USA > Nebraska > Dodge County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume I > Part 48
USA > Nebraska > Washington County > History of Dodge and Washington Counties, Nebraska, and their people, Volume I > Part 48
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Some of the men who took part in this fight say that if the leader had ordered the settlers to fire on the first advance of the Indians every settler would have been killed. There were twice as many Indians in the first place and the settlers afterwards found that not more than one- third of their guns would work; and after they had fired once, while they were reloading, the Indians with their bows and arrows would have exterminated them. They consider that it was the one piece of light artillery that saved them, as the Indians were very much afraid of a cannon. Thus ended any serious Indian trouble, but the housewives had ever to be on the alert for many years.
Each spring either the Pawnees or Omahas passed through the village on their way to visit some other tribe, and then returned in the fall. Then through the winter stray bands would appear who had been hunting or fishing along the river.
As they were seen approaching everything that could be put under lock and key was made secure. The doors of the houses were also made secure. The Indians would wash and comb their hair at the water troughs, then gather everything about the yard that took their fancy. If by any chance they got into a house they would help themselves to eatables and if they could not find enough they would demand more.
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They made a queer procession as they passed along the street. The bucks on the horses or ponies led the way, then would follow the pack- ponies, with long poles fastened to each others' sides and trailing along behind loaded with the baggage came the squaws with their babies fas- tened to their backs, trudging along behind.
One of the early settlers tells of her first experience with the Indians. She had just come from the far east, and was all alone in the house, when the door opened and three Indians walked in-a buck and two squaws. They closed the door and placed their guns behind it, to show her that they would not harm her. Then they went to the stove and seated them- selves, making signs to her that they wanted more fire. She made a very hot fire in the cook stove.
The old fellow examined the stove until he found the oven door ; this he opened and took three frozen fish from under his blanket and placed them upon the grate. While the fish were cooking he made signs for something to eat. The lady said she had only bread and sorghum in the house. This she gave them, but the Indian was not satisfied; he made a fuss until she finally found that he wanted butter on his bread. She had to show him that sorghum was all she had. They then took up the fish and went out of doors by the side of the house to eat it. She said they must have eaten every bit of the fish except the bones in the head, all else was eaten up.
Among the first settlers who came in 1855 was a young German who was an orphan and had had a hard life in America up to this time. He took a claim and worked hard for a number of years. He then went back to Quincy and persuaded a number of his countrymen to come out to this new place and take claims, he helping them out, but they were to pay him back as they could.
Years passed; they each and all prospered wonderfully well. The early settlers moved away one by one; as they left he would buy their homes. The houses were torn down or moved away; the trees and shrubs were uprooted, until now this one man, or his heirs-for he has gone to his reward-own almost all of the once prosperous little village, and vast fields of grain have taken the place of the homes and the streets.
It is hard to stand in the streets of the little village which now has about 150 inhabitants and believe that at one time it was the county seat of Dodge County, and that it lacked but one single vote of becoming the capital of Nebraska. There are left only two or three of the original buildings. A short distance south of this village, on a high bluff over- looking the river valley, and covered with oaks and evergreens, these early pioneers started a city which has grown for many years, and which will continue to grow for years to come. In this "city of the dead" we find many people who did much for the little city which failed, but who have taken up their abode in this beautiful spot, there to remain until the end of time.
The story of Fontanelle has been gathered from my early recollec- tions of the place and what I have learned through grandparents, parents and other relatives and friends.
My mother was raised in Fontanelle, coming there with her parents in 1856. She received her education in that first college.
My father was the son of one of the first Congregational mission- aries to be sent there. I received my first schooling in the little village school.
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(By Courtesy of Blair Tribune)
HENRY ROHWER FARM
CHAPTER XXIII FORT CALHOUN TOWNSHIP
BOUNDARIES-OLD FORT CALHOUN-VILLAGE HISTORY-LAKES AND STREAMS-SCHOOLS-MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS OF VILLAGE-RAILROAD- POPULATION-BUSINESS OF VILLAGE TODAY-CENTENNIAL CELEBRA- TION-POSTOFFICE HISTORY-REMINISCENCES-ACCOUNT OF PLACE BY W. H. ALLEN, MRS. E. H. CLARK AND W. H. WOODS.
This, the extreme southeastern subdivision of Washington County, embraces a tract of land nine miles east and west by five north and south, except the parts of several sections cut off by the Missouri River at its northeastern corner. It is bounded on the north by De Soto Township and the Missouri River, on the east by the Missouri River, on the south by Douglas County, and on the west by Richland Township. Its villages are Fort Calhoun and Coffman-see later. Its railroad is the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha. The water courses of this township include these: Long Creek, Little Pappillion, and their numerous smaller branches; also Horse Shoe Lake, Kelly Lake, Stillwater Lake, and other lakes or ponds. Within this township was the old Government posts, Fort Atkinson now known as Fort Calhoun-see their interesting history.
POPULATION
The United States census reports gave this township a population in 1890 of 1,187, including the village of Fort Calhoun ; in 1900 it was 1,494, and in 1910 it was placed at 1,447.
SETTLEMENT
The within historical accounts of old Fort Calhoun Village, at various periods, will cover the list of those who would in ordinary townships be known as first settlers. Hence there will be no attempt at tracing out the first to claim the land of this fertile and historic township, but refer the reader to the village and fort histories found herein.
REMINISCENCES OF FORT CALHOUN
The following story concerning Fort Calhoun by W. H. Allen, appeared in the 1916 volume of the "Pioneer Reminiscences of Nebraska" issued under authority of the Nebraska Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution.
I reached Fort Calhoun in May, 1856, with my friends, Mr. and Mrs. John Allen, coming with team and wagon from Edgar County, Illi- nois. I was then eleven years old. Fort Calhoun had no soldiers, but some of the Fort Atkinson buildings were still standing. I remember the liberty pole, the magazine, the old brickyard, at which places we chil- dren used to play and pick up trinkets. There was then one general store there, kept by Pink Allen and Jacoby, and but few settlers. Among those I remember were: my uncle, Thomas Allen; E. H. Clark, a land agent ; Col. George Stevens and family, who started a hotel in 1856, and Orrin
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Rhoades, whose family lived on a claim five miles west of town. That summer my father took a claim near Rhoades, building a log house and barn at the edge of the woods. We moved there in the fall, and laid in a good supply of wood for the huge fireplace, used for cooking as well as heating. Our rations were scanty, consisting of wild game for meat, corn bread, potatoes and beans purchased at Fort Calhoun. The next spring we cleared some small patches for gardens and corn and tended the same with a hoe. There were no houses between ours and Fort Calhoun, nor any bridges. Rhoades' house and ours were the only ones between Fontanelle and Fort Calhoun. Members of the Quincy Colony at Fonta- nelle went to Council Bluffs for flour and used our place as a half-way house, stopping each way over night. How we children did enjoy their company, and stories of the Indians! We were never molested by the red men, only that they would come begging food occasionally.
I had no schooling until 1860 when I worked for my board in Fort Calhoun at E. H. Clark's and attended the public schools a few months. The next two years I did likewise, boarding at Alex Reed's.
From 1866 to 1869 inclusive, I cut cord wood and railway ties, which I hauled to Omaha for use in the building of the Union Pacific Railroad. I received from $8 to $15 per cord for my wood and a dollar apiece for ties.
Deer were plentiful, and once when returning from Omaha I saw an old deer and fawn. Unhitching my team I jumped on a horse and chased the young one down, caught and tamed it. I put a bell on its neck and let it run about at will. It came to its sleeping place every night until the next spring when it left never to be seen by us again.
In the fall of 1864 I was engaged by Edward Creighton to freight with a wagon train for Denver, carrying flour and telegraph supplies. The cattle were corraled and broke at Cole's Creek west of Omaha, known then as "Robbers' Roost," and I thought it great fun to break and yoke those wild cattle. We started in October with forty wagons, seven yoke of oxen to each wagon. I went as far as Fort Cottonwood, 100 miles beyond Fort Kearney, reaching there about November 20th. There about a dozen of us grew tired of the trip and turned back with a wagon and one ox team. On our return, at Plum Creek thirty-five miles west of Fort Kearney, we saw where a train had been attacked by Indians, oxen killed, wagons robbed and abandoned. We waded rivers, Loup Fork and Platte, which was a cold bath at that time of the year.
I lived at this same place in the woods until I took a homestead three miles farther west in 1868.
My father's home was famous at that time, also years afterward, as a beautiful spot in which to hold Fourth-of-July celebrations, school pic- nics, etc., and the hospitality and good. cooking of my mother, "Aunt Polly Allen" as she was familiarly called, was known to all the early settlers in this section of the country.
THE STORY OF THOMAS N. CARTER
In the spring of 1855 with my brother Alex Carter, E. P. and D. D. Stout, I left the beautiful hills and valleys of Ohio to seek a home in the West. After four weeks of travel by steamboat and stage, horseback and afoot, we reached the Town of Omaha, then only a small village. It took us fourteen days to make the trip from St. Louis to Omaha.
While waiting at Kanesville, or Council Bluffs as it is now called, we ascended the hills back of the town and gazed across to the Nebraska
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side. I thought of Daniel Boone as he wandered westward on the Ken- tucky hills looking into Ohio. "Fair was the scene that laid before the little band that paused upon its toilsome way to view the new found land."
At St. Mary we met Peter A. Sarpy. He greeted us all warmly and invited all to get out of the stage and have a drink at his expense. As an inducement to settle in Omaha, we were each offered a lot anywhere on the townsite, if we would build on it, but we had started for De Soto, Washington County, and no ordinary offer could induce us to change our purpose.
We thought that with such an excellent steamboat landing and quan- tities of timber in the vicinity, De Soto had as good a chance as Omaha to become the metropolis. We reached De Soto May 14, 1855, and found one log house finished and another under way. Zaremba Jackson, a newspaper man, and Doctor Finney occupied the log cabin and we boarded with them until we had located a claim and built a cabin on land we subsequently entered and upon which the City of Blair is now built.
After I had built my cabin of peeled willow poles the Cuming City Claim Club warned me by writing on the willow poles of my cabin that if I did not abandon that claim before June 14, 1855, I would be treated to a free bath in Fish Creek and free transportation across the Missouri River. This, however, proved to be merely a bluff. I organized and was superintendent of the first Sunday school in Washington County in the spring of 1856.
The first board of trustees of the Methodist Church in the county was appointed by Rev. A. G. White on June 1, 1866, and consisted of the following members : Alex Carter, L. B. Cameron, James Van Horn, M. B. Wilds and myself. The board met and resolved itself into a build- ing committee and appointed me chairman. We then proceeded to devise means to provide for a church building at Cuming City by each member of the board subscribing $50. At the second meeting it was discovered that this was inadequate and it was deemed necessary for this subscrip- tion to be doubled. The church was built, the members of the commit- tee hewing logs of elm, walnut and oak for sills and hauling them with ox teams. The church was not completely finished, but was used for a place of worship. This building was moved under the supervision of Rev. Jacob Adriance and by his financial support from Cuming City to Blair in 1870. Later it was sold to the Christian Church, moved off and remodeled and is still doing service as a church building in Blair.
Jacob Adriance was the first regular pastor to be assigned to the mission extending from De Soto to Decatur. His first service was held at De Soto May 3, 1857, at the home of my brother, Jacob Carter, a Baptist. The congregation consisted of Jacob Carter, his family of five, Alexander Carter, myself and wife.
The winter before Reverend Adriance came, Isaac Collins was con- ducting protracted meetings. One night they threw a dead dog through the window, hitting the minister on the back, knocking him over, and the candles went out, leaving all in darkness. The minister straightened up and declared, "The devil isn't dead in De Soto yet."
I was present at the Calhoun claim fight at which Mr. Goss was killed and Purple and Smith were wounded. The first little log school was erected on the Townsite of Blair, the patrons cutting and hauling the lumber. I was the first director and Mrs. William Allen (nee Emily Bot. torff) first teacher.
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I served as worthy patriarch of the first Sons of Temperance organi- zation in the county and lived in De Soto long enough to see the last of the whisky traffic banished from that township.
I have served many years in Washington County as school director, justice of the peace and member of the county board.
In October, 1862, I joined the Second Nebraska Cavalry for service on the frontier. Our regiment lost a few scalps and buried a number of Indians. We bivouacked on the plains, wrapped in our blankets, while the sky smiled propitiously over us and we dreamed of home and the girls we left behind us until reveille called to find the drapery of our couch during the night had been reinforced by winding sheets of drifting snows.
FORT CALHOUN IN THE LATER FIFTIES
Mrs. E. H. Clark, well known in Washington County, wrote as follows, and under the above heading, in the 1916 volume of "Pioneer Reminiscences" by the Daughters of the American Revolution Society, and herein is found much that should not be lost in the permanent annals of Washington County. Her article reads as follows: E. H. Clark came from Indiana in March, 1855, with Judge James Bradley and was clerk of the District Court in Nebraska under him. He became interested in Fort Calhoun, then the county seat of Washington County. The town company employed him to survey it into town lots, plat the same and advertise it. New settlers landed here that spring and lots were readily sold. In June, 1855, Mr. Clark contracted with the proprietors to put up a building on the townsite for a hotel; said building to be 24 by 48 feet, two stories high with a wing of the same dimensions; the structure to be of hewn logs and put up in good style. For this he was to receive one-ninth interest in the town. Immediately he commenced getting out timber, boarding in the meantime with Major Arnold's family, and laboring under many disadvantages for want of skilled labor and teams, there being but one span of horses and seven yoke of cattle in the entire precinct at this time. What lumber was necessary for the building had to be obtained in Omaha at $60 per 1,000 feet and hauled a circuitous route by the old Mormon trail. As an additional incident to his trials, one morning at breakfast Mr. Clark was told by Mr. Arnold that the last mouthful of food was on the table. Major Arnold was absent for supplies and delayed, supposedly for lack of conveyance; whereupon Mr. Clark procured two yoke of oxen and started at once for Omaha for provisions and lumber. Never having driven oxen before he met with many mishaps. By traveling all night through rain and mud he reached sight of home next day at sunrise, when the oxen ran away, upsetting the lumber and scattering groceries over the prairies. Little was recovered except some bacon and a barrel of flour.
Finally, the hotel was ready for occupancy and Col. George Stevens with his family took up their residence there. It was the best hostelry in the West. Mr. Stevens was appointed postmaster and gave up one room to the postoffice. The Stevens family were very popular everywhere.
Mr. and Mrs. John B. Kuony were married at the Douglas House in Omaha about 1855 and came to the new hotel as cooks; but soon after- ward started a small store which in due time made them a fortune.
In March, 1856, my husband sent to Indiana for me. I went to St. Louis by train, then by boat to Omaha. I was three weeks on the boat, and had my gold watch and chain stolen from my cabin en route.
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I brought a set of china dishes which were a family heirloom, clothes and bedding. The boxes containing these things we afterward used for table and lounge. My husband had a small log cabin ready upon my arrival.
I was met at Omaha by Thomas J. Allen with a wagon and ox team. He hauled building material and provisions and I sat on a nail keg all the way out. He drove through prairie grass as high as the oxen's back. I asked him how he ever learned the road. When a boat would come up the river everyone would rush to buy furniture and provisions ; I got a rocking chair in 1857, the first one in the town. It was loaned out to sick folks and proved a treasure. In 1858 we bought a clock of John Bauman of Omaha, paying $45 for it, and it is still a perfect timepiece.
My father, Dr. J. P. Andrews, came in the spring of 1857 and was a practicing physician, also a minister for many years here. He was the first Sunday school superintendent here and held that position until 1880 when we moved to Blair.
In 1858 the Vanier brothers started a steam grist mill which was a great convenience for early settlers. In 1861 Elam Clark took it on a mortgage and ran it for many years. Mr. Clark also carried on a large fur trade with the Indians. They would go east to the bottoms to hunt and camp for two or three weeks.
At one time I had planned a dinner party and invited all my lady friends. I prepared the best meal possible for those days, with my china set all in place and was very proud to see it all spread, and when just ready to invite my guests to the table, a big Indian appeared in the door- way and said "hungry" in broken accents. I said, "Yes, I get you some," and started to the stove, but he said, "No," and pointed to the table. I brought a generous helping in a plate but he walked out of doors, gave a shrill yell which brought several others of his tribe and they at once sat down, ate everything in sight, while the guests looked on in fear and trembling. Having finished they left in glee.
RETROSPECTIVE VIEW OF FORT CALHOUN
Local Historian W. H. Woods, who it is stated by his neighbors, knows all worth knowing about ancient and modern Fort Calhoun, has recently written the following in the columns of the Blair Tribune :
"I perhaps now know more of this place than any man living. The Iowa Town Company which had the fight over the location; then employed E. H. Clark to build the log tavern and lay out the new town west of the disputed dead man's claims.
"This at that time was to be a great commercial city and why not? The old fort at one time held the greatest business depot on the whole Missouri River, and in ten years the fur trading posts in walking dis- tance of the townsite had shipped thousands of dollars worth of furs and probably outrivaled the whole British Columbia; and where else on earth had a great statesman seen a merchant handling his silver coin with a scoop shovel, as General Cass had seen John Cabbanne, only six miles away; and so great was the possibilities for this city that when thousands of acres of land hereabouts could be homesteaded or bought for a dollar and a quarter per acre of the government, the town offered Judge Stiltz $100 an acre for his farm to add to the town.
"So in laying out the town, room must be provided for the great markets, etc., yet to come; so they set aside four plats of land for such needful purposes. East Market Square, Washington Square, West
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Market Square and a schoolhouse site that some day might roam back toward the Elkhorn River as a college or university town.
"East Market Square on Seventh street, the west guard line of the old fort, was sold by the city some years ago, and is now known as the Steffen block. Washington Square in the center of the city was for the county seat and other such public utilities and on that was the first courthouse built for that purpose in Nebraska. It became, of course, a general utility building and was church and school as well. West Mar- ket Square is now the city park and the real pioneer school site is the property of Peter Schmidt. In some way the original school site had been pre-empted for residences, or a part of it, by some persons who had moved away and had got on the assessor's books as private property. This was explained to us by Elam Clark and Doctor Andrews, when we were asked to seek a new site for the schools in the seventies. Over two hundred acres of town lots have lost their streets and alleys and become either tax lots or joined onto other people's property. Probably in 1876 Judge Jackson helped me to throw out great areas of town lots now in surveyed and numbered tax lots that my predecessors had double assessed, entering them as town as well as tax lots, and when I went to two of them for advice they kindly told me that it was none of the assessor's business. But I failed to take my oath that way. So got the books cleaned.
"GRANDDAD WOODS."
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF SETTLEMENT
Washington County, Nebraska, is noted for its "Centennial Celebra- tion" events, as follows: Lewis and Clark's Expedition, 1804; Fort Lesa, 1812; Fort Atkinson, 1819; First brickyard, farming, library and school at Fort Atkinson, 1820; the birth of Logan Fontenelle at Fort Atkinson, 1825. So it is seen that this county leads all others in Nebraska in its centennial history.
THE FORT CALHOUN CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION, 1919
On October 11, 1919, the quaint little village with so much of real importance connected with it, celebrated its centennial with an historic pageant and basket picnic dinner in the small handsome park. There addresses were given by Governor McKelvie, Mayor Smith of Omaha and Mayor Frahm of Fort Calhoun. This centennial marked the land- ing of the first United States troops sent into this portion of the Mis- souri Valley country.
No better description is needed in this connection than to refer the reader to one page of the neat folder program issued on that occasion, which reads as follows :
"It was at Fort Calhoun, later known as Fort Atkinson, that the soldiers, coming up the Missouri on a steamer, landed and there erected an army post that was garrisoned until 1829, when it was abandoned. However, white men and women continued to occupy the site and con- sequently Fort Calhoun is one of the oldest towns of the United States, barring those of the Atlantic States.
"Co-operating, the people of Fort Calhoun, Omaha and Nebraska have laid their plans for making this centennial celebration an event that will long be remembered in the future history of Nebraska. Working with them are the members of the Nebraska Historical Society, Sons and
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Daughters of the American Revolution, the Sons and Daughters of the War of 1812, Grand Army of the Republic and veterans of the recent war with Germany.
"This centennial will be an all-day affair and will be observed in the Calhoun Public Park, just west of the business portion of the village. There will be a pageant that will portray the landing of the soldiers and their meeting with the Indians, who at that time occupied the lands on both sides of the Missouri River. To make this feature strictly realistic, there will be soldiers from Forts Omaha and Crook and Indians from the Omaha Reservation. The pageant, in which there will be a number of floats, will pass over the village streets and to the park, where the exercises will be held.
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