History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 61

Author: Edwards, Lewis C
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1742

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and the people were surprised one morning to see the vast army arise and wing their way into the distance, never to return. Crops were at once re- planted and because the season was favorable, the outcome in the fall was not so bad and gave reason for universal rejoicing among the people.

Stories of the work of the grasshoppers were as numerous as the yarns of a sailor, and as unbelievable-but at the time it was no laughing matter. among the people.

During the grasshopper scourge, the visitation of which spread distress and despair over the county in 1876-77, Judge J. J. Marvin, of Falls City, penned the following lines :

THE GRASSHOPPER RALLY.

We are coming, Uncle Samuel, three hundred billions more, To divest your fertile lands, from the mountains to the shore, We have whet our hungry bills and greased our supple thighs, We are bound to eat whatever across our pathway lies.

We are not the sons of sea cooks, that made King Pharaoh mad, But you bet your bottoni dollar, we are just three times as bad ; We've been studying progression, since the pyramidal age,

And loftier heights and broader fields, our efforts now engage.

We left the land of Palestine, as soon as we heard the news. That the Bible gave the privilege to those lank and hungry Jews, On whose grain we relied and expected to be fed That they might roast our tiny careases and turn them into bread.

FRANCIS WITH1EE, PLAINSMAN.

Francis Withee, a plainsman, tells the following story :

I crossed the Missouri river and landed at Brownsville the afternoon of June 27th, 1858. I was fourteen years old the following November and was born in the state of Ohio. I accompanied my father, stepmother, her mother and my brother, George, six years my senior. We had been living in Iowa, and were fourteen days on the way, stopping two days with friends in Wayne county. The trip was made with five yoke of oxen, and seven head of loose cattle, which were driven by myself.

My father had been reading from time to time in the New York Trib- une of the proceedings in Congress at Washington, about the Kansas- Nebraska bill, which became a law in 1854. The passage of this bill occu-

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pied much space in the paper at that time; the land coming in for entry and pre-emption and treaties with the Indians were discussed fully, and this led my father to come to this state to cast his lot. But after paying the ferryman at Brownville he had left only one dollar and seventy-five cents in money. The ferry fee at that time was one dollar for the wagon and team, and ten cents a head for the loose cattle, which meant those driven and not hitched to the wagon.

My stepmother had a sister living near Brownville, and to her home we went and stayed one month. Then a little log cabin was rented for four dollars per month, and most of the rent paid by team work for the owner. The log cabin was sixteen by eighteen feet, and this seemed to have been the prevailing size in those days.

I helped break prairie for ten breaking seasons, and in one season until late in the fall. I worked only in the breaking season, and in the ten years helped to break, or broke alone, altogether one thousand acres. I made my home with my father for twelve years after coming to Nebraska. We began breaking prairie the first fall we came here. An eighteen-inch Tiskiliwa rod plow was used, and instead of trucks we used a gange wheel requiring two persons to operate, one to drive the five yoke of oxen and the other to hold the plow, and I took my turn doing both. Many people used different kinds of trucks, which were to hold the plow steady. The truck was fastened to the beam in front, and when used, one man could manage the plow. Plenty of breaking plows of various makes were for sale at Brownville. They were worth from one dollar to one dollar and twenty-five cents an inch: consequently, an eighteen-inch plow was worth eighteen dollars. The price for breaking prairie fluctuated with different seasons, from two dol- lars and a half to three dollars. It was customary often to break twenty-five acres of prairie for a good yoke of oxen, valued at seventy-five dollars. It often took much longer for us to get our pay than it did to do the work. as the times were hard. Saying that money was scarce, would be putting it mildly. In the fall of 1858 my father bargained with C. E. L. Holms to break one hundred and twenty acres of prairie for sixty acres of land near Nemaha City, on the Missouri river. Myself and father broke ninety-five acres, gave Holmes a yoke of oxen and both parties called the deal square. My father traded two yoke of oxen and a wagon for eighteen acres north of the sixty acres already acquired: then he traded the house on this tract for a yoke of oxen. Later, he traded two yoke of oxen and a wagon. for seventy-seven acres of land, southwest of Nemaha City and about five miles north of the present village of Stella. This seventy-seven acres is a farm

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that sold two or three years ago for at one hundred and two and one-half dollars per acre. My father traded after a while this seventy-seven acres for the balance of the fractional section where was located his land near Nemaha City, there being about one hundred and sixty acres in the frac- tional section. To make this trade even, my father gave two yoke of oxen and broke ten acres of land.

CROSSING THE PLAINS.

I made three trips across the plams with freighting outfits, October I, 1862, in company with my brother, George, Artemus Armstrong, and Joe and Jim Coker. I went from Nemaha to Nebraska City to "whack bulls" to Denver. We remained at Nebraska City for ten or twelve days, waiting for freight to arrive on a steamboat. Thomas Fitzwater, from southwest of Brownville, near Bracken, was the wagon "boss." The wages for the men were twenty dollars per month for the round trip, or thirty-five dollars per month if discharged at Denver. Myself and brother and three of our friends took the thirty-five dollars per month proposition. We paid eight dollars each to ride in the return wagons from Denver to Nebraska City, clubbing together and boarding ourselves ; slept at ranches, occasionally in a stable, and a few times were out on the prairie at night. At that time beyond Kearney all prairie was called "sand hills."

On this trip the train consisted of thirteen wagons, with six yoke of oxen to each wagon. - The freight carried was powder, fuse, flour, whiskey, drugs, quartz, mill repairs and cast-iron plows. Forty-seven days were re- ynired to make the trip from Nebraska City to Denver and sixteen days for the return.

The freight wagons were ponderous, weighing two thousand one hundred pounds, and were on the "wide track." They were four inches wider than the ordinary farm wagons of today and were longer at the top than at the bottom by two feet. The bottom length was twelve feet.

On this first trip two bosses killed a buffalo at fifty-mile post, a name which indicated that that point was that distance from Kearney. This was near Mallaley's ranch, a place known to all freighters. We took with us as much of the buffalo meat as we could pack on a mule-perhaps two hind quarters. At another time on this trip Fitzwater, the wagon boss, traded a side of bacon for a buffalo ham. The younger generation sometimes believes the freighter feasted on all kinds of fresh meat and wild game as they crossed the plains, but this is erroneous. Cured meat was carried with

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the other provisions of the freighters and the two incidents cited above are the only times I recall of having fresh meat when freighting.

The ranch business in those days usually was a place that dealt a good deal in the supply of hay and whisky. Some kept clothing, canned goods and other supplies. The ranchers got hold of cattle with lame feet from the freighters, and did a "swapping" business with these cattle, when the animals had recuperated. Our train ranched cattle that were disabled, tak- ing a receipt from the rancher, who either later had to turn the cattle over to the owner or to make good to him their losses.

PAID IN GOLD DUST.

On my first freighting trip I was paid at Denver, in gold dust, at six- teen dollars per ounce. I disposed of the dust in Denver to speculator Jews at a value of fifteen dollars in greenbacks for an ounce of gold dust. I remember that on one of the trips a man bought some meat and had ten cents due him, and the ten cents was paid him in gold dust of that value, actual weight of it being made. Later, the man traded the gold dust for a pipe valued at twenty-five cents. Again the gold dust was weighed, and the weight this time made it have a value of fifty cents, different scales at the different times being used.

I freighted to Julesburg, Colorado, in the fall of 1864. T. S. Sloan, of Nebraska City, was the wagon boss, and there were thirty-four wagons. The start was made with eleven five-yoke teams and twenty-three six-yoke teams, which means there were three hundred and sixty-six head of cattle to transport this train. This was a hard trip. Snow fell for twenty-four hours on October 23 and 24, when the train was just east of Wahoo creek, in Saunders county, on the old government trail. Returning in December, myself and fellow freighters were caught in a blizzard between Salt creek and Stevens creek, near where is now the Nebraska State penitentiary, on the "steam wagon road." Wages were better than on the first trip-two dol- lars per day or sixty dollars a month, for the round trip; or one hundred and ten dollars a month with discharge at Julesburg. One dollar in gold at that time was worth two dollars and a half in greenbacks.

The last freighting trip I made was in the year 1866, when I went to Denver with Overton Brothers, of Nebraska City. Twenty-one six-yoke teams were in this train. The wagons were loaded with sugar, canned goods, cased liquors, candles and nails. The candles were made in St. Louis. The nails and heavy stuff were placed in the bottom of the wagons,

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and the candles and other light stuff placed on top. The teams left Nebras- ka City on September 14th and arrived there on the return trip on Thanks- giving Day. The wages on this trip were one dollar per day or forty-five dollars per month, discharge in Denver.

In my trips across the plains we left the cattle in winter quarters on the range. We came back with mules to haul our "grub" and blankets. We had to walk most of the way. On the Julesburg trip we left our wag- ons there and five of the boys took the cattle farther up the river to Moore's ranch. After they got the cattle to the ranch, Watts, the boss herder ; Elias Bills, of Wayne county, Iowa; John Coen, of Springfield, Illinois, and John R. Martin, bushwhacker, of Missouri, were killed in an Indian fight, and the cattle scattered. Alex Street, of Nebraska City, was the owner of the cattle-about three hundred and seventy-five head-and it cost him ten dollars to get them rounded up. All were found but seventeen head. Although the Indians caused all this blooshed and trouble, they didn't want the cattle, but it may be they killed one or two.

By the spring of 1863, my father by actual survey, had only fifty-five acres left of his one hundred and sixty-acre farm, the rest having been swal- lowed up in the Missouri river. The part that was left between Nemaha City and Brownville was traded for two hundred acres two and one-half miles northwest of where Stella is located, and to get a full half section, one hundred and twenty acres were broken for the necessary one hundred and twenty acres, and we came to this land to live, thus I have a continuous residence of nearly half a century on the same farm. The house built by my father in 1864, was taken down in the fall of 1907, to be replaced by a new house, in which was used some of the lumber from the old house. When I first came to my new home the nearest neighbors were three miles and a half distant. I was a member of the school board in my district for forty five years.

INDUCEMENTS FOR SETTLEMENT.

An impetus was given to settlement in Richardson county by a change in the land laws. In the year 1854, a settler could take one hundred and sixty acres and after living on it for six months, could buy it from the United States for one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre: this was called a pre- emption. In 1863, the homestead law went into effect. Under this a settler could take one hundred and sixty acres and have it free by living upon it for

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five years. In 1873 the timber claim act was passed. Under it one could get one hundred and sixty acrees by planting ten acres of it in trees and taking care of it for eight years. All three of these laws were in force from 1873 to 1891 and under them a settler could, in a few years, get four hundred and eighty acres of land. The land in this county, however, was taken up very early and but little of it was left for the operation of the later land laws. !

MAIL ROUTES AND POST ROADS.

One of the very necessary conveniences in a new country is some kind of a mail service that those coming may have communication with home, and the absence of it was no small drawback to the early pioneers of Richardson county.

Those first to arrive found this part of the West without local mail facilities, from the fact that prior to that time in 1854 the whole country west of the Missouri was "Indian country," and had not been opened to settlement. Nebraska at this time had but just been erected as a territory.

The first mail routes to cross what is now officially recognized as a part of Richardson county, were established by an act of Congress passed on the 3d day of March, 1855, just one year after the first of the pioneer settlers took up their abode on the banks of Muddy creek in section 36, of Ohio town- ship.

This first route, so important to the people in this part of the then terri- tory, started from Oregon, in Holt county, Missouri, to F't. Kearney on the Platte river, by way of Stephen Story's ferry in section 1, Arago township, on the Missouri river, between the two Nemahas, to Francis N. Purkett's, on the Muddy creek, near Archer; thence to John A. Singleton's on the Great Nemaha; thence west to the home of Christian Bobst, on the Great Nemaha. in the northwest quarter of section 25, township 1. north of range 12, but now included in what is known as South Fork precinct of Pawnee county. For quite a long period the entire west end of Richardson, now known as Pawnee county, received mail at the residence of Judge Christian Bobst on the South Fork of the Nemaha. From that place the mail was later carried to what is now Table Rock by Mrs. Lydia Holmes, nee Giddings, a daughter of Elder C. W. Giddings, the founder of Table Rock. She was the first mail carrier in that vicinity and is now at an advanced age, a resident of Kansas City, Missouri. This route continued on from the Bobst home to Marysville on the Blue river in Kansas.

Another route established at the same time was north from the Nemaha

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Indian agency, just south of the Nebraska-Kansas state line in Kansas, north by way of Stephen Story's home at the ferry, in what is now section I of Arago township, and on to Brownville, Nebraska City, Omaha City, Winter Quarters, Black Bird Hills, and thence north to the mouth of the Niobrara river.

On August 18, 1856, a route was established by act of Congress from the Missouri river at .St. Stephens, by way of Archer and Salem, west to Christian Bobst's and on to the Big Blue in Gage county.

Another mail route was established by an act of Congress on June 14, 1858, from Brownsville by way of Nemaha City, Nemaha county, to Archer, Ohio township; Falls City, Falls City township; Monterey, Porter township; Salem, Salem township; Pleasantville, South Fork precinct, Pawnee county, just west of Speiser township, Richardson county, and Pawnee City to Table Rock.

Another route was established to Nemaha City, Nemaha county, by way of Salem in this county and Archer and on to Topeka, Kansas.

Another was Brownsville south by Peru and Nemaha City in Nemaha county, to St. Stephens, St. Stephens precinct in this county and Winnebago in Arago township, Yankton, Rulo township, one and one-half miles north of the present village of Rulo and on to St. Joseph, Missouri. It will be observed that the towns mentioned on the line in this county were all towns located on the banks of the Missouri river.

Another was Archer, Ohio township; Geneva, Liberty township, and Shasta in Ohio township.

Another was from St. Stephens to Archer.

THE FIRST POSTMASTER.

The honor of being the first postmaster of Falls City must be assigned to John H. Burbank, who was succeeded by C. Norris. Following Mr. Norris the following have served : William Watts, N. O. Pierce, J. J. Marvin, John Wilson, George Van Deventer, M. A. Frank, George E. Dorrington. W. Riley Crook, L. A. Ryan, E. J. Holbrooke, Irvin Maust ( as bondsman to succeed Holbrooke, who had died), Asa Hollebaugh, Ellis O. Lewis, G. J. Crook, AAaron Loucks (as bondsman who succeeded Crook, resigned), and Charles C. Davis, the present incumbent now serving on the second year of his term.

The first postoffice was on lot 21, of block 70, near the public square. and none of the latter places of holding the office have been more than the

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length of a square from the same place. The second office was on lot 22, in block 68, the third in the old printing office, where later the Tarpley & Com- pany store was housed, and the fourth in the store of Reavis & Cameron, lot 12, block 71 ; its subsequent locations have been in Judge J. J. Marvin's house, lot 20, block 91; lot II, block 58, and lot 22. block 70, where it occupied a building on the west side of the second lot from the south side of the block. It was removed in the month of Juy of the present year ( 1917), to the new federal building on lots 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 of block 92.

EARLY CAMP MEETING IN RICHARDSON COUNTY.

Away back in the history of Richardson county, before Falls City was a place of any considerable commercial importance, when Archer was a flour- ishing town-when the county was comparatively "a howling wilderness," and Stephen B. Miles, Sr., David R. Holt and Uncle Isaac Crook and a few more of the "early birds" were the leading spirits at camp meetings and dances, there were many events transpiring, that in themselves were very simple and ridiculous, but yet, when called to mind, cannot fail to provoke a smile on the placid faces of some of our old residents.

In those days a prominent divine, named Chamberlain, was holding a camp meeting in a pleasant grove on the banks of the babbling Muddy creek, south of Archer, and, in order to make his arrangements complete, he appointed Uncle Isaac, a marshal. One day the flock so departed from the primitive style as to mingle together during preaching, and this not agreeing with the exquisite tastes of the divine, he reminded them that it was usual for the ladies to occupy the seats upon one side of the aisle and the gentlemen on the other. Uncle Isaac, as marshal, thought it was his duty to second the motion, and accordingly arose, and with all the gravity of a judge pro- nouncing a death sentence upon a culprit, said, "Yes, the preacher is right, so he is : sitting together puts bad notions in your heads, it does, so it does."

At the same meeting, one night, while a number of penitents were around the altar, and the minister was putting forth his best licks, David Holt drove up with å highly respectable lady in his buggy, and took his stand near the altar, so as to hear and see distinctly without alighting. During the service the minister saw some laughing, which he doubtless interpreted as scoffing, and became somewhat indignant, and with his finger pointed to the couple in the buggy, made some strong remarks, which Mr. Holt construed as ill-timed, whereupon he dismounted from the buggy and started for the

JOHN H. BURBANK.

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offender, who, anticipating the object of David's approach, fled for the brush, and managed, by the aid of brush and darkness, to evade his pursner until tired out, when he withdrew. In the meantime Uncle Isaac dismissed the meeting for the evening. Holt declined a private apology to the lady, whom he deemed highly insulted, and the minister was the next day required to make a public apology or sacrifice his scalp. He chose the first alternative, and was permitted to continue his revival unmolested.

INCIDENTS CONNECTED WITH THE BATTLE OF PADONIA. By Jerome Wilte, Sr.

In June, 1861, William Buchanan had his headquarters in a tent near the Harkendorff place, north of Falls City. I lived west of Falls City, until the middle of August, and then moved to Rulo precinct. Several horses had disappeared from different places that were owned by Union men, and it was evident that the cause of the Union had not been advanced by it. The people of the surrounding country determined to assist the Missourians and regain their property.

Bill Buchanan crossed the Nemaha at the falls and placed some of his spoils under guard there and had a large wagon load of flour left in a large covered wagon, secreted in thick brush. He then moved on toward Padonia, a small village south of Falls City. The aggrieved ones of Missouri and Nebraska followed him, accompanied by a few soldiers. At the falls they captured the jayhawker guard and what they guarded and hunted up the load of flour. Guards were left with these things and men placed as patrols. Then, the aggrieved parties proceeded to Padonia and captured the jay- hawker's supper and applied it to their own use, and slept. In the morning the scene underwent a change. Drury Easley, Charles Martin, E. H. Martin and others from Rulo, arrived at the grounds in time to station themselves among the plum bushes and witness the procedure. They returned home with their arms and ponies. Easley said the soldiers betrayed the citizens and helped the jayhawkers.

The guards at the Nemaha Falls, and the patrols, when they heard of the outcome of the meeting at Padonia, consigned what they had left to the waters of the Nemaha. They drove up the south side of the Nemaha with the wagon, intending to cross the river at Salem, but the jayhawkers pursued them and the men in the wagon threw out sack after sack of flour, as they were going to lighten the load, until it was all scattered, and did not return

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the wagon to Mr. Minnick until evening of the next day. Eli Plante said of the affair that he and Joshua Murray and Charles Hergesheimer brought the great battle to an end.

FIRST THRESHING MACHINE IN SOUTHEAST NEBRASKA.

Theodore Hill, a merchant of Brownville and a brother of Louis Hill, of Falls City, brought to Nemaha county, the first threshing machine sold in this district. He also shipped the first wheat by steamboat out of Nebraska to St. Louis. The threshing machine was purchased in 1860. It is believed to be the first one brought to Nebraska.

William Rieschick, Sr., now a resident of Falls City and one of the earliest pioneers of Richardson county, says that in 1863 he got a threshing machine from Buffalo, New York. This, he says, was the first threshing machine with a twenty-two-foot stacker in Nebraska.

Mr. Rieschick says that 1863 was a poor year for threshing machines as nearly all the spring wheat was destroyed by chinch bugs. His machine threshed about three bushels to the acre, was busy from morning till evening. and made from seven dollars to eight dollars per day. The machine went all the way from Arago on the Missouri river, westward to Pawnee City, a distance of about fifty miles. Mr. Rieschick made about four hundred and forty-nine dollars that season. He employed two hands and a team. In 1864 he collected one thousand one hundred dollars for threshing. The next year he sold the machine. The price for threshing was seven cents per bushel for wheat and five cents per bushel for oats. In recent years the price for thresh- ing has been five cents for wheat and three cents per bushel for oats, but for many years previously it was as low as four cents for wheat and two cents for oats.

VISIT OF SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE MORTON.

Department of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary. Washington, D. C., April 3, 1894.

Mr. W. H. Stowell,

Verdon, Nebraska.

Dear Sir:

Convey to the pioneers of Richardson county, who remain on this side of the "great majority," the assurances of my sincere and affectionate regard.

Perfectly well I remember my first visit to Archer, the then county seat

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of Richardson county, in 1855, to attend a political meeting at the house of the County Judge Miller. Then for the first time in my life I saw sweet potatoes grow upon Nebraska soil. They were the largest that I had ever beheld, and from that time to this I have never seen sweet potatoes as big as were those at Archer in 1855.

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History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 61

Author: Edwards, Lewis C Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1742

Author: Edwards, Lewis C
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1742