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Ninety-one years of residence on the same Defiance county farm where she was born. Is the record of Mrs. Laura V Mauge, of Farmer township. Her memory goes back prior to 1850, when the settlers in this vicinity lived in the forest and secure meat from the wild hogs and wild turkeys.
Mrs. Mauge is the former Laura Valera La Cost. She was born Sept 24, 1841, in a log cabin that stood only a few rods from her present frame dwelling in section 8, Farmer township.
Her father was Edward La Cost; a French Canadian.
Losing his parents in early childhood, he was sent to an orphan's home, being afterwards bound out to work for his board and clothes until he should have attained the age of 21. But he was not satisfied with the treatment given a bound boy and at the age of 16 ran away and went to the vicinity of Pottsdam N.Y. He found work during the summer around Canton Oh, with the farmers and spent his winters in schools.
In 1835, he joined a band of men including Spencer and Rice Hopkins, Ona and John Rice, Dr. Ona Rice, Jacob Conkey, Ezra Crary and William Pierce, who made their way from Pottsdam to Defiance in search of new homes.
Women folks of the party were left at what was known as the Reserve near Cleveland. The men came to Defiance and then followed a faint Indian trail northwest until they reached the vicinity of what was to become the village of Farmer.
Here about Nov. 21, 1835, they set to work erecting crude three -sided shelters of logs with the open side flanked by a great pile of dry logs to furnish heat for the rigors of winters.
With temporary shelters finished, the men proceeded to select their farms and to begin cleaning sites for log cabins. La Cost selected for his farm the southeast corner eighty of section 8. John Rice chose an 80 near by Lewis Stambaugh now lives, and Randall Lord took up a forty, part of the present Walter Connelly farm. Mrs. Maugel says that Rachel Ann Tharp, a daughter of Elisha Tharp claimed to have been the first white child born in Farmer township. She was born in 1837 and died in a St. Louis hospital in 1922.
In 1840 Edward La Cost was married to Dora Elvira Hopkins, a daughter of Laura Rice Hopkins who had entered the farm which lies just across the road in section 17, in September of 1841, Laura Valera La Cost was born. She married Alexander Maugel, a veteran of the entire Civil War campaigns,who died in 1891. To this union was born one son, Roy, with whom this pioneer woman makes her home. He has one son, Donald, living in Williams county.
Mrs. Laura Maugel says each pioneer carried out from Defiance two blankets, a skillet, sack of corn meal, coffee and coffeepot and an ax and gun. They slept in their blankets in the crude shelters back of blazing log heaps and were not molested by either Indians or animals. The Indians, according to Mrs. Maugel, were removed to reservations across the Mississippi prior to her birth.
Her first schooling was obtained in a log corn crib on her uncle's farm where she, Selden, Araby, Truman, and Mary Hopkins were given the first elements of an education by Sabrina Hopkins.
These pioneers were not troubled with wild animals, in fact the greatest danger seemed to have been from domestic animals gone wild. For an occasional hog would stray away from the unfenced farm sites and mingle with other hogs that formed droves from which it was the custom to get much of the winter supply of pork, and killing of these wild hogs had a tendency to make them savage and it was these droves that caused the parents the most anxiety concerning their children.
It was the custom of each household to keep a savage dog which accompanied the children who played in the forest from morning until night. If anxiety was felt concerning the children one whistled to the dog, if they came, all was well, and if they didn't come, the parents looked them up.
She remembers no incident in which a child was harmed and says the children so loved their savage playmates that had the dogs encountered savage beast the children no doubt would have remained to assist their dogs when wolves drew nearer. Sheep were always yard before dusk. Night after night, she has witnessed her father arise from his bed, take the musket that always was handy, and go out into the night to frighten away prowling animals that threatened the peace of the woodland farmstead.
Mrs Maugel has an interesting volume of genealogy covering ten generation of her family, and says that the Hopkins family are members of the same branch of the family that founded Johns Hopkins University.
In 1835, he joined a band of men including Spencer and Rice Hopkins, Ona and John Rice, Dr. Ona Rice, Jacob Conkey, Ezra Crary and William Pierce, who made their way from Pottsdam to Defiance in search of new homes.
Women folks of the party were left at what was known as the Reserve near Cleveland. The men came to Defiance and then followed a faint Indian trail northwest until they reached the vicinity of what was to become the village of Farmer.
Here about Nov. 21, 1835, they set to work erecting crude three -sided shelters of logs with the open side flanked by a great pile of dry logs to furnish heat for the rigors of winters.
With temporary shelters finished, the men proceeded to select their farms and to begin cleaning sites for log cabins. La Cost selected for his farm the southeast corner eighty of section 8. John Rice chose an 80 near by Lewis Stambaugh now lives, and Randall Lord took up a forty, part of the present Walter Connelly farm. Mrs. Maugel says that Rachel Ann Tharp, a daughter of Elisha Tharp claimed to have been the first white child born in Farmer township. She was born in 1837 and died in a St. Louis hospital in 1922.
In 1840 Edward La Cost was married to Dora Elvira Hopkins, a daughter of Laura Rice Hopkins who had entered the farm which lies just across the road in section 17, in September of 1841, Laura Valera La Cost was born. She married Alexander Maugel, a veteran of the entire Civil War campaigns,who died in 1891. To this union was born one son, Roy, with whom this pioneer woman makes her home. He has one son, Donald, living in Williams county.
Mrs. Laura Maugel says each pioneer carried out from Defiance two blankets, a skillet, sack of corn meal, coffee and coffeepot and an ax and gun. They slept in their blankets in the crude shelters back of blazing log heaps and were not molested by either Indians or animals. The Indians, according to Mrs. Maugel, were removed to reservations across the Mississippi prior to her birth.
Her first schooling was obtained in a log corn crib on her uncle's farm where she, Selden, Araby, Truman, and Mary Hopkins were given the first elements of an education by Sabrina Hopkins.
These pioneers were not troubled with wild animals, in fact the greatest danger seemed to have been from domestic animals gone wild. For an occasional hog would stray away from the unfenced farm sites and mingle with other hogs that formed droves from which it was the custom to get much of the winter supply of pork, and killing of these wild hogs had a tendency to make them savage and it was these droves that caused the parents the most anxiety concerning their children.
It was the custom of each household to keep a savage dog which accompanied the children who played in the forest from morning until night. If anxiety was felt concerning the children one whistled to the dog, if they came, all was well, and if they didn't come, the parents looked them up.
She remembers no incident in which a child was harmed and says the children so loved their savage playmates that had the dogs encountered savage beast the children no doubt would have remained to assist their dogs when wolves drew nearer. Sheep were always yard before dusk. Night after night, she has witnessed her father arise from his bed, take the musket that always was handy, and go out into the night to frighten away prowling animals that threatened the peace of the woodland farmstead.
Mrs Maugel has an interesting volume of genealogy covering ten generation of her family, and says that the Hopkins family are members of the same branch of the family that founded Johns Hopkins University.
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