The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1924-11-20
GO, EkkOR-ELlC, EKlCASON HAS HAD
SUCCESSFUL CAREER FROM FARMER
STRUGGLING ATTORNEY TO JUDCESHIP
AS Judge he Was BroadMinded and Humane
And Possesses Qualities and Experience which
Should Ably Fit him to Guide our Ship of State
For Four Years.

a home for many years.
Young John was the eldest of seven
children. He was his fathers assist
ant, his right hand man.
John E. Erickson, in the maturity
Of his years, is as ardent baseball
fan as ever yelled himself hoarse when
the home team won the championship
or "heaved' a pop bottle at the um-
pire for rotten" decision that cost
the home team the game, and yet this
same Erickson, whose eyes glisten as
he reads Of the exploits of Walter
Johnson, Bate Ruth, or a Peckin-
raugh. ne er played in a regular team
in his boyhood, and never witnessed
professional game until he was
grown to manhood.
Life was too busy Tor young Erick
son to spend il in play besides there
were few to play with and even youth
becomes too tired to enjoy athletic
sports when a day Of labor-from
dawn to dusk-precedes and follows
the hours spent at school, and there
was but little schooling at that.
There we're cattle and horses to
feed, cows to milk, blowing and har-
vesting to be attended to. 1t was a
desperate fight for existence in the
newland. The "Indian was still in the
ground" Of Kansas in the sos.
The grasshoppers came in swarms.
The army worms, the locusts, the
chinch bugs-every pest that has
ruined broad acres and driven pioneer
farmers to despair and suicide-and
still the Erickson family toiled dog
gedly en-.
4 Bred Of fighting stock. they finally
won their fair shair Of prosperity, be
cause they never knew when they were
whipped, and when the senior Er;ck-
son died 10 years AGO at the age Of
sS years, he was still the owner Of
that first lG0 acres he homesteaded ii
+, Kansas in the early SOS and one o.
his proudost boasts was that. with al
the trials, the failures Of crops, the
aeva station 81 pests, my farms never
had plaster "a mortgage on
them
In that sparsely settled prairie
country it was great undertaking t
establish and maintain a school. There
were but meagre funds from which Il
pay the salary of teacher and, be-
sides, every boy and girl who was o.
school age was needed in the fight
for bare existence to be wrung from
a more or less arid soil.
BY dint Of considerable self-den- a
the settlers were able to provide
teacher for three months school eacl
! year and the sessions were held il
winter when the children could be best
spared from the farms.
Long Distance
The school building was located a
a distance of three and one-half mile.
from the Erickson home and Iittl,
John was compelled to trudge this
long distance through drifted snow ant
against the cutting winds of Kan
sas winter, day after day, and doing
his chores before and after school.
i The broad set of Judge Erickson,
shoulders, his powerful hands, hi,
erect figure, and his easy free strid,
show the effects of this steady grinc
on the physical man, while his kind
ness of manner, his sympathy will
the unfortunate, reflect the expert
ences gathered in the most impress
sionable years Of his life.
/, The rudiments Of an education wer,
all the three months school term ha,
to offer its few pupils but this wa
enough to whet John E. Erickson
appetite for more knowledge.
In season and out Of season, by fire
light and candle light, he poured owe
his books.
lie never Learned to play baseball
, and football basketball was unknow
8 and ne never learned to spend bu
: ne learned to study, to practice tn
' most rigid economy, and to understan
what it means to deny ones self.
Christian Parents
s The Ericksons were members of til
y Lutheran church. There was no edific
: near their homestead but there was
t family Bible and father and mothe
II who knew how to inculcate the grea
d spiritual truths in the minds of thei
r fledgings, and John E. Erickson toda,
: stands out in any gathering as
i, Christian gentleman whose code q
4 morals is as high as his aged Chris
tan mother, still alive and happy, fo
n all her weight Of years, would wis
e them to be.
b Work and study, work and stud,
t Prosperity came gradually to the pic
J. neer family and learning to youn