USA > Iowa > Dickinson County > History of Dickinson County, Iowa, together with an account of the Spirit Lake massacre, and the Indian troubles on the northwestern frontier > Part 26
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destroying currant, gooseberries and shrubs, generally eating the fruit buds for the next year. They disappeared with the first frost, not flying away, but hid themselves and died.
"'No amount of cultivating the soil and disturbing the eggs seemed to injure or destroy them. I had two hundred acres of new breaking, and as soon as the frost was out commenced dragging the ground, exposing the eggs. The ground looked as if rice had been sown very thickly. I thought the dragging, while it was still freezing at night, thus exposing the eggs, breaking up the shell or case in which the eggs, some twenty or thirty in each shell, would destroy them, but I believe that every egg hatched.
"'As the wheat began to sprout and grow the grasshoppers began to hatch, and seemed to literally cover the ground, they being about an eighth of an inch long when hatched. They fed on all young and tender plants, but seemed to prefer bar- ley and wheat in the fields and tender vegetables in the garden. Many kept the wheat trimmed, and if it is a dry season it will not grow fast enough to head. But generally here in 1868 the wheat headed out and the stalk was trimmed bare, not a leaflet, and then they went up on the head and ate or destroyed it. Within ten days from the time the wheat heads out they moult. Prior to this time they have no wings, but within a period of five or six days they entirely changed their appear- ance and habits, and from an ordinary grasshopper became a winged insect, capable of flying thousands of miles.
" 'In moulting they shed the entire outer skin or covering even to the bottom of their feet and over their eyes. I have caught them when fully developed and ready to moult, or shed their outside covering, and pulled it off, developing their wings, neatly folded, almost white in color and so frail that the least touch destroys them. But in two days they begin to fly. First short flights across the fields where they are feed- ing, and then longer flights, and within ten days after thev mnoult, all the grasshoppers seem instinctively to rise very high and make a long flight, those of 1867 never having been heard of after leaving here and all leaving within ten days after they had their wings.'
"Further on in the same article Mr. Richards writes of the invasion of 1873 and 1874. Hc first refers to the fact that they were not nearly as destructive in Webster and the adjoin-
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EXTRACT FROM C. B. RICHARDS
ing counties as in those farther to the northwest, and then con- tinues as follows :
" 'This time they were early enough in the season to destroy all the crops in those counties, evidently having hatched far- ther south and having attained maturity much earlier than those of 1867. They went through exactly the same process of depositing and hatching eggs, and destroying crops as before and were identical in every respect. The only difference was in their mode of leaving. They made many attempts to leave, rising en masse for a long flight, when adverse winds would bring them down. It is a fact well demonstrated that their instinct teaches them in what direction to fly, and if the wind is adverse they will settle down in a few hours, when if the wind was in the direction they wished to go, they never would be heard of again within hundreds of miles.' "
Governor Carpenter then says:
"I have copied this article as it was written by Mr. Richards at the time, because it not only gives a description of the ruin wrought, but goes with particularity into the habits and char- acteristics of the itinerary grasshopper. Persons who were not conversant with this invasion can hardly realize with what anxiety the people scanned the heavens for several years after each return of the season, when they had put in an appearance on the occasion of their previous visit. The great body of the invaders were generally preceded a day or two by scatter- ing grasshoppers.
"In a clear day, by looking far away towards the sun, you would see every now and then a white winged forerunner of the swarm which was to follow. Years after they had gone there was a lurking fear that they would return. And if there were any indications of their appearance, especially when dur- ing two or three days the prevailing winds had been from the southwest, people would be seen on a clear day standing with their hands above their eyes to protect them from the vertical rays of the sun, peering into the heavens, almost trembling lest they should discover the forerunners of the white winged messengers of destruction. To illustrate the absolute fearful- ness of the grasshopper scourge, I have recalled a few of the incidents of their visitation. And fearing the reader who has had no personal experience with grasshoppers might be inclined
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to regard the story as 'fishy,' I have taken pains to fortify my- self with the documents. I have a letter from J. M. Brainard, editor of the Boone Standard, relating incidents of his own experience during these years : * He says :
".That fall I made frequent trips over the Northwestern road from my home to Council Bluffs, and the road was not a very perfect one at that time, either in roadbed or grades. One day, it was well along in the afternoon, I was going west- ward, and by the time we had reached Tiptop (now Arcadia) the sun had got low and the air slightly cool, so that the hop- pers clustered on the rails, the warmth being grateful to them. The grade at Tiptop was pretty stiff, and our train actually came to a standstill on the rails greased by the crushed bodies of the insects. This occurred more than once, necessitating the engineer to back for a distance and then make a rush for the summit, liberally sanding the track as he did so. I think I made a note of it for my paper, The Story County Aegis, for in 1876, on visiting my old Pennsylvania home, a revered unele took me to task for the improbable statement, and when I assured him of its truthfulness he dryly remarked, 'Ah, John, von have lived so long in the West that I fear you have grown to be as big a liar as any of them.' "
Commenting on the above, Governor Carpenter says :
"The fact that railroad trains were impeded may seem a strange phenomenon. But there was a cause for the great number of grasshoppers that drifted to the railroad track hinted at by Mr. Brainard. Those who studied their habits observed that they were fond of warmth, even heat. The fence enclos- ing a field where they 'were getting in their work' indicated the disposition of the grasshopper. Towards evening the bot- tom boards on the south side of the fence would be covered with them, hanging upon them like swarms of bees. When the suggestion of the autumn frosts began to cool the atmos- phere the grasshoppers would assemble at the railroad track and hang in swarms on the iron rails which had been warmed by the rays of the sun. The effect of this invasion upon the business of northwestern Towa was most appalling. * * * Nothing could be more dreary and disheartening than a wheat field with the bare stalks standing, stripped of every leaf and even the heads entirely devoured. People tried all sorts of experiments to drive the pests from their fields. I remember
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DEVICES AND EXPERIMENTS
my brother, R. E. Carpenter, had a fine piece of wheat, and he bought a long rope, a hundred feet long, and hitching a horse at each end, he mounted one and his hired man the other, and with horses a hundred feet apart and abreast they rode back and forth over the field three or four times a day, the rope swinging along between, sweepng a strip a hundred feet wide. They would always ride their horses in the same paths so that they destroyed but little grain and kept the grasshoppers so constantly disturbed that they did but little damage."
The experiment described by Governor Carpenter was re- peatedly tried in this county but with indifferent success, as the hopper would fly up and immediately light down again in the rear of the passing rope and resume their work of de- struction just as if nothing had happened, thus proving that the insects were more numerous here and the destruction of crops more complete than in the territory that came under his observation. Further on he describes a "hopper dozer" that was contrived and successfully used by Hon. Charles Aldrich on his farm in Hamilton County. "Hopper dozers" nearly identical with the one described by Governor Carpenter were made and used by a number of our farmers, and while millions of the insects were destroyed, like the Chinese soldiers, other millions rose to fill their places and the devastation continued without perceptible interruption.
Before closing his article Governor Carpenter refers to the lively interest taken by General N. B. Baker in the struggles of the settlers against the adverse circumstances surrounding them, and the activity manifested by him in all plans for their relief. He refers to a convention held at Fort Dodge to con- sider among other things the obtaining and distributing sup- plies. He says :
"Delegates were in attendance from the various counties of northwestern Iowa and from Dakota. Among these there was one whose great heart was thoroughly aroused at the tale of woe which came from the stricken region, and who not only
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DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
had leisure, but had the disposition to give his time and ener- gies to the work of relief. I refer to General N. B. Baker, the adjutant general of the state of Iowa. He with Colonel Spof- ford of Des Moines and the writer, then living in Des Moines, attended this convention. It was determined to appoint a committee to visit the various counties in northwestern Iowa and Dakota, and upon consultation with the people appoint local committees through whom the work of distribution could be intelligently performed. General Baker was made the chairman of this committee. This was in the early part of January, 1874."
People who resided at Spirit Lake during the summer of 1876 doubtless remember that General Baker spent some time there that summer, boarding at the Crandall House. The ex- citement and the unusual and unnatural labor he had per- formed in connection with his endeavors for the relief of the "grasshopper sufferers" had seriously impaired his health, and his physician recommended a trip to the lakes. There was no railroads then and he came from Storm Lake by carriage. For some time after his arrival here he gained strength and vitality, and his spirits rose accordingly, and his friends here hoped and believed that he would receive permanent benefit from his outing and that he would gradually recover his former strength and activity.
As usual Crandall had a very fine garden that summer and the General was very much interested in it, and spent, consid- erable time strolling around it and watching its growth. The suddenness with which the grasshoppers alighted down on the country that summer has already been noticed. The General sat in the garden and watched them. While he had been largely interested in the various schemes devised for the relief of the grasshopper sufferers, and knew as others knew of the destruction they had wrought, yet this was the first time he had been in the midst of it, and the rapidity with which they got in their work was a revelation to him. .
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EXTRACT FROM D. A. W. PERKINS
Reports soon commenced coming in of the nature and extent of the invasion, and all were soon convinced that the destruc- tion of the growing crops would be more general than anything that had preceded it. The effect of all this on the General's physical condition was disastrons in the extreme. From being the brightest and jolliest man in the crowd, he became moody and low spirited. He brooded over the destitute condition of the neweomers as though he had a direct and personal interest in them. He soon lost all that he had gained since coming here, and his friends were not long in realizing that his case was hopeless and advised that he return to his home in Des Moines at once, which he did. He continued to fail from that time until his death, which was a few months later. The fol- lowing extract is from Hon. D. A. W. Perkins' "History of Osceola County :"
"As the grasshopper years went on the people themselves, scientific men and even the halls of legislation, were discuss- ing the question of how to drive the 'hoppers' from the country. Many and varied were the experiments. They tried smudging, burning the prairie, burning tar, digging ditches and every conceivable thing that the ingenuity of man could suggest, even to a huge trap in which to snare and catch them. Minnesota offered a bounty of a certain amount per bushel for them, and actually paid out quite a sum, which helped the people along. but the idea of delivering a crop of grasshoppers for a consid- eration strikes us now as bordering on the ridiculous. * * *
"The grasshopper business, too, had its humorous side, and there was much wit grew out of it and the eastern papers made much fun of us, and not only that, but seriously charged us with being a country liable to such things and hence unfit to live in. The county papers in northwestern Iowa would each claim that the other county was the worst. The Gazette said in one issue they were mostly in Dickinson County, and the Beacon gives this assertion the lie and says they are on the border of Osceola 'peeking over.' Some agricultural house printed a card bearing the picture of an enormous grasshopper sitting on a board fence, gazing at a wheat field, and under- neath the words, 'In this s(wheat) bye and bye.'
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"The poet was also at work and the following one of the numerous productions :
CHARGE OF THE GRASSHOPPER BRIGADE.
"Half a league, Half a league,
Half a league onward, Right from the West they came More than six hundred.
Out from forest and glade, 'Charge for the corn,' they said,
Then for the fields they made
More than six hundred.
Fields to the right of them,
Fields to the left of them,
Fields in front of them
Pillaged and plundered ;
Naught could their numbers tell,
Down on the crop they fell,
Nor left a stalk or shell,
More than six hundred.
Flashed all their red legs bare,
- Flashed as they turned in air, Robbing the farmers there, Charging an orchard while All the world wondered. Plunged in the smudge and smoke Right through the corn they broke, Hopper and locust ; Peeled they the stalks all bare, Shattered and sundered, Then they went onward-but More than six hundred."
As has been before stated the grasshoppers made their final flight in the summer of 1877. Over one-half of the popula- tion had given up the struggle, disposed of their places for a mere nominal sum and left. The other half found themselves in decidedly straightened circumstances. To them it was like commencing anew with the odds against them. The question that presented itself to them the strongest was this: What is
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THE GRASSHOPPER BRIGADE
in store for us in the future ? Is this region of country more subject to incursions of this kind than other localities? Are we to be subjected in the future to raids of this character in oft-recurring periods? If so, it were better that the country be abandoned and turned over again to the savages from whom it had been reclaimed. Perhaps the feeling prevailing at that time cannot be better shown than by the following short extract from an article written in the fall of 1876:
"The extent of the damage done the present season is incal- culable, and it is no wonder that our people are discouraged and despondent, but to their credit be it said that they are looking the situation squarely in the face, and while many are leaving, they are for the most part those who can be the easiest spared. The old settlers, those who have borne the burdens of the past and have labored hardest to overcome the difficulties which have stood in their way, are still hopeful for the future. They cannot believe that this, one of the fair- est regions in Iowa, is to be cursed by periodic visitations of this dreaded pest. It is well known that there are many other localities in the country where the devastation the present vear has been even greater than here. In portions of New York and Canada whole counties have been devastated, as is also the case in some of the southern states, and we firmly believe that regions of country where the scourge has hitherto been unknown are just as liable to be the vietims of the next raid as northwestern Iowa."
Looking back at the conditions as they then existed, we can only wonder that the settlers faced them with as much courage and fortitude as they did. At the present time the loss of any material portion of a crop by drouth, hail or any other cause is deemed a serious calamity. What then the result would be if four entire erops in succession were destroyed we can only faintly conjecture.
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE EARLY SCHOOLS-LACK OF FUNDS-AMUSING INCIDENT RELATED BY HON. A. W. HUBBARD-THE FIRST SCHOOL AT SPIRIT LAKE-THE COURTHOUSE USED FOR SCHOOL PURPOSES-THE EARLY TEACH- ERS-THE FIRST SCHOOL AT CENTER GROVE-THE LITTLE LOG SCHOOLHOUSE BUILT BY SUBSCRIP- TION-THE EARLY TEACHERS-THE SCHOOL AT OKOBOJI-THE SCHOOL BUILDING ERECTED BY SUBSCRIPTION-THE SCHOOL AT TUSCULUM-THE DICKINSON COUNTY TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION- THE EARLY INSTITUTES.
HE EARLY school work of the county has been alluded to before and now deserves a more extended notice. The four places in the county where the first public schools were established and maintained at near the same time were Spirit Lake, Center Grove, Okoboji and Tus- culum. The private school maintained by Doctor Prescott and taught by Mrs. A. L. Buckland (then Miss Amanda Smith) for about a year and a half has already been mentioned. There were practically no public funds for the support of the schools of the county until about 1864, and but little then. It may seein strange to some that this county did not have public funds as early as the adjoining counties of Clay and O'Brien. The reason is this: In Clay and O'Brien Counties the greater part of their land had been proclaimed for sale previous to the panic of 1857 and was entered up by speculators and non- residents, and was held by them at the time of the first settle- ment of those counties, and of course one of the first duties of the patriotic settler was to see that the non-resident "land
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ANECDOTE BY JUDGE HUBBARD
shark" paid his proper proportion of taxes, and especially of school, road and bridge taxes. His second duty was to see that the proceeds arising from these taxes were properly expended.
The late Judge A. W. Hubbard of Sioux City used to tell a story of his own experience that illustrates this point better than any amount of explanation would. He owned quite a tract of wild land in one of the counties between here and Sioux City, and he said that he always noticed from his tax receipts that he was all of the time paying a good round school tax. Having business in that vicinity at one time, he thought he would drive out and see his land and see what sort of a neighborhood it was in. Accordingly he employed a man who knew the country to drive out with him and made the trip, and found somewhat to his surprise that there was but one man liv- ing in the school district in which his land was located. He found a commodious, well furnished schoolhouse, with all of the fixtures and appurtenances for maintaining a first-class school, while the lone settler and a hired man were the full board of directors. His wife was treasurer and his oldest daughter secretary, both on good salaries. His wife was also teacher and his children were the only ones of school age for miles around.
The Judge took in the situation at a glance and was highly amused by it, and driving up to the settler's log cabin, entered into conversation with him. After talking awhile about the country and the prospects of its settlement and growth, the Judge made some inquiries regarding their school and finally remarked that he couldn't see why it would not be a good idea for the settler to move right into the schoolhouse and live there. Ilis cabin was small and uncomfortable, while the schoolhouse was large and commodious, and then as there were no other children, there would be no one to complain. The settler an- swered that he had been thinking a great deal about it of late.
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and he believed he would. And sure enough when winter came on it found the family comfortably fixed in the new schoolhouse, while the "teachers' fund" and the "contingent fund" contributed liberally to their support.
But that was not in this county, so the above incident is not a part of this county's history for the very good reason, if for no other, that the land in this county was not brought into market until after the panic, and consequently was not sold and so could not be taxed until years after the first settlement. It is more than probable that some incidents very much like it may have occurred about the close of the grasshopper period, but if so, who will say they were not justifiable ?
But to return to the question of the early schools. As has been already stated, Miss Mary Howe taught the first school in Spirit Lake, but this was a private affair, and was paid for by the patrons in proportion to the attendance. As near as can be ascertained, the first school in Spirit Lake which was paid for in whole or in part by the public school fund was taught by Rev. (William Leggett, a Baptist preacher, dur- ing the winter of 1863 and 1864. There was no schoolhouse in the town at that time, and up to 1866 they depended on hiring for school purposes any room that happened to be va- cant.
It will be remembered that during the Indian troubles, and until the summer of 1865, the courthouse was used as military headquarters and was occupied by troops. After its evacua- tion the lower story was divided into offices and the main room of the upper story was used for nearly every imaginable purpose. The school directors made an arrangement with the Board of Supervisors to use it among the rest for school pur- poses. It was used in this way for two or three years without other furniture than such benches, chairs and tables as were contributed by the patrons for the convenience of the pupils,
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SCHOOLHOUSES
when the directors seated it with modern school furniture, and for those days it made quite a commodious school room. The first term taught after the school was moved into the courthouse was by Miss Myra Smith in the summer of 1866.
After the burning of the courthouse the district erected a building south of the Crandall House, the upper story of which was used as a Masonic lodge room and the lower one as a school room. This arrangement remained in force until the school had increased in size so as to require the use of both rooms when the building was moved to the site of the present schoolhouse, which had been previously donated to the district by Mr. Barkman for schoolhouse purposes. The first teacher in this schoolhouse was W. F. Pillsbury. The last ones, there being two departments at the time, were HI. I. Wasson for the advanced grade and Mrs. Albert Arthur for the primary. This old building was used for schoolhouse purposes for about ten years, or until 1882, when it was torn down to make room for the present modern structure.
The first real schoolhouse in the county, built as such and never used for anything else, was the old log schoolhouse at Center Grove. While there was no money in the treasury and hardly any taxable property in the district, there were a liberal number of sturdy girls and boys very much in need of school privileges and school training, thus rendering some kind of a school building an imperative necessity. The first move towards securing one was made in the spring or summer of 1863. The first movers in the scheme were Philip Doughty, Samuel Rogers, Ludwig Lewis, C. H. Evans, W. B. Brown and M. J. Smith. It was built entirely by private donations, some furnishing logs, others lumber, and still others shingles. The windows were donated by Prescott. After the material was hauled together a "bee" was made, the body of the house
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rolled up, the roof put on, the windows put in and the floor laid, when it was ready for occupancy.
In size it was about fourteen by twenty and about seven feet high. Rude benches served for seats, while a board fas- tened to the wall back of the seats did duty for desks. A rude table nailed together of rough boards completed the furni- ture. After a few years this primitive furniture was removed and modern school furniture set up in its place. But it is an open question which gave the most genuine satisfaction. This unique school building was situated at the base and on the east side of the high mound at the southwestern extremity of Center Grove. It was erected in 1863 and used for school purposes twelve years, or until the summer of 1875. There is a little uncertainty as to who taught the first school in this structure. The first winter school here was taught by Miss Myra Smith during the winter of 1863 and 1864. There is no disagree- ment about this, but it is uncertain whether the first summer school was the summer before or the one after this.
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