"Mr. Frohardt and his wife came to America in 1830. Their son William was about one-and-a-half years of age. They went to Dayton, Ohio. (Possibly referring to the Kinning family and their daughter Wilhelmine, who was about two years old; Johann Diedreich Frohardt and his wife Mary (Frey) Frohardt were 69 and 59 years old respectively in 1830. Their son J. D. was 20 years old, and not yet married.)

Ten years later John Heinrich Plumer and his family came to America, also going to Dayton, Ohio in 1840. Then Plumers and others went to Missouri. Meyers, Kinnings and others followed. They settled near California, a village on the main highway between Sedalia and Jefferson City, five miles south of California in 160 acres of heavy timber land.

The house was on a high elevation sloping down to the Moro River with higher hills around it. A fine log house was erected from the timber on the place. It was a long house consisting of three rooms, each opening onto the porch, which ran the full length of the house on the south side. The shingles were homemade and not a nail was used in the construction. Just wooden pegs.

No stoves were used, just fireplaces and Dutch ovens. When corn bread, light bread or corn pones were baked, they were put in the Dutch oven with coals under and over on the heavy lid with a rim about one or two inches high to hold the coals. This just baked fine. Corn pones were made from water and meal without salt or leavening. If the fire should go out, someone would have to go to a neighbor and get an iron kettle (covered) of coals.

Grubbing out of trees to clear the fields for crops was an endless task which no one liked. Farming among those stumps was far from easy, too. There were no local markets for the produce. Eggs were taken to town on horseback in homemade baskets made of hickory bark and exchanged for the few articles of food necessary. There were no matches. Tea was made mostly from native herbs and coffee from parched wheat and barley. When coffee was purchased, it was green and had to be browned in the oven and ground by hand in a coffee mill or cracked in a stone, made dishlike, with another for the pounder.

Sugar was scarcely used. There was no granulated, only coffee A and coffee C, light brown and dark brown, and this was generally put in a jar on top of a cupboard or shelf, for company. Homemade sorghum, made from sugar cane raised on the farm and boiled down after coming through the mill and press. Apple butter was made with boiled down cider. Cattle, hogs, sheep and wild game furnished the meat. The fish were plentiful in the streams in those days. Everyone raised their own tobacco for smoking, chewing and snuff. Many of the women used tobacco in some form.

Each family had a loom and spinning wheel. Raised their own flax and made their own linen, also Jeans, a cloth of cotton chain? filled with wool and looked like a blanket, which was used to make men's' suits. A material called Linsey-woolsey, made of linen and wool was used for the women's' dresses. They colored them either blue or brown, with walnut dye, and would hang them on the wall to show them off. These were the scratchiest things ever made, no wonder hoops were in fashion for protection. The women generally made the men's' suits.

When they got a hide, it was taken to the tan-yard and tanned with oak bark, a long, slow process. The men made most of the shoes. Sometimes a tailor or shoemaker would go through the country and make up suits and shoes, as he came to them, staying in the home until he had the family outfitted.

The furniture was mostly homemade. Chairs were made with woven seats of slippery elm bark. Beds were of the four-poster style with knobs on the wooden side rails, which held the rope, which was woven back and forth, from side to side over the knobs, or the slat style with corn husks or straw ticks and feather beds. It almost required a ladder to climb into these beds. Instead of overcoats or raincoats, they used long pieces of heavy woolen cloth, which reached long in the back and front and had a hole in the center for the head. They could ride all day without getting wet or cold. Pieces of blankets were wound around the legs and pinned for leggings.

A visit was not considered a visit unless you stayed overnight. Doors were never locked, just tied shut with the latch string. The woman would ride the horse with the children front and back of her and the man would walk and carry a musket to hunt with, and take whatever game he found with him to his hostess, which he was expected to do. They would make a round of visits which sometimes required a week or so.

Homemade bonnets of various styles, from slats to more fancy creations. Occasionally a mover wagon or prairie schooner would pass by, giving an opportunity to sell for cash a few dozen eggs for five cents a dozen. Wages were very low. For example, a man received 25 cents per log, for splitting black oak rails 10 feet long, and board himself. Two hundred was considered a good day's work. Every fall they shook with the ague.

Hearing of the fertile prairie lands, which could still be pre-empted, more healthful, better markets, they thought they could better themselves by moving to Iowa. They could not sell their land, but took the stock and started for Iowa, May 3, 1851. It required 10 days to make the trip to St. Joseph, where they rested 4 or 5 days. They crossed the Missouri River at Lexington on a ferry. One cow jumped off the ferry, swam ashore, and started for home. She was overtaken about 4 miles away and brought back.

At Glenwood, the Pony Creek and Nishnabotna rivers were out of their banks, so they had to camp for a week before it was possible for them to cross. Here, 30 or 40 of their sheep were killed by the wolves.

The next camp was made just south of the Pottawattamie County line on what now is known as Highway 275 on top of the hill. Next morning, overlooking the landscape, Father Plumer said, "This looks good to me. Plenty of timber, water, good land. This is where we will stay." And this was the location of the Plumer home where he lived until his death. After his wife's death, he made his home with his youngest son, Christopher.

He finally sold his Missouri farm of 160 acres for $300. His first house (in Iowa) was a log cabin consisting of four rooms and an upstairs, all one room. At the south window was a cherry tree brought from Missouri, also south of the house was the garden. Large cottonwood trees were back of the house and also the well, 98 feet deep. Water was drawn from this well with a windlass and buckets. This was a stage coach station where people could stay overnight and horses were changes for fresh horses for the trip."