[Illustration: MRS. LAURA B. POUND
Second and Sixth State Regent, Nebraska Society, Daughters of the
American Revolution. 1896-1897, 1901-1902]
COLLECTION OF
NEBRASKA PIONEER
REMINISCENCES
ISSUED BY THE
NEBRASKA SOCIETY OF
THE DAUGHTERS OF THE
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
[Illustration]
NINETEEN SIXTEEN
THE TORCH PRESS
CEDAR RAPIDS
IOWA
FORETHOUGHT
This Book of Nebraska Pioneer Reminiscences is issued by the Daughters
of the American Revolution of Nebraska, and dedicated to the daring,
courageous, and intrepid men and women--the advance guard of our
progress--who, carrying the torch of civilization, had a vision of the
possibilities which now have become realities.
To those who answered the call of the unknown we owe the duty of
preserving the record of their adventures upon the vast prairies of
"Nebraska the Mother of States."
"In her horizons, limitless and vast
Her plains that storm the senses like the sea."
Reminiscence, recollection, personal experience--simple, true
stories--this is the foundation of History.
Rapidly the pioneer story-tellers are passing beyond recall, and the
real story of the beginning of our great commonwealth must be told now.
The memories of those pioneers, of their deeds of self-sacrifice and
devotion, of their ideals which are our inheritance, will inculcate
patriotism in the children of the future; for they should realize the
courage that subdued the wilderness. And "lest we forget," the heritage
of this past is a sacred trust to the Daughters of the American
Revolution of Nebraska.
The invaluable assistance of the Nebraska State Historical Society, and
the members of this Book Committee, Mrs. C. S. Paine and Mrs. D. S.
Dalby, is most gratefully acknowledged.
LULA CORRELL PERRY
(Mrs. Warren Perry)
CONTENTS
SOME FIRST THINGS IN THE HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY 11
BY GEORGE F. WORK
EARLY EXPERIENCES IN ADAMS COUNTY 18
BY GENERAL ALBERT V. COLE
FRONTIER TOWNS 22
BY FRANCIS M. BROOME
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF BOX BUTTE COUNTY 25
BY IRA E. TASH
A BROKEN AXLE 27
BY SAMUEL C. BASSETT
A PIONEER NEBRASKA TEACHER 30
BY MRS. ISABEL ROSCOE
EXPERIENCES OF A PIONEER WOMAN 32
BY MRS. ELISE G. EVERETT
RECOLLECTIONS OF WEEPING WATER 36
BY I. N. HUNTER
INCIDENTS AT PLATTSMOUTH 41
BY ELLA POLLOCK MINOR
FIRST THINGS IN CLAY COUNTY 43
BY MRS. CHARLES M. BROWN
REMINISCENCES OF CUSTER COUNTY 46
BY MRS. J. J. DOUGLAS
AN EXPERIENCE 50
BY MRS. HARMON BROSS
LEGEND OF CROW BUTTE 51
BY DR. ANNA ROBINSON CROSS
LIFE ON THE FRONTIER 54
BY JAMES AYRES
PLUM CREEK (LEXINGTON) 57
BY WILLIAM M. BANCROFT, M. D.
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS 62
BY C. CHABOT
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE FIRST SETTLER OF DAWSON COUNTY 64
BY MRS. DANIEL FREEMAN
EARLY DAYS IN DAWSON COUNTY 67
BY LUCY E. HEWITT
PIONEER JUSTICE 72
BY B. F. KRIER
A GOOD INDIAN 74
BY MRS. CLIFFORD WHITAKER
FROM MISSOURI TO DAWSON COUNTY 75
BY A. J. PORTER
THE ERICKSON FAMILY 76
BY MRS. W. M. STEBBINS
THE BEGINNINGS OF FREMONT 78
BY SADIE IRENE MOORE
A GRASSHOPPER STORY 82
BY MARGARET F. KELLY
EARLY DAYS IN FREMONT 84
BY MRS. THERON NYE
PIONEER WOMEN OF OMAHA 90
BY MRS. CHARLES H. FISETTE
A PIONEER FAMILY 93
BY EDITH ERMA PURVIANCE
THE BADGER FAMILY 97
THE FIRST WHITE SETTLER IN FILLMORE COUNTY 102
PIONEERING IN FILLMORE COUNTY 107
BY JOHN R. MCCASHLAND
FILLMORE COUNTY IN THE SEVENTIES 109
BY WILLIAM SPADE
EARLY DAYS IN NEBRASKA 111
BY J. A. CARPENTER
REMINISCENCES OF GAGE COUNTY 112
BY ALBERT L. GREEN
RANCHING IN GAGE AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES 123
BY PETER JANSEN
EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF GAGE COUNTY 127
BY MRS. E. JOHNSON
BIOGRAPHY OF FORD LEWIS 129
BY MRS. (D. S.) H. VIRGINIA LEWIS DALBEY
A BUFFALO HUNT 131
BY W. H. AVERY
A GRASSHOPPER RAID 133
BY EDNA M. BOYLE ALLEN
EARLY DAYS IN PAWNEE COUNTY 135
BY DANIEL B. CROPSEY
EARLY EVENTS IN JEFFERSON COUNTY 137
BY GEORGE CROSS
EARLY DAYS OF FAIRBURY AND JEFFERSON COUNTY 139
BY GEORGE W. HANSEN
THE EARLIEST ROMANCE OF JEFFERSON COUNTY 147
BY GEORGE W. HANSEN
EXPERIENCES ON THE FRONTIER 152
BY FRANK HELVEY
LOOKING BACKWARD 155
BY GEORGE E. JENKINS
THE EASTER STORM OF 1873 158
BY CHARLES B. LETTON
BEGINNINGS OF FAIRBURY 161
BY JOSEPH B. MCDOWELL
EARLY EXPERIENCES IN NEBRASKA 163
BY ELIZABETH PORTER SEYMOUR
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS 166
BY MRS. C. F. STEELE
HOW THE SONS OF GEORGE WINSLOW FOUND THEIR FATHER'S GRAVE 168
_Statement by Mrs. C. F. Steele_ 168
_Statement by George W. Hansen_ 169
EARLY DAYS IN JEFFERSON COUNTY 175
BY MRS. M. H. WEEKS
LOCATION OF THE CAPITAL AT LINCOLN 176
BY JOHN H. AMES
AN INCIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF LINCOLN 182
BY ORTHA C. BELL
LINCOLN IN THE EARLY SEVENTIES 184
BY ORTHA C. BELL
A PIONEER BABY SHOW 186
BY MRS. FRANK I. RINGER
MARKING THE SITE OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK COUNCIL AT FORT
CALHOUN 187
BY MRS. LAURA B. POUND
EARLY HISTORY OF LINCOLN COUNTY 190
BY MAJOR LESTER WALKER
GREY EAGLE, PAWNEE CHIEF 194
BY MILLARD S. BINNEY
LOVERS' LEAP (POEM) 196
BY MRS. A. P. JARVIS
EARLY INDIAN HISTORY 198
BY MRS. SARAH CLAPP
THE BLIZZARD OF 1888 203
BY MINNIE FREEMAN PENNY
AN ACROSTIC 204
BY MRS. ELLIS
EARLY DAYS IN NANCE COUNTY 206
BY MRS. ELLEN SAUNDERS WALTON
THE PAWNEE CHIEF'S FAREWELL (POEM) 208
BY CHAUNCEY LIVINGSTON WILTSE
MY TRIP WEST IN 1861 211
BY SARAH SCHOOLEY RANDALL
STIRRING EVENTS ALONG THE LITTLE BLUE 214
BY CLARENDON E. ADAMS
MY LAST BUFFALO HUNT 219
BY J. STERLING MORTON
HOW THE FOUNDER OF ARBOR DAY CREATED THE MOST FAMOUS
WESTERN ESTATE 235
BY PAUL MORTON
EARLY REMINISCENCES OF NEBRASKA CITY--SOCIAL ASPECTS 240
BY ELLEN KINNEY WARE
SOME PERSONAL INCIDENTS 242
BY W. A. MCALLISTER
A BUFFALO HUNT 244
BY MINNIE FREEMAN PENNY
PIONEER LIFE 246
BY MRS. JAMES G. REEDER
EARLY DAYS IN POLK COUNTY 248
BY CALMAR MCCUNE
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 252
BY MRS. THYRZA REAVIS ROY
TWO SEWARD COUNTY CELEBRATIONS 254
BY MRS. S. C. LANGWORTHY
SEWARD COUNTY REMINISCENCES 255
COMPILED BY MARGARET HOLMES CHAPTER D. A. R.
PIONEERING 263
BY GRANT LEE SHUMWAY
EARLY DAYS IN STANTON COUNTY 266
BY ANDREW J. BOTTORFF AND SVEN JOHANSON
FRED E. ROPER, PIONEER 268
BY ERNEST E. CORRELL
THE LURE OF THE PRAIRIES 272
BY LUCY L. CORRELL
SUFFRAGE IN NEBRASKA 275
_Statement by Mrs. Gertrude M. McDowell_ 275
_Statement by Lucy L. Correll_ 277
AN INDIAN RAID 279
BY ERNEST E. CORRELL
REMINISCENCES 281
BY MRS. E. A. RUSSELL
REMINISCENCES OF FORT CALHOUN 284
BY W. H. ALLEN
REMINISCENCES OF WASHINGTON COUNTY 286
BY MRS. EMILY BOTTORFF ALLEN
REMINISCENCES OF PIONEER LIFE AT FORT CALHOUN 288
BY MRS. N. J. FRAZIER BROOKS
REMINISCENCES OF DE SOTO 289
BY OLIVER BOUVIER
REMINISCENCES 290
BY THOMAS M. CARTER
FORT CALHOUN IN THE LATE FIFTIES 293
BY MRS. E. H. CLARK
SOME ITEMS FROM WASHINGTON COUNTY 295
BY MRS. MAY ALLEN LAZURE
COUNTY-SEAT OF WASHINGTON COUNTY 298
BY FRANK MCNEELY
THE STORY OF THE TOWN OF FONTENELLE 299
BY MRS. EDA MEAD
THOMAS WILKINSON AND FAMILY 305
NIKUMI 307
BY MRS. HARRIETT S. MACMURPHY
THE HEROINE OF THE JULES SLADE TRAGEDY 322
BY MRS. HARRIETT S. MACMURPHY
THE LAST ROMANTIC BUFFALO HUNT ON THE PLAINS OF NEBRASKA 326
BY JOHN LEE WEBSTER
OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE NEBRASKA SOCIETY, D. A. R. 333
BY MRS. CHARLES H. AULL
ILLUSTRATIONS
MRS. LAURA B. POUND _Frontispiece_
OREGON TRAIL MONUMENT NEAR LEROY, NEBRASKA 18
OREGON TRAIL MONUMENT ON THE NEBRASKA-WYOMING STATE LINE 18
MRS. ANGIE F. NEWMAN 22
DEDICATION OF MONUMENT COMMEMORATING THE OREGON TRAIL AT
KEARNEY, NEBRASKA 27
MRS. ANDREW K. GAULT 50
MONUMENT MARKING THE OLD TRAILS, FREMONT, NEBRASKA 78
MRS. CHARLOTTE F. PALMER 90
MRS. FRANCES AVERY HAGGARD 127
OREGON TRAIL MONUMENT NEAR FAIRBURY, NEBRASKA 139
MRS. ELIZABETH C. LANGWORTHY 155
MRS. CHARLES B. LETTON 168
BOULDER AT FORT CALHOUN, COMMEMORATING THE COUNCIL
OF LEWIS AND CLARK WITH THE OTOE AND MISSOURI INDIANS 187
MRS. OREAL S. WARD 203
OREGON TRAIL MONUMENT ON KANSAS-NEBRASKA STATE LINE 240
MRS. CHARLES OLIVER NORTON 252
OREGON TRAIL MONUMENT NEAR HEBRON, NEBRASKA 268
MRS. WARREN PERRY 305
MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN, ANTELOPE PARK, LINCOLN 326
MRS. CHARLES H. AULL 333
MONUMENT MARKING THE INITIAL POINT OF THE CALIFORNIA
TRAIL, RIVERSIDE PARK, OMAHA 337
CALIFORNIA TRAIL MONUMENT, BEMIS PARK, OMAHA 337
SOME FIRST THINGS IN THE HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY
BY GEORGE F. WORK
Adams county is named for the first time, in an act of the territorial
legislature approved February 16, 1867, when the south bank of the
Platte river was made its northern boundary. There were no settlers here
at that time although several persons who are mentioned later herein had
established trapping camps within what are now its boundaries. In 1871
it was declared a county by executive proclamation and its present
limits defined as, in short, consisting of government ranges, 9, 10, 11,
and 12 west of the sixth principal meridian, and townships 5, 6, 7, and
8, north of the base line, which corresponds with the south line of the
state.
Mortimer N. Kress, familiarly known to the early settlers as "Wild
Bill," Marion Jerome Fouts, also known as "California Joe," and James
Bainter had made hunting and trapping camps all the way along the Little
Blue river, prior to this time. This stream flows through the south part
of the county and has its source just west of its western boundary in
Kearney county. James Bainter filed on a tract just across its eastern
line in Clay county as his homestead, and so disappears in the history
of Adams county. Mortimer N. Kress is still living and now has his home
in Hastings, a hale, hearty man of seventy-five years and respected by
all. Marion J. Fouts, about seventy years of age, still lives on the
homestead he selected in that early day and is a respected, prominent
man in that locality.
Gordon H. Edgerton, now a resident and prominent business man of
Hastings, when a young man, in 1866, was engaged in freighting across
the plains, over the Oregon trail that entered the county where the
Little Blue crosses its eastern boundary and continued in a
northwesterly direction, leaving its western line a few miles west and a
little north of where Kenesaw now stands, and so is familiar with its
early history. There has already been some who have questioned the
authenticity of the story of an Indian massacre having taken place
where this trail crosses Thirty-two Mile creek, so named because it was
at this point about thirty-two miles east of Fort Kearny. This massacre
took place about the year 1867, and Mr. Edgerton says that it was
universally believed at the time he was passing back and forth along
this trail. He distinctly remembers an old threshing machine that stood
at that place for a long time and that was left there by some of the
members of the party that were killed. The writer of this sketch who
came to the county in 1874, was shown a mound at this place, near the
bank of the creek, which he was told was the heaped up mound of the
grave where the victims were buried, and the story was not questioned so
far as he ever heard until recent years. Certainly those who lived near
the locality at that early day did not question it. This massacre took
place very near the locality where Captain Fremont encamped, the night
of June 25, 1842, as related in the history of his expedition and was
about five or six miles south and a little west of Hastings. I well
remember the appearance of this trail. It consisted of a number of
deeply cut wagon tracks, nearly parallel with each other, but which
would converge to one track where the surface was difficult or where
there was a crossing to be made over a rough place or stream. The
constant tramping of the teams would pulverize the soil and the high
winds would blow out the dust, or if on sloping ground, the water from
heavy rains would wash it out until the track became so deep that a new
one would be followed because the axles of the wagons would drag on the
ground. It was on this trail a few miles west of what is now the site of
Kenesaw, that a lone grave was discovered by the first settlers in the
country, and a story is told of how it came to be there. About midway
from where the trail leaves the Little Blue to the military post at Fort
Kearny on the Platte river a man with a vision of many dollars to be
made from the people going west to the gold-fields over this trail, dug
a well about one hundred feet deep for the purpose of selling water to
the travelers and freighters. Some time later he was killed by the
Indians and the well was poisoned by them. A man by the name of Haile
camped here a few days later and he and his wife used the water for
cooking and drinking. Both were taken sick and the wife died, but he
recovered. He took the boards of his wagon box and made her a coffin
and buried her near the trail. Some time afterwards he returned and
erected a headstone over her grave which was a few years since still
standing and perhaps is to this day, the monument of a true man to his
love for his wife and to her memory.
The first homestead was taken in the county by Francis M. Luey, March 5,
1870, though there were others taken the same day. The facts as I get
them direct from Mr. Kress are that he took his team and wagon, and he
and three other men went to Beatrice, where the government land office
was located, to make their entries. When they arrived at the office,
with his characteristic generosity he said: "Boys, step up and take your
choice; any of it is good enough for me." Luey was the first to make his
entry, and he was followed by the other three. Francis M. Luey took the
southwest quarter of section twelve; Mortimer N. Kress selected the
northeast quarter of section thirteen; Marion Jerome Fouts, the
southeast quarter of eleven; and the fourth person, John Smith, filed on
the southwest quarter of eleven, all in township five north and range
eleven west of the sixth principal meridian. Smith relinquished his
claim later and never made final proof, so his name does not appear on
the records of the county as having made this entry. The others settled
and made improvements on their lands. Mortimer N. Kress built a sod
house that spring, and later in the summer, a hewed log house, and these
were the first buildings in the county. So Kress and Fouts, two old
comrades and trappers, settled down together, and are still citizens of
the county. Other settlers rapidly began to make entry in the
neighborhood, and soon there were enough to be called together in the
first religious service. The first sermon was preached in Mr. Kress'
hewed log house by Rev. J. W. Warwick in the fall of 1871.
The first marriage in the county was solemnized in 1872 between Roderick
Lomas or Loomis and "Lila" or Eliza Warwick, the ceremony being
performed by the bride's father, Rev. J. W. Warwick. Prior to this,
however, on October 18, 1871, Eben Wright and Susan Gates, a young
couple who had settled in the county, were taken by Mr. Kress in his
two-horse farm wagon to Grand Island, where they were married by the
probate judge.
The first deaths that occurred in the county were of two young men who
came into the new settlement to make homes for themselves in 1870,
selected their claims and went to work, and a few days later were
killed in their camp at night. It was believed that a disreputable
character who came along with a small herd of horses committed the
murder, but no one knew what the motive was. He was arrested and his
name given as Jake Haynes, but as no positive proof could be obtained he
was cleared at the preliminary examination, and left the country. A
story became current a short time afterward that he was hanged in Kansas
for stealing a mule.
The first murder that occurred in the county that was proven was that of
Henry Stutzman, who was killed by William John McElroy, February 8,
1879, about four miles south of Hastings. He was arrested a few hours
afterward, and on his trial was convicted and sent to the penitentiary.
The first child born in the county was born to Francis M. Luey and wife
in the spring of 1871. These parents were the first married couple to
settle in this county. The child lived only a short time and was buried
near the home, there being no graveyard yet established. A few years ago
the K. C. & O. R. R. in grading its roadbed through that farm disturbed
the grave and uncovered its bones.
In the spring and summer of 1870 Mr. Kress broke about fifty acres of
prairie on his claim and this constituted the first improvement of that
nature in the county.
J. R. Carter and wife settled in this neighborhood about 1870, and the
two young men, mentioned above as having been murdered, stopped at their
house over night, their first visitors. It was a disputed point for a
long time whether Mrs. Carter, Mrs. W. S. Moote, or Mrs. Francis M. Luey
was the first white woman to settle permanently in the county; but Mr.
Kress is positive that the last named was the first and is entitled to
that distinction. Mrs. Moote, with her husband, came next and camped on
their claim, then both left and made their entries of the land. In the
meantime, before the return of the Mootes, Mr. and Mrs. Carter made
permanent settlement on their land, so the honors were pretty evenly
divided.
The first white settler in the county to die a natural death and receive
Christian burial was William H. Akers, who had taken a homestead in
section 10-5-9. The funeral services were conducted by Rev. J. W.
Warwick.
In the summer of 1871 a colony of settlers from Michigan settled on
land on which the townsite of Juniata was afterward located, and
October 1, 1871, the first deed that was placed on record in the county
was executed by John and Margaret Stark to Col. Charles P. Morse before
P. F. Barr, a notary public at Crete, Nebraska, and was filed for record
March 9, 1872, and recorded on page 1, volume 1, of deed records of
Adams county. The grantee was general superintendent of the Burlington &
Missouri River Railroad Company which was then approaching the eastern
edge of the county, and opened its first office at Hastings in April,
1873, with agent Horace S. Wiggins in charge. Mr. Wiggins is now a
well-known public accountant and insurance actuary residing in Lincoln.
The land conveyed by this deed and some other tracts for which deeds
were soon after executed was in section 12, township 7, range 11, and on
which the town of Juniata was platted. The Stark patent was dated June
5, 1872, and signed by U. S. Grant as president. The town plat was filed
for record March 9, 1872.
The first church organized in the county was by Rev. John F. Clarkson,
chaplain of a colony of English Congregationalists who settled near the
present location of Hastings in 1871. He preached the first sermon while
they were still camped in their covered wagons at a point near the
present intersection of Second street and Burlington avenue, the first
Sunday after their arrival. A short time afterward, in a sod house on
the claim of John G. Moore, at or near the present site of the Lepin
hotel, the church was organized with nine members uniting by letter, and
a few Sundays later four more by confession of their faith. This data I
have from Peter Fowlie and S. B. Binfield, two of the persons composing
the first organization.
The first Sunday school organized in the county was organized in a small
residence then under construction on lot 3 in block 4 of Moore's
addition to Hastings. The frame was up, the roof on, siding and floor in
place, but that was all. Nail kegs and plank formed the seats, and a
store box the desk. The building still stands and constitutes the main
part of the present residence of my family at 219 North Burlington
avenue. It was a union school and was the nucleus of the present
Presbyterian and Congregational Sunday schools. I am not able to give
the date of its organization but it was probably in the winter of
1872-73. I got this information from Mr. A. L. Wigton, who was
influential in bringing about the organization and was its first
superintendent.
The first school in the county was opened about a mile south of Juniata
early in 1872, by Miss Emma Leonard, and that fall Miss Lizzie Scott was
employed to teach one in Juniata. So rapidly did the county settle that
by October 1, 1873, thirty-eight school districts were reported
organized.
The acting governor, W. H. James, on November 7, 1871, ordered the
organization of the county for political and judicial purposes, and
fixed the day of the first election to be held, on December 12
following. Twenty-nine votes were cast and the following persons were
elected as county officers:
Clerk, Russell D. Babcock.
Treasurer, John S. Chandler.
Sheriff, Isaac W. Stark.
Probate Judge, Titus Babcock.
Surveyor, George Henderson.
Superintendent of Schools, Adna H. Bowen.
Coroner, Isaiah Sluyter.
Assessor, William M. Camp.
County Commissioners: Samuel L. Brass, Edwin M. Allen, and
Wellington W. Selleck.
The first assessment of personal property produced a tax of $5,500, on
an assessed valuation of $20,003, and the total valuation of personal
and real property amounted to $957,183, mostly on railroad lands of
which the Burlington road was found to own 105,423 acres and the Union
Pacific, 72,207. Very few of the settlers had at that time made final
proof. This assessment was made in the spring of 1872.
The first building for county uses was ordered constructed on January
17, 1872, and was 16x20 feet on the ground with an eight-foot story,
shingle roof, four windows and one door, matched floor, and ceiled
overhead with building paper. The county commissioners were to furnish
all material except the door and windows and the contract for the work
was let to Joseph Stuhl for $30.00. S. L. Brass was to superintend the
construction, and the building was to be ready for occupancy in ten
days.
The salary of the county clerk was fixed by the board at $300, that of
the probate judge at $75 for the year.
It is claimed that the law making every section line a county road, in
the state of Nebraska, originated with this board in a resolution passed
by it, requesting their representatives in the senate and house of the
legislature then in session to introduce a bill to that effect and work
for its passage. Their work must have been effective for we find that in
July following, the Burlington railroad company asked damages by reason
of loss sustained through the act of the legislature taking about eight
acres of each section of their land, for these public roads.
The first poorhouse was built in the fall of 1872. It was 16x24 feet,
one and one-half stories high, and was constructed by Ira G. Dillon for
$1,400, and Peter Fowlie was appointed poormaster at a salary of $25 per
month. And on November 1 of that year he reported six poor persons as
charges on the county, but his administration must have been effective
for on December 5, following, he reported none then in his charge.
The first agricultural society was organized at Kingston and the first
agricultural fair of which there is any record was held October 11 and
12, 1873. The fair grounds were on the southeast corner of the northwest
quarter of section 32-5-9 on land owned by G. H. Edgerton, and quite a
creditable list of premiums were awarded.
The first Grand Army post was organized at Hastings under a charter
issued May 13, 1878, and T. D. Scofield was elected commander.
The first newspaper published in the county was the _Adams County
Gazette_, issued at Juniata by R. D. and C. C. Babcock in January, 1872.
This was soon followed by the _Hastings Journal_ published by M. K.
Lewis and A. L. Wigton. These were in time consolidated and in January,
1880, the first daily was issued by A. L. and J. W. Wigton and called
the _Daily Gazette-Journal_.
EARLY EXPERIENCES IN ADAMS COUNTY
BY GENERAL ALBERT V. COLE
I was a young business man in Michigan in 1871, about which time many
civil war veterans were moving from Michigan and other states to Kansas
and Nebraska, where they could secure free homesteads. I received
circulars advertising Juniata. They called it a village but at that time
there were only four houses, all occupied by agents of the Burlington
railroad who had been employed to preÎmpt a section of land for the
purpose of locating a townsite. In October, 1871, I started for Juniata,
passing through Chicago at the time of the great fire. With a comrade I
crossed the Missouri river at Plattsmouth on a flatboat. The Burlington
was running mixed trains as far west as School Creek, now Sutton. We
rode to that point, then started to walk to Juniata, arriving at Harvard
in the evening. Harvard also had four houses placed for the same purpose
as those in Juniata. Frank M. Davis, who was elected commissioner of
public lands and buildings in 1876, lived in one house with his family;
the other three were supposed to be occupied by bachelors.
We arranged with Mr. Davis for a bed in an upper room of one of the
vacant houses. We were tenderfeet from the East and therefore rather
suspicious of the surroundings, there being no lock on the lower door.
To avoid being surprised we piled everything we could find against the
door. About midnight we were awakened by a terrible noise; our
fortifications had fallen and we heard the tramp of feet below. Some of
the preÎmptors had been out on section 37 for wood and the lower room
was where they kept the horse feed.
The next morning we paid our lodging and resumed the journey west.
Twelve miles from Harvard we found four more houses placed by the
Burlington. The village was called Inland and was on the east line of
Adams county but has since been moved east into Clay county. Just before
reaching Inland we met a man coming from the west with a load of buffalo
meat and at Inland we found C. S. Jaynes, one of the preÎmptors,
sitting outside his shanty cutting up some of the meat. It was twelve
miles farther to Juniata, the railroad grade being our guide. The
section where Hastings now stands was on the line but there was no town,
not a tree or living thing in sight, just burnt prairie. I did not think
when we passed over that black and desolate section that a city like
Hastings would be builded there. The buffalo and the antelope had gone
in search of greener pastures; even the wolf and the coyote were unable
to live there at that time.
[Illustration: OREGON TRAIL MONUMENT ON NEBRASKA-WYOMING STATE LINE
Erected by the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution of Nebraska
and Wyoming. Dedicated April 4, 1913. Cost $200]
[Illustration: MONUMENT ON THE OREGON TRAIL
Seven miles south of Hastings. Erected by Niobrara Chapter, Daughters of
the American Revolution at a cost of $100]
Six miles farther on we arrived at Juniata and the first thing we did
was to drink from the well in the center of the section between the four
houses. This was the only well in the district and that first drink of
water in Adams county was indeed refreshing. The first man we met was
Judson Buswell, a civil war veteran, who had a homestead a mile away and
was watering his mule team at the well. Although forty-four years have
passed, I shall never forget those mules; one had a crooked leg, but
they were the best Mr. Buswell could afford. Now at the age of
seventy-three he spends his winters in California and rides in his
automobile, but still retains his original homestead.
Juniata had in addition to the four houses a small frame building used
as a hotel kept by John Jacobson. It was a frail structure, a story and
a half, and when the Nebraska wind blew it would shake on its
foundation. There was one room upstairs with a bed in each corner.
During the night there came up a northwest wind and every bed was on the
floor the next morning. Later another hotel was built called the Juniata
House. Land seekers poured into Adams county after the Burlington was
completed in July, 1872, and there was quite a strife between the
Jacobson House and the Juniata House. Finally a runner for the latter
hotel advertised it as the only hotel in town with a cook stove.
Adams county was organized December 12, 1871. Twenty-nine voters took
part in the first election and Juniata was made the county-seat.
We started out the next morning after our arrival to find a quarter
section of land. About a mile north we came to the dugout of Mr.
Chandler. He lived in the back end of his house and kept his horses in
the front part. Mr. Chandler went with us to locate our claims. We
preÎmpted land on section twenty-eight north of range ten west, in what
is now Highland township. I turned the first sod in that township and
put down the first bored well, which was 117 feet deep and cost $82.70.
Our first shanty was 10x12 feet in size, boarded up and down and papered
on the inside with tar paper. Our bed was made of soft-pine lumber with
slats but no springs. The table was a flat-top trunk.
In the spring of 1872 my wife's brother, George Crane, came from
Michigan and took 80 acres near me. We began our spring work by breaking
the virgin sod. We each bought a yoke of oxen and a Fish Brothers wagon,
in Crete, eighty miles away, and then with garden tools and provisions
in the wagon we started home, being four days on the way. A few miles
west of Fairmont we met the Gaylord brothers, who had been to Grand
Island and bought a printing press. They were going to publish a paper
in Fairmont. They were stuck in a deep draw of mud, so deeply imbedded
that our oxen could not pull their wagon out, so we hitched onto the
press and pulled it out on dry land. It was not in very good condition
when we left it but the boys printed a very clean paper on it for a
number of years.
In August Mrs. Cole came out and joined me. I had broken 30 acres and
planted corn, harvesting a fair crop which I fed to my oxen and cows.
Mrs. Cole made butter, our first churn being a wash bowl in which she
stirred the cream with a spoon, but the butter was sweet and we were
happy, except that Mrs. Cole was very homesick. She was only nineteen
years old and a thousand miles from her people, never before having been
separated from her mother. I had never had a home, my parents having
died when I was very small, and I had been pushed around from pillar to
post. Now I had a home of my own and was delighted with the wildness of
Nebraska, yet my heart went out to Mrs. Cole. The wind blew more
fiercely than now and she made me promise that if our house ever blew
down I would take her back to Michigan. That time very nearly came on
April 13, 1873. The storm raged three days and nights and the snow flew
so it could not be faced. I have experienced colder blizzards but never
such a storm as this Easter one. I had built an addition of two rooms on
my shanty and it was fortunate we had that much room before the storm
for it was the means of saving the lives of four friends who were caught
without shelter. Two of them, a man and wife, were building a house on
their claim one-half mile east, the others were a young couple who had
been taking a ride on that beautiful Sunday afternoon. The storm came
suddenly about four in the afternoon; not a breath of air was stirring
and it became very dark. The storm burst, black dirt filled the air, and
the house rocked. Mrs. Cole almost prayed that the house would go down
so she could go back East. But it weathered the blast; if it had not I
know we would all have perished. The young man's team had to have
shelter and my board stable was only large enough for my oxen and cow so
we took his horses to the sod house on the girl's claim a mile away.
Rain and hail were falling but the snow did not come until we got home
or we would not have found our way. There were six grown people and one
child to camp in our house three days and only one bed. The three women
and the child occupied the bed, the men slept on the floor in another
room. Monday morning the snow was drifted around and over the house and
had packed in the cellar through a hole where I intended to put in a
window some day. To get the potatoes from the cellar for breakfast I had
to tunnel through the snow from the trap door in the kitchen. It was
impossible to get to the well so we lifted the trap door and melted
fresh snow when water was needed.
The shack that sheltered my live stock was 125 feet from the house and
it took three of us to get to the shack to feed. Number two would keep
within hearing of number one and the third man kept in touch with number
two until he reached the stable. Wednesday evening we went for the
horses in the sod house and found one dead. They had gnawed the wall of
the house so that it afterwards fell down.
I could tell many other incidents of a homesteader's life, of trials and
short rations, of the grasshoppers in 1874-75-76, of hail storms and hot
winds; yet all who remained through those days of hardship are driving
automobiles instead of oxen and their land is worth, not $2.50 an acre,
but $150.
FRONTIER TOWNS
BY FRANCIS M. BROOME
With the first rush of settlers into northwest Nebraska, preceding the
advent of railroads, numerous villages sprang up on the prairies like
mushrooms during a night. All gave promise, at least on paper, of
becoming great cities, and woe to the citizen unloyal to that sentiment
or disloyal to his town. It is sufficient to recount experiences in but
one of these villages for customs were similar in all of them, as
evidence of the freedom common to early pioneer life.
In a central portion of the plains, that gave promise of future
settlement, a man named Buchanan came out with a wagonload of boards and
several boxes of whiskey and tobacco and in a short space of time had
erected a building of not very imposing appearance. Over the door of
this building a board was nailed, on which was printed the word "SALOON"
and, thus prepared for business, this man claimed the distinction of
starting the first town in that section. His first customers were a band
of cowboys who proceeded to drink up all of the stock and then to see
which one could shoot the largest number of holes through the building.
This gave the town quite a boom and new settlers as far away as
Valentine began hearing of the new town of Buchanan. Soon after another
venturesome settler brought in a general merchandise store and then the
rush began, all fearing they might be too late to secure choice
locations. The next public necessity was a newspaper, which soon came,
and the town was given the name of Nonpareil. It was regularly platted
into streets and alleys, and a town well sunk in the public square.
Efforts to organize a civil government met with a frost, everyone
preferring to be his own governor. A two-story hotel built of rough
native pine boards furnished lodging and meals for the homeless, three
saloons furnished drinks for the thirsty twenty-four hours in the day
and seven days in the week; two drug stores supplied drugs in case of
sickness and booze from necessity for payment of expenses. These with a
blacksmith shop and several stores constituted the town for the first
year and by reason of continuous boosting it grew to a pretentious size.
The second year some of the good citizens, believing it had advanced far
enough to warrant the establishment of a church, sent for a Methodist
minister. This good soul, believing his mission in life was to drive out
sin from the community, set about to do it in the usual manner, but soon
bowed to the inevitable and, recognizing prevailing customs, became
popular in the town. Boys, seeing him pass the door of saloons, would
hail him and in a good-natured manner give him the contents of a jackpot
in a poker game until, with these contributions and sums given him from
more religious motives, he had accumulated enough to build a small
church.
[Illustration: MRS. ANGIE F. NEWMAN
Second Vice-President General from Nebraska, National Society, Daughters
of the American Revolution. Elected 1898]
After the organization of the county, the place was voted the
county-seat, and a courthouse was built. The court room when not in use
by the court was used for various public gatherings and frequently for
dances.
Everybody had plenty of money and spent it with a prodigal hand. The
"save-for-rainy-days" fellows had not yet arrived on the scene. They
never do until after higher civilization steps in. Old Dan, the hotel
keeper, was considered one of the best wealth distributors in the
village. His wife, a little woman of wonderful energy, would do all the
work in a most cheerful manner while Dan kept office, collected the
money and distributed it to the pleasure of the boys and profit to the
saloons, and both husband and wife were happy in knowing that they were
among the most popular people of the village. It did no harm and
afforded the little lady great satisfaction to tell about her noble
French ancestry for it raised the family to a much higher dignity than
that of the surrounding plebeian stock of English, Irish, and Dutch, and
nobody cared so long as everything was cheerful around the place.
Cheerfulness is a great asset in any line of business. The lawyer of the
village, being a man of great expectations, attempted to lend dignity to
the profession, until, finding that board bills are not paid by dignity
and becoming disgusted with the lack of appreciation of legal talent, he
proceeded to beat the poker games for an amount sufficient to enable him
to leave for some place where legal talent was more highly appreciated.
These good old days might have continued had the railroads kept out,
but railroads follow settlement just as naturally as day follows night.
They built into the country and with them came a different order of
civilization.
Many experiences of a similar character might be told concerning other
towns in this section, namely, Gordon, where old Hank Ditto, who ran the
roadhouse, never turned down a needy person for meals and lodging, but
compelled the ones with money to pay for them. Then there was Rushville,
the supply station for vast stores of goods for the Indian agency and
reservation near by; Hay Springs, the terminal point for settlers coming
into the then unsettled south country. Chadron was a town of unsurpassed
natural beauty in the Pine Ridge country, where Billy Carter, the Dick
Turpin of western romance, held forth in all his glory and at whose
shrine the sporting fraternity performed daily ablutions in the
bountiful supply of booze water. Crawford was the nesting place for all
crooks that were ever attracted to a country by an army post.
These affairs incident to the pioneer life of northwestern Nebraska are
now but reminiscences, supplanted by a civilization inspired by all of
the modern and higher ideals of life.
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF BOX BUTTE COUNTY
BY IRA E. TASH
Box Butte county, Nebraska, owes its existence to the discovery of gold
in the Black Hills in 1876. When this important event occurred, the
nearest railroad point to the discovery in Deadwood Gulch was Sidney,
Nebraska, 275 miles to the south. To this place the gold seekers rushed
from every point of the compass. Parties were organized to make the
overland trip to the new El Dorado with ox teams, mule teams, and by
every primitive mode of conveyance. Freighters from Colorado and the
great Southwest, whose occupation was threatened by the rapid building
of railroads, miners from all the Rocky Mountain regions of the West,
and thousands of tenderfeet from the East, all flocked to Sidney as the
initial starting point. To this heterogeneous mass was added the
gambler, the bandit, the road agent, the dive keeper, and other
undesirable citizens. This flood of humanity made the "Old Sidney Trail"
to the Black Hills. Then followed the stage coach, Wells-Fargo express,
and later the United States mail. The big freighting outfits conveyed
mining machinery, provisions, and other commodities, among which were
barrels and barrels of poor whiskey, to the toiling miners in the Hills.
Indians infested the trail, murdered the freighters and miners, and ran
off their stock, while road agents robbed stages and looted the express
company's strong boxes. Bandits murdered returning miners and robbed
them of their nuggets and gold dust. There was no semblance of law and
order. When things got too rank, a few of the worst offenders were
lynched, and the great, seething, hurrying mass of humanity pressed on
urged by its lust for gold.
This noted trail traversed what is now Box Butte county from north to
south, and there were three important stopping places within the
boundaries of the county. These were the Hart ranch at the crossing of
Snake creek, Mayfield's, and later the Hughes ranch at the crossing of
the Niobrara, and Halfway Hollow, on the high tableland between. The
deep ruts worn by the heavily loaded wagons and other traffic passing
over the route are still plainly visible, after the lapse of forty
years. This trail was used for a period of about nine years, or until
the Northwestern railroad was extended to Deadwood, when it gave way to
modern civilization.
Traveling over this trail were men of affairs, alert men who had noted
the rich grasses and wide ranges that bordered the route, and marked it
down as the cattle raiser's and ranchman's future paradise. Then came
the great range herds of the Ogallalla Cattle Company, Swan Brothers,
Bosler Brothers, the Bay State and other large cow outfits, followed by
the hard-riding cowboy and the chuck wagon. These gave names to
prominent landmarks. A unique elevation in the eastern part of the
county they named Box Butte. Butte means hill or elevation less than a
mountain, Box because it was roughly square or box-shaped. Hence the
surrounding plains were designated in cowman's parlance "the Box Butte
country," and as such it was known far and wide.
Later, in 1886 and 1887, a swarm of homeseekers swept in from the East,
took up the land, and began to build houses of sod and to break up the
virgin soil. The cowman saw that he was doomed, and so rounded up his
herds of longhorns and drove on westward into Wyoming and Montana. These
new settlers soon realized that they needed a unit of government to meet
the requirements of a more refined civilization. They were drawn
together by a common need, and rode over dim trails circulating
petitions calling for an organic convention. They met and provided for
the formation of a new county, to be known as "Box Butte" county.
This name was officially adopted, and is directly traceable to the
discovery of gold in the Black Hills. The lure of gold led the hardy
miner and adventurer across its fertile plains, opened the way for the
cattleman who named the landmark from which the county takes its name,
and the sturdy settler who followed in his wake adopted the name and
wrote it in the archives of the state and nation.
[Illustration: UNVEILING OF MONUMENT AT KEARNEY, NEBRASKA, IN
COMMEMORATION OF THE OREGON TRAIL
Left to right: Mrs. Ashton C. Shallenberger, Governor Shallenberger,
Mrs. Oreal S. Ward, State Regent Nebraska Society, Daughters of the
American Revolution; Mrs. Andrew K. Gault, Vice-President General,
National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution; Mrs. Charles O.
Norton, Regent Ft. Kearney Chapter, Daughters of the American
Revolution; John W. Patterson, Mayor of Kearney; John Lee Webster,
President Nebraska State Historical Society; Rev. R. P. Hammons, E. B.
Finch, assisting with the flag rope]
A BROKEN AXLE
BY SAMUEL C. BASSETT
In 1860, Edward Oliver, Sr., his wife and seven children, converts to
the Mormon faith, left their home in England for Salt Lake City, Utah.
At Florence, Nebraska, on the Missouri river a few miles above the city
of Omaha, they purchased a traveling outfit for emigrants, which
consisted of two yoke of oxen, a prairie-schooner wagon, and two cows;
and with numerous other families having the same destination took the
overland Mormon trail up the valley of the Platte on the north side of
the river.
When near a point known as Wood River Centre, 175 miles west of the
Missouri river, the front axle of their wagon gave way, compelling a
halt for repairs, their immediate companions in the emigrant train
continuing the journey, for nothing avoidable, not even the burial of a
member of the train, was allowed to interfere with the prescribed
schedule of travel. The Oliver family camped beside the trail and the
broken wagon was taken to the ranch of Joseph E. Johnson, who combined
in his person and business that of postmaster, merchant, blacksmith,
wagon-maker, editor, and publisher of a newspaper (_The Huntsman's
Echo_). Johnson was a Mormon with two wives, a man passionately fond of
flowers which he cultivated to a considerable extent in a fenced
enclosure. While buffalo broke down his fence and destroyed his garden
and flowers, he could not bring himself to kill them. He was a
philosopher and, it must be conceded, a most useful person at a point so
far distant from other sources of supplies.
The wagon shop of Mr. Johnson contained no seasoned wood suitable for an
axle and so from the trees along Wood river was cut an ash from which
was hewn and fitted an axle to the wagon and the family again took the
trail, but ere ten miles had been traveled the green axle began to bend
under the load, the wheels ceased to track, and the party could not
proceed. In the family council which succeeded the father urged that
they try to arrange with other emigrants to carry their movables
(double teams) and thus continue their journey.
The mother suggested that they return to the vicinity of Wood River
Centre and arrange to spend the winter. To the suggestion of the mother
all the children added their entreaties. The mother urged that it was a
beautiful country, with an abundance of wood and water, grass for
pasture, and hay in plenty could be made for their cattle, and she was
sure crops could be raised. The wishes of the mother prevailed, the
family returned to a point about a mile west of Wood River Centre, and
on the banks of the river constructed a log hut with a sod roof in which
they spent the winter. When springtime came, the father, zealous in the
Mormon faith, urged that they continue their journey; to this neither
the mother nor any of the children could be induced to consent and in
the end the father journeyed to Utah, where he made his home and married
a younger woman who had accompanied the family from England, which
doubtless was the determining factor in the mother refusing to go.
The mother, Sarah Oliver, proved to be a woman of force and character.
With her children she engaged in the raising of corn and vegetables, the
surplus being sold to emigrants passing over the trail and at Fort
Kearny, some twenty miles distant.
In those days there were many without means who traveled the trail and
Sarah Oliver never turned a hungry emigrant from her door, and often
divided with such the scanty store needed for her own family. When
rumors came of Indians on the warpath the children took turns on the
housetop as lookout for the dread savages. In 1863 two settlers were
killed by Indians a few miles east of her home. In the year 1864
occurred the memorable raid of the Cheyenne Indians in which horrible
atrocities were committed and scores of settlers were massacred by these
Indians only a few miles to the south. In 1865 William Storer, a near
neighbor, was killed by the Indians.
Sarah Oliver had no framed diploma from a medical college which would
entitle her to the prefix "Dr." to her name, possibly she was not
entitled to be called a trained nurse, but she is entitled to be long
remembered as one who ministered to the sick, to early travelers hungry
and footsore along the trail, and to many families whose habitations
were miles distant.
Sarah Oliver and her family endured all the toil and privation common
to early settlers, without means, in a new country, far removed from
access to what are deemed the barest necessities of life in more settled
communities.
She endured all the terrors incident to settlement in a sparsely settled
locality, in which year after year Indian atrocities were committed and
in which the coming of such savages was hourly expected and dreaded. She
saw the building and completion of the Union Pacific railroad near her
home in 1866; she saw Nebraska become a state in the year 1867. In 1870
when Buffalo county was organized her youngest son, John, was appointed
sheriff, and was elected to that office at the first election
thereafter. Her eldest son, James, was the first assessor in the county,
and her son Edward was a member of the first board of county
commissioners and later was elected and served with credit and fidelity
as county treasurer.
When, in the year 1871, Sarah Oliver died, her son Robert inherited the
claim whereon she first made a home for her family and which, in this
year, 1915, is one of the most beautiful, fertile farm homes in the
county and state.