Susannah Woychik's Letters - 2 - 1870

Burnside, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin

January 5, 1870

PoppelaukreiseOppein, Oberseliesien.

Dear Aunt Susanna and Uncle Leopold,

Thank you for your Christmas wishes. You will be here with us for our festivities next Christmas, won’t you? Are you all ready to come? I am pleased that you chose to book on the Bavaria as we did. It is a good fast boat, although it was very crowded when we came on it. You say there are about five more families coming with you. I do hope there will be land for all of you to buy or homestead. I suppose if we have built our log house by then, somebody from that group could start out in our dugout - just until they found their feet, although we will need it for an animal shelter in the winter, so it couldn’t be a long term arrangement. They wouldn’t be able to use our land for farming though, as we need all the cleared acreage we have. Anyway, we will know more about that before you come. If I have time, I will try to write you a letter in March - which should get to you in time before you leave in early May.

You asked about snakes. I was very worried about them too, but my brother John says that the pigs eat them, and as we had a pig last year and hardly saw any snakes, I guess he might be right.

Pa went last summer to La Crosse to pay for the land. It still won’t officially be his for another four years - and then he has to go to La Crosse again, with various witness statements to say that he has developed the land and lived there for the full five years. But at least we can stop saving our money for that, and put it towards building a proper house. The dugout is pleasant in some ways and I like it far more than I thought I would, but we all long for a proper house, and a larger one. Pa hopes to have time now the harvest is over to cut down the 100 or so logs for the building and prepare them. Then when he has that done, we will get our neighbors to come over and they will work together and get the basic shape of it all put together in one go.

Pa goes to Eau Claire to work in the lumber yard again this winter. He comes home on weekends. It is hard not having him here, but John is very capable now of doing the fishing and hunting to keep us in meat.

There are 60 Catholic families here already, can you believe it? Anyway, the biggest landowner and his brother (who aren’t even Catholic) have decided to donate five acres of their land for the church. And the Church members will buy another five acres off them. It will be called Sts. Peter and Paul. But for the meantime, we will still have to have services through priests sent out from La Crosse. They said it might be several years before the Church is actually built, as they will need to raise funds and most of us around here don'tt have extra money to donate just at the moment. But we have promised to pay a small amount each month, as have the other Catholics in the area.

You asked about how exactly we do our farming. Well, we use oxen for breaking, plowing, and harrowing, hauling in and hauling out, even to market, to the grist mill on the river, or to the flour mill. We hand hoe the corn and potatoes. We also raise some hops, oats, rye, and spring and winter wheat. We have a few pumpkins and sufficient peas to thresh for seed with a flail. We cradle the grain with a scythe and tie it by hand with straw. Then we shock it and haul it back to the barn, to be stacked outside pending the arrival of the threshing outfit. This is an agitator driven by a four-wheel machine, fitted with five sweeps for ten oxen. So much is still done with small implements.

Yes, we still speak Polish at home, but the boys and I speak English to each other so they can practice - as it is not good for them not to know English when they are at school. There are so many people around here who speak Polish, that you won’t find not knowing English a problem at all. Most of the officials in La Crosse speak German if not Polish, and we can make ourselves understood to them.

We have had a very cold winter so far - colder than last year. Cloudy, snowing lightly. 14° below zero on the coldest day.

Do you know anything about Grandma Lyga? Moma is hoping that she will come over too. I know that she said she never would, but if we and many of her friends are here, we should try to convince her. It is probably too late for this year, but have a word with her, and see how she is thinking on the subject. And others of Moma’s brothers and sisters might come at the same time.

Carl is doing well in school and very proud that he knows his ABC’s. He is bright and will be reading before long. Tom is longing for his time in school to be over - as he misses doing things with John.

You asked about the colored people. We have very few of them in Wisconsin - none to speak of in our area at all. But they are getting rights given to them, to try to make them more equal. For instance, their men now have the right to vote.

All for now, but I will write again soon,

Love from Susanna

 Burnside, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin

March 21, 1870

PoppelaukreiseOppein, Oberseliesien.

Dear Aunt Susanna and Uncle Leopold,

Our snow is about two feet deep and the temperature is about 6º above zero. It is excellent weather for sleighing. We are so pleased that we have Dobbin, our horse, and can go out to church or shopping in our sleigh. This winter has been much more exciting for us - and John is very capable of handling our horse.

Anyway, back to the subject of where you will live when you get here. Pa has found that there are some properties that seem might be available in a little town called Hale. It is about eight miles to the north east of us. I think he said that Uncle Leopold has a relative in that area already. Anyway, we will try to keep an option open for land for you there, as that seems the best possibility at the moment. When you arrive, come here to us. Are you planning on buying oxen and cart straight away and coming overland from La Crosse?

If not, and you are taking the steamer up to Trempealeau, you will find many people in the town happy to hire their services to you to drive you and your baggage up here. It is about 40 miles but the roads are not good, so that is several hours' travel. We cannot say that we will meet you there because we won’t know exactly when it is you are arriving, and Pa and Uncle Simon and the boys will be busy planting by then.

I will not write more now, as I wish to get this to the post straight away. I hope you have a very good voyage.

I’m pleased that Grandma Lyga seems interested in the possibility.

Love from

Susanna

Burnside, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin

June 5, 1870

PoppelaukreiseOppein, Oberseliesien.

Dear Grandma Lyga

It seems such a long time since we saw you last - over two years now. My aunt Susanna and her family have arrived and are settling in nicely. She told me that you are considering coming over too, so I have decided that I will write to you and try to encourage you to do so. It would mean so much to Moma to have you here.

Others from Poppeleau that you will know that came with them are Johan Sabotta who came with his wife and children and also his brother Anton Sabotta, and his family, and their sister Pauline, and widowed sister-in-law, Margaret with her children. You see how your entire village is moving here. Also on the boat was our cousin young Maria Woychik She is joining her brothers in Arcadia.

Urban Sylla, the shoemaker, with his brother and his children came too. He will be the first shoemaker in this area, so no doubt will get lots of work.

Pa now has nearly all his family here - except his brother John and his family. But we have promised that we will take in his son when he is old enough - but that won’t be for awhile yet. I think Moma is envious because she doesn’t have you or any of her sisters or brothers or even cousins here. I know we were all very close in Poppeleau and she knows many of the people who have settled here - but some how she feels like she would like to have proper kin. And it is a much better life. We can guarantee you that. We would help you all we could if you will come.

Let me tell you a bit about what it is like around here. By the end of April it was very spring-like. And the grass was green and the phlox was blooming. Then we got some rain, which was necessary, and the young plants took very well.

In May it continued very mild, and one might even say hot for the time of year. The crops continue to do well, although after that hot patch we did have some much cooler weather perhaps for up to a week. We have grown asparagus here, and we had our first cutting by the beginning of May. Such a lovely vegetable it is. I wish we could preserve it - but we always are so hungry for freshly grown vegetables that we eat it all up.

These last few days have been very dry, and then last night we had a terrific storm with a strong wind, and hail and lashing rain. I hope it won’t destroy the crops which have grown up so high so quickly. And what is more, it is so cold after the storm, that Pa says we now need to worry that it might even freeze. I hesitate to think what that would do to the crops. But I don’t want to put you off - perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned about the storm, but now that I have said it, it will have to stay. I am too tired to write this all out again.

We have loads of lovely flowers in our yard. You would love to see it all when it is in bloom. We have scarlet lilies, and dahlias.

I hope you might write back to us, or get one of your girls to do it - so we know how you are faring, and whether you are seriously thinking of coming here - and when.

Aunt Susanna and Uncle Leopold have a nice farm in Hale, not far from his kinfolk and we see them at church when they can manage it. (pictured above)

All for now.

Much love from your granddaughter, Susanna