USA > Nebraska > Antelope County > A history of Antelope County, Nebraska, from its first settlement in 1868 to the close of the year 1883 > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19
A NDREW P. BENNETT was the first settler in what is now Logan township, and in all that part of the county, in fact. He wrote for the Elgin "Clippings," a newspaper published by Lafe Loper, in 1889, a series of articles entitled "An Old Settler's Ex- periences in the Early Days in Antelope County." These articles ran through fourteen numbers of the "Clippings," and are exceedingly interesting and instructive. In large part it is a personal narrative of his own experiences, but this narrative also describes in the minutest detail many things of general interest.
Mr. Bennett was a peculiar man. He was large of frame, rawboned, muscular, with a countenance indicating decision and strength of character. He was somewhat slow and deliberate, thoroughly honest and conscientious. He was of the disposition to make the best of everything and would stick to a thing and get along somehow, when many men would get discouraged and quit. When he came here in the fall of 1871, the land was all vacant west of Oakdale and the Cedar Creek settlement and south and west of Neligh. The Elkhorn valley northwest of Neligh, of course, was settled. He was urged by the Cedar Creek settlers, and especially by his brother, Jesse T. Bennett, to take land either in or near the Cedar Creek settlement, but "Uncle Andy," as he was called, was obdurate. He wanted not only a good quarter of land for himself, but he wanted it where all the surrounding quarters had rich soil and a smooth surface. Accord- ingly he went four miles beyond everybody and located on the northeast quarter of section 14, Logan township,
109
IIO
HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
just a half-mile south of the present village of Elgin. Time has vindicated his decisiom. His brother Jesse was pro- voked and called him a lunatic and named the neighbor- hood where he located "Luna Valley." This name it retained for several years.
Such parts of the narrative of Andrew P. Bennett as are suitable for this history will be given here. The incidents that he relates and the personal experiences that he gives, with some variations, are applicable to scores of others of the early settlers. Such portions as are not applicable will be omitted, but no changes will be made in the phrase- ology. The quotations will be given verbatim, except where the writer gives a name of a settler in order to locate a tract of land, the numbers of the land will now be given. This is for the reason that in most cases the settler has moved away and in many instances the name even is forgotten.
THE NARRATIVE OF ANDREW P. BENNETT
"I resided in Ringgold County, Iowa, for a few years previous to coming here. Having a small farm with a six- hundred dollar mortgage on it, it seemed about all that I could do to pay the interest and keep up other expenses. My youngest brother was out here, having for his home- stead the northwest quarter of section 9, Cedar township, three miles east of Elgin. He had written me of the good chances to get government land out here so I resolved to come and look. Accordingly my oldest brother from Michigan and my nephew, John Bennett, got a light spring wagon, they furnishing one horse and I one, and we pre- pared for the trip.
"On the 5th day of October, 1871, we set out on our journey to the 'far west.' We made fair progress on our journey till we arrived at Council Bluffs, where we crossed the Missouri River, and for the first time in our lives saw farms with growing crops on them without any fences around them, which looked very odd. Our first night's camping ground in Nebraska was by Old Man's Creek
III
HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
about twenty miles from Omaha; a night well remembered by our little party, for one of our horses took sick and died and we had no money to buy another and proceed on our trip. Some of the party were in favor of giving up the journey and going back home, but I said 'No, we are half way there or more and we can get the other half some way. We can fix a spring pole to hold up the wagon tongue and one horse can pull the load, by some of us walking up the hills, till we can find some man who will trade us a yoke of cattle for the other horse.' We commenced inquiring for a trade but could hear of no broken cattle being owned near where we were, but found a man having two pairs of young unbroken steers he would trade us; one pair two years old past, and one pair of one year olds past. We looked at them and told him if he would find timber to make yokes and bows and give a chain apiece we would take them. He said 'All right,' he would do it, and we found material in his wood-pile that would answer the purpose, so we went right to work and by noon the next day we had them completed, and in the afternoon yoked the cattle up and chased them around awhile.
"The next day, which was Sunday, we let them run in the yoke in the yard, and Monday morning we got the man we traded with to pull our wagon to the top of the hill, so we would have a tolerable level piece of road to start on. With a rope on each near steer and a man at each rope with a good gad in his hand, that left one to ride, at a time, to whip and hollow behind, we hitched on and commenced hollowing and whipping and the wheels began to roll, and twelve miles ahead found us at a good camping place at early camping time. We stopped, tied up and unyoked, fed our cattle and ourselves, and en- joyed a night's rest very well.
"On looking around our camp in the evening, it looked a little suspicious that there might be some coons living living around there, and having my old coon hound along, about four o'clock in the morning I got up and in company with the old hound, went to a cornfield near by, and the
II2
HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
hound was not long in finding the tracks of one, and soon he had it treed, within a hundred yards of our wagon. The old hound watched the tree, and the coon was kept from coming down till it got light enough to shoot. Mean- while we got our breakfast, fed our cattle, and were ready to roll as soon as we got our coon. We rolled seventeen miles that day and from seventeen to twenty till we got through. By that time we had our cattle well broken to pull and to follow the road. Two of us could ride in the wagon considerable the second day, and after the third day, and we got a whip long enough to reach the lead cattle, we could all ride except when we wanted to turn out of the road or to stop; then one of us had to get to the lead cattle, whose rope we kept hanging on the yoke of the hind cattle.
"We got through all right and liked the country better than we had expected, and when we had concluded to take claims we found the cattle just what we would want to break prairie with. After looking over the land thor- oughly and finding all the real nice land in Taylor valley north of here being in the Dakota land district and in town 23, the land office being at West Point, which was right on my way to Iowa, I resolved to take my home in town 23, range 7, the northeast quarter of section 14, just half a mile south of where Elgin now stands. We resolved to manifest our titles to our claims by putting an unmis- takable mark on them, so we procured a yoke of old cattle to put behind our young steers, and a good large breaking plow, a lot of cottonwood edgings from the saw- mill on the Elkhorn, three miles below where Oakdale now stands, for stakes to run a line by. We drove out, and setting a row of stakes a mile long, we started up our awkward young team to plow the first furrow that far west between the Elkhorn and the Beaver. With a driver to each yoke of cattle and one to watch the stakes and cattle and plow, and hollow 'Gee,' 'Haw,' etc., we went through the first half-mile and stopped to rest and take a backward look. When we did so, we pronounced it pretty
II3
HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
well done. We took courage and persevered until we had gone around the half section; the east half of 14, now owned by C. M. Seeley and A. J. Perry. (A. P. Bennett took the northeast quarter and J. H. Bennett the south- east quarter.) Night came on before we got around and got to our boarding-place, having to travel four miles for supper and lodging, mostly after dark, without the sign of a road anywhere; but we made it all right, the weather being fine.
"We then concluded if the weather continued favorable we would go out and break some sod and try our hands at building a sod house. Up to that time the weather had been nice ever since we had arrived here, only the nights were a little frosty, but as the ground was not frozen we thought we could work at our sod house. We little thought of seeing the worst snowstorm we had ever wit- nessed so soon, but most assuredly we did. It com- menced with rain, then turned to snowing with the wind in the northwest, on Friday (about November 17) and never ceased until Sunday evening. In the gulches and on the sides of the hills that lay sloping to the southeast where the snow could lodge at all, there were great drifts. We gave up sod-house building until spring. We never saw our claims any more until about the next June."
CHAPTER XXI
CONTINUATION OF A. P. BENNETT'S NARRATIVE - FATALITIES OF THE NOVEMBER STORM OF 1871 - PARTICULARS OF THE BUFFALO HUNT
NOTE .- The narrative of Mr. Bennett in regard to the mis- fortune that befell David Cossairt has been slightly changed, for the reason that his information was incorrect in one or two par- ticulars.
A. P. BENNETT'S NARRATIVE CONTINUED
"T HOSE who were caught away from home any dis- tance and attempted to go home in the storm either perished or were badly frozen. Mr. David Cossairt, living in St. Clair valley as it is now called, but was then known as the Blankenship settlement, was down to the steam saw-mill on the Elkhorn, a distance of about six miles, with his team, getting out saw-logs. He started home, little realizing while working in the timber how bad the storm was out on the prairie. He was told by some that it was dangerous for him to start home, but he thought that he could make it all right with an empty wagon. He
got within a mile or two of home and dark came on. He got into a snowdrift and his horses got down and the snow was flying so thick that he could not see any distance, nor where he was, nor which way to go. So he took the har- ness off the horses and let them go to look out for them- selves, and for himself found a place under a bank that gave some shelter from the wind. Here, with a quilt for a cover, he went into a snow camp for the night. But the dawn of day brought no relief; the storm was raging, if possible, worse and worse, and getting colder all the time, and an- other day and night had to be passed in that camp of snow and until late the next day before the storm ceased. His horses drifted with the wind and brought up at a neigh- bor's four or five miles away. He was badly frozen, hands
114
115
HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
and feet, and had crawled out and was trying to find his way homeward when first discovered."
[NOTE. - He was rescued by A. C. Blankenship, who saw him wandering around on the prairie some distance away. He would have gotten home all right alone, but just after leaving his snow camp he was attacked with snow-blindness, so that he could not see his way. By careful and intelligent nursing he recovered. He got over his blindness in a day or two.]
"Two men living over near the head of Battle Creek (Madison County) perished in the same storm. Two brothers they were, and married to two sisters, each having a young babe near the same age. It so happened that less than two years after, I stayed all night at their father's and they were both there with their children, so I got the story from their own lips. Their statement of the facts I will relate.
" When it first commenced snowing the men, with a neighbor, thought it would be a good time to kill a deer in some of the brush thickets along the Battle Creek breaks, so they each took a blanket to wrap around them and their guns and set out for their hunt, perhaps as fear- less of getting lost as a company would be to start out on a chicken hunt. But the storm increased in violence and the snow accumulated rapidly. They hunted until they got a deer and then started for home, as they thought, but night came on and no home was found. They then gave up that they were lost. They then traveled on for some time, but no signs of home. They became wearied and discouraged, and coming into the head of a narrow, steep gulch, where the wind did not seem to strike very hard, the two brothers declared they would go no farther. They argued that they each had a blanket, and they could kick a hole under the snow, wrap up in their blankets, and stand it until morning or till the storm ceased. The other man thought he would rather risk his life traveling, so he went on and left them. He studied the matter over and thought it was not near so hard walk-
II6
HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
ing to go straight with the wind, and several miles' travel in that direction would take him up to the settlement on Shell Creek. So he kept the course straight as he could and about four o'clock in the morning he found a house. The other two perished and their bodies were not found until the following spring when the snow melted away."
[NOTE .- The men who lost their lives were the Moon brothers; the man who was saved was James McMahan.]
After the storm was over Mr. Bennett went to Iowa, returning to Antelope County again in the spring of 1872, but without his family, as he had not been able to sell his farm in Ringgold County, Iowa. He built a combination house, half sod and half dugout, on his place, and leased thirty acres of ground in the northwest quarter, section 5, Cedar township, and put in a crop, and while cultivating corn in July took part in the buffalo hunt mentioned in Chapter II of this history. He thus, in his own quaint way, gives his experiences:
"The first settlers kept coming and going till but few of them are here to-day. But when we consider the hard- ships and privations that had to be endured, so far from market for produce and needed supplies, it is not so sur- prising that the more tender footed ones that couldn't stand traveling on hard roads should abandon their chances here and go back to Egypt. For my part I had been used to hard roads and hard times and expected it when I came here.
"We got our house so we could live in it before we com- menced plowing corn, for we had to tend it in the old style - one-horse double-shovel plow, going two or three times in a row - and it being broke so late the sod was very tough and required considerable scratching. One day while we were out there plowing corn, in the fore part of July, 1872, we spied some strange looking animals coming toward us from the west. They were three in number - two large ones and one small one. They were. about half a mile away, but feeding and walking straight toward us. They were in the valley or flat on the northeast
II7
HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
quarter, section 6, Cedar township, and we were on the height on the northwest quarter, section 5, and by driving a few rods farther over the slope of the hill we were out of sight, though they had not yet seemed to notice us. We stood where we could just peep over and watch them, and we soon discovered they were buffalo. They came straight toward us till they came near the plowed ground, and, strange to say, the two large ones turned south and the small one turned north and went out of our sight in that direction. The other two kept on walking and feeding until they had gone south about half a mile and then turned back west. We had no guns with us, but wanted some buffalo meat and consulted as to the best way to get it. I told my nephew (John Bennett) to watch them, but not go near to scare them, and I would go over east to Palmer's and get them to help us. So we threw the har- ness off our horses and I galloped away on one for help. After a two-mile ride I found both of the Palmers plow- ing corn. I told them that if they wanted some buffalo meat to throw the harness from their horses and get their guns in haste, as I had a man watching the buffalo.
"It was but a few minutes till we were galloping toward the battle-ground. Our watchman had got on the highest peak so he could watch for us and still keep in sight of the buffalo. When we came together the buffalo were over a mile ahead and still feeding west - going right toward where Elgin now stands. We consulted and planned for the attack. Two of us not having any guns with us, and not knowing how fast the buffalo could run when they were frightened, and each of us having a gun at the sod fort, we thought it best to go that way and get the guns and ride away around, get ahead of them, and attack them about the top of a hill a couple of miles or so southwest of Elgin. E. Palmer went around on the north side, A. Palmer and J. Bennett on the south side, and I followed in the rear with the greyhounds, so if they were likely to outrun our horses we would try the greyhounds to bother them. But when they raised the hill, E. Palmer wounded
I18
HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
both of them, breaking a foreleg of one above the knee. They kept their course, right on. The other two hunters got in ahead of them, but they had to shoot and fall back, for the buffalo followed them right up. After about twelve or fifteen shots they got them both down about a quarter of a mile apart, and they had them both dead be- fore I got to them. It was a hot day, and while they took the entrails out and kept the flies away, I went home and got the wagon - something over two miles. I drove to the farthest one, took the hind wheels off, let the hind end down, pulled one animal in, pulling its neck up to the fore- gate, and then, putting up the wheels, rolled back to the other one and done the same way, pulling it in far enough to get the endgate in, put up the wheels, and rolled for the shanty. By the time we got there and got our buffaloes
skinned it was night. We kept one and the Palmers one, and I hauled theirs right over while in the wagon. We cut the bone mostly out of ours, put it in brine for three days, and then hung it up in the back end of the sod shanty, hanging some quilts in front to darken and keep the flies out, keeping a little smoke in the daytime. When dried we thought it excellent. Both were males about three years old."
CHAPTER XXII
A. P. BENNETT CONTINUES HIS NARRATIVE - TELLS ABOUT THE ANTELOPE; THE GRASSHOPPERS; THE APRIL STORM; HUNT- ING THE LOST OX; CROSSING THE ELKHORN ON A SNOWDRIFT
T HESE were the last of the buffalo family getting this far east, to my knowledge - July, 1872 - but that summer and the next antelope and deer were very abundant, and, in some instances, very tame. Antelope stood around on the heights, staring at us while at work, much of the time. One day while my nephew, Luty Bennett, was driving the breaking team, - our two yoke of young steers, with a horse on the lead, the ground being dry - we were breaking clear across the quarter east and west to and from the house. We had been to the west line and turned back, when here came an an- telope, running along the side opposite to us, about seventy yards off. It would stop and stand looking until we got a piece ahead, then it would run up even; sometimes a little ahead. We kept quietly moving along till we got over half way through, when I told Luty to go to the house and get the needle gun and I would move slowly along with the team, and did so till he came up with the gun. We stopped the team - the antelope stopped also. I laid the muzzle of the gun on the plow rung, took aim at his heart, only seventy-five yards away, standing broad- side to me, and fired, never touching it. The gun, being sighted for a long distance, overshot. So much the better for the antelope, but some disappointment to the plow- man. However, it was an advanced lesson in antelope hunting; but plenty as they were we didn't get much of their meat. But we got about thirty acres broken on our claims.
"Just about that time the grasshoppers began to light down, and like the falling of large snowflakes they con-
119
I20
HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
tinued to drop until the earth seemed literally covered. There could be no place found where they were not, and in twenty-four hours every stalk of corn, potatoes, cab- bage, turnips, beets, beans, melons, and pumpkin vines were all destroyed. Watermelon vines were eaten so clean we could scarcely find enough stem to the vine to tell where the hill was. Our small grain was quite good, and as we had it in the shock they did not damage it at all. It was too ripe and dry for them - they liked something green and tender. They would not even feed on prairie grass if they could find something that suited them better. They would keep flying low and hunting till they got what they wanted, and got well rested, then in from three to five days, when the wind got to blowing the direction they desired to go, they would rise and fly away, generally going south."
The following is a part of Mr. Bennett's description of the April storm :
"It began with rain on Easter Sunday toward evening, April 13, 1873. It found the settlers poorly prepared for such severe weather, and not suspecting a bad storm so late in the spring, all the stable we had was a twelve- foot space cut out of the east side of our straw pile, some forks stuck up and poles laid into them, then poles and brush laid on and covered over with straw; the front banked up part way only. My nephew had a team of horses and I had two yoke of oxen, a cow, and a calf. The cattle were running loose to the hay stack.
"By Monday morning the snow was flying about as thick as it could, apparently. It had swirled into our stable until the horses stood belly deep in the snow, and the cattle had all left the haystack, come to the stable, and crowded in among the horses. We took the cow, horses, calf, and chickens into the sod house, thinking the oxen would stand it all right in the stable, little dreaming the storm would last so long and get so terrible bad as it did; therefore, it was toward evening before we went out to look after them. Starting in the direction of the stable,
I2I
HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
which was nearly northwest from the house, we had to face the storm, and by the time we would get a couple of rods from the house we could not see it, and did not dare to go farther for fear of getting lost. Having a lot of poles we had hauled up for wood - three or four inches thick and ten or twelve feet long - we concluded to try a row for a guide. So one of us stood by the house, and the other took a pole and went as far as he could and still see the house, stuck the pole upright in the snow, and then went ahead as far as he could see back to that one and stuck another, and kept on doing so till we found the stable; taking six poles, I believe. On arriving at the stable we found it chuck full, of snow and the oxen buried in it. We happened to have a shovel and a spade both handy, and the snow, being damp, packed hard enough so that we could cut it out in chunks as large as a man could lift and tumble out of the way. We soon opened a channel into where the cattle were, and then consulted a little as to what was best to do with them to save them, as it was evident we had to get them out or lose them, as there were no signs of the storm ceasing, but it was if possible getting worse.
"My nephew thought we had better take them into the house, but I could not see how we could get along with them all in the house. Our doorway being in the east end, near the south side, the wall being four feet thick, the door large and hung near the inside, made room for two of them to stand quite well sheltered from the wind and storm, so I led them to the house, one by one, along the stake row, and gave them a good feed of corn, having just before the storm hauled a load from down toward Norfolk. They crowded up close together and seemed to stand tolerable quiet and comfortable, as it was not very cold. We thought that, or rather hoped, the storm would cease be- fore morning. One of us had to stay up all night and keep the lamp burning, to keep what animals we had in there quiet, and to keep up a fire to melt the fine, sifting snow that was constantly being driven by the wind through the crevices of our slab roof, and to dry away the water,
122
HISTORY OF ANTELOPE COUNTY
and each took our turn standing guard till daylight ap- peared.
"This was Tuesday morning, and upon stepping out into the wind, a man could scarcely stand or keep his breath; and his eyes, in a moment, would be filled with snow so he could not see any distance at all, and the wind got around more into the north and was very cold. It had driven my oxen around south of the house, and one of them was gone, the other three were shivering with cold and were very uneasy. I could now see no way to save them but to take them into the ark, and they didn't need any driving,- only to show them an open door; they went in as freely as did the animals into Noah's ark. We drove pegs into the wall to tie to, and kept them as quiet as we could for twenty-seven hours longer. This was Wednesday morn- ing and the wind had lowered and the storm ceased so we could see the surrounding valley, but the wind was cold and the snow, being damp and compressed by the wind, then frozen solid, made it like ice, so that man or beast could walk on it with safety, no matter how deep it was."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.