering.

19: Some of my hay stacks are 2 feet under snow.

20: Sunday. Snowdrifts are 10 to 15 feet deep.

26: Go to Emmetsburg. Stay at Grand Central Hotel.

27: Drive home cattle I purchased in Emmetsburg.

Notice this attempt to quit swearing!!

29: I have commenced today to see if I can't quit swearing and have resolved to keep a record of my success. I forgot and swore some today but my resolve has made me better today I think.

30: I forgot myself and swore but remembered and quit.

31: Cold and blustering. William Henry Barringer's stable blows down. His wife Flora is very sick. About my swearing, I have decided that I will use an )---(6 (-) for days I don't swear. If I swear once I will make a +. If I swear twice I will make a ++. If I get real mad and make a big fool of myself I will mark it 000000. Today I will mark ++.

APRIL 1: ++

2: ++

3: ++

4,5,6,7: ++

8: +

9: I have 3 sick cows. +++

10: Snow. Sunday. The snow is so deep in cornfields that people can not get it without diging around the hill with a shovel. Snow is very deep everywhere. My hay stacks are entirely covered with snow ands the cattle walk over the top of them. We have to dig around them and take them out to feed in the deep holes we have dug through the snow to the hay like cellars. ++++

11: Snow and blowing++

12: Very cold++

13: Cold++

14: Warmer, thawing.))))00000000

15: Snow. We neighbors plow open the road from East to Ruthven today.++

16: Thaws very fast. I loose a cow. Go to Ruthven.++

17: Sunday +

18: Husk corn +

19: Husk corn +

20: Go to Ruthven. +++

21: Husk corn +

22: Husk corn ++

23: My corn is molding ++++

24: Sunday +

25: Sow wheat today.

29: Haul corn from my Virgin lake farm ))))0000000.

30: Choaring 00000

MAY 1: Sunday (-)

2-10: Have been putting in oats, planting cottonwood trees on sand hill south east of my barn. Hauling corn from my lake farm. Average ++ daily.

11: Run a nail in my foot )))+++++++


12: Am laid up with my foot. (three days)+++ average dauly

18: Sister Emma is sick with lung fever. My time is taken up much with her.

22: I have set up four nights with Emma and am near sick myself.

23: Plant corn on sod.+

24: Not very well +

25-29: Have not been very well. Today is Sunday. I don't swear much and I forget if I do at all some days I have marked + but want to be sure to not give to much credit so + again.

30: Choaring 00000

JUNE 13: Have been hauling oats to Ruthven to sell. About ++ average.

11: Very heavy rain (for 5 days)

21: Very heavy rain last night. 00000

22-26: It seems I've been working on the road which is very muddy and hardly passable and doing considerable amount of swearing. About 0000 daily.!

JULY 14: Robert Eaton finished my breaking (plowing) 67 1/2 acres including what the Fawcett boys broke.

17: Last night the hail broke 24 lites of glass for me. The crops are badly damaged. The storm last night blew down Simon Toresons barn killing some 30 sheep, cattle and one horse, other buildings were blown down and in places crops were totally destroyed. ++

23: Go to Ruthven with hogs. Sell at $5.24 per hundred pounds.

SEPT. 2: Harvest and etc.

15: Cut sugar cane. Very cold rain.

16: Haul load of sugar cane to mill. It snows quite freely for 1/2 hour.

23: I am working on a tenant house. It has rained nearly all the time for 4 weeks.

29: Go to Ruthven. It is still rainy. The Des Moines River is very high the bottom land being covered 2 or 3 feet deep with water and an immence amount of hay has been lost by the high water.

11: October. Raining. Go to election at Ruthven.

30: Sunday, heavy rain almost every day. Today is cloudy

and misty, but it clears up some. The world is almost drowned. NOV. 16: Haul coal from Ruthven.

25: Start from Spencer to go to Wisconsin to buy lumber and pine trees.

DEC. 19: Unloading one car of pine lumber at Ruthven. Attended church in Ruthven yesterday being it was Sunday.

JAN. 1: Have been going about selling pine trees. Stayed all night 10 miles west of home.

1-4: Have been unloading carloads of lumber and pine trees at Ruthven.

7: E.E. Curtis from Morehead, Minnesota formerly of this place is with me.

18: Go to singing school in Emmetsburg.

20: Trade wagons with one Burdick, Sell him the mare I bought of Horace Scott for 31 acres of breaking.

27: I have been going about selling pine. Stayed tonight at Brennans.

FEB :

Have been building a hen house. Charlye sick with the measles. Last night (the 10th) we slept with our outside door open. Very summerlike.

20: Blizzard, snows hard.

21: Bluster, snow is drifted bad.

MARCH 1: I take a load to Ruthven for Mrs. Howe her house moved to Ruthven today. People are plowing.

APRIL 6: Charles starts for Wisconsin for Pine trees.

20,21: Deliver evergreen trees west of Lost Island lake.

25: Planted 2000 pine trees.

MAY 1: Set our maple trees South of the ditch along the line between Theodores and my place south west of barn.

4: Set cottonwood hedge on the east line. Lightening struck our clothesline post last night. Mark corn rows. Plant corn.

22: Go to Ruthven. Heavy frost. Cold. A good many people are dying of scarlet fever.

JUNE 3: Cold. Plant some corn. There are no flies or musquitoes yet to mention. Corn planted May 8th is just coming up a little. Can not see the rows yet. The spring has been cold and wet. Have put notice in Emmetsburg paper to sell evergreen trees. Something to this order: "Col. E. Smith of Dubuque, Ia. says, "Why is it that our farmers who can find time to sow hundreds of acres of wheat and plant the same to corn can not spare time to plant a few choice trees each year that will add more beauty to their homes more wealth to their pockets and more comfort to their souls a hundred times over than a similar outlay will produce in any other way." If you will travel through Eastern Iowa you will see thousands of healthy thrifty evergreens bearing living witness that they can be successfullly and profitably grown in Iowa. If you are acquainted in Kussuth county you know that evergreens have been and are now being raised there for sale. You have seen the pine tree growing in the sod at T.W. Harrison's home, you have seen the evergreens near Edd Ormby's, only a few years planted there now ten or more feet high.

I have pine trees and other evergreens for sale. We well sell you 100 pine trees one to two 1/2 feet high in good condition, thoroughly packed in moss and earth for $7, 50 trees for $3.50, 25 trees for $2.00, 10 trees for $1.00. Hemlock, spruce, ceder, Larch and Balsom will each be sold at the above rates until our stock is exhausted. Our pine are from open clearings in Wisconsin, grown in a loose vegetable mold, have an abundance of small fiberous roots are healty, vigorous trees. They are pronounced by good judges to be closedly allied to the Austeram specie grows much like the scotch pine. The pine when grown alone has as great profusion of branches of a deep green in color and is in every respect a most suitable tree for windbreaks. The planting of pine trees for timber windbreaks and ornament is no experiment as thousands of them are grown in Wisc., Ill., and eastern Iowa and Minnesota bear living witness. Our trees will be delivered in the spring of 1882 at every railroad station between Clear Lake and Sioux City.

L.T. Barringer
Ruthven, Iowa

From a newspaper article of 1882 in an eastern paper.

The new Pullman Palace Lynching Car will have every convenience, and be manages so as to give perfect satisfaction to all. When business is good and several have to be attended to, the first man can be hung while the car is making forty miles per hour on the way to the second man. No doubt there are croakers who will at this suggestion and claim that it is impossible, but other inventors besides us have been hooted at. When Galileo invented the steamboat and Ardhimedes discovered the lever they too were sneered, so who is to say my inspiring, soon to be invented, lynching palace-to run on the railroad that is rapidly spreading through out our county in every direction will not someday become a reality, making myself among the famous, also saving much wasted energy, time and lumber through out this vast country, of those over worked gallows carpenters!

Author not listed
JUNE 23: Heavy wind and rain. Everything is completely water soaked, corn is only about 3 inches high.

24: The wind yesterday did a great damage through the country to life and property.

JULY 4: Cold and rainy.

6: Go to George L. Burdich after one black horse I bought. The corn is very small, the ground is full of water, weather very cold rain for days.

AUGUST : Go to Milford to the mill.

SEPT. :

Stayed at the mill last night drove home today.

2: Start to Milford to mill, loose to sacks of wheat, go as far as Spencer sell my wheat and drive home.

DEC. : Haul hay to Ruthven which I have sold to be pressed. I get $3.00 a ton.

Same through the 19th.

Some expences during 1882
Nov. 8 yds. gingham $1.00
14 yards calico 1.12
1 stick braid .05
4 spools thread .20
5 yards cotton falannel 1.25
1 pound coffee .19
6 yds. overhall material 1.32
2 ladies collars .60
Palo Alto Pilot, 1 year 1.75
4 skanes yarn .45
14 1/2 yds. ghingham 1.88
1 coat 4.00
1 suit of clothes 10.00
1 breast pin 1.75
three pair shoes 4.90
2 vaces .20
Christmas notions .25
postage .04
1 pound of paper starch .10
50 pounds flour 1.75
pullng 1 tooth .50
5 pounds sugar .50
Rays arithmetic book 3rd part .65



THE LITTLE SOD SHANTY

How dear to my heart is the little sod shanty,
When fond recollection brings it to view--
The thick sodded walls and the low sodded roof top,
Thru which every rain would penetrate through. And the
misquitoes! There surely were millions,
They'd keep us awake till the 1st morning's ray,
We'd todd and we'd tumble, we'd scratch and grumble
In the little sod shanty of the homesteaders day-
To the little sod shanty, the lowly sod shanty,
The cozy sod shanty of the homesteaders day.

How well I remember in the early spring time,
When fish were arunning thru inlets and springs
We'd kill 'em with hammers, pitchforks and neckyokes,
Our wagons so loaded we'd nearly stall teams.
In those early days, of p[raries unbroken,
Naught could be seen but grass waving far and away,
And up on the hilltop, and down in the valleys
Was the little sod shanty of the homesteaders day.
The little sod shanty, the lowly sod shanty,
The cozy sod shanty of the homesteaders day!

In the spring and fall, when wild game was plenty,
We were then in our glory and happy were we"
We'd go hunting and fishing, trap when we'd mind to,
For we were THEN living in the land of the FREE!
No game warden to hinder, no laws top stop us.
We'd catch and kill, slaughter and slay
But we'd always return at shade of the evening,
To the little sod shanty of the homesteaders day.
The little sod shanty, the lowly sod shanty,
The cozy sod shanty of the homesteaders day.

The homesteader's days were not all days of sunshine
Nor lived they always "on the fat of the land"
When winter's fierce storms were raging about them--
(Those who lived through them can best understand)
How grinding their wheat in coffee mills for flour;
For fuel the'd have to burn handtwisted hay.
But they were cozy and warm and sure of protection;
In the little sod shanty of the homesteaders day.
The little sod shanty, the lowly sod shanty,
The cozy sod shanty of the homesteaders day.

No towns were then near us, no trains then to bring us
Supplies that we needed, though meager and few;
So loading our hand-sleds with side pork we'd take it
To Fort Dodge, a town miles near eighty away!
Where selling our sidepork for one and a half cents,
With tea, coffee and flour we'd laden our sleigh;
Then happy, contented, we'd take up our journey
To the little sod shanty of the homesteaders day.
The little sod shanty, the lowly sod shanty,
The cozy sod shanty of the homesteaders day.

The homesteaders can tell you of trials endured,
Of stinging and skimping to make both ends meet;
Of grasshoppers by millions that ate up their gardens
Made their barley beardless and destroyed their wheat;
But those days have flown, their troubles are over,
And they, if living now, live in the MODERN WAY;
For vanished forever is the little sod shanty,
The little sod shanty, the lowly sod shanty,
The cozy sod shanty of the homesteaders Day!

Written by George B.F. Chaffee
"P.L.M." Ruthven, Iowa
August 5, 1917


1883

MARCH 17: Plant cottonwood timber on big hill East of School house on my land.

20: Go to Emmetsburg. Prove up on my timer culture clain.

21: Plant popplar trees along road side on big hill East of school house.

May 18: Go to Ruthven. Rainy weather last 2 weeks.

19: Go to Emmetsburg buying 80 acres of land on Sec. 3 twp 96 range 34. Rain.

JUNE : Commence breaking on section 3.

15: Plow out trees East of schoolhouse on big hill.

17: Sunday. Rain. Mate (America) Aletha and I go fishing. We get 3 at Lost Island.

18: Work on road.

JULY : Dig cellar for house.

20: Go to Emmetsburg to see the circus today. Circus for Aletha and myself .85, for Charles Stanley circus (an orphan boy living with them for 3 years) .75.

AUGUST 3: Have been sick since the 29th of last month have the doctor today. I have lung fever (pneumonia) and deranged liver. A self Binder is cutting my grain.

7: Very heavy rain.

8: Go to Ruthven, and Emmetsburg. I am feeling better.
9: Stack some hay.

AUG. 10: Unshock and set out my wet grain.

11: Mow a few oats. Shock grain for Carl. Rainy.

12: Sunday. Damp and cloud.

13: Stack hay and wheat. Rain.

14: Rain. Mow a few weeds.

15: Foggy and misty. Shock over oats into long shocks. My grain is molding and sprouting.

AUG. 30: It has been raining off and on for days. I have been bothered all day with my Hopkins Mower.

31: Go to Emmetsburg. Buy a Champion Mower.

SEPT. : Making hay for Carl Smith.

3: Take Mrs. Howe 3 tons of hay.

4: Go to Emmetsburg. I am on the Petty

5: Ditto

7: Frost last night kills vines and nips my corn a little. Make hay, very cold.

18: Go to Smiths in Dickensen County. Drive home this morning, stayed last night with Smiths, have been seeing to rented cows at his place.

24: Go to Ruthven. Breaking colts.

OCT. 6: I am hauling sand from Lost Island lake to cement my cellar.

9: Go to Emmetsburg and Ruthven, election day.

19: Husking corn, it is soft.

20: Dig and put potatoes in cellar, I have raised about 125 bushel.

NOV. 19: Go to Ruthven take in hogs and haul home coal.

DEC. 3: Husking corn. Putting livestock in stalks. The weather is dry and fine mittens are not needed. Miss Smith the school teacher is boarding with us.

26: Butcher 8 hogs today. It is snowy.

Some of the expences for 1883


boarding teacher 4 weeks 7.00
medecine .05
2 days work shocking grain 3.50
1 pair shoes 1.75
sewing maching oil .10
2 pair stockings .25
dinner and supper .55
1 pair shoes 1.00
1 clothes wringer 4.50

1884

JAN. : Hauling hay. My team runs away and break my rack. Go to Ruthven.

10: Making hay rack.

21: Haul hogs to Ruthven. Very cold.

FEB. 1: Go to Emmetsburg. Thawing. The snow is nearly all gone. I am working on my house.

6: My stomach is bothering me a little, my old complaint.

7: Mate is sick with a cold and so am I. I feel better tonight.

13: Go to Necktie Party at Ruthven in the evening for the benefit of Rev. Woolrey.

22: O.L. Root and Logans folks visiting us.

MARCH 4: Go to Ruthven. Miss Smith the school teacher goes away. She boarded with us.

12: Go to Emmetsburg with a sick colt. It has nazal catarrah. Her left nostril runs and smells bad. I am having bad luck with calves. I have lost 4 out of six young ones.

APRIL 9: I am setting willows for Ryder. Snowing.

28: Go to Ruthven for carpenters, Brewer, Sommers and Smith.

29: Go to Ruthven take Brewer some trees.

30: Work on house with Brewer, Sommers and Smith.

16: Mark corn ground.

JUNE : Laying sidewalk about kitchen and well. Very warm.
JULY 4: Celebrate at Ruthven.

19: Go to Okaboji to see Bro. Theodore. (depot agent there)

21: Come home. I am buying Theodore's homestead.

SEPT. : Go to Ruthven and Smiths in Dickenson County to settle up for cows he has rented of me.

18: Drive homme 15 head of cattle from Smiths.

19: Make wire fence and etc. (this is the first time a wire fence in mentioned) Icy. I am plastering in my house.

NOV. 4: Go to Ruthven. Election day.

8: Work on road.

19: Finish plastering kitchen I take carpenter to Ruthven.

DEC. 25: Father and mother and Orvills and Nattie (sister of America) Goff spend part of the day with us.

29: Go to Emmetsburg and make out my will leaving all my property to my wife.

31: Blizzard. We have sold the past year $554.39 worth of butter.

Ruthven, Iowa, December 29th, 1884

Being mindfull that all people must die and that death may come sudden and unexpected and in order to better provide for my family in case of such sudden an event I hereby give and will unto my wife America Jane Barringer all of my property both personal and real.

Lyman T. Barringer
witnessed by
Dwight Goff
Melissa M. Goff Some expences 1884


Payment on Theodores land $50.00
Payment of Brown land 136.69
Payment on Railroad land 77.00
3 bushel grass seed 3.00
two suits clothes 23.00
1 set hoops .25
9 yds. cashmiere 9.00
7 yds. dress goods 1.40
Taxes 23.16
2 neck ties .50
to horse doctor .50
375 pounds barbed wire 30.00
3/4 yards velvet .75
21 pounds Ham 2.10 1885

FEBRUARY 9: Blizzard.

15: Blizzard.

MARCH 13: Have been building a coal house. It has been too warm to be comfortable.

APRIL : Mate is making maple syrup these days from our young maple trees.

20: Make a fence around what I christian Aletha's Flower garden it is between the house and well.

25: Set in 100 plumb trees in grove in front of schoolhouse on big hill.

MAY 2: Set willow posts betweem Dwight Goffs and my place.

5: Help running lines out on section 11.

8: Very windy and cold. Plant corn. It is so cold we have to quit. Planting corn. We are replanting some corn we have 75 acres to replant. Out seed corn was stored in chamber of old house with corn thrown in below. The corn on the lower floor grew all right. That above was spoiled all was stored at the same time. I think the sweating and steaming of the corn below spoiled it.

27: We have finished with the corn. Have planted between 90 and 100 acres this sprin.

JUNE 1: Go to Emmetsburg. We are appraising road damage.

13: Last night we had a heavy rain and wind. It blew down two houses about 1 mile North of here. Robert Eatons and a Danes unroofed. Two others blew down. Barns, stables were damaged. A man, his wife and child were hurt. Dwight Goffs and I go to Ruthven. We raise by subscription enough to buy Robert Eaton a stove, some dishs and other things.

14: Sunday. Robert Eaton moves into my tenant house. It is rainy.

26: We are having rain almost daily. The corn is very small.

JULY 4: We celebrate at Ruthven.

8: Sprain my ankle in the wagon wheel after I had been for a load of corn.

11: My ankle is better. I have been using hot packs on it of salt and vinegar and I can walk.

20: Haying. The week has been cloudy & foggy with a few sprinklings or rain making it a poor week for haying. We have in stack about 110 tons of hay.

NOV. 3: Go to Ruthven to election. I am summoned on as a petty juror.

21: Finish thrashing. I raised 2545 bushel of oats besides what I fed in sheaf estimated at 200 bushel.

27: Take 27 hogs to market at Ruthven.

DEC. 13: Sunday. Attend M.E. Church at Ruthven.

19: We go to a church party at Mr. Constables at Ruthven in the evening.

20: We are having a spell of fine warm weather it is good wheeling.

25: Father, mother and Irene spend the day with us. It is very warm and fine weather. No snow.

Total receipts for the year. $1,894.33
Total expenditures for the year 1,530.79
Total family expence for year 354.14
Total Farm expence for the year 645.95
Total payments on land for year 427.95
Total for Buttertubs, buttercolor
butter cloth and dairy salt for
the year 39.30
Gave away during the year 14.00
Paid hired help during the year 207.90
Add to farm account for 1 corn
plow and 1 check rower, 200
pounds harvesting twine 30.00

JANUARY 3: Sunday, blizzard.
5: Pleasant. Go to Ruthven there is about 1 foot of snow badly drifted.

7-9: Very cold, blizzarding.

13: Go to Ruthven. Settle up with Ida Miller on land.
14: Go to Emmetsburg. Snow.

30. Go visiting at old Mr. Roots and Ruthvens. Snow, a snowy winter.

FEB. 8: Aunt Lyda, Frank Ryder, Loy Mate and myself visit Orville and Nettie Goff.

16: Making a smoke house.

22: Haul oats to Ruthven. It is thawing very much the road is sloppy.

MARCH 13: I have been hauling oats to Ruthven most of last month. I sell 532 hogs and take them to Ruthven. Get $3.65 per hundred pounds. They weighed 13,375 pounds.

18: Have been hauling lumber and coal from Ruthven. I am building a wing on the north side of my granary.

22: Haul load of lumber from Ruthven. I am helping Robert Eaton move his house.

23: Haul a load of fencing from Ruthven.

24: We are joining the kitchen and coal house together by a roof between the two. Wm. Miller commences work for me at $20.00 a month.

27: Go to Ruthven. Six inches of snow fell last night. The snow is about 1 foot deep now.

29: I have lost 4 yearlings with blackleg this spring.
30: Go to Emmetsburg. Mate, Aletha and I have our photographs taken in a group.

9: Finish sowing 21 bushel of wheat.

APRIL : Put up a farm bell.

JUNE 11: Finish plowing our corn twice through. I sell a horse for $150.00.

25: Make some wire fence.

JULY 3: Celebrate the fourth in Ruthven as the fourth falls on a Sunday tomorrow.

11: Sunday. The weather is extremely dry. A general drought prevails in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinios and other parts. I have been unwell for some two weeks with catarrah of the stomach; am better now.

SEPT. 18: I scrape out dirt where I wish to build cattle barn. Mr. Oliver spends most of the day here.

OCT. 25: We have been hauling manure. We have hauled out 359 loads of manure since spring besides some 25 loads of straw manure and we are not done yet.

NOV. : Attend Election at Ruthven.

9: Go to Emmetsburg. I buy S.E. 1/4 of S.E. 1.2 of sec. 11, twp. 96 range 34 at $5.50 per acre.

11: Go to Frank Andersons at Ayshire and buy 8 cows and 5 steers from him and drive them hone.

12: Go to Emmetsburg. I am given a warranty deed to N1/2 of NW1/4 of sec. 32 twp 96 range 34 to Frank L. Anderson he pays me $1,000.00 the balance 100 due on said land as principal and seventy dollars in trust. I take seven cows for $200. 1 cow for $25. 5 head of steers for $100. I pay him to boot between my bull and his bull $15. He gives me first mortgage on the land for $600 which I receive the money on of the American Investment Company and a second mortgage of $200. I also receive his note for 42.35 given for the following things, namely use of seven cows one year at $6 each-$42. recording deed .75 balance above $10. making a total of $52.75. He receives credit as follows over paid on the principal sum of $1,000.00. Interest at 7 percent, note of 4335 for one year on which there should be no interest the same being mostly for cow rent $3.20. Total credit $10.40 Bal. $42.35

In this bargin I also pay J.T. Goldsworthy $80. to pay off a mortgage given by said Anderson on the aforesaid seven cows.

15: Go to Emmetsburg. Buy a carriage for $100.00.

17: Blizzard, we had an awful night. I lost 6 hogs in the storm.

25: Have been hauling hogs to and Coal from Ruthven these days. Making buggy house addition to south of granary.

DEC. 1: Go to Ruthven take Will and Ida Miller home. They have worked for me the past summer. I give Ida 12 yards gingham for a dress.

DEC. 15: We are stancheoning about 35 cows and we have got 15 or more young heifers with calf that I want to Stancheon as soon as I get their stalls done. So many turned in to the barn at once bother a good deal running about. They do not go in to the stancheons very good when we are in a hurry, I get provoked and use some bad language and some hard blows my help follow suit to some extent. Now we, my hired help and my self have agreed that this my be stopped and when any one uses bad language or harsh means about the barns or stock expectially the cows that he shall pay ten cents to the accusor for each such offence and we mean business. I have resolved to give my cows a little corn to call them to their places.

Father and mother are visiting with Mr. Hamiltons folks in Missouri this winter.

NOV. 15: Pair of shoes at Taubs (?)

was there a store in Ruthven with a name of someone like that at that time? It is mentioned quite often in expences & must mean Ruthven.

20: To repairs on 1 watch at Sporan and Oleson--(Did they have a store besides a lumberyard or whatever it was?) Bill at Skevingtons--$2.50

SEPT 20: Account at McNarrys for clothing--$2.50

NOV 15: To interest at Ormby's--$10.50--(In Ruthven--1886)

DEC. 25: Go to Christmas tree at Ruthven, get a knit scarf from my wife.

Some expences in 1886

55 pounds beef $3.30
1 bedstead 5.00
2 oranges .16
1 corset 1.00
1 bed springs 4.25
Farm Journal 1 yr. .50
Gave minister Morrows 8.00
4 pie tins .20
1 ladies hat 2.34
road tax 1.88
2 gentleman's hats 3.00
Skevington 2.25
Gave minister Weimer 1.00
Toabs or Toubs for shoes
Sporan & McCormick Feb. 1886 a bill 7 tintype pictures of my home, barn & livestock 5.00
Dentist for 5 teeth filled and cleaned 6.00
Ruthven Free Press subscription 11.00
Lumber bill McCormick 57.21
Lumber bill Alger & Brewer 25.43 1887

JANUARY 6: 38 degress below zero today.

16: Sunday. Wife and I stay with Mr. Barlows folks over night a blizzard prevents our going home after church. We are attending potracted meetings these evenings at Ruthven, conducted by Rev. Henry Date and Rev. Morrow.

20: Rev. Brother Morrow and Rev. Brother Date take dinner with us. My wife and Frank Tyder and his wife and myself join the M.E. church.

23: Sunday. Attend church at Ruthven the day is pleasant. I feel very weak in the discharge of my christian duties my God give me grace each day to do his will and may I feel meek and humble in my earnest prayer.

27: Attend Christian church in evening at Ruthven. (I've heard that church was where the Free Methodist church later stood)

MARCH 28: About 6 inches of snow fell last night.

30: Help Peter Hansen move his old house.

MAY : Making a milk house. Planted 135 acres of corn, 7 acres of sweetcorn, potatoes and etc.

JUNE 7: Go to Ruthven after some one to bore me a well at creamery.

JULY 5: Henry commences boring a well at creamery.

AUG. 15: I am 38 years old today. We are having rains and are thrashing between showers.

AUG. : Henry and Lynch finish boring me a well between the house and barn.

OCT. 24: Sunday. Snow ground cover 3 inches very cold.

NOV. 1: Making stabling for stock cattle north of horse and cow barn. Pleasant, too warm to work.

13: Sunday. Attend church in Ruthven.

DEC. : Pleasant, no snow.

26: Turns cold. Snow and blizzard.

30: Go to Ruthven get my cows on Anderson farm Aletha goes to her grandfathers in Ruthven to go to school. Start work on our new house.

30: I have rec'd for the past year $2923.27 from sales off my farm except $180. Received on notes due me.

31: Snow and blizzard.

Some expences 1887

3 ladies collars .10
3 doz. clothes pins .10
dress pattern .25
1 ladies bustle .40
10 pounds coffee 2.00
1 road cart 17.50
care of horses at hotel .75
2 window curtains .30
match safe (a glass shoe) .05
stirrup for saddle .25
1 mouse trap .15
1 box of pills .25
1 suit of clothes 15.00
pen holder .25
Ruthven Free Press 1.15
hair cut .25
railroad fare to Algona and return 1.45
dinner, lodging & breakfast .80

Notice this expense!!!

to a little boy for running after my hat .10

blacksmith bill at Jensens (Ruthven?) 3.20
profits on lemonade stand July 4, 1887 4.20
3 yds. overall material .60
received from the railroad for 4 head of cattle killed by train 50.00
railroad fare to Esterville and return 1.30
1 pair felt boots and rubbers 2.40

1888

MARCH 27: Take my first degree in Freemasonry at Ruthven.

APRIL 26: Very heavy rain, sleet cold every day through May 13. It froze last night, a heavy north wind and very cold. Everything in under water.

14: Go to Emmetsburg buy a stock farm on sec. 13. 360 acres.

Very cold. oats have killed and rotted on wet land. We are trying to plant corn, 20th, south wind, very cold, no grass to mention the season is backward. Nothing but wind and rain for days.

MAY 29: Some have not commenced to plant corn--very cold.

JULY 4: A cyclone sweeps through the country with some hail.

Tom Gifts house was blown away. I escaped with some broken glass and less damage to crops than some neighbors on either side. My loss was probable $200. My horses in the over pasture stampeded and got cut on wire.

5: Help Tom Gift rebuilding his house. I give him one table, 75 pounds of nails, 42 yards muslin and $10.00.

AUG. 6: Oats are blighted and are not worth harvesting.

8: Turn my cattle in 50 acres of oats. We are harvesting a few and will try to save our seed. The crop was very promising ten days ago. I never saw any thing like it.

SEPT. : Working on roads, they are in very bad shape.

OCT. 7: Sunday. Today at dinner we have Uncle Truman Barringer, cousin Ida Barringer of Reedsburg, Wisc., Father and mother, cousin Mart and Lulu Peck of Necedah, Wisc., Emma, Eveling and husband, Theodore and wife, and Emmet. We have ground corn meal from new corn made into a johnny cake and honey roast goose and etc.

OCT. : Harvest 150 bushel of potatoes.

NOV. 10: Building addition to barn for cattle barn 31 by 120 feet. The roads are hard as stone, it is very dry, we are husking corn. Jonhadl is working for me.

DEC. 28: Sunday. This is good plow weather only the ground is too dry and hard, no frost to hinder today, we need no fires indoors.

Expences for 1888

Jondahl for 7 days carpenter work 12.25
Jondahl, 1 days carpenter work .50
183 live chickens 9.15

1889

JAN. : We are attending meetings at the church in Ruthven.

FEB. 7: This is the best winter I ever saw. I have not seen a bank of snow this winter, it is good wheeling and warm.

16: Have about 1 inch of snow.

21: Am attending Farmer's Institute meetings in Emmetsburg these days.

MARCH : Just like spring out, frogs singing all night, bees are gathering pollen off my maple trees.

20: Making pasture fence on sec. 13, the first fence on the section which is raw prarie. We are breaking it now.

23: Planted 20 bushel of potatoes.

JUNE : Putting up a windmill--52 feet tall.

AUG.13: Commence thrashing at noon, we are now using a steam thrasher.

OCT.19: We finished digging a stock well, size of well is 6x10 and is 17 feet deep.

21: Husking corn and saving seed.

30: Attend funeral services at Aunt Catherin Hubbard. NOV. 1: Snow, 8 inches deep. The most of the farm homes, large ones, were built during the 1887, 88 & 89.

1890

MAY 16: The Highland Butter Association, a creamery was organized and built by the people in the area. It was built on the N.W. quarter of sec. 11 on the Lyman Barringer land (where Ed. Jensen now lives). The size of the creamery was 24'x65'. Some of those instrumental in building and financing it were: Lyman Barringer, J.M. Carpenter, Peter Hansen, Mr. Adams, Thomas Jackson, Lars Toreson, Mr. Hovey. It was built with the $3,000.00 that was furnished by the above.

Paid Joe Green for work 1 jacket value 1.00
Twine bill bought of Nolan and Martain 10.87
Nov.Wilmer Goff for work 26.16
Bill of lumber at Herrington 16.85
Stock purchased in Highland Butter Association 300.00
(stock $50.00 each)
One bedstead and dressing case 35.00
One bedstead and dressing case for Aletha 29.00
1 lounge 14.00
2 bed springs 4.25
3 mattresses 12.50
1 rocker 4.00
1 rocker for Aletha 4.00
6 cane charis 8.00
steam kettle .90
flat iron .30
1 center table 4.50
1 clock 2.25
1 heating stove 31.00
perfume .25
2 rockers for mother and father 8.00
9 wood seat chairs 6.25
mouth organ for lester (a little one) .10
wallpaper at McNearys 1.95

DEC. 11: Toothpicks .15,
pulling one tooth .50.

FEB. 8: Wife and I start for church but it begins to snow and we turn about and go home after getting abaout half way to Ruthven and by noon we are having a heavy snow storm from N.E., it is warm.

FEBRUARY 18, 1891 Go to Ruthven and trade horses with the Lite Hotel keeper.

22: We are wintering 57 hogs about 40 are brood sows, 136 head of cattle and 19 head of horses and colts and about 200 hens, 20 turkeys, 2 cats and dogs. At 10 minutes past 5 p.m. Mate is setting in her old arm chair close to the north side of our setting room stove, she has been reading the Ladies Home Journal but has just laid it down. I am setting in front of the stove with my book on my lap writing this down. Aletha sits close to my right in an easy rocker reading. Cleborn is close to my left in Aletha's rocking chair reading the Inter ocean. John, the hired man, is reading in the kitchen. Lester is asleep in his mama's bed in the kitchen bedroom but will soon wake and be climbing up on my lap as usual and saying "here I tum adin". It is getting to dark to write and Aletha lights the lamp. All are unaware of what I have written . Our chores are all done for the night except stoping the windmill which is pumping water into the cattle tank under the barn.

Lyman T. Barringer
Feb. 22, 1891

MARCH 5: Attend auction sale of Jas. Spaulding.

28: Go to Ruthven to get brother Emmett and we go to Twelve Mile lake, stay with Wm. Holzer. I buy of him $1.000.00 worth of property, 40 cows with 20 calves, 13 year old steer,9 two year old steers and 49 hogs.

MAY 1: We have finished planting 115 acres of corn up to this date.

JUNE 19: Go to Ruthven and hire Chris Larson to work for me. My hogs are dying of cholera.

SEPT. 5: Drive cattle, 42 head to Ruthven and with 34 head belonging to Emmet. Cousin Charles and I start for Chicago at 12. The train gets to Dubuque a little before dark. Arrive in Chicago at 4 p.m. unload about 8 A.M. I sell cows for $1.90 bi; $2.04, heifers $2.10, steers $2.25. Look over Chicago a little and start for home by way of Milwaukee. At about 8 p.m. arrive in Milwaukee about 10, look through the exebition building and start for home at 2:30 A.M. Have breakfast in Prarie Duchine, arrive home about 6 p.m. the 8th.

OCT. : Have been having flour ground in Emmetsburg. I now have flour for 1 year for $35.

NOV. 10: Mate, Lester, and I go to Spencer to a cloak sale. Mate buys a cloak for $35.

14: Drive cattle to Ruthven and load 4 cars for Chicago. Arrive in Chicago on the 16 early in the morning. Cleborn came with me. Our cattle are not sold today. Cleborn starts for home at 6 p.m. today. I stayed over.

] 17: I spend the day looking about town. I look through Libby Prison and start home at 11 p.m.

18: Arrive home about 9 p.m.

21-23: Load a car of live hogs to Chicago.

25-27: Have hauled gods to Ruthven and have hauled in 95 hogs of our own fattening and others we have bought and shipped a carload to Chicago on the 28.

30: Buy hogs at Ruthven. In the two days I have bought 109 hogs. I sell my hogs to Helgen for $688.75. I received for hogs shipped $1180.00 ;my profit over all expence has been about $140.00.

DEC. 3: Rain. Last night we had a rain with lightning and heavy thunder.

5: Go to Emmetsburg. Mate and I drive down with horse and buggy.

13: Wife and I attend M.E. church at Ruthven. Rain and foggy. Frost out enough to plow on breaking.

DEC. 24: Mate, Lester, and myself go to Christmas tree at M.C. Church in Ruthven. Lester gets a sword, cart and some tools and at home he gets a rocking horse plate and cap and other toys.

25: Colder, snow begins to fall which turns into a blizzard.

1892

JAN. 7: I am not very well. Toward night I am obliged to go to bed. The doctor comes to see me and says I have LaGripps. I am quite sick.

21: I have been confined to the house all these days with LaGrippe. I am now about over it.

Jan., Feb., and March were very mild, most of the nights it did not freeze. The middle of March was very windy.

MARCH20: Attend old Mr. Roots funeral at M.E. Church in Ruthven.

2: Load and ship 20 head of steers at Ruthven and send to Chicago.

4: I am making a moveable pig pen.

5: Take 30 fat hogs to town in a pig pen I made. I chase the pigs into the pen and shut the door, hitch a team of horses to the pen and haul it to town. The pigs walk inside the pen. It seems to work much better than trying to herd them to town with a horse.

APRIL 13: The worst snow storm and blizzard of the season. Drifts are 5 to 6 feet deep. Everyone had to get their sleighs out. The snow melting very slowly. The ground is generally covered with snow, seeding is at a stand still.

19: I go to Ruthven. Carpenters are building a store for me in Ruthven. Snow betins falling at about 7 in the morning and a genuine snow storm and blizzard continues all day. We have about 8 inches of snow which fell. It is one of the worst storms of the past winter, large drifts of last weeks snow was everywhere to be seen before todays snow, which covered them up completely. MAY : Setting out cottonwood trees.

8: Cold, cloudy, windy. No corn is planted yet, oats are drowned out on low ground. It is the wettest, coldest, cloudiest spring I ever saw. Nearly everybody is out of hay. Roads have been almost impassabale for nearly 2 months.

14: Rain and cold, roads impassable. No corn planted yet, fields are all under water.

17: Go to Ruthven. Rains very hard in the afternoon. I stay in town at night.

18: Last night the wind changed suddenly to a perfect gale and rain poured in torrants, everything that wasn't flooded before is flooded now.

20: A blizzard set in last night and this morning the ground is covered with snow. The wind blowing a gail from N.W. and snowing. The snow and winds keep up till late in the P.M. Fields are under water, bridges are washed out. Travel is almost suspended. Men carry flour on their backs for 5 to 6 miles; all marketing is done on foot. Occassionally a four horse team goes to town for coal and etc. No corn is planted yet. I have been walking to town of late--am building a hotel in Ruthven.

23: Go to Ruthven. Snow drifts are large enough to fill one or two wagon boxes lay side the road. I am in Ruthven looking after hotel work.

26: Haul sand from Lost Island lake to town to plaster hotel.

JUNE 10: Go to Ruthven. 96 degrees in the shade today.

29: Have been spending all of my time on my hotel. Hotel is finished and renters moved in (The monk brothers). I rent it to them for $40. per month. I have named it "THE CENTRAL HOUSE".

30: I am making steps in back of the Central House and eltc.

JULY 1: Making an ice box for my hotel.

4: We spend the day at Ruthven. Wife and I take ride around Lost Island lake on the steamboat that has just been put on the lake. Lester goes with us. We ride too and from the lake in the new Buss starting from the Central House Hotel. TRuthven. con'td.
None of the adjoining towns celebrate and everybody seems to have come to Ruthven.
The Central House gave about 500 meals. We had to turn away 100 or more, we cound not serve.

Cost of Hotel building, ground and furniture January 19, 1892
Business lot in Ruthven................$250.00
To McCormick for negociating for the purchase for me of a
business lot in Ruthven........................... $2.00
By rent for use of lot for 1 month................
Recording..............................................75
Surrender of lease...................................5.00
sand .50 stone 1.00
my own stove 10.00 stove of Rosencraus(?) 1.50
lathing 2.90 iron roofing 79.62
nails .95 hauling sand 20.00
shingles .10 mason work 143.00
carpenter 10.00 Monks for work 5.00
painter 10.00 backlathing 23.50
mason work 143.00 casing 1.40
molding 1.40 painting outside 9.50
bolt .10 nails for Waller(orn) 2.00
nails .30 Mc. for lumber 500.00
carpenter 35.00 shoveling sand .50
lathing .90 lathing 4.08
carpenters 6.00 digging pit for privy .50
oil 1.20 O.L Root for hauling .50
furniture 130.00 moldings & screws 1.50
sign 1.00 nails 1.00
sign irons .40 wash sink of Logan 4.00
paint stove (?) 1.00 draying O.L. Root 5.65
Draying Brewer 3.10 lumber for walks 20.00
making counter and lumber for same to Logan 20.00
draying by Monk Brothers 12.75
Masons laying wash house chimney 2.75
water box above wash sink making 2.00
balance for painting 24.25
balance for furniture 68.00
stone of Nolan 3/4 cord 4.00
hardware bill of Nolan 83.10
paints and oil of Anderson 42.17
paints and oil of Wilson 1.00
Will Willy carpenter work 5.00
To Logan for work 12.57
lumber bill 600.00
lumber bill to McCormick 206.98
TOTAL $2420.32

List of furniture in my Central House Hotel belonging to me
July 9, 1892

5 oak bedsteads 4 maple bedsteads
12 stands 5 elm bedsteads
14 best woven wire bedsprings 12 office chairs
24 high back dining chairs 1 office table
13 cane bottom chairs 3 wash basins
3 eight foot tables 1 ice box
1 rocker 2 square tables
1 zinc covered kitchen table 3 heating stoves
1 small side table 1 rocker in parlor
6 parlor chairs 3 stove (orn) boards
1 cistern pump

JULY 17, 1892 Expence of Excursion to Okaboji lake for Wife and I--$3.80
AUG. 29: Go to the State Fair in Des Moines.

30: Spend forenoon on fairgrounds, p.m. about the city of Des Moines and start home. I got home at about 2 a.m. Total expences $9.00

DEC. 3: By rent on Central House of Monks $37.30, it being full up to Nov. 18, 1892.

NOV. 18: To Livery barn, store building and dwelling and lots on which they stand being No. 3,4,& 5 on block 2 South Ruthven. $3006.00.

OCT. 16: Sunday, Uncle Truman and George Barringer from Reedsburg, Wisc. are visiting the relatives hereabouts and a company of themselves; Father and wife; Marshall Hamilton and wife; Chas. Barringer & wife; Wm. Henry Barringer and wife; Steven Barringer & wife; Cleborn Barringer and wife Aletha; and Cousin Loy Ryder, Vince Hasket and Emmet Barringer, my wife, Lester Barringer and myself attend the M.E. Church at 11 A.M. and then go to the Central House where we have dinner, music and singing and visiting until about 4 p.m. Wm. H. C.W., Steve, Cleborn, Emmet and myself club together and buy two jackknives as presents. One for Uncle George and one to send to Uncle Wm. Barringer--Uncle Truman having a good one yet I gave him 4 years ago.

OCT. 24: Take a load of flax to Ruthven and attend auction of O.D. Goff.

NOV. 5: Attend auction sale of Scott and Emmet P. Barringer.

NOV. 14: Plow a little. I take up some honey in P.M. and a bee stings me in the eyeball of my left eye and I have to go to Ruthven to the doctor to have the stinger taken out.

18: Lester falls out of Cleborns wagon and the wheels run over his head.

NOV. 22: Receive work of the death of my sister-in-law Carrie Barringer, Theodores wife, in Milford.

DEC. 1: Trading with Monk brothers for their property in Ruthven.

2: Go to Ruthven, buy out Monk brothers Livery Barn, store and dwelling and lots 3,4,5 block 2 South Ruthven price $3,006.00

5: Rent the livery barn to eaton and Grady for 1 year for $300.00. Account with Livery Barn and all property including harness shop on Lots 3,4,5 block 2 South Ruthven .

3: First cost of this property $3,006.00

10: Rent of hall over store for Dec. to Mulrony 6.00 income. To digging cellar under store to even it up 7.85 expence.

11: Cash by rent on barn of Eaton 5.00 income Rent on barn of Eaton 16.00 income

14: Rec'd rent on barn at 25. per month up to and for April 1893--$101.00

APRIL 1: Rec'd up to date rent of Christopherson on store $36.00
Rec'd to tent on Harness shop 8.00
MARCH : Rent on rooms over store for 1 month 6.00
Lumber and stucco to fix buildings 50.00
Houghs and Willy for Carpenter work 55.00
plastering rooms over store 21.00
glass for front 1.50
painting inside store 12.00
carpenter work on Harness shop 7.00
carpenter work on Harness shop (twice) 7.00
painting inside harness shop 2.50
Carpenter work addition to store 10.00
Carpenter work addition to Barn (livery) 35.00
carpenter work fixing front of barn (office)
raising floor and changing doors and etc. 15.00
rents received (income) 177.70
Interest on deferred payment 20.00
sack of stucco .65
shimney stop .15
papering .60
mason work plastering up Harness Shop 1.00
nails and hardware 12.00
Brown for fixing foundation addition to barn (livery) 2.00
Mulroney for hall rent (one month income) 6.00
Brown house rent rooms over store 1 month income 6.00
Barn rent up May 1st 122.-- Store rent up to May 1--36.00
Harness shop rent for April 8.00

These were all rented through 1895--In 1896 Lyman B. & wife took a years trip throughout the country, but spending most of their time in Colorado. Lyman was in poor health for many years. He spent much time in Mayo Clinic in Rochester. He had cancer of the stomach and know for a long time that there was no hope for his recovery. At the time of his death he was a member of the Farmer Grain Dealers of Iowa--At the annual meeting of this association the following tribute was read by E.G. Dunn at Sioux City, Iowa.

"OUR ABSENT ONE"

No great work is ever accomplished, no great battle is ever fought, no victory ever won but that some leader is missing when the roll is called. Some where back along the pathway of progress a toiler fall. Somewhere on the battlefield a hero was slain. And today this great gathering is called upon to mourn for a fallen comrade.

Five years ago in the little town of Rockwell there gathered a little band of Iowa farmers, the nuecleus of the splendid gathering here assembled. I see before me the faces of many who were there. The stern visage of battle has given place to the smile of victory. The star of hope there planted is fast rising to its zenith.

But one face is missing, one heart is stilled, one vice ever pleading for the cause of humanity has been raised for the last time. Lyman Barringaer is dead. His life work o'er. His mission accomplished. He is sleeping with the countless millions who have lived, labored and died to fulfill their part in the great scheme of the Creator of man.

Lyman Barringer was more than a citizen. He was a benefactor of ideals. A man whose life was lived for the benefit of humankind. A man of wealth, power and culture he could have been a leader in the arena of business or politics. A man whose purity of life and integrity of character would have been an honor and an inspiration to the ministry itself, he could have wielded a powerful influence on the world's affairs.

He chose to be a private rather than a chief. Wealth, position, power were to him but the means to an end; and that end so often aggrandizement of self, was to him the lifting up opf all mankind.

Public spirited and charitable, to build for the future, to relieve disstress, to smooth the pathway of the aged and the unfortunate; these were his aims, this was his life.

Above his party, broader than his creed, the embodiment of brotherhood, his death the middle chapter of a life to be concluded in another world.

We have many workers, some labor to benefit mankind and thus benefit themselves, some to benefit themselves and thus benefit mankind, some aim only to filch from earth what they may and give nothing in return. A few give to mankind their services and ask naught of those they serve.

Such was Lyman Barringer. He came into this work at a time when its rewards would not accrue to him. He had no hope of personal gain, in fact he might be termed a martyr to the cause. Having gone to Colorado in 1896 to make him home, he returned to teach the people of his home state the neccessity of entering the field of business. "What we need," he said in 1896 "is not more money, but the ability to market the products of the farm intelligently." He asked no reward and received none save the homage that you and I may give.

He lived at Ruthven. America was his home. He died a member of one church; he was the embodiment of all. He may have voted a party ticket; he was a citizen of his country.

He has left his monument to mankind in the form of a life of deeds. With Lincoln he said, "My ambition is to pluck a thistle and plant a flower where I think a flower will grow." And the flower of love and peace has blossomed on his tomb, their bright petals exhaling the purity and sweetness of his life. He has sunk beneath the eaves of the future, but his life started its waves which will spread to the boundless shores of eternity.

Obituary

Lyman T. Barringer was born at Big Springs, Adams county, Wisconsin, August 15, 1849 and died at his home in Ruthven, Iowa, on December 29, 1908, after a long and painful illness, and although suffering intensely much of the time, the strong character of the man wqas proven by the heroic fortitude with which he bore his sufferings.

He resided with his parents on a farm in Adams County until 1870, thirty-nine years ago, when he came west to seek a location, settling in Palo Alto County, taking up a homestead in Highland Township about four miles northeast of the present site of Ruthven, though at that time there was no town there nor a railroad in the western part of the state.

He was married on the 3rd of June, 1874 to Mrs. America Jane Root and the continued to reside on the homestead for many years; later they retired from farm life and moved to thew town of Ruthven, where a few years ago he built a beautiful home, and where they continued to reside until Mr. Barringer's death. Having invested in considerable farm lands at a time when lands were cheap, although never boasting of his wealth, Mr. Barringer had accumulated a comptence of which he was ever willijng to give in the interests of humanity. For many years he had been a student of economic conditions, especially from the producers standpoint, and for the past ten years he has been active in furthering the cause of cooperation among farmers and building up of their interests on Iowa and other states. By his intelligent effort and his unselfish devotion to the cause of cooperation he had become well known throughout the middle west and there stands today in the town of Ruthven as a monument to his memory one of the best known and successful co-opeerative companies in the state and of which he was a beloved member and its honored president at the time of his death. In the state organization of the Farmers Grain Dealers Association of Iowa he had served as president, vice president and director, and was recognized as a wise councelor and staunchy adherent to right principles. He leaves to mourn his death his wife, a father aged 84 years, three sisters, Emma, Eveline who reside in North Dakota and Montana; Irene Ellis, of Marston Moor, North Dakota; a step-daughter, Mrs. C.J. Barringer of Ruthven and three brothers, E.P. and C.J. of Ruthven; Theodore of Thunder, Idaho; and Charles W., of Spokane, Washington, and a host of sorrowing friends.

To know Lyman Barringer was to love and respect him, and as words are but weak things to express our sympathy for the sorrowing loved ones, let us seek rather to honor his memory by such deeds of kindness as so often pleased him to perform.

The funeral services were held at the Methodist Church in Ruthven, Thursday, Dec. 31st at 2 oclock p.m. and were conducted by the pastor, Rev. G.W. Southwell, after which the remains were laid to rest in Crown Hill cemetary in Ruthven.

The esteem in which Mr. Barringer was held was shown by the most prominent co-operative workers from different parts of Iowa and other states who attended his funeral. Lyman T. Barringer's wise counsel will not only be missed in the work of the Farmer Grain Dealers Association of Iowa and his home company, but it will also be missed in the co-operative movement throughout the grain growing state. The American co-operative Journal extends to the breaveed family and friends sincere sympathy.

(The above was printed in the Grain Dealer's Association magazine).

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