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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... Hand Smeller and Fat Badger , two sub chiefs , came into " Pony's " camp and demanded food . Rogers stirred up his ... hand into the grub chest to help himself when Rogers got on his ear [ ? ] and shut the lid of the grub box down on the ...
... hand . It was about the hardest material for a congrega- tion he ever tackled I dare say . Jeers and jokes met him on every hand and when he incidentally remarked that he had " been on the road to heaven seventeen years , " " Ash ...
... hand over hand . This lava country is full of caves . The Indians at El Rito have knowl- edge of a cave in the vicinity which is said to be six or seven miles long . They , however , refuse to divulge its whereabouts to the whites ...
Contents
Summer Rambles in Eastern Nebraska | 24 |
The Buffalo Hunt | 52 |
The Harvest Circuit | 102 |
Copyright | |
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