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was not available at all. In some districts building
material was scarce and sod was used for building and
fences. The monotony and isolation of early frontier
life was a severe strain. Grasshoppers, like the plagues
in Egypt, afflicted the people, sometimes even stopping
trains for hours. From June, 1859, until November,
1860, there was not at any time enough rain to moisten
the soil two inches deep.[1]
Most of these settlers were of scanty means and at
first could not possibly make a living from tilling the
soil. They usually found employment in railroad
building and at government forts during part of the year.
Equipment and supplies of all kinds were very
expensive. In 1867, in Salina, a bushel of corn cost four
dollars, and a sack of flour ten dollars.[2] When the
Mariadahl church issued a call to a pastor in 1866 it
offered a salary of three hundred dollars in currency,
free lodging and fuel, thirty bushels of wheat and a
hundred bushels of corn annually.[3]
In their political affiliations practically all the
Swedish immigrants were Republicans. In the first
election held in McPherson County, in which Lindsborg is
located, of one hundred and ninty-eight voters only one
voted the Democratic ticket.[4]
According to the United States decennial census
reports there were in 1860 only 122 Swedes in Kansas,
but in 1870 the numher was 4954. The majority of the
latter had evidently come in 1868, 1869 and 1870. The
largest number were in Saline, Davis, Riley, Douglas,
and McPherson Counties.
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