History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 68

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

USA > Nebraska > Richardson County > History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions > Part 68

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

It was dark when we reached the place for the crossing and as there was

703

RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

an old log stable on the south bank of the river, we put the horses in it and after feeding with corn we had in the wagon for the purpose, we prepared to cross over to Mr. Rothenberger's house, which stood not far from the river. Crook and Simpkins, both much larger and heavier than myself, got over all right, but when I made the attempt and had reached about the middle of the stream the ice broke under me, and I went down.

AN ICE BATH AND ITS SEQUEL.

I threw out my arms and caught the firm ice on each side and by a quick muscular exertion of my arms succeeded in throwing my body out of the water and on to the ice. I never could determine how I did it, but as I was young, active and a light weight, my quick movements prevented any serious consequences. Anyhow I got out of the river and over to the north side in double quick time, but my clothing was thoroughly soaked with water, and before I got to the house, short as the distance was, every rag on me was frozen as stiff as a board.

Mr. Rothenberger and his excellent family welcomed us to his hospit- able roof and, ascertaining my predicament from the cold bath I had just been treated to, a suit of Joe Watton's clothes was furnished me and a room provided in which to make the change, when the young ladies, and I think there were three of them, took mine to the kitchen fire, where they were dried and ready for use in the morning. I have never been more kindly treated, and I don't remember of a time when I needed it more. But I have a sequel to relate in connection with that fall in the river which I will attend to presently.

We passed an agreeable night with our friends and after a hearty breakfast in the morning we went over to Speiser precinct and put in an active day among the voters, assisted by Mr. Rothenberger, Joseph Watton and some others from both forks of the river, Long Branch, Easley creek and other points, and when the votes were counted Falls City had received a very comfortable majority. When the votes of the county were canvassed, Falls City was found to be not only one of the four for the next race, but had received the highest number of any of them, though short of a majority of the whole. The high towns were Falls City, Salem, Rulo and St. Stephens. and about two weeks later another election was held with those named as candidates. In that election Rulo and St. Stephens fell out, and the final tilt occurred between Salem and Falls City, with the result about stated. What followed as a consequence of that election contest and the unfair decision

704

RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

of the county clerk who heard it, will be detailed in my next paper, but just now I have something to record as a kind of addendum to the ludicrous cir- cumstances of my falling through the ice on that freezing December night. fifty years ago.

It was, I think, about twenty years afterwards, and when the episode had passed from my recollection-I was engaged in the trial of a cause in our district court. My client was defendant in a suit for damages com- mitted by trespassing animals on the growing crops of the plaintiff. Among the witnesses for the plaintiff (who was Herman Tiehen, an extensive land- owner, west of Salem, and, until his decease, one of our most valuable cit- izens), was a lady whom I learned was Mrs. Tiehen, but whom I did not recognize as anyone whom I had ever seen. I was given an opportunity to cross-examine the witness and did it something like this :

"You are, I believe, the wife of the plaintiff."

The witness said "Yes," but the manner of saying it accompanied with the amused and quizzical way she looked at me, was somewhat puzzling. I put another question, when she broke into a pleasant laugh, saying, "You know me." She evidently thought I was pretending not to know her, which was an error, for at the moment I had not the slightest notion that I had ever seen her anywhere. Then, with a still more amused manner, "You haven't forgotten the night you fell through the ice on the Nemaha, and I and my sisters dried your wet clothes by the kitchen fire? You know mne." The old experience came back to me in a flash. I was back in the infernal river again, and what was more, I was in a considerably worse fix, for I was being laughed at by everybody in the court house. The crowd had got on to the ridiculous figure I cut scrambling out of the river, wet to the skin, my clothes freezing on me, and I making a bee line for the house and a fire. Entering into the spirit of the fun that was then rampant around me I said, "Yes, I remember, and you are a daughter of Mr. Rothenberger. It has been a long time since I saw you, and I certainly did not know you as Mrs. Tiehen."

Well, the incident passed off very pleasantly, but I must say in all candor that I was never so badly sold in the whole course of my life.

COUNTY-SEAT STRUGGLE CONTINUES.

With the close of the year 1858, our first battle for the county seat came to an end, that is, so far as the three elections I have heretofore described, were concerned. But we were not entirely through with the struggle.

Our friends at Salem were not satisfied with the result, and proceeded

LIELLL

AVE

BIRDSEYE VIEW OF HUMBOLDT. NEB., IN 1879.

FAMOUS OLD ELM TREE, 400 YEARS OLD,

In Northwest Quarter Section 9. Township 3 North, of Range 17 East. 6th P. M. Visited by Lewis and Clark in 1804. Twenty-two and one-half feet in circumference at base: sixteen and one-half feet in circumference six feet above ground.

705

RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

to institute proceedings to contest our right to the majority that the final poll gave Falls City. In the above I stated that the proceedings were held before the county clerk.

In that I was in error; it was before the probate judge of the county, who resided at Rulo, where he transacted most of his official business, but he sat at Salem, the county seat, to hear the election contest. I have before said that a very bitter political prejudice was entertained against Falls City by the people of both Rulo and Salem, and it was a fact pretty generally recognized at the time, that the probate judge as an individual, shared in that prejudice to a very great extent. So much, indeed, as to render him unfit to hear the case, as it was out of the question for him to do so and render an impartial judgment. But we were powerless to help ourselves and the show had to go on.

Dan McGary, the leading lawyer of Brownville, was employed on behalf of Salem, while Falls City was represented by Elmer S. Dundy, who became a permanent resident of Falls City on his return from the Legislature, and myself. The trial lasted the greater part of the month of January, much delay being caused by Dundy having the ague, and an adjournment was necessary about the same time every day to allow him to undergo his usual shake and spell of fever. It was not a comfortable experience, but he stood it like a hero, and when not freezing with a malarial chill, or burning up with the resultant fever, he put in his best licks for Falls City and fought man- fully for the right of his client. But who can fight blind, unreasoning pre- judice? Nobody that anybody has ever heard of.

Well, we fought it out as best we could, and lost, of course. A consid- erable number of our people attended the trial from time to time, and as the town was not well supplied with a public hotel, and most of Nebraska towns at the time were in the same fix, we were generously and comfortably enter- tained at the home of Mrs. Oliver, a widow lady, and the mother of Mrs. John W. Holt, presently residing in this city. I remember Mrs. Holt as a sprightly little miss in those days.

THE BROADAXE, FALLS CITY'S FIRST NEWSPAPER.

In the month of December, 1858, or somewhere about that time, J. E. Burbank and Sewel R. Jameson started a newspaper at Falls City. It was called The Broad Axe, and was a sort of a continuation of one they had operated at Centerville, Indiana, the former residence of the Burbanks and

(45)

706

RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

the Jamesons. They had a small hand press and some type, and Jameson being a practical printer, the enterprise was set on foot to help Falls City, and to amuse, if not instruct, the people in this part of the new political com- munity of Nebraska. At the same time A. D. Kirk started one at Rulo, which he called The Rulo Western Guide, and it was not long before a fierce newspaper war broke out between them of a grossly personal character.

From a dog fight to a newspaper war, or any other conflict, great or small, in which prowess, valor, grit and gallantry may be displayed, the sympathies of the partisan zeal of the Anglo-Saxon are sure to be enlisted. and if he can in any way get into the row himself, he will be all the better pleased. The newspaper controversy-principally about nothing-between those papers, ultimately drew the people of the two towns into it, and the sentiment of place hatred between them, became intensely bitter and remained so for many years afterwards. The ancient wars between the old Scottish clans were no more vengeful in the hearts of their people, than it was among the inhabitants of these two hamlets, whose rivalry had an immediate respect only to which could show the greater population, and in time to come be selected as the seat of government of the county.

I have already told in another paper in this series what followed the election in April, 1860, which finally resulted in giving the county seat to Falls City, and I need say no more under that head.

The row between the Broad Arc and the Rulo Western Guide was like most other shindies of the frontier, ridiculously absurd, senseless in its conduct and superbly indecent, not to say downright obscene, in the general matter contained in both. The public taste being in keeping with the low vulgarity indulged in by those paper-wad champions, rather relished the weekly showers of mud and filth they threw at each other, as in the public estimate the battle of the rival towns was supposed to be involved in the issue-and, besides. they liked the fun. In all essential respects the contest was not unlike a sim- ilar one recorded by the inimitable caricaturist, Charles Dickens, in the "Pick- wick Papers," over an election at Eatanswill, between Pott, of the Eatans- will Gasette, and Slurk, of the Eatanswill Independent, but I lack the powers of description in a sufficient degree to present these Nebraska inky belligerents and their tempest in a teapot, as the great Englishman pictured the two Eatanswill social scabs, and clothed them with his own mantle of deathless fame.

The wrangle between the pioneer newspapers of this county was, how- ever, a very harmless affair, but being the first, is entitled to mention in these

707

RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

papers. The editors themselves were not bad fellows, but were very different in temperament, tastes and mental makeup. Of course, nothing in this world can last forever, and the storm of paper pellets spent itself in the course of a few months, principally for the reason that both editors retired from their posts, and the war-cry died out for a time, to be renewed by others on the tripods, more fierce than ever, till the county-seat question was settled, when the Guide faded out of existence and was heard of no more.

THE AXE CONTINUES TO CHOP.

The Broad Axe, however, lingered along for ten years or more, and like a river I have seen in the mountain districts of the Pacific slopes, would sink out of sight in spots, to reappear further on, and continued that desul- tory, intermittent sort of existence, until by some process of newspaper metem- psychosis, it passed into another under a different name, and this, the first of its kind, of long-time happy memory, followed the Guide to the shadowy land of dead newspapers.

The -roll of its editors brings before me many faces familiar in recol- lections ; faces of men who in another time, were co-pioneers on the Western border, and participants in laying the foundations of the present great and prosperous state of Nebraska. Sewell R. Jameson, its first, retired soon after its establishment, to take the office of receiver of public moneys in the land office at Brownville, which place he held for a time, with no particular credit to himself or anybody else. I shall not attempt to write his biography. It is already written in the lost lives of that mighty host of the dead from a social custom, sanctioned, or at least permitted by the laws of socalled Christian men, and the story of one of those is, in all essential respects, an exact duplicate of all of the others. In a lonely grave on the hillside near Brownville and over- looking the broad sweep of the Missouri, as it rolls its unsightly, muddy floods steadily down to the sea, rests all that was mortal of that young man, once of high hope, of good intellect and good intentions, but of no more account now to the busy throngs of the living, than the senseless clods that cover the frail, wasting body, beneath them. "What is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou visitest him," when man himself is neither mindful of his kind nor merciful to it, but is even cruel in his disposition to forgetful- ness and neglect. Mr. Jameson was succeeded in the Broad Are by a tramp printer named Irving, a young man with some ability and a fair education, but the social custom mentioned had laid its withering hand on him early in the race, and failure was written against the enterprise from the start. However,

708

RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

he ran the paper at intervals for a year or two, and then threw it up and left the country. The next to take hold of the Are, was a farmer named L. B. Prouty, who lived ont on the Muddy near John R. Dowty's present farm. Mr. Prouty had learned the printer's trade when a boy, and was well equipped for the busi- ness of a country editor. Anyway, he took up the job some time in 1861 and held it down until 1865, or thereabouts, and was succeeded by Norman Pierce. from somewhere in Kansas, who was a better printer and a better editor than any of his predecessors. AAbout the time that Arago was assuming great importance as a growing town, and its leading citizens induced Pierce to move the A.ve down there to help boom the then metropolis on the river. He did so, and operated the paper there for several months, but with little profit to himself or the town. Norman liked beer too well, and there was an unlimited quan- tity constantly on tap and within reach, and as much of his ads and subscrip- tion were paid in that kind of currency, the editor did what he could with getting away with at least what he considered his share. and it finally got away with the newspaper business itself, and the office was brought back to Falls City. The press and material belonged to Jameson and Burbank, and they allowed any person who would undertake the job of printing a paper. to use them without cost. hoping someone would make a success of it and buy them out. This I think, took place, but it was near the decade of 1860. but as I am not writing of that time, the fact is not important at this moment.

The next and the last of the Broad Are editors, was Judge Jonathan James Marvin. I have it in my mind that he took charge of the office about the year 1866, but I cannot be accurate as to the time, as I have no data at hand by which to fix it, but it was somewhere thereabouts. As run by him it was a different paper to any previously published in the town. First. because it was free from all personalities, and was devoted to the publica- tion of the current news of the day, interspersed with articles on literary subjects at intervals, that lovers of the higher order of literature would be delighted with, in a new country as this was then ; books of the belles-lettres kind were scarce indeed. Second, because Judge Marvin was the most accomplished classical scholar then in Nebraska, or that has ever been in it since for that matter, and the products of his pen were marvels of style and elegance, such as are never met with in the ordinary rough and tumble country publications.

709

RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

JUDGE MARVIN IN THE WRONG PLACE.

He had been educated in one of the Canadian colleges, but himself was a native of the state of Vermont, and chose the law as his profession in life, studying in the office of his grandfather. Judge Janes, who had been chief justice of the supreme court of that state. He came of a great race of lawyers, but I was always of the opinion that he made a mistake in trying to be one himself. I suppose there is some place in the world for every man who has the misfortune to be born into it, but sometimes, and generally a good many times, the wrong man gets into the wrong place, and failure, or at least, incomplete success follows, for which the man himself is held responsible and unjustly so. To me it appeared that Judge Marvin with his great attainments and splendid poetic fancy, for he was a poet in every fibre of his nature, should have been on the editorial staff of some literary maga- zine of the higher order, where his powers of critical analysis, equal in grasp to Poe or Willis, could have had full play and the world of letters would have been enriched by the circumstance.

Untoward fate ordered his life otherwise, and it may be that I am mis- taken, though I hardly think so, but I am very certain that he was out of his rightful element trying to practice law in a rude frontier community, or indeed in any other, as his tastes and natural instincts fitted him for a field of operation widely different from the pugilistic contentions of a legal forum.

I have no apology to offer for what I have said of a man whom in life I admired and respected, and in whom I saw what I know many others did not see-an intellectual giant that fate had enabled pigmies to bind, as the Lilliputs bound a Gulliver, with fetters woven of their ignorance and narrow prejudices, mere threads of gossamer, but in combination of a social order as foreign to his nature as he was foreign to it, was sufficiently powerful to break his spirit and hold him in its brutal clutch with a tenacity of death itself. He was among them but not of them, and they killed the aspirations of a spirit too lofty for vulgar appreciation, and the pearl he cast before the human swine of his environment, shared the fate predicted for all such.

Such was the man who had editorial charge of that first newspaper enterprise in our city, during the last year of its existence, until it was swal- lowed up by one on a larger scale, but not of superior character. Inoffensive, modest, and retiring, its editor quietly went about his duties harming no man. but doing the best he could for the town and its people, and whether that was

710

RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

much or little, it was done in kindness, and with a view only to the betterment of his fellows, and the community in which he lived. He was a citizen of Nebraska for thirty-two years, most of which time he lived in Falls City, and if he ever by word or deed placed a thorn in any man's breast I never knew it, and I think I knew him as well as any other. He gathered little gear in the shape of this world's goods, but he accumulated something better, some- thing he could take with him out of the wilderness-ideas, the only com- modity man can possess that has real value. From 1865, when he came home from serving his country in the army during the Southern War, until 1891, he went out and came in with his neighbors hereabouts, in peace and harmony; grew old on these streets, and died, regretted by all.

CHAPTER XXVII.

HISTORICAL SKETCHES.

THE INUNDATION OF 1858. By David Dorrington, Falls City.

Myself, wife, and son, William E. Dorrington, then known as Ebenezer, were the oldest permanent residents of Falls City, having resided here con- tinuously since September 7, 1857. There were other settlers here at the time of our arrival, but they have either died, left, or removed transiently to return again. Falls City was not at that time a place of much importance, Archer then being the only settlement of any consequence in this section of the country. The old pioneers labored under discouragements, and had to endure hardships and privations, in comparison with which the late grass- hopper depredations were but a trifle. Among the most noted occurrences of this kind was the inundation, freshet or flood, of 1858, being the longest continued and heaviest fall of rain, the most rapid and extended swelling of the streams and rivers, that this county has experienced in the last twenty years.

On the 12th day of July, 1858, the rain commenced falling, and there was a continued fall of rain for ten or twelve days, until the Nemaha and its tributaries burst over their banks, and inundated all of the bottomland of the county. The bridges on all of the streams were swept away, and Falls City left isolated and cut off from connection with the rest of the county. The Nemaha and its branches swelled to such an extent that the bottom farms were covered with water, the fences carried away, and the farmers and their families compelled to leave tehir inundated homes in skiffs or by swimming.

The country was full of distress; half naked and starving families crowded into the little settlement of Falls City, until our provisions were exhausted, and want stared us in the face. Our little stock of flour, corn, meal, groceries, etc., had become so small that there was necessity for imme- diate action. and citizens held a meeting, appointing James Buchanan and myself a committee to obtain supplies from the East. Mr. Buchanan and

712

RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

myself started off upon our mission, but when we arrived at the Muddy, this side of Archer, we found the bridge swept away, and the creek impassable. Upon the other side of the creek, just above the dam-as there was an old mill there at that time -- I first saw the Hon. Elmer S. Dundy, then residing at Archer, with whom ever since I have had a continued acquaintance and friendship. We hailed him, and wished him to take our money and obtain our supplies from the river towns; he constructed a raft and undertook to cross the Muddy, just below the site of the old bridge, near where Henry Warneka was afterwards drowned, but the freshet increased to such an extent, that his raft was swept over the dam, and the judge had to swim over the creek to join us on the other side.

The judge procured the supplies for us and forwarded them immediately. Our county was then very sparsely settled, but a very great amount of property was destroyed, and it is still vividly remembered by all of the old settlers of the county. The bottom between Falls City and the Nemaha, was so deeply overflowed that for months Sewell R. Jamison and others ran a canoe between Falls City and Sauktown, which they called the "Sauktown express," and which was run for the purpose of borrowing flour and provisions from the Indian settlement, south of the Nemaha. There are other interesting facts in regard to this freshet, which I do not now recollect, but presume I have said enough for the purpose of the present introductory sketch; hoping that my fellow pioneers will follow with their recollections hereafter.

The foregoing was written on July 28, 1875.

RULO TWENTY YEARS AGO. By E. H. Johnson.

In the summer of 1855. William Kenceleur. Charles Rouleau, and Eli Bedard, Eli Plant and myself, left Sioux City for the southeastern portion of Nebraska then known as the "Half-Breed Tract." lying along the Missouri river, to the width of about ten miles, between the Great and Little Nemaha rivers, for the purpose of locating some claims, under the treaty made at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, in 1831, allotting three hundred and twenty acres of land each, to certain half-breeds or mixed Indians, on this reserve. To allotments upon the tract, the wives of Rouleau and Bedard and Ken- celeur were entitled by virtue of the treaty.

This section of the country, was then in its primitive state, inhabited by Indians and a few Frenchmen, who were married to squaws or half-breeds. there being no improvements, except occasionally here and there, an Indian corn field.

713

RICHARDSON COUNTY, NEBRASKA.

There were but two white men in this vicinity, both Frenchmen; Charles Martin, a Canadian, an old mountaineer and a man of great historical knowl- edge, who had just come in from Salt Lake City, with a herd of cattle and mustang ponies, and who was then living near where Rulo now stands in an Indian lodge or teepee, with a Piute squaw for a wife, and one for a servant. The other was F. X. DuPuis, a Frenchman, living in a lodge with a squaw, the widow of the great Iowa chief, White Cloud, then deceased.

Charles Martin was a most remarkable man, both as to appearance and character ; he was tall and straight, with a spare face, long Roman nose, small grey eyes, and dark curly hair that fell upon his shoulders in ringlets ; he was an excellent horseman and an experienced hunter; his disposition was warm and generous to a fault, affectionate, and trusting everything to his friends.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 68

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