The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1910-07-29

hldi oudii, MILL, NeSt WAS not Ju
operation continuously, but between
New ulm and Marshall there was
tri-weekly, mixed service, while from
New Ulm to Winona ran daily. We
had nothing but old chair iron from
Winona to about five miles west OF
Waseoa, except ION the bluffs" where
we had tishplates. There was no bal
last on foot of this track between
Winona and Lake Kampcska, and be
tween Winona and Mankato you could
truly say it was mud track"
Some parts of it had been very badly
taken care of, and the track lay in Il
ditch where all the water settled il
around the ties. with no chance for
it to escape. We rugged up a plough,
and attached it to the side of fiat
car that cut furrow about three feet
wide and we ran it from Winona 10
Waseca OH one side of the road, then
turned and came back on the other,
to give a chance for the water TO
escape. The ties were very poor, most
ly of white elm timber, and by the
wanted to be looking around to find
another to take it's place! 1t was
slow, hard work in those days, with
the facilities that we had, to make a
good track as it made no difference
how much we put the track up, with
the iron that we then had, freight
train going over it would make a
great many low joints in spite of all
that could be done.
In 1874 the grasshoppers came out
to the west end of the road and
what few settlers had come in there
lost all of their crops during 1879
and 1876 The suffering among those
early settlers was very great. Many
of them had taken all that they had
in the world, and come out there to
take up land and build homes for their
families
The Grasshopper Epidemic.
A little incident that occurred in
1876 was this. While sitting in my
office at Winona one day lady came
in. She was very plainly dressed but
if / would give her a pass to Spring
field. l asked her if she was not able
to pay her fare. She made the reply
that she was and had the money with
her. / asked her to take seat, as
| / wanted to talk with her; this is
the history that she gave me:
She and her husband. with their
three little children, went to Spring
field in 1874, and took up Il quarter
section of land. They took one years
provisions for the family and stock
and seed with which to put i'll a crop,
but the grasshoppers came that fall
and took everything they had! The
next spring her husband mortgased
their stock to buy seed for another
crop, but before that fairly matured.
the grasshoppers took all of it and
the man that had the mortgage came
and drove away their cattle. [ asked
''How have you lived since you raised
no crop" She said that they had
thirty-live baskets of corn that they
saved, but it was 50 poor and soft
that the miller refused to grind it,
She had taken that corn. dried it i'll
the oven of her stove, pounded it up,
made bread and thus supported her
family. She formerly lived in Winona,
and had come in there to try and raise
some money through her frineds. They
gave her Il COW, plenty of clothing and
an ample supply of provisions for her
self and family to last them until the
next year-that woman did not pay
any fare, nor any freight OH her goods!
The suffering among those carly
settlers was much more severe than
at any time during the blockade of
80 and 49, In 1876 Mr.. Hughitt,
the general superintendent, came to
Winona, and | begged him to give me
some new iron as / felt | had gone
as far as l could. His reply was, Not
another dollar shall be put into Min
nesota until we know whether the
grasshoppers are going to carry Off
this road!"
In 1877 we had a good crop along
the line, and then we all began to
feel encouraged. The winter of II
was hard winter; so were those OF
rs and 70, but nothing to be COM
pared to those of 80 and 'S3.
Fighting Snow at Springfield.
The boys talking of small engines
to fight snow with reminded me of
once | was west of Springfield work
ing at night until our engine became
so completely frozen up that we could
get 10 oil onto her bearings and the
engineer was afraid she was going TO
die on his hands, We got back to
Springfield about tlIre o'clock in the
, morning, got some boards and built u
morning, got some boards and built II
, Springfield about three O'Clock in the
: fire under her to thaw her out. The
deck of the engine took fire and | as
sure YOU that we were in bad predi-
cament! When | got back to Winona,
| asked Mr.. Ford, the master me-
chanic who had charge of the
power in Winona to put hose
about thirty feet long onto siphon
cock, SO that | could keep the engine
thawed out with hot steam. He pos
itively refused to do it, saying that
the engine would freeze up SO solid
that | could not move her. but /