Palmer Myhra

This 64 page booklet is nice local history. It follows Zebulon and Betsy Lamphear over the years 1816-1865 from their home in Vermont to a farm in New York and then to Wisconsin, where "Indian Land" had just been opened to white settlers. Along the way they meet John Deere, who has just begun building farm machinery. Zeb teases Betsy about Jeff Davis, who used to visit at her parent's farm, when he becomes politically important. Betsy has a good comeback for any comment Zeb makes about politics: "I think women should vote." They worry when their older sons join the Civil War, the 2 children who move out to Minnesota to homestead, and about one son who never was able to learn or help much.
The story line is framed around visits by the author to an artesian well his great-grandfather had sunk, which was still flowing.
Full of typos and poor punctuation, the story line is still entertaining.… (mehr)