Life on the Prairie (cont.)

•November 11, 2026•

by Janet Roney

“The Prairie mud was remarkable,” wrote Henry A. Gleason. “It was so sticky and so tenacious that it rolled up on the tires in great masses of a hundred pounds or more, and the drivers had to carry paddles to poke it off at frequent intervals. Hauling crops to market, or hauling heavy loads of any kind, became impossible.” That’s what traveling on the roads on the prairies of Moultrie County was like in the 1880s and 1890s after spring and summer rains when Gleason grew up on a farm near Dalton City.

“In winter, warm rainy weather and muddy roads were usually followed by freezing weather which petrified the roads into rough irregular surfaces worn into deep ruts. There were no smooth places for a horse to travel, and a buggy or wagon, once the wheels were in those ruts, could hardly get out.” They could only travel one or two miles per hour as the passengers were jolted along.

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