Susannah Woychik's Letters -3 - 1870-71

Burnside, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin

November 5, 1870

PoppelaukreiseOppein, Oberseliesien.

Dear Aunt Frances,

Thank you for writing and telling us Grandma isn’t doing well. Please give her our love. Moma would so much like to be there with her. And, of course, she won’t now be coming here, but it is good that you and Gregor and Louis will consider it when the time is right. And certainly I will keep writing to you about what it is like here.

It rained heavily all night with thunder and lightening and again this morning. Notwithstanding the bad weather, Pa went out hunting and succeeded in shooting a fine doe.

This month has been mild and pleasant with only one fall of snow and that a half inch. It is milder than it was last November.

We had a very good crop again this year, and Pa planted some six acres of corn as well as thirteen acres of wheat and seven of oats. And we planted many more potatoes than usual, as we can sell what we don’t need for our own use.

You asked if there would be a train to take you all the way here. Well, they are working on it. They have got as far as having the train from Winona, over in Minnesota across the Mississippi to near La Crosse. That is 29 miles. And there is a new bridge for it which should be opened up about Christmas time. But. as far as it coming up here, that is still several years distant, we think.

Moma and I bottled dozens of jars of strawberries and blueberries, as well as making jam. In fact. we did so well, that in August, Moma let me and my good friend Julia Pampuch, go to the market in Arcadia (pictured above) to sell some vegetables and some of our jam. Moma lets me keep half the money I make from my jobs for other people, like Mrs. Markham, who is a very rich lady who lives nearby. I help her with serving when she has parties and sometimes take care of her little boy, George, who is a dear one. I suppose I don’t have to tell you why I am saving. I have a beau and I want to get things for my bottom drawer. I’m only 16 this year, so we will have to wait two more years anyway, but I know that he is the right one for me. He is busy saving money to buy a big farm.

I don’t know how much you know or care about American news, but we were pleased that President Ulysses S. Grant was reelected and began his second term. Pa still can’t vote as he cannot be naturalised until the homestead promises have been signed off.

We hear some Polish news here like bits about the Prussian War. It all seems a very far way from us now, but I know that some of our friends and relatives from Poppelau will be fighting in it. We heard that the Parisians went hungry as Prussian troops begin a siege on September 19^th last year. French farmers herded thousands of cattle and sheep into the city's parks, whose trees are cut down to provide firewood. The prices for food became so exorbitant that people were fishing for rats through gratings in the gutters, and they ate cats, dogs, and even animals from the zoo. I’m sorry they have to suffer so, but what do I know about war?  If we were still living in Prussia, my brother John might have been forced into the army by now.

We also keep up to date with church matters, as priests come here once in a while to say Mass in our neighbor, Peter Sura’s house. Our church is definitely going to happen soon. There was some controversy over the new encyclical, Pastor Aeternus: when Pope Pius IX declared papal infallibility in matters of faith and morals.

The Bautch family, who were the first Polish settlers in this part of Wisconsin, are our new neighbors. They moved from their big farm in Arcadia, eight miles away, and bought land with a flour and grist mill on it from Elliot Carpenter, who had already built a dam across Traverse Creek for water power, and they will be running the mill from now on. So we will not have far to get our grain ground into wheat.

You asked if I had any new recipes. Well, this might not be what you are looking for, but you might be interested. There are lots of crab apples around here - not much good except for making cider. And we found that the way to keep it sweet was by putting into each barrel, immediately after making, ½ lb. ground mustard, 2 oz. salt and 2 oz. pulverized chalk. Stir them in a little cider, pour them into the barrel, and shake up well.

Yes, we do get mosquitoes but we control them better now. We found that if you take a few hot coals on a shovel, and burn upon them some brown sugar you effectually banish or destroy every mosquito for the night. We call the preventative a smudge - and have one at each strategic place in our house.

And we have been making our own cough medicine too. It is a strong decoction of the leaves of the pine, sweetened with sugar. If you take a small glass warm on going to bed, and ½ an hour before eating, three times a day it helps a lot.

This year the crops were not quite as good as last year. The preceding summer and fall were cold and rainy which caused us to harvest very little corn. The potato crop was poor, but even so we got 32 bushels of turnips plus some other vegetables. We harvested 340 bushels of wheat and 146 bushels of oats, but the price of wheat seems to be going down.

One time John and Tom were in the woods looking for likely firewood. They had the wagon and an ax, and were jogging along when they spied an extra large tree that had evidently fallen recently and thought it would do for their purpose. John got out the ax and started working on the tree. Presently to his great surprise, some sort of a handsome bird came fluttering out of the foliage. Thinking that it might possible have a nest in it, Tom started investigating. The search revealed a dozen eggs. They took them home, and Moma said to try having one of the hens sit on them. In a couple of days, we found out we had twelve fine wild turkeys. Some of them we can eat, and some we can rear.

We are now in our log house, which is about twice the size of our dugout, and we keep our animals in the dugout. The boys sleep in the upstairs, which they get to by a ladder, although Pa intends building some proper steps soon. I have my bed on one side of the main room, and Pa and Moma sleep on the other, with our kitchen and living areas in between. Our furniture is mostly homemade. Like our new chairs. Pa made the frame and then Moma and I wove seats of slippery elm bark. Then we made cushions for them.

You asked what sorts of fun things the boys and I do. Well, we have corn husking bees, and they say if you are lucky enough to find a red ear of corn the person can kiss his lady fair. Then there are dances, and parties at barn raisings.

My fiancé’s brother, Jacob, who is just 20 gathered enough money to buy a farm in Maule Coulee. The Skroches live in that area now too, having moved recently from Trempealeau. Mary Skroch and Jacob seem to have an understanding, which is good, as I would like to have her for a sister-in-law.

Love

Susanna

 

Burnside, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin

Jan 21, 1871

PoppelaukreiseOppein, Oberseliesien.

Dear Aunt Frances,

Thank you for your Christmas greeting card. You say you can't ever think of anything to write about, but hope you will write anyway. As you can probably guess, I love writing letters.

We have a lot of snow at the moment – 6 inches, but it is quite pleasant weather really.

We had our first of the dried venison this week. We have only frozen it before, so this was an experiment, but it was very tasty.

We did hear some disturbing news about what is happening there. Is it true that German chancellor Otto von Bismarck tried to ban Catholics from politics by introducing harsh laws concerning the separation of church and state?

My fiancé, Hyacinth Kulig gave me a cedar chest for Christmas, and I am busy filling it. I am making knit tidies.

You asked how the local people accept us Polishers. I have heard much praise about us. One man said, “Wisconsin is fortunate to be favored so much by the Prussian immigrant farmers who came here. They are teaching us methods of "rational farming," by rotating crops and the liberal use of fertilizer - a practice summarized as "The manure pit is the farmer's gold pit," and "Where there is manure there is Christ."

I hope you are all well,

Love, Susanna

Burnside, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin

July 16, 1871

PoppelaukreiseOppein, Oberseliesien.

Dear Aunt Frances,

I'll start out by telling you some gossip about people who you will remember from home. Pauline Nogosek married George F. Maule, son of an Anglican clergyman. They got married twice - first in a Protestant ceremony, and then at the Catholic Church in Elk Creek on the 17th of June. He is taking instructions. But the funny thing was that Pauline can speak only Polish and George only English.

We have had a big problem this summer - potato bugs. We have to pick them off the leaves and kill them, but they have been too much for us, and almost our entire crop is lost. Luckily the bugs don’t like beet greens or any of our other vegetables, so we might have some vegetables for the winter.

Pa estimates that our oats should provide about 25 bushels per acre this year, which is very good and the corn is good too. Moma and I bottled 10 quarts of blackberries and made another five quarts of blackberry and crabapple jam. The crabapples were sliced and dried last fall. They help make the jam set.

I heard another compliment about our Polanders being in this part of the world, and surprisingly it had to do with beer halls. This man said that we used beer halls in a very different way to most Yankees in that we make them into an integral part of community affairs. We use them as a meeting place or ballroom, and “the atmosphere turns strangers into friends.” Yankee taverns, according to this man, offered scenes of "ready drunkenness" and were places where people buy "rounds" for their friends, drink them standing up, and quickly go about their business.

Now that things are less financially fraught, we have been making more of our favorite dishes like Suelze or blood sausage and Wurst, a sausage we make from buckwheat oats ground up with pork and pork blood. Also schwarzauer, which we make from goose and duck wings, livers, gizzards, and hearts cooked with apples, blood, and dumplings. And we have once had Spickgans, and managed to do it the traditional way, with the breast and shanks of goose immersed in brine for nine days and then smoked.

The boys have a new teacher - Mr. Thomas Thompson, who is Swedish. They like him better than their last woman teacher and Thomas now thinks that another year might not be so bad.

We have another new shop too, a dry good store and hardware store run by a Swiss man, Mr. Leonard Danuser along with Mr. Emil Maurer who also has another shop in Arcadia. I spend quite a lot of time there as I am trying to fill my hope chest, I have been buying fabric and making sheets and pillowcases, which I then embroider. I can buy cotton at 10 cents a yard. We could have linen for the sheets, which although they are very pleasant, are more difficult to dry, and the fabric costs more too - 12 cents a yard. I should have said, the fabric is one and a half yards wide.

I must start thinking about making my wedding dress. We have not set a definite date but Hyacinth thinks it should probably be in the summer of 73. I do want my dress to be very special. How wonderful it would be if you could be here by then.

We have expanded somewhat in the animal business this last year, as we now use the dugout for our livestock. We bought a calf for $15. Hopefully when she grows up we can get her with calf and then next year we will have our own source of milk and cheese and butter.

You asked if we young people feel that we have benefited in being in the new world. I have to say that I have yet to hear of anyone who wants to go back to Prussia. There is no way that anyone of Hyacinth's age (22) there would have progressed as fast and well as he has here.

Having now built our new log house, we can sell the extra trees that we fell on our property, and Pa reckons that we should get $100 for them.

You asked what we pay for food here at the moment. Tea is still expensive - 50-60 cents a pound - but much cheaper than when we arrived - and coffee costs 12-14 cents a pound. A pound of butter is 6-12 cents. We pay 12-14 cents for a pound of candles, but we do mostly make our own now. Clothing that is half wool costs 50 cents a yard or maybe even as much as a dollar for the very finest. Shoes are very expensive too.

December 1871

I find that I lost this and did not get around to sending this when I should have, so might as well add a bit to it now.

On October 8-10 there were huge fires all through parts of Wisconsin, but not affecting us here, but 1000 or more persons perished, and 3000 were rendered destitute.

Love

Susanna