Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 June 1917 — RETURN FROM DAKOTA VISIT [ARTICLE]

RETURN FROM DAKOTA VISIT

Excessive Rains Have Retarded Corps in the Northwest. Joseph and Adam Nagel and sister, Mrs. John Walter, and Werner Miller returned Wednesday night from their visit with Michael Nagel and family near Mitchell, South Dakota. Mike has been quite

poorly with rheumatisin since October, and in February it was not thought he would recover, but he is better now and was out witii them the most of the time while they were there and their visit evidently did him a 1 great deal of good. He is reduced in flesh considerably—be weighed 265 pounds ’before being taken sick —and is afflicted with a cancer inside his mouth and on his lower jaw, which gives him some trouble, but he is apparently better now than he has been for several months. They met many of the former residents of Rensselaer and vicinity who are now located at or near Mitchell and Jit Vernon, amen) whom were Mason and Frank Kenton, Sam Parker' A- J. Harmon, Jesse Coovert, Fritz Zard, Sherman Lewis, William Moore, Jesse Ball, E. H. Peterson, Harvey Gasper and Mark Sayier. In fact, Mark started out the same time they did, but stopped over in Chicago and did not reach there until later. He is now driving a dray in Mitchell. Harvey Gasper is working on a farm and ho took Joe to see the fine four-horse team he was driving in hauling corn out to feed —the farmers are buying $1.50 corn to feed cattle and hogs for market. They have had it very wet generally but in that section and especially in about Mt. Vernon. There is considerable plowing yet to be done and much planting, some farmers having as high as 200 acres yet to plant. Where Mike is located and farming a section of land—and, by the way, he is right, on the Lincoln highway and Joe says there is about as much automobile travel past Mike’s place as there is on the Rensselaer-Remington rostd — it has not been quite so wet or his land is better drained, and his crops are looking about the best of any they saw, his oats and barley being good and his corn looking better when they left there than ours does here at present. The wheat —it is all spring wheat there —looks good, but all along the route both going and coming, and they went one route and came back another, it was very wet and fields were covered with water much of the way. The prospects for crops all the way along looked quite poor because of the excessive rains.