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[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

That is a great story, Bill .  You have an interesting family background...  
Now, I have to go look up the history of radishes, unless you care to 
elaborate.............bobford

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--- On Thu, 12/4/08, william Eggers <wce1482 AT yahoo.com> wrote:


> About Amish.  I guess I will add my 2 cents worth, if anyone cares.  My 
> great-grandfather was raised Amish in Pennsylvania and when a young man, 
> floated down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans with a cargo of bear's
> grease.  While in New Orleans, he apprenticed to a stone worker.  He went 
> up the Mississippi on the steamship Fancy.  It blew up at St Louis, 
> Missouri.  He then talked to the next captain and told him to take him as 
> far north as this gold watch would pay for.  That was all he had left
from the first steamship.  

He landed in Burlington, Iowa. There he worked for a hotel as a cook.  
Radishes were new then and he would take the tops that were cut off and plant 
them and raise more radishes.  He eventually bought a farm
and went on the build the courthouse in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa and also the first 
state capitol building in Iowa City. This is probably more than anyone wants 
to know.
>