Esther Louise Clement was born in Massachusetts Sept. 1, 1844 of French Canadian parentage. When 13 years old, she moved to Inlay City, Lapeer County, Michigan.
 

[page] 243      SOUTH DAKOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTION

On March 9 1866, she and Henry Wilber were married. Henry Wilber, son of Joel and Hannah Wilber, was a native of Michigan. He was born in Lapeer County, Nov. 9, 1865. He received a common school education and worked as a young man in the lumber woods of his state.

Mrs. Wilber was cook for the lumber camp

Five children were born in Michigan: Adel J, May 25, 1869; Emaline, March 26, 1872; Frank, October 14, 1874; Fred, Sept. 15, 1867; and Lena, June 22, L878 Adel died at the age of four years.

In the summer of 1880 Mr., and Mrs. Wilber moved to Dakota Territory. They came to the James River Valley in May from Ortonville, Minnesota, cross country by covered wagon.

On June 3, he filed entry on a homestead and a tree claim in Brown County. In the autumn, a sod house and barn were built on the homestead, and Esther Wilber moved with her family of four children to a home of her own. In this township there were only a few people. S. H. Cook. P. C. Cavanaugh, two bachelor brothers named Lamb, and John Chamberlain.

Henry Wilber had two horses, one cow and a number of chickens. That winter, 1880, was a hard one. A blizzard struck the middle of October. Heavy snows came at frequent intervals hindering trains, and shipment of supplies of fuel and groceries. Eleven feet of snow fell.

On Feb 2, a snow storm began that lasted 9 days. Flour was exhausted and other supplies were low.

On April 26, the sun shone warm and soon turned the prairie into a lake. Henry Wilber decided to go to Ortonville after supplies. He was gone several weeks. While he was gone, the family lived on wheat ground into cereal in a coffee mill. The wheat had been pounded with a wooden flail to thresh the grain by hand.

The baby Lena became ill and begged for some bread. Her mother took ground wheat and mixed it with water and scraped the flour bin for a little flour to make a pancake. Where to get the grease to fry the cakes, she didn't know. She thought of some tallow her father had given her when she left Michigan, to be used for cuts and sores. It was in small, lean cakes. She took a little of this. greased a pan and fried two small cakes for the sick baby.

On April 29, 1881, a daughter Stella was born.

The father broke the sod with a single plow. As he plowed, the boys Frank and Fred picked up buffalo bones and put them in a big pile by the barn. The land was spotted with buffalo bones which looked like white tents scattered over the prairie.

There was a trail cut deep in the prairie cutting across the farm, heading north to the Jim River. The Indians must have used it often on their way to mater. An Indian grave was also found on one corner of the homestead. The boys started to dig it open, but after finding beads, combs and arrowheads, they

[page] 425     DAUGHTERS OF DAKOTA

1883 was a year of great activity. Ordway was a 'big town", Bath and Columbia changed from tent cities to permanent towns. On Oct. 2, land offices opened at Aberdeen and Huron; railroads were built into the Territory; the capital was moved from South Dakota into North Dakota Territory, and the Milwaukee railroad laid rails to Ellendale, North Dakota.

On Sept 7, 1883, a daughter Ruby was born. These were prosperous years for the settlers. The country was filling up. Henry Wilber continued to improve his holdings. In 1884, the Milwaukee moved on to Ipswich. The children, Hattie and Frank, were going to school in Bath, 2 1/2 miles each way. A son, CLifford was born August 26, 1856.

The year 1888 will always be remembered by Dakotans, as well as the entire west as the year of the great blizzard. It was a beautiful winter morning, gracious soft breezes--just a morning to draw people out in the open. Henry Wilber went to Bath to get a team shod. One moment the day was bright, warm and glorious, The next minute, and without warning, the storm struck. It continued for 15 hours, blinding and intensely cold. The air was filled with needles of ice driven by a furious wind. The storm was accompanied by a deafening roar.

The children were kept in the school house until late in the afternoon Some men, Henry Wilber among them, forced their way to the Schoolhouse and took the children to a home in Bath. They formed a chain by a rope and holding hands. One boy. Jay Wilber, broke away, but was found by Henry Wilber and taken to the home of blacksmith, Tom Prichard, where they all stayed. The seven boys slept in the bed. Henry Wilber bought oysters, which his oldest daughter, Hattie, helped the woman make into soup

Esther Wilber was home with three small children and a hired man. She wouldn't let the man go outside even to attend to the stock until the storm passed. The roar was terrifying and she was worried about the children in school. After the storm passed, nature smiled again, as innocent as a day in May.

On Nov 2. 1889. South Dakota became a state with Arthur C. Mellette as Governor This was a hard year of great drought and crops were almost destroyed. Thousands abandoned their homesteads and South Dakota was thought to be a complete failure as a farming state.

The Wilber family continued to prosper through the years. They raised Hereford cattle. The homestead grew to be one of the model farms of that section of the state.

In politics they were staunch Republicans and were members of the Bath Methodist Church.

Lena Wilber died June 22, 1893. Ruby passed away at Madison, May 24, 1902

Hattie married the Rev W. O. Gram, pastor of the Methodist Church at Bath. Frank married Lillian Rievert and
 

[page]426          SOUTH DAKOTA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS

Esther Wilber was of typical pioneer stock-- ambitious, resourceful and unafraid. She was described as tiny woman, about five feet three inches in height. Her dark brown eyes snapped in anger or twinkled with mischief and her brown curly hair had a habit of escaping from its severe style of hairdress and tumbled in curls about her face

She died April 21, 1913 and is buried in the family lot in the cemetery at Bath.