The winter of 1871-1872 was severe. So much snow fell,
followed by extremely cold weather, that railroad building was
impossible until well along in the spring of 1872. Some of the
pioneers did not understand the momentum of a blizzard crossing a
treeless plain. The snow was pulverized as fine as flour by the
force of the gales. It drove through clothing, blinded the eyes,
and took away the breath so that people caught out were in danger
of smothering. People lost in the snow had to fight the
inclination to lie down and rest. Even if lost, one had to keep
up a ceaseless tramp to avoid freezing to death. Horses refused
to face the storm.
In January 1872 a three-day blizzard struck the county. Dr. Hall
and his son who had tried to withstand the winter of 1871-1872
drove two teams of oxen to Ocheyedan River to cut willow brush
for fuel. They took their oxen, and abandoning the brush they had
cut started for home. The snow and wind became so blinding that
the youth could not see his father behind the team. As he neared
his home he realized that his father was no longer with him, but
was so nearly frozen he dared not turn back. An immediate search
was impossible. Dr. Hall's body was found the following spring.
Another fierce blizzard struck in February of that winter. Teams
could not travel off the beaten roads without floundering and
having to be shoveled out. Fred Knaggs lost his life while on his
way home from Roger's store, pulling a hand sled full of
provisions.
The blizzard of January 1873 was remembered as one of the worst
ever experienced in the county, as the following letter clearly
shows:
Osceola County, Iowa
J.F. Glover, clerk
Sibley, Iowa, Jan. 12, 1873
Cousin Eugene:
Dear Sir: Have had a terrible blizzard - - lasted three days.
Haven't heard much from the country round about as yet; but we
have word from the stage which left Sibley for Rock Rapids, a
short time before the storm. Baker, the stage driver, was found
some three or four miles from Rock Rapids, frozen to the knees. A
man who started with him, A.K. Jenkins, I believe - - a
contractor for bridge iron who was going to Lyon County to see
the officials about furnishing iron for their bridges in Lyon
County was found outside the stage frozen to death. The horses
were both frozen to death. I am afraid we shall hear of other
deaths - - have heard of some cattle being frozen. People are
burning hay.
The road (Omaha Railway) has been kept open most of the time from
Sioux City to Sibley and there has been no lack of fuel - - the
other part of the road has been blocked most of the time.
Telegraph lines have all broken and we have had no mail for about
ten days.
Robinson and others are going to Sioux City tomorrow and I will
send this out with them.
Lewis sent word that he will give $40 for Francis' lots.
Yours - - -
J.F. Glover
As Glover feared, there were other deaths. Peter Ladenburger lost
his life in this blizzard, as did two others whose bodies were
found outside the county.
It is believed that this was the storm which caught a number of
men in Shaw's store. They were forced to stay there three days
while they saved their horses from freezing by bringing three of
them into the small store and tying the fourth outside in a
railroad tank.
By March of that year the railroad was blocked by drifted snow
and there was as acute shortage of fuel. Hay twisting was again
resorted to. Large planks were rigged up in the form of scrapers.
These, pulled by ox teams, were dragged across the frozen swamps
in such a way as to break off and pile up the tall marsh-grass so
that it could be twisted into fuel.
Spring was late and backward that year and the farmers were
pressed hard for time in the plowing of fields and the planting
of crops. Then came still another set-back, for after the fields
were planted no rain fell. The drought lasted from the first of
May until the middle of June. The prairie grass turned brown on
the hills, pasture became scarce, and the crops were retarded.
Benjamin A. Dean, an elder of the church, carelessly let a fire
get away from him while he was burning prairie grass around his
property. The fire spread quickly over the country and before it
was finally brought under control had swept away all of neighbor
McCallum's hay and loose property, leaving his house unharmed.
McCallum had Dean arrested and brought before a justice, who
found him guilty and fined him $5 and costs. The elder paid the
fine and McCallum collected a reward of $50 from the Board of
Supervisors for the apprehension and conviction of a man who had
caused a prairie fire.
Dean held not the slightest animosity toward McCallum over the
affair and invited him to ride home with him and stay overnight.
McCallum accepted and, the following morning, magnanimously
reimbursed Dean for the expense and trouble he had been put to,
McCallum paying him back his five dollars.
One morning in June 1873, when many had started to church in
Sibley and others were spending a quiet Sabbath at their homes,
far from the county seat, the severest blow of all struck the
farmers. The sky was clear and blue, flowers bloomed along the
edges of the marshes, and larks sang from the tops of the tallest
weeds. In spite of the drought, grain was growing. Then a black
cloud appeared in the west, approaching with the speed of the
wind. It writhed and spread out until it filled the whole sky.
Accompanying the cloud was a terrifying, buzzing roar.
Church-goers stopped their teams to stare at the sky. Workers
stopper their tasks in the fields. Women and children came
running from the shacks and sod houses, frightened by the awful
sound. "Cyclone!" thought some. But it was not a
cyclone. Soon the cloud seemed to be disintegrating, falling
apart into tiny specs that swooped earthward. Some thought the
end of the world had come.
The watchers stood spellbound while it settled down about them.
The whirring of millions of tiny wings filled their ears, then
they caught sight of shining wings, the long bodies, the long
legs of grasshoppers, the prairie scourge. Before the eyes of the
watchers green stalks of corn turned black. The buzzing of the
wings stopped, and a new sound came, the noise of mandibles
tearing at all vegetation. Whole fields of wheat and oats went
down as the horde ate through the slim stalks.
Some of the settlers struggled to salvage as much of their crops
as possible, but the battle was futile. The grasshoppers (Rocky
Mountain locusts) went rapidly from field to field, leaving only
destruction.
The locusts tried their teeth on everything they came to. They
ate stray boots and overcoats. They ate the leaves and bark from
the willows and chewed at the handles of farm implements.
According to some observers they lit upon the backs of sheep and
ate the wool.
It is little wonder that some of the settlers described the
grasshopper as "having the face of a horse, the eyes of an
elephant, the neck of a bull, the horns of a deer, the chest of a
lion, the belly of a scorpion, the wings of an eagle, the thighs
of a camel, the feet of an ostrich and the tail of a
serpent." They ate more than the above animals combined.
After finishing the crop areas the "Army Grasshoppers"
as they were nick-named, moved on to the open prairies. But the
prairie grass was less to their liking, and within ten days after
they had arrived in the county they left, having destroyed nearly
everything but the unquenchable spirit of the Osceola County
farmer. One farmer stated that after eating his crops all day,
the grasshoppers sat on his fence and spat tobacco juice at him
all night.
In July of the same year, 1873, a windstorm whipped through the
county, knocking over barns and buildings and tearing signs from
the store-fronts in Sibley. In August prairie fires once more
raged through the brown grass. In November a fire almost wiped
out the frame buildings of Sibley's business district. The damage
done was as follows:
Barber and Lawrence Drug Store $ 900
A.H. Clark Groceries 600
H.C. Kellogg Store 1,200
Kelley and Walrath Dry goods 1,244
J.A. Cole Drugs 2,000
Wilbur Brothers Stock 1,100
Total $7,044
These disasters, one after another in such rapid succession,
finally sapped the morale and hope of the struggling men and
women of Osceola County. And it is no small wonder that some of
them left their claims to work as railroad hands or wood
choppers, or that some left entirely to find other lands.
The following letter was written in 1873 by one of those who had
determined to "stick it out" for another year:
"Nearly every man is poor - very poor, and a great majority
are ex-soldiers of the Union, with young families to support.
When the grasshoppers took the crops, we did the best we could
for the coming winter. We went to the lakes and caught barrels of
fish, but we did not have the means to properly care for them; so
they spoiled."
"Stock was sacrificed to the sharks (presumably "loan
sharks") that infest our section, at next to nothing of a
price and many of us have thus eaten up and worn out the horses
and work cattle that had been our mainstay. We could buy no fuel,
and when I left twisted hay and rank seed grass was the only fuel
nine-tenths of the people were using."
"Much sickness prevails, brought on by a long abstinence
from wholesome and nutritious food. One family, I knew of has the
father down with rheumatism, three out of six children were down
with measles, while their mother was about worn down herself.
Cornmeal, grated from frostbitten nubbins, was the only food in
the house, if the sod and board shanty may be called such. The
people bear with each other and mutually extend aid as much as
possible."
"One young man from Jasper county, who happens to be a good
shot, has valiantly taken upon himself, the task of keeping all
invalid families supplied with meat, wild game, and the day I
left brought some geese to the family I have mentioned."
In 1873 the total population of Osceola County was 1,409 persons.
There were only two towns: Sibley, and Gilman, which later became
Ashton.
After the grasshopper scourge and the Sibley fire, many of the
stores closed their business and left.
When the grasshoppers came Gilman had a store, a millinery shop,
hotel, saloon, blacksmith shop, fuel yard, and two residences.
The town was entirely dependent upon the farmers surrounding that
district. But after the grasshoppers scourge there was no longer
any hope of support for the town and nearly all the businessmen
left.
Osceola County was not the only part of the country that suffered
because of the "hoppers." The damage was spread over
other counties and even over neighboring states, but the
suffering in Osceola County was especially acute. Most people had
been on their land but a short time, had not the means to plant
again. November 15, the Homesteaders' Protective Association made
the following State-wide appeal.
TO THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF IOWA:
We the undersigned, committee appointed
by the Homesteaders' Protective Association of Osceola County, an
organization effected for the purpose of looking after the
extreme and urgent necessities of the people of said county,
caused by the almost total failure of the crops do deem it just
and proper that we let our sister counties, who are in affluent
circumstances, have positive knowledge of the situation of a very
large portion of this county.
The most of the settlers came here last spring with little or no
means, and depending entirely on their efforts during the summer
to carry them through the winter; honestly and faithfully have
they toiled. A very large amount of ground was sown and planted
in the spring - - more than sufficient to raise subsistence for
all for the coming winter, if it had not been for an extremely
wet, backward spring, and the invasion of a vast army of
grasshoppers, which caused almost a total failure of corn and
small grain crops, so that they now find themselves, on the eve
of a long, cold winter, worse off than in the spring; without
food of the plainest kind, and even without means to purchase
fuel to protect themselves and families during the coming winter.
There are hundreds of families who have not sufficient clothing,
and know not where the bread that they will eat ten days hence is
coming from, (or their fuel). These same people, relying on their
crops to carry them through the winter, have labored diligently
through the summer, and thousands of acres of the prairie have
been turned over ready for a crop next spring.
Now therefore, be it known to the people of the State of Iowa,
that without liberal assistance from some source, a very large
portion of the citizens from this county will be without the
necessaries to sustain life, and also fuel to keep them from
freezing, and unless from some source seed is furnished to these
people to sow and plant in the spring, many of the broad acres
that are now ready will have to lie idle the coming season.
We therefore, appeal to the liberal Christian hearted people of
this State for assistance in the shape of money, clothing, fuel,
and staple articles of food.
At present writing there are at least 200 families in the county
needing immediate assistance.
All consignments will be made to C.M. Bailey,
Agent H.P.A. Sibley, Osceola County, Iowa.
As a result of this appeal, the State of Iowa appropriated money
for the relief of Osceola and other stricken counties. Applicants
for aid received 15 bushels of seed wheat and some seed corn and
garden seeds. Some of the more needy received food in addition.
Sibley was made the distributing point for both Osceola and
Dickinson counties.
The local Grange, or Patrons of Husbandry, obtained more grain
through a petition to the National and State Grange for
assistance.
Compiled by the Iowa Writers' Program for WPA in Iowa
Transcribed by Kevin Tadd