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(Transcribed by Peggy Barriskill Perazzo, December 2005)

"Recollections of A Busy Life,"
By Eli Fayette Ruggles

H. L. Ruggles & Co., Publishers, (published circa 1904)

Chapter VI.

Hurrah For the Railroad.

One day surveyors were crossing our farm and driving stakes. Yes, a
railroad is to be built from Detroit to Chicago via St. Joe, and a depot
will be built not far from our farm. Hurrah! won't we be rich? But weeks
later we learned that St. Joe was so sure the railroad would come there
that they wouldn't give favors or money. Niles did both, and got the
Michigan Central, and St. Joe was left with bleak winds of Lake Michigan
for company for many years later. Then Dowagiac and Decatur came into
being, among oak stumps, trees and brush.

Log Houses Go Up in Flames.

Very soon after moving part of the goods from the log houses I was partly
awakened in my sleep and looked out the window just enough to see great
flashes of light and heard what I thought to be distant thunder. I covered
my head with the bedding, in hopes to get to sleep again before the great
storm reached us. Westley was the first one outdoors in the morning, but
soon came running, all excited, saying, "Oh, mamma, the log houses are all
burned down." The lightning was the flames, leaping high; the thunder was
the falling of the logs. Soon we were all at the scene of our desolation,
for but little had been moved out, and there was the loom, and wound around
the beam with the cloth that was to make our wearing apparel for the whole
family the coming winter, that was near at hand - fifty bushels of potatoes
in the cellar half burned, tallow, lard, butter, all gone. But father says,
"Westley, there is a potato pile out near the barn, that will keep us from
starving," and says, "Mother, let's bring water and save some of that
barrel of pork."

First Stoves.

Well do I remember when stoves were first talked of. Some believed they
were safe and some believed they would burst. About this time horses began
to take the place of oxen on the road. Lyman took a load of wheat to
Dowagiac (eighteen miles), and brought home a cook stove. Most of us stood
well back when the match was applied, and we almost held our breath, but -
but it didn't burst.

The Eagle's Upward Flight.

An eagle one day attracted Lewis' attention by sailing round and round and
going up, up. He called my attention to it, and we both declared we had
never seen the like before, but it was hard on our necks. So we lay flat on
our backs, and still he circles round and up, up, as if he had bidden
good-bye to the earth and thought to soon be to the sun. He passed beyond
my vision. "Lewis, can you see him yet?" He answered, "I can almost see him."

The Building and Growth of A New Country.

You have perhaps read "The Building of a Nation." And that was done by an
accumulation of the littles. So has it been in this great forest. Families
have bought land and made their beginning here and there. The roads have
been chopped four rods wide and cleared two rods wide. School houses have
been built here and there, and ministers or messengers of the Gospel have
come to us and taught us of the God that created and the Savior who
redeems. Brothers and sisters have attended school here, where at first was
the log school house with but one room and a row of seats around three
sides, the door and blackboard occupying one end. Back of the door was
usually three beech gads. Scholars sit on a high seat made out of a log
with stakes driven into a bored hole for legs; all small scholars could not
touch the floor, their feet left to swing like the clock pendulum. Bench
runs whole length of one side of the room. Scholars sit with back to the
center of the room and teacher face to the logs and in front, and fastened
to a log is a long board, on which the books are placed.

This log house has had its day and given place to the frame schoolhouse and
its improvements. As we grew older we took our turns in being sent out to
Paw Paw or Niles or Ann Arbor, not only to get what the schools could do
for us, but to rub off some of our woods' habits and put on a little
refinement as well.

Wealth in 1848 Versus Wealth in 1902.

One Sabbath day at a meeting at the school house a stranger was present,
large, portly and attractive in appearance. Who can he be? For we knew
every man for ten miles round. Why, that is a Mr. McNitt, and they say he
has got ten hundred dollars in cash.

"Oh, he can buy everything he wants to, can't he?" Ten millions now would
attract no - not so much attention.

The Pretty Cub.

The table was surrounded by the men who were clearing land. I was helping
mother and was sent out to get wood and chips (chips were a great feeder to
a fire in those days). I heard a man hollering with all his might far away
in the woods; the evening was then approaching, and what little air was
stirring came from the same direction of the calling. I reported at once,
and out came the men and listened - yes, yes, that man is certainly in
great trouble and a long way off. Martin, Lyman and Rus Parker took dog,
gun and axe and away they ran. There was a wagon road in that direction to
Waterford. About twenty minutes later the hollering stopped and an hour
later the men returned, saying they could not find him, that they got near
to his calling, then the calling stopped, and they called and hunted, but
to no avail. Next day from school we got the report and later got this
statement from Gilbert Conkling: "I was returning home from Waterford on
foot with a bundle of groceries tied in my bandanna (silk handkerchief)
when a smallish animal came into the road in front of me, and I said to
myself, what kind of a chap are you, anyway? It's a little cub, sure as you
are born, and a pretty cub you are, too. I believe I will catch you and
take you home with me. So as I grabbed him he ran, took a short circle in
the bush and just crossing the road again when I grabbed him. He squealed,
and then I heard a rustling of the brush and leaves a few rods ahead, and
there sprang into the road the mother bear, coming with mouth open, showing
two rows of sharp teeth. Now, it's fight or die with me, and no club at
hand and not a second to lose I sprang up a sapling; climbed with
vengeance, and a bear climbing for vengeance was tight at my heels. I
thought to kick her head, but she might grab my foot in her mouth; then I
broke off a limb and pounded her head, but she only climbed a little closer
to me. I yelled a long time, but only echo answered. Finally the bear tired
of hanging to so small sapling and climbed down, went two or three rods
distant, stood up on her haunches, opened her mouth, reached out her fore
paws as if to say, 'I'd just like to hug you.' Her eyes shone like balls of
fire, for it was then getting dark. She then climbed a maple tree that rent
right over the road where the cubs had preceded her. Then I climbed down,
but dare not go that way home, but took to my heels for Waterford; every
moment would look back to see if that black brute was on the chase. Next
morning men with guns and dogs returned with me to the scene of battle.
There was the much scarred sapling, there was shreds of my red bandanna
handkerchief, but where are the groceries? The dogs took trail and the bear
was killed not far from Coloma. I arrived at home a tired man, with stiff
and sore legs."

A New Country Fourth of July.

It was agreed that the Fourth of July should be celebrated in our
neighborhood. Ground was selected in Thomas Conkling's woods near the road.
We all met there and cleared away the brush and rubbish and built the
platform for orator and singers. The farmer men and boys and girls, some
mated and some mis-mated, in four-horse and two-horse wagons; occasionally
a gentry with his best gal in a buggy, some afoot and cross lots, but they
came, and the cannon came clear from Paw Paw.

Philotus Haydn (sic) was orator, and he orated as well as it is done even
in this enlightened age. The cannon had announced the rising sun, the
coming of the orator, and now salutes the thirteen states. On the stand,
attuning their voices to "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," and "Hail, Columbia,"
are three Conklings, two McNitts, five Ruggles' and five others. Sisters
Mariah and Lucretia are there. P. J. Adams leads with his clarinet.

The orator had got down to earth again from his flights of fancy, and again
bang goes the cannon, and a cry is raised, some one is groaning, and it
proves to be the gunner, the tallest man in the crowd, George Washington
Williams; his thumb is gone and hand badly mangled. But in a little while
all is glee again, so long as it is not me or my son John.

Freman and Our Blind Father.

When Freman came home from his carpenter work in Hamilton Township he would
occasionally bring one or two apples in his pocket; these were paired very
thin and divided to each his or her share, and soon there will be apples in
abundance here, for large orchards are set. But father is in total darkness
- cannot tell daylight from the darkest night.

There is a noted oculist in Rochester - Dr. Munn - and Freman takes father
to him. Father is seated in a common dining chair. The doctor sits astride
his lap, so they face each other, then takes a needle, inserts it in the
side of the eyeball till it reaches the center, then works the needle up
and down till the cataract is cut away from the retina, then withdraws the
needle and the work is done.

In two weeks they return, and Freman is not leading father, but has to walk
lively to keep up with him. "Oh, father can see us; the Lord be praised,"
and hugs and kisses and tears intermingled. And father says that Sylvia
looks natural, but these, my girls, have grown so fast. It has been over a
year since he could see them to tell much how they looked. By the aid of an
eyeglass father read his Bible through and the Morning Star paper once a
week. About a year later father took a severe cold that affected his head,
then settled in his eyes, for many days his eyes were so inflamed that dark
bandages had to be used, and when the inflammation subsided and dark
bandages removed sight was again a blind man for eighteen years.

The Breaking Team and Plow.

Fernando sold his farm west of ours and bought a new farm in Keeler
Township, and I want you to see him among oak grubs and trees and how a
farm is cleared there. We drive eight miles, and what kind of panorama is
this approaching us on the left? "Well, I declare, that is the longest
string of oxen that ever I did see," you exclaim. Yes, or probably ever
will see again. You count till you find there are sixteen yoke of oxen
attached to that one plow. Oh, such a monster plow, some twelve feet long,
and cuts a furrow two feet wide and seven inches deep. The sharp steel
shier will cut off a grub four inches in diameter and not stop the onward
march of that string of oxen at all. It has been said that grubs six inches
in diameter have been cut with that team and plow. But I question the
statement. These oxen belong to the farmers surrounding, and each take
their turn to break, as they call it.

The Result of a Fever.

Martin has been working at Waterford (now Watervliet), and has come home
with a severe fever. Martin was the boss man to drive the piling for the
grist and saw mills and two bridges at Watervliet, and built the bridge.
But now he is sick and needs attention all the time. So Lewis is sent to
find some girl to help through his sickness. He brings a girl home and
introduces her as Miss Sarah Ann Taylor. But mother wants to know whether
she is called Sarah or Ann. "Oh, they call me Ann." Then mother explained
that it was all she could do to care for the men and the housework, and
that Martin was very sick.

By what followed I am able to give you this recipe for love and
match-making: let a young man have a fever; it will be violent for nine
days. In that time the head must be cooled by cold cloths dampened, the
hands and writs the same, the room darkened, little dainty bits of food fed
to him, when the fever is off for a rest. The hair slightly dampened by
wetting he hand and rubbing over the hair, and as he improves he can be
braced up in bed a little while; an egg on toast is given, then his hair
can be combed, and after washing the face and hands and rubbing the arms
till dry and a good circulation of blood is obtained. Yes, Yes, they were
married later, and that recipe is sure.

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