The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1906-03-08
4 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 Those
Days Thirty Years Ago, and Com
psres with Them the Wonder
full Prosperity Now.

NerUilliOn, S. D., March 6.-Craig S.
Thomas. president OF the board Of
trustees of Sioux Falls college. has
prepared q history OF the early days
OF South Dakota, 8 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 prairies, deer and game of all
kinds in abundance-such are the ideas
which nan easterns IA of this por-
ton 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 h~ardships of
early western life, which,, by letters to
friends, and newspaper records. were
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-
tious and enterprising classes of the
east.
AS a matter of fact, not one 1.-THE OF
the early ~hardships in the west has
ever been told.
Water a Scarce Article.
In many places water had to be
hauled in barrels for miles, and even
then was sometimes taken from
iammed-up draws in which cattle wad-
ed and drank.
For several yearS In SDcneSSiop ha-
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-
mons All the available inhabitants of
a town went out by wagon loads, often
two or three times a week. to fight the
flames. V~aluables, piled in trunks or
boxes. were buried In gardens to save
them from destruction. Household
goods were carried to the middle of
plowed fields, only to be set on fire
by tumbling. flaming Russian thistles,
and, notwithstanding all efforts to pre-
NSAlk \ i ~" 4 "SAS oASSll Z
stroyed by the flames.
Winters Billiards.
Winter billiards., with snow as fine
Ls sifted flour, a 60-mile wind, a cruel
temperature, and the atmosphere SO
.aden with electricity that one could
aot come near a stove without receiv-
ing a evere shock, blinded both men
Ind cattle. and wrought destruction
upon every living thing out of doors.
Buying coal for fuel was like pur-
chasing diamonds, n could be in
dulged in only by people of means. For
many ever zoe was out Of the ques-
lion because of the long distance to it.
Hay was twisted into large doughnut-
like whisps and burned in stoves;
straw vas tramped into sheet iron,
boiler-like holders, the covers Of the
stove removed, and the filed 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, n were preferred to
sither hay or stray.
The Summers Fevers.
Many were Frustrated by fever and
igue; and the few we'll women Of a
aeighborhood went from house to
house to bake and do Homework for
hose who were sick; while occasional
risits from Indians kept a whole neigh
,orhood afraid.
At first crops were usually disap-
pointing. An old pioneer once told me
hat land, like a colt, had to be sub.
iued. n that many, not understand
ng this, became discouraged and left
before the M had lost its wildness.
Floods occasionally damaged the
property of those who had farms In the
liver bottoms, keeping the land too wet
10 cultivate, submerging early crops
md sometimes sweeping away build
ngS and stock.
But into these hard conditions came
, hardy people.
Hardy Early Settlers.
The early settlers from this part OF
he west We're largely from the ole
world, often from conditions Of poverty
and sometimes Of oppression. A single
room shack or dug-out on the wide
spreading prairies of O free land, and
upon acres that We're their own. was a
home of which the owners were justly
proud. Although not a 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 a shred of grow
ing crops or flaming tongues licked uE
the meager haryests which the newly
broken sod yielded. yet these people
were Injured to hardships; these con-
ditions were bad enough, but they had
~ DSlASl. W WHY " IL T1OIIlSS THEY
must make for their families. and they
stuck to the task with grim determine.
ton.
AS a reward Of such perseverance,
conditions have entirely changed
Farms that 80 years ago discouraged
American owners sold for 81 per acre,
that they might have enough to leave
the country, are now worth from $55 to
s75 per acre. Grasshoppers are OF the
past; the breaking nn nf-the sod has
eliminated prairie fires; thorough cult
walton has brought the land up to Its
highest efficiency; 80 years growth OF
trees has modified the winds and molli.
| fled the storms.
Standing on top of Spirit Mound In
South Dakota, where a hundred years
ago. Lewis n Clark stood and looked
upon t~reeless prairies. one now sees 8
land of splendid homes, each home mes.
tied in the shelter of an ample grove OF
cottonwoods. box elders, silver naples.
elms and walnuts. and many of them
Boosting, good orchards of apples and
plums. Tn greater part of this mar
velous transformation has been
wrought within the last 80 years.
~ GEE xntfu aANc a.