|
In Ipswich, they loaded their supplies from the railroad car
into the wagons. Imagine how it must have felt for
Samuel, in a foreign land where he did not know the language
or culture with 11 children and a wife who depended on him for
food, shelter and clothing. The new immigrants were
probably tired and weak after the long ocean voyage. In
Ipswich, they didn't know anyone. There was no welcoming
committee, no maps, no information booth, no roads. Yet,
with oxen harnessed and hooked onto the wagon, they started
westward. Where to, no one exactly knew. Ipswich
was the last station before jumping into the unknown.
They traveled over the vast prairie in a northwesterly
direction for about 55 miles. Along the way, they saw
very little wild life, only lots of stones and bleached
buffalo bones. During the night, they either slept under
the stars or, if they were lucky, they came upon a farm house
and the kind farmers would let them spend the night. On
about the 3rd day, they came upon a homesteader. Here
Samuel and his family stopped, unloaded the supplies, filed a
claim and established their home.
It is said that Samuel had a lot of money as may be
corroborated by all his purchases, and that he later brought
many families from Russia to America and they never paid him
back. Their new homestead consisted
only of the flat, open empty prairie. They all wished at the time that the
big stones they found were loaves of
bread. Imagine traveling by oxcart back to
Ipswich, 55 miles one way, to get
 necessary supplies and foodstuffs. Some
gathered buffalo bones along the way and sold them in Ipswich for about
$10-$12/ton. The supplies in Ipswich were not too expensive. Wheat cost 40
cents a bushel at the time, butter was 2 cents a pound, and eggs were about 4
cents a dozen. Some settles that didn't have an oxcart, would cover the
distance on foot. A walk of even 70 miles was not considered unduly long.
The distance from Bismarck to Napoleon is 77 miles, so that gives us some better
idea of the distance involved.
Fortunately life did get easier, and two years later,1887, the railroad came to the nearby town of Eureka which became the supply center for
the settlers in the area. From 1887 to 1902, Eureka was known as the
greatest primary wheat market of the world!
A
few years ago, Arlo, mom and I located the site of the old
Grenz homestead, about 12 miles west of Eureka, just north of
Highway 10, on Ave 312 en route to Artas in Campbell County,
South Dakota (as best as we could calculate). What we
saw was mostly just beautiful flat, prairie land, How I
wished we could have transported ourselves back in time to see
how things looked when Samuel, Christina and their children
lived there.
It
is hard to imagine the difficult beginnings on the prairie.
Often settlers spent the first days sleeping under an inverted
wagon-box. As soon as possible, a sod house was built.
For the roof, logs covered with sod were used, while the walls
were constructed entirely of sod. The logs had to be
hauled from the vicinity of the Missouri River, and the cost
was $1.25 per load. In the 1970's, the rock foundation
of the Grenz house was still there, but nothing else.
Wells had to be dug by hand, and it was slow, tedious work.
The soil had to be broken up and seeded, and many trees were
planted, some of which are still there today. Plowing
with the oxen had its own challenges, for at times the oxen
had a mind of their own. Samuel must have been really glad
that he
|
