....You are looking at the graves of Valentine Eugene and Mary Elizabeth Parsons Strayer.   The marble maker to the right of the Strayer marker locates the graves of David Gilson and Adela Butler Parsons.   These are my ggrandparents and gggrandparents on my mother's side.
....You are looking east and standing about in the middle of Section A.   One of the original entry trails into Grandview turned west off College Hill road and climbed gradually up the north face of the hill on the left (north)  of this picture, exiting on top just to the right of the "reddish" tree in the top middle of the picture.  The road then ran along the north side of Section A, or to the left side in this picture, and came to the far west end or front of Section A or to your back as you look at the picture. Remember,  in the early decades the west end of Section A, WAS the front of Grandview, and Section A, WAS Grandview.  The first entry to Grandview was off the dirt road running along the western hill tops of the Fayette valley from Westfield to the SE, which would also be to your back in this picture.  Probably the most used entrance in the early decades would have been the College Hill trail as by the mid-1860's almost all recorded burials originated from the Main Street area of Fayette, and especially from the furniture, and undertaking business on the NW corner for Main and Water Streets, which was owned and operated by my ggrandfather Walter Eugene Hunt from about 1874 to 1894, when he sold it to Mr. Edmunds and moved out to the second farm south of Grandview and started a major dairy farm.
....The present project is to database the early burials in Section A, starting with the first burial in late1853 and progressing toward the burials in other sections.  Grandview contains many of the people who became residents of the Fayette Valley and would live out their lives helping to make it a prosperous agricultural and educational pioneer community from the 1850's and into the 1970's as economic times changed to big corporate businesses, and small communities decreased in economic viability as communication and transportation became rapid and extensive.  Many of the past residences have returned to Grandview for burial, as their final connection to the Valley of their past.  As one reads the names on the marker stones and studies the history of the Fayette Valley, many of the Surnames are remembered.
....You can help me with the Grandview project by posting any information, corrections, ideas .  I am especially looking for older photos of the cemetery, entry road and Fayette area to take digitals of and then return.  There is mention to another earlier burial book in the records of the book copy I am presently using.  I suspicion that there is at least one lost document with early Fayette burial notes.  What was thought to be the original  burial notes are not.  The original book was copied into the present "number one book."  From information I personally know about certain people in the copied notes, the information is close to accurate.  The issue is in the translation of the early handwriting style from one book to another.  It is often hard to read and interpret, thus I  have to assume a moderate number of errors, both in the first book translation and also in some of my personal translation.  We are close to accurate in most cases.

....The 1865 map above, of Fayette shows that Grandview Cemetery is located on the top of the southern hill overlooking the Westfield/Fayette Valley.  Westfield which was settled in 1851 just a couple of years  before the main street area of Fayette, was basically just part of Fayette by  1865.  Almost all deaths in the Valley and immediate area were buried at Westfield starting in late 1853, except for those few on private surrounding farms and property.  Robert Alexander's first mill built in 1850, was in reality the first "enterprise" in the Valley, and on of the first in Fayette County.  It would have been located exactly in the little triangle to the left of the W in Westfield, on the map below.  Since this is a 1875 map, the mill was gone by that time, however the dam Robert Alexander  first constructed would continue to be worked on and become quit a large, strong mill dam for the time.  The mill pond would run from the triangle to near the line pointing to Westfield Road.  The mill pond would continue to supply water to run all of the other mills which would be built to the north of the Westfield Main Street road.

Much  of the information posted here is from  "Chats with Old Timers," articles in the late 1930's by O. W. Stevenson, from the Fayette Paper,  1938-1943, edited and transcribed by Barry Zbornik 1997.   Chats can be entered through the Fayette History Index.  

The first platted Villages in Fayette County---The early platted villages in Fayette county were: West Union-June 1850, Westfield-July 1851, Auburn-1851, Volga City (Lima)-Oct 1851, Taylorville-Feb 1852, West Auburn-Sept 1853, Centerville (adjoining Taylorville)-May 1854, Albany-July 1854, Elgin-Feb 1855, Fayette-June1855.

OF WESTFIELD---And Pioneer Families "Got Their Start"---In 1851 Fayette county had been separately organized only one year. It had been a part of Clayton county. There was no court house, no jail, no board of supervisors, and there were no school houses. I think there were no county bridges, and no laid out roads that were graded. At Westfield, just this side of the present town park, Robert Alexander had erected a saw mill and had platted a few blocks of the potential town of Westfield (area from the  Hwy 150 bridge to the Klock's Island mill run, bz, 2000), in which practically no lots had been sold. There was no town of Fayette. In all of Fayette county there were only a few more than one thousand white settlers. The government was giving land free to old soldiers, and selling it to others at one dollar and twenty five cents per acre. It was during those early years that most of the older Fayette county families "got their financial start," or received a chance for it as a "gift" from the United States government.

....From the Dubuque Miner's Express, 1849-1850---There being so little available about early Fayette history from the first Fayette papers, I have sought in old newspaper files in the state archives at Des Moines for items that might be of some local interest here. The Miner's Express was started in Dubuque in 1847. It was the first paper published in northeastern Iowa, and perhaps first in Iowa. I (O.W. Stevenson) have gleaned a few items showing some topics of public interest in the summer and fall of 1849, and spring of 1850, when Robert Alexander and his son-in-laws, the Robertson's came to this locality. This was the beginning of rapid settlement in Fayette County.

....Iowa vs. California in 1849---This item, May 16, 1849, shows that the first competition for settlers between Iowa and California started in 1849: "We were apprehensive that the tide of emigration setting towards the golden regions of California, would have the effect to deprive Iowa of the usual spring accessions to her population. We are glad to perceive, however, that such is not the case. The fertility of her soil, and the salubrity of her climate, are too well known to be neglected. Thousands are leaving the sickly climate of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Missouri, or the worn out soil of the eastern and southern States, to seek a home of comfort, health and happiness upon the beautiful prairies of Iowa. A very considerable addition will be made to the population of Clayton county (which at this time included all of the Fayette County area) the present spring. The same may be said of the North of Iowa generally; and we learn that a large number are locating in the Valley of the Des Moines River."

....Many immigrant Wagons---How rapidly people were going west and how they were traveling appears from this item, May 30, 1849: "Up to the May 18, 1849, 2850 emigrant wagons had crossed the river at St. Joseph (Missouri), and at several landings thence to Council Bluffs, 1500. There is an average of four persons and eight oxen or mules to each wagon. Whole number now on the Plains from St. Joseph and points above, 4359 wagons, 17,499 men, and 4,800 animals.

....Land Warrants for Sale---this advertisement for sale of land warrants, June 6, 1849. "Important to Settlers and Emigrant": The Bounty Land Warrants issued to the soldiers and volunteers in the Mexican War, have come into general use in entering government Lands and a great saving is thus gained to the settler, as the warrants can be obtained at prices which reduce the cost of U.S. Lands to one dollar per acre. These Warrants can be used by settlers in locating lands upon which they have made improvements, or upon which they have acquired a preemption right; and can be placed on 160 acres of Land, adjoining in any legal subdivisions, such as four forty acre tracts, two eighty acre tracts, etc. The subscribers will keep a supply of warrants constantly on hand, which they will sell as low for cash as they can be purchased in the West. They will also supply warrants by the quantity to those engaged in the business at low rates. Dubuque, March 20, 1848, Robertson and Holland, Land Agents."

FAYETTE AREA PIONEERS BEFORE 1850
....Between 1840 and 1850 there were people who lived in Fayette county, for a while at least, whose names did not appear in the census list recently printed in the column for 1858. Most of those folks had moved away by 1850. A few who continued to live here may have been skipped by the census taker. The names of some of such earlier settlers may be found by searching the history of Fayette county, published in 1878. Others may be secured from a series of twenty-eight newspaper articles, "Fayette County in the Forties" contributed by T.D. Peterman to the West Union Argo in 1901. Those works were written while folks were still living who could remember back to those earlier years.

PETERMAN'S FIRST PIONEER LIST OF THE 1840'S FOR FAYETTE COUNTY, IOWA 
....Most of these families were pioneer frontier farmers living in the wooded hill area along the streams along a line running from the southeastern to the northwestern corner of Fayette County, but below the Neutral Ground Line, which would not open until about 1849.  The Prairie area would in general not be settled until the early 1860's, as it was so difficult to break or plow the first time.  These families were concentrated in the town areas that would become Wadena, Elgin, West Union, Fayette, Brush Creek or Arlington.  One can see, there were very few people living in 1850 Fayette Count.

LIST OF HEADS OF FAMILIES, 1840 Fayette County, Iowa---- ? Atwood, ? Baker, W.H. Bailey, James Beatty, Horace Bemis, ? Bonham, Samuel Barazelton, Benjamin Brooks, Henry Brooks, Hiram Brooks, Jessie Brooks, Nelson Brooks, (their father) Brooks, ? Chlson, Samuel Connor, George cook, James (Jimmie) Crawford, Sam Crane, George Culver, Amos Cummings, Goodson Cummings, Lewis Delzene, Joseph Dickinson, ? Downs, Lorenzo Dutton, Robert Gamble, John Giles, Charles Glidden, ? Hadley, A.J. Hensley, Joe Hewitt, Moses Hewitt, ? Hyde, Charles Jones, Henry Jones, E.A. Light, ? Lucklow, Hyler Lyons, ? Messenger, ? Mullign, Major ? Mumford, John Nagle, Earl Newton, Royce Oatman, William Orrear, Jacob Ourey, John Paddleford, William Paddleford, Willima Palmer, Reuben Perkins, Zopher Perkins, ?2 Pettit, ? Piper, John Randall, ? Rausdell, Ben Reeves, David Ring, William Ring, J. W. Rogers, William M. Rosier, ? Ryan, ? Sackett, Moses C. Sperry and father, ? Spofford, James Stevenson, T.R. Talbot, ? Teagardner, ? Tombs, William Van Dorn, Kitten Voshell, Isaac Webster, Franklin Wilcox, Nathan Wilcox, Sanford Wilcox.

Total for Earliest Families--- The Peterman list, and the 1850 census list contain a total of about 290 names as possible heads of first families in Fayette County. There are about 215 different family names found in the two lists.

Northeast Iowa Was a Wilderness in 1849---Nearly all of Northeastern Iowa was then a wilderness. In scanning old newspaper files among the state archieves I (O.W. Stevenson) found in the Miners Express, published at Dubuque January 2, 1850, this statement as to the 1849 population of several counties according to some census that had been taken: Allamakee-277, Benmton-212, Buchanan-406, Clayton, then including Fayette-2500 (Fayette County's population probably would have been around 250, plus or minus 25, in 1849, BZ/1999), Delaware-1500, Dubuque-9185, Winneshiek-275.

A 1850 Census Report---Between September 26 and October 9, 1850, Eliphalet Price, living in Clayton county, made a census enumeration for Fayette County, which had that year been set off from Clayton County. He probably traveled on horseback to reach the one hundred fifty four familes or houses which he found and listed for this entire county in 1850. I traveled to Des Moines for a day to secure his information from the state archives.

The Census of 1850 is Stimulating to the Imagination---As one studies the old fashioned handwriting of Mr. Price, and scans the names of the several hundred men, women and children he listed, it is easy to let the imagination go and try to take in fancy that trip with the enumerator over the unbroken hills and prairies and through the original forests of Fayette County---the prairies with their tall waving native grass and flowers, and the forests with only an occasional lob cabin sheltering some pioneer family.

Some First "Old Timers'---When the publication of this column was suspended, on January 5, 1939, a few references had been made to the census of Fayette County taken in 1850. Now that we are having a Centennial celebration it may be of special interest and value to publish a list of the different families found here in (Fayette County) in the summer and fall of 1850 by the Census taker, which was 10 years after the first white settlement in the county.

Heads, or other Representative of Familes Found Listed in Fayette County, Iowa, Census of 1850---The census taker started in the southeast corner of the county and worked back and forth toward the north. Thus the number by each name indicate the approximate location in the county from south to north, with the lower numbers being in the south part of the county. Likewise, consecutively or close numbers were from the same "neighborhood." When a number is in parenthesis another person has been listed as apparent head of the house. Where one family name applies to two or more persons only the name of the apparent husband, or of the oldest of the named group is given.

Heads of Familes, Fayette County, Iowa, 1850---Robert Alexander 31 (Note, he was operating on a sawmill on the southwest portion of Westfield in the Fayette valley, therefore numbers close to him are in the Fayette area,z) , Noah Alexander 34, William Anderson 9, Horace Andrus (?) 48, Wilcox Aquilla (?) 64, Peter Alsern (38), James Austin 147, Solon W. Barnes 6, Henry H. Baker 15, William Bartlett 141, Charles Bell (96), Margaret Berk 61, Solomon Bishop 63, Joseph Bradshaw 11, Harvey S. Bronson 124, Chansey Brooks 5, David Brooks 5, John Brooks 25, Mattison Brown 52, Oliver Brown 126, Martin Burdick 151, Harrison Butler 32, Absolom Butler 128, Caleb D. Carlton 117, James Carrol 84, Washington L. Case, 107, William P. Cavenaugh 62, Lukins Clark (?) (129), Chester Clestern (?) 105, Margaret Connor (76), John Conner85, Matthew Connor 90, Samuel Connor (90), Joseph Crawford 129, Thomas Crooks (49), Thomas Crooks 49, Franklin Crosley 20, James Davis 154, Joseph Deford 78, Lewis Deloynie 152, Benjamine Dimond 87, Thomas Douglas (38), John Downey (114), David H. Downs 142, Morris Earl 137, Hiram Earl (137), James Earl 138, John Eddy 137, Rudolphus Eddy 144, Charles Ellis (129), Dempsey Elrod 64, Ely Elrod 129, Sarah Elrod (129), Isaac Enders 143, Knud Everson 82, Ambier Everson (92), William Fetch 67, Daniel I. Finney 9, Isaac Fitch 60, Thomas Follett 51, Elipholet Follett 112, Simon Follett (112), Edwin Follett (117), Rebecca Forbes (87), Simeon B. Forbes 88, Joseph Forbes 89, Joseph Foster 140, Robert Freeman 19, William Frasier 76, John Frasier 82, William Fussell 28, David E. Fussell 30, Oliver P. Gallaher 55, Ephrom Gardner (151), James Garrison (55), Helen Gear (47), David German 8, William Gibblin 53, Levi Gifford (136), Calvin Gitchell 150, Stephen Greenup 125, Nathaniel Hall (119), John Hannah (38), Elisha Hartsoff 132, Samuel Hatton 56, John Hendershott 108, Michal Henmon 42, Andrew Hensley 45, Abraham Holing 149, Jacob Hoover 131, Henry Hopkins 40, Lysander Hopkins (137), Elizabeth Hopkins (137), Lyman Hord 127, Oley Houson 94, Bent Houson (94), Sarah Huff (114), James Hughson 148, Sarah Hunt (15), Charles Hyler 95, Lemuel Iliff 118, Benjamine Iliff 122, Hiram Jackson 103, James Jennings 29, John Johnson (106), Henry Johnson 106, Jason Johnson 111, Elf Johnson (111), Anson Kellogue (3), John Kellogue (31), Thomas Kerr 119, John Kerr (119), Hannah Kirkpatrick (129), Chaunsey Leveritt 110, Jacob Librand 68, Crotus A. Light 46, Harry W. Light 43, Remembrance Lippencott 72, Hugh Lockard 7, Gabriel Long 102, Monroe Lott (87), Robert K. Lounsburg (13), David Lowe 18, Stephen H. Ludlow 47, William Lumsden 50, Alexander Lumsden (50), Clark Lukins (129), Joseph Lyon 104, Ermina Lyon (104), Dorcus McCameram (80), Daniel McDuffy 145, Joseph McGee 36, Thomas McKinley (26), William McKinney (13), George McKinney 14, Joseph McLaughlin 57, Andrew Martin 116, John Matthew 117, John Matthews 108, America Mattews (99), Avril Miller 23, George Miller (43), Wilson Miller 66, Eugene Moine 22, John P. Moine (22), Evleine Morkley (2), William Morris 49, George Morrison 123, Russell Moron (147), Alexander Mussleman 120, George W. Neff 33, Palmer Newton 21, William E. Newton (21), Jerod Nutting 100, Eren Oleyson (93), Jacob Orey 74, Mary Ottercreek (87), Betsey Ottercreek (90), Sirenius Packard 99, Francis Palmer 97, Albert Palmer (97), Asa G. Park 4, Woodman Perkins (1), Calvin Perkins 12, John Philips 105, Ebenezer Piper (137), Alonzo Randel 54, Stephen Reeve (88), Samuel Rice 73, Richard Richardson 26, Phroney A. Rickell (71), Jacob W. Rogers 65, Jacob Rosier 133, George Rosier (133), William Root 77, Ely Root 79, Emily Root 81, George Rowley 106, Nickolas Russell 58, Charles Sawyer 113, Allen Sawyer 114, James L. Sawyer 115, Thomas Scott 41, Sylvester Seward 3, Conwright Sheeley (31), Chansey S. Smith (23), Thomas J. Smith 39, Henry F. Smith 71, George Smith 83, David Smith 136, Charles Smith 139, Asa South 129, George Stansbury 75, james B. Stephenson 86, Samuel Stevens 98, Susan Stobough (57), Philip Stobough 59, Thomas B. Sturgis 38, David Tailor 1, Silas Tailor 10, William Thompson (69), Anthony Thompson 96, John Turner 130, Francis Vosial 16, Peter Vosial 17, Marrion Warner (117), Edwin C. Watters (or Wotters) 153, Levy W. Watrous 44, Lucy Welch (4), William Wells (68), matthew Wells 69, Sarah Wells (69), David Wells 70, Joshua Wells 80, George L. Whitley 24, Arson Wickham 146, Aquilla Wilcox (64), James Wilson 137, Thomas Wilson (146), Joseph Woddel 39, Thomas Woodel 37, Benjamine Woods 27, Jimerin Woodson 13.

LETTER FROM 1856 by Charles Hoyt---
....Letters written to folks in the East by early settlers are always valuable as sources of local history material. Mrs. Mary Grannis Hoyt shows me one which I find of special interest. This one was written in 1856 , while the Seminary was under construction and the Fayette House (our present hotel, 1939) was being promoted. The letter is from Charles Hoyt, who became in 1874 Fayette's first mayor. He was twelve years a county surveyor, or assistant surveyor. He was the father of Judge W.A. Hoyt, for many years one of our leading citizens. He was the first clerk of the Fayette Congregational Society. The tax records for 1855 and 1857 indicate he owned about 700 acres of land near Fayette. This exceedingly well written letter gives us a picture of Fayette in 1856 and reveals something of the personality of our early local pioneers.
....A Letter by a Pioneer With Vision, Charles Hoyt, 1856, from Westfield, Iowa---to V.A. Allen, Dr Sir, Yours of 24^th ultimo, was rec'd on Friday last and by the same mail I also rec'd one from your daughter, Emma written from Homer with which I was very highly pleased. It was exceedingly well written and well composed. She also enquires about the west and seems very anxious that your should conclude to move hither. I will answer her letter in a day or two. In answer to your enquires I will very cheerfully state some of the changes that have taken place since I wrote you last and the prospects of future improvements. Winter of 1856-57---We have had here in common with you and the rest of mankind a very severe winter commencing early in December and continuing to the first of March since which we have had very pleasant weather for the season. The month of March was nothing like as severe as it was last year. The snow has left us and the roads are becoming settled. Saw Mills and Emigrants---Since the first of March I have been engaged in our steam sawmill and we are now making from 2000 to 3000 feet of lumber per day but cannot begin to satisfy the demands of the community, every one being in haste for building and fencing materials. Emigration to the North and West has commenced and families are daily passing through our town. Seminary, Hotel, Etc.---The Directors of the Seminary (UIU) lately held a meeting here and resolved to have the building in readiness for the reception of students next winter and the stone cutters are now at work. A stock company has just been formed with a capital of $4000, to build a public house near the Seminary which will be commenced very soon. I am informed that two or three stores, two cabinet shops and I know not how many dwellings are to be put up this spring as soon as lumber for the same can in any way be obtained. Selling Town Lots Daily. Mill and Crops---The proprietor of the village plat is making sales of lots daily. The flouring mill is in successful operation. Much more wheat will be sown in this vicinity this spring than every before. I intend to have 15 acres of my breaking put into wheat and the rest (10 acres) in corn. I am not fully posted as to the quantity of the various kinds of grain that can be produced to the acre but I think it safe to say wheat 20-25, corn 40-60. I cannot say anything of other crops, but I think the soil as good as in most other western places. It is intermixed with black sand in this vicinity with clay subsoil. Farm Rental 1856---I could have rented my breaking at $3 per acre but preferred having it cultivated on shares. The men who have taken it have to furnish all the seed and do all the work and deliver me one third of the crop. I expect to fence in 50 acres this spring. If you come on a viewing excursion I shall expect you of course to come to this place and think you would be pleased with the country. Doctors C.C. Parker and Aaron Brown---A physician moved into the place last fall and is now doing a very good business. The old on of whom I wrote you before (Dr. Brown) resides 2 miles from the village but is now on a visit to Kansas to attend to the affairs of his brother who was so shockingly murdered a few weeks ago by the "border ruffins." Demand for Land and Prices---I have recently had two letters from my brother Bates who appears determined to come west and who states that mother has offered her place for sale and if she makes a sale she also will move west. I have had repeated offers for portions of my timber land but decline selling thinking some of my friends may conclude to move here and want timber and prairie land both. Buel Knapp made me a visit some two months ago. I think he is doing very well in Elkader. The land that he bought here about a year ago (80 acres) he holds at $5 per acres. He bought at $1 and I bought 80 acres adjoining it in June last. Some Personal Matters---I hope you will not consider me as troubled by the receipt of your letters, as it affords me pleasure to give my friends all the information I can respecting the country and its future prospects and like very much to be informed of the events that transpire in Cleveland. I regret that Caroline cannot find time and inclination to answer the letter I wrote her a long time since but shall expect her to account for the neglect when I see here which I hope will be next fall. Transportation Facilities---We now have a stage passing through our place (Westfield) daily each way and generally loaded with passengers. A railroad is building from Dubuque to Dyersville 26 miles nearly west of Dubuque, which will be finished this season and probably a branch from the latter place will at no distant day be continued to St. Paul (it would not be until 1874 that the railroad would arrive from the south to Fayette, BZ/1999) and if so it must go not far from this place---at all events said road will be extended west to Independence which is 27 miles south of us. Let me hear from you again soon and when you take your tour t the West do not fail to visit me when I can give you much more information than I can in writing. Yours, C. Hoyt.

OF BUSINESSES IN FAYETTE 
....Lewis W. Coates, who came to Fayette at age eight, with his parents, on Nov. 23, 1863, writes about some Fayette business men of 1863. At that time William Derby operated a harness shop south of where the Post Office is now (in the 1930's the post office was two buildings south of the Bank on the SW corner of the Main and State Streets in 1999, BZ). Robert Gaynor operated a butcher shop on the corner where the service station (the DX station in the 1940's-1960's) is south of the city hall (northeast corner of Main and Water streets). I think the building now stands just west of the fox furniture store. Elijah Gregory was operating the Westfield flouring mill at that time---later he had a grocery store just north of where the Bargain store is , I believe (midsection of the west side of the first block of Main street, between Water and Clark Streets, BZ/1999). Thomas Fowells had a shoe shop on the corner across the street south of the hotel (SE corner of Main and State Streets, directly across from today's bank, BZ/1999) at that time or soon after and "Yankee" White, as we called him, worked there. Scot Waterbury had a drug store on the west side of Main street (just to the north of the hotel) and his father was postmaster. His father could not speak above a whisper, but regained his speech some years after that.

Local Business Men if 1858---The earliest Fayette newspaper view of Fayette, Westfield and Albany, as business centers which I have seen is an old copy of the Fayette county Journal, owned by Mrs. Lida Stranahan. The paper published by C. O. Meyers, at Fayette, June 4, 1858, is as large as the present Fayette paper, but is more than one-half advertising. Not only local concerns, but many from West Union, Chicago, Dubuque, McGregor and elsewhere were patrons. This was in the first Fayette boom days,---just after the Seminary had opened. The town of Fayette was only three years old but Westfield and Albany were older (by 6-8 years).
The Advertisers---In this old newspaper I find advertisements for the following business concerns at Fayette, Westfield and Albany, from which I have taken enough to indicate general lines of business.

Business of Fayette in 1858---
Drs. C.C. Parker and D. Alexander---Had their firm office on Washington street, between Water and State streets, for the practice of medicine and surgery.
A. E. Sawyer---Watchmaker and jeweler, at No. 56 Main street, who also had a card as Public.
David C. Sperry---Notary Public.
Joseph Hobson---Notary Public, Collector and land agent. Prairie and timber land and town lots.
R.B. Hayward---Painter, grainer, glazier and paper hanger. Paints and oils. Two doors sourth of Fayette House.
A.M. Barnard and Co.---Wholesale and retail dealer in dry goods, groceries, clothing, boots and shoes. "At Maxon's old stand on the bank of the Volga. Firm was A.M. Jasen, and W.W. Barnard and J.B. Sperry.
S.E. Pettingill---Manufacturer of boots and shoes. Adjoining Barnard's Store.
I. Templeton and G. Brier---New firm at N. E. corner of Main and Water streets. Dry goods, clothing, groceries, boots, carpeting, mattresses, etc.
E.A. Halleck---Manufacturer and dealer in wagons, carriages and sleighs. Corner of Kind and State streets.
Fayette House---J.D. Gray, Prop. (formerly of Washington House, Dubuque) now open to public "offers accommodations unsurpassed by any hotel in Iowa. A large and commodious barn is connected with the establishment."
Budlong and Norton---"At the old stand" have for sale smoked hams and shoulders and a large lot of pickled pork. Also cast steel plows. Have retired from other mercantile business.
Goodrich---Has opened a new meat market, "next door to Barnard's store."
H. Marvin---Lumber for sale at his mill three times below Fayette, on the Volga.
M. H. Root---Lime at the kiln south of town. Also stone mason and stone quarry available.
E.R.W. Emmons---Manufacturer of boots and shoes. Prices: men's stogies $3.50 and $4.00; kip $4.50 and $5.00. Women's Booties $2.00.
A.R. Field---Land Agent. Office at Fayette House.
Rembold---New cabinet shop in Fayette for making tables, chairs, bureaus, bedsteads, stands, secretaries, settees and sofas. Musical instruments made to order and for sale: pianos, melodeons, dulcimers, guitars, accordians, banjos, etc.
E.C. Howe---Big ad. for new store; Hardware, stoves, tinware, etc., features "Emperor Elevated Oven"; "Morning Star Air Eight," warranted "not to cut in the eye, or no sale".
H.W. Waterbury---Drugs, medicines, glass, groceries, books. Etc.
Benj. Burch and Cortez Paine---Fruit and ornamental trees at the Fayette nursery.
J.E. and H.S. Nobel---Blacksmiths, "Water street, upper part of town." "Particular attention paid to horse and cattle shoeing." We work first for those that pay the best, and after that we will work for the rest."
Wm. H. Derby---Harness shop, on Main street, one door north of the new hotel. Manufactures: saddles, harness, trunks, valises, whips, etc. Carriage trimming and repairin

Business of Westfield in 1858---
N.H. Moulton---At Westfield, manufactures and sells breaking plows (A big heavily build plows pulled by 8-12 full teams of oxen and used to plow or break the prairie grasslands with the deep, tough roots systems of prairie grasses, once broken the first year, a normal plow could be used to farm the next seasons, BZ/1999), cultivators, shovel plows, etc.
Westfield Mill---Brier and Templeton, proprietors; pay highest market prices for wheat. Flour and feed always on hand. (Robert Alexander by this time was in his later years and had basically retired from the milling/farming/business and was living in Westfield around the hill to the northeast of the mill and was engaged in community and social affairs and selling town plots from his "city" of Westfield and other land parcels.  The University was starting to take off and the Fayette area was entering the first boom years, BZ/2002)
F. Kelly---At Westfield. Tailor. "Prepared to make all kinds of garments in my line in the best style."
Lime for Sale---15c per bu, at Westfield mill-dam,  (There was a pry quarry right next to the original mill site and near the mill site along the mill run to the north, which to day is above the Volga river to the north side of Hwy 93. Since lime was being sold at the mill, this would mean there was a lime kiln operation or perhaps two in Westfield.  These early kiln were usually build on a rounded sloping portion of a hill so that limestone pieced could be just tossed into the top of the kiln from the above slope.  The early kilns in this area would have been built from bigger slabs and blocks of limestone just pried out of the exposed hill bedrock.  It would have taken major amounts of wood to fuel the kilns from below, thus several men were generally employed as cutters, loggers.  Lime was essential for making lime mortar and plaster, plus used for whitewashing and sanitizing.  Lime was a very important commodity and one of the first "manufacturing" operations in a frontier town, BZ/2001)
P. Cassiday---At Westfield, stone cutter, mason and plasterer.  (My gggrandfather Reuben Hunt Sr., came from England in 1851 to settle in New York for a few years, but came to Fayette in 1855 and ended up as one of the Head Mason's on the College Hall project.  He was a master mason, as was all of his offspring.  The Hunt's remained in Fayette for 120 years.  Many Fayette pioneers came in similar ways as a result of working the college or actually going to college in Fayette and remaining to make their lives there.  The Fayette valley ended up with a number of very skilled stone masons because of the construction of the Seminary (College Hall) building.  Even today this building would require major construction skills from master mason's and stone cutters. College Hall was an astonishing structure being built right in the middle of the frontier at in 1855.  All materials, tools, etc. would have to be built locally by masons, blacksmiths, carpenters, etc, all masters of their trade due to the size of the structure.  Anything needed from "back east" would have to be brought in by Ox team up the Mission Trail from the Mississippi River port of Dubuque.  There are no trains into Fayette until 1873.  A number of people have told me the tail that the big limestone blocks in College Hall were cut and shipped in from Indiana.  I really doubt that.  Those blocks are much to big and there are just too many of them to, in 1855 to be cut and pulled to the river system and come by flatboat and steamer to Dubuque and the place on log skids and be pulled by oxen over the Old Mission Trail with at this time was no more than a tramped dirt path over rocky hills, creeks, rivers, wet grass to tall grass prairie.   A modern truck would have trouble.  Plus these block are huge and much to heavy for any of the wagons of the time.  I have to speculate the blocks were hand drilled and cut out of local limestone.  In 1997, I deducted the spot I feel the limestone blocks were quarried and eventually will do a page on the topic, which will be again, a biographical novel as there just is not documentation.  BZ/2001)
H.N.Sutton---At Westfield. Dry goods, leather goods, hdwre, crockery, clothing, boots, etc. Also John Deere's Moline plows (these plows had just hit the market and with their hard steel share (blade) they were capable of handling the tough prairie soil once it was broken by the "sod busters" with breaking plows. BZ/2000) and some of home manufacture. Wants 5000bu of wheat in exchange for goods.  (Fayette County produced a number of people like a few of the brothers of my ggrandfather Samuel Andrew Thompson.  The Thompson brothers came to Fayette County in 1854, settling around Brush Creek or Arlington. Within a couple of years Samuel was farming at the head of Grannis Canyon (Hollow).  However by 1863 all of the Thompson brothers, plus Sherman and Swales kin were breaking a major amount of tall to wet grass prairie ground from the southern edge of Brush Creek out into the prairie about five miles.  In this process of "breaking ground" near Brush Creek offspring of Samuel and his other Thompson brothers, learned how to use the big breaking plows.  They probably built a lot of their equipment as a number of apprenticed blacksmiths were heads of these farming families and practiced throughout their lives.  In the process of breaking prairie ground one has to learn how to raise, handle, train large numbers of oxen, learn how to build wooden, iron, leather equipment.  Oxen pull by hand forged chains hooked to big wooden yolks around their necks.  It takes generally takes 6-10 teams hooked to one breaking plow share.  This is 12-20 oxen.  As land opened up in western Iowa, in Kansas, Nebraska and beyond, many of the offspring of families that learned to break prairie ground in areas like Fayette County moved west to claim land and also worked as "sod-breakers."  Very few people had the skills, know how with ox teams and equipment to break the western prairies.  Being on the edge of the hill/forest and prairie country, Fayette County was an early "training" ground for young men who had the skills to move west and break open prairie ground.  Tough, back breaking, extremely physical work, but requiring very special skills.  Samuel 1 Thompson's sons, Samuel 2 and Zach 2 Thompson would move to Harper County, Kansas and make a very successful life for themselves as farmers and merchants.  They went there with the "sod-breaking" and farming skills learned and nurtured in Fayette County, Iowa.  BZ/2002)
Isaac Brier---At Westfield. Has opened a general family grocery and provision store. (All provisions came in by ox teams from Dubuque by way of the Old Mission Trail or from McGregor on a trail through the deep timber requiring several hard days of travel, BZ/2002)
Luffkin and Colman---At Westfield. Lumber for sale. And sawing done at Westfield steam mill at $7 per M (per thousand board feet, one foot by one foot would be a board foot). Sell oak lumber $16 to $18 per M and basswood at $20. Lath $4.50 per thousand. (Note:  very rapidly, by 1858, steam engines had been brought into the Fayette area to run saw mills.  There was on the Westfield bottom field not far from the water powered grist mill and woolen mill.  There was also a steam mill down in the middle of Grannis Canyon (Hollow) by this time, and one a few miles to the SE of Fayette on the edge of the timber near the Corn Hill area.  It is likely there were several others close to Fayette.  These early steam engines burned wood and supplied portable power for generally saw mills.  They could be pick up with some effort and moved to the timber where the rough cut lumber would be produced.  Board were much easier to transport compared to big logs, thus the steam saw mills rapidly overtook the water mills for producing lumber.  Water mills continued to dominate in the production of grist and floor, plus wool production.  BZ/2002).

Business of Albany 1858---
Northern Iowa Cabinet and Turning Shop---At Albany, Iowa, operated by E.E. Chandler, advertises their workmen among the best in the county; announce to citizens of Fayette county, and the rest of the world, they will furnish all kinds of cabinet furniture, bedsteads, bureaus, tables, whiffle-trees, neckyokes, hubs, etc. (There was a major furniture manufacturing shop just to the north of the big water mill at Albany, which was on the southeastern side of the town. BZ/2002)
F. (Fleming) Jones---at Albany, has in operation a chair factory and is prepared to furnish on shortest notice chairs of all descriptions, warranted for one year, and delivered at any place within four miles. (This was in the same area as the Mil and Cabinet shop, both major frontier businesses, BZ/2002)
James K. Kent---at Albany, was still to be found at the old shop. Blacksmith, horses shod $2.75 per span, or $3.25 on time. All other work for cash in proportion. Oxen shod for $3.25. (Oxen can be produced from any breed of cattle and are neutered males or steers that are trained to be draft animals.  They are cheaper than horses to produce and keep.  They are stronger and surefooted but slower working. They survived on a a grass diet, requiring no grain to work well. There were the draft animal of choice for most pioneers. BZ/2000)

....Looking north down College Hill, UIU is directly ahead at the dark spot in the road.  Grandview is on the left.  The original road to toward Brush Creek/Arlington is entered at the white area on the right.  Long before sand and then salt on the roads the winter roads in Iowa through the middle of the 1900's were hard packed snow.  Nearly every Fayette boy and some girls hopped a sled after a snow storm, just when there were a few fresh vehicle tracks to pack the snow, and took many a fast run down College Hill.  After the hill was paved in the 1930's every old balloon tired bike in town ran "time trials" on the Hill. My connection to the hill is like every Fayette boy, plus the area to the right in the above pic and to the left in the bottom pic is the original location of three lots purchased by Reuben Sr., and Elizabeth Wrench Hunt, when they came fom England to Fayette in 1855.  The farm to the east of the lots and just on top of the hill would be farmed by Reuben Wrench Hunt, his son, while another son, my g-grandfather would retire from the furniture/undertaking store at the corner of Water and Main, and farm just over College Hill about a half mile, and immediately south of the old Wilcox cabin location, or at the north end of Westfield Valley.  

COLLEGE HILL: The Fayette entrance to Grandview is midway up college hill and to the right or west.  In both pictures the road is at the right of the curve in College hill road.  The first road to the Brush Creek/Arlington area from the south end of Fayette is just off to the left in the picture below or behind the buildings on the left in the picture above.  You can see the old railroad viaduct abutments at the base of the hill.  In 1999, for the first time ever, flood water reached the south end of town.  Destroyed equipment, building material and belongings sit outside the structure on the right, much as elsewhere throughout the community.  The 1999 Flood was the worst Fayette disaster on record, followed by the high winds of the early 1970's and the floods of 1947.  Since the 1999 Flood many buildings have been pushed or burned down.  All of "Canada is gone, along with my last real connection to Fayette, the Hunt Farm, immediately north of the bridge, where I basically grew up.

Today the first road into Grandview from the east or Fayette end,  is still present but generally unrecognizable except for those who know what they are looking at.  

 I remember going up the road with my Grandmother Hunt (Winnifred Mary Strayer) in the 1940's in a  "46 Ford, but shortly after that it became too rough for her to drive and the new 1939 entrance became the norm.  However, many times we would park and walk up the old road, as her Strayer and Parsons parents had died in the early 1940's and were buried in the middle of Section A, thus the old road exited into Grandview not far from their graves.

The road was built  into the side of the hill using hand tools.  A wall of limestone slabs used to support the flattened surface cut into the hill side.

The above pics show the point of exit of the old College Hill road, while the pic below is the view from the exit point, looking out into Grandview.  In the early days, the ox and horse drawn burials would turn to the right and run along the north edge of the hill next to Section A where almost all burials would take place until into the 1880's.  When this road was being used during that time, you would not see anything but woods in front of you.  This area would be cleared and plotted sometime by the mid 1870's. By the 1870-80's almost all of the timber had been cut from the surrounding valley hills.  It was used up for building and fuel.  Everything was built with wood and all heating was with wood, except for times when corn was burned.  The first rail and sawmill steam engines, all used wood.  

The Hops Yard was  in the field to the west of College Hill Road

This field just to the west of College Hill and just to the north of the hill on which Grandview Cemetery is located was one of the first tracts of ground  close to Fayette to be fenced for farming.  In the late 1860's and into the 1870's it was utilized as a Hop Yard and produced hops for the local brewery which was in "Canada" on the north side of Fayette, near the mouth of the spring along the west side of the road leading to West Union (in 2000, this would be about 1/4 mile from the junction of Old Hwy 150 with the New 150.  In the winter picture below of the same field area, you are looking up to the big pine around Section A of Grandview.  These landmark trees are very evident when viewed from across the Westfield Valley out on the Eagle Point road.  

Local folks supply some information on the Hop Yards---Walter Eugene and Amanda K. Thompson Hunt (my ggrandparents, BZ), Susan King, G.O. Stone, Dr. R.G. Rich, Floyd Coleman, Charles Pooler, Henry Hettler and John Morf have all contributed some information on the Hop Yards in Fayette county. Evidently the hop growing business was established in Fayette county late in the 1860's and lasted only a few years. Early in the 1890's, I believe an occasional hop vine could be found in a back yard at Fayette, but there was no hop growing industry. The early establishment of several small breweries in the county may have promoted and sustained the industry for awhile. At first the business was quite profitable but competition soon cut the prices down so that the growers here quit. There was, and still may be, (1939), a wild hop growing along the rivers. Hop yards were generally from five to ten acres in area and near towns.
Two Hop Yards at Fayette---Walter Eugene Hunt remembers about two hop yards at Fayette. One was the tract of land that now lies between the railroad and the bluff south of town and west of the road up College Hill. This was one of the first tracts of ground around Fayette to be fenced in for farming purposes. A Mr. Everett is remembered as operating that hop yard and there may have been two or three others associated with him in the enterprise whose names are not now remembered. We do not know where the hop house for the yard was located.  On the north side of Water Street, out toward Westfield, in the field now owned by Charles Pooler at the southeast corner of which the state now has its road machinery station, there was a field of several acres in hops for a few years (In 2002, this would be the field just to the east of the Hwy 150 bridge and to the south of the Volga River, on which much of the fill was placed to build a motel. BZ)  A Mr. Schneider ran this yard and lived in the house into which Mr. Wells recently moved, known to "old timers" as the "Burget House". He had his hop house (according to Walter Hunt) on the lot where Mrs. Charles Hoyt now lives, that whole block being otherwise vacant at that time. Mr. Pooler says there was a hop house along the fence north of where the road machinery building is now (In 2002, this would be just be near the east end of the motel. BZ), and that for years he picked up and removed stone from that place

The 1930's entrance into Grandview and the "top" College Hill

To the left of the top of College Hill is the 1939 entry gate into Grandview Cemetery which was open and used until into the 1970's, but now completely closed off.  Up to this time the entry into the Grandview was down College Hill to the left or west along the face of the hillside.  In the early days of the settling of the Fayette Valley there were various uses for the area at the top of the College Hill, one being for a race track as described below.  The track would have been to the right of this picture or to the east.  College Hill apparently was named such, as there was an early talk  of construction  the college building which would  become College Hall and Upper Iowa University on top of this hill, thus College Hill or the hill leading to the new college building that was never built on the hill south of Fayette and just to the east of Grandview Cemetery.

Horse Racing track on top of College Hill
Reuben W. Hunt told me one day, when we were up there, that at one early time there was a race track laid out on his land, south of the high point, which is college hill.

...(Regarding) PD Gardner and "The Ring": I am now inclined to believe that the old racetrack south of the top of College Hill was the first race track in Fayette county. Walter E. Hunt remembers when it was built, about 1859 or 1860, and he does not remember of any other track around the county at the time. He tells some interesting things about it. It was a half mile track that was first carefully measured and staked out by a surveyor. The land belonged about one-third to S.H. Robertson and two-thirds to J.E. Robertson. W.E. Hunt says: "You wouldn't have thought 'Old Sammy' and 'Old Jimmy' would have had anything to do with horse racing, would you?" Probably they leased the land to P.D. Gardner and others who built the track.

....Building the first Race Track: A man by the name of Slaberg (as W.E. Hunt pronounces it) broke up the sod very carefully in narrow furrows. His first name is forgotten but he had two sons, John and Charles. He was a teamster (man who hauls heavy goods by wagon using oxen or horses, often between pioneer villages in the mid 1800's, B Z), and he lived in a small house that formerly stood near the foot of college hill, on the east side of the road and south of the street running east. In that house Charlotte (Mrs. Noah) Alexander last lived in Fayette. Slaberg came from over east, "Wadena way," (states W.E.Hunt). After the sod was broken the ground was dragged to a smoother surface and worked down. Mr. Hunt says they tried to get some boys to keep driving a heard of oxen around on it, but he does not think that was accomplished.

....P.D. Gardner, Hunt says, had a wonderful bay stallion, rather slow to start but with great endurance. Gardner used to run races with him from the Hotel on Main street out on the road and up College hill to the old guide post at the old highway corner south east of where the buildings now are on the Clothier (Herz) farm southeast of the cemetery. Hunt remembers one Gardner race along this course with a smaller bay mare from Independence. At the foot of the hill which was much steeper and more winding (in the 1860's) than now (in the 1930's), and quite stony, the Independence sorrel was ahead. The Gardner horse, they claimed could trot up hill as fast as on the level. On the hard way up the hill it passed the sorrel and won.

....Some man from near Wadena brought in a tall gray horse to run with Gardner for a $50 stake. Gardner had no cash to bet so he put up a yoke of oxen against the $50 of the Wadena man. The Wadena man won, took home the oxen leaving Gardner about broke.

....From the Fayette County Pioneer, published at West Union, May 14, 1859: P.D. Gardner of Fayette has one of the best horses in this part of the state. He is called "Express", and is the grandson of Black Hawk on the sire's side, and of Green Mountain, the 2^nd or the Hale horse on the mother's side. He is a beautiful, chestnut horse, unmatched for speed and bottom in Fayette county, if not in Northern Iowa. 
....Aug. 13, 1860: Under this head the Fayette Observer says there will be a race over the course at Fayette, on the 28th, between James Thompson and P.d. Gardner's trotting mare. Thompson to run once around the track while the mare trots twice around, the distance being half a mile. Sept. 3, 1860: The Ring: Last Thursday being the day that the match was to come off between P. D. Gardner's fast trotting mare to trot around the track, which is half a mile, twice while Mr. Thompson ran once around, many of our citizens as well as those around Fayette in other directions, had business at that place on that particular afternoon, and quite a large number of persons congregated there to be disappointed. The trot between the mare and the man did not take place. Mr. Gardner preferring to render up the forfeit of $10. A match was made up between Mr. Thompson and Edwin Harkins, a young man of perhaps 18 years, who is quick of foot, has long wind and sound bottom, but lacks practice in running, and hailed fresh from the grain fields, Mr. Thompson to give Mr. Harkins 3 seconds of time. Mr. Thompson came in ahead 10 seconds, going around the ring in 2:25. A foot race of a hundred yards was run, in which considerable interest was taken and good time made.

An important letter gives a window into time.

LETTER FROM 1856 by Charles Hoyt---

....Letters written to folks in the East by early settlers are always valuable as sources of local history material. Mrs. Mary Grannis Hoyt shows me one which I (O.W. Stevenson) find of special interest. This one was written in 1856 , while the Seminary was under construction and the Fayette House (our present hotel, 1939) was being promoted. The letter is from Charles Hoyt, who became in 1874 Fayette's first mayor. He was twelve years a county surveyor, or assistant surveryor. He was the father of Judge W.A. Hoyt, for many years one of our leading citizens. He was the first clerk of the Fayette Congregational Society. The tax records for 1855 and 1857 indicate he owned about 700 acres of land near Fayette. This exceedingly well written letter gives us a picture of Fayette in 1856 and reveals something of the personality of our early local pioneers.
....A Letter by a Pioneer With Vision, Charles Hoyt, 1856, from Westfield, Iowa---to V.A. Allen, Dr Sir, Yours of 24^th ultimo, was rec'd on Friday last and by the same mail I also rec'd one from your daughter, Emma written from Homer with which I was very highly pleased. It was exceedingly well written and well composed. She also enquires about the west and seems very anxious that your should conclude to move hither. I will answer her letter in a day or two. In answer to your enquires I will very cheerfully state some of the changes that have taken place since I wrote you last and the prospects of future improvements. Winter of 1856-57---We have had here in common with you and the rest of mankind a very severe winter commencing early in December and continuing to the first of March since which we have had very pleasant weather for the season. The month of March was nothing like as severe as it was last year. The snow has left us and the roads are becoming settled. Saw Mills and Emigrants---Since the first of March I have been engaged in our steam sawmill and we are now making from 2000 to 3000 feet of lumber per day but cannot begin to satisfy the demands of the community, every one being in haste for building and fencing materials. Emigration to the North and West has commenced and families are daily passing through our town. Seminary, Hotel, Etc.---The Directors of the Seminary (UIU) lately held a meeting here and resolved to have the building in readiness for the reception of students next winter and the stone cutters are now at work. A stock company has just been formed with a capital of $4000, to build a public house near the Seminary which will be commenced very soon. I am informed that two or three stores, two cabinet shops and I know not how many dwellings are to be put up this spring as soon as lumber for the same can in any way be obtained. Selling Town Lots Daily. Mill and Crops---The proprietor of the village plat is making sales of lots daily. The flouring mill is in successful operation. Much more wheat will be sown in this vicinity this spring than every before. I intend to have 15 acres of my breaking put into wheat and the rest (10 acres) in corn. I am not fully posted as to the quantity of the various kinds of grain that can be produced to the acre but I think it safe to say wheat 20-25, corn 40-60. I cannot say anything of other crops, but I think the soil as good as in most other western places. It is intermixed with black sand in this vicinity with clay subsoil. Farm Rental 1856---I could have rented my breaking at $3 per acre but preferred having it cultivated on shares. The men who have taken it have to furnish all the seed and do all the work and deliver me one third of the crop. I expect to fence in 50 acres this spring. If you come on a viewing excursion I shall expect you of course to come to this place and think you would be pleased with the country. Doctors C.C. Parker and Aaron Brown---A physician moved into the place last fall and is now doing a very good business. The old on of whom I wrote you before (Dr. Brown) resides 2 miles from the village but is now on a visit to Kansas to attend to the affairs of his brother who was so shockingly murdered a few weeks ago by the "border ruffins." Demand for Land and Prices---I have recently had two letters from my brother Bates who appears determined to come west and who states that mother has offered her place for sale and if she makes a sale she also will move west. I have had repeated offers for portions of my timber land but decline selling thinking some of my friends may conclude to move here and want timber and prairie land both. Buel Knapp made me a visit some two months ago. I think he is doing very well in Elkader. The land that he bought here about a year ago (80 acres) he holds at $5 per acres. He bought at $1 and I bought 80 acres adjoining it in June last. Some Personal Matters---I hope you will not consider me as troubled by the receipt of your letters, as it affords me pleasure to give my friends all the information I can respecting the country and its future prospects and like very much to be informed of the events that transpire in Cleveland. I regret that Caroline cannot find time and inclination to answer the letter I wrote her a long time since but shall expect her to account for the neglect when I see here which I hope will be next fall. Transportation Facilities---We now have a stage passing through our place (Westfield) daily each way and generally loaded with passengers. A railroad is building from Dubuque to Dyersville 26 miles nearly west of Dubuque, which will be finished this season and probably a branch from the latter place will at no distant day be continued to St. Paul (it would not be until 1874 that the railroad would arrive from the south to Fayette, BZ) and if so it must go not far from this place---at all events said road will be extended west to Independence which is 27 miles south of us. Let me hear from you agian soon and when you take your tour t the West do not fail to visit me when I can give you much more information than I can in writing. Yours, C. Hoyt.

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Barry Zbornik
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