Waseca County, Minnesota - Chapter 25, 1905

The year 1859 opened gloomy enough for the people of Waseca county, as a rule. Of course there were exceptions. A few men were fortunate enough to have saved a good crop of corn in 1858, and before the next spring good corn sold at $1 a bushel. A very few men had ;i little money, and those few gathered in cattle and horses at very low prices, or loaned their money at from forty to seventy-two per cent per annum. As is invariably the rule when financial disaster sweeps over the country, the rich became richer and the poor poorer. The losses of 1S5S made the winter of 1858-9 one of anxiety, and to many a winter of distress. Every family had to exercise the greatest economy. IMany farmers lived for weeks and months upon corn bread, milk, and butter. Some lived during the spring months on wild roots, fish, and wild fowls. All suffered more or less from deprivations of one kind or another.

The haying season of 1858 had been so rainy that there was a scarcity of hay with many and durinj^- the early spring time some cattle died of starvation, while the entire lack of grain made both horses and horned cattle look like the lean kine in Joseph's vision.

Hon. William Brisbane, who settled in this county in the spring of 1859, though in comfortable circumstances himself, saw the hardships of the earlier settlers, and contributed the folloM'iug to the "Album" history of the county in 1887 :

"Speaking of graham bread," said he, "I can assure you that twentyeight years ago (1859) a loaf of graham bread or a corn dodger, with a very thin sprinkling of molasses, would have been thankfully received and no questions asked. Those were the days that tried men's stomachs as well as their souls, but we lived and hoped for better days, for we had faith in the natural resources of Waseca county. Thanks to those resources and the Industrious energies of the people, our expectations have been fully realized. As the good book says: 'The rain is over and gone, and the time of the singing of birds has come.' Yet I never saw nor knew of a tragedy acted but there was always some comical or ludicrous scenes interlarded with it. * * * The following is said to be a fact, although it smacks of the improbable: A family out in the 'Big Woods' beyond Janesville were sorely pressed, for gaunt Famine was wagging his bony finger in their faces. Almost in despair they went into the woods and tried to find some roots, whereby they might satisfy the cravings of hunger. They were successful in unearthing the soughtfor roots, but were afraid that they might be poisonous. Something must be done; they would try an experiment. As luck would have it, there was a crazy sort of fellow in the family; so they thought they would try it on him. If he should die it would be no great loss, and if he lived why couldn't they? You see they were excellent logicians. Well, the crazy fellow lived, but you can bet that he never fared so well again as he did on the day the life or death experiment was tried on him."

"A sad affliction befell Mr. Quiggle's family in the spring of 1859. The children went out to gather cowslips. Two of the girls ate what they supposed to be that herb. Both were soon taken very sick. One of them, who ate more than the other, vomited and afterwards recovered. The other died in a short time in great agony. What they supposed to be cowslip, the doctors called vegetable dog button, a poisonous herb resembling the cowslip. The deceased, who was twelve years old, was buried in a homemade coffin, as there were no undertakers in this section of country at that time."