Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/83

 more of him in this connection until some time in December, 1872, when at a meeting between a committee of the college board and Major Rankin he very innocently told them, ‘that the responsibility was theirs and they must shoulder it.’ The president of the college, although the chief executive of the institution, seems to have paid but little or no attention to the warnings he had received from Governor Merrill.”

During the summer of 1873 some fifteen counties in the northwestern part of the State were visited by immense swarms of grasshoppers, surpassing in numbers any similar visitation before experienced. Crops were devoured, leaving thousands of farmers destitute of the means of subsistence or seed for the next season’s crops. Many of the settlers in that section were of limited means who had recently settled on homesteads and were entirely dependent upon farm produce for subsistence for the coming year. Without liberal assistance from other parts of the State they would be compelled to abandon their homes. The Granges in various parts of the State collected grain, provisions and money which were distributed among the most needy. Hundreds of these farmers had been soldiers in the late war, had recently made homes on the wild prairies and were just beginning to erect buildings and bring a portion of their homesteads under cultivation. As winter approached their situation became desperate and as there was no session of the Legislature to provide for the emergency private citizens were obliged to come to their relief. In order to establish an effective system for the collection of supplies and provide for an equitable and judicious distribution, General N. B. Baker, the well-known Adjutant-General of the State, volunteered to superintend the work. He appealed to the people at large to contribute of their money, clothing, provisions and seed grain to help their unfortunate fellow citizens. He arranged with the railroads to carry all contributions at very low rates to the various points selected for distribution. The people responded generously and, with the aid of an efficient corps of assistants,