HOW WE GOT DANDELIONS

Perhaps over the years you have enjoyed dandelion greens as a delicacy or you may have held the yellow blossom under your chin to see if you like butter, but other than that, I have never found much use for dandelions.  For anyone who has ever gardened or maintained a lawn, they can be a real annoyance and much time, effort and chemicals have been spent to rid ourselves of them. 

Have you ever wondered how the lowly dandelion got to Kossuth County?  Well, according to the following article written by Emma Heckart and published in The Upper Des Moines on July 20, 1900, it was brought here by Elizabeth (Mrs. John) Heckart, the mother of Sarah Heckart Call. I think you will enjoy the story.

HOW WE GOT DANDELIONS

It is hard to believe now that the dandelion has not always been common in Kossuth.  But it has not.  It is not a native plant.  “Grandma” Heckart brought the first dandelion ever seen in Kossuth, and from it all the dandelions have come.  Miss Emma Heckart has written a little story, which The Upper Des Moines has persuaded her to allow it to publish.  It is as follows:

Once upon a time, nearly 50 years ago, when Kossuth county was but a wild tract of country with Indians roaming over its prairies; when there were but a few white people who had settled and made homes here and there were no dandelions to be seen, a dear old father and mother living in Indiana thought it best for themselves and their five children to move to this new country.

The father, accordingly, sold the old homestead and everything else that was too big or heavy to take along.  The mother made new clothes for the family and mended the old ones.  She gathered garden and flower seeds for their new home, and when the winter snows were gone, and the days began to grow warm, they started with a four ox-team on the long 500 mile journey.  It took seven weeks to make the trip, for the roads were bad and oxen are not very swift travelers, and it was near the middle of May when they reached their journey’s end.  But they went right to work planting corn and making garden, and everything grew as fast as it knew how.

But a funny thing happened that shall keep the mother’s memory fresh as long as a dandelion shall rise up in Kossuth county to bless her name.  Among the garden seeds she had sown a green little plant appeared.  She did not at first recognize it, but decided to let it grow, and perhaps it would prove to be something valuable.

What do you suppose it was?  Just a little baby dandelion.

It brought a tear to the mother’s eye for it reminded her of the old home she had perhaps, left forever.  She could not destroy the little waif but allowed it to grow on through the summer and the next winter it slept securely under the deepest snow the family had ever seen.

Another spring came.  The snows went off again and little dandy peeped up and smiled at the mother.  Again she spared his life, and in a few weeks, as if to reward her, held up a pretty yellow flower, which we children called a twenty dollar gold piece.

But the mother would not touch the pretty thing.  “I will let it be,” she said, “and raise just a few dandelions.  They are good for medicine and make such nice greens.”

So the yellow blossom changed into a gray-headed dandy, and one day the wind blew him quite bald, and his gray hair went flying all over the garden.  Before the snows came again every hair had started to grow, for they were not hairs after all, but real dandelion seed.  They all grew for they were hardy little fellows, and the next spring instead of a “few dandelions,” they were found scattered far and wide over the village, and the twenty dollar gold piece which the mother had so tenderly preserved had increased a million fold.

And this is the true story of the Kossuth county dandelion.  The Indian has gone but the prairies are dotted with the white men’s homes, and the dandelion is here to stay.

                                                        Emma Heckart

Until next time,

Kossuth County History Buff

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