|
Starving
To Death At 70
An Old Couple Dying on the Prairies of Nebraska From
Want
Robert B. Peattle’s Fifth teller From the Drought
Stricken Country Conveys Sad Information
Some of the Scenes and Incidents of His Tour into the
Land Which Is Not the Land of Plenty
Here is the fifth of Mr. Robert B. Peattle’s drought
letters. Mr. Pettle’s errand has attracted
unusual attention, and his letters are being widely read, because it is quite
well understood that he describes the situation exactly as it is. Mr. Peattle’s previously published letters
will repay anyone who cares to read them.
They may be found in the World-Herald of recent issues
Ogalalla, Neb., Dec, 17,-The last two days I have spent
In Keith and Deuel Counties talking with the authorities and the farmers. At
Ogalalla, in the county clerk's office, I examined the applications made for
relief by the farmers. In one bunch, covering: four precincts, 114 people were
represented as being destitute. As in Lincoln County, the commissioners had
sent out blanks, which were filled in under oath by the applicants. I took the
following at random from the rest:
"Michael O'Brien, Paxton precinct, two persons in
family, aged 70; 120 acres; no mortgage, no horses, 2 cattle, no hogs, no
sheep; cattle in good condition; owns $50 worth of carpenters' tools: has on
hand two bushels of corn, no wheat, and no rye. no oats, no barley, no
potatoes, no beans, one ton of hay and fodder; quarter of a sack of flour, no meat
or other provisions; fuel, good; clothes poor.”
If you can imagine any blacker prospect than that for
an old couple of 70 you should take to fiction writing. Michael says his fuel is “good”. Now, he has no fuel at all of his own, and
gets what he has by picking it up along the railroad track, not far from which
he lives.
Cowchips for Fuel
Thomas Glynn, Vall precinct; five in the family; six
horses in poor condition; 25 cattle in fair shape; one hog. No corn, wheat, rye, oats or barley. One-half bushel of potatoes; not beans; q00
pounds of flour; fifty pounds of other provisions; five tons of fodder, no
money; owes $1,000; cowchips for fuel.”
"George Benner, Paxton precinct. No provisions of
any kind; twenty tons of fodder. He has
a pension of $6 per month.”
"B. M. Gilbert. Paxton precinct: six in family;
nine horses in fair condition; five cattle the same; four hogs; 100 pounds of
meat, fifty pounds of flour; no other provisions or grain of any kind; seven
tons of fodder."
William Wiedemann, Brule precinct, seven in family,
children from 6 to 13 years; seven poor horses, five cattle in fair shape and
thirteen pigs; one bushel potatoes, one peck beans, 50 pounds of flour, fifty
pounds of meat; no other provisions or grain; five tons of old hay. He has no
well or pasture. His wife is sick and they need bed clothes and shoes. He cannot leave home on account of his wife’s
illness.”
Two-Thirds
Are Destitute
The county during the months of August, September,
October and November expended something over $1,000 for the relief of its
people. The funds are now exhausted and the real winter weather is yet to
come. Keith County is unfortunate in its
financial affairs. Bonds which it neglected to register bob up every now and
again, and the people are very hard pressed to meet indebtedness. It’s expenses are kept down to the minimum
but even then it is hard scratching to make both ends meet. According to the
people in the county clerk's office fully two-thirds of the 2,500 population
are in destitute circumstances or will be before spring.
I had a talk with R. H. Austin, the county
commissioner, who is also a relief agent appointed by the governor's
committee. He had no instructions from
Mr. Ludden, the chairman, and had not received any supplies.
“The destitution is general,” he said, “and some of
the cases which are brought to our notice are of the most distressing
nature. This morning a family I know
very well called at my house two miles out in the country and asked for clothing. The four children were without shoes. We had given away everything we had, and they
begged us for rags of any kind or legs of stockings with which to cover
themselves up.” Mr. Austin, who is one
of the people himself, labored under great excitement as he talked, and at
times his voice trembled so that it was hard to hear what he said. He placed the number of destitute at present
at 1,000 persons.
Flour and Water for Food
"Something will have to be done." he said
"and done immediately. There are hundreds of people living today on little
more than flour and water, and their pantries have not any too much flour. They have not got clothes to cover them
decently. Of course we have some people
who have asked for aid who have no right to assistance, but there are far more
who need help and should have it right away.
Our county has done all it can do, and the people of Ogalalla are
feeding all who come to them for food. I
have taken many to the merchants and let them have flour on my credit, but that
cannot go on forever. Others have done
the same thing and it will have to stop sometime. I have written Mr. Ludden to learn what the
committee at Lincoln intends to do. I
have received not supplies yet.”
“
"What do your people need most?"
"Everything. Food, clothing and fuel, and in the
spring every one will need seed of all kinds.”
“What crops
have you raised this year?
“North of the North River in the irrigated region a
little corn was raised and a fair amount of hay. On the table land not an ear of corn was
harvested. Up north the farmers may be
said to be in fair circumstances, although they will need help in the spring.”
Raised Absolutely Nothing
Mr. Harland, who owns a threshing machine and did all
the threshing that was done in the county, said: I threshed 1,000 bushels of wheat and a
little alfalfa. That was raised in the
valley up north and constituted the whole of the threshing season.
Mr. Austin believes that the situation was plainly
apparent last summer, and believes that the governor should have called a
special session of the legislators to pass a relief bill. He thinks the legislators would have donated
their services for a week to do this business, and the state would have saved
any expense.
“I think,” He
said, "that the law should be changed so that we could make our levy
earlier, say, in June. By that means we
could forstall such a situation as the present and amply provide for the
emergency.”
“What about irrigation?”
Irrigation Saved Some
"There is some
of it now in our county, up in the North River district, and there the only
crops to speak of were raised. Down this
way it would have to be with wind pumps.
I have tried it on my place with an eight-foot windmill, which I rigged
up at no cost, except labor. Of course,
I only reached a “very” small patch with the water, but on that ground I raised
cabbages, beets, potatoes and forty bushels of tomatoes, enough to plentifully
feed several families. I am now
preparing to put up a sixteen-foot windmill, which I believe will raise a
twelve-inch stream of water and irrigate forty acres. Aside from the labor the cost of this
particular mill will only be $25. I am
going to pump water on the land all the rest of the winter and as far into
spring as possible, and I believe the ground will be sufficiently moist by
growing time to with stand any amount of drought.
“A great many
thousand acres in the valley could be reached by irrigation ditches, and will
be, but that will take time and money.
The people are determined to do it, however, as it is their own barrier
against times like these.”
“Could not all the farmers with windmills be saved
from destitution even in drought times, if they irrigated a patch as you do?”
Keith County’s Sad Plight
“Undoubtedly.
Every one could raise enough vegetables to winter through, and in many
of the more fortunately situated farms crops could actually be raised by a
little ingenuity.”
Mr. Austin begged me to call attention to the
miserable plight of the Keith County farmers, and he expressed the earnest hope
that the good people of Omaha and the east would send what they could spare
immediately. The situation here does,
indeed, call for instant relief. The
lands and the people I saw show plainly that the condition is desperate. The farmers and their families are in rage
and the condition of stock is anything but promising. Cow manure is the chief article of fuel, and
if rain or snow should come, this last means of warming the desolate shacks
will be gone. Meat is a luxury scarcely
to be thought of and flour is sparingly dealt out. Water is the drink, and in many cases it and
a little flour batter made into a sort of unleavened bread constitutes the
daily diet. Children in many cases are
barefooted and adults, as I said before, are often not properly clothed. Bed clothes suits, underclothes, shoes and
stocking are needed. But even clothes
are not so important a need as food and fuel.
Only few persons have fuel in any great quantity. These are railroad ties which they have
received for doing road work for the Union Pacific.
No Game
Game is not to be had, or the farmers might get a
goose or a prairie chicken. But these have all flown away from so unproductive a
spot. Even the jack rabbits seem to have
deserted for other lands.
It may be that these farmers are wasteful. It may be that they are improvident. But it is certainty a fact that they are
citizens of Nebraska and that they are in dire distress.
R. B. Peattle
Morning World-Herald - December 20, 1894
|