USA > Nebraska > Dodge County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume I > Part 28
USA > Nebraska > Washington County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume I > Part 28
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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 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
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daughter Julia, Mrs. West's brother, the late Wilson Reynolds, and Mrs. Reynolds, reached a few dwellings then comprising Fremont, after an eighteen or nineteen days' trip in moving wagons from Racine, Wis- consin. They first stopped at the house of Robert Kittle, corner of Mili- tary Avenue and Broad Street. This house was made from trees grown on the bluffs southwest of town, and had red cedar shingles for a roof, the shingles shaved from logs that had floated down the Platte River. After two days they all moved into a log house in "Pierce's Grove". While living here Mrs. Hamilton tells of hearing a great commotion among the tinware and upon investigation, found it was caused by a huge snake. In August of the same year they moved to their homestead northwest of town, on the Rawhide. It is now known as the Rohr place. Here they remained two years. In the winter the men made trips to the river for wood, and the women must either remain at home alone far from another house, or else accompany the men. Thus alone one day she saw a large band of Indians approaching. The chief picked up an ax from the wood pile and placed it under the window where she sat. He indicated that she must take care of it or else someone might steal it. He then led his band northward. During all the residence on the home- stead the three members of the family suffered continually from ague. In the fall of 1859, Mrs. West and her child returned to Wisconsin, where they remained ten months. During her absence, Mr. West became a trader with the Indians and once in Saunders County, as he was selling a quantity of meat on a temporary counter, the Indians became rather unruly. His white companions fled, and Mr. West, seizing a club, went among the Indians, striking them right and left. For this they called him brave and ever afterwards called him "Buck Shadaway," meaning curly hair. When Mrs. West returned from Wisconsin, she came down the Mississippi and up the Missouri to Omaha, then a small town. From there they drove to Fremont, with horse and buggy, via Florence. Mr. West now bought a cottonwood house, battened up and down. It consisted of two rooms and stood on the site of the present residence of Thad Quinn. Wilson Reynolds bought two lots on the south side of Sixth Street near the West home for 75 cents. Here he built a house made partly of black walnut taken from the banks of the Platte. In this house was born our present postmaster, B. W. Reynolds. Mrs. Hamil- ton relates that the Indians were frequent callers at her home, one evening teaching her how to make "corn-coffee," by taking a whole ear of corn, burning it black and then putting it into the coffee pot. Food consisted of vegetables, which were grown on the prairie sod, prairie chickens, small game and corn bread. Butter was 25 cents a pound. Syrup was made by boiling down watermelon. Boiled beans were mashed to a pulp and used as butter. Everything was high and when the money and supplies were exhausted it was hard to get more. Screens were unknown and flies and mosquitoes were terrible. In the evening everyone would build a smudge so that they could sleep. Not a tree was to be seen except those on the banks of the streams. Tall prairie grass waved like the billowy ocean and prairie fires were greatly feared. Everyone began setting out trees at once.
In those days Broad Street was noted as a racing road for the Indians and now it is a boulevard for automobiles, says Mrs. Hamilton. "Yes," she continued, "I well remember the Fourth of July celebration of 1857. There were about one hundred people in attendance. Miss McNeil was my little girl's first teacher and Dr. Rushtrat our physician." In 1861, after a short illness, Mr. West died. He was buried beside his infant
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daughter in the cemetery, which at that time stood near the present brew- ery. The bodies were afterward removed to Barnard's Cemetery and later to Ridge Cemetery. The following year, Mrs. West, with her daughter, Julia, returned to her parents at Racine, Wisconsin, where she remained for many years. In 1876, as the wife of William Hamilton, she returned and made her home on one of her farms near the stock- yards. Twenty-five years ago (1891) this place was sold at $100 per acre, while the old homestead northwest of town brought $25 per acre in 1875. After selling the south farm she and Mr. Hamilton, who died a few years ago, bought the present home on Broad Street. Everyone should honor the early settlers, who left their eastern homes, endured the hardships and privations, that a beautiful land might be developed for posterity. They should be pensioned as well as our soldeirs. As we of the younger generation should respect and revere their memory.
EARLY DAYS IN FREMONT (By Mrs. Theron Nye)
From the year 1856 until the beginning of the Civil war in 1861, the early settlers in Nebraska experienced nearly all of the ills and hardship incidental to a pioneer life. Fifty years have passed since then and to one having lived through those trying days-or to a stranger who merely listens to the almost incredulous tales of a past generation-there arises a question as to why any sane person or persons should desire to leave a land comparatively full of comfort and plenty for one of deprivation and possible starvation.
The early settlers of Fremont were for the most part young people from the eastern states, full of ambition and hope. There is in the youth- ful heart of a spirit of energy, of going and daring, in order to realize, if possible, dreams of a possible glorious future in which may be won honor and fame and wealth. Then again, the forces of nature are never at rest and man, being a part of the great whole, must inevitably keep in step with the universal law. A few lines written for a paper several years ago give the first impressions of the landscape which greeted the eyes of the stranger on entering the valley of the Elkhorn River in 1858, April 26:
"This is the picture as I see it plainly in retrospect-a country, and it was all country, with a smooth, level, gray surface which appeared to go on toward the west forever and forever. On the north was the bluffs of the Elkhorn River but the great Elkhorn Valley was a part of an unknown world. South of the little townsite of Fremont the Platte River moved sluggishly along to meet and be swallowed up by the great Missouri. Ten or twelve log cabins broke the monotony of the treeless expanse that stretched far away, apparently to a leaden sky. My heart sank within me as I thought but did not say, 'how can I ever live in this place?'" And yet the writer of the above lines has lived in Fremont for forty-seven years.
The histories of the world are mostly men's histories. They are the stories of governments, of religions, of wars, and only in exceptional instances women appeared to hold any important place in the affairs of nations. From the earliest settlement of the colonies in the New World until the present time, women have not only borne with bravery and for- titude, the greater trials of pioneer life, but from their peculiar organi- zation and temperament suffered more from small annoyances than their
RESIDENCE OF HON. RAY NYE, FREMONT
LOG CABIN IN WHICH HON. RAY NYE WAS BORN
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stronger companions of the other sex. The experiences of the home and the family life of the early settlers of the great West have never entered into the annals of history nor can a truthful story be told with- out them, but thus far no doubt the apparent neglect has been due to woman herself, who until quite recently has felt that she was a small factor in the world's affairs.
In the beginning of the new life in Fremont women had their first introduction to the log cabin which was to be their home for many years. It was not as comfortable as it is pictured in romance on printed paper. It was a story and a half high, sixteen by twenty feet in size. The logs were hewn on two sides, but the work performed by the volunteer car- penters of that time was not altogether satisfactory, consequently the logs did not fit in closely, but the open spaces between filled with a kind of mortar that had a faculty of gradually dropping off as it dried, leaving the original holes and openings through which the winter winds whistled and Nebraska breezes blew the dirt.
The houses were made of cottonwood logs and finished with cotton- wood lumber. The shingles warped so the roof was somewhat resembling a sieve. The rain dripped through it in the summer and the snow sifted through it in the winter. The floors were made of wide, rough boards, the planing and polishing given them by the broom, the old-fashioned mop, and the scrubbing brush. The boards warped and shrunk so that the edges turned up, making wide cracks in the floor through which many small articles dropped down into a large hole in the ground miscalled a cellar. It was hardly possible to keep from freezing in these houses in the winter. Snow sifted through the roof, covering beds and floors. The piercing winds blew through every crack and crevice. Green cottonwood was the only fuel obtainable and that would sizzle and fry in the stove while water froze while standing under the stove. This is no fairy tale.
The summers were not much more pleasant. It must be remembered that there were no trees in Fremont, nothing that afforded the least pro- tection from the hot rays of a Nebraska sun. Mosquitoes and flies were in abundance and door screens were unknown at that time. The cotton netting nailed over the windows and hung all around the beds was a slight protection from the pests, although as necessarily the doors must be opened more or less no remedy could be devised that would make any perceptible improvement. To submit was the rule and the law in those days, but many, many times it was under protest.
The first floor was divided off by the use of quilts or blankets, into kitchen, bedroom and pantry. The chamber, or what might be called the attic, was also partitioned in the same way, giving as many rooms as it would hold beds. The main articles of food for the first two years consisted of potatoes, cornmeal and bacon. The meal was made from a variety of corn raised by the Indians and called Pawnee corn. It was very soft, white and palatable. Wheat flour was not very plentiful the first year. Bacon was the only available meat. Occasionally a piece of buffalo meat was obtained, but it being very hard to masticate, only served to make a slight change in the gravy, which was otherwise made with lard and flour browned together in an iron frying pan, adding boil- ing water until it was the right consistency, salt and pepper to suit the taste. This mixture was used for potatoes and bread of all kinds. Lard was a necessity. Biscuits were made of flour, using a little cornmeal for shortening and saleratus for rising. Much of the corn was ground in an ordinary coffee mill or in some instances on a large grater or over a tin pan with perforated bottom, made so by driving nails through it. The
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nearest flouring mill was Fort Calhoun, over forty miles away, which was then a three days' journey, taking more time than a trip to California at the present day. Nothing, however, could be substituted for butter. The lack of meat, sugar, eggs and fruits, tea, coffee was borne patiently, but wheat flour and cornmeal bread with its everlasting lard gravy accompa- niment was more than human nature could bear, yet most of the people waxed strong and flourished on bread and grease. Oh, where are the students of scientific research and domestic economy? There were pos- sibly three or four cows in this settlement at Fremont, and if there was ever an aristocracy in the place, it was represented by the owners of said cows.
In 1858 a little sorghum was raised. "Hope springs eternal in the human breast." Men, women and children helped to prepare the stalks when at the right age for crushing, which was done with a very primitive home-made machine. The juice obtained was boiled down to a syrup, but, alas, the dreams of a surfeit of sweetness vanished in the thin air, for the result of all the toil and trouble expended was a production so nauseous that it could not be used even for vinegar.
Wild plums and grapes grew in profusion on the banks of the river. There was much more enjoyment in gathering the fruit than in eating or cooking it. The plums were bitter and sour, the grapes were sour and mostly seeds, and sugar was not plentiful.
The climate was the finest in the world for throat and lung troubles, but the breaking up of the soil caused a malaria and many of the inhabi- tants suffered from ague and fever. Quinine was the only remedy. There were neither physicians nor trained nurses here, but all were neighbors and friends, always ready to help each other when the occa- sion required.
In 1856, the year in which Fremont was born, the Pawnee Indians were living four miles south of the Platte River on the bluffs in Saun- ders County. They numbered about 4,000 and were a constant source of annoyance and fear. In winter they easily crossed the river on the ice and in summer the water was most of the time so low they could swim and wade over, consequently there were few days in the year that they did not visit Fremont by the hundred. Weeks and months passed before women and children became accustomed to them and they could never feel quite sure they were harmless. Stealing was their forte. Eyes sharp and keen were ever on the alert when they were present, yet when they left almost invariably some little articles would be missed. They owned buffalo robes and blankets for which the settlers exchanged clothing which they did not need, jewelry, beads and ornaments, with a little silver coin mixture added. The blankets and robes were utilized for bedding and many of the shivering forms they served to protect from the icy cold of the Nebraska winters. In 1859 the government moved them to another home on the Loup River and in 1876 they were moved to the Indian Territory.
Snakes of many kinds abounded, but rattlesnakes were the most numerous. They appeared to have a taste for domestic life, as many were found in houses and cellars. A little four-year-old boy one sunny summer day ran out of the house barefooted, and stepping on the threshold outside the door felt something soft and cold under his foot. An exclamation of surprise caused a member of the household to hasten to the door just in time to see a rattlesnake swiftly gliding away. In several instances they were found snugly ensconsed under pillows, on lounges and very frequently were they found in cellars.
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For more than two years there was no way of receiving or sending mail only as one or another would make a trip to Omaha, which was usually once a week. In 1859 a stage line was put on between Omaha and Fort Kearny. No one can tell with what thankfulness and rejoicing each and every improvement in the condition and surroundings were greeted by the settlers. Dating from the discovery of gold in Colorado the pioneer was no more an object of pity or sympathy. Those who had planted their stakes and made their claims along the old Military Road to California were independent. Many of the immigrants became discouraged and turned their faces homeward before getting a good glimpse of the Rocky Mountains. On their way home they sold loads of provisions for a song. The same fall the soil of the fertile Platte Val- ley, after two years of cultivation, responded to the demand of civiliza- tion. There was a market west for everything in the way of grain, and every pound of vegetables grown. So at last the patient and persever- ing ones received their reward.
The sources of amusement were few and yet all enjoyed the new, strange life. A pleasant ride over the level prairie dotted with wild flowers in any sort of vehicle drawn by a pair of oxen was as enjoyable to the young people then as a drive over the country would now be in the finest turnout that Fremont possesses. A dance in the room twelve by sixteen feet in a log cabin, to the music of the "Arkansas Traveler" played on a violin, was "just delightful." A trip to Omaha once or twice a year was a rare event in the women's life particularly. Three days were taken-two to drive in and out and one to do a little trading (not shopping) and look around to view the sights. A span of horses, a lumber wagon with a spring seat in front, high up in the air, was a con- veyance. Women always wore sunbonnets on these occasions to keep their complexion fair.
Several times in the earlier years the Mormons passed through here with long trains of emigrants journeying to the promised land and a sorry lot they were, for the most of them were footsore and weary, as they all walked. The train was made up of emigrant covered wagons drawn by oxen and handcarts drawn by cows, men, women and dogs. It was a sight never to be forgotten.
This is merely a short description of some of the trials and sufferings endured by the majority of the early settlers of this state. Many of the actors in the drama have passed away-a few only now remain and soon the stories of their lives will be to the coming generation like forgotten dreams.
REMINISCENCES
In a paper read before the Woman's Club of Fremont by Rev. Wil- liam H. Buss of the Congregational Church, in December, 1919, were the following interesting and historic reminiscences which should be pre- served in the present HISTORY OF DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES, hence have been inserted :
"In the days of the '70s, when horses and mules were in demand, a dealer of this city shipped this kind of stock in from the coast and sold it to the farmers. It was a common sight to see a horse with a bell tied to his neck, and a small boy, on his back, coming up Main street with a lot of mules following along for a block or more, and entirely loose. Unloaded from the cars, they followed the 'bell horse' and without any straying, to the company barnyard."
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"In the early history of Fremont the place frequently suffered from disastrous fires. There had been erected a skeleton fire tower at the top of which hung the fire bell, and the structure stood opposite the site of the present courthouse. A Chinaman conducted a laundry across the street, and one of his customers (evidently not a real Fremonter) one day called for his wash, took it, and withdrew hastily, without paying the bill. With his pig-tail flying, John rushed out immediately resolved to raise the city, and spread the alarm. He crossed the street to the fire bell tower, and vigorously pulled the cord, without stint or limit, summoning the usual crowd. When the volunteer firemen learned that there was no fire and only a Chinaman's laundry bill in peril, they were mad enough to hang the celestial, up beside the bell.
"It has been stated that secretly it was regretted there was no record- ing phonograph-mechanism at hand to preserve to posterity the dialogue of mingled Chinese and fireman profanity."
"Pioneer Mr. Kelly used to relate how 'The farmers broke the open prairie, and planted corn and turnips, and other vegetables, including squash and pumpkins. I used to go to a farm, with a top-box on the wagon and the farmer would sell me for fifty cents all the pumpkins and squash I could put in the wagon. In one load I counted 203, and some of them were all I could lift. We cut them up with spades for the cattle. At this time corn was worth only nine cents in the crib. I have bought several loads at this price. Coal was rather difficult to get, as we lived thirteen miles from Fremont. We could drive anywhere we pleased over the prairies. In the winter of 1870-71, we burned corn for months. The ears were large, and I put one into the stove as I would a stick of wood. Corn makes an intense heat, and even burns out the grate.
" 'Farming was not as pleasant work as it is now. Pork could hardly be sold. I sold good thick spare ribs for one cent a pound. Today (1919) spare ribs are spare indeed !'"
"One fine autumn morning there might have been seen one of Fre- mont's very earliest pioneers-J. J. Hawthorne-coming down town from his residence, carrying something very unique and precious, to show his friends, and he produced a sensation, when, on Main Street, he exhib- ited a number of Fremont grown apples. People looked at them with wonder and admiration, and with as much curiosity as if they were meteors from without our planet's orbit. But the Hawthorne apples were a foretaste of the future golden age."
"Among the numerous railway wrecks occurring in or near Fremont may be described the one near the city and on the Union Pacific line in 1869-the worst ever had here. The only hotel in the city then was the Fremont Hotel kept by Samuel H. Fowler. Many wounded and dead from the wreck west of town were brought to the hotel, while others were borne to the Union Pacific station, a small one story frame building."
"Bank robbers gave Fremont much excitement many years ago. It was learned that bank robbers were on a certain train coming through the city and were intending to stop. Sheriff Gregg had sworn in as one of his deputies, to assist in the arrest, the intrepid veteran of the Civil war, the late Ed. Morse. As the train pulled in, the robbers alighted, sure enough, and began shooting at once. One bullet struck Morse in
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the mouth, and passed into his throat, leaving an ugly and dangerous wound. The thieves stole horses near at hand, rode to the river and jumped into a skiff and hurried out into the middle of the Platte River. The man who shot our fellow townsman, was in turn shot by the sheriff, while on the river, and his companion surrendered, was brought back to the county jail, and threatened for a time with lynching. He was later convicted and sent to the penitentiary. After long and patient suffering, Mr. Morse returned to health and a long service as a valuable citizen of Fremont."
Doctor Buss, in concluding his paper before the Woman's Club, said: "Who does not remember the disappointments that came in the past in the failure to materialize of the long promised and seemingly assured railroad shops that were to make us metropolitan in industry ; in the like failure to appear of the Great Packing House which would have made us as important as South Omaha ; in the falling down of the Hemp factory industry that promised so brilliantly for a long period?
"Who does not recall the hopes entertained by the Street Railway Company of Old Fremont and the dismal issue and dwindling end of the whole enterprise? There was the great Chautauqua Assembly, too, and its fine auditorium with its brilliant programs of oratory and discussion to which I listened with pride in the first of the nineties, but which faded away in . financial failure to the disheartening of the friends of culture and literary hope for the town.
"These and others were the tragedies of the disappointment which came in the later days and which tried men's souls as truly as did the grasshoppers and drouths of early times.
"But Fremont triumphed over all, as she will triumph over every hindrance that the years unfold.
"In conclusion then let all hearts salute the men and women of Old Fremont and cherish their memory, emulate their courage and perse- verance."
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF WILLIAM B. LEE (Contributed by Mrs. Eliza Lee Flynn)
William B. Lee was born in County Monaghan, Ireland, November 13, 1832. He came to America in 1851, and to Nebraska in 1856. In Ireland, when William Lee was a boy, the main industry was the raising of flax. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather, in their day, were foremost in their neighborhood, both in the form of industry and also in the manufacture of linen. Their fine linens found a ready mar- ket in all parts of the world. So experienced was his grandfather in this business that at one time he held a government appointment, as an expert linen examiner. In the early days of English dominance in Erin there were many of the name of Lee who became settlers in southwestern Ireland, and belonging as they did to the Church of England, took a lively part in the religious wars of the period. On his mother's side, among these were the Martins and Brownlees, who were Scotch Cov- enanters, and whose ancestors had emigrated to Ireland when King Wil- liam of Orange entered England to aid the Protestant cause. They joined his army and fought through the Irish wars, receiving for their service grants of land in the County of Tyrone. The people of Mr. Lee's mater- nal grandmother were known as the Brownlees of Bothwell, Scotland.
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Thomas Brownlee, Earl of Bothwell, held a high place in King William's army, and made his home continuously in Ireland. Of his grand-uncle Brownlee Mr. Lee loved to relate tales learned at his uncle's knee, espe- cially those about the bonfires he and others were in the habit of kindling upon the highest neighboring hills whenever word was received of an American victory over the British. At that time, little did he think that one day he would himself be a citizen of America, "the land of the free and the home of the brave." But to America came William B. Lee, in 1851, crossing the Atlantic in a sailing vessel which was five weeks and three days in making the voyage. Five years later he traveled from the coast westward to Nebraska.
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