USA > Nebraska > Frontier County > Early history and reminiscence of Frontier County, Nebraska > Part 3
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In this way we caught and tied five, Texas Jack and his party caught three; eight in all. We decided to load them in the freight wagons and take them to the U. P. railroad; but when we got around to them, they were about all dead, owing to the hot weather and their disposition not to give up their struggle for lib- erty. So we succeeded in getting only one alive to Wolf's Rest, und he like his companions did not give up but died while trying to free himself. Thus ended the scheme of capturing wild buffalos for the show at Niagara Falls.
Two of our horses died from heat and overwork, while some of our men got terrible falls. Texas Jack said, "They swapped ends." There has been a great deal said about shooting buffalos, but the world's history does not record the fact that any party ever roped and tied down full grown wild buffalos, as we did in the summer of 1872.
Medicine Valley was the dividing line, north and south, in the hunting grounds of the two great Indian tribes, the Pawnees on the east and Sioux on the west. The buffalos having all gone west of this line, the Pawnees would occasionally steal across on a hunt. The death knell of disaster swept over the Pawneas in the summer of 1873; they made a raid in Sioux territory and killed a number of buffalos. The squaws, in high glee and happy, were busy cutting the meat in thin slices to dry, ready to take back with them, when their hated enemy, the Sioux, came down on them, in a canyon where they were at work, with a savage war-whoop.
The' Pawnees were surroun led and after a hard fight the Sioux won the victory. They showed no quarter to their victims, who left many squaws and braves to moulder away with the buffalos they had slain. This was the last fight between the contending tribes in this part of the country; the Pawnee were so completely whipped that they feared the Sioux. The bones of the "poor Indians" were
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FRONTIER COUNTY, NEBRASKA
picked up with animal bones and shipped East to be ground into fertilizer to enrich the worn soil.
HUNT NEAR MAYWOOD
An interesting hunt took place on the Medicine near where the town of Maywood now is. My sIster, Mrs. D. C. Ballentine, hon- ored us with her company. She said:
"I will try the difficuit feat of shooting elk and buffalo from horseback while at full speed."
There are but few men able to ride a horse on the run over rough country, and shoot with any accuracy. It took a speedy horse to catch a buffalo. I had one that was trained in the chase upon which Mrs. Ballentine was mounted. We sent out a scout to locate the buffalo. After a long ride in the direction he had tal :. en, we saw him about a mile away, riding in a circle, the Indian sign he had found them.
We approached him cautiously and a large herd was seen coming up from the creek, where they had been to water. The saddle girths were tightened, yunus got in readiness; but not anv too soon for they had scented us: Then away they went, with heads and tails in the air, for the hills. Soon half a dozen of us were strung Gut, the fleetest horses in the lead. As we neared the lumbering. awkward-looking monsters, they began to gain in speed until it was like a whirlwind, increasing all the while.
Mrs. Ballentine's horse took her along side the herd, on a level run, when she began to shoot, not ten feet away from them. Three of the party were left far behind. The buffalos finally went over a -bluff, rolling like balls, with the exception of seven dead and wounded along the trail, Mrs. Ballentine having killed two and wounded several others. This is the first and only case where a woman was ever known to have killed buffalos from horseback while on the run.
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EARLY HISTORY AND REMINISCENCE
X
x
"JUST LIKE THE MEN"
To-day I'll tell you of a hunt That happened back in seventy-three, Now over seventy years ago. Said Mrs. D. C. Ballentine : "I'll go and try the hardy feat Of riding at full speed, . And shooting buffalces and antelopes Just like the men."
The modern girl would smile to hear You mention riding a horse that fast, For that's the way ill girls go now : Quite recklessly, full speed ahead. But still, I think the modern girl Would get a thrill if she could ride And shoot some antelopes and buffaloes Just like the men.
-Boyd Perkın.
×
x
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FRONTIER COUNTY, NEBRASKA
FIRST PREACHER
The first preacher in the county came in 1870. Miles and Clif- ford were trapping and poisoning wolves. One day when we went to our wolf baits we found a man almost dead near where he had roasted some of the poisoned meat. We saw at once that some- thing must be done for him quick. We put him on a horse and took him into camp on the Muddy. We forced grease, whiskey and everything we could get down him After a great deal of work with him, he was relieved from the effect of the poison; and when con- scious, he looked around with astonishment on the Indians and long- haired men with buckskin suits on. He thought he was a subject for a war-dance or a scalping-bee. We told him he was with friends and that he would not be hurt. He said that he had come out with a hunting party from away down East, got lost.
"I was almost starved when I found the poisoned meat. 3 I am a preacher and will pray for you as long as I live, in return for the favors and kindness you have shown me."
One of our men took him back to his camp, and the party returned home, saying:
"We do not like buffalo hunting very well."
THE LAST WILD BUFFALO HUNT IN FRONTIER COUNTY
O
the long and dreary Winter!
O the cold and cruel Winter!
Ever thicker, thicker, thicker
Froze the ice on lake and river,
Ever deeper, deeper, deeper
Fell the snow o'er all the landscape,
Fell the covering snow and drifted
Through the forest, round the village.
Hardly from his buried wigwam
Could the hunter force a passage.
-Longfellow.
The winter of 1871 and '72 is long to be remembered.
The "chuck pile" had run low in our little village and the papooses began to have a far_off look in their eyes for somethin , to eat. So it was time for the nimrods to start out and win. Hank Clifford, John Nelson and myself, whites. Crooked Nose, Bobtail Horse, Big Elk and Long Man, Indians, decided to follow the buffalo
.
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EARLY HISTORY AND REMINISCENCE
and eik to their secret haunts. Guns, cartridge belts, bows and arrows, knives. etc., were put in readiness; and at sunrise the next morning, we started o'er the desert waste of pathless snow-fields, not a bird or beast to jure us on, or incite our drooping spirits. The sun's last rays were fading on the far-away western hills before he had shown how near the day was done.
We then saw a lone leafless tree, to which we went, broke off the bending boughs and built a re. Around this the braves of Frontier County sat, cold, tired, discouraged. The earth seemed tam- ished while the stars of heaven glared like the eyes of hungry wolves on us, as we slept in the snow by the dying embers of the last camp-fire shared by red men of the plains, in this county, on a buffalo hunt.
As soon as the long cold night had worn away we started on to get breakfast. The Indians "put out on a trot," and I followed as I wanted to be at the first table. After a jun of about ten miles, most of the party had dropped out. and Crooked Nose was in the lead. Suddenly he stopped and crouched down. I did the same but saw nothing. He pointed off to the south. There stood a lone buffalo, the last one of the numerous thousands of these roble animals that had roamed over our county, drunk of the rip- pling waters of the Medicine and lain beneath the leafy branches of the forest trees, to rest at noontide unmolested
After crawling in the snow for an hour, Mr. Indian got within fifty yards of the buffalo and shot him through the heart. The lonely bison made a leap in the air and fell dead. It was getting late and we had had nothing to eat since the day before. We cut the meat off the bones and broke them over his horns to get the marrow, then cut out the liver and ate it with the marrow for butter.
This buffalo was the rear guard of the main herd that was leaving the country and their old haunts in Frontier, for the South. 'They left a beaten trail where thousands had gone before. The In- dians soon left for Spotted Tail reservation, on the White Earth River to the northl. Here the Indian and buffalo. which had existed together for ages, separated. They fled toward the setting sun, before the invincible march of the paleface. whose great works will crumble beneath the weight and rust of time and they. too, will leave but the mounds of their existence, as other builders of cen- turies past, without a rippie in the stream of time.
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FRONTIER COUNTY. NEBRASKA
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
LAST BUFFALO HUNT
We sat from all the world apart. Above, from heaven, bright stars glared; Like eyes of hungry wolves they stared. Our camp-fire's embers cast their glow Of lurid red upon the snow. A redskin pointed toward the south. There stood one lonely buffalo Beyond the winding canyon's mouth; And Crooked Nose shot through the heart The last of lordly brutes to go.
-Boyd Perkin.
O
O
O
C
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
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EARLY HISTORY AND REMINISCENCE
WARRIOR
Where is that Indian brave
Who used to stand on that high knoll? Where are the mighty herds of rushing bison Galloping over the land Like restless, bounding billows of the sea, Swept onward by the raging prairie fire?
No more on purple wings The signal fire flashes its message across these lands. The enemy has come, With bow unstrung, the warrior, a crumbling statue, Stands beside a mound adorned with bison skulls- Alone, unwept, unhonored and unsung.
-Boyd Perkin.
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FRONTIER COUNTY, NEBRASKA
THE LAST INDIAN RAID IN THE COUNTY
In 1878 the Sioux Indians ran away from the reservation In Indian Territory and started back to northern Nebraska, their former hunting grounds. They whipped the soldiers, then killed and pillaged everything in their path. The commanding officer at Fort McPherson sent me notice, by a soldier, for everybody to run for their lives, as the soldiers could not protect the settlers. The settlers, generally, went to Cambridge, Furnas County, and built a fort.
I did not like to leave our little home and lose all we had; so went over and saw D. C. Ballentine, and we decided to go in a cave on my ranch. This cave is ten by fifteen feet, under a bluff fifty feet high. The Medicine Creek runs within a few feet of the mouth. This we fortified, took in a camp outfit and provisions for a siege. Dave Ballentine took in his wife and child. Miss Mamie Timmons and I assisted my mother, and all went in the cave, from which we stood the bloodthirsty savages off, and they failed to get us out of the cave.
Frontier County stands unrivaled in her noted pioneers, her brave, honest, intelligent men and women that came and built themselves pleasant homes within her borders, who ran the financial affairs in an economical and efficient manner so that no man grew opulent while holding office.
In 1879 one Enos Furgeson was the only candidate for sheriff. He was elected and thought there was big money in the office. besides the honor of being "high sheriff." But he soon found out that Frontier County did not support anyone in idleness; so he gave up the position and left.
MURDER
The people of this county can boast of the fact that no county in the State has been the abode of fewer desperadoes, and less crime, than Frontier. Twenty-two years have swung out, on the pendulum of time, since the county was organized, and but one murder has been committed within the boundaries, by a settler, to blacken a page of its history that otherwise rebounds to our hon- or.
The atrocious crime was perpetrated in the winter of 1885 Eugene Sherwood, a young man about twenty years old, lived with his widowed mother on the Medicine Creek, eight miles east of Stockville. Joining them was an oid Swede, a bachelor, Jonas Nel-
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EARLY HISTORY AND REMINISCENCE
son by name, who had been committing some depredations such as burning haystacks, etc .-- a inan of generaly bad repute.
Some trouble arose between Sherwood and Nelson over a boun- dary line. Nothing serious was thought of the affair by young Sher- wood. But Nelson bought a gu: and pistol, then concealed him_ self behind a tree; and as Sherwood was driving his cows home, he came within a few feet of the tree. Nelson shot, him dead. Eugene Sherwood was found scon afterward by a woodchopper who happened to be passing along.
I was sheriff at the time; and being notified, I found Sherwood where he had fallen There being no coroner in the county, I im- paneled a jury and upon investigation the verdict was that "Eugene Sherwood came to his death by a shotgun wound in the hands of Jonas Nelson."
I found him at a cattle ranch a few miles away and took him into custody. He was arraigned before Judge W. H. Allen and bound over to court.
I started to take him to jail in North Platte, as we have had so little use for a jail in this county we have not as yet built cne It was very cold and the snow deep; we did not get along fast. When night came on, we stopped at a cattle ranch. There being no one at the ranch, we went in and made ourselves at home, got supper. Dave Love was with me to help guard the prisoner.
At about ten o'clock there was a rush on us of masked men who took Nelson out in the night, back through the drifting snow. As we could do nothing we waited until morning, then followed their trail to the woods: and there, from a limb of the tree from which Sherwood was killed. hun> Nelson.
I held an inquest, and the verdict was that Nelson came to his death by unknown parties. Thus ended the career of the first murderer in Fronticr County. Nelson was buried under the tree lie had desecrated
ANECDOTES
A tenderfoot who came into Frontier said, "I would like to live in this county; but I miss society, churches, hotels, etc." He said that he could not do without milk and butter.
One of the boys said, "We can get all the butter you want."
He said, "Where?"
Cowboy said, "We will all take turns milking: strap the churn
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FRONTIER COUNTY, NEBRASKA
to the saddle and go until we find a herd of buffalo, elk. deer or antelope, pick out a good milker, and milk them while on the run, .from horseback. When through, the jumping of the horse will churn all the butter out of the milk."
Tenderfoot said, "That beats the way they milked back in York State."
Judge Gaslin presided at the first term of district court in this county. He sent Sheriff Miles out to call in Henry Dagering and tell him if he did not come into court he would be a defaulter. The sheriff, not knowing the court lingo, went out and said:
"You, Dagering, come right into court, or you will be defraud- ed."
The Judge said, "No, no, sheriff. Say 'a defaulter.' Now, sher- iff, call Euphemia Dagering."
The sheriff again went and culled: 'You female Dagering, come into court or you will be defrauded."
The judge said, "The country is new and you will learn in time."
THE FIRST EATING HOUSE
Miles Gilland opened up the first eating house and it was the only place "chuck" was to be had during court week. All the dude lawyers rushed in to get first seats. The Western sheriff, not be- ing accustomed to such impoliteness, pulled a six-shooter and told them to step back and give white folks a chance to eat; anl they did, too.
In the early days of Frontier County, the people politically were like the fellow who got lost: he knew no north, no south, east or west. We knew no party lines and in our elections the contest was between men, not parties.
In a convention at Stockville, in the year of 1881. the fight was on sheriff, between J. A. Lynch and W. H. Miles. As the political strength of the candidates was balancing in the minds of the peo- ple, Mr. Shelley, one of Lynch's men, went down to Calahan's for a drink. While he was gone the balance tilted in favor of Miles, who received the nomination and was elected.
In the spring of 1883 this county met with a loss that is im- possible to repair. That was the early records, which, as historical relics, were valuable souvenirs of the county-besides the actual financial loss by the burning of the court-house. A larger and more commodious county capitol was soon built and resupplied with new
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EARLY HISTORY AND REMINISCENCE
record books and furniture in keeping with the development of our adopted county.
Party lines were not drawn ir. our county government until 1885, thirteen years after our organization. Then the Republican and Farmers' parties set forth their principles in conventions and nominated their candidates. The Republicans. being in the majority, elected W. H. Allen for judge; John Sanders, treasurer; Geo. Kelly, clerk: and E. W. Franklin, sheriff. Since then the Demo)- cratic, Independent and Republican parties have been represented in the offices of the county, showing that our people will support principles and men more than party.
AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF FRONTIER COUNTY By A Subscriber
The history of the development of any county will show that its growth and prosperity have not been realized at a singje bound, but year by year a little has been achieved. New resources have been discovered and developed, obstacle after obstacle has been met and overcome. Experiments have proven what kind of crops 10 sow, when is the proper time to sow, and what kind of cultivation is best suited to the soil and climate. Until these have been decid. ed, a county must be considered in an experimental siate.
The history of agriculture in this county dates much later than the organization. In 1883 the writer, in answer to a letter of inquiry concerning this county, received from Westgate, then county clerk, the following:
"Don't come to this county with a view to farming-a farmer would starve here. This is a good county in which to raise cattle."
'Traveling over a large portion of the county in the fall of that year, I found that the settlers here were of the same opinion. No land was broken, no crops were planted, more than garden. patches. All the talk was sheep, horses and cattle. All scemed to think that in this county this was the only means by which a living could be made. In proof of which, through the kindness of our county officers I have been able to submit to you these facts taken from the assessors' books of that year:
Number of taxpayers in the year 1883 was 331.
Valuation of personal property $275,714.50
Valuation of real estate 24,773.50
Total
$300,488.00
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FRONTIER COUNTY, NEBRASKA
This assessment was made on a 25 per cent of cash value and shows that on an average each taxpayer would be rated at $3,450.00 on personal property, and about $320.00 each on real estate.
At this period the range had all the stock it could support. for it was depended on for both summer and winter. In 1884 there were three hundred forty-five children of school age, fourteen schools, seven teachers and four schoolhouses. In the autumn of 1883 the happy days of the stockmen began to wane. A new era began to dawn in Frontier County. and with the balmy springtime of 1884 came grangers of all races and previous conditions. They came in all conceivable conveyances, by ones and twos and in large flocks. They brought with them cows, pigs, farming imple- ments, and their merry, joyous children, to help subdue the soil. to fill our schools and become useful citizens to our county an !! State. The granger had come to stay-God had made this land for him. Uncle Sam said he could have it, in 160-acre lots; and in the summer of 1885. when free range and herd law were voted for, by his vote he placed his seal on this county, making it hencoforth an agricultural county.
He who has pushed out on the frontier, and has reclaimed the wilderness or the desert, has added to his county, his State, and his nation's wealth. He has also helped fill the world's storehouse with provisions, from the abundance of which its starving millions could be fed. The hope of the agricultural element of this county has been more than realized during the last decade. True. thore have been two partial failures in crops; but in the remaining eight years we have raisel such crops that, taking the 'en years on an average, we would be able to compete with any county in the State, on an acreage yield.
The soil of Frontier County is deep and exceedingly rich. Wheat, corn, oats, barley, flax and potatoes, in fact all the principal crops, grow here and make a large yield. Receiving such large crops has caused our farmers to become reckless about the preparation of the land and the care of the crop. I will make out a bill of expense showing the amount of labor required by the average farmer for seeding eighteen acres to spring wheat: sowing, one-half day, man and team; cultivating, three days; dragging, one day. We have seen land that received about this amount of work yield
from twenty to thirty bushels of wheat per acre
The following is about a fair sample of planting and cultivat- ing seven acres of corn: one day's listing, two days' cultivating; giving two and one-third acres of corn ready for shucking, for one
4
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EARLY HISTORY AND REMINISCENCE
day's work for a man and a team. We have seen a field that had received just this, and no more, yield sixty-three bushels of corn per acre. This was an exceptional crop, and probably twenty bushels above the average of that year.
The above were given to show how large a crop can be grown in good seasons with a very small outlay of labor.
We believe that Nebraska is destined to outstrip its neighbor- ing States, owing to its diversity of resources in agriculture. The sugar-beet industry. with or without legislative aid. will sooner or later become a leading industry of the State. The soil seems espe- cially rich in those elements necessary for the growth of the su- gar beet; and beets grown in this State have been tested, both in this country and in Germany, and have shown that Nebraska can produce beets as rich in saccharine matter as any country on the globe. In 1891 the State Agricultural Society offered a pre- mium of $90.00 for the greatest number of tons of beets, showing the largest per cent of sugar, grown on one-fourth of an acre. Mrs. J. W. Gates of this county received the award.
Alfalfa is
another crop that is rapidly gaining in favor in this county. It seems to be the forage plant we have so long need- ed-capable to stand drouth. The number of crops cut from it yearly, the largest yield per acre, and the excellent quality Of the hay, bespeak for it a place on every farm in the county. East of us cattlemen fat their cattle on corn. West of us cattle . are fatted on alfalfa hay. The feeders of this county will soon be able to fat their cattle on corn and alfalfa hay, both grown in the county. Shall we not then be able to compete with any locality cn cheaply fed stock?
BUILDING RAILROAD
In the years of 1886 and '97. the Holdrege Branch of the B. & M. built a railroad through this county. This was a great stimu- lus to the agricultural development of the county. Every farmer near the line of the road could sell corn, hay and surplus provi- sions at good prices. Corn sold readily at forty cents per bushel, and everything else in proportion.
WVe, who had been going forty miles to trade and taking three days to make a trip, thought then and still think that the railroad was one of the greatest blessings that ever came to the county. It brought to the farmer merchandise, and laid it almost at his door as cheaply as he before could purchase it forty miles away. It placed farm implements in easy reach; it enhanced the value of
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FRONTIER COUNTY, NEBRASKA
all the land several dollars per acre; it built up four flourishing towns, viz., Eustis, Moorefield, Curtis and Maywood; and best of all to the farmer, it made an outlet for his fat stock in Omaha, in a few hours after it left his pens
From G W. Crosby, general freight agent at Omaha, we learn that in 1892 there were shipped from Frontier County 1469 cars of grain and 258 cars of live stock; in 1893 841 cars of grain and 3S& cars of live stock. In considering these numbers, we must remem- ber that our county is new, that much of the land is unused either for grazing or agricultural purposes. All over this county you may see ten-acre lots of young timber; these are not only an ornament to our already beautiful landscape, but will soon furnish a supply of timber and help increase the rainfall of our county. Far-seeing was the legislature that passed the Timber Culture Act, fo: men planted to secure the patent to their lands, who would not have planted for crnament or usefulness.
During the short period that has elapsed since our county has become an agricultural one, it has made about as much advance- ment as could be expected under all the condtiions and difficulties with which it has had to contend. Below will be given the record of 1893:
Personal property valuation $ 310,275.00
Real estate
921,386.00
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