Missionary in India
  J. V. Dawson is living on the homestead he filed on, 4 ½ miles north of Farnam in Dawson county in 1884, possibly the only homesteader still living on his original homestead, at least to the knowledge of several early settlers how living in town.
Mr. Dawson and his father, T. M. Dawson and Norman Moore came here from Oil county, near Bradford, Pa., and settled on homesteads in 1885.
Mr. Dawson, as many of the early homesteaders, built himself bachelor quarters, and one day while away at work some children came there to play, finding some matches, soon had the house on fire, it having brush and pole roof, burned everything in the house. He had many valuable books which he prized very much, but all burned. Soon after he built another sod house.
In 1886 he and Harry Hall took a contract for hauling heavy tile from Elwood to Crany Bros., the contract for the heaviest work of five miles commencing just west of Ingham. The tile was 12 to 20 inches in diameter and 12 feet long. Mr. Dawson also had the contract for hauling all the piling used in making railroad bridges from Elwood to Moorefield. He was paid 30 cents per ton for each mile it was hauled.
He and his brother, Charley and Chet Johnson dug the well on the E. Y. B. Smith farm, better known as the Murphy ranch. They then dug a well on Dry Creek. While digging the well at the Smith farm, they saw 23 antelope come down east of the Murphy house. A large deer was seen to run between the house and barn at the
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T. M. Dawson place a little later, which is now the Dan McNickle home.
Mr. Dawson hauled green wood from the Stone ranch on the Medicine creek, a distance of about 25 miles, and about all the warmth from it was while he chopped it. Fuel was scarce here, and we had to depend on prairie chips, brush and cedar stumps, hauled from the canyons. Sometimes it took an entire day to get a load of light brush.
The worst hardship we found was trying to get water. We hauled water in barrels, sometimes it was scarce and had to be taken from mud holes, and the water boiled and strained before drinking it.
We had plenty of fleas in those days to cause us to lose our night's rest. They were in all homes and nothing seemed to thin them out. They nearly devoured us.
We had many prairie fires to fight. They came up quick and swept over everything.
As the sod was broken up on farms and some grain planted the wild geese came so thick they had to be driven away, from taking the grain. Many were shot for meat. There were plenty of geese, prairie chickens, grouse and rabbits.
Mr. Dawson remarked that it took most of the time hauling wood, water and planning homes.
In July 1890 Mr. Dawson was married to Miss Ida Bradshaw. In later years they built a frame house, which is still the family home. Three children have passed away, and there are four living: a daughter, Gayle is now a missionary in India; Glenn with his family lives at Santa Ana, Calif.; Mrs. L. L. Harris with her family lives in Omaha and Merle at North Platte. Mr. and Mrs. Dawson lived in Gothenburg a few years, then returned to the home farm sometime ago and are making their home there at the present time.
1886
1936
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