History of Hall County, Nebraska, Part 15

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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DURING THE LAST YEARS OF IN- DIAN OCCUPATION IN PLATTE VALLEY

BY W. E. MARTIN, Doniphan, Nebraska

Our father came to this county in 1862. He had arrived in the United States from England in 1850, and lived first in Henn County, Illinois, and then from there he sti- tled in Fremont County, Iowa, Sidney being the county seat. From there he came to Hall County and located. In the meantime he had crossed the plains a number of times and would go up this valley when travelling from the Missouri River on the cut-off road from Nebraska City. That road came in south of the Platte, entering Hall County where Clar- ence Lowery lives now. That is how he got the idea of locating in this vicinity. In passing several times, when going back and forth with a load or empty wagon on trips from Ne braska City to Denver, he would go past the place at which he afterwards located. H came out here and he told my brother Na thaniel and a smaller boy, "Here is a good place to locate in the future" indicating righ where he did locate. He would go right u this valley where there was a good stretch o country. In August, 1862, he went up tha Digitized by'

HISTORY OF HALL COUNTY NEBRASKA

valley and stopped right there. His location was in Township 13, in Martin township, where Fred Weaver lives now. When he reached that place, he jumped out of the wagon, with a spade in hand, and remarked, "I am going to dig a well here."

AN EARLY SERVICEABLE WELL

To Robert and Nathaniel the larger boys, he spoke. "You boys unhitch the team here. I am going to dig a well right here by the side of the road." That was the public road to Denver. He threw the dirt out with a

down. There was considerable travel went by on that road during those years in the decades of the 'sixties and the 'seventies. The emi- grants, stage passengers, hunters or trappers would stop at that old well for years. Like an oasis in a desert, that well with its buckets of clear water was welcomed for nearly two decades. The water was secured by using the buckets until we got our first pump. Mr. McAllister, a hardware man at Grand Island, had a patent pump which he put in. He came down and going over closer to the house put in a drive pump.

AN INDIAN VILLAGE

short handled spade and worked until he got a well fifteen feet deep. Then he took a salt barrel out of the wagon, and knocked the heads out and sank the barrel down in the sand until he had it full of seeping water. The Platte River was lower than the end of his hole and he had only to make it fifteen feet deep until he struck water. He then took the sand out of the inside of the barrel and in only a few minutes had that barrel full of water so you could dip the water out, with a bucket tied to a rope. In years after that well became established as a place to draw water. Nathaniel cut cord wood to make a wall for the well, and we curbed it up, fifteen feet deep. Got the inside curbed up so it wouldn't cave in.

That old well was used nearly twenty years. We had the buckets fixed on a rope, so one bucket would come up and the other would go

OUR EARLY NEIGHBORS

As I said, it was in 1862 that father located there. He first built a sod-house by the side of the public road. After we lived about three years in the sod house we got a better place. We broke prairie in 1863. In 1864 we planted some cottonwood trees on the place. I well remember that I planted one little tree which was then about seven or eight inches in height. It still stands there, a remarkably large tree, after its thirty years vigil on the prairie. The other boys planted a couple others, which are still there, prob- ably thirty feet west of the larger one. They may be about a third of the thickness of this first tree I mentioned, but they were planted at the same time. This one had a better chance to spread out and make a good growth.

When we built the second house we built

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a log structure, using cottonwoods off the island above us.

During the early days my father was there neighbors were rather scarce articles. A man by name of Nabin, who figured in the buffalo- hunt story narrated by Mr. Binfield in his story of our family and beginnings of Martin township, lived about four miles from father's location. Bissell was a ranchkeeper on west there, near Dobetown in Buffalo County, about 22 miles on. There was nobody on west there in our locality and on that side of the river. There was no one living east, when father first came there, until you got down in the York vicinity. A Mr. Foucks lived down in there. The O. K. Store and the German settlements of 1857-1858 and so forth were to the north and northeast of us.

There was an old man by name of George Brown had a claim down in there near us. Charles Jerome came about 1867 and bought out his rights. W. J. Burger came to the Doniphan vicinity in 1864, and homesteaded. Of course the country gradually settled up after that.

INDIAN VISITORS

Of course our experiences and observations of Indians were generally with those of the Pawnee tribes. The Indians generally came from the south. The Pawnees moved east- ward and westward through this part of the state. Their reservation, when they got one, and their general camping grounds, were on north of the river and eastward from here. Their reservation was up in Nance County. When they went after buffalo they would go southwestward toward the Republican River, where the good buffalo territory lay. They would go through about twice a year on such an errand. About the 15th or 20th of May, these Pawnee Indians would go on their spring buffalo hunt to secure enough buffalo meat for their summer's supply. In the fall, about October, they would go back over the same ground, going through here southwest- ward, to get buffalo for the winter. When they went back they would cross the Platte River and go back to their reservation quar- ters in what is now Nance County. They

would travel through in bunches numbering as high as a thousand.

THE INDIANS' OUTFIT AND CUSTOMS

The main feature of their outfit was their mode of transporting the freight they needed, and riding facilities. For those purposes they used innumerable ponies. The ponies had fastened to them long poles which hung by a belt around the girth. The poles were fastened to that belt. They would let the other end of the poles drag in the dirt, and these poles would generally be about 18 or 20 feet long. They pulled principally on the band around the waist, with sometimes a breast strap around the front to reinforce, which would hold the pole up in better shape. Then they would load their meat or other articles on these poles. Sometimes they would have a supply of extra ponies for riding purposes. But the freighting ponies were the mainstay of the outfit.

LET THE WOMEN DO THE WORK

The Indian let the women do all of the work. Any work that a woman could do would be beneath the Indian to do. He simply carried his bow and arrow, and quiver, and did nothing else. He was the provider of meat and foods and the warrior to afford protection or glories of conquest to the tribe. The squaw was designed to do all of the manual work, and she did it all. The Indian would put forty or fifty arrows in a leather bag. This bag reminded one of the golf stick bag used nowadays. They were a great deal like the carrier used now in playing golf, for holding the golf sticks. They would place them so the leather kept the points of the arrows from going through. While the squaw carried and prepared all of the meats and hides, and took care of all of the luggage, in addition to carrying the papoose around if there was one, the Indian would go out to shoot birds. As to carrying the papoose, while there on that subject. The papoose was carried on the back, strapped to a board. If the squaw stopped to do any work, the papoose might be left strapped to the board, which was set up against the tent. The squaw would then go on about Digitized by pogle

HISTORY OF HALL COUNTY NEBRASKA

her work. There the baby was, strapped to that board, and there he might be left for hours, or most of the day. A most remarka- ble Indian trait, even in infancy, was that you would never hear the baby cry. If you lived close enough to them to observe and became familiar with their habits, you would find the Indian very harsh toward his women, his children, and even his dogs and ponies.

The dogs they used were generally of a terrier class, small, alert, and faithful. When the dog was spoken to, he generally obeyed. But if the dog transgressed, he received harsh treatment at once. The Indian might tell the dog to go back and lay down. If there was not that instant compliance that the master required, he would take his tomahawk and aim at Mr. Dog. The Indian carried this tomahawk which had a blade like a hatchet, and a head for his pipe on the other end. If the dog did not render instant obedience, he would soon feel the tomahawk. When the Indian hit the dog, he did not care if it did kill him. The Indian wouldn't eat a dead dog if he had any other meat and the spur of ne- cessity was not urging such a course. If they were dreadfully short of food it might be dif- ferent, but if not short enough of food, the dog would be promptly thrown away.

The same way with the children. The little papoose was trained to stand a great deal, and might be left strapped to the board all day. But there would be no whimpering. In the even- ing time it would be taken off the board and the mother would lay the board to one side and take care of it, and then put it back on the board the next morning. You hardly ever heard one of the children cry. There might be three or four children playing or working around the tent, but you would hardly ever hear one of them cry. The Indian was boss over all. Whatever he said would go, and go whenever he said so. There was none of the teasing or chafing so common among our children of this twentieth century generation.

THE INDIAN'S CAMP

In establishing their camp, the Indians we had through here generally took a lot of those

poles the ponies had been pulling all day. They stuck these in the ground and brought the ends together, with the bottoms scattered enough, so they circled around at the bottom and came together at a common point at top. This made a cone-shaped frame-work for the tent. Then they would use for covering sufficient buffalo robes to form sides to the cone-shaped tent.

This buffalo robe they had made from the hides they tanned before then. These were sewed together inasmuch as necessary with sinews they had pulled out of the flesh of the buffaloes. They used these sinews for thread. They also used them for making bow strings and for whatever threads they needed for their usual purposes. Those sinews were a dried fiber out of the buffalo's back, right down the middle of the back, and were three or four feet long. They would open that part of the flesh and pull them out. They would put that in water and clean the blood off, and dry it in the sun and pull out into threads; and they would twist that into plenty of good strong strings. It made a good strong thread. It was stouter than our linen threads and as strong and durable as any silk thread you could get. They made the buffalo hides with this thread, also used it for making blankets and mocassins. The squaws did all of this work.

THEIR EVENING MEAL AND MENU

When the tent was properly placed the even- ing meal was prepared. The Indian's common items for his menu were buffalo meat, soups, and cracked corn. They liked to take cracked corn and make a corn soup with it. Some- times when they could get the corn meal they would have a corn-bread very like our own, and even pancakes. They would take a hot flat rock, place it up at the fire and plaster their batter on it, or place their dough on it to bake. If they could get a skillet, the white man's invention, so much the better and more acceptable. Sometimes they would take a rock and scoop out the center, in which they would prepare the soup. They used this rock or stone kettle very frequently.

When they came to eat they had a spoon

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made out of a buffalo's horn; they cut the horn. at such a place as to make the spoon properly crooked. By cutting the horn in two pieces at the right place they would have a spoon very much like our largest table spoons, and would eat out of that. A person would be surprised at the number of little things they devised, so much like our kitchen utensils.

PREPARING CLOTHING AND MEATS

Their moccasins were made up as nicely as they posibly could be. The squaws would do all such work; the Indian would know nothing about it. The squaws would make all of the moccasins, and some of them were splendid articles. The squaws would also tan all of the beaver hides and skins. The Indian only had to hunt and be the warrior. It was for him to go out and shoot the buffalo, elk, deer, antelope, and to bring home the material from which the squaws made the clothes and prepared the meat. In this last operation they were rather skillful.

They dried buffalo meat by cutting it into slices, cross-wise of the grain. These very thin slices were then salted and placed in a barrel of brine and left in that brine, maybe two nights. They used a wire, or sinew line, possibly thirty or forty feet in length, and hung the slices in the sun to dry, for about twenty-four hours, then had meat so it was ready for use.

"A BROKEN AXLE" BY SAMUEL C. BASSETT

(Mr. Bassett is now President of the State His- torical Society, and a few years ago was author of a splendid history of Buffalo County, our next-door neighbor to the west. The following story is a sort of border-line story, which belongs to either Buffalo or Hall county, as the Olivers became identified with the history of both counties.)

In 1860, Edward Oliver, Sr., his wife and seven children, converts to the Mormon faith, left their home in England for Salt Lake City, Utah. At Florence, Nebraska, on the Mis- souri River a few miles above the city of Omaha, they purchased a traveling outfit for emigrants, which consisted of two yoke of oxen, a prairie-schooner wagon, and two

cows; and with numerous other families hav- ing the same destination they took the over- land Mormon trail up the valley of the Platte on the north side of the river.

When near a point known as Wood River Centre (the first name of Shelton), 174 miles west of the Missouri River, the front axle of their wagon gave way, compelling a halt for repairs, their immediate companions in the emigrant train continuing the journey, for nothing avoidable, not even the burial of a member of the train, was allowed to interfere with the prescribed schedule of travel. The Oliver family camped beside the trail and the broken wagon was taken to the ranch of Joseph E. Johnson, who combined in his per- son and business that of postmaster, merchant. blacksmith, wagonmaker, editor, and publisher of a newspaper (The Huntsman's Echo). Johnson was a Mormon with two wives, a man passionately fond of flowers which he cultivated to a considerable extent in a fenced enclosure. While buffalo broke down his fence and destroyed his garden and flowers, he could not bring himself to kill them. He was a philosopher, and, it must be conceded, a most useful person at a point so far distant from other sources of supplies.

The wagon shop of Mr. Johnson contained no seasoned wood suitable for an axle and so from the trees along Wood River was cut an ash from which was hewn and fitted an axle to the wagon and the family again took the trail, but ere ten miles had been traveled the green axle began to bend under the load, the wheels ceased to track, and the party could not proceed. In the family council that succeeded the father urged that they try to arrange with other emigrants to carry their movables (double teams) and thus continue on their journey.

The mother suggested that they return to the vicinity of Wood River Centre and arrange to spend the winter. To the suggestion of the mother all the children added their entreaties. The mother urged that it was a beautiful country, with an abundance of wood and water, grass for pasture, and hay in plenty could be made for their cattle, and she was

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sure crops could be raised. The wishes of the mother prevailed, the family returned to a point about a mile west of Wood River Centre, and on the banks of the river con- structed a log hut with a sod roof in which they spent the winter. When springtime came the father journeyed to Utah, where he made his home and married a younger woman who had accompanied them from Eng- land, which doubtless was the determining factor in the mother refusing to go.

The mother, Sarah Oliver, proved to be a woman of force and character. With her children she engaged in the raising of corn and vegetables, the surplus being sold to emi- grants passing over the trail and at Fort Kearny, some twenty miles distant.

In those days there were many without means who traveled the trail and Sarah Oli- ver never turned a hungry emigrant from her door, and often divided with such the scanty store needed for her own family. When rumors came of Indians on the warpath the · children took turns on the house top as lookout for the dreaded savages. In 1863 two settlers were killed by Indians a few miles east of her home. In the year 1864 occurred the memorable raid of the Cheyenne Indians in which horrible atrocities were committed and scores of settlers were massacred by these Indians only a few miles to the south. In 1865 William Storey, a near neighbor, was killed by the Indians.

Sarah Oliver had no framed diploma from a medical college which would entitle her to the prefix "Dr." to her name, possibly she was not entitled to be called a trained nurse, but she is entitled to be long remembered as one who ministered to the sick, to early tra- velers hungry and footsore along the trail, and to many families whose habitations were miles distant.

Sarah Oliver and her family endured all the toil and privation common to early set- tlers without means in a new country, far removed from access to what are deemed the barest necessities of life in more settled com- munities. She endured all the terrors incident to settlement in a sparsely settled locality,

and in which the coming of such savages was hourly expected and dreaded. She saw the building and completion of the Union Pacific railroad near her home in 1866; she saw Ne- braska become a state in the year 1867. In 1870 when Buffalo County was, organized her youngest son, John, was appointed sheriff, and was elected to that office at the first election thereafter. Her eldest son, James, was the first assessor in the county, and her son Ed- ward was a member of the first board of county commissioners and later was elected and served with credit and fidelity as county treasurer.

When, in the year 1871, Sarah Oliver died her son Robert inherited the claim whereon she first made a home for her family, and which, in the year 1915, is one of the most beautiful, fertile farm homes in the county and state.

A DREAM LAND COMPLETE

Dreaming, I pictured a wonderful valley,

A home making valley few known could compare; When lo! from the bluffs to the north of Wood River

I saw my dream picture - my valley lies there.

Miles long, east and west, stretched this wonderful valley

Broad fields of alfalfa, of corn, and of wheat. 'Mid orchards and groves the homes of its people; The vale of Wood River, a dream-land complete.

Nebraska, our mother, we love and adore thee; Within thy fair borders our lot has been cast. When done with life's labors and trials and pleas- ures,

Contented we'll rest in thy bosom at last.

(The foregoing taken from pp. 27-29, Nebraska Pioneer Reminiscences.)

A FEW GLIMPSES OF EARLY LIFE IN HALL COUNTY

One of the interesting characters of Grand Island's early days is a man whom we all know as Jack Anderson, but whose real name is William Anderson, who has been living at the soldiers home for some years past. Anderson was a member of Company E, Second United States cavalry, during the Civil War.

Mr. Anderson, in reply to a query, casual- ly remarked that the Soldier's Home was the only home he had, and was about as good a

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home as a man could ask for. Having ex- pressed a feeling of gratitude for such a home, a word or two of comment over his services aroused the curiosity of the reporter, and it required only a few questions to reveal that he was a man with a rather remarkable re- cord of service not only during the war, but with reference to the building up of the great west. And the following story was finally worked out of Anderson :

In brief he was born at Bedford, Pennsyl- vania, and enlisted in the company mentioned and served the full five years and was honor- ably discharged two days after Lee sur- rendered. His discharge notes he participated in thirty battles. At the expiration of the war, things became too dull for Jack, and he served three more years in the wilds of Ne- braska and Wyoming. His discharge from this service in amplified by a note from A. E. Bates, first lieutenant, and adjutant of the Second Cavalry to the effect that Anderson was an excellent soldier, an honest, upright and reliable man.

Mr. Anderson states that after he was hon- orably discharged for the second time, there was a vacancy in the transportation depart- ment, and says Mr Anderson, "I was told to go to Omaha, where the headquarters of the department of the Platte now were, when Adjutant Bates gave me a slip informing whom it may concern, that I was competent, and I got the job. Bill Cody was at the time a scout, and he and I worked together for a year and a half, I in the transportation de- partment and he as a scout. Later the posts were abandoned and I lost my job, and that is the end of my services."

Mr Anderson came from there to Grand Island in February 1870, having now been a resident of this city for 49 years. He says the first place he stopped was at the old Michel- son hotel, of which James Michelson, the father of Fred Michelson, and builder of the Michelson block, was owner. Mr. Anderson desired to engage in the retail liquor business and wanted someone to draw up his papers. He was introduced by Mr. Michelson to Governor Abbott, as "my lawyer" and from that day

to this the governor and Anderson, both com- rades in the days of the country's trial, have been constant friends.

Mr. Anderson was in the saloon business during the 'seventies in Grand Island, and his place of business was the center of many exciting chapters of the early history. in the free, easy, and noisy days. He built a large house between where Fifth and Sixth streets and Cleburn and Elm streets now run. This place became very notorious and as it was so far "out on the prairie" in the early 'seventies, it was called the "Prairie House." This site has recently been selected for the new High school, and the old building stand- ing there, with all the others since erected on that block, will soon be removed.

GOES INTO BUSINESS

Mr Anderson went into the saloon business that year, in 1870, on the corner of Front and Pine streets, near what was known in the early days as the Pat Dunphy building. He was there about two years and then removed to the story and half frame building which the Mobleys had erected at Locust and Third. the present site of the Tucker and Farnsworth drug store, for the Independent. The print- ing office occupied the upper portion of the building and Anderson's parlor for liquid and sometimes turbulent, refreshment, the lower portion of the building. At that time there was only a couple of buildings on the north side of the town. When he first arrived, the only house was the property originally built by Mrs. Mobley for the printing establish- ment.

The old Union Pacific eating house was then on the north side of the present Front street. near Pine street. The Nebraska House, com- monly known as the Michelson Hotel, was located on the present southwest corner of Front and Pine streets, and was operated by James Michelson. After the old U. P. eating house was moved away, another eating house was built further east, down by the depot. which stood east of the present freight depot. In the early 'seventies upon Anderson's ven- ture into the saloon business, he had four

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competitors, a bar maintained in the Michelson Hotel, Kraft's place on the site of the present Commercial State Bank, Bassett's Sample rooms under the Clarendon Hotel, and Cor- nelius Iver's billiard hall on Third street.

A Dane by the name of Thomsen ran a hotel called the Herman House on Pine street. He was a jolly, good-natured fellow, with a fairly good education. One time he got up a card and threw it around the saloon rather freely. His place was next to John Fonner's livery barn, which went under the title of "American Feed, Livery and Sale Stable." Those were times when so many homesteaders were going through and it was difficult at times to get a team to take one out of town to look at a piece of land, and resource was generally had to bronchos that Michelson or Fonner might have available. The card which Thomsen distributed read something like this: "When you come to Grand Island you got to go someplace to stop- you just come to the Herman house. And here you get good board and cheap lodgings. When you see what you don't want, just ask for them. Then you want to ride in the country out - John Fonner, next door, he's got some troubles what'll take you out before you start away."

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History of Hall County, Nebraska, Part 15

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