Abilene weekly reflector., 1912-05-02
THE FIRST DECADE IN NORTH
- DitKINsON SETTLEMENT



been swindled out OF her home II
Des Moines. Iowa. from where sh'
drove in a covered wagon, only u
discover that the land she had trad
ed for in exchange for her home
was virtually worthless.
She was too brave 70 return. but
instead took a homestead. She
built a small house. broke some
prairie and planted corn in the sod
holding the plow and doing the
planting herself. Her deceased hus-
band had been a doctor In Des
Moines. Mrs. Brown was a we'll edu-
Gated woman. AS the prairie was
a poor place for a woman and child
she moved to Abilene and kept a
hotel.
J. r. Jones. Solomon Yonally,
Michael Cheatam and few others
also came that year. The vanguard
OF settlers in the north half of
Flora was not large. At the end
of the following years, however,
there was no land worth having left.
The first season was favorable for
crops. Corn. potatoes and other
things planted in the broken sod
made good yields. There was lots
OF breaking done the second year,
with many improvements made. The
settlers we're in high spirits, but
grasshoppers came and devoured
virtually every living green thing.
Even shocks that were put up in
haste were eaten up before the end
OF the next day.
The farmers now thought that
wheat was less risky than corn and
seeded the most of their broken
ground to that cereal and harvested
a heavv yield. More breaking was
done than ever before. The fall
was ideal for sowing wheat and the
ground was in the very best condi-
ton and hundreds of acres of ground
we're seeded to wheat which started
to grow fine when grasshoprers
came and devoured every spear as
soon as it appeared. Every other
living vegetable was also devoured.
Roots, sNch as turnips, were eaten
out to the tips.
Wheat fields were seeded ihe
second time, only to suffer the same
fate as the first sowing. AS the
third time is the charm, the fields
were again seeded and were not de-
stroyed by the grasshoppers that
time. Real early the following spring
we had very warm weather and the
grasshopper eggs hatched out their
young and then there Came a sevefe
frost which froze the young rascals
too dead to skin. The late sown
wheat grew fast and soon looked
splendid. everybody was ready to
reap a bountiful harvest when 10,
every head of wheat was blighted
all in a single day and virtually not
an acre was worth cutting. Our last
calamity of grasshoppers was In
1875, but chinch bugs, dry weather
and many other causes have brought
misfortune SINCE then. Notwith-
standing the reverses improvements
we're being made when one evening
29 years ago in the month OF June
a terrible wind and rain swept across
this side of the township. The
lightning was fierce, and rain poured
in torrents and tbe thunder and
wind was beyond any description !
can give. The next morning the sun
shone as brightly as though nothing
unusual had happened. The sky
fairly sparkled in it's azure beauty.
Net a cloud could be seen but the
corn fields looked gloomy enough.
Every blade of corn had been torn
off by the wind and swept away in
the flood. Houses, barns, stables,
sheds and almost everything else in
the wake of the storm were torn to
pieces. Many dumb brutes were
killed or manned. The firmament
in its beauty was merely mockinS
the unfortunates in their losses.
The first settlers were not idlers
or cutters, nor did they live with
out having lots of fun. School dis
tricts were organized, school houses
were built, children were sent to
school and taught by competent
teachers. Lyceums, spelling schools
and debating societies were organ
lied and were patronized by almost
everybody, babies and all. A GOOD
program would be rendered and all
tried to make others happy. A great
maioritv of nv neighbors and srieads