Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1900-08-24
Old Settler.
EDITORS AGITAToR:

took lay off, the other day, ant
attended the old settlers reunion near
Kincaid. There was lots OF people there
and some candidates. Would-be Judge
Smart and Judge Riggs made snort
speeches. Davis, a son of old Jonathan
Davis, represented Bourbon county
Broder talked for Linn. and Bowman for
Anderson. Besides the speakers mention
ed, there were half dozen Others. Bow
man caught the ear of the assembly by
his witty sayings and historical antec-
dotes. Our Conway was there, and made
several speeches to side audiences. What
heard revived old memories.
|, too, am an old settler. struck Kan
sas thirty years ago, but was too late
for a good homestead. The ''sooners'
andrailroad companies had homesteaded
all the desirable land in eastern Kansas,
and the bufiialoes and coyotes held the
West.
found an abandoned claim in Wood
son county, and there wife and | pitched
our tent, which was a small box board
shanty We had two near neighbors aud
ten miles square of rangc-a railroad
homestead. We had more range than
stool. The first year on my homestead
| rented twenty acres, second sod, two
miles from home. Returns from crops
were very small. What the chinch-bugs
did not get was left for my neighbors
cattle, and what the cattle did not get,
CLEANED for myself and landlord. Twenty
five bushels of oats and one hundred of
corn, all told, fell to my share. About
this time. my team became discouraged
and later on, died of broken heart.
The following year, rented ten acres,
a nd broke sod. The grasshoppers took
most of my second years crop and had
to tramp in search of employment. A
'sooner" on the Neosho ri yer gave me
employment at grubbing. boarded
myself and received 80 cents per day.
In Kansas, grubbing is limited, both tor
the want of timber and by Dakota
billiards. A blizzard closed my job.
In the following spring, moved to AL
len county, and to ok up my abode on
rented bottom far H. | stayed ten years
on that farm. and helped all could to
ruin the farmers with over-production.
What we lived on when we lived in
Woodson county is still shrouded in mys-
terry, and what my neighbor with ten
childred lived on is doubly shrouded. |
sometimes think that the early Kansas
children drew nourishment from the at
mosphere Atmosphere was about al
that was plenty, unless it was chinch-
bugs. That family OF ten children were
all alive at last accounts, although |
know that for them, halfration was a
gluttonous feast. | am looking to see
some of their names on the rolls of fame,
and if | do not see them, | will be disap-
pointed.
When the history of pioneers is written
it will he found that Kansas early set
tler RS encountered hardshps much harder
to be borne than the pioneers timber
ed states. Timber for fuel, fencing and
building and plenty of wild game for
hunting constituted opulence beside the
tiinberless plains of even eastern Kansas.
A crop failure meant absolute want.
Thousands of families left Kansas dur
ing grasshopper year, and went east to
their wives people. Many of those who
remained received aid from the East |
never begged No selfrespecting man
will beg if he has an able bodied wife. /
did not steal. My neighbor had nothing
could lay my hands on. The period OF
begging has long since passed, and theft
IS almost unknown.
Land that seemed to be unproductive
thirty years ago is now producing fine
crops Comfortable dwellings an d fruit
and forest trees dot the landscape. The
railroad homcsteads have been divided
up into quarters and half quarters
and are occupied by as intelligent a set
of farmers as paid dividends on wat
cred stock. The old tean:s of that were