Page:Bohemians in Central Kansas.pdf/40

 But they even did not wait so long, for they sold the crop in May, 1881, and moved to Omaha, where they bought half of a lot and built a small house on it. Then my father, brother and two sisters got steady work, and it was not long before they had everything paid for.

I was now working for another farmer and was getting twenty dollars a month. During this time my oldest sister came from Europe. After she came to Omaha, I also made my home there. Here I found out from her why I didn’t receive an answer from my grandparents when I wrote to them asking for enough money to return to Europe. It was because they had never received my letter.

While I stayed in Omaha I worked at the Smelter, and also found work there for my brother-in-law. But neither of us liked the work very well, as it was against our health. My brother-in-law always wanted to go on a farm, and on hearing that our other uncle was in Kansas, we quit our jobs in Omaha and went to Kansas. I did not go on any business, but just to see what it looked like. We arrived at Wilson, March 3, 1882. My brother-in-law bought a quarter section of land about five miles north of Wilson, known to all as “Hell creek.”

I did not like the land here in Kansas very much and could get no work that would pay over twelve dollars a month, so I left, and on April 1, 1882, was again in Omaha.

There I got another job on a farm for twenty-two dollars a month for the whole season. Before my time was up I began to feel lonesome for my sister, and in 1883 I was once more in Kansas. This time I got a job on a farm for fifteen dollars a month, but it wasn’t steady. So in the fall I went to the eastern part of the state to husk corn. After the corn was husked and I could find nothing to do, I went and stayed with my sister for two months.

In the spring of 1884 I again got a job on a farm for seven months at eighteen dollars a month. By that fall I had enough money to buy me a team of horses and a wagon, with which I drove to eastern Kansas and Nebraska to shuck and shell corn. After I finished all the work I could find in Nebraska and eastern Kansas, I returned to Wilson, and stayed with my sister until the spring of 1885.

I then rented me a farm four miles south of town and started to “bach.” I planted some corn that spring, and in the fall I put in my first wheat crop. After my corn was husked I hauled coal to Wilson from the Wilson coal bank, and worked at what other odd jobs I could get. About this time I received a letter from my parents in Omaha, Neb., stating that they had sold their house and lot there and bought a quarter section of land in Nuckolls county.

During the year 1886-87 my wheat crop was fair but my corn crop was a failure, so in the fall of 1887, after my wheat crop was in, I took a notion to drive to Nebraska to see my parents. All the way from Wilson, Kan., to Nuckolls county, Nebraska, I found that the corn crop was a failure. After I arrived in Nuckolls county I had to go about twenty miles farther north into Clay county to get a job of husking corn. At the end of each week I returned to my parents' home and always brought a load of corn with me for them, for the corn crop was a failure there too. After all the corn husking was finished I stayed with my parents until spring. Then I drove to my rented