The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1916-10-05
OLD CHRISTOPHER
DAYS RECALLED
INTERESTING RELIEF DOCUMENT
STILL KEPT BY n. |. STEARNS
WHO WAS THEN A BOY
SOME FAMILIES AIDED ARE STILL HERE
Story of Hardships Borne by Early
Settlers-Only Old Timers
Recall II.

Away back in the 70's the entire
northwest vas devastated year after
year by grass h%oppers. These hoppers
usually came about harvest time, and
crops which today promised to give
life and prosperity to the scattered
settlers and their flocks would on the
morrow be swept out of existence as
though an invisible harvester came
and cleaned off the fields. Year after
year this happened, and only the peo-
pie who were too poor to leave or had
their all staked on the outcome re-
manned to face this yearly plague.
1t was thought by the people who
We're here and suffered from the raw
ages of these hoppers that their breed
ing grounds were among the sand hills
of Nebraska. They would be able to
fly at harvest time and taking adva,II-
age of the south winds would sweep
northward, %devouring everything in
their path. A few weeks later they
would sweep south again with the
north winds and return to the place
from which they came. The writer
remembers as late as 1885 seeing them
flying over so thickly that they made
a shadow like that of a soft fleecy
cloud.
Tho nann1a hnWnUnr MORO mjGtpknn
about the hoppers and their breeding
places. These hoppers were the
Rocky Mountain Locusts and their
breeding grounds Were along the dry
eastern slopes of the Rockies. They
were Matched out late in May or early
June and were ready to fly about har-
vest time. They always flew against
the wind and not with it. They are
now an extinct specie, due largely to
their flying into moist sections and
moist seasons in their native places
which was very destructive to their
breeding.
The condition of the settlers in the
northwest became so precarious that
the T.. s. government had to come to
their aid. Seed and provisions had to
be furnished each spring, and many q
family owed its very existence to the
aid the government provided.
Last Friday II. l.. Stcarns brought
to the Register office 2 relief sheet,
which will be found below, giving the
who were aided. There were others,
but the sheet had to have the names of
ten before a delivery of supplies would
be sent out. Government h~eadquar-
ters were at that time-May, 1875, at
Sioux Falls, where a body of U. S. sol
diers was maintained for the protec-
ton of the settlers, and it was from
army headquarters the provisions were
sent out. The document is signed by
Lieut.. d. NJ. Scott in command at
Sioux Falls.
In 1872 Chas. II. Stearns settled at
Medary. There were then just se'-r.
families at that point, the only white
people north of Sioux Falls w a few
men at a trading post at Flandreau.
The distribution to the settlers in
Bookings county was made from the
home of C. H. Stearns at old Medary.
Mr.. Stearns was father of H.. !. Steanls,
and has since passed to his eternal re-
ward.
Some Of those whose m are On
the document have long since passed
away, or moved to other sections. and
the same may be said of many whose
names were not on the relief sheet.