USA > Nebraska > Frontier County > Early history and reminiscence of Frontier County, Nebraska > Part 2
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After the organization of the county, we concluded to give up hunting and go to farming. We were in doubt yet whether it would? pay or not, but determined to try; and in taking this initiatory step toward civilization we selected the present site of Stockville (that being near the center of the county) in 1872. Then we set a day on which all turned out and began the erection of a court-house six- teen feet square, built of logs, which was soon completed and was furnished with the county records. It was also the first house erected in the county of Frontier.
We worked early and late, building bridges, houses and putting out a crop. Clifford and I sent back East and liad a dozen chickens shipped out, which cost us seventy-five cents each. They were a wonder to the natives. who came from far and near to see them.
FIRST WHITE WOMEN
We had made such a wonderful stride toward civilization that I wrote back to Florida for my father, mother and sister to come
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here. They arrived on March 12, 1872, my mother and sister being the first white women in the county. After a long ride across the wild, roadless country, over level divides and through long can- yons, from Fort McPherson, we came to the Medicine and went into camp. Mother said:
"The last link is broken in the chain of civilization."
A flock of antelopes stood on a hill near by and watched us while we busied ourselves picketing out our horses and gathering up wood for our camp-fire. Welk Snell got supper in true frontier style in the far West. Snow-drifts, remnants of the past hard winter, yet lay at the head of canyons. white and cold; the buffalo and wolves serenaded us with their various notes of weird cadenc- es; a flock of geese passed over us, winging their way north, added to the unbounded solitude. Thus the introductory scenes of life in the Wild West were thrown upon the minds of those pioneer ladies to institute a comparison and contrast with their old home in the far-away "Land of Flowers."
FIRST SHEEP
During the summer of 1872 a few "prairie schooners" came in, laden with men and their families in search of a place to take up their abode and make a home. A Mr. Lewis was the first to bring in a flock of sheep, which was a picnic for the wolves. Janles Kibben and Judge S. P. Baker each brought in a herd of fine cattle in the summer of 1872. Also, John Lockwood, Andrew Webb, R. A. Mc- Knight, George Carothers, Ed Bovey, Herman Doing, J. R. Britting- bam, A. S. Shelly, Orville Works, Jerome Dauchey, J. A. Lynch, Henry Miller; James, John and Sam'l Gammill; W. H. Allen, Wm. Black and W. L. McClary -- all settled on the Medicine and success. fully played their parts in the early historical drama of the county.
FIRST WHITE CHILD
John Sanders was among the front rank that came in to earn a fortune in a new country, and built the first four mill in the county, on the Medicine near Stockville. To Mr. and Mrs. John Sanders was born the first white child, a daughter, that is re- corded in Frontier.
Wm. Nolan, J. M. Noyes, E. S. Childs and John Waits took claims in the southeastern part of the county and had borne their part of the burden in tramping out the cactus, turning over the buffalo sed and making our county bloom like the rose.
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FIRST PREACHER
Reverend Shirvington, the first preacher to take up his abode here, staked out a claim on Fox Creek; John Miller outlined a ranch on Brush Creek and was a "Robinson Crusoe" for some time; W. G. Warner, who brought in a herd of fine cattle from Iowa, settled permanently on the Brushy; Gid and Abe Barry purchased and located on a ranch that John Bratt built, on Curtis Creek. All aided in opening the way for the great flood of emigration which soon followed and took up the government land.
A DAY IN JUNE
I think, of all the year, a day in June Is sweetest : honeysuckle fills the air, With the wild roses blushing everywhere; Listening to the golden chiming tune Of wedding bells; a moon is sending down Its mellow rays upon the prairie ; soon Strumming guitars and men's voices resound To spread their joyful romance all around As care-free, happy cowbows softly croon A welcome to the one in wedding gown. -Boyd Perkin.
THE FIRST WEDDING
The first wedding in the county was at the ranch of W. H. Miles on June 4, 1873. The happy parties were Andy Barret and Mrs. Nancy Wheatly, both half Indians. It was a grand social af. fair attended by ranchers, cowboys and Indians.
Andy Barret had been captured, when a child. by Mormon emi- grants and taken west, where he became one of the best ropers and horse trainers of the Rocky Mountains. After twenty years he came back to the Sioux here in search of his mother, but she had long since gone to the happy hunting grounds.
We did all possible to make his nuptial feast a social success. After congratulations Judge Watts wished them "that their lives would be one sea of happiness. that the white wings of love and peace would fan away every troubled thought, that their path through life be ever strewn with fairest flowers."
The wish never came to pass. An Indian had a dream that he must kill the first person he met; if not, he would never get to the happy hunting grounds in the hereafter. By chance he met Andy
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Barret and shot him dead. Mrs. Barret was lost on the plains and died. Thus ended the earthily pilgrimage of the contracting parties to the first marriage in the county of Frontier.
FIRST LAWYER
The first lawyer that ventured out in the misty dim on a sea of doubt as to what the future would bring forth on the frontier to a disciple of Blackstone was E. T. Jay, who took a claim in the eastern part of the county, on the Muddy. His professional serv- ices were seldom needed, as most men in those days here settled disputes before the cases were worn out, by the ravages of time, in the courts.
Mr. Jay was a counselor in the first case at law in this county, which was brought about by the hard winter of 1878 and '79. The weather was unusually severe; hard storms and blizzards raged at intervals. During the season a deep snow fell and covered the grass, so the stock suffered greatly. A big percentage of stock was lost by most of the cattlemen. Large herds drifted in on the Medicine from eastern Colorado, Cheyenne, the northern and west- ern part of this State, so that a big "round-up" in Frontier Coun_ ty was the result in which one hundred men were looking after their interests. -
Two men by name Lowe and Joe Ansley got into a dispute. Both drew their revolvers and fired. Ansley, being the quickest, killed Lowe, and the next shot killed his horse. Ansley stood the men off, then skipped out. Lowe was buried at Mitchell's Fork.
I was deputized by Sheriff McKnight to capture -Ansley. After several days" hard riding up on the Platte River, I captured and brought him back for trial. Ansley employed E. T. Jay to de- fend him. They went before the court, a justice of the peace presiding on a charge of murder. The justice put the usual ques- tion :
"Are you guilty or not guilty of the charge against you?" Ansley answered, "Guilty."
Lawyer Jay called the prisoner out behind the house and said: "You did not understand the reading of the warrant. You must not say 'guilty'; you must say 'not guilty.' If you don't you will be bound over."
Ansley said, "I don't like to lie, but if I must I will."
Then he went before the court and the question of guilty or not guilty was again asked.
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"Not guilty, Your Honor," came the response.
The judge said: "I discharge the prisoner."
I returned to him his pistol. He then left for Sidney, on the Platte, minus a horse, saddle and ten dollars that his lawyer kept for his services.
This decision of the justice may seem to the reader who has been educated to believe and obey the high command, "Thou shalt not kill," to usurp, with a heavy hand, the majesty of the law and allow rapine and murder to go untried and unpunished; but in this case the prisoner could prove, by half a hundred witnesses, that he shot in self defense, there not being an instant of time between the reports of the guns, while it saved a big expense to the county.
MITCHELL'S FORK
Stop, stranger; piusc and shed a tear At this lone mound on Mitchell's Fork. These cottonwoods are sentinels brave, And in those willows close by them A turtle dove sings requiem ; While partridges beat their booming dirge Above the old scout's lonely grave On Mitchell's Fork.
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Stop, stranger, stop; now dry your tears At this long mound on Mitchell's Fork. There's more than dust of a scout so brave, I.ist to the tale that's buried here. Though shrouded by the niist of years, How plainly the scene comes back to me As we stand by this lonely grave On Mitchell's Fork.
He came to woo, he loved and lost : Ansley was quicker on the draw; So Lowe, the scout, lies buried hore On Mitchell's Fork.
-Boyd Perkin.
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FRONTIER COUNTY, NEBRASKA
After the organization of the county, we held an election which resulted in the adoption of free range. thus making this a strictly stock county; and it proved a success in that line until settlers came in so fast to cultivate land that, when the question of herd law and free-range was again agitated, after a hotly contested election in the summer of 1885 the free-range law was repealed. This was the death knell of the stock business on the free-range plan in this county. The stockmen had to go the same trail the buffalos went, with their vast herds of cattle and horses. The county since then has been rapidly developing in agriculture, and stands today without peer in southwest Nebraska.
WOLF'S REST
The first house I built was upon a high hill, being far from wa- ter, and the winds blew so hard that we concluded to camp near the timber. Our choice place for a home was under the protect- ing branches of a large spreading elm tree.
When we made this selection from nature's grove. for our abode, near by was a large white wolf, dead with a big steel trap on his foot. which he had dragged over many a mile of prairie grass until he had become hungry and outworn with life's pilgrimage, had quietly lain down like one that is weary and sweetly reposed for- ever. We named our home under the elm "Wolf's Rest." After some inquiry we found that our only neighbor in Red Willow Coun- ty, Storm King, had set a trap at a dead buffalo, caught the wolf, which broke the chain and took the trap to Wolf's Rest.
Of all happy days, those spent at Wolf's Rest were the best. Here we planted our little fields of corn that grew far beyond our expectations. The large old-fashioned coffee mill was nailed to a tree (the growth of the tree has almost covered the old mill, but it stands as a relic of its former usefulness); with it we ground corn into meal and hominy to cook on the old-time fireplace. Here we trained the grape-vine to climb the rustic arbor. rested far away from the aches of my Southern home and breathed the pure air in the darkling wood, in the shadow of the aged elm; here we watched strange birds build their nests and rear their downy brood unmolested, while we drank of the pure waters of the Medicine, where was not a trace of man's pomp or pride; no brass jewels shone; no envious eyes to encounter; no hypocrites to make one loathe the very name of mankind; but here in the shady nooks, along the
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banks of the Medicine, the wild rose, the modest little violet, seemed to look up with perfumed breath, whispering: "Rest with us."
SEEKING
We sink our shining shovel in the soil Of far-off, beckoning, glamorous foreign lands, Or go to distant beaches, there to toil And dig for fancied treasure in the sands. . Forgetting, or in ignorance, we roam Far from the golden treasure of our home.
But Providence is kind. Our fruitless round Oft teaches us to till familiar ground. Thus finding gold thought buried far away, We prize our home after wandering many a day. -- Boyd Perkin
FIRST DANCE
Our log cabin at Wolf's Rest was a home for all that camo. The first dance in the county was here; it took all the ladies in Frontier to make up the set. We helped all the newcomers we could, to get good creek claims, thinking then that the divides were not good for anyting but grazing purposes.
DOCTOR CARVER
The renowned Doctor W. T. Carver, of glass-ball-shooting fame, came to Wolf's Rest in 1872 and took a claim near by. Here it was that Dr. Carver learned and practiced the art that made him the wonder of the world. Later on his mother came, bringing the first fine poultry consisting of pea-fowls, ducks, etc., also a col- lection of choice flowers, and the first piano.
These were a great curiosity to Indians and frontiersmen. In bringing the piano out from the railroad, with some wild bron- cho ponies, we got stuck in a swamp and could not get enough of them hitched onto the wagon to pull it out. So it stood there several weeks, covered up with buffalo robes, until the ground be- came dry; then we brought it down and put it in the log cabin in Medicine Valley.
To be a good shot was considered the highest accomplishment and Dr. W. T. Carver's ambition ran that way; so he did nothing but hunt and shoot until he became the greatest shot in the world.
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In writing to me from Vienna, Austria, he said: "I have made Medicine Creek famous all over the world-where I am proud to have hailed from."
I helped to plow the first furrow in Red Willow County, ' in March, 1872. A man by the name of John King had taken a claim below Indianola; he was the only settler in that county then. I went over to get a mule I had bought of him. He had a plow in the wagon, and we hitched on to plow a few furrows to see how it looked.
We called this man Crazy King, as he would take his team and go alone for hundreds of miles, build bridges over streams. pull through deep snows and fetch up at our camp every big snow- storm. Once while King was out on one of his trips. Indians sur- rounded him in camp. He fought them several hours. but they were too many for him. He was badly wounded, being shot three times; yet he got away, though the redskins took his horses.
WILD MAN
In June, 1870. we found a wild man in Frontier County. On several occasions we had seen very large barefoot tracks of a hu- man being, ranging between the Platte River and the Medicine. We thought it strange, as we knew there was no one in the county but those of our own little neighborhood. As Clifford, Nelson and myself were crossing the divide on the way to Fort McPherson, one very warm day after the water had dried up in the lagoons and the grass was parched with the intense heat. we saw a man coming toward us. We felt like running when he came near enough for us to inspect his visage. He was fully six and one-half feet tall, without shoes and hatless, his head covered with grizzly gray hair, and long beard of the same color all over his face so matted with dirt that we could scarcely see his eyes.
Nelson cocked his needle-gun ready to shoot him if he offered violence. He was not hostile, but seemed to be crazy from thirst; he took our water jug and drainel it, then got on the wagon and we took him to Fort McPherson with us, The soldiers came out to see him, though none could tell by his language to what nationality he belonged, nor where he came from or stayed.
The fellow ate all we gave him. After eating some canned fruit, he departed in the direction of Frontier; he carried a heavy club with which to defend himself and kill his meat. Nothing more
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was seen of him for several years. A large skeleton was found in a canyon near Moorefield, which we supposed to be the remains of the Wild Man, who must have died unwept and alone.
SWEETHEART WHO LIVES ON THE PLAINS
I've a sweetheart that lives 'way out on the plains, On the wide-spreading prairie that I love so. Oh, how my lonely, yearning heart pains; Westward to her my dreams always go. Light ever shining in my dark vale, Love is singing the sweetest strains; Gladly I'll follow on life's long trail My sweetheart who lives 'way out on the plains. -Boyd Perkin.
BUFFALO HUNT
The abundance of buffalo and other game that majestically roamed over this territory, and drank of the waters of the Medi- cine, attracted men of note from abroad, on a round of pleasure in pursuing the game of the plains.
Buffalo Bill, Wm. Cody, my old partner, would often bring par- ties in, and we had many interesting hunting exploits, which madle Mr. Cody the most noted buffalo hunter in the world.
The Russian Duke Alexis, General Sheridan and other noted men came in for a share of the hilarious sport of buffalo hunting. The duke could not ride over the rough country fast enough to kill a buffalo; he did not want to return to Russia before killing one. So Bill Reed ran down a buffalo calf and held it until the grand duke came up and shot it.
The Indians gave a war-dance for the duke's entertainment, for which he showed his appreciation by giving them many presents. He also gave Buffalo Bill a diamond pin. A tall flagstaff was raised; the American flag was run up to wave in the western breeze. The Indians looked on the flag with great respect and as long as it remained there they felt bound to keep the peace.
The Indians got into a fight among themselves and one we called Little Billy was kilied; we buried him near the flagpole.
Duke Alexis was very dignified, and none but those high in office could approach or speak to him. I thought while în Frontier Coun- ty I could and had a right to speak genteelly to any person, and
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that no man stood above mne: 30 I went up to Duke Alexis and said :
"How do you do. Duke?'
He said, "I have not been introduced to you."
I said, "It don't make any difference to me. How do you do, Duke?"
He said to General Sheridan: "General, you are very familiar with your men."
General Sheridan said: "By G-, sir, we are Americans."
In the summer of 1871 a party of us went out on the Mitchell to catch some buffalo calves. When we arrived on their range there were buffalos as far as the eye could span in every direc- tion. We caught three the first dash; and while we were off our horses, tying the calves, an immense herd of buffalos came rushing along pell-mell. The very earth seemed in a tremor beneath their elephantine tread, almost running over me and sending a thrill of fright coursing through our anatomy, whichi almost paralyzed us and scared our horses so that Dick Seymore, Hank Clifford and Sneil's horses broke away and went with the rushing, surging herd toward the Sunny South, bridled and saddled but riderless.
John Nelson and myself followed to try and overtake the fugi- tives, but they were soon lost to our view in the herd of thousands of buffalo, though we followed on in hopes of coming up with the horses.
Near the mouth of the Mitchell we found where the buffalos had run over a bluff, at one place nearly a hundred feet down to the bottom. where stood a large elm tree in which the gentle zephyrs had moaned the evening requiems of solitude, among its leafy branches, for many long years in the flight of ages, undis- turbed. But in the wild rush of the bison of the plains, a huge buf- falo was crowded off the perpendicular cliff and lodged in the old elm. This was the only time I ever saw a buffalo up a tree.
We followed the Medicine down to the Republican River, thence down that stream fifteen miles. where we came to a little log house and stakes stuck up all over the prairie. This we found occupied. by two men, a woman and child, ulso a dog. We soon learned the parties were Bill Colvin. Gec. Love and family; that was the first habitation we had seen, in all the county, outside of our own on the Medicine.
As our horses were tired out, we told them we would camp
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with them that night. We unsaddled, picketed out our ponies and began looking around for some meat for supper. As luek was to our hand in that line, a herd of buffalos came along near by. 1 took up my needlegun and started after them, when one of the men called to me, saying:
"We wish you would not kill any of those animais inside tile town site, as it might be hard for us to remove the careass."
I apologized. saying, "I did not know that I was in iown, but grant your request, and would not intentionally violate any city ordinance."
Love said that Captain Murphy had come out from Plattsmouth with a colony, staked out a town and named it Arapalice. The stakes I thought to be pieket pins were the landmarks of the lots and street of the new town. This was in the summer of 1871, and the county was not organized until 1873, and named Furnas.
Captain Murphy was an officer in the army and experienced many hard fights with the Indians over this country. In the sixties he had a ranch on the Platte River, at Alcalie, before the U. P. rail- load was built. In 1878 I was married to his daughter, Laura Mur- phy, the first marriage of white people in the county.
To return to the chase after the horses: There were so many buffalos that they tramped out every track, and training them was impossible. After days of hard riding we returned without the hors- es, which was quite a loss to us.
LORD DUNRAVEN
Lord Dunraven and Dr. Kingsley of England came here on a hunting tour and took back, as a souvenir of the trip a buffalo head, also two wildcats that I caught for them. I had a collection of wild animals that were interesting to many of the "tenderfeet" who came along.
The native cow would raise the buffalo ealf, but they did not like it. We could not domesticate the wildeat or turkey; as soon as they got loose. they went away.
One night while out trapping, I camped alone. About midnight I heard the step of some wild animal circling around me. I got my trusty needle-gun ready and waited for him until daylight. A light snow had fallen and I saw the tracks of a large mountain lion. I do not know why he did not tackle me; perhaps he was not hungry. I hastily breakfasted on coffee and warmed-over
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beaver meat that I had cooked the evening before, then started on the trail of my lordly visitor.
I knew he was a bad customer; the fresher the trail, the more shaky and cautious I became. On creeping up a high bluff over- looking the stream. I saw him breakfasting on a beaver he had caught as I had done. I got a broadside view and fired. He dropped the beaver and started to climb the bluff after me, when I gave him another shot which settled him. He measured nine feet from tip :0 lip.
Professor Ward of Chicago came here to get specimens for his museum. I killed ten buffalos, which he took-only the robes and bones for mounting. The Indians called him the "bone man." They thought he had a queer taste to take the bones and leave the meat.
ROPING BUFFALOS
An English officer came out for the purspese of catching full- grown buffalos to put in a large strong corral near Niagara Falls, and had advertised a wild buffalo hunt. He offered us seven do !- lars a day to catch the buffalos, and good pay to go with him to rope at the falls. He brought out heavy freight wagons in which to cart the animals to the U. P. railroad. It had never been known that full-grown buffalos could be roped and tied own, but we thought we would try it. We made up a party consisting of Andy Barret, the roper; Texas Jack; Dashing Charley; Bloody Dick. a Texas cowboy; Chamberlain and myself.
We went out on the Beaver before we came to the main herd of buffalos: we then got our lariats in readiness and got as near ihem as possible, to save our ho:ses, for we knew there was a hard run before us. The game was in a draw one hundred yards away when they scented us and started on the run at breakneck speed. We had paired off, Andy and I together. When the herd reached the divide it was three hundred yards in advance of us. We urged our horses and gradually gained on them, while the ground almost trembled beneath the pile-driver tramp. The horns of the bisons rattled together, and all went in one solid black wave that swept on and on across broad divides, through canyons and over hills, stopping for nothing, at a wild and awful rush.
We at last got, a chance and cut out a fine large buffalo to čne side. An instant afterward Andy's lariat went through the air like a serpent and curled itself around its victim's neck; the other
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end was fastened to the saddle horn. I made a lucky throw and got my rope on the animal. too. We could not stop suddenly, but had to keep on the run in order to choke him down gradually, our horses holding back all they could. When we got him stopped, Andy went on one side and I on the other. to prevent him from getting at us until help came, as he did not give up his freedom peaceably. Then a rope was thrown around his feet; he was brought to the ground, then tied down and left until our return after hin !.
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