The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22
LIVES IN BORROWED HOME ON PRAIRIE Widows Thrilling Experience
 on Kansas Claim HAD ONE ROOM SHANTY Lived There Alone for Sixteen Months to Establish Title to Her
 Land-TeIls of Ex-
 perience.
HAD ONE ROOM SHANTY

| From the Fort Worth Record.
 Fort Worth has as her guest at this
 time a woman who has given such demonstration of grit, determination
 and independence as but few women Lean lay claim to- She is Mrs Luceppa
 Rymus, and she is indulging in a bit of
 an outing and visit to daughter
 here, after spending sixteen lonesome
 months on quarter section claim near
 Dodge City, Kan.
 The whirligig of time finally left Mrs.
 Rymus free to set her stakes around
 the 160 acres of good Kansas land and
 the idea appealed to her. The bare
 thought of living alone. in little one
 room shack, which she borrowed from
 a neighbor three or four miles away,
 would have put crimp in the ambition
 of most women to acquire a landed estate and the first melancholy howl of
 coyote would have sent the average I female scurrying for safety and com | panionship. But while the wolves howled, the biting north winds swept
 down across the prairies, whistling weird chords through the chinlSs of the shanty, but Mrs. kymus stood to her guns and held onto her claim. In the | winter the snow would come, the pro- visions in the larder would shrink until I the bare boards of the cupboard seemed 1 to whisper of the end, but that hope which springs eternal in the human | breast was always there to cheer and l give her courage. She had set her | heart upon owning that farm and the | opportunity was given her. as a widow I of 0 sFederal soldier of the Civil war by beneficent government that takes precious good care of those who ob- | jected so strenuously to the dissolution | of the Union a trihe over forty years l ago.
 Now that she has lived out the allot- l ted time on the land, she is daily ex- pecting her patent to the claim, and while she is waiting for it she is whil-
 ing away a few weeks in delicious idle ness and the companionship of her children and friends.
 Fctionlike Narrative. 'My husband was a good, conscientious man." said Mrs. Rymus Saturday night but you know those who went through too war wer out in all sorts of weather and were weakened bodily and made unfit for much manual labor. But he got along well enough up to his death, IT years ago. But then I was left without any thing and five children on my hands that had to be supported. The oldest child, a boy was 16 and he set to work at once and | worked myself, and as the others grew older they worked Finally the two l boys drifted around to better jobs and the | family became separated. We all had | hard struggle of course, but made along | somehow A few years ago two of my daughters and one son were working in the packing houses at Kansas City. but t1a ,uals sifay they moved here and have lived here since.
 About two years ago | decided would pick out a claim In Kansas and went to Dodge City and from there out about r miles, and settled on 16o acres i spotted out to me. l had only small amount of money and less income, and | didn't know just how l would get along. A family living about two and one-half miles off had added unto their house and | did not need a little room they had used 1 before They let me have this as "a bor- l row and moved it for me to place on 1 the land on which 1 filed. l am to give it l back to them when I am through with 1t. "This little room, as you see from the picture, is just about five feet tall about | l2 feet wide and long, and l have to I stop to get in 1t. One side has win | dow-frame window-in that respect 1t is stylish. The walls outside and inside, are I whltewashed, the work of my own hands, 1 and you bet the whole thingis as clean | and neat as a pin. The bed is of blanks, | coored indigo blue. but it gives comfort | at night There is plenty of cover and l
 never did get very cold. A small box is
 my chair and larger one my eating | table, and l have two or three cups, saucers and plates. That is all there Is ! in the room.
 Cooks Out of Doors. ''I cooked my meals-such as they were
 -out of doors on a ground fire in barbe- | cue style But did not keep much meat l or food around the house because of wild | animals. l got most of it as I needed it | from neighbors who lived about three
 miles off. Sometimes l ate at their house, | and their little girl it was who was my
 companion many nights, though she went ! to school in daytime One time I was { snowbound three days. and 1t looked like 1 I was about to run out of something to | eat but the sun came out and drove the
 snow away and I found my ways to the | neghbors
 There was few months when I thought I would lose my claim. I left it for awhile to help some of my chill dren. and when I got back other parties had filed on 1t and wanted me to pay them to leave took it in the courts and
 won but l had to file again because had not stayed on 1t. This was about IS months ago, and when l filed the second time l decided not to leave my claim at l all And didn't. When I left the other
 day l had lived there more than 16
 months; had kept little garden. raising 1 what few products I could I had 10 acres | in wheat. But 1 had to buy most all l
 ate. and pension of SIP per month helped :, and more than paid for that But I had | to help my girls and it kept me schem- i ing all the time.''
 Mrs. Ryslus speaks very freely of her 1 claim holding episode. and hides none of ! the baroness of life there. She is a won-
 an of intelligence. of large size, weigh ! ing probably l50 pounds, and looks young
 and robust.
 ! The quarter section of land is now worth about Sl20. Dry farming of the Camp
 bell system is gaining a strong foothold,
 and an irrigation canal is being cut near i the tract of Mrs. Rymus, She therefore
 expects to have valuals. farm within l few years and spend her declining years 1 on it.
 
 |