Petersons Homesteaded
 By Wm. Peterson  In the year of 1886 the Burlington Railroad came through Farnam. My brother, Alfred Peterson arrived here the same year and started to work helping put it through. He made his home at the Murphy place, 4 miles west of Farnam and later to a homestead on section 20-10-26 in Lincoln County.
He returned to Fort Dodge, Iowa, the family home, in the fall of 1886 and got his mother, Mrs. Josie Peterson, who filed for land joining his.
Alfred then took a job on the section, and his mother worked in the section house.
In the spring of 1887 I and another brother, Leonard Peterson arrived in
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Gothenburg as stowaways in an emigrant car brought out from Omaha by our uncle, Lars Blixt. We arrived on Easter morning, and the following Sunday, Alfred Peterson, victor Anderson and myself left Farnam for the homesteads, 12 miles northwest with the intention of starting a sod house. We camped out on the prairie that night. During the night a blizzard came up and we had to stay under a wagon, the only shelter available until the next afternoon.
I started to improve the land, while my brother, Lenord took a job with McDermotts at $1.00 per week.
In 1888 we started our first well. After working 9 weeks we reached water at a depth of 379 feet. We started to curb the well with lumber and it caved in, and we lost it all. Later we dug another in a different place and had better luck.
However, all in all, life on the prairie was a round of pleasure.
1886
1936
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Web Publisher: Weldon Hoppe