5 Sugar being scarce, another project was for each family to have a few hives of bees for honey. A mollasses mill was built on the Joyce pasture across from the Ziemer home. It was operated by George Cordon and run by a water wheel. The water came from Mound Fort ditch No. 5. Hannah Ritchie, wife of Bishop James Ritchie, said they made most of their medicine, blood medicine, spring tonic, their steeped wild sage for sprains, burnt sulphur for disinfectant and candles made from animal fat. They also put grease in a dish and put a rag in it to burn--called a bitch light. They had what they called herd boys who would gather people's cattle in the morning and drive some times as far as Warren, then back in the evenings, most of them going barefooted. One man said that there was 20 boys and they really had fun. Another man said he was 12 years old before he even had a pair of shoes on. (Taken from Tracy history.) Pioneer men and women were so busy they had little time for pleasure, and in reading some of their history, they neglected their religious duties, so it was a struggle to get a good start for different organizations. Owing to their struggle and excessive hard labor, they took little time to attend the culture and spiritual lives of their children. It appears that the parents, having a strong testimony of the Gospel, thought that their children would naturally grow up to the knowledge of these things without any effort on their part to instruct them. On this, they were sadly mistaken and the result was noticed in a short time. It was plain to see some of them grow to be infidels and crank. However, some who did take the time with their families to instruct them in the principles of the Gospel, grew to be a very different class of young people. The following are a few notes that are interesting and should be kept for history. 375