Pioneer Reminiscences Of Isaac Sylvester Hunt 1882 - 1966
by Mildred Cass Beason

George Riley Hunt and Amelia Missouria Odell were married in 
1866, Springfield, Illinois (Central IL, near Sangamon Co. 
where the 1830 Census Record lists Noah, possibly George's 
Grandfather) and immediately immigrated to Minnesota where they 
settled near St. Paul (actually, Eden Valley, Stearns Co., near 
St. Cloud).  They cut down heavy trees to clear a space for a 
house.  They moved the chopped down trees as logs with oxen and 
a sleigh.  For rafters in the house logs were split about four 
inches wide and two inches thick.  The rafters extended from the 
ridge pole to the walls and were placed two feet apart.  Small 
willows were placed thick over and in between the rafters.  Over 
this was placed sod upside down.  The sod strips were plowed by 
the oxen.  Later in Kansas I helped build several sod houses and 
put on roofs like this.  

George Hunt used snow shoes to glide over the snow and ice to 
hunt the deer and black bear.  There were so many hunters out 
after game that there were narrow escapes as the bullets hit the 
trees nearly as soon as the shots were heard.  The Hunts wanted 
to leave the cold of Minnesota for "sunny" Kansas, where they 
could work every day all winter long.  Instead they found lots 
of wind, drought and heat along with the sunshine, and many hours 
of poorly paid work, for there was little money among the 
homesteaders.  They would like to have gone back to Minnesota 
where the wheat, as well as everything else, grew well though the 
seasons were short.  They, like other homesteaders were raising 
families and there was not enough money to make the change.

Father gave up the first timber claim for he had to haul water 
too far to this claim.  Then got another close to water and 
timber.  Again, he built a sod house using a log for a ridge pole 
and willows and sod for the roof.  He built three or four cabinet 
closets, two feet high and two feet deep.  A four foot long slab 
of stone was held up by a stand at each end.  This slab was used 
to put dishes and other things on, as well as the space underneath.  
My sister Florence married Frank Hargrove and we both took 
homesteads at Wallace (near the Colorado border), Kansas on which 
we lived for three years.  We made the trip out to Wallace in a 
covered wagon which I later traded off.  I plowed ground for a sod 
house, laying slabs of sod one upon another until the walls of my 
house were completed.  It was necessary to break up five acres of 
sod to prove up on my homestead.  On this I planted seed crops and 
cane.I started back to Bazine with a horse tied on behind and a 
breaking plow, so necessary to a homesteader, tied on one side of 
the wagon.  I traded my outfit at Tribune (about 40 mi. South) 
for a team of horses and went on East by train.  At Bazine I got a 
saddle and took it back to Tribune to get my horses.  A couple of 
days later, riding one and the other following, found me back at 
Bazine.  

I never did want to go back to the homestead to live, especially 
after I married in 1907.  We lived north of Nekoma (Netoma? 50 mi. 
NE of Hays) for five years.  Here La Von was born in 1908 as well 
as Dorotha later (1909).  My father had the home place rented, but 
let the man go and rented to me.  We lived in a tent and cook shack 
until the renter moved out.  We started milking cows, separating 
the cream which we sold in town , and fed the milk to the chickens 
and hogs.  This we did for many years, furnishing us a regular 
income.  Here Marvin and Wilfred were born.  When Wilfred was a 
little over a year old, in 1918, an epidemic of flu hit.  My wife 
died as did many other women.  She would have been thirty-three 
years old in April.

Later on the 30th of April, 1921, I married Opal Miller.  Harold, 
Leon and Chester Riley came along.  Like others, I used a header 
and binder to cut grain, however I bought a combine in 1910 or 1911.  
There were only two in the neighborhood and they were quite a 
curiosity.  I pulled the machinery with four horses and two in the 
lead.  Later, I traded all my horses for a tractor, a two wheeler.  
It was never very satisfactory, for it was no faster than horses.  
After the Ford with the tractor wheels, I got a Moline tractor, 
which was the only one in the country.  It was not very satisfactory 
for it was no faster than the horses, either.  However, the next 
tractor I got was a big improvement and quite satisfactory and was 
used for many years.

Transcribed and edited (parenthesis) by Doug Hunt <doughunt@mail.com>
The Homestead <http://www.genweb.net/~hunt/homestead>
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