Transcript Staff Writer
What was life like for the 19th century homesteaders betting against big odds that they could make a living and lonelier than they could have imagined when they were growing up in civilized communities?
The pioneers told how it was, in letters and diaries. Steven R. Kinsella, a great-grandson of homesteaders, has printed many of them in a new book.
"900 Miles From Nowhere: Voices From the Homestead Frontier" is published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press ($29.95, cloth, 216 big pages, 75 photos).
The title comes from a letter by a new bride whose husband had taken her to a sod house in western South Dakota.
The author includes some Oklahoma written accounts and pictures, although most are from farther north in the Great Plains.
One of the most interesting letters was written by a Kansas lawyer (no last name given) to his sister that told how bad conditions could be even before one of the land runs started.
He and a brother both filed claims in the Cherokee Outlet run of Sept. 16, 1893, starting from near Hennessey south of the Strip.
"Large numbers perished from the lack of water mostly," the lawyer wrote, "and also on account of lack of food and excessive heat. Twenty-five innocent children died in one afternoon at Orlando."
He met a woman with a baby who told him the child was dying and she was unable to buy water for it.
The lawyer got some water for her, but he saw her later without the baby.
"The look of despair on her face told the story," he wrote.
He said wells in the area were shallow and the water good.
"A little concerted effort would have supplied the entire throng with plenty of good water," he said.
Many, probably most, of the homesteaders were experienced farmers, but much of the Great Plains did not yield good farming land.
And the settlers hardly could have anticipated the loneliness, the droughts, hail, grasshopper hordes and bitter winters.
There's a touching account of the Children's Blizzard of 1888. It blew in during school hours, and 19 children died in just one place.
Most of the families started with sod houses or fragile tar-paper shacks that barely qualified as dwellings required under the Homestead Act.
Some living conditions got better, and some got worse. Some families stayed and some left, and people from both groups told of their day-to-day experiences as well as the turning points of their lives.
Kinsella, an experienced author, has produced a valuable book that probably will teach some of us things about the lives our ancestors lived.
Features
Letters recall hardships of homestead life
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