Having made it through their first winter in Iowa, J.W. and Laura were ready to take up the spring work of clearing some land for a garden and then more land to be planted in grain in the fall.\u00a0 They proceeded with this work through 1856.\u00a0 In her memoir, Laura wrote of their nearest neighbors, a family named Beed from England lead to the area by two sons, George and John.\u00a0 Although Laura said that land could be taken as homesteads, I have not yet found any record of the Beeds doing that or buying land, although I have found records of J.W. Booth buying land.\u00a0 In addition, the Booths were enumerted on the 1856 Iowa state census, however I haven\u2019t found any of the Beeds there.\u00a0 Nevertheless, they were reported on as neighbors.<\/p>\n
The summer of 1856 Laura\u2019s mother (Marinda Blackman Denman)and a sister (Marinda) who had been in poor health came to visit the young couple from Ohio.\u00a0 Laura\u2019s mother stayed about 6 weeks and then returned home, leaving Marinda to spend the winter with Laura and J.W., with the hope that the change in climate would improve her health.<\/p>\n
The family prepared their house for the coming winter, filling any crack or crevice well and making arrangements for their stock (a horse, cow and pigs) to be protected and fed.\u00a0 J.W. had planned to make a trip to Ft. Dodge to the land office there and early in December, one morning left with the horse and buggy to make that trip.\u00a0 The night he left it began to snow and soon \u201ca veritable blizzard was upon us.\u201d\u00a0 By the next morning there was 10-12 inches of snow on the ground and the storm continued.\u00a0 Laura and Marinda had to deal with getting from the house to the stable in order to provide food for the animals.\u00a0 Although both women were in ill-health, Marinda thought it was safer for her to do the task and proceeded to dress herself in trousers and coat of J.W.\u2019s and went off in the direction of the stable.\u00a0 She successfully got there and back, having managed to feed the stock.<\/p>\n
On the third day of J.W.\u2019s absence, their neighbor the elder Mr. Beed came to help with caring for the stock.\u00a0 Finally on the 6th day, J.W. made it back home.\u00a0 He had floundered through snow drifts, often having to shovel a path for the horse, and dealing with intense cold.\u00a0 In other places his way was completely clear, having \u201cbeen swept by the fury of the blasts.\u201d\u00a0 Northern Iowa and the prairie suffered the worst winter yet known that year.<\/p>\n
Although J.W. had made it to Ft. Dodge and presumably conducted his business at the land office, I do not find a record of his owning land in Iowa until 1859.\u00a0 The First of Nov 1859 is the date on a patent found on the Bureau of Land Management<\/a> website, however that apparently is the date of signature in Washington DC, so possibly is the finalizing of his purchase made in December 1856 (although it seems a long time).<\/p>\n As it was very cold that winter, and little could be done in terms of farm work, the Booths decided to build another room on the house.\u00a0 When the weather was moderate enough to handle the tools and the lumber the work proceeded, slowly.\u00a0 The evenings were spent in reading or enjoying visits from their \u201cyoung English neighbor across the creek.\u201d\u00a0 This was George Beed.\u00a0 He was a welcome guest both by the Booths and by Laura\u2019s sister Marinda.<\/p>\n