Life in the Old West

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!

Read more on Brown’s steam wagon sought to conquer 1860s Plains freight routes…

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.

If you’ve been getting smacked around by the many snowstorms, ice storms, and near-blizzards that have been sweeping across the Southern Plains into the Northeast this year, you probably appreciate the “wise old ways” of the kerosene lamp days. Namely, a good old-fashioned kerosene lamp stored away for winter can keep glorious light and even wonderful heat around in your home when the weather snuffs out “newfangled” power sources like electricity and sometimes even steady flows of natural gas.

Read more on Harsh winter brings memories of Grandma’s kerosene lamp…

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.

Read more on Hard times of 1830s launched first wagon trains westward…

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.)

Read more on Christmas in the Old West brought joy, comfort amid hardships…

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.

Although the technology of kerosene lamps and lanterns has changed from pioneer times, they work fundamentally the same and they can be a real lifesavers, providing light and warmth when power outages hit.

Read more on Kerosene Lamp…

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.

Not many miles from where I live, a couple of hundred thousand folks in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas (mostly northern Arkansas) lost power from ice storms — a number of them being left in the dark and cold for over two weeks. (We were hit like that in our city in January 2007, so I truly sympathize for those who find themselves in such a fix.)

Read more on Power outages remind us of pioneer ‘lighting’ in the Old West…

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.

Read more on Cow chips and drought — enjoying ‘good old days’ in Nebraska…