(59) THE grasshoppers came again in 1875, and did a great deal of damage that year, though not so much generally as in 1874. In the northern part of the county, however, the new settlers suffered more from their depredations than at any other time. The settlers in the Bazile neighborhood who had come in 1871 and subsequent years, and also the new settlers on the Verdigris, were all compelled to leave the county for a time, some of them returning in 1876 and others not until 1877. In fact, in the fall of 1874, and in 1875, many settlers from different parts of the county left for a while, and some of them did not return at all.

     It is a notable fact that the grasshoppers came usually, though not always, from the northwest. After alighting and devouring whatever came in their way that suited their taste, they would always remain until the weather was fair and until the wind blew in the direction they wanted to go. They might stay two or three days or a week, drifting about over the country, but they never rose to bid goodbye without fair weather and a favorable breeze. Generally, they came about the last of July or the fore part of August, remained from two to six days, and then passed on to the southeast. In 1875, however, they came about the middle of June, and came from the southeast. Sometimes they passed over at a great height, looking like hazy clouds, or at times like clouds that were quite dense, so as to give the sun a dim, dull appearance, or at other times almost to obscure it, and would fail to alight at all. Only two or three times did any of them (60) remain here to lay their eggs and breed a new brood for the next year. When some of them did remain they would gather in great bunches like a swarm of bees, from a peck to a half-bushel in a bunch, as the nights became cool along in September. Throughout the day they would scatter to seek a place to deposit their eggs, and at night again gather together in bunches. For the purpose of laying their eggs they always selected a place where the surface of the ground was somewhat compact and hard, as where it had been trampled by cattle, or in an old road, or in corn or stubble fields, but never in mellow ground or in the sod. The new brood would hatch out in April and was very destructive to the green wheat and oats and growing corn. As soon as they had reached maturity they would leave for the southeast. They came again in numbers sufficient to do damage in 1876, and a few in 1877.

     Since 1877 there have been no migratory grasshoppers in Antelope County. In 1874, for the first time, the grasshoppers began to show signs of disease. A small red mite appeared that year, looking like a very diminutive spider, not larger, when full grown, than a clover seed. It was noticed that year that many of the grasshoppers seemed to be specked with little red dots. These dots were little red mites and were found on the bodies of the grasshoppers, generally under the wings, from two or three to six or seven on each one so affected. These were brought here by the grasshoppers and were left here by them by the million. In plowing the next spring these mites could be seen in numbers wherever the ground was turned up. They not only preyed upon the grasshoppers, but also devoured their eggs. Place a number of these red mites under a tumbler and give them a cell of grasshopper eggs, and they would at once suck the juice out of them. These red mites remained as long as there were any grasshoppers here, and to some extent for some years thereafter. Many of the grasshoppers also were infested with little grubs about an eighth of an inch in length, that preyed upon their vitals, completely eating out the insides and leaving only a shell. (61) Others had a long, slender worm, not larger than a horsehair, coiled up in the abdominal cavity. Catch any grasshopper, in any of the summers from 1874 to 1877, that did not appear lively, and it would be affected in one of the three ways mentioned above. What became of the grasshoppers that were here in greater or less numbers in 1867, as reported by J. G. Routson, and again to some extent in 1870, then in 1872, 1874, and every year up to and including 1877, is a question hard to answer. Some think they were entirely exterminated by their enemies; others, that those that passed on to the southeast finally perished in the Gulf of Mexico. Certain it is that one year, possibly 1875 but probably 1876, they passed over in clouds all day, coming from the northwest, from about ten o'clock A. M. until the sun was well down toward the west. They were at a great height and looked like fleecy clouds. One unaccustomed to grasshoppers would have thought nothing of it, but would have supposed them real clouds. These clouds moved slowly, exactly like ordinary clouds; when looked at through a glass it was plain to be seen that they were clouds of grasshoppers. These were not heard of again. Had they alighted anywhere in the United States they would have covered millions of acres and the newspapers would have published accounts of it.

     The grasshoppers had a choice as to the kinds of their food. They would eat corn leaves, garden vegetables of all kinds, apple-tree leaves, also the bark of the twigs and small limbs, willow and cottonwood, and the leaves of some other kinds of trees. They would not only strip the big weeds growing in the ravines of their leaves, but would gnaw the stems also, leaving just a bare, naked stalk. In the cornfields they not only ate the corn but destroyed the weeds, if there were any. However, they would go hungry before they would feed upon growing sorghum, or leaves of the box-elder. The Indians at various times were troublesome; the blizzards and prairie fires were dangerous and had to be fought and guarded against; mills, post-offices, and markets were a long way (62) off and hard to reach, but the worst thing and the most discouraging that ever struck the early settlers of Antelope County was the grasshopper plague. When at last they were gone, and gone for good, they were still expected and looked for every year for several years. The men who had the grit and courage to stay by, and stick it out to the end, were made of the same stuff that genuine pioneers are always made, and are the only ones fitted to settle a new country.

     Many of the settlers who remained here in 1874 were more or less destitute, and none of them had any seed corn, while very few had potatoes or garden vegetables. All who had been here long enough to have ground ready for it had crops of wheat and oats. These crops, however, were shelled out and wasted to a great extent and not many had any grain to spare. The legislature which was in session in the winter of 1874-75 made an appropriation to buy grain and corn and garden seeds for those who were destitute, and also to furnish the necessary provisions to carry the needy settlers through until a crop could be raised. Philanthropic people and societies in the east also sent supplies for general distribution, and many who had friends in more favored localities received boxes of supplies containing clothing, bedding, and provisions. General Ord, then in command of the Department of the Platte, designated Lieutenant W. F. Norris, afterwards Judge Norris of the district court, to oversee the distribution of these supplies among the counties of north Nebraska, and the several county clerks were to oversee the work in each county. W. W. Putney, at that time county clerk of Antelope County, had charge of the distribution here, and under him were assistants for the different neighborhoods appointed by the board of commissioners. Many, of course, got along without any assistance, but were compelled to go in debt for such things as they did not raise and must have. Others, as reported by the distributors, were really needy but too independent to accept of (63) supplies. It is also no doubt true that some were willing to accept and did receive more than they were entitled to. However, beginning with 1876, times began to get better again, and continued to improve without interruption for a series of years.