04/26/2025
This is interesting....
Ever wonder why your ancestors suddenly left an area and moved to a distant region? Or, why did they return to the same area that they originally came from? If you had family who lived in the States of Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas or the western portions of Iowa, Missouri, or Minnesota in the mid 1870 s, chances are they were witnesses of the devastating plagues of locusts that swept over the region. Lush gardens and fields of a wide range of crops were reduced to a barren, desert like appearance within a matter of hours. Crops that were needed to sustain a family and their farm animals were destroyed leaving no means of support during the coming winter.
According to the first-hand account of A. L. Child transcribed by Riley et al. (1880), a swarm of Rocky Mountain locusts passed over Plattsmouth, Nebraska, in 1875. By timing the rate of movement as the insects streamed overhead for 5 days and by telegraphing to surrounding towns, he was able to estimate that the swarm was 1,800 miles long and at least 110 miles wide. Based on his information, this swarm covered a swath equal to the combined areas of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Much more information about the Locust Plague of 1875 can be read here
http://www.hearthstonelegacy.com/when-the-skies-turned-to-black-the_locust-plague-of-1875.htm
