The Suiter branch of the family has been in Stafford County, Kansas, since about 1900. In researching the area, I stumbled across a local author that wrote a fictional tale of life in that time and place.
Washburn University provides a helpful biography, which tells us that Edna Walker Chandler was born in 1908 near Macksville (Stafford County). She wrote 25 children’s books, mostly in the “Cowboy Sam” series, plus one nonfiction title.
Chandler also wrote one adult novel, titled Chaff in the Wind. According to various reviewers, it is the story of Swedish immigrants to Kansas wheat country, and tells of their struggles to thrive in this demanding new environment.
Chapter 1
Again it was April, and the Spring of 1887. The Kansas winter had been quiet, and only two raging blizzards had stormed across the west. For that, Ingrid Halgren was glad.
She had been afraid of that piercing, demanding cold, the sifting snow that would not be kept out. It came through the cracks of doors and windows. It whipped and swirled in deep, enclosing drifts—drifts that were formed by the force of relentless, powerful icy blasts that would not be stilled until their fury was spent.
Ingrid had not yet learned that the blizzards were the salvation of the dry lands, that fewer snows meant dry, packed soil under the top soil; that few snows usually meant a short rainy season.
This spring the rainy season lasted only a week, bringing two fitful apologetic days of rain and three or four days of threatening fog and mist. The bright sunlight after the rain was welcome and warm, but it came too soon. The wheat in late May was knee high, promising and thick.
Ingrid and John walked through their field one Sunday afternoon, loving the swish of the wheat with their steps, still hopeful that the heavens would open in mercy and save their wheat.
— Chapter 1, Chaff in the Wind
Published in 1977, Chaff in the Wind is currently out of print, and existing copies are difficult to find. Several queries have been placed with rare book dealers. Hopefully, I’ll have more information soon!