The Dawson Herald from Dawson, Nebraska • 10

THE DAWSON HERALD DAWSON NEBRASKA HISTORICAL EDITION Pennsylvania Colonists Among First Settlers Here of land at this time Well when they came back home Sam had the measles and soon mother and two of the others got them At first we thought it Was poison There mother lay on the floor on a feather bed in the hot weather in July After living in Rulo three weeks we moved to the first farm we bought (the eighty acres where Arthur Heim now resides) Mr Fetter and Hugh BOyd were very good to us while we were in Rulo In those days there were friends everywhere On the third of July we started from Rulo to Daw- only two men as we could not make use of more We put up a bed in the kitchen for them to sleep Like many other things we children enjoyed it: I do not remember how mother liked it but she did not complain as long as we were well We had such good neighbors Mr and Mrs Henry Allen (grandparents of Allen and family were our nearest neighbors and they helped us all they could but they did not have much themselves When the stone wall was nearly finished Solomon took sick with membraneous croup suffered awful for nearly a week then choked to death That was terrible and in a new country without any relatives It was an awful shock we did not expect anything of the kind There we were with our large family and only two rooms We had Mr Dawson make a coffin out of walnut boards We put him in the dining room and at night put him across two chairs so the rats could not get at him We all slept in the dining room and the workmen slept in the kitchen There was no one here to conduct a funeral service so Will Allen went to Falls City to get a Dunkard preacher that they knew No one who has not had the experience knows what it is to go through such a sorrowful time If all of us would have lived and kept well we would have enjoyed our new home so much But this was not all after seven weeks dear sweet little Mary left us too also with membraneous croup what a sorrowful time that was losing two children in less than six months in a strange land and not one of our own folks but we had such good neighbors they did all they could for us When Mary died we had the carpenter and were getting along pretty well With the building but that put a stop to it for a while We did not feel like doing anything Father thought the death of the children was punishment from God for coming west and wanted to go back east again but mother said that would not bring their children back and their money was all in land and the house so we went on with the At this place in their experiences Mrs Ulmer closed her account but from this time on all went quite well with them having many prosperous years along with others not so good with no deaths in the immediate family for forty years The Grasshopper Years The account of the grasshopper years has been written by Mrs Ulmer (Sophia Heim) from which we quote day Ijbout noon when father anT the boys were hautihg the first two loads of lumber for our new house the grasshoppers cajne flying in from the north coming so thick the horses were unwilling to face them The wheat had been cut but they got everything else except the prairie grass That fall they laid their eggs and in the spring of 1875 hatched by the millions Again every thing but the prairie grass was taken Then on the 17th of June they began to travel For three days they flew toward the north and nothing could change their course We youngsters delighted in picking them up and setting them down turned toward the south but they always turned aroUnd and hopped northThey flew so thick they darkened the sun making a rushing whirring noise with their wings In a short time all but the cripples were gone The last part of June we planted corn which grew so rapidly that we got enough for our own use and some to sell In the spring of we again had trouble with the grasshoppers but this time pans were used to catch the pests Some hitched a horse at either end of the pan while others pulled them over the fields by hand Kerosene was furnished by the state which was poured iifto the pans and as they were pulled along the hoppers jumped into the kerosene which was sure death for them In this way bushels of them were destroyed and not so much damage was done to the crops As the grasshoppers ate weeds as well as the crops the ground was very clean and after such a long rest and plenty of moisture all we planted grew unusually well Such squash pumpkins turnips rutabagas pickles and watermelons we never raise now no insect pests to spray we never so much as heard of a spray pump or insect powders Fruit was very free from worms We had some apple and peach trees on our farm but they did not bear for some time We got a few apples brought over from Missouri but they were so expensive we could hardly ever have a whole one and you might imagine how good they tasted to us after having fruit of all kinds in our Pennsylvania home Apple pie tasted fine in our school lunch basket before this we had a great many lunches of just bread and sorghum and the bread was such as we never get now The flour was made from spring wheat the settlers called it grass wheat which was ground in a burr mill All the berry was used but the bran and it was unbleached Bread and meat were our main foods while the hoppers were It might be of interest to know that the home place (the eighty where Arthur Heim lives) was bought from Tom Fenton for $230000 reason for desiring this place was its nearness to the Allens and also because of a good spring The quarters now occupied by Wesley Heim and the one on which Heim resides were purchase the same time as the home eighty These quarters were bought from speculators for twelve dollars per acre The Joseph Heim quarter now occupied by Emerson Heim was bought in 1879 fOr $105000 Eighty acres of this farm were broke he same year and sowed to fall wheat and from that one crop of wheat they were able to pay for the whole quarter and had money besides Wheat at that time yielding about twenty bushels per acre selling at a price of $125 per bushel Lest this generation might think that was a snap it might be well to Jacob Heim and wife the first of the Pennsylvania colony of Dawson were born In Lycoming county Pa and at the time of their coming to Nebraska had a family of eight children Joseph Sarah Sam Jonathan Rebecca Solomon Sophia and Mary Their home in the east was very stony and hilly but by hard work on the part of all they were able to get along quite well With a family of growing boys realizing the opportunities for them on an eastern farm were very limited and fearing ttfet the family be separated were the chief reasons for coming West as this part of the country was then designated The reason for their coming to Richardson county was because of reading glowing accounts concerning the fertility and productiveness of the land in this part of the country and also due to the influence of a friend Mr Fetter who lived at Rulo and visited in their eastern home The account of leaving their eastern home and some of the pioneer experiences have been written by the late Mrs Emanuel Ulmer (Sarah Heim) from which we quote: 1870 a friend of from Rulo Nebraska came to see us in Pennsylvania and when he went home father went with him to see the west and when he came back home he wanted to sell out right away but it took him four years before he sold Of course all our relatives were against us going so far away from all of them but finally the farm was sold and we got ready for a big public sale It was hard to see all those things go that we were attached to and if we would have known what we would have to go through it would have been harder After the sale was over we packed the things that we wanted to take along in big boxes ready to ship If we could have taken a car like they did later it would have been better in many ways Then we took the last goodby from our good kind friends that we loved so much some we never saw again and some after many years came west to see us Finally after a long tiresome trip we landed in Rulo Nebraska but had no hbuse to go to stayed overnight with friends and the next day rented a house and moved in the same day It was not a big moving The house had two rooms and a kitchen and all were small We ate off one of our packing boxes and had our trunks around it for chairs We made a bed for grandfather (Gott-leib Heim) on two trunks and the rest df us slept on the floor In the daytime the bedding out of doors We had a good garden paying seven dollars for it and as we- get there the eleventh of June got a lot of good of it Well about the first thing the folks did was to- go on a land hunt As land around Rulo and Falls City was pretty high it took some time to find what they wanted Finally they came up to (who lived where I Heim now resides) We were acquainted with Mrs Allen as we had been neighbors in the east She was a sister of Mr Buser The folks bought four hundred acres Jacob Heim bom June 15 1832 died April 6 1914 and his wife Regina Heim bom July 13 1834 died July 3- 1920 These were the founders of the Pensylvania Colony near Dawson Both are buried in Heim cemetery here' This picture was taken several years ago on the porch of the original home on the farm where Arthur Heim now lives son to our new home On the way from Rulo to the train we met a lot of Indians going to Rulo to get ready to celebrate the Fourth They were good and would not hurt anyone we were not afraid of them and it was lots of fun for us Well finally the train came as all trains do if you wait long enough We arrived in Dawson but such a town! We looked for it and could not find it We walked to our home and the next day I came down with the measles and all the others that had not had them got them in a few days and there was mother with all the work and she was not strong enough to be around after having the measles Harvestrcame in a few days We had a good harvest but corn was nothing half a wagon box of nubbins was ali we got The grasshop-pers came and we had such a dry summer Cooking was certainly a problem no garden no potatoes One good thing fhat we had lots of wheat and could have all the bread we needed We bought one cow but she was not much good Grandma Fenton left us a few old hens but they did not lay much In the middle of the summer we began building the house First was the digging of the foundation then hauling the rock It took many a load Then we got the masons but.