Sod and Stubble

<br>Located two miles west and a mile north of Downs, on level ground between Dry and Twelve Mile Creeks is the site of the 1871 homestead of Henry Ise. In 1873, Henry married seventeen year old Rosa Haag of Holton, Kansas and brought her west to live. Twelve children were reared on this homestead in the 27 years preceeding Henry's death in 1900.<br><br> Nine years later, Rosa moved with her family to Lawrence, Kansas where she died in 1947. One son, John, published his parent's [sic] story in 1936 in a book called <u>Sod and Stubble</u>. His classic tale of homesteading on the Great Plains recounts the years of struggle and hardships the family and their neighbors endured to transform the virgin sod into productive farms of corn and wheat. The Ise Farm served as the location of the New Arcadia Post Office (1874-1879) and the Ise School, District 37. About a mile west of this site on the north side of Highway 24 is the Downs Cemetery where members of the Ise family and other early settlers are buried.<br><br> Read the book...travel the roads of the self-guided tour. Relive the pioneering experience of the Ise family.