This week in History’s Attic

You ever been out in a field in a hot August day not a cloud in a sky or a tree to be seen? The sun beating down and no way to escape its heat?

That is what Osa T. and Salomel. Cashatt, and their 3 children–twin brothers and Faye–dealt with after leaving Dallas in 1909 in their wagon heading to their homestead 18 miles away by Paxton. After leaving Dallas their route took them south and west from Dallas. The first two thirds of the way was through Gregory County “old” country, comparatively speaking. People had been living here for several years. At the south edge of Dallas they passed a little cemetery, a plot with a fence around it and still covered with virgin prairie grass. No trees no flowers, not even any shrubs: just the dozen or so lonely looking headstones.

“Mrs. Cashatt shuddered and turned to look back at it as we passed ‘what a God-forsaken looking place!’ She said ‘I don’t ever want to be buried there.’

‘Who thinks of burying?’ father said. ‘People in this country don’t die easy'”

This passage is from the book Faye Cashatt Lewis wrote 62 years later of their homesteading time in the 1909 Tripp County land opening. And later in the journey, her mother said, “There’s nothing to make a shadow, “If we could just see some shade somewhere, it wouldn’t seem quite so hot.”

Faye Cashatt Lewis was Born in Iowa and came to South Dakota in 1909 with her family. She is pictured here below.She would go on to graduate with a medical degree from USD and practiced medicine along with her husband until 1969. Her book is a very good snapshot of living life on the prairie and is an excellent read. It was published in 1971, the local libraries should have a copy or there are several on Ebay to purchase. She did come back in around the early 70s and gave a talk to the historical society in Dallas (see photo with Lucile Robertson and Mrs Lewis). The Tripp County Historical society moved their homestead home to the museum site where it can be seen today (below picture).

 

Author Richard Papousek, December 2023