History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 94

Author: Shumway, Grant Lee, 1865-
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., The Western publishing & engraving co.
Number of Pages: 1056

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ground early he had the pick of the land and when he sold his interests in 1918, had nine hundred and sixty acres of land which brought in a comfortable fortune. With his wife he now enjoys life in their comfortable home in Chadron. Kecounting the early days, Mr. Arnold tells that he kept a few acres on some of his land where the Indians could come and camp; he traded extensively with them and says that they were very honest and were friendly to him and his family. He with his family learned to talk the Indian lan- guage and thus understood them well.

Mr. Arnold is a Chapter Mason and takes interest in all progress in Dawes county and Chadron where he is considered one of the substantial and reliable men of the community.

WILLIAM W. WHITE, attorney, whose professional reputation extends all over West- ern Nebraska, has been a resident of Gering for a number of years, but has, at the same time, filled numerous offices of public respon- sibility in other sections. He is recognized as an able, forceful lawyer, years ago was the pioneer newspaper man of Banner county, Ne- braska, and yet finds time to give attention to large and valuable farmig interests.

William Wallace White was born at Adrian, Missouri, February 17, 1866. His parents were George M. and Sallie (Hughes) White, the former of whom was born at Knoxville, Ten- nessee, in 1837, and the latter in the state of Kentucky in 1841. They are honored resi- dents of Amsterdam, Missouri. Their mar- riage took place February 14, 1861, at Sedalia, Missouri, and seven children were born to them. In addition to William W., three others survive, namely: Warren, who is a farmer- banker, at Amsterdam, Missouri ; Walter, who is in the automobile business at Carnegie, Cad- do county, Oklahoma; and George, who is in the auto business at Anadarko, in the same county.

George M. White is a son of Bloomer White, who was an early settler in Missouri, an "old-timer." who jaccompanied a cattle train from Independence to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the days when great herds of buf- falo roamed over the western plains. He moved to Missouri from Tennessee, when his son, George M. White was six years old. The latter now owns a beautiful farm near Am- sterdam and has been both farmer and mer- chant. At one time he owned eighty acres of land on the bluff where Kansas City, Mis- souri, now stands. He is a Democrat in poli- tics and for many years was a justice of the

peace. Both he and wife are members of the Baptist church, in which denomination her father, William F. Hughes, a native of Ken- tucky, was long a minister. When he went to Missouri, he established the town of Cres- cent Hill, now Adrian, and he also owned farm land that is the site of the present city of Sedalia. He was one of the early Masons in the state and belonged to the Commandery at Kansas City, and when he died the Knights Templar brought his body to the cemetery on a flat car. George M. White is a veteran of the Civil war, his services being given to the Union during the entire period. One brother was his comrade in the Federal army, while two other brothers fought on the side of the Confederacy.

William W. White received his early educa- tional training at Adrian and later was gradu- ated from the high school at Eldorado Springs. He was also a student in Butler Academy, at Butler, Missouri, and studied law in the office of well-known attorneys. In 1892 he was ad- mitted to the bar at Cheyenne, Wyoming, and in October of the same year to the bar in Ne- braska. His first two years of practice was in Cheyenne as a member of a law office force. He then went to Oklahoma for a time, then to Galesburg, Illinois, for three years, and in 1903 established his residence at Gering. In the meanwhile he found opportunity to make a record for himself as the pioneer newspaper man on Pumpkin Vine Creek, now in Banner county. For ten years he served as county at- torney for that county, but resided at Gering, and from 1911 until 1918, (at which time he resigned), he was county attorney of Scotts- bluff county. During his time of residence at Pawnee, Oklahoma, he served as chairman of the board of county commissioners. Since 1910 he has been local attorney for the Union Pacific Railroad, and he has looked carefully after the interests of this corporation. His practice has been of a general nature and has been steady, honorable and satisfactory finan- cially. For some ten years he was associated with Judge O. W. Gardner, who retired in order to attend his personal interests, and the firm style now is White & Heiss.

In 1894 Mr. White was united in marriage to Miss Alice D. Everett,of Cheyenne, Wyom- ing, and they have four accomplished daugh- ters, namely: Ruth, who is an instructor in the high school at Gering: Grace, who is a teacher in the public schools of Scottsbluff ; Carol, who is a graduate of the high school, class of 1919; and Elizabeth, who is yet in school. Mrs. White and her daughters are

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members of the Episcopal church. During the long period of war needs, Mr. White and his family were active in the various movements, their efforts never ceasing as long as there was urgent demand. Mr. White is a Mason and belongs to the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen. In politics he is a pro- nounced Republican.

EUGENE A. HALL was born in Freeport, Illinois, and was the third in a family of four children - three boys and one girl, there was also a half sister by a former marriage of his father. Their father was George H. Hall, born in Hubble, New York ; the mother, Mary A. (Coltman) Hall, was born in Poughkeepsie, New York.

George H. Hall was a farmer, speculator and stockman, and in 1866, drove over the Texas trail eight hundred steers to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and sold them to freighters for oxen. The same fall he took a mile con- tract, grading on the Union Pacific Railroad at Broakville, Kansas. After finishing this work he took five miles more at Russell Springs, now Russell, Kansas, and on June 20, 1867, a band of thieving Indians swooped down on the little camp of about forty men and teams and stampeded and drove off all their stock, except a black stallion and Indian pony belonging to Mr. Hall. This was a hard fought battle, in which one of Mr. Hall's men was shot through the head and killed, and two more seriously wounded.

The leader of these marauding savages was Charlie Bent, a half-breed Indian, as Mr. Hall learned a few years ago from "Charlie-the- Crow," an Indian scout under General Custer and the only survivor of the Custer Massacre. The half breed was riding here and there, urg- ing his followers forward, when Mr. Hall shot his horse from under him and shot him before he hit the ground. A couple of Indians rushed in and carried their leader out of rifle range, and it was not known at that time whether he was killed or wonded, but "Charlie-the-Crow" said that Mr. Hall had made him a "good In- dian." Be that as it may, he was never known to steal any more horses in that country.

Mr. Hall then hitched the black stallion and Indian pony to a wagon and, taking his wife and four children and wounded men, started for Fort Harker, about forty miles east, the teamsters traveling along afoot, having to abandon all their wagons, tools, harness and supplies, which it was afterward learned the indians destroyed by fire the next day.

On arriving at the fort, he left the wounded

men and, with his family, continued to Salina, Kansas, which was the end of the railroad, about thirty-five miles further on, where he put them on the cars; they went to Junction City, Kansas, to an uncle, where they stayed until fall, while the father returned to Ells- worth, Kansas, to recruit another outfit to fin- ish his contract, but the Asiatic Cholera was raging in the country, and in about two weeks Mr. Hall contracted the terrible disease and died July 16, 1867.

That fall Mrs. Hall sold all of their worldly possessions, being a few pieces of furniture and a piano which she had stored when they went to the railroad camp, and with the small amount of money realized from these she went to Freeport, Illinois, where her parents still lived ; but she again returned in a short time to Ellwsworth, Kansas. When Eugene was four years old he was placed in school at Junction City. To amuse himself the first day he was throwing paper wads at some other boys, and in punishment the teacher placed him on top of her desk, when young Eugene very gravely informed her that his mother did not send him to school to "thit up here," which of course put him in the limelight stronger than before. The teacher wrote a note to his mother, saying he was too young to go to school; but the mother did not agree with her about this and brought him back and he went to school just the same.

The first money he earned when a boy was driving a fine team for a farmer harrow- ing in wheat. It was a new job for the boy and the team was a high spirited one, and he turned them loose and, as he expressed it, "let 'em go." The owner came out and seeing the foam-flecked horses said, "Don't you ever get tired?" Upon receiving a negative answer he said, "Well, if you do not, the horses do, you rest awhile." Geene said nothing but watched the old fellow out of the corner of his eye, and as soon as he was out of sight continued his interrupted work. He was making fifty cents a day, which was top wages at that time.

He grew up and finished his education in the Ellsworth schools. The last two vacations he herded cattle for Texas "Cattlemen," who brought up beef herds for summer grazing, and he seemed to take to the business as natur- ally as a duck to water.

In 1878, he went to Buffalo station and hired to a man who had a herd of horses he was selling to farmers for work purposes. He worked for him about a month, leaving him at Beloit, Kansas, then taking his saddle horse, he rode about one hundred and eight-five miles

E. A. HALL

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

to Dodge City, Kansas, and hired to help bring a trail herd of beef cattle through to Spotted Tail Agency, Dakota, (now the Rosebud Agency). Being on the "drag" end of the herd he had to eat the sand and alkali dust, all the way up the trail.

From 1886 to 1888, Mr. Hall was a foreman for the Ogallala Land and Cattle Company. In February 1885, this company bought the Bosler Brothers & Company brands, and be- came one of the largest outfits in the north- west, their books calling for seventy-seven thousand head of cattle. They had three fore- inen : Dick Bean on the North Platte River east from Blue Creek, Gene Hall from Blue Creek west and north to Bronco Lake, near which Alliance has since spring up, and Mac Radcliffe, west from Blue Creek on the south side of the river.

In the fall of 1888, Mr. Hall drove a beef herd of three thousand and thirty head for this company to the Rosebud agency trailing the cattle about three hundred and fifty miles, and weighed them over the scales to the United State Government without a loss of a single critter. This was one of the most remarkable trips in the record of the cattle industry, and was the talk of cowmen, and could not have been put across by a less competent cow man than Gene Hall.

After finishing his contract in driving the herd of Texas long horns to Spotted Tail Agency, February 1, 1879, Mr. Hall hire a half-breed Indian with a team and wagon and tent, to take him from the agency to Yank- ton, South Dakota. As it was in the dead of winter. it would have been as much as a man's life was worth to have tried to go on horse back. After a hard and strenuous trip they arrived at Yankton, and he took the train for Ellsworth, Kansas, the home of his moth- er at that time, but when spring came he re- turned to Ogallala, Nebraska, being fascinated by the country he had passed through the fall before. Mr. Hall started on this trip horse back, but at Orleans, Nebraska, about eighty miles from Ogallala, his horse died, forcing him to make the balance of the trip on foot. He arrived in this little frontier town "broke." Mr. Hall says he came to northwestern Ne- braska a stranger without a friend or a dol- lar, afoot and alone.

He obtained credit at a hotel for a week's board and started in search of work ; he found a man that wanted him to work on a farm, and when he found the boy's mind was fixed on becoming a "cow puncher," attempted to dissuade him from the venture and said, "he

looks like too good a boy to work with such a wild, lawless set of men." Gene replied that, "he had found them pretty good fellows," thanked him for his offer, but declined to give up his intention of hiring to some cattle company. Not finding work he decided to go to Sidney, Nebraska. Being without money, on a moonlight night, the boy crawled into a car of lumber, but found it a pretty cold berth. Everything went smoothly however, until he reached Julesburg, Colorado, when the brake- man discovered his feet sticking out, and pull- ed him out. Gene told him this was the first trip of this kind he had ever taken and hoped it would be his last but he was out of money and wanted to get to Sidney, and hoped to get work on a cattle ranch. He was taken to Sidney in the way car unmolested. On arriv- ing at the Minor Hotel, a prominent hotel at this early day, frequented by ranchers and cattle men, he again asked for credit that he might appease hunger. Again he obtained a week's credit. (We stop right here to say that later, Mr. Hall paid both his obligations at Ogallala and Sidney.) Another week passed

without being able to obtain employment. wan- dering around the town "blue" and dishearten- ed, he saw a warehouse he had not noticed before. He entered the office to ask for work, and looking around he noticed a man with small, black eyes staring at him, without speak- ing. This angered the boy and he turned and left.

He squatted on his toes against the south side of the building. The man came out and walked backward and forward before the boy, still staring at him. He finally stopped in front of Gene and said, "You look to me like a boy who is looking for work." These words were never forgotten by the penniless boy. And it was fortunate for both Tom Lawrence, who was foreman of the Bosler Brothers Com- pany, and Gene Hall, that he spoke when he did, as the boy was ready to explode with anger at the continued stare of the stranger, but his words were as balm of Gilliad, and the boy and man formed a friend- ship never to be broken.

Gene hired to Tom Lawrence and worked on this herd ten years and as Gene puts it, he was transferred in the deal, when in 1885, the Bosler Cattle Company was sold to the Ogal- lala Land and Cattle Company. From the time Gene Hall hired to Tom Lawrence, as a "Cow Hand," during his ten years on the Texas trail and cattle range, his life was one long series of adventure and "dare devil" exploits, that

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would rival the stories of "Buffalo Bill" if all were written.

Mr. Hall is of a retiring and modest dispo- sition almost beyond belief for a man of his wealth and position, as he is one of the best known and influential "cow men" in the west today (1921). He is adverse to giving his personal experiences for publication, although often urged to do so, but he likes to sit down with old time friends and review the past in a reminiscent way, and go over again, some of those stiring times, when real "red blooded" men roamed over these western plains and ac- cumulated fortunes, and where they had no use for the "tender foot" (unless he could be broken into the "harness") and take his share of hard "knocks."

As the time for beginning the round-up drew near, the "cow hand" would be found busi- ly engaged in washing his clothing and blankets, his saddle and bridle were cleaned and oiled, bits, spurs and six-shooters were polished, and saddle broncos curried and given extra at- tention. Among these men were found the same diversity of character, temperament, en- ergy and intelligence common to mankind everywhere. A reputation for courage was a necessary requisite to good standing in a cow camp. He who could display the greatest recklessness, or assume the role of the greatest dare-devil, stood foremost and was the leader of the flock.

This desire for notoriety often led the "Wad- die" into serious difficulties and gave rise to the general opinion that he was without feel- ing or regard for the rights of others, and na- turally cruel. This opinion was erroneous, as a rule the cow hand was true to his friends and it was a religious principle to never desert one in a "tight place." Trailing cattle from Texas to northern ranges was fraught with all kinds of experiences. Sometimes crossing swollen streams, after forcing the cattle into the water, an experienced cow hand, had to swim his horse alongside the lead cattle, let them drift down the stream splashing a little water in the faces of the leaders, gradually working them to the opposite bank. Anyone not acquainted with the cattle business might think this a very simple affair, but it took a level head and daring men to do this, as a false movement would have set the cattle "milling and piling up" in the deep water and hundreds would have been drowned.

When sanding guard at night and a heavy thunder storm came up and stampeded the herd the poor "cow hands" had to turn out, and perhaps ride all night through the

driving rain so dark you couldn't see a hundred feet away except by the lurrid flashes of lightning making the heavens glow with a wierd ghostly light and thunder crashing like a bom- bardment, still further adding fear to the already frantic, fleeing herd.

Cattle generally follow a leader, stringing out in single file, and they follow the leader as long as he runs. It was the duty of the "cow hand" to out run this leader and head him off, and get the cattle to running in a circle and by singing to them quiet them down and stop their mad flight. At other times they were unable to overtake the leader and had to take their chance of riding their bronco into a badger hole or over an embankment in the darkness and endanger the life of the rider, Perhaps the men had to ride all night in the storm and next morning find they were twen- ty miles from camp and the mess wagon.

Along in the early eighties Mr. Hall had a thrilling adventure roping a huge buffalo bull, about forty miles below where Alliance now stands, on Alkali lake; it was at the finish of the August roundup, about five o'clock in the evening when Mr. Hall located two lone buffa- lo in a sand "blowout." He rode over to the "mess wagon" to get his winchester, but found he was out of cartridges. He and two other "cow hands" (one a Mexican) decided to las- so one of them, each one of the boys eager to get the first rope on the buffalo. Gene was riding a beautiful black horse, called "Dia- mond L" in whom he had great faith and he believed he could hold anything on the end of his rope, short of a steam engine. He had the advantage of the other two boys as he knew exactly where the two animals were lo- cated and beat them "to it." "Diamond L" dashed over a little hill and down on the buf- falo before either of the buffalo were aware of what was happening. With a frightened "snort," the horse shied so violently to one side when he saw the kind of animal his master was going to rope, that he threw Gene off his balance and he missed his game. The buffalo was as much frightened as the horse and bounded swiftly away in another direction, but Gene was soon on him again and this time was more successful and fairly caught the old fellow around the neck. He soon found to his amazement that "Diamond L" had at last found more than his match and struggle as hard as he pleased, he was too light for Mr. Buffalo, who pulled him over the prairie wherever he pleased, and wasn't doing it in a very gentle manner. Just as Gene was fig- uring to cut his rope and let him go, the Mexi-

MR. AND MRS, ANTHONY KENNEDY

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can came to his rescue and roped him by one foot, still they had more than heir share of buffalo meat, and it was only after the third man had swung his lasso on another leg, that they were able to control the huge beast, and they consumed nearly two hours before they had him tied down. Their horses were reek- ing with sweat and nearly exhausted. By the time the reached camp it was dark. They went back the next morning and butchered the buffalo and had a rare treat of the meat.

At another time Mr. Hall was out in the hills with a bunch of boys rounding up cattle when a huge bear was routed out of the sage brush, and took to his heels at a lively pace followed by the boys. Gene was leading the bunch and threw his rope over the old fellow and soon found he was in more trouble than he ever dreamed possible from the innocent sport of roping a bear. With an angry roar bruin turned on the cow man and when he found he was tangled in the rope till he could- n't get loose, he grabbed the rope, hand over hand, like a sailor, and began pulling horse and rider up to him in spite of all that could be done to get away, one of the boys shot the bear with his winchester, and thus relieved the mind of a very much scared 'cow puncher."

In 1887, W. A. Paxton, then general man- ager of the Ogallala Land and Cattle Company purchased from James E. Boyd, ex-governor of the State of Nebraska, the O-C brand herd of cattle in Wyoming, and the Charles Camp- bell brand, which was the H-O brand. They became the nucleus in establishing their brands in Wyoming and the moving of their cattle into the Ogallala herd on account of the en- croachment of settlers on their range. Mr. Hall was directed by Mr. Paxton to begin moving this herd to the newly purchased lands in Wyoming and August 1, 1887, he left Camp Lake on the western part of their range with the lead trail herd. Mr. Hall remained with this catle company until October, 1888.

A peculiar thing about his experiences is that he ended his career as a cow hand, so far as early day history is concerned, at the very place where he had helped drive his first herd ten years before, and the same month in the year.

After severing his conection with the Ogal- lala Land and Cattle Company, he came to Alli- ance, Nebraska, and has lived here continu- ously since that time. In the fall of 1889 Mr. Hall was elected sheriff of Box Butte county on the Democratic ticket and served six years.

Eugene A. Hall was married at Ellsworth, Kansas, May 17, 1893, to Miss Minnie E. Bak-

er, who was born in Leavenworth, Kansas. She was the daughter of John F. and Elizabeth (Powers) Baker. Mrs. Hall was the second in a family of seven children, five girls and two boys. Mr. and Mrs. Hall had only one child, a son, Albon B. Hall, who graduated from the Kearney Military Academy in 1914. and con- tinued in that school one year after graduation. Albon was also in the Officers' Trainig Camp at Waco, Texas, when the armistice was signed. He is a Thirty-second degree Mason and was married January 1, 1921 to Miss Esther Bev- ington, born November 1, 1899. Esther Bev- ington Hall was the only daughter of William Bevington, born at Centerville, Iowa, and May (Brooks ) Bevington, born at Leon, Iowa.

Mr. Albon B. Hall is a live wire and we predict a successful career for this estimable young couple. He is connected with his father in the ranching and live-stock brokerage and sales business, with offices on the corner of Box Butte Avenue and Fourth Street, south of the postoffice.

Mrs. Minnie E. (Baker) Hall died July 26, 1905, and Mr. Eugene A. Hall married Miss Sadie E. Fickell at Alliance, Nebraska, August 4, 1909. She was born in Ohio. Her parents, Joseph Fickell and Hanna E. (O'Hara) Fick- ell, were also born in Ohio. Mrs. Hall is the third child in a family of eight children, seven girls and one boy.

After a strenuous life such as few men can boast, Mr. Hall has settled in a beautiful modern home in Alliance, Nebraska, is on "easy street" and also owns a fine business building in the heart of the business district. Mr. Hall and Mr. Robert Graham, the latter the present postmaster at Alliance, have a finely equipped ranch near Alliance of forty thousand acres, run three thousand head of cattle, and cut four thousand tons of hay an- nually. Mr. Eugene A. Hall is a Royal Arch Mason, Knight Templar, and a member of Tangier Shrine at Omaha, Nebraska, a booster for Box Butte county, Alliance and her people.

ANTHONY KENNEDY. - It probably would be a very difficult matter to prove to Anthony Kennedy, one of Scottsbluff county's most substantial citizens, that a youth with in- dustrious inclination and good habits, needs any other capital to start with in the building up of his fortune. Mr. Kennedy can look back over his own career as example. Instead of waiting for helpful opportunity to come to him when his schooldays were over, he sought and found it even when it entailed the cross- of an ocean, kept right on and saved his

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History of western Nebraska and its people, Vol. III, Part 94

Author: Shumway, Grant Lee, 1865- Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., The Western publishing & engraving co. Number of Pages: 1056

Author: Shumway, Grant Lee, 1865-
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Lincoln, Neb., The Western publishing & engraving co.
Number of Pages: 1056