History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 62

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

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Among the persons prominent in territorial affairs, who were present at the meeting, I recall Joseph L. Sharp, Hiram P. Bennet, Bird B. Chapman and Napoleon P. Giddings-all of whom have passed away, except Judge Bennett, who is a prominent lawyer in Denver, Colorado. Few of the partici- pants in that meeting remain in Richardson county.

Cicero said of death : "Some men make a womanish complaint that it is a great misfortune to die before our time. I would ask what time? Is it that of nature ? But nature indeed has lent us life, as we loan a sum of money, only no certain day is fixed for payment. What reason then to complain, if she demands it at pleasure, since it was upon this condition that we receive it ?".

Respectfully yours,

J. STERLING MORTON.

The above letter addressed to W. H. Stowell, editor of the Pioneer Record, appeared in its issue bearing date of May, 1894.

OFFICIAL DIRECTORY, 1866.

From Vol. I, No. 25, of the Southern Nebraskan, (by J. C. and N. O. Pierce) published in Falls City, under date of .August 28, 1866, we take the following official directory for Richardson county :

Judge of the district court, Hon. E. S. Dundy ; probate judge, Hon. C. F. Walther; county treasurer, D. R. Holt ; county clerk, W. H. Mann ; sheriff, J. M. Siglin ; prosecuting attorney, J. J. Marvin ; county surveyor, A. Mich- aels and O. W. Dunning; county commissioners, William R. Cain and H. E. Moritz; school examiners, J. J. Marvin, D. R. Holt and F. M. Williams.

POSTOFFICES AND POSTMASTERS, 1866.

Falls City, N. O. Pierce; Rulo City, W. D. Searles; Arago, C. F. Walther; St. Stephen, W. H. Mann; Elmore, L. B. Prouty; Salem, J. C. Lin- coln : Miles Ranche, B. W. Page ; Middleburg, S. C. Duryea ; Monond, Joseph Watton; Monterey, L. M. Bremen; Long Branch, Frank Ferguson; Hum- boldt, Lucelia Tinker.

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RULO CITY OFFICERS, 1868.

Mayor, W. D. Searle; city clerk, E. H. Johnson; treasurer, James Hos- ford; marshal. J. W. Stanton; aldermen, W. D. Scott, J. Shaff, William Smith, D. T. Easley, A. P. Forney and Hugh Boyd.

From the Nebraska Register, published by C. A. Hergesheimer, at Rulo, under date of August 13, 1868, we find the following county directory :

District judge, O. P. Mason ; district attorney, Isham Reavis: probate judge, William Van Lne; county treasurer. D. R. Holt : county clerk. W. H. Mann; sheriff, George Faulkner ; county surveyor. A. J. Currence; coroner. H. Burnam; school superintendent, J. B. Masalsky; school examiner, J. J. Marvin; county commissioners, Jacob Shaff, George Gird and H. E. Moritz.

THE FIRST MAIL.

The first mail to reach Falls City under contract, was brought by the route over which Stephen B. Miles, Sr., had supervision. In fact, Colonel Miles wa sawarded the contract for the first United States mails carried in the West. He began as early as 1852 with a contract to carry the mail from Independence. Missouri (adjoining the present Kansas City), to Salt Lake City, Utah. It required exactly one month to make the trip. In 1853 he was given the supervision of the mails between this place and St. Joseph Mis- souri, and out to what is now known as Beatrice. Nebraska. As part pay for this labor, Mr. Mites accepted what was called "mail grant land." con- sisting of a section of land at intervals. By this means he acquired title to considerable land, and as the government wasn't particular and Mr. Miles had good judgment, the result was he made good selections, which proved the foundation of the vast Miles fortune. Mr. Miles located his home in Grant precinct. Richardson county, in 1856. was a resident of the county until his death and was accounted one of the wealthiest men in the state. Mr. Miles employed a large number of men and a huge equipment in the business of carrying the mail and continued to operate under the contracts held until 1868, when he retired from the business.

STORY BY AN EARLY SETTLER.

William R. Cain, of Falls City, who was the father of our townsman. Hon. J. R. Cain and Mrs. Laura B. Paxton, and who was among the first to

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settle in the prosperous town furnished the following description of the place as he remembered it after a lapse of thirty years:

St. Stephens was laid out as a townsite by Gen. Benjamin F. Loan and Stephen Story .in the spring of 1855. In September of the same year I visited the then new town consisting of one store kept by Stephen Nuckols & Company ; Houston Nuckols was in charge; a man by the name of Robert Archer kept a hotel; at that time these two houses constituted the town. When I was on this visit I was so charmed with the country that I built me a cabin adjoining the town tract, and in April, 1856, I landed in St. Stephens with my family and household goods. During that year Washington Morris built a house and Israel Price built and started a blacksmith shop. In 1857 J. W. Crane, of St. Joseph, started another store; during 1857-8-9 the town grew rapidly, reaching its highest growth in 1861, at which time it had two stores, one kept by Crane & Lewis, and the other by D. J. Martin ; two saloons. one kept by Henley Price and Henry Dunkes, the other was kept by George Cooley. Price & Dunkes called their house a "grocery store," but saloon was the best name. Henry Smith kept a blacksmith-shop; Allen Gleason kept the ferry on the Missouri river. In the year 1857 Houston Nuckols, Stephen Story and William P. Loan started a general land agency, dealing in land and town lots. In the spring of 1858 they had a public sale of land and town lots in St. Stephens. At this sale Duke Wheeler bought the land that he settled on the same year. The first sermon that was preached in the town was given by old Father Thomas, of the Baptist church. who then lived at Rulo. The first justice of the peace was John McFarlen. the second, Stephen Lyons, the third, William Morgan, the fourth, S. G. Lewis. the fifth, William R. Cain, who held the office for eight consecutive years and turned it over to his suc -. cessor without ever having an appeal from his judgment. Israel Price was the first constable. The first school was taught by William Bell; the next by William McMurren. In 1859 the first school board was elected with W. R. Cain, president of the board, who held an office on the school board for twenty-one years without a single break and refused to serve only when he moved to Falls City.

In 1858 Lewis Allegewahr and Henry W. Somerladd were sent out west by the German Emigrant Association of Buffalo, New York, and located the town of Arago one mile below St. Stephens on the river.

The first postmaster, as I remember, was T. C. Sicafoos, the first doctor was David Whitmire, later a resident of Rockport, Missouri. Among the prominent citizens, when it was in its prime, we mention the names of Aury

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Ballard, B. H. Dixon and his sons, Noah and Ballard; Doctor Whitmire, J. WV. Crain. William M. Morrison, D. J. Phillips, Press Marvin. Houston Nuckols, W. P. Loan, a lawyer : Price Dunkes, Stephen Lyons. S. R. Twist and Stephen Story, the original owner of the townsite.

STORY OF THE PROSPERITY OF A STURDY WELSH COLONY. By Eunice Haskins, of the Stella Press.

No colony in southeastern Nebraska ever played a more important part in the development of a new country than did the Welsh, who came to Richardson county from Pomeroy, Ohio, in the first three or four years following the Civil War, settling in a community known as Prairie Union. northeast of where is now located Stella, and about ten miles west of the Missouri river. Preceding the Ohio Welsh there came here from Wisconsin three Welsh families. David Thomas and David Higgins, who came together in 1859, and Daniel Davis who came in 1863. The Wisconsin Welsh made the entire journey by ox-team. They at once began to prosper and were most enthusiastic over the new country. Reports by Mr. Higgins or Mr. Davis were sent to a Welsh paper (Drych) printed in New York, and it was the reading of these reports by the miners of Pomeroy that led to the coming here of the Ohio Welsh. A colony of thirteen families settled within a radius of five miles in the territory east of Prairie Union, a number of others at Salem and some at Brownville.

When Daniel Davis started from Wisconsin fifteen dollars represented his entire amount of cash; he had provisions for the journey, a yoke of oxen and a pair of cows. He died on the morning of July 4, 1909, and left an estate valued at seventy-five thousand dollars. For forty-six years Mr. Davis lived continuously on the same farm.

There was a big colony of Pomeroy Welsh, who had come over from the old country to work in the coal mines. As they had been here but a comparatively short time they did not enlist in the Civil War, as did their American neighbors, so many of whom were away from home that the miners were paid higher wages than usual. During any time of idleness they dis- cussed opportunities for investment in land and the best place to go. Alex McGechie. a Scotchman, and some of his Welsh friends, from returning sol- (liers heard wonderful stories of the country about Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain, in Tennessee, and made a journey of investigation, but decided that section was better adapted to mining.

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Rev. John T. James was an important personage in bringing the settlers to Nebraska from Pomeroy. He and Caleb Reese came to investigate in Sep- tember, 1865, and contracted to buy six hundred acres of land at five dollars an acre. Reese and his family moved to Nebraska that same fall, taking up their residence at the old river town of Aspinwall, where soon after he was shot and killed at dusk one evening by a couple of drunken soldiers on their way to Ft. Leavenworth. They stated they had mistaken him for a wolf. Mrs. Reese gave up her contract for the large tract, but bought and resided on a quarter section in the Welsh settlement. She died a few years ago in Oklahoma. The wife of Reverend James was largely responsible for his western movement, as she had lived on a farm in the old country. She died in December, after his purchase here, but following her wishes to bring the sons up on the farm, he moved here the next summer.

Within the very next few years there came front Pomeroy the following twelve families, making many in the settlement from the same place: David N. Jones, Alex McGechie, John M. Lewis, Richard Morris, Jonah Jones, Edmund Williams, David N. Jones, David R. Jones, Samuel Brinible, James Evans, Robert Roberts, David Phelps, and Jolin Owens. All were Welsh except Mr. McGechie. The trip was made by water, as Pomeroy was on the Ohio, and Aspinwall in this state was made the landing point. At the time Mr. McGechie and others came, six weeks were spent on the boat. During two weeks of this time the boat was laid up on a sandbar, and three times on the journey the cargo was unloaded.

Of the above men named there is but one survivor today, Alexander McGechie, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, who was ninety years of age in April, 1917. Mrs. John M. Lewis, who, at the age of eighty-five, died at her home in Shubert in 1915, was the last surviving woman of the pioneers who founded the settlement. David N. Jones, the last surviving head of a Welsh family among the settlers, died in 1909 at his home seven miles north- east of Stella. He was born in Wales in 1832, came to America in 1837. and had lived continuously on the same farm since 1866.

These pioneers prospered and their families were an honor to the con- munity. Most of them, perhaps all, were of a devout religious nature; any- way two Welsh churches were founded in this community, Prairie Union and Pemiel ; the latter, during its existence, being about two miles northeast of the former. The homeseekers were quiet, peace-loving men. They stuck togetlier like a band of brothers, helping each other until new machinery made the necessity less. Alex McGechie, to the southeast of the settlement, and Sam Brimble, to the northwest, walked many and many a time through the tall

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wet grass in the morning to do a day's binding of grain, and the same may be said of other settlers.

These early pioneers kept attracting other Welsh people from Ohio. Among these were A. E. Evans, who had formerly been postmaster of Shubert, who moved west to be near his son, John M. Evans, cashier of the Farmers' State Bank of Shubert ; while he had another son, W. L. Evans, who was then superintendent of Nemaha county. Among the colony who set- tled at Salem was Miles Jones, at one time superintendent of public instruc- tion in this county. Another was Al Nance, a venerable riverman at Brown- ville.

Thomas Higgins was a devout and pious man. It was his dream that there should be a Welsh settlement in this community and that a Welsh church be founded. The coming of the Ohioans made his dream come true. At first, Sunday school was held in his residence, and as soon as the Higgins school house was built it was a place for holding Sunday school and religious services ; and next was Prairie Union church, built in the early seventies. Prairie Union was organized as a Welsh Baptist church, but as the younger people grew up it became English, and, although a country church, is today one of the strong Baptist churches of the state. Prairie Union in itself is quite a settlement. In 1904 the church was struck by lightning and burned and a year later a modern church was dedicated in its place. The church has stained-glass windows, is furnace heated and has its own lighting plant. There is a nice parsonage on an acre or two of land, a school and a cemetery. all within a short distance of the church, also the sexton's house. The ceme- tery is beautifully located and admirably kept. The parsonage is always occupied by a minister. The community is bright intellectually and the young people have always had the privilege of excellent schools. A number of these pioneers and their sons helped to build a farmers' elevator at McCandless Siding so as to have a point nearer than Shubert or Nemaha to market their grain.

Rev. John T. James was instrumental in organizing the Welsh Baptist church at Penuel, that organization being later than that of Prairie Union. But with the passing of the activity of the elder Welsh this church became 110 more. The church is no longer standing, but the cemetery is maintained and at the death of Reverend James his body was interred therein.

The roads at first were scarcely more than a trail or path and often the grass was tall and wet, or the path was filled with dust ; yet Mrs. Eliza- beth Higgins once recalled that it was a custom of the young ladies to go

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barefoot a part of the way to church if they walked in summer, carrying their shoes and stockings so as to protect them from the dust or dew. Once she had a silk jacket of which she was very proud. She recalls that on one of these trips it was ruined by a grasshopper that alighted on her back and ate a hole in the jacket. Her first Fourth of July in Nebraska was spent at Hillsdale, where a big barbecue was held, attended by the settlers from far and near.

path and often the grass was tall and wet, or the path was filled with dust; yet Mrs. Elizabeth Higgins recalls that it was a custom of the young ladies to go barefoot a part of the way, carrying their shoes and stockings so as to protect them from the dust or dew. Once she had a silk jacket of which she was very proud. She recalls that on one of these trips it was ruined by a grasshopper that alighted on her back and ate a hole in the jacket. Her first Fourth of July in Nebraska was spent at Hillsdale, where a big barbecue was held, attended by the settlers from far and near.

Mrs. Higgins was sixteen years of age when she came to the county and she and her chum, Miss Maggie Jones, later Mrs. William Wilkinson, of Lincoln, were the oldest girls in the settlement, and accordingly were very popular ; in fact they were the belles of the territory. Mrs. Higgins until her marriage three years later was her father's housekeeper. Corn bread and sorghum were the staple table food. Once she needed soda and was com- pelled to go to the home of David R. Jones, a distance of more than a mile, to borrow the same. On the way she saw two Indians coming on ponies. She was badly frightened and tried to hide in the tall grass. They saw her, but only grunted as they passed. She saw strapped on the saddle of each a half hog with the hair still on. They had just raided some farm and were making way with the stolen property. Singing schools provided social diversion in the early days. These were held at the Higgins school and there gathered many of the pioneer young people, the outgrowth of these meetings being the marriage of many of the young people who met there.

There was a large grove on the farm of Reverend James. The Indians had been in the habit of holding councils at this place and camping there and had taken every precaution to protect the same from fires. Along most of the streams, now covered with a good growth of timber, in those early days of the Welsh settlement there was not a tree, owing to the very frequent prairie fires.

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SOME EARLY EXPERIENCES.

By Jesse Crook.

Having visited Richardson county in 1854 and explored the Nemaha west as far as Salem and the Muddy to some extent, I returned with the others of the party to Missouri (Andrew county), where we spent the win- ter. In the spring of 1855 I returned to this county with my family and located a claim north of Falls City, the place where William Nutter now resides. I built a log cabin, fenced forty acres of ground and put out a garden of about an acre, all enclosed in the old-fashioned stake-and-rider fence. Mr. Leechman lived to the north and west. on the Muddy, on what was and is still known as the Leechman place, now occupied by Frank and Thomas Leechman, the former being the first white child born within the confines of Richardson county. Mr. Harkendorff lived up on the bank of the creek later the home of Mr. Fritz, and a man named Robinson lived on what is known as the Cain place. This was in the spring of 1855, and we were the first people to settle in this county. The elder John Rothenberger came into the county that year and settled east of the later location of Hum- boldt, adjoining the farm where has been held for many years the old settlers picnic. The younger John Rothenberger and Joseph Watton were little children, and he brought them with him. My claim was the first claim in the county. I built the first log cabin on a claim. The Iowa and the Sac and Fox Indians were very numerous in this section at that time, the reservation being just south of the town at that time.

Ambrose Shelly, John Miller, Wilts Maddox and myself located the town of Archer, and laid it out in lots and blocks. It became necessary to survey the Sac and Fox reservation again, as the lines were gone. In running the new lines it was found that the Missouri river had cut in about two miles at one place, and as that was the eastern boundary it threw the west line two miles further this way at that point, which took the town of Archer into the reservation and we had to abandon the site. Before that time we had had two terms of court there, Judge Black having held one term in 1855 and one in 1856. When the town of Archer was abandoned the county seat was located temporarily at Salem and the next term of court was held there. The county seat was maintained at Salem three months pending the election to permanently locate it. The first election was held and Falls City won it. Judge Dundy announced that he would go to Salem and bring the county seat back with him, but when he reached that place, he learned that the county

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elerk, a man by the name of DeShazo, had absconded the night before and with him had gone the county records, so Mr. Dundy could not get them. On his return here we put up an entire ticket, sheriff, elerk, legislators and all, held an election and elected everyone of them. When our men went to the Legislature they had another date arranged for a county-seat election and at that election Falls City was again victorious.

It was during one of these elections, or on the day one of them was held, April 16, 1860, that Thomas J. Meek and Jesse M. Davis were killed, the double tragedy .occuring at my hotel located on the site now occupied by the Richardson County Bank. I had built a hotel, where I kept boarders. and the shooting occurred there. Meek resided here, Davis was from Rulo and Dunn was from Salem and all were watching the election at this place. It was held at a little brick house owned by Judge Dundy, on the west side of Stone street, between what is now Sixteenth and Seventeenth streets in block No. 71. During the afternoon Ab Boyd, who had been drinking heavily. went up to Davis, who was a one-armed man, and grabbed his hat and pulled it down over his eyes. Davis got mad and pulled his gin and tried to shoot Boyd. Meek grabbed Davis by the arm and took the gun away from him and then Mr. Holbrook gave Davis his gun (all the men in town that day seemed to have guns), and instead of shooting at Boyd, Davis began to shoot at Meek with Holbrook's gun and Meek to shoot at Davis with his own gun.

They emptied their guns at each other and Davis was shot in the hip. Davis started to run and Meek stooped down and picked up a large-sized rock and hurled it at him. He dodged and reached down and picked up a board that had been used to play ball with (as a bat), and knocked Meek down. Davis went from there over to my hotel and went up stairs to bed. Meek went up street and procured two revolvers and came over to the hotel after Davis. He walked up stairs, kicked open the door and began to shoot at Davis who was in bed. I saw Dunn rimning up the stairs with a gun in his hand. He shot Meek once and Meek fell to the floor, Dunn stepped over him and Davis said, "Doctor, if you don't do something for me I am a dead man." Dunn made no reply, but stooping down, broke the rung from a chair. and with it in his hand walked down the stairs and started for Salem. He reached there safely and was never prosecuted for his part in the tragedy.

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AN HISTORIC ELM TREE. By F. W. Scimering.

My attention has been called to an elm tree on which it is said the famous explorers, Lewis and Clark, might have carved their names while making the ascent of the Missouri river in 1804.

I wish to state that the existence of this tree in the northeast corner of the county is a fact. It stands about three-quarters of a mile south of the "Indian Cave" in Barada township. I know whereof I speak, as the tree stood on my father's land and is standing there at this time; however, the land has changed ownership several times. I was born near this historic tree, within a stone's throw of the same, nearly forty years ago, and have played under its cooling shade many a time. My father acquired the land on which the tree is located in the year 1877, the year in which I was born.

My father came to Nebraska in the fall of 1865 from Louisiana, Pike county, Missouri, settling near this tree and the Indian cave and at once set to work to build a cabin. He returned to Missouri to bring his family, but on his arrival there found my mother too sick to make the journey and the trip was delayed until the following spring, at which time, after selling their household effects, they made the trip to St. Joseph by rail and from that point came the remainder of the way up the river on a steamboat, landing at the old historic town of St. Deroin, in the southeast corner of Nemaha county. They arrived at this latter place on the 8th day of May, 1866. The land my father had bought was heavily timbered and father was employed at first in the work of clearing and making the land ready for cultivation. This was slow and hard work, but father persevered and in time was rewarded for his many hardships with the ownership of more than one thousand acres of Nebraska land, all located in Richardson county. He retired from the land in 1893. removing to the village of Barada, where he died in 1912, at the age of seventy-nine years. He was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1833.

The elm tree in question was found growing in a sechudled spot by my father when he first came to Nebraska and he found the carvings on the tree and iron spawls and pins and also a horseshoe which was nailed on the tree. These were never removed and are firmly imbedded and grown over, being completely out of sight. My father said that the Indians came often to visit this particular tree and he heard from them that the markings had been made by Lewis and Clark and they seemed always greatly interested in the tree. It is now standing, and is seven feet in diameter across the stump. I often heard my father tell the story of the tree in his lifetime.

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History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 62

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