Migration to Iowa, page 3

"I have no official documents concerning the land taken up by my grandmother's (Eliza's) family, the Richard Prings. However, the leaf which has been preserved from Richard Pring's family Bible, shows that his six eldest children were all married in Van Wert County, Ohio, but the seventh child [Amelia] and the rest of the ten children were married in Polk County, Iowa. William Thomas Pring (Uncle Tom) was married in Ohio on Feb. 28, 1856 (to Adeline Brown), while Amelia Catherine Pring was married to Joshua Evans in Polk County, Iowa on December 3, 1857. Therefore, I would assume that he (Richard) and his wife, with their four youngest children, came to Iowa sometime between February 1856 and December 1857 [see note 1].
"My guess would be that four family units came together -- Jeremiah (and wife Elizabeth), William Thomas (and wife Adeline), Eleanor and Anthony McQueen, and Richard with Mary Ann and his younger children. Uncle Jerry (Jeremiah) and Aunt Eleanor had been married in 1847 and 1849 respectively [see note 2], and Uncle Tom was a comparative newlywed. While it is possible that Jeremiah had preceded the others, the farmland where three families lived was contiguous, or nearly so. It may have been that part of them came on ahead and that Richard and his younger children followed later.
"During the period between 1855 and 1857 -- the approximate time that these families settled in Polk County -- stageroads were being built in all directions from Des Moines, through the counties of Iowa. . . Infantry was transported -- 1000 men with all equipment -- from Des Moines to Iowa City in only three days!! As late as 1854 a grant of lands (for roadbeds) to run across the State from east to west was made to four railroads, to aid in construction -- these became the Burlington, Rock Island, Northwestern, and Milwaukee Railroads eventually. The last stage left Des Moines on July 1, 1878, and the stage line was sold, to be based in Omaha for the new, raw State of Nebraska. I mention the transportation statistics because it should give some perspective to parts of my story which will follow."

Notes:

1. A letter to the Frederick Baylor family from Richard and Mary Ann Pring on 24 February 1854 proved the Pring family was still in Ohio on that date. It further proved that Amelia (Kear) Bailor and William Kear were already in Iowa.] [Return to text}
2. Jeremiah Pring married Elizabeth Shultz on 11 Apr 1847 in Van Wert, Ohio, (Marriage Book I, Van Wert County, Ohio Probate Court, p. 40.) [Return to text]

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Information on this site related to the Kear family is from The John Cears Kear Family compiled, written and edited by Donald L. Kear, copyright © 1984. Copyright © 2000 - 2006 by Donald L. Kear. All rights reserved. Portions of the pages on this site may be reproduced for nonprofit use only. Credit shall be given to the source.