Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1940-03-14
Life on Frontier
Wildly Recalled
BY Old Settlers
Grasshopper Plague, Indian
Massacres and Other
Episodes Described.

OMAHA. of the butchering
bees, grasshopper plaques, Indian
massacres and the claim jumpings
that wer" episodes of the lives of the
pioneers who went to Nebraska, one
of the last of the American from
tiers, in the Seventies and Eighties
to build sod-houses and establish
homesteads on the unbroken prairies
are told by survivors of the early
settlers in Pioneer Recollections, "
a Nebraska Folklore pamphlet just
issued by the Nebraska Writers
project.
Elmer Dellett of Lincoln, who is
now "a years old, recalls an Indian
massacre in Dawson county near
Cozard, where he lived in 1876, as
the most thrilling event of his life.
"That year I saw Hawke, our
nearest neighbor, his wife and three
children killed and scalped by a
band of 100 Rosebud Indians" he
told reporter for the writer's prof.
ect. "The Indians, just before leav-
ing, set fire to the barn, which had
a matched roof, and the house too.
While the Indians were there, Major
North and a troop of soldiers ap-
peared, and I could see the smoke
from their carbines off in the dis
lance.
Converted Into Good Indians
"The buildings blazed up and the
Indians rode off through Gallagher
canyon and on to Muddy Creek.
Major North caught up with them,
and when he came back he had 16
live Indians. I asked him where
the rest were and he said, They're
all good Indians now Only dead
Indian, in those days, was called a
good Indian.
81 went to Hawkes. place after
the massacre with a man named
Miller, and we found them all dead,
five of them. They had been shot
and scalped. There were also three
dead Indians there that Hawke, or
his wife, had shot before they died. "
Mrs. A. A. Eager of Lincoln, who
settled on a claim in Saunders
county with her husband in 1871,
remembers how church services
were established in their little house
of prairie sod.
81 was married in 1871 at the age
of 49," she said. "My husband was
a cattle breeder, stockman and
farmer. I felt so bad about the
lack of church facilities that I got
on my horse and invited every one
for miles around to come to our
house for a Sunday service. I asked
a man to preach for us, but he didn't
think any one would attend, so he
refused.
Sermon Read From Book.
ION Sunday morning our 16-foot
square house was so filled with
people that some of them were
forced to sit on benches outside the
doorway. 1 read from a book of
sermons my father had given me. "
Nature was kind and lavish of a
wild beauty, Mrs. c. A. Fruide of
Lincoln, who travelled from Indiana
in a covered wagon in 1872 when
she was five, remembers.
"The wild roses, in the seventies,
were very thick with red blooms
that could be seen for miles away"
she recalled. "They had red berries
on them larger than your thumb.
Buffaloes could be seen wallowing
in the mud along small streams. "
She indicated the lonely beauty OF
a land void of habitation, remark
ing: 81 can remember looking at
the rolling grass of the prairies, and
how it used to make me seasick
because it looked exactly like wa
ter; sometimes I could see mirages
IN - >,