Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1910-04-16
MRS, DAVIS PICKS
OUT The COURIER
oTTUMWAN IN SOUTH DAKOTA
READER OF PAPER
IN 4o's.
.LlVIN q ON CLAl N
Tells How to Entertain Big Railroad
Men and How to Keep
Dead Indian For
Mother.
LlvIN ON CLAI N

The Courier, through the kindness
of Mrs. H. G. Nosler, is permitted tc
publish most interesting letter from
her sister, Mrs. Almira Davis of this
city, who at present Is living on hel
claim rs miles from Lemon, S. D
Mrs Davis is the mother Of Herman
Ernest and VIII Davis of this city
The letter in full follows:
Moreau, South Dakota,
March 20, 1910.
Dead Sister,
received your letter written on my
sixty-ninth birthday and In it you set
for me rather difficult task:-to tell
you all about life on claim In South
Dakota, seyenty-five miles from a rail
road. ! will try to tell you some
things, but warn you it will be q
rambling old fashioned hit and miss
attempt.
e Yes, l have lived year way OUT
here-a long, hot summer and long,
cold winter, If one Is of mind to
think Of 1t in that way. Last summer
was hot" and we had flies and mos.
quitoes and rattlesnakes! but flies
and mosquitoes are every place and
rattlesnakes don't count. I rem ember
in the early days we had them plenti-
fully in Iowa; they left, but flies and
mosquitoes "go on forever" The sum.
mer nights are cooler here than they
are back home, and the water is very
good and cold
Ny claim Is three and half miles
from the Davis and Miller rancho. "
You know they have about thirteen
hundred acres down in alfalfa, from
which they cut three crops a year.
Alfalfa land is worth at the least one
hundred dollars an acre-and as to
their stock, guess they never know
just how much they do have. Oh, yes,
we can raise garden stuff and squaw
corn, and Dakota potatoes are a great
deal better than potatoes raised there.
put in last summer doing some hard
work. l must confess it was rather
trying to attempt to keep house, on a
wild western ranch, for two old bach
elors who had run things their own
way for dozen or more years.
Hospitality is very free out here and
we never lacked for company, at times
as high as fifteen stopping for meals
or over night Last summer at one
time we entertained Mr.. Earling, null.
ti-millionaire, president of the Milwau-
kee road; Mr.. Sewell, president of the
Puget Sound division; Mr.. Baker, head
field man,-O, well, there were two
automobile loads of them; they were
looking over the route for the new
railroad, coming through this part Of
the country.
Faithful Friend, the Courier.
Our nearest postoffice is at Moreau,
eight miles away-and being SO near
we get our mail pretty often-some
Dne goes horseback and generally
brings back a gunny-sack full; it is
amusing to sc them dump it in the
middle of the floor and then gather
round and each "claw" out whatever
he wants and settle himself to read
for day or two as the case may be.
| found the boys had taken life SUBJ
scriptions for good many Of the
magazines and big papers; they take
nearly all the South Dakota county
papers make selection of the oldest
and most faithful friend that l have,
the Courier" l read the first ones
issued way back in the forties, and
do not suppose / have missed copy
since, and as faithful friend, wher-
ever go, it follows.
To resume: the timber that grows
along the creek is mostly ash or box
elder: we have wild grapes and wild
plums, and Flint-Rock creek has plen-
ty of beaver, and there are bobcats,
and from my door sometimes see a
drove of fifteen or twenty antelope;
nIenty of iack-rabbits. Oh, yes, there