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Contributed by
Sharon Mach
machfam@mtaonline.net
Pioneer Settler
Recalls Early Day Experiences
Andrew Sukup, Sr.
The Verdigre Eagle
February 25 & March 3, 1932
G.H. Lliddel, Editor & Publisher
I was born in Bohemia on November 23, 1853 in a small village called
Harlau [Hoslau] and our town was Rompsberg [Ronsberg], that being
where we went to school and church. When I was 13 years of age, I
left school and started to learn the blacksmith trade. My father had
a small farm of about 80 acres. My brother Wenzel [whom he later
refers to as "Jim" in this story] was a soldier in the Austrian army
for several years and after he had served his time, he and I made up
our minds to try our luck in the land across the water - the United
Sts.
On the 25th day of March, 1870, we were given a farewell party by
our friends and relatives who while they hated to have us leave for
a new country and wanted us to remain with them, joined in wishing
us Godspeed in our journey. So the day we packed our bundles and
with great hopes and aspirations, left for our trip across the
ocean. We boarded the steamship, Mein, at Bremen, its port being New
York. After a voyage of two weeks we reached New York and how glad
we were to be on solid land once more. The last 12 days of the trip
we saw nothing but sky and water - and it got very monotonous.
We had no relatives in this country, so we did not know which
direction to take. But we had heard of the saying, "Young man go
West" so we followed the young crowd west. We traveled from New
York, day and night, to Chicago, Milwaukee and to St. Peter,
Nicollet County, Minnesota. But we soon found that we had gone too
far west to get work. The money which we had with us was nearly gone
and we were not used to begging. We spent a week looking for work
and found none. We became homesick and began to think that we had
made a mistake in leaving Bohemia. The second week I got a job in a
furniture factory at $6.00 per month. It was not much but I was
satisfied. I worked hard from morning until night and at the end of
three months, the boss told me that from then on I was to receive
$10.00 a month. The next year he gave me $15.00 a month and was well
satisfied. My brother got a job on the railroad. I stayed the larger
part of the summer. Then hearing about fine homesteads in Nebraska
my brother, Jim and I started for that state. I got a job in a Des
Moines, Iowa brickyard but I did not keep it long as I did not like
the work. So I made up my mind to make another move, going to Omaha,
Nebraska. This was at the time they built the first bridge across
the Missouri River.
My brother had already taken up homestead four miles northeast of
Norfolk, and I wanted to see him. I rode the Chicago and
Northwestern railroad as far as West Point, Cuming County, that
being the end of the line then. From there, I made the rest of the
journey on foot. I obtained work in Norfolk, taking a job with Mr.
Wessel, who had a blacksmith and wagon shop. This suited me very
well as I had learned the trade in Bohemia. He and I got along very
nicely. Norfolk, at that time was a small village with a flour mill,
a store, a small hotel, harness shop, and blacksmith shop. This was
in September, 1872. And this was the first time I ever saw
grasshoppers thick enough to destroy all gardens, corn, and other
crops.
I had a good job at wages but I wanted a farm of my own. There had
been plenty of homesteads around Norfolk, but they had been taken up
mighty fast. In the spring of 1874, my brother Jim, and I went to
look at some of these homesteads, but the best were all gone so we
had to go farther to get what we wanted - good land with timber and
running water. This we found between Walnut and Verdigree. After we
had selected our homesteads, we sought a surveyor to locate the
section corners. My brother and I, the surveyor and two other men
started one morning for the homesteads, a distance of about 15
miles. We took our dinner along but expected to be back by night. We
had to cross creeks and streams and it took longer than we had
planned upon. We had to cross creeks and streams and it took longer
than we had planned upon.
We ate our dinner and late in the afternoon a big thunderstorm came
UP and there was a terrific downpour of rain. It raised the creeks
to such an extent that we could not get across for two days. We were
trapped there with nothing to eat and shelter - and our clothes were
all wet, our horses were all right; they had plenty of good grass to
eat, but we could not eat grass. We had a coffee can with us and
found some dry matches in our pockets. We managed to get a fire
started and got warm and dry again. Then we were lucky enough to
find a pckage of coffee in the wagon and enjoyed a drink of black
coffee. The second day our stomachs got pretty empty so we rejoiced
when the water went down and we could get across. The sloughs were
so soft that as we drove through them our horses got mired down and
the wagon sank in so deep that we had-to take it to pieces, carry it
to solid land and set it up again. We finally reached the home of a
settler and you may be sure that good food certainly tasted great to
us after our two-day fast. The nearest land office was in Sioux
City, Iowa. We had no horses or automobile and so we had to make the
100 miles on foot in order to file on our land.
In the spring of 1874 we set out to buy a pair of horses and a pair
of work oxen. We had to go all the way to West Point to get what we
wanted. The worst of it was that our money gave out too soon and
then the hard times began. It was pretty hard to earn a dollar, for
the few homesteaders were all in the same boat. Our nearest
neighbors were about 10 and 15 miles distant. That spring we broke
up some land and planted it to corn. Everything we planted came up
fine-and we had big crops. We got very lonesome and so did our cow,
oxen and horses. While we were breaking the sod, the cow would
follow along behind us just like a colt follows its mother. We did
not see a soul for six weeks or until we went to Norfolk. When we
came back in the month of August, the grasshoppers came along in big
swarms and crop lasted one hour. Our crops and our hopes were all
gone for that year.
Now we had to find some work. There was plenty of grass but we could
not live on that. My brother, Jim, went on foot clear to Des Moines,
Iowa to find work. In the fall we put up a log house and then came
the winter and it was a tough one. One morning we could not see any
sunlight and then found to our surprise that we were buried in a
snowdrift 10 to 12 feet deep. We had to dig a tunnel in order to get
out. Our house was not so very fancy. We had no stove and no money
with which to buy one. We made a fireplace to cook and bake in and
it worked pretty good --but it -was -not very comfortable. Outside
the house it was too cold and inside there was too much smoke. We
could not get used to it.
One cold winter day we were cutting wood along a stream and we saw a
troop of Indians come along and pitch their tents close to where we
were working. In the evening when we went home it was dark and we
lost our saw and ax. We decided to get up early in order to find
them before the Indians found them. We thought if they picked them
up we would never get our tools. It was sixty miles to a hardware
store, so their lose meant a lot to us on that account and also the
fact that we had no money with which to buy new ones. But the
Indians were earlier than we were. While I was preparing breakfast,
someone knocked on the door and when I opened it I saw two Indians
one of them a squaw with a pony loaded with blankets. On top of the
load was our ax and saw and they gave them back to us. We invited
them inside to have some breakfast with us and they gave a willing
acceptance. After breakfast, they left very peaceably. I told my
brother that the Indians could not be as bad as we heard from the
settlers.
That morning we went back to chop more wood and we visited their
camp. It was 10 below zero - yet we did not see any signs of fire. I
told my brother that we had it better with our cornbread and
corncake than the Indians had; and we had a warm place to sleep. But
we could not sleep very sound for fear that the Indians would kill
and scalp us some night. We could not look for much help from the
neighbors for they were too far away.
The next spring we tried our luck again. That was in 1875. We had no
seed and the nearest place to get it was Norfolk, over sixty miles
away. There was no road for over 30 miles and rest of it was poor.
There was a lot of snow that winter and it-did not leave us until
late; it got very cold. In the middle of March we sowed our wheat,
hoping, for a good crop. In May we planted our corn, sorghum cane
seed, and potatoes. All our crops grew nicely until the middle of
July when the grasshoppers came down from the north in vast swarms.
There came a strong south wind and they stayed with us for ten days.
Then the wind shifted to the north again and the hoppers left us.
When they were gone there was not a leaf on a tree and most of the
grass was gone. All they left us was our sorghum cane. I got a mill
and made four barrels of sorghum, intending to sell it and buy
clothing and shoes, but our plans did not work out. One evening I
saw a light shine in the southwest. It was very windy that night and
in a short time the whole country was on fire. All I could save was
two horses and the small log house. The barn, hay, and sorghum, and
all were consumed. Now we had nothing.
Two days after the fire came a snowstorm. There was no barn for the
horses, no hay, no oats, no corn, no grass. It was all burned. All I
could do was to take the horses in the house with me until the
blizzard was over. Then I built a sod barn for the horses. I talked
with my brother, Jim, and we decided to give Knox County one more
trial - if it missed again we would tell it goodbye.
We worked out and earned a few dollars - enough with which to buy
seed. We planted it and it came up nicely and made a fine growth.
But the grasshoppers had left their eggs and they hatched early.
They started eating our wheat but as soon as they could fly they
picked up and left. We had growing weather and the wheat, corn and
sorghum cane made good progress.
I knew I could earn some money at blacksmithing if I had the
necessary tools but had no money with which to buy them. It was
different in those days, if you wanted something and did not have
the money you had to wait until you had it. You could not go to the
bank and borrow it - there were none in the country. We got a pretty
good crop that summer. Sorghum cane was extra good. I finally got a
few dollars together and bought an anvil, a vise and bellows; also
some other tools I made myself. A shop building I could do without
for a while. Then I was ready to fix my own plows and also those of
my neighbors. The new settlers came 20 to 25 miles to have me
sharpen their breaking plows and make repairs on them. I made a lot
of new plows too. I hired a man to work in my place in the field
while I worked at the blacksmithing. I made headway right along.
We made about 500 gallons of sorghum that fall and it did not burn
up this time. We sold it at 500 per gallon. Things started to get
better for us. We bought a cow and changed from cornbread to wheat
bread. Settlement was slow at this time - more settlers left than
came in. One day a young Bohemian, about 24 years olds, came to my
place. He was lost. He wanted to go to Cedar Rapids, Iowa but in
some way had made a mistake and found himself at Cedar Rapids,
Nebraska. He wanted to find a Bohemian settlement. I told him to
stay with me for a while. The next day he got sick and four hours
later he was dead. I went and got the coroner and he told me that it
was a case of sunstroke. I forgot his name.
Our horses had a hard time, too. No oats, no corn, and plenty of
hard work. To keep the flies off the horses we used gunny sacks.
They served a double purpose - they kept the flies off and also made
it so that people could not see how poor the horses were.
The grasshoppers came again but they were not so thick and did not
do so much damage. As the years went by, things got better and
better. I could buy some pigs and cattle now. The first load of hogs
I sold had to be killed and dressed and the nearest hog marked was
Yankton South Dakota. The ferry charge across the Missouri and back
was $3.00 and dressed hogs were $1.50 per hundred. I did not haul
many loads at that price. Cattle were low in price, too, but they
were cheaper to raise. I made money on them for feed was plentiful.
In the year 1879, July the 12th, I married a good farm girl, Miss
Mary Sedivy, a good woman and a good housekeeper. We have lived
together happily for over fifty years. We had 12 children- all are
married. The two youngest were married in July 1929 - a boy and a
girl. There were seven boys and five girls. On the 12th of July,
1929, we had our golden wedding and it was attended by over three
hundred friends and relatives. All had a good time.
As the years passed by, things got better and better. I raised small
grain and corn but made the most money in cattle and hogs. I also
raised and sold a good many head of horses. I did quite a little
trading and also sold livestock. My rule was not to buy anything
unless I had the cash to pay for it.
I got in good shape financially and thought it would be a good idea
to invest my surplus money in good land. So I bought one quarter
after another until at one time I owned 2,600 acres of good land,
all clear. The neighbors all liked to sell me their stock and land
for they knew they could get the cash for it; and I could buy
cheaper than on time.
By careful buying I always had plenty of money on hand. The land by
this time I divided among my children and that is what I will do
with the rest of my property later. We had only one failure after
the grasshopper time. That was in 1894 when we raised nothing but
fodder -- no corn. But it was not bad, we had plenty to feed our
stock that winter.
Nebraska is a good place to live in after all. By good management, a
man can make a good living and money beside.
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