Tag Archives: sod house

Prairie Madness

he High Plains in Kansas, 1920, courtesy U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey

The High Plains in Kansas, 1920, courtesy U.S. Department of the Interior, Geological Survey

Life on the edges of the Western frontier was difficult, and by necessity, attracted mostly rugged, committed people who believed they could carve a good life for themselves in these untested regions. Despite the [general] sense of hope and adventure they carried, pioneers could not escape from mental illness any more than their counterparts in the more settled East. A  form of mental illness peculiar to the people settling the Great Plains was “prairie madness.”

An Interesting Read for Modern Urbanites

An Interesting Read for Modern Urbanites

 

It was an apt name, since the empty vastness of the prairie was an important contributor to the condition. Men and women who left an established home and social ties to face the isolation of the Great Plains could fall into depression that led to withdrawal and hopelessness. Some sufferers responded with anger and violence or with changes in behavior and character, and some went so far into despair that they committed suicide. Aside from returning East, there was little help for anyone who began to suffer from the condition, and it would have been difficult to differentiate normal feelings of homesickness and loneliness from the more extreme symptoms in the condition’s beginning stages.

Risk factors of the prairie environment included:

— Isolation

— Lack of transportation

— Harsh weather

— Unfamiliar hazards such as grasshopper plagues, prairie fires, and drought

— Lack of medical facilities and professionals, which made any sort of physical sickness more difficult to endure

— The unceasing wind and lack of familiar vegetation like trees

Prairie madness was not a defined, clinical condition with precise symptoms, but many people wrote about it. One memoir that includes an account of prairie madness is Adela Orpen’s Memories of the Old Emigrant Days in Kansas, 1862-1865.

A Sod House Was a Far Cry From Most Settlers' Former Homes, courtesy Library of Congress

A Sod House Was a Far Cry From Most Settlers’ Former Homes, courtesy Library of Congress

 

Longing for Winter’s End

Cheyenne Winter Camp

Solstice celebrations (see last post) helped peoples in cold areas of the world cope with their fear that summer would never return to a dark and dreary world. Later, these celebrations acted as bright spots during a long season of inactivity and discomfort. Wintertime was certainly a period of discomfort for most people, and could be deadly without proper shelter and enough food. South Dakota, where the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians was located, was no exception. Though records were not kept throughout the state’s (and territory’s) history, we do know that the state’s lowest recorded temperature reached 58 degrees below zero on February 17, 1936, in McIntosh. (Its highest was 120 degrees in Gannvalley that same year–representing a 178 degree swing in temperatures.) There is no way to know what wind chills may have been, since these measurements were not widely used by weather reporters until the 1970s.

Blizzards were a particular hardship on the Plains and in the Dakotas, where few trees could stop the wind and blowing snow. Frigid temperatures throughout winter often killed livestock, and indoor temperatures sometimes could not get above freezing. Milk, water, and even the ink in inkwells froze, and sometimes children stayed in bed all day simply because it was too cold to get up. Meanwhile, parents prepared food in freezing kitchens as they remained dressed in outside winter gear. Blowing snow could both blind and suffocate people, and settlers often strung clothesline between their houses and barns to prevent losing their way and dying of exposure. Winter in the Dakotas was a fearful time that left bitter memories for many families.

Photo of a Drawing by Charles Graham of a Herd of Cattle in a Blizzard, courtesy Kansas Historical Society

Sod Home Near Meadow, South Dakota, courtesy Library of Congress

______________________________________________________________________________________