The following was written when Florence was seventy-six years of age. Florence died in 1969 at the age of 80.
In 1907 during my eighteenth year my father took up a homestead 75 miles northwest of North Platte, Nebraska in Kincaid Sandhills McPherson County. It was 45 miles from the nearest town. His homestead was under what was called the Kincaid Act which gave the homesteaders 640 acres of land free if they would improve it and live on it for seven years. This was in the midst of cattle country. We moved to the homestead after the sod house and a soddie shelter for the animals were built. The cattlemen were not friendly to the homesteaders. As opening up the land for homesteader farming took away the free grazing ground for their cattle herds. They did as many things as they could to drive the homesteaders out, but some of us were there to stay.
My father had to stay with his job it was 45 miles away. Besides myself and my mother there was my 14-year old brother Charles and my 10 year old sister Lena and a brother Dewey then 7 years old. The other children were grown and away from home.
It wasn’t easy to leave our friends and move to where there weren't any near neighbors. We were all very lonely. I was especially lonely. I was especially lonely as I had had many friends. Now I was without a job, no friends and not much to do or do with. Then we heard of a dance that was to be given by a young man at his homestead 15 miles from where we lived. My mother felt sorry for me so she said she would take me to the dance. We only had a lumber wagon and a work horse. To this day I do not know how we found the way as there were only trails no real roads.
It was that night in June that I met my future husband. Our courtship was short. We had good times going places on our saddle horses, our only means of transportation. It was real thrilling. We were married on Christmas Eve 1908 at my parent’s home in Nebraska on that Kincaid Homestead forty-five miles from North Platte, the nearest town. I had a pretty wedding. My hair was almost black but a little on the brown side and very curly. Ed’s hair was a golden red and very wavy. My dress was of white china silk and had eighteen yards of material. I made the dress myself. It had many tucks and gathers and a very tiny waist.
The Christmas Eve of our wedding was very cold and stormy. The guests and even the minister had to stay the night as it was too dangerous to start out in such weather. There wasn’t room for everyone to go to bed, so we danced all night. The minister went to bed but I don’t know how he slept because the fiddler and mouth organist played many gay tunes. The next morning they all left because it turned out nice and sunny but still very cold.
Another incident I remember happened at our wedding, my husband hid two or three bottles of whiskey he bought to celebrate with. I was intended for treats for the men folks. Well, his friends did not do any celebrating because his brother stole the whiskey and they had a jolly time. My husband was surely angry. He didn’t ever get a taste of it for which I was glad.
Newlyweds didn't go on honeymoons in those days. So after we had danced the whole night through we went to Ed's people the next day. My mother-in-law was a very strict and stern person. Ed and I laughed and joked between ourselves until she got very angry. She had no patience with young people and let us know in no uncertain terms. We stayed there one night and then traveled on to my husband's 640 acres homestead. My new home was a sod house 16 by 16 feet square.
We certainly didn't want any company that first day but sure enough we saw some neighbors coming. We locked the door and crawled into bed and covered our heads to deep them from hearing us giggle. They never did find out we were home that day. It was a mean trick because they had driven horses five miles on that very cold day to welcome us.
Later we went to my folks to get my belongings, came back and started to set up housekeeping. The neighbors had Chivari party for us. This time we were ready or them with treats and a welcome.
I could write on and on about getting settled. We had just the bare necessities and no fine furniture. But we wanted only to live comfortably and it was fun to make do with very little the best we could. In spite of all the hardships of pioneer life we were very happy. Everyone was friendly although our nearest neighbors were five, ten and twenty miles away. My folks lived about 14 miles but it took half a day to get there and during the winter months we were almost isolated by drifting snow and blizzards.
When we got married we only had $12.00, which had to do for groceries and fuel until my husband could earn some more cash in the spring. As this was cattle country, jobs were scarce.
Here I will take a little time to describe the sod house. The sod is plowed in furrows and then cut into strips about two feet by one foot wide. These strips are about four inches thick. These blocks of sod are laid like bricks or cement blocks. The roof is made of sapling poles and then laid over with blocks of sod. Tar paper is put between the sapling rafters and then the sod. To get saplings one had to go to a river or buy 2 by 4s. This way of building a house is inexpensive and makes for a warm house in winter and cool house on the summer. This kind of house can't be built in a wet country. Most of the homesteaders in the Midwest built their houses of sod. Later some of them made enough on their crops to build frame houses. Our house had a wooden pine floor but lots of the sod houses had packed dirt.
As there wasn't much of any kind of fuel to be had in our part of Nebraska my husband had to make a trip with a team and wagon to North Platte forty miles away. There he got a load of coal and a few groceries. You can be sure that we were very careful how we used both the fuel and groceries. We only had a cook stove with two doors on the oven. We never kept the fire going all night. It was very cold to get up in the morning with the water bucket frozen over and even the tea kettle frozen solid. There was no timber in the Sandhills of Nebraska where we had our sod house. We used cow chips for fuel. They were gathered in the early fall when they were completely dry. The cow chips made a very hot fire with lots of ashes that we dumped on my garden spot near the house. Of course everyone had stock so there was plenty of fertilizer for the land.
While my husband was in town he bought a wash tub and a wash board. When he brought them home he said now you can get at your part of the work. I wasn't very happy with my first gift from my new husband. But it was necessary part of our household equipment as there were no laundries or laundromats or even electric washing machines in those days. It was scrub-scrub-scrub up and down on the wash board after carrying in and heating the water on top of the stove both for washing and rinsing.
There wasn't much going on in cold weather. The first winter we didn't even have many chores as we only had a few head of stock. I was always a great reader so I could pass many happy hours with books. My husband did not care for reading at all. He was always mending and oiling harness and saddles. We keep busy in our different ways.
We did have a large lake on our place. It would freeze at least two feet down and then we had good ice skating that we both loved very much. We also put up ice for our summer use. It was fun. I would put on my ice skates and push the chunks of ice to the shore. We then loaded them in the lumber wagon and took them to the root cellar also made of sod to store them for hot weather use. The next year we kept some watermelon in the ice soddie until past Thanksgiving time. I could never eat watermelon but it was one of Ed's favorite foods. Most of the first winter it was too cold and too far to go visiting so we stayed home and enjoyed each other.
When spring came there was plenty of work to keep us busy. As the soil was sandy it was easy to work on. My husband prepared about 160 acres of ground for the corn crop. Most of it we had to plant with a hand planter. I never learned how to use it. In fact most mechanical gadgets except the sewing machines were beyond me. The corn all had to be planted by the 25th of April. Although now I can't remember why it had to planted by that date. Then the next thing was to get our garden planted before the corn came up. We planted lots of potatoes, beans, squash and for salads, radishes and lettuce with cabbage for coleslaw and cooking sauerkraut. Later we put on more cabbage and tomatoes that we had started to grow under the kitchen stove. When the corn came up and was about an inch high it had to be gone over with a machine called a two row. Well, that machine and wind were determined to cover the young corn with sandy soil. My job was to walk behind that infernal machine and uncover the corn so it wouldn't smother in the sand. This had to be kept up until the young corn was strong enough to stand up by itself. This work had to be done several time over the entire 160 acres and it was sure hard on the back. Our days were from 4 AM to 6 PM, the chores and housework had to be done, baking, cooking, washing, ironing and scrubbing plus taking care of milk and churning butter. There wasn't an idle minute. But we were set on having a good crop so we didn't have time to complain about the hard work.
Sometimes my husband would go out and work for someone else to earn $1.00 for working a sixteen hour day so we could buy groceries. There were no unions in those days and sometimes it made it very hard for my husband because he would have to find someone to stay with me before he could got to work. I was all right in the day time but could–would not stay alone at night.
On the farm we used to make our own cottage cheese. Here is how it was done: we let milk sour to the clabber stage – then we would heat it slowly – not letting it get too hot. This was then poured through a colander to drain or poured into a flour sack and hung on the line to drain. Mixed with cream and a little salt it was very good eating.
To get a hurry up company dinner I would catch a fryer and have it ready for the fry pan in fifteen minutes with mashed potatoes and milk gravy we feasted.
May and June were busy months also more garden had to be planted as I had many little chickens to care for. The weather began to get real hot. June was the month for lots of hoeing in the corn and garden to keep the weeds out. It seemed as if the weeds grew faster than anything else. There was also great danger from prairie fires during the dry season. Fire would sometimes creep over hundreds of acres burning everything in its path. Sometimes the fires were set to run the homesteaders out. When the homesteader had given up and moved away the cattlemen would have the land again for grazing ground.
About the first of July the corn was laid aside to mature. Then we could take a few days rest an celebrate the Fourth of July. This was the month we all looked forward to as everyone got together for a picnic. We had homemade ice cream, fried chicken and lots of good eats. We visited played games and had horse races and we came home tired and happy.
Another form of entertainment in these pioneer days was the box supper. The lady would decorate a box or basket with fancy crepe paper. We would fill the box with good things to eat. I almost always put in a fried chicken, feather light rolls, pickled beets or watermelon rind, cabbage slaw an a pie. Sometimes the pie would be mincemeat, raisin or custard. At the school house the decorated baskets were up for bidding. Some of them selling for as much as $10.00 (a lot of money in those days). They brought high prices especially when a certain man wanted a certain girl’s basket or box. The buyer of the box had the privilege of eating with the lady who fixed it up with all those good things to eat. Each lady tried her best to outdo her neighbors on the cooking line. Box suppers, dances and other entertainment were few and far between so were made much of. I don’t remember what the money was used for, but probably for the school. Any way everyone had a good time. Outside of a few picnics and box suppers this was about all the entertainment there was as we had no churches or halls. Once on a while, like once a year a circuit riding preacher would hold a service.
Late in July it was time to put up hay for wintering the stock. Women worked as well as the men. We had fun along with the work. My husband was a tease. He would pick me up and sit me in the horse trough. I would get so mad at him, but it didn’t do any good the next day I would get a bath in the trough. Those were wonderful days even if I did get wet many times.
During August of that first year (1909) we went to visit my husband's sister, Fanny Aseneth Noble Woods and her husband Allen. They lived about 100 miles east of our place on their homestead. It took us almost a week to drive there with horses. On the way to their place where we camped out the mosquitoes nearly ate us up. The cattle were curious and would try to push our wagon on over with their horns. We stayed and helped put up the hay and had a general good time.
Then we went back to our little sod house to get ready for the winter. Fuel had to be got in as well as the crops harvested and stored or sold. We started the garden, we produced, squash, cabbage, turnips, carrots, potatoes, all put in our freeze proof root cellar. We always sent to Sears and Roebuck for a large order of groceries – enough to do us for months. I spent many evenings trying to figure out what we would need. We bought everything in big lots. I had been a city girl until I was seventeen so I didn't have much experience at pioneer life, because I was only twenty that July when we had been married only six months. That was real pioneering. There was no grocery shopping at a supermarket, there weren't any, all the fall duties kept us busy.
There was not much fruit in that part of the state, but along a creek several miles from us there were lots of small plums. We would gather them to make jelly and plum butter. We also made tomato preserves that were very tasty on fresh homemade bread.
Sometimes I feel sorry for the young folks of today, they have so much, but yet they don’t seem to be happy. We had very few things and little money, but what we had we treasured and were as happy as larks.
By October 1909 we had more cows to take care of. We sold our corn crop for $240.00 and bought 6 cows. Ed sold two of them making a profit. The other four plus Bessie the Jersey cow Ed had when we got married all came fresh. We had lots of mild and cream. I made butter to sell; we also got a start of raising pigs so we really were on our way.
Besides the many vegetables we raised we also raised watermelons and cantaloupes by the wagon load. However we had to feed most of then to the hogs because there wasn't any market for them.
My husband liked to hunt but about all the game there was were the jack rabbits, cotton tails, prairie chickens and ducks. For duck hunting he had only to go a few steps as the ducks were on our own lake. He and the water spaniel dog, Traveler would bring in 20 to 30 ducks at a time. I hated those dead ducks and sure didn't like to clean or eat them. Ed loved any meat and ducks especially. After cleaning them we salted them down for future use. The year 1909 was drawing to a close. Winter had set in with a bad blizzard in November. It kept up so that by Christmas we were snowed in. There was no way to go anywhere. As I had been brought up in a large family I missed our holiday times together: for we just couldn't go home on account of the bad weather. We couldn’t get to the store to buy Christmas things so there wasn’t anything to put in my husband's socks when he hung them up Christmas Eve. So I got up and filled them with corn cobs and dashes. He never got over talking about our fist Christmas together, which was also our first anniversary. After this we settled in to battle the winter also looking forward to the birth of our first child.
A new year had arrived, 1910. There was not much to do the first few months but to get ready for the spring. My husband worked at getting things ready to plant a crop. Potatoes always had to be planted on Good Friday – at least the early ones. We have even planted them when it would be snowing. We always had early potatoes.
The last part of March and early April I set several hens and by the first of May had quite a flock of baby chicks. This gave me plenty to do, as we had lots of bad rainy weather and not a very warm place to keep the chicks. Anyway I was putting in the time and didn't have the opportunity to brood over my own condition. I wasn't very well as I had no medical care at all. Looking back I don't know how women ever survived childbirth in these pioneer days many of them without a doctor or any help at all.
On May 14th 1911 our daughter was born, she was to be our only child. There was no doctor in those parts at the time. My mother in law was a mid-wife and was in great demand for many miles around. She did the best she knew how, but her best wasn't much help to a woman in childbirth. As for myself I had very poor health for many years as the result of the lack of proper care but much of it was my own fault as my husband wanted me to go to my parents for the great event. But I ignorant of what was before me wouldn't go and leave home alone.
We were very happy with our new daughter and enjoyed her very much. She was such a good baby and always brought much joy in our lives. We didn't have much money to buy material to make baby clothes but I sent to Sears or $5.00 worth of outing flannel and made all the baby’s clothes. I wanted at least one or two nice dresses so I cut up my wedding dress to make them. I had some nice clothes for the baby but I have always been sorry I didn't keep my wedding dress.
At first we had to haul water as we didn't have a well. The water in the lake was alright for the stock and washing and such, but wasn’t fit to drink or cook with. Finally we put down a well, then we had all the good water we needed. But we had no plumbing so we had to carry our water to the house, yet in spite of all the inconveniences we were happy. My husband was a good farmer and always raised a good crop and I was willing to help. When our baby was three months old I was out helping put up hay. Someone had to help and we had to have the hay for winter feed. We would make a bed for the baby in the wagon and put a parasol over her and she slept nearly all the time. We had all we wanted to eat and as for clothing we didn’t require very much. We went to town 35 miles away for supplies twice a year. I didn’t always go as it was a very hard trip. When I look back now in the years I wonder how we ever managed.
We built a shed kitchen onto our little house. I thought it was heaven to have a place to cook away from our living quarters. Lumber was so scarce so we built the kitchen out of packing boxes, waste cardboard and anything we could use. It wasn't very pretty but so useful. This was a summer of hard work, my husband had planted about 100 acres of corn. He did all the work himself. With a baby to care for and not very well myself I had all I could do to take care of the garden and chickens.
Every autumn was the same but this year my husband took me home to visit as my father hadn't seen his new granddaughter. I enjoyed my trip home, stayed a week and then went back to the homestead and my husband. My husband wasn't a very good housekeeper so he put up a sign at the mailbox "Cook Wanted". I wasn’t very happy about this as I thought he was tired of me and didn't love me anymore. He always got such fun out of playing jokes on people.
Spring finally came and time for plowing, planting and everything with a farm. It was another spring, summer and fall of hard work, so another year went by.
In March of 1912 we had a bad blizzard that lasted for 36 hours. It was the worst blizzard for March that I have ever seen. No one could get out to tend their stock. Lots of homesteaders lost everything they owned. One neighbor just a couple of miles to the north of us had just mortgaged everything they had to buy a herd of cattle. When it started to storm the cattle stampeded and ran into the lake and were drowned. We all felt sorry for those people. We were fortunate as we didn't lose anything by the storm. We decided after that experience to move to another place where there was a large house and good out buildings. It seemed like heaven to me to have room to put things. We farmed there for two years.
In the summer of 1912, after three years of farming, we had enough extra money to buy a new buggy and a fine team of black carriage horses. We were real proud when we went to the Fourth of July celebration in our new rig. When our baby girl was two years old she was in a runaway. The horses ran away with the buggy and her in the buggy. We thought she would surely be killed. She was thrown out of the buggy and cut quite badly on the back of her head. For many days I couldn't sleep. I could see those horses running with our baby, it wasn't a very nice experience but all those kinds of things make a person's character stronger and more able to endure the hardships of pioneer life.
One day I went onto our living room where the baby was on the bed. I looked at the floor and there was a snake going under the bed. I was scared frantic. I ran out into the yard calling my husband. There were some hunters in the yard and they ran and killed the snake. They all had a good laugh as I had said there was a big snake under the bed. It was only a small one, but deadly poisonous. I was always afraid of snakes and am still afraid of them.
By 1913, we had been married five years, my husband became very ill with typhoid fever. We finally decided after he didn't get better to sell our stock, farm machinery and all which we had accumulated during those five years and move nearer to town where he could have a doctor's care. It nearly broke my heart to leave, we were doing so well. We had a farm action or rather I did, as my husband was away at a health resort in Missouri. People came from miles and miles away as everyone knew we had good stock and had lots of corn for sale. Grain was very scarce in that county. I think that was one of the hardest days I ever had to see, all of our things sold. We had started in married life with $12.00. When we sold out five years later we banked $5,000.00 and had some of our stock left and our homestead and no debts at all.
But I want to tell you more about the action. In those days people who were selling their things had to hire an auctioneer and clerk besides furnishing free lunch for hundreds of people. It was really an outing for the people. I remember we served sandwiches, cheese, pickles and doughnuts. This all had to be prepared the day before the auction. We had coffee in wash boilers. The auction was an all day affair. Ours was in November on a very cold day.
I don’t think I was ever completely happy again in my life as my grief at leaving the homestead seemed to with me all the time. I had cried so much before and after the sale it seemed to wash away the happiness and contentment I had felt all the time. For five years, we worked, developed and lived on the shores of that small lake on our homestead.