History of Hall County, Nebraska, Part 13

Author: Buechler, A. F. (August F.), 1869- editor
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Pub. and Engraving Co.
Number of Pages: 1011

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CHAPTER V

REMINISCENCES AND NARRATIVES OF PIONEERS

DETAILS OF THE ANDERSON-SMITH MASSACRE, BY MR. AND MRS. JOHN THOMSSEN, SR. - HER QUOTA FURNISIIED, BY A. SCHERNEKAU - REMINISCENCES OF A HALL COUNTY PIO- NEER, BY NORMAN REESE - EARLY LIFE - ARRIVING AT GRAND ISLAND - OTHER EARLY SETTLERS IN WOOD RIVER VALLEY - OUR FIRST FARMING - STAGE ROUTES - SQUIRE. LAMB'S ROUTE -DURING THE CIVIL WAR - INDIANS HAD VISITED - PRESSED INTO SERV- ICE AS SCOUT-UNCLE SAM'S SURVEYORS - MANY MIDDLE MEN - THE RIGHT OF WAY - DURING THE LAST DAYS OF INDIAN OCCUPATION, BY W. E. MARTIN, DONIPHAN, NEBRASKA - SETTLEMENT HERE -- AN EARLY SERVICEABLE. . WELL - OUR EARLY NEIGHBORS - INDIAN VISITORS - INDIANS' OUTFIT AND CUSTOMS - LET THE WOMEN DO THE WORK - THE IN- DIANS' CAMP -THEIR EVENING MEAL AND MENU - PREPARING CLOTHING AND MEATS - A BROKEN AXLE - SAMUEL CLAY BASSETT - A FEW GLIMPSES OF EARLY LIFE IN HALL COUNTY - WILLIAM (JACK) ANDERSON SETTLEMENT - GOES INTO BUSINESS - THE STORM OF 1873 - THE COWBOY REGIME - THREE YEARS AT SIDNEY - A FREIGHTING EXPE- RIENCE - GRAND ISLAND IN EARLY 'EIGHTIES - EARLY HORSE RACE - OTHER

EARLY RECOLLECTIONS - A RATTLESNAKE ON LOCUST STREET

DETAILS OF THE ANDERSON-SMITH MASSACRE

Scenes Presented Shortly After BY MR. AND MRS. JOHN THOMSSEN

Mrs. John Thomssen, who was the one single young lady who came to the present Hall County with the first settlers, relating briefly her experiences states that on account of the threatened starvation of the colony, she left the settlement in September, two months after the location, for Omaha, and on March 5, 1858, went to Council Bluffs for two years. In 1860 she was there married to John Thom- ssen. In the spring of 1860 they returned to the settlement and left for Fort Kearny shortly afterward, remained at Fort Kearny three months and then returned to Hall County, residing here ever since. Most of this traveling was done by ox-team, excepting the trip on the return from Fort Kearny which was done by stage, "Pap" Lamb being the stage driver.

John Thomssen, Sr., had the following to say for an historical edition of The Independ- ent in 1907 :

"Fort Kearney was at that time our market for corn and produce. We had to cross the Platte River near Fort Kearny, which was no small job with a loaded wagon. One day Charles Boehl, Henry Thomssen, and I started out for Fort Kearny with corn. We had ox teams and traveling was slow. We got as far as the site of the present Wood River where lived two families by the name of Smith and Andrews. There was some snow on the ground and Smith and Andrews had been hauling wood on sleds from the creek. Just as we drew near Mr. Smith came up from the creek with his empty sled, at full gallop, gesticulating to the women folks as he drew near. We were soon at the scene. When we arrived everybody was crying. We at once learned what had happened. The Indians had killed Andrews and his two sons and also the Smith boy. Mr. Smith had escaped. We

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HISTORY OF HALL COUNTY NEBRASKA

made a hurried trip down to the creek, which was only a little distance from the house. The first thing that we saw was the sled loaded with wood. But the horses were gone. The harness was cut to pieces and scattered about. A little distance from the sled lay Mr. Andrews, dead. An arrow had struck him from the side under the arm and had nearly gone through him. He was lying under a bank where he had probably gone for shelter. We next found the axe. It was covered with blood. We found the Andrews boys nearby. They were both dead. One of the boys was lying with his face downward, with a club across his neck, but no arrow was to be seen. Evidently he had been knocked down with the club and then murdered with the axe. The other boy was shot with an arrow through the wrist and then brained with the axe. Both of the boys' faces and clothes were covered with blood. We hunted for some time to find the Smith boy but hardly dared to go farther into the woods for fear of being attacked by the Indians ourselves. The boy was found by other parties next day. He had also been shot and clubbed to death. We hurriedly alarmed what neighbors we could, got together eighteen men, and started in pursuit of the Indians. They had gone west up Wood River. During the next night there came another snow storm which obliterated all tracks and we returned home."

HER QUOTA FURNISHED

How Original Settlement Provided Volunteer . That Bondsmen Might Be Freed.

BY A. SCHERNEKAU

Landing in New York on March 24, 1857, I came direct to that Mecca of all Schleswig- Holsteiners - Davenport; Iowa. I found that my cousin, Fred Hedde, had procured work for me on the farm of Mr. Rusch, near Dav- enport. He himself had left a few days pre- viously with a party of Germans for the Platte River Valley in Nebraska. It was his desire for me to remain at work on the farm to ac- climate myself before undertaking the trip into the western wilderness.

Mr. Hedde returned in the fall to Daven- port and in the spring of 1858 the trip over- land, to Council Bluffs, was undertaken. We were a small train of perhaps seven wagons in all, drawn by oxen. Owing to an unusually late and wet season we had to undergo many hardships in crossing the numerous swollen streams, bridges being either swept away or standing in the wide bottoms, all approaches to them being covered with water and only to be reached by wading and swimming, hold-

A. SCHERNEKAU

ing to an ox-bow while driving, and guiding your team through the raging waters to the bridge.

But, after long delays and much waiting for the waters to subside, we reached Omaha. From there we took the "military road" only lately surveyed up the valley of the Platte. Here we found a few substantially built bridges, erected by the government, over the Papilion Creek and the Elkhorn River. Our traveling was better up the valley. Only the insignificant "Prairie Creek" caused us some trouble in crossing the same, as the bottoms were very soft. I will here suggest to the indulgent reader of these notes to imagine a lot of green immigrants from Europe, unac- quainted with the country, with its customs,

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HISTORY OF HALL COUNTY NEBRASKA

and even, to a large extent, with its language. It was really not an easy task that these men and women had before them. But, young and strong, and with great hopes of a brilliant future, we struggled on. In July - I have not the exact date on hand - we finally reached the settlement.

COTTONWOOD AS BASIS

We found four double log houses built and occupied by the colonists who had preceded us. The houses had been built with a view of defense, in case of an Indian attack, being provided with loop-holes for musketry, the cattle to be corralled in the space left between them, the houses themselves forming part of the inclosure.

The town of "Grand Island" had been sur- veyed and also the "claims" of the settlers. Each one of the latter wishing to have some land close to the "city limits" it was decided that forty-acre tracts should be laid out all around the town, touching with one side of the city limits. These tracts were then, by lot, distributed to the original colonists who had come in '57. The strip of timber on the islands in the north channel of the Platte were surveyed, similarly in twenty arce lots, and "drawn for" or chosen by lot, among the im- migrants, as for the forty-acre pieces. As no government survey had been made this survey started from a big dead cottonwood tree on an island in the river, near the northeast corner of the town.

Ditches and sod walls in place of fences had been constructed by the industrious and hard-working people, but were afterwards abandoned, partly as being only imaginary lines and partly because they did not give satisfaction as permanent enclosures. The sod did not grow but, with the sandy soil and the burning by the hot rays of the summer sun, the disintegration was soon almost complete.

The only houses in the town proper, as laid out, were two log structures with double roofs - one put up by Mr. Hagge and the other, I believe, for Mr.Hedde, who soon afterward moved to his claim, on the west side of town as then laid out. Land had been broken up on the different claims of the settlers and corn

planted; but little was raised this season owing to the fact that the cattle got in and destroyed the crops. The season being so un- usually wet there was a rank growth of grass all over the bottom, such as I do not remember ever having seen since. In doing our work we were always more or less wet, going through the sloughs filled with water, or through the long grass. The result was that most of us had attacks of fever or ague dur- ing the summer. I was one of the last to be taken ill - we were mowing slough grass and binding the same into sheaves to thatch the house of Mr. Hedde, at the time.

The roofs of some of the first cabins, made of cottonwood bark, did not answer the pur- pose at all. Thatch was therefore substituted as roofing material.

LEARNED WHAT FIRES WERE

A rather pleasant winter from 1859 to 1860 brought a disastrous prairie fire - I think in January of the latter year. By this fire most of our provisions were burned, which again almost rendered the little community to the famine conditions that had prevailed in the first winter when provisions from Omaha failed to arrive in time. This year, however, the general government stepped in and pre- vented extreme suffering by sending us a month's rations for thirty men.

How little we knew the nature of and there- fore how little we at first feared the prairie fire will be illustrated by the following: I was at the time living with Mr. Hedde, west of the "town" limits. The day was bright and pleasant. We saw, about noon, the long lines of the flames of a prairie fire below the settle- ment - that is the four double log houses built by the first settlers. It was suggested after dinner that I hitch up - that was put- ting the ox team to the farm wagon which had to do duty as a runabout - and drive Mrs. Hedde down to get a good view of the fire. We did not realize the danger and in what short time it would be upon us. . Before we had gone far the fire had reached the houses and we had to hasten down there, to help, if possible.

The next year I had my own land and was Digitized by

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HISTORY OF HALL COUNTY NEBRASKA

building a small cabin, 12 x 16 feet. I broke land and planted corn and regarded myself as having reached my ideal - a real cabin and 160 acres of land which I could call my own. This land was located west of Mr. Hedde's and Mr. Stolley's, west of the original town of Grand Island, and a part of it is now occupied as a site for a beet sugar factory. While I was living on this land the war broke out.

WERE ABOLITIONISTS

In common with a very great majority of the Germans who had come to the country in the previous years, I was an ardent abolition- ist and the desire to assist in the carrying out of these views as well as the sense of duty to my adopted country, led me to enlist. When the first regiment of infantry was raised in Nebraska my affairs at the farm were in such shape that it was impossible for me to join the same. In the fall of the year, however, when a second call was made to fill up the depleted ranks of the regiment and Hall County came in with two men for her share, I concluded that I would be one of them. In a meeting one Sunday, at Schuler's, I came forward as a recruit to represent Hall County as one of her quota and Jack -(I have forgotten his name) volunteered also but for some reason or other he did not go to the front. In October, 1862, I enlisted at Ne- braska City where the recruiting officers were stationed, and in a few weeks found myself at the front, joining the regiment when it was on the Black River, in Missouri.

There followed three years of a soldier's life with such experiences and incidents as such a life brought to thousands during these years. I was wounded while on the White River in Arkansas, came back to Grand Island on sick leave, and finally joined my regiment again, which had again been re- cruited up and reorganized and sent to fight the Indians on the plains. While at home on a furlough we had our miniature "Indian war" at Grand Island. The "O. K." store, the big log building, was fortified by building a big sod wall with bastions on the four corners around the same large enough to hold

wagons and cattle of the settlers flocking in from all sides for protection.

General Curtis coming up from Omaha with an expedition to protect the Overland road left with us a six-pounder field piece, with ammunition. We had no occasion ever to use the cannon, neither was our "fort" at- tacked. The settlement proper never was mo- lested, the Indians probably being aware of our preparations. We were, however, in my opinion, very lucky not to be attacked by the red-skins at that time, as our guns were very indifferent, consisting of all kinds of rifles, some shotguns, a few government muskets (condemned), and a great number of all makes of revolvers. The greatest trouble was the lack of proper ammunition for all of these arms. Though half an invalid I was at that time able to ride a horse and with several others of the young unmarried men of the settlement, had to patrol the country north- west and east of us. We never got a glimpse of the hostiles but frequently found signs where they had been.

PLEASURE MIDST HARDSHIPS

After being discharged from the service, in 1865, I went back to my farm, selling my first. claim west of town. This time I took up another piece of land, east of the old site where, with the help of my neighbors, I erected a double log house under one roof made of slough grass. Lumber and shingles were yet almost unknown in the little com- munity. A few boards were required for doors, and door and window casings were whipsawed out of cottonwood logs and it was hard and particular work.

Old Frederick Vatje is made to say, in our friend Sass's immortal "long song" (dat Lange Lied) :

"So stuen he in de Sagkuhl

And sae; de Audern sind man ful."

Yes, with all of our hardships and the hard work we performed, often under the greatest of disadvantages - because being green, new emigrants, we could not be expected to under- stand and did not understand the life and Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF HALL COUNTY NEBRASKA

work on the frontier - we yet had a great deal of amusement among ourselves especially among those of us who kept "bachelor's hall." The names of Sass, Schaf, Nagel, Menck, and others only need to be mentioned to awaken in the old settlers the recollection of many jolly incidents.

Much hard and useless work was per- formed in the first years. I will only mention, for instance, the wall and ditch fences . (a remnant of one of these preserved by trees planted on the same may today be seen on the section line road due south of Grand Island, just before one reaches the first channel of the Platte - EDITOR) and the clearing up of allotted wooded portions of the Island. At least Fred Vatje did work diligently to grub out underbrush, etc., so as to give the young growing trees a better chance to thrive. Others, like myself, planted trees and wild shrubs on their land, but with very little success. Not until Mr. Stolley came and went systematically at it were there many trees growing.

TROUBLE WITH RAILROAD CONTRACTORS

With the advent of the Overland railroad (Union Pacific) the settlers had another war on their hands. This time it was with the gangs of workmen sent out ahead, before the actual construction of the roadbed began. Contracts had been let to deliver ties and firewood along the line of road. The timber growing along the river, mostly on the islands in the same, was claimed by such of us as had land adjacent to the channel, we presum- ing that the survey would not meander along the narrow north channel of the river. But as no government survey had been made this was in doubt. The railroad, interested in se- curing all the timber in the region with which to construct as much of the track as possible, instructed its men to cut down all the timber. That which was unfit for ties was to be cut into cordwood. As our protests were not heeded we were advised by our counsel in Omaha to arrest the men engaged in cutting and hauling away the timber. The sheriff swore in a number of deputies, we arrested

simultaneously a number of choppers and teamsters only to have them at once released on bonds given by the bosses, and the trees were cut as before. The robbing us of the timber that should have been protected and would for years have been good for a supply of firewood was one of the causes which eventually led me to emigrate to a country where there was a natural supply of fuel, without shipment.

END OF LOCAL EXPERIENCES

Before I carried this out, however, I made a trip back to Germany, returning in June, 1868, to Grand Island. While in the Father- land I was married and brought Mrs. Scher- nekau with me. At that time the Union and Central Pacific were making great exertions to complete the overland route to California. Everything was high and in great demand at the front, while the actual work of building was going on. Camps and little towns sprang up at the temporary termini of the roads, and they needed, we were informed, among other things, a supply of milk. Our intention to emigrate west was again stimulated by these reports and in the spring of '70 just after the golden spike had been driven near Ogden, we set out on our long trip. We had, together, a herd of some twenty milch cows. Cheyenne was our objective point. And here end my experiences and recollections of the pioneer days of Grand Island.

REMINISCENCES OF A HALL COUNTY PIONEER

BY NORMAN REESE

I was born in 1840 in Dane County, Wis- consin. In 1858 my father leased me to the Great Venabury Consolidated Shows for two years, in my 18th year. I was with another boy of my own age. We played together as horizontal bar performers as the Postering Brothers. Our parents received $75.00 per month during our traveling season of five months and $25.00 per month while in winter quarters. My father had been studying medi- cine in the University College at Madison and oogle Digitized by

HISTORY OF HALL COUNTY NEBRASKA

received his diploma in 1858. In 1860 my father who did not own a home, decided to go into the far west. He purchased two wagons with heavy canvas coverings and a tent, a stove, break plow, and a few tools that we would need in a new country, with two yokes of oxen, one yoke of cows, household effects, provisions to last over the journey, and a supply of drugs and medicines to last for a period of two years, and we started out. The first week we made about six miles of progress a day. We never saw a mile of rail- road after leaving the capital of Wisconsin until the Union Pacific went through Nebraska in August 1866. When we came to the Loup River near Columbus we found but a few dwellings at Columbus. Incidentally when we arrived, the man who conducted the ferry was on a spree, and wanted $5.00 to take us across, and this was more than my father had. He was, therefore, obliged to go 15 miles up the Loup River to the Genoa crossing. There at the Pawnee Reservation we saw the Pawnee tribe, the first Indians with which we came in contact. The man here ferried us across for $2.00. There was a company of United States soldiers protecting the reservation against hostile Sioux, Cheyennes, and Coman- ches, which tribes were on the war path against the Pawnees. When we reached Eagle Island, the stage station, a band of Pawneees were on the other side of the Platte River after a herd of antelope, and a band of Sioux attacked them and stole them from them. The Pawnees came upon us just as we were camping, and impudently surrounded our little caravan and relieved us of all our provisions. A little later two Pike's Peak gold seekers joined our company, camped with us, and gave us the first Buffalo meat we ever ate.

ARRIVING AT GRAND ISLAND

We proceeded to make our way to the city of Grand Island, for my father had an old acquaintance who had come out from Dane County, Wisconsin, in 1858, in old Squire Land, who kept a stage station 35 miles east of Fort Kearny. We really came out on the urging of Mr. Lamb, who had written my

father that there would be a letter with money at the Grand Island post office. When, there- fore, we arrived at Grand Island, we were unable to find the city, but saw a lone shack on the north channel of the Platte, south of where Grand Island is now located. When we asked how far it was to Grand Island the man said we were there, and informed my father that he was post master. His post office was a cracker box partitioned off. His name was John Schuler. He declared that there was one letter in the post office and that was for my father. It contained $2.00 "Shin Plasters."

There were very few settlers in Wood River Valley at that time, and they were five to eight miles apart. We selected a site and with the aid of my father's neighbors, he was not long in putting up a log cabin 22 feet long and 18 feet wide with a thick roof of Nebraska shingles (sod). Fort Kearny, 35 miles or so west, was the nearest trading point, there be- ing the settlers' store, controlled by the gov- ernment, and the only trading place until Mr. Koenig and Mr. Wiebe erected a large, log store at Grand Island (O. K. Store). To the west, the early settlers who came in 1860 and took up claims on Wood River, were Richard, Anthony, and Patrick Moore, and James Jack- son, Judge Beal and his family, settled on Wood River, a man by the name of Townsley, foster father of Mrs. William Eldridge, with his family, settled on what is known as the Gallup farm. Mrs. Eldridge's parents had died when she was seven years of age, and an aunt took her to raise when she was twelve. This aunt joined a colony of Mormons and left England bound for St. Louis, but died on the way over. The Mormons brought the waif with them on a steam boat bound for Florence, Nebraska, just north of Omaha, where a church train of Brigham Young was waiting for them. A church train consisted of thirty wagons and a Mormon preacher to each train, holding services each evening on the journey. At Florence this orphan child was noticed by Mr. Townsley, a government interpreter, who received the consent of the Mormons to adopt her and took her to his home on the reserva-

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tion. She lived there with the Townsley family among the Indians, learning their lan- guage, customs, and tricks. The adopted child moved to Wood River with the Townsley family. There she met William Eldridge, who had settled in that locality in 1858. A ro- mance formed and their marriage was one of the first in the county.

OTHER EARLY SETTLERS IN THE WOOD RIVER VALLEY

After the Moores came Edmond O'Brien and John Maher. A few years later Mrs. Keefe, with her family of three children, lo- cated on a claim just south of Richard Moore. Ted Oliver, his wife, brothers, and sisters, and mother, and a family by the name of Owens, who were enroute to the Great Utah Valley stopped here. They believed in the Mormon religion but had not joined the church and were making the trip independently. They located on Wood River, two miles east of Wood River Center, now known as Shelton, and located in Wood River in the spring of 1861. Jim Jackson at this time kept a gro- cery store on his farm and he was appointed .post master of the community, which was then known as White Cloud. The post office remained in this store until the railroad came through, when he built a new store on the new town site and a post office established there was called Wood River. A man by the name of Berry located on the claim now owned by Paddy Francis, who in 1861 sold or traded his claim to Mike and James Crane.

OUR FIRST FARMING

The first year we were here my father broke sod and planted corn with an old axle. That year we didn't raise anything because we had a drought, but there were thousands of buffaloes, deer, antelope, and elks roaming the plains and we made our living from their meat. Every cabin from the mouth of Wood River to Jim Boyd's ranch, which was the last house on the north side of the Platte, was decorated with buffalo and antelope meat dry- ing for future needs. We also had a barrel of corned buffalo meat.

In 1861, the next year, father went at the rock back and forth.

farming operations again. He marked his ground off with a yoke of oxen. Father had done some blacksmith work so he made a cultivator out of two old spades which he got hold of up at Fort Kearny. I held the plow, my youngest sister drove the ox, one sister whipped him up. We put a mule collar on the ox, father had made a crude shovel plow out of old broken spades, and by giving the shovels just the right twist it could be used, and thus we got along in such a way as to get a crop in and get it cultivated.

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History of Hall County, Nebraska, Part 13

Author: Buechler, A. F. (August F.), 1869- editor Publication date: 1920 Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Pub. and Engraving Co. Number of Pages: 1011

Author: Buechler, A. F. (August F.), 1869- editor
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., Western Pub. and Engraving Co.
Number of Pages: 1011