History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 69

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

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FUTURE WIFE RESCUED FROM DEATH.

The manner in which Martin secured his wife, savors a little of the romantic, and may be of interest.

Upon one of his hunting expeditions in the wild Indian country among the mountains, where no white men except the French fur trader. pioneer and trapper had ever ventured, Martin came across a wild tribe of Indians, who had lately lost one of the chiefs in battle with a neighboring tribe, in which they had taken captives from the enemy. By the Indian customs, when the chief was killed in battle, if any of the enemy had been taken captive. one of their number was to be immolated to appease the spirit of the dead warrior. When Martin came into the camp, he found that the Indian tribe was about to perform the funeral ceremonies of their deceased chieftain. and had erected a funeral pyre over his remains, upon the top of which, bound and expecting to be burned as a victim, sat a beautiful Indian maiden, between twelve and fourteen years of age. The heart of the honest trapper was touched, and calling the chiefs of the nation together, he offered them a couple of tents or teepees and a couple of horses, in all valued at about two hundred dollars, to ransom the girl. The ransom was accepted, and the trembling maid, clasped in the arms of the hardy pioneer, became after the Indian fashion, his bride. She made him an excellent wife, being a neat housekeeper, good cook, and well skilled in all the arts taught to Indian girls : of this there was proof in the gay buckskin suit she made for Martin, deco- rating it tastefully with beads and other Indian ornaments ; a part of this suit afterwards came into the possession of Wilson H. Maddox, a pioneer of Falls

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City. Martin was very fond of his wife and only survived her a year or two, she dying in 1859.

One of the first stores started in Nebraska was put in at Rulo by Martin and his partner, F. L. Goldsberry, under the firm name of Martin & Golds- berry.

In the summer of 1855 we located the present townsite of Rulo and of the Rulo mill site now occupied by Thacker & Davis, on the Muddy near its mouth.

From the time we left the north line of Richardson county, until we struck the Kansas line, a distance of about twenty miles, we saw but one cabin, and that was the house of Stephen Story, where his present residence is, west of St. Stephens. There being no roads or bridges, we were obliged to follow Indian trails, as near as possible. to ensure us a means of crossing the creeks on our route.

In the year 1856, Kenceleur, Bedard, Plant and myself, moved down and brought with us. Joshua Murray, James Kenough and two other men, and built a cabin near the north end of the now Muddy bridge, and commenced work on the Muddy mill at Thacker & Davis's present site. After the saw- mill was in running order and prior to the grist-mill being attached, it was destroyed by fire, the work of an incendiary. We were obliged to get all of our provisions from the east side of the Missouri river, eight or nine miles from our work, and pack it on horses.

Game was quite plenty, considering the number of roving Indians that were scattered over the tract.

RESTING PLACE OF WHITE CLOUD.

Upon the townsite of Winnebago there was then a Winnebago Indian village. Iowa Indians were camped in large numbers, all along the river, and near the northwest corner of the townsite of Rulo, was a very important burying ground in which rests the great warrior and head chief of the Iowas, White Cloud, in all the glory of his station.

In the fall of 1856 we commenced the survey of Rulo; and in the spring of 1857, Major Stark, United States army, came on the reserve at a point now known as Aspinwall, to issue certificates of allotment to those entitled to the lands.

In the year 1857 we cast our first votes, numbering twenty-three, for county officers, at the old town of AArcher, voting for our old and esteemed friend. W. H. Mann, for county clerk.

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The Rulo Western Guide, the first paper printed in Richardson county, was established by the Rulo Town and Ferry Company, under the manage- ment of a man by the name of Barret, who was succeeded by A. D. Kirk and Charles Hergesheimer as editors.

In the year 1859. the Indian agent having completed his mission on the reserve, withdrew his presence, and left us to the mercies of the white man, by whom we were received with friendship, attached to the balance of the county and introduced to and allowed the privilege of paying taxes like other men, which blessing we have not as yet been deprived of.

The foregoing was written on August 1I, 1875.

PIONEER HARDSHIPS. By William Witherow.

I moved in March, 1854, from the place now called Mariette, in Holt county, Missouri, opposite St. Stephens (in this county), to a claim I had taken during the preceding February, up on what is called "Rattlesnake," in this county.

About the 10th of March, 1854, I arrived at my claim with my family, we having been two or three days on our route and having to make a crossing over the south fork of the Nemaha in order to reach our destination. That spring I broke ten acres of land, and put in corn for myself, with four yoke of three-year-old steers, which I took from Henry Abrahms to break for their work; I also broke ten acres for Doctor Macey, about four miles down the stream, on a farm afterwards occupied by George Kelley, who was killed by David Rogers.

My claim was located on Rattlesnake creek, so called from a large den of rattlesnakes being killed upon it by a company of Germans and Swiss. among whom were the Wittwers and Jacob Spring; Spring, a Swiss, was my nearest neighbor.

About the first of November, 1854, Spring and myself went to Savannah, Missouri, for provisions. Before our return a severe storm came up: we undertook to recross the Missouri river at Amazonia (near St. Joseph), but were prevented by the high wind, ice and snow ; we expected to get over the river at St. Stephens but could not on account of the storm, and were com- pelled to leave our cattle and wagons in Missouri and cross in a canoe to the coal banks above Yankton (a mile and a quarter above Rulo in Richardson county), where a man named Level was then living, passing the floating ice

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and breaking our way where the ice had closed up, and paying a man a dollar for ferrying us over in his canoe.

At Level's home we obtained refreshments, and upon leaving, Mr. Spring got a full grown cat-cats then being scarce and valuable in this new country -and put it in a sack and placed the sack in his bosom to shelter it from the storm in crossing the bleak prairies through the deep snow.

A CATASTROPHE.

After we had toiled along against the cold wind, so strong that we had to turn onr backs to it to hear each other, to a point upon the high prairie above where Joseph Forney now resides, I heard a muttering from Mr. Spring, who was exhausted, and declared he would not face the storm any longer, and we were bound to die, and he showed me the cat he had carried in his bosom frosen stiff and hard. I encouraged him to proceed and we went on. . At one of the points near the old Joe Burbank place, where Ben- jamin Bowers' farm now is, we discovered a light in the Crook settlement, and arrived at Isaac Crooks', hungry and half frozen. Here we refreshed ourselves and passed the night. The next day we continned our journey through the deep snow until we reached our homes at night. It was six weeks before we could cross over our cattle and provisions, and Spring was fortunate enough to bring home two cats, which, with their progeny, suc- ceedied in ridding the country of mice. In that six weeks we had pretty hard (liet, boiled corn, a little pork, some dried squashes, potatoes, and turnips we had raised the season before, but no flour or groceries of any description.

In the spring of 1855 I sold my claim upon Rattlesnake and moved up and located a claim on Easley creek, near the claim of Jacob Frey, in what was later Speiser precinct.

The winter of 1855-6 was terribly severe. A little before Christmas a heavy sleet fell upon a deep snow, and crusted it over, and it was almost im- possible to travel with teams and we were unable to get to the mills to have any grain ground. For three weeks we had to subsist principally upon boiled hominy and venison, deer being very plentiful and not able to escape from the groves or run from the dogs on account of the ice and crust.

The troubles of my German friends in making hominy afforded me con- siderable amusement, as they did not understand the process, and could neither get the hull off the corn nor the lye out of it. and as a result they manufactured a mass of yellow stuff, which they could not eat, and looked

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like most anything but hominy. My wife and Mrs. Morrison, an elderly lady from Missouri, before the three months had expired, taught them the mystery of hulling the corn and getting out the lyc.

DIED FROM EXPOSURE.

.At the commencement of this storm we sent Samuel Bright, a German from Savannah, Missouri, to Salem for groceries for our families, and he was overtaken and lost in the storm. remaining in the wilderness on Honey creek all night, getting into the creek several times, and filling his boots with water; when he arrived at home, both of his legs were frozen to such an extent that before he died they came off at the top of his boots; his death took place upon the night before New Year. We were notified of his death by Jacob Spring, and 1, living four miles off, being the nearest neighbor. gath- ered as many of my neighbors as I could find, amounting in all to seven, to assist in burying him. As I was accustomed to the use of a needle, I was assigned to the duty of making his shroud, while the rest, the weather being extremely cold, took their turns at digging his grave, and making the coffin. The frost was so deep that they could only make his grave four feet deep, and then did not succeed in piercing the frost. The coffin was made of puncheons and old boards, as there was in those old pioneer times no better material to be provided: but I have no doubt that the spirit of my departed friend is as well and as happy as if he had been buried under the domes of a cathedral, with the richest casque to hold his remains. On our return from the funeral three of those engaged in the burial were badly frozen; Uncle James Morrison had his nose badly frozen and Jacob Frey and James Moran barely escaped the loss of their ears. Aside from this exceedingly cold weather during six weeks, we had not much to regret on account of our venison and hominy diet, for in the spring all were fat and enjoying the best of health.

COUNTRY IN A SHROUD OF MOURNING.

In the summer of 1860 I sold the farm I had made on Easley creek to George Gird, and removed to Rulo, and while there, sickness was prevalent all along the Nemaha, and deaths were occurring every day from the bloody flux, which seemed almost to be incurable. In the neighborhood of Salem alone, there were sixteen deaths in one week from the epidemic. I carried several corpses from Rulo to Salem for interment within a short time, and the whole country seemed to be in a shroud of mourning.

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In another story appearing in this series of articles by pioneers, my friend, Uncle Thomas F. Brown, speaks of the killing of David Hudgins. I was acquainted with all the facts connected with that murder, and carried the body of Hudgins home to his family. Mr. Brown unintentionally makes a mistake in saying that David Moran killed Hudgins. Stephen Moran, a twin brother of David Moran, was the person who committed the act, and was arrested, tried and acquitted. David Moran, a gentleman in every re- spect, lived upon Hackberry Ridge in Andrew county, Missouri, while Stephen was a neighbor of mine.

The foregoing was written on September 2, 1875.

PIONEER TRIP IN 1854. By Jesse Crook, of Falls, City.

On the 26th day of August, A. D. 1854. William Goolsby, Faragus Pollard, William Roberts, John A. Singleton, John Crook, James Goolsby. Simmerly and Short, whose first names I do not now recollect, and myself started from Fillmore, Andrew county, Missouri. to make a tour through this then uninhabited region. We crossed the Missouri river, into Indian terri- tory, then belonging to the Iowa Indians, near what is now called Iowa Point. and took our dinner upon Indian lands. We then cut out a road for our teams, np the branch to the site of the present town of Iowa Point, and struck through the prairie by the old lowa mission. That night we camped near the waters of what is now known as Wolf river. The next day we pursued our journey over the prairie, seeing wolves and deer in abundance and frequently coming across elk horns and occasionally finding buffalo heads. The grass was tall and the vegetation rank and the soil as rich as was ever seen. The same day we crossed a beautiful stream, apparently adapted to mill purposes, and a large walnut grove and named this stream Walnut creek. which name it now bears. We uncoupled the team and packed the wagon over the creek. We then traveled in a northwesterly direction about ten miles, until we came to another small stream upon whose banks a drove of Indian ponies were grazing ; to this stream we gave the present name of Pony creek.

This being soon after the ratification of the treaty with the Indians, there was no white settler or inhabitant in the country. There were 110 bridges, no roads or paths, except a very few Indian trails. About five miles northwest of Pony creek we came to the headwaters of a branch which had

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a large body of timber on it. We went down this creek a couple of miles, near to its mouth, and found a little spring seeping out of the bank where we camped for the purpose of getting good water that night and the next day.

CONTRARY CREEK.

I told the boys that I would take a little walk and look at the timber. I followed the stream about half a mile down to its mouth and it was very hard to follow, for which reason we, called it by its present designation, Contrary creek, I having stated to the boys upon my return to camp, that it was the most contrary creek I had ever seen. Contrary creek empties into a larger creek, upon whose banks, immediately before it emptied into the south fork of the Nemaha, were steep bluffs of rock. We named the stream Rock creek, which name it still bears. In my travels on foot I went over the south fork of the Nemaha and to a high bluff, upon the top of which was a monument, twelve or fifteen feet high, laid up by the Indians, of loose stones. I climbed up to the top of it and looked around. From there I saw another river in a northeasterly direction running from the northwest and flowing into the Nemaha.

Upon my return to camp we took our horses and, crossing the Nemaha. ' we came to the river I had seen from the monument, and followed it to its junction with the main river, which the Indians had already named the Nemaha : we called it the north fork of the Nemaha. Two of our company, John A. Singleton and William Roberts, took claims for farming purposes on the south fork of the Nemaha; Singleton's claim was the farm now owned by Eugene Boyle, on which there was then standing over one hundred acres of fine timber. Another of our party, Short, took a claim for a mill-site at the junction of the two Nemahas; and Singleton and Roberts staked a claim adjoining Short's for a townsite, upon a piece of land covered with a red- oak grove. filled with hop vines and innumerable weeds, where the town of Salem now stands. At this place we left Singleton, Roberts and Short, · upon their claims, with the team, and crossed the north fork of the Nemaha on horseback. We traveled up the north fork on the east side. William Goolsby. Faragus Pollard, James Goolsby, John Crook and myself took claims at intervals, on the east side of the north fork of the Nemaha river.

After staking our claims we turned our course, started for home and came to a branch where there was a small grove with deer in it; this we named Deer creek, by which name it is still known, and took our dinner there where Jolm Crook now resides. We held a council to decide upon which

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route to pursue upon our return (supposing that we were over fifty miles west of the Missouri river, when we really were within but fifteen miles of it.) We then left the Nemaha valley, and struck for the Missouri. aiming to keep the river in sight, so as not to be beyond the reach of water and camped for the night in a hickory grove upon a small stream, where our slumbers were disturbed at intervals until day, by the screams of the wild cat. This branch we named Wild Cat, near the mouth of which is the farm of J. F. Harkendorff. The next morning we went about half a mile north, to a large creek where I fell off my horse in crossing and got wet, and we called the stream Soak creek, but it is now known as the Muddy.

From the Muddy we pursued our journey, in a northerly direction, over the prairie and dividing ridge, often becoming bewildered and half lost, for about five miles, when, to our astonishment, we discovered the river bluffs of the Missouri at no great distance. Here we struck an Indian trail and followed it through ravines and over the hills, to an Indian trading post, in a little log house on the banks of the Missouri, kept by a Frenchman or half- breed of the name of Deroin, where St. Deroin now stands. By firing our revolvers we succeeded in arousing a man and a woman on the Missouri side, who came over in a small boat and took us over, taking one horse at a trip.

On April 17, 1855, I removed my family to a claim on Muddy creek, about a mile north of the present site of Falls City, and abandoned my claim on the Nemaha. Here I started the first prairie farm in the vicinity. The country was full of wolves, deer and wild turkeys, and fish was so abundant in the small streams, that we could kill them with clubs. The first male child born in the settlement was Frank Leechman (still residing on the same farm north of Falls City in 1917.) The first election held in what is now Richard- county was at a log house in a grove belonging to a man named Level, in the fall of 1854, when there were about ten votes polled. The candidates, some of them, resided in other states. Col. J. L. Sharp was elected to the Senate (or council), as it was then called, from what is now Richardson. Pawnee and parts of both Nemaha and Johnson counties, resided then at Glenwood, Iowa, and John A. Singleton, elected to the House of the Territorial Legis- lature, had a family in Missouri.

I could give more items that might be of interest, but space precludes.

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UP THE NEMAHA IN 1854. By Thomas F. Brown.

On August 18, 1875, Mr. T. F. Brown contributed the following :

Coming from Caloway county, Missouri, in June, 1854, I met with John Hudgins, Phelan Belan and Darius B. Ferguson, residing in Andrew county, Missouri, who intended to make a trip west into the Indian territory. We crossed the Missouri river at a point near where Amazonia now stands, into the Indian territory, and into what is now Doniphan county, Kansas. We traveled up the bottom through weeds, seven or eight feet high, and timber, making our journey hot and uncomfortable, until we came across a spring gushing out of the bank or verge of the rolling prairie. Near this spring there has since been a townsite laid out called Smithtown. At this spring we refreshed our weary frames and camped a little north of the present site of Troy Junction. As we were dismounting we ran into a flock of wild turkeys, and shot one of them, whose bones we had the pleasure of anatom- izing for our evening repast. We brought our bread with us, and had our tin cups swung to our belts, and when we wished for a cup of coffee, we put our cups filled with water, over the blaze of the fire, and dropped in a pinch or two of ground coffee. The next day we came to the California trail from St. Joseph, Missouri, and followed it until we came to the Iowa farm, or mission. Mr. Irwin, the preacher at the mission, advised us to explore the Wolf river country, but stated that there was an Indian reservation in that region belonging to the Mississippi Sacs.

MOTHER OF FIRST WITITE CHILD BORN IN RICHARDSON COUNTY.

Upon examining the Wolf River country, we were delighted with it, but afraid to select any claims on account of the uncertainty of the location of the reserve. We then followed the California trail until we came to the Nemaha, just south of the Nebraska 'line, where we camped for the third night. Here we found a small log cabin belonging to a man by the name of Beals, from Pennsylvania, who had a wife and one child. Out on the divide about twenty-five miles southeast of the Nemaha, we met a covered wagon belonging to an old gentleman by the name of Davenport. In the wagon was his family, his daughter-the widow Hershberger, afterwards Mrs. Leachman, to whom came the honor of being the mother of the first (46)

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white child born in Richardson county; his son, Lewis Davenport, afterwards a merchant in Nebraska City, and others.

Mr. Davenport made a claim about two miles below this point, and died there that fall. His widow married a man by the name of Clifford, who in the winter of 1858-59 killed a young man who was working for him, in a fight, upon his claim near the Hay's bridge, in Muddy precinct, where C. Van Deventer later resided. His wife frightened by the affray, ran out upon the prairie and perished in the snow in a vacant cabin near the stream called Whiskey run, not far from the David Quinlan farm. In the fall of 1859. the grand jury at the session of the district court hield at Salem in September, found an indictment against Clifford for murder. Daniel Hudgins and myself were members of the grand jury. Upon his return home towards Easley Creek, Hudgins got into a personal affray with David Moran, and Moran cutting his throat, he died in a few minutes.

At the camping place near the Beals' cabin, we were annoyed and deprived of our rest by innumerable mosquitos, which troubled us so much that though we held our heads over the smoke, we could not get rid of them. Here Belan and Hudgins left us for the high prairies, expecting to escape the mosquitos, but returned in about an hour saying that they were worse on the prairies than in the bottom. They wished us to move our camp, but when we refused, they left Ferguson and myself, and we saw nothing more of them during the trip. The next day we proceeded up the Nemaha to explore the country, and came across a man by the name of Newton, who, with his family, lived in a cabin about five miles this side of the present site of Seneca, Kansas, and at a point where a townsite was afterwards surveyed, called Central city.

"SPYING THE LAND."

Newton went with us up the Nemaha, and we passed the crossing from Ft. Leavenworth to Kearney, and looked over the country beyond where Seneca now stands, but did not select claims, as the soil was too sandy and sterile to suit us, though the timber was excellent. Upon the high prairie at this point an Indian boy, about fourteen or fifteen years of age, came to us on foot, walking very fast, with his blanket around him, and his bow and arrow to shoot game for his subsistence. . He was on the trail of a band of Pottawatomies who had passed about four or five days before, on their route to Minnesota. With no food but what he could procure with his bow and arrow, he pursued and overtook the band before they reached their destina- tion.

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We then retraced our steps and pursued our course down the Nemaha, below where we had first struck it, and found settlers near where Cincinnati ( in Pawnee county, near Du Bois), or Fries' mill now is located, to-wit: Joseph Fries, Christian Bobst and Robert Turner, who were living in cahins with their families, where they had been for a month or two.

We came down about three miles ( in the present confines of Richardson county ). where we found a man by the name of Henry Abrams, in camp with his family, with a cabin partly erected.

About a mile from there I took a claim, blazed the trees and laid a foundation for a cabin on the first day of July, 1854, on the farm where I now reside and during the summer I erected a cabin, near where I had laid the foundation, being the settler farthest east upon the Nemaha.

In the fall, Abrams and myself put up a hundred tons of hay and brought over and wintered about forty or fifty head of cattle.

Late in the fall, we struck for the Missouri river to see if we could find any settlers. We discovered no signs of a settlement until we reached the claims of Singleton, Roberts and Short, where Salem now stands.

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History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 69

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