The Kansas-Colorado Line: Homesteading Tales of Several Families

By Alma Lou Plunkett

Homesteading was a way of life for the many families living along the Kansas/Colorado Line. In this memoir, Alma Lou Plunkett, the daughter of homesteaders who married into another homesteading family, explores what life was like for those who made a living from the land from about 1906 to 1960.

Relying on her memories as well as research gleaned from family stories, she delves deep into the challenges that homesteading families faced. She also explains how social and technological changes have affected the lives of farmers in rural America.

The hardworking people homesteading along the Kansas-Colorado line were not as technologically advanced as the rest of the country. While life changed significantly with the introduction of electrical power and telephones, homesteaders hold onto a way of life much different from their peers.

Discover what made homesteading distinctive, challenging, and rewarding by joining the author as she looks back at her familys personal history in The Kansas-Colorado Line: Homesteading Tales of Several Families.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 3, 2012
• ISBN: 9781475960013

Alma Lou Plunkett

Alma Lou Plunkett, born in 1937, is the daughter of a homesteader. She taught school and helped her husband work the farm before becoming a certified nurse aide. Later, she worked as a secretary for a real estate and loan company and a law office. She currently lives in Kansas.

Book preview

chapter 1

THE PROMISE OF HOMESTEAD

In Homestead Days along the Kansas/Colorado Line many families homesteaded either North or South of the Arkansas River. South of the Arkansas River the lay of the land was very flat with no springs or running creeks. North of the Arkansas River the lay of the land was not as flat as South of the River and there were some creeks and live springs which made survival different South of the Arkansas River as opposed to North of the Arkansas River. This is a story about some of the happenings and experiences that happened to some of the families living on either side of the Arkansas River beginning in 1906 to the 1960’s. Life was hard but the experiences made strong people of them in all cases. The author is the daughter of a homestead couple living South of the Arkansas River and married into a family of homestead people living North the Arkansas River.

The author was born into an extended family that shared past stories of life when they homesteaded and even wrote some memories on paper to share their experiences. The author shares her memories and experiences as a child of a homestead couple. After the author married into the homestead family North to the Arkansas River, her father-in- law wrote down his family stories of homesteading the area, the trials of his family and would talk about their life. The authors husband shared lots of stories of his childhood growing up and his stories are also shared.

The author was always impressed at how the experiences, trials and life in general had a common thread of surviving drought, weather, failed crops and making do with what they had and all of them tried hard to make life better.

The author decided to share some of the tales of these people in the hopes that some of their tales would interest other people also and realize how life changed during this time along the Kansas/Colorado State Line. The story is about the homestead families the author knew most about but all homesteaders had many tests and trials along the Kansas/Colorado Line and their experiences were much the same.

chapter 2

SIMON THRUSH FAMILY HOMESTEADS

In the winter of 1907 the Simon Thrush family lived south of Abilene, Kansas in Dickerson County. He had five children living. The oldest girl. Blanch, was married to Jack Shandy, a local farmer. They had one child. Simon Thrush had always dreamed of owning some real estate of his own. He heard that there was some real estate that could be homesteaded under the government homestead act available in Stanton and Hamilton Counties in far Western Kansas. Under the Government Homestead Act a person over the age of 21 could file on 160 Acres of eligible real estate for a small fee. The filer was required to build a dwelling, live on the Homestead for five years. The filer was required to farm at least 40 acres on the property. He was to plow at least 10 acres of native grass a year and farm it until 40 acres were under cultivation and maintained. If these requirements were fulfilled the filer could apply for a title at the respective County Seat and the homestead belonged to the filer. Simon Thrush was very interested this offer and he and his son-in-law, Jack Shandy, decided in April of 1907 to explore the offer. They left by train from Enterprise, Kansas to Dodge City, Kansas where the head Office for Homesteads was located for the State of Kansas. They were sent to the Hamilton/Stanton areas.

They stayed with the John Schmidt family as guests and each one picked 160 acres of real estate to homestead about a mile south of the John Schmidt home.

In September of 1907 Simon and Jack rented a box car. They dismantled their wagons and loaded them on the box car. Then they loaded their horses, household goods etc. on the box car and rode in the box car to Syracuse, Kansas. Martha Thrush was Simon’s wife. Martha, her four children, her married daughter, Blanch Shandy, and her baby grandson all rode on the passenger train to Syracuse, Kansas from Enterprise, Kansas. Neither family had much money to make the move. Martha hid the two hundred dollars they did have under the insole of her shoe so she wouldn’t loose it.

Martha and her group arrived in Syracuse after dark only to find the depot had burned down. A box car was used for a temporary depot. It was lighted with kerosene lanterns. Some men from Mexico were sitting on the floor of the box car. Martha and her group had never seen anyone from Mexico before but they had heard these folks were really mean to white people. To make matters worse, none of them spoke English. Martha and her group were immediately afraid of them. Martha motioned to her group and whispered, We better get out of here as soon as possible. Martha finally learned that a room could be rented in the Grand Hotel not too far north of the railroad tracks. The town was very dark as the family left the box car depot. The younger children had no shoes and neither had the family been exposed to stickers called goat heads. The stickers were thick going to the hotel. The children could hardly walk and Martha kept asking them to hurry because she was afraid the Mexicans might be following them. Finally they got to the board walk leading to the hotel. There weren’t nearly so many stickers and at last Martha and her group got to the hotel. Martha went to the desk and asked, Do you have a room to rent to me and my family? The desk clerk looked very sad and said, Madam there are no rooms available tonight. They are all rented out. Martha didn’t know what to do. A salesman who had a room rented saw her plight and said, Madam, I have a room rented and if you will reimburse me for the rent you and your family can have it. It didn’t take Martha long agree to reimburse the salesman for the room. They spent their first night in Syracuse, Kansas there. Wesley, a 16 year old son of Martha’s, awoke early and looked out the south window in the room. All he could see was sage brush and dry, dry sand hills. He had grown up in eastern Kansas where there were creeks to fish in, water to play in, lots of trees and he had left all his friends behind. He stood at the window and cried like a baby. He felt like he had come to the end of the world!

The men got in on the freight train and unloaded the box car. They put the wagons together and loaded them with the freight and the family and started out on their thirty-five mile treek southwest of Syracuse to their homesteads.

When they arrived at their homestead sites the land was flat and without trees. They all wondered what people used to build their houses from. The Thrush family made camp, cooked supper on a campfire and got what sleep they could get that first night. The next morning John Schmidt came down and ask, Do you men know how to built a sod house? Simon and Jack told John they sure didn’t know how. John showed them how to cut a row of sod or buffalo grass with a walking plow and a horse. Then they cut blocks from the rows of grass and fitted them together to make walls. They used mud to stick the blocks together. They made a two door frames and four window frames out of 6 X 2 lumber Jack had picked up in Syracuse. They made a door on the South and one on the East side of the building. A window was made in each of the sides of the building. They covered the roof of the sod house with board planks that Jack had bought in Syracuse. Then they covered the planks with tar paper and the tar paper with sod. The inside of the sod house was plastered with mud. When the mud dried both families moved into the first house built. It had a musty dirt smell but it was warm as cold weather came on. By spring they had the Shandy’s sod house built and Jack and Blanch and their baby moved into it.

One of the problems that faced all homesteaders was no schools or churches. For a public school to be established there had to be at least five school age children in the area of the proposed school. With the arrival of the Thrush family there were five eligible students and the Lone Star District was started. In 1909 the Lone Star School house was built and the children could only go to school for five months.

chaper 3

ALBERT CONARD FAMILY HOMESTEADS

Meanwhile, in 1907, the Albert Conard family lived on a place five miles south of Beeler, Kansas in Ness County. The house was furnished by the farmer Albert worked for and it was alright. The well, however, was 700 feet deep and the windmill could not pump the water unless the wind was really hard. There was a hand pump on the well and quite often the children had to pump water from the well with that pump. It was a very hard job. Albert had five children left at home. One of his sons, Abner Conard and his wife had already Homesteaded in Stanton County, Kansas. They needed a well really bad and since Albert was a well driller and had a horse powered well drill Albert had gone out to Abner’s place and drilled a well in 1905.

In 1907 Albert decided to try his luck at homesteading. He went to Lane County to explore the possibilities. However, the homestead sites were all taken in Lane County. Then Albert learned of the homestead sites available in Stanton and Hamilton County. He went to visit his son and filed on a homestead claim Northwest of Simon Thrush’s and Jack Shandy’s homesteads. In early November of 1908 the covered wagons were tuned up and the household goods, tools, a family of seven all started out from Ness to the homestead site in Stanton County. The livestock had to be driven behind the wagons on the way to Stanton County. The Conard family arrived North of Syracuse, Kansas and made camp on November 10, 1908 . During the night a terrible snow storm and blizzard hit. It got so cold that the family had to stay under feather beds most of the time to keep from freezing. While they were there Gladys, the next to the youngest child of Albert and Burnham Conard, got an ulcerated tooth. She was very sick but the next day Albert was able to break up his camp and the family went on to Syracuse. Albert found a dentist for his daughter and Gladys had her tooth pulled.

The caravan intended to cross the Arkansas River at the bridge south of Syracuse but found the well drill was too heavy so they had to go on West to Coolidge to cross the river bridge there. However, that bridge wasn’t wide enough for the drill and so the caravan decided to go on west to Holly, Colorado and hope they could cross the river there. They stopped in Coolidge for Albert to water his horses before they went on west. Albert had the wagons in front of the Coolidge State Bank. It was a two story building and there were living quarters on the second floor. While they waited someone began to curse at them. The two youngest children crawled out from under the wagon canvas and discovered that a parrot hanging in a cage on the second floor of the bank was swearing at them.

They camped that night west of Coolidge at the old town site of Trail City. One of the wagons was parked against an empty building bearing the name of Trail City Hotel. The next day the caravan crossed the river South of Holly, Colorado and headed Southeast cross country to their homestead in Stanton County, Kansas 19 miles south of Coolidge, Kansas. Instead of a sod house they dug a basement called a dug out, on top of the hole they built a wooden top and a cover for the steps. The windows were in the wooden top and the door was in the East. It didn’t have cement walls and so it smelled musty also.

In 1909 after the Albert Conard family homesteaded Albert Conard decided the small community needed a Sunday School but where would they meet? The people of the community decided that the school house would make a good place to meet on Sunday for Sunday School since the building wasn’t used for school on Sunday.

chapter 4

OTHER FAMILIES BEGAN TO HOMESTEAD

Other homesteaders moved into NW Stanton and SW Hamilton Counties. It was one community and the neighbors really enjoyed getting together on Sundays and other special days even if their homesteads were in different Counties. One of the first problems that arose for any homesteader in Western Kansas was the fact that a living could not be made from the land. Drought was one of the problems that added to the problem of making a living.

chaper 5

A BABY

Martha Thrush was pregnant and Simon Thrush knew he was going to have to get a job in town in order to support his family. He decided it was too dangerous to leave Martha on the Homestead so he decided to move her along with the younger children into Syracuse while he worked at the livery stable. Blanch, Simon’s oldest and Jack Shandy was expecting their second. The Shandy’s and the Thrush’s lived in the same house in Syracuse. Three days after Blanch’s mother had her baby. Blanch had her second baby, a son named Ivan. Wesley, his brother Lee and Martha’s dad were left to live the winter on the homestead. Wesley’s grandpa Scott did the cooking and he mainly made pan cakes. Wesley and Lee did chores and other work around the homestead. Toward spring Wesley began to break out the 10 acres required. He had a one plow shear plow, known as a foot warmer, and pulled by a team of horses. He worked and worked but he could not keep the plow shear in the ground. Finally an older neighbor man came along and told Wesley that he could teach him how to plow. After the lesson Wesley was able to plow right along. The wind whistled around the sod house so loudly that Wesley and Lee were almost afraid. However, Grandpa Scott said, You mean to tell me that you boys are afraid of a little wind noise? That helped the boys to live in spite of the howling wind. In the spring Simon and Martha moved back to the homestead with a new baby son, George. Blanch Shandy and her children also moved back.

chapter 6

HOMESTEADERS GET FENCE POSTS

One of the problems that faced the Homesteaders in that community was how to get posts to build the fences that they needed. They found out that the Cedar Hills South of Las Animas, Colorado about 100 miles to the west of the homesteads allowed posts cut from the cedars. The men of the settlement decided to all go together with wagons and get a loads of posts every winter. One winter the group got caught in a terrific blizzard while cutting posts. They were unable to move their wagons for several days. They ran out of food supplies. About the 4th day they could move the wagons but the trail they followed in was not very plain. They finally came upon an old ranchers home just as he, his wife and family were sitting down to eat. All they had was parsnip stew. Wesley Thrush was along with the group. He disliked parsnips to the point he declared he would starve before he would eat them. However, after going three days without anything to eat he said that parsnip stew was wonderful and he learned If your hungry you’ll eat it! On the way home another neighbor, Abner Conard, went snow blind.

The homestead life was hard. No homesteader was able to make a living from the homestead directly. The homesteaders who had older teenage children that could work many times helped support the family. Some homesteaders had a lot more financial resources available to them and living on the homestead was much easier for some than others. The Conard family had some cattle, the grown sons