Susan Dimond Journal, 1875

Susan Bixby Dimond and her husband Will made the long journey from her family home in Mayville, New York, to Osborne County, Kansas, in February 1872 to begin a promising new life in the West. Susan was a 30 year-old former schoolteacher; Will was a Civil War veteran from Pennsylvania who worked as a blacksmith in addition to farming. Their severest test came during the winter of 1874 and 1875, after millions of locusts had descended on the Midwest the previous summer, decimating every shred of vegetation. The settlers only survived due to the generous relief shipments from the East. The excerpts were reading today are from January through March of 1875, before the locusts returned and destroyed that years crops as well.