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Pioneer Recollections, 1941


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148 Pioneer Recollections    
church is located about five miles southwest of Iowa City and is still in existence.
   My early playmates were Indian children. They taught me a great many things, including how to make a good bow and arrow. The Indians were very friendly as a rule. They would steal and beg but were very persistent in their demands. Their early camping ground was in the upper timber where northeast Williamsburg now stands and in the vicinity of the cemetery.
   In 1874 I went to Iowa college at Grinnell and my room mate was Daniel Jones, a brother of David A. Jones, of Williamsburg. Daniel Jones later went to Se- attle, Wash., and made his home there.
   I began teaching school in 1874 at Pleasant Ridge then in the Tip Daniels district, in Troy Township, Williams- burg, and last in old No. 6 in the Murchison district. No. 6  is still there and a  number of  the  boys and  girls that I taught in No. 6 are still living, one of whom is Judge John M. Grimm of Cedar Rapids.
   I entered business in Williamsburg on the southwest corner of the square in 1879. In 1884 the railroad was built and shortly thereafter the town was incorporated and I became its first mayor. I continued in business until the spring of 1908. The old store building I originally built was moved to the south side of the square and is now used as a garage and repair shop."
I am glad to contribute the above bit of early history written by my father before his death and I hope it will be of some interest to the readers of your book. Having been born and raised in Williamsburg. naturally I am much interested in its history and am anxiously awaiting receipt of my copy of "Pioneer Recollections."
HAROLD D. EVANS.