Copyrighted
2005 for Clark county South Dakota and Gordon Meyer
Clark_1930
It would be nearly impossible for a newcomer to
realize the conditions that existed in dark County fifty years ago.
About the middle of October in 1880 a very severe snow storm swept over the Dakotas and Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and I believe some
other states. The railroad in places between Tracy and Watertown was so deeply buried by the snow the R.R. Co. abandoned the entire line in consequence there
was not an arrival of a train in Watertown from the middle of Oct. 1880 until early in May 1881. The families then living in dark Co. burned hay in their stoves for
over six months during the fall. and winter of 1880 and the winter of 1881.The hay burner was made like an 8 inch
stove pipe tho larger around and some higher. The top being closed, the burner
would be packed full of twisted hay and placed on the stove in place of the lid; then the hay was lighted and heat was supplied the same as could' be obtained from wood or Coal.
Prior
to 1882, for three or four years in succession, the grasshoppers destroyed the
crops in southern Minnesota and many of the farmers of
that region immigrated to South Dakota and some of them made their
homes in dark County. They and others broke the prairie sod on their Homesteads
and with the sod built their houses and barns or stables. The sod houses were
quite numerous throughout Clark Co. in those early days. They were very comfortable and when
plastered on the inside were very neat and homelike.
Under
the Homestead law a resident could live five years and be exempt from taxes but
at the expiration of seven years of so living he was required to prove such
residence. A title, or deed, from the Government (would then be
issued). Thereafter he was required to pay taxes,
being then about ten or twelve dollars on 160
acres of land. Now they are about 20
times as much. The law also provided that one could,
after six months continuous residence on the claim
prove the same and pay the Government $200; receive a patent or deed for
the land. Quite a number of Homesteaders availed themselves of that provision
of the law and thru the loan companies borrowed as much as they could,
generally six or seven hundred dollars and pay the Government $200, and thereafter they had taxes to pay besides interest on the money borrowed
Some
of those people became discouraged and left the County and State. The families
living here who lived in the sod houses are among the substantial and
prosperous people of our County at the present time.
The
Rail Road was built in 1882 from Watertown to Clark and
further west and for severed years after that date almost every day a car of immigrant movables would be stopped at Clark and another Homesteader would become a resident of Clark County.
For a year or two after 1882 it was not unusual for a train load of immigrants
to arrive in Clark.
The
families that came to Clark Co. after 1882 were largely from Iowa, Illinois and
other states; were financially able to build buildings of lumber which they did
and the sod house and stable became things of
the past
and at the present time the abandonded sod house is an object
of curiosity and interest.
Yours Truly,
S. N. Brown
Written for Miss Marie Curtice by S.N.Brown a few days before his death.
Dictated by S. N. Brown to George Lindland, in whose hand
the letter is written
Transcribed April 4, 2004, by Debrah Anderson
*Notes by transcriber: dark County was
organized May 23, 1881
South Dakota became a state
in 1889