Miles Saga
[from L.D. Miles by Carol (Bickel) Cramer]
A history of her father and family written by Mabel Miles Bickel in
1978 at age 78.
It was a beautiful day, that Sunday in January 1934, and after church my parents had
walked across the road to our house for dinner.
The summer before had been hot and dry and no snow had fallen that winter. The crops
had failed and feed was scarce. The country was still in the depression and the price of
wheat and livestock was very low. I remember my father, with the optimism of the pioneer,
discussing the kind of seed wheat he should buy for next spring's planting. But he didn't
live to put in another crop. He went home before my mother and the hired man found him
dead on his bed. He had gotten ready for bed, wound his watch and died quietly and alone.
He was 77 years old, as were his father and brother at their deaths. After it was too late
I realized that a wealth of history had died with my father. His life spanned the years
from the carriages to airplanes-from ox drawn plows to diesel tractors.
He was born in Michigan, I think, but I don't know where. His grandfather came to Ohio
from Canada. The Miles' came to the United States from England, to New England, making
their way to Canada and Ohio. My father told me that he remembered moving, in covered
wagons, from Michigan to Illinois and back to Michigan. I think they lived first in Yankee
Springs, Michigan and then after returning from Illinois lived on a farm in Allegan
County.
My grandfather, James Lorenzo Miles, died in 1895 on the homestead in Benton township,
Spink County, SD. He was 63 when he came with his wife, two sons and his daughter in an
emigrant car to Dakota Territory. My mother has said that he was a kind and gentle man. He
loved to read, a trait that was passed to many of his descendents. The story is told that,
in Michigan, he had a team of horses (most of his neighbors had oxen) and on a certain day
he was going to drive his horses and bobsled to Allegan, the county seat, a long days
drive. Some of his neighbors came early in the morning to ride with him. However, my
grandfather told them to go home, he had started to read a book and wouldn't get it
finished in time to go to town that day!
In Dakota he herded sheep with an Indian pony and a shepherd dog that he had trained to
round up the sheep in the evening and then awaken him. One cold, rainy day his youngest
son, Bert, was herding the sheep so his father would not have to go out in the nasty
weather, but my grandfather walked to the field where they were and insisted on herding
the rest of the day. He caught cold and died in a few days of pneumonia. Because he
suffered with migraine headaches his family did not realize he had pneumonia also, until
it was too late.
My grandmother Miles was Susan Cooper from Ohio. My mother has said that Susan had a
bad temper and was very hard to get along with. When my parents were married they lived
with grandfather and grandmother Miles. It would be more correct to say that my
grandparents lived with my father. It appears that my father was the "head" of
the family and it was his decision that they left Michigan for Dakota Territory. It was
hard for my mother to live with grandmother Miles. One day grandmother couldn't find one
of her silver spoons. She accused my mother of emptying it with the dishwater into a
barrel of ground feed and water for the pigs. My grandmother tipped the barrel and feed on
the ground but her silver spoon was not in it. After my grandfather died, grandmother went
to bed and stayed for several years until she died. The doctor said that she had become so
fat that her heart failed and she died on Dec. 4, 1899.
When my father was 30 years old and the head of the family, many people from Michigan
were coming to Dakota Territory to settle on public land. For a small fee a man could
"take up" 160 acres of land and by living on it for 5 years have a clear title
to it. He told me the farms in Michigan were small and no one could do more than make a
living. So, in 1882/83 they sold their land for $2000 and loaded the emigrant car with
household goods, machinery, livestock and came to Spink County, Dakota Territory. The
closest railroad was 20 miles away, in Mellette. Those early days must have been extremely
hard. They were used to houses built in woods and here everything was exposed to the
bitter Dakota winds. I faintly remember the little low barns. In winter the snow drifted
completely over them. The first few years here were years of low rainfall and hot winds.
The winters were severe with record breaking low temperatures. On Jan. 12, 1888, a
blizzard swept across the whole upper midwest killing hundreds of livestock and many
people. Fortunately, the blizzard hit before my father's stock had left the barns, and the
family stayed in the house until the storm was over. Many stories are told of the people
who escaped and of the ones who froze in that storm. After the storm they fenced the roof
of the barns to keep the animals from walking over them and perhaps falling through. They
had to dig down to the hay stacks.
My father loved horses and after their crops were better and money was available, he
imported from the east thoroughbred horses and used them for farming and he had some that
he raced. I remember seeing the race track he had laid out in the pasture. Then he bought
Perchean horses and raised and sold many. Those I remember very well.
He became successful and bought more land until when he died he had nine quarters. In
about 1904 he went into politics and served two terms as Spink County Treasurer. He would
come home on the weekend, usually on the train from Redfield to Doland and another train
from Doland to east of the farm (less than a mile). The train slowed down and he would hop
off. Once he brought rockers home for me and my sister Lena, and in getting off the moving
train the rocker on one was broken and since I was the littlest, I got the broken one! It
was repaired and it is sitting in my house where I can see it now. One time when I was
five or six, Dad took me with him for a week and it was the first time I had stayed in a
hotel. In 1906 my father built a new house. By then he had six children. At the time the
house was most unusual for a SD farm. It was three stories with hardwood floors and
finished attic, hot water heat, a bath on second floor and half bath on first floor. It
had three fireplaces, five bedrooms on the second floor, a bedroom, kitchen, dining room,
den, living room, parlor and reception room on the first floor and electric lights. He had
his own power plant in the basement, also a game room with a regulation pool table.
His sister, Kate Annis married a neighboring farmer and moved to Omaha where she died,
leaving a baby girl, Kate. Kate married Theodore Melzar Cole and lived in Redwood City,
California.
His brother, James Adelbert, "Uncle Bert", never married and made his home
with my parents. He died at the age of seventy-seven. He made a success of farming and for
many years spent the winters travelling in the south and California. He often took nieces
on those trips to California. He spent the summers on the farm and at a home he had on
Lake Kampeska near Watertown, SD. His nieces and nephews loved him very much. When he was
older and had great nieces he would keep them for a week at a time at the lake, take them
fishing and feed them fried potatoes.
My mother, Carrie Eliza Curran, was born in Kokomo, Indiana, I believe. Her parents
were James Mitchell Curran and Caroline King. Grandfather was born in Ohio, near Shelby.
His mother's name was Susan Arter, but that is all I know of them. He was a soft spoken
man, who seemed to have worked at many trades. He was a carpenter, a cook on lake
steamers, and a farmer and woodsman. His wife, my grandmother, was born in Norfolk of
Suffolk, England on September 19, 1848 and died 10 Dec. 1928 in SD. Her father was a
miller. She was the youngest of six children. She was young when her mother died and she
lived with her father. She had said that she didn't remember ever seeing her father walk.
He was crippled with arthritis and spent his time in a wheelchair. She told of lying in
bed in an upstairs room and watching the sailing ships come into the Yarmouth harbor. Her
brothers Max and Edward came to the United States to fight in the Civil War with the
Northern army. Her two sisters and another brother, Arthur, were also here. Her father
died when she was about 16 years old so she came to make her home with her brothers and
soon married my grandfather, who was thirteen years older than she, in Chicago where one
of her sisters lived.
My grandmother Curran was raised at a time in England when ghosts were a part of
everyday living. She told us stories of 'tappings' and ghostly footsteps around the house.
Her mother had twin sons. When they were babies they were very sick. One night as she was
walking the floor with one-he died and was laid out in a cold room. While the mother was
caring for the other one the 'dead' baby started to cry. That one, (Max), lived to be an
old man but the other one died. My grandmother thought it was supernatural. She told me
that her brothers, Ed and Max were working at the carpenter trade in the US when their
mother died in England. One day while they were eating their lunch outside, a pure white
dove came to them and stayed around all day. Then they never saw it again. After weeks a
letter came from England saying their mother died-at the time the dove had come to them.
Grandmother was very religious and she attended 'camp meetinge (outdoor religious
meetings) whenever they were near, leaving her children alone. One day they were in the
woods and built a fire and the oldest daughter, Naomi Elizabeth, (Aunt Libby) was badly
burned. She recovered but was badly scarred. My grandmother still went to camp meetings,
she was very concerned that her family become Christians. She brought her family of four
daughters and a son to Dakota and grandfather came later and filed on the land.
My mother and father were married on Oct. 14, 1888. Their first child, Jessie Naomi
died before she was a year old of lung fever. Probably pneumonia. The neighbors made a
little coffin for the burial. Mother lined it with flannel and the neighbors picked
prairie flowers for the funeral. Then they had Ruth Marian, Hazelle Blanche, Lynn Edward,
Lena Belle, Mabel Beatrice, Mildred May, who died at two weeks, Florence Bertha, LeRoy
David, Jr. and Lincoln Curran.
The early pioneer women worked hard and by our standards had a barren life but I don't
ever remember hearing my mother complain. She loved children and they were her whole life
after her husband. She was a very good speller and enjoyed the "literaries", the
entertainment that was held at country schoolhouses, where she often won the spelldowns.
Mabel Miles Bickel 1978 |
