September 2009 - Kossuth County Genealogical Society

D-Y-T September, 2009
cushioned with an old tattered quilt or maybe a sack filled with hay. In the back of the box were six
cane seat chairs, gift from the Potters, and other wedding gifts, dishes, silverware, etc. At that time
Nathan was milking nine cows that he rented for $9.00 each per year, he keeping the calves. This was
big interest on a small investment for at that time a good cow could be bought for $25.00 or $30.
Having finished the usual round of chores we returned to the old home. In the meantime the tables had
been taken down, the room cleared, violins brought forth, and we danced till three in the morning.
About a year earlier Dr. Potter had purchased a farm two miles south and built what was then
considered a nice home. He retired from his practice at Gillan (in southeast Iowa). His wife was a
cousin of father’s and we called her Aunt Thankful. The Dr. had a brother, Sherman, and two married
sons, Orance and Laurance living on the flats known as Crawfish Bottoms. The Dr. was not permitted
to rest for long and soon had a large practice all over the country side, which continued up to his last
illness brought on by long hours of work and exposure to cold winter winds.
Now settlers from Illinois were arriving almost daily. Another cross country railroad had been
built and the towns of Rodman, West Bend, Ottosen, Bode, etc. had sprang forth. Mostly German
Catholics were settling near West Bend and Whittemore and also Emmetsburg. The country was fast
passing by the pioneer stage. Algona was becoming a town of pretty homes. Country homes and farm
barns were being built all about us. A fine brick court house now occupied the “square,”
Congregational and Methodist churches were outstanding in size and beauty and the population was
now 2,500 to 3,000.
The Indians still tracked by both spring and fall. Their winters were spent in the big woods of
Wisconsin, but in the spring they went to the Dakotas where they hunted elk, deer and buffalo. These
were now friendly and we were no longer afraid.
Father and Mother tired of so much work. The added acreage necessitated keeping help most,
if not all, the year. Threshing the grain often took a week. This was a time when the men changed
work coming with teams, wagons and bundle racks. The women also helped each other going from
place to place all through the threshing season preparing meals for 25 or 30 men. This meant a lot of
work and those were the days when women baked their bread, churned their butter; pies, cakes and
cookies were made at home also. Chickens were dressed and fried or maybe chicken pie was on the
menu one day or two. Ice cream was often made in the afternoon by a hand-turned freezer and with
cakes found its place on the supper table. Extra beds were to be made as the three men who owned the
machine spent the night where ever they were threshing. Corn picking meant a month or six weeks of
help also. So the folks sold the west farm of 108 acres to a Mr. Murtha.
Sometime around 1902 a colony moved from around Hobart to Minor, N. Dak. Father, Mother
and Hardy joined the colony and took homesteads three miles south of Berthold, N. Dak. They were
here about two years when they sold their homestead rights and came back to the old place. Later
Hardy was married and father and mother were alone on the farm. Old age was creeping up on them
and mother was no longer able to keep up the home. In 1912 they came to Spencer, Iowa, to make their
homes with Nathan and I. Hardy rented the farm for two years then bought one of his own between
Algona and Sexton. Roy Bjustrom lived there a year then Chester and family moved from Arnold’s
Park on to the farm and at this writing, around twenty years later, are still in possession. Mother passed
away December 7 th , 1916, at the age of 84, Father, November 20 th , 1824 (sic), being past his 94 th
birthday. Years of privation and hardship lay back of their lives, but they lived to see results from their
labors and were happiest when they lived them again in memory.
Most of their neighbors and early friends passed on before they did and they were often lonely
for them. These are a few high lights in the history of the Rickard family as I remember them. Looking
back over these 78 years of life recorded here (as I have passed my 80 th birthday) there were rich
experiences mingled with joy and sorrow, discouraging times, many blue days but I am sure the bright
ones out-numbered them all. It’s been a great privilege to live again the by-gone days to recall the
happenings of the years, only a few of which are recorded here. There are so many experiences rich in
memory which can never be expressed either by word of mouth or by pen and ink. Most of the old