Emmons County record. [volume] (Williamsport, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-current, 1907-08-22
AN IOWA WEN.

AN IOWA VIEW.
The Conditions that Are Now Pas.
sing Away Ia the Oakotas For.
merly Prevailed In the elawkeye
State.
lDesMoines Leader.l
We are saying nothing Of the wis
dom OF the hegira into the land of the
Dakotas. 1t would do no good II by
good is to be meant the keeping Of
people out of there. How singular it
is that young men in this section,
which has itself been reclaimed from
snow, waste aud blizzard, are not salts
file to stay here or to 60 south or
Why do not the milder
climates attract them? Is it to be
counted as cause or effect that through
all times has identified the strong and
virile people with fierce climates and
the weak and decadent with tropical
and semi-tropical9 No matter. AS
the boys desert the furnace heated
room and seek the storm and wallow
in the snow, these settlers OF the
northern wilderness have gone into
the teeth Of the blizzard, known Of
such since it was first heard Of, and
there they are bound to stay. Some
of these new settlers are sons or men
who drove OK teams into Iowa in the
tifties in the face of billiards. as dan.
gerous. Our country is under the
greatest obligation to the men who
have pioneered into the west since our
first settlers encountered what was
considered the most inhoSpitable Of
on the Atlantic coast. There
has been succession of pioneering
which has been the marchings forward
of settlement and civilization, and
those pioneering have been the making
OF the greatest nation on earth.
Some of the new settlers in the Da-
kotas were situated as the early Iowans
were situated, when, after four or five
open winters, the storm and cold OF
December came upon them, just IS
the farmers OF Iowa we're surprised
not many years ago TO have their en-
tire corn crop covered up by deep
snow in October SO they could not pick
it till Easter.
People forget that this state of Iowa
has been redeemed from the dominion
Of the blizzard In the first place, the
early settlers had precisely the same
impression of the country when they
came here that the Dakota settlers
had of that region when they hunted
claims there. They came here just
the same and, most Of them staid.
Iowa people whose fathers endured
hardships in this state quite equaling
reported from the Dakotas,
are saying that last winter settles the
case of those states. 1t doubtless will
in the minds Of many, but 1t prob
ably will not much change the trend
of settlement. 1t did not for Iowa
and Minnesota. 1t did not for Wis.
consin and Nebraska. There is no
overwhelming reason why it should.
The early settlers all remember how
the entire Ingham family came SO near
freezing to death OH a trip from Algo-
ma to Estherville that their preserva-
tion was accounted an accident or an
interposition of providence.
1t is we'll remembered how in this
garden spot Of the world, not to mem
tion the tifties and sixties Of the pion-
Ger settlement, when there was not a
railroad in the county, we had win
ters to match anything that is report
ed now from the northwest. In the
seventies the one railroad through
this country was blockaded for months
at time. There was great indigna-
tion against the Milwaukee when such
conditions existed long, and only oc-
casional sled-loads of mail were hauled
through the drifts from Mason City to
Algona. At one time Gov. Carpenter
was appealed to to force the company to
clear the road. In the course of time
the road was cleared, and there we're
piles of snow on either side Of the rails
which completely shut out all view Of
the landscape from the passengers.
In one winter since the writer set
tied in Algona upward Of twenty peo-
pie in this section were frozen to
death, most of them being lost in the
billiards.. Not merely the severity Of
the weather was to be feared, but the
extreme poverty of people who are
now wealthy added its discourage
ments. A lady who came here In the
latter sixties as a bride, and who was
dressed in the height of fashion, mo-
ticed that at a reception given by the
settlement all the men on the opposite
side OF the room were barefoot, and
the best and leading people Of the
county were there.
The climate Of this section has been
greatly modified in recent years. The
blizzard has disappeared. 1t has been
banished to distant frontiers, to be
again banished to solitudes beyond.
Average temperatures have been much