Happy as a Big Sunflower: Adventures in the West, 1876-1880Oh, I am happy as a big sunflower That nods and bends in the breezes! And my heart is as light as the wind that blows The leaves from off the treeses! In 1876 Rolf Johnson and his family left Illinois for Phelps County, Nebraska. There they faced the challenges of pioneering on the Great Plains: digging wells, building sod houses, plowing and planting crops, and fighting prairie fires. Johnson's diary goes beyond individual conquest, however, and provides insight into the great cooperative endeavor of plains settlement. Rolf's Swedish family and neighbors worked and socialized with other Swedes just as nearby Danish settlers remained in close physical and cultural contact with other Danish immigrants. A very eligible 19-year-old bachelor, Rolf also offers touching vignettes on the rituals of courting. Abruptly, with no explanation in his diary, and with no itinerary or prospects, Rolf left home in 1879 "with the intention of going west for a season". His departure may have been sparked by the marital fervor exhibited by a female suitor. Rolf felt he was "not quite prepared to leave the state of single blessedness for that of double misery". In Sidney, Nebraska, he ran with the "sporting" element, who showed him photographs of "fast women of the town stark naked". He found employment with a wagon freighter headed for the Black Hills, where he saw Calamity Jane in action. Rolf's education continued until the diaries end in Cubero, New Mexico, in 1880. He returned to Phelps County in 1882 and remained there for most of his life. Rolf's lively diaries offer an entertaining eyewitness account of pioneer life and an unmatched resource for historians. |
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... June 11 Emil and Aleck Danielson caught two antelope fawns in the sandhills yesterday , but did not bring them home . June 17 J. Anderson , Aleck Danielson , Justus and I have been out on the head of Spring Creek after two loads of wood ...
... June 1st I love thee , but I love thee not so deeply ; When thou art gone , and I'm alone , I marvel that I held thee then so cheaply . " This morning I found that a swift , or prairie fox , had " jumped my claim " and dug a den in the ...
... June 13 Met William Johnson , alias " Spotted Bill , " alias Spot Johnson , at the Emigrant House . He is an old plainsman . June 15 Shot a big rattlesnake on Salgren's " firebreak . " The heavy ball from my breechloader traversed him ...
Contents
Summer Rambles in Eastern Nebraska | 24 |
The Buffalo Hunt | 52 |
The Harvest Circuit | 102 |
Copyright | |
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