OCR Text |
Show From Henry Houge, Houstrn, Minnesota: I am past 87 years. I can remember back as far as about 1877. This would be 83 . years ago. I can remember 5 oxen teams, Ole Nerison Vraa in In the upper end of Badger Valley had an oxen team, Mickel Holte on Holte Ridge had a team, Sunder Sun-der Wisland and Iaick Jergenson on Houge Ridge each had a team. I remember when I was a young kid I walked along with my uncle when he was driving along. He had a whip a stick about two feet long and a leather lash about three feet long. I had a whip of my own, mostly a hazelbush stick, about 8-9 inches long and a string of some kind for a lash. One of the above oxen drivers got rid of his oxen and bought a young span of 3-year-old colts. This man had two young boys. One day they took a notion they wanted to break in the colts. One boy was driving, the other leading. The man was using the whip. They wanted to learn the colts everything every-thing at once. They got them so rattled and mixed up they couldn't do anything with them. Falls and Gargel had a flour mill north of Houston. The CM. & St. Paul Railway built a spur track from the main line to the mill, a distance of 60-70 rods. These millers had an oxen team to pull the empty box cars from the main track to the mill, and to pull the filled cars back to the main track. The oxen would walk along the track having a long rope maybe about forty feet long tied to the center ring of the yoke and a hook at the other end to hook onto the cars. These oxen were so well trained they didn't need a driver, one man at each end would hook and unhook the hook. Most of the oxen had names like Tom & Jerry, Duke of Dame. (Send rontrlhutions to this column to The Old Timer, Community Tress bervice. Box i, Frankfort, Kentucky.) |