I didn't even have a
pocket knife, no weapon of any kind. I was not afraid, but I wouldn't
start out that way again. The only shade I could find in the daytime was
the rosin weed on the prairie. I would lay down so it would throw the
shade in my face and rest, then get up and go again. It was in the
spring of the year in June. I came to Lawrence, Kansas, where I stayed
two years working on the farm. In 1874 I went to work for a man by the
month at $35 a month and I made more money than the owner did, because
the grasshoppers ate up the crops. I was hired to cut up the corn for
him, but the grasshoppers ate it up first. He could not pay me for
sometime. Grasshoppers were so thick you couldn't step on the ground
without stepping on about a dozen at each step. I got my money and came
to Ottawa in December 1874, about Christmas time."
"My master's name was Simms and I was known as Simms Bill, just like
horses. When I came out here I just changed my name from Simms Bill, to
Bill Simms."
"Ottawa was very small at the time I came here, and there were several
Indians close by that used to come to town. The Indians held their war
dance on what is now the courthouse grounds. I planted the trees that
are now standing on the courthouse grounds. I still planted trees until
three or four years ago. There were few farms fenced and what were, were
on the streams.
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