Simeon's Cave; Stepping Out in Faith - Entire Story

Harry and Helen (Acker) Edwards in the last home Harry built

Several years ago, on a Sunday afternoon in Wichita, Kansas, I sat in the living room of my in-laws, Harry and Helen Edwards reading from an old family history book that my sister-in-law had handed me. An autobiography that filled a chapter of the book caught my attention that was written by Helen’s great grandfather, Rev. Simeon Swartz and his children. Because of my interest in genealogy, I was immediately engrossed in Simeon’s story Helen’s ancestors. Their strength, courage and faith was tested and proven much like the early members of my family, and the same as people are today.

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 -1874

The story that Simeon told was about a time soon after he and his wife, Sarah, brought their family from Woodford County, Illinois to Kansas in 1874. Simeon was a minister and he and Sarah trusted God to guide and protect them in their homesteading venture as they were headed into an area that had a reputation for being dangerous. Many times they prayed and relied on God; asking Him to guide their journey and give them direction in their lives. A few months after settling in Rice County, they had already experienced the ups and downs of life on the prairie. A baby had been born to them that summer and had died nine days later. A good corn crop had disappeared in three days, eaten by a huge cloud of grasshoppers. In the weeks that followed these heart-breaking, life-threatening, hunger-producing disasters, Simeon focused on God, scripture and prayer. After an entire week of seeking God, a mysterious thought came and settled in his mind. He felt that God was telling him to dig a cave on their land. The idea wouldn’t go away but instead grew stronger. He and his family dug the ten by twenty foot cave, amid questions from neighbors and friends. “What do you expect to do with a cave?” they asked. The only reply Simeon had for them was, “I might need it sometime.” The act of obeying what they believed God had asked of them relieved the feeling of despair and renewed their faith and courage to face what they thought might be a bleak future.

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-2005

Four days into January, Harry and Helen sat in their living room watching through the window as an ice storm cover the world outside their house. Harry maneuvered his wheelchair to get a closer look into the darkness while Helen stood near him. They talked about whether or not the storm would cause them any problems.Their only son, my husband, had died one month before and they were grieving their loss. Harry had been in a wheelchair for more than a year, hit by a stroke that had left one side of his body paralyzed while sparing his speech and mind. Helen cared for him by herself. They were getting close to their sixty-fifth wedding anniversary and thanked God that He had allowed them to continue to stay in their home. Reluctant to leave the house that Harry designed and built when their family was young, they had decided to make this situation work. Anything else would signal the end of a chapter of their lives and the beginning of one they weren’t ready for.
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-1874
The cave was finished in September and, between rainstorms, Simeon and his neighbors built the Swartz family a sod house. The settlers prepared the soil for a crop of wheat. In October, the men set off to hunt buffalo down in Oklahoma, hoping to replace the food the grasshoppers had devoured. They returned four weeks later, in time to celebrate the holidays with their families, bringing an abundance of buffalo meat. They also returned with one man with his arm in a sling from an accidental shooting and minus two horses, poisoned by bad water.

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=2005
The freezing rain in Wichita, on that cold evening, turned to ice around the electrical lines beyond the view of the living room window. Just before bedtime, the lights blinked and went out, along with the furnace, leaving their home dark and growing cold. They had become accustomed to the electric wheelchair that helped Harry move around the main floor and the thought of the battery running low urged them to get Harry out of the chair and into bed where he could try to stay warm. Surely the electricity would be back by morning. No doubt there were prayers asking for safety for themselves but also for their family, before they drifted to sleep. The storm raged on through the dark hours of the night and their normally cozy home turned cold. Even in the 21st Century there can be a pioneer moment.
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-1875

Charley Swartz and his family

Eight days into 1875, the weather turned cold. At twenty degrees below zero, it was colder than any other time Simeon experienced in his long life. Along with the frigid air came snow in blizzard amounts. Sometime during the night, the raging wind carried the roof of the sod house up and away, leaving the family exposed to the blinding snow. They awoke in a dark, cold confusion, struggling to understand what had happened. It was their fourteen year-old son, Charley, who snapped them out of the shock and dismay of their situation by yelling for everyone to run for the cave.

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-2005
When Harry and Helen awoke on that cold, 5th day of January, the realization that life would be more difficult for awhile set in quickly. The temperature outside hadn’t risen and the inside temperature had dropped at least 30 degrees. With no electricity, the only option for Harry was his old wheelchair. Helen would have to push him for now; an enormous drop in his already diminished freedom. Bundled in coats, they made their way into the “not so cozy” living room. Helen rummaged in the kitchen for something they could eat without cooking. The rest of the day was filled with sitting, mostly in silence because of the cold. They remembered the firewood sitting neatly outside their house. At the time that they acquired it, it hadn’t seemed like such a blessing. It was wood from a favorite red bud tree Helen had accidentally backed into a few months before, while getting used to the van they used to get themselves to appointments. A neighbor had offered to chop the tree down for them, and he had split and stacked the wood. The woodpile had slipped their mind until now, but it was simple to see that God had provided fuel for their current situation.

The events of that week ran together for Harry and Helen. They slept, bundled in their clothes, coats, and blankets, and hoped for the electrical lines to be repaired each morning. They waited for lights, warmth and conveniences to return to their lives, along with thousands of other people across the city. The neighbor, made trips each day to stack more of the red bud on the front porch so Helen could bring it in to keep the fire going. Family called to check on them on their old-fashioned rotary telephone that they had stubbornly held onto for so long. Most people had abandoned their freezing homes, for warmer shelter, as they waited for the lines to be repaired. That wasn’t an option for Harry because of the thick ice that coated his wheelchair ramp.

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-1875
The blizzard raged on for three days and nights and for the next three weeks, the cave was their home. There was dried buffalo meat and a crock of corn mush, that Sarah had prepared the night before the storm. It satisfied their hunger. Simeon and his family ventured out to the sod house several times to search out things that they needed. It meant digging through five feet of snow that had settled into the four walls of their home. Digging out the cook stove allowed them some hot water and warm food cooked under the open sky. They waited for the weather to clear and thanked God for His providential care in urging them to dig the cave months before.

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 -2005

Every morning, Helen found wood on the porch. They were tired of cold food. and Helen in all her resourcefulness, found a coffee can she could place in the coals with a pair of pliers. That became her cook pot. She learned to cook at the hearth like her pioneer grandmother might have many years ago.


It was several days before the ice cleared enough for me to make the 23 mile drive from my house to theirs to check on them and bring them a warm drink. Every phone visit had begun with the hope that the electric crews would reach their house that day, along with a firm declaration that they were doing fine. I found them in good spirits and Helen showed me how they were cooking their food. The house was so cold I shivered the entire visit. Sixty five years together had made them good partners. I talked about finding a way to get them out of the house and into a shelter, but they were satisfied to wait where they were. Little did we know then that they would wait an entire week before the electricity would return to their house. That winter, I discovered that the pioneer spirit is alive and well, more than a hundred years after wagons carried settlers to homesteads across Kansas.

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-1875
It was nearly February before the snow cleared enough for neighbors to help Simeon repair the roof on their soddy. The Swartz family thanked God that they had the cave when it was needed and that they had listened and obeyed God despite the questions and doubts of their neighbors.

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One hundred thirty years separate the blizzard of 1875 and the ice storm of 2005. The same years span the distance between Simeon and his great granddaughter, Helen. The difference in strength, courage, and faith between Helen and her great grandfather, Simeon Swartz, is far less.


Simeon’s story was taken from events recorded in
Simeon Swartz Family History: 1727 Ancestors to 1958 Descendents by Orvo Swartz