HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY. 
 
of his right arm. It was never fully ascertained 
what injury was done to his hip, as he could not 
stand the pain of a thorough examination, and 
he was so old the doctor did not dare to use 
chloroform. Since that time he has not left the 
bed only us he has been lifted; still his health 
is generally good, especially for a man of his 
advanced age. His mind and memory is re- 
markably good for a man of his age, he is a 
perfect chronicle of the past, and notwithstand- 
ing his afflictions and infirmity, he is cheerful 
and resigned; this is owing somewhat to his 
natural temperament, which is very cheerful, 
but is also owing in a great measure to a firm 
trust in Christ, and bright hope that when the 
trials of this life are over, he will be admitted 
into that rest that remains for the people of 
God." 
MONTROSE, April 17, 1884. 
"You speak of the drinking habits of the early 
pioneers, I must confess that in proportion to 
the number of population, there was far more 
liquor drank forty years ago than there is to-day, 
but it must be remembered that Exeter for a 
number of years was a mining town, and there 
is almost always more drinking done in such 
places than where the occupation of the peo- 
ple is purely agricultural, but there was a good 
deal of drinking done in those days. Births, 
deaths, marriages, 4th of July, election, Christ- 
mas, harvesting, hog killing, house raising, were 
all good excuses for imbibing, butthen, to offset 
this evil, I believe there was less pride, more 
open-handed hospitality in those days than at 
the present time. A young couple could get 
married in those days without ruining them- 
selves buying costly clothes. If a man was 
buried, it was not thought necessary to starve 
his widow and fatherless children in order to 
procure a $75 or $100 coffin, because other peo- 
ple did. You spoke about the Major telling 
some more of his early experience. Since you 
were here, I heard him tell one. Mr. Foreman, 
who used to live in Exeter in a very early day, 
had set a number of traps in a circle, with a 
 
bait in the center, to catch a wolf. A Mrs. 
Powell lived near where the traps were set, and 
her little dog got into one of them, and of 
course set up a dreadful howl. Mrs. Powell 
went to the rescue of her pet and got caught in 
a trap herself, and of cosurse there was more 
music. A large black dog belonging to Pierce 
Bradley, an old resident of Exeter, then.thought 
it best to go and see what was the matter, of 
course he got caught, and then the chorus was 
complete.  Fortunately the outcries brought 
Mr. Foreman to the rescue, and he set them all 
at liberty. When I think how the great west has 
settled up, even in my day, (I am fifty-six) it is 
wonderful. I can remember when going into 
the western part of York State was called going 
out west. If any one started tc go as far west as 
Indiana or Illinois, their friends bid them fare- 
wellwith about the same feeling they would, had 
they started for that undiscovered country, from 
whose bourne no traveler returns. But now 
the Pacific can only stop them, and I am not 
sure as that will prove a barrier long, some en- 
terprising emigrant will want to colonize the 
Sandwich Island." 
Yours truly, 
HOLLIS CROCKER. 
BIOGRAPHICAL. 
Joseph Dunbar Sr., is a native of Ireland, born 
in 1814. At the age of ten years he came to 
the United States to live with his uncle, Robert 
Dunbar, near Wheeling, Va. After a few years 
residelce there, he went to Philadelphia, com- 
ing fro~n that city to MineralPoint, Wis. Ter., 
where he worked a short time in the mines and 
around  the furnaces.  He came to Exeter, 
then called "Exeter Diggings," in 1835, and 
worked here many years, but in 1840, he bought 
160 acres of government land on section 22, and 
later eighty acres on section 23. These lands 
are now comprised in the fine farm which is 
now his home. His residence is on section 23. 
He partially improved this land before his mar- 
riage. He continued to mine a portion of the 
time, until it ceased to be remunerative. July 
 
849