The desire for more remunerative pay and the beckoning of the Western country, terminated my school experience, and whatever education I have acquired since that time has been in the School of “Hard Knocks.”

The offer of a steady sit came to me from a friend at Oakland, Nebr. And I at once decided to go “west”. The trip by train to Missouri Valley, thence “over the Missouri” river by big transfer boat, then unloaded on Northwestern rails and taken on to Blair, Nebr. Here we changed cars to the C., ST. P. & Minneapolis branch line, and late in the evening we landed at our destination, where we became a citizen in the winter of 1882.

Of course I have never forgotten the impression that came to me as I arrived in the then almost primitive little village of Oakland that winter day of 1882. The population of the place was almost wholly made up of immigrants from Sweden and the Scandinavian countries, who had settled in the then new country. Comparatively few spoke the English language and it was rather disconcerting and discouraging to be able to hear little else than the Swedish language.

Further primitive and new country evidences were apparent all around. The new Central hotel opposite the depot was hardly completed and we (the passengers and railroad men) were ushered into the half finished dining room where we had long planks on “horses” for a dining table and planks for seats. However, I discovered that there could be just as fine cookery and food on a table of this kind as there could be under the most elaborate furniture and surroundings in the old Iowa settled “east.”

In spite of the fact that the people in general were very friendly, I never before had experienced the feeling of real homesickness that assailed me at that time. I thought of taking an early train back to “God’s Country” but unfortunately (or should I say fortunately) I lacked sufficient funds for a return ticket and the walking was mighty poor, so I was compelled to face a future that didn’t seem any too promising.