Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1909 — Another Good Letter from John Stewart [ARTICLE]

Another Good Letter from John Stewart

Burke, S. Dak., Feb. 12, ’O9. To the editor of the Republican and my friends in Jasper county: Well, I thought I would write and let you know what I thought of our winter weather in Dakota. We have had what I call a very fine winter, with the exception of one or two blizzards that would last about 24 hours. The theremomiter has been down to 23 and 24 degrees below zero, but the air is dry and light and we do not mind it. Myself and family went to town one morning when it was 22 below, but we didn’t know it until we got to town, the sun shone brightly and there was no wind. I know the people in the east think we have terrible blizzards out here, but you cannot believe all you read in your Chicago papers about Dakota weather. I am just as well satisfied now as I was when I first came. Mr. Gwln, Mr. Hayes, myself and four other neighbor men started on a trip to the west Feb. 2d to look up some land. We went to Rapid City; here they had fine buildings and wholesale houses, also a fine Indian school. Here also I saw 12 acres of the finest apple trees I have ever looked at From Rapid City we went to Sturgis, near the Black Hills. All “ through here we saw some very beautiful scenery. At Sturgis we hired a team and rig for $9.00 a day and drove up through the irrigated destrict, and into the southeast part of Butte county; pulling up at a cattle ranch owned by a Mr. Schaffeild. He had fine buildings and ,a dynamo to make his own electric light. He had a phone from Sturgis to his ranch, a distance of 35 miles. Had been there 20 years and said the settlers were coming in pretty fast and he was going out. Upon asking how many head of cattle he had, he answered only 3,100 head now, I thought that was a good many. But I understand he has been handling from three to six thousand head. We then drove around all afternoon without seeing a house. It grew dark and we unhooked our team and fed them on the prairie, and ourselves went up on a high butte and built a fire. Mr. Hayes and two of the others followed the road on foot and finally came to a sheep ranch. They came back and told us and we got into shelter about mid-night The weather was excellent Starting the next morning again we drove around to a place called Jewett’s Ranch. Here we saw the land we were looking for. Having a locater with us, we got the corers and began to layout our claims. We all took 160 acres of land each. It is buffalo grass and sale grass. The country is rather level. We are 55 miles from Sturgis, our nearest railroad town, but we have quite a nice town called Vale about 30 or 36 miles from us.. We all filed and are going back to stay in 6 months. We have a rural delivery within at least half a mile. We intend to put in crops here this spring, and drive through in the fall with our teams. It will be close to a 300 mile drive, but our land is all paid for. Yours Truly, JNO. STEWART.