HELL SLEW, ALIAS VANDEMARK'S FOLLY
I BECOME A BANDIT AND A TERROR
I SAVE A TREASURE, AND START A FEUD
THE FEWKESES IN CLOVER AT BLUE-GRASS MANOR
I RECEIVE A PROPOSAL--AND ACCEPT
ROWENA'S WAY OUT--THE PRAIRIE FIRE
JUST AS GRANDMA THORNDYKE EXPECTED
INTRODUCTION
The work of writing the history of this township--I mean Vandemark Township, Monterey County, State of Iowa--has been turned over to me. I have been asked to do this I guess because I was the first settler in the township; it was named after me; I live on my own farm--the oldest farm operated by the original settler in this part of the country; I know the history of these thirty-six square miles of land and also of the wonderful swarming of peoples which made the prairies over; and the agent of the Excelsior County History Company of Chicago, having heard of me as an authority on local history, has asked me to write this part of their new History of Monterey County for which they are now canvassing for subscribers. I can never write this as it ought to be written, and for an old farmer with no learning to try to do it may seem impudent, but some time a great genius may come up who will put on paper the strange and splendid story of Iowa, of Monterey County, and of Vandemark Township; and when he does write this, the greatest history ever written, he may find such adventures as mine of some use to him. Those who lived this history are already few in number, are