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NEBRASKA AND RECORD OF
HISTORY PIONEER DAYS
Vol. IV
January-March, 1921
Number 1
CONTENTS
Editorial Notes 1-3
History of Louisiana 4-7
The Old Settlers' View 8
The Lillie Corn Husker 9-11
Historical Society Library
.12
Historical Society Museum 13-14
First Hat Factory in Nebraska 14
Wyuka Cemetery-Origin of the Name 15
James Murie and the Skidi Pawnee 16
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY THE NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY LINCOLN
Application made at Lincoln, Nebraska for admission to mail as second class matter-under act of July 16. 1894.
GENEALOGY DEPT.
OCT 20 194
Allen County Public Library
Allen County Public Library xx Wabster Street PO Box 2270 fort Wayne, IN 46801-2270
THE NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Founded September 25, 1878
The Nebraska State Historical Society was founded Sep- tember 25, 1878, at a public meeting held in the Commercial Hotel at Lincoln. About thirty well known citizens of the State were present. 3 Robert W. Furnas was chosen president and Professor Samuel Aughey, secretary. Previous to this date, on August 26, 1867, the State Historical and Library Association was incorporated in order to receive from the State the gift of the block of ground, now known as Haymarket Square. This original Historical Association held no meet- ings. It was superseded by the present State Historical Society.
Present Governing Board
Executive Board-Officers and Elected Members
President, Robert Harvey, Lincoln
1st V-President, Hamilton B. Lowry, Lincoln
2nd V-President, Nathan P. Dodge Jr., Omaha
Secretary, Addison E. Sheldon, Lincoln
Treasurer, Philip L. Hall, Lincoln
Rev. Michael A. Shine, Plattsmouth
Don L. Love, Lincoln
Samuel C. Bassett, Gibbon
John F. Cordeal, McCook
Novia Z. Snell, Lincoln
William E. Hardy, Lincoln
Ex Officio Members
Samuel R. McKelvie, Governor of Nebraska
Samuel Avery, Chancellor of University of Nebraska
George C. Snow, Chadron, President of Nebraska Press Association Howard W. Caldwell, Professor of American History, University of Nebraska
Andrew M. Morrissey, Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Nebraska Clarence A. Davis, Attorney General of Nebraska
NEBRASKA AND RECORD OF
HISTORY PIONEER DAYS
Published Quarterly by the Nebraska State Historical Society
Addison E. Sheldon, Editor
Subscription, $2.00 per year
All sustaining members of the Nebraska State Historical Society receive Nebraska Hstory and other publications without further payment.
Vol. IV January-March, 1921 Number 1
Lend this issue to your friend. After he has read it ask him how he likes it. Then secure his membership in the Ne- braska State Historical Society.
Volume XX of our bound and illustrated reports is in the hands of the printer. The page proof has been read. Editor Albert Watkins is completing the index. It is an important and interesting volume-filled with fascinating "stories" of Nebraska which you have never seen in print.
A sample recent day's mail to the Historical Society brought letters asking historical information from points as far away as New York City, Akron, Ohio, Tacoma, Denver and Beaumont, Texas, while letters from Nebraska came from points as separate as Omaha, Benkleman, Pawnee City and Alliance.
The Nebraska State Historical Society issues three dis- tinct types of publications. First, the bound volumes of state reports, begun in 1885; Second, special pamphlets and volumes on single topics; Third, the quarterly magazine. All three publications will continue. All current publications are sent to sustaining members.
2
NEBRASKA HISTORY
With this number the Historical Society begins the pub- lication of its quarterly in regular magazine form. This form has long been planned for its permanent publication. It is believed the plan will now succeed. The magazine will be larger-and better-as the months go by. There is interest in its subject. There is demand for its information. There is needed only the financial means to pay for expert office help, printing and illustrations.
"Saunders County in the World War" is a handsome bound volume of 200 pages which reflects great credit on the Wahoo Democrat, publisher, and W. W. Chreiman, compiler. It has hundreds of pictures of scenes and persons showing how Saunders county sustained her part in the great conflict-at home and abroad. The story is well told. Volumes such as these will be cherished and studied through the centuries to come. Each county in Nebraska needs such a book.
L. T. Brodstone of Superior is a genius. No one can read a letter he writes, but he prints the most wonderful, successful, magazine in Nebraska -- the Philatelic West. It is the organ of collectors and hobby riders. It circulates all over the world. Its advertising columns are a gold mine. It tells all about the rare coins, stamps, weapons, implements, relics. It is a great popular lecturer on human history for no one can be a "bug" collector without becoming a student of history. From the latest issue we glean that one can now buy World War shrapnel for $4 each; German helmets, $3.00, French and German shell cases, 85 cents, German gas mask $2.50 and war currency at any price you please.
From Dale P. Stough, of Grand Island, the Society ac- knowledges the gift of two volumes of the History of Hamilton and Clay counties and two volumes of the History of Dodge and Washington counties. Mr. Stough is editor of the Clay and Hamilton volumes and has done a good piece of work con- densing a narrative of important points in State history. There is need of a good county history for each county in Nebraska. The work ought to be done by someone familiar with the story, knowing the people, having training and love for the work and not chiefly concerned in getting paid bio- graphies and illustrations.
3
EDITORIAL NOTES
John A. Rea, Tacoma, is now president of the board of regents of Washington State University. Fifty years ago he was a newspaper reporter in Lincoln and Omaha. His recol- lections of that period are original and vivid, and he is now engaged in making a picturesque story of them. During the past few weeks he has kept the Nebraska State Historical Society busy supplying his demand for original documents.
From Victor Rosewater, Omaha, comes a pamphlet, "A Curious Chapter in Constitution Changing"-reprint of an article by him in the Political Science Quarterly. It is a brief l'eview of the efforts to make the Nebraska Constitution of 1875 amendable. Especially condemned is the device enacted in 1901 for counting straight party ballots for such amend- ments. Mr. Rosewater points out that by inadvertence the constitutional convention of 1920 left the open use of the circle ballot on propositions for calling new constitutional conven- tions. He might add that another inadvertence left in our constitution the 1875 provision for preference vote on candi- dates for U. S. Senate-now nullified by adoption of the six- teenth amendment to the federal constitution.
The 35th annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (Part 1) has just reached the Historical Society library. It contains most interesting material on the custom and folk lore of the Kwakiutl Indians who inhabit British Columbia. Their culture is kindred to that of tribes in the Puget Sound region. A most fascinating part of the book is the detailed account of how these people solved the problems of food and shelter, including recipes for preparing many dishes which ought to be good reading for teachers of domestic science.
The American Commission Report on Conditions in Ire- land comes as a gift of the commission. This is the com- mittee of one hundred appointed by the New York Nation. Senator Norris of this State is a member. The investigation was held in America; witnesses came from Ireland. The British government declined to have part in its work. As the report says the viewpoint of Ulster unionists and British of- ficials in Ireland is not represented. The report is therefore one-sided. It is bad enough at any rate as a disclosure of conditions on the island.
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
HISTOIRE
DE LA
LOUISIANE,
Contenant la Découverte de ce vafte Pays ; fa Defcription géographique ; un Voyage dans les Terres ; l'Hiftoire Naturelle ; les Mœurs, Coutumes & Religion des Natu- rels , avec leurs Origines ; deux Voyages dans le Nord du nouveau Mexique, dont un jufqu'à la Mer du Sud ; ornée de deux Cartes & de 40 Planches en Taille douce.
Par M. LEPAGE DU PRATET
TOME PREMIER
CHATEA
A PARIS,
'DE BURE, l'Aîné, for le Quai des Augustins; à S. Paul. Chez < La Veuve DELAGDETTE, rue S. Jacques, à l'Olivier.
LAMBERT, rue de la Comédie-Franfoife.
M, DCC. L VIII.
NEBRASKA STATE : VISTIPICAL SOCIE"
25525
Title page of Nebraska State Historical Society copy of Le Page du Pratz Histoire de la Louisiane
OLD BOOKS OF WESTERN HISTORY
In the library of the Nebraska State Historical Society are many quaint and curious old volumes of western history. Some of these are in Spanish, some in German, some in American Indian tongues, many in French, the bulk in English. Special students and research scholars delve in these volumes. From such books are gleaned the material for plays, poems, novels, sketches, histories. The great general public knows these writings only in the form given them by present day writers. Hundreds of themes and stories in this early literature are yet untouched by modern interpretation. Some of them are not found in English translation.
5
OLD BOOKS OF WESTERN HISTORY
The editor of this magazine plans a series of articles with the purpose of making this literature more generally known and enjoyed. Further-to encourage study of the volumes and the production of an inspiring popular literature from these sources.
The first work presented is one printed at Paris in 1758- History of Louisiana by LePage du Pratz, in three volumes. It is the original French edition. Translations have been made into English. The original French carries an "atmosphere" which the translations lack. Bound in solid leather, with two maps, forty wood cuts and the quaint-faced type used at Paris two hundred years ago, these volumes are just the handy size to slip into a coat pocket, and the wide outer margins are a challenge for making copious notes.
The work is a description as well as a history of Louisiana -which then included the Nebraska region. The motive of the author and the time of its publication summon instantly before the mind scenes in the great world drama still on the stage-the struggle for world domination and control by the English speaking people.
In 1758 the war between England and France for the possession of North America was in its fourth year. The tide of success which ran in favor of France for the first three years had turned. Popular opinion in France depreciated the vast resources of the great province of the Mississippi basin. The first purpose of M. du Pratz was to correct false impres- sions and to give the intelligent French public a true view of the great fertile valley of the New World.
In his preface the author says he lived sixteen years in Louisiana, that he made long voyages into its interior, that he interviewed many French and Indians who knew points he had not seen, that he had made a study of its plants and animals and a collection of three hundred medicinal plants from the region and that he would give a truthful account of the riches of this vast region. All of this for the glory of France and the King.
A learned French author, M. des Lands, about that period had written in a history of philosophy that Louisiana was a sterile land with subterranean lakes inhabited by poisonous fish. M. du Pratz warmly rejoins that forty years' residence of French colonists proved that in fertility and climate Louis-
6
NEBRASKA HISTORY
iana excelled the most favored parts of Europe and that no one there ever heard of the poisonous fish.
The chapters on agriculture in this work are among the best early descriptions of this region. The author's vision sees the products of the land enter into world commerce, bring- ing wealth and happiness to those who cultivate the land and new satisfactions to consumers in Europe and elsewhere.
He describes the bread grains grown in this region thus:
Maiz, which in France is called Turkey-corn, is the natural product of this country. The kinds are flour corn, homony corn (white, yellow, red and blue) and small corn, called so because of its size. Maiz grows on a stalk six to eight feet high and each stalk bears sometimes six or seven ears.
Wheat, rye, barley and oats grow extremely well in Louisiana. Wheat, when sown by itself, grows wonderfully, but when in flower a great number of drops of red water may be observed on the stalk about six inches from the ground which collect there during the night and dis- appear at sunrise. This water is of such an acid nature that in a short time it consumes the stalk and the ear falls before the grain is formed. To prevent this, which is due to the richness of the soil, the method I have used is to mix some rye and dry mould with the seed wheat in such proportion that the mould shall be equal to the rye and wheat together.
Is this the first description of wheat rust in the Mississippi valley ?
Naturels du Nord qui vont en chasse d'hyper avec leur Famille
-
Illustration from Le Page du Pratz showing Indians of Northern Louisiana (Nebraska region) going on their winter hunt. Note absence of horses- dogs used for conveyance. Full of interest to the scientist as well as historian are the pictures of trees, plants and animals of Louisiana from draw-
MORMONS IN NEBRASKA
ings by M. du Pratz. In this article there is space only for a few sentences on the Nebraska-Kansas region. He writes :
The Cansez is the largest known river flowing into the Missouri. It flows for two hundred leagues through the most beautiful land. The Missouri brings down cloudy water for it flows through a land rich and fat where there are no stones.
M. du Pratz' map of Louisiana is fairly accurate as far as the present site of Kansas City. Beyond that he roughly in- dicates the "Pays des Panis" or Pawnee Country, with the Mis- souri river turning westward as though the Platte or Niobrara were its main stream. He says "It will be ages before we ex- plore the northern part of Louisiana."
This brief review can scarcely convey the charm of these volumes. £ No history of agriculture in the Mississippi valley can ever be complete without careful study of them. They give detailed directions for the planting and cultivation of all kinds of crops grown here. How little could the author guess that the very region he so fondly describes trying to awaken France to realize its riches would within two centuries feed the French and English nations fighting side by side against the invader from beyond the Rhine.
Mormons and the Mormon church have had important part in Nebraska history. The Mormon camps on our border, the picturesque trains of Mormons crossing our plains, the Mor- mon settlers who scattered in various unnoticed nooks of Ne- braska in the great migration period-all have an interest quite out of proportion to their total number. Only a few Nebraskans know that there are twenty Mormon churches with 1,973 members in our state. These are the Reorganized Church, which repudiates Brigham Young, but adheres to Joseph Smith and his descendants. This branch publishes a Journal of History at Independence, Missouri, which is just now printing the record of the separation of the Reorganizers from the Salt Lake branch and a very interesting story of human affairs it makes. Very few people have read the Book of Mormon. It cannot be called easy reading. It purports- among other things-to give an account of the early migration of a branch of the Jewish people across the Atlantic to Ameri- ca, of their growth into a powerful people, of their destruction in war wherein more than two millions perished. After twice reading the book the editor's opinion of it as an historical narrative remains unchanged. Yet the establishment and
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
growth of the Mormon church remains one of the remarkable social and religious phenomena of the past century.
THE OLD SETTLERS' VIEW
We talked about the dugout days The other night around a blaze Of chunks chopped from Nebraska trees We planted back in sixty-eight ;- The twisted hay fire's smoky tease, The dirt floor rug beneath our feet, The shingled sod, the worn tin plate, Came back their story to repeat When we set out to build the state.
A pioneer rose up and said: "Jest skelp fur me my old gray head "Ef I'd a-ever held my claim "Except fur my Almiry Jane;
"She kep' the county taxes paid, ---
"She held the fort that Injin raid,-
"She argid in the days of drouth "That luck would turn as sure as Fate,
"That God would fill His children's mouths
"And give us help to build the state."
A homesteader (his eyes were wet,) Spoke next: "I never shall forget "The hard times that we struggled through, "The sickness and the mortgage, too ;- "Nor, when the welcome children came "And played about our sod house claim "Who fought for our first district school, "And held her own in joint debate "Till neighbors said, 'That them should rule
" 'As raised the children for the State.' "
So first one, then the other 'greed That women folks had done the deed; Had held the homestead on the plains Through years of drouth and years of rains; Had given men the grit to stay When they would rather run away; Had planted church and public school, Had raised the children, strong and straight; So we're all headed fur Home Rule: Let the women vote who build the State!
There was a Fort Atkinson in Wisconsin, one in New Mexico, one in northeastern Iowa, and one in Nebraska. The Nebraska Fort Atkin- son has by far the most important place in the history of the west. It was for seven years the farthest western post of the United States army. More important events connected with the early exploration of the west centered at the Nebraska Fort Atkinson than at any other point. An article in the Palimpsest, published by the Iowa Historical Society, tells the story of the Iowa Fort Atkinson which has now been made a State Historical Park. There are ten important reasons why the Nebraska Fort Atkinson site should be made a permanent historical park to one for any other Fort Atkinson.
9
THE LILLIE CORN HUSKER
W. F. Lillje demonstrating use of his corn husker-from cut used in his advertising literature.
THE LILLIE CORN HUSKER By Samuel C. Bassett
Homesteaders in Nebraska had many new wrinkles to learn in methods in agriculture, few more important than growing and harvesting corn.
In the eastern states, from whence came most of the homesteaders, corn was not the important crop that it has always been in Nebraska.
On an average farm in New York, for illustration, only from three to five acres were devoted to corn production. The corn was cut and shocked in advance of frost and later husked and thrown on the floor in the corn crib where it was sorted, the soft corn separated from the mature, every husk and all silk removed in order to prevent the corn from molding and rotting while drying in the crib. As the corn was husked the corn fodder was bound in bundles and stored in the barn for fodder.
In Nebraska, from the beginning to the present time. the value of the corn crop, each year, has exceeded the total valve of all wheat, oats, i've and barley raised on our farms. In the early years, and largely even at the present. corn matures on the standing stalks and when dry is husked and stored in
10
NEBRASKA HISTORY
cribs, in many instances piled on the ground, often remaining in such piles during the entire winter or until shelled for market. In Nebraska it is the exception and not the rule that all husks and all silk are removed from corn when being husked. In New York, for illustration, a farmer would average to husk twenty shocks of corn, yielding twenty baskets of ears, (ten bushels of shelled corn) in a day.
A homesteader who settled in Nebraska in 1871 made a visit to his old home in New York. It was in the fall of the year, in the early 80's, and eastern farmers were busy husking their corn.
Traveling east from Buffalo, the homesteader visited with a group of farmer people on the train and naturally boasted of conditions in Nebraska. He stated that in Nebraska no corn was cut and shocked. That corn was husked from the stand- ing stalks and the ears thrown directly into a wagon box. That a good husker would husk and crib an acre of corn a day, and that it made little difference whether the corn yielded fifteen or seventy-five bushels per acre. That it made no difference whether all husks and all silks were removed from the corn or not, and that corn would keep all winter on the stalks in the field, or in piles on the ground.
When the homesteader had finished his "spiel," a New York farmer, one of the group, took off his hat and tendered it to the homesteader remarking, "take the hat, it is yours and welcome. I have heard a good many yarns about the west but yours is the biggest lie of all!"
When more than one-half of the cultivated land was, and is, devoted to corn production, as in Nebraska, it will be seen that corn husking, one ear at a time, with cracked and bleed- ing hands, is a well nigh never ending and unpleasant task in the late fall and winter months.
The first invention used to assist in corn husking was the husking peg, described briefly as a small, round piece of hard wood sharpened at one end, some six inches in length, held in the hollow of the right hand. Attached to the husking peg was a loop of buckskin or other soft leather, the loop passing over the middle finger, holding the husking peg in place. The sharpened end of the peg was thrusted thru the husks at the tip end of the ear, enabling the operator to husk the ear quick- ly and easily and the husking peg at once came into universal use.
In the year 1890 was invented the Lillie corn husker, or corn hook as it is often called, by W. F. Lillie of Rockford, Nebraska, the invention being brought about in a manner described by Edgar Rothrock of Holmesville, Nebraska, as follows:
11
THE LILLIE CORN HUSKER
George F. Richards, (father-in-law of Mr. Lillie) lost his right thumb at the second joint in 1886 and lamented that he could no longer husk corn. To help him out Mr. Lillie cut from an old scoop shovel his first corn husker or corn hook. Mr. Richards found with its use he could
husk corn as well as ever. Mr. Lillie then realized the value of his con- trivance and cut out many more (corn hooks) of different shapes, from old shovels. Mr. Lillie secured his first patent on this invention Septem- ber 26, 1893. Mr. Lillie owned only forty acres of land and had a large family to support. He spent a great deal of time in working on his corn husker and getting it ready for market. His means were very limited and he sacrificed nearly everything he owned. The invention made him no money and he always claimed he was beaten out of his rights by designing partners, and old settlers think so too.
Mr. Lillie traveled widely thru Nebraska, Kansas, Illinois and Iowa introducing his invention. He gave many demonstrations. His son, H. D. Lillie, who accompanied him part of the time tells of one method: Two men would hold a newspaper above Mr. Lillie's head. A third would hold an ear of husked corn under the paper while Mr. Lillie held in his left hand an ear of snapped corn. At a given signal Mr. Lillie would begin to husk the ear and the man to drop the ear of husked corn, held under the newspaper. Mr. Lillie would husk his ear (the operation passing it, of course, to his right hand), and catch the dropped ear as it reached the level of his hand and hold the ears side by side in his right hand.
William F. Lillie evolved his perfected corn husker (corn hook) after much thought, labor and expense. A poor man, he attempted to manu- facture them and create a market under great difficulties. He suc- ceeded in every way excpt financially. A grateful posterity will see that he is given the credit he deserves.
The Lillie corn husker, invented and placed on the market in the early 90's is still in use. A Nebraska hardware dealer in business in the early 70's, states that he placed his first order for Lillie corn huskers, September 22, 1893. His successor in the same line of business, continues to handle them and states that he sells ten times as many Lillie corn huskers as of husking pegs.
The Hand that Husks Nebraska's Corn
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NEBRASKA HISTORY
Editor's Note: An important question is this: How much has the invention of the husking hook increased the efficiency of the corn husker ? Mr. J. C. Morford, of Beaver Crossing, Seward County, successfully farms 320 acres of Blue river bottom. His three sons and himself are all expert huskers. They agree that the modern husking hook with cot and plate doubles the husker's production as compared with the old fashioned husking peg. Two motions strip the ear. The editor would be glad to have the estimate of other experts.
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