A South Dakota Prairie Story Part 2 (Anna’s Younger Years)

This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy here.

Last week I began a new series here on Little House Living, my own personal prairie story! Well, not mine, by my family’s story. My great-grandma and grandma’s stories to be more exact. If you missed last week with the introduction and the first part of the story (where Anna, my great-grandma, talks a bit about her mother), you can catch up here on Part 1 of the South Dakota Prairie Story.

south dakota prairie story

A South Dakota Prairie Story – Part 2
Anna’s Younger Years

–If you missed it, be sure and read Part 1 first!

In 1896, when I was 4 years old, my father sold his farm in South Dakota and moved to Houston, Texas to make his new home. He had heard there was wealth there. The trip was made by railroad car and he took horses, cows, machinery, and some grain. I think it was some city slickers like real estate men that made it sound so good.

Mother followed with 8 children and she went by passenger train. My 2 oldest sisters did not go. One was married and the other stayed with her because she was minus one foot and she had been doctoring there. Years ago, people had cellar doors going into a basement from some room in the house. One day the door was left open and she fell down, landed on a barrel, and broke her leg below the knee. After 2 years of suffering and doctoring, my sister died at the age of 18. It was while we were in Texas but my oldest sister and other relatives arranged the funeral and burial.

Sometime after Mother arrived in Texas with her 8 children, they realized it was impossible to make a living there for such a large family. Moneyless, they decided to return to South Dakota. My Uncle Jim had a farm and he rented this out to my folks. The nearest town was 30 miles away. Now there is a town close by to where the farm was but in those days, it didn’t exist. The trips into town had to be made with horses.

Most of South Dakota was open country and not settled much. Dad had to break land and at one time, he sold hogs for 2 cents per hundredweight. There were plenty of snakes and coyotes. Some night the coyotes would howl so. They were so near to our house and we kids were scared to death of them.

Dad’s help was my sister’s Emily and Josie. They worked like men wherever Dad needed help. The rest of us were only good at a full table of food. My first brother was born 2 weeks after we returned from Texas and my other brother was born 2 years later. We lived at my Uncle Jim’s farm for 3 years and then moved to a different farm. There, Dad was glad to have open spaces for his stock and he could farm more land.

Image Courtesy of Whitewood Public Library

About this time, the railroad was being built through the southern part of the state. We kids used to sit on top of a hill and watch people work on it with horses. There were no tractors. Many lived in tents and they would keep moving as the work was done.

Watch for Anna’s Childhood coming soon…

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Support Little House Living by Sharing This

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

13 Comments

  1. This is such a fun series Merissa! I m so looking forward to learning more about Anna’s childhood in the next post! My family is from Oklahoma and Illinois but my husband’s family on his mother’s side have a similar story to your families. Many generations in South Dakota, homesteading, farming and just trying to survive!

    1. I’m so glad you are enjoying it so far! I’ve started writing up the next section and it’s kind of funny, Anna was quite the girl/lady!

  2. What hard lives they all had in those days. Imagine the women giving birth in all the heat, wearing long dresses, and having to do every scrap of washing and cooking by hand. It was the same here in England, but without the vast distances to cover.

  3. Love these stories of your family! Makes you realize how hard they had to work; they stuck together as family, helped each other and lent a helping hand to neighbors as well. They were grateful for everything they had no matter how humble. Thank you for changing the world for the better-words are very powerful indeed!

    1. Absolutely! I’m working on the next section of the story where she talks a little more about the town/community and I love the closeness.

  4. How interesting and fun! I love family history, and am learning a lot about my own as well. I’m also listening to the book These is My Words right now, and it is set in the late 1800s in Arizona. It’s so crazy to realize what people went through during those times. Thank you for sharing your family’s story!

  5. Loved reading these stories and looking forward to more. It’s wonderful that you took the time to write about your family history. I’m sure your children and generations to come will be happy you did! I wish I had done this when my parents, grandparents and great grandmother told me stories of their lives and those who came before them. Thank you for sharing your history with us.

  6. Thank you for sharing your family’s story with us. I love reading/hearing the stories of the families who settled our country. I have had the privilege to read my own family’s beginnings in the US. The hardships these people endured would put what we call struggles nowdays to shame. Again, thank you for sharing and I look forward to the future installments of your story.

  7. Thanks for sharing your history with us, it’s so interesting to hear about the family. I don’t know if you have it in the States but in the UK we have a tv program called ‘Who do you think you are?’ It follow the family history of celebrities and gives the family history. Look forward to your next instalment!

  8. I absolutely love reading this, and I can’t wait for next part. Thank you for sharing this with us!