In 1916, the Daughters of the American Revolution of Nebraska published a Book of Nebraska Pioneer Reminiscences. The following is an excerpt from that book.
EARLY DAYS IN FREMONT
By Mrs. Theron Nye
A few lines written for a paper several years ago give the first impression of the landscape which greeted the eyes of one pioneer woman upon entering the valley of the Elkhorn river in Nebraska in April of 1858:
This is the picture as I see it plainly in retrospect — a country with a smooth, level, gray surface which appeared to go on toward the west forever and forever. On the north were the bluffs of the Elkhorn river, but the great Elkhorn Valley was a part of an unknown world. South of the little townsite of Fremont, the Platte River moved sluggishly along to meet and be swallowed up in the great Missouri. Ten or twelve log cabins broke the monotony of the treeless expanse that stretched far away, apparently to a leaden sky. My heart sank within me as I thought but did not say, ‘How can I ever live in a place like this?’
In the beginning of the new life in Fremont, women had their first introduction to the log cabin, which was to be their home for many years. It was a story and a half high, sixteen by twenty feet in size. The cottonwood logs were hewn on two sides, but the work performed by the carpenters of that time was rough, so the logs did not fit closely and the spaces between were filled with a sort of mortar that often dropped off as it dried, leaving gaps through which the winter winds whistled and breezes blew the dirt. The shingles warped so the roof resembled a sieve. The rain dripped through it in summer and snow sifted through it in winter. The floors were made of wide rough boards, the planing and polishing later given by the broom, the old-fashioned mop, and the scrub brush. The boards warped and shrunk so that the edges turned up, making wide cracks in the floor through which many small articles dropped down into a large hole in the ground miscalled a cellar. It was hardly possible to keep from freezing in these houses in winter. Snow sifted through the roof, covering beds and floors. The piercing winds blew through every crack and crevice. Green cottonwood was the only fuel obtainable and that would sizzle and fry in the stove while water froze standing under the stove.
The summers were not much more pleasant. There no trees in Fremont, nothing that afforded the least protection from the hot rays of a Nebraska sun. Mosquitoes and flies were in abundance, and door screens were unknown. The cotton netting nailed over windows and hung over and around the beds was a slight protection, although as the doors must necessarily be opened no remedy could be devised that would make much improvement. To submit was the rule in those days, but many, many times it was done under protest.
The first floor was partitioned off with quilts or blankets, into a kitchen, bedroom, and pantry. The chamber, or what might be called attic, was also partitioned in the same way, giving as many rooms as it would hold beds.
The main food for the first two years consisted of potatoes, corn meal, and bacon. The meal was made from a variety of corn raised by the Indians and called Pawnee corn, very soft, white, and palatable. Wheat flour was not very plentiful the first year. Bacon was the only available meat. Occasionally buffalo meat was obtained, but it was very tough and made only a slight change in the gravy, which was made with lard and flour browned together in an iron frying pan, adding boiling water until it was of the right consistency, and salt and pepper. This gravy was used for potatoes and bread of all kinds. Biscuits were made of flour, using a little corn meal for shortening and saleratus for raising. Much of the corn was ground in an ordinary coffee mill or in some instances rubbed on a large grater or over a tin pan with a perforated bottom, made so by driving nails through it. The nearest flouring mill was at Fort Calhoun, over forty miles away, a three days’ journey. Nothing, however, could be substituted for butter. The lack of meat, sugar, eggs and fruit, tea and coffee, was borne patiently, but wheat flour and corn meal bread with its everlasting lard gravy was more than human nature could bear, yet most of the people waxed strong and flourished on bread and grease. There were possibly three or four cows in the settlement, and if there was ever an aristocracy in Fremont, it was represented by the owners of said cows.
In 1858 a little sorghum was raised. Men, women, and children helped to prepare the stalks when at the right stage for crushing, which was done with a very primitive home-made machine. The juice obtained was boiled down to syrup, but alas, the dreams of a surfeit of sweetness vanished into thin air, for the result of all the toil and trouble expended was a production so nauseous that it could not be used even for vinegar.
Wild plums and grapes grew in profusion on the banks of the rivers, but there was much more enjoyment in gathering the fruit than in eating it. The plums were bitter and sour, the grapes were sour and mostly seeds, and sugar was not plentiful.
The climate was fine for throat and lung troubles, and on the breaking up of the soil malaria made its appearance and many of the inhabitants suffered from ague and fever. Quinine was the only remedy. There were neither physicians nor trained nurses here, but the neighbors and friends were always ready to help each other when the need arose.
Snakes of many kinds abounded, but rattlesnakes were the most numerous. They appeared to have a taste for domestic life, as many were found in houses and cellars. A little four-year-old boy one day ran out of the house bare-footed, and stepping outside the door felt something soft and cold to his feet. An exclamation of surprise caused his mother to hasten to the door just in time to see a young rattlesnake gliding swiftly away. In several instances they were found snugly ensconced under pillows, on lounges, and very frequently were they found in cellars.
In these days of smart homes, fast transportation, instant communications around the world, first class medical care, and all around ease of living, one can’t even imagine the hard life our ancestors survived, and it’s even more difficult to imagine a modern family submitting to such conditions.
