| 198 | HISTORY |
habitants cheerfully endured all the privations of frontier life and looked hopefully to the future for realization of their visions of coming good fortune.
These first settlers in and about the new Capital are described, by one who was among them, as
“Mostly young men without families, who have left the paternal roof in the older States in search of homes on the frontier, there to work out their own way in life’s battles and toils. The young pioneer is not encumbered with extra baggage; with a gun and knife, a bake-pan, tin cup, some corn meal and bacon, all packed on his back, he explores the country on foot. He selects his claim, builds a rude log cabin, cooks his coarse food, and freely shares his scanty supply with any traveler who comes along. When absent, his cabin door is left unfastened, and some cooked food left in sight for any weary, hungry pioneer who may chance to come in to rest. When several settlers have taken claims in one vicinity, the first act towards civil government is to meet at one of the cabins and form a ‘claim association’ for mutual protection of their new homes. They select officers, record the names of the members, as well as the number of each member’s claim. They pledge themselves to stand by each other in holding possession of their respective homes until they can be purchased from the United States. In the absence of laws protecting their claims from mercenary speculators, they organized and enacted homestead and pre-emption laws long in advance of the legislation which was subsequently founded upon the recognition of the justice of this principle thus first established by the necessities of the early pioneers.”
One of the most important and notable of the early decisions of the Territorial Supreme Court was the case of Ralph, a colored man, who had been a slave in Missouri, belonging to a man by the name of Montgomery. His master had made a written contract with Ralph to sell him his freedom for $550 and to permit him to go to the Dubuque lead mines to earn the money. Ralph worked industriously for several years, but was not able to save enough to pay Montgomery the price of his freedom. Two Virginians at Dubuque who knew of the agreement, volunteered to deliver Ralph to his former owner in Missouri for $100.
Montgomery accepted the offer. Ralph was seized at
