![]() It took just a few minutes to yoke them, The yoke was put first on the "off-ox," the one on the right, the bow put in place and keyed, then the other end of the yoke was held up and a well-trained animal would walk up and put its neck under the yoke in the proper place for the bow to come up and be fastened with a wooden or metal key. Only a few could walk and draw a plow along with the horses, and on the road an ox team did well to make three miles an hour. ![]() The oxen were strong, patient, hardy, and could live on rough foods without much shelter, but generally they were quite slow. Most farmers used them to draw the plows, the wagons, the harrows and the sleds, and they were on the roads hauling produce and grain to market. In the early days of settlement and in the pioneer period, the oxen were quite commonly used as draft animals. ![]() This was due to the fact that they had to pay for damages done and for the corn, pumpkins and cabbage consumed by the oxen.īut the sturdy oxen were not always in trouble, for they served the early settlers well for several decades. realized when they returned home that they had less money than when they started the trip nine days earlier. The three young men from Eagle Creek Twp. Finally reaching Chicago, they sold their grain and on the return trip the oxen ate corn and cabbage in nearby fields. Again the animals helped themselves to a farmer's corn. They were mired in a swamp near Thornton, Ill., and another tongue gave way. The oxen were lost for a day when they stopped at Cedar Lake, a wagon tongue was broken at Dyer, and the animals also trampled a farmer's pumpkin crop there. He and his friends drove three wagons, each carrying 30 bushels of grain, drawn by ox teams. pioneer of 1838, had an unusual experience during a trip to Chicago with his first harvest of wheat. 27, 1989, Lowell Tribune, page 10)ĭavid Turner, Eagle Creek Twp.
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