Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1901 — A FRONTIER EXPERIENCE. [ARTICLE]

A FRONTIER EXPERIENCE.

Family Had to Pick Their Wheat Over Kernel by Kernel. * In narrating the frontier experiences of “The First White Baby .Born In the Northwest,” In The Ladies’ Home Journal, W. S. Harwood tells of a queer experience that befell the family In the first year after settling on a farm far removed from the settlements.“ The winter had been unusually long and severe, and their store of provisions ran low. It was a long dis tance to the nearest base of supplies, and communication with the outside world had been cut off. Indians in the neighborhood one night broke into the granary where the wheat wat stored and stole a quantity. In doing this a large amount of broken glass became mixed with the wheat which the Indians left, so for many days amidst much merry story-telling and many a joke and laugh, in spite of tht serious situation, the family gathered about a large table in their livingroom and spent the short winter days picking over the wheat, kernel by kernel, in order to free it from the piece, of glass. For this wheat stood between them and starvation, and none of its precious kernels must be lost. Their stock of flour had long since wasted away, as had most of their food supplies, so they boiled and ate the wheat without grinding. Relief reached them just in time to prevent a sail ending to the experience,"