Worldwide Genealogy: Working with Land Patents and Plat Maps

I am reprising my post about working with land patents and plat maps at Worldwide Genealogy -- A Genealogical Collaboration today. I hope you'll click over and read it if you haven't already and are struggling to learn where your homesteading ancestors lived.

My great grand aunt, Jane (Muir) Beck, was the youngest child of James and Margaret (Semple) Muir. My grandmother always called her Aunt Janie. Janie's grandfather, father, and most of her brothers were coal miners but Janie married a farmer, Herbert Bartist Beck on 20 June 1912 at Lebanon, Illinois. Herbert had been living and working on his brother, John's, farm. They had two children in Illinois, Thelma Christena and John Wesley Beck.

Herbert's brother had been out west with his uncle. He and his wife decided to move to Montana and homestead land in 1918. Herbert and Janie followed them a few years later. They took a train from Illinois and arrived in Roy, Montana, on 7 April 1923.

Roy, Montana, circa 1916; photograph courtesy of the Bureau of Land
Management

In two separate transactions with the General Land Office, Herbert Beck acquired nearly 425 acres of land in two counties.

• 17 October 1928: 
• Southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 27 in Township 20 north, Range 24 east
• 26 September 1928: 
• South half of the northeast quarter of section 34 in Township 20 north, Range 24 east
• Southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 31 in Township 20 north, Range 25 east
• West half of the southeast quarter of section 32 in Township 20 north, Range 25 east
• East half of the southwest quarter of section 32 in Township 20 north, Range 25 east
• Southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 32 in Township 20 north, Range 25 east
• Lot 4 of section 5 in Township 19 north, Range 25 east
• Lot 1 of section 6 in Township 19 north, Range 25 east

Learn how I used this information to locate where the land is and what it looks like today.

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A first-hand account of what life was like on a homestead in Montana may be found here. It was written my Herbert and Jane (Muir) Beck's daughter.

This post was originally published on Tangled Roots and Trees as a 52 Ancestors post.

52 Ancestors #28: Last of the Covered Wagons: The Black Canyon Rim

Ancestor: Clarence Mern Beard (1885-1960)

My AncestryDNA test results have led to many interesting discoveries but one of the earliest connections I figured out was with a fifth cousin once removed. Her tree included many wonderful old photographs of her mother's Beard family, the line we share, and letters they wrote. Perhaps, the most treasured outcome of this cousin connection was the gift of friendship. My "new" cousin has shared many things about her life, including a book her uncle, Clarence Mern Beard, wrote about his family's trip west in a covered wagon at the turn of the century. Railroads already linked east and west so the trip was unusual in that the family was still traveling by covered wagon in the late 1890s. She has graciously allowed me to share portions of the book on my blog.

Clarence Mern Beard, his parents and siblings had spent two winters in the San Louis Valley area of Colorado but their living expenses were exorbitant and to meet them they had to work long hours. This left no time to improve any land they might decide to homestead or purchase. So they set off in their covered wagon in 1898 to continue on to California. The following excerpt from Clarence Mern Beard's book, Last of the Covered Wagons, describes a small portion of the leg of their westward migration.

"The next morning we moved comfortably down a splendid road and entertained the hope that it would only be a matter of miles before we should reach our destination. But the hills began to encroach up on our little valley and the waters turned into a racing, foam-crested torrent. After crossing a bridge, we notice that the river began to drop below us and that the road was threading its way across the face of a cliff. To our right were steep mountains and to our left was a sheer drop of thousands of feet, for we were crawling along the rim of the Black Canyon!

Wagon train traveling along a canyon road; source Union Pacific 

Much of that road had been blasted out of solid rock; and it represented such a difficult undertaking that we had the feeling that we might round a sharp turn, only to find that the road makers had abandoned the task altogether!

Except of an occasional wide place made for passing, this was strictly a one-way road. We wondered what would happen if we should chance to meet another vehicle on one of these extremely narrow stretches. We found the answer when we came face to face with two women who were in a buggy, driving what was fortunately, a gentle team. And this was perhaps the most unpromising section of that whole high cornice drive! But those ladies were Colorado born and appeared to be undisturbed by the situation. They helped us to unhitch their horses, which we led single file by our wagon. We then actually balanced their light buggy over the edge of the cliff, while mother drove our rig past the spot. After this, we dragged their buggy back on the road and re-hitched their team, thus we made a safe and successful meet on an impassable highway!

From those dizzy heights, we looked down at the foot of the gorge, upon what seemed to be toy trains gliding along a track, which fought to find room to wind its way beside the foaming river. Father threw a heavy stone out as far as he could and timed its fall by his watch, in an effort to estimate the depth of this chasm, which we were told measured over 3,000 feet.

This sheer drop was accentuated by the heavy shadows from the opposite wall, which at times closed to within 400 years of our side of that mighty rift. A feature of this canyon is the cathedral-like spire of solid granite, which towers over 1,000 feet above the canyon floor. From our precarious positions, we looked down upon this Curecanti's Needle, but in comparison with the massive walls, this impressive monolith was dwarfed. This whole region had been widely advertised as a scenic wonderland, but to us it brought breath-taking hazard."

Curecanti Needle as it might have looked in Clarence Mern Beard's time;
image courtesy of Detroit Photographic Co.

So the place on the map that today is considered a scenic tourist destination made for very hazardous travel conditions nearly 120 years ago. I find that quite thought provoking.

This is my entry for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge optional theme Road Trip.

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Clarence Mern Beard was a born on 7 November 1885 in Ansley, Nebraska, to William Adam and Emma Elizabeth (Ellison) Beard. He was the second of nine children and their eldest son. Between 1895 and 1898 the family migrated west to Colorado and two years later to California. In 1912 Clarence married Helen May Banker and together they had two sons. Clarence died in on 29 August 1960 in Oakland, California.

Last of the Covered Wagons: Duck and Cover
Last of the Covered Wagons: Meeting a Rattlesnake

52 Ancestors #25: Working with Land Patents and Plat Maps

Ancestors: Herbert Bartist Beck (1889-1981) and Jane (Muir) Beck (1894-1990)

My great grand aunt, Jane (Muir) Beck, was the youngest child of James and Margaret (Semple) Muir. My grandmother always called her Aunt Janie. Janie's grandfather, father, and most of her brothers were coal miners but Janie married a farmer, Herbert Bartist Beck on 20 June 1912 at Lebanon, Illinois. Herbert had been living and working on his brother, John's, farm. They had two children in Illinois, Thelma Christena and John Wesley Beck.

Herbert's brother had been out west with his uncle. He and his wife decided to move to Montana and homestead land in 1918. Herbert and Janie followed them a few years later. They took a train from Illinois and arrived in Roy, Montana, on 7 April 1923.

Roy, Montana, circa 1916; photograph courtesy of the Bureau of Land
Management

In two separate transactions with the General Land Office, Herbert Beck acquired nearly 425 acres of land in two counties.

• 17 October 1928: 
• Southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 27 in Township 20 north, Range 24 east
• 26 September 1928: 
• South half of the northeast quarter of section 34 in Township 20 north, Range 24 east
• Southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 31 in Township 20 north, Range 25 east
• West half of the southeast quarter of section 32 in Township 20 north, Range 25 east
• East half of the southwest quarter of section 32 in Township 20 north, Range 25 east
• Southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 32 in Township 20 north, Range 25 east
• Lot 4 of section 5 in Township 19 north, Range 25 east
• Lot 1 of section 6 in Township 19 north, Range 25 east

These are the legal descriptions found on a land patent of parcels of land identified using the cadastral survey system, which was used by the United States federal government when Montana was surveyed and is still in use today. A township was 6 square miles and contained 36 one-square mile sections, or 640 acres. A quarter of a quarter section was 40 acres.

Map of lands surveyed by the government using the cadastral system;
courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management

Townships were arranged north and south along the principal meridian and ranges, east and west along the baseline. Once you know the section, township, and range numbers, there are several apps that enable you to view the land as it is today to gain a better understanding of where your ancestors lived. Plat maps have become favorites of mine and I collect them for the places my ancestors lived.

Township/Range map of Fergus County, Montana, c1916.
Township 20N/Range 24E is the square with Crooked and Antelope creeks
on the upper left. Township 20N/Range 25E is to the right. Below them are
Township 19N/Range 25E is on the lower right. Map courtesy of the Montana
Memory Project.

Township/Range maps can be found on the Bureau of Land Management's General Land Records website. Click the Survey Plats and Field Notes link and enter the legal description of the land. From the search results page, I click the Plat image icon and scroll down to the bottom of the page and generate a PDF document.

Original survey of Township 20N/Range 24E, dated 1914. Herbert Beck
owned the south half of the northeast quarter of Section 34. Image courtesy
of the Bureau of Land Management

I've drawn the south half of Section 34 on the image so you can better understand how the subdividing of sections work.

The northeast quarter of Section 34 divided into quarters and a south half

Here is what the south half of the northeast quarter of Section 34 in Township 20N/Range 24E looks like today from a satellite:

Satellite view from Google Earth

This is my entry for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge optional theme Old Homestead.

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A first-hand account of what life was like on a homestead in Montana may be found here. It was written my great grand aunt and uncle, Herbert and Jane (Muir) Beck's daughter.

Homestead Shacks Over Buffalo Tracks

My great grand aunt, Jane (Muir) Beck, was the youngest child of James and Margaret (Semple) Muir. My grandmother always called her Aunt Janie. She married a farmer, Herbert Bartist Beck on 20 June 1912 at Lebanon, Illinois. They had two children in Illinois, Thelma Christena and John Wesley Beck. In 1923 they moved west to Montana and homesteaded land. After my great grandfather retired from the coal mines, he traveled to Montana to visit with his sister, Janie.

From left to right: Robert Muir; his sister, Janie (Muir) Beck, his nephew, John
Wesley Beck from my personal collection

Janie's life seemed so different from the rest of her siblings who mostly stayed in the midwest and worked in coal mines or factories. What was life like in big sky county for Janie and her family?

In 1990 the Roy History Committee published Homestead Shacks Over Buffalo Tracks: History of Northeastern Fergus County. Thelma (Beck) Erickson, Herbert and Janie's daughter provided three articles about her family and their early experiences in Montana. So I'll my first cousin twice removed, Thelma tell the story.

"I, Thelma Beck Erickson, remember my trip to Montana, when I arrived at Roy with my parents and brother, Johnnie on the train. This was a long train ride. The last 22 miles to my uncle John's homestead, we traveled by pickup and car.

In Billings, we saw our first Indians. There was a pow-wow going on and we saw papooses, feathered head dresses, beautiful blankets and real Indians. What a sight for a seven-year-old girl!

It was all green at Trenton, Illinois when we left there and there was snow on the ground at Roy. Uncle John came with his pickup, to haul our trunks and his neighbor, T. L. Petersen came with his car, two-seated with side curtains. The back seat held our suitcases, grub box and some groceries and just enough room for me to sit, while Mr. Petersen and Pop were in the front seat. Mom and Johnnie rode with Uncle John. It was late that night when we finally arrived, for whenever we came to a steep hill, Mom and Johnnie got out and walked and T. L. and Pop would push, as the pickup was weighted down with our possessions. We followed in T. L.'s car.

Janie (Muir) Beck, son John, and husband Herbert Bartist Beck; photograph
from Homestead Shacks Over Buffalo Tracks published by the Roy History
Committee

The next morning, the snow was so white and pretty. All the winter wheat that had come up was covered. One of those late spring Montana snow storms. That same year, 2 August 1923, there was snow on Black Butte.

The folks lived in cramped quarters in the three-room shack with Uncle John and Aunt Ethel. He had moved another shack prior to our coming and so, when warmer weather came, my family slept there and we continued to cook and eat with Uncle John. Mom helped with housework, cooking and canning and Pop helped Uncle John while he was filing on our homestead.

At this time, the land was not in one piece. One parcel was right on Crooked Creek with the creek running the full way across. One parcel had been homesteaded and let go so it was again open. This place had a shack with a gabled roof and small dam, plus some old machinery had been left. This was four miles down Crooked Creek. Pop made a road across those four miles and finally got some converts for crossings. He fenced all the land, but there was often trouble with wires being cut, which allowed range cattle, horses and sheep to get in, eat and trample the crop which was so hard to grow.

My first cousin twice removed, John Wesley Beck; courtesy of
Exploring Central Montana's Past: Missouri Breaks Historical Homesteads
Tour published by Bureau of Land Management

The folks got a shack moved onto another parcel Dad owned where we went to live. It was roofed with heavy metal roofing and a slate covered, heavy tar paper was put on the outside. The inside was covered with a heavy pale blue building paper, put up with lath to secure it. Mom made curtains to put around beds and in one corner. We had a cookstove with two doors in the oven, hearth in front and a water reservoir in back, tin stove pipes and a metal roof-jack, so that no wood would be near the paper as they would get hot. We had a brick chimney later. As time went on, another building was added, giving us two rooms. We had one bed and two cots. The kitchen was used as the dining room and a place for the cream separator. Cream was our cash product from milking cows. Later we bought the Garwood house, as this family had moved away, and it was added to our home. It gave us three bedrooms and it had a brick chimney, also a little room that was intended for a bathroom (this was never accomplished) and it was used for a clothes closet. The north room was my special den when I was home. Mom and I did a lot of sewing and made many quilts and rugs.

I started school at Little Crooked and boarded away from home with the Bakers for two terms. They lived at the Little Crooked post office and store, which was on the north side of the Rocky Point Trail, across from the log school building. The building was used as a dance hall, meeting place, voting and for political gatherings. Yes, there were politics then!

The Byford School District #207 was formed and had the first school in 1925-26 term with Hazel Van Heining and Roland Schrier as the teachers. Johnny and I and the younger Jakes children attended. 

Courtesy of Exploring Central Montana's Past: Missouri Breaks Historical Homesteads
Tour; published by Bureau of Land Management

I used to stay with Mabel Cottrell and helped with all her small children and did the milking. With the money I earned, I bought my first pair of patent leather dress shoes with a strap. I cleaned them with Vaseline and put them in a shoe box and wore them for Sunday and special occasions. 

My folks got our first car in 1934 and it was second-hand. This was shortly before I was married. My brother John went right to work on that car and that started him fixing autos and the car business which was the love of his life. As I write his, many old friends and neighbors have gone over the Great Divide and we who are left aren't getting any younger.

Who's Your Daddy, Alfred Riggin?

Alfred Riggin was Alice (Muir) Jennings' great grandfather. She was my paternal grandmother. For many months, I thought Alfred descended from Teague Riggin, who settled in Somerset County, Maryland, by 1667. But I was incorrect. He may yet tie into Teague's line, but right now my working theory is he was dropped by aliens into Madison County, Illinois, in the early 1830s.

Alfred lived during a time in history that wasn't too fussed with keeping records and seemed to me more interested in fighting Native-Americans, arguing about the "peculiar institution" of slavery, acquiring land, and prospering if they could. Madison County began recording land sales in 1802 and marriages and probate records in 1813. The first census was enumerated in 1820. Births began to be recorded in 1858 and deaths in 1877.

Alfred was born about 1811 in Tennessee and disappeared from the records after 1850, neatly dodging almost every helpful record that could have been left about him.

According to the Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900, a searchable database available from the Illinois State Archives, Alfred Riggin and Sally (a nickname for Sarah) Piper obtained a marriage license on 7 April 1833 in Madison County.

On April 1836, the Illinois Public Land Purchase Records, 1813-1909, indicated he purchased 40 acres of land, or a quarter section, for $50. The land was described as Section 25, Township 4 North, Range 7 West. This purchase was later recorded at the U.S. General Land Office in Edwardsville on 1 August 1844 and Alfred received Certificate No. 16142 as proof of his ownership. John Tyler was president of the United States of America at the time.

1844 U.S. General Land Office Certificate for land owned by Alfred
Riggin; image courtesy of Ancestry.com

The 1840 census indicated there were 5 people in Alfred's household. He was between 20-29 years of age, so, too, his wife. He was born in Tennessee and she was born in Ohio. One adult could not read or write; this was likely his wife, Sally. They had three male children living in the household with them: two under 5 years of age and one between 5 and 9 years. Alfred was a farmer.

Ten years later the census documents included names of the people living in a household, but not their relationship to each other. That did not begin until 1880. Alfred was 39 years old; his wife Sarah, whose nickname was Sally, was 36 years old. Their likely children, enumerated in the 1840 census, were now named: John W., 15; Nathaniel D., 13; and James Carrol, 11. In addition, three more children have been added to the household: Theodore A., 9; William H., 5; and Mary J., one year old.

Then, poof! Alfred disappeared after the 1850 census was enumerated just as suddenly as he appeared in 1833. The entire family was missing in action in 1860. I need to browse those records page by page in order to locate them.

Alfred's widow reappeared in 1870. She was living on Alfred's farm in Township 4, Range 7, next door to her son James and his wife and child. She lived with her son William, who was now 25 years old, and owned his father's farm, or at least a portion of it. The land was valued at $2,500 and William's personal estate, at $600. A pretty good return on Alfred's initial $50 investment!

Section 25 of Township 4, Range 7, in Madison County; Illustrated
Encyclopedia and Atlas Map of Madison County, Illinois, 1873

Sarah's oldest son, John W., also lived there. He was a widower and with him were his three children by Mary Ramsey: Josephine, Harrison, and Alice Mary. Mary J. Riggin was now 21 years old. She, too, lived with the household. She had married Charles H. Norton and had an infant son, William Henry, who was 8 months old.

In 1880, Sarah lived in Jarvis Township, the name then for Township 4. She listed her occupation as retired farmer. Living with her were two grandchildren: Tressa, Theodore's daughter, and Mary's son, who went by Harry at the time.

According to her headstone, Sarah died 30 July 1887 in Troy, Illinois, which is a town in Jarvis Township. From her headstone, I also learned she was born on 7 March 1813. She was buried in the Troy City Cemetery. No record of Alfred's burial has been discovered.

Research To-Do List:

1. Look for Alfred in the 1820 census. He won't be named, but he should have been about 9 years old.
2. Look for Alfred in the 1830 census. He may not be named, but he should have been about 19 years old.
3. Order Alfred Riggin and Sarah Piper's marriage records.
4. Look for Sarah (Piper) Riggin and her children in the 1860 census.
5. Order a book of cemetery inscriptions from the Madison County Illinois Genealogical Society; maybe Alfred will be listed.

Any other suggestions?

52 Ancestors #3: Tough Life, Tough Lady

Ancestor Name: Lela Ann (HARBERT) Amsberry (1873-1952)

Lela Ann Harbert was born on 13 March 1873 in Mason County, West Virginia, to Elbert Francis and Sarah Ellen (Shriver) Harbert. The Harbert family had lived in what became the State of West Virginia since Virginia was a British Colony.

Lela was the third of nine children and her father was a farmer. Like many of his contemporaries, he decided to migrate west and homestead land in Custer County, Nebraska. In April 1887 he followed his friend and neighbor, Francis Everett Amsberry, who had moved his family to Nebraska by renting a half of a box car in 1885.

But life out west did not go well for the Harbert family. Lela's mother died in 1888 when her youngest daughter was just 17 months old and Lela Ann was 15. The younger children were farmed out to willing friends and the older ones were left to fend for themselves. Their father was no longer much of a presence in their lives.

On 25 March 1889 in Custer County, 28-year-old James Martin Amsberry, son of Francis Everett Amsberry, married 16-year-old Lela Ann Harbert. According to a poem he wrote about his wife in 1913, he fell in love with her two years before when he went back to West Virginia to collect debts from people who owed his father money.

In two separate claims James acquired 240 acres of land in Custer County and by 1900 he owned the farm and a printing business. He and Lela had six children between 1890 and 1907.

The James Martin Amsberry Family circa 1896.
James is holding Tinsie Ethel, Roy Frances and Carl
Everett are standing and Guy Matthew is on Lela's lap;
photo courtesy of Ancestry.com member ChrisIller.

In 1902 Lela's brother, John Harbert left his wife, who he married in 1896, and young son. Lela was incensed after a visit from her brother. She wrote to his estranged wife, Jennie:

"He told me he intended to get loose from you as soon as he could but when he investigated he knew he had not a ghost of a chance...He has been running around with Emma Bennett, a woman of disreputable character and also has two illegal children...to parade around the street with that dirty thing...He has acted so mean with us about the rest he owes us that I won't keep no secrets for him. I am done with him...I guess if he lands in the pen, it won't be any worse disgrace than we are enduring now anyhow...I want him to have to pay you about $50 a month, and have to keep on the wrestle to earn it and not have so much to spend with some other woman about like Em Bennett or pour it down his neck.[1]

In 1915 James and Lela's two oldest children, Carl Everett and Roy Francis, and their wives moved to Oregon. A few months later Lela, along with her two youngest children, Hugh Martin and Vivian Louise, followed her older children to Oregon, leaving her husband behind. James followed the next spring after selling his newspaper, The Miller Sun, a public auction. I get the sense James didn't have much business sense as the family always seemed to struggle financially.

Amsberry Men: Father, James Martin
Amsberry on the left and his oldest sons,
Carl and Roy to the right circa 1916;
photograph courtesy of Ancestry.com
member cfm1151

Times were hard for the family in Oregon. They survived on apples the first year. They built a wooden platform and erected a tent and that's where they lived through the winter before Lela's husband arrived. That summer the men built a primitive house. Lela's daughter Vivian described what happened next in her book, My Mother's Daughter:

"The next few years are rather mixed in my mind. Apparently Mama became tired of carrying water uphill from the spring, and eating whatever wild game my brothers could trap and retrieve ahead of the coyotes. So without fanfare, she bundled me up and took me off again into an unknown world. I saw my Dad only a few times after that.

Mama never seemed to be out of a job...Another time she took care of an invalid lady in Portland. I remember how upset she became when Dad called on her there. I couldn't understand what was going on, but not terribly long after that Mama started talking about a divorce...She was repelled at the sight of Dad and equated her life with him as a form of slavery thus befalling every married woman. She grouped all the male gender together as having a single purpose in life, that of 'using' the female counterpart for his pleasures. The very odious overtones of her remarks scarred me for life. For years I thought of sex as a dirty word and something to be hidden in a closet!"

Lela Ann (Harbert) Amsberry date unknown;
courtesy of Ancestry.com member
Brian_Harbert

Lela Ann (Harbert) Amsberry lived a sometimes tragic and always difficult life but I think of her as a tough woman mostly for warping her youngest daughter's view of men, marriage, and sex. She seemed a cold, unforgiving woman. Her life perhaps marred by tragedy and what for her was an unhappy marriage. Sadly, her husband loved her until he died in 1939, likely at the Oregon State Hospital for the Insane where he had been an inmate on or before 1930. He wrote in his diary, "One thing if it is the Lord's desire, I hope to be restored to the mother of my children, the wife of my youth." 

This is my entry for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challengeoptional theme Tough Woman.

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[1]Excerpted from Echoes from the Blockhouse: The Thomas Harbert Family Saga by Brian and David Harbert.

Lela Ann Harbert was born on 13 March 1873 in Marion County, West Virginia, to Elbert Francis and Sarah Ellen (Shriver) Harbert. The family moved to Mason County, West Virginia, before 1876 and then to Custer County, Nebraska, in 1887. She married James Martin Amsberry on 20 March 1989. They had six children between 1890 and 1907. In 1915 Lela Ann moved to Oregon with her two youngest children. She divorced her husband between 1920 and 1930. He died in 1939 and she died in 1952. They are buried beside each other in the same lot in Multnomah Park Cemetery in Portland, Oregon. So James got his wish and was reunited with "the mother of my children, the wife of my youth."

Dead Poets Society

52 Ancestors #2: Fleeing a Tsar

Ancestor Name: Wilhelm Schalin (1859-1952)

We know the Schalin family considered themselves German, but we have no idea from where in Germany they originated. Wilhelm Schalin's great grandfather married Anna Dorothea Rosnian in 1791 at Wladylawowo, Poland, which is located on the shores of Gdansk Bay. Prussia, Austria, and Russia had taken chunks of the country in 1772 in what became known as the first Polish partition. In and 1795 the three countries partitioned Poland again until it was erased from the maps of Europe.

Wladylawowo, Poland, the first reference of the Schalin family in Poland

When Prussia took over their Polish territories, they discovered about 1,500 German villages had already been established. During Prussia's rule, they established more settlements. In 1806, Napoleon created the Duchy of Warsaw. But it was short lived. Russia pushed Napoleon out of Poland in 1812-1813. In 1815 Congress Poland was created, but its foreign affairs were controlled by Russia. Portions of Poland that were under Austria's control were added to Congress Poland and German settlement spread to those areas. By the mid 1800s, there were about 325,000 Germans living in what is now Poland's western half of the country. In 1831 there was a Polish uprising and Russia took full control of the country.

Russia had also acquired the Volhynia region of what is now Ukraine during the Polish partitions and controlled its destiny for 120 years. The vast areas of the region were largely unsettled wilderness which had never been cultivated by its former owners, Polish nobility. In 1862, Tsar Alexander II freed the serfs from the land and many left the farms for better work opportunities. The Boyar landowners were left with large tracts of land but no workers and no income from the land. The owners encouraged Germans living in Poland to lease their land. The Germans responded in large numbers. In 1861 there were less than 5,000 German families living in Volhynia. By 1915 there were 235,000 families. Wilhelm's father, Gottlieb Schalin moved his family to Volhynia between 1861 and 1863.

A German farmhouse in Volhynia; photograph courtesy of Lucille Fillenberg Effa

In 1881 Alexander III became tsar of Russia. Unlike his father, he was very conservative and reversed several of his father's liberal policies. He believed the country could only be saved by the political ideal of single nationality, language and religion. He attempted to realize this ideal by mandating the teaching of Russian throughout the empire, outlawing any other religion but Russian Orthodoxy, and weakening foreign institutions in whatever manner possible. Alexander III rescinded the ban on German men serving in the Russian army and levied new taxes on German communities. By this time many of the Germans living in Volhynia were German Baptists. Their religion was outlawed and their ministers arrested.

Wilhelm Schalin, my great grandfather

Wilhelm Schalin decided it was time to leave Volhynia. His family and several others traveled to Liverpool, England, and boarded the S/S Sarmatian on 21 April 1893. They arrived at the port of Quebec on 4 May 1893 and traveled by train to Winnipeg, Manitoba. After purchasing needed supplies, the families continued west and homesteaded land in the Leduc area of Alberta, Canada, which at the time was part of the North-West Territories.  Wilhelm Schalin homesteaded section SW15-T49-R24-W4. A year later my grandmother was born on 23 May 1894.

S/S Sarmatian

And that's how my Schalin family came to live in Canada.

This is my entry for Amy Johnson Crow's 52 ancestors in 52 weeks challenge optional theme King.

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This post was originally published on 27 March 2014.

Starvation Faced Fredericksheim
History of Fredericksheim
Fearless Women: Religion
Differing Memories or Family Reunions Can Be Dangerous

Starvation Faced Fredericksheim

This story was adapted from a letter written by Ed C. Jeager and appeared in the book entitled From the Frontier Days in Leduc and District, which was published by the Leduc Historical Society to commemorate Alberta's 75th anniversary.

As the last forms were being locked up for this book a letter came from Mr. Ed. C. Jaeger telling of pioneer days at Fredericksheim, and that goes back to 1893 when Rev. F. A. Mueller led a group of Russian settlers into that district, first white homesteaders southeast of Leduc. There were the Falkenbergs (two families), Schalins (two families), Bienert, Hammer, Hiller, Boelter (or Belter), Khunert, Klatt, Roth and a few others. The colony faced actual starvation when the federal government and Winnipeg people sent flour, for rabbits then had a disease that made them unfit for food. Rev. Mueller tried valiantly to comfort his lamenting, homesick colony, predicting great things if they only stayed and had faith in God.

A German farmhouse in then Volhynia, Russia; photograph courtesy of
Lucille Effa Fillenberg

So most of the settlers braved the adversities and after many years their faith was more than justified for it's a fine district today. Later immigrants, also from Russia, were terrified at the echoing howls of the coyotes, which they were told were prairie wolves, and two men without families and with pocket money started walking back. They were Muth (Courage in German) and Froelich (Happiness in German) and they finally made it to Winnipeg overland but with shoe soles gone. The remainder of the newcomers stayed with Rev. Mueller and his people, only because they and no money to return to the old land, where they had left good homes. Later on they could laugh at their troubles, as had a Mr. Hiebert from Oregon who came on the same twice weekly train to Leduc and thought it highly amusing that men named Courage and Happiness were wailing louder than the coyotes they were afraid would eat them alive!

Typical southern Alberta pioneer home; photograph courtesy of Norm
Kerychuk

It's quite different from the homes they left in the Volhynia region of what was then Russia don't you think?

History of Fredericksheim
Fearless Females: Religion
Fearless Females: Immigration
Being German in Tsarist Russia: Why They Left
Moving Halfway Around the World in 1893

History of Fredericksheim

This story was written by Rudolf Grunwald, a distant cousin, and appeared in the book entitled From the Frontier Days in Leduc and District, which was published by the Leduc Historical Society to commemorate Alberta's 75th anniversary.

My Schalin great grandparents immigrated to the Leduc area of Alberta in May 1893 and settled in the area that became known as Fredericksheim. My grandmother was their first child born in their new country.

My great grandfather, Wilhelm Schalin. Personal
collection.

Rudolf Grunwald's story movingly tells why they came and the hardships they faced:

"Our parents left middle Europe for various reasons. Among the complaints were overcrowded conditions, lack of personal and church freedom and generally poor government. Owing to the ban on religious gatherings the church sent Rev. F. A. Mueller to Canada to look around for a place in which their people could locate. Upon his return to the Old Land he recommended the district of Leduc in the far off Northwest Territories of Canada. Thus the first group of settlers landed in Leduc in the spring of 1893, homesteading nine miles southeast of the depot and railway siding that then constituted the place called Leduc. The second group of settlers arrived in the fall of 1893 and took up land in the same locality as the first group.

Needless to say there were no roads, only deep-rutted wagon trails winding through the timber from house to house, and the wagons being drawn mainly be oxen, with scarcely any horses in the new community. Much of the moving about was done on foot. But gradually small clearings were chopped out of the bush and attempts made at growing wheat and coarse grains. At the first early frosts and even snowstorms ruined most of the grain, especially wheat, and flour had to be ground from the frozen darnels. First threshing was by means of flails, or by having horses trample on the straw on frozen ground, after which it was thrown against the wind to remove the grain from the chaff. It the spring grain was sown broadcast by hand and covered with harrows or brush drags. Not many years went by however before improvement was made in seeding equipment and a horse-powered threshing machine was secured to take care of enlarged fields, and within a few seasons steam-powered threshing engines were brought into the settlement.

A German farmhouse in then the Volhynia region of Russia; photograph
courtesy of Lucille Effa Fillenberg

The first dwellings at Fredericksheim, as in other parts of the entire Leduc district, were made of logs but instead of sod such as most other settlers used, the German immigrants often thatched their house roofs with straw and hay but there were no windows at first and heat came from open fireplaces built of clay. Hardships were common and constant. Quite often families had to live without any bread or flour for two or three weeks at a time, the main food supply being the native rabbits. These were caught by digging deep holes on rabbit trails or near hay stacks and covering the top with logs and wild hay which the animals dearly loved. The only work available for the men was whip sawing lumber by hand for which the going wage was $0.25 a day, the workman providing his own grub.

Bush fires were frequent until the wet seasons came along in 1899, and while the fires helped clear the land they often got out of hand and all night vigils were necessary to save the log buildings. The first settler was John Frederick and after the first school was built about the close of the last century the district was named Fredericksheim in his memory. The first church was build in 1894 of hand sawn lumber with Rev. F. A Mueller as pastor. The first dinner guest was a big black bear which came out of the woods to investigate a kettle of rabbit stew cooking over an open fire. It's worthy of note that many of the settlers in Fredericksheim took up homesteads that had been filed earlier and abandoned by people from Ontario, Minnesota and the Dakotas. The first teacher in the Fredericksheim school was Charles Richardson.

Photograph taken in 1903 in front of the First Baptist Church in
Fredericksheim. My great grandfather helped build the church;
photograph courtesy of Lucille Effa Fillenberg

Fearless Females: Religion
Fearless Females: Immigration
Being German in Tsarist Russia: Why They Left
Moving Halfway Around the World in 1893

Fearless Females: Immigration

March is Women's History month and the Accidental Genealogist has 31 blogging prompts to help celebrate women's historical achievements. The blogging prompt for today is:

Do you know the immigration story of one or more female ancestors? Do you have any passenger lists, passports, or other documentation? Interesting family stories?

This year in celebration of Women's History month, I am focusing on my maternal grandmother, Wilhelmina (Schalin) Lange, my namesake. She was the first child of Wilhelm Schalin and Auguste Fabriske to be born in Alberta, Canada, after the family emigrated from the Volhynia region of what was then Russia.  This is their story.

We know the Schalin family considered themselves German, but we have no idea from where in Germany they originated. Wilhelmina's great great grandfather married Anna Dorothea Rosnian in 1791 at Wladylawowo, Poland, which is located on the shores of Gdansk Bay. Prussia, Austria, and Russia had taken chunks of the country in 1772 in what became known as the first Polish partition. In and 1795 the three countries partitioned Poland again until it was erased from the maps of Europe.

Wladylawowo, Poland, the first reference of the Schalin family in Poland

When Prussia took over their Polish territories, they discovered about 1,500 German villages had already been established. During Prussia's rule, they established more settlements. In 1806, Napoleon created the Duchy of Warsaw. But it was short lived. Russia pushed Napoleon out of Poland in 1812-1813. In 1815 Congress Poland was created, but its foreign affairs were controlled by Russia. Portions of Poland that were under Austria's control were added to Congress Poland and German settlement spread to those areas. By the mid 1800s, there were about 325,000 Germans living in what is now Poland's western half of the country. In 1831 there was a Polish uprising and Russia took full control of the country.

Russia had also acquired the Volhynia region of what is now Ukraine during the Polish partitions and controlled its destiny for 120 years. The vast areas of the region were largely unsettled wilderness which had never been cultivated by its former owners, Polish nobility. In 1862, Tsar Alexander II freed the serfs from the land and many left the farms for better work opportunities. The Boyar landowners were left with large tracts of land but no workers and no income from the land. The owners encouraged Germans living in Poland to lease their land. The Germans responded in large numbers. In 1861 there were less than 5,000 German families living in Volhynia. By 1915 there were 235,000 families. My grandmother's grandfather, Gottlieb Schalin moved his family to Volhynia between 1861 and 1863.

A German farmhouse in Volhynia; photograph courtesy of Lucille Fillenberg Effa

In 1881 Alexander III became tsar of Russia. Unlike his father, he was very conservative and reversed several of his father's liberal policies. He believed the country could only be saved by the political ideal of single nationality, language and religion. He attempted to realize this ideal by mandating the teaching of Russian throughout the empire, outlawing any other religion but Russian Orthodoxy, and weakening foreign institutions in whatever manner possible. Alexander III rescinded the ban on German men serving in the Russian army and levied new taxes on German communities. By this time many of the Germans living in Volhynia were German Baptists. Their religion was outlawed and their ministers arrested.

Wilhelm Schalin, my great great grandfather

Wilhelm Schalin decided it was time to leave Volhynia. His family and several others traveled to Liverpool, England, and boarded the S/S Sarmatian on 21 April 1893. They arrived at the port of Quebec on 4 May 1893 and traveled by train to Winnipeg, Manitoba. After purchasing needed supplies, the families continued west and homesteaded land in the Leduc area of Alberta, Canada, which at the time was part of the North-West Territories.  Wilhelm Schalin homesteaded section SW15-T49-R24-W4. A year later my grandmother was born on 23 May 1894.

S/S Sarmatian

And that's how my Schalin family came to live in Canada.

Biblical Plague or a Locust Infestation?

In 1876 the U.S. Congress called the locust "the single greatest impediment to settlement of the country between Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains." Or so I learned when I read Jeffrey Lockwood's 2004 book, "Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American Frontier."

This is yet another case when my quirky taste in reading material has helped with my current genealogy obsession. The book was fascinating because the infestation of locusts was simply amazing to imagine. They would be so dense in the sky, they darkened the day, blotting out the sun. They were voracious eaters, and would even eat the fabric of your clothing in their quest for sustenance. Their annual plagues played a large part in the creation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, modern agricultural research, and public welfare. It was one of the first times the federal government aided citizens in time of need, though as with today's highly-divided political climate, that aid was not without detractors. Many believed the homesteaders of the Great Plains states, through bad behavior, caused the locust to attack their crops just like the Old Testament Biblical plague. Many of my Beard and Amsberry ancestors were early settlers of Nebraska and would have lived through these infestations.

Photo courtesy of Nirbiru-planetx.com

I was reminded of Lockwood's book after discovering "Compendium of History, Reminiscence and Biography of Western Nebraska Containing a History of the State of Nebraska," which was published in 1909.  The chapter on miscellaneous historical matters included an article, "The Locust or the Grasshoppers." Harrison Johnson wrote:

"During the growing season of 1874 and 1875 the Rocky Mountain locust, or grasshopper, visited Nebraska and did incalculable damage by devouring crops in a large portion of the state. In many sections, more particularly in the western and middle counties, the destruction of crops by these insects was almost complete, not a vestige of anything green being left untouched by them; and as many of the farmers living in the sections so afflicted were new settlers, the total loss of crops upon which they were dependent for the support of their families, was a great calamity and caused much distress and suffering. The destitution was so widespread and so great in some localities that public aid was asked for, for the relief of the sufferers." 

An 1875 map shows the swath of locust infestation that decimated crops and left land barren. Photo courtesy of the Missouri State Historical Society

He then goes on to state:

"While it is true that the damage done by the locust was very great, and caused much genuine distress among the people in several counties, yet the whole matter was greatly exaggerated and enlarged upon by a certain busy class of persons who somehow always come to the front on such occasions actuated generally by to further their own selfish ends than by any kindly, true feeling for the distressed. This blatant noisy class, with their loud demonstrations and universal begging, not only disgusted the more sensible people, did the state an injury next to that of the locusts themselves."

That last paragraph sounded me of boosterism or something the U.S. Chamber of Commerce might have written 100 or so years ago!

Soddy Profiles: Darius Amsberry

The Illustrated History of Nebraska, History of Nebraska from the Earliest Explorations to the Present time with Portraits, Maps and Tables, Volume III,  by Albert Watkins, PhD, and published in 1913 was another fabulous find on Google Play. I found a biographical sketch of an Amsberry ancestor, who was mover-and-shaker in Custer County, Nebraska.

Darius Matthew Amsberry, educator, editor, and receiver of the United States land office, Broken Bow, was born in Marion County, Iowa, near the town of Knoxville September 10, 1851. His paternal great grandfather came from England to America. His grandfather, William Amsberry, was a native of New York, removed to Mason County, West Virginia, married Polly Everett, and during the Mexican War served in the United States Army. One of his children was William F. Amsberry, born in Mason County, West Virginia, in 1821. In 1847 he settled in Marion County, Iowa, talking up a homestead near Pella on the Des Moines river, and married Harriet A. Brown, born in West Virginia. Her father was of Irish descent and her mother of the Kimberling family of England. For some years William F. Amsberry was engaged in the sawmill and lumber business at Coalport, Iowa, and from that place moved to Nebraska in 1879, and became the owner of 320 acres in the Muddy valley, Custer county. He died in 1886 and his wife died at their Nebraska home in 1895. They had reared a family of seven children, one of whom is Darius M. Amsberry.

Until the latter was sixteen years old, he attended the public schools of Iowa, and for three years attended the Central University. In February 1874, he became a settler in Hall County, Nebraska. He taught school in all for sixty-four terms, forty-nine of which were spent in Nebraska. For six years he was superintendent of schools for Custer county. As county superintendent of schools he organized 170 school districts. He held the first teachers' institute in the county in a mill building, which was not completed, at Westerville, in April 1882, and in 1883, the institute was held at Broken Bow. The first institute was of three days duration, the second of one week, and the next was organized as a normal institute and lasted six weeks. These institutes established by Mr. Amsberry have since been continued by his successors.

For twenty-three years, he has been editor and publisher of the Broken Bow Republican. He also served for some years as justice of the peace in Custer county. Mr. Amsberry is a member of the Masonic order, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Modern Brotherhood of America, the Royal Highlanders, and the Nebraska Press Association, and he has held office in all of them. He has been chosen a deacon in the Baptist church for more than a quarter of a century, and vice president of the Nebraska Baptist state convention for four years, and is vice president of the board of trustees of the Grand Island Baptist College.

Grand Island Baptist College circa 1910. Photograph courtesy of the JournalStar.com

He was married April 8, 1875, to Evaline Greenlee of Corydon, Iowa, and six children have been born to them: Minnie M. Clay, wife of J. W. Clay; Lorin W.; Anna R. Foote, wife of Carl Foote; Lillie H.; and Jessie, the latter dying in infancy. Minnie and Anna are graduates of the Broken Bow high school and were school teachers before their marriage. William, the eldest son, is an agent of the Adams Express Company at Deadwood, South Dakota. Lorin W. is a printer and pressman, and Lillie H. is attending school at the Grand Island Baptist College.

Soddy Profiles: Perry Marvin Dady

A Soddy, or Soddie, is somone who lived in house built of sod, usually the early settlers of the Great Plains states. Several of my Beard ancestors settled in Custer County, Nebraska, in the late 1880s. Many of them lived in sod houses when they first homesteaded land.

I first found this photograph on Ancestry.com. I believe it is very unusual for the time as the family typically went to the photographer instead of the other way around. It is a photograph of the Perry Marvin Dady family in their parlor.

Courtesy of cfm1151, Ancestry.com member

The women: On the far left is Ellen Josephine (Beard) Dady (1859-1936), standing on the far left is Monna Ruth Dady (1893-1936), the little girl between the men is Lorene Josphine Dady (1902-1980), to the right of Lorene, next to the piano (or organ) is Jennie Florilla Dady (1886-1965), seated at the piano (or organ) is Myrtle Grace Dady (1897-1997).

The men: On the far right with legs crossed is Perry Marvin Dady (1859-1942); the four young men seated, from left to right are:  Harry Leslie Dady (1895-1990), Guy Dady (1892-1971), Otis Marvin Dady (1888-1944), and Perl Spencer Dady (1885-1940)

The framed photograph to the left is of William Ennis Beard (1818-1864) and Almyra Parish (Amsberry) Beard (1829-1888), Ellen Josephine's parents. The framed photograph over the piano (or organ) is of Spencer Dady II (1835-1890) and Adelaide (Wible) Dady (1840-1904), Perry Marvin Dady's parents.

A few weeks later, on Google Play, I found a book with the unwieldy title, "History of Custer County, Nebraska: a Narrative of the Past with Special Emphasis upon the Pioneer Period of the County's History, Its Social, Commercial, Educational, Religious, and Civic Development from the Early Days to the present time," by W L Gaston and A R Humphrey. It was published in 1919. It included a biographical sketch of Perry Marvin Dady:

Perry M Dady whose residence in Custer county covers a period of more than thirty-six years, is now classed among the well-to-do men of the Mason City community. This fact shows him to be another one of Custer county’s agriculturalists who in their careers have exemplified with force the true western spirit of self-made manhood, for when he came to this state in 1882 his worldly possessions amounted to next to nothing and throughout his career he has been called upon to depend wholly upon his own abilities and energies.

Mr. Dady was born on a farm in Mason county, Illinois, March 9, 1859, and is a son of Spencer and Adelaide (Wible) Dady. His father, a native of Pennsylvania, was born in 1835, and as a young man went to Mason county, Illinois, where he started life without assets save those represented by his inherent qualities, and where he gained some small success. He there married Adelaide Wible, who was born in Illinois in 1840, and several years later they moved to Iowa, where Mr. Dady became the owner of a farm.

Perry M Dady received his education in the public schools of Illinois and Iowa, and was reared to farming, a vocation which he adopted for his life work. He was twenty-three years old when he came to Custer county in 1882, and pre-empted a homestead, which forms a part of his present farm. At that time the property was destitute of improvements of any kind, and Mr. Dady lived at first in a dug-out and later in a “soddy,” experiencing at the same time all other inconveniences and hardships which the early settlers were called upon to face. As the years passed, however, he began to secure  results from his hard labor, he added to his equipment and gradually began to erect buildings, of which he now has the full set, modern, well-constructed, attractive and in perfect repair. In every way his property shows the presence of industry and good management . Mr. Dady carries on general farming and raises thoroughbred Red Polled cattle and Poland-China hogs. He has been successful in both departments of his farm enterprise. He has accumulated 440 acres of valuable land and in so doing has at all times maintained his reputation as a man of sterling integrity and business straightforwardness.

Perry Marvin Dady and his wife, Ellen Josephine (Beard) Dady

In 1882 Mr. Dady was united in marriage to Miss Ellen J Beard, who was born in Marion county, Iowa, a daughter of Adam Beard, who died while serving as a Union soldier during the Civil War. Mr. and Mrs. Dady are the parents of eight children: Perl S, who has a claim in the sand hills of Cherry county, Nebraska; Jennie, who is the wife of Oscar Ruyan, a clerk in Mason City, Nebraska; Otis M, who assists his father in operating part of the home farm; Guy W, who is in the national army and in service in France at the time of this writing; and Monna R, Harry L, Myrtle G, and Lorene J, who are all residing with their parents. The family belongs to the Baptist church, which they attend in Mason City. Mr. Dady maintains an independent stand as to political questions,  and has not been an active politician, although on several occasions he has served efficiently in the capacity of town clerk.

I love finding these old books online. I learn so many interesting things about the early years of our Nation and I love the writing style, so much more florid than today.

Soddy Profiles: Warren V. Keller

Warren Valorous Keller was my fith cousin once removed. He was born in 1900 and died in 1999, a few months short of his 100th birthday. He was born and raised in Nebraska and is a true "soddy." He even received a life time certificate of membership from the Sons and Daughters of the Soddies. The certificate said:

Born in

Attended Churces

Lived in a Sod House

Helped Build Sod Houses

When he was in his 90s, his neighbor came over and confiscated his snow shovels so Warren would no longer clear sidewalks and driveways.

During the last year of Warren Keller's life his daughter and her husband collected Warren's reminisces about his life and published a book entitled, "A Man of the Twentieth Century: Recollections of Warren V. Keller, a Nebraskan." This blog post is from the first chapter of the book.

When you come to think of it, I almost was never born because of what nearly happened to my mother and father on their wedding day. My parents were marred on April 2, 1894, in Broken Bow, Nebraska. Uncle Jess and Aunt Becky Amsberry stood up with them. On the way back, the dust and wind blew so hard, they could hardly see anything. At one point, the horses stopped and wouldn't go. They got out to see why, and a train sped by. The horses saved their lives.

Photograph from the book entitled, "History of Custer County, Nebraska: A Narrative with Special Emphasis upon the Pioneer Period of the County's History, Its Social, Commercial, Educational, Religious, and Civic Development from the Early Days to the Present Time (published in 1919)

It was a cold day when I was born on January 29 in 1900. I was born in a one-room sod house in Mason City, Nebraska. Mason City was founded in 1886 by the Lincoln Land Company who purchased it from homesteaders, Nels Anderson and Mrs. George Runyan. Mason City was named after Honorable O. P. Mason, formerly a Supreme Court Judge for the Nebraska Territory. Its first post office was established in 1886.

A Nebraska "soddy" in front of his sod house probably circa 1890s. Photograph courtesy of Keesee and Sidwell

When I born, I had two sisters, Lorena and Blanche. We lived in Mason City for a while, then moved to Ashland, Nebraska, for a short time and then back to Mason City. When I was two, the family moved to Edison, Washington, on a train and came back on a train. Edison was a small town outside Seattle, where my Dad worked for a sawmill.

We came back to Mason City soon after my sister, Etna, was born. I am not sure why we came back, but I was told that Grandma Peterson said she wouldn't speak to my mother again if they didn't come back and show here my sister, Etna. Etna was born in Washington. She was the only one of my sisters and brothers who was not born in Nebraska. We lived in Edison for about a year and a half.

The Harvy S. Keller Family

Back row, left to right: Etna Keller, Blanche Keller, Warren Keller (profile subject) and Lorene Keller

Front row, left to right: Emery Keller, Harvey Keller (father), Twila Keller, and Rose Alice (Jinks) Keller (mother) and Clara Bell Keller

When we came back to Mason City, we lived in a two-room sod house located in the country 1-1/2 miles north of town. It didn't have any floors and didn't leak when it didn't rain. One day, I remember watching my mother sprinke water over the dirt floor to settle the dust in the family bedroom. The beds rested on boards so they wouldn't sink into the ground. The closest water supply was 100 feet from the house. We had no convenience at all. We had a pump outside and a little coal oil lamp.

When I was five year old, I started to school in Mason City. I had about three blocks to go to school, and our folks would dress us up with plenty of clothes. We walked to school. They never took us to school. We'd waller around through the snow drifts. If there was a snow drift across the road or anywhere else, it stayed there until it thawed in the spring because there weren't any cars. People would just walk or drive their horses over or around the drifts and that's the way they got around until spring came and it was all thawed out and the mud had dried up. Even if it was blizzarding, the folks paid no attention. They just dressed us and we walked to school. And that's the way things were.