School

RECOY, KINKENNON, HALL, LEWIS, MARTIN, HANSLER, WILSON, BRUCE, SLOAN, RHUNGSTEAD

Posted By: Michael L. KinKennon (email)
Date: 1/22/2008 at 11:43:27

This is accounting written for a school in Lyman Co, South Dakota in 1957, for Lyman Co. pioneer project. Given to me by Helen (Recoy) Martin, Daughter of Nora (KinKennon) Recoy.

My husband and I and our 7 children moved to Lyman Co. from Plankington in the spring 1923. We shipped our household goods, machinery and hogs. My husband and our 2 oldest boys Jim and Ray drove the horses and cows out and I drove the old Ford car and took the rest of the children.There was no bridges across the river so we had to cross on the ferry boat. My brother rode in the car where our stuff was till he got to Chamberlain. Then he met us there and drove the Ford the rest of the way to Vivian. They had taken the truck out and left it in Vivian before we started to move, so when we got to Vivian my brother took the hogs out of the car and loaded them in the truck. We started out to the place and got lost and came back and put the hogs in the stock yards. Then we grove back out and found the place. We took what bedding we could in the car and made beds on the floor for the night which wasn't very soft. We ate cold supper and breakfast. We went in town after breakfast to get the hogs. We got about half way home and got stuck, had to take the hogs out of the truck and grive them to a house and pen them till we got the truck out, then load them again and take them out to the farm.

We didn't have grain enough to last them very long, so had to buy corn of some the neighbors. Then our hogs, cows, horses, chickens, and everything in the line of stock got alkalied. The horses' manes and tails came out. Some of the horses and cows both lost their hooves. We lost nearly all our hogs, some cows and horses. Our chickens got it,too, and if any of the eggs hatched the chickens looked like they had been greased and yipped till they died.

We bought a quarter of land out there close to where we moved to is the reason we came out there, and we lost that too.

The children went to school there, had about 1 1/2 miles to go. Their teacher was Sam Martin.

Our house was a nice one, ether 5 or 6 rooms. We had a cisern for water for the house and a big dam for water for the stock. We had pretty good crops though it was awful late when we got it in.

Then the next spring we moved about 5 miles west of Vivian. We rented there from Edd Hall who still lives Vivian. It sure wasn't much of a house, 2 rooms down and up, that was never finished up. We had pretty good crops part of the time. Then the grasshoppers and drought and dirt blew and covered machinery,wagons,and about everything. The one year we only had a few acres of cane for the stock. They had it in shocks and the wind blew it full of dirt. The stalks were okay till we had a storm in the early spring and couldn't get the cows to water for a couple of days. That dirt packed in their stomachs and when they got water it killed them. We lost 12 head in one day.

There wasn't much work to be got and the boys drove the school bus most all the time we lived there. The children went to school in Vivian from the spring of '24 till the Spring of '37.

We burned wood most of the time which was hard to get. The boys went up by Ft. Pierre along the river and hauled wood. We did burn some coal.

We had a little boy born June 8th 1925, and died June 16th the same year. The doctor couldn't get there when the baby was born. We had a Neighbor lady there, Mrs. Leon Lewis. The water was up till the doctor couldn't get there for 3 or 4 days.

We had a baby girl Anna Artella born 20th of June, 1928, and another Helen Marie born February 11, 1930. We had 2 girls and one boy married while we lived there. Ray married Bernice Hansler.

Hanslers and us used to have Christmas dinner one year at our place and the next at theirs.

The children and I attended church in Vivian. As fare as I know it's still there. The store where we traded most was Jack Wilson's.

We had lots of rattle snakes. Our son Jim lilled one just ready to go in basement and another one just a few feet from me when I was milking a cow. They killed several on the place. Jim and I threw one on the hay rack when we picking up bundles of grain.

We had lots of blizzards during the time we lived there.

We went to Mitchell for Christmas one winter and Mae and Margarete got measles and I had to stay and keep them at my brother's place. The rest of the children and their father started on home and they had our old Ford truck and the school bus top on it. When they started down the Chamberlain hill the transmission slipped out and they didn't have lights then. They went back of the black posts and down over a spillway, knocked the motor out of the truck. There was 4 of the children in there and the truck was left lying on its side. Mr. had his foot caught and the gas all run out on him. Gladys was about 9 years old and she ran down in Chamberlain and got help. It was about 2 hours before they could get the children's dad out from under the truck.The best part no one was hurt. Well, it took them a couple days before they could get the truck in shape to go on home. The girls were awful sick so I was there with them 2 weeks. Then the rest of them got the measles at home except
Jim and his dad. They came down to Mitchell to get me. When we got back to Chamberlain something went wrong with the car so we had to stay all night. The next morning I started walking as the children were there alone. They had run out of fuel and were cutting up old tires they had bought up out of the basement. But first I had walked about 11 miles of that and got Mr. Hall to take me on out when I got in Vivian. The children were sure glad to see me when I got there. Then Jim and his dad got part way the next day and the car stopped on them again. Jim was coming down with measles. They walked into Kennebec and caught a freight train and rode into Vivian and got someone to bring them on home. Jim went to bed and stayed for 2 weeks.When Mae and Margarete got okay they came home on the train.

Neighbors were far apart when we lived northwest of Vivian. Our closest neighbors was Swaggarts. I can't Remeber the first name. Then another was Mr. and Mrs, Albert Bruce. When we lived west of Vivian our neighbors were Leonard Sloans, Leon Lewises, and Rhungsteads. That was some of the closest ones. I can't remember names very good.

In the year of '36 there was no work only W.P.A. work and we didn't and hadn't had any crop to speak of for 5 or 6 years. Mr. Recoy worked on W.P.A. so we could get food to eat. The November '36 he was working on the W.P.A, project about 25 miles northwest of home when he got sick. Ray was also working there. Ray came home to get the car to bring his father home as he wasn't able to ride in the truck. I went back with him and we took him to Pierre hospital. He lived only a week. Then the children and I were alone. I still had 5 at home. It was pretty hard to decide what to do. But by spring we had decided to come to Iowa. Three of my girls were in Iowa and my parents.