Originally Amasa and Annan and Eli (whose mother had died) and his father were there.
\My brother Annan and I tried to get some money once. In our family the children didn't receive an allowance, and any money we earned was needed to support the family.
It was winter and a bad storm had passed through with a lot of snow.
David tells the story:
The range cattle, which are supposed to feed on the prairie, couldn't get anything to eat. As you rode along you would see cattle in the fields who had starved to death. If someone saw a dead steer they would skin the cattle, bring the hide in to the bank in Kit Carson, and get 75 cents for each hide they presented. The bank would look for the brand to see whose cattle it was, since several herds would graze at once on the free range.
Annan and I knew where there was a dead critter near a deserted house and the barn where I had stashed the pair of trousers I had sliced up. Annan and I thought that maybe if we skinned the critter at night, and not on Dad's time, we could have the money to divide between us.
In order for us to get it we took the hide over to a neighbor's that had also skinned some range cattle, for him to take with his hides to the bank. When he went in the inspector wasn't in so he just left the hides. The inspector would keep track and whenever someone came in from our neighborhood the inspector would give him everyone's money.
Sooner or later someone came back from town and gave Dad all the money that was meant for our family, including the 75 cents. Not quite understanding why the money was there, but knowing that we must have arranged for the skin to be taken in, Father accepted the money.
The problem was that the family needed the money so badly that Father just used it to buy necessitites for the home, and we never did see the money.
Amish people didn't give money to spend. If you worked for a neighbor the father would get the money. When the child was grown the father would set up the children. [Usually with 40 acres and a team of horses and some cattle.]
Blizzards would sometimes come quickly and without enough warning to adequately prepare.
Once, a shepherd was in the process of moving the sheep from one corral to another. Before he got to the main corral the blizzard had hit. He noticed a smaller corral that the sheep would fit into and put them there. The corral contained just a fence and a shepherd's shack. But that would do until the storm passed over.
He herded all the sheep into the corral and headed into the shack. Luckily the shack had a stove in it which used cow chips for fuel. The shepherd settled down for the night and waited for the storm to end.
The next morning when he walked outside he realized that the 700 sheep, in order to keep warm, had huddled together. As the snow piled higher and higher they moved closer and closer together to stay warm. Eventually the snow completely covered them. It wasn't long until the snow kept out not only the cold but the air as well. The 700 sheep had smothered to death in the snow trying to keep from freezing to death.
Adam and his sons went over to see the sight where the sheep had died. David realized as never before how difficult it was to make a living in Colorado.
One winter after one of the blizzards the family couldn't find some of their cows. They went looking for them and finally located them.
The storm had traveled south and the cows had followed the storm. They had crossed over fences which were covered high with snow drifts. It took several days to find them, which meant they had not been milked in that time.
By the time they were found their udders were frozen. "The lower parts were black and blue, and the tits had icicles on them." David was given the task of milking them and he soon discovered their udders were so frozen no milk would come out.
"I looked around for a solution and found a chicken feather. I took the feather, dug a hole through the shaft with baling wire to hollow it out, and forced the feather through the lower part of the tits. It was quite painful for the cows, but not as painful as it would have been had the milk not been removed."
In the spring of the second year we were in Colorado Eli and his father, Amasa and Annan went to western Kansas. They went by horseback and settled near Ellis, Kansas.
Later Amasa and Annan went on to Hutchinson, and found work there. And by the time I had gone to Hutchinson Eli's father and stepmother had also moved to Hutchinson. They would live there the rest of their lives.
Father, Sister and I were all that were left in Colorado.
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