Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1904-06-28
PASSING OF THE
HOMESTEADER

homestead means but little, but there
are plenty of men in Grand Rapids
whose hair is tinged with gray that
can understand and appreciate the
full meaning of holding down home
stead. There is however vast
difference between the early home
steader of.Wood county or anywhere
in the Wisconsin valley and the
pioneer on the western prairie thirty
years ago.
The recent opening OF several
Indian reservations to homestead
entry brings the somewhat sad
thought that the days of the home
steader are we'll nigh passed. But
wherever you meet these early
pioneers OF the dense forests, whether
In Wood county or farther up the
Wisconsin river their old story is ever
new. Fifty years ago there was a
slow surge Of people up the Wisconsin
valley. First some solitary hunter or
fur trader followed the shy track Of
wolf or bear, beat out ragged way
into the labyrinth of wood and water.
Then came the settler in his lurching
OK wagon seeking a home on the
frontier. All sorts of men were these
hOmesteaderS, some were college
graduates, some fugitives. A few of
them were men who sometimes
reached up toward heroic stature.
They were all men OF coolness, cou-
rage and quick resources, men who
looked into the face OF death as into
the face of an old acquaintance.
The story Of the first wagon road
up the Wisconsin river speaks with
tragic memories OF freside tales and
back woods ballads. Deaths fire.
Quent footsteps marked the way. The
homesteader has acted well his part.
He is fast subdning the dense forests
Of the Wisconsin valley and opening
up some OF the best farming lands in
the state. 1t is difficult to compre-
hend what has been accomplished by
the homesteader in the past thirty
five years.
The progress OF home making in
Central Wisconsin has not kept pace
with the prairie states but 1t has an
air of permanency that IS foreign to
the boundless west. In many cases
you will find the early homesteader
still living on his claim in Wood
county, while in the west several
changes were often made IN ownership
before the homestead became a
farm. The writer has been brought in
to close contact with the homeSteader
in the west for many years AS we
crossed the Missouri river on the first
buffalo and Indian were the principle
Inhabitants OF the plains and later a
homesteader in southwestern Kansas.
l have heard the creak of their OK
carts, the clatter of their horses
hOofs. / have warmed myself at their
camptires, and stood with them and
gazed into the gloom Of darkening
valleys. / have felt the thrill of the
first whistle OF the locomotive as it
broke the stiffness of the wilderness.
In this way have tried to discover
the real tendencies OF the time as
Influenced by the instinct Of develop
ment.
Fifty years ago Kansas was marked
on the maps desert, and for the
most part it was desert, indeed. 1t
is an upland county chiefly, a vast
plateau, viened sparsely with creeks
and arteried with few rivers that
were swollen with the floods of spring
and, through the season Of growing
crops, oozed sluggishly in pools on the
parching white sand. Before ecivilized
man came to grapple it this desert lay
green and tempting in May and June
and brown and dreary the rest of the
year.
In the spring the sky was as blue,
the prairie as fair, and the soil as rich,
and all was laid as ready for the plow
as in the earlier days. The home
maker travelled to the west, drove the
stakes OF his claim, built his house,
turned the sod, and planted his good
seed. The earth was fair to look
upon and the soil was mellow. The
meadow lark caroled with full
throated joy as the mOrning SunbeamS
slanted across the dew-wet grass. AS
the spring passed and summer came,
the homemaker grew anxious, for the
days went by each as clear and bright
as it's predecessor. The birds disap-
peared, the shrili note OF the grass
hopper rasped on the brain, the sun
grew brazen, and the hot waves
undulated across the fields until the
eye lost its cunning.
have seen Stafford county, Kansas
we'll settled by the hOmesteaier in .
single summer only to be deserted
two years later. These conditions
have never been known in Wood
county or the Wisconsin valley.
They are entirely improbable ii not
impossible. The natural resources
available to every hOmesteader OF the
north woods is guarantee of support
to the thrifty settler along the banks