From the Ipswich Tribune Thursday, May 30, 1935 edition
LIFE IN SHANTY ON CLAIM
STORY OF PIONEER LADY
Part III
That year we broke up one hundred acres of prairie and I’ll never forget M. A. Slocum was assessor. He came around and asked me how many acres we had broken and I very proudly said one hundred and then he told me it would be assessed $1 per acre. I guess my countenance fell for he often guyed me about it afterwards. The winter of 1883 and ’84 we lived on our preemption, the shanty was what they called sodded up to make it warm. This was done by plowing sod and cutting it in lengths of about 18 inches to two feet according to the space it was to fill and laying one sod on top of another until the whole shanty was covered. I can’t remember that I was ever very uncomfortable in that house that winter. One of the greatest problems those first years was water, so many wells were dug that turned out to be just dry holes in the ground. Most everyone had to haul water for stock and all household use. We hauled water three miles. These dry wells were a menace to people traveling at night for generally they were just left open. Mr. Caborn had a sad experience with one of them. It was a cold night-the winter of 1888. He was driving some friends to a party when both horses fell into a well and both horses died there, in spite of all their efforts to get them out. Another tragedy that occurred some time in the 1890’s, I think, was the death of Mrs. George Harris. She lived in Kent township and went over into Powell to visit a sick friend was detained a little later than she expected and on the way home it became so dark that she should not guide her horse and drove so near one of those open wells that one wheel ran into the well and she fell out but the horse went on home, The next day a searching party found her body in the well. However, during the big blizzard of ’88 a man I knew of fell in one of those dry wells. It had a covering but not enough to hold snow and the weight of a man. He fell in and tramped the snow down that sifted in all night and in the morning was able to crawl out. He was quite badly frozen but recovered. You see the old rule holds good “every bitter had its sweet.”
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