Collection of Nebraska Pioneer Reminiscences Part 7

Realizing he had no chance, he became silent, but some of the citizens who were present and listening to the trial, interposed objections to the strenuous sentence, and informed the court that "as we are now organized into a county and have to go by law, you can't sentence a man to hang fer stealin' a hoss."

This staggered the justice somewhat and he again took the matter under advis.e.m.e.nt, and shortly after made the following change in the sentence, addressing the prisoner as follows "----, Dem laws don't let you get hanged, vich iss not right. You iss one teef; dat iss a sure ting, and I shust gif you fifteen minutes to git out of dis state of Newbrasky."

The p.a.w.nee secured possession of the horse, but whether it belonged to them or not is questionable, and hit the eastern trail for the "p.a.w.nee house," while the Sioux warrior hastily got himself together and made a swift hike toward the setting sun and safety.

A GOOD INDIAN

BY MRS. CLIFFORD WHITTAKER

The late John H. MacColl came to Dawson county in 1869 to benefit his health, but shortly after reaching here he had an attack of mountain fever, that left his lower limbs paralyzed. The nearest medical aid he could get was from the army surgeon at Fort McPherson, forty miles to the west. He made a number of trips to attend Mr. MacColl, and finally told him that he would never be any better. An old Indian medicine man happened along about that time and he went to see Mr. MacColl. By curious signs, gesticulations, and grunts, he made Mr. MacColl understand that he could cure him and that he would be back the next day at the rising of the sun. True to his word, he came, bringing with him an interpreter who explained to Mr. MacColl that the medicine man could cure him if he would submit to his treatment. Mr. MacColl was desperate and willing to do almost anything, so he agreed. The patient was stripped and laid flat on a plank. The medicine man then took a saw-edged knife and made no less than a hundred tiny gashes all over his patient's body. This done he produced a queer herb, and began chewing it. Then he spit it in his hand, as needed, and rubbed it into each tiny wound. That was all, and in three days Mr. MacColl could stand alone, and in a week he could walk.

This incident was told to me in 1910 by the sister, Laura MacColl.

FROM MISSOURI TO DAWSON COUNTY IN 1872

BY A. J. PORTER

I left southwest Missouri late in October, 1872, accompanied by my sister, and journeyed by team via Topeka, Kansas, to Nebraska. We spent our first night in Nebraska at Fairbury, November 8, 1872. Trains on the St. Joe and Grand Island railroad had just reached that point.

After visiting a few days with the Carney families near Fairmont we took the train for Plum Creek (now Lexington) and reached Kearney at 10 o'clock P. M. All rooms being occupied we sat in the office of the hotel till morning. None of the Union Pacific trains stopped at that place except to take mail. At 10 o'clock that night we got a train to Plum Creek, which place we reached at 12 o'clock. There being no hotel we stayed in the depot until morning, when we found our brother living on a homestead.

During our stay I filed on land six miles northeast of Plum Creek. The next April I brought my family by wagon over the same route and reached Dawson county a month after the noted Easter storm of 1873. At that time we saw hundreds of hides of Texas cattle, that had perished in the storm, hanging on fences surrounding the stockyards at Elm Creek.

We remained on our homestead until August, 1876, at which time we came to Fillmore county and bought the southwest quarter of section eleven in Madison towns.h.i.+p, which place we now own.

THE ERICKSON FAMILY

BY MRS. W. M. STEBBINS

Charles J. Erickson left Sweden in 1864 and for two years lived in New York, Indiana, and Illinois. In 1866 he moved to Fort McPherson, Nebraska. He worked around the Fort until 1871 when he took a homestead nine miles east. The next year, he sent to Sweden for his family. They arrived at McPherson station--now Maxwell--on September 1, 1872. Mr.

Erickson died in April, 1877. The family resided on the old homestead until 1910, when they moved to Gothenburg, Nebraska. The sons, Frank and John Erickson, who still reside in Nebraska, unite in the following statement:

"Coming to this part of the state at so early a date we have been eye witnesses to the development and transformation of the country from a bleak, wild prairie covered with blue stem gra.s.ses, upon which fed thousands of buffalo, deer, antelope, and elk. The Indians still controlled the country and caused us to have many sleepless nights.

"In those early days we always took our guns with us when we went away from home, or into the field to work. Several times we were forced to seek shelter in the Fort, or in some home, saving our scalps from the Indians by the fleetness of our ponies. But how changed now.

"One of our early recollections is the blackened posts and poles along the old Oregon trail. As we gazed down the trail these looked like sentinels guarding the way, but we soon learned they were the poles of the first telegraph line built across Nebraska. It extended from Nebraska City to Fort Laramie, Wyoming. When the Union Pacific railroad was built through here--on the north side of the river--in 1866, the telegraph line followed and the old line on the south side of the Platte was abandoned. The old poles were of red cedar taken from the canons and were all burned black by the prairie fires. They soon disappeared, being used by the Indians and the emigrants for firewood. The old trail and telegraph line crossed our farm and only a few years ago we dug out of the ground one of the stubs of a cedar telegraph pole about two feet in diameter and six feet long, and there are still more of these old stubs in our fields.

"In the early seventies the most prominent ranches in this section were Upper 96 and Lower 96. These ranches had first been the relay stations of the old Wells Fargo Express Company. At each of these may be seen well preserved cedar log buildings still in use built by this company when they first established their express business across the plains in the middle of the last century. On the advent of the Union Pacific, the Wells Fargo Express Company abandoned these stations and they became the property of the 96 Ranch. Although they have pa.s.sed through the hands of several different owners they have always retained their names of Upper 96 ranch and Lower 96 ranch.

"The canons leading into the hills from the south side of the river are named from the early ranches along the valley near the mouths of the canons; Conroy from Conroy's ranch, Jeffrie from Jeffrie's ranch, Gilman from Gilman's ranch, and Hiles from Hiles' ranch. An exception to the above is the Dan Smith canon which is named after Dan Smith in memory of the tragedy with which his name is connected. Dan Smith and wife were working at the Lower 96 ranch in 1871. Mrs. Smith wished to attend a ball to be given by the officers at Fort McPherson and wanted her husband to go with her, but he being of a jealous disposition refused to go. She mounted her horse and started to go alone when he called to her to come back and take his gun to protect herself from the Indians. She turned around and started back toward him. He drew his gun and fired, killing her instantly. She was buried at the Lower 96 ranch and until a few years ago her grave was kept green. After shooting his wife, Dan Smith mounted her horse and rode away into the hills to the south. The soldiers at the Fort twenty-five miles away were notified and the next day they came to hunt for the murderer. They surrounded him in a canon in the hills and there shot him to death leaving his body a prey for buzzards and wolves. The canon to this day is called Dan Smith Canon and through it is the main road leading from Gothenburg to Farnam, Nebraska."

THE BEGINNINGS OF FREMONT

BY SADIE IRENE MOORE

Fremont was named for John C. Fremont, who was a candidate against Buchanan for president. The first stakes were set August 23, 1856, the boundaries being finished three days later. "The first habitation of any sort, was constructed of poles surrounded by prairie gra.s.s. It was built and owned by E. H. Barnard and J. Koontz, in 1856, and stood upon the site of the present Congregational church." In the autumn of 1856, Robert Kittle built and owned the first house. A few weeks later his house was occupied by Rev. Isaac E. Heaton, wife and two daughters, who were the first family to keep house in Fremont. Alice Flor, born in the fall of 1857, was the first child born in Fremont. She is now Mrs.

Gilkerson, of Wahoo. The first male child born in Fremont was Fred Kittle. He was born in March, 1858, and died in 1890. On August 23, 1858, occurred the first marriage. The couple were Luther Wilson and Eliza Turner. The first death was that of Seth P. Marvin, who was accidentally drowned in April, 1857, while crossing the Elkhorn seven miles northeast of Fremont. The Marvin home was a mile and a quarter west of Fremont and this house was the rendezvous of the parties who laid out Fremont. Mr. Marvin was one of the town company.

The first celebration of the Fourth of July was in 1857. Robert Kittle sold the first goods. J. G. and Towner Smith conducted the first regular store. In 1860, the first district school was opened with Miss McNeil teacher. Then came Mary Heaton, now Mrs. Hawthorne. Mrs. Margaret Turner, followed by James G. Smith, conducted the first hotel situated where the First National bank now is. This was also the "stage house,"

and here all the traders stopped en route from Omaha to Denver. In the evening the old hotel resounded with the music of violin and the sound of merry dancing. Charles Smith conducted a drug store where Holloway and Fowler now are. A telegraph line was established in 1860. The first public school was held in a building owned by the Congregational church at the corner of Eighth and D streets. Miss Sarah Pneuman, now Mrs. Harrington, of Fremont, was the teacher. When court convened, school adjourned, there being no courthouse. In three years the school had grown from sixteen to one hundred pupils, with three teachers. The first public schoolhouse was built at the corner of Fifth and D streets.

In 1866 the Union Pacific was built. The first bank was established in 1867. The _Tribune_, the first newspaper, was published July 24, 1868.

"The Central School" was built in 1869 and the teacher, in search of truant boys, would ascend to the top, where with the aid of field gla.s.s, she could see from the Platte to the Elkhorn. Today, can be seen on the foundations of this old landmark, the marks of slate pencils, which were sharpened by some of our middle aged business men of today.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MONUMENT AT FREMONT, NEBRASKA, MARKING THE OVERLAND EMIGRANT TRAILS OR CALIFORNIA ROAD

Erected by Lewis-Clark Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution]

Mrs. Cynthia Hamilton, of Fremont, gives an interesting account of the early days. In June, 1857, she, with her husband, Mr. West, their daughter, Julia, Mrs. West's brother, the late Wilson Reynolds, and Mrs.

Reynolds, reached the few dwellings then comprising Fremont, after an eighteen or nineteen days trip in moving wagons from Racine, Wisconsin.

They first stopped at the house of Robert Kittle, corner Military and Broad streets. This house was made from trees grown on the bluffs southwest of town, and had a red cedar s.h.i.+ngle roof, the s.h.i.+ngles shaved from logs floated down the Platte. After two days, they all moved to a log house in "Pierce's Grove." While living here, Mrs. Hamilton tells of hearing a great commotion among the tinware and upon investigation, found it was caused by a huge snake. In August of the same year they moved to their homestead, northwest of town, on the Rawhide. It is now known as the Rohr place. Here they remained two years. In winter the men made trips to the river for wood, and the women must either accompany them or remain at home, alone, far from another house. Thus, alone one day, she saw a large band of Indians approaching. The chief, picking up an axe from the wood pile, placed it under the window where she sat, indicating that she must take care of it, else some one might steal it.

He then led his band northward. During all the residence on the homestead the three members of the family suffered continually from ague. In the fall of 1859, Mrs. West and her child returned to Wisconsin, where they remained ten months. During her absence, Mr. West became a trader with the Indians and once in Saunders county as he was selling a quant.i.ty of meat on a temporary counter, the Indians became rather unruly. His white companions fled, and Mr. West seizing a club, went among the Indians, striking them right and left. For this, they called him a brave and ever afterwards called him "Buck Skadaway,"

meaning curly hair. When Mrs. West returned from Wisconsin, she came down the Mississippi and up the Missouri to Omaha, then a small town.

From there they drove to Fremont, with horse and buggy, via Florence.

Mr. West now bought a cottonwood house, battened up and down. It consisted of two rooms, and stood on the site of the present residence of Thad Quinn. Wilson Reynolds bought two lots on the south side of Sixth street near the West home for twenty-five cents. Here he built a house made partly of black walnut taken from the banks of the Platte. In this house, was born our present postmaster, B. W. Reynolds. Mrs.

Hamilton relates that the Indians were frequent callers at her home, one even teaching her to make "corn coffee," "by taking a whole ear of corn, burning it black and then putting it in the coffee pot." Food consisted of vegetables, which were grown on the prairie sod, prairie chickens, small game, and corn bread. b.u.t.ter was twenty-five cents a pound. Syrup was made by boiling down watermelon. Boiled beans were mashed to a pulp and used as b.u.t.ter. "Everything was high and when the money and supplies which we bought were exhausted it was hard to get more." Screens were unknown and the flies and mosquitoes were terrible. In the evenings everyone would build a smudge so that they could sleep. Not a tree was to be seen except those on the banks of the streams. Tall prairie gra.s.s waved like the ocean and prairie fires were greatly feared. Everyone began setting out trees at once.

"In those days Broad street was noted as a racing road for the Indians and now it is a boulevard for automobiles," says Mrs. Hamilton. "Yes,"

she continued, "I well remember the Fourth of July celebration in 1857.

There were about one hundred people in attendance. Miss McNeil was my little girl's first teacher and Dr. Rhustrat was our first physician."

In 1861, after a short illness, Mr. West died. He was buried beside his infant daughter in the cemetery, which at that time stood near the present brewery. The bodies were afterward removed to Barnard's cemetery and later to Ridge. The following year, Mrs. West, with her daughter, Julia, returned to her parents at Racine, Wisconsin, where she remained for many years. In 1876, as the wife of William Hamilton she returned and made her home on one of her farms near the stockyards.

Twenty-five years ago this place was sold for $100 per acre while the old homestead northwest of town brought $25 per acre in 1875. After selling the south farm she and Mr. Hamilton, who died a few years ago, bought the present home on Broad street. Everyone should honor the early settlers, who left their eastern homes, endured hards.h.i.+ps and privations that a beautiful land might be developed for posterity. They should be pensioned as well as our soldiers. And we, of the younger generation, should respect and reverence their memory.

A GRa.s.sHOPPER STORY

BY MARGARET F. KELLY

I came to Fremont, Nebraska, in May, 1870, and settled on a farm on Maple creek. In 1874 or 1875 we were visited by gra.s.shoppers. I had never formed an idea of anything so disastrous. When the "hoppers" were flying the air was full of them. As one looked up, they seemed like a severe snow storm. It must have been like one of the plagues of Egypt.

They were so bad one day that the pa.s.senger train on the Union Pacific was stalled here. I went to see the train and the odor from the crushed insects was nauseating. I think the train was kept here for three hours.