Redwood County, Minnesota - Chapter 38: Difficulties Overcome, 1916

The story of Redwood county is one of difficulties overcome. The setting aside of its most accessible land as an Indian reservation kept away the sturdy settlers who swarmed up the Minnesota in the fifties. The massacre of 1862 kept the settlers away for several years thereafter. The fact that the reservation land after the massacre was not open to homestead or preemption entry but was sold for a flat sum, and sometimes in large tracts, kept away those who were without ready funds. Prairie fires were also a discouraging feature. The grasshoppers of 1873-77 retarded the settlement during those years, and a blight followed the next year. The blizzards of 1873 and 1880 also gave the region a bad name among prospective settlers. The central part of the county was Internal Improvement land, and much of the southern part of the county was railroad land. When it appeared that there was to be a great influx of settlers after the grasshopper years, the rush came, but passed by on the way to Dakota, where land could be obtained free. In the early nineties came some big wheat years, and for several years thereafter the crops were of the best. In 1905 came the wet years. In 1913 and 1914 came the big corn years, but this was followed by the scourge of hog cholera. In various years, drought and hail, and blight have done much damage. Potato bugs, the cut worm, the cinch bug, and other insects have also been features with which the citizens have had to contend.

Even a superficial examination of the topography of the county reveals the geographical reason why the early settlements were along the Minnesota river, the Redwood river and the Cottonwood river. However, there is a much deeper reason than this why the population of the county for so many years resembled a hollow shell with so few people in the center. In the first place the railroad had vast holdings of alternate sections which, under the land grant, they took in this county in lieu of lands all ready settled, further to the eastward. In the next place there were no less than 90,000 acres of state internal improvement land located on the even numbered sections in the central part of the county. This internal improvement land was appraised at from $5 to $7 in the spring of 1878, and placed on sale in the fall of that year. However, soon after this land was put in the market, came the Dakota boom, and thousands of people made their way to that territory, where they could obtain homesteads for nothing in preference to settling in this county, where they had to pay for their lands. In 1882 there was a constant succession of emigrant trains through this county, sometimes miles long. Another thing which retarded the settlement of the county by prospective land owners, were the vast tracts owned by speculators. Willard & Whitcomb, Willard & Barney, and Willard & Willard, owned some 30,000 acres in Yellow Medicine and Redwood county. The Commodore Davidson tract, purchased in 1868, consisted of 16,000 acres. Another tract of 16,000 acres was acquired at the same time, became the J. W. Paxton tract, later the O. B. Turrell tract and finally the Sanders & Gilfillan tract.

The spring of 1867 was cold and wet, and many of the pioneers endured intense suffering, so much so that the state came to the aid of the county and furnished seed and provisions. There was but little to eat during that spring except cornmeal, rutabagoes, bacon and fish. M. E. Powell tells of living at the Mills boarding house in Redwood Falls that spring, and going down to the river to catch the fish, which, with bacon and rutabagoes, furnished the only dishes on the menu.

In spite of the fact that so large a part of Redwood county was not open to entry under the homestead and preemption acts, the spring of 1872 opened most favorably. In the summer, however, came a series of hail storms, which wrought havoc to the crops, and on top of that came some of the most disastrous prairie fires known to the history of the county. Then came the terrible winter of 1872-73.

Winter began November 12. The day had been pleasant, but toward nightfall, those who were acquainted with the climate of the Minnesota valley, saw indications of a blizzard. At dark, a gale from the northwest struck the cabins, and the long, cold season had started. Snow fell to a depth of two feet, but was blown about and drifted until it was over twenty feet in some places.

From that date, there was little let-up in the severity of the weather. One storm followed another. Even when the storms were not raging the weather was cold and bleak. Travel was almost suspended. The new railroad through the southern part of the county had to cease operating entirely. Stages managed to reach the Redwood Falls once in a while, but sometimes there were many days when the people were absolutely without communication with the outside world. Many people suffered for want of food, fuel and clothing, and many severe cases of frostbite were reported.

The year of 1873 started with a violent storm, and for the three days beginning January 7, there raged over this region the worst blizzard of its history. The temperature was from 18 to 40 degrees below zero, during the whole period of the storm. The air was filled with snow as fine as flour. Through every crevice, keyhole, and nailhole, the fine snow penetrated, puffing into houses like steam. Seventy human lives were lost in the storm in Minnesota.

The storm was ushered in by the pleasantest weather of the season. The forenoon of Tuesday, January 7, was mild and pleasant; the sky was clear and there was no wind. It seemed as though a "January thaw" was imminent. The pleasant weather had induced many farmers to go to the woods for a supply of fuel or with their families to the neighbors to visit.

In Redwood county many of the settlers started into the bottoms and the river valleys to get poles. In those days, timber on school land, on speculators' land, or on any other unoccupied tract, was considered legitimate booty. Many a settler, when asked where he had secured his wood, would reply, "On section 37," and the interrogator would at once understand that the settler had helped himself to wood to which he had no legal right.

The majority of the Redwood settlers were thus busily in cutting trees on the day of the Tuesday in question, when a sudden change in the weather was apparent. The sky lost its clearness and became hazy. About noon, a white wall could be seen bearing down from the northwest. The front of the storm was as distinct and almost as clearly defined as a great sheet. In a few minutes, a gale, moving at the rate of thirty or forty miles an hour, was sweeping the country. The air was so completely filled with flying snow and it was almost impossible to see objects even a short distance away.

The settlers had, in the meantime, started for home. Some reached their own cabins, some succeeded in getting to Redwood Falls, others sought refuge in deserted cabins, or in the cabins of friends.

All Tuesday night, Wednesday, and Wednesday night, the storm raged with unabated fury. Not until Thursday did the storm let up, and not until Friday was it entirely over.

County Treasurer Robinson was among those who nearly perished. Being caught in the storm he burrowed a hole in the snow and there remained for three days, his only nourishment being secured by gnawing at his boot tops. It was several years before he recovered from the effects of this experience.

The deepest cause of discouragement and delay in the settlement of the county was the visit of the Rocky mountain locusts, lasting from 1873 to 1877, during which time very little was harvested. The eggs were laid in the prairie each year, and they hatched out just in time for the young hoppers to move into the wheat fields, when the tender blades were two or three inches high, and to eat them off so close to the ground that it gave the appearance of a fire having passed over the fields. If anything had escaped their ravages, later in the season, on some fair day, a fleecy cloud might be seen between the observer and the sun, which would prove to be an invading host of these marauders, seeking something to devour. The farmers lost courage and in many cases were driven away altogether from the places where they had hoped to make their homes. Many others were compelled to leave their claims temporarily to procure means of subsistence for themselves and their families. The state did what it could to furnish seed grain on two or three occasions, and donations from the older counties relieved the situation in a slight degree ; but, in any view, it was a most trying experience to the hardy and industrious pioneer families, who, at the best, could only maintain the position they had taken on the frontier by hard work and self-denial.

The spring of 1873 had opened favorably, a number of new settlers had come in, considerable land had been broken, and a good acreage planted and sowed. The grasshoppers first made their appearance in this county about the middle of June, 1873, and began their work. Not only did they destroy the crops that year, but they laid their eggs to be hatched out the next year.

All efforts to get rid of the hoppers were in vain. Ditches were dug, straw was burned, drags of sheet iron covered with coal tar, were tried, but while millions of the insects were killed their numbers did not seem to be diminished. Year after year they continued their work. A volume might be written of the ruin they wrought. They devoured everything green that could be found. They even ate the edges off from the boards on the houses and from the rails of the fences. Nothing that their sharp mouths could nip escaped their destruction. In Redwood Falls they cleared the lots and streets of every particle of grass.

Year after year the settlers planted crops only to see them destroyed in the summer. The settlers who put in their crops in 1877 were rewarded. The hoppers hatched out in May, but about the middle of July took flight. That year a banner crop was raised.

This caused much enthusiasm, high hopes were entertained for the future, and an increased acreage was broken and put in crops in 1878. But again the people faced disaster. Two weeks of excessive heat in the first half of July, followed by a week of excessive rains brought a crop failure. "Wheat was so damaged and so poor in quality that it brought only a low price, and corn, oats and vegetables were not much more profitable.

1872-73. Blizzard followed blizzard. "Winter set in with a blizzard on October 15, 1881, covering the county with a deep blanket of snow. After that came a little mild weather, but about the middle of November the elements began to rage again. Railroad operations ceased. Traffic was blocked on all the highways. As in 1873, communication with the outside world ceased.

The thaw started April 20, 1881, and the streams were soon raging torrents. Flood tide was reached April 24, and then the waters began to recede. Much damage had been done by the floods, dams were washed out, fences, outbuildings, and hay stacks carried away, and live stock drowned. The railroads were washed out in many places. The total loss was considerable.

In 1888 came another blizzard, possibly even more severe than any during the winter of 1880-81. On January 4, 1888, there came a thaw. This was followed by the severe cold of January 5, which covered the surface of the snow with an icy coating of considerable thickness. On the morning of Thursday, January 12, came another thaw. Then a few minutes after four in the afternoon, absolutely without warning, the blizzard broke. The storm increased in violence through the night, and though it abated somewhat at 8 o'clock Friday morning, it continued until Saturday night. Not until the next Tuesday was the weather and the roads such as to permit the snow-bound people to get news from the rural districts. The loss from frozen stock in Redwood county was especially large.