Some Pioneers and Pilgrims on the Prairies of Dakota / Or, From the Ox Team to the Aeroplane

by John B. Reese; H. B. Reese

GREETING

There has been an often expressed desire on the part of the sons and daughters of the immigrant pioneers that those brave men and women of a generation ago who left home, friends, and the graves of a hundred generations of ancestors, to go to a land which they knew not, there to toil and sacrifice that we, their children might have a better chance, should not be forgotten. For their lives went into the deep and often overlooked foundations, material and spiritual, without which our larger opportunities and comforts of today would be impossible. Like the pioneer Abraham they had a large faith and went out in search of a Promised Land, not knowing what would be in store for them, for they saw it afar off. Like Moses, most of them died without themselves enjoying the fruits of the land or seeing the promise fulfilled.

How little the young people of this generation can appreciate the hard toil, and even less, the heartaches and the tragedies which were the price paid by our fathers and mothers, for our better future! It has been the fashion of some small and provincially minded "Americans" who constituted themselves, as it were, into the original and only Americans, to sneer at the immigrant, to affect certain superior "airs" in relation to him. This self-appointed superiority, however, did not seem to bar them from taking undue advantage of him because of his lack of knowledge of the new country and its ways and methods. How little this class of self-appointed Americans were capable of understanding, not to speak of appreciating, the physical and mental contribution, not to speak of the moral and spiritual—the soul—which these immigrants brought to the land of their adoption. They established schools for their children, meeting in private houses before there were any public schools. They built churches for the worship of God while they themselves still lived in shacks and dugouts.

So it is in response to this widespread desire, among those of the second and third generation from the pioneers, that this rich heritage of deeds and ideals, handed down to us by our brave and forward looking fathers and mothers, should not be forgotten but handed down in memory as an increasing inspiration and just pride in the lives of their children and children's children, that we are moved to write this record. For already I hear the tramp of countless numbers and many generations of the children of these pioneers. For them I compile these incidents of the settlers' first experiences with the new land and write this narrative. For if there is any reward which our fathers and mothers would ask of us, in return for giving up almost everything on our behalf, it would be just this: Remembrance and a little appreciation—understanding.

As to the origin, scope and plan of this narrative, this explanation should be made:

The real mover in getting this narrative started is my brother, H.B. Reese. He has also collected a part of the materials used and written out some of it. In editing and incorporating this material and other contributions into the book, I have made a free translation of it and also made changes and additions here and there as seemed desirable.

As to the scope and plan, especially as to the particular persons included or left out, the question will no doubt arise in the minds of some readers: "Why are just these individuals named and not others who were equally worthy and whose experiences were no less interesting?" The answer is simply this: This particular group and their experiences are best known to us, while that of others is not so well known. Then, too, the necessary limitations of space because of the costs involved, compel us to leave out much of which we have, or could get sufficient knowledge to use. Lastly, we present this work on the theory that the people, incidents and circumstances here included, represent the ordinary immigrant's experiences and thus serve to give a fairly correct view of pioneer days as a whole. So if some reader should have a feeling that such and such names or incidents should have been included, remember this omission is not because other names may not have been equally worthy, but rather that because of limitations of space and knowledge we had to choose a few as types and representatives of all the rest. The individual names of these pioneers will all too soon be forgotten in any case. But these pioneers as a class and their deeds, I trust, shall never be forgotten. So kindly remember that tho your father and mother, dear reader, may have been among the first settlers of the region here described and otherwise also closely connected with the group here mentioned, and still their names are not included, yet their lives are included. For the life we attempt to reproduce in picture here with its hardships and adventures, was the life and sacrifice of them all. You may in many cases substitute almost any pioneer name, and the picture of the period would be essentially correct. So, then, this is written in honor and memory of them all, the un-named as well as the named.

Thus, then, to all the sons and daughters of the Viking pioneers of the prairie who between the years of 1859-1889 took up the hard struggle with untamed nature on the far-stretching prairies of Dakota and Minnesota, I humbly dedicate this memorial. To all the brave men and women who bore the heat and the brunt of those days of toil and hardship, we, their children, together offer this little tribute of our love and remembrance.

John B. Reese,

April 21, 1918. Mitchell S.D.