CHAPTER V.
THE GRASSHOPPER SCOURGE-1874-1875.
If there had been a belief that the grasshopper visitation of 1873 was only a
temporary blight on the prospects, it was rudely dispelled. The story of the
years to follow is one of heartrending misery. From Manitoba to Texas the
grasshoppers brought desolation and suffering in 1874, the visitation being
general along the whole frontier. Especially destructive were they in
southwestern Minnesota and in Kansas and Nebraska.
A large acreage was sown in Nobles county in the spring on land that had been
broken the year before. Then the settlers commenced breaking, and planting "sod
corn." When warm weather set in grasshoppers began to hatch from the eggs that
had been deposited the summer before and began their ravages as soon as the
first tender blades of grain appeared. Whole fields were stripped entirely bare
in those portions of the county where the young hoppers were most numerous,
principally in the northern and western townships. The southeastern part escaped
almost entirely.
Had this been the only damage, the county would have survived the infliction.
A fine growing season caused the crops in many places to get ahead of the young
hoppers. Wheat and oats were growing finely, "sod corn" was an especially good
crop, and all garden vegetables were growing as they seldom have since. Then on
July 2 came a visitation of "foreign" hoppers out of the northeast, who made it
evident that the country was not to escape with the ravages of the young pests.
Conditions were such in the early summer that the people realized that
something must be done to assist those who had met misfortune. On July 1 the
board of county commissioners, composed of I. P. Durfee, chairman; J. W. Miller
and M. L. Miller, met at Worthington to consider the condition of the destitute
and the sufferers from loss of crops by the grasshoppers, and to provide for
their wants. County Attorney M. B. Soule was present and offered the following
resolution, which was adopted:
Be it resolved by the board of county commissioners of Nobles county and state
[of Minnesota] that an amount not exceeding two thousand dollars ($2,000) be and
the same is hereby appropriated for the immediate relief of those persons in
said county who are in need of such relief, and that same be expended for this
purpose alone, under the direction of said board of commissioners, and in
accordance with such rules and regulations as they deem best. And that an order
of said county be issued under the direction of said board, bearing interest at
the rate of twelve per cent, for the amount of such part thereof as may be needed.
County Auditor William M. Bear went to St. Paul, and, through the influence of
Governor Cushman K. Davis, sold one thousand dollars worth of the county's paper
at its face value to the First National Bank of St. Paul. It must not be
imagined that this money was raised for the purpose of reimbursing the
sufferers; it was to prevent actual starvation. One hundred barrels of flour and
eighteen barrels of pork were purchased and brought to the county for
distribution. An informal meeting of the county board was held at the residence
of J. W. Miller, in Graham Lakes township, on July 7, when the following
residents were named to act as distributing agents in their respective townships:
N. H. Smith, [1] Graham Lakes.
J. Westinghouse, [1] Seward.
C. A. Barrows, [1] Hersey.
W. B. Akins, Elk.
S. Wass, [1] Wilson (Summit Lake).
D. Fogo, Lorain.
I. P. Durfee, Worthington.
J. B. Churchill, Dewald.
R, Stillman, [1] Olney.
Jas. Atcheson, Indian Lake.
E. S. Mills, Bigelow.
Leroy Cole, Ransom.
J. D. Roberts, Little Rock.
H. S. Barnes, Grand Prairie.
These gentlemen at once apportioned the supplies among the most needy. They
found many in a precarious condition; the thousand dollars worth of provisions
was only a drop in the bucket.
The destruction to crops done by the young grasshoppers and those which came
on July 2 was as nothing compared with what was to follow. About ten o'clock on
the morning of July 15 the grasshoppers were again seen coming out of the
northeast. The sky was so full of them that the sun was darkened as with dense
clouds, and the roar of their wings sounded like the approach of a storm. This
time they came down for good; and what havoc they wrought! Those that alighted
on the prairies [2] seemed to know where the grain fields and gardens were, and
gathered in them from all directions. Every cornstalk bent to the earth with
their weight. The noise they made eating could be heard for quite a distance and
resembled that which might have been made by hundreds of hogs that had been
turned into the fields. In fact, such was the destruction that within four hours
after they came down, whole fields of corn and small grain were as completely
harvested as though they had been cut with a reaper and hauled away. It was a
discouraging sight.
After gorging themselves with the crops the hoppers became stupid and piled up
in the fields and along the roads, often to a depth of one or two feet. Horses
could hardly be driven through them. Stories have been told of railway trains
becoming blockaded by the pests, so as to be unable to move until the insects
were shoveled from the tracks. After resting from their feast, they took their
departure.
On August 3 came another horde, seeking to destroy what had been left, and
those settlers who had escaped with only a partial loss before were now called
upon to go through the tortures of seeing their grain disappear, with no means
of checking the disaster. It seems incredible that any grain should have been
left, but such is the case. [3]
From a carefully prepared estimate made by Auditor William M. Bear, we learn
that out of a total of 16,410 acres planted to crop in 1874, only 82,183 bushels
of grain and vegetables were saved. Wheat averaged about five and one-half
bushels per acre, oats seven bushels, corn two and one-half bushels, potatoes 38
bushels, while all other grain was nearly a complete failure. The old settled
township of Indian Lake was the most fortunate, and escaped with small damage.
The wheat average there was a little less than ten bushels. [4] The lowest wheat
average was in Seward, being less than two bushels. In Hersey and Graham Lakes
the loss was also nearly complete. The largest acreage sown was in Worthington
township, where 1,465 acres were planted and 10,916 bushels of wheat harvested.
Following is Auditor Bear's estimate of the number of acres sown, the number of
bushels harvested and the average yield per acre of the different grains and
vegetables. [5]
CROP Acres Sown Bushels Raised Average Per Acre
Wheat 8,887 49,539 5.57
Oats 2,285 16,600 7.26
Corn 3,034 8,210 2.70
Potatoes 357 33,612 38.12
Buckwheat 234 243 1.03
Beans 135 56 .41
Flax Seed 1,299 1,639 1.26
Barley 179 284 1.59
Total 16,410 82,183
The Minnesota commissioner of statistics prepared a report of the estimated
loss in the principal grain crops in Minnesota due to the grasshopper raids of
1874. His estimate for Nobles county was as follows:
CROP Acres Damaged Loss in Bushels
Wheat 7,718 100,272
Oats 2,436 73,690
Corn 2,678 63,871
Total 12,832 237,833
The colonists had now been in the county over two years, and not a crop had
been raised. They were poor people when they came; not having realized a cent of
income since their arrival, the result can well be imagined. The people were
compelled to practice the most rigid economy. Hay furnished the fuel; potatoes,
pumpkins and squashes- a few vegetables left by the grasshoppers-furnished the
food. Meat was not on the bill of fare, except for those who could use a gun and
bag the prairie chickens and ducks that were in great abundance. In this manner
a large number of the settlers were obliged to pass the winter.
They bore their trials more cheerfully than might have been expected, and made
preparations to try their luck again next year. In preparing their land for the
crop the following year, the farmers nearly ruined their horses, being without
the necessary grain to feed them. About 18,500 acres of land was prepared that
fall, [6] which was more than had been sown in 1874.
Many were left destitute and badly in need of aid, but during the summer and
early fall the actual suffering was not severe. But a few realized what the
condition would be when cold weather set in, and steps were at once taken to
prepare for the time when food, clothing and fuel would have to be supplied to
prevent starvation and freezing. It was apparent that such aid as the state
would furnish would be wholly inadequate to meet the demands of the destitute.
Several gentlemen concluded that the only safety lay in providing a fund to meet
the emergency which was sure to arise in midwinter. To this end J. C. Clark was
selected to visit the eastern cities for the purpose of soliciting aid.
Assurances were given Mr. Clark by Professor Humiston and others that whether
successful or not his expenses would be paid. He succeeded in raising about
$1,800 in eastern cities, and, subsequently, about $300 in St. Louis. Others
went out soliciting on private account entirely, and were more or less
successful in relieving their own wants. [7]
Although precautions had already been taken as outlined above, by the middle
of October it was realized that a united and more thorough effort must be made
to secure funds to prevent terrible tragedies that otherwise would surely come
with the wintry blasts. With this in view a mass meeting was held in Miller
hall, Worthington, on October 13, to devise means of meeting the emergency. I.
P. Durfee was chairman of the meeting and J. A. Town was secretary. The
following statement of conditions in the county, and the purposes of the meeting
was adopted, one section at a time: [8]
Whereas, There is urgent and immediate necessity for aid to many destitute
families in our county; and
Whereas, The efforts put forth and supplies now on hand are totally inadequate
to meet the demands which are constantly made for help; and
Whereas, We are fully convinced that the more favored portions of our own
state and other states do not appreciate the destitution in our midst; therefore
Resolved, That we appeal (1) to the charitable of our own state for help; (2)
to the people of the United States; (3) to the state government; (4) to the
government of the United States, for the preservation of which many of us
offered our all during the late terrible civil war.
The conditions were discussed in detail. Estimates as to the possible number
of families that would require aid varied from two hundred to three hundred. Mr.
Durfee, who was chairman of the county relief committee, reported that 37,000
pounds of flour and a large quantity of pork, furnished by the county, had been
distributed. He also stated that he had appealed to the governor for state aid.
Governor Davis replied that the county government ought to do something for the
destitute and suggested that an additional $1,000 bonds be issued. Mr. Durfee
informed his excellency that in his opinion the people of Nobles county would
sooner leave the state than issue more bonds. This opinion was somewhat borne
out when the mass meeting passed a resolution requesting that the county
commissioners do not issue more bonds for the purpose of relief.
Warren Smith favored the immediate distribution of the $1,800 which had been
raised by Mr. Clark, and suggested that the reason the governor did not favor
rendering assistance was because that fund was as yet unapplied. Prof. Humiston
said that he was satisfied that the governor was not cognizant of any such fund,
that the money had been placed in the bank against the extreme suffering which
parties foresaw would exist during the coming winter, but that if the time had
arrived when it should be given out, it only awaited the order of the proper
officers.
A committee was appointed to draft an appeal for aid, and soon thereafter was
issued the following entreaty, in part:
APPEAL IN BEHALF OF THE GRASSHOPPER SUFFERERS OF NOBLES COUNTY.
A meeting of the citizens of Nobles county, Minnesota, was held at
Worthington, October 13, 1874, at which the undersigned were appointed a
committee to draft an appeal to the charitable of our own state and to the
friends in our old home states, in behalf of the needy and destitute in our
midst. Our people have suffered a calamity as real and overwhelming as if
everything had been swept away by fire and flood. We refer to the raids of the
grasshoppers during the last two years. Ours is a new country. Most of our
settlers came here in the spring of 1872 and since that time. The first year of
settlement is necessarily spent in breaking the prairie in order to procure a
crop the second season. . . . Thus it will be seen that many of our people have
raised no crop in the three seasons of their residence on these new lands. Their
need is urgent and immediate.
The question may be asked what things are needed. We answer: First, food. Many
families have lived for weeks on such vegetables as escaped destruction, and the
supply is almost exhausted. They have neither bread nor meat. Second. They need
clothing. They have raised nothing to sell, and the clothing they brought with
them is worn to rags. We would suggest that yarn for stockings, thread and
material for children's clothing be sent. This will give heip and employment at
the same time-the best human charity. Third. They need bedding. There are those
who are now sleeping under a covering of prairie hay, and winter is approaching.
Fourth. They will need seed grain next spring or another year will not relieve
the destitution.
Some may ask why we do not abandon a country which is liable to such a plague.
We answer: We have seen enough in some favored portions of this and adjoining
counties to demonstrate the matchless fertility of the soil. In Jackson county,
immediately east of us, more than forty bushels, of wheat and one hundred and
ten bushels of oats per acre have been reaped in former years. Our climate is as
agreeable as any in the world. We have a temperate, intelligent, industrious,
moral class of people. Their misfortunes cannot be laid to any improvidence on
their part. We came here to make homes for ourselves and our children, and most
of us have invested our all here in improvements on our homesteads and have no
means to get away, even temporarily. And besides, where else can we go? Is there
any land on earth that is exempt from calamities of some kind?
We feel that our destitution is only temporary. The grasshoppers did not
deposit their eggs here the past season. They may not be seen here again in a
generation. We have faith that next year we will reap bountiful harvests. But in
the meantime, many of our people must have help or they will perish. Careful
estimates warrant the statement that not less than half of the seven hundred
families in the county are partially or wholly destitute. We call, therefore,
upon our more fortunate brethren to help us in our distress. If this appeal
should meet with a response, let the contributions be sent to I. P. Durfee.
chairman of the board of county commissioners, Worthington, Nobles county,
Minnesota. He has the entire confidence of all our people, and will make proper
distribution of all that is sent. The receipt of all contributions will be
promptly and thankfully acknowledged.
J. A. TOWN,
T. C. BELL,
W. M. BEAR,
WARREN SMITH,
R. F. HUMISTON,
Committee.
To this appeal there was quite liberal response, but the needs were not
over-supplied by any means, and there was some suffering during the winter.
The state came to the aid of the grasshopper sufferers when the legislature
convened during the winter. On February 12, 1875, General Sibley reported that
he had turned over to Nobles county $1,952.82. [9] The distribution was under
the direction of the governor. In Nobles county the work of distribution was
delegated to the board of county commissioners, and they left the details of the
work to I. P. Durfee, chairman of the board, and W. M. Bear, county auditor.
To relieve the situation, the legislature granted an extension of time for the
payment of taxes in some of the counties, and, of course, Nobles was among the
number. Times not improving, the extension was of little benefit. People who had
not money to buy food and clothing could not pay taxes. An interesting relic of
this period is the following notice published in the public press of Nov. 20,
1874, by County Treasurer Humiston:
To Tax Payers:
The noble efforts which are being made by many of our settlers to pay their
taxes is worthy of a public acknowledgment. Some are still in arrears, and
although the time granted by the legislature last winter is past and the
personal property tax of 1873 became delinquent on the first day of November,
yet I am still receiving taxes at my office. I must very soon call on those who
do not call on me, and I do not wish to make any unnecessary trouble or costs,
but the laws compel me to make the effort, and it is hoped that it will not be
necessary to perform this (to me) very unpleasant duty.
H. D. HUMISTON,
County Treasurer.
The question naturally arises: Why did the people of Nobles county stay in a
country in which the grasshoppers wrought such damage? It is doubtful if they
would have remained could they have looked ahead and foreseen what they still
had to go through, for this was not the end of the scourge by any means. A few
discouraged ones did depart for their former homes. All who could went away each
summer to work in the harvest fields of more fortunate communities and earn
enough to supply their absolute needs.
The majority stayed with their claims and weathered the storms of adversity.
Hope was, abundant that each year's visitation would be the last. The fertility
of the soil had been demonstrated, and it was known that once the country was
free from the pests, it would become one of the richest spots in the west. The
settlers had invested all their accumulations of former years in improvements,
and to desert the country meant that they must go as paupers. Many were
literally too poor to pay transportation charges out of the country.
A tax levy of 16 mills was made in July, 1874, divided among the several funds
as follows: General, eight mills; poor, two mills; road and bridge, two mills;
county interest, two mills; floating debt and county orders, two mills. The levy
was revised in November, being cut down to 13 mills, divided as follows:
General, seven mills; poor, one mill; road and bridge, two mills; county
interest, one mill; floating debt, two mills.
The assessment showed a total valuation of $432,433, of which $250,125 was on
personal property and $182,308 on real property. The total number of acres of
deeded and contracted land was 37,444. Seven hundred forty-five persons were
assessed. The population of the county, estimated from figures furnished by the
assessors, was between 3,000 and 3,500-probably a slight overestimate.
Other statistics for the year 1874 show that there were 86 births, 24 deaths,
20 marriages, one divorce and 32 first naturalization papers granted.
Despite the prevailing hard times the public schools showed a healthy growth.
Ten new buildings were erected, and the attendance was greatly increased. The
following items appear in the report of the superintendent of schools of Oct.
31, 1874:
Number of districts in county, 37.
Number persons five to 21 years, 751.
Number persons 15 to 21 years, 197.
Number pupils enrolled in winter schools, 105.
Average daily attendance, 71.
Average length of winter schools in months, 3.
Number teachers in winter schools, 2.
Number pupils enrolled in summer schools, 285.
Average daily attendance in summer schools, 221.
Average length of summer schools in months, 3 1-7.
Number teachers in summer schools, 16.
Number pupils enrolled in schools within the year, 311.
School houses built during year 1874, 10 frame.
Value of schools houses built during the year, $2,435.
Total number school houses in county, 11 frame.
Value of all school houses in the county, $2,485.
Paid for teachers' wages in 1874, $875.81.
Cash in treasurer's hands at close of school year, September 30, 1874, $53.83.
One improvement in this year of disasters was the establishment of a star mail
route in the southern part of the county. The route extended from Bigelow to Ash
Creek and passed through the townships of Ransom, Little Rock and Grand Prairie.
This proved to be a great accommodation to the settlers in those townships. Two
postoffices were established along the route in Nobles county. One was Little
Bock, of which J. T. Green was postmaster; [10] the other was Grand Prairie,
located first on section 10, Grand Prairie township, and conducted by a settler
named Ayers. [11]
The legislature of 1875 took prompt action to relieve grasshopper devastated
southwestern Minnesota. An act approved March 1, 1875, provided for an extension
of the payment of personal property tax in the counties of Martin, Jackson,
Nobles, Rock, Murray, Cottonwood, Watonwan, Renville, Lyon .and parts of Blue
Earth, Faribault and Brown to November 1. In order to secure this extension it
was necessary for the residents to give proof that they were unable to pay their
taxes because of loss of crop in 1874 from grasshoppers or hail.
The commissioners of Nobles county also took action to relieve the hardships
of taxation by abating the interest and costs on the delinquent real estate tax
for 1874. All who should make satisfactory proof, on or before December 1, 1875,
under oath to the county auditor, that they were unable to pay the 1874 real
estate tax, should escape the penalties, providing the taxes were paid at the
time of making proof. [12] Notwithstanding the terrible experiences of the two
preceding years, the people determined to put in a crop again in 1875. The
ground had been prepared, but the farmers were without seed grain and without
the means to purchase it. The legislature came to their rescue with an
appropriation of $75,000, the act providing for the distribution of seed grain
to that amount, with certain provisions for its repayment. A state board of
commissioners was appointed to conduct the distribution, and a local board was
named in each of the stricken counties to assist in the work. Daniel Rohrer, I.
P. Durfee and Peter Thompson served in Nobles county. The money market was
tight, and the state was not able to procure the money to purchase more than
$50,000 worth of grain.
Applications at once began pouring in, there being between 250 and 260 in
Nobles county. The state commissioners arrived in Worthington March 31 and
immediately began delivering the grain. Nobles county's share of the $50,000 was
about $3,000, and to each applicant was given twelve bushels of wheat. [13] It
was expected that so soon as the state could negotiate a loan for the other
$25,000 of the appropriation, it would be issued in corn, potatoes and other
seed, but this was not done. With the grain received from the state and that
which was in the county there was enough to seed about eighty per cent of the
prepared land. The seed grain furnished by the state was a Godsend. "Our farmers
never started with better prospects as to seed than they do the present year,"
said the Advance.
The grain was sown; it germinated, and appeared above the ground. Then came
anxious days. Would the grasshopper scourge again come with its ruin and
desolation? As the season advanced the people with deep concern scanned the
skies for the appearance of the pests. Eggs had not been deposited in the county
the preceding season, and the only apprehension felt was in regard to another
invasion. Tidings soon came. On Monday, June 28, it was reported that a vast
army was on the way to the northwest from Iowa and other states to the south,
headed, it was said, for the Bad Lands of Dakota. They passed over Sioux City in
great numbers, and extended as far north as Sheldon. A few stragglers along the
right flank of the army were seen in Nobles county and created some apprehension
and caused a great deal of upward gazing. But the settlers thanked Providence
that, so far, they were in the suburbs of the movement. One curious feature of
this movement was that it came from the southeast; before the hordes generally
came out of the northeast. What few were seen passing over Nobles county did no
damage whatever.
But on Saturday afternoon, July 10, the grasshoppers settled down in
considerable numbers in various parts of the county. They came from the
northeast, and as they were not full grown, it was believed they belonged to the
Minnesota valley hatch, eggs having been deposited there in great numbers the
year before. Sunday morning they began eating in a few fields of wheat and
barley, but most of them waited until Monday before they tested the merits of
the growing grain. On Sunday Ransom and Bigelow townships were invaded from the
southwest, and a few fine stands of grain in each of those townships were badly
damaged. Tuesday, July 13, the greater part of the hoppers took their departure,
flying in a northwesterly direction. The damage in Nobles county was not general
or great. In no part was there total destruction, and probably not over 100
acres were seriously damaged. By the 16th the grasshoppers had not only departed
from the county, but from the state.
The settlers kept track of the movements of the grasshoppers as they, would
have those of an invading army of soldiers. They knew that only by chance would
they escape. They felt as though the sword of Damocles were suspended over them,
ready to fall at any moment. The pests were absent only a short time. In the
latter part of July they invaded the townships of Hersey, Graham Lakes and
Seward-communities which had suffered so greatly the year before-in great
numbers. For several days they were there destroying the crops and depositing
their eggs. Some of the farmers lost everything, and all in the three townships
suffered considerable loss. It is needless to say that the farmers there were
discouraged. Some parts of the county had escaped without great loss in 1874 and
most of the county did in 1875; but these townships in the northeastern part of
the county had now suffered two nearly complete crop failures. The grasshoppers
began leaving the northern tier of townships on Friday, July 30, [14] and worked
from there slowly southward, depositing their eggs as they went. They invaded
Lorain and Elk townships and on the 31st put in an appearance about Worthington
in considerably numbers. They were not so numerous as they had been the year
before, however, and were only enough to cover one tier of townships at a time.
Neither did they eat so ravenously as formerly.
They continued their way southward and spread out over several Iowa counties,
where they did little or no damage to the crops. It has been a ragamuffin
Falstaffin army, compared with that of the 1874 army. Their appetities appeared
to be poor, and they were of a degenerate breed; bushels died after laying their
eggs, and the exhausted remnant left the county in the first half of August.
Oats and garden vegetables suffered most. Outside of the three northeastern
townships, where the loss was nearly total, the damage was slight, and an
estimate placed the crop at nine-tenths of a full one. Probably twice the
quantity of farm products ever before raised was marketed in 1875.
The population of the county in 1875, according to figures taken by the
assessors in the different precincts, was 2738, divided by precincts as follows:
Worthington village 419
Worthington township 207
Little Rock 204
Bigelow 192
Graham Lakes 192
Elk 189
Seward 184
Lorain 182
Ransom 175
Hersey 170
Indian Lake 162
Olney 108
Grand Prairie 107
Dewald 103
2nd Assessment District 67
Summit Lake 62
First Assessment District 15
Total 2,738
There was an increase in the assessed valuation in 1875. The total was
$656,363, of which $254,250 was for personal property and $402,113 for real
property. The levy was again placed at thirte
