USA > Nebraska > Dodge County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume I > Part 29
USA > Nebraska > Washington County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume I > Part 29
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | 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
He was married in September at St. Joe, Missouri, to Miss Margaret Cassidy, like himself a native of County Monaghan, Ireland, and the ceremony was performed by Bishop Hennessey, afterwards Archbishop. He was educated in London. After fifty-five years of happy union Mrs. Lee died at her home in Fremont, Nebraska, January 30, 1918, and in just five months to a day, while on a visit to his daughter in Douglass, Wyoming, Mr. Lee also passed away. For sixty-two years he had made his home in the City of Fremont, in the founding of which he had promi- nently participated, and in which for fifty years he had been honored as a worthy and valuable citizen; the last of a little band of pioneers who lived as one family in the summer of 1856 in a log cabin at the corner of Broad Street and Military Avenue.
His experience in numerous Indian engagements makes an interesting page in the history of Nebraska pioneers. He acquired land along the Platte River, east of Fremont, a part of which today constitutes the Fremont stockyards. Mr. Lee built a substantial log cabin, to which came at length his bride from the City of London. Great must have been her courage and resolution, for vast indeed was the change from the City of London to the open plains of our great West. She frequently told her children in after years that an Indian seemed peeking at her from every tree, so frequently did they appear. She had come in the second or third year of the Civil war and the times following that conflict were pressingly hard. Later Mr. Lee replaced his cabin with a substan- tial frame building, commodious and comfortable, and life became more worth while. Mrs. W. B. Lee has the distinction of being the first Catho- lic woman resident in Fremont. She was the hospitable hostess to Catholic missionaries and also to those of the Protestant faith, and to this day people speak in admiration of her gracious hospitality to the travelers of the plains.
The coming of William B. Lee to Fremont antedated its founding by a few weeks. They left Grant County, Wisconsin, in search of a home- stead in the summer of 1856 traveling from Prairie du Chien to Rock Island, Illinois-thence by train to Iowa City, then the terminus of the railroad. They made the trip to Fremont on foot. There was a stage line running to Council Bluffs, but the "Foot and Walker" was more appealing to these young adventurers. In speaking of the pioneer days of William B. Lee, the name of his cousin, Commish Lee, frequently appears, for they were comrades in adventure. Together they had left Grant County, Wisconsin, hoping to join the army then being organized by General Lane against the abolitionists. Reaching Council Bluffs they found the company they had intended to join had left for Kansas, and the spirit of adventure having well taken hold of the Lee boys, they decided to go on west and look over the Territory of Nebraska. The country was sparsely settled but they managed to find a hospitable cabin
243
DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES
for the night stops. Saturday night, just at sunset, they reached Council Bluffs and to their delight found a steamboat about to cross the river to Omaha, so their first Saturday night in Nebraska was spent in Omaha, then claiming a population of 100 souls, not including the Omaha Indians. Next morning they saw their first Indian fight on the very spot where the state capitol building was to be erected.
An Indian was beating his squaw when the brother of the woman interfered. The clash was short and decisive. A knife flashed, then a bow fitted with an arrow twanged a death song. But the murderer fled to the hills.
This was their introduction to Indian life; little did they think then of the many encounters they were to have with the redskins, ere Nebraska would be a safe place for the settler.
Had they foreseen it all would they have gone forward? We know they would not have turned back, they had come from a line of people with a spirit of freedom strong in their breasts, pioneers by nature, whose parents, born under the rule of England, had not been afraid to brave the seas and emigrate to the shores of America, seeking indepen- dence, liberty and freedom and they feared no man when knowing that what they were doing was approved by Almighty God.
Onward these two young men marched ever westward; on toward that glorious dream of a home on the plains, that they might help to build a state and play their part in the building of a new West.
By night they had reached Elkhorn City and spent that night in com- pany with a man who had decided to take a claim in the Elkhorn Valley. Next morning they continued the journey to a point seven or eight miles north, where they found a ferry across the Elkhorn. Reaching the great valley of the Platte, they followed the old Mormon or California trail to a point, 11/2 miles northwest of the present site of Fremont, staying that night with the Bebee family, who were the first real bona fide inhabi- tants of this part of the state.
William B. and Commish Lee rightfully claim to be the, second set of inhabitants, as they arrived here August 7, 1856, about three weeks before the townsite was named Fremont. While seeking land they went as far west as Columbus, but found no place they liked as well as the territory of the Platte Valley.
It was on returning to the valley the second time, that they fell in with Messrs. Barnard, Koontz, Smith, Kittle, Moorland and a Mr. Pinney and they thus participated in the founding of Fremont. Stakes being driven for a site the day after they returned, Commish Lee holding one end of the rope, in lieu of the regulation surveyor's chain. He always maintained that the irregularity of the streets and blocks of the original plot of the city was due to the stretching of the rope.
At this time Buchanan was democratic candidate for President and an effort was made to name the town Buchanan, but the townsite com- pany found the "Pathfinders" more popular so they honored John C. Fremont. The townsite then did not include anything east of Union Street. Later land east of the site was pre-empted and the Lees invested there.
Often in recent years, previous to the death of William B. Lee, has he recounted the great entertainment of the younger generation-pages from his memory, of those pioneer days when the principal occupa- tion of the settler was fighting the redskins, freighting to Kearney, Columbus and Buffalo, Wyoming, and hunting the wild buffalo that roamed the prairies in immense herds ; yes, and fighting, too, the destruc-
244
DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES
tive prairie fires that spared nothing in their mad race over the plains. As Mr. Lee had said they endured all sorts of privations and hardships, such as only pioneers could understand. Back in those days they dwelt, as one family, at the corner of Broadway and Military where the old marble works used to stand, in a cabin built of logs that had been taken from the island in the Platte River. There were William B. and Commish Lee, Barnard, Judge Smith and Koontz in a cabin twelve feet square.
As late as 1918 William B. Lee was the only one left of that com- munity of pioneers living in Fremont, his cousin, Commish Lee, having been called by death some five years before. E. H. Barnard had by several years preceded Commish Lee. Mr. Koontz, early in the life of the City of Fremont, had gone to the Territory of New Mexico, there bought an Indian village, and there ended his days. Judge Smith of the household of pioneers, years ago, gave up Fremont as his home and estab- lished his residence in California.
In the cemetery in Fremont sleep the three, who together began life pioneering on the plains of Nebraska, establishing their homes in a city of their building; there raising their families and promoting the best interest of the ever increasing community, and there at last ending their days, surrounded by the respect and admiration of the second and third generation, living to see their children's children, and leaving for them a heritage of honor and integrity.
Many of the trees standing in Fremont and so much admired by our visitors were planted by the hand of William B. Lee. The oldest tree in Fremont was planted by him at the corner of Sixth and Union streets, and for over half a century lent its limbs to many a rope for an old- fashioned swing, to be used by the children and grand-children of the pioneers. Bravely withstanding storms for more than half a century, it was finally overcome and completely destroyed, in a high wind in 1917. Trees in the days of the earlier settler were even more welcome than flowers in springtime, and every day was Arbor Day to the progressive pioneer.
Mr. Lee was also a member of the townsite company of Wahoo, Nebraska.
Speaking of the fall of 1856, Mr. Lee has said: "By Christmas our circle had grown considerably larger and, oh, how heartily we welcomed each newcomer, only a pioneer can say. That year winter came, Decem- ber 2d; snow falling three nights and days; on the level the snow was about three feet deep. I made a pair of snowshoes in order to get around, going to the island to hunt deer and wild turkey, of which I killed many. In February the snow disappeared only to be followed in April by a heavier fall adding greatly to our misery, it was a winter that none of us ever could forget.
"Unwelcomed visitors were too frequent so that we dwelt in constant expectation of a massacre by the Indians. In early and late fall it was our custom to go on an extended buffalo hunt and secure sufficient meats to last us until spring. These expeditions were full of interest and some- times vividly thrilling, especially when we would meet a herd of several thousand buffalo, running in advance of a prairie fire, and we, soldier fashion, would be compelled to lie down beside our prostrate ponies and let the entire herd pass over us. It was then that our hearts beat hard and fast, for while we knew a buffalo would never step on a prostrate animal, still we feared they might do so by chance, enraged as they were, by the ever hastening flames of the advancing fire."
245
DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES
Such tales of real life on the plains Mr. Lee has left for his children and grand-children to read, and as they do so they can but read with pride of the adventures of a brave, noble and Christian gentleman. In character Mr. Lee was honest to a fault, upright and ever dignified, of modest, kindly disposition and deeply religious, living his religion into his daily life.
Almost his last thought was of Fremont where so many of his best years were spent, for to those about his deathbed he said: "Say to Fre- mont, for her I have nothing but the kindest and best of thoughts; tell this to Fremont when I am gone." After an illness of ten days while visiting at the home of his daughters, this sturdy man, last and earliest of the pioneers, answered the call. He was buried from the Prebysterian Church, with which he had long been identified, and laid to rest beside his wife, July 3, 1918.
The children born to Mr. and Mrs. William B. Lee were six in num- ber. Four of them are living at the time of this sketch: Mrs. A. R. Mer- ritt being the eldest, Frank T. Lee, Mrs. John M. Flynn, and Edward A. Lee.
Mr. Lee early acquired much real estate in Fremont, and his time in later years was devoted to the care of these interests, having retired from stockraising and other business activities about the year of the organiza- tion of the Fremont Stock Yards Company, when he sold to that com- pany his first farm in Nebraska, on the site of which stands the Fremont Packing House. Partial loss of hearing caused Mr. Lee to withdraw from active business life in late years although his memory up to the very last was unfailingly true. Having seen so much of the stress of pioneer life, he was regarded as an authentic fountain of information regarding the history of the early days of his town and county, and his last years were devoted to the effort of faithfully recording for his children the birth and development of Fremont, his adopted home, together with many tales of early life on the plains of Nebraska.
CHAPTER XXIII
FREMONT TOWNSHIP
Before the "Township Organization" obtained in this county in 1886, what was known as "Fremont Precinct" existed, and Fremont City was within such subdivision of Dodge County. Fremont Precinct included present Platte Township, and other additional domain of the county and was created a precinct by the County Commissioners in 1857. The first election was held at the house of Barnard & Koontz. The judges were E. H. Rogers, Jackson Davis and A. McNeil. Much of the early history of the "beginnings" in Dodge County transpired within Fremont Pre- cinct. At this time the Township of Fremont simply contains the terri- tory covered by the incorporated city, but like North Bend, has its rep- resentation on the board of county supervisors, same as all other outside townships.
EARLY DAYS IN DODGE COUNTY
[In 1884 on the occasion of the farewell services held at the old Con- gregational Church at Fremont, a reminiscence was written and read by pioneer E. H. Barnard. Now that thirty-six years have passed and the 'new" Congregational Church is styled the "oldest church in town" these historic items seem more interesting than ever to many present-day read- ers, hence the story is here repeated.]
When in the early autumn of 1856, from the bluffs near Elkhorn City, my eye first beheld this portion of the great Platte Valley, I thought I had never seen so goodly a landscape. For many miles the windings of the Elkhorn and Platte rivers were outlined by a fringe of timber, bounding the valley on either side, while the meanderings of the now classic Rawhide Creek were so distinctly traceable by an occasional clump of trees and bushes. The sight filled me with rapture and made the blood fairly bound within my veins. In all my life I had never seen its like and I never expect to again. Here was this grand and beautiful fertile coun- try spread out like a pretty map at my feet. And what made it the more fascinating was the fact that it was all unoccupied except by the Indians and wild beasts. What wonder that those who saw this valley then should be seized with a strong desire, as was Moses of old, to go in and possess the land ?
Well, we went in-a few of us-and just here the poetry of the nar- rative ends. Instead of the flesh-pots of Egypt, made ready and waiting for us, we found privations and hardships on every hand. Nobody had been in advance to build us houses and dig us wells, to lay out roads and build bridges, schoolhouses and churches, nor men to plant groves for us. We had all these things to do ourselves. The man who has a good house to live in while he builds a better one does a good thing, but he who builds a shelter while he himself is unsheltered does quite a different thing, and just what the first settler in a new country always has to do. Everything had to be done in way of building before we could begin to live, and all the while we were preyed upon most persistently by flies and gnats in the daytime and flees and mosquitoes by night. Insect life was animated and held high carnival, and I can assure you there is quite
246
247
DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES
a difference between the music of the festive mosquito just outside the screen and the same voice-and bill, too-on the rim of your ear, as some of you may know. Well, we did not have screens then, or any place to hang them either, which was worse. And further, besides all these impediments and pull-backs we had the Indians to pacify. All this, however, was expected, and as long as money held out to buy provisions with, we were content. The first human habitation, so far as is known, was built upon the very spot where a part of this church now stands. I say human habitation because it sheltered men, and you may regard it as an inhuman place to live in when I tell you that it was built of logs about twelve by sixteen feet and covered with hay. It was occupied first as a boarding house and afterwards as a hotel, furnishing lodgings to as many as fifteen on one occasion over night. Such was the first building in the City of Fremont. In due time it gave place to this edifice, and now that we are to remove the old building from this site, how fitting that a monumental church should be erected in its place, thus marking the precise spot where that first cabin stood.
The first winter which followed was one of great severity, and a large portion of the stock which had been brought into the settlement in the fall, having nothing to eat but hay, mostly cut in October after it had been struck by the frost, perished.
I well remember that one of eight oxen brought here by Mr. Heaton, or perhaps I might say that brought him and his effects here, only three survived. And here I want to relate a little incident. One of the most respected citizens, then as now, built a sled-an ox-sled-rather large, as it was intended to haul house-logs on, and as the weather was bad he was delayed in his work so that the vehicle was not completed until mid- winter. Then all was ready, and when he hitched his oxen to it, they had become so poor and the snow was so deep and the sled so very heavy that they were unable to stir it out of its place. How handy it would have been if he could have had a span of those fat Percheron horses. of which Fremont now boasts, to put in their places. But then we did not have Percheron horses.
During the winter provisions had to be brought from Omaha through snow drifts that were well-nigh impassable. It used to take a week to make a trip and sometimes much longer. On one occasion toward spring when there was a crust on the snow strong enough to bear the weight of a man in most places, a couple of sacks of flour were brought over from Fontanelle on a hand-sled to piece out till our regular supplies could be got from Omaha. The winter was tedious, both in its monotony and its weather. But in the spring all was bustle and stir in the settlement. Every man in health had good courage and hope. Considerable prairie was broken up in time for corn planting. The sod corn was of the variety known as squaw corn, from the fact of its having been planted by the squaws prior to our coming to the country. It was similar to Nevada corn, except that the kernel was softer. It was all colors and when ground or beaten into meal was the most perfect specimen of variegated colors imaginable.
This corn, while it was good for food, could not at that time be sold for cash nor even traded for other provisions, for the simple reason that there was not any cash or provisions in the country demanding it. It had a value, however. It was good to donate to the minister and for some other purposes ! I have been particular to describe this corn because soon it became the staple article of diet in the little hamlet of Fremont. If it had not been for that little crop of sod corn there is no knowing
248
DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES
what would have become of the colony. The settlement must have been retarded if not scattered permanently. This may seem strange to the present well-fed inhabitants of this prosperous city, but it should be remembered that like most first settlers in a new country, the first here were for the most part poor in this world's goods and it will be readily seen that the expenses incident to building houses and buying everything for a year's subsistence, and without any income whatever, were consid- erable, so that it was not strange that the second winter found most of the settlers with very lean or quite empty purses. One man who had spent all, applied to his grocer in Omaha for credit on a supply of gro- ceries until he could raise another crop. He got an answer "Groceries are cash!" He offered to sell dry goods on time-but they were not needed.
Our friend came home without either and with Puritanic firmness sternly determined to stay and go without until such time as he could pay cash. That man was E. H. Rogers, afterward and for many years cashier and the presiding genius of the First National Bank of Fremont. How he and his family luxuriated in cornmeal that season I leave you to imagine.
I well remember the case of two families, father and son, living in one house on cornmeal alone for several weeks until, toward spring, their cow taking compassion on them graciously consented to add the luxury of fresh milk to their diet. I say luxury because I mean it. The necessaries of life are really very few and as a certain ex-judge of this county once expressed it, "They are mostly imaginary."
People sometimes get discontended and complain of hard times, sim- ply because they are not quite as well off as some of their neighbors. They think they are frugal and saving, but what would they think of a regular diet of cornmeal and salt with variations and plenty of good water three times a day for ninety days or so?
One thing is evident, if the early settlers of Fremont are not all in comfortable circumstances it is not for any want of enforced lessons in practical economy for they certainly had them and plenty of them, and fully illustrated.
A little anecdote may serve as a pointer and to illustrate the style of those early days. A small boy recently transported from a house in western New York had taken his place at the table and was about to begin his repast when his grandma told him he had not said grace. The little fellow looked up with surprise and impatience: "I don't see what we have to give thanks for; we live in beggar houses and eat beggar victuals and have to sit on old trunks and three-legged stools instead of chairs." He couldn't see it and the old lady had to perform the duty for him.
In 1857, with many others, came a man with three P's which being interpreted read : Poverty, Perseverance and Pluck. He reached the little hamlet of log cabins on foot-worn, dusty and penniless-as did many another. He at once sought and found a place where he could work for his board-and such board !- until he could do better. Well, he managed by hook and crook to keep soul and body together and by the next spring succeeded in borrowing money enough of some friend East to buy a breaking team consisting of two yoke of oxen and a plow, but before he had turned a furrow the Indians stole three of his oxen and while searching for them the other ox strayed off, so he lost all and had the borrowed money to pay. That was a little discouraging, was it not? He might have sat down and wrung his hands and prated that the
1
249
DODGE AND WASHINGTON COUNTIES
world was against him, or he might have packed his knap-sack and gone off cursing the country, but he did neither. He stayed and kept at it. That man today is at the head of one of the great commercial houses of this city and a bank president.
About the same time a family settled here from one of the western states. Some of the ladies called on the newcomers, as you know ladies do sometimes, and the hostess informed them that she had not been accustomed to such society or to living in such houses, with such furni- ture. "Why," she said, "where I came from we had our houses painted on the inside and had painted furniture, too." As if the ladies of Fre- mont had never seen paint. The next spring there was a rush of travel to Pike's Peak and this very woman had tacked up on her house a sign which read: "Butter for SAIL Here." She was believed to be the first codfish aristocrat of Fremont-she does not live here now.
I have spoken thus of the humble beginnings, of the hardships and poverty and self-denial of those early days as in contrast to the present time that the dishonest and unfortunate may take courage by knowing what others have had to endure, that the lavish may learn to save, that the haughty may be humble, and that all may remember not to despise the day of small things.
CHAPTER XXIV
NICKERSON TOWNSHIP
DESCRIPTION-BOUNDARY-EARLY HISTORY-POPULATION-SETTLEMENT
-FIRST THINGS-EDUCATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS-VILLAGE OF NICK- ERSON-PRESENT DEVELOPMENT-THE TWO RAILROADS.
Nickerson Township is government township 18, range 8, and a part of range 9-that part west of the Elkhorn River. Originally this was all a part of Maple Township, but after various changes the present bounds were made in 1886.
Geographically, this township is bounded on its north by Hooper Township, on the east by Washington County, on the south by Platte and Elkhorn townships, on the west by Maple Township.
What is known as the Black Hills line of Northwestern Railway runs through the township from north to south, with a station point at the Village of Nickerson, situated in section 11. The Sioux City branch of the "Burlington" system also touches this point. (See railroad chapter.)
POPULATION
The United States census reports for various decades gives the popu- lation of this township: In 1890 it was 633; in 1900 it was 717, and ten years later it only had 637, which has increased probably in the last decade, although the present census figures have not as yet been made public.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.