Early Kansas settlers had a rough time of it. For the first twenty years of Kansas settlement, homesteaders had to battle hot winds, drought, Indian raids, and hailstorms to save their crops. But the year 1874 promised to be different. “In the spring of 1874,” wrote Mrs. Everett Rorabaugh, “the farmers began their farming with [...]
Archive for the ‘Frontier Tales’ Category
The Bug that Ate Topeka
Posted in Events, Frontier Tales, tagged 1874, Governor Thomas A. Osborn, grasshopper infestation, Kansas frontier, Kansas grasshopper, Kansas history, Laura Ingalls Wilder, On the Banks of Plum Creek, Rocky Mountain locust on March 30, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Buffalo Chip Gals
Posted in Events, Frontier Tales, tagged buffalo dung, california gold rush, covered wagon, meadow muffins, Oregon trail, pioneer children, pioneer women, westward movement on March 30, 2009 | 2 Comments »
In the 1840s, many thousands of families left their homes and headed west searching for California gold or a plot of cheap but good Oregon farmland. It was usually the man of the family who got “Western fever” and made the decision to uproot the rest of the family. They loaded up their possessions, stocked [...]
The Scalping of Robert McGee 1864
Posted in Events, Frontier Tales, tagged cowboys and Indians, frontier, indian attack, Kansas, Robert McGee, scalping, wagon train on February 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In my last post, I wrote about the scalping of Texas settler, Josiah Wilbarger, who lived to tell the tale. I’ve come across another scalping survivor account, that of teamster Robert McGee, who agreed with Josiah Wilbarger who said the scalping sounded like “distant thunder. The following is excerpted from the blog, The Road to [...]
