The Wilder Homestead in Malone/ Burke had 1500 children come through on school tours in May, June, September, and October. All the school tour income is currently being saved towards building the replica of the one-room school. They are currently just under $20,000 in their fund towards their $50,000 goal, so you can still contribute and get your name on the plaque if you contribute at least $100.

Their biggest change this year was getting a fire retardant new cedar shingle roof on the farmhouse and a hands on exhibit where you could help milk feed a pumpkin, just like Almanzo. If you are on the east coast, they still have one big event, Christmas at the farm will be Dec. 5th this year.

“Aunt Becky” Young was well-known during the Civil War and her efforts to take care of soldiers led many of them to have such fond memories that when she died in in 1908 newspapers around the country, including the New York Times, carried the headline “”Aunt Becky” Dies” secure that their readers would know who they meant.

“Aunt Becky” was not her real name. She was born Sarah A. Graham in Ithaca, New York in 1830 and had been married to Abel O. Palmer before the war started, so she was known as Sarah Palmer during the Civil War. She served as a nurse during the war, but she resented being called Mother by the wounded men. One of the soldiers said she looked like his Aunt Becky and she figured that was better than mother and it stuck.

Her first husband, Abel O. Palmer, died early on in the Civil War and shortly thereafter “Aunt Becky” joined the service as an army nurse in 1862. She served in hospitals in Baltimore and Bladensburg and was put in charge of the hospital at Beltville. Later falling the battles, she established and ran an army hospital at Falls Church. She provided nursing service at Fredericksburg, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Chancellorville and Petersburg. She received personal commendations for her work from both General Ulysses S. Grant and President Abraham Lincoln.

Aunt Becky reported this story to the Philadelphia Press and it was reprinted in the Jan. 13, 1900 Richmond Planet, now available on the Library of Congress website.

Aunt Becky reported that she had a group of wounded soldiers that she knew would die if she didn’t get them to Washington, D.C., but she couldn’t get exchanges for them that would allow them to travel. “So I went to up to the Quartermaster’s office to make a call and there were a lot of tickets of exchange lying on the desk. I shoved some off with my elbow, and when I got back I found that I had captured 14 of them. Without saying a word to anybody I pinned them on the worst cases and when the sick from other divisions were being carried down to the boats, I had one nurse carry these men down to meet them, and they were safely packed off.”

“Well, the next morning the doctor came around. ‘Where is Brother Jonathan?’ said he, asking for one of the patients.’ ‘Gone to Washington,’ the nurse told him.”

“‘By whose orders?’ he asked.”

“‘Aunt Becky’s,’ they said.”

“Then he came right down to me, and he was furious.”

“‘I’ll discharge you at once,’ he threatened. ‘I’d like to know on whose responsibility you sent those men off.’”

“‘On my own,’ I said, very quietly. ‘They’d have died if they stayed here.’”

“So he went straight to General Grant to complain of me, and he told how I had stolen the tickets for them and all.”

“General Grant laughed and said: ‘I’ve got nothing to say. Aunt Becky out ranks me!’”

“I didn’t get discharged, you may guess, laughed Aunt Becky, as she told this tale. “And listen,” she called, “those men who went to Washington all got well.”

After the War, “Aunt Becky” remarried in 1867 to Mr. D.C. Young and they moved to Des Moines, Iowa. In 1898 when the Spanish-American War broke out, “Aunt Becky” took the head of the Iowa Sanitary Commission for this new war. She served as its President, and chair of the purchasing and forwarding committees. Ten years later Aunt Becky passed away and was survived by her second husband for two more years.

She was laid to rest in Woodland Cemetery in Des Moines. The GAR had erected a flag pole by her grave, but it had rusted and been forgotten. Just this year, the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War led an effort to get a proper military stone for her grave and to replace the long rusty flagpole. They were dedicated on Veterans Day this year.

Read more about Aunt Becky and her monument here:

http://www.iowacivilwarmonuments.com/cgi-bin/gaarddetails.pl?1248728661~2

Buy a re-print of Aunt Becky’s book about her Civil War experiences here:

http://www.awb.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=3943

I’m posting the following in honor of St. Nicholas Day. A local business was having a special that if you wrote up your favorite Christmas memory, you’d get 10 percent off on a special sale. My mother took up the challenge. Here is her most memorable Christmas experience.

My Christmas story starts at a Christmas Eve candle light service. Our minister told a story about how Jesus comes to visit him each year around Christmas and he never knows what form he will take. This year he heard footsteps in the sanctuary and found a man in the church who wanted a ride to Dubuque (a drive of roughly 2 hours one way). The man thought he would be fine if he could get to Dubuque. We all sat there waiting to hear what he did to help the man get to Dubuque thinking he’d given him a ride, called around and found someone headed that way, etc. So our minister came to the climax of the story and what he did to help the man was….tell him he could use the phone and that was it.  We sat there stunned.

After the service, our family often talked about what else the minister could of and should of done, whether it was Jesus or not.  (This was probably the most talked about Xmas Eve service ever.) The next year, at the Xmas Eve Service we waited to hear how Jesus visited him this year. Nothing was said in the sermon. Upon leaving the church we asked our minister how did Jesus visit you this year. He looked at us as if we were clinically insane. Even though we explained, about this sermon last year,  he seemed to have no memory of saying anything about it last year.  We were appalled.

Then several years later, on Christmas Eve we were all sitting around the table in the sunroom when this big black cat came to the door and using its paw, knocked on the door loudly, like a person would knock. I said, I am not taking any chances – it might be Jesus. I fed the cat. The rest of the family thought it was more likely Lucifer since it was black with human characteristics. We have decided you never know what form Jesus will take, and we’re not taking any chances.

Back in August, something reminded me of a book I had read a LONG time ago. I asked and posted it everywhere in hopes somebody else could help me identify the book. Thanks to everybody who sent a suggestion or a possible author. Finally, I got the correct answer Thanks to “Needle in a Haystack” online newsletter, although some of the other suggestions I got were close. It was Lost Pueblo by Zane Grey. I was wrong that it was a dude ranch, not her father’s ranch, and we, and the heroine, Janey Endicott find out about the set up nature of the kidnap a lot earlier, but other than that it was just like I described. The hero is an archeologist named Phil Randolph I’m including the description I posted before below so you’ll remember which one I mean. Thank you very much.

Ok, this is officially driving me nuts. I’m trying to remember the name of a Western I read about 10 years ago. The story was about a spoiled brat of a young woman who is kidnapped and taken out into the wilderness. Eventually we find out that her father hired the kidnapper to keep her from marrying this total idiot in a fit of rebellion. They end up having to stay out in the wilderness longer than originally planned because of a flood. She resists, but they fall in love. She finds out her father was behind it all and pretends she doesn’t really love the guy who kidnapped her, but makes him marry her “to protect her reputation.” She then hires some thugs of her own to kidnap him and throw him on the train with her of the end, to get them back on an even footing. It’s a true love happy ending.

Room at Prairie Manor

One problem with giving advice about travel is that things can change quickly. Even a single season can change a great restaurant or hotel into one to be avoided. So it was with some trepidation that I made reservations in the Prairie Manor House Bed and Breakfast this summer, knowing that it had changed owners since I was last there. Housed in the former Banker Ruth house, I had stayed there twice previously when it was owned by Larry and Connie Cheney. I always told people it was my very favorite bed and breakfast in the world. Having stayed there under new owners, Andy and Jenny Todd, I can honestly and gratefully say it still is. The Todds, previously of New Jersey, fell in love with the town of De Smet on a Laura trip and purchased this B and B. They and their children seen to have adjusted very well to prairie life. They have been re-doing and upgrading the rooms, the one I stayed in had a private porch and jacuzzi that I wish I’d had time to use.

I think the breakfast were even better than before. My favorite was the

Pancake Man

pancake man which was incredibly cute and delicious. One thing I should mention as a heads up, they run the charge on your credit card to pay for the room about a month ahead of your visit. They mention it when you make your reservation, but I think it’s worth repeating here because this is the only the second time I’ve ever run into something like this at a hotel, so I doubt most people expect it.

Kingsbury County is being honored as the November County of the Month. Read their write up about the county here:

http://johnson.senate.gov/sd/county/Kingsbury.cfm

When I was in De Smet this summer, we were talking about the Big Slough and as always a quote from Emily of Deep Valley popped into my head. Other people in the conference planning group said they had the same thing happen to them. It’s so nice to be with people who understand you. I hope all our readers get that chance at the conference this summer.

Oh, and the other thing the quote makes pop into my head is Cherry Jones reading Farmer Boy. Jones, clearly not a farm girl, says hay mow (rhymed with row) instead of hay mow (rhymes with now). Every time I listen to it, I spend the whole time automatically correcting her. Now you can too.

Lovelace, Maud Hart. Emily of Deep Valley. New York: Harper Trophy, 2000. ISBN 0064408582

“The Deep Valley slough, pronounced sloo, was the marshy inlet of a river. When Emily had first read Pilgrim’s Progress, after finding it mentioned in Louisa M. Alcott’s Little Women, she had pronounced the Slough of Despond sloo, too. She had called it sloo until Miss Fowler had told her in English class that Bunyan’s Slough rhymed with “how.” Miss Fowler had made the correction in a casual unembarrassing way, putting her emphasis on the fact that Emily alone, out of the class, had read Pilgrim’s Progress.” pp.15-16.

Emily Webster, an orphan living with her grandfather, is not like the other girls her age in Deep Valley, Minnesota. The gulf between Emily and her classmates widens even more when they graduate from Deep Valley High in 1912. Emily longs to go off to college with everyone else, but she can’t leave her grandfather. Emily resigns herself to facing a “lost winter,” but soon decides to stop feeling sorry for herself. And with a new program of study, a growing interest in the Syrian immigrant community, and a handsome new teacher at the high school to fill her days, Emily gains more than she ever dreamed. This is one of three non-Betsy-Tacy novels she set in the same community of Deep Valley, a stand in for her home town of Mankato, Minnesota. Betsy and Tacy do make a brief cameo appearance. I love this book because it really depicts the time period so well.

Gen. Dodge House

When I visited Council Bluffs for the first time I was really surprised by how many railroad connected sites there are around town. Council Bluffs was chosen by Abraham Lincoln himself to be the starting point of the Transcontinental Railroad.

At the top of the city is the General Grenville Dodge House. The house was quite elaborate and  showing how well Dodge did becoming a self-made man with the army, the railroad, and his various investment businesses around town. Dodge first came to Council Bluffs when he was 21 and it was his base of

Dodge in Close Up

operations for the rest of his life. A powerful general in the army during the Civil War, Dodge was chosen as chief engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad. His engineering and leadership skills led him to almost single handily drive the construction of the eastern part of the Transcontinental Railroad. His role was so pivotal that he appears in the famous photo of driving the golden spike. He is just to the right of the center of the photo, reaching across to shake hands. Our tour of his home showed not only the opulence and ingenious up to date devices, but also the hands on programs that they have developed for school groups to give them a better idea of life at the time.

The Grenville Dodge House is located high on a hill in Council Bluffs. It was built in 1869 for a cost of $35,000. It had all the comforts and extravagances that you could get at the time and was designed by William W. Boyington, who also did Terrace Hill (now Iowa’s Governor’s Mansion) and the Gothic Water Tower in Chicago.

Of special interest was the temporary exhibit in the cellar on Lincoln’s connection to Dodge. When Lincoln came through Council Bluffs in the 1850s, Dodge was pointed out to him as the person who knew the most about railroads and Lincoln met him on a hotel porch and drew much information out of him about railroads in general and Transcontinental route in particular. Later, when he was ready to turn his attention to the issue as President, Lincoln remembered Dodge and called him to the White House for his input. This year is the Lincoln Bicentennial and we came across several special exhibits about Lincoln’s connection to Council Bluffs in this Lincoln Bicentennial Year.

Union Pacific Car Interior

The class I took this summer got to visit the Union Pacific Repair Center where we got the great experience to tour the VIP Coaches. These are classic coaches that have been restored and redesigned inside and out. These are gorgeous cars given incredible care. They can go up to 110 miles per hour. Their major competitor in Canada has cars that are restored inside, but can only go 30 miles an hour because they aren’t as solidly restored mechanically.

These special cars are for the use of Union Pacific executives and for special events. For example, they used these trains to create a temporary hotel for V.I.P.s at the Olympics in Salt Lake City (they built a temporary siding in a parking lot to park the train in) and to

Observation Car

create a special train ride for former President Bush’s 80^th birthday celebration. The cars are not available for rent, but are used as perks for Union Pacific executives and customers. My favorites were the car with a glass end and theater seats to watch the line and the other observation cars. If only all rail travel was like this.

John Brown Cave Sign

Our class crossed the border into Nebraska to visit Nebraska City, Nebraska. Here we toured John Brown’s Cave, otherwise known as the Mayhew Cabin. This cabin was the home of an abolitionist family. It was opened up as a tourist attraction, with the biggest draw being the cave underneath the opened up to the ravine behind the cabin. However, when the highway cabin through in the 1930s, the cabin was moved. This, of course, cut off access to the tunnel. Not to be detoured, the “preservationist” dug a new tunnel and showed it off to the tourists. A son of the

Recreated Tunnel Exit

family returned to the cabin in the 1890s and when shown the “slave hiding tunnel” told the then current owners that it was only the family’s wine cellar, but they remained unperturbed. Like the devoted promoters of the so-called Quilt Code today, they felt why let the truth get in the way of a good story.

http://www.mayhewcabin.org