April 2020 • Nebraskaland 43
John Turner dug such a house in Boone County. A neighbor
told him the spot was high enough even if the creek should
rise, and Turner lived there with his wife and three boys
while he built a sod house on another part of his claim.
But Turner, a recent immigrant from England, didn't expect
the severity of the thunderstorm that struck one day while
he and the two older boys worked on the soddy. He sent
12-year-old Edgar back to the dugout to check on his wife and
youngest child. Edgar soon came back hollering and waving
his hands.
Turner ran for the dugout and waded through the rising
water, struggling to keep his balance against the current.
The dugout itself was fl ooded. Inside, Mrs. Turner sat on
one of the wooden doors the family was using as temporary
fl ooring. Balanced on a fl oating door, she held the youngest
boy while holding a frying pan over his head to protect him
from the rainwater pouring through the roof like a sieve.
"Higher and higher the two caged birds were lifted till their
heads almost touched the roof," Turner wrote years later.
He had to get them out quickly. He grabbed the little boy,
waded across the creek and left the child on high ground.
Then he went back for his wife.
Turner was carrying his wife across when he stepped in
a hole, stumbled and dropped her into the rushing water.
Somehow, he stayed on his feet and grabbed hold of her dress.
"We scrambled and struggled through to the other side the
best way we could," he wrote.
The Turners lost most of their supplies, but escaped
without loss of life. They stuck it out on their claim, and
in 1903 Turner published a memoir, Pioneers of the West,
recounting this and many other hardships that the family
met with a combination of hopefulness, ignorance and
fortitude.
N
Visit History Nebraska's website at history.nebraska.gov.
Photo labeled "Our Home," near McCook, 1890s. H. W. Cole Collection, History Nebraska RG3464-0-3
Roten Valley, Custer County, Nebraska, 1892. Photo by S.D.
Butcher. History Nebraska RG2608-0-1677
Home of D. Meek, south of Broken Bow, 1890. Photo by S.D.
Butcher. History Nebraska RG2608-0-1610
