The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-03-09
A TRUE ACCOUNT OF
EARLY PIONEER DAYS
Craig S. Thomas Writes Inter.
estingIy of Frontier Life
In South Dakota.
THE MANY HARDsHlPs
He Tells of the Privations of Thos.
Days Thirty Years Ago, and Com
pares with Them the Wonder
full Prosperity Now.

Nermilion, s. d., March 5.-Craig s..
! Thomas, president of the board of
| trustees of Sioux Falls college, has
prepared a history of the early days
of South Dakota, a part of which fol-
lows:
The fact above all others which the
Atlantic states are slow to understand
is the marvelously rapid growth OF the
| west. This is especially true OF that
part of the west through which runs
the treacherous Missouri. Storms,
floods. blizzards. cyclones. Indians,
| prairie fires, sod houses. wolves, bears.
trackless prairles, deer and game of all
kinds in abundance-sucha are the ideas
which many easterns have of this por-
tion of the west, where not a few large
cities are located and bumper crops
| are raised
Such lack of knowledge of present
western conditions is doubtless due to
| two facts. First, to the hardships of
early western life, which. by letters to
friends, and newspaper records We're
thoroughly advertised in the east; and.
second to the provincialism of many
eastern people who travel little, regard
the place where they live as the CEN
ter of civilization, and forget that those
| who have built up western cities and
towns are people from the most ambi-
ttous and enterprising classes of the
east.
AS matter of fact, not one tithe of
the early hardships in the west has
ever been told.
Water Scarce Article.
In many places water had to be
hauled in barrels for miles, and even
then was sometimes taken from
dammed-up draws in which cattle wad-
ed and drank.
For several years in succession, be-
cause of drought. hot winds. or grass
| hoppers, crops failed. At such times
many families had neither means with
which to live nor cash to leave the
country, and farms had to be mort
gagged. Children sometimes went bare
| footed in winter, and with nothing COW
ering their bodies but thin calico
dresses.
Prairie fires. set by sparks from en-
gines and by careless smokers or
campers, swept the prairies like de-
town Went out by wagon loads, often
two or three times a week. to fight the
flames Naluables. piled in trunks or
boxes, We're buried in gardens to save
them from destruction. Household
goods We're. carried to the middle of
plowed fields, only to be set on fire
by tumbling, flaming Russian thistles,
and, Notwithstanding all efforts to pre-
vent 1t, whole towns were often de-
stroyed by the flames.
Winters Blizzards.
| Winter billiards.. with snow as fine
as sifted flour. a 6O-mile wind, a cruet
temperature, and the atmosphere so
not come near Il stove without receiv-'
ing severe shyck. blinded both men
and cattle, and wrought destruction
upon every living thing out of doors.
| Buying coal for fuel was like pur-
chasing diamonds. and could be in
dulged in only by people Of means. For
many even wood was out of the ques-
ton because OF the long distance to 1t.
Hay was twisted into large doughnut-
like whisps and burned in Sstoves:
straw was tramped into sheet iron.
boiler-like holders. the covers of the
stove removed. and the filled holders
placed over the fire upside down so
that the flames might eat slowly from
bottom to top: COW chips (dried dung)
made hot fires and were preferred to
either hay or stray
Tho Summers Fevers.
Many We're Frustrated by fever and
:ague: and the few Well women of
neighborhood went from house to
house to- bake and do nOusework for
those who were sick; while occasional
visits from Indians kept a whole neigh
borhood afraid.
L AI NTSI crops were uSudlly ulSdp-
pointing. An old pioneer once told me
that land like Il colt, had to be sub
ducd, and that many. not understand
| ing this. became discouraged and left
before the land had lost its wildness.
Floods occasionally damaged the
property of those who had farms in the
river bottoms, keeping the land too wet
to cultivate. submerging early crops.
and sometimes sweeping away build
ings and drowning stock.
| But into these hard conditions came
IL hardy people.
Hardy Early Settlers.
The early settlers from this part of
the west We're largely from the old
world often from conditions OF poverty
and sometimes OF oppression. A single
room shack or dug-out OH the wide
spreading prairies of a free land. and
upon acres that We're their own, was Il
| home of which the owners were justly
proud. Although not u tree was In
sight, and the boundless green expanse
of spring was often soon withered by
| furnace winds and the merciless sum-
mer sun; although clouds of grass
hopperS often left not q shred of grow
| ing crops, or flaming tongues licked ur
the meager harvests which the newly
broken sod yielded, yet these people
We're Injured to hardships; these con.
ditions We're bad enough. but they has
no better to which to turn. Homes they
must make for their families. and they
stuck to the task with grim determine
J ton.
AS a reward of such perseverance,.
conditions have entirely changed.
Farms that 80 years ago discouraged
4 American owners sold for 81 per acre.
that they might have enough to leave
the country, are now worth from $55 tc
SIS per acre. Grasshoppers are Of the
past; the breaking up of the sod has
eliminated prairie fires; thorough cultt-
vation has brought the land up to its
highest efficiency: 30 years growth OF
trees has modified the winds and molli-
HoN tho OF