When people
in the East heard that they could get a quarter section of land by paying
a fourteen dollar filing fee, living on the land five years and farming
a few acres, it seemed like finding a gold mine. People came from as
far east as Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa.
Some came in covered wagons; others by train. During the spring, summer
and fall of 1883, so many came that almost every quarter of land was
taken. Houses consisted of small frame buildings, sod shanties and dugouts.
My father had come here in January 1883, and had filed on his claim,
which was four miles east of Inman. He then returned to our home at
Champaign, Illinois, and made ready to move the family to Nebraska.
Since two of his brothers-in-law were coming with him, together they
chartered a railroad car for transportation of furniture, livestock
and machinery. The wives and children came on the passenger train.
On March 13 of that year, my parent and we three children arrived in
O’Neill (NE). There we lived in a rented house while father worked
at the homestead digging a well, building a house and barn, breaking
sod, planting corps and setting out trees. We moved on August 23 from
O’Neill to our new home, our family now including another daughter,
born on August 9.
ALL
PIONEER HOMES were small and had little furniture. Ours was no exception
to the rule. The building was a two-room frame structure, sixteen feet
by twenty-four feet, with a cellar under it. Our furniture consisted
of a four-hole cook stove, a drop-leaf table, a small cupboard, two
beds, six chairs, and a sewing machine. There were no rocking chairs,
carpets or window curtains, just plain shades.
Mother had brought three feather beds West. The bedsteads were of wood
and had slats to support the ticks. There were no springs or mattresses.
Ticks were filled with straw, hay or shredded cornhusks. Once a year
they were emptied washed and refilled. Over each was placed the feather
bed, which usually weighed fifty pounds. When the lower tick was first
filled, it was so high that it was almost impossible for us children
to get into bed with out first getting on a chair.
