NEBRASKA HISTORY AND RECORD OF PIONEER DAYS VOL I, NO. 3-4, APR-MAY 1918 Transcribed from a copy of the original publication by the submitters. Submitted to the USGenWeb Nebraska Archives, January, 1998, by Ted and Carole Miller (susieque@pacbell.net). USGenWeb Project NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the internet, data may be used by non-commercial researchers, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format for profit, nor for presentation in any form by any other organization or individual. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than as stated above, must obtain express written permission from the author, or the submitter and from the listed USGenWeb Project archivist. *************** NEBRASKA HISTORY AND RECORD OF PIONEER DAYS Vol. I, nos. 3 & 4 - April & May 1918 (Original had no Table of Contents) Poetry: Now & Then, June, and Pessimistic Muse 1 Nemaha County, Historical Material In (box found in basement) 1 Keeping the Pioneers with Us (movie film being shot by NSHS) 1 John Brown's Visits to Nebraska 1 Beatrice Newspaper, An Old - Blue Valley Record, 11 Nov 1868 1 Union Club - Civil War Substitute for "Council of Defense" - Brownville 2 The Historic Society in France - John Edward Hunt 3 Blockhouse at Tekamah (military organization in 1854-1855) 3 Episcopal Parish, Early - Nemaha City, 22 April 1867 3 Nemaha, Grand Ball at (Valentine's Day in Nemaha City, date unknown) 3 Death of Omaha's Oldest Pioneer - Samuel E. ROGERS 3 Stories of Early Nemaha County Pioneers 4 Aspinwall & Nemaha City, F. L. Woodward Tells of 4 A. M. Medley Came West, When (1855 to Peru) 4 Daniel C. Cole & Peru (1858, Nemaha County) 4-5 Dr. Jetus Riggs Conkling - early resident of Burt Co. & Omaha, NE 5 John Q. Goss Passes on (Judge, lived at Bellevue) 5 U. P. Mileage Book, First 5 John Bratt, North Platte Pioneer 5 Mrs. Ada Buck Martin (daughter of Royal BUCK, pioneer of Red Willow Co.) 5 NE in 1864-67: Time of the Sioux Indian War & Building of UPRR 6 Oak Grove Monument in Nuckolls County 6 Mr. Sheldon's Address at dedication of Oak Grove monument 6 First Railroad Excursion to NE - 1866 6-7 Recent Exploration (Doniphan, Gibbon, Fort McPherson) 7 Old Station Agent - E. M. SEARLE Sr. of Alkali (Paxton) and Ogallala 7 Pioneers of Early Period - First Real Estate Agents' Union Prices 8 Nebraska's First Educator - Dr. John M. McKENZIE of Pawnee City & Peru 8 (died CA) Hon. Herbert P. Shumway (Lyons, NE) 8 Tales of Strong Men and Women (publication notice from Lincoln Daily Star) 8 William B. Lee, Pioneer (Fremont, NE in 1856) 8 Nebraska History (publication notice from Clarkson Press) 8 Red Willow Pioneer - John LONGNECKER will join NSHS 8 Interesting Early History (publication notice from Albion News) 8 Mary L. McKenzie Keyser (Pawnee City, & Peru) died in CA 8 Richardson County, Pioneers of (Spring of 1866) 8 Real Estaters Organized, Story of How the (1870) 8 Sarpy County Reunion 8 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NEBRASKA HISTORY KEEPING THE PIONEERS WITH US AND RECORD OF PIONEER DAYS Through the use of moving ------------------------------------ pictures we are able to bring Published Monthly by the Nebraska before us almost the actual State Historical Society presence of the builders of ------------------------------------ Nebraska. It was a fortunate Editor, ADDISON E. SHELDON circumstance that a very fine film Associate Editors was taken of Charles M. Bessey The Staffs of the Nebraska State working in his garden a few weeks Historical Society and before his death. Films were also Legislative Reference Bureau secured of Isaac Pollard while ------------------------------------ engaged in the examination of fruit Subscription $2.00 Per Year blossoms; Judge M. B. Reese ------------------------------------ visiting with another prominent q All sustaining members of the member of the Nebraska bar; Mansel Nebraska State Historical Davis, a Valley county pioneer, Society receive Nebraska standing in the doorway of his History without further payment. original log house; John 0. Goss q Entered US second class mail welcoming a guest at his home in matter, under act of July Bellevue; and others of men 16, 1894, at Lincoln, Nebraska, prominent in the early history of April 2, 1918. the state. ------------------------------------ The list of individual films VOLUME APRIL AND MAY, NUMBERS 3 will be extended as rapidly as I. 1918 AND 4 possible, and the pleasing ------------------------------------ assurance is given that the taking of a moving picture film is no NOW AND THEN intimation that the subject is liable to die at an early date. Twenty below, and I hear the wind ------- roaring, JOHN BROWN'S VISITS TO NEBRASKA See the snow drifting and filling Forty years ago the name "J. the air, Brown" carved high up on one of the And I'm quite agreed my papers to historic rocks near Table Rock was read, pointed out as the autograph of To sit by the fire in a John Brown, of Osawatomie. Brown well-cushioned chair. frequently crossed the southeast corner of Nebraska from Tabor, JUNE Iowa, which was then a center of anti-slavery agitation on the Where drifts were piled high. green underground railroad. Dan Cole, of grass will be growing, Peru, still tells the story or Soft breezes will murmur, birds seeing Brown at Squire Kennedy's flit through the air: house just west of Brownville early I'm not re'lly complaining, but 0, in 1859. In volume II of the I am longing Nebraska State Historical Society's To sit out-of-door in my old reports Mr. A. R. Keim has an rocking chair. article upon John Brown's travels in Nebraska with particular January, 1918. - S. C. B. references to his headquarters in Falls City and relates the story of A PESSIMISTIC MUSE. his discussion with Wilson M. Maddox, one of the noted Richardson The poet's zeal is dead and gone, county pioneers, of plans for his No longer burns poetic fire, Harper's Ferry campaign to free the No longer thoughts blaze forth in slaves. rhyme The Nebraska City News of Feb. To soft accompaniment of lyre. 12, 1859, contains a fierce and lurid denunciation of Brown in Strangled at birth by cold neglect, these words: Suffering the pangs of cruel scorn; "John Brown, Captain John Brown, 'Twould sure have been a kinder old John Brown of Osawatomie .... fate, passed through this city late last Better never to have been born. Friday eveniing [sic] at the head of a herd of stolen niggers taken - S. C. B. from southern Missouri, accompanied with a gang of horse thieves of the ------- most desperate character. They had a large number of stolen horses in HISTORICAL MATERIAL IN NEMAHA their possession - two or which COUNTY were taken and are now held by the While on a prospecting tour for deputy sheriff of this county. the State Historical Society in May "There is an appropriateness and of this year Frank A. Harrison fitness in nigger stealers being found much valuable material in associated with horse thieves that Nemaha county. The biggest treasure the rankest black republican cannot was in a box covered with rubbish fall to appreciate." in a basement at Auburn. The Historical Society will be In this box were the first court glad to receive any accounts or records. sheriff's fee book, and traditions of John Brown in other official documents of Nemaha Nebraska in addition to the above. county dating from 1855; books of ------- the first treasurer of Brownville; AN OLD BEATRICE NEWSPAPER records of the first Bible society; A copy of the Blue Valley records of the early organization Record, published at Beatrice by of an Episcopal church at Nemaha Howard & Nelson, and dated November City; record book of the "Union 11, 1868, bears evidence of having Club" during the civil war; surplus followed the U. S. land office to bonds of the "Brownville & Ft. the Gage county town. Most, of the Kearney Railroad;" files containing advertisements in its columns are hundreds of letters from men of by Brownville and Nebraska City note during the pioneer days; business men. Only about a dozen original maps and plats of Nemaha small news items appear in the county and its boom towns; complete paper. One records the marriage of census returns for 1870, and much Nathan Blakely and Maggie C. other material which had been lost Tinkham. to sight for nearly fifty years. The Gage county officers are It is probable that in others of listed as follows: representative, the old river counties there are Oliver Townsend; probate judge, H. cellars and garrets containing just M. Reynolds: treasurer, Albert as valuable historical material as Towle; clerk, 0. Townsend; sheriff, that found in Nemaha county. It L. P. Chandler; surveyor, A. J. would seem to be a patriotic duty Pethoud; coroner, Dan Freeman; for old residents to inspect their commissioners, H. P. Freeman, old papers and report to the State William Ticknor, H. M. Wickham; Historical Society. In this way constable, T. J. Chesney. much valuable material will be Mails are advertised to arrive saved for future generations. from Falls City and Nebraska City three times a week. Another line arrived from Marysville, Kan., three days each week, while the Plattsmouth mail came in by way of Lincoln on Wednesdays at noon and started back at one o'clock the same day. There was a mail once a week to Big Sandy. Albert Towle was postmaster. The editorial colum [sic] of the Record is devoted to a boost for the future greatness of Beatrice. It tells of rapid building, of water power, and of wonderful soil. The article concludes: "We have already the Land Office - will soon have a Church and a Court House, and we trust 'that in less than twelve months projected lines of Railway may penetrate our country both from the north and east, so as when completed to make Beatrice one of the Railroad centers of Nebraska." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2 Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Union Club -- Civil War Sub- stitute for "Council of Defense" ----------------------- NEBRASKA PATRIOTS AND THE CIVIL WAR J. W. Bliss, soldier, U. A recent find for the Historical S. A. Society is the original record book B. F. Lushbaugh, Pawnee of the Union Club, which was Indian agent. organized in Brownville in 1863, T. G. Jamison, clerk, during the strenuous days of the Brownville. Civil War. It was a time of great R. F. Barrett, register. differences on the war question, U. S. land office. even in Nebraska, and this book is Lewis Hill, soldier, U. valuable because it establishes the S. A. status of many citizens of Nemaha J. L. Roy, soldier, U. S. and surrounding counties. We quote A. entire the record of the first Chas. Haywood, farmer. meeting: Pawnee county. At a meeting held at the office S. W. Kennedy. farmer, of C. W. Wheeler in Brownville on Nemaha county. the evening of the 28th day of S. L. Collins, minister, February, A. D. 1863 for the Nemaha county. purpose of taking the initiatory Daniel Peony, farmer, steps to form a Union Club, the Nemaha county. following gentlemen were present, Henry Gilchrist, farmer, viz: T. R. Fisher, O. B. Hewett, W. Nemaha county. H. Hoover, R. W. Furnas, R. George Wheeler, farmer, V.Hughes, A. D. Marsh, C. F. Nemaha county. Stewart, C. W. Wheeler, S. R. David Gilchrist, farmer, Jamison, Jonas Hacker, T. C. Nemaha county. Hacker, John L. Carson, and C. G. John A. Small, liveryman, Dorsey. The meeting was temporarily Brownville. organized by the appointment of Timothy McLaughlin, John L. Carson president and laborer, Brownville. Charles G. Dorsey secretary. Albert Mead, gunsmith, An oath was then administered to Brownville. each person present to support the Wm. Amsbary, minister M. constitution of the United States, E. church. the Organic Law of the Territory, T. Manholl, minister M. etc. as required by rule in E. . church. preliminary organization. J. M. McKenzie. minister A motion was then made and M. E. church. accepted, that the meeting proceed Hiram Burch, minister, M. to the election of permanent E. church. officers for the club. Whereupon a Jno. B. Maxfield, vive voce vote was taken resulting minister M. E. church. in the choice of the following H. Hackney, Brownville. persons to fill the offices set Wm. T. Den, merchant, opposite their respective names: Brownville. John L. Carson, president; C. W. Rob't. Morrison, hotel Wheeler, vice president; T. R. keeper, Brownville. Fisher, corresponding secretary; C. George Clark, farmer, G. Dorsey, recording secretary; W. Nemaha county. H. Hoover, treasurer; R. V. Hughes, Enoch Clark, farmer, marshal; C. F. Stewart, sentinel. Nemaha county. A tax of fifty cents was by vote T. S. Ward, farmer, levied on each member present for Nemaha county. the purpose of procuring a charter James Entwistle, farmer, and other needful expenses, which Nemaha county. tax was thereupon paid in by each Andrew Stevens, farmer, person present to the treasurer. Nemaha county. The corresponding secretary was Wm. Bell, farmer, Nemaha then directed to draw five dollars county. from the treasury and therewith Isaac Range, farmer, procure a charter for the Club. On Nemaha county. motion the meeting was adjourned A. Sherfy, sexton, subject to the call of the Brownville. corresponding secretary. Jesse John, justice of This record is signed by the peace, Brownville. president and the recording J. W. Hollingshead, secretary. Through the records of farmer, Pawnee county. succeeding meetings no light is Wm. Hanley, farmer, given as to the parent club or Nemaha county. where the charter was issued. The presence of R. W. Furnas at the E. Phillips, Calvin E. preliminary meeting and the absence Phippenny, George Reane, T. H. of his name in the further records Ausden, H. P. Manning, W. R. Leach, of the club would indicate that he Gibbard Watts, Samuel Callen, W. H. was home from the army for a brief Kendall, George Sapp, J. K. time and was responsible for the Chamberlain, J. L. Fort, Joseph idea of organization. Hamilton, John Collins, T. N. The next meeting was on March Sanders, John Beard. George 19, after the charter had been Thompson, Wm. M. Hannaford, Thomas received, and the record says: "The Collins, C. P. Ware, George Hughes, Club was opened and the additional Joseph Saulsey, J. Q. A. Smith, obligations imposed on the original Win. Foliat, John H. R. Drury, A. members and they were then Dodd. Benjamin Chapman, Joseph initiated in the misteries (sic) of Schutz, Wm. Thorn, Riley Kelly. J. the Order and instructed in the .J. Leach, John Crine, W. B. Signs and Pass words." Phillips, Allen Phillips, Wm. Zook, The minutes show that during the J. R. Brockman, Chas. Helman, Jacob next seven months the Club met once B. Berkley, W. J. Rains, Jesse or twice a week. Unfortunately the Rains, A. Borsh, Louis Waldter, Wm. record does not mention the Rossell, W. S. Hughes, Phillip discussions that took place. It is Huffman. Peter Zook, W. W. Smith, a cold record of the examination Samuel Snyder, N. Thorp. John and admission of members. But this Chapman, R. R. Smith, J. F. Neal, list, with the occupation of the R. W. Frame, T. M. Green. R. A. men, is very valuable. Stewart, Samuel Petit, Joseph The process was to propose the Foster, James G. Melvin, George L. names of new members, appoint a Turner, Daniel Butler, Wyman Kent, special committee to investigate Samuel Skaats, W. G. Glasigow, them, and vote them in at a Seymour Tomlinson, John Ashley, succeeding meeting if the report of George Ashley, Wm. Bagley, Levi T. the committee was satisfactory. Knox, Francis Redfern, John Brown, Here is the list of members taken Samuel Wagstaff, Johnathan Higgins, in after the second meeting: James McLure, H. T. G. Krupfer, George F. Bixby, J. L. McGee, H. S. W. W. Hackney. freighter, Hill, W. W. Hill, Richard Buckan, Brownville. John A. Kelso, Thomas Arnold, Benjamin Rogers, Thomas Murray, Goldsberry Pavy, liveryman, Brownville.. Jeremiah Stringham, Stephen John August, teamster, Groesbeck, H. F. Dorsey, J. R. Brownville. Kelley, George R. Belden, Silas A. G. Gates, mason, Pierce, Robert Gilman, Charles Brownville. Keiswetter, Michael Barada, R. V. David Bell, farmer, Muir, Levi Richmond, David Nemaha county. McReynolds, Jeremiah Burnett, Wm. N. Blakeley, farmer, Vandeford, James M. Hacker, Wm. H. Beatrice. Hacker, Jeremiah Marlatt [?], J. H. Morrison, butcher. Antoine Barada, J. J. Leach. Joseph Brownville. Opelt, Samuel H. Randall, John Wm. Hackney, freighter, Blacklaw, W. W. Randall, Richard Brownville. Carr, Amos Stephens. Jacob Wm. Blakely, clerk, Stephens, Mark Stephens, James H. Brownville. Lahne, A. Hellman, Israel Noggle, James Medford, carpenter, George W. Dodge, John Long, B. B. Brownville. Thompson, John Argabright, Wm. H. S. L. Swan. clerk, McCreery, Wm. R. Massey, Antoine Brownville. Cabany, Wm. Stilwell, Joseph S. John L. Scott, soldier, Marsh, Daniel Shadley, Wm. Lyda, U. S. A. Jos. Medford, Jacob Mahron. Jonas Drury, carpenter, Brownville. On April 19, 1863, the club Fred W. Britmeyer, elected A. G. White president, in shoemaker, Brownville. place of John L. Carson, who was Evan Worthing, saloon absent from the territory, and at keeper, Brownville. the same meeting assessed the R. I. Whitney, government members ten cents each to pay for contractor, Brownville. badges. About this time the club A. G. White, minister, made preparations for a big meeting Brownville. of the Lolay National League for F. M. Paulin, justice of the 2nd of May, and a committee was peace, Aspinwall. appointed to hire a hall and a band W. Grant, shoemaker, and procure speakers. Brownville. On May 22 this resolution was Theodore Hill, merchant, adopted: "Resolved. That this club Brownville. will co-operate in the formation of Joshua Rogers, teamster, a Territorial Grand Club, and will Brownville. do all in its power to secure the D. H. McLaughlin, miller, union of all leagues and Brownville. organizations of Union men G. C. Thomson, throughout the Territory under some Brownville. uniform organization." John. McPherson, On June 26. 1863, a new election physician, Brownville. of officers was held. with this H. H. Dobbins, minister, result: A. G. White. president: Brownville. Jonas Hacker, vice president; Chas. Wesley Penny, farmer, G. Dorsey, recording secretary; Brownville. Thomas R. Fisher. corresponding James Berry. merchant, secretary; Wm. Hackney, treasurer; Brownville. W. H. Hoover, marshal; Michael J. H. Crow, freighter, Barada, sentinel. Brownville. On August 26, the club adopted a H. H. Marsh. deputy resolution its follows: "That it postmaster, Brownville. committee of ten members be Frederick August, appointed to meet the grand lodge laborer, Brownville. of the United Sons of Liberty at John H. Mean, soldier, U. Nemaha City on tomorrow evening and S. A. to use their endeavors with said C. P. Richardson. grand lodge to bring about a union soldier, U. S. A. of the two union organizations S. F. Cooper, soldier, U. under the organization of the Loyal S. A. League of America." At the same Alex Robinson. shoemaker, meeting the officers were Brownville. authorized to procure a charter David Gwin. physician, under the Loyal League of America. Brownville. With this merger of the Peter Smith. laborer, scattering Union clubs into a Brownville. territorial league, which seems to Fred I. West, laborer, have been perfected, the record Brownville. kept by C. C. Dorsey closes. It John V. Denser, tinner, would be interesting to find the Brownville. further records or the Chas. Denser, tinner, organizations at Brownville and Brownville. other towns. George Denser, tinner, Brownville. Phillip Denser, tobacconist, Brownville. H. H. Dye. saddler. Brownville. James R. Dye, carpenter, Brownville. John W. Middleton. saddler, Brownville. J. L. Columbia, soldier, U. S. A. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Image] THE BLOCKHOUSE AT TEKAMAH The new courthouse for Burt JOHN EDWARD HUNT county was dedicated on Tuesday March 19, 1918. In an account of The Historical Society in France the dedicatory exercises, the Burt County Herald of March 22 quotes John Edward Hunt, whose wife has the inscription of it historical been, before and since their tablet which was placed in file marriage, a valued member of the courthouse, in part as follows: Historical Society's staff, is "This new courthouse stands on fighting for his country in France, the site of the old Blockhouse having sailed from Newport News on built by the United States war April 14. He was at Box Butte department fin 1855 to protect the county boy, born at Alliance first while settlement in this November 8, 1888, but spent most of county from Indian depredations." his life in Morrill county. He In the account it is said further attended the Alliance schools and that General John M. Thayer the State University, after which organized a military company at he engaged in the wholesale grain Tekamah, the members of which "were and hay business at Bayard. He was mustered into the regular United drafted in the new army, went to States army. . . " Funston, where he was selected to The first military organization go with Company C, Fourth U. S. in the Territory of Nebraska was Infantry, and in a very short time formed in accordance with an was on his way to France. In a admonitory proclamation issued by recent letter to his wife he tells Acting Governor Cuming on December of his experiences: 23, 1854. The organic Act of the territory declared that "The "April 28, Somewhere on the governor ... shall be Atlantic, but in sight of land. commander-in-chief of the militia "We left Newport News just two thereof." But the first Legislative weeks ago. and our voyage is now Assembly did not exercise its power almost completed. This is a to authorize the organization of a beautiful day and the ocean or bay militia. This was first done by the is as calm as can be. I can see the second assembly, in 1856. So the waves splashing idly on the rocks, Acting governor's undertaking was and everything looks peaceful. The legally premature. He directed that third day out I saw a school of there should be two regiments, the whales. That was close to the gulf First regiment by, for and of the stream, but in the middle Atlantic North Platte section; the Second, there were neither fish nor birds, by, for and of the South Platte. only a big, rough sea, ugly as The proclamation prescribed could be and looked a thousand further that miles deep. This has been a "Said companies shall elect wonderful trip, but we are glad to their own officers, the regimental see land. For the past three days officers being commissioned by the we have been in the submarine zone, commander-in-chief. and it was not until we reached "Said companies are recommended this that things began to be real to keep such arms and ammunition as interesting. One submarine tried to they can procure, in good order and get 'gay,' but our chaser buried ready for service; also in the him at sea; so now Kaiser Bill is frontier settlements to . . . short one. We can see the French provide blockhouses for shelter, in and American aeroplanes flying case of attack, until word can be around us. The men wave at us as sent to other companies. they go over the ship. The little "In pursuance of this towns which we see along the bay proclamation I have this day are certainly a welcome sight. appointed and commissioned Almost every one has a church regimental officers, viz: one steeple towering high in the air. colonel, one lieut. colonel, one major, and one adjutant for each "May 12, Somewhere in France. regiment." "Here most all the buildings are In a book named Executive made of rock. The houses, barns and Proceedings and Official other buildings are very close Correspondence, Territory of together and many of them all Nebraska there is a partial record connected, sometimes in a straight of the organization of this row and sometimes in rectangular provisional militia, or rather the form with the garden wall on one undertaking to organize it; for side making it a tight corral with while I was writing the first big heavy gates. I see that they volume of the history of Nebraska I use some American made machinery, cross-examined General Thayer about and I noticed yesterday a big this incident, and he informed me haypress being operated by a woman, that very little of practical and it was just like one we have on importance was done. This record the ranch. Even the hillsides are shows only the appointment of cultivated and have enormous crops. officers for the Second, or South The climate is simply grand and Platte, regiment, "up to January 1, cool and moist, with lots of rain. 1855"; but it discloses that on "I am sitting out in a pretty February 7, 1855, the, acting little thicket of Norway spruce governor commissioned Andrew J. trees on a big elevation and can Hanscom colonel of the First see for miles around, a pretty Regiment Nebraska Volunteers, sight to be sure, but not so pretty William C. James Lieutenant to my mind as the land of Nebraska. colonel, and Hascall C. Purple I have my bunk made in the loft of major; also. John M. Thayer a big barn full of rats and mice. I brigadier general, and Anselum am more afraid of the rats than of Arnold adjutant of the first the Germans. I have my helmet and brigade, as the entire gas mask now and look almost like a organization, consisting of the two wild animal. This morning we regiments, was designated. fellows had our hair shaved short. Thus it appears that the war I sure did hate to see mine go, but department of the United States I guess it was for the best. I do took no part in the building of the sometimes get sleepy and hungry and blockhouse at Tekamah and that the tired, but I would not be back in local company of men who built it America for any money until the war were part of it purely territorial is over. As some say, I am seeing and extemporized militia. General the world, and if I have good luck Thayer first entered the army of will soon be in the trenches. I the United States soon after the want to get into them, and be a beginning of the Civil War. The real veteran before this thing is fact that he became a brigadier over." general in that war probably led to the confusion and misapprehension I have pointed out. ALBERT WATKINS. ------- AN EARLY EPISCOPAL PARISH Among the old records found stored away in a basement in Nemaha county are the organization papers of the Protestant Episcopal parish at Nemaha City, April 22, 1867. The meeting was called to order by Rev. G. R. Davis, with F. G. Holmes as secretary. A resolution was adopted calling the new organization "St. John's Parish." F. G. Holmes was elected senior warden and Geo. Hodkin junior warden; H. B. Strong, J. B. Hoover, John Ritson, William Young and J. S. Cope were elected vestrymen. One year later the records show that J. H. Hoover, 0. K. Fisher, B. Y. White and Seymour Howe, Sr., were. elected vestrymen, with Holmes and Hodkin reelected wardens. ------- A GRAND BALL AT NEMAHA A well printed invitation to a Valentine's Day mask ball at Nemaha City is before us, and it would be interesting to know in what year this famous ball was held - sometime thirty or forty years ago. It. was held under the auspices of the Nemaha City Cornet Band, and was at the Hoover Opera House. Tickets were one dollar and spectators were charged twenty-five cents. Supper was served at the Park Hotel, but the price is not stated. Music by the Band orchestra. Committee on invitation, Geo. N. Sanders, Fred Scovill and John E. Crother; Committee on reception, James C. Miller. Lance Jones and J. Lambert Melvin; floor managers, Thomas B. Finch, I. F. Rathbone and George W. Fairbrother. ------- DEATH OF OMAHA'S OLDEST PIONEER Samuel E. Rogers, one of the very oldest pioneers of Nebraska, both in point of years and in length of residence, died at Omaha April 14. He was 96 years old and had lived at Omaha since 1854. He was born at Flemingsburg, Ky., Feb. 10., 1822, went to Michigantown, Ind., as a young man, clerked in a store, married in 1841, moved to Crawfordsville, Ind., graduated through Wabash college in 1848. moved to Pekin, Ill., and took up the practice of law, where he became the intimate friend of Abraham Lincoln. He came to Omaha with the first rush of settlers. He was a member of the Nebraska legislature in 1855 and 1857. His wife died in 1907. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stories Of Early Nemaha County Settlers F. L. WOODWARD TELLS OF ASPINWALL when the town declined, and later AND NEMAHA CITY went to California. I think he lost most of his wealth in unfortunate My father was Manson J. speculations. Woodward, and my mother's maiden We had two boys and one girl. name was Fannie D. Abel. They lived Both boys are at Kansas city. at Concord. Massachusetts, where Charles M. is on the board of trade father was a carriage and coach and Leslie a druggist. Marie is now trimmer. They came to Galena, Ill., attending school at Kansas City. My then to Des Moines and finally to wife died in 1910. Aspinwall in 1864, when I was seven I am loaning you some old years old. A relative had come pictures. One is of Ben Neal, part there first, and my parents talked Indian, who first owned the land it over and decided to come. Father where Aspinwall was built. Another opened up a harness shop. is of John S. Minick, who was very Aspinwall at that time was a prominent in eastern Nebraska fifty town of about five hundred people. years ago. Also pictures of Mr. and The town site was owned by a Mrs. Weisenreder taken in 1869, and company, General James W. Denver, Mrs. John L. Carson, taken in 1875. Louie Neal, and Rumback and Ballard ------- being members. During 1864 there WHEN A. M. MEDLEY CAME WEST was a good deal of trouble over I came to Peru in 1855. when I titles. The town was on a boom. One was seven years old. My parents of the best stores was run by Ed were Alfred and Mary Medley. We Weisenreder, who had as many as came from Crawford county, Ill., seven clerks. He not only sold stopped one year in Atchison goods, but he bought grain and was county, Mo., and then came here. quite a shipper. Aspinwall had the Father was a blacksmith. When best steamboat landing on the he came here he opened a shop and river. An eddy cut into the bank also bought an interest in the and made deep water right up to the ferry and put in a better boat. He wharf. There was a big trade from took a preemption claim two miles inland. south of town, where he raised sod Other business men at that corn and buckwheat. time, as I remember, were J. S. In those early days we went to Minick, general store; Burl Hoover, mill out on Camp Creek. where a general store;. J. W. Thurman, Mormon by the name of Jimmison was general store; J. W. Worthing, the miller. The mill ground so slow wagon maker; J. W. Mitchell, hotel; that people had to wait a long time Dr. Baker, physician; and there for a grist. were three or four saloons. One Jim Dewey worked for father in saloon was run by Adolph Herman and the shop. Dewey later went back another by George McGathney. There east and stayed. In a year or so was also a distillery near town. father started a store down on the Henry Hart, a homesteader, took flat, where the town then was. It charge of the lands belonging to was called the 0. K. Store. He sold Ben Holladay, of Denver. General calico, groceries, whisky and other Denver had a large amount of land stuff. The post office was up where near Aspinwall, and the Denver the town now is. estate still has it. Rumback was Father went out among the Denver's father-in- law. Indians trading and then went to In the matter of shipping St. Joe and bought a stock of Aspinwall overshadowed Brownville goods, after which he disappeared. and Nemaha. Much trade came from The goods came, but he never was over in Pawnee. I have seen in town heard of again. sacks of corn piled the length of My brother Frank was four years three blocks. and three sacks high. older than I was and was a big help A railroad finally went down in everything. Mother sold the farm the other side of the river and and came to town and finally sold crippled Aspinwall, and the the store stock at a sale. This was Atchison and Nebraska came up the in 1859. We went to Missouri for a Nemaha to the south and took off a season and then came back. I lot more trade. There was much commenced boating on the ferry and agitation for a road running down worked at it thirteen years. One the river to Aspinwall, but it came season I whacked bulls across the to Nemaha, which was only four plains to Fort Kearny and Fort miles away, and that was the finish Sedgwick, in 1863. I saw the stuff of Aspinwall. Some of the buildings burning at Plum Creek after the were moved to Nemaha, and many were fight there. Brother Frank had gone torn down or moved out onto farms. into the army in the First Nebraska There are only two houses on the and went down to Fort Donelson with site of the boom town now. The Thayer. Once when I was on the Denver estate and Dr. Gandy now own plains he was with the soldiers the town site. there, but I did not see him. After There were In the early days the war was over he came back here several attempts to run newspapers and lives here yet. at Aspinwall. Dr. Holladay moved In the succeeding years, after the Nebraska Herald down from my ferry work, I farmed a little, Nemaha about 1860, and others tried handled grain, was steamboat it. freight agent, ran a wood yard and Aspinwall was not a Sunday did a lot of things. While doing school sort of a town. Even at its some government work on the river I most prosperous time it never built dislocated my knee, and it has made a church. The saloons furnished the me lame ever since. excitement. Sometimes there were I married Lydia Smith, and we efforts to divert trade to other have four sons and one daughter, nearby towns. San Francisco started all alive. Frank is at Havelock. up right in sight, and Hillsdale George is foreman of the machine was only a small distance away. St. department at Havelock, and Richard Deroin was eight miles South and is here at Peru. Our daughter, Nemaha was in plain view four miles Rainey May Medley, is a teacher at north. It was a great time to boom Dorchester. Mother died in 1900. new towns, in the sixties. There are no people here now Once in about 1867 we went to who were here when we came in 1855. Rulo by way of Arago. I was ten These who came in 1856 were Rev. years old, and I thought Arago was Mr. Hall, Rev. Mr. Horn, Tate, a fine big town. Rulo was quite a Swan. Combs, Hedde, Simpson, shipping point, and there were a Edwards and others. In 1857 came good many Indians around there. Dan Cole. Dustin, Carter, Steitz, Father continued in business at Redfern, Lash, Daily and a good Aspinwall until the town died, in many others. the seventies. Then he moved to I will let you have for the Kansas City. Historical Society a flatiron and a In 1875. when I was eighteen, I steel-yard that my folks brought married Martha Tidrow, daughter of from New England to Illinois before a storekeeper. I had quite a time I was born. Also an Indian ax which getting the license. When I went to my son found here on the Peru town Brownville after it the county site. Judge, Dr. McComas, looked me over ------- and told me I was in the wrong DANIEL C. COLE AND PERU place. Said I was too young to get I was born in Fulton county, N. married. That worried me. but I Y., near Amsterdam, July 19, 1836. talked politics with the judge and My father died when I was a young told him politics at Aspinwall was boy. Mother conducted a farm. In all his way, so he concluded I was 1854 we moved to Fon du Lac county. all right to get a license. Wisconsin. It was new out there I worked in the store three then, and times were hard. There years and then took up the real was very little money. I had estate business in which I have learned to be a carpenter, along continued to the present time. John with the farm work. L. Carson had bought the Holladay A Wisconsin man named Bristol land and I took charge of it had traded for a piece of land in About 1888 I moved up to Nebraska, and his brother-in-law Nemaha. It was a poor town then, drove out to see it. Five of us not. so good as it in now. There young fellows took the trip with were three saloons, but legitimate him, and we crossed the river at trade was light. There were no Brownville on June 3, 1858. We were decent sidewalks. I came up here in a covered wagon, though we because of the schools, as I had mostly walked across Iowa. two boys. I had brought my carpenter In the old days the liquor tools, and had $2.50 in cash when I element was mighty strong in got to Nemaha county. There was Aspinwall. Dr. J. N. McCasland of very little work here. Sometimes I Pawnee came down here to organize a got 75 cents a day for work, and Good Templars lodge, and they paid 50 cents a day for board. In threatened to throw him in the those times we all had ague. In river. When I moved to Nemaha the getting work at my trade I walked fight against the saloons was going up and down the country from on . I foolishly believed in the Plattsmouth to Rulo. Land was cheap saloon system at that time. On the but I never took any. Few of the streets I had argued that, inasmuch first settlers who settled on land as we were only getting ten cents a stayed with it. bushel for corn, if the country Brownville was the principal went dry we wouldn't get anything town on the river and got the for it. But I got tired of liquor inland trade. It was a steamboat domination and helped to put it out town, and had a steam ferry, also of Nemaha after all. At that time the John L. Carson bank and the U. the school district was $4,000 in S. Land office. It was a better debt. Without saloons it has built town than Omaha. I was at Omaha a good school building and has when there was only one hotel and money in the treasury. at lot of saloons. Brownville had At Aspinwall, before the town two or three saloons. died. I was on the school board. At the same time Nebraska City Weisenreder and another older man, was a flourishing place. A great Jerry Marlatt, were the other deal of outfitting was done there. members. One day a young fellow Majors, Waddell & Co., were came along and applied for the government freighters, and I have school. The two old members did not seen 2,000 cattle and 200 wagons take to him because he was so there at one time. young, but, I liked him, and talked In the winter of 1858-9 I them into the notion of hiring him. taught school in the Fairview The new teacher and I became great district west of Brownville, and friends and have kept up that boarded around. It was a log friendship ever since. His name is schoolhouse about 14x16. I had John H. Morehead, recently governor about 20 pupils, and got $15 a of Nebraska. month. Morehead taught school in town About the middle of January, a few months and boarded at 1859, I was boarding at Squire Weisenreder's. It was noticed that Kennedy's. I woke up early in the one of the Weisenreder girls was morning, and hearing a stir in his favorite. Next he taught a term front of the house, I dressed and out in the country and then came to went out. There was a covered wagon town and married Miss Weisenreder. with six mules hitched to it. The parents of the Weisenreder Squire Kennedy was out there girls were Catholics and objected talking with it tall man with long to taking Protestants into the whiskers. Kennedy introduced us. family. But the girls did not want The man was John Brown. He had to be Catholics. and they had their seventeen young negroes in the way when it came to marrying. wagon and was heading for Iowa. He Weisenreder had made money and had arrived before daylight, after went out of the store business a ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days 5 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ night drive. On the way to Kennedy's he had lost his way and [Image] stopped at the wrong house at about two o'clock. When he made himself known, the man of the house said: JOHN Q GOSS "I guess it is Kennedy's you want. (handwritten note on page: "See C We are on the other side. We are 1633") Tennesseeans." The man,. whose name was Skeen, directed Brown how to JOHN Q. GOSS PASSES ON get back to the road to Kennedy's. Another old pioneer who has Brown was a little worried at passed on is Judge John Q. Goss, of having made his errand known to Bellevue. who at the age of 91 died southerners, but nothing came of on March 20 of this year. Judge it. Skeen minded his own business Goss was born in Somersetshire, and never said a word. All through England, March 8, 1827. came to the county it was well known that America in 1844 and settled in Kennedy was active in the Ohio, where he taught school for underground railroad. nine years, in the meantime reading So that is how I happened to law. He was admitted to the bar at have a talk with John Brown. It was Mansfield, Ohio, in 1857. In the his last visit north. Soon spring of 1859 he came to Nebraska afterward he was killed at Harper's and located at Bellevue. He ferry. When I saw him at Kennedy's represented the counties of Burt, he and his runaway slaves had just Washington and Sarpy in the Council finished eating a breakfast which of the seventh Legislative Assembly Mrs. Kennedy had got for them. and held various county offices. He Squire Kennedy was a was quartermaster of the Missourian. but he came away from territorial militia, in 1862, there because he was an enlisted in the Second Nebraska abolitionist. He died here a good Cavalry October 15, 1862, and April many years ago. His son, George, 24, 1863, was appointed regimental lives in the neighborhood now. The commissary with the rank of first old Kennedy farm was later lived on lieutenant. He was master of by Judge McInnich, a brother-in-law Nebraska, Masonic lodge No. 1 in of Kennedy's. 1862-4, was a member of the grand S. F. Nuckolls built the first lodge of Knights of Pythias when it store here at Peru. It burned down organized in Nebraska, and was the just before it was finished. That organizer of the first Pythian was in 1856 or 1857. The fire lodge in Missouri. His wife and one caused Nuckolls to change his plans daughter, Mrs. Emma Thompson, of and go to Nebraska City. The store Washington, D. C., survive him. was down on the bottom at the ------- steamboat landing. There was a lot FIRST U. P. MILEAGE BOOK of bottom land here then. The river When the Union Pacific Railroad has since cut it away. Between here Company issued its first mileage and Nebraska City the river tickets, No. 1 was bought by a swallowed two or three thousand Nebraska man, who did not use up acres. Now the river has gone over all the mileage. The son of the the other way. It has a mortgage on original purchaser has that ticket. the land on both sides. He lives at Auburn, and he has so I kept on carpentering. I was far warded off all efforts by the married in 1860 to Elizabeth A. company to gain possession of the Swan, whose folks had come to this interesting souvenir. county from Peru, Ill., in 1867. We ------- have ten children living. Three JOHN BRATT, NORTH PLATTE PIONEER others died in infancy. We have John Bratt, pioneer, and one of twelve great-grandchildren. the most widely known men in In 1864 I was appointed western Nebraska, died at his home postmaster, and also sold goods. in North Platte June 15, in his There was one other store, and 76th year. He was born at Leek, perhaps forty houses. There were England, August 9, 1842, and came two towns here. Mount Vernon was up to America in 1865. The next year on the hill where the cemetery is he invested all he had in a cargo now. The post office was there, but of goods, consigned to New Orleans I changed it to Peru, and started from New York, but which was lost the store on what is now main by shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico. street. The building was 16x24, and In 1866 he came to Nebraska City, I built on a room 10 x 16 and lived and went on, as a bullwhacker, to there. Fort Phil. Kearny where he engaged The Independent Order of Good in furnishing supplies for the post Templars was organized here before and in suttling. In 1869 he entered I came in 1856, by John W. Hall and the cattle business and settled at W. S. Horn, two Methodist a point four miles south-east of ministers. It was started out on North Platte, south of the river. Honey Creek, south of here. I His wife was a daughter of John joined it soon after I came. Hall Burke, also a Platte valley and Horn started a church here, pioneer. He was a prominent Mason, too. an enthusiastic member of the State I have belonged to the Masonic Historical Society and contributed lodge since 1867. I joined here at valuable articles to its museum. Peru. R. W. Furnas instituted the ------- lodge, and it was No. 14. 1 was MRS. ADA BUCK MARTIN worshipful master ten or eleven Mrs. Ada Buck Martin died at times. her home in Denver on June 1, 1918, The Methodists established a and was buried at Indianola, Red school here in 1866. Hiram Burch Willow county. Her father, Royal was a minister here and his Buck, established the first colony brother-in-law, John McKenzie, was in that county in 1872. A full at the head of a school at Pawnee account of that enterprise will be City. He wanted to move to Peru and printed in volume XIX of the establish a Methodist school. So publications of the Historical they got a charter from the Society which will be published legislature (Eleventh Legislative soon. Assembly, 1866) for the Peru Seminary and College. The Methodist conference appointed the trustees. The people subscribed $10,000. Dr. John F. Neal gave 72 acres of land. Burch, McKenzie and William Daily also gave land. McKenzie came here in 1866 and opened the school in a shack in town that had formerly been a saloon. In the fall they had a college building ready. The failure of the school at Oreapolis helped to turn attention here. A. B. Fuller, of Cass county, who had once operated a normal school in Illinois, and William Dally, were members of the House of Representatives of the second legislature, which convened May 16, 1867. Daily and Tom Majors had a good deal of a pull. They wanted a state institution, and when they could get nothing else Fuller suggested a normal school. I guess they didn't know what a normal school was but they took the chance. The state gave $3,000 for starting the school and 20 sections of saline land, which has all since been sold. Seventy-two acres and the unfinished building of the Peru Seminary and College were given to the normal school. Brownville had a much better school and a building that cost $20,000, and would have been glad to get the normal school, but Majors and Daily were on the ground and secured the plum for Peru. I was one of those who subscribed for the original building. I agreed to give $300, when I was not worth $250. I was a member of the board of the Methodist school, and a member of the state board for eight years following. Our incidental expenses for one term were $16. George E. Howard and Miss Morehead were the first graduates, in 1870. Howard, I think, worked his way through. From that small start our Normal school grew up. The plant has cost now probably $800,000. It still owns sixty acres of the original donation for a site. Early preachers in the conference here were T. B. Lemon, John M. Chivington, and D. R. Slaughter, father of Brad Slaughter. (Mr. Cole, although in his eighty-second year, still lives in Peru, in a house he built over forty years ago. He retains his faculties, and is physically active. He goes out in the country two or three miles to superintend the cultivation of his farm.) ------- DR. JETUS RIGGS CONKLING Dr. Jetus Riggs Conkling, one of the old residents of Omaha, died of apoplexy last March, at Dunedin, Florida, where he had gone to spend the winter. Dr. Conkling was born in Tompkins county, N. Y., October 5, 1835, came to Illinois with his parents when he was a lad, worked on his father's farm, attended Salem academy, near Kenosha, Wisconsin, taught school, and graduated from Rush Medical college in 1859. He joined a wagon train bound for Pike's Peak that year, but stopped at Omaha. After a short time he went to Tekamah, and in the fall of 1859 was elected clerk, and the next year became treasurer of Burt county. In 1863 he was post surgeon at Fort Kearny, and a couple of years later, returned to Omaha. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days Nebraska in 1864-1867 Time of the Sioux Indian War and Building of Union Pacific ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE OAK GROVE MONUMENT Mr. Sheldon's Address On June 14 there was an important celebration in Nuckolls In presenting the monument on county near the town of Oak, the behalf of the State Historical occasion being the unveiling of the Society, Mr. Sheldon said: monument commemorating the Indian "Mine is a brief message here fight at Oak Grove station. this afternoon. Monuments are made Oak Grove was one of the to mark heroic deeds and great stations on the old California achievements. This monument meets trail, and was attacked by Sioux both demands. It marks tile deeds and Cheyenne Indians on the 7th of of heroic Nebraska men and women August, 1864. On the same day all who met a savage foe with high of the stations between Fort courage, resourceful minds and Laramie and the Big Blue were unflinching fortitude. It marks a raided and most of them burned. resting place upon it great At Oak Grove station people and national highway which united the the travelers taking refuge there Mississippi valley to the land put up a spirited fight and drove beyond the mountains and made the the savages off. Two of the whites, Pacific coast a part of the United J. H. Butler and M. C. Kelley, were States of America. killed. There was no way of knowing "The Nebraska State Historical the losses among the Indians. Society welcomes the spirit which An exciting incident on that gives visible form to the memories day was the attempt of the stage of these mighty achievements and coach from the east to reach safety these heroic deeds. The first at Oak Grove. There were ten historical monument raised in passengers, and the driver was Nebraska was by the Nebraska State Robert Emery. with John Gilbert, Historical Society on May 25, 1905, another driver, on the box. They upon the high bluff which faces were intercepted by the Indians two Fremont across the Platte river. miles east of Oak Grove and turned Upon that bluff fifty years before back. There was a running fight for General John M. Thayer met the several miles, but the appearance Pawnee chief, Petalesharu, in his of a large wagon train saved the great council lodge in the midst of fugitives. The coach was hit many his people who occupied those times by bullets and arrows, but heights with their village. General none of the passengers were Thayer survived fifty years of injured. frontier fortune, of Civil War At the recent celebration John service, and of a subsequent career Gilbert was present, also J. M. in the highest places within the Comstock and Mrs. James Dudley gift of this commonwealth to share (Ella Butler), who were with the in the dedication of this monument party that took refuge in the a half century later. station building during the fight. "The movement to mark the At that time Ella Butler was a Oregon Trail across Nebraska was little girl, and along with other largely the work of the Daughters noncombatants crouched behind a of the American Revolution. The barricade of boxes and barrels legislature of 1911 voted $2.000 during the siege. Comstock was old for this purpose. This was enough to do his share of the supplemented by many local gifts shooting and believes that he and a chain of Oregon Trail accounted for two of the Indians. monuments now stretches at The celebration was under the intervals from Lanham, where the direction of the D. A. R., of trail crosses the Nebraska line, to Superior, and was attended by a a point near Henry where Nebraska good crowd of people. The monument and Wyoming meet. is in a box elder grove, and is "Two years ago this summer I surrounded by an iron fence. It is drove along this trail from Fort on the location of the old stage Kearny to Fort Laramie, placing station, and also on the spot where upon photographic glass and upon the first meeting was held to motion picture film historical organize Nuckolls county. The persons and places upon the route county commissioners appropriated and these granite monuments which the money to pay for the monument, now mark at intervals the great and their names appear at its base. Oregon highway. The program of the celebration "There yet remains much more to was as follows: be done before the. worthy deeds Invocation - Rev. A. C. Bates. and achievements upon Nebraska soil America - M. E. choir and are fitly witnessed in these assemblage. memorial monuments. Unveiling of the monument - "The one we unveil this Miss Katherine Fullmer. afternoon marks a site worthy of Flag salute - Superior Chapter recognition. Here on August 7, D. A. R. 1864, a little handful of pioneer Presentation of the monument men and women held the log fort on behalf of the State against an outnumbering enemy. Here Historical Society - A. E. also the first civil government of Sheldon. Nuckolls county was instituted and Acceptance of the monument - the first election held which made Mrs. Harry Nelson. this a civil unit in our state. The Music, solo - Miss Sylvia fight for life and property and for Acher. the blessings of free political A Tribute to the Pioneers - institutions went hand in hand Mrs. W. S. Young. across this continent. Reminiscences - old settlers. "This monument we owe to the Address - Charles H. Epperson. patriotic spirit of the Daughters Benediction. of the American Revolution, to the Inscription on Monument organized energy of Mr. George D. The monument bears this Inscription Follmer and others of this chiseled in the stone: community, and to the county Monument Erected On government of Nuckolls county which The Oregon Trail By so fittingly gave the money for the Nuckolls County, Neb. marking of this memorial stone. In Memory of Those "In the name of the Nebraska Who Were Killed And State Historical Society I present Those Who Escaped at this monument to the community The Oak Grove Ranch which has built it to be preserved, In The Indian Raid visited and remembered throughout Aug. 7, 1864. all the coming years. May the memories which cluster about this Killed monument be an inspiration in the J. H. Butler M. C. Kelley lives of those who shall live after us on these plains through all the Escaped millenniums of time." John Barratt L. Ostrander ------- N. Ostrander Tobias Castor FIRST RAILROAD EXCURSION TO Geo. A. Hunt Sarah Comstock NEBRASKA Mary Comstock H. J. Comstock Fifty-two years ago a booklet J. M. Comstock Mrs. F. Butler was printed to record the Ella Butler Samuel Morrill experiences and proceedings of an Etta Courtwrlght excursion party that came from the Co. Com.: P. Cronin east to inspect the Union Pacific Chas. Malsbury E. M. Wright railroad, then building through Nebraska. Copies of that booklet are very rare, but one has just been added to the Historical Society library. The party, consisting of a hundred guests and the entertainers, started out from Jersey City on the 15th of October, 1866. The account says that they went west to Chicago in three "Silver Palace" cars and a superb director's car, and it is recorded as a remarkable fact that they went through to Chicago without change. At Chicago they were joined by others, so that the excursion party numbered one hundred and fifty, and two brass bands. Five directors of the Union Pacific company, one government director and three government commissioners were along; also Grenville M. Dodge, chief engineer, and Silas Seymour, consulting engineer of the road. J. Carbutt was official photographer and Mr. Hein assistant. The music was fur- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days 7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ nished by the Great Western Light geese, each $1.25 to $1.50; sage Guard Band of Chicago and hens, 50 to 65¢; snipe, each 25 to Rosenblatt's Band, of St. Joseph. 30¢." The party included men from The Railway Pioneer records the every northern state, among them a eastern newspapers that had considerable number of senators and representatives on the excursion as congressmen. It is noted that follows : New York Tribune, Chicago Rutherford D. Hayes, of Ohio, was Tribune, Chicago Republican, New with the excursion. Ten years later York Observer, Chicago Times, he was elected president of the Springfield. Ill., State Journal, United States. The Earl of Airlie, Philadelphia Enquirer, Cincinnati of Scotland, Marquis Chambrun, of Gazette, Cincinnati Commercial, France, and M. Odilion Barrot, Cleveland Herald, Waltham (Mass.) secretary of the French legation at Sentinel, Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Washington, gave the excursion an Council Bluffs Bugle, Omaha international flavor. Republican, Omaha Herald and G. F. At Chicago the party divided, Allen for the National some to go by rail across Illinois Intelligencer. and Missouri to St. Joseph and then On Friday the party started up the river by steamboats to back to Omaha, after having Omaha, the others to go across Iowa organized a mock municipal to Council Bluffs. The account of government for the excursion camp. the trip across to St. Joseph is In the election which was held the very glowing. It tells that the mayor conferred full suffrage on railroad. had been so splendidly the ladies. improved and rebuilt that at times On arrival at Omaha the tired "the flying train smoothly made its travelers went back to their thirty miles an hour!" steamboat quarters and Saturday The excursionists left St. took stages for Denison, and Joseph Friday night on the two proceeded thence by rail to steamboats Denver and Colorado, Chicago, where they spent. several which had been sumptuously days before scattering to their furnished for the occasion. The homes profusion of food, as shown by the ------- bill of fare, was almost a crime. The boats did set a very swift pace RECENT EXPLORATION up the river, being obliged to tie up part of each night. They arrived An overland trip to western at Omaha Monday morning. Nebraska in an automobile with Amos In the meantime the other party H. Haile proved instructive in the left Chicago on the 20th of October matter of a general knowledge of in sleeping cars and arrived at the country traversed. We made Denison, Iowa, the western terminus inquiry in relation to historical of the Northwestern. There they material available in each of the boarded stages and went seventy localities visited and interviewed miles to Council Bluffs. They a. few of the early settlers. reached there Sunday night and At Doniphan I visited the brick Monday morning crossed over and yard, where the ash heap was took up their quarters on the discovered twenty feet under the steamboat Elkhorn, in lieu of a soil some years ago. The present hotel. excavation is not being carried The two parties joined at Omaha deep enough to reveal new light, and were shown the town in early but the man in charge will keep it Omaha fashion. Speeches were made close watch for any interesting by Mayor Lorin Miller, Governor feature. Alvin Saunders, the vice president We visited our president, Mr. of the board of trade and other S. C. Bassett, at his home near citizens. Responses were made by C. Gibbon. T. Sherman, of Ohio, and J. W. At the site of Fort McPherson Patterson of New Hampshire. The we paused long enough to take some guests were loaded in carriages and photographs and get some taken to see the new shops, measurements. We gathered a number roundhouses and other railroad of interesting relics from the site works. The compiler of the booklet of the old fort at the entrance to here takes the opportunity to give Cottonwood Canyon, and viewed the a history of the railroad venture outline of the ruins, where once and its progress up to the time - stood the McDonald trading post. At much interesting and valuable data. North Platte we interviewed Mr. Monday evening there was a Charles McDonald, who came to grand ball at the Herndon House, Cottonwood Springs from Pawnee after which the excursionists county in 1859 and established the retired to their steamboat quarters famous McDonald Ranch. Dick to rest up for the trip across Darling, a relation of John Nebraska the next day. Experience Estabrook, of Omaha, had The united party left Omaha on begun the erection of the a special train consisting of the storehouse. Mr. McDonald bought it "sumptuous director's car," five from him. He completed it and other coaches, and the "Lincoln" car, buildings of the trading post, which the road had purchased. which he conducted until 1872. Governor Saunders, Senators Thayer The first building for Fort and Tipton and local construction McPherson was erected in October, officials joined the party from 1863. The buildings were mostly one Omaha. B. F. Bunker and N. A. story log structures with sod Gesner, were in charge of the roofs, but some of the officers' special train. quarters were a story and a half The story describes the trip, with shingle roofs. gives technical measurements of Mr. Burke, father of Peter bridges across the Papillion and Burke, who now lives on the site of Elkhorn and glows over the fine Fort McPherson had formerly lived soil and crops, until "the valley twenty-six miles southeast of of the Platte burst unheralded upen Tecumseh, Nebraska. He started to the sight." The statement is made Pike's Peak in 1862 with his that the Platte valley is fertile family. He stopped at the place to a little way beyond Columbus. where Fort McPherson was being The train reached Columbus at built and helped to get out logs nightfall, and the excursionists for the houses. It is strewn with unloaded and went a quarter of a relics, and the stump of the old mile where tents had been set up cedar flagstaff set by Eugene Ware for a camp. A freight train had ran in 1863 is said to be still in out the day before with the tents, existence. The spot where the mattresses from the steamboats and flagstaff stood is marked by a provisions for the party. Supper marble slab. was eaten in a big dining tent I suggested that a suitable which bad been set up for the sign should be painted and placed occasion. After supper the near the site of the fort on the entertainment consisted of a big main road, which passes this spot. Indian war dance, a large party of Mr. Peter Burke has agreed to Pawnee having been brought down gather a collection of relics from from up on the Loup. The account of the site for the Historical the war dance goes into minute Society. John Burke, an older detail. After the excursionists had brother, lives in North Platte. retired to their tents some gay We met a number of interesting members arranged with the Indians historical characters who still to make a mock attack on the camp. bear an active part of the world's This they did at two o'clock and work, but we failed to locate any kept up the noise until five. In ancient Indian habitat worthy of the morning, after the tents had being explored on the trip. been struck and the tired visitors had boarded the cars, the Indians E. E. BLACKMAN, engaged in a sham battle. Curator Historical On Wednesday the train ran to Society Museum. Platte City, as it was called - the construction camp at the end of ------------------------------------ Brady's Island, two hundred and seventy miles from Omaha. The AN OLD STATION AGENT bridge was not completed across the North Platte at that time, and the One of the interesting pioneers rails were just being laid from of Nebraska is E. M. Searle, Sr., Brady Island to the bridge. of Ogallala. While yet a mere boy The train reached Platte City he went to the war from Indiana. As at night, and the tents were again a telegraph messenger at the front pitched. After breakfast the next he learned telegraphy. After the morning there were many speeches by war he worked a year for an Indiana the Nebraska officials and by railroad. Then the lure of the new eastern gentlemen. Resolutions were Pacific railroad brought him west. adopted praising Omaha and Nebraska He sought at job at Omaha, but was and congratulating the officials of advised to go out along the the road and everybody else. railroad line. He was offered one The day was spent in watching of the advance stations in Wyoming, the laying of track, and in various but declined when he found the performances. During the day a former agent had been killed in an newspaper was printed on the Indian raid. He went to North special train, type, press and Platte, which was then the end of printers having been loaned by the the line of road, and was assigned Omaha Republican. The book gives to Alkali, thirty-one miles west, two sample pages of the newspaper, where the station was a tent. He which was called the Railway saw the road build on past toward Pioneer. Besides much foolery the the Pacific, and after about twenty paper gave market reports from the years' service as agent at Alkali, east and from London, received by later named Paxton, he was wire, gave the local prices of transferred to Ogallala, where he game, and printed some genuine news had taken a homestead. He has long of the excursion. Game prices since given up railroad work, but quoted for Platte City were, has remained active as a builder, "Buffalo meat, per pound, 15¢; elk of western Nebraska. meat, 12¢ to 15¢; antelope, 16 to 18¢; prairie chickens, per pair, 50 to 60¢; wild ducks, pair, 75¢ to $1.00; wild ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8 Nebraska History and Record of Pioneer Days PIONEERS OF EARLY PERIOD First Real Estate Agents' Union Prices ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NEBRASKA'S FIRST EDUCATOR she grew to womanhood, graduating Dr. John M. McKenzie died at with honor from the Peru State his home in California, May 19, Normal school in July, 1883. 1918. He is remembered by the early After graduating she taught pioneers as a Methodist preacher successfully in the schools of and all earnest promoter of Syracuse, Harvard and York. The education. In the sixties he helped family moved to Oakdale. Cal., in to establish an academy at Pawnee 1888. Here Mary proved an able City. The fact that the new assistant to her father in the institution was to be under the Seminary and Normal school, which Christian church did not lessen his was afterwards merged into the zeal. When the hard times of the Oakdale high school. She taught then border county caused the new several terms at Langworth and in academy to lapse and die, McKenzie the Oakdale grammar school. In the transferred the idea to Peru. and fall of '98 she accepted a position through his work the Methodist in the Excelsior school near Byron. academy was established there, to Here she met her future husband, H. be soon merged into a state normal T. Keyser. They were married at school. Oakdale, September 26, 1900, and Dr. McKenzie was the second lived together happily for nearly state superintendent of Nebraska, eighteen years. wrote most of our school laws, ------- promoted the organization of the SOME PIONEERS OF RICHARDSON COUNTY state teachers and left his impress In the spring of 1866 four or on every branch of education in five families came from Grundy Nebraska. In his later days he county, Ills., taking six weeks to sought a milder climate, but he make the trip. They crossed the never lost his interest in the river at Rulo and settled in state where he had done so much Richardson county. One was the work. The newspaper at the old Sinclair family, - Jamie and Jane, school town fittingly says: "He and and five children. Two more Mrs. McKenzie witnessed the children came later to fill the crowning glory of their lives, the household. semicentennial celebration held at The Scotch are hardy people. Peru last summer." Jane Sinclair celebrated her 90th ------- birthday at Falls City on the 27th of June, 1918, and was able to tell HON. HERBERT P. SHUMWAY the assembled friends that all her Herbert P. Shumway, well known children were alive and citizen of Nebraska, died at a flourishing. and all living within Lincoln hospital, June 30, after an a hundred miles of where the family illness of several months. The settled fifty-two years ago. body, accompanied by Mrs. Shumway, The coming of this Grundy a brother and sister, and other county party to Nebraska was of relatives, was taken to Lyons, course because somebody else that Neb., for burial. they knew had settled in the land He was born in Caledonia, ahead of them. The Grants, another Minn., in 1856. [Soon after coming Scotch family, had led the way, and to Nebraska he engaged in the located on the edge of the lumber business at Lyons and "half-breed" tract northeast of Wakefield. Nebraska.]* In 1880, he Falls City. The others came into engaged in the lumber business at the same neighborhood. Lyons and Wakefield. In 1901 to That locality where they 1904, he was associated with others settled represented to a remarkable in the building of a line of degree the different nationalities railroad in Mexico. He was a member that were pouring into the new of the state senate of Nebraska in state. There were in that one 1901 and again in 1913 and 1915. school district: two Scotch * [typeset error - sic] families, Grant and Sinclair; two Senator Shumway was a member of French, Benwire and Mousau; two the Masons, Shriners, Elks, Odd Welch, Jones and Roberts; two Fellows, Modern Woodmen, United Germans, Frey and Vogelein; two Workmen, Eastern Star and Sons of Irish, Harrison and Lawrence; one Veterans and was on the staff of Pennsylvania Dutch, Fierbaugh: and Governors Crounse, Mickey and one Southerner, Abbott, who had Sheldon. with him a former slave, "Nigger He was a candidate for Bill" and there were two families lieutenant governor on the from England, - Wilkes and Burch. republican ticket at the last But the Germans were coming election, but went down with the into the neighborhood, and they rest of the ticket in the soon bought out all the others. democratic landslide. He had filed That precinct, Jefferson, has been for the republican nomination for solidly German for many years. The the same office this year. Illinois people scattered over ------- Richardson and Pawnee counties. Jane Sinclair, and Bridget TALES OF STRONG MEN AND WOMEN Pattison, of Table Rock, are the The study of Nebraska history, only ones now living of the heads as well its the history of the of families who crossed the United States, should be Missouri with that wagon train in encouraged. This state has been 1866. developed upon the same principles A. K. Lawrence was one of the of freedom and equality and first to go. His wife, Julia, died democracy as the entire nation. The last April, at the age of 83, people should know these things. leaving many children and A. E. Sheldon, secretary of the grandchildren in Johnson and state historical society, has Lancaster counties. W. P. Pattison launched the first issue of a lived to celebrate his golden magazine destined to bring home to wedding with his good wife, and the people of Nebraska those passed away at Table Rock four or cardinal rights for which the early five years ago, at a ripe old age, settlers fought. He calls the and leaving behind many publication, to be issued monthly, descendants. J. D. Harrison and his "Nebraska History and Record of wife both died about ten years ago, Pioneer Days." To the pioneer, it leaving many children and brings a memory of days which they grandchildren at Grand Island and call "the best of all;" to the in Lincoln. Of the other old folks younger Nebraskans it brings a in that pioneer party, - Billy message of sturdy growth of a Randall and wife, Ben Butler and democratic commonwealth and wife, - they have been gone on inspiring tales of strong man and their last journey these many women. - Lincoln Daily Star. years. ------- And the other people of the old school district: Wilkes and Burch, WILLIAM B. LEE, PIONEER "Cash" Roberts and Bill Jones, Geo. William B. Lee, who died at the A. Abbott and his good wife, Eli home of his daughter at Douglas, Fierbaugh and the others - even Wyoming, July 1, was the last of "Nigger Bill"; they are all gone. the band of pioneers who came to The two French families drifted Fremont, Nebraska, in 1856. Mr. Lee away. The children of that had resided at Fremont for neighborhood populated many other sixty-two years, and his body was parts of Nebraska. The Germans brought back to the old home for remained in Jefferson precinct, and burial. Mr. Lee was a native of their children of 1866 and the few Ireland. and came to America when a years following, now own the land. young man. He was 85 years old at the time of his death. Two F. A. HARRISON daughters, Mrs. John Flynn and Mrs. A. R. Merritt, of Douglas, Wyoming, ------- and two sons, Ed. of Brownlee, STORY OF HOW THE REAL ESTATERS Neb., and Frank, of Oregon, are the ORGANIZED close surviving relatives. The book of proceedings of the ------- Nebraska State Board of Real Estate Agents and the correspondence of NEBRASKA HISTORY the organization have come into the The Nebraska State Historical hands of the Historical Society. Society with headquarters at The board was organized in May, Lincoln began the publishing of a 1870. D. H. Wheeler, of monthly, "The Nebraska History and Plattsmouth, presided at the Record of Pioneer Days." The meeting. The officers elected were: magazine is ably edited by Addison president, J. F. Kinney, Nebraska E. Sheldon and a staff of the City; vice president, D. H. Nebraska State Historical Society. Wheeler, Plattsmouth; secretary, W. The subscription price is $2.00 per H. Hoover, Brownville; treasurer, year. Every school and library in E. S. Seymour, Omaha; committee on the country should become arbitration, B. M. Davenport, W. W. subscribers, as to enable the Wardell, Nebraska City, and R. C. pupils and readers to become more Lett, Brownville; committee on familiar with pioneer Nebraska - membership, A. P. Cogswell, Clarkson Press. Brownville; I. B. Compton, Lincoln. ------- The members were assessed five dollars apiece to cover incidental A RED WILLOW PIONEER expenses. The prime object of the John Longnecker writes us from organization was to establish a Indianola wishing to become a uniform scale of fees or member of the Historical Society commissions. The scale adopted was and receive its publications. He $5 for a sale not exceeding $100; came to Red Willow county November on sales not exceeding $1,000, 5 20, 1871, which is getting back per cent; 3 percent on the next near the beginnings of white $1,000 and 2 1/2 per cent on settlements in that part of the succeeding amounts - not much state. difference from the scale now in ------- effect among real estate agents. In addition to the members INTERESTING EARLY HISTORY noted as officers, there were A. P. "Nebraska, History and Record Cogswell, Brownville; H. N. of Pioneer Days" is the title of a Cornell, Nebraska City; B. F. new monthly publication by the Lushbaugh, Omaha; William J. State Historical Society. The first Austin, Brownville; Smith & issue was sent out last week. The Cunningham, Falls City; Central editor is Addison E. Sheldon, the Land Company, Omaha; Andrew J. very competent secretary of the Stevens, Columbus; Moses H. Society, and many very interesting Sydenham, Kearney; A. J. Poppleton, bits of early history of the State Omaha. The record indicates that are published. The subscription only one meeting was held after the price is $2.00 per your. All organization. sustaining members of the Nebraska So far as known this is the Slate Historical Society will first organization of land talkers receive "Nebraska History" without and first fixing of price for their further payment. - Albion News. services in Nebraska. ------- ------- SARPY COUNTY REUNION MARY L. McKENZIE KEYSER Two years ago, on a week's Mrs. Mary Keyser, wife of notice, fifty territorial pioneers Herbert T. Keyser, of Byron, Cal., of Sarpy county got together at and daughter of the late J. M. Papillion for a picnic. One member McKenzie of Stockton, Cal., died at came home from California to attend the Damerin hospital in Stockton, the gathering. Many similar June 3, 1918, after an illness of meetings could be held. It takes six days, only a short time after very little effort to get the old the death of her illustrious settlers together. father. Mary L. McKenzie wits born in Fayette, Iowa, April 21, 1860. When two years of age she came with her parents to Nebraska, where ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Produced for NEGenWeb, 1998 by Ted & Carole Miller