Was looking on your web site the other day and came across the article on Hilda and Lydia Rasch.  Found it very interesting.  Thanks.

 

Donna Wittmeier

Memories of Lydia Rasch written May 26, 1977 & July 19, 1980 with interspersed [text] written by Peggy Rasch
 
I was born in Minden, Iowa on Sept 12, 1897. It was a Sunday and that's what my dear sister Hilda told me. My Dad had gone fishing and I was born at home. (Details about life in Minden.)
 
In 1905 (1904) my Dad decided to go to Herrick where they were having a drawing to take a claim, he drew a number and got 160 acres, [In 1904 land in Gregory County, South Dakota became available for purchase under the Homestead Act. This land had been part of the Rosebud Reservation of the Sioux Indians. On July 13, William Rasch went to the land office at Yankton, South Dakota and made application for 160 acres. A lottery was to be held to determine which applicants would get land and which parcel they would receive. William Rasch was then 40 years old. In order to acquire this land the homesteader was required to occupy it for a period of time and improve it. In the lottery William was awarded the northeast quarter of section 13 in Union Township for which he paid $3 per acre. Settlement of the site was to begin at 9 am Monday morning, August 8. Many homesteaders camped on adjoining land the night before, waiting to pull up their stakes and move in to claim their land the next morning.]
 
[According to the official homestead papers, filed by William, a frame house, 10 x 12 feet, was built on their land. This was destroyed by a windstorm and William and Emma lived in a sod house for a time. The documents also state that the family occupied the property on February 5, 1905.] He and Mama lived in a sod house on one end of the farm. It was one mile from Herrick, So. Dak. They stayed there until August and then came back to Iowa for the rest of us. Bud (the youngest child) was with them and Hilda was working for Olga's aunt a mile north of town.
 
I was staying with Uncle Henry and Aunt Abel (Pieper), because my cousin Olga and I were always together. I remember on Sunday morning we would come downstairs for breakfast, we always ate without our dresses on, in our slips. Olga always had nicer clothes than I did. She had real hair ribbons and accordian pleated skirts, and I used to ask her to spin around so I could see her pleats twirl. My hair ribbons were from the ribbons that were tied around the handkerchief packages in the store.
 
In 1905 (1906) we left for Herrick, So. Dak. We first went to Neola, Iowa and stayed with Uncle Reimer and Aunt Minnie. They had a girl named Goldie, who was my age. We stayed there several days and then left for Omaha, Nebraska, just 20 miles away, to stay all night in a hotel so we could be in Omaha to catch our train for Bonesteel, So. Dak.  In Neola, Iowa I had to leave my doll buggy and doll. They wouldn't let me take it on the train. I was seven years old at the time.
 
Well we got to Bonesteel, So. Dak. That was as far as the railroads were built. From there we rode in a spring wagon which Dad had. Art, Herman, Hilda, Bud and I were there. We had to drive 25 miles to Herrick to get to our home. Our farm was just one mile north of Herrick and Dad had a sod house ready for us. Later on he added a frame part to the sod. [A frame house, 14 x 16 feet, was soon added to the soddy, according to official records, and it had one door and two windows. There was also a sod barn and sod chicken house, which was entered by going down several steps into the ground.] Mama and Papa's bed and Bud's and my beds were foot to in the wooden part of the house. That also was our living room and dining room. Guess we only had chairs and table, our platform rockers, and a dresser that somehow got there from Minden, Iowa. In it was a wood burning stove.
 
Hilda, Herman, Henry and Art slept upstairs; however there was no stairway, so they had to pull themselves up through a square opening in the ceiling above our beds, no windows up there, just mattresses on the floor, great life wasn't it? But we all seemed to survive and enjoy each other. We had to walk a mile to school and in the winter it was cold. We would cut through a pasture the last half mile and we always hung a horse shoe on the fence so we wouldn't be late. [The Rasch children attended school in Herrick in a two story building with the school on the second floor. Lydia and Bud would walk or ride their white horse, Babe, to school. Bud had learned to ride standing on the horse's back, even though she had a bad limp. Sometimes on the way to school they would hang a horse shoe on the fence.]

In the summer our Dad made arrangements to pasture cows from town, so Bud and I had to go to town each morning, along with our shepherd dog named Rover, to herd the cattle our to our pasture. [They took the cows to the slough and watered them.] At night we would have to take the cattle back to town so the people could milk them. We did this every summer. Some nights we would stay in town with one of our friends, but Rover, our black and white dog, always went back home. Sure enough, the next morning he always would be at the edge of town waiting for us. I believe Dad got $2 a month per cow for us doing this. [Arthur, the oldest, worked on a ranch owned by Dr. Lewis where he trained horses.]
 
Dad and Mother planted cherry trees back of the house and also Dad dug a cave which Mother used as a refrigerator for our food. We were all taken into the cave many a time when a tornado or wind storm came up. We had no warnings, only Mother's watching the black clouds, she always knew what was best for us.
 
[On May 1, 1906, after residing continuously on the property, as was required by law, William received his title to the land from the United States government.]
 
[A circuit pastor ministered to the Lutheran families in the area and often held services at the John Seevers home. Sunday School was held in the City Hall in Herrick.] We would go in to Sunday School every Sunday and I remember about all the Sunday School parties, and in the summer the Sunday School picnics, which were held about a mile south of Herrick near the Ponco River. We each took something to eat, so I always volunteered to bring a gallon of potato salad. Oh, my mother could really make that good. It was made with a mustard dressing and she always sliced hard boiled eggs on top. One spring I had a throat at picnic time, but I gargled with vinegar, salt and pepper, and I got to go to the picnic. We all rode to the picnic in a hay wagon.
 
[When Lydia was about nine years old, she and Bud got a big wagon from Montgomery Ward's catalog. They hitched their goat to it to pull them when they took vegetables from their mother's garden to sell in town. Emma Rasch had a beautiful garden and one of the chores for Lydia and Bud was to help water it. They had two runners attached to a large barrel, which they would take down to the slough, where the ponds were, and haul the water back up the hill, past the house, to the garden. Lydia remembers sliding down straw stacks at the neighbor's across the road, having ice cream and watermelon, mostly watermelon, and the hard work that her mother had to do.]

[When Lydia was about 10 years old, she had a very bad case of tonsilitis. Hilda and the boys drove all the way to Bonesteel to get medicine, (14 miles 1 way) but meanwhile, a neighbor came over and heated salt bags on the stove. These were applied to her throat and by the time the others returned she was recovering. It was felt however that she should have one of her tonsils removed. She and Bud were sent into town to see the doctor. They took their sled which was a mortar box with runners on it and was pulled by their white horse. Lydia remembers climbing up the stairs to the office above the store and standing next to the stove while the doctor snipped out her tonsil. He wouldn't let her see the clippers though. Then she and Bud went downstairs to the store and bought apples to eat on the way home.]

[All the children in school, including the Raschs wore 'acidity' bags around their necks to ward off colds and diseases. These contained a lump of some hard substance which they called acifidity, and which smelled terrible. Just what this strange substance was is not known, but Lydia recalls that although they smelled awful it didn't really matter because everyone else in the school smelled the same way.]

[Life was hard in South Dakota, but there were fun times too; sliding down straw stacks and chasing tumbleweeds, rolling rocks down the hills to kill rattle snakes, eating ice cream and watermelon at birthday parties, playing Indian. While playing this game someone shot one of Henry's teeth out with an arrow! Henry and Bud used to swim naked in the ponds and Lydia insists she never looked.]

On the other side of the Ponco River is where the Indians lived in Teepees, among the tall salt grass. In the spring these Indians would come to Herrick and put on their beautiful costumes and perform the Indian war dance. Herrick had lots of celebrations, so one Fourth of July when they had a foot race Bud and I entered. All the rest of the kids were practicing running, and I said to Bud, "Let's us just rest." Believe it or not, I won the race. I was paid $1 for winning. Saving my energy paid off. [When the medicine shows came to Herrick, Bud and Lydia would peddle hand bills, so they would get to go to the show free. Sometimes, if they couldn't get rid of all the bills they had, they would 'ditch' them so it would look like they were all gone. That way they were sure to be able to go.]
 
I remember one fall mother made me a copen blue jumper for Sunday School. Well I wore it to Sunday School and then we stayed in town to play with friends. Well, I went through a barbed wire fence and my skirt caught and I tore it very badly. That evening when I got home I didn't tell Mother about it. I took it off and hung it on the chair along side of our bed. Next morning while I was in school Mama saw it and when I got home from school I was greeted by both Mama and Dad, not because I tore my dress but because I didn't tell them about it.

[Hilda Rasch was confirmed at Herrick on 20 March 1910 in the Evangelical Lutheran Mission. She graduated from the 10th grade, the highest grade in the school at the time. She gave the main talk at the graduation and there were 5 graduates. In Herrick she worked as a hired girl and after graduation clerked in a grocery store. In 1910 she moved to Seward, NE where she worked in a restaurant waiting on tables.]
[After a number of years times became hard and there was little to eat. William worked as a carpenter and also for a well digger in Fairfax. Here he broke both legs in an accident.]

We soon lost half of it (the claim) but Mother made it go on the last 80 acres so we there until 1909 (1911) and then my dear brother Arthur made arrangements to move us all to Seward Nebr. [They left Herrick by train and Lydia remembers eating pigeon sandwiches for their meal.]

[While in Seward, Hilda received several letters and cards from Herman Seevers. Hilda had met Herman about 1909 as neighbors in Herrick. One letter contained his proposal for marriage. Only a few letters and one visit later their wedding plans were made. On the 25th of July, 1912 at 8 o'clock in the evening they were married at St. John's Lutheran Church. It was a lovely evening, Hilda had made her own wedding dress of blue satin material complete with a veil. Their attendants were Matilda Wyman, Mary Seevers, Amanda Jones, Arthur Rasch, Herman Rasch and Albert Sell. The choir sang and there was a reception held at the Rasch home. On the way home to Herrick, as they were crossing a stream, Hilda reached down to pull in her dress and her wedding ring, having been unsized, slipped from her finger never to be seen or replaced again. Herman and Hilda Seevers made their 1st home in Herrick where they rented land. There, their first son, Elmer, was born. Early in 1914 they moved to the 'Seevers Farm' at Naper NE.]