Sod-House Days

Howard Ruede was twenty-two years old in 1877 when he arrived in Osborne City, a community in west-central Kansas. Ruede was filled with the optimism and determination typical of the men and women who took up the challenge of homesteading on the prairie. Brought together by John Ise, Sod-House Days is a collection of the letters Ruede wrote to his family chronicling his first year in Kansas.