The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1899-08-19

the daughter al respected parentakc-wnlcn III a
short time ripened in an affection that ended in
marriage. The girl was a native lowan. blooming
into womanhood early, and at the time of her
wedding was scarcely more than fourteen years
Of, age.
The young husband had but little Of this worlds
goods, and after short honeymoon. in considering
his circumstances. accepted a f1atering offer from
a venturesome firm. and hired out as cook for the
season nine hundred miles from the starting point
in the then unacceptable and vaugely known land,
the Painted Woods country Of the Upper Nilsson
ri, and in the order Of distribution vas assigned
TO the lonely woodward at Tongh.imber.
At the yard in the assignment Of quarters. To-:
threw the young Texan and the writer together rs
room mates. and while setting in front OF the
evening fire in the cook room, he gradually un-
folded his life story. and told how his wife was
won. and dwell ON the ever to him interesting sub.
ject. long and fondly. He anxiously counted the
days that would clapse before the: great river in
front of our s,ockade would loosen it's frozen let
tiers, and pleasantly anticipated the time when
from the hurricane Geek OF a returning steamer.
he might get welcome sight Of the city that con-
tained-as he ten"lerly expressed it-"the finest
little woman in the world"
Like many others born and raised beyond the
line Of schools ON the Texan frontier border, this
young man could neither read nor write in the
simplest English. Now. Of all times, he felt the
needs Of photographic communication most.
There were hundred of miles of frozen plains be-
tween him and his wife, it was true. yet as isola
ted as our woodward was. eastern mail reached
OUR door only one week old. The delicate duty
Of reading and writing answers c,ntiding let
ters between husband and wife fell to my lot as
the sequence of The Texans neglected education.
Many long years have passed US by since then.
years of sunshine-years Of shadow. yet the
recollection of those: tender epistles from the girl
wife to her absent husband remain as fresh in
mind as a memory of yesterday
As the sun grew higher in the heavens in it's
daily evolutionary course of planet movements.
and glad spring was being welcomed by The faith.
FIJI little harbcnger of warmer days-the soft
chirping chickadee Of the WOO Hand a new theme
occupied a large space in the young wife's letters
to her husband. She was abo',t to become a
mother and her hopes and fears for the event give
pathos to its wording. and in angelic tenderness
begged that her husband might be with her in the
supreme hour. Thus closed the correspondence
as far as the third party was concerned but the
memory Of it ever fingers.
The summer following. the writer ofth~se lines
chased up and down the great valley in the vicin.
lily Of the Fort Buford country. bracing up with
the exhilerating ard pleasurable excitement Of the.
almost daily send off. in Indian scares with the
astute Sitting Bull and sardonic Long Dog as the
dread faced jack-in. the boxes that spring them.
selves out from the clumps Of sage brush or cease
wood tina: mark the wallows and washouts OF the
plains surrounding the snowy frontier fort which
bore the honorcd name Of a New Jersey cav
airy leader Of the civil war.
AT the beginning Of Autumn. some nine Of a
party started out in an open boat from Fort Bur
ford in charge Of a deputy marshal as witnesses in
a United States court case. at Yankton the then
capital Of the Territory-ovcr a thousands miles
by the rivers course. As we drifted along on our
lengthy trip We touched 4 woodward. post and!
Indian camp. until the familiar forr was reached
that satso handsomely on the yellow plain below
the sluggish waters Of Douglass river. Dowaio
the boat landing e slowly drriifed along the cut
TYR. there's g the lie =