Prairie Girls

 

 The Conductors

Daniel was the runaway’s name.

His life filled with misery and pain.

Maddie and Owen, their families, too,

Knew what they needed to do,

Help Daniel travel that “underground train.”

The two became part of the plan.

Together they spied on the mean old man.

Kansas, bleeding at the time,

Saw good men fight across the line.

Could slavery be stopped with a ban? 

Dressed as a girl, Daniel sought to be free.

He was hid in an old, cottonwood tree.

They could not know how effective the train became.

         Each worked in secret, with only conductor as a name.

Risking all so free others might be.

 PLEASE NOTE THIS BLOG CHANGES THE FIRST AND THIRD WEEKS OF EACH MONTH.

Be sure to check out The Storyteller’s Corner and Up the Family Tree.

 

Maddie

                  

This is Maddie again, the ten-year-old abolitionist from Kansas Territory. My cousin Owen and I studied our lessons each morning with Mama as our teacher. Both Owen and I wanted to attend college when we were older. Papa and Mama said Kansas would have a college by the time I was old enough to attend. I hoped it would be in Lawrence. My days were filled with lessons and helping Mama with chores in our cabin.

 After Owen and I saw a runaway slave’s mistreatment by a bounty hunter, I was even more dedicated to the cause of the abolitionists. Now a part of my day was spent on a plan to help the captured slave escape. Could the Underground Railroad be a way to help him? You will hear more about this when our writing project is completed.

 



An Opportunity

 Maddie and Owen are fictional characters who were encouraged by their families to attend college even before colleges were established in Kansas Territory. Today many families encourage their children to obtain a college education. While my family did not believe I needed a college education, they did believe it necessary I support myself or have a husband support me upon graduation from high school. A couple of weeks following my high school graduation, with no boyfriend in sight, I realized I did not have a plan beyond the next day or two. So almost by default I found my way to a college campus and with scholarships and part-time jobs funding my way, obtained a college degree.

(I married a year later. My parents were pleased.) Today, opportunities to obtain education, whether in trade schools, community colleges, colleges or universities abound thanks to parents of children like Maddie and Owen.

 

           

Underground Railroad

Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad was more than just Harriet Tubman’s story. It was a network of “safe houses” along routes that went north. Railroads were vital to the economy by the 1860s in both the North and South. Using common terms like railroad, conductor, and station provided the code used in the system as former slaves traveled toward Canada, the West, and the Southwest. The Underground Railroad was not as organized as stories have led us to believe. Slaves were more often on their own than with help along the way.

The movement of slaves through Kansas was small, but the spotlight shown on the territory as citizens fought each other over the slavery issue. Some historians believe it was the battles in Kansas that signaled the first shots of the Civil War.

If you are interested in learning more about the Underground Railroad, the following would be helpful.

www.cr.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground

www.teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bhistory/underground_railroad

www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2944.html

www.freedomcenter.org

 

 

 

Stew Recipes

Prairie Recipes

By Collette

Crackers were often found at the general store in barrels on the prairie, but sometimes the town was so small, wives made their own. The following is an 18^th Century recipe.

Homemade Crackers

4 cups of flour                                            ¼ cup butter
1 teaspoon salt                                           1 cup milk           
2 tablespoons sugar
Sift dry ingredients together in a bowl; cut in butter until mealy. Stir in milk, making stiff dough. Roll out thinly on lightly floured surface; cut into shapes with knife or cookie cutters. Pierce each cracker with a fork. Place on lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden.

 Most homesteaders ate stews from animals they hunted and vegetables from their gardens. A typical venison stew follows.

 Stewed Venison

3 tablespoons butter or lard                                ¼ cup flour

1 teaspoon mustard                                             1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon brown sugar                                      ¼ teaspoon pepper

2 medium onions chopped                                  4 tomatoes, chopped
2 pounds venison                                                1 teaspoon vinegar

Melt butter or lard in pan. Add mustard, brown sugar, and onions; mix well. Cut venison into small pieces; dip in flour seasoned with salt and pepper. Place over the onion mixture; add tomatoes and sprinkle with vinegar. Cook over low heat for three hours, adding water as needed. Serves: 8
*1 cup of wild mushrooms may be added for extra richness.

 On cold winter evenings, this is one of my family favorites.

 Hearty Beef Stew

2 pounds of trimmed stew meat                          1-3 tablespoons of tomato paste
1/3 cup flour                                                        2 cups new potatoes, diced
1 teaspoon salt                                                              & unpeeled
½ teaspoon seasoned pepper                               2 cups sliced carrots
½ teaspoon celery salt                                         1 small onion, diced
2 teaspoons dried parsley                                    1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon garlic powder                                     2 tablespoons olive oil
1 box beef broth                                                   2-3 beef bouillon cubes

While heating olive oil in 3 quart skillet, toss cubed pieces of stew meat in flour, salt and pepper. Heat oil until hot, and then add beef and chopped onions. Sauté until browned. Add any remaining flour, the box of beef broth, and two beef bouillon cubes. Then add potatoes, carrots, tomato paste and remaining seasonings.

Bring to a boil and simmer for a couple of hours. Top with finishing salt when served.* Serves: 6 
 

*Additional options: fresh sliced mushrooms, 1/3 cup instant barley, 10 ounce package of frozen mixed vegetables, tomato juice as part of the liquid, 1 can chopped tomatoes, and/or 1/3 cup dry red wine.                       

Plowing

Storyteller’s Corner

When you live on a farm isolated from nearby neighbors, children have to come up with their own fun. My father-in-law put my husband on a tractor when he was in the second grade. Keep in mind the tractor had no cab and was much simpler to drive than todays with all their bells and whistles. My husband’s dad farmed with his brother who had two sons about the same age as my husband and his younger brother. Apparently the dads put two boys on each of the two tractors and turned them loose to plow a field.

While one boy drove, the second boy road on the fender, and the four kids met each other once in a while in the middle of the field. To pass the time and have some fun, they came up with a plan. While one drove, the second kid on the fender would gather mud from the tractor tire and made a mud ball. What ensued was a storm of clads each time the tractors passed each other. They even got off the tractors while they were moving and pulled up the wheat stubble with dirt attached. These sailed across the tractors like an arrow. That according to my husband was how he developed his throwing arm.

I have no idea how many times the boys got into the mud fights, but one day they got caught by their dads. One father wanted to stop and blister all four of them, but the other one thought it was hilarious. They never did get into trouble. My father-in-law talked about catching them nearly 20 years after the incident. The ingenuity of the young boys was amazing.

I've Got the Perfect Car for You

 



I've Got the Perfect Car for You

The old wagon served the family well. It carried babies home from the hospital and toddlers to their first days of preschool. It made many trips to the grocery store, to piano lessons, to ball games, to the swimming pool, to birthday parties and to Grandma's. But, we simply could not continue to keep our mechanic in such luxury and still purchase the quantities of gasoline the old car required. It was time to trade.

Clearly, we knew what we wanted.  We wanted power steering and brakes, electronic climate control, electric windows and door locks, computer diagnostics, AM-FM stereo cassette player, dual rear speakers, automatic antenna, digital clock, digital fuel gauge, clear coat paint, soft-ray glass, remote control mirrors, rear and side window defoggers, plush carpet with floor mats, accent striping, leather trimmed steering wheel, trumpet horn, cruise control, and dome and dual lens reading lamps.

My husband and I planned a Saturday morning shopping trip for just the two of us. We didn't want the younger children to miss their cartoons nor the older children bored while we drove from car lot to car lot.

"Bye, folks. Where are you going anyway?" our older daughter asked.

"Oh, just...uh...nowhere, really...uh...see...uh...cars."
 

"A new car!  I want to go!" our older daughter grabbed her coat and ran toward the door.

"Me too."

"Don't go without me!"

"Well, if everyone else is going, I want to go too."

Luckily, we quickly agreed on the van we wanted.  My husband was moving the screwdrivers, vise grips, pliers, road maps, straws, plastic spoons, nuts and bolts, broken pencils, old combs, rusted flashlight batteries, training pants, mashed tissue boxes and miscellaneous lint and string from the old glove box to the new glove box when our friendly salesman got to the part about money. My husband wasn't sure he could get the house sold in time to make the first payment, and I wasn't sure the washer and dryer would fit between the seats. We decided to keep the house and look for a more economical car.

"Ok, folks. How about this little baby?  Only driven on Friday nights by a little ol' Tupperware dealer in Dallas...."

My husband and I discovered a family of six cannot shop together for a new car indefinitely.  We hurriedly decided on a year-old compact wagon with a "new" 42-month battery and a "soon-to-get-old" 48-month loan.

I’m not sure my husband and I would have kicked the tires so carefully, bounced on the seats so high, opened and slammed each door, checked each ashtray so thoroughly nor tested so loudly each radio station as the children did. It worked, though; we purchased a new to us, used station wagon in only two hours!  And, the boys were home in time to watch the last of the Saturday morning cartoons.