USA > Nebraska > Antelope County > A history of Antelope County, Nebraska, from its first settlement in 1868 to the close of the year 1883 > Part 5
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Ives, Geo.
Liermann, August
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
Latta, M. F.
Mahan, Thos. D.
Means, T. W.
Masters, Winfield
O'Neill, Arthur
Rollins, Mrs. Atlanta
Rollins, Renault A.
Rollins, John F.
Rutledge, Wm.
Skiles, J. W.
Skiles, R. I.
Snider, J. H.
Snider, L. J.
Snider, L. L.
Snider, A. H.
Scannell, Mrs. M. J.
Trueblood, Benarder
Tims, Chas.
Whitwer, Bernard
Whitwer, Peter
Whitwer, Nicholas
Whitwer, Frederick
Wilson, George
Woods, Thos.
In Cedar township there were fifteen:
Bennett, Jesse T.
Duncan, Wm. P.
Derry, C. H.
Horne, Robert
Inman, Geo.
King, J. H.
Leach, A. J.
Morgan, S. P.
Palmer. E. R.
Palmer, A. H.
Smith, Spencer
Seeley, C. M.
Shepherd, W. A.
Trask, T. P.
Wilson, C. H.
In Clearwater there were four:
Lyman, T. J.
Michaels, Ernst
Stevens, Calvin Tutt, Joseph
In Elm there were fifteen:
Buck, C. D.
Burton, John
Elwood, A. B.
Elwood, R. P.
Erskine, John A. Erskine, R. J.
Eldridge, T. E.
Gillett, Emmett
Holbrook, Jacob
Lee, Samuel
Mossbarger, William
Manering, W. J.
Scannel, Tim.
Warner, Thos.
Warner, A.
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
In Frenchtown there were twenty-six :
Buoy, Z.
Brown, A. H.
Contois, L.
Duncan, James
Duncan, W.
Farrell, A.
Graves, L.
Grenier, J. B.
Holbrook, C.
Hemenway, C. E.
Hemenway, Prescott
Lessard, J.
Lessard, J. Jr.
Mummert, G. W.
Miller, E. G.
Miller, I. L.
Patras, Louis
Patras, Peter
Patras, F. X.
Saxton, J.
Sloan, A. A.
Stone, O.
Thibault, A.
Thibault, F.
Wyman, C. M.
Wingert, Peter
In Grant there were twenty-seven:
Blackford, E. M.
Blankenship, A. C.
Bliss, N. P.
Bliss, George
Bliss, Marion
Cossairt, David
Craig, James
Corkle, Frank
Dalrymple, E.
Eickhoff, J. H.
Fields, Rowena
Fields, Orson
Fields, Orville
Fields, J. S.
Irish, J. J.
Johnson, H.
Murphy, Maurice
Murphy, John
Murphy, Pat
Oelsligle, C. A.
Pearsoll, L.
Pearsoll, W.
Rouse, Chas.
Scott, James,
Rice, Adel
Wilkinson, W. W.
Wilkinson, Peter
In Neligh there were twenty-eight:
Belmer, Alex.
Clarke, Wm. P.
Corby, Nat Crawford, John H.
Connell, J. G. Dugar, M.
Dworak, Chas. F.
Davis, Dresser
Fouts, Peter Hills, Stephen
Hall, Stephen
Holbrook, Chas. S.
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
Minkler, James
McClure, Jacob
Nunnaly, W.
Potts, Thos. A.
Potter, Lewis
Ploof, J. W.
Reynolds, Francis
Reynolds, T. F.
Suter, L. H.
Stolp, Thos.
Stolp, Myron
Shambow, Levi
Trowbridge, Henry
Tubbs, Lester
Tousley, A. M.
Woolham, Wm.
In Oakdale there were twelve:
Bennett, J. H.
Eggleston, N. B.
Malzacher, John
Moffatt, Richard
Putney, W.W.
Rumsey, Byron
Salnave, A. M.
Swett, H. W.
Swett, L. S.
Sipp, James
Wolfe, A. H.
Wolfe, Marion
In Ord township there were twenty-five:
Beeman, Aaron
Beeman, J. T.
Beeman, C. S.
Boyd, L. A.
Bradeen, J. C.
Coe, D. V.
Corbin, Isaiah
Duncan, Geo.
Freeman, M. L.
Gillespie, J. M.
Gilbert, L. A.
Garlough, Jacob
Garlough, John
Garlough, Henry
Grow, S. P. Hollenbeck, Aaron
Keith, I. E.
McGee, Geo. H.
McMullen, H. C.
Marwood, Robert
Smith, R. W.
Stevens, Elias
Stevens, Calvin
Wight, A. G.
Tillotson, S. W. West, Amos
These make in all two hundred and thirteen persons in the county holding claims, or subject to be taxed. Many of these, however, were single persons, and it is not prob- able that the population of the county at that time, April I, 1872, exceeded six hundred and fifty persons.
Up to the summer of 1872 the prosperity of the new set- tlements had been continuous, with the exception of the Indian troubles, which will be taken up later on. In 1872
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
the locusts, or migratory grasshoppers, came for the first time in sufficient numbers to do damage. It was related by J. G. Routson, whose visit to the Elkhorn valley was mentioned in Chapter VI, that in 1867 he found that the cottonwood, willow, and some other varieties of trees had been stripped of their leaves by the grasshoppers. There were none here in 1868 or 1869, and none in 1870, except- ing in the Cedar Creek settlement, where they destroyed the gardens. There were none in 1871, but in 1872 they came in great clouds and completely stripped the country of everything green.
The writer, as secretary and historian of the Pioneer Society of Antelope County, read a chapter of Antelope County history before the first annual encampment of the Pioneers on the 2 1st day of September, 1886, from which is taken the following account of the grasshopper visitations.
"About the last of July, 1872, when the grain was nearly all cut, and stacking had just commenced, the grasshoppers came in great numbers and completely destroyed the grow- ing corn, potatoes, and gardens. Not enough corn was raised in 1872 for seed. The crop of small grain was good, although very late wheat and oats were destroyed, and grain that was in the shock was shelled out, and wasted to some extent by the grasshoppers. There was enough raised in 1871 to live on and some to spare, but the immi- grants who came in the spring of 1872, unless they brought means with them, were in a destitute condition, and many left permanently for the east, while many others sought work in eastern Nebraska or in Iowa, until such time as they could return to their claims.
"The spring and summer of 1873 were cold and wet, the yield of small grain was good and the quality was excel- lent, but corn did not ripen well. There were not so many grasshoppers as in 1872. In some neighborhoods they did little or no damage, but in others they did great injury to the corn and other crops. Hay was more abundant than ever before, and the settlers again took courage only to meet with bitter reverses and disappointment the next year.
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
"The year 1874 was known all over the settled portions of Nebraska as 'The Grasshopper Year.' The spring and early summer had been very favorable for growing crops; corn was looking well and promising an extra heavy yield; wheat and oats were mostly in the shock, when in the after- noon of a bright, sunshiny day a cloud was seen in the dis- tance, to the northwest, as of smoke or dust. It was a cloud of grasshoppers. They came like driving snow in winter. They filled the air - they covered the earth, the buildings, the shocks of grain, and everything. They alighted on trees in such numbers as to break off large limbs with their weight. In a few hours' time they stripped the cornfields of every vestige of leaf. They denuded the trees of their leaves, and the twigs and smaller limbs of their bark. They severed the bands on the bundles of shocked grain, and shelled out the grain, on the outside of the shocks. Their alighting on the roofs and sides of houses sounded like a continuous hailstorm. Chickens and turkeys ran to hide from them. Their ability to devour was astonishing and nothing, scarcely, came amiss to them. Tobacco and tansy were choice morsels. Onions and tur- nips were eaten into the ground, leaving holes where they had been. If any were crushed under foot, or otherwise, the others immediately devoured them. If a harness or garment were left out it would be ruined in an hour's time. When at last there was nothing left for them to devour, and they rose in clouds that partially obscured the sun for hours, a scene of desolation and discouragement presented itself to the settlers that can better be imagined than described. About the only comforting thought was that it might have been worse had they come before the grain was cut and shocked.
CHAPTER X
THE GRASSHOPPERS CONTINUED - MANY SETTLERS LEAVE THE COUNTY - THE GRASSHOPPERS BECOME DISEASED; THEY FINALLY DISAPPEAR - DISTRIBUTION OF AID IN 1874-75 - BETTER TIMES COME AGAIN
T HE grasshoppers came again in 1875, and did a great deal of damage that year, though not so much generally as in 1874. In the northern part of the county, however, the new settlers suffered more from their depredations than at any other time. The set- tlers in the Bazile neighborhood who had come in 1871 and subsequent years, and also the new settlers on the Verdigris, were all compelled to leave the county for a time, some of them returning in 1876 and others not until 1877. In fact, in the fall of 1874, and in 1875, many set- tlers from different parts of the county left for a while, and some of them did not return at all.
It is a notable fact that the grasshoppers came usually, though not always, from the northwest. After alighting and devouring whatever came in their way that suited their taste, they would always remain until the weather was fair and until the wind blew in the direction they wanted to go. They might stay two or three days or a week, drifting about over the country, but they never rose to bid goodbye without fair weather and a favorable breeze. Generally, they came about the last of July or the fore part of August, remained from two to six days, and then passed on to the southeast. In 1875, however, they came about the middle of June, and came from the southeast. Sometimes they passed over at a great height, looking like hazy clouds, or at times like clouds that were quite dense, so as to give the sun a dim, dull appearance, or at other times almost to obscure it, and would fail to alight at all. Only two or three times did any of them
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
remain here to lay their eggs and breed a new brood for the next year. When some of them did remain they would gather in great bunches like a swarm of bees, from a peck to a half-bushel in a bunch, as the nights became cool along in September. Throughout the day they would scatter to seek a place to deposit their eggs, and at night again gather together in bunches. For the purpose of laying their eggs they always selected a place where the surface of the ground was somewhat compact and hard, as where it had been trampled by cattle, or in an old road, or in corn or stubble fields, but never in mellow ground or in the sod. The new brood would hatch out in April and was very destructive to the green wheat and oats and grow- ing corn. As soon as they had reached maturity they would leave for the southeast. They came again in num- bers sufficient to do damage in 1876, and a few in 1877.
Since 1877 there have been no migratory grasshoppers in Antelope County. In 1874, for the first time, the grass- hoppers began to show signs of disease. A small red mite appeared that year, looking like a very diminutive spider, not larger, when full grown, than a clover seed. It was noticed that year that many of the grasshoppers seemed to be specked with little red dots. These dots were little red mites and were found on the bodies of the grasshoppers, generally under the wings, from two or three to six or seven on each one so affected. These were brought here by the grasshoppers and were left here by them by the million. In plowing the next spring these mites could be seen in numbers wherever the ground was turned up. They not only preyed upon the grasshoppers, but also devoured their eggs. Place a number of these red mites under a tumbler and give them a cell of grasshopper eggs, and they would at once suck the juice out of them. These red mites remained as long as there were any grasshoppers here, and to some extent for some years thereafter. Many of the grasshoppers also were infested with little grubs about an eighth of an inch in length, that preyed upon their vitals, completely eating out the insides and leaving only a shell.
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
Others had a long, slender worm, not larger than a horse- hair, coiled up in the abdominal cavity. Catch any grass- hopper, in any of the summers from 1874 to 1877, that did not appear lively, and it would be affected in one of the three ways mentioned above. What became of the grasshoppers that were here in greater or less numbers in 1867, as reported by J. G. Routson, and again to some extent in 1870, then in 1872, 1874, and every year up to and including 1877, is a question hard to answer. Some think they were entirely exterminated by their enemies; others, that those that passed on to the southeast finally perished in the Gulf of Mexico. Certain it is that one year, possibly 1875 but probably 1876, they passed over in clouds all day, coming from the northwest, from about ten o'clock A. M. until the sun was well down toward the west. They were at a great height and looked like fleecy clouds. One unaccustomed to grasshoppers would have thought nothing of it, but would have supposed them real clouds. These clouds moved slowly, exactly like ordinary clouds; when looked at through a glass it was plain to be seen that they were clouds of grasshoppers. These were not heard of again. Had they alighted anywhere in the United States they would have covered millions of acres and the newspapers would have published accounts of it.
The grasshoppers had a choice as to the kinds of their food. They would eat corn leaves, garden vegetables of all kinds, apple-tree leaves, also the bark of the twigs and small limbs, willow and cottonwood, and the leaves of some other kinds of trees. They would not only strip the big weeds growing in the ravines of their leaves, but would gnaw the stems also, leaving just a bare, naked stalk. In the cornfields they not only ate the corn but destroyed the weeds, if there were any. However, they would go hungry before they would feed upon growing sorghum, or leaves of the box-elder. The Indians at various times were troublesome; the blizzards and prairie fires were dangerous and had to be fought and guarded against; mills, post-offices, and markets were a long way
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
off and hard to reach, but the worst thing and the most discouraging that ever struck the early settlers of Antelope County was the grasshopper plague. When at last they were gone, and gone for good, they were still expected and looked for every year for several years. The men who had the grit and courage to stay by, and stick it out to the end, were made of the same stuff that genuine pioneers are always made, and are the only ones fitted to settle a new country.
Many of the settlers who remained here in 1874 were more or less destitute, and none of them had any seed corn, while very few had potatoes or garden vegetables. All who had been here long enough to have ground ready for it had crops of wheat and oats. These crops, however, were shelled out and wasted to a great extent and not many had any grain to spare. The legislature which was in session in the winter of 1874-75 made an appropriation to buy grain and corn and garden seeds for those who were destitute, and also to furnish the necessary provisions to carry the needy settlers through until a crop could be raised. Philanthropic people and societies in the east also sent supplies for general distribution, and many who had friends in more favored localities received boxes of supplies containing clothing, bedding, and provisions. General Ord, then in command of the Department of the Platte, designated Lieutenant W. F. Norris, afterwards Judge Nor- ris of the district court, to oversee the distribution of these supplies among the counties of north Nebraska, and the several county clerks were to oversee the work in each county. W. W. Putney, at that time county clerk of Antelope County, had charge of the distribution here, and under him were assistants for the different neighborhoods appointed by the board of commissioners. Many, of course, got along without any assistance, but were com- pelled to go in debt for such things as they did not raise and must have. Others, as reported by the distributors, were really needy but too independent to accept of sup-
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
plies. It is also no doubt true that some were willing to accept and did receive more than they were entitled to. However, beginning with 1876, times began to get better again, and continued to improve without interruption for a series of years.
CHAPTER XI
THE FIRST INDIAN RAID - MRS. FREEMAN'S ADVENTURE - INDIANS FIRE INTO LOUIS PATRAS' HOUSE - THEY GET AWAY WITH TEN HORSES
T HE Indians were the cause of a good deal of anxiety to the settlers for six or seven years. A number of times they raided the settlements and stole horses, and once they broke into a house while the owners were absent and carried off or destroyed everything of value. When the first settlers of Cedar Creek were making hay in the fall of 1869, they discovered two camps that had been recently occupied by predatory Indians. These camps had been used over night only, and both were very near the creek, under cover of a bank overgrown with brush, and hidden on all sides by growing timber, where they would not be easily discovered. The campfires in both cases were very small so as not to be readily seen in so secluded a place. Around these campfires were five or six beds in the grass, each one made by an Indian who had lain there during the night. No doubt these Indians were on a horse-stealing expedition. When out on the hunt the Indians go in large numbers with their ponies, their tepees, and their families, and make no attempt at concealment; when on a stealing trip, they go on foot in small bands, carefully secreting themselves, leaving no trail that can be followed, intending to steal horses to ride back home on. When on the war path, they, of course, travel on horseback, and in large parties. These war parties, however, never passed through Antelope County after the settlement began. In June, 1871, Colonel Mathewson, his son C. P. Mathewson, and Louis Sessions of Norfolk, while on a trip to capture young elk and deer, met one such war party of about one hundred Sioux braves. These men were in camp on the Cedar River, in Greeley
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
County, just below the present town of Spaulding. While the men were all in camp in a bend of the river they saw a number of men approaching on horseback. It was the advance guard of the maurauders, riding about a mile ahead of the main body. They came into camp and waited for the main body of Sioux, who soon came riding rapidly, singing and displaying on a pole the scalp of a Pawnee whom they had killed. In a few minutes the rear guard came up. They all remained sitting on their horses, many of them shaking hands with the whites and appearing to
be in an exceedingly good humor. They told about killing
the Pawnee and bantered the whites to trade for a span of mules they had stolen from the Pawnees. In a few minutes the advance guard struck out up the valley, fol- lowed by the main body, singing, and waving the scalp as they went, and lastly the rear guard followed on, keep- ing a mile or so behind the main body. The Poncas and Santees not infrequently came into the county from their reservations and spent some time in trapping along the Elkhorn, or passed on southwest to go on a hunt. These Indians brought their families and tepees along, as well as their horses and dogs, were always very friendly, and gave no trouble at all. The only Indians to be feared were the
Brule Sioux, who occupied the White River country in South Dakota. They were always at war with the Paw- nees, whose village was located at Genoa, at the junction of Beaver Creek with the Loup River. The route from the Pawnee village to the White River country lay directly through Antelope County. There was nothing to be feared from the Pawnees, but if the horse-stealing Sioux made an unsuccessful raid on the Pawnees, they were apt to carry off some horses from the new settlers of Antelope County rather than go back empty-handed. The first trouble from the Indians came the last of February, 1870.
Martin L. Freeman was one of the first settlers in the Elkhorn valley above Neligh. He first located in the summer of 1869 on the northwest quarter of section 26, Frenchtown township, on the farm now owned by V. M.
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
Switzer. Here he built a cabin and moved in with his family. Late in the fall a prairie fire burned up most of his hay, and, not having feed sufficient for all his stock, he took his team and started down the valley to find work, leaving his wife and baby in the care of his brother, Theron Freeman. During Mr. Freeman's absence the Indians raided the settlement and Mrs. Freeman had an interesting adventure with them, which is given herewith in her own words, as related by her to the writer in 1888:
"About seven o'clock in the evening of February 27, 1870, while about my work, the door suddenly opened and in stalked ten painted Indians, armed with bows and arrows and guns, and with feathers stuck in their hair. They grunted out some kind of salutation, shook hands with me and with Theron, and seated themselves in a semicircle around the stove. I think I must have been scared or excited, but I didn't mean to let the Indians know it. I tried to get Theron to go to Contois', about a half-mile away, where I knew there were four or five men camped, and get help, but he wouldn't do it. So I told him I would go. I laid the baby on the bed and took up a pail as though I was going after water, but when I got outside, I set the pail down and started on a run for Con- tois' place. I got more than half way there, when, hearing a noise behind me, and looking back, I could see in the dim light two Indians coming after me. I couldn't run away from them and I felt mad, and just thought I would make the best of it and wouldn't run another step. So I waited for them to come up. They took hold of me and made motions for me to go back. I said no. One of them could talk a little English and said, 'No go back; Indians get 'em papoose.' Well, I thought that I had better go back. When we got to the house, I tell you Theron looked pretty white. I believe he was scared. There were two who could speak a little English, - one small Indian and one old, big fellow. They told me, 'Hungry,' 'bread,' 'cof- fee,' 'heap cold,' 'stay 'em all night.' I told them I had
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
no bread, but would make some coffee. So I told Theron to put on the kettle and boil them some coffee. After they had drunk all the coffee they wanted they filled their pipes and took a smoke, each Indian taking a whiff or two and passing the pipe on to the next one. One of them partly lay down on the bed beside the baby. I made him get up. He laughed when I motioned him to get up, but he minded me. Another started to open a trunk, but I told him to shut it up and he did so. The big fellow who could talk a little English seemed to have some authority over the others, and I asked him if he was a chief. He said, 'Me chief.' They stayed until eleven o'clock, and then began to bundle up as if they were going away, and the big fellow said, 'Go 'way.' 'No come back.' 'Heap good squaw.' 'No hurt 'em squaw.' I tell you, I was glad when they were gone, but we packed up and went down to Judge Sniders' and stayed until Mart came home. I said I would never go back to that place to live, and we never did. We took a place farther down the valley, where we live now, and got a better one, too. Oh, these women who have come here the last few years and complain of hard times and privations don't know anything about it."
The next day, February 28, these same Indians came to the house of Louis Patras, one of the settlers about two miles down the valley from Mr. Freeman's place, and fired four of five shots into the building, one or two of the shots passing through the inside and lodging in the opposite wall. Fortunately, none of the inmates were harmed. They then killed a number of chickens, shot a cow, and after behaving for some time in a very threatening manner, went off toward the river and were seen no more.
That night they stole ten horses, one for each, and left before morning. Two of the stolen horses belonged to A. M. Salnave, one to Louis Contois, two to Louis Patras, one to Andrew Thibault, two to F. X. Patras, and two to M. L. Freeman. One of the horses escaped and came back in a few days, and seven were taken from the Indians by
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HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
the soldiers stationed at Fort Randall. These were advertised and were finally reclaimed by the owners. The other two horses were never recovered. This raid caused a great deal of uneasiness, and to quite an extent retarded the settlement of the county, especially in the upper part of the valley.
CHAPTER XII
INDIANS RAID THE HOUSE OF ROBERT HORNE ON CEDAR CREEK - THE TRAIL IS FOUND - PARTY ORGANIZED TO FOLLOW - ARMS AND EQUIPMENT OF THE PARTY - INDIANS ARE OVER- TAKEN
O N the 9th of June, 1869, Robert Horne took as a home- stead the northwest quarter of section 21, Cedar township. This was the farthest off of any of the homesteads in that neighborhood, his nearest neighbor being Jesse T. Bennett, who was located on the northwest quarter of section 9, two miles farther north. Mr. Horne was an Englishman and had always lived in the city, con- sequently was wholly unused to the ways of pioneer life. He was slow in getting his house ready to occupy, but by the help of the neighbors it was ready to be lived in about the first of November, 1870. Prior to this last date his family had remained at the house of Mr. Bennett while Mr. Horne was at work on his claim. The house being ready for the family, Mr. Horne had moved a part of his goods and all his provisions and supplies and stored them in the house, intending to move the remainder of his goods and his family the next day. The next day, on reaching his place with his family, he found that the house had been broken into, all his goods overhauled, and many things car- ried off. The sacks containing flour and potatoes had been emptied and the sacks taken. All the clothing and bedding was either carried off or destroyed. Everything not carried away was torn or injured in some way so as to render it useless.
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