Farm Girl (18 page)

This sod shop had a cave underneath it and was very steep and cool. It was tunneled in under the floor, very cool in the summer and used for storing food. The shop had been in use for several years when one day a two-year-old steer was grazing in the pasture near this dugout. He went on top of the roof and fell through, landing in the blacksmith shop. He didn’t stop there, but went right in through the shop and landed in the cave. The neighbors had to come with rope and tackle. This they fastened on the pole which was top of the shop and they lowered it down and fastened it around the steer, and pulled him up without a scratch. After that, a fence was made around the roof where it was even with the ground.

It seemed like in those days, everyone depended on their neighbors.

Granddaughter of homesteaders

Appendix C:
Additonal Photographs

John and Julia by front porch of home, 1920

The Marker farmhouse

Lucille at Christmas, 1918

Grainary with windcharger

District 66 Schoolhouse Julia Walstad attended as a child

Shelling grain

Threshing oats and wheat

At the Inavale Depot, 1935, after the dam on the Republican River broke during the night, flooding farmland and houses, killing a hundred people while they slept.

Flood at the Inavale Depot, 1935

Mr. and Mrs. William C. Jones, September 16, 1944