A sample of life in Iowa in the 1800's:

On 3/11/1875 my great-grandparents, Benjamine Franklin Nash and Annah
Marinda Donaldson were married by Rev. Hand, Congregational Minister in Polk
City, Iowa.  Immediately after being married, Benjamine and Annah traveled by
covered wagon to their prairie home in Adams County, Carl Township, near
Prescott, Iowa.  They had to build a house, fence and break ground.  This is
where they raised their family. 

"My husband and I started immediately for near Prescott, Adams County,
Iowa by covered wagon.  There were only rough trails for roads and we
had to ford all creeks and rivers.  The only bridge we crossed on the one
hundred mile journey was over the Des Moines River.  My husband and (my)
brother, Robert Donaldson, had been to Adams County in December of
1874 and bought a quarter section of land.  The country was wild prairie,
no house in sight.  We organized the first Sunday School in that region. 
Some years later a Minister came.  Our Sunday School and religious
services were held in private homes, later a church was built.  My husband
was a carpenter; he and neighbors gave their time, hauling the lumber
and building the church.  All material had to be hauled from a saw mill
ten miles away.  Like Nehemiah’s helpers of old, ‘they gave their time and
worked willingly,’ and the church was built.

Our team of work horses were not very evenly matched.  One weighed
1500 and the other 800 pounds.  Ox teams were used to break the prairie
sod.  My husband did blacksmithing in exchange with neighbors for
breaking our prairie sod.  Sod had to rot after breaking, so we could plant
nothing the first year.  We tried to raise a few chickens, but the grass grew
too tall, that wolves lurked near and took every one that dared to venture
out.  From our small savings and my husband’s work, we bought a cow. 
My husband was always doing some carpenter work and hired a man to
care for the cow, he neglected to water her and she died.

The second year we raised a wonderful crop of corn.  It sold for ten cents
a bushel; hogs were two cents a pound and eggs three cents a dozen.  We
bought another cow and sold butter for five cents a pound.  It was difficult
to meet the payments on our farm with the things we had to sell almost
worthless.  We used corn for fuel and could eat the butter and eggs but we
needed flour.

My brother decided to sell his share in the quarter section, and this we
bought.  In 1893 we finished paying for our home and took our wedding
trip to the Worlds Fair in Chicago.  Also we visited my husband's half
sister, Hulda, wife of James Boles in Peoria, Illinois."

Anna M. Nash
b. 10/26/1853, New Lancaster, Huntington County, Indiana
d. 1/02/1941, Los Angeles, California