We did not prove up on our homesteads in three years, and found we had no taxes to pay until we did prove up, which we did in the fifth year. Mr. Niles and I proved up together, acting as witnesses for each other. We had to drive to Neligh as the land office had moved there from Norfolk.

A minister by the name of Rev. Damon started revival meetings in our new Deer Creek school house, and it was during these meetings that my wife and I embraced religion and were immersed in the Elkhorn river.

Five years had now elapsed and we had a son we called Elera, and we were happy indeed, for we were prospering. We had built an addition of a kitchen, bedroom, closet and porch, also a corncrib. By this time my large grove had made a rapid growth, and the shrubbery made my home not only pleasing to the eye, but real cozy and comfortable.

As summer waned we little knew of the winter that was fast approaching but it came as winters do and I shall never forget this one of eight-eight. We had been having just ordinary weather up until January 12th. The morning was real foggy but nice and warm. Mr. and Mrs. Niles and babe drove down to spend the day with us. Mr. Niles came in his shirt sleeves. We were chatting after dinner when all at once we heard a roaring noise. He said, "I must go to the school house for my children," and I replied, "You'll never make it." Before we could get from the house to the barn we could not see the horses, but felt around and lost no time in getting them hitched to the sleigh, leaving his wife and babe at our place. As luck would have it my cattle had come up and were waiting at the gate, which I threw open and then drove them into the barn. I said, "Niles, I'll never let you go through that bad gulch (which was on the west of us) alone." I jumped into the sleigh with him, and helped him through. I then started for home but will never know how I made it. I had on two shirts, a vest, jacket and two coats. The snow was packed so hard between my two shirts I could scarcely dig it out. Mr. Niles got home safely with his two boys, but how I never could tell, for where there was a nail hole in the barn there was wagon loads of snow. There were a number of children, teachers and considerable stock that lost their lives in different parts of the state. I never want to experience another such storm. My wife had come to Nebraska seven years before me, and had witnessed worse storms than I had. She had also seen the grasshopper times, when they darkened the sky as a thunder storm does today.

In the fall of '89 I had brick on the ground for the foundation for a new house which was to be 28 feet square with two stories, when I received a letter from the old uncle who had raised me, begging us to come to Canada. This was my first bad move. My sale brought me fifteen hundred dollars, not so bad for those days. I rented my farm for a year and with my family (we now

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