Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1924-05-29
Recalls Pioneer Days
Around Sank City
By Robert Richards, Riverton, Kansas.

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Jaquish.
About the first breaking father did
was on the southeast corner of his
land, a few acres free of grubs and
trees, but good rich soil. On that
land l saw the first wheat growing.
1t was called Hedgerow and it was
bearded and very short heads-inch
and half the longest, butAarge the
other way and square; | think they
measured a half inch by five eighths
The last of that wheat father raised,
when it got into the milk or early
dough stage was struck by some di-
sease and the heads rotted. Father
did not cut it, or did he ever SOW
any more. / have seen occasionally
head of that wheat growing with
other varieties.
The first threshing / ever saw was
done by treading it out with oxen.
The ground was cleared off and two
bundles laid crossways of the track
with heads to the center Then bun
dies were laid lengthwise of the track
with heads on the two first bundles.
They then laid the bundles shingle
fashion around the circles or oval
They drove three of our yoke of
oxen around the flooring, they called
it, until the straw was well chewed
up; then a man on each side with
forks started in where they laid the
last bundle and turned them over with
the heads pointing the other way.
When the treading was done the straw
was we'll shaken and stacked away
and the grain and chaff scraped in q
pile in the center.
The first thrashing machine that
/ saw was about three feet square.
There was nothing to it but q cylin-
der. 1t was driven by sweep power.
The grain and straw fell on the
ground and men had to shake out the
straw and stack it. Then they had
to rake the grain and chaff to one
side. The next year this machine had
an improvement-in the shape of a
light wagon box affair with an end
shake motion and the bottom bored
full OF holes for grain and chaff to
fall through. The next machine was
a two horse tread power mounted on
wheel with tanning mill attachment.
This outfit was owned by two young
Frenchmen brothers, living over in
the Dunlap hollow The next machine
was owned by Mr.. Barnes and was of
the apron straw carrier style which
was the only machine for many years.
Marsh hay was depended upon by
the settlers to winter their stock. And
the marsh that extended down to rfv-
er for miles was nearly all government
land and was considered free for all.
Some of the marsh was so soft that
they stacked the hay by hand and
hauled it home in the winter. The
fall fires got some OF it usually. One
peculiar thing about the burning of
Nay stacks was a growing of poplar
trees where the stacks stood. One
such cluster stood directly west Of
the house near the river. When / was
twelve years old some of these trees
must have been 40 feet high and s
inches in diameter. There was but
few OF these clusters compared to
stacks burned and l think this was
due to the fires not reaching them
the first few years. The marsh was a
source of profit to all settlers
but, but was also q source of loss to
those who lived near it. In early spring
vegetation started around springs or
miry places and the cattle, thin and
weak from having nothing but marsh
hay to eat through the winter, would
go after the green grass and / think
father lost stock by miring every
spring. He lost seven calves one
spring, dying of black leg.
One evening in April about feeding
time RABBIT dog came through our
cattle yard and bit three calves, two
COWS and a three-year-old steer. All
died or were killed. He went on up
to Clifton, bit COW and man on
his shin but the teeth did not get
through the bootleg. They ran the dog
into the ice house and killed him.
/ think it was in 1850 that father
had frame house built little south
of the old log cabin. That house still
stands. In the spring of that year
Count Harasthy went to California.
He stopped at our house the morning
he left and shall never forget how
he was dressed His clothes We're
black and he wore bright red stock
ings on the outside of his pants, which
reached half way from knee to hip.
A little later father moved from the
ferry-house into our own house. After
breaking about ten acres for himself,
making about twenty acres in all, he
did not make business Of breaking
hit knnf one outfit and did some