USA > Iowa > Sac County > History of Sac County, Iowa > Part 30
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By this time we had reached the divide, the crown of the great water- shed of Iowa. As we looked over the undulating prairies, the sun was sink- ing. large and red behind the hills and. fortunately for us, the moon came up full and round in the east. "Mr. Traner." I called back. "I am hungry." "We will stop for supper," he replied. While we ate our supper he told me this tragic story :
FROZEN IN A BLIZZARD.
"At this place the road divides; just ahead of us, on that fearful De- cember night, five years ago, this coming winter. the Golden boys unhitched their oxen and left their wagon. They had gone from their home, southwest of here. to Grant City, for a load of corn. The day was deceitfully warm
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and tranquil for the time of the year. Jo Williams, the postmaster at Grant City, told them they had better stay all night, as the afternoon was fast slipping away and they seemed in no hurry to start for home. It was as late as three o'clock when they finally started and they had not been gone two hours when a blinding blizzard struck them. They evidently fought their way in the teeth of the storm to this point, within six miles of their home. They turned their cattle loose, and took down the ravine, running off to the south- west, seeking shelter from the blinding storm. Nothing living and unpro- tected could survive the days that followed. The third day was New Year's day. 1864, the coldest the state of Iowa has ever experienced. When the storm had somewhat spent its fury. the scattered neighbors organized to make a diligent search for the missing boys, with little hope of finding them alive. Their bodies were not recovered until the following spring. They were found seated in a somewhat sheltered place almost completely covered by a drift of melting snow. The older boy had taken off his coat and put it on his brother and died with the little fellow in his arms."
"Mr. Traner," said I, "my father was out in that storm on the wide stretch of prairie between Jefferson and Lake City. He had crossed the river at Horseshoe Bend. 'I saw,' he said, 'an ominous cloud in the west stretch- ing along the entire horizon and advancing rapidly.' Dick seemed to have a premonition of danger, and father said 'I could hardly hold him: he flew across the prairie at a fearful gait. Soon the storm swept down on us like a desert sirocco, which checked my horse. I could not see the road and was afraid Dick would turn around and drift with the wind storm-I simply had to trust in him. I knew it was getting late in the afternoon and I had no means of telling exactly where I was, but my brave horse kept facing the storm, which swept by us like an avalanche, with the muffled roar of Niagara. I protected myself as best I could with my robes. We kept on in the increas- ing, terrible storm with laborious toil. At last Dick stopped and I imagined I saw a light. I called and called again and again : my horse moved on im- patiently, stopping again presently. Mr. Bishop, living three miles west of Lake City, came to the fence and said, 'Why, Mr. Dudley, I am so glad you reached us. Where were you and how did it all happen?' Father replied, 'Dick saved me; isn't he splendid?' and this was the verdict around the warm hearthstone that night."
Mr. Bishop's home was a favorite stopping place for the itinerant ministers and Dick, having frequently been there before, knew the way through the storm. The sagacious and courageous old hero had struck the
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trail and never left it, though in the face of a merciless storm, and finally landed at the right place. I think the bonds of enduring affection closed a little closer between the old itinerant minister and his horse that night; for father always spoke of Dick with kindness in his tone and apologized for all his freaks, for he had some, as most good animals have.
Supper over, we moved on, I thinking of blizzards, flooded with moon- light and fighting with mosquitoes. We reached the ranch about ten o'clock and turned in for the night. The next morning when we went to the stable Dick was gone, and it was a serious question whether he had been stolen or had untied his hitching strap. He had to be tied with great care, and he could draw bars and open gates with a marvelous skill. We spent the fore- noon in searching for him and inquired of all the passers by, but no trace of him could be found. The day following was consumed in setting up the machinery and starting to make hay. Mr. Traner returned to Grant City with a promise to send the horse baek if he had reached home ; but as he did not return for several days we were still apprehensive that some one had stolen him. Fortunately, we did not really need the horse in hay-making. In a short time we had several fine stacks of excellent blue-joint hay put up in fine shape, then it began to rain and rained incessantly for days. The river spread all over the bottom, and we had to flee from the ranch-house to the hills, where we improvised a booth for a residence. We made a boat out of a wagon-box with which to transport our effects to higher ground. The eatables were getting alarmingly low-a few days with half rations, then bran, bread and potatoes, then only potatoes. We boys dug them from under four feet of water. It was less monotonous to dig them than to eat them. Potatoes are not especially inviting when served alone. They tend to become decidedly solitary when limited to only two methods of cooking-baked and boiled, boiled and baked! This was our variety.
Provisionless, water-bound, discouraged and hungry, I determined to go home. The only way I could possibly accomplish this journey was on foot. The ranch man, Mr. Church, was going in the direction of home, where it was reported there was some field eorn, some of which we hoped to secure to lend a variety to the potatoes, so he hitched up the oxen to help me along on my long journey. We soon came to a bridgeless stream, which he could not cross with the oxen. I elimbed over on a few standing timbers of the structure and, with a promise to send supplies as soon as possible, I bade him good bye and pushed on my journey. It was a hard tramp. I had to make a long detour, wade the deep sloughs and freshet currents of water. I
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was so tired, weak and footsore that at times I thought I would be com- pelled to stop and rest, but I dare not, as night was coming on and it began to grow very dark. The pillar of fire that cheered that darkness was "home, sweet home," a place where the sky is bluer. the water clearer. and bread and butter sweeter, and the pillows softer than any other place on earth. The halo of a light and sympathy I anticipated in the dream of that dreary night was a veritable shekinah that spurred my weary feet to reach the encampment of hallowed ground.
I tugged on and on and at last came to the river, where I met dear old Tom Kirk. Tom was a river man, or rather a boy who took to the water as though it were the accompaniment of his life. I told him my mournful story. "Well, well, get into my boat, I'll soon have you across-your folks have been worrying 'bout you, but I told 'em not to fret, as you would be coming home soon and all right. too." He said Mr. Traner had gotten back before the approaches of the bridge had been washed away, and do you know I was afraid to ask him about Dick for fear he would say he had not re- turned. We landed and I said "good night" to Tom. "So long. see you in the morning." I started to climb the hill up from the river. It was never so long before and so weary the way. When I reached the top of the hill I could see down the streets. I saw a light gleaming from our cottage window. I greatly surprised the folks. Father laughed his glad welcome. I saw tears in my mother's eyes, as she sat down in a chair and held me in her arms. "I was so anxious about you," she said. "Your father was going to try to go to the ranch tomorrow." You can hardly imagine the joy and rest that came to me when they told me that twenty-four hours after I started from home. for the ranch, Dick came home and stood at the front gate and called to have us let him in. Father said: "I think Bobby had anticipated the freshet, for he is as cunning as he is good. I think you are both better roadsters than you are ranchmen." "I don't know about that. father; I didn't feel like a roadster yesterday." "Well." continued he. "I am sure you have broken the record. Now that I have you both at home I intend to keep you here. and you may take Dick and drive me over to Carroll, where I will take the train for Boonesboro where the conference meets. In the meantime, we must provision the ranch."
That fall Dick moved us again two hundred miles, and we left the wild woods and the little home where we had spent several happy years that had their own peculiar and primitive charms. The hands that lighted the lamps and spread the comforts, living in neighborly good will in the little hamlet
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under the great trees, are gone-all gone. A tired pilgrim may hope some day to come up from the river, up the long hill, after the weary journey to immortality, to see a gleaming light and find a glad welcome to the comforts and company for which I have longed at times with a lonely heart. I have greatly missed the sweet fellowship of the long ago, and if old Dick is there I shall be doubly glad. Why not? It has always seemed to me that he should have a place "in the green pastures beside still waters."
AN ADVENTURE IN "HELL SLOUGH."
Levi Davis ( says the Sac Sun ), then a practicing attorney, later cashier of the Sac County Bank, was married late in the summer of 1864, and dur- ing that autumn went with his bride to the eastern part of this state to visit relatives. Early in December they started out on their homeward journey, by way of Fort Dodge and Twin Lakes. At eight o'clock in the morning of . December roth they left Fort Dodge for their home. There was a little snow on the ground and a moderate wind from the northeast. Their conveyance was an open two-seated carriage and they had a driver. About the time they reached the great swamp known as "Purgatory," three miles east of the lakes, the wind changed to a terrible tempest from the northwest and the air was filled with flying snow. They were caught by a blizzard. The temperature fell rapidly and reached thirty degrees below zero. At two o'clock in tlie afternoon they reached the stage station at Twin Lakes and, as it was im- possible to go further, they remained over until nine o'clock Monday, the 12th of the month, when they started on the last stretch of their journey. The snow had stopped blowing and the wind had moderated somewhat, though there was a stiff breeze from the northwest and the mercury stood at twenty below zero. They reached a high hill, halfway between Sac City and Twin Lakes, without accident, but at that point the hind axle broke on their buggy in such a manner that it could not be well repaired. It was decided that the driver should go on to Sac City and procure help, while Mr. and Mrs. Davis kept the robes and made themselves as comfortable as possible in the mean- time. First they descended into "Hell Slough," Mr. Davis carrying a part of the lap robes with him. Mrs. Davis complained that her feet were freez- ing, and so they went down into a well five or six feet deep, where, sheltered from the raging wind, he took her shoes off and, after a vigorous rubbing, finally succeeded in getting up a circulation of blood. Reascending from the dry well, Mr. Davis took the several robes out into the cane-grass some eight to ten feet in height and laid them down in such a shape as to make a
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good protection from the wind. After this Mr. Davis started back to the hill top after more of the robes. After he had gone awhile the Rev. Lamont. presiding elder of the Methodist Episcopal district, came along in his buggy and chanced to see the buffalo robes in the cane-grass and so deliberately drew forth his rifle from the back of his buggy and as he was about to aim and fire, Mrs. Davis, hearing the rattle of his buggy upon coming along, rose up with her robe, thinking help had been sent from Sac City. She was just in time, as the presiding elder was going to shoot at what he supposed to be a live buffalo. Mr. Davis returned with the remaining covering and the preacher wanted them to go back with him to Twin Lakes, but they wanted to come on home to Sac City. so thanked him for the offer, and remained in all three or four hours, when a wagoner, moving some soldiers, picked them up and took them along west, reaching home before nightfall. They met their team coming out after them, but it was supposed they would find the man and his newly married wife frozen before they could reach them. "All is well that ends well!"
CHAPTER XX.
ANIMALS AND GAME BIRDS OF SAC COUNTY.
By John A. Spurrell.
[Believing that this subject should be well treated in the annals of this county, we invited Mr. John A. Spurrell, a man well calculated to produce facts and write an interesting article on this topic, and he has obtained much information by interviews with such men as Hugh Cory, Asa Platt, Orville Lee, Shelt Tiberghiein, of Sac City : C. Everett Lee, Lytton ; John Spurrell, of Wall Lake: Dr. and Mrs. A. S. Hayden, Wall Lake ; H. P. Dudley, Carroll and H. B. Smith, of Odebolt, after which he has written the following able and highly interesting article, which cannot fail to please the reader of local history .- ED.]
Few people of today realize the importance of the game and fur-bearing animals to the early settlers of Sac county. In fact no settlements could have been made until the railroads had been built had there not been an abundance of game and fur-bearing animals. Large game was found in some abundance until 1870, and game birds until 1885 or 1890.
I obtained records of all the large game animals except antelope. Of these. the buffalo or bison were the largest and were found only as stragglers when the first settlers arrived in 1854, having been much hunted by the Indians, but it had been much more abundant formerly, as shown by hundreds of buffalo bones dredged up in Rush lake when it was drained in 1911. Many bones were found also in a miry place on Platt Armstrong's place, near Lake View, and at several other points while digging drainage ditches, while horns were sometimes plowed up on the prairies. Asa Platt killed a three- year-old female buffalo on the county line south of Storm Lake in June, 1858. Three other buffalo crossed the county and were killed west of Lake City, about the same time. Mr. Platt reported two buffalo crossing the southwest corner of the county in 1860, and they were killed near Jefferson. Mr. Shelt Tiberghien saw one buffalo in 1863 about a mile and a half south and three miles west of Sac City, but this one escaped. The largest bunch he heard of was five killed near Lake City in 1862, in Calhoun county. The Johnny Green Indians killed two buffalo on a hunt commencing a mile and a half south of Newell and extending through Sac county to Ida Grove, in 1862.
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All early settlers united in saying that elk or wapiti were plentiful, being found from solitary individuals up to five hundred in a herd. They were . the most important source of meat to the earliest settlers, this place being taken by deer later.
The elk herded in winter and in case of storms took refuge in reed and rush grown ponds, where the reeds were ten feet high or more. In summer- time they scattered out. Elk horns could be picked up by the wagon load in 1856. Shelt Tiberghien captured three calves and raised them to yearlings. The last elk in Sac county was a herd of about forty which went from east of Storm Lake, south through Sae county, crossing the "Goosepond" at Wall Lake, in October, 1869. Deer were plentiful until the winter of 1856-57. when, in deep snow, about three feet on the level, the wolves and hunters nearly exterminated them. One hunter killed thirty as fast as he could shoot. at Mason's Grove in Crawford county, and over one hundred and fifty were killed by the settlers of that grove during that winter. The saddles (two hind quarters) of these deer were sold for fifty cents each in Sioux City. Deer were rare for several years after that winter, then increased and were plentiful until the seventies. They stayed on the prairies and hid in the rushes and tall grass around ponds in summer and took refuge in the hollows and cuts in the hills in winter. If there were any deer in the county they were always to be found between the Boyer river and Indian creek. where these came nearest to each other. Platt Armstrong killed four deer near Lake View in 1880, probably the last in this county, although there may have been a few stragglers later.
This large game furnished much of the meat for the early settlers, although wild dueks, geese, swan, prairie chickens, etc., were plentiful, while at first the fur-bearing animals furnished the only cash revenue.
Muskrats were the most important, because the most abundant. The skins were worth from eight to ten cents in 1857 and from twelve to fifteen each in 1870, when Shelt Tiberghien and two partners trapped six thousand two hundred and fifty muskrats from October, 1870. to May, 1871. The muskrats were called the "savior of the people" and taxes were paid from the proceeds of trapping. Furs and hides were the only products valuable enough to stand transportation by team before the railroad came.
Beaver were very common, the dams they built across the Coon river being so numerous (about a half mile apart ) that there was slack water nearly all the way up the river. These dams doubtless did much to prevent destruc- tive floods, and to equalize the stream flow. Beaver were most plentiful in 1856, and on the Coon river the last dam was straight east of Lake View.
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where Shelt Tiberghien and partner caught thirteen beaver in 1870. The last beaver trapped on the Boyer river were caught in 1886, west of Wall Lake.
Otter were plentiful and, while steadily decreasing in number, held their own better than the beaver, one being caught near Sac City in 1912. One trapper caught five otter one day in early times, and they were worth three dollars a piece then, or less than a mink skin now. The otter lived almost exclusively on fish. In the Coon river pickerel were most abundant, then red horse and suckers: black bass, cat fish, and wall-eyed pike were not so numerons. In Wall lake pickerels were most plentiful, but there were also buffalo, perch and black bass. This lake looked like sleds had been driven all over it in the winter of 1855-56. so numerous were the 'otter slides, ac- cording to Mr. Hugh Cory.
Raccoons, from which the river was named, were common, says Mr. Cory. His father, F. M. Cory, got twelve out of an abandoned beaver hole in the bank of the Coon river, in the winter of 1855-56. A few are still found, two being trapped north of Sac City in the winter of 1913-14.
One black bear was chased by Jim Butler and two other hunters on horseback from south of Wall lake to the Boyer river in 1855. but it escaped.
Mink were common, only a little more common than they were until about five years ago.
Weasels have had about the same abundance all the time, being only tolerably common.
Badgers were very common in the early days on the prairies, and a very few remain yet. One was caught this ( 1913-14) winter, near Wall lake. I think they are increasing slightly and they should be protected, as they live almost entirely upon the big gray and little striped squirrels. Every farmer knows how destructive the large grays are to seed corn after it has been planted.
The large striped skunks were common, twelve being taken out of one hole by one trapper. They are not very common now, at least in the south- ern part of the county. The little spotted skunks were first trapped in 1858, but must have been at Grant City long before that. However, they did not become very common until about 1880, and are now very plentiful. Both kinds of skunks live mostly on meadow mice, white grubs, grasshoppers and such small game and are worthy of protection, except when one gets the chicken-killing habit, as they do occasionally.
There were two species of foxes in Sac county, the red fox and the kit or swift fox. The swift fox stayed on the prairie and was rather rare.
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Hugh Cory trapped one at Correction pond in 1862. Mr. Tiberghien trapped six swift foxes in 18;8. Red fox were most common in 1864. Two trap- pers, in 1864. caught thirty-seven foxes. a few of these were cross foxes. worth five dollars, and one, a silver fox, was worth fifteen dollars; these are color varieties of the red fox. Red fox were worth from one to one and a half dollars each. Many red foxes were killed by strychnine and about 1880 a pack of hounds were brought to Sac City which ran most of the foxes out of the country. An occasional one is still trapped. however. one being caught near Sac City in the winter just passing.
Timber. or large gray wolves, were rather scarce. the last one being killed in 1868. ' Both timber wolves and coyotes caught and ate red foxes. A black wolf, not as large as the timber wolf, was very rare. F. M. Cory. in 1858. captured a pup from a litter playing at the mouth of the den, which animal he kept a year. This was the last one seen.
Coyotes were more plentiful in early days than now, but they are still fairly common and seem to be increasing in numbers, three being trapped near Wall lake the past winter and two reported caught in other parts of this county. Several dens are dug out nearly every spring.
Three Canada lynx were killed in 1869, and a straggler in 1875. but they were rare.
Bob-cats or wild-cats were common. Most of them were killed by 1870. but one was captured in 1885. These two species were found in the heavier timber.
I have obtained no actual record of a panther or puma, but have heard rumors of the same. Probably they were very rare. and were exterminated before the settlement by white men.
A porcupine was killed in Grant City in 1854.
The first gray or barn rat came from New York in the spring of 1858 in a box of goods. It escaped and was trapped the following fall. Barn rats were next reported in 1868.
The large gray ground squirrels or gophers and the little striped ground squirrels were as common as now, and chipmunks were more common than now. in the timber. There were always woodchucks, or ground-hogs. in Grant grove and Lee's grove, ten miles south and eight miles north of Sac City respectively. but they never spread out much until the last ten years. They have spread through the timber and one was caught at Wall lake August 27, 1912.
Orville Lee reported a prairie dog town of about twenty burrows in
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Jackson township in 1900, but these may have been descendants of escaped pets.
Fox, or timber. squirrels have always been found in the larger groves, but were very rare at first and only in late years have they become very plenti- ful. At Wall lake they appeared first about 1904.
Flying squirrels were always found in the timber and a few are found yet. They move about only at night, so are not often seen.
Pocket gophers were found in morning glory patches on the unbroken prairie, and they are and were always common.
Opossums were found in Grant and Lee's groves, when the first settlers came, but were rare. They are still rather scarce, but are increasing. They first appeared around Sac City about 1900, and at Wall lake in 1907, and are spreading out over the prairie, wherever they can find a little timber.
Cottontail. or gray rabbits, were always common, but in early times were found only in the timber. because coyotes were too common, while now al- most none are found in the timber and they are common in the corn fields in the winter.
Jackrabbits, or prairie hares, are becoming more plentiful yearly, but the first record I can find is of one seen in the southern part of the county in 1868 or 1869. One was killed near Lake View in 1879 and it was five years before the hunter saw another. They did not become numerous until about 1890 to 1900.
With game birds Sac county was ever more plentifully supplied than with game animals and fur-bearers. Of these, the largest was the trumpeter and whistling swans. These were common, the whistling the more so, until 1865. The trumpeter swan nested three miles west of Sac City in 1859 and later. The last nest reported was in 1870.
Canada geese were also plentiful and nested until 1880. Snow geese. and white-fronted geese were common, sometimes abundant, and blue geese rare. These species are called brant by hunters. Whooping or white cranes were always rather rare here and I have seen none for several years. Sand- hill cranes were plentiful and nested here until 1878. They are still seen in spring and fall, but rather rare. Pelicans were common, sometimes going in flocks of about one hundred. A hail storm killed seventy-five or eighty pelicans on a pond between Wall lake and Sac City, while migrating in April. They still stop on Wall lake in both spring and fall. They live on fish and are hardly properly called a game bird, but are usually shot because of their size and rarity, but should not be. as they are protected by law.
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