History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 70

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

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In a grove, north of the after-site of Archer, and upon the farm where WV. M. Maddox now resides, we came to a log cabin of a man named Levels. who lived there with his two wives and a large family of children.

Game was very plentiful, especially turkeys and deer; fish in the streams were so tame that you could kill them with clubs as they ran between your legs in the water, some of them two or three feet long.

In the spring of 1855, I enclosed one hundred acres upon my farm, and broke twenty acres. About July, 1855. the settlement having extended towards the east part of the county. I broke land in the neighborhood of Archer, where now are the farms of William Maddox. Isaac Crook. Jesse Crook and William Goolsby.

EARLY POLITICAL ITEMS.

By Isaac Crook.

On August 26, 1875. Mr. Isaac Crook wrote the following :

In 1856 I resided in Andrew county, Missouri. At that time there was great excitement among the poeple, in regard to Kansas and Nebraska, and frequent meetings were held, in which it was firmly resolved by the large landholders and slaveholders, that Kansas should belong to the South, while they were willing to give up Nebraska to the North, as being a colder and

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more sterile country. For this reason, apprehending trouble in Kansas, I relinquished my idea of settling there, and about the tenth day of April, 1859. moved over to Nebraska. The next day I paid fifty dollars towards the erec- tion of a bridge at Archer.

When I arrived here the following were the county officers, being the first elected in Richardson county, to-wit: John C. Miller, probate judge; F. L. Goldsberry, county clerk; Lewis Misplais, county treasurer, and McMullin, sheriff. There were but two election precincts in the county, Salem and Archer.

The first court held in Richardson county was convened at Archer, then county seat, at Judge Miller's large log cabin, which served as court house, jail and tavern, all in one.

Archer was at that time quite a lively little place, Kirk and Goldsberry and John P. Welty kept stores, and there were two hotels and a blacksmith shop here, besides a number of dwellings. I resided near Archer, and through court time had to keep a public house, and entertained a large number of suitors, witnesses and jurors; and for this purpose butchered and brought over from Missouri, in bacon, sixty fat hogs, which I had to keep out under the sheds on account of my house being filled with boarders. My wife, one night, cut upon a large ham, which was covered with bran, and the next morning the ham was missing. My wife and Jesse Crook's wife followed the trail, by the bran, through the brush, until it struck an Indian trail on the prairie. I followed the trail until I came to a neighbor's house, where I discovered two of my hams hanging up. I said to the man of the house: "Jim, have you got a shot gun? I want to borrow one: the Indians have been stealing my meat, and I mean to kill them when they come again." He turned pale and said he had no gun. I told him I would borrow one from William Goolsby. I returned home and had no further trouble from stolen hams.

Our county officers exercised jurisdiction over what are now Richardson. l'awnee and Johnson counties, there being at that time no settlements of consequence west.

In the fall of 1856, James H. Lane and his men, on their route to central Kansas, where the troubles were commencing between the Free State and Southern men, passed and stopped several times with their arms, ammunition and artillery. They buried some of their military supplies on Pony creek. south of the later site of Falls City. They purchased from me, at good prices. one thousand pounds of bacon, twenty sacks of flour and a wagon load of apples which I had brought from Missouri. A week or two before their

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first arrival, spies came to my house from both sides, reconnoitering, and as they knew I was from Missouri, both Northern and Southern men wanted to know what I was doing over here, but I gave them evasive answers to their questions.

PRICE OF A LIFE.

As James H. Lane was frequently at my house, and in my company traveling through the country, and boarded at Rickard's house, about a quarter of a mile from mine, I was offered five thousand dollars by a company of men in Missouri, when I was over there purchasing supplies if I would cause his death. I told them I would not kill a man for anything, and they replied that his death would save the lives of thousands of others.

In the fall of 1856 there were ninety-eight votes polled in the county, there being but few legal voters.

In the fall of 1857. I ran for county treasurer against Misplais and McDaniel, and was elected, three hundred and forty votes being polled. W. H. Mann was selected county clerk : Samuel Keefer, sheriff, and Joseph Yount. Arnett Roberts and George Coffman. county commissioners. There were then three election precincts-Archer. Salem and Speiser.

In that year the sheriff collected the taxes, but the next Legislature changed the law and made it the duty of the treasurer to go into every pre- cinct two days every year. giving ten days' notice by posters in each precinct, of the time of the collection therein.

In the fall of 1858 the taxes were as follows: County tax, three mills on the dollar : territorial tax, two mills; county school tax, one mill ; making a total tax of six mills on the dollar. My tax that year was three dollars. upon the same amount of property, except real estate, now taxed at from fifty dollars to sixty dollars.

SALEM BECOMES COUNTY SEAT.

The half-breed line was run in the winter of 1857 and the county seat removed from Archer to Salem, upon this account. Judge Miller resigned his office and Esquire Trammel was appointed probate judge, and he and Mann, the county clerk, removed their offices to Salem, where the county seat remained until 1860, when it was removed to Falls City, where it now is. there being a spirited contest and several hotly-fought elections upon the subject.

In the fall of 1859 I was re-elected county treasurer. The prairies had

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been rapidly settled up and the population increased largely, so that there were over eight hundred votes polled. My opponent was Samuel R. Roberts. of Salem, and Israel May, of Rulo, but I received as many votes as both of them. W. H. Mann and Samuel Keefer were re-elected county clerk and sheriff. The taxes remained the same, with the exception of a small road tax.

Colonel McIntyre and Shellhorn were elected county commissioners. The election precincts were Rulo. St. Stephens, Falls City, Salem, Speiser and Franklin.

Just before my second election, in the collection of taxes, I went into different neighborhoods, where there were several widow women who had grown sons and sons-in-law. I gave each of them a tax receipt free and upon the ensuing election, their influence was strong in my favor, I getting every vote in their respective vicinities. After that, not being a candidate, I was not so liberal and forgot my fair friends.

At this time we had two weekly newspapers lately started in the county. the Rulo Western Guide, at Rulo, and the Broad Arc, at Falls City.

In the fall of 1861. F. A. Tisdell, Sr., succeeded me as county treasurer, I not being a candidate for re-election.

JIND THEIR OFFICES IN THEIR HATS.

In the early years of the county, the clerk's office was held at the county seat, but the treasurer and probate judge had their offices in their hats, pockets and some cranny in their dwelling houses. AAbout twelve years ago, William Goolsby and myself and some townspeople, used to go out about six miles north of this place to hunt wolves, on a trip of about six miles square or more, and thought that when my grazing land gave out that I would herd my horses and cattle here, as there seemed no prospect of it ever being settled. About a week ago I went over the same tract, and to my surprise, found it one succession of lanes running through rich farms, upon which were substantial barns and fine old-fashioned Dutch houses.

All of our old pioneers were upon their arrival here, very poor. but changed their circumstances for wealth and plenty, in most cases.

PIONEER HUNTER'S LIFE.

By William G. Goolsby.

Mr. William G. Goolsby contributed the following on September 9. 1875 : I accompanied Jesse Crook upon his first trip through this county, in

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August, 1854, when the country was uninhabited and I do not think it neces- sary to give a narrative of that journey, as the incidents related in that sketch are correct in all material particulars. As stated by Mr. Crook, I then took a claim upon the north fork of the Nemaha, but I became sick while up near Salem and was in poor health until my return to Missouri, and left in such poor conceit with Nebraska that I firmly resolved to abandon my claim and never visit it more; but upon the return of health I became once more anxious for the adventures and perils of pioneer life.

Accordingly, in February, 1855, I raised a band of seven men, among whom was Jesse Crook, and we equipped ourselves thoroughly for the purpose of revisiting the range of our expedition of the summer before. We crossed the Missouri river on the ice, and spent eight days in Nebraska. In the spring of 1855, I returned with Jesse Crook and helped him break his farm.

In October, 1855, I bought from Jesse Crook, the claim upon which I made a farm and now reside. On the 23rd day of March, 1856, I removed my family to my claim. That spring and summer game of every kind was so plentiful, that I sent word to an old hunter friend of mine, Doctor Impey, in Andrew county, Missouri, to come over and bring his greyhounds. He was so busy that he could not come, but sent word for me to come over and get the dogs. I went over, and the Doctor calling in his dogs, six in number, bade me choose. [ refused to take the privilege, and he selected out two of the finest I have ever seen and gave them to me. With the assistance of these dogs on my return to Nebraska, I supplied the neighboring settlenient with venison, and made such inroads upon the wolves, wild cats and coons, that I acquired through southern Nebraska the name of the "old wolf hunter." In one half day my hounds brought in seven deer, and there were many more in sight, but I would not let them run any longer.

WALLS "PAPERED" WITH HIDES.

For two winters I employed myself solely in furnishing wood and feed, and in hunting. In the winter of 1856, Broadus Thompson and another gen- tleman from St. Joseph, Missouri, visited my residence. I had two large log cabins, the sides of which were lined clear around with hides of every description. The next morning they took a look at the deer, wolf, wild cat, coon and other skins which comprised my principal assortment, for that winter I took a sled full of hides of wild animals to St. Stephens, our principal market place, besides selling three times as many to Burbanks and other fur traders at my own housc.

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Mr. Thompson, on his return to' St. Joseph, published an account of his trip in the St. Joseph Gacette, occupying over two columns. In this article he described the amount of venison I had on hand, the array of skins I dis- played and the seven dogs which accompanied me on my expeditions, and stated that on their visit here he and his comrade had got lost upon the prairie surrounded by wolves and would have been destroyed by them, if it had not been for my opportune appearance with my dogs. There was some romance in Thompson's story, but it was a fact that there were multitudes of wolves thronging the prairies in every direction. Harkendorff, Misplais and myself, were the only settlers in the region, and from my house to Nemaha city on the Missouri river, was one unbroken hunting ground, haunted only by wolves. I used to call it my hunting ground, never expecting to see it settled, and calcu- lated upon it as my stock range in the future, as mentioned by Isaac Crook in his sketch. Now it is a succession of rich, well-cultivated farms.

At Salem, when I came there followed by my dogs, I was often asked by Mr. Hare, as to how in the world I found it possible to feed so many dogs; I used to reply with a laugh, that "I would not have a dog which could not obtain feed for himself."

I had a log cabin twelve by fourteen, which I frequently had full for months from floor to roof with venison, and was never without it for years. To my neighbors I gave away venison-a ham at a time and never thought of charging them for it. The Crooks would frequently come over to my cabin on horseback and carry away a sackful at a time. In the winter of 1856 deer were more plentiful than ever, and I frequently saw droves of fifteen or twenty feeding together on the bottoms. One day another man and myself standing together, counted at one time, five gangs of deer on the prairie in sight ; wild turkeys, prairie chickens and all other kinds of game were abundant. For the first two years Muddy creek was filled with fish ; since that time they have been more scarce. I often heard the women tell of catching fish in the creek where they were washing.

EARLY HISTORY OF SALEM. By J. C. Lincoln.

On September 22, 1875, Mr. J. C. Lincoln wrote the following :

Salem being one of the first of the early settlements made in Richardson county, Nebraska, one word from this locality may not be out of place. The precinct of Salem, now consisting of town one, range fifteen, east of the sixth

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principal meridian, upon the first organization of the county, comprised about two-thirds of the present county-of Richardson, there then being only two election preeinets in the territory at present constituting our county and a por- tion of Pawnee and Johnson counties to-wit: Archer and Salen. There are now fifteen precincts in Richardson county alone. The first settlement made in this precinet was by Thomas R. Hare, J. W. Roberts, John A. Singleton, in the summer and fall of 1854, they taking claims upon lands that year opened by the general government to actual settlers. Mr. Hare purchased his elaim, one hundred and sixty acres, with the mill privilege at Salem, on the north fork of the Nemaha, for fifty dollars, from a man by the name of Short, men- tioned in another story in this series by Jesse Crook, as a man accompanying him on his tour through this region in 1854. In 1855 Thomas R. Hare erected his grist- and saw-mill at this place, upon the claim purchased from Short, which he subsequently entered; the water power proved excellent, and the property has been improved from time to time and enhanced in value, and the mill property with two acres of land, sold last spring (in 1875) for fifteen thousand dollars.

SURVEYED TOWNSITE OF SALEM.

In March, 1855, I located here and, associated with J. W. Roberts and Thomas R. Hare, laid out and surveyed the town of Salem on the site where it now stands. It had much the appearance of a wilderness at that time, and we were compelled to burn off the grass and weeds, which were from two to three feet high, before we could complete our survey.

In May, 1855. I erected a store house and commenced selling goods at this place, it being the first general assortment of goods brought into this county.

The first load was hauled for me from Fillmore, Missouri, in Andrew county, by Jesse Crook, and I gave him a pony for his services, which he afterwards sold to the Indians for sixty dollars in gold. At first, white cus- tomers were scaree, but the Indian trade sustained me until the immigration of 1856, which gave new life and impetus to trade, and business revived, and has continued good ever since, giving evidence that the selection was a good one as a business point. The old store building still stands and has been ocen- pied up to this time as a place of business-a monument to our early settlement.

In the spring of 1855. there were some claims made, but few actual set- tlers, in the western part of the county. To the best of my recollection there were not over three or four resident farmers within fifteen miles west of Salem. The early settlements were usually made along the streams, the object of the

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pioneers being to secure bottom lands and timber as a specialty, they believing that our upland prairie was non-productive, fit alone for grazing, and would furnish for all future time, one boundless and extensive field of pasture that never could be cultivated. A few years of practical farming has shown what errors men are liable to make in regard to the resources and worth of a new country. The soils of our uplands stand unequaled in fertility, and the most desirable and valuable locations are to be found upon the very land that our earliest settlers refused to occupy. While prairie lands have increased in value, from year to year, timber lands have decreased in this respect. selling lower at the present time than they did ten years ago.

SALEM CREATED A CITY.

Salem was organized as a city, with Sammuel H. Roberts as mayor, in 1856. The same season the first sale of lots was made and the price ranged from fifteen to forty dollars. The lots sold at that sale are now all improved and many of them have either good substantial business houses or valuable residences thereon.

The first house over the north fork of the Nemaha at Salem, was built in 1857 by Thomas R. Hare. In the spring of 1860, a bridge was undertaken to be made over the south fork of the Nemaha, under the supervision of a man by the name of McPherson, to be paid for by public subscription; the bridge gave way when nearly completed, and one of the carpenters employed in its erection, James Sperry, fell with the falling arch and broke his arm. Later, a new iron bridge has been erected by the county near the same place.

The town of Salem is an old one in the history of our county ; its progress has been slow, yet it has increased, and continues to increase, in improvements, population and wealth, though far behind the improvement of surrounding country, which is a true indication of its healthy condition as a place of busi- ness, and a site for substantial investments.

Our early settlement suffered many inconveniences and hardships as an incident of pioneer life, which I have not opportunity at present to relate. We obtained our supplies, particularly provisions, from Missouri, and fre- quently with great difficulty. Some of the details of our trials from high waters, overflows and inundations, have been truthfully stated by other articles in this series, therefore I shall not endeavor to give them in detail, but simply bear witness, so far as my memory serves mie, to the truth of the sketches already transmitted to you by early pioneers.

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EARLY INDIAN HISTORY. By Elisha Dorian.

On September 30, 1875, Elisha Dorian contributed the following :

Although the migrations and proceedings of the Indian tribes of this vicinity may not be considered a part of the history of Richardson county. they certainly have intimate connection with it. At your request I will give you a brief sketch of incidents in my early career, and my knowledge of the early history of Indian tribes occupying territory in this county and the country adjoining. I have passed all my life among the Iowas, except two years in the Eastern states.

I was born in March. 1829. on the north fork of the Platte river in Nebraska, north of Ft. Kearney, at a temporary trading post kept by my father, Martin Dorian, a French fur trader. At that time, the pioneer traders among the wild tribes of Indians, then hunting and roaming through this then almost unknown country, built their temporary shanties or trading posts for the winter. at different points, to furnish the Indians goods in exchange for furs and hides, obtaining their supplies from time to time from their main posts on the Missouri river. Cabany's and Sarpy's, who in their turn were sup- plied from St. Louis. Cabany's post was near the Yellow Bank, a few miles north of the spot where the city of Nemaha, in Nemaha county, adjoining Richardson on the north, now stands. Peter Sarpy, an old French pioneer and fur trader had a post on the site of the present town of Bellevue, Sarpy county, Nebraska, and there was also an Indian mission at the same place.

In 1836 I was seven years old, my father sent me to the mission school at St. Joseph, Missouri, one hundred and fifty miles south of my home. For six years I remained at school, a part of the time in Pennsylvania

JOINS THE INDIANS.

The Iowas, Sacs and Foxes crossed over the Missouri river, from Buch- anan county, Missouri, in 1837, and located upon Wolf river, near the present town of Highland, Doniphan county, Kansas, where they remained until the fall of 1854. Frank Whitecloud was our head chief, and under his command, fascinated by strange adventures and constant warfare, attended by buffalo hunts and war dances, of this kind of life, I entered the warpath against the Omahas, in 1843, under Whitecloud, and remained upon the plains and prairie wilderness until 1847 : experiencing all the vicissitudes, thrills and adventures of a wild Indian life. Before entering the warpath I served as interpreter

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under Major Richardson for nearly one year, but on account of my youth and inexperience I resigned that position.

In 1854 the Iowas, Sacs and Foxes removed from Wolf river to their present reservation in Nebraska and Kansas, and that year the two Indian villages of Nohart and Sauktown were built in Richardson county. Nohart, where there is now a postoffice and a small Indian village, is the Iowa agency, and was named for their head chief, Nohart.

On the 6th day of May, 1847, I started on a visit to the Eastern states, stopping in the principal cities, especially New York, Philadelphia and Wash- ington and returned to Kansas upon the 15th day of August A. D. 1848.

In July, 1859, I was appointed Indian interpreter for the Iowas by Major Daniel Vanderslice, the agent, which post I have filled ever since, being reap- pointed by Major John A. Burbank, of Falls City, Nebraska. July 1, 1861.

The account of the inundation of 1858, given by Squire Dorrington in another article of this series was correct, though it did not effect our reserva- tion to any great extent. The highest water upon our territory was in 1843. when the whole country in southern Nebraska and northern Kansas was flooded to a greater degree than ever known before, or since.

Since my earliest knowledge, Moless has been the hereditary head chief of the Sacs and Foxes of Missouri, which he still remains. Petoken, died in 1867 and Mas-sau-quit, in 1859; they were both chiefs of marked ability and perhaps possessed of brighter intellects than Moless, but they were not heredi- tary head chiefs.

HEREDITARY AND APPOINTED CHIEFS.

There are two classes of chiefs in our tribes, hereditary and appointed. Our first head chief within my memory was Whitecloud who died in 1851. and was buried near Rulo, in our most noted burying ground, as mentioned by E. H. Johnson in his sketch. He was head chief by hereditary right and possessed the affection and confidence of his tribe to a very high degree.

Nohart, also hereditary chief, was his successor until his death in 1863, when La-gar-ashe was appointed head chief by Major Burbank, Indian agent. and is still in that office. To-hee is second chief of the Iowas and Mo-hee. third chief.

For some cause, or combination of causes, which is difficult correctly to define, our tribes have diminished and dwindled away. instead of increasing for the last twenty years.

In 1854 there were between four and five hundred Iowas on the roll at

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their agency in this county; now they number only two hundred and twenty.

The Sacs and Foxes of Missouri mustered over three hundred; today there are only about ninety left.

PIONEER EXPLOITS. By Antoine Barada.

The following was contributed to the pioneer series on October 21, 1875 :

Gentlemen : I see that you are soliciting sketches of early times, from the old pioneers and settlers of Richardson county, and although I am not one of the earliest actual settlers, as a pioneer, I probably explored the wild and uninhabited territory as early as any white man living.

I was born in 1807, at Carodelet, south of St. Louis, Missouri, where I was reared. My parents were of French descent, and coming from Louisiana, were called Creoles. Though raised in the suburbs of what is now a large city, and receiving every advantage of education, and enjoying every luxury of civilized life, the adventures, sports, perils and hardships endured by a pioneer, presented strange attractions and fascinations for me.

In 1816, when only nine years old, I entered the employment of the North- western Fur Company at St. Louis, Missouri, and traveled in a northwesterly direction to the mountains. That winter, in company with some Indians, I camped within the limits of our present county upon our journey westward. One day we went out upon a hunt and found a drove of seven hundred elk, which we drove down upon the ice of the Missouri river at the mouth of the Nemaha, near where Rulo now stands, and slaughtered them. From the venison and elk meat procured in this manner we made our winter's provisions.

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History of Richardson County, Nebraska : its people, industries and institutions, Part 70

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