Steamboats, Oxen, And Old Time Grocery Stores

Grandma Lu stopped the story for a minute to sip on her now cold coffee. She was a funny lady. She actually liked cold coffee. The children and grownups that had slowly gathered in the kitchen to listen to Grandma Lu's story were talking among themselves. Grandma Lu sat quietly and listened to some of the conversations. She smiled when she saw Charlie holding a little pup, Jax. It had been awhile since she had seen her. Charlie had been a huge part of Marleewood when it first opened. She had been Marlee's business partner. But now she was older and had some questions. "Why are you talking about Iowa? Isn't that a long ways from here?" she asked.

"Hi, Charlie! That's an excellent question and I have several answers. Yes, Iowa is quite a long distance from here and it was a really long ways away from where the young lady, Nell, lived. She lived in St. Louis. Even years ago it was a big city. It was next to a river where lots of river boats, and steamboats docked and loaded and loaded. The merchandise they carried was called freight. They were so popular that at some times there were more than a thousand of these steamboats on the Mississippi in one day. People loved the steamboats because many of them were used for fun things. They even had circus entertainers such as clowns on some of them. Ministers would preach to the people on the shore in very loud voices. Young boys that had the use of small canoes would row their way close to those huge boats hoping that some of the passengers would throw them coins. Yes, in those days steamships were so exciting. Even for young children that had no parents there were some orphanages that would take them for an outing for fresh air and a bit of fun. That was in the 1800's a very long time ago."

" My great grandfather probably got some of his merchandise from there at one time or another for his grocery store that he owned. If you've got a minute I'll look through my big book and show you a picture of his store. Yes, here it is. It doesn't look much like our grocery stores today does it," she laughed.

"Let's pretend that he ordered some cotton material or what they call 'yard goods' for ladies to make dresses with. Remember that's what our young lady, Nell, did; sewing for other people. The material would be loaded onto the steamboat in Mississippi. Then it would take weeks for the steamboat to get to St. Louis. Then when it docked many men would unload all of the merchandise. Maybe my great grandfather's material would be unloaded onto wagons that were pulled by horses. Then it would be stored in warehouses close by the river until the paperwork would come to the man who filled the orders. The material might sit in those warehouses for weeks or months before anyone came to pick up the order. Why? Because in the west a lot of deliveries were made by oxen. Oxen are very very strong. They are much stronger than horses, so if my grandfather ordered enough provisions and freight to last the winter it would weigh a lot so oxen were used. There was a term in those days called a yoke of oxen. A yoke of oxen consists of two oxen that were paired together by a wooden beam. That beam enabled them to pull great weight as a team. Even though oxen were very strong, they were really slow. They could only travel about ten miles a day because they needed to rest, eat and have drinks of water, just like we do."

Erika was sitting in the back by Charlie and Jax. She was holding her little dog, Chata. She said, "This is so interesting, "I can't wait to see what happens to Nell." Arie, said, "Me too! I hope she will be okay. I feel sorry for her."

"Okay, let's get back to Nell's story. Where were we, oh yes. She was looking at the ads in the paper for women to move west to marry men that they didn't even know. They were called Mail Order Brides. That name has stuck for years and years. Well, she was in a tough spot. She had no money, she was cold and hungry. The orders for sewing were slowing down. The only thing in the world she owned was her sewing machine and just a few dresses, a coat, a hat, and one pair of shoes that were rather worn out. She had to make a very serious decision didn't she?"
                                                             
Grandma Lu smiled to herself because she could hear Marlee's soft little purr as she slept right there at the kitchen table. "Sweet baby, she thought to herself. "She's going to miss the story, but that's alright. If she asks me later I will tell her all about it." She cleared her throat and continued on.