a ferry was built large enouqh for a wagon.  The water was not very deep nor wide. The first sawmill in the county was located near the ferryboat landing. Hugh's  blacksmith shop was  about  1/4  mile north of Niles   It was torn down  in 1902.  A sorghum mill was  over on  the  river bank  They washed their  clothes  on  a  sand  bar   Elmore Little's  brother,  when  two  years old, went down to the sandbar to play and it happened to he high water and he was drowned  In 1866 the water was 10" deep in the loghouse. Henry Little.  grandson  of  Hugh.  said  in  1964 that his mother came to Solomon in 1881 and her brother, Charley Little, came with her  He pumped water from a salt well at Fort Buchanan, 2 1/2 miles west or Solomon, boiled it in a big vat which left salt.  Henry had seen big high piles of salt from it The men went to work to provide homes. The first ones were dugouts. Romicks  lived  near  the  river  and  were  flooded out and had to move to higher  ground.  The  Casebeers'  home  was  part  dugout and part log cabin.  When  Lizzie  Casebeer  saw  her  home   she  cried  and wanted to  return to Illinois, but was persuaded to stay. Romick was a carpenter and later had  a  sawmill.  He built  a  house  of  four  rooms  hewn  out  of  cottonwood. He was a very religious man and Sunday was a day of rest. He would rather lose a crop of wheat than to do any unnecessary work on Sunday.  At night they all  gathered  in  the  kitchen  for  the  evenings  worship  and  all knelt in  prayer.  He gave  the ground  for  the  first church which was  Baptist and later changed to United Brethren.  The rooms of their home were divided by curtains,  the beds made of wood with board slats, no springs, but   ticks were filled with corn shuks or straw.  Some used feather ticks, sleeping between  two  ticks  in  very  cold weather.  Trundle beds for children slipped under the bed in the daytime. Winters were severe and long. Candles were made of tallow, and later came coal oil lamps. Nancy Ingram wove the first carpets,  receiving 12  1/2 cents a yard hit and miss  and 15 cents for a yard of stripes. Strips were sewed together and  with  a carpet  stretcher were  stretched and  tacked  over a layer of straw or hay. People from Delphos and all around brought sacks with balls of  carpet  rags  to have woven  into rugs  and  strips. Thomas Ingram made the loom. Nancy also had a spinning wheel and did a great deal of knitting wool socks and garments. Washing  was  done  by  hand  on  a  wash board,  The water was heated in boilers  on  stoves.  White  clothes  were  boiled  and  taken  out with a stick. Irons were heated and the handles were held with cloth pads. They first used breaking plows to break the sod and with an ax chopped a  hole  in  the  ground  and  dropped in three grains of corn  stepping it to cover it up. After the first year,  the sod rotted and was easier to work.  They  gathered  the  corn  in  the  fall,  using  a  hand grinder to shell it in piles on the ground. They grew corn first, then later wheat.  Some grain was taken to the Markley Mill  to  be ground into white flour, graham and corn meal  They gave Mr. Markley so much grain for the grinding NEXT PAGE