George walked from New York to Iowa--TWICE.

George Frain (father of Mary Catherine Frain Smith).

Mary Painter Frain (mother of Mary Catherine Frain Smith)

George Frain was my G-G-G-Grandfather. In 1840 he moved from New York to Cedar County, Iowa, between Liberty and Cedar Rapids. He took a farm, 40 acres of unimproved land and built a shanty to live in while he homesteaded it. Hr cut down trees and built a 16x16 foot house with a 16x16 foot lead-to for a bedroom. He sawed out slabs for the doors and the floor. He stayed all summer working. He built a sod fence around the entire 40 acres and dug a ditch outside as a fire barrier and so nothing could jump over.


There were Indians in the neighborhood and many nights he slept on the roof of his shanty. He would hear them come into the room below hunting for food. Once found they would leave.

He raised potatoes, beans, and corn that summer and in the fall after harvesting his crop he walked back to New York. The next spring we returned to Iowa with is wife, Mary and his children, John, Peter, Rachael, Elizabeth, and Mary Catherine (my G-G-Grandmother). With everything they could carry they walked to Pittsburg where they bought a raft with a shanty for shelter. They sailed to the mouth of the Ohio River then up the Mississippi to Muscatine, Iowa. Here they disembarked and traveled by wagon to the farm.

Mary Catherine slept in a trundle bed under her parent’s bed, her sister Margaret was born after they moved here.
This story is from Smith family stories by Violet Leonard written in December 1967.