From the Ipswich Tribune April 24, 1930 edition
Edmunds County Early History by L.C. Jillson
When I left Aberdeen for Georgetown thirty miles west, I had a load of lumber with a box containing a registered Poland China sow and five little pigs, a hive of bees and a canary bird on top of the load and my cow hitched behind.
My cow had lost her cud when she came fresh. Some wise men there, mostly land sharks told me to give her a chunk of fat port or a greasy dish rag, I was short on pork but I did manage to give her the dish rag. She got worse and I sent for a cow doctor who gave her a few blue pills of mercury I said, “Thank you” but he said “Five dollars please.” She was so weak that she could hardly stand up but I was a presentiment that she stood between me and starvation. There was a man at Snake Creek who had a toll gate and charged a dollar a piece for taking people across. He said he wouldn’t charge me anything as he could see that I was going to populate the country with livestock.
When I reached Mina I unhitched my team. My cow lay down, rested a while licked up some oats, rolled up her eyes, gave up a belch and up came her cud. I was about the tickledest man on this earth as she had advanced from $15 to $100 right there.
I arrived at Georgetown at seven o’clock in the evening. A man there by the name of Ezra Drew kept a wayside inn. George Loomis kept a little store and a man by the name of Doyle kept a saloon. I went in for a glass of lemonade. There was a bunch of fiddler’s and fifers and gamblers and robbers in that nest who had got there in due time for the clean up. I went back and struck Ezra Drew for lodging. I had two sacks of flour and as he was out of flour at that time he agreed to feed me and my whole outfit for one sack of flour. I thought that was very reasonable. Next morning the sky was overcast. As I had no compass I asked Mr. Drew about the directions. He explained them to me and as I thought I had gone about far enough west I meandered six miles north and two miles east, swam my team across the creek and drove down my stake on section 25 in what is now Harmony township. There was only one shanty between Georgetown and where I was located.
The reason that I camped on that creek was that when we were married my wife agreed to furnish the flour if I would furnish the water and the deal was on. Inside of six months she had me beat to it. The creek dried up and I started digging wells, I think it was twelve that I dug on my homestead. Everybody seemed to be digging more wells, about that many on every quarter. If we had concentrated our efforts and dug one long well West we could have had the Missouri river right through this dry belt among the dry wells. Then there was a law passed ordering the squatters to fill these dry wells up. Oh Mister! Another job!
I had now established my residence on my claim. My wife didn’t get there until several months afterward and trying to break a little while batching was a pretty steady job. I broke twelve acres and sowed it to wheat. It went twelve bushels to the acre. Dad threshed my 144 bushels of wheat for me that winter when I was in North Dakota and when I got home I felt pretty well fixed.
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