WINTER IN DAKOTA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume II, Issue 169, 7 November 1881, Page 2 (Supplement)

WINTER IN DAKOTA.

With many of the settlers of the North-west the past winter has been a prolonged struggle for existence against the elements. A German farmer two years ago took up 160 acres of land near Big Lake, Dakota. Last year he raised wheat on 60 acres, getting 25 bushels to the acre, and received 1200 dols. for it. Laying in what he considered an ample supply of fuel out of these proceeds, he set his house in order for the winter. Two other families decided to live with him as a measure of mutual protection and comfort. Very soon the ample supply of fuel was all consumed, and the three families had to bestir themselves to keep from freezing. They dug railroad ties and telegraph posts out of the deep snow and burned them. After this source of supply had been exhausted, the two families that had quitted their own house were compelled to take part in tearing them down; and the woodwork went the way of tha other fuel. Next followed the furniture. A neighbour named Becker finally harnessed five horses to a sleigh to force his way to the nearest railway station for a load of coal. He was caught in a snowdrift, and two days later was found frozen stiff in his sleigh, his dog dead, lying upon him, and the five horses standing dead in their tracks. His body was taken to hisfamily, nailed in a box, and placed in the grain loft, to be kept there until the ground should thaw sufficiently and allow of his burial. Another family of the neighbourhood was saved from starvation by making soup of ox-skin.