Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/568



brought from the nearest timber supported a roof of slough hay, skillfully placed on like thatching, and a comfortable shelter was made for man and beast. The ground was smoothed off for a floor and until boards could be procured for doors, the skins of deer and wolves shut out the wind and snow. Then it was that the swarms of muskrats which inhabited every pond were utilized to supply the family with groceries. Muskrat pelts were always salable for cash at the nearest town, where buyers had agents to gather up all kinds of furs and hides of wild animals. During the first year of life on the prairie, before crops could be raised for market, thousands of homestead families were dependent upon trapping muskrats for the cash they must have to buy bacon and coffee. The homestead was exempt from taxes; deer and prairie chickens furnished meat for portions of the year; with industrious mending and the skins of wild animals the clothing was made to do long service; but some money was indispensable for fuel and such scant groceries as were indulged in.

Most of the homestead settlers were many miles from timber or coal. Their teams were usually oxen, which could live on prairie grass and wild hay, and break up the sod for cultivation. It was always a perilous journey in the winter to the nearest town or timber, or coal bank, for fuel or other supplies. It must be made generally by one man alone, over a trackless prairie covered with deep snow. No human foresight could guard against danger from the fearful blizzards of flinty snow driven with an ever-increasing wind and an ever-falling temperature that were so common in early days. With the sun obscured, nothing was left to guide the bewildered driver toward his destination, as the changing wind often misled him and many were the victims who perished in all of the early years of settling the great prairies.

Another danger that was encountered by the first settlers on the prairies came from the annual fires. Early