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Among the duties were to be in keeping with the good name and honor of Clark County Wheelmen and to use all means and arguments within their power to prevail upon city and county authorities of all localities to improve roads and highways, to pay dues and assessments promptly, to attend meetings regularly, to impress upon the public the manliness and womanliness, healthfulness, pleasures, character strengthening qualities and usefulness of bicycling and to ride their wheels through thick and thin, until Clark County Wheelmen are known and acknowledged as the leading bicycle organization of the United States and to keep it there.

They were a colorful lot by the suggestions for uniforms: cap--blue with green visor; sweater--maroon; pants--grey; stockings--black.

The club met the second Tuesday of the month and in time were seeking a place to store their wheels.

They also proceeded to draft a petition to the City Council for the purpose of allowing the members of the club to ride on the sidewalks of the city outside of the firelimits.

On August 13, 1895 a committee was appointed to arrange a road race.

Just where the race went, was never recorded since the minute book no longer was used. The objective of being the leading bicycle organization of the united States never materialized.

-Gleanings from the secretary’s minutes

HORSE POWER

Horse Power - not miles per hour - was the need of Finn Settlers in northern Clark County in the early 1900’s. Without horses, the trees downed by crosscuts into logs, bolts, ties or pulp could be rolled only a few feet with a cant-hook. Horse-power was needed to skid the logs to the river bank to wait for the spring flood to float them down river. Horses skidded logs onto piles and hauled the huge loads on sleds to a railroad sidetrack or a sawmill.

John Nieminen's Manure Spreader

After the trees were gone, horses were needed to pull out the stumps. They patiently plodded the circle with the stump-puller cable winding round the drum that gradually pulled the stump from the ground. They strained on the chain attached to a root hook that pulled out the stubborn roots. They pulled the stone-boat loaded with stumps to be burned or hauled them to the house for kindling or firewood or for the threshing machine steam engine.

As the land cleared, horses pulled plows, harrows, disks, hay rakes and wagons. Sometimes wagons were full of stones, grain bundles, rutabagas, potatoes or threshed oats to be ground for pigs and cattle or rye for rye meal to be made into limppu or hardtack for the family.

John Nieminen with Hay Tedder

Often the wagons were full of people heading for a visit with friends, to church, to town, to a pie or basket social, to the community meeting or to the Christmas program at the rural school. The horse’s breath came out as steam (vapor) and froze into long icicles below the nostrils as they pulled the sled on a frosty December night. Bells jingled, bright red tassels swished, and white bone rings decorated the harness of those who could afford such luxuries. The tails of some of the horses were bobbed, some were braided and turned up, held in place with a shiny bracelet. Some just grew long and switched at the deer and horse flies if the owner had no macramé-like covering of knotted string (fly nets) to protect his animal.

In winter, horse blankets of heavy wool were thrown on the wet backs and held in place with buckled leather straps under the belly. Village streets were lined with ringed hitching posts instead of parking meters. A further convenience were livery stalls or stables behind stores. There a feed bag could be hitched to the horse’s muzzle while waiting for the trip home.

Coughing and heaves (similar to asthma) were common lung conditions irritated by moldy, dusty hay. Grandpa K’s heavey died coming home from town on a cold winter day after hauling a load of wood.

Ill fitting horse collars wore sores on the shoulders which bore the main brunt of heavy loads.

~Continued~

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