Linda Broday

Where I live in Wichita County in North Texas the land is rolling hills, arid, and for the most part, barren. I can’t imagine what the early settlers must’ve thought when they first laid eyes on it. It doesn’t even remotely look like a fertile place in which to make a home. There’s just not much to recommend it so I have no idea what the attraction was.

Other than a few trees that grew along the streams and rivers, wood was a scarce commodity. So when pioneers came west and settled here, they had nothing except dirt from which to make a home. They grabbed a shovel and set to work. The early settlers carved dugouts into the sides of hills around here. Also, the dugouts were actually warmer in winter and cooler in summer than other types of houses.

But they were nothing to write home about. They were dark inside with only a door to allow light and the floors in most all of them was nothing but dirt. Can you imagine trying to keep things clean?

Or keep the creepy crawly things out.

Or for the pioneer woman to see to do the sewing, cooking or reading.

It must’ve been miserable even though they were lucky to have the shelter.

According to the Wichita Falls Museum of North Texas History here, one of the early families to make friends with the Wichita Indians and set up housekeeping on the tall grass prairie was the W. T. Bunton family. He carved a dugout from a hill that is near our present day downtown area and lived in it with his wife and two boys. Several more children were born to them there. I’m sure cramped wasn’t the word for the tight quarters.

Another family to settle here was Monroe Dodson with his wife and children. He too carved a dugout from a bluff.

Here’s an excerpt from a young adult nonfiction book titled “In the Land of the Wichitas” by Dorothy Crowder that describes the Dodson dugout:

“Other than a few cowboys from the Samuel Burk Burnett 6666 Ranch, there were no other white neighbors of the Dodson family. Let us go near the dugout which serves as the family home. It is carved from the red earth of the river’s bluff. It is 14 x 14 and houses the entire family and the hunting dog. Mr. Dodson has carved a fireplace into the south side of the dugout. The chimney does not draw well, and the tiny room is filled with smoke…. The children are tumbled in piles of fur, which form their beds….”

Oh, lovely! The pioneers paid a handsome price for adventure, cheap land, and wide open spaces.

The book doesn’t mention what kind of fuel the Dodson’s used in their fireplace but I’m sure it was mostly dried buffalo chips or something like that. Thousands of buffalo roamed this area until the buffalo hunters killed them all off.

The museum has an exhibit currently on display called “A Texas Christmas on the Frontier.” The exhibit features a replica of the Dodson dugout and I loved getting a feel of what life must’ve been like living in one. One of the striking things about the display is how cramped the dugout actually was and how dark and dreary it was inside.

At Christmas the pioneers brought in a tumbleweed if they wanted to celebrate the holiday since a tree wasn’t to be had, not even mesquite until the cattle drives got in full swing. This one in the dugout exhibit is decorated with a single string of popcorn.

Sort of reminds me of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

Do you think you would’ve been desperate enough to drag in a tumbleweed and try to make it look festive? To what lengths do you go to celebrate the holidays? Do you go all out or keep things simple and to a minimum?

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Of all the things the frontier settlers needed in order to survive, the single most crucial thing was water. Without water, they couldn’t subsist, grow crops or quench their livestock’s thirst not to mention their own.

It’s just as crucial today. We must have water.

In the 1800’s a good water source played an important role in deciding what land to buy and where to create towns. That’s why towns were settled close to a river, stream, or lake. Water had to be accessible. Without it, towns would die as people moved on, seeking that life-sustaining resource.

Wars were often fought as greedy men tried to control the water. Men died in the attempt to keep water flowing to their land.

Lots of novels have been written and movies made about fights over water rights.

But it was very difficult sometimes for a farmer or rancher to obtain a good supply of water. If they didn’t have a river, stream, or lake nearby (which that was hard to come by in the desert) they had to dig deep in the earth, trying to tap into an underground stream. If they were lucky enough to find water just beneath the surface, they quickly lined the hole to keep the sides from caving in. They had themselves a well. They built a top over it to protect it and lowered a bucket down an open hole in the middle and hauled up water that way.

The only thing was that they had to do that every time they needed water. It could be a pain, especially for the poor frontier woman who had to have water for cooking, washing dishes and clothes and taking baths. A bucket at a time could get very tedious.

Almost every house had rain barrels to catch the rain. Some settlers built cisterns (usually out of cement and most of time they were underground) to catch rain in from a run-off. Water was so vital and it was necessary to collect every precious drop.

Sometimes the settler had to drill for water if there was no other way. He drilled pipe into the ground and prayed to strike water. Men with peach tree limbs known as “water witches” were called on to find the most likely place to drill. Those men with their peach tree limbs became the first geologists. Heaven forbid that it was such a primitive method! It often failed.

Once the driller did locate water, it was only half the battle. They had to get the water to the top. It involved pumping it to the surface with a friction pump and lots of arm strength.

In 1854, Daniel Halliday invented the self-regulating farm wind pump and that changed the whole perspective of getting accessible water through windmill technology.

Incessant winds on the plains made it easy to get power to the mill blades. Wind power kept the blades turning which in turn pumped water to the top through a long pipe. Water emptied into a storage tank on the surface. Simple technology but really efficient. Many times the windmills dwarfed the sod houses. But once everything was completed there was much rejoicing, especially by the farmer’s wife I’m sure. All the settlers had to do was dip water from the tank. No more drawing it up by rope and bucket or pumping until your arm wore to a frazzle.

I don’t know about you, but I love windmills. I love the sound of the wind whistling through the blades and creak of the pipe as it goes up and down. Such a beautiful sound. Around the storage tank was a good place to dig for worms too when we were going fishing.

Windmills are vanishing.

I’m sad that they’ve gone by the wayside. And it breaks my heart to still see windmills sitting idle in the pastures where houses once stood, remnants of someone’s hopes and dreams. Water, nature’s life-giving force.

Today, we turn a faucet and get all the water we need. We have controversial windfarms with hundreds of wind turbines set up on someone’s property. But don’t confuse these with windmills. Wind turbines don’t coax water or anything else from the ground. We simply harness the wind to create electricity for our homes and businesses. There’s been growing debate over windfarms that are popping up everywhere. I say if it makes power more affordable why not. Wind is a natural, renewable energy. We should use it.

What are your feelings? Do you think wind turbines are eyesores and present a hazard to birds or do we need to look past that and embrace green energy?

EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT – GET OUT AND VOTE TODAY!!

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