USA > Iowa > Dickinson County > History of Emmet County and Dickinson County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 43
USA > Iowa > Emmet County > History of Emmet County and Dickinson County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 43
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"About four o'clock, or when the party was within three miles of their destination, the wind suddenly whipped around into the northwest and the most violent blizzard recorded in the annals of Northwestern Iowa broke upon them in all its blinding, bewildering force and fury. Now many people seem to think that if it was to save their lives they could make their way for three miles against any storm that ever blew. Such people have not met the genuine blizzard. These trappers were expe- rienced frontiersmen and they knew the country. They were not lost, but to make any headway whatever against that terrific storm they found to be utterly impossible.
"What was to be done? This was a very pressing question. They were among the bluffs along the Big Sioux, and the snow was deep in the ravines. They went to work and dug a hole in the snow, packed up their flour on the windward side of it, and then taking their robes and blankets and huddling together so far succeeded in making themselves comfortable, that had they been contented to stay where they were, they would without doubt have been all right in the morning. But some of them conceived the idea that if they allowed the snow to drift in over them they would be smothered, and the balance gave in to this foolish notion, and so after remaining there between two and three hours, they determined to take their back track and if possible reach the camp they had left that morn- ing. So digging out from under the snow they hitched one pony to the wagon and turned the other loose, and then placing the wind to their backs and with no other guide than the storm, started on their return trip.
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"The wind howled so that it was impossible to hear each other talk at all, and it required the utmost care and skill on the part of all to keep near each other. They formed in single file, with Barr in the rear, walking with their heads down, and before they were aware, of the difficulties of keeping together, Barr had fallen behind. How long he kept up with them or how far he traveled, they never knew. They only knew he per- ished in that fearful storm and his remains were never found. The bal- ance of the party pressed on and reached the Rock several miles below the camp they left the morning before. Here they found timber and suc- ceeded in getting a fire. The wind had abated somewhat, so as to make surrounding objects discernible. Two of the party had been there before and thought they knew the country pretty well. They knew there was another camp near where they were but whether it was up or down the river, they did not know. Osborn insisted that it was down the river, while Tompkins was just as certain that it was up the river, and declared that he would not go down the river until he was more sure upon this point. Accordingly he started out to look around and satisfy himself. Up to this time none of the party was frozen. They had stood their night tramp through the storm without suffering anything more serious than fatigue.
"Osborn was so sure that the camp they were seeking was down the river that he and Long started at once in that direction. They were right in their surmise, and struck the camp inside of an hour. After two or three hours the Quaker wandered into camp in a sad plight. Both of his feet were so badly frozen that eventually they had to be amputated. After remaining in camp here a couple of days, they brought him up to our camp at the forks of the Rock, where everything was done for him that could be done. It was about two weeks before he could be taken to Spirit Lake where the amputation was performed."
The 1902 history of Dickinson County places the origin of the word blizzard in this county, but this statement is open to severe question. The term blizzard, as applied to storms, wind and snow, was used in the eastern states many years before Dickinson County was a fact or any white settlement had been made in this part of Iowa. The same work gives the dates of the principal storms in the early days here as: Decem- ber 1, 1856; January 1, 1864; February 14, 1865; March 5, 1870; January 7, 1873. The blizzard of 1873 was the last, which could be properly called an old-fashioned blizzard. In the history of Osceola County by D. A. W. Perkins is the following in regard to this: "There was then a postoffice on the Spirit Lake and Worthington route, about a mile south of where the town of Round Lake now is. It was kept by William Mosier. Mr. Wheeler was at the postoffice in Mosier's house when the storm came. Wheeler started for home, and unable to find his house, he wandered with
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. the storm and at last, exhausted and benumbed with cold, lay down and died. He got nearly to West Okoboji Lake in Dickinson County. He was found after the storm cleared up by Mr. Tuttle, whose home was not far from where Wheeler perished."
THE GRASSHOPPER INVASIONS
One of the notable features of the history of Iowa and Nebraska, and portions of other Middle Western States, is the grasshopper invasion in the '70s. These invasions are unparalleled, either before or since, in the history of the country.
The insects first made their appearance in the summer of 1873. About 1867, it is true, grasshoppers had made their appearance in considerable numbers in Northwestern Iowa, but did not do sufficient harm to be classed as a plague. The army grasshopper bore another name-the Rocky Mountain locust-and in regard to its habits and life D. A. W. Per- kins wrote the following: "In Wyoming, western Nebraska, Texas, the Indian Territory and New Mexico, the broods are annually hatched. In their native haunts they attained an enormous size, many specimens being three inches in length. Scientific men who have studied the habits of the grasshoppers state that each succeeding brood degenerates in size and after three or four generations the weaker are obliged to swarm and seek other quarters, being driven out by the larger and stronger insects. These exiles rise and go with the wind, keeping the direction in which they first started, stopping in their flight for subsistence and depositing eggs in a prolific manner during the incubating season, which lasted from the mid- dle of June to the middle of September."
The grasshoppers came into Dickinson County from the southwest in June, 1873. Their first appearance resembled the approach of a storm cloud, so dense and numerous were the droves. An ominous buzz and the darkening of the sun's rays heightened the weird aspect of the scene. They settled down upon the fields of growing grain and completely de- vastated the green leaves, stripping the ground bare. Billion upon billion of eggs were deposited in the ground, about a half inch below the surface, where they lay until the warm winds of the spring and the sun hatched them. J. A. Smith writes of this as follows: "Early in the spring of 1874 the eggs deposited the season before commenced hatching and the soil looked literally alive with insignificant looking insects a quarter of an inch in length and possessing great vitality and surprising appetites. As if by instinct their first movements were toward the fields where tender shoots of grain were making their modest appearance. Sometimes the first intimation a farmer would have of what was going on would be from noticing along one side of his field a narrow strip where the grain was
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missing. At first perhaps he would attribute it to a balk in sowing, but each day it grew wider and a closer examination would reveal the pres- ence of myriads of young grasshoppers. As spring advanced it became evident that comparatively few eggs had been deposited in the territory that had suffered the worst in 1873. They had been laid farther East. In Kossuth, Emmet, Dickinson and Palo Alto Counties in Iowa, and in Martin and Jackson Counties, Minnesota, the young ones were hatched out in far greater numbers than elsewhere.
"The early part of the season was extremely dry; no rain fell until the middle of June. Grain did not grow, but the grasshoppers did, and before the drouth ended the crops in the counties named were eaten and parched beyond all hope of recovery. About the middle of June, however, a considerable rain fell and outside of the before mentioned counties, the prospects were generally favorable for good crops. The young grass- hoppers commenced to get wings about the middle of June and in a few days they began to rise and fly. The prospect seemed good for a speedy riddance of the pests, but Providence had ordained otherwise. The per- verse insects were waiting for an eastern wind and the perverse wind blew from the southwest for nearly three weeks, a phenomenon of rare occur- rence in this region, as it very seldom blows from one quarter more than three days at a time. During this time the grasshoppers were almost con- stantly on the move. Straggling swarms found their way to central Iowa, doing, however, but little damage.
"About the tenth or twelfth of July the wind changed to the East and as by common consent the countless multitude took their departure westward. Up to this time the crops had been damaged but slightly in the western counties, but during the two or three days of their flight the grain fields in these counties were injured to quite an extent. After the date above mentioned with one or two unimportant exceptions, no grass- hoppers were seen.
"There is no evidence that this region was visited in 1874 by foreign swarms, though it has been stated that such was the fact. On the con- trary there is every reason for believing that they were all hatched here. According to the most reliable information the grasshoppers hatched here produced no eggs and the inference is that they were incapable of so doing. They were much smaller than their predecessors and besides they were covered with parasites in the shape of little red bugs which made sad havoc in their ranks. What became of them after leaving here seems a mystery, but probably their enfeebled constitutions succumbed to the attacks of the parasites and the depleting effects of general debility."
After the first raid the situation was a critical one. As a class the pioneer settlers were poor and the destruction of their crops meant the destruction of their means of livelihood. Many of them were destitute
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and were compelled to seek aid. The Legislature took hold of the matter and appropriated $50,000, to buy seed grain to supply the settlers in need. A committee composed of Tasker of Jones County, Dr. Levi Fuller of Fay- ette and O. B. Brown of Van Buren was appointed to superintendent the distribution of the seed grain, seed corn and garden seeds. The Depart- ment of the Interior at Washington also assisted in giving seeds to the settlers in Northwestern Iowa. Dickinson County did not require so much aid as other counties, principally Osceola, Sioux, Lyon and O'Brien, but about one hundred farmers from Dickinson received a new supply of grain from the nearest distributing point, Sibley.
In the summer of 1876 another raid occurred, this time from the northwest instead of the southwest. The county suffered severely this time, particularly so as no outside relief was forthcoming. Lakeville settlement was the hardest hit of any place in the county. The year 1877 brought another raid, the last one of any prominence.
Many methods were advocated to combat the ravages of the insect hordes, but none proved adequate. A Sioux City newspaper said: "The grasshopper deposits its eggs at the roots of the grass in the latter part of summer or early autumn. The eggs hatch out early in spring and dur- ing the months of April, May and June, according as the season is early or late; they are wingless, their sole power of locomotion being the hop. To destroy them, all that is needed is for each county, town or district to organize itself into a fire brigade throughout the district where their eggs are known to be deposited. This fire brigade shall see that the prairies are not burned over in the fall, and thus they will have the grass for the next spring and to be employed upon the pests while they are yet hoppers- the means of sure death. To apply it let all agree upon a certain day, say in April or May, or at any time when they are sure all the hoppers are hatched and none are yet winged. All being ready, let every person, man, woman and boy, turn out with torches and simultaneously fire the whole prairie, and the work, if well done, will destroy the whole crop of grass- hoppers for that year and none will be left to 'soar their gossamer wings' or lay eggs for another year."
C. C. Carpenter, in the Annals of Iowa, Volume 4. Number 6, writes of the grasshopper invasion. A portion of this follows :
"One of the most serious of the pioneer experiences of Northwestern Iowa was the grasshopper invasion. The reader who did not see the destruction wrought by the grasshoppers and the strange phenomena of their coming and going will be very apt to regard the story of an eye wit- ness as incredible. They made their first appearance in 1867. The Hon. Charles Richards, at that time a citizen of Fort Dodge, gives the following account of their coming :
" 'The first appearance of these pests was on the 8th of September, Vol. I-26
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1867, when about noon the air was discovered to be filled with grass- hoppers coming from the West, settling about as fast as the flakes of an ordinary snow storm. In fact, it appeared like a snow storm, when the larger flakes of snow fall slowly and perpendicularly, there being no wind. They immediately began to deposit their eggs, choosing new breaking and hard ground along the roads, but not confining themselves to such places and being the worst where the soil was sandy. They continued to cover the ground, fences and buildings, eating everything, and in many places eating the bark from the young growth of the apple, cherry and other trees, and nearly 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, breakin 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, being about an eighth of an inch long when hatched. They fed on all young and tender plants, but seemed to prefer barley 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 were out they moult. Prior to this time they have no wings, but within a period of five or six days they entirely changed their appearance 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 feeding, and then longer flights, and within ten days after they moult, 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 leav- ing within ten days after they had their wings.'
"Further on in the same article Mr. Richards writes of the invasion
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of 1873 and 1874. He first refers to the fact that they were not nearly as destructive in Webster and the adjoining counties as in those farther to the northwest, and then continues as follows :
" "This time they were early enough in the season to destroy all the crops in those counties, evidently having hatched farther South and hav- ing 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.'
"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 characteristics of the itinerary grasshopper. Persons who were not conversant with this invasion can hardly realize with what anxiety the people scanned the heavens for sev- eral years after each return of the season when they had put in an ap- pearance on the occasion of their previous visit. The great body of the invaders were generally preceded a day or two by scattering 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 during 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 dis- cover the forerunners of the white winged messengers of destruction. To illustrate the absolute fearfulness 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 to regard the story as 'fishy,' I have taken pains to fortify myself with documents. I have a letter from J. M. Brainard, editor of the Boone Standard, relating the incidents of his own experience during these years : He says :
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" "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 westward, and by the time we had reached Tiptop (now Arcadia) the sun had got low and the air slightly cool, so that the
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hoppers clustered on the rails, the warmth being grateful to them. The grade at Tiptop was pretty stiff, and our train actually came to a stand- still on the rails greased by the crushed bodies of the insects. This oc- curred 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 uncle took me to task for the improbable statement, and when I assured him of its truthfulness, he dryly remarked, "Ah, John, you have lived so long in the West that I fear you have grown to be as big a liar as any of them."'
"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 enclosing a field where they were 'getting in their work' indi- cated the disposition of the grasshopper. Toward evening the bottom 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 atmosphere 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 busi- ness of Northwestern Iowa 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 the fields. I remember 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 hun- dred feet apart and abreast they rode back and forth over the field three or four times a day, the rope swinging along between them, sweeping 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 grass- hoppers so constantly disturbed that they did little damage."
The History of Osceola County says: "As the grasshopper years went on the people themselves, scientific men and even the halls of legis- lation, were discussing 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 consideration strikes us now as bordering on the ridiculous.
"The grasshopper business, too, had its humorous side, and there was
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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 motsly in Dickinson County, and the Beacon gives the 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 underneath the words, 'In the s (wheat) bye and bye.'
The poet was also at work and the following is 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.'"
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GAME
In regard to the game in Dickinson County in the early days R. A. Smith writes: "Aside from the fur bearing animals the more common were badgers, coyotes, foxes and prairie wolves. In addition to these the timber wolf and the lynx, or bob-cat as the trappers called it, were occa- sionally met with. Raccoons were common enough in the groves, but did not venture out much on the prairie, and since the groves were limited they were not plenty. There is no account of any bear ever having been seen here. The larger game were deer, elk and buffalo. It is an open question whether buffalo were ever so plenty here as has been popularly supposed or as they are known to have been in the 'buffalo grass' region of the Dakotas and beyond. Fabulous stories were early told of the hunt- ing grounds of Northwestern Iowa and it is possible many have formed extravagant ideas of the richness of it.
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