043
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Title
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043
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Transcription
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DRINKING WATER
For much of my life, if I wanted water I went to the faucet, and turned on the right one for cold and the left for hot. Some one went to a lot of work and expense to make this possible, but it hasn't always been that way.
When a homesteader filed for a 640 acre tract of land under the homestead act of 1862, the first thing to be developed was a water supply. If there was a stream or spring on the homestead, the problem was solved, but if a well had to be dug, there were many questions to be answered. Where do you dig? Was water close to the surface? What type of soil would be encountered in digging? Would it be good water and enough of it? All of these questions had to be answered or your homestead was of little value.
There was a well on the homestead that my father settled on. He bought a 640 acres farm from a family that relinquished their rights, so the problem of a water supply was well known before he took possession of the property.
Digging wells was an art. It was not uncommon before digging was started, to call in a person who was called a water witch or divinor [sic]. This person with a forked willow stick, held in both hands in front of him, walk along a site where he hoped to find water, when the stick turned down, in his hand, he would just say, "Dig here", and often he right.
When a site was located, the next step was to dig a hole, four feet square, just large enough for a man to work with a short-handled spade. It was usually easy digging for the first 5 or 6 feet, because the dirt could be thrown out of the hole, but when the hole became deeper, it was necessary to fill a bucket and a helper could pull it out by tieing [sic] a rope to the bucket, attached to a windlass. When the hole was deep enough to be a danger from earth caving in on the digger, a solid wooden frame, four feet square would be made and lowered in the hole. The frame would go down as the digger went deeper.
I have seen dug wells that were as deep as 80 feet. It was dark down in the hole, and the deeper you dug, the darker it becomes. The deepest well I was in was only 40 fee deep. If the digger was lucky he would hit water at 30 feet, but he would dig in the mud and water until the water came in fast enough to fill the bucket. There is no greater disappointment than to dig for days and find no water.
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Metzger Memories
