USA > Nebraska > Buffalo County > Buffalo County, Nebraska, and its people : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 36
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Leaving my sod house on the divide and directing my course towards my newly acquired home, I had to cross the Loup; Billy stopped again. Mr. Elisha Miles' ranch was near by. Unhooking the horse I led him up towards the ranch house. Mr. Miles was plowing. I went up and saluted him. He did not answer my greeting nor face towards me, just turned his head and looked askant towards me. I explained my predicament and asked him to help me out. At that time .in comparison with Mr. Miles I was a young man. He said, "Young man where are you bound?" I answered: "I am moving on the place vacated by O. W. Smith." "The deuce you are," said Miles. "That is right in the midst of my range. Don't you know that the cattlemen allot the range between them and they allow no squatters to come in and occupy any part of it?" I said, "I have heard of such arrangements, but any private agreement about a matter of which they have no legal right, has no binding power on others who have just the same rights as they have." "Can you pull me out?" I asked. "Yes, stranger, for humanity sake," he said.
Coming up to my new habitation, which consisted of a log house 11 by 12, with earth roof, one window, and no door, I put in my load of furniture and ascended a high bluff from which I could view the landscape in all directions. No where was there a habitation of man visible. But along the river-bottom was life and joy; there were thousands of prairie chickens playing and cooing, while in the hills vibrated the thrilling melody of cranes.
FIRST SETTLERS
The first settlers in the region afterwards named Sartoria, came in the fall of 1877. They were Norwegians named Lee. They consisted of the parents, four stalwart sons and two grown up daughters. They took three homesteads at first and more afterwards. They had but one team. Began breaking prairie early in April and ended in June.
With that only team, they went to Kearney, once a week (twenty-eight miles) to get their two plows sharpened. They raised eighteen bushels of sod corn to the acre, that year. The Lees, though prosperous were impressed by a spirit of expansion to seek better opportunities, sold out their holdings to a colony which came from Iowa. They were Richard Hughes, Owen Jones, and W. R. Jones. of these only the latter is now left. He is quite prosperous, has raised a colony of daughters who have the peculiar distinction of having acquired education and are not above work. There came also with those mentioned a family named Royale. They were and are so numerous that I have to limit my narrative to the mentioning of only one, George. George Royale came to Sartoria with five motherless children, and was apparently the poorest of the poor. What has he now? He owns all the homesteads which his fellow colonists bought and has a landscape west of numberless acres and all his places stocked to their full capacity.
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The other settlers who came by companies, were the Browns, McCurries, the Chipps and others from Missouri.
SCOTT TOWNSHIP
This township was first settled by Benjamin Scott, after whom it was named, who settled on his homestead on Deer Creek in 1873, and on which he lived continuously till 1907, when he hung up his armor and was put to rest. His good wife went some years before him. There was nothing remarkable about Ben Scott, except that he was a model citizen, as I believe he had been a model soldier.
On the west bank of the river Cornelius Cook erected a rather nice frame house. He and his family were people of education and refinement ; they tried to live like white people should live; at this undertaking their means soon quit them and they quit the country.
Mr. Cook's land was transferred to his son-in-law, T. J. Parish, who has added many acres to it since and made it a good size ranch. Frank, his son, lives on the place now (1915) and is prosperous.
The first Klunders, the Sohrweids, the Wheelers and the Dickmans, were there when I came on the river. Just where they settled I do not know, but I know they have been and are prosperous; they are worth from twenty-five to one hundred thousand dollars, every one of them, and though some of the first settlers are dead and some gone to other places, their children have succeeded them and are worthy successors, making wealth and improving the country.
LUDICROUS AND DANGEROUS INCIDENTS
There were many ludicrous as well as dangerous happenings along the river, which, if related, would read stranger than fiction. I will mention but two with which I had to do. Early in March Dan Rohrbarger and I went south on the divide after some corn. On coming back my horse, being used to cross the river, bounded right through. Rohrbarger's horses, despite his whipping with a two- foot long willow switch, stopped in the middle of the stream to drink. The team having satisfied itself, when urged to go on could not move the wagon. Rohr- barger, facing the river diagonally and seeing the water running by him swiftly, cried to me, "Ain't I going?" "Not that any one can see," I replied. "What will I do? No, rather say, what can you do? Will I have to leave the wagon here?" he said. I replied, "If you can not move that's the only thing you can do." Rohrbarger unhooked the horses and walked out on the wagon tongue and shooked the tongue loose from the neckyoke and jumped on one of the horses. When this one was asked to go he could not get his feet loose. After floundering for some time he finally fell on his side with Mr. Rohrbarger under him. Rohr- barger at last got out and walked home in his wet clothes, four miles. The next morning he came with two men and two teams. How to get the wagon loose looked to be a difficult matter indeed. All that was to be seen of the wagon, was one corner about eight inches above water. The two men went into the wagon in the water and as the team passed forward and back the men in the wagon threw,
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each time, four grain sacks of corn into the passing wagon. The corn being all out the wagon had to be taken to pieces to the last wheel to get it out of the quicksand.
A DUCKING IN AN AIR-HOLE IN THE ICE
Poverty having somewhat let loose its grip, we slowly crawled out of it and some of us got in possession of some not insignificant herds of cattle. I, among the most of those mentioned, got in possession of cattle and knew, like the man who has earned a dollar, how to use it, took care of my herd. One Sunday, bright the breezy, I went to the river to see that the cattle got water and to prevent them from falling into air-holes and drowning. One large bunch came to one of these air-holes and, behold, the ice broke and the whole bunch fell in.
All scrambled out except one little calf. This one raised his front part up so that his knees rested on the edge of the ice. I, reaching out for a hold at the root of his tail, to help him out, slid into the river head foremost. With difficulty I got out. Thermometer 6 below zero, alone, and three-fourths of a mile from the house, to go against a brisk northwest wind. I expected to freeze to death, but there was no other way than to try to get home. In running towards the house my clothing soon got stiff and kept the wind from using its power on me. I got home all right.
A COW, A LAMB AND A PIG
In my sheep keeping we sometimes had orphan lambs. These we had to feed with a bottle. This was tiresome and so with one lamb I tried to teach it to nurse a small cow. This went well after the first trial. When the little cow was lying down, the lamb hunted out the teat and then nursed the cow. The cow let down her milk so that it ran on the ground. A pig took care of what seemed to be wasting. He followed the stream from the ground to the teat, and in this way learned to nurse the cow also. These two followed the cow until satisfied. after which they would lie down. When again the cow wanted to be relieved she lowed, the lamb came running and bleating at every jump and the pig came following as fast as he could and squealing at every jump. The cow stood the same as for her own calf. These two grafters grew to big proportions.
COTTONWOOD TIMBER ON THE SOUTHI LOUP
The South Loup River having its banks covered with lots of big trees and brush was, for a short time, free for all, and was a real blessing to the people of a large extent of country. This timber served for fuel and building material for the settlers. There was nothing anywhere else one could get to burn except what could be had from the river, and how the pioneers made use of this opportunity may be judged from this-there were 300 large cottonwood trees in front of my house in September, 1879, and in the following year there were eleven of the scrubs left. Besides furnishing building material and fuel these trees were also shaped into ways to furnish bread to the most needy. John
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Stockdale, after having built his sod habitation and broken a few acres of prairie, his means for a livelihood were all gone. He had to turn to the timber to see what he could get out of it. He went after a cottonwood log one day, split into stove length the next day, hauled it to Kearney (some twenty-five miles) the third day and brought home a sack of flour the fourth day. It sometimes hap- pened that he arrived home a little later than usual, then all the light used by the family would not leave the window and all the members of the family waited and watched till father was in sight; the children often quarreled among them- selves about who should get the flour sack for a garment.
Among the early arrivals of homesteaders there were not more than one in five that owned a team; one who possessed even a pair of oxen was considered well off. He had constant appreciation from those not so fortunate, and was solicited to break some sod with which to build a sod house and to break a few acres of prairie that would enable the homesteader to plant a little garden and a few acres of corn.
The homesteaders kept coming, not all at one time, but right along for fifteen or twenty years, but seldom any better provided with means than were the first arrivals. These last ones had to take land less choice than was the privilege of those who came before them. Our opportunities to help a new comer did not cease for years. After we had pulled ourselves out of the deepest ruts of poverty we were better able to help those who came ten or fifteen years after we came.
One cold morning in March a very small man came to me and asked to buy a pair of oxen, without money. I had no oxen at all. "Have you no unbroken steers?" he asked. I replied, "I have one three-year-old half-bred Texan and one what we call a native, three years old." "Let me have them," he urged. "My good man, you could not handle the half-breed at all," I replied. "Yes, let me try it. I can handle him," he still insisted. With all the persuasion I could make, he insisted so hard that we had to get him the steers. But how could we catch the wild one, that was the important question. We had a haystack, close and parallel with the end of a shed, with a door which opened into a partition in the shed, the haystack and the end of the shed serving as a chute. We got him in and how this steer felt about his captivity you can imagine when you know that he stood on his hind legs and reached his front feet up to the roof. We managed to put loops of a strong rope over his big horns and then we let the wild fellow out with little Felix Kreutzer at the end of the rope. Now the comedy commenced. The steer behaved after the fashion of a bucking broncho, but with all his capers Felix stuck to the end of the rope. Finally the animal became somewhat tired and had turned in the direction he should go. Felix went ahead, pulling on the steer, who now stood stock still. After about two hours of jerking and pulling the steer took now and then a leap forward. In this manner Felix led the steer home, a distance of sixteen miles, and the next morning; while we were breakfasting at 8 o'clock, Felix and his wife stood outside the door and wanting the other steer. In my judgment Hercules never performed a greater wonder than did little Felix Kreutzer when he led that wild steer sixteen miles, all alone. These steers he broke to the yoke, broke up his farm with them and had no other team for several years. He is now a retired farmer, living at Amherst, contented and happy.
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While serving as county superintendent and visiting schools over the county I had a good chance to learn the condition of the people.
Sometimes when I had occasion to stop over night with some farmer, most generally a school director, on asking to stay, the woman would say, "I hate to refuse you staying, but the fact is we are so hard up for something to eat that we cannot think of asking anyone to subsist on our fare." I would answer, "If that is all the trouble, it seems to me that what you can live on every day and look as well as you do, I can get along with for one night." "Well," she would generally reply, "if that is the way you look upon the situation and are willing to take what we have to offer, you are welcome."
In the morning, when I asked the lady what I owed for my accommodation, "Oh, nothing. I would not think of charging anything for such fare as you have had." I would say, "Indeed, you must. I am out on business and an making money, and invariably pay my way, and you shall not be an exception."
Well, she would say, "If you are so insistent on paying, give what you will." In giving her $1 she would object and say at any rate that was too much. After some parley back and forth, she would take the dollar, finger it and squeeze it and exclaim, "Oh, my! my! my! Now I have money to buy some tea." I would be invited to come to their house next time and at such time I should pay noth- ing, and they would have coffee, tea, sugar and meat, which they lacked at this time.
CHAPTER XLI
FIRST SETTLERS IN CEDAR TOWNSHIP-MRS. JOHN DAVIS LOSES HER LIFE IN THE MEMORABLE STORM OF APRIL, 1873-GRASSHOPPER RAID IN 1874-ORGANIZA- TION OF SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 20-MRS. E. W. CARPENTER FIRST TEACHER- BUILT A SOD SCHOOLHOUSE IN 1875-FIRST PRECINCT ELECTION HELD IN 1874; THE ELEVEN VOTES CAST COST THE COUNTY $14, AND WERE WELL WORTH THE MONEY-MAJORS POSTOFFICE ESTABLISHED IN 1879; NAMED IN HONOR OF COL. THOMAS J. MAJORS-E. W. CARPENTER NAMED POSTMASTER AND SERVED TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS-UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ORGANIZED IN 1882 WITH FIVE CHARTER MEMBERS.
EARLY SETTLEMENT OF CEDAR TOWNSHIP
By Hon. James E. Miller
Cedar Township comprises all of town No. II, range No. 15.
The first homestead selections were made by (E.) West and (S. J.) Houston, two soldiers of the Civil war, from the State of Ohio. After making selection of the east half of section No. 14, they returned to their homes in Ohio. They returned in the spring of 1873, made their filings on their homestead claims, and hired E. W. Carpenter to break five acres on each quarter, when they again started for Ohio, but were detained at Grand Island three days by the great storm of April 13-15, 1873, and were never heard from again.
The first actual settlement in the township was made in the spring of 1873 by John Davis on section No. 2, E. W. Carpenter and Joseph White on the west half of section No. 14, and Samuel Higgins on section No. 22. These settlers were located on their claims during the great storm in which Mrs. John Davis lost her life. On Sunday morning, April 13th, Mr. Davis started for Grand Island on foot, following the section lines east. The storm overtook him before he arrived at his destination. He left his wife in their dugout with the under- standing that she would go to the home of E. W. Carpenter for the night, a mile or more to the south. The storm came so suddenly (at 4 o'clock Sunday after- noon) that it seems she did not dare to leave home. It appears that she un- dressed and went to bed, and that in the night the ridge pole broke with the heavy load of dirt (the dugout had a dirt roof). The rafters protected her so that she might have remained in the bed. The door was barred, and it appeared she forced her way through the window. She left with but little clothing and with- out her shoes. When the storm ceased (at sundown) on Tuesday, neighbors went to the Davis home, and not finding her, began a search, and found her body
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on a ridge about sixty rods southeast of her home. Mr. Davis arrived that evening. They buried her near the dugout. The place has changed owners several times and it is likely all traces of the grave is lost.
The same year ( 1873) M. A. Young and Joseph Clayton settled on the west half of section No. 10, Capt. J. M. Treichler on the southwest quarter of section No. 22, Maj. John Dance on the northwest quarter of section No. 25, and Mrs. S. Higgins filed on the northwest quarter of section No. 26 for her children by a former husband. In October, 1873, the writer with his family arrived at Kear- ney, and meeting John Davis, was persuaded to investigate his neighborhood, and after looking for a location in Platte and Boone counties concluded that the abandoned homesteads of West and Houston suited him. He with Henry Luce filed contests and secured homestead papers and made permanent settlement.
The foregoing constituted the settlement during the winter of 1873-74, which was a mild, dry winter. The summer of 1874 was very hot and dry, a little wheat was harvested, but no corn. About the middle of July the migrating grass- hoppers completely covered the ground and devoured nearly every green thing. It looked as though we had struck the wrong country, but we all stayed except Major Dance.
In the spring of 1874 Robert Haines of Center Precinct called on us for the purpose of estimating the value of our personal property and securing the names of our children of school age so that his school district could get the state appor- tionment due school districts. We at once took the proper steps to head off this scheme by organizing our township and forming School District No. 20 by taking the north twelve miles from School Districts Nos. 11, 6 and 16. We drew our share of the state apportionment, and hired Mrs. E. W. Carpenter to teach our school.
She furnished the room and taught three months for $30.
So satisfactory was her work that we employed her the next summer to teach in the same room. However, by this time teachers' wages had advanced 100 per cent. (The records disclose that on February 17, 1874, on petition of J. E. Miller and other legal voters, County Superintendent J. J. W. Place created School District No. 20, and issued a formal notice to the legal voters in the new district to meet at the home of E. W. Carpenter on March 6, 1874, and per- fect the organization of the district.)
Those were flush times in 1876, having had fair crops in 1875, settlers began to flock in, and we had to build a schoolhouse. The materials were "Made in Nebraska." The walls of the schoolhouse, two feet thick, were of sod and plastered with gypsum dug from a nearby bank. The joists and rafters were from cottonwood trees, and the roof was made from willows and sod. The materials for the floor, windows and the door had to be imported. The archi- tect's and the builders were home grown. This commodious edifice afforded ample room for school purposes, as well as a place for church, Sunday school and political meetings. It became a great seat of learning and many graduates from the school are holding positions of honor and trust.
Our first precinct election was held in 1874. Eleven votes were cast, which cost the county $14, and they were well worth the money. The year 1876 was a poor one for crops. It will be long remembered by early settlers as the last and
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greatest sweep of the migrating grasshoppers. These pests covered the culti- vated portions of South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and the western half of Iowa. The year 1877 was one of the most productive years in our history (as a county), and prices for grain ruled unusually high, especially for wheat. From this date for twelve successive years there was not a crop failure.
We first got our mail at Gibbon, then changed to Kearney. During the sum- mer of 1879 we sent a petition to Washington for a mail route and a postoffice. We failed to send a name for the office, so the postoffice department named the office Majors, in honor of the blue-shirted statesman of Nemaha County, Col. Thomas J. Majors.
E. W. Carpenter was appointed postmaster, and William Grant of Kearney mail carrier. This star route was later extended to the home of Erastus Smith, where later Ravenna was located. Mr. Carpenter continued as postmaster until the office was discontinued in 1907, a period of twenty-eight years. His income from the office the first year was $9, and probably did not exceed $30 in any one year during the time he held the office. This was certainly a great sacri- fice on the part of Mr. and Mrs. E. W. Carpenter in the interests of the neigh- borhood, and I am sure it was so considered by all patrons of the office.
Mrs. E. W. Carpenter taught two terms of school of three months each. She was a highly useful woman in our community. Her death occurred April 13, 1907.
The first church organized was the United Presbyterian. It was organized in John McCool's sod house by Rev. David Inches of North Bend, Neb., on December 20, 1882. The charter members were: John McCool, Mrs. Rose Ann McCool, James E. Miller, Mrs. Ann J. Miller and George W. Duncan. The church had a scattering supply for a pastor until 1885, when Rev. Isaac A. Wilson was installed as pastor. The church increased rapidly until it about reached the one hundred mark, when some of the members moved to Poole, in Beaver Township, and started a church there. Others moved to other states, greatly weakening the congregation. In 1915 the church had a membership of about thirty. In 1915 the pastor for the two churches-Majors and Poole- is Rev. E. C. Coleman.
THORNTON TOWNSIIIP
The first settlers in town No. 10, range No. 15. in Buffalo County, were C. A. Borders, N. Turner, F. Chisler, F. J. Weldin, M. Conners, J. C. V. Kelley, B. J. Holmes, W. S. Hall, in 1873; and S. S. St. John, J. M. Smith, J. Gass, N. E. Coombs, Joel Miller, N. Fellers, J. Trumbull, W. J. Neely, J. E. Holloway, F. G. Hamer, B. Streigle, G. H. Cutting, W. G. Patterson, S. W. Thornton and E. Goodsell, in 1874.
When township organization was adopted in the county in 1883, the county board named the township "Thornton," in honor of Hon. S. W. Thornton, a sol- dier of the Civil war and one of its earliest settlers.
In the life of the township there was organized a Catholic Church, which erected a church building. The church organization is still in a flourishing con- dition.
UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH AT BUTLER IN BUCKEYE VALLEY Erected in 1898
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At an early date there was an organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church, their church building being known as Haven Chapel, which is still a religious center for a considerable extent of territory.
At an early date a postoffice was established and which was continued until the advent of free rural delivery, since which time people of the township have been served by a carrier from the Kearney office.
One of the first farmers' telephone companies in the county was organized largely through the efforts of people residing in this township, a history of which, kindly furnished by George Bischel, appears elsewhere in this volume.
Hopewell Camp No. 4522, M. W. A., was instituted at Hopewell schoolhouse, School District No. 35, in Thornton Township, February 8, 1897. The first officers and charter members were: D. M. Arbuckle, V. C .; I. F. Henline, B .; J. C. Powers, A. ; David R. Mathieson, clerk; L. N. Hollingsworth, P. W. Snook, George Bischel, J. N. Johnson, E. E. Thorn, J. H. Fester, J. S. Burton, William R. Fisher, F. S. Musil, William Oehlrich, Ed Gillming, David McCan, Louis J. Meyers, George H. Gillming, Ed A. Poole, A. J. Frederick, Peter J. Gillming, C. L. Greemhalge, George S. Hayes, Ed A. Rose, Nicholas Gass, Fred A. Rynese, A. E. Debrie.
George Bischel served as clerk of the camp for eight successive years.
In the year 1897 the camp erected a hall, 29 by 36 feet, on section No. 16, in Thornton Township. The membership so greatly increased that in the year 1901 the hall was enlarged by an addition of sixteen feet. In 1911 the mem- bership of the camp was 105, and in 1915 the membership was seventy-six. The officers : J. M. Stiles, V. C .; Frank Stiles, A .; W. J. Turner, B .; Fred Sitz, clerk.
Prairie View Camp No. 2228, Royal Neighbors, M. W. A., was instituted in Thornton Township June 13, 1900. The officers and charter members were : Mrs. Hannah Smith, oracle; Mrs. Luella Rogers, recorder; Mesdames Mary Altmaier, Bessie Bischel, Maggie Baily, Gertrude Burton, Maude Clark, Edith Debrie, Jannette Cass, Jane Foster, Ethel Gillming, Alma Howe, Mary Hayes, Etta Richards, Flora E. Weller, Miss Lucretia Snider, George Bischel, A. E. Debrie, Luther McKee, George Richards.
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