Hide Article Text (OCR)
MEMORIES OF CLA7 COUNTYSchoolByagner52 Westminster Road, Newton CentreMassachusettsRATS!and Church. That afternoon we had callers. Theyviewed the dead rats, and an old man remarked to Pa, “Bet-get them away from there buzzards'll be chasing11 ror the1888 must have been a good corn year in South Clay County, for the summer of 1889brought the worst rat pest 1ever knew anything about. Andthey were huge, grey rats which knew how to take cure of themselves, and where to find what they wanted. 1 do not remember that We ever had ruts ondid as he pleased when ht pleased. He lt;1 id his job when it - (u was to be done and everybodybySteedtomorrow, and Evans had fed someMithetear'iof1 . , , , \ 4, bw* that winter, and had builtsat at breakfast at the same .*the *r (orn cribs just west of the ■ | village some eight or ten feetwide and probably a hundredtirmOften, as we milked cows, fed the horses and Add and 1 saw huge greyconsrythratsfeet long, all of them floored1A1scurrying inl„ .lurk hole*j '''•I l,ap|under the corn crib, which wasK^ ^ 's laul flat on the grouml.floored with rails laid flat on ^ ,lf the corn had been fell the around. Each dav we huskedU,len Kra h*'1liecorn for that day, and by spring I- turncl out to pasture, butcur farm on Tenmile prairie, or, wt. ran ont„ corn that the rat. Y* k,w th(‘ w cr'' r:,t.s ,u‘ that we had them in 1888 at Post- h;lcj husked and ■* *»-“- r them. Ihey suggested tooak when we first moved there.Late in 1888 my mother died and we moved out to the BudM, ____ * i mt bovs of the community thatmore and more of it.1 JNichols farm at the edge of the village Pa sold the mail route.With mother gone he had to become mother, as well as father, to six of us; two small girls and four growing boys, and housekeeper as well as provider.There were three roums in the Nichols house, anti plenty of sheds, cribs anti the like. Pa soltl most of his horses with the mail route, but kept two good tarm teams. He bought corn inthe crib when we move, there were straw stacks anti some hay.We owned several milch tows, end there was plenty of pasturage for them.While Pa got breakfast, Add smd 1 did the barn chores, andA If got the smaller childrendressed and ready for breakfast.On our place every inc luding father, and nobody j until we | »he floor.eaten, and 6ra* Lh dually more and more of it. 4One day I told Pa at breakfast that rats were eating all our corn and he’d bbtter get some “rough on rats” for them. He did, anti what an aroma (polite for stink i resulted! Rats under the crib (out of reach), infence torners, around hay stacks anti even under one room of the house! But there seemed to be as manv rats as ever.spee T1 if itbutWmo iwe make a rat killing. We were game. Some of the boys who ers.. There were probably 40 or | |,0p(came next morning had whisk-j^e50 of us, and all the dogs were there. We began al one end of the crib anti for awhile felt , like some oeult news agency hud warned the rats anti they had gone. We soon found that they hail a marvelous communication system under the cribs, andasSo Pa, who was thorough in what lie did, said we’d have to move Hit' corn and tear down the corn crib, ami rebuild itin a different place. That wasan event. We began by tearingpi let I thewent onaway the straw roof, ami then used top rails from the walls for flooring anti to start new walls. When w?e had room for it, we began carrying the corn (their ownwerewe tore into them they retreatedahead of us under the cribs Werails at one side antihunting rats anti find-and more of them ByWe hud half the cribsdowrn we had hundreds of deadrats. Boys learned skillful tech-rating more the timennjues in some dogsfrom the old crib and dumping ! rats it in the new. That went alright j heatdestruction, ami j learned an art of j We soon fount! that I leaving the areasa-ght j head of us anti running to the were down nearly to| rail piles we made to new hide-; Then rats began boun-louts. So was stationed a line ofI/. BYOU NAME IT!HULLD IT!hu-thetlogs between rat ven ami the rails. Bv noon cribs were all down anti the i rail piles had been reworkedRats were ricked up in messy piles. Finally we were done, except for tlead rats. Then farmerst ing up under our feet, anti | boys anti there’s something about a rat that makes a fellow hop whenone starts up his leg or runsacross his bare feet. We had adog who hated rats, and as they| began coming out he began apicnic. We boys got interested, - ... . , iand cut light green clubs about i ^ho had helped agreelt; •» anas long as baseball bats, as big},1,em :,wa’ Scoop shoves wtje as vour thumb. Then we began t ih^m into wagons,(using a shovel on the corn, with,and we went home to wash up.ra. Hands had handled too manyCabinetShopF. C. LA\ft fl|* •OwnerBo#cPhone Iwagonwaiting to get everyshowed up. If we missed, nailed him. We piled themfence corner, and when the was done we had halfbox of dead rats.ratsfor aw e n tfor anything else Two farmers w'hoato lie fitwhile.south of town developed a sense of humor; they began throwing rats out of their w a -Next day w as Sunday, an.! we I Sons beside the road a rat about jboys spread t lie news at Sum lay i every ten feet, ant nc lt;ubuzzards were on fence postsand tree limbs along that roadWeforrepresent John Hancock Life Insurance Company.' ‘ Farmlew interest and liberal appraisements onand Ranch loans.Also prepare Abstracts onClay County land and City property.CLAYCOMPANYV. LefevrePhone 108Wayfor several miles. But most of (them, including our contribution, went into draws ami canyonsI as far as possible from any i home. Buzzards seem to be fond | of rats. For weeks rat killings went on at farms and ranches | in our section of the tounty. Since that year I have neverheard of a Clay County rut pest.
Newspaper Details
Henrietta Clay County Leader
Henrietta, Texas, US
Thu, Apr 29, 1954
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Max B.
USA 10 Apr 2021
Other Publications Near Henrietta, Texas
Henrietta Clay County Leader
