More of Hattie Daugherty Place's writings - 1949

Hattie Daugherty Place
This is good stuff. I'm feeling more and more like I have some understanding of the life of the homesteaders in SD. Now we'll continue with Hattie's writings. This portion is titled "Big Snows.
"1896 was the winter known as 'The Deep Snow.' In our locality snow was five feet deep on the level My most thrilling experience was on January 12, 1988, when what is known as 'The Great Blizzard' swept over our country. I was in my school room. All the pupils were there and at 9:30 A.M. the first blast struck the house. The air shown so heavy through the windows and the crackling noise of the building made me think the building was on fire. By going to the door, we soon discovered the storm. Snow was coming in such cutting force that one could not hold his eyes open unless shielded. It continued snowing and blowing all day and through the night. We remained in the schoolhouse and were comfortable and warm at all times. Not knowing how long we might be stranded, we decided to get a supply of coal. The two largest pupils, Fred Daugherty and John Bradey, and I carried coal from the coal house, which was near the west end of the schoolhouse, in pails and sacks and piled it in a corner of the school room. Later we had most of it to carry back to the coal house. As soon as the storm ceased, Mrs. Bradey, our nearest neighbor, sent her son over with a big pail of food and a pot of steaming coffee. Truly a welcome visitor, as most of the pupils had eaten all their lunch at noon. It was after this storm that I received the best compliment in my whole life. I asked one of my patrons if they were greatly worried about their girl, who was in the school that day. He replied, 'No, for I knew you had sense enough to keep them at the schoolhouse.'
In the fall of 1884 there was a little Indian scare in the community. A neighbor living west of us had been to Miller shopping. While there, an Indian was seen in the distance, galloping his horse as though in haste. No one knowing his errand, the observers immediately began to conjecture and concluded he must be carrying a message for war. The excited neighbor hurried home and, Paul Revere- like, began to alarm the settlers. He came to our house and urged father to get the neighbors to bring their firearms, ammunition, and families, and assemble at some one house for better protection. I recall my father's reply: 'I don't think the Indians are going to antagonize our Uncle Sam, so we will stay at home and welcome them if they come.' We went to bed as usual, slept undisturbed, with no bad dreams of scalping Indians. We heard later that a few seelers did congregate at a home, waitng all night long, but no Indians showed up.'
This is the end of Hattie's sotry to the Pioneer Daughters of the Wessington Women's Study Club. You can follow her story written to her granddaughter of her life, in Prairie Roots Newsletter. Let me know if you'd like a copy. I began her story in March and will continue it in June.

More of Hattie Daugherty Place's Writing

Edna Place Pesicka - Hattie's 2nd child.

I'll continue to share with you this interesting News clipping. "I (Hattie Daugherty Place) commenced teaching in April of 1884 at the Dave Brown school. There were seventeen pupils enrolled. The salary was $25.00 per month - no money in the school treasury, all warrants were discounted 10 to 15% at the banks. We could trade them in at the grocery stores or for farm equipment at face value. This was a spring term of three months. By the fall of 1884 the Bradey school house was completed. Wages had raised to $45.00 a month. I taught here at this school that year. Was married to William H. Place, March 22nd of 1885. I continued to teach some school until in May 1888. My elder daughter was born August 3rd of that year. I rested from school work until 1907. In those years three more children, Lilian Edna, Parke Edward and Dwight Harland Came to bless our home.

When the younger son was 13 years of age (1907) I returned to school work, teaching the Ick Brown School. I remained as a teacher in that school district for eight continuous years. The salary advanced from time to time, never exceeding $85.00 a month.

My record of school work was just 40 years. Most of it in Hand and Beadle counties, a summer in Brookings county and a year in Ziebach county. My first three year's work was in Mason county, Illinois. I was just sixteen and one-half years of age when I began the work and exactly eighty years and seven months when I began the work and exactly eighty years and seven months when I finished my last school work.

As a teacher, housewife, and mother of four children, there were not many notable experiences as a pioneer. I recall one instance; there was a preaching periodically. Rev. Spencer, a homesteader of our township on his way to preach at the Dave Brown school house, had to cross Turtle Creek. He was dipped into the raging water, and soaked to the skin. He came to our house, borrowed dry clothes from my father and went on to deliver his sermon."

During the falls of 1884 and 1885 dances were held at the schoolhouses until objections were raised, then literaries were started. We had splendid turnouts, every one taking part, speaking, singing, and debating. The debates were often very discouraging. No matter which side made the most and best points of the discussion, the side which had the two of three friends as the judges always won the decision.

We had picnics in summer, with a baseball game after the dinner. These were well attended and was the only relaxation and amusement we had during the summer months. Often a family would climb into their wagon and drive to a neighbor and spend the day visiting.

There were many prairie fires. With our strong South Dakota winds, the usual fire break did not always stop the rages of the first. My father had his new horse barn and a few stacks of hay burned in the fall of 1883, the fire jumping Turtle Creek to reach the buildings."

The next Post: Big Snows!

Life Story of a Pioneer - Part Three

>Emma Brady, Luella Pepper, & Hattie Place.Hattie Daugherty Place was a wonderful writer. I guess after you've taught school of 60 years, you have a command for the English Language. I'm simply copying her words that she wrote when elected as the Pioneer Daughter os the Wessington (SD) Women's Study Club, in Sept. 1949

"Right here, a never forgetable incident occurred when brother Will and I reached home, hungry and tired, and before I had climbed from my perch on the three boxed wagon, Elmer Morgan, a bachelor neighbor, living just across the road, was there to invite brother and I over to have supper with them. I had been raised to believe it was not 'lady-like' to go into a home where there was no woman, and this invitation was into a home of three bachelor brothers, the Morgan brothers, who in their good neighborly spirit, had prepared a meal for us. In spite of the fact that I was nearly starved, my brother assuring me the young men were fine fellows, and it would be perfectly proper for me to accept, I declined. After I became acquainted with the Morgans and learned how disappointed they had been, I realized how silly I had been.
The settlers of Nance Township were grand neighbors. Quite a number were from different parts of Illinois some from Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Those bringing their families remained, proved up on the land, farmed their land for many years, some living on their old homestead when they passed away some fifty or more years later. The bachelors, most of them having left for parts unknown, after making final proof on their land.
Small grain was the principal crop planted the first year. Much flax was sown. Some year's crops were good, prices fair. Many times we were visited by local hail storms. Some years were very dry with hot winds, crops of course, very light. Still the pioneer held up his chin, dug in his toes, and worked all the harder the next year.
The men with families in Nance Ttownship were B.W. Wilson, Dave Brown, A.B. Barnes, Charles Bradey (who married Hattie's sister Emma) Wm. H. Daugherty, ? Harris, John McNeil, Alec McCullen, Tom Dulin, William English, Wm. Barnes, and Al Curtis. Mrs. Al Curtis and Mrs. Wm. Barnes were the first women to come to our township. Mrs. Barnes coming in 1883 and Mrs. Curtis in 1882. Mrs. Barnes' child, Mattie, was the first baby born in the township. She is now Mrs. Mattie Curtis and lives in Wessington. All of these settlers have passed away, and only a few of their children are left. Of these, Pearl Wilson Cavenee, Marion Bradey Dake and 3 of the Daugherty children; Fred, Richard, and Hattie, the writer of this article are still residents of this locality."

"Life Story of a Pioneer" part two - Hattie Daugherty Place

Hattie and her brother Fred R. Daugherty.
I'm continuing a piece that Hattie wrote when elected as the Pioneer Daughter of the Wessington Women's Study Club in September, 1949. It was included in the Wessington Times (South Dakota).

William Henry Daugherty "filed on a homestead of 160 acres in Nance Township in the northwest corner of Beadle County. He filed, also, the adjoining 160 acres as a tree claim. He planted, according to the requirements of law, ten acres of trees. Some of these tree, in 1946, are still alive and growing.
My eldest brother (note: John William Daugherty) came the spring of 1883, bringing a carload of machinery, three horses and some feed. The next spring, in March 1884, the remainder of the family came; my mother, four brothers, a sister and myself. We brought a carload of household goods, live stock, which consisted of cows, hogs, horses, and chickens. Then, the farming was carried on in a much larger way. There were three boys able to run the farm machinery, my father working at his trade of carpentry.
At this early of settlement, every section of land, except tree claims and school sections, had a settler, some living in dugouts, some in sod shanties, or one room board shacks. These were mainly occupied by bachelors who had come expecting to amass a fortune in this most wonderful land of Dakota Territory. The pioneers who brought their families built more substanciel residences, some two story and many four and five room houses.
There were no fences; when one wanted to go any place, either near or far distant, they just took a 'bee line' across the prairie to the end of their journey.
Spring was, as is now, a very busy season. Nothing unusual to see yokes of oxen pulling the plows, harrows, and other farm machinery.
I recall my very first ride out to the claim from Wessington, where we landed, behind a heavily loaded, three-box wagon, pulled by two strong, well-behaved oxen. The distance was only 11 1/2 miles. My brother, Will, and I started as soon as the sun was up and reached the claim home just as the sun was going down. This was the latter part of March. The prairie was interspersed with lakes, many of which we needed to drive through. Our oxen pulled us through them all, but father, coming later in the day with the rest of the family, driving a team of horses, got stuck in the mud and had to go to a nearby settler for help."

Hattie's writings will continue in the next posting.

Hattie Daugherty Place on our Minds

I've been gone ever so long from this blogsite. Not sure why...I guess I just didn't have enough stories left to sink my teeth into. On Face Book at the moment family members of Hattie Daugherty Place are appreciating their connection with this magnificent woman. Hattie was my mother's great aunt, and my beloved grandfather's (Fred Irvin Daugherty) aunt. I'd like to share a column from the Wessington Times (South Dakota), circa 1950, written by Hattie when she was elected as the Pioneer Daughtor of the Wessington Women's Study Club in September, 1949. In my Prairie Roots Newsletter I've been including her memories as written to her granddaughter, Audrey Sisco Walker. I'm not sure of the date of that writing. Both documents differ enough that it's important to have access to both.

"I, Hattie Daugherty Place, pioneer of South Dakota, was born October 31, 1863, near the little town of Green Valley, Tazewell County, Illinois. My father, William Henry Daugherty, was born in Virginia in 1830. My mother, Martha Peppers, was born in Ohio in 1838. Father's ancestors, indicated by the name Daugherty, probably originated in Ireland. He had no record of how remote their coming to the United States. Mother was from the good sturdy Holland Dutch. Her parents were born in the United States, and she could remember her paternal grandparents reading their German Bible.
My parents married and settled in Illinois, and farmed there until the spring of 1881. Father came to South Dakota to find a location for a home. He started for Minnesota expecting to locate somewhere near Minneapolis, but the coaches of the train were filled with men Dakota Territory bound. Some had been here and told such convincing tales of the territory's wonders that father came on with them."

Continued in the next blog posting....