|
|
A Prairie Town
by
Lorance E. Geske
|
|
 A
flat level plain with tall grasses moving in the breeze. Sloughs
with cattails and rushes, habitat for muskrats, mallards and redwing
blackbirds. Flowers, wild strawberries and endless, endless space.
See The Prairie
|
|
 Ties
and rails scar the prairie as they move in straight lines from town site
to town site (one with rabbits). Steam engines, boxcars, water
tanks and depots for freight and passengers. The hiss of steam and
wail of whistles pollute the prairie silence.
See the Railroad
|
|
 Lots
bought at auction by storekeepers, to start their general store, where
farm women will trade eggs and butter for flour, coffee, beans, sugar
and if enough eggs, some sticks of hard candy. By the blacksmith
for a shop to house forge and bellows. Lots bought by lawyers,
doctors, grain buyers, and bankers. By saloon operators to build
their bars, a place for men to drink and play cards. They built
everything needed to house the businesses required by the farmers who
busted the prairie sod.
See The Builders
|
|
 They
came for the jobs: store clerks, bartenders, dray-men, sales men and
laborers of every description. They came with families, dreams and
ambitions. Established churches, schools and a government to make
the laws to run the town. They came and thrived on the winter
snow, the summer heat and the prevailing prairie wind.
See The Town's People
|
|
Take a hundred years, add the generations of God
loving, friendly, hardworking determined people. Subtract the
rabbits. Add the well kept homes, lawns businesses, churches, and
schools. Settled on a prairie knoll, looking to the new
millennium.
See My Town, See Wabasso
|
|
|