HOMESTEADING DAYS (1910)

“This is the story of our first year on the homestead in South Dakota. My husband [Frank FRANK] drove up with team & wagon in the early spring of that year, from our Nebraska home [Ord] --- some 250 miles from here --- to build a house for his family & a sort of barn for the livestock we were to bring up later. About two & a half months later he came back to the old home, to get his family & household goods, also some of the livestock we had left at that time & our life on the homestead began. The house was not finished on the inside, so that had to be done after we moved into it.

The weather was very hot during that first summer & we did not get very much rain so did not have a very good crop and the newly broken ground did not yield much of either grain or corn & our garden was a total failure, so we were rather short of both feed for the livestock & vegetables for ourselves. However we lived through those hard times & were thankful for the family’s good health, as we did not live near any town where we could have called a Doctor in case of illness & there were no telephones anywhere in the neighborhood so would have been unable to call Medical help if we had needed it.

Our nearest railroad town was thirty miles from where we lived and all the homesteaders had to haul their fuel, lumber & other building materials from there & that usually meant a two day trip to that town & back again, since those were the horse & buggy days & none of the settlers owned either cars or trucks & travel was slow. Several men of the neighborhood would make these trips together while the women & children staid at home & looked after the homestead & the livestock while the men were away.

One of our greatest fears those days was prairie fires. Most of this part of the state was prairie & since it had been so dry that year, a fire once started, would have made a clean sweep & burned everything in its path & this very thing had happened not too many miles from where we lived. In the fall of that year 1910, my husband & some of the neighbor men had gone to town, to get our winters supply of fuel --- to be away all night of course --- and as usual the children & I were alone that night. I wakened out of a sound sleep about the middle of that night & smelled smoke. It gave me quite a scare & I got up & went out to see where the fire might be. The smoke was so thick, one could not see much of anything, though I could not see any fire, or any glow of fire anywhere so I went back & got into bed again, but did not sleep very well, the rest of the night. As we heard later that fire was in a forest several hundred miles from here & the smoke came this way when the wind “blew up” from that direction. I had a real scare that time, but was so thankful that we did not have a prairie fire then, nor since.

The worst day of that first year on our “Homestead” - I believe, was New Years Day - 1911- We had had rather nice weather all that fall of - 1910. However the day before New Years Day the weather changed & it grew colder & the wind began to blow & snow began to fall & by the next morning we had one of the worst blizzards of the whole winter & the temperature dropped to 29 below zero. Our house was so cold we had to put on our heavy coats & wraps & sat close to the stove & try to keep warm, but did not succeed in keeping warm. The three little children -- the twins, 4 years & the baby 2 years old -- were so cold they cried because thier hands & feet ached with the cold, in spite of heavy coats, overshoes & mittens, which they were wearing. We had colder weather that winter -- after -- New Years Day but no wind with it, so it did not seem as cold.

We did not have a well on our place at that time, so had to haul water for both household use & the livestock. However we could not haul water during this severe cold weather, so we carried in snow & melted it for the livestock & that helped too, to make the house colder at the time, but we did not like to let our few head of cows suffer, though it was hard work & caused aching toes & fingers for us. Many years have passed since then but it still makes my heart ache when I think of how the children suffered at the time.”

[Above was written by Sophia Eliza KRAMER FRANK (b. 1876 Kramer, Lancaster Co, NE - d. 1975 Winner, Tripp Co, SD - dau. of John Henry & Fredricka WEBER KRAMER). Sophia m. 27 Feb 1896 in Kramer, NE to Frank FRANK (b. 1873 Gols, Burgenland, Austria - d. 1937 Ideal Twp, Tripp Co, SD - son of Franciscus & Rosa FRUWIRTH FRANK). This couple had issue: Bernhard “Ben” Henry FRANK (b. 1897 Ord, Valley Co, NE); Hobart William FRANK (b. 1901 Ord, NE); Herman “Jim” Kramer FRANK (b. 1906 Ord, NE); Harold Joseph “Joe” FRANK (b. 1906 Ord, NE); and Clarice Edna “Sis” FRANK (b. 1908 Ord, NE). This family moved to Ideal Twp, Tripp Co, SD in 1910.]

Newsclip saved in scrapbook of Sophia FRANK from an Ord, Valley Co, NE newspaper: “Frank Frank went to South Dakota some weeks ago to look around for more elbow room. He did not buy, but the more he thought about it the more he wished he had.

Typed as read by Glenda FRANK MOSER (grandau. Of Sophia Kramer FRANK) on Oct 9, 1997.
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