Lyon County, Minnesota - Chapter 5: The Grasshopper Scourge - 1873-1876, 1912

Rocky .Mountain locusts, swept down upon the country in countless millions, devouring 'the crops and bringing disaster to nearly every resident. The people of Lyon county, in common with those of all Southwestern Minnesota, suffered as few pioneers of any country ever suffered. Adversity followed adversity. The frowns of fortune overwhelmed those who had come with such high hopes the preceding years and cast them into the slough of despond. The picture could hardly be painted too dark.

The country became bankrupt. Immigration ceased; migration began. All who could mortgaged their property and many left the county. Some got into such straitened circumstances that they were literally without the means to pay their railway fare out of the county. It was impossible to make a living from the farm, and many sought work during the summer seasons in their old homes in the East; others attempted to earn a livelihood by trapping. In time land became valueless; it could not be sold

'The acreage sown to grain in 1873 was 1983, nearly three times as large as that of the year before. Of the total acreage, 1139 were in wheat, 330 in oats, 319 in

Prosperous as Lyon county is today, one can imagine the suffering a series of almost total crop failures would bring. Picture, then, a settlement of some two thousand people with practically no means - people who had come because they were poor and because they believed the new country offered opportunities for securing a home and a competence - devastated by a scourge which took away the only means of earning a living. Such were the conditions in the times about which we are now to tell.

The people who had come the preceding year set to work with a will to break out the prairie land, and great were the expectations for the crop of 1873, the first crop of any size planted in the county. L The grain grew beautifully during the spring months; the faith in the soil was justified. Everybody was enthusiastic over the prospects. Then came the plague.

county was not entirely free from them during' the remainder of the season. Their arrival was first made known by the appearance of the sky; the sun seemed to have lost some of its brilliance, as though darkened by clouds of fine specks floating high in the air. Some believed that the specks were the fluff from cottonwood seeds. They kept increasing in number, and after awhile a few scattering ones began falling to the earth, where they were found to be grasshoppers, or Rocky Mountain locusts - forerunners of an army that devastated this part of the country and resulted in the retardation of its settlement for many years.2

The invading hordes feasted upon the growing grain and gardens and did great damage. In the Saratoga settlement along the Cottonwood in southeastern Lyon county they were particularly voracious and left practically no grain. Along the Redwood, also, they brought destruction to crops, but there were some parts of the county that were riot visited.3 Most of the grasshoppers left after a few weeks, but enough were left and deposited their eggs during the months of August and September to make certain that the county would be infested the next year.4 The harvest. of course, was light, but good yields were reported in the few communities that had not been visited.

;The grasshoppers were first noticed by a small party of picnickers at Watson's grove in Lynd township. Their attention was attracted by the sudden clouding of the sun on a clear, bright day. There appeared to be a great cloud that was described as resembling a sheet of dull silver. For some time the cloud moved about in circular form and gradually neared the earth. As it came closer its animation was observed and before long the whole cloud settled upon the earth.

These first arrivals did not extend farther north than the Lynd settlement and many residents were skeptical of the stories told of the invasion. A party of -Marshall people was deputized to investigate and went up to the Lynd settlement. When they reached the Redwood river at the place then known as the Muzzy flat their progress was stopped. The horses refused to approach the usual fording place, and there before them, covering a space twenty rods wide and for a considerable distance along the bank, the locusts were piled up two inches deep, a moving, undulating astation, the panic which held the country in its grip in 1S73 added to the hard times which followed. The loss of crops left many families in destitute circumstances, and there was some suffering during the next winter.

The state authorities took prompt action to relieve the suffering in the frontier counties. Petitions from the stricken districts were poured into the Legislature, asking appropriations for relief. Realizing the gravity of the situation, the Minnesota law-making body, late in January, 1874, appropriated $5000 for the relief of the destitute and enacted a law extending the time of payment of personal property taxes until November 1 in the counties of Jackson, Cottonwood, Murray, Nobles, Rock. Watonwan, Lyon and Lac qui Parle. 5

Lyon county did not receive much benefit from the state aid, owing largely to local pride. In accordance with the custom of pioneer ' journals to report nothing that would tend to retard settlement, the local newspaper reported fair crops. A perusal of the files of the Prairie Schooner for 1873 discloses not a word of the grasshopper visitation of that year. Many people of the county denied the existence of destitution and denounced those who sent out requests for aid.

mass of animation. The insects had there piled up by the million and where they covered stumps and brush they gave the appearance of being several feet deep.

4Eggs were deposited preferably in solid ground and to a depth of from one-half to one inch. The tail of the female grasshopper is a hard, bony, cone-shaped substance, and this was easily bored into the solid ground and the eggs deposited.

6"The bill postponing the collection of taxes on personal property in Lyon and several other southwestern counties passed the Legislature a little too late to benefit many taxpayers of this county, as most of them paid all taxes against them prior to the first of this month, to prevent extra cost." - Prairie Schooner, February 19, 18/ 4.

mass meeting was held at Marshall on the lasi day of January, 1874. 8 It was the sense of that meeting that there were no persons in Lyon county in actual want and a resolution was passed denouncing the reports that had been sent out to that effect. Another resolution was passed to the effect that Lyon county would be able to take care of any case of destitution that might arise, without outside aid. The committee that reported the resolution was composed of J. W. Blake. Jacob House, J. G. Bryan. 0. C. Gregg and J. II. Buchanan. The meeting ascertained, however, that some families had moved in from the grasshopper devastated districts who would probably want seed grain in the spring, and the governor and Legislature were petitioned to make a just distribution of funds for free seed grain when it was needed.

The people of southern Lyon county took exception to these optimistic resolutions of the Marshall meeting. On February 17 a mass meeting attended by two hundred people was held at Saratoga station. The opinion of those people was that there were many people in the southern part of the county that needed substantial aid at once, that much would be needed before another crop could be raised, that they were at that moment in pressing need of bread, meat and clothing, and would be later of seed grain. Committees were appointed to canvass the community and report to the Board of County Commissioners.

8"\Ve, the undersigned, do hereby request that a meeting of the citizens of the county be held at Congregational Hall in Marshall at two o'clock p. m. Saturday, January 31, for the purpose of more definitely ascertaining whether there are any destitute persons in Lyon county, and if so, whether there are any more than can be provided for by the county. A general attendance is requested, particularly of

$92 raised for relict'. A disbursement committee on February 17 reported thai *.'!7.l>2 of this amount had been distributed among the needy, mostly in the Saratoga country.

The county was without funds to take care of the needy and it was obliged to pledge its faith to one of the Marshall merchant- to raise by taxation and pay back the sum of 1100 and interest advanced in supplies. The following resolution - a forceful reminder of the dark days of Lyon county's history - was passed by the Board of County Commissioners February 24, 1874:

Resolved that the faith of the county is hereby pledged to William Everett & Company to levy a special tax and to pay them one hundred and seventeen dollars and have the same placed upon the next roll and collected with the other county taxes in consideration that they shall advance to the county one hundred dollars for the relief of the destitute of the county, provided that the said William Everett & Company shall furnish provisions upon the requisition of the commissioners to the amount not more than one hundred dollars and if less than said amount, pro rata.

Sixth. This aid shall be disbursed by William Everett & Company upon the order of James Mitchell, Jr., A. D. Morgan and W. M. Pierce, relief commissioners.

The people of Lyon county were finally forced to admit that they must have state aid and made application for a portion of the $5000 appropriated. S. S. Truax, of the Saratoga settlement, received $250 from the governor early those who may have knowledge of any destitution in any part of the county. (Signed): J W. Blake, S Webster, Wilbur Coleman, Stanley Addison, C. H. Whitney, C. W. Andrews, G. E. Nichols, M. V. Davidson S V. Groesbeck, E. B. Jewett, M. E. Wilcox, J A. Coleman, W. M. Todd, L. B. Nichols, J. P. Watson, W. Wakeman, J. W. Williams."

It was early learned that many farmers would not have grain for seeding purposes in the spring of 1874, and the Legislature in February appropriated $25,000 for supplying the want. Lyon county's share, 1128 bushels, was received in March and the distribution was completed early in April. The committee that had charge of this work was composed of S. S. Truax, Jacob Rouse and J. W. Blake. The demand for the grain was so great that each applicant received only a part of the grain asked for.7 The grain, all wheat, was distributed to the farmers of the county as follows: Lake Marshall, 102 bushels; Lynd, 102; Lyons, 102; Saratoga (Monroe, Custer, Sodus and Amiret), 318; Rock Lake, 30; East Precinct (Stanley and Clifton), 30; Canton (Lucas), 78; Northeast Precinct (Vallers and Westerheim), 42; Upper Yellow Medicine (Eidsvold), 66; Nordland, 96; Grandview, 96; Fairview, 66.

If there had been a belief that the grasshopj>er scourge was to be only a temporary blight on the prospects of Lyon county, it was rudely dispelled. The visitation of 1873 was as nothing compared with what followed. The story of the years to follow is one of heartrending misery. From Manitoba to Texas the grasshoppers brought desolation and suffering in 1874, the visitation being general along the whole frontier. Especially destructive were

T '"We do not know the number of applications from different parts of the state for seed wheat, nor the extent of the territory to be supplied, nor the rules governing the distribution, but it appears to us that this county should have at least three times the amount of seed wheat that has been apportioned." - Prairie Schooner, March 19, 1874.

A large acreage was sown in Lyon county in the spring of 1874, there being 4245 acres sown to wheat alone.8 Then came anxious days. The grasshopper eggs which had been deposited the year before began to hatch during the early days of May.9 While the pests had been considered numerous the year before, there were now more than ten times as many. The appetites of the youngsters were good, and they began their ravages as soon as the first tender blades of grain appeared. Whole fields were stripped entirely bare in those parts of the county where the hoppers were most numerous, notably along the Cottonwood in the Saratoga country and along the Redwood in the Lynd country.

Had the ravages of the native hoppers been the only damage, the county could have borne the infliction, for there were portions in which little or no damage was done. During the closing days of June most of the Lyon county hatch departed. Several days were spent in swarming and collecting, and then they rose in vast clouds, filling the air as far as the eye could reach, and sailed away to discover new worlds to conquer. During this period, each day from ten o'clock in the morning until three in the afternoon, the air was filled with the winged emigrants. With their departure it was hoped the ravages of the year were at an end, but it was not to be.

9The process of hatching was interesting. In each nest, a half inch or more below fhe surface of the ground, invariably laid in hard earth, were from twenty to fifty eggs. When the sun warmed tinground sufficiently to hatch the eggs, the pithy covering of the nest popped off and a squirming mass of little yellow hoppers poured out. Each was encased in a sort of shell or skin, which it immediately began to pull off. Then, after taking a moment's view of the world, each little hopper hopped away in .search of something to eat. At birth they were about a quarter of an inch long and had no wings, but these developed rapidly.

an invasion of "foreign" hoppers from the southern counties, which math' it evident that the county was not to escape with the damage done by the native pests. They appeared in cloudlike formations, drifting with the wind. sometimes entirely disappearing, and again returning with a change of wind. While the depredations before had been committed only where the hatch had been, the invaders now attacked fields in parts of the county theretofore unmolested and some fields were literally eaten hare to the roots. Still the damage was not total, and before the middle of July the army had almost entirely disappeared.

First. From Coburg [Amiret], along and near the Cottonwood river, to the southern boundary of the county and west to Lake Yankton, information received indicates that on an average two-thirds of the wheat and oats sown have been destroyed anil much injury done to corn and potatoes.

Second. A strip of country about three miles wide and extending from Lake Marshall on the east to the Redwood river on the west, including Upper Lynd, will average about half a crop of wheat and oats.

Third. The balance of the county, including principally that portion lying northeast of the railroad as far down as Lake Marshall and northwest of the Redwood river, will average at least seven-eighths of a crop.

Taking the whole county together, we believe there will be from two-thirds to three-fourths as much wheat and oats and seven-eighths as much corn and potatoes as there would have been had we not been visited by the grasshopper plague. . . . Some farms in the county have been totally stripped of everything in the shape of crops; and on the other hand there are many farms which promise abundant yield of every kind of crop, not having been damaged to the least extent by grasshoppers.

Later - It is of no use to estimate crops before harvest. Yesterday clouds of grasshoppers were passing over from north to south, and as we go to press word has come that they have made a descent on the Yellow Medicine

The invasion of July 1.") was the worst <>f the season and resulted in almost total annihilation of crops in the Rock Lake and Yellow Medicine countries communities which had escaped before. Before they departed those pails of the county were literally alive with the voracious insects. And what havoc they wrought! So thick was the air with the flying pests that at times the sun was obscured. They appeared to the people below like a vast cloud, sweeping sometimes in one direction, sometimes in another - always with the wind. Imt never traveling far to the west or northwest.

At evening when they came down near the earth, the noise they made was like a roaring wind. Those that alighted on the prairies seemed to know where the grain fields and gardens were and gathered in them from all directions. Every cornstalk Lent to the earth with their weight. The noise they made eating could be heard from quite a distance and resembled that which might have been made by hundreds of hogs turned into the fields. In fact, such was the destruction that within a few hours after they came down whole fields of corn ami small grain were as completely harvested as though they had been cut with a reaper and hauled away. It was a discouraging sight.

After gorging themselves with the crops, the grasshoppers sometimes piled up in the fields and along the roads to a depth of one or two feet. Horses could hardly be driven through them. Stories have been told of railway trains liecoming blockaded by the pests so as to be unable to move until the insects were shoveled from the track.

minished numbers remained until August. Fortunately, they departed without depositing their eggs in Lyon county, although eggs were left in counties to the east of Lyon.

The greatest damage was to small grain. Many fields were entirely destroyed and yielded nothing to the acre. The wheat that was threshed - according to a thresher who operated in all parts of the county - averaged nine and onehalf bushels per acre and oats nineteen bushels. Gardens were almost entirely destroyed; corn and potatoes, which constituted only a small part of the acreage, were a fair crop.10

This second successive crop failure was a terrible blow. A great many who had not been hard pressed by the conditions in 1873 were now reduced to the common level; their savings had been spent and they had no income. Those who were not compelled to live on charity were compelled to practise most rigid economy. Hay furnished the fuel; potatoes, pumpkins and squashes - a few vegetables left by the hoppers - supplied the bulk of the food. Meat was not on the bill of fare, except for those who could use a gun and bag the prairie chickens and ducks that were in great abundance. In this manner a number of the settlers were obliged to pass the winter. They bore their trials more cheerfully than might have been expected and made preparations to try their luck again next year.

The question naturally arises: Why did the people of Lyon county stay in a country in which the grasshoppers wrought such damage? It is doubtful if many would have remained could they have looked ahead and foreseen what they still had to go through, for

!0According to the report of the commissioner of statistics, the loss of the several crops in twenty-eight counties of Minnesota in 1S74 was as follows: Wheat, this was not the end of the scourge by any means. A few discouraged ones did depart for their former homes. All who could went away each summer to work in the harvest fields of more fortunate communities and earn enough to supply their absolute needs.

The majority stayed with their claims and weathered the storms of adversity. Hope was abundant that each year's visitation would be the last. The fertility of the soil had been demonstrated, and it was known that once the country was free from the pests, it would become one of the richest spots in the West. The settlers had invested all their accumulations of former years in improvements, and to desert the country meant that they must go as paupers.

Before continuing the account of the grasshopper scourge, let us consider a few other items that occurred in 1874 which throw a light on conditions of that day.

The one railroad in the county was not in operation from February 16 to April 8, due to snow blockades and the fact that its operation would not be a paying investment. Again the next winter the line was not operated regularly and for ten weeks prior to April 13, 1875, not a train was run in the county.

The assessment for 1874 shows that the value of personal property was $120,384, divided among 525 residents. There were in the county 495 horses, 2690 cattle, 31 mules, 336 sheep and 356 wagons and buggies.

Despite the fact that the grasshoppers were doing most of the harvesting, a fair association was organized during this period and a county fair held. The first meeting to bring about organi- zation was held in December, \s7'.\, in a little room that had been partitioned off from the old company store building in .Marshall. The preliminary steps were taken at that time and on .January 31, 1S7I, the Lyon County Agricultural Society was organized. The first officers were as follows: .1. <!. Bryan, president; C. H. Whitney, secretary; E. B. Jewett, treasurer; S. Webster, .1. II. Buchanan. O. C. Gregg, R. D. Harm's, (I. Watson, ('. H. Bullock, .lames Morgan, R. II. Price. F. R. Holritz. John [lstad, Ole ( >. Brenna and T. J. Barber, vice presidents; J. W. Blake. T. W. Castor, (I. S. Robinson, J. W. Hoagland and Jacob Rouse, executive committee.

The first fair was held at .Marshall in October, 1N74. and was declared to be asuccess, several hundred people being in attendance. There were many exhibits, although the premiums were not liberal. ' '

In the summer of 187-4 came an Indian scare that created some little excitement in western Lyon county the result, doubtless, of a practical joke.

On Saturday, July 18, three Norwegian families who lived on the Sioux river near Medary arrived in the Lake Benton settlement, driving their flocks and herds with them. They brought the alarming intelligence that Fort Wadsworth, Dakota, had been captured by Indians, who had massacred two hundred whites; that the village of Flandreau was in flames, that the people of Medary and Flandreau and elsewhere along the Sioux were fleeing the country, and that the redskins were on their way to Lake Benton, where they expected to arrive the next night.

"Those who received premiums at the first county fair were C. H. Bullock, D. P. Billings, Charles Bellingham, J. W. Dickey, S. Webster, B. C. Emery, A. Emmerson, J. M. Lockey, C. H. Whitney, Norton Billings, Seth Johnson, Ben Johnson, J. G. Bryan, E. Jewett, C. Jewett, H. C. Simmons, J. W. Blake, C. A. Edwards, Alfred Edwards, H. P. Gibbs, G. A. Gill, William Robinson, Z. O. Titus, A. Barrett, G. Watson, J. Bagley, Nathan Davis, C. Kennedy, M. B. Morse, O. A. Drake, J. W. Hoagland, William Living-

The report created consternation in the isolated settlement on Lake Benton. The news flew from house to house and there was great commotion. Sonic of the settlers gathered at the place where now the village of Lake Benton is situated and held a council of war. The majority favored investigating the report before deserting their homes, but six families hastily packed a icw things, set out in hasty retreat for the east, alarmed all the people along the route, and reached Lynd before their fears were calmed.

Another council was held at Marshfield, where it was decided to investigate the rumor. John Snyder and William Taylor rode to Flandreau, twenty-five miles distant, and found all quiet along the Sioux. Upon their return the alarmed people declared the war over. Within a few days those who had so precipitously fled returned to their homes.

The winter of 1874-75 was a severe one, punctuated with numerous blizzards. The lives of two Lyon county people were sacrificed to the winter storms that season.

One of the victims was Henry Gibbs, a resident of Fairview township. He and his wife had spent the day visiting at a neighbor's and in the evening started home with their ox team. One of the dreaded prairie storms suddenly came upon them and they lost their way and drifted with the storm until their wagon broke down in a slough in Stanley township.

themselves as best they might to spend the night. For two nights and one day the storm raged as only the blizzards of the Northwest could in those days, and the unfortunate people were imprisoned in their illy prepared refuge during all of that time. When the weather had sufficiently cleared to see, Mr. Gibbs made his way to a house and sent aid to his wife. He was so badly frozen that he died soon afterward. Mis. Gibbs was rescued from her perilous plight and recovered, although one of her feet had to be partially amputated.

The other victim was Thomas T. Pierce, of Lynd township, who met death in the storm of January 8, 1875. Mr. Pierce, who was an elderly man, had started from the home of a neighbor the day before the storm for his camp. He did not arrive at his destination and searching parties were immediately organized. It was more than two weeks later when his dead body was found on the shore of Dead Coon lake. He was frozen stiff and was lying on his face. Air. Pierce had traveled many long miles in the storm, a part of the way through a section of the county almost wholly uninhabited.

Although the losses occasioned by the grasshoppers in 1874 were greater than the year before, there had been also a much larger acreage sown and considerable grain had been saved and marketed. There were not many cases of destitution in the county during the winter of 1874-7512 and no aid was requested from the state for* their relief. The United States government in a small way granted aid to those who re-

12"I have heard of only three or four cases of destitution in Lyon county this winter, though there may be more." - G. M. Durst in Prairie Schooner, February 19, 1875.

13The act was passed March 1, 1875, and provided for the extension of time of payment of personal property taxes to November 1 in the counties of .Martin, Jackson, Nobles, Rock, Murray, Cottonwood, Watonwan, Renville, Lyon and parts of Blue Earth, Faribault and Broun. In order to secure the extenquested it. In March, 1875, H. Paulding, assistant surgeon of the United States army, superintended the distribution of army clothing and rations to those who applied in the counties of Lyon and Lincoln. Again the Legislature granted an extension of time for the payment of taxes in some of the devastated counties and, of course, Lyon county was among the number.13

Notwithstanding the terrible experiences of the two preceding years, the farmers determined to put in a crop in 1875. The ground had been prepared, but the farmers were without seed grain and without the means to purchase it.14 The Legislature came to their rescue with an appropriation of $75,000, the act providing for the distribution of seed grain to that amount, with certain provisions for its repayment. The money market was constricted and the state was not able to secure the cash to purchase more than $50,000 worth of grain.

The distribution was conducted under the supervision of a State Board of Commissioners and a local board was named in each county. Lyon county's share was $1500, all furnished in wheat. The Lyon county committee of distribution was composed of W. M. Pierce. James Mitchell and H. T. Oakland, and each precinct had a committee to determine who should be supplied. With the seed received from the state and that which was in the county, there was enough to seed a large part of the prepared land in Lyon county.

sion it was necessary for the residents to give proof that they were unable to pay their taxes because of loss of crop in 1874 from grasshoppers or hail.

14"I have been on a tour of three or four days among the farmers of this county and find from act u.i 1 observation that there are a great many who will be unable to seed their land unless they get aid from some source." - Samuel Carroll in Prairie Schooner, November 5, 1874.

come with its ruin and desolation? As the season advanced the people with deep concern scanned the skies for the appearance of t heir old enemy. As eggs had not been deposited in Lyon county the preceding season, there were no young hoppers, and the only apprehension was an invasion by the "foreigners."

The county was practically free from the pests until early July, although before that time they were reported active in other parts of Southwestern Minnesota. The settlers kept track of the movements of the grasshoppers as they would have those of an invading army of soldiers. They knew that only by chance would they escape. They felt as though the sword of Damocles were suspended over them, ready to fall at any moment.

The damage done in Lyon county in 1875 was by the Minnesota valley hatch. The army was not so numerous as the year before, nor did the pests eat so ravenously as formerly. They appeared to be a degenerate breed and many died after depositing their eggs. The farmers waged war on the enemy by the use of fire, tar and other legalized instruments.15 lsThere was really very little that the settlers could do to destroy or cheek the pests, although many schemes were tried. Nothing availed against the invading hordes, but in the case of the native hoppers the farmers waged a more or less successful war by the use of tar. "Hopperdozers," a sort of drag made of sheet iron and wood, would be covered with tar and dragged over the ground. The young hoppers would be caught in the tar and destroyed. Another scheme was to prevent prairie fires during the fall months, conserving the grass until the hoppers had hatched in the spring. Then on a given day the country would be burned over and the pests destroyed. Ditches would be dug and the hoppers driven into them and burned; scoop nets were used, but little headway could be made with them. In some of the counties bounties were paid for their capture. In seven such counties 58,019 bushels were captured, upon which bounties aggregating $76,788.42 were paid; still no diminution was noticed in the damage done

But the dangers of the season were not yet over. During the entire week beginning August 31 there was a continual downpour of rain, which did much damage to grain in stack and shock. Blight injured some of the wheat, and instead of grading No. 1 it was second and third grades.

Conditions dining the winter of 1875- 76 were so much better than they had been during the two other winters of the scourge that aid from outside was not needed, and the county was able to supply its own seed for the next crop.

The census of 1875 gave Lyon county a population of 2543. Of this number 71 1 were men over twenty-one years old and 863 were children between the ages of five and twenty-one years. The population by precincts was as follows:17 bubbled over when describing conditions in 1875. The following item from the paper of August 13 of that year is not in reality a truthful portrayal of the state of affairs:

"We hear it reported down East that we are all eaten out by grasshoppers around Marshall this year. Such stories are at the opposite extreme of the fact, for we are harvesting the biggest crop ever harvested in this county. . . . We can lose half a crop here and then beat their best crops. Thirty bushels to the acre for wheat will be a very common crop around Marshall this season, and we have fields of oats that stand seven or eight feet high, so thick that a reaper can hardly run through them. . . . We have not a hopper more than we want for chicken feed around here and are happy in the brilliant prospects."

17The population of nearby counties in 1875 was as follows: Lac qui Parle, 1428; Yellow Medicine, 24S4; Redwood, 2982; Cottonwood, 2870; Murray, 1329; Pipestone, 4.

Lyon and Lincoln counties, which before had been attached to Redwood county for judicial purposes, were separated from the mother county by act of the Legislature of 1875. The first district court was held at Marshall June 13, 1876. 19

Another event of 1876 was the placing on the market of the railroad lands. In August the company opened an office at Marshall and the first of the granted lands passed to private ownership that year. These were sold for one-fifth down and the balance in payments at seven per cent interest.

Grasshoppers brought destruction to crops again in 1876. During May the destroying agents hatched out in those portions of the county where eggs had been deposited the year before, notably in the Rock Lake district and around the newly founded village of Tracy. Late in May south winds brought in a few full grown hoppers, but they remained only a short time.

During the entire month of June the young hoppers continued their depredations in the southern part of the county. A correspondent from Tracy on June 23 said: "The grasshoppers have destroyed most of the grain and our trade is principally butter and produce." A resident of Rock Lake wrote at the same time: "The hoppers are doing all the mischief they can." The other parts of the county suffered little damage in the early part of the season. Then was repeated the experience of former years.

They were of a roving disposition and did not remain in any one location any great length of time. The Marshall Messenger, which had succeeded the Prairie Schooner, told of the invasion in its issue of July 7. 1876:

The grasshoppers have been on a bender for the last few days. While looking toward the sun in the middle of the day the sight presents the appearance of a million swarms of bees. They are lighting and flying all the time. There is not a farmer in this vicinity who can predict what his prospects are for a harvest this fall. They are coming down in many places, but are very unsettled in their conclusions about location.

Again, on Thursday. July 20, came the agents of destruction in countless numbers and attacked the fields in all parts of the county. They remained all day Friday, feasting, and on the following day all departed for the south. Oats, barley, corn, vegetables, ami all crops except wheat were almost wholly destroyed: wheat, the big crop, by some strange turn of fate, was only a partial loss. The grain that was left was quickly cut and put out of the way of danger.

The last invasion of the year came on Sunday morning, August 6, out of the northwest. The grasshoppers, with excellent appetites, covered about two townships, remained a few days, and flew away with the wind, most of them to the northwest. Wheat was then in the shock and proved dry eating, so the invaders attacked the corn fields and made a clean sweep of the crop in the territory invaded. Only a few eggs were deposited during the season, but the ground was peppered with them in a belt extending from Martin county north to Kandiyohi county.

Petit Jurors - Fred Gley, Jacob Rouse, S. E. Morgan, J. Lawrence. W. H. Cook, A. Ransom. D. Monroe, P. Kiltz, R. M. Addison, C. A. Cook, A. Williams, A. Lee, S. Van Alstine, William Rich. A. Bates, J. Owens, N. Webster, S. Johnson, J. Sanders, J. M. English, H. H. Welch, R. H. Price, A. R. Cummins, T. S. Downie.

There was no disguising the fact that Lyon county had met another damaging setback. Many who had fought the scourge so long gave up and quit trying to raise crops; some left the county. The prospects were indeed discouraging. The grasshoppers had again deposited their eggs in neighboring counties, and there seemed little prospect that the country would ever be free from them. Many did not give up, however, but determined to fight to a successful end or meet utter failure in the attempt. The Messenger on March 2, 1877, said: "Our farmers are making ready, with the clear grit that has become chronic during the grasshopper afflictions, to sow all they can get seed for."

The Legislature of 1877 took measures to care for the devastated counties. One hundred thousand dollars were appropriated to be used in bounties to pay for the destruction of grasshoppers and their eggs, $75,000 to furnish seed grain,20 and another sum for a relief fund. Some Lyon county farmers were able to purchase seed, and grain so shipped in came without transportation charges by the railroad company. Lyon

20The law provided for the repayment of this money by those receiving the grain; in case it was not paid back the county was bound to make payment to the state. Applicants were obliged to furnish affidavits county's share of the appropriation for seed was $3840.90, the applicants being given their choice of wheat, corn or peas. There were 177 applications, so that each received an average of $21.70 wort h of grain.

A "grasshopper congress" was held at .Marshall March 13, 1877, and was largely attended. Means of contending with the common enemy were discussed and plans were laid for burning the prairies on a given day. In accordance with a proclamation of Governor John S. Pillsbury, Thursday, April 26, 1877, was set aside as a day for fasting and prayer, and on that day religious services were held throughout the state and deliverance from the scourge was asked.

Whether or not these means assisted in the deliverance is not certain, but certain it is that the grasshopper scourge, so far as Lyon county was concerned, ended in 1876. Thereafter for two or three years the pests in small numbers visited the county but did practically no harm. Grasshoppers had struck terror to the hearts of Lyon county people for the last time.