My father, August Adolf, and my mother and two children moved from South Dakota to Burlington and took a homestead nine miles north of Bethune (now known as the Edgar Stahlecker farm) and lived in a oneroom dugout - the roof covered with sod and no other buildings on the place.
May 8, 1890, I was born.  My Dad had to haul the water from the Republican River and had just two barrels on the wagon.  So when he came home and was going to unload the barrel, it slipped out of his hold and he lost all the water and they did not have enough water to wash me.

   There was all open range: no fences, no farming, no plowed ground . . . all grass at that time . . . the Indians killed them for their hide.  All that was left was a pile of bones where one could find an arrowhead that killed the buffalo, of which I still have some of the arrowheads I found.
There were lots of antelope, coyotes, prairie dogs, owls, prairie chickens and rattlesnakes.  Later, the country was filled with cattle and horses that roamed the prairies.

    As time went on, the family grew to four boys and three girls.  Father had quite a few cattle and, to my knowledge, there wasn't a horse on our ranch that was not broke to ride or to drive and if I could not ride him, I had a younger brother, Gust, that could ride him.  I was born in the saddle and with boots on and still wear boots and want to be buried with boots on, so much for that.

   I was baptized 28th December, 1890 at the John Dobler home by Rev.  D. Meyer.  There was no church building at the time, so they had the service in one home.  Pastor Meyer was the first minister in the settlement. 27th March, 1904, I was confirmed in the old stone church, the Immanuel Lutheran Church, by Rev.  Robert Ackerman of Yale, Co. and on Nov. 10, 1912, I was married to Mary E. Weisshaar by Rev.  N. Brun in the Immanuel Lutheran Church, the old stone church) building.

   In the early days there never was any hay stacked, for the cattle and horses were out on the range all winter.  There was very little snow in the winter and no snow storms until 1899, had a big snow that left 20 inches on the ground and stayed on all winter.  No feed and no grain, no way to buy feed, so the cattle started to starve to death.

    We had a neighbor by the name of John Wahl who had a big herd of cattle and no way to buy feed or grain, so he had to just see them die.  The neighbors came and helped skin the cattle which they got 25 cents a hide for.  He lost the entire herd.  That may sound bad, but I saw that myself, the cows got so hungry that they ate their own manure and the horses ate the boards of the corrals and the hair of each other's manes and tails.

    In 1902, diphtheria broke out and with no doctor in the settlement, we lost 10 or 12 persons, and we lost our oldest brother, Danny, and one of my aunts.

    One thing that the old settlers feared the most was prairie fires.  There was a prairie fire that started at Yuma and jumped the Republican River and burned clear to Cheyenne Wells.  Next was the rattlesnakes, and they were plenty.

     In 1907, a disease broke out among the horses, called the "blind staggers", and they died all over the county.  My Dad lost all but two head, lost 15 head, so all he had left was an old mare and colt, and at that time horses were very valuable; that was the only way to farm or even to get to town, as we depended on horses for everything.  It took years to build the herd up again, but in those days the neighbors always helped when anyone needed help.

    There were very few hogs on account of grain, but if one farmer had a sow that had pigs, then at weaning time the farmer gave each a pig as far as they went so they could raise it for the meat and lard.  And to get more meat they could shoot antelope, but there was only one big rifle, a 33G, in the neighborhood, owned by Gottlieb Bauder so if one wanted meat, he borrowed the gun from Mr. Bauder.  There were plenty of antelopes.
In 1908, the grasshoppers were so thick that at times they shaded the sun, and when they landed they just ate everything that was green.  There was no way to destroy them, no poison, and no spray.

    And talking about high wages now days, when I was 20 years old, I worked for a farmer in Riverton, Neb., by the name of Herman Amman, for $10 a month and room and board and worked harder than ever in my life.  I worked for him two years and I picked corn for one cent a bushel.

    Those were the good old horse days.  Then, their big problem was water for the livestock.  No well diggers in the country and most of the wells were dug by hand.  Most of them were 200 feet deep and the water was drawn by hand with a bucket and a winch.  A an by the name of Jim Knapp got a weu-digging rig which was driven by a team of mules.  Then came the O.K. windmills to solve the problems.  Cost of an eight-foot windmill was $25 "wooden wheel."

    I had nothing to start with and I think I still have half of it left yet.

    August William Adolf, better known as A.W. was born to Russian - German homesteaders August and Katherine Richter Adolf in the "Settlement" north of Bethune.  August was the first male birth registered in the newly incorporated Kit Carson County.  A.W. only had three years of formal schooling but always had a high regard of education and served on the school board at Bethune for many years.  He was an early member of the Kit Carson County Cattlemen's Association and had the first registered Angus herd in the area in the 1940's.  He loved horses and loved his Palominos and Percheron draft horses.  He enjoyed riding in parades and enjoyed the trail rides.

    A.W. and his wife Mary enjoyed 72 years of married life and had a family of six girls and two boys.  He passed away on Feb. 12, 1985 at the age of 94.