A WWII Canteen in... North Platte, Nebraska? A Small Town with a Big Heart

 By Mary Dodge Allen

Have you ever heard of the North Platte Canteen? It was the largest of the 120 community-based canteens operating throughout the United States during WWII. 

North Platte Canteen volunteers serving a roomful of servicemen (Lincoln County Historical Museum)

The small town of North Platte, Nebraska - population 12,000 during WWII - had been a major rail hub since the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. Steam trains regularly made a brief 10-15 minute stop in North Platte, to take on water and lubricate the wheels. 

Map showing location of North Platte, Nebraska (Public Domain)

On December 17, 1941, ten days after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, North Platte resident Rae Wilson heard that her brother’s Company D of the Nebraska National Guard was scheduled to stop at the town’s railroad depot. Rae, a 26-year-old store clerk eagerly spread the word around town. 

Volunteers handing out food to soldiers at the North Platte depot (Union Pacific RR archives)

On the day the train arrived, hundreds of people were eagerly waiting at the depot, ready to give the troops gifts of home-baked food, chewing gum, cigarettes and other goods. To their surprise, the troops aboard turned out to be Company D of the Kansas National Guard, not Nebraska. No matter. The town’s residents swarmed the train and handed their gifts to the servicemen through the open windows.

The North Platte townspeople were deeply touched when they saw how their gifts and well-wishes boosted the morale of the servicemen on the train. The next day, Rae Wilson wrote a letter to the editor of the North Platte Daily Bulletin. 

Rae Wilson's letter to the Editor (Nebraska State Historical Society)

Below are excerpts from her letter:

“To see the spirits and the high morale among those soldiers should certainly put some of us on our feet and make us realize we are really at war... Why can’t we, the people of North Platte and the other towns surrounding our community, start a fund and open a Canteen now?”

Christmas Day, 1941, the official beginning of the North Platte Canteen:

On December 25, 1941, volunteers with the newly-formed North Platte Canteen officially met their first troop train. They prepared baskets of food and other goodies at the Cody Hotel across the street from the depot, and handed out food items, cigarettes and magazines to the troops through the train’s open windows. (For security reasons, military personnel were generally not allowed to leave trains during stops.)

Volunteers putting up the Canteen sign on the depot (Lincoln County Historical Museum)

It soon became apparent that the facilities at the Cody Hotel couldn’t keep up with the growing number of troop trains. Rae Wilson contacted William “Bill” Jeffers, a local resident who was President of the Union Pacific Railroad and asked him if the canteen could use the vacant lunchroom at the train depot. He agreed, and the canteen moved into the depot shortly before January 1, 1942. It remained there for the duration of the war.

As the North Platte Canteen served more and more troop trains, the military officials relaxed their restrictions and allowed servicemen to leave the train and enter the depot. But tight security was still maintained by Union Pacific officials. They only communicated the upcoming arrival of troop trains to the women in charge of the canteen. Word was then passed along by calling other volunteers, and saying the code phrase, “I have the coffee on.”

Each day, as many as 24 trains stopped at the North Platte depot, and its Canteen served thousands of servicemen during the war.

Crowd of servicemen at the Canteen in the depot lunchroom (Lincoln County Historical Museum)

On a typical day at the canteen, this amount of food was used to feed the troops:

1,080 cookies

2,000 buns

1,000 bottles of milk

100 pounds of ham

80 pounds of ground beef

70 fried chickens

720 hard-boiled eggs

23 pounds of butter

16 pounds of coffee

2 crates of oranges

8 bushels of apples

36 birthday cakes (to servicemen with birthdays on or near that day)

Canteen volunteers serving ham sandwiches, 1943 (Union Pacific RR archives)

Canteen volunteer serving glasses of milk (Union Pacific RR archives)

How did the canteen feed all these servicemen, especially with food rationing?

Churches and organizations from over 125 neighboring towns contributed to the effort. Most people had sons, brothers, husbands or boyfriends fighting in the war, and they wanted to do their part. Some volunteers traveled as far as 200 miles to bring food or to work at the canteen. 

People donated extra ration stamps for sugar, coffee, gasoline, and more. Extra farm produce, meat and dairy products were donated to the canteen. Children even gave up their birthday cakes so they could be given to the servicemen. As the North Platte canteen became more well-known, donors throughout the country sent money and food.

Lyda Swenson presents Army PFC Clifton Hill a birthday cake, 1942 (Union Pacific RR archives)

The canteen received no government funding, so fund raising efforts were ongoing. One local resident, John “Gene” Slattery, sold his family’s goats at the livestock market and donated the money to the canteen. Someone asked him if he had anything else to sell, and he replied, “All I have is the shirt off my back.” A buyer bid for it, and he took it off right away. 

John "Gene" Slattery selling the shirt off his back (Smithsonian Magazine)

After this, Slattery began regularly selling other shirts off his back, which were donated by local clothing stores. He also earned money doing odd jobs, and he donated his earnings to the Canteen. His popular shirt sales and the donations from his odd jobs raised an estimated total of $2,000 for the canteen! 

Serviceman playing the piano for a Canteen crowd (Lincoln County Historical Museum)

The Canteen also had a piano, and soldiers would gather around it while a canteen volunteer or even a serviceman played popular tunes, like “Stardust” or “String of Pearls.” Servicemen would sing along, or even dance with the young women as the tunes were played.  

Popcorn Balls, Pen Pals and Marriage:

Canteen volunteers distributing snacks (Lincoln County Historical Museum)

One of the most popular snacks with the servicemen were popcorn balls, made and distributed by young women carrying snack baskets. Some of the young women put scraps of paper with their names and addresses inside the popcorn balls. This often resulted in pen pal communications between them and the servicemen. 

William “Woody” Butrick corresponded with local resident Vera Winters, and his friend, Virgil Butolph corresponded with Vera’s sister, Ethel. These relationships resulted in two marriages after the war! Both marriages lasted for decades, until the deaths of both husbands.

L-R: Virgil Butolph, Woody Butrick, Vera Butrick and Ethel Butolph, holding daughter Verdina (Smithsonian Magazine)

The Union Pacific Depot, where the North Platte Canteen was based, was torn down in 1973. But its memory lives on at the Lincoln County Historical Museum, which houses a North Platte Canteen exhibition. 

James Griffin, the museum director and curator, stated that most of the troops served by the canteen were homesick teenagers who had just completed boot camp. They were riding on a train with poor heating and no air conditioning in the middle of nowhere, on their way to war. 

But then, in Griffin’s words, “They get off the train, and they see [a maternal figure], and she’s got food.” In letters home, some of the soldiers wrote that they were fighting for the women who had offered them a brief respite from the war. Griffin added, “They were only here for ten minutes, but they knew they were loved when they left here.”   

Jornalist Bob Greene wrote a book about the canteen, entitled: Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen. Greene interviewed many of the servicemen who had visited the canteen. He said:

“So often, their voices would break, and some of the men would cry as they would try to put into words the gratitude they felt for the people of North Platte. They spoke of how lonely they had felt on the troop trains, heading for war and perhaps for death. And then, in that one little town, the train paused, and, like a miracle, the people of North Platte were there.”

Bob Greene summed up the legacy of the North Platte Canteen, with these words: 

“What the people of North Platte did for the soldiers of this country – what they did on their own, without any help from the government – is as fine an example of what our nation can be as anything... I have ever found.

“The soldiers weren’t expecting anything and weren’t asking for anything. But the very fact that the people of North Platte were there meant the world to those soldiers.”

_____________________

Mary Dodge Allen is currently finishing her sequel to Hunt for a Hometown Killer. She's won a Christian Indie Award, an Angel Book Award, and two Royal Palm Literary Awards (Florida Writer's Association). She and her husband live in Central Florida. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Faith Hope and Love Christian Writers. 

Website: www.marydodgeallen.com

Recent release, anthology devotional: El Jireh, The God Who Provides

Mary's story, entitled: A Mother's Desperate Prayer, describes her struggle with guilt and despair after her young son is badly burned in a kitchen accident. When we are at the end of all we have, El Jireh provides what we need. 

Click the link below to purchase on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/El-Jireh-God-Who-Provides/dp/1963611608

Mary's novel: Hunt for a Hometown Killer won the 2022 Christian Indie Award, First Place - Mystery/Suspense; and the 2022 Angel Book Award - Mystery/Suspense.

Click the link below to buy Hunt for a Hometown Killer at Amazon.com:

Hunt For A Hometown Killer: A Novel: Allen, Mary Dodge: 9781952369704: Amazon.com: Books

Link to Mary's Spotlight Interview:   Mary Dodge Allen Author Spotlight EA Books

Sod Walls and Daily Life

A footnote from history by Stephanie Grace Whitson

The Dowse Sod House in Nebraska
photo by S Whitson

 This past weekend a friend from 
"back east" and I journeyed to the western part of my home state of Nebraska. We visited the Dowse Sod House pictured at right, which was built in 1900 and was the first home of newlyweds William and Florence Dowse.

William and Florence's son, Philip, was born in 1909 and reminisced about life in the soddy when interviewed many years ago. "We had a big root cellar and in winter we'd get a old, crisp apple for a treat.

Oh, they were good! At night mother would read us boys Zane Grey novels by the light of a kerosene lamp ... Sometimes we'd play checkers. We didn't have a lot of things, but it seemed we were always happy."


Sod houses are unique in that they are literally made of dirt. The grasses that grew on the prairie formed such dense root systems that the earth could be cut into bricks and laid up into walls like the ones you see exposed on the Dowse home. In fact, the root systems were so tough that a special plow was invented to facilitate the "sod-busting." Sod bricks were laid grass side down. The walls were often plastered over. 

I remember reading about one family who came to Nebraska from Czechosolavaki in 1885. They had eight children and lived in a one-room dugout that measured about 20 by 24 feet. What was that like? Here are some first-person accounts from sod house pioneers that I've collected over the years (Note: spelling errors in the original sources have not been corrected):

A wooden spool serves
as a door pull at the
Dowse Sod House.

"I don't see how my mother did the many things that fell her lot to do aside from the regular household duties, gardening, helping milk, caring for the milk, which had to be set in crocks and tin pans and skimmed by hand, churned to butter before it could be sold; she manufactured all our clothing from cloth bought by the yard, underwear from cotton flannel, skirts, overalls for summer, jeans for winter, all our socks and stockings to knit, and all this sewing to do by hand, she also made our straw hats ... "

"I am so tired I do not know as I can tell you all the particulars tonight ... I have been on the trot all day and have not done much either only washed."

This rustic clock shelf
is embedded in the sod
walls behind the plaster
finish. 

"I had a whaleing big washing last week. It was so stormy I had to dry [the shirts] in the house I could not hang them but what our heads would rub some of them when I went to Iron I was almost spunky because they did not please me the fine shirts especialy."

"I had to make some new clothes for the girls to wear to the fair and I was very much hurried as I done it all by hand. Mother, I often wish I was close to your machine for three girls makes lots of sewin."

"We had a very long and cold winter set in early and had lots of snow ...

J.T. had bought me a new Singer machine and I made good use of it making all the clothes we wore. I had done this before by hand only occasionally taking some long seams down to sew on Mrs. Strohls machine."

"All we had to eat that first hard winter was jack rabbits and sorghum."

"One morning I said we had better put the bedding out in the sun for an airing ... all the things on the clothesline, but the feather beds ... spread on the grass. About the middle of the afternoon they were brought in ... Along in the night, I felt something cold and clammy at my feet, and called to my husband. He said 'It's just your imagination, go to sleep.' In the morning I got up to dress and I heard something go k-plop on the floor ... there was a big bull snake three and a half feet long ..."

At first we had no fences and, as the cattle must have pasture, it fell to my lot to watch them graze. Dinner time was the only time that I came home. I tried to pass the time away by reading, piecing, quilt blocks, and hunting wild flowers. 

How about you? Do you enjoy visiting historic homes? Do you have a favorite architectural style?

My novel Karyn's Memory Box opens with the words "Dirt. He expected her to look at dirt and call it home." Karyn Ritter has just arrived in Nebraska from Germany and she is not impressed with the soddy her husband has constructed. 

Available as a trade paperback and ebook for Kindle. The ebook is only $2.99.

https://www.amazon.com/Karyns-Memory-Keepsake-Legacies-Book-ebook/dp/B01DV1SYIO/

 

Fort Robinson, Nebraska

A footnote from history by Stephanie Grace Whitson

Have you visited western Nebraska? If not, you've missed stunning vistas and a chance to stay at Fort Robinson, known to Crazy Horse and Red Cloud, Spotted Tail and Dull Knife, Buffalo Soldiers, German prisoners of war, war dog trainers, and champion equestrians.

In 1874, when tensions ran high at Red Cloud Agency--named for a great leader of the Oglala Sioux--the agent called for troops from Fort Laramie. Both cavalry and infantry arrived in March of that year, resulting in the establishment of Camp Robinson, named for Lt. Levi Robinson who'd been killed the previous month. 

Men stationed at Camp Robinson would be caught up in ongoing tensions with both The Oglalas and northern Sioux at Red Cloud agency and Spotted Tail's Brules at Spotted Tail Agency. By summer of 1874, it was obvious the troops' presence wasn't temporary. Soldiers were building log barracks and other permanent buildings. By 1878, Camp Robinson had become Fort Robinson. The death of Crazy Horse and the tragic "Cheyenne Outbreak" took place here. 

Throughout the 1880s, routine life at Fort Robinson involved target practice, ceremonies, inspection--and building. New adobe officers' quarters and new barracks were added, and the Buffalo Soldiers arrived. Second Lieutenant Charles Young was among them. The son of former slaves, Lt. Young was a recent graduate of the U.S. military academy at West Point. 

From 1884 to 1887, Dr. Walter Reed (who gave his name to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.) was Fort Robinson's post surgeon. 

Fort Robinson was the Army Equestrian Team's training ground in the 1930s. Two horses, Jennie Camp and Dakota, placed in the 1936 Berlin Olympic games. 

During WWII, Fort Robinson became a reception and training center for war dogs. Over 5,000 dogs were trained in trail and attack work, sentry duty, message bearing, etc. before the reception center closed in 1946. 

German POWS housed at Fort Robinson during WW II were taken on farm details and worked in the fort's kitchen, bakery, and hospital. They also helped with routine care of the war dogs. At one time, the entire Afrika Corps Band was imprisoned at Fort Robinson. 

Today, visitors to Fort Robinson can stay in historic officers' quarters and barracks. They can visit the post museum, take trail rides up into the surrounding bluffs, go on Jeep excursions, and participate in a plethora of family-oriented activities. Learn more here: http://outdoornebraska.gov/fortrobinson/

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

All three books in Stephanie's Pine Ridge Portraits series (Secrets on the Wind, Watchers on the Hill, and Footprints on the Horizon) are set at Fort Robinson.

Secrets on the Wind was not only on the CBA best seller list when first released but also a finalist for the Inspirational Readers Choice Award. The e-book is only $2.99 but it will be FREE October 11-13 at: https://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Wind-Pine-Ridge-Portraits-ebook/dp/B00N1FSYOK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539047322&sr=8-1&keywords=Secrets+on+the+Wind  

About this book:

It seems to be a typical U.S. Army post in 1878, but in the midst of regimented daily routines ...

• a grieving sergeant harbors bitterness and guilt in his broken heart,
• a desperate young woman struggles to recover from the trauma inflicted by unimaginable circumstances,
• a new recruit with a changed identity seeks to escape the mistakes of his past,

and among them all, a woman named Granny Max feels called to embrace people in need and the secrets that cripple them.

Ash Hollow by Way of Windlass Hill

This article is brought to you by Janalyn Voigt.

Ash Hollow by Way of Windlass Hill

The climb up California Hill was the first major challenge that confronted emigrants traveling west on the Oregon and California Trail. A climb of 240 feet in a mile and a half brought them to a plateau between the north and south branches of the Platte River. 

Summit of Windlass Hill, looking southward.
Image courtesy of Ammodramus [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

The descent from Windlass Hill into Ash Hollow provided the best (but by no means easy) access to the North Platte, which they would follow toward South Pass. 

View looking north from Windlass Hill. Note the ravine carved by erosion in wagon ruts.

Image courtesy of Ammodramus [CC0], from Wikimedia Commons

Here's a closer look at the ravine taken from the footbridge.
Image courtesy of Ammodramus [CC0], from Wikimedia Commons

The steep incline down which pioneers lowered their wagons at Windlass Hill looked impossible. Granted, erosion over the years carved ravines and no doubt deepened the drops, but the sight gave me chills. Far below, you can see Ash Hollow’s namesake trees clustered in an oasis of green threaded by blue water. No wonder the pioneers pushed so hard to reach wood, water, and forage. 

No one is quite certain why Windlass Hill had that name, since it pre-dated American emigration and there’s no record of a windlass located here. It’s fun to think of an ancient windlass in operation. I could almost hear the scrape of a lever turning and the creak of ropes hauling something up the hill. Of course, the sheer steepness of the hill could have also inspired the name. Descending took preparation and time. Wagons with wheels locked were lowered by ropes, which acted as brakes to prevent them from careening out of control and crashing. This tactic was not always successful. Panicked livestock might bolt. Wagons broke loose and hurtled downward. For those who survived the journey, the rewards were great. 

Ash Hollow was something of a Promised Land to emigrants.
(National Park Service image; public domain)

Called the Gateway to the North Platte Valley, Ash Hollow featured springs of water so fresh emigrants rhapsodized about its sweetness. They lingered in this place of wild roses and described it in glowing terms in diaries and letters. They were not the first to appreciate its natural resources and beauty.

Fossils discovered in the Ash Hollow geological formation were from mammoths, turtles, camels, horses, beavers, and other prehistoric creatures. Archeological digs at Ash Hollow Cave and the Clary site revealed that early Americans occupied this area between 300 and 9,000 years ago. 

Skeleton of an aphelops, an extinct genus of rhinoceros endemic to North America, from the Ash Hollow geological formation. Image by James St. John [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Pioneers described seeing several hundred teepees belonging to the Lakota branch of the Sioux tribe. After General Harney sighted the camp of Little Thunder at Blue Water Creek, his troops attacked the next morning. The Battle of Ash Hollow was the main engagement in a brief war over disputed violations of the Treaty of Fort Laramie, signed in 1851. The odds were not even. Six hundred soldiers set upon 250 Lakota. Eighty-six people, including women and children, lost their lives. The soldiers took seventy women and children prisoner.


Some of the first settlers erected the stone schoolhouse which stands in Ash Hollow today. Other sites of interest include Rachel Pattison’s grave in Ash Hollow cemetery. Rachel was a new bride of three months when she came down sick with cholera one morning. She died that same night. Her grief-stricken husband, Nathan, carved the stone marker at her grave. Descendants of his brother state that, ever-faithful to Rachel, he never remarried.

Nathan Pattison stayed behind to carve this marker for his wife, Rachel's grave.
Image courtesy of Ammodramus [CC0], from Wikimedia Commons

Visiting Windlass Hill and Ash Hollow connects a person to the past in a way no history textbook can. Ruts made by wagons still score the hillside. Walking in them takes you backward in time in a way that's hard to describe. Honestly, it gave me goose bumps. I didn't know it then, but the firsthand impressions of the Oregon Trail that I gained by standing in wagon ruts, watching for rattlers and prickly pear, tasting the dust of dirt roads, and exploring ghost towns would make their way into a western historical romance series. Learn more about the Montana Gold series.

About Janalyn Voigt

Janalyn Voigt's unique blend of adventure, romance, suspense, and whimsy creates breathtaking fictional worlds for readers. Known for her vivid writing, this multi-faceted author writes in the western historical romance, medieval epic fantasy, and romantic suspense genres.

Janalyn is represented by Wordserve Literary Agency. Her memberships include ACFW and NCWA. When she's not writing, she loves to garden and explore the great outdoors with her family.

Explore Janalyn Voigt's interactive website.

Victorian Houses: The Kennard House in Lincoln, Nebraska

A footnote from history by Stephanie Grace Whitson

I enjoy taking advantage of the opportunity to see lovely old homes and to imagine the lives of those who occupied them. Here in my home town of Lincoln, Nebraska, the Thomas P. Kennard house is a lovely example of Italianate Victorian style. Kennard was Nebraska's first Secretary of State. His 1869 home is the oldest structure still standing on the capitol city's original plat. For people like me who love learning about the past, stepping through the front door is an exercise in time travel. 

To get an idea of the "buzz" this house would have created when it was going up, take a look at the photo at right, which shows a view of the house from the first state capitol building. What's the first thing you notice? The "nothing"? Me, too. I'd say that locating a state capitol in this place was an exercise of faith in good things to come. 





Can you imagine moving onto this treeless plain from, say, Indiana or Illinois? I wonder at Mrs. Kennard's reaction. I wonder if she ever looked East from that cupola and longed for home. And trees.

The corbels and other architectural elements on the home's exterior are lovely, but I'm glad it isn't my job to keep them painted!

The first thing I noticed stepping inside this home was how very dim the lighting was compared to what I'm accustomed to in 2018. Reading by lamplight sounds romantic, but I'm thankful I don't have to do it. 

Isn't that walnut bed gorgeous? I love everything about this room ... the burled walnut headboard, the hair wreath in the oval frame n the opposite wall ... and the very early treadle sewing machine that is just out of sight at the lower left of the photograph.

Do you see the date on the drop of the bedcover (in the shadow of the chairback)? Is that stuffed work? I don't know, but if my eyes aren't fooling me, the date is 1869. Who made it? For what special occasion? 

See the needle point chair sitting at the machine? I have one much like it that belonged to Jennie Venetress Kingsbury, my children's great-grandmother. I just stopped typing to take a photo of it (see photo at right). My needlepoint replaced the original silk covering that was rotting away. 

The pillow shams on the bed in this period bedroom are examples of redwork embroidery. I purchased a similar pair at an auction in Nebraska. Mine are dated 1869. Since Nebraska became a state in 1867, my pillow shams could have come west with a Nebraska pioneer! 

Inevitably, a visit to a house like this fills my mind with questions. What about you? Do you like visiting historic homes? If so,  you might want to take a virtual visit to the Kennard Home by viewing this video, which features the amazing Jim McKee, historian and storyteller par excellence:https://www.c-span.org/video/?326070-1/thomas-kennard-house 


The home on the cover of my novel Sarah's Patchwork is right across the street from the Nebraska State Capitol. It inspired the house where Sarah Biddle worked and met the wealthy man who would fall in love with her. I was honored when Jim and Linda McKee, who operated a wonderful local bookstore at the time, sponsored a book release party at this home, which had been saved from near ruin by someone who looked beyond plaster and lath into the lives of the people who inhabited this grand old lady.


Sarah's Patchwork was inspired by the history of 19th century orphan trains. Each scrap of fabric in Sarah's patchwork quilt bears silent witness to the rich life experienced by a strong, resourceful woman who stitched "the tears of the past into a treasure for tomorrow." Find the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Sarahs-Patchwork-Keepsake-Legacies-Book-ebook/dp/B01DV1SX9Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533673916&sr=8-1&keywords=sarah%27s+patchwork

The Blizzard of 1888

A footnote from history by Stephanie Grace Whitson

With the end of WW II, a group of Nebraska survivors

were finally able to complete a project that had been delayed by the war. All were members of "The January 12 1888 Blizzard Club," and they had stories to tell. The result of their efforts, the book at right, makes for inspirational (and sometimes terrifying) reading.

The Blizzard of January 12, 1888, was a unique event because of the unusual and subsequently deadly combination of gale winds, blinding snow, and an extremely rapid drop in temperature. The cold front that dropped out of Canada that day moved in at a rate of 45 mph. 

The January day started out unseasonably warm by prairie standards, and many children went to school without coats or gloves. One survivor remembered, "At recess, we were all out playing in our shirt sleeves, without hats or mittens. Suddenly we looked up and saw something coming rolling toward us with great fury from the northwest, and making a loud noise. It looked like a long string of big bales of cotton about twenty-five feet high ... and above them it was perfectly clear." The sight terrified some of the children, and when the teacher heard screams, she came outside to investigate. One look to the northwest and she hurried the children inside. The last student had just gotten inside the building when the storm struck. "It hit the building with such force that it nearly moved it off its cobble-stone foundation."

The blizzard is often called "the children's blizzard," because it struck during school hours and trapped hundreds of children with their teachers--many of them barely adults themselves--all across Dakota Territory and Nebraska.  Minnie Freeman led her 16 pupils to safety and was lauded as a heroine. Today, a mural at the Capitol Building in Lincoln, Nebraska, honors her. See it here:
http://curriculum.nebraskavirtualcapitol.org/foyer-building-nebraska-and-civil-responsibility/prairie-disasters/

Another 17-year-old teacher managed to get her students to safety but then got lost herself trying to reach home. She took shelter huddled among the animals in a shed, "but her poor feet could not be saved." In spite of her tragic experience, "Miss Kent lived a normal and helpful life."

Survivors remembered:

"My brother was only three feet from me ... but the snow was so thick I could not see him."

" ... we came in looking like snowballs. The snow had blown right through our clothes."

"If we opened the door and put our hands out we could not see our hands. It was like shoving a hand and arm into a solid snow wall."

"The teacher brought in fuel by tying a cord to the door knob and fastening the other end on himself."

"The force of the storm grew greater as night settled down and it seemed at times as though a giant hand was lifting the building from its foundation. The  roof seemed likely to be torn off."

"The passenger train froze on the track and was drifted over. They did not get out for two days. Some of the town people made coffee and took food to passengers ... Mother Blakewell, as we called her, ran the hotel and J.S. Wilkins a boarding house and they furnished coffee and food free, as did many others."

In the aftermath of the blizzard:

"The morning of the 13th was clear and cold. I have never in my life seen such

Photo: Wikipedia Commons Public Domain

sundogs ... there were drifts twenty to thirty feet high and as hard as stone."

"Eight large steers were found standing in a clump of weeds and willows, suffocated and frozen."

"The creek channel was eighteen to twenty feet deep and fifty feet across. It was so packed with snow, hard as concrete, that this herd of cattle and four horsemen passed safely across the level channel which sustained them as readily as it if were indeed concrete, leaving only the marks of their hoofs on the packed and frozen snow." 

"We learned that while nature is bountiful and kind at times it is cruel and destructive. We also learned that we cannot live by our own efforts alone."

"Mr. H___ caught my attention to the discoloration of his left cheek, caused by being frozen while carrying in coal."

"It took ten days to dig out the tracks from Lincoln to Grand Island." 

"For years afterward at gatherings of any size in Nebraska, there would always be people walking on wooden legs or holding fingerless hands behind their backs or hiding missing ears under hats."

William Saxton (third from left in the photo) was on his way to get a load of hay when the storm struck. After wandering a bit, he located the haystack and burrowed in. "I had my dog with me and he and I crawled in that hole." He spent the night trying to keep from freezing. Imagine his mother's reaction when the dog arrived home ... alone! The family found William, but the doctor "had to take off part of all my fingers. I was sixteen years old ... I learned to use my crippled hands. My souvenir of the big blizzard has not been as great a handicap as one might imagine."

Reading about the real people who not only survived but also thrived in the aftermath of profound challenges is one of the things that draws me to the past. It gives me perspective on my own troubles. 

The memoirs of survivors helped me write about Carrie Brown's experience as a teacher trying to see her students to safety through a Nebraska blizzard. With the words of of those who shared their real experiences in the Blizzard of '88 fresh in my mind, I wrote: "Suddenly a terrific wind crashed through the osage hedge on the west side of the road, scooping up snow off the ground and swirling it in the air. It was as if a great white curtain had been dropped over the road ... They were lost in a thick, enveloping whiteness, a cloud of vapor that shut Carrie off from everything around her." 

What about you? 

Have you survived a natural disaster? 

What life-changing lessons did you learn?

In Red Bird, Book 3 in the Prairie Winds series, Carrie Brown survives her Blizzard of '88 ordeal, but not without suffering some life-changing consequences. 


Find her story here: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Bird-Prairie-Winds-3/dp/1973710439/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1520376878&sr=8-1

Harvest

A footnote from history by Stephanie Grace Whitson

Nebraska's agriculture heritage is celebrated 
by the sower atop the state capitol building. 
Photo by Ammodramus (Own work) [CC0],
via Wikimedia Commons 

When I first moved to Nebraska, I had to ask a farmer at the state fair to identify a stalk of something on display. Said farmer grinned. "You aren't from here, are you?" Nope. Not a farm girl, either, and woefully ignorant of all things agricultural. (I was asking about milo, a crop planted across the state and used as feed for cattle ... and, I later learned, to make sorghum molasses, which I love.)

I hadn't been in Nebraska long before I began to admire the hard work and dedication and plain old stubbornness it takes to succeed as a farmer. But today's farmers have it so much easier than did the pioneers who settled this state. Of course pioneer farmers in 1860s Nebraska had it easy compared to their forefathers. And so it goes all the way back to biblical times when Ruth was gleaning fields.

Growing and harvesting only 5 acres of wheat took about 250-300 man hours in 1830. Farmers used a walking plow and a brush harrow. (I had to look up the word harrow to know what it does. It's used to cover over the seeds after planting.) Seeds were broadcast by hand (memorialized by that 19-foot tall statue atop the Nebraska State Capitol) and harvested with a sickle and flail. By 1850, those man hours had been reduced to 75-90 hours, thanks to inventions like the McCormick reaper, plows faced with steel blades, and threshing machines. 

 

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In 1881, Nebraska pioneer Giles Thomas wrote to his family in Wisconsin: "I am putting out sixty acres of a crop and have had every foot of it to plow and am doing it all myself with two horses. I put 10 acres to wheat, 10 to oats, 15 to flax, 2 Mamoth grass, and the rest to corn and garden...I have been in the field following plow and drag...I have been fearful tired at times but I feel good all over because I have my crops all in and in splendid shape. Considering the work my team has done, they look well and are in good spirits." 

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This was an era when 70 per cent of Nebraskans lived on farms, and children were expected to help with farm work. School met only from October to May, for children were needed to help with both planting and harvest.  

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By 1890, a farmer could grow and harvest 5 acres of wheat with only 40-50 hours of labor. Their task was made easier by the existence of the gang plow,seeder, harrow, binder, thresher, wagons, and horses. 

And then, in 1892, inventor John Froelich built the first gasoline tractor. 

The 1930 farmer who, in 1830, poured 250-300 hours into harvesting 5 acres of wheat needed only 15-20 hours. Gasoline-powered machinery revolutionized farming. 

Photo US Dept. Agriculture Public Domain

Years ago, a woman sitting next to me on a plane asked where I was from. When I said Nebraska, she peered at me over the rim of her glasses. "And what does one DO in Nebraska?" The tone was superior, the manner almost sneering. It was one of those moments when I was put instantly on the defensive. Of course I came up with a great answer ... just not in time to provide it to the snooty easterner. 

"What does one do in Nebraska?"

"We feed the world." 

Are you a city mouse or a country mouse? 

What chores were you expected to do as a child?

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Award-winning novelist and HHH blogger Stephanie Grace Whitson (www.stephaniewhitson.com) began playing with imaginary friends (i.e., writing fiction) in the 1990s when an abandoned pioneer cemetery near the Whitson’s country home provided not only a hands-on history lesson for her four home schooled children, but also a topic of personal study. When not writing or researching, she enjoys reading, quilting, spoiling her dozen grandchildren and/or Kona Kai (the golden retriever), and riding her motorcycle named Kitty.


Stephanie's novel Karyn's Memory Box tells the love story of Karyn and Mikal Ritter, who are strangers when they meet and marry, and face the challenges of pioneer farming in Custer County, Nebraska. Find it here: https://www.amazon.com/Karyns-Memory-Box-Keepsake-Legacies/dp/1523637498/

Notes: 

Statistics provided by www.agclassroom.org.

The black and white photographs in this blog were taken by Solomon Butcher, a pioneer photographer who chronicled the lives of early farmers in Nebraska and provide an invaluable resource to contemporary historians.