Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1898-06-09
tered asl~we were from Mead to foot

chose adjoining quarter sections, my
claim being mostly marsh land and
hers river. bottom. The settlers had
! told us that river bottoms raised the
larger crops at first, but was more
trouble to clear, and the marsh land,
while the crops were inot<good at first,
yielded better returns each year it was.
cultivated. 4. = * II
We cut down several trees, carved
our names on four logs and laid them
on. each claim IN the shape of square.
These were the first Of the improve
ments required by laws 4 became so
. enthusiastic! that with my own hands, L
cut down: ten trees as large around as
myself Il know show large, they were
for, having nothing elses to measure
with, I took off my belt and it exactly
fitted those trees.
AS we looked over that<Wild forest
and thought of it as soonto Be our own,
homely~ castles in the air tioated before
us; forest and jungle and marsh disap-
peared, and gardens, filled with mon
strous cabbages and potatoes and ruta-
bagas, appeared; Chickens, a COW,
horse and little cottage embowered in
roses came before the minds eye.
But these. things were Iall'in the fu-
ture and the stern reality of that rough
journey home now lay before us. "a
Two days after that, the people in the
little settlement Of Hoquiam beheld
emerging from the woods a tattered
man and two forlorn looking women,
bruised and scratched, red rags tied
around their heads, their blue skirts
hanging in fringes from their wrists
as sorry-loo]1ing specimens as you
could find in long days journey. We
had no trouble in finding the way home
for bits of red and blue rags decorated
the bushes ali the way.
In six months we returned to hold
down. our claims. During that time
rough trail had been made; our claims
had been blazed out, a little space
cleared and a: one-room shack built on
each of them. We took no pianos nor
plate glass mirrors with us. It was all
a pony could do to travel that trail and
we were thankful to get the bare neces-
sites of life.
Our shanties were only short dis
lance apart, though hidden from each
other by the trees. There was soon a
wellworn trail between them. I had
ditch run through portion of my land
to drain it, and my sister hired a man
to clear small part of the river bot
tom.
We pat in crops wherever there was
a cleared spot and waited with great
hopes for our gardens to produce. And
they did produce, for we had more veg
etables than we could use. With our
own, hands we cleared a good deal of
land that summer.
Once l went around my claim, and a
rough trip it was, too. Then I fully I'M
derstood what ''blazing out'' a claim
meant. When the survey of the town
ship is made the surveyor marks the
boundaries with three strokes Of the ak
and -by carving the name of the town
slip at each corner. The locator of my
claim marked the boundaries with one
blaze instead of three and carved my
name on each corner.
Take it altogether, it was very
pleasant summer. We had plenty of
company. Pretty little squirrels and
chipmunks came boldly up for scraps,
sometimes venturing into the house in
search of dainty morsels. Hosts of blue
bottle flies rendered life miserable in
the spring and early summer. Flocks
OF gaudy, harsh-voiced bluejays made
raids on our gardens, utterly regard
less Of the formidable scarecrows we
erected. Several times when we were
salmon berrying big black bear,
rudely disturbed in his feast, numbered
clumslly away into the bushes. Occa-
sionally we heard the whistle of an elk,
the scream of a cougar or the howl of
timber wolf. None of these animals
ever disturbed us, howexers.eAt night
skunks, nlinlSs and Wild cats Visited vi
with alarming regularity, andtwoe be-
tide any unlucl1y fowl not safely house,
: away in the hennery.x ! l.. =.
Two families lived in the settlemeu
four miles away, but the road was too
rough for frequent, visits We were
not very lones ONE, however, for we
Were>busy, all the time out in the fresh.
pure air, and sometimes a hunter or
claim-holder came that way. More
than once a settler who had not seen
civilization for months came by-just
to see woman again.
Yes. it was, a very pleasant summer;
but summer does not last, and all too
soon winter was upon us wit11fits short,
dark days, its long, dreary nights and
its steady down pouring rain. The
gloomy, .impenetrable% forest closed
around lilo h