DAUGHTER OF PIONEERS!!!

Yesterday I mentioned that my mother passed away 35 years ago. Today I will tell you of her early childhood. She was born in 1886.

Her mother and father decided to take the government up on the Homestead Act. That meant that they would have to go to a 160 acres of land that the government assigned to them, and agree to stay on the land for I believe at least 7 years, cultivate the land and build a house, etc. After they did that, the land was theirs. My mother was 9 months old and with her twin brother and an older 3 year old brother, they headed west in a covered wagon with all their property they owned in this covered wagon. Their destination was Nebraska. The homestead application was dated April 23, 1887. (Later I will tell you more about my maternal grandparents). But today, I want to tell you about this time in my mothers life.

When they arrived in Nebraska, there was no house, no trees to build a house. They proceeded to build a sod house and started cultivating the land. This was not an easy time and I wouldn't be a bit surprised that after they made the decision to "Go West", that they realized that was not a very good IDEA!

My mother told that they would divide and egg up for the 3 children, to keep them from starving to death. They would catch frog legs in a creek close by and throw the frogs back into the creek in hope that they would grow more legs. My mother did not have a normal childhood.
She would say that you might follow a crow a mile for a crust of bread. Now that is hungry!!!!
I thought that she had to have been the poorest of the poor.

Later in life, I read that her experience was the NORM in all those people that homesteaded
in the west. I read that one lady's husband had to go hunting to catch food for the family and left his wife home with their 3 year old. While he was gone, she proceeded to deliver her own baby. When her husband came back, the baby was delivered and all dressed. Not too many women could be that courageous! This same book said that the women would be so lonesome that they would go outside to lay down with the sheep, for company. A lot of these women were from the East and well bred, and this was just a culture shock to them. (I'm sure this was the case with my grandmother--after you read about her background, you will understand).

I can't imagine the life of these courageous pioneer people.

They did stay on the land and built a sod house yet in 1887 (17 ft X 22 ft), a granary, corn crib, hen house, dug a well, 2 corrals and broke (plowed 70 acres) of land was later done.

They established residence on this land April 1887. They cultivated 10 acres per year, (70 acres) in 7 years. He received final patent title on March 27, 1894. This has been documented by my nephew that was curious of details of all of this. A number of years ago, he actually went out to the very property that they lived on.

My grandmother had to go into a local restaurant and became a cook. Buffalo Bill Cody would come in and just loved my grandmother's cream pies. (When he would travel through).

In a letter to the US Land Department in Washington, dated Jan. 8, 1913, my grandfather offered to trade his homestead for any other similar tract of land in the US, stating that he had lived on the homestead for 9 years, but could not support his family and pay the taxes. He stated that the land is worthless, and that he had been compelled to leave it. An official from the department wrote him back, and advised him that there were no provisions under the law whereby this could be done. He sold his 160 acre homestead on Jan. 18, 1917 for $2,000. (Exactly 92 years ago today!)

My mother went out when she was 9 months old and came back when she was 9 years old. This is rather uncertain, since we have a picture of her in front of the sod house and I thought she was 11 years of age in the picture(perhaps she was only 9 years of age). They came back long before they sold the property.

She did mention that she was baptized in a river and they had to cut the ice, in order to baptize her.

Wisdom of the day--Walk a mile in someone elses shoes, before you judge them in how they think!