BLAINE COUNTY
NEBRASKA

The boy succeeded in making the sale to Miss Mary Skliba but he must get the papers to the land office at North Platte in time to beat the contest papers there.  At this time he become sick with the measles but regardless of health or safety he rode to Dunning to the nearest railroad.  The postoffice had just been discontinued there so the only thing to do was to take the papers to North Platte personally.  He had no money so jumped a ride on a freight train and by one means or another he arrive in North Platte ahead of the contest papers.  All for fifty dollars.¹
            A few of the minor trials to the pioneers were lack of fuel, repeated drouth, hailstorms, and grasshoppers.  Coal was an unheard of luxury.  In time of drouth corncobs could not be had.  In these times hay was used or more frequently cow chips were put to use.
            But through all this the people in Blaine County never feared of starving.  Deer, antelope, geese and ducks were always abundant.² Wild plums, chokecherries, and sand cherries could at some time be found.³
            Blaine County might well say, "All that I am, and all that I hope to be, I owe to the pioneer women."  Why not, "Lives of great (women?) all remind us we may make our lives sublime, and departing leave behind us footprints on the sands of time."?⁴

1. Johnson, Mrs. G. P., letter, Nov. 22, 1926.
2. Ibid.
3. Curley, A. E., Nebraska, pp. 317-322.
4. Longfellow, Poems of life.

One of these women deserving mention was a member of a family by name of Harvey who lived in Loup County with the first settlers there.  One daughter, Mary, married Mr. R. R. Greenland in the year 1883.¹ Mary Harvey knew only the life of the pioneer so did not hesitate at age of fourteen years to become the wife of a cowboy who wished to develop his own homestead.  Mr. Greenland had located his homestead on the bank of the North Loup extending south to the amount of one hundred sixty acres.  He chose this spot for the sole reason of having found a large spring near the bank of the river.  It was the only large one found for many miles around there.  He brought his wife to his new home in the summer.  "I came to what is now Blaine County in 1883.² We camped out the last night on Hawley Flatts.  It being rather wild and desolate looking I had great fears that something might creep upon us in the night.  Soon after retiring my husband was sleeping soundly but not so for me.  I never closed my eyes all night but kept watch by looking east and west and north and south expecting any moment that something would attack us.  But morning came at last and we were still alive.  When I mentioned my fears to my husband he only laughed and said 'Why, I have been sleeping out on the prairie every summer for seven years and nothing ever harmed me.'
            "We spent our first two years living in a dugout.  We had to drive fifty miles to get lumber to line the walls and supply roof and floor.³

1. Western Nebraska, p. 477.
2. Greenland, Mrs. R. R. letter of experiences. Dec. 28, 1926.
3. Loc. Cit.

"One of the most exciting incidents while in the dugout, happened one washday.  I had just finished spreading the clothes over a pile of brush which was an improvised clothes line when I turned around and saw cattle coming from every direction.  I knew I must not let them get too near as they might walk over the roof of the dugout and crush it in.  Arming myself with the only available thing, the fire shovel, I went out to drive those cattle away.  I had no trouble in getting them started as they were more frightened than I.  As I was walking back to the house I heard faint foot-steps.  I glanced around and looked squarely into the face of a long-horned Texas steer.  You may be sure I quickened my pace.  I ran in and closed the door just as he stepped upon the doorstep.  After I had disappeared, he turned away, no longer curious.
            "My most terrifying experiences with a blizzard happened in the spring of 1892, the thirteenth day of April.  We had been having a great deal of rainy weather.  My husband had been waiting for a fair day to go to the county seat, some twenty-five miles distant.¹ April the twelfth was a fair day so he took the lumber wagon and a team of work horses to make the trip.  It took at least two days in all.  We had not raised a crop for two years so had only hay for fuel.  Mr. Greenland had left a large pile near the house before leaving.
            "Late in the evening clouds began to appear; it started to mist, then changed to rain, which came down in torrents for hours.  As it became colder the rain turned to snow and we were in the midst of a terrible blizzard.
 1.  Loc. Cit.

            "The next day, I burned the last spear of hay.  I must keep the babies warm.  The storm was so severe I could not step outside the door to get any more hay.  I thought of the straw ticks on the beds so removed them and burned that to the last piece.¹
            "Late in the afternoon I thought I must go to the barn to try to help the stock.  I took my eight year old boy and fought my way out.  Each animal was covered with a coat of ice; long icicles hung from their nostrils and their eyes were lumps of ice.  What could I do?  The storm seemed to increase in its fury and I despaired of every getting home again.  But I must!  I had left our four months old baby asleep in her cradle.  As we stood waiting, there came a lull in the storm and some way we got back to the house.  Never in my life have I been more thankful than to receive the shelter of that dear, old, sod-house.  No sound has ever quickened my heart beats like the crying of my little, baby girl.
            "In looking back over those years of hardships and privations, I realize that they were the happiest years of our lives.  Then we were young, had health and strength, and all of the future.  Now we are nearing the end of the journey there is not much to work for, or any one who needs us.²"
            Mrs. Greenland, today is a pleasant adorable lady.  The suffering from the deaths of five of their children has left her only more in sympathy with others.
 1.  &  2.  Loc. Cit.

She also tells of a prairie fire which came upon them in the night.  She finishes by saying, "The hardest thing to bear is to have ones men folks come back from a night of exhaustive fighting and find a neighbor sound asleep, knowing he was safe."  What a traitor is to the army are these people to the pioneer.¹
            Another woman, important in the county's development was Mrs. S. H. Oldham, lately deceased.  Mr. & Mrs. Oldham came to Nebraska from Illinois where they left a fine, cultured, Christian home.² They first lived at Fairmont, Nebraska; then in April, 1887 they came to Blaine County.  Here the simple necessities of their former life were unattainable luxuries.
            Their homestead was only grazing land with poor possibilities for agriculture.  They came in the midst of the dry years of unproduction.  All the hardships which pioneers suffered they suffered, but Mrs. Oldham played her part as a true companion with patience and endurance.³
            She was the second teacher of the Purdum school, heretofore mentioned.  Few people realize what a sacrifice Mrs. Oldham made during those days.  Their oldest child, Grace was a mere baby but Mrs. Oldham bundled her up and off to school they went.  Her home was neglected, much of the work she would have done, her husband was compelled to do.  Her baby did not receive the care and attention a mother should give to her child.  Her spirit in the work was very broad.  Her skill and tact in dealing with young people was very ably brought in to use.⁴

1. Greenland, Mrs. R. R. Inter. Dec. 26, 1926.
2. Cox, H. W., letter Jan. 17, 1927.
3. Loc. Cit.
4. Ibid.

Continued in Section 4.

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