History of Gage County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religious, and civic development from the early days to the present time, Part 21

Author: Dobbs, Hugh Jackson, 1849-
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Publishing and Engraving Company
Number of Pages: 1120

USA > Nebraska > Gage County > History of Gage County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religious, and civic development from the early days to the present time > Part 21

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HISTORY OF GAGE COUNTY, NEBRASKA

came from Brownville to Beatrice, and the brothers, with I. N. McConnell, for a number of years practically monopolized the litigation before the register and receiver of the Beatrice land office, at the same time doing a very large real-estate and insurance business, from which all the partners reaped large profits. In the late '70s Mr. Dorsey engaged in the hardware business in Beatrice, and about the year 1882, he erected the double, three-story, brick build - ing in block sixty-four of the original town of Beatrice, west of the Burwood Hotel. Mr. Dorsey continued in the hardware business in one of these storerooms for a number of years, but during the hard times in 1893 to 1898, he lost "his property largely, and, with a mere remnant of his property, he moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where he made an heroic struggle to recoup his fortune. He again engaged in the hardware business and was gradually achieving success, when his death occurred.

Mr. Dorsey was for many years active and prominent in the affairs of Beatrice and Gage county. He was an able man and very con- siderate, as well as conservative in judgment. He was an esteemed and valuable citizen.

Before coming to Beatrice, Mr. Dorsey had been a member of the territorial legislature. While here, he was frequently a member of the city council. He was married at Peru, Nebraska, in the fall of 1871, to Mary E. Majors, a daughter of S. P. Majors, a promi- nent citizen and pioneer of Nemaha county, whose son, Colonel Thomas J. Majors, is a widely known citizen of the state of Nebraska. Three children were born to this husband and wife, namely: William C., Edith, and Harry Dorsey. Harry, the second son, died in Beatrice a number of years ago. The elder son, William C. Dorsey, resides at Blooming- ton, Nebraska, and is at the present time serv- ing as district judge of his judicial district of the state.

FORDYCE ROPER

Fordyce Roper was one of the early settlers of old Clay county, having established his residence on Indian creek, twelve miles north

of Beatrice, in 1857. He accompanied Judge Kinney, Dr. Wise, Dr. Wilmans, Dr. Reynolds, J. B. Weston, and others to the Beatrice townsite, the last of May, 1857. He became a resident of Beatrice in 1859, but in 1860 he went to Pike's Peak on a prospecting expedi- tion for gold. He returned that fall and pur- chasing the buhrs of Austin's mill he removed them to Beatrice. Having acquired some in- terest in the saw mill at that time being oper- ated on the bank of the Big Blue river (where Black Brothers merchant mill is now located) by one Waldripp, he proceeded to put in a dam across the river and erect a grist mill, both to be driven by water power. For some reason this venture did not prove a suc- cess, but Mr. Roper persisted in the enterprise and ultimately produced a very fair grist mill. In connection with this he developed a very efficient saw mill, planing mill, and lath and shingle industry. He was not only the first miller of Beatrice, but was also for many years one of its most important and most consid- ered citizens. He was active in community affairs, serving the county as a commissioner from 1862 to and including 1864, and was chairman of the Gage county board when Clay county was divided, in 1864, between Lancaster and Gage counties. In 1869, on the resignation of Nathan Blakely as representa- tive for Gage and Jefferson counties in the state legislature, Mr. Roper was elected to fill the vacancy. About the year 1875 he sold his mill to Henry Weatherald and his son Newton, and retired from the milling business. About the same time he sold his residence and re- moved from Nebraska to California, settling finally in Bakersfield, that state, where he died a few years ago.

Mr. Roper was the first miller of Beatrice. He had the business acumen to forsee the necessity for such an enterprise and the energy and enthusiasm which urged forward to its accomplishment. His old home stood and still stands facing South Second street where it terminates on Scott street. It is practically unchanged from what it was when he left it. It is now occupied by Henry Von Reisen as a residence.

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REV. ALBERT L. TINKHAM

If worth of character and a long life devoted to the betterment of mankind are in themselves sufficient to perpetuate the memory of man, then no history of Gage county could be com- plete without some account of the Rev. Al- bert L. Tinkham.

This writer knew this good man long and well; many of the happiest recollections of his life are inseparably connected with him and his, and this sketch is written for the purpose of commemorating the life and character, and the noble and unselfish services to the pioneers of Gage county, of this heroic man.

Mr. Tinkham was born almost at the open- ing of the nineteenth century. He died in Beatrice at the age of seventy-eight years. He was derived from good New England stock and was endowed with all those qualities of heart and brain which win and retain the esteem of mankind. He was of a deeply reli- gious nature and as a minister of the Gospel, he spent the greater part of his life in simply doing good. He exemplified perfectly in his long life as a Christian minister the sentiment contained in Tennyson's verse :

"Howe'er it be, it seems to me "T'is only noble to be good ;

Kind hearts are more than coronets And simple faith than Norman blood."

Mr. Tinkham came to Beatrice in 1860. He had been preceded here by his eldest son, Gil- bert, who died among strangers, in the lonely, almost desolate hamlet of Beatrice, in the winter of 1859. On arriving here with his family, Mr. Tinkham became at once a useful and an influential member of the community. He found Beatrice a mere village of log and board shanties, where people hibernated in winter and vegetated in summer. It required courage of no ordinary character to bring a young and growing family, in what seems now that far-off day, to this outpost of civilization. He was presented by the townsite company with the two lots on Ella street, in block forty- nine, where the three-story building known as the Penner Block is located, and he proceeded to build thereon a two-room, hewed-log, clap-

board-roofed house, which in its day was per- laps equal to any other residence in Beatrice. It was the furthest out of any of the houses and was located on the broad, open prairie. Here he dwelt with his family during four busy years and here his son Edward was born. He was a carpenter by trade and in addition to his pastoral duties he was accustomed to labor assiduously with saw and plane. He and his son Elias built the old frame school house on the block where the old high-school building, now Central grade-school building, stands. Mr. Tinkham was a Methodist clergyman and pos- sessed the fire and enthusiasm of the early ministers of that church,- the Wesleys, Whit- field, Cartwright. For many years he was the best known minister of the Gospel in Gage county, extending his gentle ministrations far and wide amongst the hardy pioneers, officiat- ing at marriages, funerals, and other services performed by clergymen ; he was known by all and loved by all. In the lonely dugouts and log cabins he was a familiar figure and a wel- come guest. People traveled far to hear him preach. At his maximum his voice was as mellow and resonant as a bell. No preaching could have been more simple and direct, more free from rant and cant. He possessed traits of character which disarmed emnity and left him without foe or detractor in all the world. He was gentle and considerate and endowed to a remarkable degree with the charity that envieth not, is not puffed up, that vaunteth not itself, that suffereth long and yet is kind. Strictly honorable and exact in his dealings with his fellow men, he expected Almighty God to be exact with him. Not ambitious of worldly wealth or honors, he was content with a life severely simple and plain.

In early life Mr. Tinkham married Sarah Wilson, at Wilsonville, Ohio. To this couple there were born Gilbert, Wealthy, Elias, Mar- garet Constance, James Leroy, Thomas, Alice, Edward, and Albert Tinkham. Both Wealthy and Margaret were amongst the first school teachers in Gage county. The former married Joseph Hollingworth, the latter Nathan Blake- ly.

In 1864, Mr. Tinkham was prevailed upon

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by his friends to avail himself of the benefits of the homestead law, and he entered the quarter-section of land on Bear creek on the south side of the Scott-street road, extending from Cottonwood Grove school house a little way beyond the bridge. This tract of land continued to be the family home until his death. His remains, with those of his wife and other members of his family, lie in the family burial lot in the Beatrice cemetery.

HORACE M. WICKHAM

Horace M. Wickham was born in Licking county, Ohio, September 2, 1832. His early life was spent in Andrew county, Missouri. He spent the years of 1855-1856 in Iowa, and on March 20, 1859, he became a resident of Gage county, Nebraska. During most of the intervening years up to the time of his death, September 4, 1906, he made this county his home and was by occupation a farmer. In 1867 he was elected a county commissioner of Gage county, and he served continuously in that responsible office till the year 1877,- the longest continuous service in that office of any of its numerous incumbents. On the 8th of May, 1859, Mr. Wickham was married, at the home of a Mr. Woodrow, on Bear creek, three miles northeast of Beatrice, to Lavinia Young, by Nathan Blakely, then acting probate judge of this county. Some years ago, on the occasion of a farewell party to Mr. Wickham at his home in Blakely township, Mr. Blakely, who performed this first marriage ceremony in Gage county, sent to Mr. Wickham a letter, which is not only self-explanatory but also sheds much light on the crude conditions of those early days. The letter reads as follows : Horace M. Wickham,

Hoag, Gage County, Nebraska. My Dear Friend :

I regret that my health is such that I can not avail myself of a kind invitation to meet you and your old friends in this county before you make your departure for your new home in the Platte valley, in this state. We have al- ways known you long and well, and we think you should have remained with us the few remaining days of our earthly pilgrimage, to cheer and comfort one another.

We have all had many joys and sorrows since we located in this wild, unsettled country so many years ago. We found many good and true friends among the old settlers of this county. We cherish the memory of many de- parted ones and the hearty handshake of others, who, with us, will soon bid adieu to all earthly scenes, we hope for a brighter and better life.

I have always felt a special interest in you and yours, for, in the spring of 1859, you asked me to marry you to Miss Lavinia Young. As there was no minister in this part of the country, and I being the only county official that seemed to have authority, I was compelled to perform the operation. There had never been a marriage in this county, so I could not get any information just what to say or how to proceed. I lay awake a good share of two or three nights trying to learn my piece ; then I wrote it down and used to declaim it out on the prairie -a mile from any human being. As the audience neither applauded or hissed, I decided it was good.

The ordeal came, and one pleasant Sunday in May (8th), 1859, I started for Bear creek, where Mr. Woodrow and family lived, near Fulton's Spring, Miss Young living with them. On the green grass, under a new tent, I tried my very best to make Mr. Wickham and Miss Young husband and wife, and, as far as I have ever learned, I succeeded.

I don't know what I said and I never dared ask you or your wife, but as you appeared to be so smiling, I could not tell whether it was from what I had said or from your inexpres- sible happiness of being made a husband.

May the blessings of Heaven rest upon you and your family henceforth and for evermore, and evermore, Your friend,

NATHAN BLAKELY.

The reader has now looked upon the first marriage solemnized in Gage county, and its commemoration by a man of keen intellect and unquestioned veracity.

Shortly after this marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Wickham went to the state of Colorado with a view of making their home there. Here the young bride was taken ill and died, at South Park, Colorado, August 7, 1860. Mr. Wick- ham later married, at St. Joseph, Missouri, Mrs. Isabelle Beebe, who passed away in 1873, leaving two children, Clarissa and Franklin P. Wickham.

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ISMA P. MUMFORD

Isma P. and Elizabeth Mumford were amongst the first pioneers in Gage coun- ty. Isma P. Mumford was born in the state of Maryland, while Elizabeth Mal- lock, was born in Adams county, Ohio, in 1830. She was the granddaughter of a Revolutionary soldier and the daughter of a man who bore arms for his country in the war of 1812. When twenty-one years of age she became the wife of Isma P. Mumford. Shortly after their marriage, in 1853, they mi- grated from Ohio to the new state of Wis- consin, and in 1857 they came seeking a home in the new territory of Nebraska. On the way out they were joined at Plattsmouth by Wil- liam and Nathan Blakely, and together these heroic pioneers of Gage county made their slow way across the unmarked, trackless prairies of southeastern Nebraska. Hearing that the Big Blue river valley offered great advantages to settlers, on account of the abundant timber and rich bottom land which lined its course, they traveled thither, and on the 17th day of July, almost by accident, stumbled upon the members of the Beatrice Townsite Company, who were engaged in erecting a company house on their townsite, which building later became the property of Albert Towle and widely famous as "Pap's Cabin." They also found a cluster of covered wagons and tents, in the neighborhood of the. Kees Manufactur- ing plant, a little above the junction of Indian creek and the Big Blue river. Learning that the representatives of the townsite company had founded a town and purposed to remain and carry their enterprise to fulfillment, and pleased both with the prospect and company, the little party resolved to cast in its fortunes with that old guard which then and for many succeeding years held this remote outpost of civilization against all hardships, privations and discouragements.

For several months Mrs. Mumford and a Miss Bailey, who accompanied the party, were the only white women in the settlement, and probably the only white women in the county. Of Miss Bailey this writer is unable to give any further account, but Mrs. Mumford en-

joyed the distinction of being the sole repre- sentative of her sex in Gage county until the arrival of Mrs. Catherine Towle, in the autumn of 1857. The names of both these good ladies must be forever spoken with reverence by those for whom the early history of Beatrice and Gage county has the slightest interest. Both possessed unusual mental vigor ; both were endowed with those traits of personal character that always command and retain the respect of mankind; both have long since passed to their rest. One sleeps

ELIZABETH MUMFORD The first white woman settler in Gage county

beside her honored husband in the old ceme- tery, near this city, and the other is wrapped in kindred earth of a sister state. To Mrs. Towle belongs the honor of being the mother of the first child born in Gage county, a daughter, Katie Towle, and to Mrs. Mum- ford, the honor of being the mother of the first white male child born within the boun- daries of our county. Both these children, having reached the age of maturity, were long ago gathered to the bosom of Mother Earth. Katie Towle became the wife of George V. Ayers, of Deadwood, South Dakota. She died on the 28th day of March 1890, aged thirty-two years. Her remains lie with those of her parents in the family burial ground in

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the Beatrice cemetery, while the turf that en- folds a father's and a brother's clay wraps also the dust of Dawson Mumford, he having perished in an accident, at the age of twenty- two years -the age when most men begin life.

Shortly after his arrival, Isma P. Mum- ford began the erection of the building which in his hands became, and long afterward con- tinued, to be a leading public inn of the struggling village of Beatrice. "Pap's Cabin" consisted of an unhewn story-and-a-half log structure, which stood about where the baggage room of the Burlington station is located. It was the first structure of any kind erected in Beatrice, and Mumford's inn the second. Mumford's building differed from Pap's Cabin, in being a hewed instead of a round log house. It still stands.

The remaining history of Isma P. and Elizabeth Mumford may be briefly told. On August 7, 1857, at an election attended prin- cipally by the members of the Beatrice Town- site Company for the purpose of organizing Gage county by electing a complete set of county officials, Mr. Mumford was chosen county treasurer, and he held that office one year. He bears the distinction of being the first county treasurer of Gage county, Dur- ing the great Indian panic of 1864, which swept over this portion of Nebraska with ir- resistible force, the Mumfords, with many oth- er families, left the territory, some never to re- turn. But in the spring of 1865 Isma P. and Elizabeth Mumford, with their children, es- tablished a home near what was know as the "Steam Wagon Road," six miles west of Ne- braska City. Here, in 1873, Isma died, and his wife, in 1875, removed permanently from the state, taking up her residence with a son, in Nodaway county, Missouri, where she died in March, 1897. They were the parents of nine children, seven sons and two daughters. One son, James, became a prominent Congre- gational minister, and as far as known to this writer, all their children who reached ma- turity became useful and worthy members of society.

JAMES B. MATTINGLY

James B. Mattingly was born in the state of Kentucky, on the 8th day of April, 1818, near Elizabethtown, Harden county. In 1841 he migrated to the territory of Illinois and settled in Moultrie county. He was of a rov- ing disposition, and leaving Illinois, about 1847, he moved to Iowa; from there, in 1849. to Platte county, Missouri. In 1857 he left Missouri and started west along the Oregon Trail in an aimless search for a new location. At Ash Point, a station on the old highway, he struck a dim trail and followed it to the Otoe and Missouri Indian village. Guided by reports of desirable locations further north, he passed the site of Blue Springs, and finally selected a quarter-section of land in the south- west corner of Rockford township, on Mud creek, in June 1857. About the year 1866 he sold his homestead to James Millard, and moved to Jefferson county. Nebraska, where he entered a tract of land, eighty acres of which now form the most populous and wealthy portion of the city of Fairbury. Shortly after arriving in Jefferson county he engaged somewhat extensively in the freight- ing business, along the Oregon Trail, for a few months, an occupation which he had fol- lowed also while residing in Gage county. When, in 1867, the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad put an end to the freighting business along the old trail, Mattingly established himself on the Little Blue river, within pistol shot of the court house in Fair- bury, in the saw-mill business, and while en- gaged in sawing lumber for homesteaders who were rapidly flowing into that section of country, he was visited one day by Woodford G. McDowell, a resident of Fairbury, Illinois. The St. Joseph & Grand Island Railway was pointing up the Little Blue river, and McDowell, with keen prevision, had selected the present site of Fairbury as the location for the county seat of Jefferson county. Mat- tingly possessed in a remarkable degree the imagination which always goes with adven- ture, and McDowell had no difficulty in getting him to enter into his scheme to found

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a town, to be called Fairbury, which should be the chief city of that entire section of country. McDowell had obtained title to eighty acres adjoining Mattingly's. They jointly laid out and platted the town of Fair- bury, the history of which has more than fulfilled the dreams of both its founders.

James Bartholomew Mattingly belonged to that class of men which is ever adrift in the forefront of advancing civilization. After in- vesting some money in the town of Endicott, in the vain endeavor to boom it into a city of importance, and losing heavily in the ven- ture, he, with his son, Joel Thomas, his wife, and daughter Polly, migrated to the Pacific slope. . All are dead now but the son, Joel Thomas, who lives at Condon, Oregon, in fairly comfortable circumstances. Mr. Mat- tingly himself died October 19, 1907, aged eighty-nine years. At the time of his death he was a resident of a little town in northern Washington.

James B. Mattingly was a wonderfully ac- tive man; his occupations were diverse; he was at once a soldier, a freighter on the Ore- gon Trail, a speculator, a farmer, a miller, a carpenter, and dabbled in many other occu- pations. With many faults of character and of mental equipment and attitude, he was at bottom a reliable citizen and active in the public welfare. He was county commissioner of Gage county in 1861-62-63; he was deputy sheriff, bailiff of the courts, justice of the peace and occupied other civil positions of trust, if not of profit, in Gage county. He taught the first Sunday school in Rockford township and one of the first in our county. This Sunday school was organized in April, 1859. The writer of this volume, with his brother, and Joel Thomas Mattingly were his only pupils, although the school lasted two or three years.

James B. Mattingly was as eccentric a char- acter as he was a picturesque one, and when he died, the world could have better spared a better man.

SAMUEL JONES

Samuel Jones was born in Grayson coun- ty, Virginia, in 1826. When he was eight

years of age his parents moved to Ohio, and settled near Gallipolis, Gallia county, where he grew to manhood. In 1845 he married Re- becca Pethoud, daughter of John Pethoud, one of the first settlers of Gage county, Nebraska. In 1855 he moved from Ohio to Platte county, Missouri, and after six months' residence there he moved to Jefferson county, Kansas, locating thirty-three miles west of Leavenworth. In In September, 1857, he came to Gage county, Nebraska territory, and in the spring of 1858 he made preëmption filing and settlement on the northeast quarter of section 15, Midland township. He built a log house on his pre- emption claim that year, the carpentry work being done by H. F. Cook, one of the founders of the city of Beatrice. With some additions to this rude structure, to accommodate his in- creasing family, the building constituted his home for several years, but in 1866, he began the erection of a large stone house, near the old pioneer log cabin. This was finished by 1868 and was probably the most commodious farm residence in the county. The wood work was done by Tom Redpath, who was after- ward drowned while bathing in the Big Blue river above the dam, when that stream was in flood.

Samuel Jones was a farmer all his life, but during the pioneer days in Nebraska Territory he engaged in freighting and ranching to some extent, along the old Oregon Trail, and was one of the best known freighters and all- around business men in the county. He was a very active man, good natured, kindly, and was heartily liked by the early settlers. He died February 8, 1872, and with his father, William Jones, and sister, Mrs. Elizabeth McDaniel, and daughter Helen, aged five years, is buried on the hill a quarter of a mile south of the old stone dwelling. His wife, Rebecca Jones, died at Gooding, Idaho, about 1901, while making her home with a daughter, and was buried there.

To these pioneer parents there were born fourteen children - eight sons and six daugh- ters. Seven of these children are numbered with the dead. The living are William R. Jones, the eldest son, who resides in the city of Beatrice and has made his home in Gage

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county since September, 1857, when he was eleven years of age ; the third daughter, Sarah A. Drew, wife of Lorenzo L. Drew, also lives in Beatrice; John T. Jones and Elizabeth Dwyer, son and daughter, live at Gooding, Idaho; Leroy C. Jones, another son, is United States marshal of Idaho and lives in the city of Boise ; Albert Jones, a son, lives at Baker City, Oregon ; Rebecca (Jones) Pethoud, daughter, lives at Cotopaxi, Colorado.

the county. With them are rapidly disappear- ing the traditions and the romance of the past.

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History of Gage County, Nebraska; a narrative of the past, with special emphasis upon the pioneer period of the county's history, its social, commercial, educational, religious, and civic development from the early days to the present time, Part 21

Author: Dobbs, Hugh Jackson, 1849- Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Publishing and Engraving Company Number of Pages: 1120

Author: Dobbs, Hugh Jackson, 1849-
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Publishing and Engraving Company
Number of Pages: 1120