(in Iowa)

          I don't know who proposed it.  It was decided to come west to Oregon.  They sold their homes.  We fitted two wagons.  Houk fitted one wagon and had three horses.  Mary had one horse.  Ahira Morse had a horse.  He drove one wagon.  We furnished a span of mules.  So that made one four horse team.  Baxter drove the other team.  We had three horses, but drove two most of the time.  Uncle Holbrook made a sale.  We sent our surplus stock and plunder there.  It was sold, and as I remember, they didn't get much out of the sale.  Everyone knew we could not take everything with us, so why pay much for it.  Mother had moved her bureau and bookcase from Ohio.  She knew she could not move it farther.  She gave them to Jacob, our married brother.  His daughter cherishes the bureau yet as he most precious heirloom of her grandmother she was named for but never saw.  They had so many books.  It was quite a struggle to pack in a box two feet square all your treasures and cast aside others seemingly so dear.  As long as Mother lived she would wish for books left in Iowa.  The was one keepsake, however, she would not part with.  That was Grandfather Ashbaugh's copper kettle,  It held twenty gallons, and he bought it about the year 1834, when their orchard came in to bearing.  Mother boiled apple butter by the barrel in this kettle.  (It is in my cellar now.)  The winter of 1867-68 was a busy time for everyone.  They kept the teams up and rolled the corn to them.  The man who bought our farm moved in the last of March to get settled in time to begin work when the weather would permit.  There were nine in their family and six in ours.  It is safe to say we were somewhat crowded.  It was a late spring.  I don't think they had plowed any or very little when we left.