USA > Iowa > O'Brien County > History of O'Brien County, Iowa, from its organization to the present time > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27
These exiles rise and go with the wind, keeping the direc- tion in which they first start, stopping in their flight for sub- sistence, and depositing eggs in a prolific manner during the incubating season, which lasted from the middle of June to the middle of September.
This region had been visited by grasshoppers before, but not to excite a great deal of attention, for the reason that the county was sparsely settled, and but a small area of land under
142
HISTORY OF O'BRIEN COUNTY, IOWA.
cultivation, and they came so late in the season, that small grain was generally out of their reach, but extreme north- western Iowa then was not settled, so that their ravages were further east.
They came in June, 1873, about the 5th, and came without warning and unheralded. They seemed to constitute a dark black cloud, and sent out a roaring sound, which in itself was an omen of disaster and destruction. The grain was then much of it green, but some of it approaching maturity, so that by cutting, it could be partially saved.
Where it could be cut, the settlers went to work, and it seemed to be a strife between the grasshopper and the set- tler, as to which would gather the larger harvest. Their enormous appetites caused them to devour and destroy rap- idly, and this, along with their great vitality alarmed the set- tlers, and the destruction going on was appalling.
Surely, the advent of the grasshoppers was a problem, and it caused much discussion, as to whether the invasion was to be continued, whether this was the last as well as the first attack, or whether it was to continue indefinitely.
The grasshoppers had crossed the Missouri river, and com- menced foraging in the bordering Iowa counties, and devoured the crops as they went to a greater or less extent. Small garden patches were saved, by industriously " shooing " them off, and guarding the patch with vigilence. There was much of a drouth the early part of this season, as no rain fell from the first of May, to the middle of June.
Grain did not grow much, but the grasshoppers did, and before the drouth ended, the crops were eaten and parched beyond all hope of recovery. About the middle of June how- ever, considerable rain fell, and outside of the before men- tioned counties, the prospect was generally favorable for good crops. The young grasshoppers 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 from the pests. The perverse insects were waiting for an
143
HISTORY OF O'BRIEN COUNTY, IOWA.
easterly wind, but the wind blew from the southwest for nearly three weeks, so they staid and visited, and eat, and continued their ravages. Early in the spring of 1874, the eggs deposited the season before, com- menced hatching, and the soil looked literally alive with in- significant looking insects, a quarter of an inch in length, but of enormous eating qual- ities. As if by instinct, their movements were toward the fields where tender shoots of grain were making their modest appearance. Some- times, the first intimation the farmer would have of what was going on, would be from noticing along one side of his grain field a narrow strip C. A. BABCOCK. where the grain was 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 presence of young grasshoppers.
In the spring of 1874, there were grave doubts, whether to sow any grain or not. Some settlers left the country at once, disheartened and disgusted; they who remained toiled on. Their ravages were the worst in 1874 and 1875, after that, they did less damage each year, and a remnant of them re- mained until 1879, but in 1880 there were none of them left. During their ravages the question was well considered, as to how to get rid of them, and what kind of warfare to make. All sorts of suggestions and devices were made with reference to the destruction of grasshoppers, during these years, and it was much of a topic of discussion how to get rid of them. Judge Oliver in a communication to the Sioux City Journal, said :
" Farmers should not be discouraged. Crops, especially
144
HISTORY OF O'BRIEN COUNTY, IOWA.
wheat and corn, should be put in as early as possible, so as to get a start while the hoppers are small. Late potatoes and beans may be planted as late as is safe, so as not to get up be- fore the hoppers are gone. Young trees and shrubs, may be protected by a sack of thin cloth drawn over them, and tied at the bottom. I desire to impress on the farmers, where the eggs are unhatched, the absolute necessity of early seeding. One week's difference in the time of seeding, may make all the difference between a good crop and a failure."
The Sioux City Journal said: "The grasshoppers deposit eggs at the roots of the grass in the latter part of the summer or early autumn, The eggs hatch out early in the spring, and during the months of April, May and June, according as the season is early or late; they are wingless, the 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 should see that the prairie is not burned over in the fall, and thus they will have the grass for the next spring, to be employed upon the pests E. E. HALL. 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 grasshoppers for that year, and none will be left to soar their gossamer wings or lay eggs for another year."
145
HISTORY OF O'BRIEN COUNTY, IOWA.
As the grasshopper years went on, the people themselves, scientific men, and even the halls of legislation were discussing the important 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 sug- gest, 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 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.
These pests lasted about seven years, and the latter years of the seven they were much less troublesome than the first. 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 around in Northwestern Iowa, would each claim, that the other county was the worst.
Some agricultural house printed a card bearing the picture of a grasshopper sitting on a board fence, gazing at a wheat field, and underneath the words: "In this s(wheat) by and bye." 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.
10
146
HISTORY OF O'BRIEN COUNTY, IOWA.
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.
Since these grasshoppers days, the old settlers can see what they missed by the following, recently published :
" Some very important uses for grasshoppers have recently been discovered. There would seem to be no reason why they should not be applied to commercial advantage in the event of a plague this year. Some years ago four quarts of liquid, expressed from a half bushel of " hoppers " under a cheese press, were shipped in a glass from Spirit Lake, Iowa, to Prof. William K. Kedzie, of the Kansas State Agricultural College. He made a complete analysis, and by distilling the juice with sulphuric acid, obtained a colorless limpid solution of formic acid. Now this acid is very valuable, having a present market quotation of sixty cents an ounce. It is not only employed in medicine to a considerable extent, but it is also utilized in the laboratory to reduce salts of the noble metals, gold and silver and platinum. Hitherto it has always been extracted from red ants, but the possibility of getting it in large quantities from grasshoppers, suggests a method for employing these insects to an unlooked for advantage. An interesting feature of the analysis was the discovery of a cer- tain amount of copper in the liquid. This metal has been found in the blood of other animals, particularly in that of the horseshoe crab, which always furnishes a trace of it. It is not suggested, however, that the grasshoppers would assay suffi- cient amount of copper to the ton, to make it worth while to smelt them.
A while ago, Prof. C. V. Ripley, United States entomologist, sent a bushel of grasshoppers, freshly caught and scalded, to
147
HISTORY OF O'BRIEN COUNTY, IOWA.
Mr. Bonner, a St. Louis caterer. The latter made soup of them, which was pronounced perfectly delicious by many people who were afforded the opportunity of tasting it. It closely resembles bisque. Mr. Bonnet declared, that he would gladly have it on his bill of fare every day, if he could only obtain the insects. His method of preparing the dish, as described by himself, was to boil the hoppers over a brisk fire, seasoning them with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg, and occasionally stirring them. When sufficiently done, they were pounded in a morter with bread fried brown; then they were replaced in the saucepan and thickened to a broth, which was passed through a strainer before being served. Professor Riley treated some friends of his on one occasion to a curry of grasshoppers, and grass- hopper croquettes, without informing them as to the · nature of the banquet, but an unlucky hind leg, dis- covered in one of the cro- quettes, revealed the se- cret.
Owing to these grass- hoppers, the people were unable to meet their obli- gations. It was easy for a while to contract debts, but there was no money to pay them. Eastern cred- itors waxed wroth over F. A. WADE. notes given for farm machinery, long past due. Several of these houses sent special agents here, who drove out among the settlers, and were confronted with poverty, and saw only a struggle for bread. One of these agents took back a photo- graph of a homesteader, with his feet wrapped in gunny sack- ing, and his general appearance in accordance with it.
The house understood the situation. Chattel mortgages
148
HISTORY OF O'BRIEN COUNTY, IOWA.
were given, sometimes upon everything the settler had on earth, even to the baby clothes and the coffee mill.
At the Board of Supervisors meeting in September, 1876, petitions were presented, asking that the taxes of a resident be declared unvailable. This was beyond the power of the board as a matter of law, but still a moral obligation was imposed upon them, and soon after, the following resolution was passed :
WHEREAS, O'Brien county is as yet but sparsely settled with an honest, intelligent and energetic class of inhabitants, representing various portions of the older states of the union, and are occupying and improving government lands under and by virtue of the several Homestead Acts, and,
WHEREAS, for the past two or three years the country in common with adjoining counties in Iowa, Minnesota, Dakota and Nebraska, have been visited by the mountain locust or grasshopper to such an extent, that the hard earned substance of the people of this beautiful region has been wasted and con- sumed, by the above named voracious insects, and,
WHEREAS, the entire population of a section of country in the above states in the Northwest are now in needy circum- stances, by reason of loss of crops. Therefore,
Resolved; that we, as said Board of Supervisors, hereby respectfully ask our Representatives in Congress to introduce such a bill as they may deem advisable, setting forth the con- dition of the country, and the needs of the people, and praying that Congress adopt such measures as may seem just and equitable, and that a commissioner be appointed to visit the Great Northwest for the purpose of collecting statistics in the ravaged districts, and that such means be adopted as may prove a speedy and permanent destruction of the hopper pest.
These taxes were most of them paid afterwards, but it gave the settler time by way of postponement.
To show, as a sample of some of the notes the poor home- steader was asked to sign during these grasshopper days, the following actually came under the writer's observation, but was probably a burlesque:
149
HISTORY OF O'BRIEN COUNTY, IOWA.
after date, for value received
promise to pay or order. - dollars. Without relief from appraisement, stay or exemption laws, and in case suit is instituted for its collection, anything and everything in my pos- session can be levied upon and sold, including the last suit of clothes, the school books and the food of the children, with the coffin or coffins any of the family may be buried in ; and in case that after every article is sold, and there re- mains anything due on the note, I agree that the services of myself and family shall be sold, until the demands of this note are satisfied. J. A. WILCOX. And I further agree, that in case suit is instituted for its collection, to pay reasona- ble attorney's fees, together with board bills, hack hire, saloon bills, and other miscellaneous expenses of himself and family and near relatives while suit is pending. And I further agree, to live on corn bread and sorghum molasses from date, until the demands of this note are satisfied, with interest at the rate of ten per cent, payable annually."
RELIEF.
Soon after the coming of the grasshoppers, there was raised a hue and cry for relief. The relief movement started in Osceola county, at Sibley, from a division in some other soci- ety pertaining to homesteaders.
The American people are not slow in pouring in their con- tributions to some unfortunate portion of the country, which is
150
HISTORY OF O'BRIENĮ COUNTY, IOWA.
suddenly stricken with some calamity, as the Chicago fire or the Johnstown flood. It was a matter of much discussion at the time, whether it were not better for the county, even as poor as it was, to provide for such of the county as needed it, rather than publish it to the world, that they were in a con- dition of poverty and needed help. Such, however, as opposed it at first, were swept away in the general current of clamor to get it.
Too often in such matters of relief, the " cheeky" ones, less deserving, get it, while the actually needy and modest appli- cants, fail to get their share. Fraud, also, almost always en- ters into its receipt and distribution, and in the case of O'Brien county, while considerable money was sent by mail, no report was ever made of receipts and disbursements, and if there was no stealing, there surely was an opportunity.
The state senate of 1873-74, appointed a committee to visit Northwestern Iowa with reference to legislative action, for the purpose of securing a loan with which to buy seed grain. December 3, 1874, Geo. D. Perkins, senator from Woodbury county, and Samuel Fairall, senator from Johnson county, went to Sibley and held a conference with the people. They exam- ined the auditor's books, in order to ascertain the financial condition of the county, and the feasibility of the county issu- ing warrants for the purchase of grain, and ascertained that the county could not obtain the supply needed from its own resources.
These men expressed themselves, as wishing that the entire general assembly might be there, and see for themselves, and promised that they would make an appeal for its sympathy, and to its patriotism, for action in the matter. A bill was pre- sented by Mr. Perkins, asking an appropriation of $105,000 for the purchase of seed grain, and expenses of three commission- ers to purchase and distribute; $5,000 out of the amount ap- propriated, to be for expenses. Under this bill the money was to be in the nature of a loan, which the parties were to pay back.
151
HISTORY OF O'BRIEN COUNTY, IOWA.
After discussion, a bill was agreed upon to donate, instead of loan, $50,000 to the northwest counties, and this bill passed both houses and became a law. Out of this donation O'Brien county got its share. The Legislative Committee, Messers. Brown and Tasker, arrived in Sheldon in March, 1874, and " opened court." They were armed with blanks, requiring the settler to state where he lived, whether he was owner or renter, and how many acres he had broken; also that he had no seed, no money to buy the seed with, and that he would use the seed for sowing. They also required tes- timony where one's word was not consid- ered good, and admon- ished each and all, that the penitentiary stared them in the face, if they swore falsely. This legislative tribunal did their work and went home. On March 27, 1874, after the relief business had undergone RESIDENCE OF E. E. HALL, HARTLEY. its usual trials and vexations, and charges of fraud had gone around, and considerable discontent and dissatisfaction, the following instructions were issued by General Baker to com- mittee :
" In the distribution of all supplies the utmost caution and care must be exercised, and only the really needy must be supplied, and they must be careful to save something on re- serve for emergency, or in the case of sickness. In order to
152
HISTORY OF O'BRIEN COUNTY, IOWA.
conform to the above instructions, the committee will require each applicant for aid, to take and subscribe the following oath :
66 , Iowa, , 1874.
" I, do solemnly swear, so help me God, that I have not flour or other provisions sufficient to last my family one week, and that I liave no means, on hand or at my command, to procure subsistence for my family.
"
Soon after this, which was in March, 1874, the relief busi- ness was ended. On March 12, 1874, the State Committee issued the following:
" DES MOINES, March 12, 1874.
" To the Public: The undersigned would state for the in- formation of all concerned, that all supplies in our possession for the northwestern settlers, will be distributed by April I, I874.
There may be a small amount left on hand at that date, but hardly worth consideration. The settlers and committee must now act most cautiously, and govern themselves in accordance with the existing condition of supplies. Any Grange, or other benevolent people who have anything to forward, should do so at once. All our advantages on railroad lines will probably cease by the date above designated.
And here in conclusion, we wish to thank the railroads, express companies and telegraph companies, for all the great favors they have done the northwestern settlers, in forward- ing the generous donations of our benevolent people.
N. B. BAKER.
J. D. WHITMAN,
R. R. HARBOUR,
D. W. PRINDLE,
State Grange Committee.
After this, there was a meeting closing the matter up, and concluding with sort of a love feast, with speeches by Gen. Baker and others. Mr. Baker was manager-in-chief of the relief campaign.
153
HISTORY OF O'BRIEN COUNTY, IOWA.
There was a county committee which had general charge of the county, and also township committees, who attended in detail to the distributions. Carloads of corn, flour, lumber, merchandise, and leather for tapping boots, were shipped in. Cast off clothing and old shoes, baby clothes, and all sorts of conceivable articles were part of the relief goods.
There are men in O'Brien county today with comfortable homes, and with plenty of this world's goods, who were eager at that time to get even a bushel of corn, and Robert J. Lynch in Sioux county has the names of several such in his county, whose distributing point was at Shel- don. There was a great deal of wrangling over the goods,some charg- ing favoritism on RESIDENCE OF E. G. TENNANT, HARTLEY, the part of the committee, and others charging actual theft. There was some stealing of the goods going on, and an amusing incident in the theft of flour is told in a chapter on courts. The relief campaign had its run, and after merchan- dise stopped coming, the people lived during these grasshop- pers times, not with luxuries, but with enough to eat, and clothes to wear.
There was not only an era of grasshoppers and of relief, but of chattel mortgages as well. An ingenius settler who had gone down under a load of them, thus soliloquized at the time:
" In the whole range of sacred and profane literature there is nothing recorded which has such strong propensities as a good healthy mortgage. A mortgage can be depended upon
154
HISTORY OF O'BRIEN COUNTY, IOWA.
to stick closer than a brother. It has a mission to perform which never lets up. Day after day, it has not the slightest tendency to slumber, nor impair its vigor in the least. Night and day, on the Sabbath, and in seasons of holiday without a moments time for rest or recreation, that bitter offspring of its existence, interest, goes marching on. The seasons may change, days run into weeks, weeks into months, months swallowed up into ad- vancing years, but that mort- gage stands up with sleepless vigilance, and the interest a perennial stream, running ceaselessly on, like a huge night mare eating out the sleep of restless slumber. The mortgage rears up its gaunt and hungry front in Chi: Proto perpetual torment to the mis- DR. D. T. STEWART. erable mortgagor, who is held within its pitiless clutch. It holds its poor victim with the relentless grasp of a giant, not one hour of recreation, nor a single moment to hide from its hideous presence. A genial savage of mollifying aspect while the interest is paid, a very devil of hopeless destruction when the payments fail. "
Even in grasshopper times, when crops were generally des- troyed, there were cases where there was a large area of crops in a body, that did not suffer so much. On the Sunny Side farm, in Floyd township, managed by Gen. J. W. Bishop, there was farming on a large scale. In 1875, Gen. Bishop, in order to make it manifest that O'Brien county soil, with all its bad notoriety, was profitable, published the following statement of the yield of 600 acres in Floyd township:
155
HISTORY OF O'BRIEN COUNTY, IOWA.
1875.
Dr.
Cr.
October. To plowing, @$1.50 per acre $ 900.00
March
" 900 bu. of wheat, @90c. 810.00
April August
" labor of men an teams seeding 593.00
" 114 days' labor binding and shocking, @$3.00 per day 342.00
" 44 days' drying wheat in shocks, @$2.25 per day
99.00
" 23 days' pitchers in stacking, @$2.25
51.75
" 26 days' stackers, @$3.00 78.00
" 46 days' team and driver, @$4.50
207.00
September " 99 days' men in threshing, @$2.00.
198.00
" 100 days' teams in threshing, @$3.50
350.00
" 84 days' board machine men and teams,@$1.00 84.00
" pay threshing machine, IIC.,-298 bu. @41/2c.
308.41
" 87 days hauling wheat to station, @$3.50. 304.50
October
" use and wear of harvesters, seeders, plows, etc. estimated at. 862.74
Interest computed at 10 per cent on money ex-
pended as above
211.60
Total expense of crop (@$9.00 per acre). $5,400.00 Yield, 11,298 bushels of wheat, machine measure, equal to
about 11,000 bushels cleaned wheat as weighed into ele- vator, @8oc.
$8,800.00
Average receipts, $14.66 per acre.
BLIZZARDS.
Among other calamities of an early day were blizzards.
The word blizzard is of western origin, at any rate as to permanent use. The eastern papers for awhile, were in doubt what a blizzard was, although there was no doubt in the mind of an O'Brien county settler. Often they came without warn- ing. It can be imagined, with light snow upon the ground say a foot or so, and then a howling northwest wind and the mercury below zero, about what one would have to encounter. This too, upon an unprotected prairie, settlers' shacks far apart, and no shelter, and the blinding snow so thick, that one could not see an object 10 feet away. People have been lost in blizzards between their house and barn, only apart the ordinary distance.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.