This is a wonderful article depicting the life and times of our early ancestors in South Dakota.

Cyrus Bouck, 86, Potsdam, Lived in Sod Shanty During Pioneer Era

Potsdam, Jan. 7. --"Snowstorms at their worst in the North Country are very mild in comparison with the blizzards of South Dakota," said Cyrus Bouck, 86, yesterday while 'reminiscing of the day he spent in a sod shanty during the pioneering days of that state when he went West to stake out a claim before the Dakotas had become states of the union.

Mr. Bouck, who had worked at the trade of blacksmithing most of his life, and who is a second cousin of John Bouck, a well-known blacksmith of Gouverneur, and the late Gordon Bouck, who was also a smithy of that village, has had many interesting experiences during his life. Retiring from the trade two years ago at the age of 84, he is still ambitious and remarked yesterday at his home at 21 Grove street, where he now lives with his son, Luther, "I am itching for spring to come so I can get to work. I don't like to sit around."

His present ambition is in raising a large bed of strawberries and other vegetables for his son's family and relatives. "They all like my strawberries and keep me busy and I like to keep useful," he added.

A native of Ontario, Canada, Mr. Bouck was born in 1861, the year the Civil War broke out, he pointed out. At the age of three years, he moved to the states with his parents and they settled in Heuvelton. His father, who was a farmer, also worked at the trade of blacksmithing during his spare time.

Mr. Bouck first became interested in learning the trade while in the village of Parishville, where he often visited a married sister. He went into the business of blacksmithing in Parishville with his brother, Amon Bouck, and married Miss Ida Hoyt of that village in 1884. Shortly following their marriage, the couple decided to strike out for the west and stake a claim in virgin territory. Traveling by train, they arrived in what was then the territory of Dakota.

"A man was allowed to stake out a claim of 160 acres," Mr. Bouck explained.

But in the section which appealed to him, he staked out a claim of 149 acres and set about erecting a sod shanty in which to live while proving the claim, which had to be paid for at the rate of $1.25 per acre. The sod house was built by plowing the sods to the required lengths and widths and constructed similar to that of a brick house.

"They called it 'Dakota brick'," he said, pointing out that the sods were full of roots and after standing became strong and hard and would stand for years.

"My house, I made 16 feet square. The walls were 14 inches thick. Windows and a door were of lumber, and the roof was made on one slant of timers and covered with the sods. The huts were very warm."

For heating, he burned corn and hay, which is a hard thing to realize in the present days of coal and oil heating systems. Mr. Bouck explained that he raised western corn which had ears up to 16 inches in length. The corn was stored in bins near the sod but for winter fuel and carried into the hut in arm's full like wood. Grass, or rather dried hay, twisted into hard rolls, was also used extensively by Mr. Bouck and his wife while living in the hut.

Laughingly, Mr. Bouck recalled yesterday an instance which greatly amused him as he thought of what once happened to him when burning hay for heat.

"I had filled the sheet iron heater with hay, then sat back to smoke my pipe while it got started," he recalled. "The hay didn't seem to want to burn and I had to light it a third time. Then I again sat back with my feet on top of the stove while I smoked. Suddenly the stove exploded from the accumulated gas in the hay and scattered burning hay all over the room. I was busy for a few minutes putting but the fire."

"We had to spend the winter months in the hut on our claim, as it took six months to prove your claim," he said. "You didn't dare to be gone from your claim a month or you were liable to be contested. That was when we had trying experiences in the South Dakota blizzards."

Mr. Bouck recalled one instance in particular. The day had been balmy and fair, but that night he woke up several times thinking it should be daylight. Each time it was still dark so he went back to sleep. Finally he woke up and found that it was 1 in the afternoon, and the hut was still in darkness. Upon investigation, he and his wife found that their sod hut was entirely buried in snow.

"I always kept a shovel inside the hut for an emergency," he said," so I started digging a hole up through the snow from the doorway. Meanwhile, a neighbor and his wife, who had become worried about us, came through the snow with a team of horses and a flat sled with box in which they rode. The woman, gathering her skirts around her slid down the hole into the house and the man followed her and we all had dinner together.

Mr. Bouck related another experience which he had during one of the blizzards. The morning had been a beautiful day, he said which was what the settler learned was a "weather breede. In the afternoon the blizzard struck. Mr. Bouck went to a nearby hotel which was also built xx sods and found that the men were worrying about a school teacher and her pupils at the schoolhouse some distance away.

"The blizzard was so bad that we couldn't see our hand in front of our face," he declared.

Finally, Mr. Bouck volunteered to rescue the teacher and children by means of a ball of twine, Tying the end of the cord to the porch of the hotel, he faced the storm and started out. After being forced to return twice, he managed to reach the school house, trailing the twine. After tying the children and the teacher together and fastening the cord to himself he brought them through the blizzard to the hotel by following the twine string.

Although the blizzards were terrific when they hit, they did not last long, Mr. Bouck pointed out, and sometimes that section had very little snow during the winter. When the blizzards hit they piled the snow up in banks. The families used to prepare for such emergencies and stored food and fuel in the huts, or food, besides the groceries obtained at stores, they also lived on prairie chickens, sage hens and rabbits. They had taken kerosene lamps from here which they used for lighting.

After six months, Mr. Bouck and his wife disposed of the claim and went to Conde, SD where Mr. Bouck opened a blacksmith shop, and built the first residence in that village which is now called a city. His first child, Mrs. Grace Logan of Potsdam, was born in that house. He operated the shop for ten years and then was forced, because of poor health, to return east.

“The alkaline water did not agree with me," he explained.

Returning to Parishville, Mr. Bouck again entered the blacksmithing business with his brother, Amon, where he remained six years. Later, he entered the employ of the Racquette River Paper Company, were he remained for 21 years, working the trade of smithing. He retired two years ago. His wife died 14 years ago.

Mr. Bouck recalled his close friendship with an Indian chief of a reservation located near his former sod shanty in South Dakota. He said that while the Indians were not exceptionally friendly with the white people, and the chief, named Phelix Rondel, became close friends and that he learned some of the Indian language. The chief invited him to attend one of the ceremonial war dances, which he greatly enjoyed.

In recalling that he was born the year when the Civil War broke out, he said that he could remember when the soldiers returned home with their blue coats and brass buttons.

He said that he has never been particularly interested in politics but has always voted the Republican ticket, with the exception of once, when he voted the "Bull Moose ticket."

"I voted for 'Teddy' Roosevelt, for I felt he knew more about this country than any other man on earth," he said. "I would vote for him again, if he were alive."