Letter
7
Date: circa June 1870
Sender: Harmen Jan te Selle (Wisconsin)
Addressee: Derk Willem te Selle (oldest brother ‑ Netherlands)
Yet it
was with spring, very, very nice weather. The land was very dry so that the
planting and sowing had a good outlook, also the stand of wheat is pretty good.
But the grass is short because it suffered much from the frost, and in addition,
there was a long time of drought. Then the clay becomes very hard, that it does
not have a very good outlook.
As far
as the potatoes are concerned, what they will produce I do not know. The year
before we were very much plagued by the worms. They ate up everything that was
green. And now it is much worse. It seems that they grow up out of the ground
and as soon as the potatoes are seen, the worms sit on them in piles, and the
worms cannot be compared with anything better than bugs ("wandluizen"). So we
name them after 'plat Gelders' (dialect of Winterswijk), but they are
four times as big and have wings. Where the potatoes are, there they go, and do
not go away until they have taken everything (alles op hebben). What the price
of grain is concerned, that is cheap. Wheat 80 cents to 90 cents a bushel; oats
40/50; rye 70 cents. Potatoes cost almost as much as the wheat, butter 18 cents,
eggs 1 cent each.
The
horses are also cheap, because this winter one could buy a good horse for $100.
I bought a three year old for $82, a very beautiful horse. This fall one broke
its leg. and I had to kill it.
Cows
are quite high (costly). For them we have to pay from $40 to $60. Pigs are also
cheap, for small ones 36 to 40 cents in a week. We have 7, and when winter
comes I will take them to market, then they are much higher in price (duurder).
Brother Jan Hendrik is no longer here. He went at least 500 miles farther west
to the state of Nebraska; there the land is cheap.
There
they can buy 80 acres for $100, but there, there is almost no timber. When they
first arrive, they must build a house with sod, or as they say with you, pieces
of turf (plaggen). Wallboards are very costly there, and they have to drive 13
hours to get them. It is an entire wilderness, so they say. But how it goes with
Jan Hendrik I do not know. He sold his land and everything.
On
March 28 he left (vertrokken ‑ departed). But he has not yet written us a
letter. He wrote a letter to his wife's father that he arrived healthy and well,
and that the trip cost him $100, also that the land was wild and hilly, and that
in places water was hard to get. There was a man who dug a well 100 feet deep
and still had no water. Stone coal (hardcoal), they could get from four hours
away and cost 25 cents a bushel. They use this for fire (heating purposes),
because there is not much wood.
More
have gone there, but I know of two who have returned who did not find things so
well there. What it is further, I do not know. According as they write there are
many rattlesnakes, prairie wolves, etc.
More I
do not know much about it to write. I expect a letter from them every day, but I
don't see one yet. Whether he has written you yet I do not know, but he
will most likely write you. I do not know how he has it there. Herewith, I
must end.
Greetings from Bloemers uncle and aunt.
Both are well. Also greetings from the family. Give our greetings to the
brothers and all those who ask about us. Receive them, from all of us, greetings
‑ as wife and children.
Yours ‑ H. J. te Selle
This refers to when Jan Hendrik left Wisconsin for Nebraska
This refers to Gerrit Willem Bloemers and his wife, the
former Janna te Selle. She was a sister to Harmen Jan's father, Jan Albert
te Selle, born 1800, deceased 1845.
Wife and children: Berendiena Aleida Reusink-Schreurs; Harmen
Jan's stepson ‑ Manus Schreurs; and Dela te Selle, who was born April 21,
1868.
|
