Beery Family Came
  Fifty-one years ago, my father, B. F. Beery left Page county, Iowa with an emigrant car for Cambridge, Neb., arriving there the day after Easter. There was a terrible blizzard raging, which delayed the freight train several hours. My father had six head of horses in this shipment, of this number he traded one team and a small amount of cash for the homestead, which had previously been a tree claim located 14 miles south of where Farnam is now located. Another team of horses he traded to Ely Morehouse in exchange for getting a well dug. This well was dug 162 feet deep with the use of a short handled spade, a rope and a bucket. This left us a span of broncs. Most of the old broncs had long tails and long manes, reaching almost to their knees. I remember the old bronc collars so well, and we had those collars until I was grown. I think they were 15 or 16 inch collars.
On July 8th, 1885, my mother, baby sister, Blanche and myself, a small boy arrived at the homestead. About 8 o'clock that evening there appeared in the northwest, a heavy black cloud. We decided to sleep in the tent as it was cooler than the 8 x 12 dugout which was then our home. The bedding was placed on the ground in the tent and I soon dropped to sleep. Later I was awakened by the thunder and the flapping and jerking of the tent, as the wind was blowing terribly hard. A little later I was surprised to find myself in a puddle of water, and glancing about I saw mother and her 12 day old baby near me on some comforters that were soaked with water. As the lightning flashed I saw father outside with the axe, and he was trying to fix the stakes so they would hold the tent, but up came the stakes out of the ground so we hurriedly made our way to the dugout nearby. The dugout did not have any doors, no floors and only a brush and pole roof. The dugout was crowded as several sacks of grain were piled to the roof on one side. In some way father got among those sacks and mother, baby and I spent the night on a 2 by 3 foot tool-box near the opening of the dugout.
When we first settled on the homestead we had to go to Cambridge for provisions, which was an 18 mile trip. We had to ford the creek or cross on a bridge made of logs, poles and brush. We would only pass one frame house, three "soddies" of part frame and several dugouts on the trip there.
Sometime later mother, baby and I returned to Shambaugh, Iowa to get the other members of the family, Edna, Clara and Anna. Another emigrant car was loaded of household goods and four milk cows. These cows were queer looking things. They were lined back with long horns and all were of different size and color.
The family moved into a sod house 14 x 14 feet when mother returned from Iowa with her family. Most of the sod houses
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had a ridge log through the center, with poles, brush and sod for a roof. Timber and brush was scarce.
Later on my father needed some brush for a sod stable. He hooked the old broncs and started southwest, arriving at the Hans Rogers place. While my father was making arrangements to get brush a boy said to me, "Do you know what those poles out there are?" I looked to behold some strange looking things. They were tepees, which I soon found out. They were made by putting three poles together and tied at the top with something that looked strange, old dried out hide. There were some shaggy looking pieces of hides hanging over some of the poles. There were several dozen of these tepees. The boy I was with was Orlando Rogers, a white headed boy. He now lives two miles southwest of Orafino which was his father's homestead, where we had been at that time.
There wasn't but very little land broke the first year. Small patches of 2 ½ , 5 and few 10 acre patches. It was a requirement to break a certain amount of land which was in proportion to the size of a tree claim.
Buffalo heads were very common. Most every sod house would have some around it somewhere.
I can remember well in 1886 when the lines were established for the Earl school district. When they started to have school in that district my older sisters and myself started. It was near where the Lone Star school now stands. The school house was small with a dirt floor, brush and pole roof, plastered with mud. The seats were made of split log. It wasn't any surprise to the kiddies to see a big snake crawl across the floor or have one fall from the roof.
When they opened the road east from our home, my father, Dell Faulkes and several other pioneers were discussing where the center of the road would be, after deciding my father said he wanted to roll the first spade of dirt down the hill which was just east of the "old Dell Faulkes hill," which he was permitted to do. It is now on the state highway.
The canyons were a lot different than they are now. We could cross the bottom of most any canyon with a team and wagon. Hardly ever a ditch in the bottom, sometimes a big water hole with a plum or choke cherry bush around it. There were a lot of water holes on top of the high divides, called Buffalo wallows. These holes would cover two or three acres and sometimes more, and as much as three feet deep in places. This made a wonderful place for the stock to get water.
Mrs. Beery owns a farm 7 ½ miles south and one mile east of Farnam. She is now visiting relatives in Idaho. Mr. and Mrs. Edward Berry own a farm 1 mile and 7 miles south of Farnam. (Edna) Mrs. E. L. Brown lives at Nampa, Idaho; (Clara) Mrs. Burl Richard lives at New Sharon, Iowa; (Anna) Mrs. Jess Huddle lives at Wapello, Iowa and (Blanche) Mrs. Elmer Pielcher now lives at Nampa, Idaho. Grandma Beery has 24 grandchildren, several great grandchildren. Mr. Beery passed away four years ago.
1886
1936
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