Pioneers And Settlers

Log cabins for sale: Get your own piece of the Old West

Log cabins for sale: If you’ve got some money to put into it, you can find many deals to get your own piece of the Old West. Buy your own log cabin — either one you can put up on your land, or something that includes your cabin AND the land to put it on.

Brown’s steam wagon sought to conquer 1860s Plains freight routes

Looking back into the past, we can see how a steam-powered, iron-wheeled freight wagon to haul goods across several hundred miles of the Great Plains in the 1860s appears to be a real folly. But in 1862, Major Joseph R. Brown, an agent to the Sioux Indians in New Ulm, Minnesota not only thought it was a good idea, he shelled out $9,000 to have the behemoth built. Adding a great deal of other expense, time, and effort, he accompanied his “prairie motor” wagon to the Nebraska City, Nebraska, starting point of what he thought was a prosperous future!

Harsh winter brings memories of Grandma’s kerosene lamp

Winter’s snows and ice storms around here always bring back memories of my Grandma’s kerosene lamp, or I should say kerosene lamps, because she had several in her small apartment that were left over from her and grandpa’s decades on their old farm.

Hard times of 1830s launched first wagon trains westward

The first wagon trains headed westward along the overland trails — the most famous was the Oregon Trail — from Missouri in 1841, and a major motivation for those making the long, often tortuous journey was economic: Following the Panic of 1837 (a fearsome Depression by even today’s standards), wages throughout America had fallen by 30-50 percent. There were no unemployment figures kept at the time, of course, but had there been, they would have been horrific. Major public demonstrations by out of work residents of Philadelphia and New York City brought out hundreds of thousands of people in 1839 and 1840.

Christmas in the Old West brought joy, comfort amid hardships

Pioneers and settlers in the Old West living amid the harsh habitats of the Great Plains and the Rockies found their spirits lifted as they celebrated Christmas.

To get some feeling for their Christmas celebrations, think of today’s recessionary times — then throw in Christmas WITHOUT money for shopping, WITHOUT special delicacies, WITHOUT modern-day weatherproofing for your home, WITHOUT much resembling today’s heating and electricity, and WITHOUT (in many instances) indoor plumbing or indoor running water. (And I won’t even ask you to consider the everyday social impact and trauma of post-Civil War living.)

Kerosene Lamp

The good old kerosene lamp might be thought of as the mainstay of technology for pioneer “lighting” in the days of the Old West. In fact, kerosene lamps exist as welcome companions to many Plains dwellers from big cities to small towns today.

Power outages remind us of pioneer ‘lighting’ in the Old West

In recent weeks, literally MILLIONS of folks throughout the Great Plains, Midwest, and Eastern states have spent a lot of nights in the dark (and cold, in many cases) because of storms that caused massive power outages.

Cow chips and drought — enjoying ‘good old days’ in Nebraska

I recently ran onto a short article my great-grandmother wrote in response to a call for stories of life in Custer County Nebraska by the pioneers who lived it. I just ran onto it recently, but the article itself appeared in a collection of accounts of early life in the Nebraska Sand Hills region which was published in 1936. I was fortunate enough to find a copy through an inter-library loan system. While I had the book, I scanned a copy of the article by my great-grandmother: “Early Experiences Leave a Thrill,” by Mrs. Wilber Speer.

Life in the Old West

True stories, tall tales, and memorabilia of the American West

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